Milwaukee, WI – On July 13, dozens of community members and organizers mobilized to the intersection of 35th and Vliet Streets on Milwaukee’s North Side. This corner was the site of a deadly crash in September 2025 in which a reckless police pursuit killed three residents, the youngest victim being just 15 years old. Almost a year later, a spirited fight for community-led policy has only grown and hopes to win big as it soon goes to vote by city alderpeople.

The evening started with chants and remarks from Brian Verdin, a leader of the original Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR). Setting the tone, he named the nine lives stolen by police pursuits, including Pler Moo and her sons Taw and Karlah Ko, killed at that intersection ten months ago.

Veteran MAARPR member Tiffany Stark said, “I want to have a safe police pursuit policy that has restrictions, where we're not chasing people for minor things, only for violent crime.” Stark recently lost a loved one due to causes related to these police pursuits and has been a key player in pushing for policy changes around this: Standard Operating Procedures 575 and 660.

Shortly after, members of Milwaukee Turners and Black Leaders Organizing Communities made brief comments, all stating the necessity for changes around this policy and accountability from the Milwaukee Police Department. Kayla Patterson, co-chair of MAARPR, then closed out the evening with some more chants.

The city of Milwaukee Common Council will be discussing further changes to SOP 575 and 660 on July 30. MAARPR and other community organizations will continue to apply pressure to the alderpeople to vote in favor of the recommended changes pushed by the community.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #InJusticeSystem #NAARPR #MAARPR #PoliceCrimes

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression strongly condemns the Department of Justice’s second round of the campaign of intimidation and repression against Nadia Topete, a proud Chicana immigrant rights activist and member of Centro CSO in Los Angeles. Nadia has been subpoenaed a second time to appear in front of a judge and federal grand jury on Wednesday July 8th, following an FBI visit to her home on May 20th.

This is part of a wider targeting of the immigrant rights movement by the Trump administration and DOJ, which is now circling back to Los Angeles to silence organizers and create an atmosphere of fear that keeps people out of the streets. Our movement will not be silent, and we stand with Nadia, Centro CSO and all those facing repression.

We understand the DOJ’s attacks as a reaction to the powerful rebellion against ICE terror in Los Angeles last February, which sparked a national wave of uprisings across the country. The Trump administration is fishing for charges and unjustly targeting Nadia and other members of Centro CSO over baseless claims, to try and criminalize protest. This is a clear-cut act of racist and political repression. The real criminal entity is ICE, terrorizing immigrant communities kidnapping people off the streets, and unleashing deadly violence in our neighborhoods.

The Trump administration is making it clear they are intensifying their repression, and now is the time for us to stand together and answer the call to defend our movements and activists.

Hands off Nadia Topete!

End the DOJ and FBI targeting of immigrant rights activists!

ICE out of our communities!

##InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #NadiaTopete #NAARPR #CentroCSO #ImmigrantRights

Chicago, IL – On Thursday, July 25, a press conference was held outside of the monthly Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) meeting welcoming the two new commissioners, as well as continuing to demand CPD be held accountable for collaboration with federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. The meeting took place at Benito Juarez High School, in the predominantly Chicano working-class neighborhood of Pilsen. The press conference was held by the Immigrants’ Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (IRWC of CAARPR).

“Commissioner Anjanette Young and Commissioner Guzman, welcome to your new position on the CCPSA. We, the Immigrants Rights Working Committee, have been diligently attending every single CCPSA meeting since the launch of our campaign to end CPD-ICE collaboration,” said Helena Fuentes of the IRWC.

Fuentes added, “We implore you to please, lean into your humanity and compassion, and not only consider our campaign, but please act.”

“Despite months and months of asking this commission to step up, and take an active role, the work hasn't been done yet. Since the commission's last meeting, more evidence has continued to raise serious questions about CPD compliance with the welcoming city ordinance,” said Elianne Bahena, a district councilor who, during the height of Gregory Bovino’s terror in the Little Village neighborhood, was kidnapped by federal agents.

Bahena continued, “Today as two new commissioners, Commissioner Young and Commissioner Guzman, we ask for this to be an opportunity for this commission to reaffirm its purpose. We hope the commission takes this opportunity to truly listen to our communities.”

Lifetime member of the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR), Frank Chapman, stated, “We can only straighten out this problem by getting rid of the police having the power of life and death over our communities. We take a big step in this direction when we initiate this campaign to put this [Community Power Over Policing] referendum on the ballot.”

After the press conference, community members entered the school and gave public comments. Various community members raised the recent ICE kidnapping in the Albany Park neighborhood, which ended in a car collision.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InjusticeSystem #ImmigrantRights #OppressedNationalities #PoliceAccountability #CAARPR #NAARPR

New Orleans, LA – On Monday, June 29, a small crowd of community activists packed the city council audience for the Criminal Justice Committee meeting to keep up pressure for the family of Jace Lee Scott. Scott was a 19-year-old Black teenager murdered in 2019 by Andrew Gant, the son of New Orleans police officer Victor Gant Jr.

Jace’s mother, Shanta Scott, as well as activists from the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, rallied before the meeting wearing t-shirts that read “Justice for Jace Lee Scott” and signs that read “Fire crooked cop Victor Gant Jr.” After a brief rally, the protesters went inside the chambers with paper signs bearing the same slogans.

The Criminal Justice Committee heard reports across the policing and law departments in the city, from the Sheriff’s Office to Juvenile Court and more. Speakers gave public comment on the reports from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and the district attorney’s office respectively.

“Every family deserves confidence that a homicide investigation was conducted fairly without conflicts of interest,” said Shanta Scott to city council members and NOPD officials. “I am asking the NOPD homicide department to release the videos I have been asking for in my public records requests.”

Jace’s murder case is closed as a “negligent homicide” due to a plea deal, yet Shanta Scott reports some of the files in her son’s case are still sealed without any legal reasoning. The CDs she received from NOPD with supposed evidence were completely blank.

“It’s the responsibility of the district attorney’s office to stand up to crime, not just between people on the street, but also crime between police and civilians. We want you to take a real role in helping us look at this case. We’re here because we care, and if you care too we want you to stand with us,” said Toni Mar of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization to District Attorney Jason Williams.

In 2019, Gant Jr. was present during his own son’s interrogation and drove his son along with crime scene evidence to the NOPD station instead of calling 911 and leaving it to other officers to do proper intake. His actions broke several statutes of proper protocol. Jace’s family maintains that even beyond the mishandling of Jace’s murder, Gant Jr. has a history of misconduct, violence and corruption, and they demand he be fired from the force.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #InjusticeSystem #PoliceAccountability #OppressedNationalities #JaceLeeScott #NAARPR

Brooklyn, NY – Community members and the family of Eudes Pierre gathered Thursday, June 25, for their fourth monthly picket at the NYPD’s 71st Precinct. Alongside Pierre’s family, organizers from the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) demanded justice for Eudes Pierre and put up wanted posters of the officers who murdered him in 2021.

The previous day would have been Pierre’s 31st birthday. He was only 26 years old when he called 911 in the midst of a mental health crisis on December 20, 2021. Instead of the care he needed, dispatch sent Officers Peter Lan and Conrado Abreu-Gerez. Pierre’s cousin, Sheina Banatte, described how he was “followed, chastised, criminalized, attacked, gunned down, then dehumanized when his murder was labeled ‘suicide by cop’ after he called 911 for help.”

The NYPD denied wrongdoing. Its Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) ruled Lan and Abreu-Gerez acted “within NYPD guidelines.” New York Attorney General Letitia James declined to pursue criminal charges against them. Killer cops feel emboldened to brutalize and kill Black and brown New Yorkers because the system is built to deny justice to those impacted by police violence.

Joe Wilkins from the New York Alliance outlined a path to justice in community control of the police, stating, “Accountability should not take years of pickets and protests and rallies. It should be built into the system from the bottom-up, through community boards with real power to hire, fire and discipline every single officer in this building, and throughout the five boroughs.”

Participants directly confronted officers from the 71st Precinct with chants such as, “How do you spell murderer? NYPD!” One participant used to 50-a.org database to search the names and badge numbers of officers who stood, laughing, behind their metal barricades. Like Peter Lan and Conrado Abreu-Gerez, several of the officers present had documented histories of brutality and racist violence.

