Sunday, June 14, 2020

Protests held across California for third straight weekend

THIS WEEKEND ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER LGBTQ RALLIES

People gather in Hollywood for an "All Black Lives Matter" march, organized by black members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles Sunday, June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the third weekend in a row, protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and other communities across California to demand racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis.

Sunday’s demonstrations were promoted as non-violent calls for change in law enforcement.

In the Bay Area, protesters shut down the upper deck of the Bay Bridge in the late afternoon, causing San Francisco-bound traffic to backup for miles. At Civic Center, a Buddhist sit-in called for complete silence.

In Hollywood, thousands of peaceful protesters marched under blazing sunshine along a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard where the words “All Black Lives Matter” were painted on the pavement in rainbow colors. Demonstrators listened to speeches by activists in support of gay and transgender people of color.

A lesbian couple organized a similar march on San Francisco’s coastal Great Highway in solidarity with the racial justice movement. Protesters observed nine minutes of silence to honor Floyd and recognize the length of time a white police officer knelt on his neck before he died.

Greg Austin, 31, said huge marches like the one in Hollywood are evidence of a growing desire for police reform.

“We’re not saying that every cop is bad. We just wish they would follow a different method,” Austin told the Los Angeles Times. “This is an eye-opener for everyone. I’m hoping that this will show that the police need better training for their officers.”

Most protesters wore face coverings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Police said there were no arrests or reports of problems.

Tenants behind on rent in pandemic face harassment, eviction

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and MICHAEL CASEY

1 of 3
FILE - In this May 20, 2020, file photo, signs that read "No Job No Rent" hang from the windows of an apartment building during the coronavirus pandemic in Northwest Washington. The pandemic has shut housing courts and prompted authorities around the U.S. to initiate policies protecting renters from eviction. But not everyone is covered, and some landlords are turning to threats and harassment to force tenants out. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

BALTIMORE (AP) — Jeremy Rooks works the evening shift at a Georgia fast-food restaurant these days to avoid being on the street past dusk. He needs somewhere to go at night: He and his wife are homeless after the extended-stay motel where they had lived since Thanksgiving evicted them in April when they couldn’t pay their rent.

They should have been protected because the state’s Supreme Court has effectively halted evictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Rooks said the owner still sent a man posing as a sheriff’s deputy, armed with a gun, to throw the couple out a few days after rent was due.

The pandemic has shut housing courts and prompted most states and federal authorities to initiate policies protecting renters from eviction. But not everyone is covered and a number of landlords -- some desperate to pay their mortgages themselves -- are turning to threats and harassment to force tenants out.

“Every day, they tried to basically get us out of there. It was basically like a game to them,” said Rooks, who wasn’t able to make his rent at the Marietta, Georgia, motel after his employer paid him late and his wife was laid off in the pandemic. “One of us had to stay in a room at all times because they wouldn’t redo the keys for us.”

The evictions threaten to exacerbate a problem that has plagued people of color like Rooks long before the pandemic, when landlords across the U.S. were filing about 300,000 eviction requests every month.

The data and analytics real estate firm Amherst projects that 28 million renters, or about 22.5% of all households, are at risk of eviction. Tenant advocates expect that number to increase significantly unless protections are put in place, and project that many of those affected will be African Americans and households led by women, both of which historically are more likely to be evicted.

FILE - In this May 21, 2020, file photo, people from a support organization for immigrant and working class communities unfold banners, including one advocating rent cancelation, on a subway platform in the Queens borough of New York during a vigil memorializing people who died from coronavirus. The pandemic has shut housing courts and prompted authorities around the U.S. to initiate policies protecting renters from eviction. But not everyone is covered, and some landlords are turning to threats and harassment to force tenants out. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

In a sign of what could happen nationally, Virginia has seen a crush of proceedings since eviction hearings resumed May 18. About 700 cases already have been heard statewide, according to Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center. On top of that, 2,200 cases are on the docket for the end of June and early July in Richmond, which has one of the country’s highest eviction rates.

Rachel Garland, an attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, said her group has experienced a spike in calls from tenants who lost their jobs due to the lockdown and fear being evicted. Philadelphia had the fourth-highest eviction rate in the country.

“Even if they can’t be evicted right now, if the courts are closed, the landlords are sending threatening emails, text messages, asking for rent, threatening to lock tenants out,” Garland said.

Alieza Durana of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab said affected tenants face high rates of depression and suicide from the stress, along with mounting debt and homelessness. Additionally, court judgments and debt collection actions against renters are reported to credit bureaus, affecting their ability to access housing for years.

Jose Ortiz, deputy director of Essex/Newark Legal Services, which includes New Jersey’s largest city, said he’s heard complaints from tenants who have been asked to exchange sex for rent and instances where landlords have threatened to alert immigration authorities about tenants living in the country without legal permission if they don’t pay their rent.

“They are not working. They don’t have the income to pay their bills and they are afraid about what will happen once the eviction ban is lifted,” Ortiz said. “Are they going to be displaced? Is there going to be a mad rush to the courthouse to get these tenants evicted?”

Tenants also are complaining about landlords locking them out and shutting off utilities.

Unable to pay her April rent in full on her townhouse in Millersville, Maryland, Dawn McBride said she began getting texts from her landlord suggesting she find work at Walmart or Costco. She said the landlord then tried to get her to sign a rent-deferral agreement, but wouldn’t let her fully read it. She ultimately was handed a 30-day notice to vacate because her lease was month-to-month, a strategy landlords increasingly are using.

“Honestly, it stresses me out a lot because it’s me and my children,” said McBride, who lost her pet-sitting job. “And, you know, I’m just like, `Where are we going to go?’”

Some tenants facing eviction have turned the table on landlords and are organizing rent strikes. From New York to Chicago to San Francisco, tenants are banding together and demanding landlords negotiate with an eye toward forgiving their rent entirely until the pandemic ends.

Many like Diana Hou, who lost her job with a political campaign and has helped organized a rent strike in her Brooklyn building with her half-dozen roommates. are pushing for legislation at the state and federal level to provide rent and mortgage relief.

“Many of us are worried about our prospects of securing housing without income and with a looming debt of unpaid rent. For the majority of the house, not being able to secure housing would mean homelessness in the middle of a pandemic,” Hou said.

FILE - In this May 30, 2020, file photo, a car caravan calling for the cancellation of rents during the coronavirus pandemic prepares to parade through Boston. The pandemic has shut housing courts and prompted authorities around the U.S. to initiate policies protecting renters from eviction. But not everyone is covered, and some landlords are turning to threats and harassment to force tenants out. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 building owners in New York, said he doesn’t condone rent strikes but sympathizes with tenants’ plight.

“Renters need a bailout,” Martin said, adding that landlords are supporting federal proposals that would cover back rent and future payments. Without those measures, he predicted a drop in property and real estate taxes that would sap state and city budgets.

The federal government’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package includes eviction moratoriums for most people living in federally subsidized apartments, as well as homes covered by federally backed mortgages. A second $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed in May by the U.S. House would provide about $175 billion to pay rents and mortgages, but has almost no chance of passing in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

State and local lawmakers across the country also are stepping in with assistance and proposals aimed at averting a wave of evictions.

New Jersey lawmakers passed a $100 million rent relief bill, while in Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation directing $175 million of the federal coronavirus rescue package to rent and mortgage relief. Boston is providing $8 million for rental assistance, Baltimore has designated $13 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to start a rental assistance program, and Philadelphia provided $10 million to help about 13,000 people with their rent.

Other proposals would offer long-term payment plans for those unable to afford rent and programs like mediation before cases head to housing court.

“We have to do something,” said Philadelphia Council member Helen Gym, whose bill would prevent evictions until two months after the state’s emergency order was lifted.

“We can’t go back to business as usual in a city that evicts 18,000 people a year,” she said. “That is just not sustainable.”

USA

Grim blame game over COVID deaths in besieged nursing homes

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

In this April 17, 2020, file photo, a patient is wheeled into Cobble Hill Health Center by emergency medical workers in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A grim blame game with partisan overtones is breaking out over COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents, a tiny slice of the population that represents a shockingly high proportion of Americans who have perished in the pandemic. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grim blame game with partisan overtones is breaking out over COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents, a tiny slice of the population that represents a shockingly high proportion of Americans who have perished in the pandemic.

The Trump administration has been pointing to a segment of the industry — facilities with low federal ratings for infection control — and to some Democratic governors who required nursing homes to take recovering coronavirus patients.

Homes that followed federal infection control guidelines were largely able to contain the virus, asserts Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which sets standards and pays the bills. “Trying to finger-point and blame the federal government is absolutely ridiculous,” she says.

Verma says data collected by her agency suggest a connection between low ratings on safety inspections and COVID-19 outbreaks. But several academic researchers say their own work has found no such link.

Advocates for the elderly say the federal government hasn’t provided needed virus testing and sufficient protective gear to allow nursing homes to operate safely. A White House directive to test all residents and staff has been met with an uneven response.

