police violence
Breaking video: LA police smash UCLA camp, violently arrest peaceful students
US state mobilises to break protest after taking hours to act against violent pro-Israel mob last night
Los Angeles police have stormed the pro-Gaza protest camp set up by peaceful student protesters at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Riot-clad police are violently arresting students and faculty taking part in the protest against the university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide – which has killed well over 40,000 civilians, mostly women and children – and is smashing up tents and makeshift buildings, despite free speech and association rights being guaranteed by the US Constitution:
Video by Middle East Eye
Solidarity with the people of Gaza and with students everywhere demonstrating against genocide and for peace.
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Questions raised over pro-Trump, anti-BLM, anti-Labour comments of Labour candidate
Joe Johnson’s social media record includes defence of racist comedy, admiration of Thatcher and Trump, support for far-right views and opposition to Labour – yet he has been selected to stand for the party
Sefton council candidate Joe Johnson, from his Facebook profile
A Labour candidate’s social media output has raised serious questions about his suitability to stand – yet he was apparently waved through by Keir Starmer’s party, either without vetting or in disregard of his record, to stand for the party in the St Oswald ward in Bootle, near Liverpool.
Locals have raised flags about what they say are:
- Historic racist views
- Support of Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party
- Admiration of Margaret Thatcher
- Support of Donald Trump
- Support of far right views on social media (TwitterlX: @joejbsg)
- Public opposition to the Labour Party
In 2020, the BBC reported that a Dover footballer, who was racially abused by Hartlepool fans, said that Johnson had implied he earned the abuse by celebrating his goal:
The ref was saying that I sparked it all off with my celebration. As a ref, you shouldn’t really be saying … it’s sort of saying that, because I did a celebration, I should now be receiving racial abuse.
In the same month the BBC was reporting the Hartlepool incident, Johnson was commenting on his social media that police should be baton-beating and tasing Black Lives Matter protesters:
Johnson also defended the police after video emerged of a Black man being kneed in the face – commenting that the police ‘should be allowed to do their jobs’:
Johnson also commented that ‘blackface’ was ‘comedy at its best’:
In 2019, he supported Boris Johnson over Brexit and in 2020 he defended Johnson’s appalling handling of the pandemic and his wilful ignoring of the advice of government scientists:
And on Brexit he went further, supporting a far-right account’s recommendation that Johnson should invoke emergency legislation to force through a hard Brexit:
Johnson needn’t have bothered: the sabotage by Keir Starmer and the Labour right handed Johnson the hardest of Brexits anyway. He was also apparently a fan of the hated Margaret Thatcher, ‘liking’ a post calling her an ‘inspiration’:
Johnson praised far-right former US president Donald Trump more than once:
And his ‘likes’ included an anti-refugee post by far-right political figures Nigel Farage and former Home Secretary Priti Patel:
Johnson’s likes and comments also indicate a deep distaste for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn – and approval for a video mocking Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP:
Johnson’s ‘like’ of a post about Abbott
Contacted for comment about his posts an locals’ concerns, Johnson replied:
I am not surprised, although disappointed by putting myself up for local election to help the area that some people would try and shoot me down for past views, beliefs and opinions.
Labour’s regional director for the north-west, Liam Didsbury, did not respond to a request to confirm whether Labour did any vetting before allowing Johnson to become a candidate.
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Video: “I lost my family in Gaza” – police aggression as protesters shame Rayner and Reynolds
Deputy Labour leader and Shadow Business Secretary confronted with their complicity in Gaza slaughter during fundraiser
Police aggressively forced protesters – including two women – out of a Labour fundraising event for the ‘crime’ of protesting against the complicity of deputy party leader Angela Rayner and Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
At least three protesters stood to confront the two front-benchers with the horrific reality of the slaughter in Gaza, with the women targeting Rayner’s ‘modern feminism’ while thousands of women are killed by Israel and more than a million undergo daily loss and humiliation. Party leader Keir Starmer has argued that Israel has a ‘right’ to commit its crimes, yet the pair continue to support him.
Reynolds has been pictured smiling during a funded visit to Israel shortly after the Israeli regime massacred peacefully-protesting Palestinians in 2018. Rayner told a pro-Israel front group earlier this month, in the middle of the ongoing genocide, that she and the party ‘completely oppose’ any boycott or sanctions against Israel.
And despite the completely non-violent behaviour of the protesters, they were forcibly – even violently – removed from the event so that the MPs could avoid being challenged for their actions:
So far, according to human rights group Euro-Med Monitor and the World Health Organisation, more than 33,000 civilians – mostly women and children – have been killed in Israel’s wanton slaughter, at least double that amount have been wounded with many maimed, and almost two million people have been forcibly displaced into ever-smaller areas as famine and disease begin to outstrip the death toll from bombs, missiles and bullets.
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Video: Starmer’s car hits Gaza peace protesters in Glasgow
Keir Starmer’s car and his security convoy have barged through a crowd of Gaza peace protesters in Glasgow, appearing to strike or push at least two of them:
It is not Starmer’s first experience with hitting someone with a vehicle. In 2020, he was let off by police after hitting a cyclist in London hard enough to damage his car – a fact pointed out by numerous respondents on Twitter.
According to close sources, it is not exactly his first experience of getting a free pass from police, either, a reality he repeatedly failed to deny while letting others spin for him.
Nor is it his first experience of having police attempt to intimidate protesters.
Starmer and the police state are never far apart.
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