July 11, 2016

Hundreds of Black Lives Matter Protesters Arrested as Outrage Over Police Brutality Continues

Max Becherer/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Hundreds of protesters and several journalists were arrested over the weekend during nationwide demonstrations against police violence in the wake of the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile—two black men who were killed by the police last week, and whose last moments were caught on video. The videos, which quickly went viral, have sparked national outcry over police brutality and racism in the justice system.

Leading Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson was among those arrested on Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Sterling, a husband and father of five, was shot and killed outside a convenience store while selling CDs. Mckesson was released the following day and is being charged with simple obstruction of a highway of commerce. Since his release, he has criticized Baton Rouge police for provoking protesters and doing “everything in their power” to shift conversations away from police accountability.

On Sunday, CBS’s David Begnaud reported that Baton Rouge police were seen breaking into a woman’s house where protesters had taken refuge. The tense scene is captured below:

Another woman in Rochester, New York, was filmed getting arrested while talking to reporters about why she decided to participate in the protests.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, where Castile was killed in front of his wife and young child during a traffic stop, police reportedly used smoke bombs to clear protesters who were blocking a major highway on Sunday. NBC reports 21 officers were injured in the process.

Some on the right have slammed Black Lives Matter activists and their protests for fueling animosity toward law enforcement officials, blaming the movement for the death of five police officers by a gunman in Dallas last Thursday.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate