Did the UN Really Install a Global Police Force at the Local Level?

Activist Post

Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program

October 5, 2015

By Amanda Warren

While people were in a daze of reverie following the lunar eclipse and the Pope’s U.S. visit, a very important yet overlooked announcement was made by the Department of Justice.

“Launch of Strong Cities Network to Strengthen Community Resilience Against Violent Extremism” rang the bell to usher in a global-local initiative to ferret out extremism at the local level – yes, in the United States. Symbolically, it could also signal a turning point when it comes to local authorities and their treatment of the residents at large. Indeed, it is a global enmeshment that most Americans are either a) in the total dark about, or b) going hysterical over, if they’ve heard about it.

Honestly, either of those reactions is understandable when you start digging into the announcements and its sponsors only to find the typical convoluted, global-psycho-babble that signals to the astute that they are about to lose their rights and be perceived as domestic terrorists. But can anyone really say for sure? Of course not. Not when the message is written in Newspeak gibberish.

 

What is the Strong Cities Network and why did some U.S. cities join up?

On the face of it, SCN is to strengthen the bond between cities in the U.S. and global cities in the fight against violent extremism, internationally and at the local level. It will funnel help to local authorities of those cities which hop on board.

Read More Here

The UN Releases Plan to Push for Worldwide Internet Censorship

  Liberty Blitzkrieg

Michael Krieger | Posted Friday Sep 25, 2015 at 2:32 pm

The United Nations has disgraced itself immeasurably over the past month or so.
In case you missed the following stories, I suggest catching up now:

The UN’s “Sustainable Development Agenda” is Basically a Giant Corporatist Fraud
Not a Joke – Saudi Arabia Chosen to Head UN Human Rights Panel

Fresh off the scene from those two epic embarrassments, the UN now wants to tell governments of the world how to censor the internet. I wish I was kidding.
From the Washington Post:

On Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” — which, nbd, we’ve all heard before.
But the United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a whole new vision for how the Internet could work.

Under U.S. law — the law that, not coincidentally, governs most of the world’s largest online platforms — intermediaries such as Twitter and Facebook generally can’t be held responsible for what people do on them. But the United Nations proposes both that social networks proactively police every profile and post, and that government agencies only “license” those who agree to do so.

People are being harassed online, and the solution is to censor everything and license speech? Remarkable.

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'Restore the Fourth': Reddit, Mozilla, thousands of people set for July 4 NSA spying protest

Published time: July 03, 2013 14:43

Thousands of websites will launch a July 4 online protest against the NSA surveillance programs. Reddit, Wordpress, and Mozilla will take part in the 'Restore the Fourth' campaign online, while live protests take place in cities across the US.
‘Restore the Fourth’ is aimed at restoring the fundamentals of the Fourth Amendment – the part of the Bill of Rights which protects citizens against unlawful searches and seizures. Participants will display an online banner which reads, “This 4th of July, we stand by the 4th Amendment and against the U.S. government’s surveillance of internet users.”
The campaign, which was spawned on Reddit, has the support of several privacy and press freedom advocacy organizations, including Mozilla, Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and ColorOfChange.org.
The rally was largely organized by Fight for the Future – another non-profit agency which fights against internet censorship. The organization’s co-founder, Tiffiniy Cheng, said in a statement that “the NSA programs that have been exposed are blatantly unconstitutional, and have a detrimental effect on free speech and freedom of press worldwide." The rally is expected to be Fight for the Future’s largest online mobilization since its actions against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
But the protest doesn’t stop online. Organizers are planning live protests in dozens of US cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and Atlanta. Doug MacArthur, a member of Restore the Fourth's national board and moderator on Reddit’s r/news, expects between 10,000 and 20,000 people to take part in the protests in the nation’s larger cities.

MacArthur stressed the need for the protest, largely because mainstream media is failing to adequately cover the NSA leaks and what that means for everyday citizens.


Read More Here



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Uncelebrating the Fourth

By Tenth Amendment on July 3, 2013 in Featured 3

by Harry Browne, Originally written July 2003

Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business.
It was truly unique – the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution.
It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where you weren’t identified by a number, and where the government wouldn’t extort a percentage of your income as the price of holding a job.
And so each year July 4th has been a commemoration of the freest country in history.
False Celebration
But the America that’s celebrated no longer exists.
The holiday oratory deceitfully describes America as though it were the unique land of liberty that once was. Politicians thank the Almighty for conferring the blessings of liberty on a country that no longer enjoys those blessings. The original freedom and security have disappeared, even though the oratory lingers on.
What made America unique is now gone, and we are much the same as Germany, France, England, or Spain, with:

• confiscatory taxes,
• a Constitution and Bill of Rights that are symbolic only – merely documents used to justify governmental actions that are in fact prohibited by those documents,
• business regulated by the state in the most minute detail,
• no limits on what Congress or the President might decide to do.

Yes, there are some freedoms left, but nothing like the America that was and nothing that you can’t find in a few dozen other countries.
The Empire
Gone, too, is the sense of peace and security that once reigned throughout the land. America, bound by two huge oceans and two friendly neighbors – was subject to none of the never-ending wars and destruction that plagued Europe and Asia.
Now, however, everyone’s business is America’s business. Our Presidents consider themselves the rulers of the world – deciding who may govern any country on earth and sending Americans to die enforcing those decisions.


Read More Here



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Turkey Warns It May Use Army to Quell Protests

VOICE OF AMERICA

Members of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) take part in a protest in central Ankara, June 17, 2013.

VOA News

June 17, 2013

The Turkish government says it may use the army to help stop anti-government protests after nearly three weeks of violent demonstrations in several cities across the country.

People stand in a silent protest in Taksim Square, Istanbul, June 18, 2013.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Monday that if police power is not enough, "elements of the Turkish Armed Forces" will assist to maintain order.
His comments came as two major Turkish trade unions held a nationwide strike against the police crackdown on the Gezi Park demonstrators. The unions, which together represent hundreds of thousands of workers, called for police violence to "end immediately."



Anti-government protesters gather on the Galata bridge in Istanbul, June 16, 2013.

Most of the strikes were peaceful, but riot police faced off briefly Monday with about 1,000 trade union workers in the capital, Ankara. More marches took place in other cities, despite government warnings they would not be tolerated.



Turkish riot police spray water cannon at demonstrators in Kizilay Square in Ankara, Turkey, June 16, 2013.


Read More and See  Additional Photos  Here

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‘Harmful for children’: Turkish TV channels fined for live coverage of protests

Published time: June 13, 2013 13:13
Edited time: June 14, 2013 16:43 

Media takes images of a protester holding a flag in front of a riot police vehicle during a protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul (Reuters / Osman Orsal)

Turkey’s TV watchdog fined four TV channels over their live coverage of the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, citing that the broadcasts were "harming the physical, moral and mental development of children and young people."
The Radio and Television Supreme Council fined private channels including Halk TV, Ulusal TV, Cem TV and EM TV.
Halk TV has gained local popularity because of their 24-hour live coverage of protests in Turkey, as most of the mainstream media have been slammed for their lack of reporting on the protests in the country.
As the unrest unfolded almost two weeks ago, mainstream Turkish media did not cover the violent police clashes, but instead broadcast nature and history documentaries, and cooking shows.
Many of the other local networks briefly mentioned the protests, but failed to cover the violent clashes in which scores were injured.
Angered protesters had to turn to the internet, especially Twitter, to get the information out.

A protester uses her mobile device as she walks at Gezi Park on Taksim Square in Istanbul (Reuters / Stoyan Nenov)

In response, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned social media’s role in the riots, singling out what he called the “scourge” of Twitter.
“There is now a menace which is called Twitter," Erdogan said in the beginning of June.
Most recently two Canadian journalists were arrested by police on Wednesday while covering the ongoing protests in Istanbul's Taksim Square. The two had been held all day and later released.


Read More Here


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Protesters Skeptical as Turkish PM Flips From Threats to Concessions

Turkey’s embattled PM Recep Tayyip Erdoganis told protesters last night that he will halt plans to redevelop Gezi Park until Turkish courts rule on an appeal and launch a public referendum if the rule falls in the government’s favor.

