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96thdayofrage · 3 years

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How lawmakers block progress and maintain oppressive policies

Many lawmakers, especially in the South, fought to maintain the nation’s founding principles of white supremacy.

In Alabama’s Dallas County, more than half the population was Black in 1961 but fewer than one in 100 Black citizens were registered to vote due to daunting poll taxes and other measures meant to disenfranchise Black voters.

Across the South, registrars could selectively ask Black voters to read part of the Constitution, then decide whether the text had been read to their liking, said Carol Anderson, an African American studies professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

As such, they had enormous power to block people from voting, Anderson said.

A modest civil rights act passed in 1957 had enabled the Justice Department to sue states for voting rights violations but put the onus on people whose rights had been violated, requiring them to challenge systems designed to keep them down, Anderson said. By 1963, a federal report examining 100 counties in eight Southern states found that Blacks remained substantially underrepresented at the polls.

Selma, the seat of Dallas County, became an important battleground as tensions escalated. A local judge stifled demonstrations by declaring public gatherings of more than two people illegal, drawing a visit from Martin Luther King Jr. and thrusting Selma into the national spotlight.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Southern legislators repeatedly derailed civil rights-related proposals while chairing key committees, said David Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“Their control over these committees allowed them to gate-keep the agenda,” Bateman said.

Images of officers attacking voting rights activists – including then 25-year-old activist John Lewis – on a Selma bridge with clubs and tear gas in March 1965 helped sway public support. Days after the so-called “Bloody Sunday” incident, President Lyndon Johnson pressed lawmakers to pass broad voting rights legislation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and other discriminatory practices while requiring federal approval of proposed voting-eligibility standards before states could implement them.

Today, Bateman said, as increasing voting restrictions continue to disproportionately affect people of color, “there’s every reason to believe voter disenfranchisement campaigns will persist.”

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 reversed a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act, allowing states to alter voting rules before obtaining federal consent. This summer, the court issued a ruling that disqualifies votes cast in the wrong precinct and only allows family members or caregivers to turn in another person’s ballot.

At least 18 states have enacted laws making voting harder this year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. In Montana, legislators abolished Election Day registration. Florida curtailed after-hours drop boxes.

Georgia shortened absentee ballot request periods, criminalized providing food and water to queued-up voters and made opening polls optional on Sundays, traditionally a day when the Black vote spikes as congregants vote after church.

“We still have not dealt with anti-Blackness in this society,” said Anderson, of Emory University. “We’re really looking at the same pattern, the same rhymes.”

In September, Democrats introduced an elections and voting rights bill that would expand early voting options, identification requirements and access to mail-in ballots while allowing Election Day registration.

Police have long upheld racist laws, often with violence

As Blacks demanded equality during the civil rights movement, they faced hostility not just from fellow civilians but from those entrusted to protect and to serve.

In 1961, Freedom Rides occurred throughout the South as activists challenged Southern non-compliance with a Supreme Court decision ruling that declared segregated bus travel unconstitutional. The campaign met with often ugly resistance: In Birmingham, riders were attacked by a Ku Klux Klan mob, reportedly with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains.

Within the mob was an FBI informant who told the agency of the impending attack, but the agency did nothing, reluctant to expose its mole. Two decades later, a U.S. District Court judge excoriated the FBI for its inaction.

“The FBI was passively complicit,” said Diane McWhorter, author of “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.”

The attack occurred with the blessing of Alabama public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, who told Klan leaders that police would wait 15 minutes before stepping in.

Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., said he sees the links between the police violence of Birmingham and “Bloody Sunday” and the tanks, tear gas and rubber bullets employed at today’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

“We have John Lewis and others marching on that bridge protesting police brutality, and they get attacked and beat up by police,” said Butler, author of the book “Chokehold; Policing Black Men.” “And last summer, throughout the country there were marches on police brutality – and at these marches, police attacked the people protesting police brutality. The parallels are clear.”

People of color continue to be disproportionately affected by fatal police shootings, with significantly higher death rates than whites over the previous five years, researchers at Yale University in Connecticut and the University of Pennsylvania reported last year. “So it’s unclear whether change is actually occurring,” Butler said.

Critics note the police presence and brutality faced by Black Lives Matter protesters during the unrest following Floyd’s murder – the open-source database Bellingcat found more than 1,000 incidents of police violence – in contrast with the relatively unprepared force that was unable to stop hordes of mostly white Donald Trump supporters from breaching perimeter fencing and entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“There has never been a time when policing of public speech hasn’t been racially biased,” said Justin Hansford, executive director of Howard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center in Washington, D.C. “With the civil rights-era protests, most people understood that they were standing up for core American principles as opposed to Jan. 6, where they were trying to stop people’s votes from being counted.”

A USA TODAY analysis of arrests linked to the insurrection found that 43 of 324 people arrested were either first responders or military veterans; at least four current and three former police officers now face federal charges.

Education leaders have maneuvered to keep segregation, hide racist history

Education leaders have also at times sought to stall progress.

Two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision ruling segregated schools unconstitutional, Virginia Rep. Howard Smith took the floor to address his colleagues.

There, he introduced a document signed by 82 representatives and 19 senators, all from former Confederate states. The so-called Southern Manifesto called for resisting desegregation and blasted the Brown decision as an abuse of judicial power violating states’ rights.

The gesture demonstrated how deep resistance to desegregation ran in the South. The next year, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus summoned the National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock’s Central High, in defiance of a federal order.

“After the ruling comes down, you have massive resistance in the South,” said Sonya Ramsey, an associate history professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “You have school boards saying they’re not going to do it. You have government officials saying they’re not going to do it. That’s a system.”

Resistance came in many forms, she said, from committees formed to study the matter in perpetuity to policies that allowed whites, but not Blacks, to transfer schools.

Some institutional leaders did make positive strides, Ramsey noted, even if for economic reasons. While many Southern cities resisted desegregation efforts, officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, eager to promote the area as a progressive business climate, constructed a districtwide busing plan designed to have schools reflect the community with the help of Black and white families and local leaders.

But institutional ills continue, Ramsey and others say – in charter schools now struggling with diversity, in faulty school funding formulas and in ongoing debates about what students should be taught about slavery and racism. Bills limiting how educators can teach about racism have been introduced this year in at least 28 states.

A 2018 Southern Poverty Law Center study of educational standards in 15 states found none addressed slavery’s justification in white-supremacist ideology nor its integral part in the economy; furthermore, the report noted, a separate survey found just 8% of high school seniors identified slavery as the Civil War’s cause.

“It’s fear of the unknown and of disruption,” said Donnor, of William & Mary. “And seeing that the status quo is no longer acceptable. One of the major parallels is in the hostility of the pushback. If you peel back the layers, you can see the similarities.”

News media shapes how Americans view race

The news media has throughout the nation’s history helped Americans understand racial issues – for better or worse.

In 1962, after James Meredith tested federal law to become the first Black student admitted to the formerly all-white University of Mississippi, the station manager of Jackson’s WLBT decried the decision on-air, saying states should make their own admission decisions.

Station officials strongly supported segregation, rebuffing calls for opposing views, avoiding civil rights coverage and notoriously blaming technical problems for interruption of a 1955 “Today Show” interview of attorney Thurgood Marshall. Ultimately, after repeated complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and a crucial federal court decision affirming public input in FCC hearings, the station lost its license.

“These are the stories we weren’t taught in journalism school,” said Joseph Torres, co-author of “News For All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media.” “They (civil rights groups) were saying, it’s a public airwave, and it’s not being fair to the Black community.”

Black media stepped up to offer different perspectives of mainstream narratives or provide coverage that wasn’t otherwise there. When 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in 1955 by two men who would ultimately be acquitted by an all-white jury, Jet magazine published a photo of Till’s mutilated body that helped kickstart the civil rights movement.

While some white-owned media such as Mississippi’s Delta Democrat Times and Lexington Advertiser condemned segregation and violence, others such as Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger held to the status quo. Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY, purchased the newspaper in 1982.

“Had the Clarion-Ledger taken a leadership position denouncing atrocities going on in front of their faces, the state would be farther along in terms of getting past some of the pain,” said Mississippi Public Broadcasting executive editor Ronnie Agnew, who served as the newspaper’s executive editor until 2011.

In 1968, the landmark Kerner Commission, appointed to investigate the unrest that had exploded in national riots, faulted the media in addition to longstanding racism and economic inequalities. “The press has too long basked in a white world looking out of it, if at all, with white men's eyes and white perspective," the commission’s final report read.

“They made it absolutely clear that the white press had done a terrible job of covering civil rights,” said Craig Flournoy, a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota who has critiqued the Los Angeles Times’ “incendiary” coverage of the 1965 Watts riots, for which the newspaper won a Pulitzer.

Flournoy said the Times relied heavily on white police and white elected officials for material. In one particularly egregious example, he said the newspaper, having no Black reporters on staff, sent a young Black advertising staffer into Watts to dictate dispatches by payphone, but his notes were repurposed into sensational stories that exaggerated the supposed Black threat.

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gehayi · 4 years

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From the Daily Kos:

• Coronavirus: As the coronavirus pandemic grows worse, schools and public services have shut down as authorities urge people to distance themselves from others to avoid spreading the disease. Thanks in large part to Donald Trump lying to downplay the crisis for his own self-interest, the virus threatens to create major disruptions in many aspects of life and endangers the lives of countless Americans. But holding November's elections on time is essential to ensure the legitimacy and stability of our political system in the face of the ongoing public health crisis and the economic crisis it is causing, which is why voting by mail is an indispensable tool for ensuring voting is safe.

Congress and every state that has not yet done so should adopt universal voting by mail to ensure our elections keep running. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced a bill on Wednesday that would provide $500 million in emergency funding to help states mitigate election disruptions and mandate that they offer mail voting in November.

Louisiana officials took a very different tack, announcing on Friday that they would postpone their April presidential primary to June 20, but this isn't a viable option for many states, nor is it a desirable one. Postponing or canceling November's general elections could produce a constitutional crisis and cripple Congress once its current term expires on Jan. 3. Elections still took place even amid the Civil War, and absentee voting itself was an innovation born of necessity during the war in several Northern states that didn't want to disenfranchise the soldiers who were fighting to save the Union.

Universal vote-by-mail works by having officials send every registered voter a ballot that they can return by mail. Under such a system, states and localities can operate far fewer in-person voting locations and need far fewer poll workers to operate them. Ideally, the postage on ballots is prepaid, and voters are given ample time to cast their ballots without hassle. That includes being able to postmark ballots as late as Election Day, or to return them in person at one of numerous drop box locations. Officials must also continue to provide access to a limited number of in-person voting locations for those who still want to vote that way or are physically unable to do so by mail.

As shown on the map at the top of this post (see here for a larger version), Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington have already transitioned to universal voting by mail. In many other states, voters can sign up to receive mail ballots on a permanent basis, which is why majorities in some states such as California, Arizona, and Montana already cast ballots by mail.

Meanwhile, several states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, have in recent years made it considerably easier to vote absentee by mail. But a large number of states still don’t allow voters to cast absentee ballots without providing an excuse, such as illness or being away from home.

Adopting universal voting by mail is imperative now that the coronavirus has become a pandemic that could infect most Americans. As governments urge citizens to avoid crowded public spaces and to vigilantly wash their hands, asking millions of people to stand in lines on Election Day and use the same voting machines and the same pens to fill out paper ballots threatens public health and could dampen voter turnout. Furthermore, because poll workers are disproportionately the same elderly Americans who are most at risk, states and localities may have trouble finding enough poll workers, and those who do show up will be at greater risk of catching or spreading the disease.

These problems should be largely avoidable with universal voting by mail, since it almost entirely eliminates in-person voting and the public gatherings that go with it. Furthermore, mail voting is a cost-saving measure that frees up resources for other priorities because governments have to operate far fewer in-person polling places. It also has a long track record of increasing voter turnout in the states that have adopted it, thanks to how easy it makes it to vote, especially when prepaid postage negates the need for voters to go to the post office.

Of course, voting by mail is not a silver bullet, as it can create problems for voting access if not implemented properly alongside other voting methods for those who can't easily vote by mail. It also poses a health risk of its own: Washington’s secretary of state has urged voters not to lick their ballot return envelopes to seal them and instead moisten their envelopes with a sponge to minimize the chance that those handling ballots come into contact with potentially infected saliva.

Congress has the power to mandate that every state implement universal voting by mail, and if it acts now, it can provide states with the necessary funds to do so before November. Should Trump and Senate Republicans block House Democrats from passing such a bill, states themselves should take action to fully shift to vote-by-mail, and if that's not possible, then at least broadly expand no-excuse absentee voting. Doing so quickly will ensure that any new system can be properly implemented.

In fact, officials in a number of states have already taken action to protect voters. The list below details a few of these activities:

Alabama: Republican Secretary of State John Merrill said self-quarantined voters will be able to vote absentee (Alabama requires an excuse to do so).

Connecticut: Democratic Secretary of State Denise Merrill asked Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont to issue an executive order loosening the excuse requirement for absentee ballots.

Maryland: Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is deciding whether to issue an executive order turning the April 28 primary into an entirely by-mail election.

Massachusetts: Democratic Secretary of State Bill Galvin requested emergency powers from legislators that would allow him to postpone an election, move polling places, extend legal deadlines by up to 45 days, and authorize alternative voting methods, which could include mail voting or electronic voting for first responders.

New York: Democratic state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi introduced a bill to permit absentee ballots during public health crises (New York currently requires an excuse). The Board of Elections in Erie County, which is home to Buffalo and nearly 300,000 registered voters, announced it was opening absentee voting to all voters countywide in April's presidential primary.

Ohio: Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose ordered all polling places located in senior centers and nursing homes to be moved.

Pennsylvania: Democratic state Rep. Kevin Boyle introduced a bill to mail every primary voter a ballot.

Wyoming: The state Democratic Party announced it was suspending the in-person part of their April 4 presidential caucus but that drop-off mail ballot voting would continue.

Finally, the ACLU has published a guide on how to request an absentee ballot in states with upcoming primaries.

#daily kos #voting #voting rights #covid-19 #coronavirus #elections in the plague year

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keywestlou · 3 years

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I HAVE A DREAM.....

Today is a federal holiday. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

It marks King’s birthday. He was born January 15, 1929. Note that it is not being celebrated on the 15th. Rather on the 18th. The reason why is in 1968 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act became law. Its purpose to allow federal holidays to contain a Monday so citizens would enjoy a long weekend.

Unfortunately King’s life was short lived. He died on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39 from an assassin’s bullet.

King was a Baptist minister and a leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The youngest person ever to be so recognized.

His speeches and actions were many. The one speech that sticks in everyone’s memory is I Have A Dream which he gave on August 28, 1963.

Unfortunately, the Black problem continues to exist. Things are better, but still horrible. The shootings by police a perfect example.

Two passages from I Have A Dream note the condition of Blacks in 1963 as opposed to today. Yes, there have been many advances. Never the less, the problem still exists. The problem being one rotten to the core.

King said “…..the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.”

Piercingly true then and now.

He further noted, “We can never be satisfied as the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”

Nothing has changed.

The last portion of King’s speech dwelled on his “I Have A Dream” thoughts. Eleven all toll. Each right on. Unfortunately not many have been achieved. The Black community is still striving for equality.

I picked one line out of the middle of King’s speech. One that we as a people and our government have forgotten: “The time is always right to do what is right.”

King has been acknowledged both in life and death. Perhaps the greatest is his place in the National Mall. His huge statue stands among the greatest of Americans.

His closest nearby neighbors reflect such. He is surrounded by the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

Wednesday is Inauguration Day. Different from others of the modern era. Citizens will not be jamming the streets. No parade afterwards with the now President Biden and his family. Twenty five thousand National Guardsmen, in addition to thousands of other police types, from many jurisdictions to protect our new President.

Too bad it has to be this way. However, we would be foolish not to recognize the clear and present danger and protect all involved from it. Especially after what occurred last week with the attack on the Capitol.

Every day the media comes up with videos of the attack which have not been seen. Newly discovered, so to speak. Each worse than the previous. Each scary. My America!

Luke Mogelson is a war correspondent. He shot a 13 minute video which I saw for the first time this morning. Shocking footage. An obscenity.

Eight to ten thousand insurgents were involved in the attack on the Capitol. Thousands more will be involved in the next attack. Supposedly wednesday. However noting the defensive planing, the insurgents might select a different day.

A new issue has arisen. It is suspected that the insurgent poison runs deep. There is a fear that the National Guard troops in DC could have members who in reality are on the side of the insurgents. A group to attack from the inside.

The FBI is vetting all 25,000. God bless them! That’s a lot of vetting. However such is part of their job/training and supposedly will be successfully accomplished.

Giuliani is consistently in the news.

Two days ago, he announced he was part of the Trump impeachment defense team. His ball to carry the alleged fraudulent ballots problem which resulted in a Biden victory rather than a Trump one.

Yesterday, he announced he could not be a defense counsel in the matter because he was a witness. Recall Giuliani spoke at the rally prior to the attack. “Trial by combat” were part of his closing words.

The man will never learn to keep his mouth shut. He is going to end up in trouble. He has danced well up to this point. I would bet money he is one of the many Trump will pardon tomorrow.

Lindsey Graham is a whore. If not, incompetent. Or, perhaps both.

Four years ago he was against Trump and labeled him with all sort of competency, mentality, etc. insults.

