OLD CONTENT contd.
The FBI is investigating after the man, identified as George Floyd, can be heard shouting “I cannot breathe! I cannot breathe!” with the Minneapolis police officer on top of him.
The FBI is looking into the death of a black man after he was stopped by police in Minneapolis. Video of the confrontation shows a white officer with his knee pinning down the man's neck.
Derek Chauvin had been with the Minneapolis police since 2001. During his career, he was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints; he was never disciplined.
If Americans want true justice they cannot rely on their government. This should have been clear to the average American a long time ago.
---
Breonna Taylor's boyfriend tried to stand his ground, but got charged with a crime instead.
In America, we like to believe that the rights afforded under the Constitution and by law apply equally to everyone. But several recent, high-profile cases starkly document how justice in America is apportioned in black and white.
We know that black people are more likely to be stopped and more likely to be perceived as dangerous just by being. It has come to be known as doing something while black walking while black, shopping while black, driving while black and now even bird-watching while black.
If its this difficult for black people to just be, imagine the barriers that prevent us from actually defending ourselves.
This raises some difficult but important questions:
Can black Americans exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms? Can they stand their ground? Can they claim self-defense in shooting someone who threatens them with physical harm? Does the castle doctrine, which grants a person the right to use deadly force to protect their home from an intruder, apply to them?
Look no further than the cases of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor for your answers.
In February, Arbery was jogging when he was chased down by two white men in a truck and shot to death. The alleged killers claimed they feared for their lives despite Arbery being unarmed and the police took them at their word. If a white person says they feel threatened by a black person, no further evidence is required. Any level of force seems to be justified.
Only after the case made national news when a video of the shocking killing surfaced months later were suspects Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael finally arrested and charged with murder.
Contrast the treatment of the McMichaels' with that of Kenneth Walker, a black man who fired one nonfatal round from a legally registered firearm against armed intruders in the middle of the night. Walker was defending his castle and his woman when police burst into his apartment unannounced on a misdirected drug raid.
Just before 1 a.m. on March 13, Walker was asleep alongside his girlfriend, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT and hero in the COVID-19 pandemic, who daily put her life on the line to help others. Three plainclothes Louisville Metro Police officers stormed into Taylors apartment on a no-knock warrant. Walker called 911, grabbed his gun and fired a single shot.
After an officer was hit in the leg, police opened fire, spraying more than 20 bullets. Taylor, who was shot at least eight times, died. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer. And unlike what happened to the McMichaels, it didn't take months for authorities to press charges. Walker was charged immediately. The charges were dropped only after months of advocacy and national media attention.
The police were looking for narcotics but didnt find any. The suspect they were seeking was already in custody. Walker was a licensed gun owner who thought someone was breaking in. Clearly, he felt threatened. Where was his right to self-defense?
Recently, the Louisville Metro Police Department said its updating policies regarding no-knock warrants and body cameras in the wake of Taylors death. The changes will provide an added level of scrutiny for approval of no-knock warrants and require officers to wear cameras when serving warrants or in situations where they identify themselves as police officers.
Thats helpful, but it doesnt get to the root problem that we have two vastly different systems of justice in this country depending on whether youre black or white. Ive seen the pain firsthand because I represent the families of both Arbery and Taylor.
Would their stories have ended differently if Ahmaud were a white jogger and Walker were a white man defending a white woman asleep at his side?
---
www.yahoo.com/news/policing-us-not-enforcing-law-145944146.htmlPolicing in the US is not about enforcing law. Its about enforcing white supremacy
On Friday the CNN journalist Omar Jimenez was arrested on live television as he covered protests of police brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jimenez identifies as African American and Hispanic, and when the cops confronted him, he did just what minority parents tell their kids to do. Jimenez cooperated; he was respectful, deferential even. He said: We can move back to where you like We are getting out of your way Wherever you want us, we will go.
It didnt matter; the police officers put handcuffs on him and led him away, and then came back to arrest his crew. Jimenez narrated his arrest as they led him away. His voice is steady. His eyes, though. Jimenez is masked so his eyes are the only clue to what hes feeling. His eyes are perplexed and terrified. I get it. When a black or brown person goes into police custody, you never know what is going to happen. You just know that when you leave police custody, if you are lucky enough to leave, you will be diminished. That is the point.
...
But whats most interesting is what happened to Josh Campbell, a white CNN journalist who was in the same area as Jimenez and not arrested. Campbell said his experience was the opposite of Jimenezs. The cops asked him politely to move here and there. A couple times Ive moved closer than they would, like, they asked politely to move back. They didnt pull out the handcuffs.
Its a cliche that the US has two systems of justice, separate and unequal, but I prefer the word Campbell used. The US has opposite systems of justice one for white people and another for racial minorities, especially African Americans, Latinx and Native American people.
Exactly. And guess which system of justice is for Jews. Therefore anyone who claims Jews are not "white" does not deserve to be taken seriously ever again.
