How the State Response to Police Protests Is Unconstitutional

FEATURING KATH ROGERS – The national uprising unfolding in the US for the past two weeks has clarified for many Americans who may have doubted the word of black communities, that police are routinely violating people’s rights. Law Enforcement has spiraled out of control in city after city, tear gassing people in their faces, shooting rubber bullets directly at people, hurling flash bang grenades into bodies, and savagely beating people with their batons. There have been incidents documented of police using the same chokehold on protesters that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. Meanwhile President Trump claims that it is the protesters that are “terrorizing the innocent,” contrary to all evidence.

Legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild, wearing bright green hats, are gathering evidence and offering legal support to people whose rights are being violated. Between the police violence, the blanket curfews of cities, the declaration of an anti-fascist idealogy as “terrorist,” the raising of a tall black fence around the White House, are we seeing a new descent into state lawlessness and authoritarianism?

Kath Rogers, Executive Director of National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles.