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Protest News
- Amid ongoing demonstrations against racism, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said America needs to stop being offended about everything and “grow up.”
- House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in Congress, said that he didn’t fear the police even when he grew up in a segregated environment in the South, but that that has changed recently: “All of a sudden, now I do fear the police. Young blacks fear the police.”
- Lawmakers in Colorado have passed a bill that would introduce a sweeping set of reforms for law enforcement in the state, including a ban on chokeholds and a provision requiring officers to intervene if they see excessive force being used.
- Seattle police are trying to reopen their East Precinct after officers had vacated the building while protesters set up a self-determined “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” in the surrounding streets. “We’re trying to get a dialogue going so we can figure out a way to resolve this without unduly impacting the citizens and the businesses that are operating in that area,” Assistant Police Chief Deanna Nollette said in a news conference
- Police in Montpelier, Vermont have launched an investigation after a Black Lives Matter mural was recently vandalized with mud, dirt and oil.
Police said eyewitness accounts described the person as a white man around 50-years-old, and are asking the public for assistance in identifying the suspect.
- Demonstrators painted “All Black Lives Matter” along a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard in a rainbow of colors across from the Dolby Theatre to honor black LGBTQ community members during the 50th anniversary of the first Pride celebration.
- Buffalo officials have asked the state to investigate the 2008 firing of black police officer Cariol Horne, who stopped a white colleague from choking a suspect while making an arrest.
- Disturbing new video footage from the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin shows fellow officer Tou Thao standing between Floyd and a crowd of horrified bystanders, who plead with Thao to intervene and save Floyd’s life.
- Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced support for renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders in a recent interview, citing the killing of George Floyd.
“The events since the killing of George Floyd present us with an opportunity where we can move forward to change those bases,” he told The New York Times in an interview published on Sunday. “It’s always puzzled me that we don’t have a Fort George Washington or a Fort Ulysses S. Grant or a Fort Patton or a facility named for an African-American Medal of Honor recipient. I think the time has come, and we have a real opportunity here.”
- Oklahoma GOP Senator James Lankford said Sunday that it’s time to stop naming military bases after Confederate generals.
The senator said on ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks there are “lots of great” modern leaders to honor instead of Confederate generals.
- Thousands of protesters joined in a Sunday prayer near the White House as part of a demonstration organized by Alfred Street Baptist Church and the NAACP amid protests in D.C. and across the country over racial inequality and police brutality.
- Thousands of demonstrators, most wearing masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, gathered in New York City today to support black transgender Americans in a “Black Trans Lives Matter” march in front of the Brooklyn Museum.
- President Trump said he will not watch NFL games or U.S. soccer matches if players do not stand for the national anthem.
- The police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed black man who was killed by local police after being found asleep in a drive-thru at a Wendy’s in Atlanta, has been ruled a homicide.
Coronavirus/COVID-19
- Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, claimed that the $600 checks being sent to Americans on unemployment as part of coronavirus relief efforts are a “disincentive” for people to return to work: “I mean we’re paying people not to work, it’s better than their salaries would get… That might have worked for the first couple months, it will end in late July.”
- South Carolina reported its highest number of new cases for a fourth consecutive day on Saturday, as Alabama and Florida documented their highest numbers for a third day in a row.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that his country has handled the coronavirus pandemic better than the U.S., saying partisanship has hampered the American response.
“We are working rather smoothly and emerging from this situation with the coronavirus confidently and, with minimal losses… But in the [United] States that is not happening,” Putin told state TV
- Tulsa’s health director voiced concerns about President Trump’s upcoming rally in the city, saying the novel coronavirus is still a serious health threat and that a large indoor event produces a “huge risk.”
“I think it’s an honor for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic,” Tulsa City-County Health Department’s director Bruce Dart told The Tulsa World. “I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
“COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently,” Dart added. “I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”
- Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., said that the ban on British travelers entering the U.S. is likely to last months based on “what’s going with the infection rate.”
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would reverse the reopening process for individual parts of the state if they do not abide by social distancing practices, citing thousands of complaints in Manhattan and the Hamptons.
“I am warning today in a nice way: consequences of your actions,” Cuomo said at a press conference Sunday. “We have 25,000 complaints statewide. I’m not going to turn a blind eye to them. They are rampant and there’s not enough enforcement.”
“I am not going to allow situations to exist that we know have a high likelihood of causing an increase in the spread of the virus,” the governor added.
Sources: ABC News, Axios, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, NBC News, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
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