(Photo: Joshua Kahn Russell/Monument at Taksim Square) The move comes a day after European parliament voted to condemn the PM’s violent crackdown on Turkey’s ballooning protests that has left five dead and over 5,000 injured.
Erdogan’s Wednesday threats to shut down the protests in 24 hours were followed by late-night private meetings Thursday with members of the Taksim Solidarity, one organization behind the Taksim Square protests that has gained heightened visibility.
Just outside of the Thursday meetings, police fought back protesters. PressTV reports:

Witnesses said police fired tear gas at some 200 protesters who had gathered in Ankara city centre, near the offices of the prime minister, while the meeting was underway. Five demonstrators were also arrested.

The PM’s gesture towards concession appeared an attempt to quiet Turkey’s mass mobilizations, now well into their third week, as the U.S.-backed head of government faces a growing political crisis.
Taksim Solidarity members who attended the private meeting declared that the question of whether to accept the PM’s latest move ultimately rests with protesters, many of whom are not affiliated with Taksim Solidarity. CBS reports:


Read More  Here


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Erdoğan's chilling warning: 'these protests will be over in 24 hours'

'We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently,' Turkish PM says

• Constanze Letsch in Istanbul and Ian Traynor in Brussels
• The Guardian, Wednesday 12 June 2013 15.36 EDT

Protesters at the entrance to Gezi Park, which Istanbul's governor has ordered them to clear for their own safety. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

Turkey's prime minister defied a growing wave of international criticism on Wednesday and issued a chilling warning to the protesters who have captured central Istanbul for a fortnight, declaring that the demonstrations against his rule would be over within 24 hours.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ultimatum, which he said was conveyed to his police chief and interior minister, ratcheted up the tension in Turkey after a relatively calm day following the mass teargas attacks by riot police in Istanbul city centre on Tuesday evening.
"We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently," Erdoğan said after meeting a team said to be representing the protesters for the first time. "This issue will be over in 24 hours."
The sense of a looming denouement at Gezi Park off Taksim Square in central Istanbul was reinforced when a deputy leader of Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) said the park had to be cleared of demonstrators as soon as possible.
Thousands of protesters again gathered at the park yesterday, with phalanxes of riot police marshalling nearby.
The ruling party's deputy chairman and government Hüseyin Çelik added that a city-wide referendum could be held on the initial issue that sparked the wave of national protest – whether the park should be demolished to make way for a shopping mall and a replica of an old military barracks.
The belligerent statement, contrasting with more conciliatory language from President Abdullah Gül, who urged dialogue with legitimate peaceful protesters, the vast majority of the tens of thousands who have taken to the streets over the past two weeks.
The sense of a final showdown was reinforced by Istanbul's governor, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, who ordered the protesters to clear the park for their own "safety".
"Families should take their children out of there," he warned.

Read Full Article Here

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Turkish government open to referendum to end protests

Protesters sleep on a bench at the Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. Riot police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets in day-long clashes that lasted into the early hours Wednesday. Photo: AP

Despite the offer, protesters continued to converge on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the epicentre of repeated clashes between riot police firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Turkey’s government on Wednesday offered a first concrete gesture aimed at ending nearly two weeks of street protests, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations that have become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year tenure.

Despite the offer, protesters continued to converge on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the epicentre of repeated clashes between riot police firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, and stone-throwing youths for 13 days an early sign that the proposal hadn’t defused the demonstrators’ concerns.

Word of such a referendum came after Mr. Erdogan hosted talks with a small group of activists. Many civil society groups behind the protests boycotted those talks in the capital, Ankara, saying they weren’t invited and that the attendees didn’t represent them.

The discussion was the first sign that Mr. Erdogan was looking for an exit from the showdown, and came hours after some European leaders expressed concern about strong-arm Turkish police tactics and hopes that the prime minister would soften his stance.

Read Full Article Here

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WORLD BULLETIN

Updating: 13:26, 12 June 2013 Wednesday

The headscarfed mother, infant attacked by Gezi Park protestors

A report has been published about the mother who was attacked by a mob of Gezi Park protestors for wearing a headscarf. Both mother and infant suffered physical injury.

