Friday, June 5, 2020

ACTION: TRUMP AND BARR ARE ASSAULTING THE FIRST AMENDMENT

TRUMP AND BARR ARE ASSAULTING THE FIRST AMENDMENT

ACTION ONE: CALL YOUR SENATORS

SAMPLE SCRIPT FOR WYDEN AND MERKLEY:

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because…
Our government needs to address the systemic racism and police brutality that are the reason people are in the streets of this country every night.  Instead, Trump and Barr are threatening to misuse police and the US military to intimidate and silence Americans.  Congress must pass Reps. Pressley and Omar’s resolution to condemn police brutality.  Trump must be censured and prevented from using the Insurrection Act.  Barr must answer to Congress for the assault on protesters in Lafayette Square and ensure that law enforcement officers always be required to wear visible personal and agency identification.

ACTION TWO: CALL YOUR HOUSE REPS

Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Find out here. 

SAMPLE SCRIPTS FOR REPRESENTATIVES:

My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because…
Our government needs to address the systemic racism and police brutality that are the reason people are in the streets of this country every night.  Instead Trump and Barr are threatening to misuse police and the US military to intimidate and silence Americans.  Congress must pass Reps. Pressley and Omar’s resolution to condemn police brutality.  Trump must be censured and prevented from using the Insurrection Act.  Barr must answer to Congress for the assault on protesters in Lafayette Square and ensure that law enforcement officers always be required to wear visible personal and agency identification. 

ACTION THREE: HELP REGISTER VOTERS FROM YOUR HOME 

Organizing for the 2020 Election has gone VIRTUAL!

BACKGROUND:

This administration refuses to address the systemic racism and police brutality that are the reason people are in the streets of this country every night.   
Instead Trump is using this moment to mimic the despots he so admires.  He’s swaggering, posing, and talking tough.  He and his enablers are politicizing the military and threatening to deploy it against the American people. 
Monday night we got to see what it looks like when the streets of our cities are defined as “battle spaces”.  We saw military vehicles in the streets and military helicopters using combat tactics to intimidate civilians. 
William Barr ordered an assault on peaceful protesters so that Trump could strut across the street for a photo op flanked by the military chief of staff dressed in battle fatigues.  He announced the same general would be in charge of maintaining order in the capitol. 
Heavily armed men (apparently federal officers) wearing no name tags or insignia deployed alongside police and refused to identify themselves beyond “associated with the Justice Dept.”  Their anonymity invites the very abuses of power that justifies the protests they are suppressing.  
Congress cannot let the military be used for political intimidation.  Hold Trump and Barr accountable now. 

SOURCES: