RIGHT WING U.S. lawmaker prepares bill aiming to end court protection for police

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Justin Amash (LIBERTARIAN-MI), recently having left the Republican Party after voicing support for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, departs after a series of votes at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. July 10, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With cities across America in turmoil over the death of George Floyd, a U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce legislation this week that he hopes will end a pattern of police violence by allowing victims to sue officers for illegal and unconstitutional acts.

U.S. Representative Justin Amash, a former Republican turned Libertarian, won support from a Minneapolis Democrat on Monday for his “Ending Qualified Immunity Act,” which would allow civil lawsuits against police, a recourse that the Supreme Court has all but done away with.

The high court's adoption (here) of the qualified immunity doctrine has largely shielded police from financial settlements for victims or grieving families. The doctrine protects cops even when courts determine that officers violate civil rights, a Reuters investigation showed here


“The brutal killing of George Floyd is merely the latest in a long line of incidents of egregious police misconduct,” Amash told colleagues in a letter. “This pattern continues because police are legally, politically and culturally insulated ... That must change so that these incidents stop happening.”

A black man, Floyd died a week ago after pleading for his life as a white Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck. Protesters angered by his death and by racial inequities have demonstrated for six straight nights.

Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minneapolis Democrat, intends to back the bill, according to an aide. Amash aims to introduce it on Thursday. It was unclear whether the legislation would gain support from the Congressional Black Caucus.

The bill joins a flurry of Democratic legislation in the House of Representatives and Senate. Democratic senators have pledged to introduce separate measures that would create a national registry for police misconduct and stop the transfer of military weaponry to local police departments.

“Be sure of this. We will propose and push for bold action,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday.


Republicans have condemned Floyd’s killing and voiced support for peaceful protests, but have largely steered clear of criticizing or echoing President Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward violent protesters.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton tweeted that Trump should use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces to cities to “ensure this violence ends tonight.”


Reporting by David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Susan Heavey; editing by Grant McCool
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

After long silence, Mattis denounces Trump and military response to crisis

Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After long refusing to explicitly criticize a sitting president, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of trying to divide America and roundly denounced a militarization of the U.S. response to civil unrest.

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, September 9, 2019. REUTERS/Gary He

The remarks by Mattis, an influential retired Marine general who resigned over policy differences in 2018, are the strongest to date by a former Pentagon leader over Trump’s response to the killing of George Floyd, an African-American, while in Minneapolis police custody.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis, who resigned as Trump’s defense secretary in 2018, wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic.

“Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”

Trump has turned to militaristic rhetoric in the wake of Floyd’s killing by a white police officer, who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis last week.

On Monday Trump threatened to send active duty U.S. troops to stamp out civil unrest gripping several cities, even against the wishes of state governors — alarming current and former military officials, who fear dissent in the ranks and lasting damage to U.S. armed forces itself, one of America’s most revered and well-funded institutions.

“Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society,” Mattis wrote.
Trump responded by Twitter by calling Mattis “the world’s most overrated General!”

“I didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!” Trump wrote.

A prominent figure in military circles, Mattis’ strong words could inspire others in uniform and veterans to speak out and are particularly surprising given his extreme reluctance to criticize Trump in scores of interviews and appearances since he left office over policy differences with the U.S. president.

His comments follow denunciations by other retired top brass, including Navy admiral Mike Mullen and retired Army general Martin Dempsey, both former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

COMPARISON TO BATTLE AGAINST NAZIS

As he called for unity, Mattis even drew a comparison to the U.S. war against Nazi Germany, saying U.S. troops were reminded before the Normandy invasion: ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’”

Mattis also took a swipe at current U.S. military leadership for participating in a Monday photo-op led by Trump after law enforcement — including National Guard — cleared away peaceful protesters.


He criticized use of the word “battlespace” by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to describe protest sites in the United States. Esper, Mattis’ successor in the job, has said he regretted using that wording.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace,’” Mattis wrote.

Esper said at a Wednesday news conference he did not support invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty forces to quell civil unrest for now, in remarks that did not go over well with either the president or his top aides, an administration official said.