Jimenezs professional status and calm demeanor did not stop the police from treating him like a regular black dude the subject of their vast authority to detain and humiliate. They didnt have an actual reason and they didnt need one. Jimenezs dark skin was the offense.
This is how powerful a drug white privilege is. Here we have the cops policing a rally protesting police brutality against a black man. Even in that context, when the whole world is watching figuratively, and CNNs audience is watching literally, the cops cant help themselves. They go all brutal lite. They play whos the man even when the black man, like Jimenez, goes out of his way to show he already knows who the man is. You are, officer, Sir. What the cops round up are the usual suspects and the usual suspects are always black and brown.
---
And one more thing:
www.yahoo.com/news/downtown-dc-burns-after-another-night-of-protests-and-provocation-near-the-white-house-121746636.htmlcontrasted the situation with the arrest of Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who shot and killed nine African-Americans in 2015 during a Bible study at a church in Charleston, S.C. When police apprehended Roof, they calmly cuffed him and walked him toward their cars.
---
Israel Trains Vast Numbers of Law Enforcement Officials in Minneapolis
www.veteranstoday.com/2020/06/01/jinsa/---
The other side of the same coin:
minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/06/02/man-who-drove-semi-into-i-35w-protest-released-without-charges-mndot-releases-traffic-footage-leading-up-to-incident/
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) A 35-year-old Otsego man has been released from custody without charges after driving his semi-truck into a crowd of protesters on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Bogdan Vechirko was released shortly after noon on Tuesday. Under the reason for release, authorities said 36 hours expired.
...
Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington later said all preliminary investigation indicates that what at first appeared to be a potentially deliberate event may have instead been merely accidental
www.cbsnews.com/news/james-scurlock-black-protester-shot-jacob-gardner-white-bar-owner-protest/A white bar owner in Omaha shot and killed a black protester. He won't face charges.
...
James Scurlock, 22, was killed by Jacob Gardner, the owner of the Hive Bar and Gatsby Bar in Omaha's Old Market neighborhood around midnight Saturday in the midst of protests against police brutality and George Floyd's death.
The Douglas County Attorney's Office determined Gardner acted in self-defense after interviewing the shooter and reviewing videos of the incident.
...
Nebraska State Senator Justin Wayne, speaking on behalf of the Scurlock family, condemned the decision Monday. He said they are continuing to explore "all legal options."
"In this community, we prosecute black and brown individuals a lot more for things like we just watched," Wayne said, referring to the surveillance footage. "It's easy to talk to someone when they're alive. It's easy to get their version of the story when they can talk. We don't know what James would've said."
Citing the state's self-defense law, Wayne tweeted, "NONE of these circumstances were present. NONE. The State of Nebraska does NOT allow you to use deadly force to defend property. Further it is NOT a valid defense if you could have retreated."
Meanwhile, for "non-whites", more of the usual:
www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/06/01/who-david-mcatee-louisville-barbecue-store-owner-killed-police/5308229002/www.yahoo.com/news/florida-police-officer-put-leave-143630300.html---
---
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/brazil-black-lives-police-teenagerBlack lives shattered: outrage as boy, 14, is Brazil police's latest victim
The racially charged killing of teenager Joo Pedro Matos Pinto has drawn comparisons to that of George Floyd
Joo Pedro, who was 14, was far from the first young black Brazilian man to meet a premature death at the hands of the police. Thousands have been killed in recent years and 75% of the victims were black.
But his killing has sparked an unusually loud public outcry, amid growing fury over an upsurge in deadly police violence that continues unabated despite a government-ordered shutdown designed to combat Covid-19.
On Sunday, demonstrators will march for the second time in a week to denounce the police assaults on the favelas and what they call a state-sponsored genocide of Brazils black youth.
This must stop, said Joo Pedros father. The police should be protecting us, not killing us.
...
by April the shooting had resumed. Rio state police killed 177 people that month alone, or one person every four hours the second-highest tally since records began more than 20 years ago.
In May, as Brazils coronavirus death toll rose above 6,000, the repression continued, with 13 people killed in a single police raid on 15 May.
Three days later, Joo Pedro set off for his cousins home in So Gonalos Complexo do Salgueiro as police prepared to storm the favela in search of drug traffickers.
His aunt, Denize Roza Matos Pinto, recalls becoming increasingly agitated as she watched police helicopters hovering over the seaside community from a nearby beach where she was working.
Her son and Joo Pedro were among six teenagers hanging out at her home and, despite the shooting, Pinto raced back hoping to protect them. Huddles of armed officers surrounded the residence, and when they finally allowed her inside she felt dread.
The front window was full of bullet holes. The television was all shot up, the sitting room, the bedroom, everything It was horrible the grass was burned from the grenade theyd thrown, said Pinto, 42.
On the floor she spotted a pool of blood where Joo Pedro appeared to have been shot. But there was no sign of his body which, for reasons which remain murky, had been flown 25 miles across the bay to Rio by helicopter, and was only located by the family the next day.
All I could think of was the scene of horror those children had witnessed, said Pinto as she reflected on her nephews terrifying final minutes in a building left pockmarked with more than 70 bullet holes.
