Jacksonville, FL – On Dec. 15, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office returned some of the phones they seized from the 19 protesters who shut down the Hart Bridge last week.

The protesters, dubbed the Jacksonville 19 by local activists and media, stopped traffic on the bridge on Dec. 8 to demand justice for Eric Garner. Garner was the African American man who the NYPD choked, leading to his death. A New York grand jury refused to indict the white police officer Daniel Pantaleo, adding fuel to the flames of a nationwide protest movement against racism and police brutality.

Sheriff’s office staff called several protesters to let them know that they could pick up their phones from evidence. As of Dec. 15, police were still holding cameras belonging to protesters, and many phones and electronic storage devices remained in custody.

Police seized every phone, camera and other storage device from protesters after arresting them for obstructing traffic. Officers claimed they were seizing these personal belongings to use as evidence against the protesters and to identify the people who attended another protest earlier on the same day.

The Jacksonville Sheriff Office sergeant at the scene originally told protesters that they would receive verbal warnings and written citations for the offense, which is a misdemeanor in Florida. Activists say that the protesters were arrested after a communication from Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford, who gave the order to arrest everyone.

Immediately after the arrests on Dec. 8, the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition called an emergency jailhouse protest outside the John E. Goode Pre-trial Detention Facility, where police held the protesters for several hours. More than 30 people assembled outside chanting “Jail killer cops, not justice protesters!” and “Free the Jax justice fighters!”

With support from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, all 19 protesters were released or bonded out on Dec. 9.

One of the 19, Siddie Friar, was charged with two felonies. Police claim that Friar resisted arrest with violence and assaulted an officer. At a separate bond hearing for Friar on Dec. 9, State Attorney Angela Corey's office asked the judge to raise Friar's bond, using Facebook posts as evidence of her political activity. According to activists present at the bond hearing, some of the Facebook posts presented by prosecutors were obtained through Friar's phone. Friar was eventually released with the same bond as the others.

Police are still holding Friar's phone, along with many other devices.

The court appearance dates for the Jacksonville 19 are set for late December and early January. The Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, along with several other organizations, is calling on State Attorney Angela Corey to return all seized belongings to the protesters immediately and to drop all charges on the Jacksonville 19.

#JacksonvilleFl #PeoplesStruggles #NewYork #Florida #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown

Gainesville, FL – On Dec. 12, students and community members blocked the entrances to a basketball game between the University of Florida (UF) and Texas Southern University. The action was called as part of a growing movement to protest police killings of African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. This follows the failures to indict police officer Darren Wilson, who shot Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death.

Around 130 people gathered at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center before the basketball game and held a die-in at the entrance as the doors opened. Then, the group moved to the student gate, blocking the entrance doors and the sidewalks leading to the other doors. Despite university personnel opening and closing certain entrances based on the location of the protesters, the group was able to finalize its position at the student entrance.

Trenton Brooks of the UF Dream Defenders explained, “Our action today was to show that people cannot just go about their lives as if it's simply business as usual. There are systemic problems in this country and ignoring them just isn't an option.”

Chants included “No justice! No peace! No racist police!” and one specifically for the occasion “You only care about us when we are in jerseys!”

Farah Khan, of UF Students for a Democratic Society, talked about the impact the protest had on the game, “It definitely shook people up and left both attendants of the game and administration completely disoriented. Not a single person at that game could ignore us.”

#GainesvilleFl #PeoplesStruggles #UniversityOfFlorida #Antiracism #UF #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown #BlackLivesMatter

Gainesville, FL- 350 people, mostly students, marched from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in downtown Gainesville to the intersection of University Avenue and 13th Street. In a dramatic action on Dec. 8, they marched through busy streets and then shut down the important intersection for 11 minutes in solidarity with Eric Garner.

Protesters began gathering at 4:00 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue near City Hall. People were asked to show up wearing black and to bring black signs. Nailah Summers, coordinator of the Civic Media Center, began the event by inspiring the crowd with a variation of an Assata Shakur quote, “We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win. We have the duty to love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains!” The crowds repeated after her as they filed into the heavy traffic of University Avenue.

