Thursday, June 04, 2020

Viewpoint: US must confront its Original Sin to move forward

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Protester and National Guard soldier in Los Angeles on 2 JuneImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Following the death of George Floyd while under arrest, protests have consumed America and onlookers have wondered how one of the most powerful countries in the world could descend into such chaos.
Despite being defined by race, American society does not spend much time analysing the history of our racial divisions, and America prefers to believe in the inevitable progression towards racial equality.
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 fed into this narrative of progress, but Donald Trump's presidential victory in 2016 was seen as a step backwards, coming after a campaign with a slogan that championed America's divisive past as a form of progress.
Floyd's death now appears to be the tipping point for an exhausted, racially divided nation still in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic cost that followed.
Floyd's cries of "I can't breathe" echoed the cries of Eric Garner, who was choked by police on a New York City sidewalk in 2014.
Memorial to Eric Garner in New yorkImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Floyd's words reminded Americans of the oppressive past we work to forget regardless of whether it is six years ago, 60 years ago, the 1860s, or 1619 when some of the first slaves arrived in America.
To a large extent, America's neglect of the past and belief in progress has left many Americans unaware of the severity and scope of our racial tensions, and as a result many Americans lack the words to articulate our current turmoil. Recently, I have used the word ethnocide meaning "the destruction of culture while keeping the people" to describe America's past and present racial tensions, and this language also helps articulate the uniqueness of America's race problem.
In 1941, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and distinguished lawyer, immigrated to the United States as he fled the Nazis. While in America he implored the American government to stop the Nazis from killing his people, and as his words fell on deaf ears, he realized he needed to create a new word to describe the unique horror befalling his people. In 1944, Lemkin coined the words genocide and ethnocide.
Lemkin intended for the words to be interchangeable but over time they diverged. Genocide became the destruction of a people and their culture, and this word radically changed the world for the better. Ethnocide became the destruction of culture while keeping the people, and has been ignored for decades. Recently, ethnocide has been used to describe the plight of indigenous people against colonization, but regarding America, ethnocide also pertains to the transatlantic slave trade and the founding of the nation.
1835 Illustration of the slave tradeImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
From the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, European colonisers destroyed the culture of African people, but kept their bodies in order to create the chattel slavery system that became the economic and social foundation of the United States. Colonisers prevented Africans from speaking their languages and practising their religions. Tribal and familial bonds were broken, and African people could no longer identify as Igbo, Yoruba, and Malian. Instead de-cultured names such as nigger, negro, coloured, and black were stamped upon African people.
Additionally, Europeans identified themselves as white, and in the United States the one-drop was created to sustain that division. One drop of black or African blood meant that a person could not be white. In America, whiteness became a zero-sum identity that was maintained by systemic racial division. Interracial marriage was still illegal in much of America until the Loving vs Virginia decision in 1967.
Presentational grey line

