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On Jan. 12, three men jumped out of a car and assaulted Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old viola player and honor student at the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. The men yelled, "where's the money" and "where's the drugs" as they brutally beat Miles.
Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation joined 10,000 people for a march in Phoenix, Ariz., in opposition to fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio and in support of full rights for immigrants. The Saturday, Jan.
Miembros del Partido Socialismo y Liberación se unieron a 10 mil manifestantes en una marcha en Phoenix, Arizona, en oposición al alguacil fascista Joe Arpaio y para demandar derechos plenos para los inmigrantes.
A new Supreme Court ruling has brought African American leader and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal one step closer to execution. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mumia's conviction in 2008, but ruled that Mumia deserved a new sentencing hearing because the jury had been given flawed instructions.
After spending almost 24 years in prison, Michael Tillman was exonerated of his false conviction and released Jan. 14. Tillman was tortured by Chicago police officers into confessing to the 1986 rape and murder of 42-year-old Betty Howard.
On Dec. 23, a grand jury ruled that two white Rockford, Ill., police officers were completely justified in shooting an unarmed Black man late last August. On Aug. 24, in a blatant show of racist terror, Officers Oda Poole and Stan North shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore in a daycare center located inside the Kingdom Authority Church.
On Dec. 28, the Ninth Circuit federal court of appeals in California issued a decision limiting the authority of police officers to use Tasers. The decision is the first of its kind to set a legal rule on the use of Tasers by law enforcement.
Far from the "change" promised by President Obama and his new administration, 2009 reinforced capitalism's status quo. It was a year of suffering for workers and poor people. The greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression rocked the working class, as banks and corporations fell.
On Dec. 15, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) introduced HR 4321, the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009," into the House with 89 cosponsors. The Obama administration has stated that it will not act on the bill until health care legislation is passed, but there is a good chance it is also waiting for a more conservative compromise proposal to emerge from the Senate subcommittee on immigration.
The wave of repression unleashed on the Black liberation movement in the 1960s and 1970s by the FBI's "Operation COINTELPRO" reached its height with a series of murderous attacks on the Black Panther Party.