The march took up two lanes, completely blocking the cars on one side of the road, while protesters chanted, “Black lives matter!” and “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace!” Three police cars tailed the protesters closely. Onlookers took pictures, put their fists up in solidarity and a couple even joined the march.

The protesters arrived at University and 13th, one of the busiest intersections in Gainesville, at the height of rush hour. The crowds formed a giant circle, ensuring that no cars could get past them. At the center of the circle two protesters held a silver coffin while a Dream Defender activist gave a eulogy and spoke, “You tell us to fear ISIS, and yet every time I pass the police, I hold my breath!”

Protesters stood in the intersection for 11 minutes. This symbolized the 11 times Eric Garner said, “I can’t breathe”, as NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo strangled him. At the end of the 11 minutes, everyone turned to face the cars and yelled, “What side are you on?”

Eric Brown, with Students for a Democratic Society, said “I think we're at a tipping point where people are tired of the status quo and are willing to literally put their bodies on the line to ensure that the systematic killings of Black bodies in America stops. The number of people who came out today is promising for future organizing around issues of national oppression. Ferguson is everywhere, and we have an obligation to use the air that Eric Garner can no longer inhale to fight for liberation.”

Brittany King, an organizer with University of Florida Dream Defenders, spoke about future plans in Gainesville, “We want Gainesville to wake up and realize that just because it doesn’t happen in Gainesville, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening everywhere else. While people are sleeping, more people are dying. Today was a testament that Gainesville is prepared to wake up and prepared to join the movement!”

People left the intersection and gathered into an empty lot where the event ended on a high note with plans for future action and chants of “I believe that we will win!”

#GainesvilleFl #GainesvilleFL #NewYork #Florida #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown #ShutItDown #BlackLivesMatter

Minneapolis, MN – About 300 people took to the streets here Dec. 4 to demand justice for Eric Gardner, Mike Brown, Terrence Franklin and others killed by racist police. Massive demonstrations against police terror are taking place in cities across the U.S.

The Minneapolis started in South Minneapolis, then took over the northbound lanes of Interstate 35W, where several die-ins took place. They marched up I-35W into downtown and proceeded to Minneapolis City Hall. Sabry Wazwaz of the Anti-War Committee led chants for much of the march.

#MinneapolisMN #PoliceBrutality #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown

The spokesperson for the DPRK Foreign Ministry went on to condemn the U.S. for interfering in the affairs of other countries while carrying out human rights abuses at home.

#DemocraticPeoplesRepublicOfKorea #PoliceBrutality #DPRK #NorthKorea #Ferguson #MikeBrown

Minneapolis, MN – About 500 students participated in a sit-in at of South High School to protest the grand jury verdict that failed to indict the cop who killed Mike Brown. The sit-in wrapped around the corridors of the entire first floor of the building.

When students requested the media be allowed inside, the principal said no, and the decision was made to walk out. Students then marched up to Lake Street and to the Third Precinct Police Station, where there was chanting and speeches.

Larry Whiten, one of the students who organized the protest stated, “We needed to do this demonstration to show that the youth in our community are aware of the unjust things happening to our peers in our society. We are not oblivious to our surroundings. We organized this 500-person march and sit-in in less than 15 hours! We are unstoppable.

#MinneapolisMN #PoliceBrutality #Ferguson #MikeBrown #MinneapolisSouthHighSchool #SitIn

Led by a diverse array of student groups and coordinated by Students United Against Police Brutality, the rally began with a four and a half minute moment of silence as requested nationally by the family of Michael Brown; a minute of silence for each hour Michael Brown’s lifeless body was left on display in the streets of Ferguson after his murder by police on August 9.

The rally continued with speeches expressing solidarity with those fighting back against police brutality both in Ferguson and across the country. Members from Whose Diversity?, the Black Student Union, and the Friends of Chicano and Latino Studies all spoke about the links between police brutality in Ferguson and the manifestations of racist discrimination and national oppression at University of Minnesota. They spoke of racialized crime alerts leading to increased racial profiling of Black men on campus, of non-white student groups fighting to keep their own spaces open on the second floor of Coffman Memorial Union and of university threats to defund and shut down the Chicano Studies Department and other ethnic studies departments as well.

After the speeches, the students marched across the campus quad to Morrill Hall, UMN’s administration building, and chanted for several minutes before heading to the light rail station and joining up with the larger community rally at the Third Precinct Police Station.

Matt Boynton, a member of Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, stated, “The struggle against police brutality is of vital importance not only to Black and Brown youth targeted by the police, but to all people seeking to change the U.S. political system. From the era of slave catchers and lynch mobs to the present, police violence against oppressed nationality communities is an important way the U.S. elite has maintained it’s political and economic control and needs to be combated.”

#MinneapolisMN #Ferguson #MikeBrown

Asheville, NC – Over 200 people gathered downtown here, Nov. 25 in front of the Vance Monument to protest the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown.

One banner read, “Hold cops accountable! Solidarity with Ferguson!” Protesters held signs that read “Black lives matter” and “Jail all killer cops.”

Several people attending the rally got up to the megaphone to express solidarity. One woman said, “I came out tonight to rally against injustice. People make it a crime issue. People take a tragedy and make racist remarks and talk about looting and destroying property. When you have no voice, you resort to all means. I’m a mother. I’m a Black woman. My kids walk out the door and I have to know every minute of their whereabouts. It’s scary.”

The crowd chanted “No justice, no peace!” and “Darren Wilson, you can’t hide. We charge you with homicide!” while drums beat in the background. The evening ended with organizers lighting candles and reading names of unarmed African American people killed by police.

#AshevilleNC #Ferguson #MikeBrown

Milwaukee, WI – 350 people took to the streets here, Nov. 25, upon hearing that Ferguson’s killer cop Darren Wilson was not indicted for the shooting of unarmed teenager Mike Brown. This was the latest protest in Milwaukee against police murder and violence. In a case similar to Ferguson, Milwaukee Police Officer Christopher Manney shot unarmed 32-year-old Dontre Hamilton 14 times in a downtown park in April of this year. Dontre Hamilton was doing nothing wrong. An active and growing movement is calling for the arrest of Manney.

Protesters gathered at Milwaukee's “ground zero,” Red Arrow Park, where Dontre Hamilton was murdered. Hamilton's mother, Maria, told the gathering, “I send my prayers to the Brown family. We have been waiting almost seven months for a decision to be made for Dontre.” Officer Manney was fired for misconduct, but is not yet charged with a crime. Maria Hamilton finished by saying, “District Attorney John Chisolm needs to do his job and protect communities or step down and let someone take his spot who will.”

Nate Hamilton, Dontre's brother, said, “I want to thank everyone for coming out. People being involved in this kind of action, is the only way to get justice.”

People marched through downtown Milwaukee, shutting down major streets, and rallying at the federal courthouse where Brandon Johnson's mother spoke. Johnson, a 25-yearold African American man died in the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex in 2012. He died of a mysterious broken neck injury after being taken into custody by the Milwaukee police on a mental health check. Johnson's family is still waiting for answers of what happened to their loved one while in the care of the police and county.

Protesters then marched into the Grand Avenue mall, chanting, “No justice, no compromise.” The march went through the center of the mall, with the shops and security guards scrambling to deal with the situation.

Demonstrators next marched to the Bradley Center, where the Milwaukee Bucks were scheduled to play a game. The south entrance was shut down as protesters tried to get in, chanting, “Dontre Hamilton!” and “Mike Brown!” The crowd then moved to the other entrance where people were waiting to get into the game, with people chanting, “Fist up! Fight back!”

March organizers led people back to Red Arrow Park, where everyone was urged to come out to a rally planned for Dec. 4. Organizers will be attending the Police and Fire Commission meeting to demand justice for Dontre Hamilton and all victims of police violence.

#MilwaukeeWI #MikeBrown