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Presentational grey line
From colonisation to the formation of the United States, America has created countless laws and policies to sustain the racial division between blacks and whites forged by ethnocide. These American norms, extending to housing, education, employment, healthcare, law enforcement and environmental protections including clean drinking water, have disproportionately harmed African Americans and other communities of colour in order to sustain racial division and white dominance.
George Floyd's murder represents a continuation of the systemic criminalisation and oppression of black life in America that has always been the American norm dating back to Jim Crow, segregation (which means apartheid), and slavery.
When the Confederacy, the collection of American slave-holding states in the South, seceded from the United States, they launched the Civil War to defend the immoral institution of slavery. After losing the Civil War, these states were readmitted back into the United States. To this day, many Americans, and especially America hate groups, still celebrate Confederate soldiers and politicians as heroes, and there are monuments and memorials dedicated to them across America.
Despite the American South losing the Civil War in 1865, American president Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederate soldiers, and soon thereafter Confederate politicians won elected office in the newly-reunited America. The influence of former slave owners and Confederates contributed to erasing the rights that African Americans won in the 1860s including citizenship and the right to vote.
The political campaign to remove African American rights was called the Redeemers movement, and it was led by former slave-owners and Confederates, who wanted to redeem the South by returning it to the norms of chattel slavery. The Redeemers and "Make America Great Again" derive from America's oppressive, ethnocidal school of thought.
The Redeemers were also assisted by American terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan that were made up of former Confederate soldiers. The KKK, and many other white supremacist groups, terrorised and lynched black Americans, and they also prevented them from voting to help ensure that Redeemer candidates won elected office. The terrorists became the government.
African-American protesters being attacked by police dog in a street during demonstrations against segregation, Birmingham, Alabama, May 4, 1963Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionProtesters attacked by police dogs during demonstrations against segregation in Alabama in 1963
By the start of the 20th Century the Redeemers had succeeded in undoing the racial equality progress of the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, and now Jim Crow segregation became the norm of the American South. The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy vs Ferguson made "separate but equal" the new law of the land, and America again became a legal apartheid state.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative's 2017 report Lynching in America, over 4,400 lynchings of African Americans occurred from 1877-1950. That is more than a lynching a week for 74 years.
During Jim Crow, America could not legally deny black people their humanity, but they could deny them the services that are afforded to human beings. Black people were denied education, housing, employment, and were expected to "know their place" as a perpetually subjugated people. Large prisons were erected on former plantations, and black people were arrested for minor crimes and given long prison sentences doing manual labour on the same land their ancestors were forced to work as enslaved people.
As a result of Jim Crow, millions of African Americans fled the neo-slavery and terror of the South during the Great Migration, and racial tensions spread across America as other American cities did not welcome these domestic refugees. This is the same journey as the Underground Railroad, where prior to the Civil War enslaved African Americans escaped the South and sought refuge in Canada and the Northern parts of America.
The civil rights movement of the 1960s effectively ended Jim Crow, and African Americans began reclaiming the rights, specifically voting rights and freedom of movement, they had previously won in the 1860s, but it is a long road to dismantle systemic and legalised racism and segregation.
Demonstrators carry a mock coffin labeled "RIP Jim Crow," while a little boy parades with a sign saying "Stop arresting our black babies now," in front of the United Nations.Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Obama's election in 2008 was a monumental event in American society, but it did not magically erase the systemic racism woven into America's social fabric and the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement to national attention.
Trayvon was shot and killed by George Zimmerman as he walked home in his own neighbourhood because Zimmerman thought he looked suspicious. Martin was unarmed. Zimmerman pled self-defence and a jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Trayvon was one of countless African Americans killed by America's ethnocidal society that sanctions terror from both the government and civilians.
The unjust killing of black people by the police and racist vigilantes remained the norm during Obama's presidency, but now the black community could record and document these crimes on video, and had a president who would defend them. Obama famously said: "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."
The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and other protests under Obama occurred because black Americans were confident that the White House would listen to their cries of "I can't breathe" and make American society finally equitable and just. Under Trump those cries have fallen on deaf ears and tensions have escalated.
Thousands of demonstrators march in response to George Floyd's death on June 2, 2020 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
America has much work to do to fix our racial tensions because our divisions and inequality are forged in our ethnocidal roots. We need to reform the policing of a nation nearly the size of a continent with over 300 million people, but we also need to make our education, healthcare, and housing systems, and every facet of our democracy more equitable.
Additionally, truth and reconciliation commissions, a national apology, reparations, holding evildoers accountable, and other processes nations have used to heal after a genocide, the linguistic sibling of ethnocide, will help America change course and forge equality and justice.
Also, America has rarely criminalised white supremacist hate and terror and instead has spent centuries normalising white terrorist groups, celebrating them as heroes, and letting them decide if their actions are evil or not. This is why the Confederacy is still celebrated today. Europe did not allow fascists and Nazis to determine if their actions were good or not, but America has always given this luxury to racist slave-owners and their generational apologists and offspring. This must change.
Rwanda, Germany, and South Africa have reckoned with their troubled past to make a better future, but America has long preferred to ignore the past, and proclaim the inevitability of progress.
America today must define and confront the Original Sin of slavery, ethnocide, and the cultural destruction it has inflicted upon all Americans, past and present. Otherwise we will fail to make a better future, and will continue our regression.
Barrett is a writer, journalist and filmmaker focusing on race, culture and politics
AFRICA

THE VIRUS OF RACISM IS THE LEGACY OF IMPERIALISM & COLONIALISM

#BLM: US cycle of racist violence resonates in Africa

Outrage over US racism resonates in Africa: Gambians want to kneel with black Americans, Zimbabweans are tackling the Trump administration, and South Africa is reflecting on its own police brutality.




Ghana

"We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate and tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head-on the problems of hate and racism," President Nana Akufo-Addo said.

People born in Ghana make up one of the biggest groups of Africans in the US.

"Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, said, 'Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them' #BLM," the Addison sisters who run a chocolate company in Accra tweeted.

Read more: African Americans face deadly endemic police violence in US

The Gambia

Human rights activists are organizing a protest outside the US Embassy in the capital, Banjul,to take place next week. Alieu Bah plans to be among the hundreds who will take a knee in silence.

