If John Bolton Keeps Refusing to Testify, Congress Should Arrest Him

23 November 19

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

WE’RE NOT TRYING TO “MONETIZE”, WE ARE TRYING TO SURVIVE - We get at least 3 feedback messages a day giving us advice on how to better “monetize” RSN. Which completely misses the point. We are not trying to build an empire on Wall Street … we’re trying to derail the empires that already exist there. We focus on our mission, which is social justice. The money is a necessity for the organization’s survival. Donate, please. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

If John Bolton Keeps Refusing to Testify, Congress Should Arrest Him

Daniel S. Alter, TIME
Alter writes: "For several weeks, the House of Representatives and the President have been playing a destructive game of chicken."

EXCERPT:
The President and his supporters have vociferously condemned the House inquiry for yielding too little firsthand information about the Ukraine affair. Yet, what we know so far from the witness testimony to date is that the people with the most firsthand knowledge – including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary Rick Perry, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman, and Rudolph Giuilani – have, at the President’s instruction, refused to tell us what they know.

Under the Constitution, Congress is not impotent in the face of brute obstruction.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that each chamber of Congress can hold a person in contempt for flouting a legislative subpoena, and – as Justice Brandeis explained in Jurney v. MacCracken – each chamber may also coerce obedience “by means of arrest.” In other words, the House Sergeant at Arms may take people into physical custody until they provide information withheld from Congress.

READ MORE

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speak during the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019, in Miami, Florida. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Want More Proof of Corporate Media's Anti-Bernie Bias? Look at MSNBC's Democratic Debate.
Branko Marcetic, In These Times
Marcetic writes: "Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate was hosted by MSNBC, and the result could have been expected for anyone who read In These Times' recent two-month study of the network's coverage of the three nationally leading candidates."

During the debate and in the spin room, Sanders was treated more like an outsider than a front runner. It’s part of a broader anti-Bernie slant in the “liberal” network’s coverage.

ednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate was hosted by MSNBC, and the result could have been expected for anyone who read In These Times’ recent two-month study of the network’s coverage of the three nationally leading candidates.

In that story (which I authored), In These Times found that the network consistently covers Bernie Sanders the least of the top three candidates, as well as most negatively; that it covers Elizabeth Warren most positively; and that both are dwarfed by the network’s overwhelming focus on Joe Biden, who was often portrayed as the “safest” choice of the field. The network’s political coverage also revolved almost exclusively around fluctuating poll numbers and “electability”—as defined by its hosts and guests.

These features found their way into Wednesday’s debate, which was preceded by a panel discussion devoted, as so much of the network’s 2020 coverage has been, to narrowing the imaginations of its largely older, Democratic-voting viewership. In the wake of two weeks of impeachment hearings, the panelists attempted to frame the debate as a referendum on Trump, with former centrist Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, ousted in 2018 and criticized by local African-American leaders for not doing enough to excite black voters in the state, predicting that “Trump will be front and center in the debate tonight.”

“The party is getting the rap, deservedly so, for becoming this traveling purity test,” said anchor Brian Williams. “Will a day like today force a stage like this one to coalesce around a message of ‘we’ve gotta beat this guy?’”

Chris Matthews, who together with Williams made up MSNBC’s most anti-Sanders contingent of anchors, went on to outline the way the network has allowed its own commercial interests to help shape its news content.

“The Democratic Party right now I believe is an anti-Trump party,” he said. “I can tell from the ratings people would much rather watch the decline and fall of Donald Trump than watch the battle among these people. … Which tells me, they really, really have one passion going into next year’s election: Beat Trump. I think that’s driving everything.”

It was up to Steve Schmidt—longtime Republican, chief strategist for John McCain’s 2008 campaign, and fresh off of advising Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz’s aborted anti-progressive run—to deliver the left-punching bromides usually taken up by McCaskill.

Warning there was a “danger with some of the ideology that we’ve seen front and center in this field,” Schmidt asserted that “a sociopath will beat a socialist, I think, seven days a week and twice on Sunday,” as the camera cut to Sanders getting ready on stage. Schmidt appeared to forget that his own candidate in 2008 had lost handily after trying to label his Democratic opponent a “socialist.” McCaskill, meanwhile, noted that black women “are overrepresented” in the Democratic primary contest and that candidates should keep in mind “that general election audience in November.”