As they build the Justice for Eudes Pierre campaign, the New York Alliance and the family of Eudes Pierre will continue to picket the 71st Precinct on the last Thursday of every month. They will continue to fight until Pierre’s killers are fired and prosecuted, police are removed from mental health response, and the people win community control of the police.

#BrooklynNY #NY #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #EudesPierre #NYAARPR #NAARPR

Colorado Springs, CO – On June 24, the family of Alex Martinez-Sarmiento filed a lawsuit against the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) for the murder of their loved one . They held a press conference, along with lawyers Mari Newman and Andy McNulty, at CSPD’s downtown headquarters to announce the lawsuit and demand justice. Alex Martinez-Sarmiento was a 26-year-old “father, son, brother and friend,” said the attorneys in a statement.

Members of the Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (COSAARPR) and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) were in attendance to support the family. Over a dozen family members and activists stood in front of the press cameras holding banners and signs that read “Justice for Alex Martinez” and “CSPD stop killing La Raza.”

On July 5, 2025, CSPD officer Connor Jacob Wallick shot Martinez-Sarmiento in the back three times, killing him. Since then, members of his family, as well as COSAARPR, have been leading protests demanding that Wallick be fired and charged for murder. Members of COSAARPR view the lawsuit as one step in a protracted struggle.

At the press conference, Alex’s sister Saray Rocha spoke to the lack of accountability CSPD faces, “If an ordinary citizen cannot shoot someone in the back and walk away without consequences, then why should Connor Jacob Wallick? Why should he get to continue to wear a badge if he cannot follow the standards and responsibilities that come with it?”

McNulty’s stated, “We see violence from the police over and over and over again here in Colorado Springs. What we don’t see is accountability. What we don’t see is justice for these families. And today we file a federal lawsuit seeking accountability and justice not just for the Martinez family, but for all the families who have had their loved ones taken by the Colorado Springs Police Department.”

COSAARPR and the family are determined to keep fighting for Alex and accountability for violent police officers.

#ColoradoSpringsCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #COSAARPR #NAARPR #FRSO #Featured

Oakland, CA – On June 19, hundreds of Black Oaklanders gathered around Lake Merritt for an annual Juneteenth celebration. The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression put out a call for a day of action to “Defend families impacted by police crimes,” which led the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Pollical Repression to take action.

The Oakland Alliance talked to community members about Jalani Lovett, an Oakland native whose violent death in LA Men’s Central Jail was covered up. They gathered mailing list sign-ups, petition signatures, and GoFundMe donations to reopen his case.

While Oakland's Juneteenth celebrations are normally jubilant and carefree, there was a notable shift in turnout and spirit from previous festivities. A shooting two years ago on Juneteenth gave justification for the Oakland Police Department (OPD) to clamp down. Fences and shut down streets were used to discourage Black people from gathering in large crowds. But the activists mobilized anyway, flyering in response to racist harassment and treatment by OPD. A leaflet read, “This Juneteenth: Fight back against police brutality.”

Amped-up police presence at Black celebrations in Oakland is not new. Recent controversies with violence after monthly “First Friday” festivals in Oakland’s downtown district were met with racist rhetoric against Black people organizing celebrations that draw the “wrong crowd.” This June’s First Friday theme, “Black In Oakland,” drew vendors, performers and dozens of Black residents. Several hours after the event had ended, youth were seen getting rowdy and fighting, and, instead of de-escalating the situation, videos showed OPD tackling and tear-gassing Black children.

The emphasis on police presence is because the perception of Oakland as a Black, crime-ridden city, despite violent crime dropping nearly 30%, hurts the bottom line of property owners and downtown developers. It’s why Kaiser Permanente and PG&E spent nearly a million dollars to reinstate the city's police cadet program. This is not so different from what prompted Mayor Jerry Brown, elected in 1999, to begin using police to “clean up” downtown and make space for luxury projects. He got rid of the city’s first Black police chief, put a narcotics officer in, and unleashed police to attack low-income Black and brown residents.

Members of the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression believe that the struggle between African-Americans and OPD will continue to sharpen. They want to remain prepared by meeting the people where they are and building a rapport with them as a police-crime-fighting organization.

#OaklandCA #CA #Juneteenth #OppressedNationalities #InjusticeSystem #NAARPR