Tag: police

The Past 24 Hours or So – Protests/Race Relations, Trump Administration, and Presidential Campaign Updates

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Protests/Race Relations

  • The Fairfax County (VA) School Board voted to rename a high school named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Effective this fall, the school will be renamed to honor the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
  • Washington’s NFL team announced Thursday that it would call itself the “Washington Football Team” until it adopts a new, permanent name for the football franchise. The team, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, said in a statement that new team uniforms reflecting the change will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
  • Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed a police accountability bill into law today that includes a ban on neck restraints like the one that was used on George Floyd before his death in Minneapolis.
  • After being tear gassed in a crowd, Portland’s mayor and police commissioner Ted Wheeler denounced federal officers for “urban warfare.”

Some protesters, recalling the city police’s past use of tear gas, chided him: “You better be here every night, Ted!”

  • A federal judge in Oregon has temporarily blocked federal agents deployed in Portland, Oregon from threatening to arrest, arresting, or using force against journalists and legal observers who are at the ongoing protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd.
  • Chicago advocacy groups are filing a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from allowing federal agents to oversee peaceful protests in the city.
  • The Trump administration is sending a tactical border patrol team to Seattle, making good on President Trump’s pledge to use the full force of the federal government to protect property amid ongoing protests, The New York Times reports.

Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) had spoken with Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf who told her that the administration didn’t have plans to deploy a large force of agents to the city and wouldn’t do so without communicating with her first. Durkan said that she hadn’t been made aware of the incoming federal team.

The mayor made it clear to Wolf that Seattle did not need the assistance of federal officers. “Any deployment here would, in my view, undermine public safety.” 

  • Kansas City, MO Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) says he found out about President Trump’s plan to send federal law enforcement officers to his city over social media.

“I learned about Operation Legend from actually someone on Twitter who had notified me that it was occurring,” the Democratic mayor said in an interview Thursday. “Then I looked at a White House press briefing that had announced that it was, I guess, already in the works.”

  • The House and Senate passed the defense policy bill that sparked a veto threat from President Trump over its inclusion of a plan to rename bases named after Confederate figures, setting up a showdown with the president. 

Both chambers cleared the two-thirds threshold for a veto-proof majority on the legislation that sets policy for the military and has been signed into law 59 straight years.

  • President Trump joined republicans who criticized Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Trump tweeted: “Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars. I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs. They must, at least, treat us fairly!!!” 

  • DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced his office is investigating the actions of DOJ law enforcement at protests in Portland and Washington, D.C., in recent months.
  • Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has announced assault charges against a police officer Richard Paul Nicoletti who pepper sprayed Black Lives Matter protesters in June.

According to Krasner’s statement, Nicoletti sprayed the faces of two of the kneeling protestors “without provocation.” He pulled down the goggles one was wearing for protection to spray her again.  Nicoletti then approached a third seated protester, “reached down, grabbed and violently threw the protester onto his back, continually spraying him” with pepper spray.  “Unable to see,” that protestor swung at the officer, making no contact.

  • Prior to the playing of the national anthem, every player and coach on the Yankees & Nationals took a knee. The same occurred later at the Dodgers & Giants game.

Trump Administration

  • A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to be released from prison and into home confinement, ruling that the Justice Department retaliated against him over his planned tell-all book about the president.
  • Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he will vote against President Trump’s controversial nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve Board. Romney is the first Republican senator to announce his opposition to Shelton, who will also likely be opposed by all 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, so the opposition of three more Republicans would effectively doom her nomination.
  • White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued President Trump’s well wishes for Ghislaine Maxwell were intended to convey that he wants to see justice served in the courtroom for the associate of Jeffrey Epstein facing sex crime and perjury charges.
  • President Trump once again defended his cognitive abilities in an interview by pointing – unprompted – to a test he took in 2018 that is designed to rule out cognitive impairment.

“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV,” Trump said four times in an interview with Fox News, explaining that he was asked to recall and repeat a sequence of words at the beginning and end of the test. “If you get it in order, you get extra points.”

  • President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone, discussing the novel coronavirus, arms control negotiations and other matters. Not discussed was the report of Russia paying bounties to Taliban members for the killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. 
  • In Retaliation for the Trump administration’s order to close China’s consulate in Houston, China announced on Friday that it had ordered the United States to shut its consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
  • The Trump administration is lifting its rule blocking New Yorkers from enrolling in Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler Programs. State residents were previously banned over New York’s law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
  • President Trump announced that he will throw out a ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium next month.
  • President Trump said he would consider granting pardons for individuals implicated in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“I’ve looked at a lot of different people. They’ve been treated extremely unfairly, and I think I probably would, yes,” Trump told Sean Hannity.

Presidential Campaign

  • In a Facebook ad this week, President Trump’s campaign used a picture from a 2014 protest in Ukraine to depict what it claimed was “chaos & violence” unfolding around the U.S.
  • In a surprising turnaround, President Trump announced that republicans have scrapped plans to hold convention activities in Jacksonville, Florida.