Exclusive: Most Americans sympathize with protests, disapprove of Trump's response - Reuters/Ipsos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A majority of Americans sympathize with nationwide protests over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody and disapprove of President Donald Trump’s response to the unrest, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

The demonstrations, some of which have turned violent, began last week after a Minneapolis police officer was videotaped kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for nearly nine minutes, even after Floyd appeared to lose consciousness. The officer has been charged with murder.

The survey conducted on Monday and Tuesday found 64% of American adults were “sympathetic to people who are out protesting right now,” while 27% said they were not and 9% were unsure.

The poll underscored the political risks for Trump, who has adopted a hardline approach to the protests and threatened to deploy the U.S. military to quell violent dissent. The Republican president faces Democrat Joe Biden in November’s election.

More than 55% of Americans said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the protests, including 40% who “strongly” disapproved, while just one-third said they approved - lower than his overall job approval of 39%, the poll showed.

A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Biden’s lead over Trump among registered voters expanded to 10 percentage points - the biggest margin since the former vice president became his party’s presumptive nominee in early April.

Demonstrator hold signs during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 2, 2020. REUTERS/Eric Thayer
Twice as many independent voters said they disapproved of Trump’s response to the unrest. Even among Republicans, only 67% said they approved of the way he had responded, significantly lower than the 82% who liked his overall job performance.

CCONCERNS ABOUT VIOLENCE

The protests have deepened the sense of crisis for a country already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent devastating economic downturn. While many daytime demonstrations have been peaceful, some have led to violent clashes at night between police and protesters.

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats said they supported peaceful protests but believed property damage undermined the demonstrators’ cause. Less than one quarter of Americans said violence was an appropriate response.
]

Even in rural and suburban areas largely unaffected by the demonstrations, most people expressed support. A little more than half of rural residents said they were sympathetic to the protesters, while seven out of 10 suburbanites agreed.

Forty-seven percent of registered voters said they planned to support Biden in the Nov. 3 election, compared with 37% favoring Trump. Biden vowed not to “fan the flames of hate” in a speech on Tuesday about the unrest.

Public opinion could be particularly volatile as the protests continue to roil major cities every night. Several police officers were shot on Monday night, and Trump has derided governors who have not asked for military assistance.

On Monday, police used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose for a photograph in front of a church.

Americans are divided over the police response. According to the poll, 43% believed the police were doing a good job and 47% disagreed, with a majority of Democrats disagreeing and a majority of Republicans agreeing.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll on the protests was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States and gathered responses from 1,004 American adults. That poll had a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The other poll conducted over the same period regarding Trump’s overall job performance and the 2020 election gathered responses from 1,113 American adults and had a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.


Reporting by Grant Smith, Joseph Ax and Chris Kahn; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Peter Cooney
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Vigil banned, Hong Kong set to commemorate Tiananmen with 'candles everywhere

HONG KONG (Reuters) - People in Hong Kong are set to commemorate the bloody 1989 crackdown by Chinese troops in and around Tiananmen Square by lighting candles across the city on Thursday, after police banned an annual vigil, citing the coronavirus.



FILE PHOTO: People attend a candlelight vigil ahead of the 31st anniversary of the crackdown of pro-democracy protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, after police rejects a mass annual vigil on public health grounds, in Hong Kong, China June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The anniversary strikes an especially sensitive nerve in the semi-autonomous city this year after Beijing’s move last month to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong, which critics fear will crush freedoms in the financial hub.

It also comes as Chinese media and some Beijing officials have voiced support for protests against police brutality across the United States.

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Timeline: From reform hopes to brutal crackdown - China's Tiananmen protests

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In past years, Hong Kong’s candlelight vigils have drawn tens of thousands of people to the city’s Victoria Park.

But police said this week a mass gathering would pose a threat to public health just as the city reported its first locally transmitted coronavirus cases in weeks.

Malissa Chan, a 26-year-old who works in the property sector, said she will go to the park anyway.


“When authorities want to suppress us, there are more reasons to speak up,” she said.

Lee Cheuk-yan, the head of the group that organises the annual vigil, told Reuters residents will light candles everywhere across the city instead.

Calls have come out online for people to light candles in specific places throughout the evening and then “where you are” at 8:00 pm local time (1200 GMT), followed by a minute of silence.

With social distancing measures allowing for religious gatherings under certain conditions, some people plan to commemorate the crackdown in churches and temples. Residents are also expected to lay flowers along a waterfront promenade, while some artists plan to stage short street theatre plays.


Hong Kong has banned gatherings of more than eight people, a public health measure authorities have repeatedly said had no political motivation.

China has never provided a full accounting of the 1989 violence, but rights groups and witnesses say the death toll could have run into the thousands. The death toll given by officials days after the crackdown was about 300, most of them soldiers, with only 23 students confirmed killed.


Reporting by Yanni Chow and Carol Mang; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Outpouring of rage over George Floyd killing tests limits of U.S. police tactics
Sarah N. Lynch, Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Responses by law enforcement authorities in the U.S. capital and in Flint, Michigan, to protests over the police killing of George Floyd illustrated starkly contrasting approaches to handling angry crowds on American streets and repairing relations with grieving communities.

Sheriff Christopher Swanson of Michigan’s Genesee County was keenly aware that some protests in other cities against police brutality after the May 25 death of Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody in Minneapolis had descended into arson and looting.

Tensions were rising in Flint on Saturday when Swanson saw a few officers actually exchange friendly fist-bumps with protesters. So Swanson removed his helmet, strode into the crowd, hugged two protesters and told them, “These cops love you.” Swanson then joined the march.

“We’ve had protests every night since then. ... Not one arrest. Not one fire. And not one injury,” Swanson said in a telephone interview.

Federal law enforcement officers took a far less conciliatory approach on Monday evening in confronting a crowd of peaceful protesters outside the White House. The officers charged and used tear gas to clear a path for President Donald Trump to walk to a nearby church for a photo opportunity holding up a copy of the Bible.

“Not only is it a terrible tactic and unsafe ... it also is sending a tone as if this is the president that has ordered this,” said Ronald Davis, who headed the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

Davis oversaw a task force that in 2015 released new federal guidelines for improving police practices after demonstrations that turned violent over the 2014 police killing of a young black man named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, one of a long list of similar killings.

The guidelines addressed ways to improve trust between police and their communities and included recommendations to prevent protests from escalating into violence.

They advised officers to ease rather than rush into crowd control measures that could be viewed as provocative, to consider that anger over longstanding racial disparities in the American criminal justice system was the root cause of such protests and to not to start out with the deployment of masked, helmeted officers and military-style weapons.

That approach appears to have been seldom used in protests that have engulfed many U.S. cities since Floyd’s death after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during his arrest.



FILE PHOTO: Police officers embrace with demonstrators during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., June 2, 2020. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
LACK OF TRUST

For example, police in New York City have used pepper spray on protesters, hit people with batons and in one case drove two cruisers into a crowd. In New York and some other cities police themselves have been the target of violence.

“If we were dealing with traditional, peaceful protest, everything would have been different,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Monday.

Candace McCoy, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, noted police face a complicated task.

“They know that there are people who have announced beforehand that they intend to do violence both to property and to other people,” McCoy said. “The notion that the property destruction could have somehow been prevented is, I think, perhaps naive.”

New York police were heckled by some demonstrators when some officers knelt in solidarity at a Brooklyn protest. During a Manhattan protest, a police officer shook the hand of a young woman wearing a T-shirt showing slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King and hugged her. Just a few minutes later, another officer zip-tied the woman’s arms behind her back and detained her.


U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he plans a hearing on police conduct and race.

“This committee has a unique opportunity to build on some things that the Obama administration did and ask ourselves some hard questions,” Graham said.

Some Obama administration law enforcement reforms aimed at reducing racial discrimination and improving community policing came to a halt after Trump became president in 2017 and his Justice Department took actions such as ceasing investigations into police departments suspected of systemic racial bias.

Civil rights advocates have taken heart over conciliatory approaches displayed in places like Camden, New Jersey, as well as Baltimore, a city torn by violent protests following the 2015 death in police custody of another black man, Freddie Gray.

“I’ve been somewhat encouraged to see that there are some police departments that have demonstrated that police can make the decision to operate in a constitutional fashion and give protesters an opportunity to speak to exercise their First Amendment rights to vent their anger,” Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told reporters this week, referring to the right of free speech.