"I'm participating to extend solidarity and to make all understand that we are all in the same struggle. Blackness is our common denominator. We must all come together to fight for a better world for all of us," Bah told DW.

The government of the Gambia is seeking clarity over the shooting of a Gambian citizen in Atlanta, Georgia, after a car chase with police. The victim has been named as Momodou Lamin Sisay, the son of a Gambian diplomat.

Sisay is alleged to have opened fire on police before he was shot. A police officer involved in his death is reportedly under investigation.

The strict COVID-19 lockdowns across Africa make venturing out to stage solidarity protests illegal.

Read more: Do coronavirus lockdowns in Africa make sense?

Uganda

The usually outspoken President Yoweri Museveni has not commented on the developments in the US, but citizens of the East African country have generously shared their views and condolences on the death of George Floyd. Eight-year-old musician Felista made a special tribute.

"I believe the protests are justified but the violence is too much. Burning police cars, attacking policemen and beating them up — I don't believe in that. The protests should continue, the violence should stop," Lubowa Francis told DW.

A Kampala resident expressed support for the US protest saying: "I think discrimination against the black race has been going on for such a long time and that's why you see that protesters have been joined by whites. I think discrimination against black Americans should be condemned."

Zimbabwe

A row between the southern African country and the United States erupted after President Donald Trump's national security advisor Robert O'Brien accused Zimbabwe, along with China, of using social media to stoke unrest in the US.

The government of Zimbabwe rejected the allegation, which came as US Ambassador Brian A. Nicols criticized not only the US but Zimbabwe too in a statement on George Floyd.

"Both America's and Zimbabwe's constitutions enshrine the right to free speech and peaceful protest... Yet, peaceful protesters Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri, and Netsai Marova were arrested abducted," he wrote. The US diplomat also called for justice for three government critics who disappeared under the Mugabe regime.

"Essentially, we hope it is a storm in a teacup," political analyst Takura Zhangazha told DW. "There is no way practically speaking Zimbabwe would have been involved in either influencing or accelerating any social media commentary on the riots against police brutality and racial oppression in the United States."

Zimbabwe is subject to US sanctions.

Read more: Zimbabwe sanctions: The government and the West play the blame game

South Africa

Citizens and politicians of the country where racism was once legislated and violently enforced have condemned the latest salvo of police brutality in the US.

The killing of George Floyd also sparked wider public debate over the killing of citizens by police and soldiers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In reply to a tweet by Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, one of his followers asked: "Our leaders are so quick to pledge their support to foreign countries when we have problems at our doorstep and those foreign countries aren't so vocal about our domestic issues!"

Petrus Miggels died after he was assaulted by police on the day South Africa's COVID-19 lockdown came into effect. Collins Khosa was allegedly beaten to death by soldiers in Johannesburg in the days that followed. Several other citizens in the country and elsewhere across Africa have since suffered similar fates.

Read more: Police brutality in South Africa

Omar Wally (in Banjul), Alex Gitta (in Kampala) and Privilege Musvanhiri (in Harare) contributed to this report.



IN PICTURES: US PROTESTS OVER GEORGE FLOYD, POLICE KILLINGS RAGE IN DOZENS OF CITIES
'I can't breathe'
Tense protests over decades of police brutality against black people have quickly spread from Minneapolis to cities across the US. The protests began in the Midwestern city earlier this week, after a police officer handcuffed and pressed a knee on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, until he stopped breathing and died. 1234567891011

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Is the coronavirus killing press freedom in Africa?

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Keywords #BLM, #BlackLivesMatter, George Floyd, Africa, US, racism, police brutality, Gambia, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Minneapolis

ENEMIES OF THE STATE

Journalists blinded, injured, arrested covering George Floyd protests nationwide

Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY


VIDEO AT THE END

As protests across the U.S. raged over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd, police forces aimed to disperse demonstrators.

In some incidents, members of the news media appeared to be targeted, by police and protesters alike.

“Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Authorities in cities across the U.S. need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.”

Unrest in America: Peaceful protesters lament violence at George Floyd demonstrations, but understand the rage behind it

The CPJ said it is investigating reports of attacks and arrests in Louisville, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

ENEMIES OF THE STATE 
U.S. police have arrested or attacked journalists more than 110 times since May 28, according to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit on behalf of a freelance journalist that alleges a pattern of attacks on journalists carried out by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol "tramples on the Constitution."

President Donald Trump has verbally attacked the media throughout his term. Saturday afternoon, he tweeted a message that "Fake News is the Enemy of the People." Sunday, he accused the media of "doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy."

