On Friday, June 26, the Chicago lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police held a reunion party to commemorate police veterans from the 1968 Democratic National Convention — the police who beat and harrassed Convention protesters, who attacked Puerto Rican activists in a 1966 uprising, and who assassinated two Black Panther organizers in an overnight raid.

In the wake of these shameful actions, and ongoing present-day police brutality and malfeasance by Chicago police, community activists and members of Chicago Copwatch assembled to rally at Chicago's Union Park. They then marched three blocks away to the Fraternal Order of Police lodge where the reunion was held.

The marchers were hemmed in just down the street from the lodge, but that didn't stop activists from starting a second rally, complete with protest picket and with speeches. Right after one speech ended, the rally got a major shot in the arm. Chicago Critical Mass, the once-a-month roving bicycle-theatrical-protest, included the Chicago Copwatch protest in their route, which meant that for nearly 20 minutes, thousands of bicyclists eluded the police blockade and joined in witness to the protest. Watch Video

Additional Coverage: Chicago 68 Demonstration Getting More attention | Links to Corporate Media Coverage of the Chicago Copwatch '68 Reunion Protest

The Chicago Police Department have had a long sordid history of malfeasance and subsequent legal ramifications. Recent developments posted to Chicago Indymedia have revealed new lows even for Chicago's infamous police.

Exhibit A — Federal Jury Awards Victim Largest-Ever Amount in Chicago Cop Frame-up: A Federal jury awarded the largest-ever compensation for a wrongful conviction in Chicago history — $21 million in compensatory damages — against a Chicago detective who framed a Humboldt Park resident. That resident, Juan Johnson, was sentenced to 30 years in prison over a murder for whose evidence a Chicago police detective wholly fabricated. Read more

Exhibit B — CPD Hit With $625,000 Fine for Violent Police Assault During Traffic Stop: "A federal jury yesterday awarded 41-year-old Curtis Mason $625,000 in compensatory damages for a brutal beating he received at the hands of at least five Chicago police officers during a January 13, 2007 traffic stop on Chicago's south side. " The Police Department declined to discipline the accused officers over the assault and the Cook County States Attorney's Office did not prosecute them criminally. Read more

Exhibit C — Officer in Publicized Bartender Beating Case Receives Only Probation: In a case of Chicago police malfeasance which has received considerable Chicago corporate media coverage, the Chicago police officer who was caught on camera in a public beating was released on probation by a Cook County judge. Read more

It so happens that the Chicago lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police will hold a 1968 Riot Cop Reunion (the police involved in the 1968 DNC crackdown and in political assassinations), but Chicago Copwatch is organizing a protest and march.

On Friday, June 12, all high-power analog television broadcasting in the United States ends, to be replaced by digital television. The conversion, postponed from an original deadline on February 17, stands to disproportionately affect communities that are poor, elderly, and don't speak English — possibly as many as four percent of Americans (roughly 12 million people) that use analog TV, down from perhaps twenty percent (about 50 million) in recent years.

Despite the ramifications of the DTV conversion along strata of class and language, many "leftists have 'tended to dismiss the DTV issue as a kind of pseudo problem because they tended to be antitelevision to begin with.'" Still, television remains the leading source of news and information among Americans. And in many poorer and rural communities which have been written off by newspapers, and who sit on the "other side" of the digital divide, TV is (or was) all that's left for many Americans — compounded with problems involving emergency access, funding, and technical assistance.

Community activists across America have worked to help to reduce the divide, while highlighting the social and economic factors that have exacerbated the divide. Locally, Chicago Indymedia, Chicago Media Action, and the Benton Foundation have highlighted DTV-related issues, noting that despite progress in recent months, potentially hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans could fall further behind.

Read more: DTV Red Alert | Who's Holding The Remote? | DTV Red Alert Delicious Feed

From the newswire: "On Saturday, June 6th in Chicago, local artists partnered with the Tamms Year Ten coalition to protest state-sanctioned torture at the [Tamms] supermax prison in Southern Illinois. And they did it with mud.

"Artists from Chicago and Milwaukee engaged in a non-destructive type of public messaging called “mud-stenciling.” More than 30 volunteers stenciled their message “End Torture in Illinois” in the afternoon on walls and sidewalks around the city [while] offering fact-sheets about TAMMS supermax prison to curious pedestrians. The teams [placed mud stencils in] spots such as Navy Pier, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Jane Addams Hull House, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Logan Square skate park, the Chicago [Lincoln Park] Zoo, DePaul University, as well as sidewalks, underpass walls, and numerous other locations. Read more

Additional Coverage: Just Seeds | NewCity | GapersBlock | Wooster Collective | Video: Mud Stenciling in Chicago with Tamms Year Ten!

The June episode of Chicago Independent Television features coverage of the 2009 Mayday march and rallies in Chicago, a Chicago visit by noted national antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, another Chicago visit by the Federal Communications Commission about the national digital television conversion, and a critique by If Americans Knew of noted Israel pundit Jeffrey Goldberg.

Read more about Episode 48 | CIMC TV Podcast | CIMC Video Page | CITV on YouTube

The April and May episodes of Chicago Indymedia's monthly radio show "From The Trenches" features segments about Illinois efforts to stop the company formerly known as Blackwater, including a conference and a protest. The May episode also features some of the speakers of the 8th annual Walk for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine that took place in Oak Park.

Download May episode | Download April episode | Chicago Indymedia's radio page | CIMC / FTT Radio podcast feed

Chicago activist and political organizer Andy Thayer, who was recently acquitted from felony charges incurred from a January 2008 protest against George W. Bush, was one of a group of 40 activists in Moscow who were arrested [ Video ] in a crackdown after attempts to stage a Slavic Pride parade in Russia.

Thayer, who has been providing regular dispatches on Chicago Indymedia from Moscow, has reported on efforts by Russian and Belorussian LGBT activists who continue to organize despite repeated threats and slurs, including those from Moscow's mayor.

The repression of LGBT rights from Russian authorities and local skinheads is nothing new. A Moscow march in 2006 saw considerable numbers of police level more than 100 arrests. Every year since, Moscow City Hall has dismissed permit requests for subsequent marches, and each year's march has been marred by anti-gay violence.

Read more: Andy Thayer Among Moscow Arrestees | Protest Oppression of Gays in Iraq, Russia This Sunday | International Coverage

The private militiary firm formerly known as Blackwater (now known as "Xe") has been increasingly on the defensive: some of the company's guards face manslaughter charges, and the company lost a key Iraq government contract to rival Triple Canopy (originally incorporated in Chicago).

"Blackwater" North, the company's installation in Illinois' Jo Daviess county, has seen peace activists in the Midwest launch vigorous protest activity in recent years. Activists wrote a new chapter in the struggle against Xe, with a recent "Stop Blackwater" conference and civil disobedience action at the Xe site, which saw 22 people arrested.

Video: Blackwater (Xe) Protest, Arrests at Illinois Facilities