Legal Observing & Copwatch

 

With the ramp up of ICE, sometimes dressed in camo like terrorists, with masks and huge guns, snatching people off the street without a warrant, legal observing becomes important. Be sure to document what you see (or video). Here's a website with info:

History of Legal Observing

The idea of community members watching law enforcement officers through organized patrols originates from the Black Power Movement. According to the NYC-based Justice Committee, the practice was started by the Black Panther Party in 1966. The Black Panthers conducted armed citizens’ patrols in order to monitor the behavior of law enforcement officers in the Oakland Police Department. This practice later became known as copwatch. Many local activist organizations continue to copwatch today.

The National Lawyers Guild, as the first integrated bar association in the U.S., took components from this practice and developed its Legal Observer® Program in 1968 in New York City in response to protests at Columbia University and city-wide antiwar and racial justice demonstrations. You may read more about NLG’s history in mass defense work here.

Today, legal observing is a distinct practice from copwatch. Legal observing acts as a direct form of protester legal support, connecting activists to a much bigger support infrastructure made up of arrest hotlines, jail support teams, community bail funds and legal defense funds, attorney referral networks, and more.

Monitor, observe, and document government conduct against First Amendment-protected activity,


Provide arrest support for protesters on the ground and help support teams track and help arrested folks, and


Empower activists and serve as a deterrent to unconstitutional behavior by law enforcement

Legal Observers® are one piece of a larger system of legal support infrastructure working to provide activists with the tools and confidence they need to make their voices heard. Official Programs provide their Legal Observers® with neon-green, trademarked hats, which have become a symbol of legal support for progressive movements in the United States and beyond.

MORE:

https://www.nlg.org/massdefenseprogram/los/

U.S. completes strikes on Iran nuclear sites, Trump says

 

June 21, 20258:04 PM ET // NPR

The U.S. military has joined with Israel to launch military strikes against Iran, a dramatic escalation in the years-long effort by both nations to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

"All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Trump said in a subsequent post that he would address the nation at 10 p.m. ET.

Saturday's attack marks the first act of direct military involvement by the U.S. in the rapidly escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

It included a strike on the heavily-fortified Fordo nuclear site, according to Trump, which is located roughly 300 feet under a mountain about 100 miles south of Tehran. It's a move that Israel has been lobbying the U.S. to carry out, given that only the U.S. has the kind of powerful "bunker buster" bomb capable of reaching the site. Known as the GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), the bomb can only be transported by one specific U.S. warplane, the B-2 stealth bomber, due to its immense 30,000 pound weight.

READ MORE:

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/21/nx-s1-5441127/iran-us-strike-nuclear-trump

The Test is Coming

 

Published in
Apr 7, 2025

The National Security Leaders Notebook

Patrick M. (Mike) Condray, Colonel, USAF (Ret)

This test is coming — and soon.

Within weeks — likely just after the April 20, 2025, deadline for a report on the use of the Insurrection Act — our active duty military will face a nearly impossible choice: uphold their oath to support and defend the Constitution or obey the orders of the President of the United States.

The Oath of Enlistment (USAF version):

“I [state your full name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God (optional).”

But what happens when the President of the United States acts — directly or indirectly — to overthrow the Constitution? What does the oath demand then?

One potential safeguard is embedded in military law itself: regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which explicitly prohibit carrying out unlawful orders. “Just following orders” was no defense at the Nuremberg trials — and that precedent matters.

[skipping a bit]

That is precisely why President Trump recently purged the ranks of senior military leadership. He removed the Judge Advocate Generals, the military lawyers whose job it is to advise on the legality of orders. These firings were not incidental; they were intentional, and they were a warning.

[and further down]:

The buffer is gone.

President Trump has directed his new Secretary of Defense to produce a report on whether it is “appropriate” to invoke the Insurrection Act to use the U.S. military against immigrants or demonstrators. That report is due April 20. Does anyone seriously doubt what Pete Hegseth will tell the President?

I fear for our service members. And I weep for what is about to happen to our Republic.

Make no mistake: President Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act. He will attempt to use the United States military against his perceived enemies.

Read it all at:

https://medium.com/the-national-security-leaders-notebook/the-test-is-coming-883493cd3e6b 

RELATED GRAPHIC (not from that article)

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