Free Republic

There was a shooting in Philadelphia every six hours in 2018. Jim MacMillan contends that didn’t have to be. “We know how to stop gun violence,” MacMillan, founder of IBGVR.org, the Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting, said Saturday at a conference designed to spread the word on what he and others contend are effective deterrents. Community activists; young people from the inner city; mothers of children killed by guns; and reporters from television, online, and print news outlets gathered to talk about how better to cover gun violence in the city and share commonsense solutions.

CHICAGO (CBS) — In a symbolic gesture to urge the governor and state lawmakers to come up with a budget, a group of community activists on Monday purchased Illinois Lottery tickets, and pledged to donate any winnings to the state. A week after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed stopgap legislation to resume payouts for Lottery winners – most of which had been halted due to the state’s budget impasse – a group of community leaders bought Powerball and scratch-off tickets on Monday.

A network of businesses, public officials and educators are partnering with the Trayvon Martin Foundation to present “Letters to Trayvon” a holistic campaign to address the plight of Black males and police brutality, next February. The campaign, initiated by the Germantown-based small business Mission Inc., has been in its planning stages for about a year and will include a social media component, youth outreach and a culminating fundraising reception, panel discussion, black art showcase and exhibit on Feb. 28. “Letters to Trayvon is a campaign to end the disrespect and racial profiling of black men and boys [and] it’s a...

Activists opposed to gang injunctions have been holding loud protests in Oakland. Thirty people showed up at a demonstration at Fruitvale BART. There was "Bike for Justice." They planned to be at it again at the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday night to protest a city lawsuit against alleged members of a Fruitvale gang. Here's what I'd like to know: Where was all this great hue and cry when suspected North Oakland gang members shot and killed Carolyn Howard, 29, while she and friends were standing on a sidewalk about to go dancing? She was the umpteenth...

OAKLAND — Nearly 1,000 people filled the street in front of Oakland City Hall on Thursday evening. They gathered to vent, pray, and ask how a Los Angeles jury could find Johannes Mehserle, a white former BART police officer, guilty of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Oscar Grant III, an unarmed, 22-year-old black man from Hayward, in the back.At first, the crowd was electric, but not volatile. To respond with violence would dishonor Grant's memory, they said. Hundreds of Oakland police officers watched and endured taunts, spits and rocks from a small group that tried, but failed, to incite other...

Saying the University of California's sharply misguided priorities call for unprecedented and unified action, two University of California employees represented by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 have joined students in a hunger strike at the UC Berkeley campus. Today's action comes after workers last week called on prominent graduation speakers at UC campuses statewide to refuse to deliver their commencement addresses unless workers' demands are met (see list of demands below). Abel Salas, a gardener at UC Berkeley, and the latest addition to the hunger strikers, said, "It is the most important thing...

Activists calling for greater investment in public services ranging from schools to in-home health care are ending a 48-day, 365-mile march with a rally in front of the state Capitol.

Saint Louis -- Black activists on Tuesday called for the firing of police officers who were shown on live television swinging night sticks and punching and kicking a suspect after a car chase. The Missouri State Highway Patrol was investigating to see if the four officers involved had acted illegally. The suspect, Edmon Burns, 33, of St. Louis County, was treated at a hospital and released, and was jailed. No charges had been filed. His attorney did not return calls Tuesday. Burns and one of the four officers, from St. Louis, are black, The three other officers, from suburban Maplewood,...