Publisher of USA TODAY and president of news for the USA TODAY Network Maribel Wadsworth, editor in chief of USA TODAY Nicole Carroll and vice president of local news for the USA TODAY Network Amalie Nash called on Sunday for attacks on journalists to end.

"We must be able to do our jobs safely," they wrote. "We call for an immediate end to law enforcement harassment and targeting of journalists who are clearly identified, not interfering in police activity and just doing their jobs: Bringing truth to the American people."
USA TODAY Network journalists

Monday night, Asbury Park Press reporter Gustavo Martínez Contreras filmed an extraordinary moment as police and protesters took a knee together during a rally at Asbury Park. Officers moved to clear the streets of protesters who remained out past a citywide curfew when they arrested Martínez Contreras. He was issued a summons for failing to obey an order to disperse and was released from police custody early Tuesday morning.

Also on Monday, Delaware News Journal reporter Jeff Neiburg and video strategist Jenna Miller were covering protests in Philadelphia when they were detained for about two hours, despite showing their credentials several times and saying they were media. They were released shortly after 9 p.m. and won't be charged.

Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Patrick Brennan was briefly detained Monday evening by police while covering protests in the city. Media are essential workers and were exempt from the citywide curfew. Brennan was released without being charged. Cincinnati Police later apologized for the incident.

Late Sunday, Des Moines police arrested reporter Andrea Sahouri, of the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, for failure to disperse while she was covering the George Floyd demonstration at a local mall that turned violent.

In a video apparently recorded in a police transport vehicle while still at the Merle Hay Mall and then posted on Twitter, Sahouri said police sprayed her in the face with pepper spray after she identified herself as a member of the media. "I'm press. I'm press. I'm press," she said she told police.

KCCI earlier showed Sahouri sitting on a curb with her hands zip tied behind her back. It appeared she was wailing in pain from the pepper spray.

Another reporter who was with her at the event was not arrested but shared the same account with editors before Sahouri posted her video on Twitter.

Sahouri was released hours later and charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts.



On Saturday night, Branden Hunter, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, went to an emergency room in Detroit after police administered tear gas during a protest. A cellphone, which was livestreaming the event, was knocked from a Free Press photographer's hand.

Free Press reporter JC Reindl was taken to an emergency room after he was pepper sprayed, though he showed a badge identifying himself as a member of the media.

Molly Beck and Lawrence Andrea, USA TODAY Network reporters for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed early Sunday morning in Madison, Wisconsin.

Late Saturday night, Paul Woolverton, a reporter for the Fayetteville Observer, also part of the USA TODAY Network, was attacked while shooting video at a looting of a J.C. Penney in the area and was treated for a concussion at a hospital.

Tyler J. Davis, a Des Moines Register reporter, was in Minneapolis Thursday, detailing the night of demonstrations when he observed police using chemical irritants to subdue protesters.

"I pulled out my camera to record the incident while being sure not to walk toward officers or have any other items in my hand," Davis wrote in an essay for USA TODAY. "The officer redirected his chemical spray from the fleeing duo toward me."

Davis said the officer "laid on the trigger for a few seconds" as Davis told him he was a journalist.



"My eyes refused to open, and my face and arm felt as if they were dipped in a deep-fryer," he wrote.

According to USA TODAY reporter Natalie Neysa Alund, Louisville police shoved Memphis Commercial Appeal photographer Max Gersh twice with their batons.
Journalists covering peaceful protest in Lafayette pushed back with tear gas

While several journalists were covering a peaceful protest at Lafayette Square outside the White House on Monday evening, federal law enforcement cleared the area using tear gas and flash-bang grenades before a curfew took place in Washington, D.C. Several journalists, including members of the Australian press, were affected and pushed back.

The area had been cleared so that Trump could pose for a photo in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

On Tuesday, United States Park Police acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan issued a statement in which he said: "No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park," despite numerous witness reports of chemical irritants being used to disperse the crowd.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, says that "several different compounds" fall under the umbrella of the tear gas term.

"Riot control agents (sometimes referred to as 'tear gas') are chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs and skin," the CDC says on its website.

