On this episode of By Any Means Necessary hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Katie Miernicki, an organizer with the Philadelphia Liberation Center, to discuss the Philadelphia City Council considering banning “crowd control” weapons such as rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray, the violent police repression of protesters after the murder of George Floyd that led to demands to end the use of these weapons, the civil action lawsuit against the city’s police department filed by 150 litigants that also contributed to pushing for the possible ban, and how the rise in armed civilians acting against the struggle for justice with police complicates efforts in the streets.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kim Ives, editor of the English Section of Haiti Liberte, to discuss the Trump Administration extending preferential duty treatment for goods produced in the Caribbean Basin under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), the connection between the loss of jobs in the US South and the exploitation of Caribbean workers by the US garment industry, how the deal involves the US imperialist assault on Venezuela, the growing influence of the US military through its Southern Command - or Southcom - in the region, and the establishment of an electoral commission formed by Washington-backed Haitian president Jovenel Moise in Haiti.
Sean and Jacquie are joined in the third segment by Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, to discuss the protests around and dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria, persistent issues of police brutality in the country and how people are rejecting President Mohammadu Buhari’s newly organized Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) squad, for fears they may replicate the abuses of SARS.
In the final segment Jacquie and Sean and joined by Dr. Dave Ragland, the Co-Executive Director of the Truth Telling Project, and Director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign, to talk about religious politics and Trump SCOTUS pick, Amy Comey Barrett, the need for reparations and a liberatory faith and how US capitalism has been undemocratic and biased towards the wealthy from the very beginning of this country.
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