The dynamics of the debate itself also mirrored In These Times’ recent findings, albeit in subtler ways. Though in the final New York Times tally, Sanders landed fourth in terms of speaking time, he was about a minute behind Joe Biden who sat in third place, and Sanders’ time was in the same vicinity as lower-tier candidates like Cory Booker (barely registering in both early states and nationally), Kamala Harris (polling at single digits), and Amy Klobuchar, another centrist candidate whose “electability” has been talked up by pundits even as she flounders with little support among voters.

Despite the final result, at 40 minutes into the debate, the New York Times clocked Sanders at fourth from the bottom in terms of speaking time, with Booker, Harris, Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg far ahead of him. Thirteen minutes later, he had moved up slightly in the shuffle, with Klobuchar now at the very top. Nine minutes after that, he was again fourth from the bottom, with Klobuchar sitting at third. The moderators threw it to Klobuchar after an answer from billionaire Tom Steyer about special interest money and term limits that name-checked Sanders but didn’t mention her—breaking one of the express rules of the debate format.

Sanders was also notably skipped over on the topics of unaffordable housing (though Tom Steyer, who has no housing plan, spoke on the issue), voting rights (though he made a point about it during an unrelated exchange between Tulsi Gabbard and Buttigieg), and white supremacist terrorism, despite being the only Jewish candidate on stage and having publishing an op-ed about combating antisemitism earlier this month. Sanders was also left out of the discussion about racial justice that followed, which Warren was asked to weigh in on.

Warren wound up markedly ahead of all other candidates in speaking time. This result was similar to the nearly six-minute advantage she held over her closest rival in October’s debate (in which she had a nearly 10-minute lead on Sanders), and her second-place finish in September’s debate, where she held more than a two-minute advantage over Sanders.

This tracks with In These Times’ findings of MSNBC’s coverage over August and September. Warren was not only the most positively covered candidate across the network’s programs—even on shows typically unfriendly to progressivism, such as Matthews’ Hardball—but there was a tangible shift in the way the network covered her candidacy, increasingly elevating Warren explicitly at Sanders’ expense in September, and hyping that month’s debate as a showdown between Warren and Biden, even as Sanders maintained a solid standing in the top three. September’s debate also saw Sanders passed over for a reply to an answer in which he was name-checked, in this case after Klobuchar had explicitly mentioned Sanders in her attack on the Medicare for All bill he authored. The moderator instead chose to seek a reply from Warren.

Though In These Times didn’t analyze coverage of Buttigieg for those months, his candidacy was the wildcard in this debate. Buttigieg’s rise in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire—and only those states, given that the South Bend mayor is enjoying 0% black support in one poll and is a distant fourth nationally—has been a major campaign narrative this month, particularly as enthusiasm for Biden has somewhat dimmed. Buttigieg ended up with the second-most speaking time last night, around the same amount as Biden.

In terms of policy issues, the debate moderators gave short shrift to a number of issues that might have interested Democratic voters. Climate change was discussed, but not in-depth. The coup in Bolivia was ignored. Warren’s new transition plan for Medicare for All—which would delay passing universal healthcare until year three of her presidency, and has been interpreted by Wall Street, the co-founder of centrist Wall Street-funded think tank Third Way, and several media commentators as a sign she’s backing away from Sanders’ policy—went completely unmentioned, even as Matthews had characterized her as “pulling back on Medicare for All” before the debate.

A string of recent controversies around Buttigieg, such as the meager amount of contracts given to minority-owned businesses by his South Bend mayoral office, his claiming of African-American endorsers who had never actually endorsed him, and his campaign’s casting of homophobia as the reason for his non-existent black support, likewise went unmentioned. (The moderators did, however, ask Sanders if he agreed with his supporters chanting “lock him up” at his rallies).

MSNBC’s post-debate discussion returned to business as usual, with commentators once again covering for another poor Biden performance that saw the former vice president claim he had been picked as Obama’s running mate because “I come out of the black community, in terms of my support,” and that he had the endorsement of the “only” black woman senator in history, to which Kamala Harris laughed. (“I thought he did pretty well,” said panelist and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson).

