Free Republic

In 2014, the number of black American murder victims was 6,095. Then, after the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, anti-police protests and riots began, federal officials and mass media sympathetic to rioters brought heightened scrutiny to police practices, BLM began its career, "broken windows" policing was curtailed, and police morale plummeted. The number of murders thereupon began to surge, never to return to 2014 levels. The "excess" murder victims from 2015 through 2020 who were black -- that is, the additional black victims each year beyond the 2014 baseline -- add up to 11,005. Compare that...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Protesters marched through downtown Grand Rapids chanting and at times blocking traffic Friday evening, demanding accountability for the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya. Unless we all come together as people who love other people and human beings, what happened to Patrick in Grand Rapids is going to happen to somebody in another city," a protester named Dennis Boatwright told Fox News. "The common people need to come out and hold our society accountable for holding racist views," Boatwright continued.

The southern city of Kherson has seen an outbreak of protests against Russian troops. The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has seen a wave of protests today (March 5) as Russian troops advance into the region. It comes as President Putin's invasion reaches its 10th day with a temporary ceasefire announced in the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, which have both seen frequent bombing. Videos of the protests posted on media appear to show large groups of residents waving Ukrainian flags and chanting "Kherson is Ukraine". Kherson was seized by Russian troops on Wednesday night and has since been subjected...

Over 6,500 Russian citizens have been arrested over the past week after protesting against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Demonstrations have expanded in recent days to 100 cities across Russia, with tens of thousands of protesters carrying signs and reading slogans against the war, while others laid wreaths near the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. The Kremlin disapproved of the protests and had many of the demonstrators arrested. Videos released in recent days show mothers trying to explain to their frightened little children who have been arrested why they are behind bars. Most of the children were arrested when they went with...

(Yegor Zhukov, Age 21) The change of power in Russia will be very similar to my arrest. On the night of Aug. 2, when the longest day of my life finally ended and I laid down on a hard bunk bed in an isolation cell of a detention center, the similarity of these two events suddenly became clear to me. And while my cellmates slept — one young and one middle-aged man who were facing prison terms for armed robbery — my tired and screaming brain continued to draw parallels…. However repressive the ruling regime is, however widespread lawlessness becomes,...

As Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Russia to protest their government’s offensive on Thursday, and many were detained by police. According to the Russian rights monitoring group OVD-Info, at least 1,758 people were detained at antiwar protests in 55 Russian cities. Of that number, 967 were arrested in Moscow, and 431 were detained in Saint Petersburg. Look at the size of anti-war protestors in St Petersburg, Russia. Wow pic.twitter.com/dHg9Uwt9RQ — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) February 24, 2022 In Moscow, protesters gathered at Pushkinskaya Square, in the center of the city....

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE Brave critics of Vladimir Putin living in Russia today spoke out to accuse him of wrecking their country and ‘starting World War Three’ as protesters took to the streets of more than 50 cities despite the threat of being charged with treason. Thousands marched amid claims Putin may have ‘overplayed his hand’ with an invasion of Ukraine his critics hope will sink him — and some were interviewed by the foreign press including the BBC despite knowing the Kremlin would be watching. One woman broke down and said she ‘can’t stop crying’...

Protests in Russia continued during the second day of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, with prominent Russians joining in major cities across the country. Russian authorities arrested over 1,700 individuals Thursday as citizens took to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities to denounce the invasion of Ukraine and demand an end to hostilities, according to OVD Info, an independent organization monitoring political persecutions.

Authorities in Russia are acting quickly to breakup widespread protests against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.Thousands of protesters have been seen in Moscow following Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, with smaller protests springing up in other cities across the country. Russian state media warned citizens that those who participate in unsanctioned protests will be “arrested and brought to responsibility.”About 1,000 people at this anti war protest right now. These are taking away protesters indiscriminately. I was briefly detained even though I was saying repeatedly I’m a journalist. pic.twitter.com/C8ZdMLDWON— Nataliya Vasilyeva (@Nat_Vasilyeva) February 24, 2022The vibe in Moscow pic.twitter.com/2uuiNjfjfI— Alec Luhn...

OTTAWA—The federal government says the RCMP is working with financial institutions to “unfreeze” bank accounts locked by emergency orders that targeted people who organized, participated in, or donated to the so-called Freedom Convoy blockades. Isabelle Jacques, assistant deputy minister of finance, told a Commons standing committee Tuesday that the RCMP began “sharing information” — related to the end of “unlawful” blockades — with banks and financial institutions as of Monday that should lead to affected accounts being “unfrozen.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted at a news conference on Monday that his government still needs the unprecedented emergency powers he demanded this month even though police violently removed the Freedom Convoy protesters from Ottawa and no active Freedom Convoy protests are currently occurring.

It's been terribly disappointing, both inside and outside of America, to see police forces rally to enforce tyrannical, unprincipled, and often illegal or unconstitutional government responses to COVID. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised — the various governments pay their salaries — but, given that the governments are made up of the same leftist elitists who five decades ago called police "pigs," many of us expected more from our police. I can tell you, though, that one thing that none of us expected, and that's to see police marching peacefully alongside Parisians who were protesting COVID restrictions and vaccine passports. Once...

The elderly woman who was reportedly injured when police on horseback rode through a crowd of Freedom Convoy protesters Friday evening has been identified as Candice "Candy" Sero. She is reportedly a full-blood Mohawk woman who lives in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Hastings County, Ontario. Sero reportedly suffered a broken clavicle from the trampling.

<p>Protesters gathered in Minneapolis on Friday evening after the sentencing of former Minnesota police Officer Kim Potter to two years in prison in the April 2021 shooting death of Daunte Wright, according to reports.</p><p>In addition, reports were emerging on social media that looting was underway at stores in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Potter worked and where the death of Wright occurred.</p>

Everything Justin Trudeau has done since the protests began has made a confrontation between protesters and police all but inevitable. The only way to understand the actions of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the past two weeks is that he wants the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, which so far have been entirely peaceful, to descend into a violent confrontation between protesters and police. Everything Trudeau has done, from his initial dismissive remarks about the protesters being a “small, fringe minority” with “unacceptable views,” to his ongoing refusal to meet with them, to the unprecedented invocation of the Emergencies...

The claim by the American intelligence community that the Hunter Biden laptop story is just a result of Russian disinformation is so 2020. Old news. The new hotness for 2022 is that the protesting truckers and their supporters in Canada are being manipulated by Russian agents. And what both reports have in common is that the claims are/were based on exactly nothing. The latest iteration of Russian subversion comes to us by way of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. However, if you didn't know any better you could be forgiven for thinking that the video interview was produced by the Babylon...

Police in Canada have been somewhat successful at clearing big rigs from the Ambassador Bridge — one of the most vital links between the United States and Canada.But the more protesters they move off the bridge, the more arrive to take their place. And in the city of Ottawa, the protesters show no sign of leaving anytime soon.Other important bridges connecting the United States and Canada, including Coutts, Alberta, which connects to Montana, and Surrey, British Columbia, which connects to Washington state, are also under siege. In Nova Scotia, an important ferry landing has been hit with paralyzing protests.The Canadian...

OTTAWA—The center of Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, was flooded by thousands of protesters on Feb. 12 demanding an end to COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.Many more joined the ongoing trucker-led protest with the arrival of the weekend. Numbers grew from the night of Feb. 11 into the next morning as supporters seemingly poured into the city.Greater masses of people were particularly noticeable on Parliament Hill and then later on the streets, where they spilled out from the immediate vicinity of the truck blockade.Around 10 a.m., several thousand protesters were marshaled into groups to form the word “freedom.”Then, they waved their red...

Blocking a roadway with a stopped vehicle might be construed as a crime. And be punishable. Driving around a block (slowly enough to avoid the traffic ahead of you) is not. If you have the numbers -- and I think we do -- then: (a) Anyone who needs to peel off and refuel, or take care of other business, can do so without harming the cause; and (b) Not only trucks, but cars, vans, and even motorcycles and bicycles can join in the fun. The beauty is: what can police do? Pull over an individual vehicle? Block a lane? That...

Anyone familiar with my scribbling knows that I separate modern society into two categories: World Turners and The Useless. Me? I’m no World Turner. I’m one of The Useless. What I mean is this: If everyone who does what I do for a living stopped doing it today, the world would keep right on turning. Society would roll along just fine without me and mine — maybe better. Sure, a few people might miss my musings, but only for a little while. And the same is true for anyone who makes a living spewing their half-assed opinions (especially Jonah Goldberg)....