The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, who serves as rector at the St. John’s Episcopal Church, said she was at the scene Monday evening as a "peaceful presence in support of protesters," Religious News Service reported. Gerbsasi said she was there with another seminarian who "got tear gas in her eyes" and that after they fled, Gerbasi "was suddenly coughing from the tear gas."
Manhattan District Attorney to investigate attack on WSJ reporter

Wall Street Journal reporter Tyler Blint-Welsh tweeted Sunday night that New York Police Department hit him "in the face multiple times with riot shields" and pushed him to the ground.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. issued a statement Monday that said the office is "actively monitoring social media and other sources to identify investigative leads into claims of excessive force."
Student journalists pepper sprayed

Three student journalists for The Lantern, the school newspaper of Ohio State University, were pepper sprayed Monday night while covering protests in Columbus, Ohio, after they identified themselves as media. News media were exempt from the curfew imposed by Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.
National reporter arrested; broadcasts interrupted

Protesters pummeled and chased Fox News journalist Leland Vittert outside the White House early Saturday.

Vittert said the attack clearly targeted his news organization. "We took a good thumping," he told The Associated Press.

His live shot was interrupted by protesters at Lafayette Park in Washington, who shouted obscenities directed at Fox. Flanked by two security guards, he and photographer Christian Galdabini walked away, trailed by an angry group before riot police dispersed them.

"The protesters stopped protesting whatever it was they were protesting and turned on us, and that was a very different feeling," Vittert said.

Friday in Minneapolis, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was arrested while covering protests.

Jimenez and his crew were arrested on air by members of the Minnesota State Patrol after identifying themselves and showing their press credentials.

"We are live on the air at the moment. ... Just put us back where you want us, just let us know. Wherever you want us, just let us know," Jimenez told police officers before one came behind him with handcuffs. “Do you mind telling me why I’m under arrest, sir?"

After getting identification information from himself and his crew, he said, "they eventually came back with our belongings … unclipped our handcuffs" and led the crew out.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz apologized at a news conference and said he takes "full responsibility" for the incident.

"There is absolutely no reason something like this should happen," he told journalists. "This is a very public apology to that team."

CNN's headquarters in Atlanta was damaged Friday by a group of protesters who fought with police and set cars afire. While police tried to keep them away from the CNN Center, demonstrators broke windows and scrawled obscene graffiti on the network's logo.
Saturday night, MSNBC journalist Ali Velshi wrote on Twitter that he was "hit in the leg by a rubber bullet" in Minneapolis but was fine. "State Police supported by National guard fired unprovoked into an entirely peaceful rally," he said.
'Fired tear gas ... at point blank range'

Los Angeles Times journalist Molly Hennessy-Fiske said Saturday evening that she was at the 5th Precinct in Minneapolis with "at least a dozen" journalists when members of the Minnesota State Patrol advanced toward the group. She said the journalists identified themselves, but officers "fired tear gas canisters on us at point-blank range."

Hennessy-Fiske said they asked officers where they should go to avoid dispersal tactics. "They did not tell us where to go," she said. "They did not direct us. They just fired on us."

She said she "got hit with a rubber bullet ... maybe two."


Reuters producer Julio César Chávez said early Sunday morning that he "was shot in the arm and the back of my neck with rubber bullets" and his security adviser "was shot in the face," though a gas mask protected him.

Another Reuters photographer, Lucas Jackson, said that late Saturday night in Minneapolis a man disguised as a medic attacked him with a crowbar, breaking the camera he was using to document the protests. He was "a white man with a Red Cross on his chest who came out of nowhere," Jackson said.

Vice News correspondent and producer Michael Anthony Adams shared video of Minneapolis troopers approaching him and several other journalists Sunday morning at a gas station where they had taken shelter. Though he shouted "press" multiple times, one officer ordered him on the ground before another came and pepper sprayed him.


ENEMIES OF THE STATE

'Shocking moment': Australian minister seeks probe of US police hitting reporter covering White House protest



WASHINGTON – The outrage over Monday's chaotic move to clear peaceful protesters from a park in front of the White House is not limited to religious leaders and lawmakers.

Australian officials expressed alarm after a U.S. law enforcement officer hit an Australian reporter who was covering the protests outside the White House and got caught up on the scramble to flee.

In the incident – carried live on Australian television – a federal law enforcement official can be seen slamming a shield into the cameraman and then punching the journalist with his fist. The cameraman, Tim Myers, appears stunned by the attack, as does the reporter with him, Amelia Brace, who both work for the Australia's Channel Seven news.

"Quite violent," Brace says as she tries to regain her composure during the broadcast.



Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she had directed her country's ambassador to the U.S. to investigate the incident and figure out how to register Australia's "strong concerns" with American officials in Washington.

"It's a very serious matter," Payne told an Australian radio outlet Tuesday. Foreign Policy magazine first reported her push for an investigation.

On Wednesday, United States Park Police acting Chief Gregory Monahan announced two officers involved were assigned administrative duties.

