In 2002, investigative journalist and TED Fellow Will Potter decided to take a break from his regular beat, writing about shootings and murders for the Chicago Tribune. He went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing: "I thought it would be a safe way to do something positive," he says. Instead, he was arrested, and so began his ongoing journey into a world in which peaceful protest is branded as terrorism.

The Specter of Authoritarianism and the Future of the Left: An Interview With Henry A. Giroux

 Zep wrote: 
AFAIK, flashing lights may be a symptom of a stroke, not a cause. However, they might induce a(n epileptic) seizure, if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.

There are some other things that are wrong with it (incl. that spot in the middle of the US which seems an almost permanent hotspot).

A speed slider would be a nice added feature though.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Holy fark - great info but terrible presentation. The flashing lights on that graphic are a stroke risk. And it goes too fast from month to month. 

Still great info, but as presented, it's info-tainment.  

Are you opposed to fracking? Then you might just be a terrorist | Nafeez Ahmed
From North America to Europe, the 'national security' apparatus is being bought off by Big Oil to rout peaceful activism

 
FBI Sent out Terrorism Warning of Journalism Exposing Animal Cruelty

Authoritarianism Persists Around the World, But Not Because of an American "Crisis of Confidence"

The Daily Dot - Police cars explode in Canada as fracking protests turn violent

What started as a peaceful protest by the Mi’kmaq First Nation in Elsipogtog, New Brunswick against a shale gas project has now spun violently out of control. After the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) advanced on the anti-fracking protest, demonstrators clashed with police, chemical agents were deployed and at least half a dozen police vehicles were destroyed by Molotov cocktails. (...)

Sidewalk Censorship

For writing messages in chalk on sidewalks around Bank of America offices in San Diego (e.g., “No thanks, big banks”), activist Jeff Olson was hit with vandalism charges carrying a potential 13-year sentence (San Diego Reader, 6/23/13). The city attorney’s office wanted to make it clear that it would not be arresting kids for playing hopscotch: “The People do not fear that this...will make criminals of every child using chalk. Chalk festivals may still be permitted. Kids acting without malice may still engage in their art.” “Without malice,” in this context, means “without political intent”; the city was more or less boasting here that Olson was being prosecuted for the content of his speech—a clear violation of his First Amendment rights, right?

It didn’t matter, because Judge Howard Shore granted a prosecutorial motion forbidding Olson from citing in his defense phrases like “First Amendment,” “free speech,” “free expression” or “political speech.” “The State’s Vandalism Statute does not mention First Amendment rights,” Shore ruled (San Diego Reader, 6/25/13). Just in case he hadn’t trampled the right to free expression enough, Shore later imposed a gag order on Olson, barring him from talking to the media about his case (San Diego Reader, 6/27/13).

Olson was eventually acquitted on all counts by a jury of his peers, leading Shore to condemn the media for “infuriat the public instead of informing it,” and the prosecutor to complain that Olson wasted taxpayer money by not accepting a plea bargain (San Diego Reader, 7/1/13).

The Global Suppression of Protest

This week the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations released a report about the crackdown on peaceful protests in democracies around the world – the tactics include excessive (sometimes deadly) police force and the criminalization of dissent. This is the introduction to the study, "Take Back the Streets," which details cases of suppression in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa, Kenya, and Hungary. (...)

Mapped: Every Protest on the Planet Since 1979 - By J. Dana Stuster | Foreign Policy