“The lack of federal coordination certainly has impeded facilities’ ability to identify infected persons and to provide care,” Eric Carlson, a long-term care expert with the advocacy group Justice in Aging, told lawmakers. “That absence remains important as facilities are attempting to open up, which requires an extensive reliance on testing.”

Democrats are critical of the Trump administration response.

“We need action,” says Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. “We need a plan from CMS and we need resources to stop the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes.”

Nationwide, more than 45,500 residents and staff have died from coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to a running count by The Associated Press. That’s about 40% of more than 115,000 total deaths. Nursing home residents are less than 1% of the U.S. population.

It’s a sensitive election-year issue for President Donald Trump, who’s trying to hang on to support from older voters. A recent CNN poll found that 54% of adults 65 and older said they disapproved of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 44% approved.

With more coronavirus legislation possible this year, congressional Democrats are pressing for a national testing plan and additional resources for nursing homes. Republicans are mainly seconding the administration’s arguments.

During a recent briefing for lawmakers, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, blamed New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the high numbers of deaths in his state. A since-rescinded state directive that nursing homes had to accept recovering coronavirus patients “ended up being a death sentence” in New York and several states with similar policies, Scalise said.

Scalise echoed earlier, less forceful, comments from CMS head Verma, who has said such state orders were “not appropriate” and “may have contributed to this issue as well.”

But Harvard researcher David Grabowski, who serves on a nonpartisan commission advising Congress about Medicare, says neither state policies, nor “bad apples” among nursing homes, have driven the outbreak.

Instead, Grabowski says it’s simpler: Because the virus can be spread by people who show no symptoms, that means if it’s already in a community, the staff can unwittingly bring it into the nursing home. Once inside it easily spreads among frail residents living in close quarters.

“The secret weapon behind COVID is that is spreads in the absence of any symptoms,” Grabowski told lawmakers at a recent briefing. “If COVID is in a community where staff lives, it is soon to be in the facility where they work.”

He proposed a federal effort to regularly test nursing home staff and residents, along with greater supplies of masks, gowns and other protective gear.

“The federal government needs to own this issue,” said Grabowski.

He said his own research, along with studies by experts at Brown University and the University of Chicago did not find a relationship between facilities with low federal ratings and COVID-19 outbreaks.

CMS head Verma said her agency has been on top of things from the beginning, issuing numerous safety guidelines for nursing homes, setting new coronavirus reporting requirements, and providing Medicare payment for testing residents. She says states have money from the federal government that they can use to support testing of nursing home staff.

The nursing home industry says just one-time testing for every resident and staffer would cost $440 million, and facilities struggling financially would not be able to bear the expense of regular staff testing.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat and chairman of a special panel on the pandemic, says the crisis in nursing homes should not be a partisan issue.

“Nursing home residents have died from the coronavirus in states governed by Republicans and Democrats, in big cities and in small towns, in rural and urban communities,” Clyburn said.

Appearing before Clyburn’s committee last week, Alison Lolley of Monroe, Louisiana., told of losing her 81-year-old mother, Cheryl, to COVID-19 in a nursing home outbreak this spring. The family was not allowed to be with her.

“My family was robbed,” Lolley said. “Mama was trapped in a petri dish, and we were shut out. Mama died alone and our family will forever be scarred by this tragedy.”
___

AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.

An EMT Suspended For Supporting Protesters While In Uniform Said She Shouldn't Have To Hold Back

"They wanted to me to be able to separate the personal from the professional," EMT Taylor Varela told BuzzFeed News. "Now is not the time to separate anything."

Olivia NilandBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on June 11, 2020, at 8:09 p.m. ET

Scott Heins via Twitter

"Black Lives Matter. Get home safe, stay together, we fucking matter. Black Lives Matter!"

This was the message that New York EMT Taylor Varela used her ambulance radio to broadcast at a protest against police brutality in downtown Brooklyn last Thursday. Leaning out of the window as her boyfriend, paramedic Anthony Davis, drove, the 24-year-old received rousing support from protesters gathering around the ambulance.

Ambulance EMT just got on her radio to cheer on the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Brooklyn. People flipping out

In the days leading up to the video, Varela had emailed her employer, SeniorCare EMS, to request that the company speak up about the Black Lives Matter movement and the police brutality protests sweeping the country in response to George Floyd's death — with no response.

But the same night the video of her participating in the Brooklyn protest was tweeted by journalist Scott Heins, SeniorCare EMS CEO Michael Vatch contacted Varela to let her know that she'd been suspended.

"The CEO called me and asked why was I screaming obscenities over the PA system. The first thing that he asked was something that was so far from my mind," Varela said. "He said at some point I should think about the fact that I’m at work, and supposed to be professional. His initial reaction was that he was definitely very upset."

Vatch and SeniorCare EMS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Following the news that she'd been suspended, Varela received overwhelming messages of support from coworkers, and from the public. Her coworkers even created a Change.org petition calling for SeniorCare EMS to lift her suspension, and for the company to not take any further disciplinary action against her. It's since received more than 5,300 signatures.

3,500+ of you showing an incomprehensible amount of love and support. i am truly humbled and SO thankful to have been backed by all you beautiful people. unreal. thank you all so so much. I DID NOT GET FIRED. https://t.co/eRAnBFefkE

"Taylor and her partner are an exceptional medic team who adhere to the SeniorCare values of clinical excellence and outstanding customer service. Their support during the Black Lives Matter protest shows their care for all of their patients, a large number of whom are Black community members," the petition states. "As a community of future and past patients, fellow healthcare workers, and neighbors, we request that you recognize that we are living through unprecedented times and that we must stand together against violence."

On Monday, Varela said she was called into a meeting with SeniorCare EMS executives, where management explained that the issue was not with her message, but the fact that she had participated in the protest on company time, using a company vehicle.

"Their biggest concern was safety, because I was hanging out of the window, and the safety of everyone else around the ambulance," Varela said. "I understand where they’re coming from. The problem wasn’t the message that I was saying, but more how it looks from a company."

During the meeting, the company again took issue with her professionalism, given that she was in uniform and representing SeniorCare EMS, Varela said.

"The guys I met with said they understood why I said what I did, personally, but they wanted me to be able to separate the personal from the professional," Varela said. "Now is not the time to separate anything."

As a result of the meeting, Varela's suspension was extended, for a total of three missed shifts. Her partner was not suspended.

Varela is set to return to work Tuesday, and said while she understands the company's response to her actions, she's still calling for SeniorCare EMS — where she's been employed for about three years — to take a stronger position on racial injustice.

"The day after that video, the CEO released some kind of statement, but it was very general, it felt like he wrote it just because he knew what happened the day before," Varela said. "On Monday, he released another email that was a little bit better, it wasn’t as general as 'racism is bad,' but it’s still too generalized for my liking. There was no plan of action to change or do anything differently."

i emailed the ceo of the company i work for demanding that he AT LEAST release a statement of solidarity and i haven’t gotten a response yet.

i’m giving him 24 hours (so about 5 more) but if it goes ignored i’m bringing all info here. PLEASE RUN HIS SHIT UP.

this is the weak ass email the ceo finally sent only after that video has gone viral lol 🥱

A general email from SeniorCare EMS also referenced the company's policy on employees' use of social media whether on- or off-duty. It states that the company reserves "the right to monitor social networking activity" and "act on matters which are inconsistent with our values" or "represent the company in a negative light."

Despite the policy, Varela doesn't plan to change her own social media use.

"I don’t think I should have to censor myself because the company may or may not agree with me, I don’t hold back on what I say," Varela said. "There’s been a lot of support from coworkers letting me know that they had my back."

Ultimately, Varela said she wants SeniorCare to use its platform as a company to support the fight against racial injustice, and to not inhibit employees from doing the same.

"I just felt like there are so many Black employees at the company, and for all of the things that have been going on in the country, for the CEO to not release anything regarding what was going on, it felt like a slap in the face," Varela said. "This is a very successful company, and I would like to see donations to credible organizations that are pushing the cause. I feel like they have to show some kind of support, and to educate themselves and educate their colleagues."

A Dashcam Video Shows Police Tackling And Punching A First Nation Chief In Alberta

Chief Allan Adam of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation was left bloodied after his arrest in March.

Lauren Strapagiel BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on June 12, 2020

RCMP

Newly released dashcam video shows an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tackle, punch, and use a chokehold on Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam.

Adam's lawyer is now seeking to have his charges stayed, calling the arrest "illegal" and a use of "excessive, unnecessary and unreasonable" force in an affidavit filed in an Alberta court.
The arrest occurred on the night of March 10, when Adam was leaving a casino with his wife in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

In the 12-minute video, obtained by BuzzFeed News, Adam appears agitated shortly after the RCMP pull up.

https://video-player.buzzfeed.com/embed?transcoder_path=/hive-binaries/binaries/c0dfcd6c023946a2a1d575a9513fe9f2/Exhibit_C_-_Disclosure_Video.mp4

"I"m tired of being harassed by the RCMP," he tells the officers in the car.

"Just fucking leave us alone. Don't fucking stop behind us like you're fucking watching us," Adam says.

A verbal exchange ensues as an officer approaches the vehicle, and about five minutes in, the officer grabs Adam's wife. In response, Adams rushes over and shouts at the officer to leave his wife alone, appearing to be ready for a physical altercation.

hen seven minutes into the video, another officer arrives and tackles Adam to the ground, and a second officer punches him before placing him in a chokehold.

"Fuck you, don't resist," an officer yells.

When the officers hoist Adam to his feet, blood can be seen on his face.

The affidavit submitted by Adam's lawyer, Brian Beresh, includes quotes from Constable Simon Seguin's notebook.

"I struck the male as he tried to come up. He turned on his right side. I struck him using my right hand on his right side of the face," Seguin wrote in his notes. "I wrapped my hand [left arm] around his jaw and started squeezing."

Images in the affidavit show injuries to Adam's face.

Via Beresh Law

Wood Buffalo RCMP have not responded to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.

In a statement, RCMP told CBC News that officers saw Adam had an expired license plate and "were required to use force to effect the arrest." Adam has been charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer.

The RCMP determined the actions to be reasonable "and did not meet the threshold for an external investigation," CBC reported. Alberta’s Serious Incident Response Team is now looking into the incident.

On Friday, when asked about the incident by media, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has "serious questions about what happened," Global News reported. "The independent investigation must be transparent and be carried out so that we get answers.”

In a media scrum, he added that "without question there is systemic discrimination within our institutions, including within the RCMP. We need to move forward to correct that."

Bill Blair, Canada's public safety minister and former police chief of Toronto, tweeted that the dashcam footage is "deeply disturbing."

"We have been clear that we need to work with Indigenous Peoples, partners and communities, as well as all racialized Canadians to ensure that our agencies serve without bias and with a commitment to justice for everyone," he wrote.

Bill Blair @BillBlair
The dashcam footage released last night is deeply disturbing. My comment on this incident:05:09 PM - 12 Jun 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite

Indigenous people in Canada make up 5% of the population, but more than 30% of those in federal custody, according to a government report.

Lauren Strapagiel is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Peloton Warehouse Workers Begged Not To Do Home Deliveries During The Pandemic

Internal Peloton message board comments reveal fear among employees asked to deliver Peloton equipment to homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Caroline O'Donovan BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on June 11, 2020

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

The early months of the coronavirus pandemic were a boon for Peloton. Nationwide shelter-in-place orders inspired a surge in purchases of its luxury stationary bikes and treadmills and created a massive new, captive audience for the $12 billion exercise technology company’s streaming video workouts. But it also caused consternation and conflict inside Peloton's nascent logistics operation, where workers feared the company’s “high-touch” in-home delivery policy put them at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.

For Peloton, which had to deal with manufacturers in Taiwan, a spike in demand, and an in-home delivery operation across the US, the crisis was something of an operational nightmare. “We’ve had to scramble on a number of fronts,” CEO John Foley told Time.

It was also an unprecedented opportunity to drive sales at a time when gyms were closed and people were eager to find new ways of safely exercising at home. Peloton jumped at the chance to promote its brand: Having designated its business essential, the company extended free trials of its streaming video content, shipped tens of thousands of bikes in a matter of weeks, and exceeded its revenue targets; it racked up more than half a billion dollars in revenue in the first three months of 2020.

“Peloton really doesn’t care about our safety or health.”

But while Peloton’s leadership was scrambling to keep up with consumer demand and rapidly expanding market share, the warehouse and delivery workers who assemble, repair, and deliver Peloton equipment were apoplectic. According to internal communications reviewed by BuzzFeed News, some felt the company’s decision to designate delivery of pricey exercise bikes as essential during a pandemic was reckless and put them in danger of contracting the coronavirus.

“I’m actually livid right now,” one Peloton employee wrote in a post to an internal company message board. “Peloton really doesn’t care about our safety or health.” Others echoed concerns that the company wasn’t taking the risk of their exposure seriously.

Have you had experiences with Peloton that you would like to share? To learn how to reach us securely, go to tips.buzzfeed.com. You can also email us at tips@buzzfeed.com.

In response to a detailed list of questions, Peloton offered a statement noting that it has followed CDC and public health guidelines throughout the pandemic and referred BuzzFeed News to the delivery protocols on its website.

Peloton bikes and treadmills retail for between $2,000 and $5,000. The frames are manufactured in Taiwan and shipped to the US, where most of them are assembled and stored in one of the company’s 23 warehouses to be delivered and installed in homes by its employees driving black Peloton vans. (Slightly less than half of the deliveries are handled by XPO, a third-party logistics company with allegedly poor service that has caused problems for Peloton’s brand, according to Business Insider.) When Peloton went public in fall 2019, the company said it considers itself in part “a logistics company that provides high-touch delivery, set up, and service for our Members.” Delivery and installation of the bikes costs customers $250.

