AP FACT CHECK: Trump exaggerations on blacks’ economic gains

By CALVIN WOODWARD, HOPE YEN and ARIJETA LAJKAtoday



1 of 10 https://apnews.com/16a926cc5f932d984a16646fbdf7f4ea
President Donald Trump listens as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is exaggerating economic gains for African Americans during his administration.

He claims full credit for achieving the best economic figures for blacks across the board. That’s not accurate. Black unemployment did reach a low last year, but much of the progress came during the Obama administration. Household median income also was higher for blacks prior to Trump taking office.

Trump also asserts that Friday’s unemployment report was a triumph in “equality,” making it a “great day” for George Floyd, whose death has spurred protests against racial inequality. But black unemployment actually increased, while declining for whites.

The statements came in a week of alternate realities put forth by Trump and his team.

Taking measure of the nation’s capital following demonstrations involving injured police, gagging protesters and shattered storefronts, Trump exclaimed: “Washington, D.C., was the safest place on earth last night!”

He and aides denied that authorities in Washington used tear gas against protesters, who fled from chemical clouds that looked like tear gas, stung eyes like it and met the dictionary definition of it.

And when “Mad Dog Mattis” snapped at him, Trump falsely claimed to have fired him as defense secretary and to have given him that nickname.

A look at some of his claims:

BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT

TRUMP: “What we’re announcing today is a tremendous tribute to equality. We’re bringing our jobs back.” — remarks Friday to reporters.

THE FACTS: The joblessness figures in Friday’s report did not improve uniformly across racial and ethnic groups.

The unemployment rate did decline last month for white workers, to 12.4% from 14.2% in April, as well as for Latinos, to 17.6% from 18.9%.

But joblessness actually rose slightly for African American workers, to 16.8% from 16.7%. For Asian Americans, it increased to 15% from 14.5%
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TRUMP, on the economy before the pandemic: “We had the best numbers for African Americans on employment and unemployment in history ... best everything.” — Fox News interview Wednesday

THE FACTS: True on unemployment. Not true by a long shot on “everything” in the economy.

Black unemployment reached a record low during the Trump administration, 5.4% in August, as the longest economic expansion in history pressed ahead.

Most of the progress came when Barack Obama was president: Black unemployment dropped from a recession high of 16.8% in March 2010 to 7.8% in January 2017. Improvement continued under Trump until the pandemic. Black unemployment reached 16.8% in May, compared with 13.3% for the overall population.

Not all economic measures improved for African Americans under Trump before the pandemic. A black household earned median income of $41,361 in 2018, the latest data available. That’s below a 2000 peak of $43,380, a

ECONOMY



TRUMP: Prior to the pandemic, “we had the most people working in the history of our cou


THE FACTS: Yes, but that’s because of population growth.



A more relevant measure is the proportion of Americans with jobs, and that never came close to record highs.



According to Labor Department data, 61.2% of people in the United States 16 years and older were working in January. That’s below the all-time high of 64.7% in April 2000, though higher than the 59.9% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.



That figure currently stands at 52.8%



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CONSPIRACY THEORY



WHITE HOUSE: “Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror.” — tweet Wednesday, with a video showing collections of bricks and stones as if stockpiled for attacks.



THE FACTS: The tweet’s evidence of malfeasance was bogus.



The video contained multiple clips showing brick or stone for construction projects and the like, not for a nefarious plot. One clip captured rocks encased in wire frames. Those are actually a protective barrier outside Chabad of Sherman Oaks, a synagogue on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, to stop vehicles from ramming the building.



“They’ve been there for about a year,” Rabbi Mendel Lipskier of the synagogue told The Associated Press. “THESE ARE SECURITY BARRIERS,” the synagogue said in a statement reassuring neighbors and friends.



Last Monday, posts had circulated on social media with photos of that gabion wall, falsely describing the stones as being left on Ventura Boulevard “for the next round of Antifa riots” and saying such “drop offs” were being repeated around the country.



That conspiracy theory fed into the White House tweet two days later as Trump and others brushed aside the peaceful nature of most of the protesting, highlighted the violence and portrayed the unrest as overwhelmingly the work of radicals. The White House later deleted the tweet and video without explanation.



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CAPITAL CHAOS



TRUMP: “They didn’t use tear gas.” — Fox News Radio on Wednesday, referring to the previous night’s demonstrations outside the White House.



KAYLEIGH McENANY, White House press secretary: “No tear gas was used. ... No one was tear-gassed. Let me make that clear.” — briefing Wednesday.



THE FACTS: People were tear-gassed.



Authorities acknowledged using pepper compound fired in plastic balls. Scientific sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, list dispersed pepper as a tear gas. Officers also fired projectiles containing chemicals that likewise meet the common and scientific definitions of tear gas.



People scattered in the stinging fog, coughing and gagging, some with eyes red and streaming.