Matthews joined Klobuchar in decrying the policy of “free everything” (“I know these things sound good on a bumper sticker, and maybe they want to throw in a free car…”). Matthews also castigated Sanders for saying that “our system is corrupt,” warning him to “be careful about that language” because “that’s too strong.” Williams cast the contest as between “the side of purity-testing” and middle-of-the-road “electability.” Schmidt declared that “Mayor Pete had an exceptional night” with a “pretty flawless” performance and attacked Gabbard, who had criticized Buttigieg, as “just awful,” “spectacularly bad,” and “dishonest.” (Biden, meanwhile, had “probably his strongest debate performance,” according to Schmidt).

Still, there were some signs things may be changing at the network. Among the guests asked by Williams to weigh in was Michael Moore, who made a forthright and rare (for the network) case for Sanders’ candidacy. Anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, while generally praising Biden’s performance, harshly criticized the front runner’s onstage erasure of Harris, calling it “as bad a moment as he could have had.”

Perhaps the network is realizing that there’s a limit to the extent it can shape political reality. Or, perhaps, reality is starting to push back.

READ MORE

Immigration hawk Ken Cuccinelli was promoted last week to the second-highest position at the Department of Homeland Security. (photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Hardliners and "Hate Group" Officials Gain Key Posts at Trump's Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
Montoya-Galvez writes: "A group of immigration hardliners, including some who worked at an organization that has been described as a hate group by an advocacy watchdog that monitors extremism, have gained powerful posts in the federal agency in charge of administering benefits for immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees."

EXCERPT:

John Zadrozny, who was a top aide to Cuccinelli, has been promoted to acting chief of staff, while Robert Law, formerly a senior adviser, was named acting chief of policy. 

Both Zadrozny and Law have worked for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose stated mission is to "reduce overall immigration to a more normal level," and which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that advocates for progressive issues and monitors the activities of groups it considers extremist.

Heidi Beirich, who heads the SPLC's Intelligence Project, called the promotions of Law and Zadrozny "distressing," saying anti-immigration groups like FAIR are "funneling" their staff to top immigration posts within the Trump administration.

"These groups, which were basically outside of the mainstream, have been embraced by the Trump administration and their ideas are now policy, which is affecting millions and millions of people of color," Beirich told CBS News. 

The SPLC on its website cites past racist remarks by individuals affiliated with FAIR, as well as its "ties to white supremacist groups and eugenicists," as reasons for the designation.

John Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist and anti-immigration activist, founded FAIR in 1979. He once warned of a "Latin onslaught" in the U.S. "As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?" he wrote in a 1986 memorandum. 

Dan Stein, the current president of FAIR, said the SPLC has "no credibility," adding that his group has "never had any issue with immigration per se."

"All we've ever said is that it should be lawful and that the numbers need to be properly regulated," Stein told CBS News. "This is a political issue, it's a charged issue, it's controversial. There's no question about it. But the cause of civil discourse is not being advanced by the shoddy, discredited tactics of the Southern Poverty Law Center."

READ MORE

Pamphlets are passed through the crowd during the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance's 'Freedom Tour' at Eagles Lodge in Sandpoint. (photo: Tailyr Irvine/BuzzFeed)

Anyone Who Cares About Gun Laws Should Pay Attention to What's Happening in Idaho
Anne Helen Petersen, BuzzFeed
Petersen writes: "A small vacation town just an hour south of the Canadian border, in the Idaho panhandle - means taking the 'Long Bridge' over Lake Pend Oreille, a sprawling body of water French trappers named for its resemblance to an earring, or at least an ear."
READ MORE

Aaron Smith, left, arrives for a hearing at the Montgomery county courthouse in 2016. (photo: Albert Cesare/AP)

Gregory Gunn: Alabama Jury Convicts White Officer in Shooting Death of Black Man
Associated Press
Excerpt: "An Alabama jury on Friday convicted a white police officer of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in 2016."
READ MORE

Demonstrators take cover from water fired by a riot police truck during a protest against President Sebastian Piñera on November 19 in Santiago, Chile. (photo: Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Beaten and Blinded, Chile's Protesters Face "Policy of Punishment," Says Amnesty International
Flora Charner, CNN
Charner writes: "Last month, 39-year-old Alex Nunez was sitting on a park bench in Maipu, a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of Santiago, when a protest began in a nearby park."
READ MORE