"As is consistent with our established practices and procedures, two U.S. Park Police officers have been assigned to administrative duties, while an investigation takes place regarding the incident with the Australian Press," Monahan said in a statement.

Australia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Arthur Sinodinos, said he had reached out to the U.S. State Department for help with the matter.

"I understand that Channel 7 will make a formal police complaint asking to have the matter investigated," Sinodinos said in a statement Tuesday. "We are in discussion with the State Department, and they have offered assistance to identify where the complaint should be targeted."

"... Australia is always supportive of people’s right to peaceful protest and we encourage all involved to exercise restraint and to avoid violence," the ambassador added.


The incident happened on Monday evening as federal officials moved to clear a park across from the White House, so that President Donald Trump could walk to a church across the street, where he posed for pictures with a Bible.

Law enforcement officials used chemical irritants, flash bangs and other methods to force peaceful protesters out of the park, in a move that has sparked widespread outrage.

"We’ve just had to run about a block as police moved in," Brace says just before her cameraman is hit. The video goes wobbly as he drops the video camera.

"Woah," said one of the anchors. "Amelia, are you okay – or your camera man?"

Brace then notes that she identified herself as a reporter but said the police are not distinguishing between protesters and journalists.

"Watch the shocking moment #7NEWS reporter @AmeliaBrace and our cameraman were knocked over by a police officer LIVE on air after chaos erupted in Washington DC," the Australian network posted on Twitter.

ENEMIES OF THE STATE 

Opinion: Press freedom — we will not stop reporting

DW reporters often face police aggression in African countries or Russia. But being under police fire in the motherland of modern democracy is a novelty, says DW Editor-in-Chief Manuela Kasper-Claridge.


VIDEO 'You’re going to get maced!' Police threaten DW reporter
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dCEl

Recent images of police violence directed at free and independent journalists in the US are extremely disturbing. We journalists, however, are not intimidated. Take my colleague Stefan Simons, who was apparently shot at with a rubber bullet from within a group of police officers, and who went on air live immediately afterward, commenting on the incident. The Bellingcat investigative research website says more than 100 journalists have fallen victim to police violence in the US over the past few days. One of them was Linda Tirado, a photographer, who lost an eye to a rubber bullet.

Read more: US attack on press freedom gains supporters

Those who block us journalists will fail because free and independent reporting is part of democracy's DNA — of course, this is also true in the US, which holds only the 45th place in the Reporters Without Borders ranking of freedom of the press. Journalists in the US now operate in a hostile climate, fueled by verbal attacks by the US president. This has to stop!

Regardless, attempts at intimidation and defamation will remain unsuccessful. We take risks to report on police violence, abuse of power or political failure because everyone has the right to information, even if some people don't like it. Every attack on an individual reporter is an attack on everyone's freedom. We must defend ourselves against the obstruction of free and independent reporting with every constitutional tool available.

Read more: Journalists under threat: June's 10 most urgent cases

DW Editor-in-Chief Manuela Kasper-Claridge

Deutsche Welle has lodged a formal complaint with the US Embassy over the threat to its correspondent and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is demanding the US protect the freedom of the press. Maas also announced plans to investigate the attacks. That's a good thing. In view of the abuses, it is important to keep the broader public informed. Where reporters are hindered from doing their jobs, other rights are also quickly put at risk. So we will continue to provide information about what is happening in the US, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany — and around the globe. We will not let anyone take this freedom from us



DW team in Minneapolis met with police hostility
Once again, DW reporter Sefan Simons has been threatened by police while reporting on the scene in Minneapolis. Although he repeatedly explained that he was from the press and had permission, officers directed their weapons at him, forcing him to leave.
VIDEO
https://www.dw.com/en/dw-team-in-minneapolis-met-with-police-hostility/av-53648098


VIDEO
Germany to take up DW reporter incident with US
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dCEl


DW team confronted by Minneapolis police during nighttime curfew
A DW reporter and his camera operator have been shot at with projectiles by Minneapolis police and threatened with arrest. Reporter Stefan Simons confirmed with "absolute" certainty that the shot was fired by officers behind him as he was preparing to go live on air.

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Videos
Germany 'shocked' by George Floyd killing, calls for end to violence

Germany's government has commented on the ongoing protests in the United States, saying societies around the world need to address racism, and that Berlin believes in the strength of US democracy in overcoming unrest.



As widespread protests continued in dozens of US cities over the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, a German government spokesperson on Wednesday said Germany was "shocked" by the "horrific and avoidable" death, adding that societies around the world need to do more to address racism.