Community policing experts said that will be important.


“You have to be transparent and police need to be held accountable when they make mistakes,” said Roberto Villaseñor, the former police chief of Tucson, Arizona, who worked on the 2015 guidelines. “What we need to do is just listen.”

(This story has been refiled to change the title in final paragraph to police chief from sheriff)


Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jonathan Allen; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thousands in Europe decry racial injustice, police violence
By PAN PYLAS and JILL LAWLESStoday


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Police officers form a line to block protesters in central London on Wednesday, June 3, 2020 after a demonstration over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Protests have taken place across America and internationally, after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while the handcuffed black man called out that he couldn’t breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with murder. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)


LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people demonstrated in London on Wednesday against police violence and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has set off days of unrest in the United States.

In Athens, police fired tear gas to disperse youths who threw firebombs and stones at them outside the U.S. Embassy toward the end of an otherwise peaceful protest by about 4,000 people. No injuries or arrests were reported.

The London demonstration began in Hyde Park, with protesters chanting “Black lives matter,” before many of them later marched through the streets, blocking traffic.

Some of them converged on Parliament and the nearby Downing Street office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A few scuffles erupted between protesters and police outside the street’s heavy metal gates.

Inside, Johnson told a news conference that he was “appalled and sickened” by Floyd’s death on May 25 when a white Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck for several minutes.

Earlier, “Star Wars” actor John Boyega, who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents and grew up in south London’s Peckham neighborhood, pleaded tearfully for demonstrators to stay peaceful.

“Because they want us to mess up, they want us to be disorganized, but not today,” he said.

Boyega recalled the case of Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old black man from southeast London who was stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus. The case against his attackers collapsed in 1996, and a government report cited institutional racism by the London police force as a key factor in its failure to thoroughly investigate the killing.

“Black lives have always mattered,” Boyega said. “We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless and now is the time. I ain’t waiting.”

Police appeared to keep a low profile during the demonstration and the ensuing marches.

Earlier, the U.K.’s most senior police officer said she was “appalled” by Floyd’s death and “horrified” by the subsequent violence in U.S. cities.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the London force would “continue with our tradition of policing using minimum force necessary.”

While the London protesters expressed solidarity with Americans protesting Floyd’s death, many also pointed to issues closer to home. “Racism is a pandemic,” said one placard at the London demonstration.

Some of them carried placards saying “Justice for Belly Mujinga,” a 47-year-old railway station worker who died of coronavirus in April, weeks after an incident in which she said she was coughed and spat upon by a customer who claimed to be infected.
Full Coverage: Days of Unrest

Her death has come to symbolize the high toll the virus has taken on ethnic minority Britons and front-line workers -- and, for some, social injustice. Police did not bring charges against the man accused of confronting Mujinga, saying an investigation showed he did not infect her and there was no evidence to substantiate a criminal offense.

Johnson, who has sought to cultivate close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, was asked what he would say to him. He replied: “My message to President Trump, to everybody in the United States from the U.K., is that ... racism, racist violence has no place in our society.”

Johnson said people had the right to protest but “I would urge people to protest peacefully, and in accordance with the rules on social distancing.”

“Everybody’s lives matter, black lives matter, but we must fight this virus, as well,” he said.

In other rallies around the world:

— More than 1,000 people protested in Stockholm despite a ban on gatherings of over 50 people due to the coronavirus, and while they expressed solidarity with U.S. demonstrators, participants were keen to emphasize that racial injustice was a problem in Sweden, too. One sign read “Make racism bad again.. Police said they had to use pepper spray and make one arrest.

— About 3,000 people rallied in Finland’s capital of Helsinki, although they dispersed an hour later when the number of participants exceeded the 500 maximum allowed under virus restrictions.

— In Cape Town, South Africa, about 20 people gathered at the gates of parliament and held up signs reading “Justice 4 George Floyd and Collins Khosa.” Khosa died a month ago after being confronted by soldiers and police in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. Family members say he died after being choked and beaten, but a South African army investigation cleared the soldiers — a finding the relatives’ lawyers say they will challenge.

— Police cut short a demonstration in the Dutch port of Rotterdam by thousands of protesters when the crowd got too big for coronavirus social distancing measures.

Many of the London demonstrators appeared to ignore social distancing guidelines in the U.K., where people have been told to stay 2 meters (6 feet) apart.

The coronavirus outbreak has exposed divisions and inequalities within the U.K. A government-commissioned report Tuesday confirmed that ethnic minorities in Britain experienced a higher death rate from the coronavirus than whites, but did not provide any recommendations on how to alleviate the risks.

Figures from London’s Metropolitan Police also showed that black and ethnic minority Londoners were more likely than their white counterparts to be fined or arrested for breaking lockdown rules barring gatherings or nonessential travel.

—-

Associated Press writer Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed.

Portland, Oregon, city of protest, reels from nightly chaos
By GILLIAN FLACCUSan hour ago


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Marchers move west on Burnside towards the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Tuesday evening, June 2, 2020. Protests continued for a sixth night in Portland, demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. (Sean Meagher/The Oregonian via AP)


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — This liberal city is known — and prepared — for protests that can descend into chaos, but even it is reeling from the nightly unrest splintering off peaceful demonstrations over police killings of African Americans. Portland’s visibly frustrated police chief on Wednesday pleaded for people to help stop those “holding our city with violence.”

For five nights, these smaller groups have smashed windows, set fires, broken into a building housing police headquarters and spray-painted walls and sidewalks. The mayhem is not unique to Portland during national upheaval over the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck.



But in Portland, where protests can get so large and explosive that a staffer for President George H.W. Bush once famously nicknamed it “Little Beirut,” the sustained demonstrations have pushed police to the brink — unusual for a city well-versed in civil disobedience.

Police Chief Jami Resch appealed to residents for help navigating the tension between the massive peaceful demonstrations and the violence and chaos that has followed. More than 10,000 people demonstrated peacefully in Portland — one of the largest U.S. protests Tuesday night — before violence broke out.

“How do we come together to stop the violence and destruction in our city so we can move forward to identify solutions that can work? How long can we, as a city, endure the extreme disregard for human life and property demonstrated by a small group of individuals?” she said at an emotional news conference. “We have to collectively come together to stop those who are holding our city with violence. ... Every night, we are using all our resources and it is still not enough.”

Police say they have struggled to balance allowing thousands of peaceful protesters to march and confronting much smaller crowds that seem focused on clashing with officers at any cost.

At least one city leader has blamed white supremacists for infiltrating the crowds and stirring up trouble, while others have blamed far left anti-fascist activists — antifa — who have had a strong presence in Portland for years. Resch said it’s too soon to say whether activists — of any affiliation — are coming from out of town.

She said the smaller groups “continued to focus on police,” throwing ball bearings, bottles, bats and mortars at officers, setting fires and trying to rip down a fence set up around a building housing police headquarters and a sheriff’s jail. Officers began tagging some cars with spray-paint Tuesday for later identification after noticing those inside were handing out weapons as the unrest unfolded, she added.
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Critics, including at least two city leaders, blasted police for using tear gas and concussion grenades against protesters. Aerial video Tuesday night showed a speeding patrol car almost hitting several demonstrators and brought more questions. Resch did not address those incidents directly when asked.



“I am absolutely horrified by what I saw last night. It is sadistic to be using tear gas in the middle of a public health crisis,” City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said at a public meeting Wednesday, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

People in Portland have reliably turned out over the decades to oppose wars, social injustice and most recently to counterprotest right-wing and white supremacist groups that have turned the liberal city into a flashpoint over free speech. Last year, thousands of protesters and counterprotesters clashed on multiple occasions in Portland, drawing international attention for demonstrations that routinely turned violent and ended in dozens of arrests.

Residents also show up regularly for peaceful rallies for causes that range from climate change to women’s rights. Demonstrations are so common that some in the city joke about “Free Speech Fridays,” when downtown is filled with chanting and people are nearly as likely to head to a protest as a bar as the workweek ends.

Those events, while sometimes just as volatile, have almost always wrapped up in a day. Now, an understaffed police agency is relying on state troopers and officers from surrounding counties and cities as far away as Washington state to keep up. National Guard soldiers, even in a support role, further unsettled protesters.

More than 100 people had been arrested and dozens more were taken into custody Tuesday. Hours after the streets returned to normal, Resch said the violence was overshadowing the protesters’ much-needed message for police reform and accountability.

“There are many thousands of you who are not involved in violence and destruction, and I thank you. I still hear your message,” she said. “We do not condone violence in this city. These actions are not welcome.”

The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, a group that says it’s “dedicated to direct action towards total liberation” has gained visibility on social media as it urges protesters to act.

Ahead of another protest Wednesday night, the group advised people to form groups for protection, reposting an article calling the strategy “the essential building block of an anarchist organization.” The group did not reply to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

“The Portland Police, like all police, are an occupying army on stolen land, and that is as clear tonight as it has ever been,” a post on their Twitter account said late Tuesday.
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Pilgrim’s Pride CEO among indicted for chicken price fixing

THE BASIC CRIME IN INDUSTRY ILLEGAL COMBINATIONS TO PRICE FIX

ITS CALLED PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL NOT UNLIKE LOOTING



This April 28, 2020 file photo shows the Pilgrim's Pride plant in Cold Spring. Minn. A federal grand jury has charged four current and former chicken company executives with price-fixing. The U.S. Department of Justice says the executives from Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride and Georgia-based Claxton Poulrty conspired to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens from at least 2012 to 2017.(Dave Schwarz/St. Cloud Times via AP)


WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (AP) — The CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride is one of four current and former chicken company executives indicted Wednesday on charges of price-fixing.

The U.S. Department of Justice said a federal grand jury in Colorado found that executives from Greeley, Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride and Claxton, Georgia-based Claxton Poultry Farms conspired to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens from at least 2012 to 2017.

Pilgrim’s Pride President and CEO Jayson Penn was charged, along with former Pilgrim’s Pride Vice President Roger Austin. Claxton Poultry President Mikell Fries and Vice President Scott Brady also were charged.

All four men are scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge in Denver federal court Thursday afternoon, according to court documents. The Associated Press left phone and email messages seeking comment with Pilgrim’s Pride. A spokesman for Claxton Poultry said the company had no comment.

The charges come amid questions about the high price of meat during the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, attorneys general for 11 Midwestern states urged the Justice Department to investigate potential price fixing by meatpackers. And in an April tweet, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed that the Department of Agriculture was investigating why ranchers are getting low prices for cattle while U.S. consumers are paying record prices for beef.

Wednesday’s charges were the first in a long-running investigation into price-fixing in the chicken industry. Broiler chickens are chickens raised for human consumption and sold to grocery stores and restaurants.

According to prosecutors, the men communicated about their prices and negotiated to fix, stabilize and raise prices. The indictment cites a number of alleged phone calls and text exchanges between them.

In one text exchange, Brady allegedly told Fries on Nov. 13, 2012 that he had talked to Austin and found out that Pilgrim’s Pride was 3 cents higher on an eight-piece bone-in broiler chicken. Brady said Austin wanted Claxton to raise its prices.

“Tell him we are trying!” Fries responded, according to the indictment.

In November 2014, Penn allegedly sent a series of emails about a competitor who was selling its chickens for less and asked to buy birds from Pilgrim’s to cover a shortfall in a grocery contract. Penn allegedly said the company should have to pay for not being able to provide the promised number of chickens.

“It costs money for them to fill orders for which they don’t have the chickens. They have been adding market share and still trying to do — selling cheap chicken and being short. Doesn’t make sense. We are enabling the town drunk by giving him beer for Thanksgiving instead of walking him into an AA meeting,” Penn wrote, according to the indictment.

Pilgrim’s Pride is a division of JBS USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian meat production giant JBS SA. Pilgrim’s Pride has more than 54,000 employees and 36 production facilities in the U.S. and abroad. The company says it processes one of every five chickens in the U.S. Claxton Poultry has 2,000 employees and supplies 300 million pounds of chicken per year to customers include Chick-fil-A.

The Justice Department indicated the investigation was ongoing last summer when it asked for a temporary pause in discovery proceedings in a separate lawsuit accusing Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyson Foods and others of fixing poultry prices. At the time, the Justice Department said it wanted to protect an ongoing grand jury investigation.

That suit, filed by New York-based Maplevale Farms, said companies shared information through a third-party data firm and restricted supply by destroying breeder hens on several occasions. It’s one of nearly 40 lawsuits filed by grocers, restaurants and others alleging price fixing. Kroger, Walmart and Darden Restaurants — which owns Olive Garden — are among those who have sued.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Commerce assisted in the investigation, the Justice Department said.

“Particularly in times of global crisis, the (Justice Department’s antitrust) division remains committed to prosecuting crimes intended to raise the prices Americans pay for food,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement.

The executives could each face 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. shares tumbled more than 12% Wednesday. Tyson Foods Inc. shares ended down almost 4%.

___

Durbin reported from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

___

This story has been changed to correct that Fries, not Brady, said “Tell him we are trying!” in a text exchange.

Amid protests, US faith leaders engage racism and politics

By ELANA SCHOR


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The Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, speaks Wednesday, June 3, 2020, down the block from St. John's Church, that is across Lafayette Park from the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
NEW YORK (AP) — As days of anti-racism protests sparked by police killings push Americans toward a national reckoning, religious leaders are stepping more directly into the politics surrounding discrimination, entering into a dialogue that cuts across lines of faith and color.

Groups from multiple denominations across Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths have publicly called for action against racism, aligning with peaceful demonstrators’ goals following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Even beyond those statements, the amount and diversity of religious involvement in the ongoing protests suggests a possible sea change for faith-driven engagement in racial justice issues.

“I’ve seen people of different faiths coming out and saying ‘this was wrong’ in ways I didn’t see before,” said Rev. Traci Blackmon, associate general minister of justice at the United Church of Christ and an early spiritual leader in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Religion’s role in struggles against racial bias long predates Floyd’s killing, which sparked mass demonstrations across the United States and even in other countries. But a notable shift has taken place this week.

Among those who’ve publicly backed protesters are clergy from the Southern Baptist Convention, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Orthodox and Reform Judaism.

Meanwhile Catholic and Episcopal leaders openly criticized President Donald Trump after peaceful demonstrators were forcefully cleared to make way for his brief visit and photo-op outside the historic St. John’s Church near the White House.

On Wednesday, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, leader of the United Methodist Church’s Washington-area conference, joined Rev. Mariann Budde, the bishop of Washington’s Episcopal diocese, which includes St. Johns, and other faith leaders for a prayer vigil that aimed to orient the religious conversation around fighting racism.

“I think that all leaders that consider themselves to be religious or moral leaders have an obligation to rise and to speak to this moment, because institutional racism and supremacy cannot be dismantled by African American leaders alone,” said Easterling, who is African American. “Those who enjoy the privilege of those systems must rise.”

The vigil was initially set to take place at St. John’s but had to move to a nearby block after local law enforcement extended the security perimeter around the White House.

Budde, who expressed outrage Monday over Trump’s use of St. John’s as a backdrop, said white Americans need to engage more in “the realities of this country that we … are allowed to be blind to in ways that cost people of color.”

Trump’s visit, in which he held up a Bible and said “we have a great country,” was at least in part intended as a show of solidarity with faith, according to the White House. But the maneuver nudged Budde and other religious leaders to wade further into the political realm, airing their disagreement.

Rev. Russell Moore, leader of the Southern Baptists’ public policy arm, issued a statement in response to the visit calling the killing of African Americans, the use of force against peaceful protesters and the destruction of property “morally wrong.”

“I am brokenhearted and alarmed by all of this,” said Moore, whose criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign prompted the then-candidate to blast him as “a terrible representative of evangelicals.”

Many black religious leaders are welcoming the new allies, while lamenting that it took Floyd’s death to jar white congregations into paying attention.

Twin Cities-based minister JaNae Bates, who works with progressive faith groups, said she’s glad to see diverse conversations about racism, but “it’s really harmful and hurtful that it takes yet another body for us to get there.”

“We’ve had many faith leaders who are awakening to the hypocrisy of a ‘freedom for all’ America,” Bates added, saying such clergy are “experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance” as their visions of an equitable society crumble.

Imam Makram El-Amin of Minneapolis’ Masjid An-Nur mosque, which has been supporting neighbors amid the protests in that city, said people of faith should be part of a diverse front against racism.

But, he said, “voices of those who’ve been subject to this oppression — in this case, African Americans — should be the leading voices.”

One of Trump’s staunchest evangelical backers, Rev. Franklin Graham, decried the violence that has broken out at a number of protests and lauded Trump’s visit to the church. But even he allowed that clergy have more work to do in talking to minority communities, saying in an interview that “we certainly do that” in his ministries “but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it better.”

Other white faith leaders are focusing on helping their flock wrestle with tense and sometimes uncomfortable questions about race, bias and privilege.

An honest dialogue in white congregations requires both “brave clergy” and “willing people in the pews,” said Rev. Joshua Whitfield, a priest at the St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas.

“I think the moment is ripe for people to let go ... and say, ‘I do need to look at this more deeply, I do need to explore the original sin,’” Whitfield said.

Blackmon, who pastors in Missouri, urged her white counterparts to take their words of support for healing racial injustice a step further and treat deep-rooted bias as a universal problem requiring more action.

“I’m grateful they’re saying those things, but what I want from you is what costs you. Will you be there when it costs you?” Blackmon said. “And for me that’s in the capitol, in the statehouse, in the courthouse, in places where systemic racism rages.”

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Associated Press video journalist Jessie Wardarski in New York contributed to this report.

Virginia governor to announce removal of Lee statue

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FILE - This Tuesday, June 2, 2020 file photo shows a large group of protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue near downtown in Richmond, Va. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans Thursday for the removal of an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Richmond's prominent Monument Avenue. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans Thursday to remove one of the country’s premier monuments to the Confederacy, a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond’s prominent Monument Avenue, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The Democratic governor will direct the statue to be moved off its massive pedestal and put into storage while his administration seeks input on a new location, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak before the governor’s announcement.

Many black activists and lawmakers have long called for the statue’s removal and cheered the news.

“That is a symbol for so many people, black and otherwise of a time gone by of hate and oppression and being made to feel less than,” said Del. Jay Jones, a black lawmaker from Norfolk. He said he was “overcome” by emotion when he learned the statue was to come down.

The move comes amid turmoil across the nation and around the world over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes, even after he stopped moving.
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Floyd’s death has sparked outrage over issues of racism and police brutality and prompted a new wave of Confederate memorial removals in which even some of their longtime defenders have decided to take them down.

The Lee statue is one of five Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street and National Historic Landmark district in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. It has been the target of graffiti during protests in recent days over Floyd’s death, including messages that say “end police brutality” and “stop white supremacy.”

It was not immediately clear when the statue would be removed.

Other tragedies in recent years have prompted similar nationwide soul searching over Confederate monuments, which some people regard as inappropriate tributes to the South’s slave-holding past. Others compare monument removals to erasing history.

Confederate memorials began coming down after a white supremacist killed nine black people at a Bible study in a church in South Carolina in 2015 and then again after a violent rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017.

Also on Wednesday, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced plans to seek the removal of the other Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue, which include statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gens. Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart. Those statues sit on city land, unlike the Lee statue, which is on state property.

Stoney said he would introduce an ordinance July 1 to have the statues removed. That’s when a new law goes into effect, which was signed earlier this year by Northam, that undoes an existing state law protecting Confederate monuments and instead lets local governments decide their fate.

“I appreciate the recommendations of the Monument Avenue Commission – those were the appropriate recommendations at the time. But times have changed, and removing these statues will allow the healing process to begin for so many Black Richmonders and Virginians,” Stoney said. “Richmond is no longer the Capital of the Confederacy – it is filled with diversity and love for all – and we need to demonstrate that.”

Bill Gallasch, president of the Monument Avenue Preservation Society, said he worried the statues’ removal would change the “soul” of the street, hurt tourism in Richmond and stir up violence between far-right and far-left groups.

The monument removal plans also drew criticism from the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

“We’re allowing the mob to dictate what will and will not be in the public domain,” said B. Frank Earnest, a spokesman for the group.

But Joseph Rogers, a descendant of enslaved people and an organizer with the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, said he felt like the voices of black people are finally being heard.

“I am proud to be black, proud to be Southern, proud to be here right now,” he said.