Example of an endangered orchid species from Cameroon and Gabon. (photo: IRD)

A Third of Tropical African Plants Face Extinction
Helen Briggs, BBC
Briggs writes: "Much of western Africa, Ethiopia, and parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the hardest hit regions, standing to lose more than 40% of their richness of plants."
READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation

Foster America

23 November 19 We Would Already Have Shut Down Were it about profit, we would have shut down Reader Supported News long ago. It’s not profitable. It is something we believe in and incidentally something over a million people a month use. At this point you understand the need for funding. What will you do? Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts, CA 95611

22 November 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News CAN A READER SUPPORTED NEWS AGENCY SURVIVE? - The commercialists say no, it cannot happen, that's not the way our system works, nothing survives outside the corporate mainstream. What say you? Donating only takes a few clicks. Thanks to all in advance. / Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Al Franken | Foster America Al Franken, Al Franken's Website Franken writes: "People ask me all the time if I miss the Senate. I miss getting things done that make a difference in people's lives." READ MORE Mar-a-Lago is set to host a private event for the Center for Security Policy, a nonprofit based in Washington that has espoused anti-Muslim views. (photo: Saul Martinez/The New York Times) Far-Right Group Pushing "Islamist Infiltration" Conspiracy Theory Will Hold Banquet at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post Fahrenthold writes: "A far-right group that believes Islamists are infiltrating the U.S. government will hold a banquet Saturday night at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, according to a permit issued for the event." EXCERPT: Earlier this year, ACT for America, a group that has labeled Islam a “cancer” and warned of plots by Muslims, Democrats and the media, also booked a banquet at Mar-a-Lago. But after the Miami Herald reported on the event, the club canceled it. The Trump Organization has not explained why. Trump is not expected to attend the Center for Security Policy’s banquet on Saturday. Instead, he is expected to arrive at Mar-a-Lago around Thanksgiving for his first visit of the winter social season in Palm Beach. There are no signs that Trump’s club is in financial trouble. This year, for instance, it filed its annual applications to hire 80 foreign workers as temporary housekeepers, waiters and cooks — slightly more than last year. Still, Mar-a-Lago was hurt by the abrupt departures in 2017 of 22 charities that rented its space. The club’s revenue fell by 10 percent last year, according to federal financial disclosures.  This year, Trump’s club has added more events for its existing members, who already paid up to $200,000 to join. For instance, the club has added a “Gods & Goddesses Toga Party” by the pool in January, according to a members-only magazine obtained by The Post. Tickets are $135 per guest. Trump has also benefited from a smattering of start-up events, organized by Trump supporters who have rushed to replenish his lost business. The largest is a group called Trumpettes USA, which is planning its third annual gathering at the club in February, with 700 guests. The group says it has sold tickets totaling more than $1 million. As usual, that money isn’t intended for charity. It will be spent on the party. “We’re not fundraisers. We never have been. That’s not what we do,” said Toni Holt Kramer, one of the leaders of the Trumpettes. She declined to say how much of that money would go to Trump’s club as opposed to other vendors. READ MORE Trump White House staffer Stephen Miller. (photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) More Than 100 Democrats Sign Letter Calling for Stephen Miller to Resign Brett Samuels, The Hill Samuels writes: "More than 100 Democratic lawmakers on Thursday signed on to a letter calling for President Trump to fire senior adviser Stephen Miller as a civil rights group details hundreds of controversial emails he sent prior to his time in the administration." EXCERPT: Democrats and civil rights groups have hammered Miller over the past week as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) publishes summaries of emails the White House aide sent in 2015 and 2016 prior to working in the White House. The emails, roughly two dozen of which have been reviewed by The Hill, contain links and references to publications associated with white nationalism and show how Miller coordinated with Breitbart News to shape coverage around immigration and the 2016 GOP primary. One exchange from August 2015 shows Miller expressing concern to a then-editor at Breitbart that Mexicans affected by Hurricane Patricia could be granted temporary protected status (TPS). “That needs to be the weekend’s BIG story. TPS is everything,” Miller wrote to McHugh. Miller shared with the former editor links to InfoWars, a far-right site that promotes conspiracy theories, and VDare, which publishes white nationalist ideology, according to the emails. In one exchange from September 2015, Miller references “Camp of Saints,” a dystopian French novel that depicts the decay of Western civilization at the hands of immigrants.  The White House has offered support for Miller as the SPLC has released additional emails. It has dismissed the organization as "discredited," pointing to a defamation lawsuit it settled in 2018. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley offered a personal defense of Miller in a statement last week. “I work with Stephen. I know Stephen. He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms – and it deeply concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this Administration,” Gidley said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday's letter. Miller previously worked as an aide to former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) before joining the Trump campaign. In the time since, he has solidified himself as one of the president's longest-tenured and most trusted advisers, crafting policy on immigration and writing speeches. READ MORE Activists demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in 2018. (photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Under Trump, LGBTQ Progress Is Being Reversed in Plain Sight Kirsten Berg and Moiz Syed, ProPublica Excerpt: "Since taking office, Trump's administration has acted to dismantle federal protections and resources for LGBTQ Americans, particularly those gained under President Barack Obama." READ MORE Protesters carry a portrait of Philando Castile on June 16, 2017, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (photo: AFP) Families of African Americans Killed by Police Talk of Trauma Jacinda Townsend, Al Jazeera Townsend writes: "On the 5th anniversary of Tamir Rice's shooting, victims' families share the trauma that follows police brutality." he video is short - 30 minutes - the final half-hour of Tamir Rice's life, captured by a surveillance camera on November 22, 2014. It is grainy, so grainy that it is hard to even make out the toy gun that a 911 caller claimed Tamir was pointing at passersby. The 12-year-old paces on the pavement, then sits in the gazebo. A police cruiser speeds onto the grass beside the gazebo. Two seconds later, Officer Timothy Loehmann has fatally shot Tamir. Not two minutes after that, Tamir's 14-year-old sister, Tajai, can be seen running across the snow to reach her wounded brother. She is tackled to the ground by the police. It takes eight minutes for paramedics to arrive. Many of us have seen at least part of the video, and know that afterwards, a grand jury declined to indict either Loehmann or Frank Garmback, the other officer on the scene. Many of us know that Tamir's family filed a wrongful death suit against Loehmann, Garmback, and the City of Cleveland, which was settled to the amount of $6m. What few of us can possibly know, however, is the extent of the grief and post-traumatic stress Tamir's family have faced in the wake of his death. Tamir Rice's mother - 'I'm learning how to breathe' "We are very angry, very sad and very depressed," says his mother, Samaria Rice. "We are still experiencing it to this day." Three of Samaria's children, Tajai, Tabon and Tasheona, were only teenagers when their younger brother was killed: the oldest among them, Tasheona, was just 18. Tajai, who was handcuffed and detained by police as her brother lay dying nearby, developed an eating disorder after the shooting. "PTSD causes negative behaviour, and not getting that addressed, you make bad decisions," says Samaria. "My older daughter was planning to be a paediatrician; now, she has two babies. My son was looking to get into carpentry, because he likes to build things. Now, he has a record. My younger daughter Tajai is also now a mother." Becoming a grandmother of four children in four years was not in my plan." Like many mothers of police brutality victims, Samaria Rice has filled her grieving process with activism. "I never got a chance to grieve Tamir because I had to get active right away, but working with the community, and with other families surviving police brutality, I feel like part of a team. I'm trying to pace myself these days. I'm learning how to breathe." Marshall Miles's sister - 'The police are supposed to protect us, not kill us' Maureen Miles, whose brother Marshall died in 2018 in the custody of the Sacramento County Sheriff's office, sets her alarm for six o'clock every morning. "I never make it," she says. "I'm always up before then." Her brother died of cardiac arrest after being hogtied, with his wrists and ankles behind his back. On the video released by the sheriff's office, Miles can be heard telling officers he cannot breathe. Seconds after being placed on the floor of a jail cell, he stops breathing altogether. After being comatose in a hospital for four days, Marshall died. "At first, it was shocking, just unbelievable. It still is," she says. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since my brother died, and it's been over a year. I toss and turn all night, and wake up with my brother on my mind. My entire family is just stressed, sad and confused - if it's not me, it's my mom, or it's my sister." Maureen Miles speaks about a special kind of grief faced by the surviving families of police brutality victims. "I don't get to grieve in private," she says. "I have to hold it together in public, or else people will stereotype me. I'm also afraid to advocate for my brother, because if I speak out, the police might harm me. The police know me - they killed my brother - they know where I live. The police are supposed to protect us, not kill us," she says. "I don't feel safe anymore." Anka Vujanovic, director of the Trauma and Stress Studies Center at the University of Houston, says that this type of grief response is not unusual among families of police brutality victims. "Often, people are grappling with how the trauma changed their belief systems - not only their beliefs about themselves, but about the world around them. PTSD affects notions of trust, safety, esteem, intimacy, and power and control. Conceptualising this kind of trauma might cause a survivor to mistrust authority figures and the legal system." With good reason: Vujanovic points to the very special intersections involved in the particular PTSD encountered by surviving families. "There was the death of the family member, but also the racial trauma, and the trauma that has been inflicted by an entity that should be there to protect everyone. If they weren't already questioning the legal system, they are now. These are complex intersections of trauma that these families are navigating." Sherita Jackson - 'Who do we call when the police are the ones harassing us?' Sherita Jackson, whose October 19 arrest went viral after her 12-year-old son filmed it at her request, says police have harassed her since the incident, with one officer driving by and parking his squad car in front of her house. "Who do we call when the police are the ones harassing us?" she asks. Sherita was arrested when a Family Dollar employee called the police on her for trespassing. She was a former employee of the store and says the call arose out of a work-related dispute. When the sheriff's deputy arrived, she refused to show him identification and he tripped her, pushed her into the dirt, and sat on her while putting on handcuffs. Jackson's five-year-old, Leilani, can be heard on the video, screaming, as her brother Tyreece films the arrest. "I could see tears running down Tyreece's face," Sherita says. "I teach him to cooperate with the law, but how do I also teach him that he has a right to stand up? I don't know. I'm so lost." During the arrest, she says, her daughter's school counsellor drove by, and within minutes, the entire school community was standing on the side of the road. "The teacher grabbed her off the street and put her in her van," Sherita explains, but not before Leilani witnessed the most brutal parts of the arrest. On the video, as the officer cuffs her mother and someone beckons her from somewhere off-camera, Leilani can be heard asking, "Are you going to be OK without us?" "She's traumatised," Sherita says. "She cries over everything now. Everything in her life is a trigger. Three days after the arrest, she slipped and fell, and screamed for an hour straight. I've never heard her cry like that before. I can't get her out of my bed at night." Tyreece has been quiet, she says, but she gave him a notebook to write down his feelings and sees him writing in it often. As she manages her children's PTSD, Sherita must also handle her own. "I'm dealing with a lot of things because of this situation. I still have marks on my wrist from the handcuffs, and off and on, I have pain in my lower back. I don't want to pop pills, but I have no insurance. Physically, I'm in a lot of pain. Emotionally and mentally, I'm truly wrecked. I lost my balance in my boyfriend's truck, and there was sand on the floor, and it was a trigger for when I was face down in the dirt with the officer sitting on my back. I broke down crying. It was happening all over again." Sean Bell's mother - 'I get tired of hearing about young men and women of colour being killed' Valerie Bell, whose son Sean was shot 50 times by undercover New York City police officers on his wedding day in 2006, speaks about the longer-term repercussions of state-actor violence. "I still remember that day," she says. "I went to the beauty parlour to get my hair done, thinking I was going to my son's wedding. Instead, I began to prepare for his funeral. I lived each day in numbness." Her son was 23. "Sean died on November 25 and was buried the following Friday," she says, "but I went back to work after Christmas. I didn't give myself time to grieve. I didn't want to. I cried every day at work, and at that time I worked for Jamaica Hospital, so I went to work knowing that my son had passed through that very morgue." Valerie says her older son, William, and her daughter Delores were affected as well. "Delores didn't want to go back to school, so we homeschooled her. Neither of my kids likes to talk about it, but they're still proud of their brother, and proud of the life he lived. He hit a home run out of the stadium at Ozone Park at the age of six, and travelled the world playing baseball." When Sean was killed, he had just taken the test to join the electrician's union and had a pending job interview. Three police officers involved in the shooting went to trial but were acquitted by a judge. Like many surviving family members, Valerie managed her grief in part by becoming politically active. "I kept working for social justice afterwards, because I get tired of hearing about young men and women of colour being killed for no reason. I worked on this issue