"Racism is certainly not an American problem, rather a problem in many societies, and I am sure that there is also racism in Germany," the spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, told a press conference in Berlin.

"Every society, including ours, is called upon to continually work against this," he added.

Read more: Opinion: George Floyd killing opens racism wounds for European blacks

On May 25, George Floyd was killed after a confrontation with police in the northern city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, during which an officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes.

The officer has since been charged with murder, and the incident has sparked violent clashes in multiple cities between police and protesters, who have taken to the streets to call for an end to police brutality and racism.

American democracy is 'strong'

Seibert said the German government is closely following the ongoing unrest in the US with "sympathy" and hopes that violence will end soon, as Germany has a close, long-standing relationship with the US.

He added that Germany was confident that the democratic values in the US and the "rule of law" would prevail.

Read more: Germany's top diplomat: George Floyd protests 'legitimate,' urges press freedom

"America is a strong democracy," Seibert said, adding that there is a vocal and pluralistic debate in US media about racism, police brutality, and the ensuing protests.

"It goes without us saying that there is a heated debate over everything that is happening now."


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#BLM: US cycle of racist violence resonates in Africa

Outrage over US racism resonates in Africa: Gambians want to kneel with black Americans, Zimbabweans are tackling the Trump administration, and South Africa is reflecting on its own police brutality. (03.06.2020)


Date 03.06.2020
Related Subjects Germany
Keywords George Floyd, police violence, Germany
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"You Don’t Think That Don’t Affect Us”: Black Cops Talk To Black Protesters About George Floyd’s Killing

“Just because we have this on doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion about what happened. You are putting all of us in a bottle together,” one officer told protesters.

Reporting From Washington, DC Posted on June 3, 2020,

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / Getty Images
Two members of the Secret Service walk toward the White House.


WASHINGTON — When a black Secret Service agent protecting the White House handed her white colleague a bottle of water, a protester yelled at her from 50 feet away, “I bet you get his lunch, too.”

That insult was not unusual. In another weekend incident, black men protecting the White House faced taunts from protesters calling them “slaves” and “house niggers.” Other protesters antagonized black law enforcement officers by calling them “Uncle Toms” for protecting President Donald Trump.

Across the country, protests have been marked by chants and confrontations, but the interactions between black protesters and black law enforcement officers have been especially complex.

One encounter during Saturday night’s protests stood out, going beyond those jabs into a deeper discussion about motives and beliefs, when four black law enforcement officers monitoring the protests near the White House told two young black men, “Everybody is not the same.”

“You’re a protester,” one of the black officers said to a young black man. “I’m not going to do anything because you’re protesting — but when you start burning stuff, doing crazy stuff, throwing stuff at people, what do you think you’re going to get back?”

The protester, who declined to be interviewed for this story, insisted the officer weigh in on the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody. “We’re talking about the incident that we’re protesting,” he said.

“Yes, we wear uniforms,” the officer responded. “Yes, we took an oath to do certain things, but we have feelings just like you. The thing about it is, just because we have this on doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion about what happened. You are putting all of us in a bottle together. Everybody is not the same. That’s what you have to realize. You don’t know where I came from.”

A second black officer interjected.

“Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. You don’t think that don’t affect us — somebody that looks like us that’s hurt like that. But y’all come out here calling us slaves,” he said.

“We have an opinion just like you,” the first black police officer told the protesters.

At this point, each officer seemed resolved to convince the young men that not only were they insulted by some of the rhetoric coming from black protesters, but they were on the same side of the argument. “Do we think what happened was right? No.”

A third officer chimed in, “I’ve been a cop for a long time. My little brother’s a cop. My father retired as a cop. My uncle — cops all over — we got feelings too.”

One of the protesters responded that he also had police officers in his family, one of whom had left the police force because he felt he was “complicit in the wrong things,” he said.

After an officer suggested lawyers and doctors face the same scrutiny as police officers. The protester shot back. “Yeah. Sure, but if a lawyer fuck up, everyone’s going to say it’s wrong. If a doctor fuck up, other docs say it’s wrong, and they’re going to take his license. When this happens with police officers, everybody just…,” he said, his voice trailing off.

The remaining two officers left abruptly when a white officer came over. “We up,” one of the officers said to the two protesters as they walked away.


MORE ON THIS
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Claudia Koerner · June 1, 2020
Kadia Goba · June 2, 2020
Adolfo Flores · May 31, 2020



Kadia Goba is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.