Trump had moved the convention to Jacksonville after North Carolina’s governor raised public health concerns about having massive gatherings in Charlotte, as the GOP had planned.

A scaled down convention in Charlotte will still be held, Trump said.

  • A convention official described chaos inside the Republican National Committee after President Trump pulled the plug on convention activities in Jacksonville.

The official described the situation as “a multimillion dollar debacle.” 

  • Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and Mayor Lenny Curry (R) said in a joint statement they appreciate President Trump considering public health and canceling the convention.

Sources:  ABC News, Associated Press, The Atlantic, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, Independent, NBC News, NJ.com, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post

The Past 24 Hours or So – Protests/Race Relations News

Read Time: 4 Minutes

  • Mississippi junior basketball player Blake Hinson plans to transfer to Iowa State. Hinson said there were factors beyond basketball that influenced his decision to leave.

“To make a general statement, it was time to go and leave Ole Miss,” Hinson said. “I’m proud not to represent that flag anymore and to not be associated with anything representing the Confederacy.”

  • Princeton University announced Saturday that it has voted to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from the university’s School of Public and International Affairs.

“We believe that Wilson’s racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school whose scholars, students, and alumni must be firmly committed to combating the scourge of racism in all its forms,” Princeton’s board said in a statement.

  • The Mississippi state House advanced legislation to change the Magnolia State’s flag, the last in the country to still include the stars and bars of the Confederacy.

The chamber advanced the bill by an 84-35 margin, allowing lawmakers in the state House to reach the two-thirds majority needed to suspend the rules to consider the change.

The House will then be able to consider the legislation and vote on the measure, which would go to the Senate if passed.

  • Four men alleged to have been trying to tear down the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Square just outside of the White House were each charged with destruction of federal property, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.
  • A second statue of Christopher Columbus has been removed in Newark amid a wave of such removals across the country.

The monument was removed from Columbus Plaza on Bloomfield Avenue, outside the St. Francis Xavier Church, by private citizens around 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to several sources.

A city spokesman confirmed that the city did not remove the monument, and declined to comment on who actually took it down. Reportedly, the owner of the statue had it removed. 

  • Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R), who has long insisted voters should decide whether to remove the Confederate emblem from the state’s flag, said for the first time Saturday that he would sign a bill to change the banner if one is sent his way.
  • A Hoover, Alabama police officer was fired Friday for a social media post earlier this week that showed a protester in the crosshairs of a rifle scope.

The officer made the post on Facebook Tuesday in response to an article posted about protesters at the Georgia Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed.

The headline of that article was “Armed protesters remain at Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed. So what’s next?” The article was accompanied by a photo of a Black protester holding a shotgun.

In his response to the post, Officer Ryan Snow reposted the photo of the protester to show him in the crosshairs of a rifle scope. He wrote, “Exhale. Feel. Pause. Press steadily. That’s what’s next.”

  • Four police officers in San Jose, California, have been placed on leave while the department says it is investigating alleged racist and anti-Muslim posts on Facebook.

Screenshots published in a blog post on Medium by “the partner of an active law enforcement officer in a San Francisco Bay Area police department,” included posts that said, ““Black lives don’t really matter” and “I say re-purpose the hijabs into nooses.” The posts were made in a private Facebook group called 10–7ODSJ.

The FBI has been asked to assist in the probe

  • Federal prosecutors brought extortion charges against the man whose arrest this week sparked violence and destruction in Minneapolis.

U.S. Attorney Scott Blader filed the charges against Devonere Johnson, alleging he threatened to bash windows of downtown businesses unless employees gave him money. 

Blader also alleges Johnson, 28, threatened to “shut down and destroy” another business unless Johnson and his friends were provided free food and drinks.

Blader said Johnson sought to extort the business owners by taking advantage of protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd.

“Those who attempt to take advantage of recent events to extort local businesses under the guise of community activism will be vigorously prosecuted,” Blader said in a statement.

  • Protesters demonstrating over the death of Elijah McClain blocked Highway 225 in Aurora, Colorado Saturday evening.

McClain, a Black man who worked as a massage therapist, died last year following a confrontation with police officers in Aurora. An officer placed the main in a chokehold, and McClain later suffered a heart attack in an ambulance. He was declared brain dead three days later. 

McClain’s last words were caught on police body camera footage. In the footage, McClain could be heard saying, “I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don’t even kill flies! I don’t eat meat! But I don’t judge people, I don’t judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me … I’m so sorry.”

  • According to police, at around 9 pm, shots were fired in Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Kentucky. Personnel from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department performed live-saving measures on a male victim who eventually died.

Multiple eyewitnesses say a homeless man who had been kicked out of the park several times somehow acquired a gun and fired upon protestors. 

  • The president Retweeted a video of a supporter yelling “White Power” at counterprotesters in The Villages, a large retirement community in central Florida. The president praised his supporters, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages.”
  • White House spokesperson Judd Deere on Trump’s now-deleted tweet: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”

Sources:  ABC News, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, NBC News, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, NJ.com, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post