[pjw] REPORT BACK: What is justice? Friday rally #57 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Supporters of peace

At last night's Friday Rally for Peace and Justice, we had four people 
(practicing COVID safety) who rallied and marched. There were many, many 
people giving supportive messages verbally or nonverbally, including a 
toddler who flashed us a peace sign (!). We did have two negative 
commenters but given the breadth of support that was miniscule. One person 
also stopped and took one of each of the four items in our literature rack 
(promotional flyer for next week's "Mission Accomplished?" rally, fact 
sheet from the Iraq 18 years later event, info on the Sarah Mirk 
livestream, and a Copwatch newsletter).

I started the rally news reports back by talking about the historic jury 
verdict to find Officer Derek Chauvin guilty of two counts of murder and 
one of manslaughter. I noted how unusual it was for the President and Vice 
President (a woman of color, now) to weigh in on an incident of police 
brutality, and how we'd never have known about the truth if others hadn't 
recorded the death of George Floyd.

  https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1384666234818633728
(for instance)

T his affirms what Portland Copwatch has been encouraging people to do 
since 1992, and what Berkeley Copwatch started doing in 1990, before the 
Rodney King incident was video recorded. Although it's sounding like a 
cliche at this point, it's important to remember this was accountability 
for the one officer, but not justice for George Floyd or the so many 
others who've died at the hands of law enforcement. We plan to keep George 
Floyd's name on the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign scrolling message for 
that reason.

In related local news, it was reported that the officer who shot and 
killed Robert Delgado last Friday had talked to the History Channel about 
his time in Afghanistan and how he knew he wanted to be a sniper. Officer 
Zachary Delong shot and killed Mr. Delgado from 90 feet away using an 
AR-15 rifle (the civilian version of an M-16).

  https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/04/portland-officer-who-fatally-shot-man-in-se-portland-is-8-year-police-bureau-member-former-army-ranger.html

Here are other headlines:

As the US prepares to start taking its troops out of Afghanistan on May 1 
(rather than that being the end point), it's been reported there are about 
18,000 Contractors in Afghanistan including nearly 2000 who are armed.

  https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/troop-levels-are-down-but-us-says-over-18-000-contractors-remain-in-afghanistan-1.659040

--I could not find a news story on a mainstream site to point to this, but 
the Montana State Legislature passed a bipartisan Resolution to end the 
illegal wars and revoke the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

  https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2021/billhtml/HJ0009.htm


The piece that pointed me there speculates it has to do with the large 
number of veterans in Montana. I looked up the vote to verify-- it passed
47-2 in their House and 95-3 in their Senate. !!

  http://laws.leg.mt.gov/legprd/LAW0203W$BSRV.ActionQuery?P_SESS=20211&P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=HJ&P_BILL_NO=9&P_BILL_DFT_NO=&P_CHPT_NO=&Z_ACTION=Find&P_ENTY_ID_SEQ2=&P_SBJT_SBJ_CD=&P_ENTY_ID_SEQ=

--Iraq has said they've negotiated a timeline for US troops to leave their 
country, but didn't provide details.

  https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2021/4/19/iraq-pm-hints-at-progress-on-coalition-troop-withdrawal

--While we earlier noted the US had changed its mind about sending 
warships to the Black Sea to confront Russia over its troop movements near 
Ukraine, the United Kingdom is reportedly stepping up to do so instead.

  https://archive.is/Cm8ha

At the part of the march where we talk Israel/Palestine, I noted that 
after the unprecedented fourth election, Netanyahu still can't form a 
government. So rather than doing the right thing and giving up and letting 
someone else have a try, he's asking for there to be direct elections for 
the Prime Minister (not clear if this is allowed in parliamentary 
governments, maybe one of you can enlighten me):

  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/netanyahu-gives-up-on-arab-backed-coalition-665777

And as we came back to the square, to talk about how much money is 
squandered on war instead of human needs, I noted the group at Brown 
University that tracks the costs of war has broken out just the war on 
Afghanistan out of its earlier "War on terror" data: the total is $2.3 
trillion.

  https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2021

The scrolling sign turned out again near the Gucci store on SW 4th, so 
maybe last week's ability to scoot by there was the anomaly.

Once at the disbanding corner of 6th and Yamhill, I reminded everyone 
about next week's special event, tying in the "Mission Accomplished" in 
Iraq (per GW Bush), the assassination of Osama Bin Laden (by Obama/Biden), 
and the withdrawal in Afghanistan (set by Trump and delayed by Biden).

"Mission Accomplished?" Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda Still Issues in 2021

  http://www.pjw.info/mission_accomplished0421.html

I think at least one PJW member who hasn't been downtown for quite a while 
may be joining us this Friday, are you able to do so too?

Peace

Thanks

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group