Latest news with #Sundance-winning
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Kneecap rapper Liam O'Hanna faces terror charge over Hezbollah flag as fans rally in London
The usually grey steps of Westminster Magistrates' Court were anything but quiet on Wednesday. Dozens of Kneecap supporters, waving banners and chanting 'Free Palestine,' flooded the streets in a show of solidarity with Liam O'Hanna, the band's 27-year-old rapper known on stage as Mo Chara. A sea of protest in central London O'Hanna, dressed defiantly and flanked by his bandmates, arrived to face charges of supporting a banned organisation. Prosecutors allege he displayed a Hezbollah flag during a London performance in November 2024, a move that could carry up to 14 years in prison under UK anti-terrorism laws. 🇬🇧 #Kneecap rapper #MoChara, also known as Liam O'Hanna, has been charged with a #terrorism offence over allegedly displaying a #Hezbollah flag at a London concert last more details: Reuters A charge rooted in controversy The case hinges not only on O'Hanna's alleged actions but also on timing. Legal arguments are being made over whether the prosecution missed the six-month window for filing such a charge. Supporters of the rapper describe the case as politically charged and absurd, pointing to Britain's wider clampdown on dissent over Gaza. Since Hezbollah was banned in the UK in 2019, any public support is deemed a criminal offence. Prosecutors argue O'Hanna not only wore the group's flag but also shouted slogans backing Hamas and Hezbollah. Kneecap, however, insists the video evidence has been taken out of context and branded the proceedings a 'farce.' Fans call it 'ludicrous' Among the crowd outside court was Mary Hobbs, a 31-year-old fan from Belfast, who had taken time off work to stand in solidarity. She said the charges highlight what she described as a broken justice system, where symbolic gestures are treated as terrorism offences while the public clamours for fairness. Between art, politics, and provocation Kneecap is no stranger to controversy. The punk-rap trio, performing in both Irish and English, has long relished its reputation as troublemakers. Their lyrics reference drugs, their stage antics spark outrage, and their politics, from anti-British sentiment to fiery support for Palestine, often ignite headlines. Still, their supporters insist the group is being persecuted for speaking truth to power, while detractors call them dangerous extremists cloaked in rebellion. A band that thrives on the edge Since their formation in 2017, Kneecap have turned provocation into an art form, winning awards, selling out shows, and starring in a Sundance-winning film that cemented their cult status. Now, as Mo Chara fights a terrorism charge, the band faces its most dramatic clash yet, not with censors or critics, but with the British courts.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
‘The Alabama Solution' Review: ‘Jinx' Filmmakers' New Doc Is the Bloody Sunday of Inmate Rights and Prison Reform
'Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in America's deadliest prison system,' reads the logline for the HBO-backed documentary 'The Alabama Solution.' But that does not begin to describe this powerful and extremely necessary call-to-action. Over the last decade, incarcerated men in Alabama prisons have been fighting to bring recognition to corruption and inhumane treatment. Thousands of men have died in prison, many at the hands of correctional officers and others of overdoses on drugs allegedly supplied by correctional officers. The death toll is so high that the Alabama Department of Corrections is widely regarded as the deadliest prison system in the United States. With the ADOC also supplying prison labor to private corporations like Walmart, Hyundai, and McDonald's, accusations of modern-day slavery have also followed. Veteran Emmy, Peabody and Sundance-winning filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, known for his 12-part HBO series 'The Jinx' that led to Robert Durst's arrest and murder conviction, and Charlotte Kaufman, who has worked with Jarecki for the last six years, amplify the efforts of these prisoners in the shocking documentary 'The Alabama Solution.' As co-directors and co-producers, they have wisely decided to cull together a film that allows the inmates to tell their own stories through their cell phone footage, largely spanning from 2016 to 2020. Footage of inhumane prison conditions from overcrowding, pools of blood from assaults by corrections officers, overdoses from drugs supplied by that same personnel and body bags of those who didn't make it reveal an overall prison culture that includes inmate abuse, suppression, intimidation and retaliation. Free Alabama Movement (F.A.M.) members, many of whom have already served more than 20 years, also share their own testimonies. At the center are Melvin Ray and Robert Earl Council, also known as Kinetik Justice. Council, who is a target as the main leader of the movement, frequently speaks while in solitary confinement. Trained to use their minds and nonviolent practices by incarcerated civil rights activists who participated in the Selma marches, Council and Ray are disciplined and dedicated leaders. Council, a former drug dealer, is a master organizer who inspires people to stand up and unify to bring about change. Black inmates are not Alabama's only victims. The beating death of a white man — the 35-year-old Steven Davis — figures prominently in the doc, especially since ADOC chooses to send press releases to the news media over speaking directly to his mother Sandy Ray. As the white male attorney retained by family calls inmates to inquire about specifics around Davis' death, the retaliatory measures the staff takes against the cooperating inmates are highly disturbing. Top Alabama officials, from Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall down, respond defensively to a DOJ investigation. Ivey insists that there is 'an Alabama solution,' but that solution largely fails to address the issues being flagged and, instead, includes a tone-deaf $900 million proposal. State leaders, who are all white, refuse to admit any major wrongdoing, even as inmate death rates continue at alarming rates. They also refuse to hold any of their staff accountable. Accusations of slave labor practices grow more disturbing as it's revealed that inmates who have served decades without incident are denied parole. These same men who are supposedly too dangerous to the public to be released are somehow fit enough to work in private companies and public Alabama facilities where they interface with the public while generating state revenue in the hundreds of millions. It doesn't sit right. Cell phone footage going inside the nearly month-long work stoppage by the inmates in retaliation, from organization to execution, is both inspiring and crushing, particularly as the realization of just how sinister the institutions can be hits. Just as news cameras capturing the shocking events of Bloody Sunday in 1965 helped widen support for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-led Civil Rights Movement, 'The Alabama Solution,' with its unprecedented raw and jaw-dropping footage of inhumane prison practices, can galvanize the public behind inmate rights and the critical need for criminal justice reform. Challenging the foundation of a 'law and order' culture is not easy, but hopefully 'The Alabama Solution' shows that mass incarceration is not the way to build a strong nation, and that the real fight is between the haves and the have-nots, those in power against the powerless. The post 'The Alabama Solution' Review: 'Jinx' Filmmakers' New Doc Is the Bloody Sunday of Inmate Rights and Prison Reform appeared first on TheWrap.