Along the way they became friends. Such occurred soon after John McCain’s death.

Today Graham and Lindsey are, and please excuse the vernacular, “asshole buddies.”

During the time immediately following the Capitol attack, Graham was out there spewing how terrible, something has to be done, etc. Yesterday his tune changed. News indicates he called Schumer and told him the impeachment trial should be called off. The reason: To “let the nation heal.”

Where has Lindsey been the last 2 years? Flying on Air Force One and playing golf with Trump.

There is a suspicion pardons may be up for sale. Not right. Not even close to being right.

Dollar figures from $200,000 to $2 million have been mentioned.

That is not the way it is supposed to be done. It very well may be under Trump. I for one would want the payments noted and what portion went to who. Let’s keep it honest folks!

Biden’s plate is full. He has a ton of problems that must be dealt with. Some sooner than later. I am sure the problems will be prioritized and addressed in that fashion.

All of a sudden, there is a new immigration issue. Reared its ugly head in the past 72 hours.

A caravan of immigrants from Honduras is heading for the U.S. Biden during the campaign had promised to take of take care of immigrants. He did not say right away nor when.

Where 9,000 came from and why now during inauguration week puzzles me. They have crossed or are in the process of crossing into Guatemala. Mexico next. Then the U.S.

Not our headache till Biden says so. And he will not “take care” of them as Trump did.

This 9,000 person caravan has to have been organized. Impossible to get 9,000 people to get together for a trip from Honduras to the U.S. overnight.

Enjoy your day!

I HAVE A DREAM….. was originally published on Key West Lou

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thebuckblogimo · 4 years

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Al Kaline meant everything to the Reuter Boys. And he was. Everything.

April 17, 2020

Al Kaline died last week. And I could not not write something about the Detroit Tigers’ 18-time American League All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner. I hope this does him justice...

I became a devoted baseball fan during the summer of 1954, between the first and second grades. I’m sure of that because I can recall an afternoon playing in the field next to Ken Halibozek’s house and, thanks to my collection of baseball cards, was able to recite to him the starting infield of the ‘54 American League pennant-winning Cleveland Indians.

I was definitely into it the next year, 1955, when the Tigers’ Al Kaline, at age 20, became the youngest batting champion in history with a .340 average. Everyone in Detroit went gaga over “the kid,” including the Reuter Boys, my friends who lived on Reuter and with whom I played baseball every day in the street or at Anthony Park.

It was Kaline’s second full year in the league. With his long, lean frame, he could hit for average and power. He could play the carom off the walls in the right field corner of (then) Briggs Stadium like no one had ever done before. He had a gun for an arm, once throwing out three White Sox runners in three consecutive innings. And he could run from first to third like a deer.

Al Kaline was a “five-tool player” before anyone used the term.

My best guess is that it was the summer of ‘58 that Butchie, Jerry and I decided to start our own baseball team, the Bullets, to play in the Sub-Midgets class of Dearborn Recreation baseball. And I recall feeling as though I’d be able to make circus catches, like our hero, when my parents gave me the money to purchase an Al Kaline model glove at Hanses Hardware. Any old Detroiter, by the way, would tell you that his signature on that mitt--as well as on Al Kaline model Louisville Sluggers--was distinctive. Practically perfect. Just like his swing at the plate.

Anyway, in those days Al Kaline of the Tigers, Gordie Howe of the Red Wings and Bobby Layne of the Lions were like gods to all the Reuter Boys up and down the street. Howe and Layne had both won championships. Kaline had not. And yet, he was the god of our sports gods. Probably because in the early-to- mid ‘50s, baseball was still, indisputably, America’s past time.

We were sitting on the porch at Jerry’s house one day when Butchie, Jerry and I debated whether Kaline was as good a player as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle or the Giants’ Willie Mays. They argued vehemently that Kaline was, certainly, at least as good as those guys, absolutely in their class. I felt like a trader when I sheepishly confessed that, in my opinion, his talents didn’t quite measure up to those of “the Mick” or Willie.

As much as I loved and respected Al Kaline, I pretty much felt that way until my college years. Then one day I realized that both Mantle and Mays, by playing in New York, the media capital of the world, had received a helluva lot more national publicity than Kaline. Plus, during the decade of the ‘50s when I was growing up, Mantle played in eight World Series, winning six. Mays played in two World Series, winning one. While Kaline had played in none.

Until 1968.

In the fall classic against St. Louis that year, the Cardinals were up three games to one when Kaline, in his sixteenth season, and with the Tigers down 3 to 2 in the seventh inning of game five, hit a two-hopper into right center with the bases loaded to put the Tigers ahead of the Cards. Detroit never trailed again in the series, winning the ‘68 world championship, four games to three.

Old Tiger fans know the back story:

Kaline had been hurt for part of the year and was not fully healthy until about the time of the World Series. Then, despite his protestations that it would be unfair to his teammates to be inserted into the starting lineup, considering that they had won the American League pennant without much contribution from him, Mayo Smith made, arguably, the boldest managerial move in the history of the game:

He put Kaline in his old spot in right field, moved Jim Northrup from right over to center, pulled light-hitting shortstop Ray Oyler out of the lineup...and inserted Gold Glove center fielder Mickey Stanely at short for all seven games. The manager’s strategy worked. Stanley committed two meaningless errors in the seven games. And had starting pitcher Mickey Lolich not won three games for Detroit in the series, Kaline would have been named its MVP, batting .379, with two home runs and eight RBIs.

I hitchhiked with two roommates from MSU to downtown Detroit to celebrate the Tigers’ World Series victory after game seven. And I had finally come to understand what Butchie and Jerry realized as grade schoolers about Al Kaline: He “knew how to play the game” as well as anyone in the major leagues.

Billy Martin, who played for the Tigers with Kaline during the ‘58 season, and who managed him in Detroit from 1971 to 1973, once said, “I have always referred to Al Kaline as Mr. Perfection. He does it all--hitting, fielding, running, throwing--and does it with an extra touch of brilliance.”