Oliveira, the journalist, said she was appalled by the upswing in gratuitous, insane, excessive and asymmetric violence against a group of people who are even more defenseless than usual because of the pandemic. The favelas are already dealing with a lack of work, income and food, she said now they were needlessly coming under fire too.
Joo Pedros killing is under investigation. Police have reportedly claimed he was caught in the crossfire as they pursued fleeing gang members. Those close to him believe he was a victim of either police malice or gross incompetence.
They used these kids for target practice, claimed Glucio Ribeira, a family friend.
Joo Pedros aunt whose son, like the other four teens, emerged physically, if not mentally, unscathed said she was certain race played a role in such bloodshed. Like it or not, there is a racial side to this and it shouldnt be like this. Were all supposed to be equal [But] if youre on the bus and the police get on, theyll search the people of colour first If a black man runs, hes guilty. Were tired of seeing this kind of thing happen, she said.
Joo Pedros father said: The police need to understand that the favelas are home to good people. Decent black people. But unfortunately when they come into a community they treat us all like criminals. They are wrong.
---
The cases just keep rolling in:
www.yahoo.com/news/another-man-said-cant-breathe-122007254.htmlSEATTLE A black man who called out I cant breathe before dying in police custody in Tacoma, Washington, was killed as a result of oxygen deprivation and the physical restraint that was used on him, according to details of a medical examiners report released Wednesday.
The Pierce County Medical Examiners Office concluded that the death of the man, Manuel Ellis, 33, was a homicide. Investigators with the Pierce County Sheriffs Department were in the process of preparing a report about the March death, which occurred shortly after an arrest by officers from the Tacoma Police Department, said the sheriffs spokesman, Ed Troyer.
...
Elliss sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, called for action to bring accountability in the death and further scrutiny of both the Police Departments practices and how the investigation into his death has been handled.
...
Troyer said he did not know all the details of the restraint the officers used they were not wearing body cameras but said he did not believe they used a chokehold or a knee on Ellis neck.
...
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said the issue was a top priority for him.
We will be pushing to make sure there is a full and complete investigation of that incident, Inslee said.
www.yahoo.com/news/vallejo-police-kill-unarmed-22-202551785.htmlPolice in northern California fatally shot an unarmed 22-year-old who was on his knees with his hands up outside a Walgreens store while responding to a call of alleged looting, officials said.
An officer in the city of Vallejo was inside his car when he shot Sean Monterrosa on Monday night amid local and national protests against police brutality. Police said an officer mistakenly believed Monterrosa had a gun, but later determined he had a hammer in his pocket.
The killing of Monterrosa, who was a San Francisco resident, has sparked intense outrage in the Bay Area, particularly in the city of Vallejo, a city with a long history of police violence and high-profile killings and excessive force complaints.
When confronted by the police, he dropped to his knees and surrendered, and they fired at him, said Melissa Nold, a Vallejo civil rights attorney representing Monterrosas family. He wasnt doing anything to warrant it. They shot him from inside their car. What opportunity did they give him to survive that situation? Its egregiously bad.
...
In a news conference on Wednesday, two days after the killing, police chief Shawny Williams
...
said, this officer perceived a threat and fired five shots through his window at Monterosso.
The chief declined to identify the officer who killed Monterrosa, saying only that the officer was an 18-year veteran of the force. The chief also dodged questions about whether he considered the shooting to be excessive force and ignored questions from angry community members who showed up to a press conference.
...
Even though the chief likely knew the circumstances of the killing by the time he held his first news conference, he refused to discuss it, while citizens were continuing to march for Floyd, Nold noted. Were protesting for a guy who lived thousands of miles away. And the day were marching, our own police are gunning down an unarmed man on his knees.
...
Adante Pointer, another civil rights lawyer who has long represented Vallejo families, said it was especially alarming that officers would kill a resident at this moment: The eyes of the world are on policing and yet your officers still feel comfortable enough to shoot someone under what are the most questionable circumstances? If they could do this during the light of the George Floyd protests and world scrutiny, you can only imagine what they do in the dark of the night when no one is looking.
...
The last person killed by Vallejo police was Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old who had been sleeping in his car in February 2019 when six officers fired 55 bullets in 3.5 seconds. One of the six officers who killed McCoy, a rising rapper in the Bay Area, had previously killed an unarmed man who was fleeing on his bike. Another Vallejo officer killed three men in a five-month period and was subsequently promoted.
---
---
us.yahoo.com/news/police-officer-appears-white-power-163900800.html
The video showing the officer making the apparent "OK" hand gesture touching the thumb and index finger to make a circle, with the remaining three fingers held outstretched was posted to social media over the weekend.
...
The man who recorded the incident said he had attended the demonstration to document it.
The video shows the officer making the gesture, then appearing to laugh with another uniformed officer beside him.
The man who recorded it told NBC News that he believed the officer made the gesture "to communicate white power and to say, 'We're going to win at the end.'"
They will keep doing it until we are willing to openly say it is not OK to be "white".
Home
Search
Login
Register