“I’m excited,” Mayor Bruce Teague said at the end of the Iowa City Council’s special formal session on Tuesday night. The almost four-and-a-half-hour meeting followed the city council’s two-hour-long normal formal meeting, and was devoted to developing a plan to address the social justice issues that have come to forefront as a result of local […]
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Iowa City Council will consider Iowa Freedom Riders’ demands at special formal meeting Tuesday night
The Iowa City Council will take up the demands of the Iowa Freedom Riders, as well as other issues related to systemic racism and policing policies, during a special formal meeting on Tuesday night. The council discussed the demands and related issues during its special work session on June 9, but this will be the […]
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‘It’s time for action’: Hundreds march in Cedar Rapids to push for police reform and other changes
About 15 minutes into Saturday’s march in Cedar Rapids, protesters stopped at the intersection of 19th Street and Bever Avenue. They used chalk to draw and write various messages in the outline of #BLM, an emblem for Black Lives Matter. Twenty minutes later, the protesters stopped again. This time it was at the intersection of […]
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Iowa Freedom Riders lead a march to Coralville, peacefully encounter state troopers blocking access to I-80
What didn’t happen during the protest led by the Iowa Freedom Riders (IFR) on Thursday night was almost as important as what did. More than 200 people marched to Coralville from the Pentacrest, and they encountered no resistance when they entered the city, even though the crowd was blocking all lanes of the Coralville strip. […]
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Iowa lawmakers unanimously pass a bill to address police violence
The Iowa legislature passed a major bill aimed at limiting violent police behavior, little more than two hours after it was introduced on Thursday evening. The bill was unanimously approved by committees and in floor votes in both the Iowa House of Representatives and Senate. “Too long have black mothers waited for their sons to […]
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Coralville lifts its curfew
The city of Coralville has lifted its overnight curfew, the city declared on Monday afternoon. “I would like to thank Coralville residents for their patience and compliance with the curfew,” Mayor John Lundell said in a statement announcing the end of the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. The city imposed the curfew on June […]
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Iowa Freedom Riders release a revised list of demands, march peacefully through downtown Iowa City
The crowd gathered on the Pentacrest for Monday’s night protest against racism and police violence was noticeably smaller than the crowds at last week’s protests, but still numbered in the hundreds. An organizer from the Iowa Freedom Riders told the crowd at the beginning of the protest that her group appreciated the continued commitment of […]
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Iowa City Council will hold special work session ‘in support of Black Lives Matter’
The Iowa City Council announced on Monday it would hold a special work session at 2 p.m. on Tuesday “in support of [the] Black Lives Matter movement.” As with all city council meetings since March 24, it will be a virtual meeting held via Zoom, to help prevent the possible spread of COVID-19. The meeting […]
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Judge orders Mazin Mohamedali to be held without bail
Update: This story has been updated with additional information about the Iowa Department of Corrections’ role in the decision to keep Mohamedali in jail. On Monday morning, a judge ordered Mazin Mohamedali, a leader of the Iowa Freedom Riders, held without bail following his arrest on Sunday on three charges related to an Iowa City […]
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Iowa City protest leader arrested (Updated)
Update: The original version of this story incorrectly reported the offense for which Mazin Mohamedali is serving probation. One of the leaders of the protests in Iowa City was arrested on Sunday night on charges of unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct–obstructing a public way and violating the terms of his probation agreement that resulted from an […]
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Protest organizers in Iowa City name themselves the Iowa Freedom Riders, present a list of 13 demands
Over the last week, the protests against racism and police violence in Iowa City that start at the Pentacrest and move through town have attracted the most public attention, and with good reason. Those marches have led to stand-offs with law enforcement officers, including one on Wednesday night during which an Iowa State Patrol officer […]
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Protesters in Iowa City march to I-80 on Friday night, sing in memory of Breonna Taylor
After almost a full week of extraordinary protests against racism and police violence in Iowa City, sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, much of what happened at the protest on Friday night felt somewhat familiar. A crowd of hundreds gathered at the Pentacrest to remember the victims of […]