And Jim Leland, who managed the Pirates, Marlins, Rockies and Tigers (2006 to 2013) said the following after Kaline’s death: “He was as fundamentally sound a player as you will ever see. He was a perfect player...He understood everything about baseball. Everything.”

And yet, that does not get to the essence of what made Kaline, Kaline--a man of grace and humility

He was never a “hot dog.” Never a “showboat.” Despite being shy, he signed autographs--always. When others blew hot, he remained cool. He worked for the Tigers for 67 years--22 seasons as a player, 26 as a TV analyst--the best ever, in my opinion--and going on 19 years as a special adviser to the front office, a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer who still put on his uniform every day during spring training and went out to the field to impart his knowledge to players young and old.

None of that speaks to the humility of Al Kaline, but this does: Prior to the 1971 season, Tigers general manager Jim Campbell offered Kaline the first $100,000 contract in franchise history. Kaline’s reaction was to say that he didn’t deserve it, because he’d had an off-year during the previous season.

Finally, here is my personal story about Al Kaline:

I was working for AAA in the mid ‘70s when the Auto Club hired Neal “Doc” Fenkell to sell advertising space for its official publication, Michigan Living magazine. Doc joined the communications department in which I worked from the Tigers organization where he had been the manager of broadcast advertising. Doc was a baseball guy. A character. And I got to know him well. When he died in 1994 I went to a Plymouth funeral home for his visitation and to pay my respects.

Now, at one time or other in my life, I have been in the same room with Earvin Johnson, Nick Saban, Isiah Thomas, Tom Izzo and even in a taxi cab with Bobby Layne (a story for another day), but when I walked into that funeral home and saw Al Kaline standing in the midst of all those people--tall and strapping, flat-bellied, still looking as though he could step into the box and hit one into the gap--I could “feel” his presence, an aura he radiated that I have never before experienced in close proximity to a famous person.

Yes, it took a long time--going all the way back to that afternoon debate on the porch of 7870 Reuter--for me to truly understand what my friends understood as young children about the Detroit Tigers player who will always be “number 6″ in our hearts: He could play the game just as well as the immortals.

RIP, Mr. Tiger.

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reneeacaseyfl · 5 years

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Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead

Here’s your week in review, in haiku.

1. Is economic anxiety getting you down, “n-word Nancy?”

2. Professor Mueller wonders why no one did the reading assignment

3. Would you rather get cash from Equifax, or have Facebook broken up?

4. Ballot boxes breached: The pravda dies in darkness Also, the country.

5. A new King is here! Lions in formation at the paws of a Queen

Have an anxiety-free and happy weekend.

On Point

‘Tuca & Bertie’ RIP: But why, Netflix? The show was the popular adult cartoon voiced by Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish, playing two female birds who live in the same apartment building. As my colleague Isaac Feldberg explains, the show “had drawn acclaim for its colorful animation, unique style of surrealist comedy, and sensitive exploration of trauma and everyday ennui told from a distinctly female, non-white perspective.” What’s not to love? But for reasons unknown, Netflix failed to order a second season, launching a wave of online protest, including a Change.org petition. Part of the issue is the algorithm feed that recommends shows for viewers, and which critics charge disfavor quality content from non-white creators. An important read. Fortune

Emmett Till’s memorial vandalized for the ‘Gram The three white men posed with smiles and smirks, but also guns, one an AR-15 semi-automatic. It was night. They stood at the very place where Emmett Till’s battered dead body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. Except it’s 2019, and the Till memorial plaque they stand by is riddled with bullet holes, and why is this still happening? The three men are fraternity brothers at the University of Mississippi, now suspended. The photo, posted to a private Instagram account and obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica, has triggered a possible probe by the Justice Department. The photo received 274 likes. Emmett Till would have turned 78 this week. ProPublica

Can Democrats entice black voters without Obama? You can’t have a “multi-racial coalition” of voters without black people, who make up the loyal foundation of the Democratic base. But turnout among black voters dropped seven points in 2016 from its record high in 2012. There were many reasons why, but current candidates need to demonstrate they understand and will fight for their issues, explains Nicholas Riccardi and Errin Haines Whack. “What I hope comes across in this story is that black voters, particularly young black men, are also disaffected, disengaged, and disillusioned. With black unemployment still double that of whites, they are the face of ‘economic anxiety,’ too,” Whack tweeted. AP News

New Jersey school board member wishes Rashida Tlaib ‘would die’ Dan Leonard, a member of the Toms River Board of Education member is spending his day deflecting calls from the New Jersey governor for his resignation, after he posted a Fox News article about U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib with the comment, “My life would be complete if she/they die.” And that’s not even the worst of what he posted! Leonard is an Army veteran and retired official with a county workforce development board. “We are disheartened by the racist comments made by a school board member in Toms River. His hateful language is counter to the best interests of our students and does not represent our values,” said New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver in a statement. NBC News

On Background

The art of escaping your privilege Escape rooms are all the rage, a live-action group experience in puzzle-solving within a dramatic scenario. But what if the scenario was social inequality? This is the fascinating premise behind a new public art project by Risa Puno called “The Privilege of Escape,” which exists in the atrium in a corporate lobby on Fifth Avenue, and is framed as a fake institute designed to study behavioral science. As in real-life inequality, sometimes the game is stacked against the players in invisible ways, an eye-opening experience for anyone who is expecting a level playing field. Puno was the winner of the first open call by Creative Time, an organization that supports interesting and socially provocative public art projects. New York Times

Today’s Essay: Fat girl on top, but with too much flan Natalie Lima is a 2016 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, and an MFA candidate in creative non-fiction at the University of Arizona. And she is very, very creative. In this alternatively funny and bittersweet essay, she shares the anxiety she feels about the changes in her big girl self, brought on by time, gravity, and lifestyle. “Sometimes my body is on the smaller side of large, more Queen Latifah in The Last Holiday, that movie where she’s told she only has three weeks to live so she jets off to Europe, eats caviar, and falls in love with LL Cool J. And sometimes my body is closer to Chrissy Metz in This Is Us,” she explains. But it’s also a history of her relationship with her own body. “When I was growing up, my mom used to tell people that my excess weight was baby fat,” she recalls in a particularly memorable section. She excels at thinking out loud, to describe the “inherent loneliness of living in a large body, of having to navigate the world in a body that is often stigmatized, made invisible, or hyper-visible at any moment. A multilayered loneliness.” Longreads

Four writers on being ‘on their meds’ There are some 44 million people living with some sort of mental illness, and some 19 million are being treated with a combination of medication and therapy. The stigma associated with medication remains profound, and the casual way people talk about psychiatric states—are you crazy?—can further isolate people with mental illness. “I was a 26-year-old undergraduate who could barely manage to eat or shower once a day. I eventually admitted to myself that I was not well,” writes Anthony James Williams of his. “But I did not know anyone black who was on medication for their mental health and asking for any form of assistance made me feel weak.” It also means making it work at work, depending on your needs. “It’s awkward to bust out a pill bottle in the middle of a small office or classroom, but it would be more awkward to have a bipolar episode at work,” writes Diamond Sharp. The Outline

Tamara El-Waylly helps produce raceAhead.

Quote

Your destiny is comin’ close / Stand up and fight / So go into a far off land / And be one with the great I am”

—Beyonce Knowles, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Timothy McKenzie, from “Spirit“

Credit: Source link

The post Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/does-netflix-fail-creators-of-color-raceahead/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=does-netflix-fail-creators-of-color-raceahead from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186566742007

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velmaemyers88 · 5 years

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Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead

Here’s your week in review, in haiku.

1. Is economic anxiety getting you down, “n-word Nancy?”

2. Professor Mueller wonders why no one did the reading assignment

3. Would you rather get cash from Equifax, or have Facebook broken up?

4. Ballot boxes breached: The pravda dies in darkness Also, the country.

5. A new King is here! Lions in formation at the paws of a Queen

Have an anxiety-free and happy weekend.

On Point

On Background

Tamara El-Waylly helps produce raceAhead.

Quote

Your destiny is comin’ close / Stand up and fight / So go into a far off land / And be one with the great I am”

—Beyonce Knowles, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Timothy McKenzie, from “Spirit“

Credit: Source link

The post Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

0 notes

weeklyreviewer · 5 years

Text

Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead

Here’s your week in review, in haiku.

1. Is economic anxiety getting you down, “n-word Nancy?”

2. Professor Mueller wonders why no one did the reading assignment

3. Would you rather get cash from Equifax, or have Facebook broken up?

4. Ballot boxes breached: The pravda dies in darkness Also, the country.

5. A new King is here! Lions in formation at the paws of a Queen

Have an anxiety-free and happy weekend.

On Point

On Background

Tamara El-Waylly helps produce raceAhead.

Quote

Your destiny is comin’ close / Stand up and fight / So go into a far off land / And be one with the great I am”

—Beyonce Knowles, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Timothy McKenzie, from “Spirit“

Credit: Source link

The post Does Netflix Fail Creators of Color?: raceAhead appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/does-netflix-fail-creators-of-color-raceahead/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=does-netflix-fail-creators-of-color-raceahead

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investmart007 · 6 years

Text

Heartbroken by gun violence: Rallies across US demand change

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/GdzUqA

Heartbroken by gun violence: Rallies across US demand change

WASHINGTON /March 24, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) — They came from a place of heartbreak to claim their spot in history: Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and supporters, rallying across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence.

The “March for Our Lives” events on Saturday drew massive crowds in cities across the country, marking the largest youth-led protests since the Vietnam War era.

In Washington, D.C., New York City, Denver, Los Angeles and other cities, demonstrators heard from student survivors of last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking,” Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from a stage near the Capitol to a spot many blocks away toward the White House. “We’re going to take this to every election, to every state and every city. We’re going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans.

“Because this,” he said, pointing behind him to the Capitol dome, “this is not cutting it.”

The message at the different rallies was consistent, with demonstrators vowing to vote out lawmakers who refuse to take a stand now on gun control. Many rallies had tables where volunteers helped those 18 or older register to vote while speakers detailed the policies they wanted and the impact gun violence has had on their lives.

The fire alarm at Trenton High School is scary, said 17-year-old Gabrielle James at a march in suburban Detroit.

“We don’t know if it’s an actual drill or if someone’s actually inside the school, going to take your life,” James said at a march in Detroit.

She said government has “extremely failed” to protect students from gun violence and she wants restrictions on automatic weapons.

“I work extremely hard at my studies. Sometimes I just sit in my car before going to school, wondering if I’m going to be home to see my mother after school,” James said.

Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 9-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader’s most famous words in declaring from the Washington, D.C., stage: “I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period.”

By all appearances — there were no official numbers — Washington’s March for Our Lives rally rivaled the women’s march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”

President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.

White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today.” He also pointed to Trump’s efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.

Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years — yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA, its millions of supporters and lawmakers who have resisted any encroachment on gun rights.

Organizers are hoping the electricity of the crowds, their sheer numbers and the under-18 roster of speakers will create a tipping point, starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall. To that end, chants of “Vote them out!” rang through the Washington crowd.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the first students from Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to speak out after the tragedy there, implored those of voting age to cast ballots.

In her speech, she recited the names of the Parkland dead, then held the crowd in rapt, tearful silence for more than six minutes, the time it took the gunman to kill them.

“We will continue to fight for our dead friends,” Delaney Tarr, another Parkland survivor, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students’ central demand: a ban on “weapons of war” for all but warriors.

Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns.

Gun violence was fresh for some who watched the speakers in Washington. Ayanne Johnson of Great Mills High School in Maryland held a sign declaring, “I March for Jaelynn,” honoring Jaelynn Willey, who died Thursday, two days after being shot by a classmate at the school. The gunman also died.

About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of FBI headquarters, standing quietly with signs such as “Armed Victims Live Longer” and “Stop Violating Civil Rights.” Other gun-control protests around the country were also met with small counter-demonstrations.

The president’s call to arm certain teachers fell flat at the protest, and among critics as young as Zoe Tate, 11, from Gaithersburg, Maryland.

“I think guns are dumb. It’s scary enough with the security guards we have in school,” she said. “We don’t need teachers carrying guns now. I find it amazing that I have to explain that idea to adults.”

Parkland itself was home to a rally as more than 20,000 people filled a park near the Florida school, chanting slogans such as “Enough is enough” and carrying signs that read “Why do your guns matter more than our lives?” and “Our ballots will stop bullets.”

Around the country, protesters complained that they are scared of getting shot in school and tired of inaction by grown-ups after a series of mass shootings.

“People have been dying since 1999 in Columbine and nothing has changed. People are still dying,” said Ben Stewart, a 17-year-old senior at Shiloh Hills Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia, who took part in a march in Atlanta.

Callie Cavanaugh, a 14-year-old at a march in Omaha, Nebraska, said: “This just needs to stop. It’s been going on my entire life.”

___

By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (A.S)

___

#Heartbroken by gun violence #Rallies across US demand change #Vietnam War era

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electionsintheworld · 7 years

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Catalonia - Daniel Meza

Spain is a state that has existed first as a confederation of kingdoms and now as a nation since the year 1479. My ancestors fought for independence from Spain centuries ago in their respective countries of Latin America. Now another group of people are fighting for independence directly inside Spain, as opposed to a continent across the pond. Catalonia is a province located east of Spain and bordered by France and the Mediterranean sea. Catalonia has an extensive history as well as a shared culture and language. Nationalism is strong with both parties and the consequences of each government’s decision will be sure to reverberate and affect the political stability of not just Europe, but the entire world.

Catalans have been planning elections and motions to succeed from Spain and declare themselves their own republic for quite some time, but now Catalans have voted and declared they favor independence in an enormous majority. Ninety-two percent of those who voted, voted in favor of Catalonia’s independence from Spain. The government of Spain has responded to this democratic election through aggression and violence and must resolve to support Catalonia’s independence to uphold its political stability and credibility.

Carlos Puigdemont, president of Catalonia, has supported the referendum for independence since its inception and has even sacked his Minister of Enterprise, Jordi Baiget, for expressing doubt towards the passage of the referendum. Puigdemont proceeded to dismiss three other cabinet members a month later, in July 2017, three months prior to the referendum. The reasons for Catalonia’s secession are both nationalistic and economic. Spain is currently in the midst of an economic recession and Catalonia finds itself paying more in taxes to the national government than it is receiving. This economic crisis has sparked a surge of Catalan nationalism, which has led to a strong desire for secession from the Spanish state. As was mentioned previously, ninety-two percent of Catalans expressed support for independence, however, only forty-two percent of Catalonia’s citizens voted in the recent referendum and those fighting for independence claim that the Spanish police are to blame.

Fifteen thousand people protested and filled the streets of Barcelona, on Tuesday October 3rd, in response to the violence the Spanish authorities inflicted on voters during the referendum. Spain’s response to the Catalonian referendum for independence was to send riot police to prevent voters from submitting their ballots, resulting in over 900 injuries from both groups due to the use of rubber bullets and batons.

The European parliament is holding a debate the next day to discuss the issue of the use of political violence and intimidation by the Spanish government. Prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, condoned and considered the police’s actions on Sunday as necessary. King Felipe IV of Spain also condemned the Catalonian referendum, referring to it as an act of “disloyalty” with their Catalan counterparts warning of fascism and authoritarianism, much like that of Francisco Franco, the brutal dictator that ruled Spain from 1939-1975.

Many international leaders, such as the governments of Belgium and Canada, have condemned the violence and advocated for a dialogue between both Catalonia and Spain. In contrast, the European Union, as well as the United Nations have taken a hands off approach and have advocated for the Spanish government to decide the issue of Catalonian independence. President Donald Trump has expressed support for a united Spain in a joint press conference with Mariano Rajoy. The world remains alert for what actions will take place next. The Catalonian government is expected to release a declaration of independence with the Spanish government expected to respond in kind and however they deem necessary.

Violence has rarely been compatible with democracy and with Spain being such a young democracy, it is dangerous that the Spanish government react and resort to violence to prevent or quell protests and succession. Elections held by a Catalonia should at least invoke a dialogue and the possibility of a compromise and not a brutal response from Spain. It is rare that a nation will give up its territory so easily, but violence is not a way to retain territory, especially if that province is planning to succeed on peaceful and democratic terms. We should stand alongside democracy wherever it is found as long as it is peaceful and reasonable and remember that oppression can still be democratic as well. Updates include the dissolvement of Catalonia’s government and the persecution as well as imprisonment of their regional leaders.

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trendingnewsb · 7 years

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Catalan referendum: preliminary results show 90% in favour of independence

Spanish prime minister defends violent response to poll, as raids on ballot stations by riot police leave hundreds of Catalans injured

Catalan officials have claimed that preliminary results of its referendum have shown 90% in favour of independence in the vote vehemently opposed by Spain.

Jordi Turull, the Catalan regional government spokesman, told reporters early on Monday morning that 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted Sunday chose yes. He said nearly 8% of voters rejected independence and the rest of the ballots were blank or void. He said 15,000 votes were still being counted.The region has 5.3 million registered voters.

Turull said the number of ballots did not include those confiscated by Spanish police during violent raids which resulted in hundreds of people being injured. At least 844 people and 33 police were reported to have been hurt, including at least two people who were thought to have been seriously injured.

Catalonias regional leader, Carles Puigdemont, spoke out against the violence with a pointed address: On this day of hope and suffering, Catalonias citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic.