Maintaining that promised level of service during a period of rapid growth in the midst of a global pandemic was a challenge. “There’s rocket fuel in your business, and your business has just been displaced and you’re no longer together, you’re trying to change the engines on the plane when you’re in the air, or whatever the metaphor is,” CEO Foley told Time. “It’s tricky operational stuff.”

Peloton

For some Peloton employees, the idea of carrying out the company’s “high-touch” in-home delivery service during a highly communicable pandemic was more than tricky — it felt like a very serious health risk.

On March 12 — as professional sports and music performances were canceled and President Donald Trump banned travelers from Europe from entering the country — a Peloton human resources employee posted a note to an internal employee forum addressing the quickly spreading coronavirus threat. “I know there have been some questions around procedures with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) illness,” the HR rep wrote.

Directed at employees in Peloton’s field operations division, the message said the company would be “increasing janitorial services at each site” and providing gloves and sanitizer wipes, which it recommended employees bring “into the home when delivering.” Peloton did not respond to questions from BuzzFeed News regarding when gloves were distributed to delivery workers, or whether they were provided with masks.

“That $100 really told y’all what they think we’re worth after killing ourselves for them peak season.”

Some employees were angered by the company’s expectation that they keep delivering to homes during a pandemic.

“Are we taking the steps and asking these clients if they have travelled out [of] the country within this time? If they have any signs of these symptoms beforehand?” said one reviewed by BuzzFeed News. “We have to take extra precautions…”

“There should be some kind of pre-screening [of] members,” said a second, “to also not only protect customers but the Peloton Field Ops Team as well.”

“Just learning more about the coronavirus, it said that symptoms can show 2 to 14 days after contact,” said a third. “Due to that statement alone, I feel us field specialist[s] should be restricted until further notice from delivering our products.”

The unrest among employees didn’t go unnoticed. Hours later, a regional Peloton manager replied, saying, “I just wanted to let you all know that we really are taking everyone’s concerns extremely seriously.”

On March 15, CEO Foley wrote a public letter about the company’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in which he said that all Peloton office employees around the world should work from home if possible. Retail stores would close, trainers would film fitness content in “closed studios,” and customer support agents would work remotely. But warehouse and delivery workers, Foley wrote, “will continue to deliver Peloton Bikes and Treads to people’s homes, while taking extra precautions to address the safety of both our Members and our team.”

“Our goal is to bring the Peloton experience ... to as many new members as we can, particularly during this time of uncertainty.”

“Our goal is to bring the Peloton experience — and our community — to as many new Members as we can, particularly during this time of uncertainty,” he continued.

Foley also decided to offer to deliver employees $100 a day (pre-tax) “hazard pay.” But, according to comments on a second internal message board post, the gesture hardly mollified employees.

“Y’all really sat down in a room came up with this plan and thought we’d be ok with risking the safety of our loved ones for $100[?]” said one comment. “[If] y’all really care start administering screenings to let us know if we good or not, or just keep us home.”

“That $100 really told y’all what they think we’re worth after killing ourselves for them peak season,” said another.

It wasn’t until March 19, a week after employees first raised an alarm, that Peloton paused orders of its treadmill, which requires in-home delivery and assembly due to its size. The company continued to sell bikes, instructing customers to open their front doors and back 3 meters away to allow the delivery workers to leave the bike on the “the entrance to your home or apartment unit.”

“Since states and regions began deploying shelter in place orders, we followed the guidance of local governments, the CDC and other public health agencies in our warehouses and implemented a threshold delivery protocol, which can be found here,” a spokesperson for Peloton wrote in a statement. “We actively monitor the situation to make any necessary adjustments that allow us to keep our team safe and bring the Peloton experience to our community.”

In the end, some Peloton facilities, including a few warehouses, were forced to shutter due to employees who tested positive for COVID-19, according to a former employee who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. On April 7, the company stopped broadcasting live exercise classes from its New York City studio — which had been deemed an essential business by the state — after someone who worked there contracted the disease.

Peloton declined to respond to specific questions about infections among its staff.

Any Peloton devotee will tell you that the draw of membership isn’t as much the expensive equipment as it is the community, competition, and coaching found in the company’s online classes. A peloton is a group of cyclists riding together, and the company’s trainers and executives love to incant its hashtag-ready slogan, “One Peloton,” emphasizing that members, trainers, and staff are all part of the same big team. The coronavirus pandemic tested the strength of that team, but Peloton — with thousands of new members and skyrocketing stock prices — came out on top.

“As a New York City–based company, we've seen firsthand the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis,” Foley said on a May 7 earnings call, “and we offer a heartfelt thank you to all of those working tirelessly on the front lines to battle this epidemic.”

Caroline O'Donovan is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

They’re Protesting Racism And Police Brutality. Their Parents Question Why It’s Their Fight.

Many young Somalis have come out to protest the police killing of George Floyd, but some of their immigrant parents just don't understand why their children see it as their battle.

Adolfo Flores BuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Posted on June 12, 2020

Samia Osman / Handout

Samia Osman's parents fled Somalia in 2004, hoping that in the United States, their then-8-year-old daughter would never have to worry about violently dying.

Yet today, Osman is one of many young Somalis fighting for the lives of Black people in America, joining thousands nationwide to protest racism and police brutality. But doing so has exposed a generational divide at home: some of their parents just don't understand why their children see it as their battle.

"It's a weird place to be in, trying to convince my parents America is not the safe haven they were sold on, while also trying to figure out how the Black Lives Matter movement, being visibly African American, connects to me,” Osman told BuzzFeed News.

Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Somalis in the US, after large numbers of refugees fleeing a brutal civil war in the East African country started immigrating to the state in the 1990s . Many of them moved to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul to start their new lives.

Samia Osman / Handout
Samia Osman stands in front of a mural for George Floyd.

Osman’s parents are still trying to figure out the new world they're living in now, grappling with the intensity that's overtaken Minneapolis and other cities in recent weeks. Many young people like Osman also identify as Black, she said, unlike some of their parents who may only identify as Somali.

"Even though they tell me it's not my fight when I come home, they're having these conversations about what the police officer did and I can see my parents, my aunts, look at my siblings and cousins wondering if they're going to come home," Osman said. "I think it scares them, the fact that it really is not just somebody else's problem anymore."

Abdimalik Ahmed, 18, and also of Minneapolis said he broke down and cried for the first time in years as his mom struggled to understand why Floyd’s death affected him so much.

"My mom came over to hug and cradle me, still not fully understanding why I was crying, but my tears obviously saying enough,” Abdimalik wrote in a Medium post.

Abdimalik, who is president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Minnesota, believes the disconnect between his generation and that of his mother's is because his parents grew up in a homogenous society in East Africa where almost everyone around them was Black and they didn't have to think about how their skin tone affected their daily lives.

"One thing people fail to understand is that our blackness is as much a part of our identity as Islam is, as being Muslim is, and we will fight for our blackness every day of the week," Ahmed told BuzzFeed News. "We Somalis are not allies, we are Black and this is who we are and it is a primary identity that we carry with us."

Abdimalik Ahmed / Handout
Abdimalik Ahmed at a protest.

Salma Ahmed, a 23-year-old Minneapolis resident who identifies as a Black woman, said she is met with resistance when she tries to talk to her parents about systemic racism. Her parents, who left East Africa because of the Somali civil war, argued that they came to the US with nothing and were able to build a life just fine.

Older Somalis learned about African Americans the same way white people did, through negative stereotypes in the media or word of mouth, Salma said. She believes that's why people like her parents have tried so hard to distinguish themselves from African Americans.

"Yet my dad has had these experiences of being pulled over and treated like absolute garbage, like he's subhuman, because of the color of his skin, so I know he understands what I'm saying," Salma told BuzzFeed News. "There's a little bit of this idea that we're different, and better in a way and that we didn't have to struggle the way African Americans have."

Salma reminds her parents that even though they aren’t descendants of slaves and can never claim the African American experience, they have benefited from many rights they fought for in the US. Salma also tells her parents that the police will not see her as a Somali American, they will just see the color of her skin.

"I've had a lot of conversations with my 15-year-old little brother about how to make it out of a police interaction alive, how he needs to keep his hands in plain sight and audibly tell them what he is doing next," Salma said. "Sometimes even if you do that it doesn't matter, but I feel like that's the best thing I can do for him right now."

Abdimalik Ahmed / Handout
The crowd at a Muslims for George Floyd rally at the intersection where he was killed.

Abdullahi Farah, executive director of Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, said he identifies as Black and that other Somali parents do as well. He believes the difference between how the younger generation identifies versus their elders comes from the experience of having grown up in the US.

"They have experienced a struggle that we haven't experienced back in Somalia, we never had anyone discriminate against us because of our skin," Farah said. "Our kids who were born here right away picked up the struggle of African Americans, who were here before us."

Their children experienced discrimination in schools and by police when they were out with their friends, Farah said. The police and the systems in the US don't care whether you're African American, Somali, or from West Africa, as long as you’re Black you face discrimination and young people are more quick to see that versus their parents, he added.

Still, it's not a foreign concept to older Somalis, Farah said — they face discrimination for being Black, as well being immigrants or Muslim. The latter type of discrimination are what Somali parents and grandparents will more readily admit to.

"It is time the younger generation takes the lead because with the older generation it is very hard for them to even admit there's a problem," Farah said. "The younger generation is the reason you're seeing more Somalis participate in protests, they're the ones pulling their parents in to join and having these conversations at home. They're also the reason we have hope."

Trump And His Allies Claimed Tear Gas Wasn't Used On Protesters Outside The White House. The Secret Service Just Admitted It Was.

"The employee utilized oleoresin capsicum spray, or pepper spray, in response to an assaultive individual."

Salvador HernandezBuzzFeed News Reporter

Last updated on June 13, 2020, at 5:26 p.m. ET

Alex Brandon / AP

Police clear demonstrators from Lafayette Park on June 1

The President called it fake news, the Attorney General said it was false, the US Secret Service said it wasn't true, and the Trump campaign tried to get news outlets to retract reports that tear gas was fired at peaceful protesters in front of the White House on June 1.

But nearly two weeks after claiming the chemical irritant was not used to clear the way for President Donald Trump's photo-op outside St. John's Episcopal Church, the Secret Service on Saturday admitted that tear gas was, in fact, used on the protesters.

The admission is the latest turn in a stunning series of events. Trump, wanting to appear tough on people demonstrating against police brutality and systemic racism around the nation and in his backyard, threatened in an ominous Rose Garden speech to send in the US military to quell the protests.

"If a city or state refuses then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said as booms rang in the background and gas filled the air just outside the White House.

Minutes later, the president walked from the White House to the church, where he stood for a few minutes to pose with a Bible in hand.

BuzzFeed News reporter Kadia Goba, reporting for the White House pool at the time, reported she and others who walked with the president to the church were still "coughing and choking" on the way because of the remnants of gas.

One day later, Trump tweeted a story saying the "media falsely claimed" tear gas was used. He added, "fake news," a label he mostly uses to describe credible reporting he doesn't like.

Media Falsely Claimed Violent Riots Were Peaceful And That Tear Gas Was Used Against Rioters https://t.co/3crnij4pWT Fake News is hurting our Country so badly. Don’t burn down churches. This article is a must read!

That same day, the Trump campaign reached out to multiple news agencies asking for a correction or retraction of news stories that noted tear gas was used, including BuzzFeed News.

"Every news organization which reported the tear gas lie should immediately correct or retract its erroneous reporting," Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the campaign said in a statement. "It's said that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on. this tear gas lie is proof of that."

Four days later, the Secret Service claimed tear gas was not used by any of the agencies involved.

Six days later, a report aired quoting Attorney General William Barr, who according to White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany gave the order to disperse the crowd that day, pushing back against the claim.

"By the way there was no tear gas used," Attorney General William Barr told CBS's Face The Nation.

Barr went on to argue that "pepper spray is not a chemical irritant," even though some companies that sell it to law enforcement agencies describe it as such. "It's not chemical. Pepper balls." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list pepper spray as a riot control agent that is commonly referred to as "tear gas."

"Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It's not chemical" -- AG Barr uses painstaking distinctions to defend the use of force against protesters near the White House last Monday

On Saturday, the Secret Service walked it all back.

"After further review, the U.S. Secret Service has determined that an agency employee used pepper spray on June 1st, during efforts to secure the area near Lafayette Park," the agency said in a statement. "The employee utilized oleoresin capsicum spray, or pepper spray, in response to an assaultive individual."

BuzzFeed News reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

The actions by authorities at the park have prompted lawsuits from Black Lives Matter and the ACLU.

"Once again, yet another federal agency is pulling back yet another lie meant to cover up the administration's unlawful firing of tear gas and other weapons outside the White House," the ACLU said in a statement Saturday. "Video footage, evidence from the scene, and our clients' injuries make clear that tear gas and other weapons were used unprovoked on demonstrators protesting police brutality outside the White House. The [ACLU of DC] will see the president, his attorney general, and his defense secretary in court."

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Sunday, June 14, 2020

An EMT Suspended For Supporting Protesters While In Uniform Said She Shouldn't Have To Hold Back

Trump And His Allies Claimed Tear Gas Wasn't Used On Protesters Outside The White House. The Secret Service Just Admitted It Was.

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