Gambia demands probe after US police shoot dead diplomat's son


BBC JUNE 3, 2020
Placard saying "stop killing black and brown people" in front of Trump tower

The Gambia has demanded a "credible" investigation after the son of a diplomat was shot dead by US police.

Thirty-nine-year-old Momodou Lamin Sisay was shot after a car chase in Georgia on Friday morning, according to the preliminary investigation by Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

He was pronounced dead on the scene. The police said he had produced a gun.

The shooting comes amid widespread protests after a US police officer killed George Floyd last week.

hat happened to Sisay?

Georgia investigators said that at approximately 03:49 in the morning, a police officer in Snellville, Georgia attempted to stop his vehicle but the vehicle did not stop, and a pursuit ensued.

"Officers approached the vehicle and gave verbal commands for the driver to show his hands. The driver did not comply... the driver pointed a handgun at the officers. Officers fired at the driver and pulled back to take cover behind their patrol vehicles," investigators said.

A Swat team was called and "during the standoff, the driver pointed his weapon and fired at the SWAT officers. One GCPD SWAT officer fired his weapon", they added.

Lare Sisay, the victim's father who works at the United Nations, said the police did not do enough to peacefully resolve the situation, and also disputed that he had a gun, according to local media.

"We will do an independent autopsy and we want to get a private investigator to investigate the circumstances of his death and if necessary hire a lawyer to sue the Georgia state police. We're not going to let it go," The Point newspaper quotes him as saying.

On Tuesday The Gambia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked its embassy in Washington DC to "engage the relevant US authorities including the State Department to seek transparent, credible and objective investigation".

Mr Sisay's name has been used in social media posts this week supporting the campaign against US police brutality against black people.

Protests have been taking place across the US following the death of Mr Floyd, an African-American man, who died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Mr Chauvin has been sacked from the police force and charged with murder.
George Floyd death

Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Malaria drug touted by Trump fails to prevent COVID-19 in high profile study


(Reuters) - The malaria drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 was ineffective in preventing infection in people exposed to the coronavirus, according to a widely anticipated clinical trial released on Wednesday.

The new trial found no serious side effects or heart problems from use of hydroxychloroquine.


Vocal support from Trump kicked off a heated debate and raised expectations for the decades-old drug that could be a cheap and widely available tool in fighting the pandemic that has infected more than 6.4 million people and killed over 382,000 worldwide

In the first major study comparing hydroxychloroquine to a placebo to gauge its effect against the new coronavirus, University of Minnesota researchers tested 821 people who had recently been exposed to the virus or lived in a high-risk household.

It found 11.8% of subjects given hydroxychloroquine developed symptoms 
compatible with COVID-19, compared with 14.3%who got a placebo. That difference was not statistically significant, meaning the drug was no better than placebo.

“Our data is pretty clear that for post exposure, this does not really work,” said Dr. David Boulware, the trial’s lead researcher and an infectious disease physician at the University of Minnesota.

Several trials of the drug have been stopped over concerns about its safety for treating COVID-19 that were raised by health regulators and previous less rigorous studies.

“I think both sides - one side who is saying ‘this is a dangerous drug’ and the other side that says ‘this works’ - neither is correct,” said Boulware.

The results were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In March, Trump said hydroxychloroquine used in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin had “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” with little evidence to back up that claim. He later said he took the drugs preventively after two people who worked at the White House were diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Hydroxychloroquine - which has anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties - inhibited the virus in laboratory experiments. But these type of human trials are needed to definitively demonstrate whether the drug’s benefits, if any, outweigh the risks when compared with a placebo.

Proponents of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment argue it may need to be administered at an earlier stage in the disease to be effective. Others have suggested that it needs to be used in combination with the mineral zinc, which can help boost the immune system.

More than 20% of the trial subjects also took zinc, which had no significant effect.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned in late April against the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients with heart disease due to an increased risk of dangerous cardiac rhythm problems.

Boulware said his trial had fewer participants than initially planned because of difficulty enrolling new subjects after the FDA’s warning.

On Tuesday, the British medical journal the Lancet said it had concerns about data behind an influential article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients, a conclusion that undercut scientific interest in the medicine.

Boulware was one of the signatories of an open letter from doctors that called attention to potential problems with that study.

Some European governments banned hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients, and U.S. hospitals have significantly cut back its use.


In the University of Minnesota trial, 40% of the those who took hydroxychloroquine reported less serious side effects like nausea and abdominal discomfort versus 17% in the placebo group.

Results of another University of Minnesota placebo-controlled trial testing hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment rather than to prevent infection is expected soon.