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My government, in the next few days, will send the results of [the] vote to the Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people lies, so that it can act in accordance with the law of the referendum.

Puigdemont had pressed ahead with the referendum despite opposition from the Spanish state, which declared the poll to be illegal, and the regions own high court. He told crowds earlier in the day that the police brutality will shame the Spanish state for ever.

The Spanish government defended its response after hundreds of people were hurt when riot police stormed polling stations in a last-minute effort to stop the vote on Sunday.

Although many Catalans managed to cast their ballots, others were forcibly stopped from voting as schools housing ballot boxes were raided by police acting on the orders of the Catalan high court.

The large Ramon Llull school in central Barcelona was the scene of a sustained operation, with witnesses describing police using axes to smash the doors, charging the crowds and firing rubber bullets.

Barcelona referendum map

Spains interior ministry said 12 police officers had been hurt and three people arrested for disobedience and assaulting officers.

Salut (@salutcat)

The Department of Health informs that 844 people required medical assistance today on #CatalanReferendum http://pic.twitter.com/XQnSBwmM8O

October 1, 2017

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, speaking on Sunday night, said the government had done what it had had to do and thanked the police for acting with firmness and serenity.

Today there has not been a self-determination referendum in Catalonia. The rule of law remains in force with all its strength. We are the government of Spain and I am the head of the government of Spain and I accepted my responsibility.

We have done what was required of us. We have acted, as I have said from the beginning, according to the law and only according to the law. And we have shown that our democratic state has the resources to defend itself from an attack as serious as the one that was perpetrated with this illegal referendum. Today, democracy has prevailed because we have obeyed the constitution.

Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, demanded an end to the police actions and called for the Rajoys resignation.

Artur Mas, the former Catalan president whose government staged a symbolic independence referendum three years ago, called for the authoritarian Rajoy to stand down, adding that Catalonia could not remain alongside a state that uses batons and police brutality.

Enric Millo, the most senior Spanish government official in the region, said the police had behaved professionally in carrying out a judges orders.

Soraya Senz de Santamara, the Spanish deputy prime minister, echoed that position, saying the police had shown firmness, professionalism and proportionality in the face of the absolute irresponsibility of the Catalan government.

She called on Puigdemont to drop the farce of the independence campaign, saying Spain had long since emerged from the authoritarian shadow of the Franco dictatorship.

I dont know what world Puigdemont lives in, but Spanish democracy does not work like this, said Senz de Santamara. We have been free from a dictatorship for a long time and of a man who told us his word in the law.

The Catalan governments spokesperson Jordi Turull said 319 of the 2,315 polling stations set up for the referendum were closed by police.

Jess Lpez Rodrguez, a 51-year-old administrator, had taken his family to vote at the Ramon Llull school in the morning. Like thousands of Catalans, they began queuing from 5am. Three and a half hours later, national police officers arrived in riot gear.

They told us that the Catalan high court had ordered them to take the ballot boxes and that we needed to disperse, he told the Guardian. We chanted, No! No! No!, and then about 20 police officers charged us. It was short only about two minutes but we stayed together.

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After about 15 minutes, eight or nine more police vans appeared and officers began cordoning off the surrounding streets and arresting people, Lpez Rodrgue said.

They dragged them out violently. We stood our ground but they kept dragging people away, kicking them and throwing them to the ground.

More police arrived and jumped over the school fence to enter the building to look for ballot boxes. After using axes to break down the doors of the school, they emerged with the boxes.

Lpez Rodrguez said that at about 10.25am, police began shooting rubber bullets at least 30 or 40.

He fled the shots with his wife and children, returning to their flat opposite the school. I feel really angry about it, he said, but I also hope people in Europe and around the world will see whats happening in Catalonia.

Similar scenes were reported elsewhere. Riot police smashed the glass doors of the sports centre near Girona where Puigdemont had been due to vote. Despite forcing their way in, they failed to stop the Catalan president voting. Pictures showed him casting his ballot in nearby Cornella del Terri.

The day started peacefully and hopefully in polling stations across the region. Hundreds of people started queuing outside the Cervantes primary school in central Barcelona from well before dawn.

Im here to fight for our rights and our language and for our right to live better and to have a future, said Mireia Estape, who lives close to the school. One man in the queue, who did not wish to be named, said he had come because Catalans need to vote; theyre robbing us in Spain.

Another would-be voter said simply: I dont want to live in a fascist country.

Many Catalans saw their wishes fulfilled in polling stations as officers from the regional force, the Mossos dEsquadra, hung back.

Joaqun Pons, 89, was delighted to have cast his ballot, as he had done in the symbolic referendum three years ago.

Last time it was cardboard ballot boxes, he said. This time they were real. It was very emotional. Pons said he felt Catalans had had little choice but to proceed unilaterally.

It would have been nice if we could all have stayed together in Spain but the Madrid government has made it impossible. Its sad but thats the way it is.

News and images of the police operation travelled quickly through the crowds in Barcelona and elsewhere, adding to the uneasy atmosphere that has intensified since police arrested 14 Catalan officials and seized millions of ballot papers last week.

On Sunday afternoon, FC Barcelona announced that its Spanish league game against Las Palmas would be played without fans at the citys Nou Camp stadium. In a statement, the club condemned the attempts to prevent Catalans exercising their democratic rights to free expression and said the professional football league had refused to postpone the game.

Sundays violence came less than 24 hours after the Spanish government had appeared confident that enough had been done to thwart the vote.

On Saturday, Millo said police had sealed off 1,300 of the regions 2,315 polling stations, while Guardia Civil officers acting on a judges orders had searched the headquarters of the Catalan technology and communications centre, disabling the software connecting polling stations and shutting down online voting applications.

These last-minute operations have allowed us to very definitively break up any possibility of the Catalan government delivering what it promised: a binding, effective referendum with legal guarantees, he said.

Additional reporting by Patrick Greenfield