until 2014. I was not going to stand by and not be a voice for Sean Elijah Bell." She recalls a big win she helped secure in 2015, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order appointing the New York State attorney general as special prosecutor in cases where law enforcement officers are involved in civilian deaths. "If I'd stayed home, I wouldn't have made it," Valerie says. "We just continue. We don't stop. People need to vote, and they need to know who their people are - their senators, councilmen, assemblymen. Ancestors led the way for us. We have to keep going." Like many survivors, Valerie has not been to therapy, although she has written a book, Just 23, that details the spiritual journey she travelled after her son's death. "I live according to the word of God," she says. "I learned through my preacher and my bishop. My bishop said Sean was a sacrificial lamb. When I meet other families, I tell them God has a purpose and a plan for our lives. We step alone on faith, and know who our children are - I didn't say were - so we can speak for them." Like Valerie Bell, Maureen Miles speaks of the way community has helped her through: "There's a community of surviving families who know what we're going through. And the community at large is outraged. We notice, and we really appreciate the way the community has come together for us. Tanya Faison of Black Lives Matter Sacramento has been a big help." Philando Castile's colleague - 'He was someone the community loved' When Philando Castile, a school nutrition services supervisor at JJ Hill Montessori, was shot in his car by a Minneapolis police officer in 2016, the world took note. Philando's death had been live-streamed on Facebook by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. Philando had been reaching for his wallet when he was shot. On the video, which continues in the squad car in which Diamond is taken into custody, her four-year-old daughter can be heard comforting her. "It's OK, mommy," she says. She repeats. "It's OK." The four-year-old has just witnessed the shooting and death of the man who was a father figure to her. Philando's killing, at the hands of Officer Jeronimo Yanez, ignited outrage and protest across the city and left a hole in the community at JJ Hill. "He was known for his kindness," says Jackie Turner, the chief operations officer of St Paul Public Schools. "He was someone who the community loved and respected for his humility, his meekness and his kindness, and especially for the way he treated children." Because Philando was killed in the summer, the school had a chance to decide how to welcome students and staff back. "We moved immediately towards offering support the first few days of school, working with the community to talk about what we could do to ensure that the great things about Mr Castile's life lived on. One thing we did was design a Good Space Mural." The Good Space Mural, she explains, is "community art." As a travelling mural, it is now used in marches and other community projects. The school also planted a peace garden on school property, and the teacher's union donated a bench. The St Paul Federation of Educators planted a tree in honour of Philando's legacy. "Because JJ Hill is located in an artistic district, the school chose to have an artist in residence, who can work with students and community to continue to heal through art. At the end of the day, Castile's family is first, even though he was also part of the community. We honour their wishes at all times. His concerns touched so many lives, but his family is so beautiful, and we always work with them to celebrate his life," says Jackie. When we think of police brutality victims, we often think of those victims relationally - as other people's husbands, daughters, fathers or sisters. But we would do well to think, too, of the victims' families; those left behind to face an intense and public grief, watching their loved ones die over and over again on courtroom video, observed in their trauma not only by the public but by the state itself. For police brutality does not only victimise its victims, it ripples out to families, to communities and, eventually, as with any injustice, it ripples out to all of us. READ MORE Thousands of people take part in a protest during the National Strike, in the Bolivar Square of Bogota on Thursday. (photo: Diego Bauman/EPA) ALSO SEE: Colombia: 3 Dead, 122 Civilians Injured Amid National Strike Against President Duque Clashes in Colombia as Hundreds of Thousands Protest Against Government Joe Parkin Daniels, Guardian UK Daniels writes: "Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have taken to the streets in a show of support for the country's embattled peace process with leftist rebels - and to protest against its deeply unpopular government." READ MORE Floodwater that swept down Pigeon Creek hit Eddie Fields' home in Pie, West Virginia, and many of his neighbors' homes in May 2009. (photo: Logan Banner/The Allegheny Front) Appalachia's Strip-Mined Mountains Face a Growing Climate Risk: Flooding James Bruggers, InsideClimate News Bruggers writes: "Pigeon Creek flows through a narrow mountain hollow along a string of coal mining communities, its water trickling under the reds and yellows of the changing fall foliage." READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation