10 Arrests in 87 Minutes: The Anatomy of the NYPD’s Protest Dispersal Process

[NEW YORK, NY]  On the eve of the second anniversary of the Occupy movement, two video activists, have released a 10 minute short film providing perhaps the most detailed civilian account to date of the NYPD’s process of crowd dispersion during mass mobilizations. The video, shot on September 17th, 2012, during Occupy Wall Street’s first […]

All Day, All Week, Occupy All Streets: George Martinez’s Response to Jay-Z

[NEW YORK, NY] George Martinez grabbed national headlines when he became the first Occupier to qualify as a major party primary candidate for the United States House of Representatives, but few know that the fledgling politician also has a seasoned career as a celebrated hip-hop emcee in New York City’s grassroots political hip-hop scene. Last […]

Beyond Guantanamo: Draconian Federal Prison Programs Make Front Page of New York Times

“The new Guantanamo” is what New York Times – Washington Bureau Chief, Scott Shane, calls “an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away on back roads.”  From the ADX Florence, CO, to the “Communication Management Units,” facilities in Marion, IL, and Terre Haute, ID, to the “ADMAX Unit” at FMC Carswell, […]

Occupy Wall Street & the Legacy of Martin Luther King

  I’ve been pondering a lot about Martin Luther King, lately; more than usual. Every day, down at Liberty Plaza, I can’t help but think that, had he not been murdered, he would be with us. This was especially salient on Tuesday night, October 18, when I did the People’s Mic with Jesse Jackson. Whatever […]

Hipster Cop & the Repression of Occupy Wall Street Protests

There is no question that the relationships law enforcement bodies have developed with activist communities has been a pervasive and chilling one.  US history has shown time and time again that those who have chosen to speak truth to power are often faced with ridicule, coercion, intimidation, and out-right violence.  The Occupy Wall Street movement […]

Troy Davis: A Circle of Prayer

Motivational posters line the hallways en route to the visitation room.  Images of rock climbers, an eagle soaring over clouds, a collection of hands of all pigmentation on a basketball, each with an inspirational one-word message: LEADERSHIP, OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, FOCUS, TEAMWORK. Opportunity? Achievement? The irony was almost outrageous. The hallway was in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification […]

Echoes of Korematsu: The Holy Land Five Case by Noor Elashi

As we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and my father remains incarcerated in a modern-day internment camp, the time in which we live begins to feel less like 2011 and more like 1942. But this week could determine whether today’s justice system is capable of rewriting the sad chapters of our history. I say […]

ACLU Infographic Raises Questions About Prison Industrial Complex

Although it may be hard at times to compartmentalize the work that we here at Sparrow do, avid readers of our blog and followers of our work will see some re-occuring themes. One theme is that we are critical of capitalism, another is that we are critical of the military & prison industrial complexes. With […]

Unity Production’s Creative Video Response to Islamophobia

From Unity Productions comes a powerful testimonial of the 1.8 million Muslim Americans who are as “every-day” as the rest of us. All cliches aside, they’re our doctors, our police, our teachers, and our first responders. To paint this diverse constituency of millions with a broad brush of prejudice because of the actions of a […]

New York Magazine Interviews Andy Stepanian About The CMU

  Q. You were a “balancer.” What exactly did that mean, and when did you come to this realization? A. I was actually doing my laundry, and a guard comes up to me and says, “You’re not like all the other Muslim guys, you’re going to go home soon. Keep your head up, you’re only […]

The Financial Institutions Fight Back

A Look at the Unapologetic Greed of the Financial Sector by Stephanie Basile: After causing the largest economic collapse in recent memory and taking our taxpayer dollars to help themselves (but no one else) weather the storm, the financial institutions have somehow decided that the financial laws in this country are too strict! Two recent news […]

New York Magazine Investigates CMU Program & Deceptive Sting Used to Entrap Yassin Aref

This week New York Magazine‘s Christopher S. Stewart published a hard-hitting and deeply personal investigation into the secretive federal prison programs known as Communication Management Units.   The units have been given nicknames like “Little Gitmo” and “Guantanamo North” because of the glaring ethnic and racial disparity of inmates designated to these units.  62% of inmates designated to […]

A Message to the Media Regarding the US Boat to Gaza

An update from  Andy Stepanian, co-founder of the Sparrow Project. For the past 24 hours I have been glued to twitter as a few of my close friends set out with the US Boat to Gaza with hopes of documenting the breaking of the maritime blockade that has economically crippled Gaza since 2006 and isolated […]

Johnny Cash Could Teach Peter King a Thing (or two) About Prison-Born Terrorism Plots

Yesterday Congressman Peter King held his second hearing into radicalization within Islamic communities in the United States. This hearing focused on the potential for radicalization within the state and federal prison industrial complexes, specifically highlighting a conspiracy by four California men to wage war against the United States through attacks against military recruitment facilities and […]

Women v. The World: The Conservative Attack on Reproductive Rights

This is a climate openly opposed to the progress women have made. This is an assault on our bodies: a doctor may conscientiously object to providing an abortion, but not conscientiously object in any other medical procedure. This is an assault on our sexuality: the original draft of one federal bill sought to deny federal funds for abortions of rape victims who were not “forcibly” raped, but raped nonetheless. This is an assault to our integrity: one Georgia bill seeks to redefine victims in rape, stalking and domestic violence cases as “accusers”. This is an assault on our intelligence: women find themselves forced to go through “abortion education,” waiting 24 hours, and “thinking” deeply on their personal decision to abort because women just aren’t seen as intellectually capable of deciding what is best for their bodies, their families, and themselves without government intervention.

Pakistan: in the Wake Of Cairo, Tunisia, Bombings & Flooding

so much of this suffering is preventable, if you had a government who cared or an education system that empowered people to fight back against government corruption. It is this kind of suffering, corruption and governmental neglect that leaves the population vulnerable to any number of forces, particularly those that are seen as the alternative saviors to the poor who have been so neglected by their government.

Awake in my Cell

By Malik A. Uhmari, Sparrow Media Contributor Here I sit in my cell, alone. Alone in my thoughts, yet no more than three-feet away, just outside my door, there is life. There is commotion; there is a variety of activity. A more accurate description would be “festivity.” I resist engaging in this orchestrated and organized […]

Uprooting the Garden of Hate

The Southern Poverty Law Center, long a bulwark against prejudice in the US, this past week added a number of organizations to its list of hate groups; organizations with innocuous-sounding names such as The Family Research Council and The National Organization for Marriage, whose appellations belie the truth behind their agenda. Couched in a Bizarro-world […]

Black Friday & The Importance Of Having A Voice On The Job

This year I call on progressives to not only speak up for native people, but to remind our friends and family how important it is that workers have the right to organize for better conditions at work. And there’s no better time than Black Friday to have these conversations.

A Plea for Progress

As Election Day is upon us, I vacillate between continuing to play my assigned role in the sham of American “democracy” (i.e. voting for someone who will, in the end, cater not to the needs of the people, but to whichever corporation has financed her/his campaign) and casting a non-vote of protest. This year, however, […]