Color of Change helps you tell Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel to release body camera footage of the August 13 shooting of Sylville Smith in Milwaukee. (In Wisconsin, the Attorney General decides whether to release body camera footage.) Milwaukee's police chief has said that this footage will show that Mr. Smith was brandishing a firearm in the general direction of the officer who shot him, so why not settle that matter? I can't believe the "privacy concerns" of bystanders (the Attorney General's office has heard of "pixelation," I presume) would take precedence, nor can I believe that releasing the video would prejudice the Attorney General's investigation, since the footage shows what it shows and we don't need to get all post-structuralist about it. And do not be the one to tell me about Mr. Smith's many arrests, not just because we could also speak ill of the officer who shot him, and not just because "getting arrested" does not carry the death penalty in any civilized land, but because we have good reason to suspect that folks like Mr. Smith get arrested mainly for being black.
Meanwhile, just in case you thought I'd forgotten about the Trans-Pacific "Partnership" that Congress will ram down our throats after the election -- because, hey, the election's over and everyone will forget about it anyway! -- Food and Water Watch helps you tell your Congressfolk, again, to reject the TPP when it comes up for a vote. And I'll be saying "tell your Congressfolk again" again and again before this is over, because they can't see past their own re-election prospects, which they imagine are in peril unless they do whatever their corporate paymasters want. The truth is precisely the opposite -- they are endangered precisely to the degree they refuse to bend to the will of their constituents, as is their job, and the will of untrammeled corporate power and the will of the people are as diametrically opposed as I've ever seen in my lifetime. The ones who don't see that outsourcing our jobs and nullifying our laws with "free" trade deals is profoundly unpopular will one day lose their own jobs in Congress. Even if it doesn't often seem like it, what's done in the dark will be brought to the light.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell Congress to pass S. 1709, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, then Sign Here Now still helps you do that. As you know, bringing back the Glass-Steagall wall between traditional banking functions and risky securities investments has made it into both parties' national platforms this election year (though if you suspect either party's devotion to getting it done, you're not alone). Folks who like to pretend they're smarter than you by saying Glass-Steagall repeal didn't actually cause this or that precise negative phenomenon during the 2008 financial services meltdown need to answer one question: does keeping banks out of the speculation business reduce the risk that they'll lose all our money? If the answer is "yes" (spoiler alert: the answer is "yes"), then we need the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. Folks like that should also know that their argument is a little like arguing that since a bicycling helmet didn't prevent you from breaking your jaw, you won't need one for any of the other head injuries you could get while bicycling.
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