World Bulletin/News Desk
The Taksim Gezi protests, which began with a small group with environmental concerns, have turned into nation-wide protests which have resulted in groups violently attacking people throughout Turkey.
The efforts by the secularist-nationalist fronts, which have provided direct support to the protests, to provoke the crowds and polarize society have reached an appalling scale. One mortifying case has been the attack on the daughter-in-law of an AK Party mayor of a township in Istanbul as she was walking with her 6 month old baby.
Suffering from trauma, the mother whose entire body is bruised has been unable to nurse her infant since the attack.

Read Full Article Here


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Turkey Protests Riot Police Clash With Activists

omer gashi   Published on Jun 11, 2013

Police use rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds, sparking fresh fierce clashes with activists.

Video: Police move past barricades into Taksim Square, Istanbul Enlarge Email Riot police have stormed through barricades to clear Istanbul's main square prompting fresh clashes with anti-government protesters. The big push by hundreds of officers at 9am local time forced many thousands of protesters, who had occupied Taksim Square for more than a week, to flee the area. Diggers mowed down barricades as police used rubber bullets, water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds, as activists hit back with petrol bombs, fireworks and stones. Police use tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators Protesters ran into Gezi Park where many had been camping - and where the demonstration first started on May 31 as a protest against the planned redevelopment of the green space into a shopping centre. A violent police crackdown then on the protest has turned what started off as a single peaceful demonstration into a national uprising against the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is seen by many as authoritarian. Sky's Katie Stallard, in Taksim Square, said: "Protesters have set fire to their barricades. They have been throwing rocks at police and we have seen petrol bombs being thrown. "What some of the protesters are doing is they are trying to grab canisters of gas and throw them back into the police lines. The police say they are removing banners, barricades. They say that if the protesters leave them to do that they won't touch them. "But what is happening is people are coming out from the park and also the surrounding streets in numbers to try to get towards the police lines. "Once the protesters stop and move back, the police stop too. "In Gezi Park, protesters are chanting their defiant slogans again, while outside police are clearing sections of Taksim Square. "The majority of them are there in the central camp and sitting down and trying to keep calm. "I spoke to one mother yesterday who was determined that they would stay in the park until the end of this operation." Demonstrators had earlier manned the barricades and prepared for a possible intervention when officers began massing in the area and replaced activists' banners with a large Turkish flag and a poster of Mustafa Kemel Ataturk, founder of the republic.

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Police crush barricades in Istanbul square, fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters

View Photo Gallery — Protests continue in Turkey: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that some Turks have taken part in the protests out of environmental concerns but insists that terrorist groups are involved in the unrest.

By Associated Press, Published: June 10 | Updated: Tuesday, June 11, 4:20 PM

ISTANBUL — Hundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week.The police raid, which came on the 12th day of nationwide anti-government protests, sparked clashes with groups of demonstrators well into the afternoon. Many other protesters fled into the adjacent Gezi Park, where hundreds have been camping out to stop developers from cutting down trees in the park.

As police moved in, bulldozers began demolishing the barricades and the makeshift shelters.A peaceful demonstration against the park’s redevelopment has morphed into a test of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority and a rejection of what some see as his autocratic ways. Erdogan, however, made it clear Tuesday that he had come to the end of his patience with the protesters, whom he accused of sullying Turkey’s image abroad. “To those who ... are at Taksim and elsewhere taking part in the demonstrations with sincere feelings, I call on you to leave those places and to end these incidents, and I send you my love. But for those who want to continue with the incidents I say: ‘It’s over.’ As of now we have no tolerance for them,” Erdogan said, speaking in the capital, Ankara, as the raid was taking place. “Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists, and no one will get away with it,” he added. The unrest — which has spread to 78 cities across Turkey — has been inspired in part by what some see as Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of governing and his perceived attempts to impose a religious and conservative lifestyle in a country with secular laws. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, says he is committed to Turkey’s secular laws and denies charges of autocracy. Yet as he defended his tough stance, he gave critics little hope of a shift in his position. “Were we supposed to kneel before them and say please remove your pieces of rags? They can call me harsh, but this Tayyip Erdogan won’t change,” he said. Erdogan was referring to the banners and posters that activists had hung from a building and a monument at Taksim Square, which police removed. Erdogan spoke before a meeting with President Abdullah Gul to discuss the protests, their first since they erupted. Contrary to Erdogan, Gul has defended people’s rights to express democratic rights. By afternoon, the clashes had extended to the very edge of Gezi Park, with acrid tear gas covering its sides, even though authorities had promised not to go into the park. Several people were rushed on stretchers to a first aid station manned by protesters before being taken to ambulances. Others were carried, overcome by tear gas. Selin Akuner, a volunteer at a makeshift infirmary at the park, said some 300 people had sought treatment, mostly for the effects of tear gas. Nearly 50 people had been hit by rubber bullets or gas canisters, 12 had head traumas and about eight had injured legs or arms, she said. The governor’s office said one demonstrator and one police officer were hospitalized. 

 

 

   Read Full Article and See Additional Photos Here

 

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Turkish riot police enter Taksim Square in Istanbul

Riot police entered Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday morning, firing teargas to disperse protesters at the site, which has been the centre of ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Turkey.

By News Wires (text)

 

Hundreds of Turkish riot police entered Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing water cannon and teargas to scatter small numbers of protesters involved in demonstrations against plans to redevelop a park there, a Reuters witness said.
Police removed protesters’ banners which had been hung from a building overlooking the square and the local governor said the police had no intention of breaking up the protest in the adjoining Gezi Park.
“Our aim is to remove the signs and pictures on Ataturk statue and the Ataturk Cultural Centre. We have no other aim,” Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter. “Gezi Park and Taksim will not be touched.”



Read Full Article Here



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BBC

Turkey PM Erdogan warns protesters of 'limited patience'

 

Mr Erdogan addressed several rallies of gathered supporters on Sunday

 

 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned his patience "has a limit" as anti-government protests continued for a 10th day.

Mr Erdogan dismissed the protesters as "looters", in a defiant address to supporters in the capital, Ankara.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul's central Taksim Square and Ankara's Kizilay Square on Sunday.
The anti-government unrest was sparked by a police crackdown on a local protest over an Istanbul park.
The initial protest has since spiralled into nationwide demonstrations, with protesters accusing Mr Erdogan's government of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state.
For a second night in a row, riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators in the centre of Ankara on Sunday.


Read Full Article Here


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Women on the Front Lines of Turkey Protests

Reblogged from : World

By Pelin TurgutJune 08, 2013

ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / Getty Images

Demonstrators wave Turkish flags and shout slogans during a protest at Gazi park next to Taksim Square in Istanbul on June 5, 2013.

ISTANBUL – Two ladies, one in red, the other in blue – that two iconic early images of Turkey’s uprising flashed around the world were of women now seems no coincidence. Of the tens of thousands of anti-government protestors who daily throng Istanbul’s ‘Occupied’ central square—now on Day 12—about half are female. Women have been at the forefront of a movement against what demonstrators say is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s increasing attempts to shape personal freedoms.
(MORE: As Turkey Protests Continue, Attention Falls on Failures of Turkish Media)
Dressed in a red cotton dress, academic Ceyda Sungur went to Istanbul’s Gezi Park in her lunch hour last week to support sit-in demonstrators protesting a government-backed redevelopment scheme that would destroy the trees. Bag slung over one arm, she was captured on film as a masked policeman doused her with pepper spray. The other image, dubbed ‘The Lady in Blue’, was of an unidentified young woman, arms outstretched, as she absorbed the full impact of a water cannon during street fighting that raged last weekend.
Protests began last week over the violent police intervention in the park and soon turned into an outpouring of public frustration with Erdogan’s goverment. Fighting riot police, demonstrators in Istanbul last weekend seized the city’s central square, including the Park, and have set up a colorful ‘free zone’ that resembles the Paris Commune in spirit. Demonstrations have spread to 60 other cities.
Women say they are concerned that the conservative policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government threatens their lifestyle. ”The reason there are so many women out here is that this government is anti-women,” says Sevi, a 28-year-old sociology student camping out in Gezi Park. “They don’t want to see women in public spaces. They want to see them in the home. And women have had enough.”

Read more Here

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