“Another Night of Violent Protests”

Posted on by under Uncategorized

The next time you see a headline talking about “another night of violent protests,” consider that what the headline has done is to prime you to think, in the absence of any evidence or argument, that the protesters were responsible for whatever violence took place, even if law enforcement was responsible for all of it. What the phrase “violent protest” seems to imply is that it’s the protesters that were violent, not merely that violence took place at a protest.

If the rest of the article fails to resolve the question on the merits, the headline breaks the tie in abstraction from the merits. That’s how myths are created, and how falsehood is generated from what sounds like careful agnosticism. Why not speak of “another night of violent law enforcement actions”? Because the person writing the headline can’t afford to let you frame things that way. If you did, you might conclude that law enforcement is, through and through, the heart of the problem. And that’s not the conclusion you’re supposed to reach.

Nowhere to Hide

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Scenes from Delaney Hall (1)
It’s been widely reported that the curfew at Delaney Hall was issued on Sunday night, and was to run nightly from 9 pm to 6 am. This photo was taken at 7:10 pm on Monday, June 1st. The State Police have stopped us at the corner of Wilson and Doremus Avenues, about half a mile from Delaney Hall, and ordered us not to proceed. Delaney Hall we’re told, is off-limits until further notice. That’s not the version of events in the media. It’s the version on the ground.

Here, a Delaney Hall protester asks a Newark police officer for the legal basis for the order. “If the curfew runs 9 pm to 6 am, why are we stopped here at 7:10 pm? And if there’s no curfew right now, why is there no freedom of movement?” The officer goes silent and looks down. How would he know what the law says? He’s just following orders.

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Would Mikie Sherrill Cover Up Someone’s Wrongdoing?

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, Electoral Ethics and Politics, migrant defense

Our judgments of current happenings always depend on background knowledge of the past. What’s been happening at Delaney Hall these past twelve days or so is specifically a function of Governor Mikie Sherrill’s policies. So her past matters.

One contested question is the extent to which Mikie Sherrill would be willing to accept complicity in someone else’s wrongdoing in the name of, say, misplaced loyalty to someone or something. Would she knowingly cover up someone else’s wrongdoing? Would she tolerate someone’s dishonesty in a morally consequential matter? Would she play dumb if she thought that doing so was somehow justified? Would she, on being called on it, double down?

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Would Mikie Sherrill Lie to You?

Posted on by under character based voting, Electoral Ethics and Politics, migrant defense

Both sides in the dispute over Delaney Hall have accused New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill of lying about the State Police response to the protesters outside of the facility. A preliminary to litigating any such dispute is to address a prior question: would Mikie Sherrill lie to you? Is she even capable of it? Are there conditions under which you could expect Sherrill to lie?

We’re forced to ask such questions because if one goes by PR appearances, the answer would seem to be no. Mikie Sherrill is a former Navy helicopter pilot, a former prosecutor, a successful former Congressional representative, and an attractive suburban soccer mom. Surely such a civic-minded person is incapable of lying to anyone?

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Why We Upheld the U.S. War Crimes Act At Port Elizabeth and Were Arrested

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, Guest Post, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

On May 26, I posted a press release on the May 22, 2026 activist blockade of Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal. This post below is a reprint, with permission, of an item describing an earlier action of theirs that took place on October 3, 2025. For the original post,and more material, visit their Substack, Zoomed Out. I’ve supplied the hyperlinks.

I would just underscore the fact that if “[h]undreds of tons of tax-payer funded weapons are being shipped weekly from its docks to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa via commercial shipping companies, Maersk (Danish) and ZIM (Israeli),” then ostensibly civilian infrastructure and workers are being used as human shields, not just at Port Newark/Elizabeth itself, but at every point in this supply chain from beginning to end.

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Bodies Blocking Bombs

Posted on by under anarchism, Palestine, War with Iran, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, activism, Neutrality and Complicity

New Jersey Activists Blockade Port Newark
Though press attention is currently riveted on what’s happening at Delaney Hall (and with good reason), the press release below describes a largely unnoticed activist action that took place at the same time at virtually the same place–the industrial east side of Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Taking a cue from successes in Oakland (see this and this), activists are putting their bodies on the line to block the shipment of weapons out of Port Newark/Elizabeth to Israel. (I’ll be posting a report on a prior action at the same location from this past October, and also on activity by the Oakland Peoples’ Arms Embargo.)

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Sonia Sotomayor Smiles for Palestine

Posted on by under cancel culture, Palestine, slices of life, War with Iran, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Princeton University

Our Stop the Wars rally found its way into Princeton University’s Reunions celebration, where we spent several hours making our anti-war case to the approbation and disapprobation of the several thousand revelers marching in Princeton’s annual P-rade. Among those apparently expressing approbation was Princeton alumna Sonia Sotomayor, as revealed in this photo, in which she smiled directly at activist leader Sireen Sawalha, who was standing right next to me.

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They Can Hear Us

Posted on by under activism, Guest Post, migrant defense

Our people’s distress calls won’t go unheard, either

Guest post by Paulo Almiron and Resistencia en Acción NJ
May 25

It’s been a year since Delaney Hall reopened. Sobibor and Auschwitz also opened around May, staining the spring with blood in their respective years.

I’ve been at Delaney several times to interview people and bear witness to everything happening in 2025. There’s been much to see at the site: priests being manhandled, colleagues arrested, a mayor arrested, three congresspeople assaulted, and an uprising inside, of which I am writing a memoir about the unrest outside. I am qualified to talk about the boots-on-the-ground experience outside Delaney, so to those who have only seen Delaney Hall from behind a screen, let me give you the shortest description possible: this concentration camp is the most repulsive sight in New Jersey.

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