“Tear gas is anything that makes you cry,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, speaking of chemicals used in crowd dispersal. “Pepper spray is a tear gas. But there are all kinds of other ones, too.”



Dr. Sven-Eric Jordt, who researches tear gas agents and chemical exposure injuries at the Duke University School of Medicine, said newer compounds, categorized as OC agents, might or might not fit a traditional scientific definition of tear gas but are as potent and have the same effects. CS and CN are classic categories of tear gasses.



WUSA9, a CBS affiliate in Washington, reported that its journalists found spent OC and CS canisters on the street immediately after authorities cleared the protest; one canister was still warm.



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TRUMP: “Washington, D.C., was the safest place on earth last night!” — tweet and Facebook post Tuesday.



THE FACTS: Obviously untrue.



The crackdown on peaceful as well as violent protesters, the injuries to police who were attacked, the fortifications around the White House, the phalanx lining the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the threat of looting and vandalism in neighborhoods well away from the militarized scene all spoke to the dangers of the night.



More than half a dozen federal agencies joined in the effort to bring order. Among them, the U.S. Park Police said Tuesday that 51 of its members were injured over the previous four days of demonstrations.



During that time, Trump had warned that anyone getting past White House security would face “the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons.” At one point early in the confrontations, Secret Service agents spirited Trump to a White House bunker.



Last Monday night and other nights, Washington was not the safest place on Earth. The White House may have been the safest place in Washington.



___



MAD DOG



TRUMP: “Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General.” — tweet Wednesday.



THE FACTS: No, what Trump and Obama have in common is that Mattis resigned under them. They did not fire him.



As Obama’s head of Central Command and Trump’s defense secretary, Mattis disagreed with elements of administration policy. This past week he also voiced anger over what he regards as Trump’s divisive, immature leadership.



The retired four-star Marine general announced in December 2018 that he would step down in as defense secretary in two months.“General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction,” Trump tweeted then, praising his tenure. Then Trump flipped his tone, cut short Mattis’ remaining time and started claiming that he’d fired him.



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TRUMP: “His nickname was ‘Chaos’, which I didn’t like, & changed to ‘Mad Dog.’” — tweet Wednesday.



THE FACTS: No, he didn’t change Mattis’ nickname to Mad Dog. Mattis had been called that for more than a decade before joining the Trump administration.



He was also known by his military call sign Chaos when he was a Marine colonel. Mattis joked that it stood for “Colonel Has An Outstanding Solution.”



___



VIRUS TESTING



TRUMP: “We have incredible testing now. So we’ve done a great job.” — interview Wednesday on Fox’s “Brian Kilmeade Show.”



TRUMP, on coordination with states: “We jointly developed testing projections and goals for each state for the month of May, altogether totaling 12.9 million tests. Think of that: 12.9 million tests.” — news briefing on May 11.



THE FACTS: U.S. testing has been far from “incredible.” It was a failure in the crucial early weeks, U.S. officials acknowledged, meaning missed opportunity to limit the spread of the virus before infection and death surged.



Brett Giroir, the lead federal official on testing, said Thursday that the U.S. conducted about 12 million tests in May, falling 900,000 short of the administration’s target for the month.



Trump has repeatedly overstated the availability of U.S. testing, falsely declaring in March, in the midst of dire shortages, “Anybody who wants a test, can get a test.”



Now, the availability of tests varies widely. Some governors and local officials say they have more tests available than people who want them. Others say they can’t meet the demand. That’s the case at the Department of Veterans Affairs, for example.



___



Lajka reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Ashraf Khalil, Lolita Baldor and Robert Burns contributed to this report.



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EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.



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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck



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U.S. News Police back off as peaceful protests push deep reforms

By JAKE SEINER, LISA MARIE PANE and KIMBERLEE KRUESI

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Khai Rieara, 10, left, and his brother Keanu Rieara, 12, of Frederick, Md., stand on the Black Lives Matter banner that is draped on the fence surrounding Lafayette Park, for a photograph as they attend a protest Sunday, June 7, 2020, near the White House in Washington over the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by police in Minneapolis. "Keanu has been talking about it a lot," said his mother, "he feels it's inhuman what happened to George Floyd, that nobody helped him and that he didn't deserve that. He wants to know if that's going to happen to him." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Calls for deep police reforms gained momentum as leaders in the city where George Floyd died at the hands of police pushed to dismantle the entire department.

Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests demanding a reckoning with institutional racism that have sometimes resulted in clashes with police, but many officers took a less aggressive stance over the weekend when demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful


Two weeks after Floyd, an out-of-work black bouncer, died after a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council vowed to dismantle the 800-member agenc


“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” City Council President Lisa Bender said Sunday. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”



On Monday, Derek Chauvin — the officer filmed pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck and one of four to be fired from the department in the aftermath of Floyd’s death — is scheduled to make his first court appearance since the charge against him was upgraded to second-degree murder.



This is not the first time an American city has wrestled with how to deal with a police department accused of being overly aggressive or having bias in its ranks. In Ferguson, Missouri — where a white officer in 2014 fatally shot Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old — then-Attorney General Eric Holder said federal authorities considered dismantling the police department. The city eventually reached an agreement short of that but one that required massive reforms.

The state of Minnesota has launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, and the first concrete changes came when the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints.

On Sunday, nine of the Minneapolis City Council’s 12 members vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Mayor Jacob Frey said he doesn’t support the “full abolition” of the department.

Protesters nationwide are demanding police reforms and a reckoning with institutional racism in response to Floyd’s death, and calls to “defund the police” have become rallying cries for many. A heavy-handed response to demonstrations in many places has underscored what critics have maintained: Law enforcement is militarized and too often uses excessive force.

Cities imposed curfews as several protests last week were marred by spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. More than 10,000 people have been arrested around the country since protests began, according to reports tracked by The Associated Press. Videos have surfaced of officers in riot gear using tear gas or physical force against even peaceful demonstrators.

But U.S. protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful — and over the weekend, several police departments appeared to retreat from aggressive tactics.

Several cities have also lifted curfews, including Chicago and New York City, where the governor urged protesters to get tested for the virus and to proceed with caution until they had. Leaders around the country have expressed concern that demonstrations could lead to an increase in coronavirus cases.

For the first time since protests began in New York more than a week ago, most officers Sunday were not wearing riot helmets as they watched over rallies. Police moved the barricades at the Trump hotel at Columbus Circle for protesters so they could pass through.

Officers in some places in the city casually smoked cigars or ate ice cream and pizza. Some officers shook hands and posed for photos with motorcyclists at one rally.

In Compton, California, several thousand protesters, some on horseback, peacefully demonstrated through the city, just south of Los Angeles. The only law enforcement presence was about a dozen sheriff’s deputies, who watched without engaging.

In Washington, D.C., National Guard troops from South Carolina were seen checking out of their hotel Sunday shortly before President Donald Trump tweeted he was giving the order to withdraw them from the nation’s capital.

Things weren’t as peaceful in Seattle, where the mayor and police chief had said they were trying to deescalate tensions. Police used flash bang devices and pepper spray to disperse protesters after rocks, bottles and explosives were thrown at officers Saturday night. On Sunday night, a man drove a car at protesters, hit a barricade then exited the vehicle brandishing a pistol, authorities said. A 27-year-old male was shot and taken to a hospital in stable condition, the Seattle Fire Department said.

Dual crises — the coronavirus pandemic and the protests — have weighed particularly heavily on the black community, which has been disproportionately affected by the virus, and also exposed deep political fissures in the U.S. during this presidential election year.

Trump’s leadership during both has been called into question by Democrats and a few Republicans who viewed his response to COVID-19 as too little, too late, and his reaction to protests as heavy handed and insensitive.

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah marched in a protest in Washington against police mistreatment of minorities, making him the first known Republican senator to do so.

“We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality,” Romney, who represents Utah, told NBC News.

On Sunday, Floyd’s body arrived in Texas for a third and final memorial service, said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. A viewing is planned for Monday in Houston, followed by a service and burial Tuesday in suburban Pearland.

Seiner reported from New York, Pane from Boise, Idaho, and Kruesi from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writers around the world contribute

UNHEARD OF 
Minneapolis City Council majority announces plan to disband police department

VIDEO BELOW

June 7 (UPI) -- A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council announced a plan to defund the city's police department on Sunday.

Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender and Council Vice President Andre Jenkins were joined by other council members and activists from Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block as they announced the plan to disband the Minneapolis Police Department through the funding process at a rally following the police-involved killing of George Floyd by an MPD officer.

"It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe," said Bender. "Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period."

Council Members Alondra Cano, Jeremiah Ellison, Steve Fletcher, Cam Gordon and Jeremy Schroder also attended the rally as they formed a nine-member veto-proof supermajority pledging their support to disband the police department and replace it with community-based public safety.

RELATED Hundreds gather at George Floyd memorial service in North Carolina

"Our commitment is to end our city's toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it and to re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe," said Bender.

The announcement came after the city council on Friday voted to approve a measure banning police from using choke holds and other neck restraints and requiring MPD officers to immediately report any instances of unauthorized use of force by fellow officers and attempt to intervene.

On Wednesday, Minnesota authorities escalated the charge against MPD officer Derek Chauvin, the officer seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as he gasped for air, from third-degree murder to second-degree murder.

They also arrested the other three officers present at the scene and charged them with aiding and abetting murder in the second-degree.

All four officers had been fired after Floyd was killed while they arrested him outside a Cup Foods store on May 25 when a clerk reported that he used a counterfeit $20 bill.

Global protests erupted following news of Floyd's death calling for police reforms and en end to systemic racism.

 

Minneapolis leaders vote in favor of police reforms; ban choke holds

City Council President Lisa Bender has promised to "dismantle" the Minneapolis police force.

By Don Jacobson & Danielle Haynes
(0)


Activists rally during a demonstration Thursday against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

June 5 (UPI) -- The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday on a measure that bans police from using choke holds and other neck restraints in response to the death of George Floyd and national civil unrest.

The changes were the result of an emergency session of the city council and Minnesota Department of Civil Rights, which is conducting an investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department.

Under the new order, MPD officers must immediately report any instances of unauthorized use of force by fellow officers and attempt to intervene. Certain crowd control weapons, including chemical agents, rubber bullets and marking rounds, can only be used with approval by the police chief. Use of such weapons must also include documentation.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey immediately signed the agreement, which must also be approved by a judge.

RELATED Judge sets bail at $1M for three Minneapolis officers

"This is a moment in time where we can totally change the way our police department operates," Frey said during the meeting, which was live streamed. "We can quite literally lead the way in our nation enacting more police reform than any other city in the entire country and we cannot fail."

Minnesota Department of Civil Rights began a comprehensive investigation of the MPD this week on orders from Gov. Tim Walz.

"We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety," Council President Lisa Bender tweeted before Friday's meeting.

State authorities on Wednesday upgraded a third-degree murder charge against former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin to murder in the second degree, and levied charges against the other three officers involved in Floyd's May 25 arrest.

The other former officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Chauvin's first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

Anger toward the MPD has come from local activists and politicians since Floyd's death. Some have proposed reforms to defund the department and others say community members should be allowed to participate in collective bargaining negotiations with the police union.
RELATED George Floyd autopsy shows he tested positive for COVID-19

Protesters demand justice in police killing of George Floyd


A protester waves a Black Lives Matter flag near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on June 6. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo


Minneapolis council majority backs disbanding police force today
 
In this Sept. 8, 2017, file photo, newly appointed Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo takes the oath of office as his daughter Nyasia looks on during a public swearing-in ceremony, in Minneapolis. George Floyd’s death and the protests it ignited nationwide over racial injustice and police brutality have raised questions about whether Arradondo — or any chief — can fix a department that's now facing a civil rights investigation. (Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city’s police department, an aggressive stance that comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George Floyd’s death.

Nine of the council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would “dismantle” the department.

“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” Lisa Bender, the council president, said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”

Bender went on to say she and the eight other council members that joined the rally are committed to ending the city’s relationship with the police force and “to end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.”

Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died May 25 after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, ignoring his “I can’t breathe” cries and holding it there even after Floyd stopped moving. His death sparked protests — some violent, many peaceful — that spread nationwide.

Community activists have criticized the Minneapolis department for years for what they say is a racist and brutal culture that resists change. The state of Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of the department last week, and the first concrete changes came Friday in a stipulated agreement in which the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints.

A more complete remaking of the department is likely to unfold in coming months.

Disbanding an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.

It was a step that then-Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department was considering for Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. The city eventually reached an agreement short of that but one that required massive reforms overseen by a court-appointed mediator.

The move to defund or abolish the Minneapolis department is far from assured, with the civil rights investigation likely to unfold over the next several months.

On Saturday, activists for defunding the department staged a protest outside Mayor Jacob Frey’s home. Frey came out to talk with them.

“I have been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this,” Frey said. When pressed on whether he supported their demands, Frey said: “I do not support the full abolition of the police department.”

He left to booing.

At another march Saturday during which leaders called for defunding the department, Verbena Dempster said she supported the idea.

“I think, honestly, we’re too far past” the chance for reform, Dempster told Minnesota Public Radio. “We just have to take down the whole system.”

 In this May 28, 2020, file photo, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, center, listens as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey becomes emotional during a news conference in Minneapolis, Minn. George Floyd’s death and the protests it ignited nationwide over racial injustice and police brutality have raised questions about whether Arradondo — or any chief — can fix a department that's now facing a civil rights investigation. (Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via AP, File)

Jake Paul Has Been Charged In Connection With The Looting Of An Arizona Mall

RICH WHITE GUY LOOTS

WELL WHO DID YOU THINK WAS LOOTING BUT A WANNABE THUG

Paul, 23, is facing two misdemeanor charges, criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, after he was filmed among looters at the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.

David MackBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 4, 2020


Leon Bennett / Getty Images

YouTuber Jake Paul has been charged by authorities in Arizona in connection with the looting of a Scottsdale mall over the weekend amid protests against police brutality.

Paul, 23, is facing two misdemeanor charges, criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, according to a news release from the Scottsdale Police Department provided to BuzzFeed News.
In now-deleted footage shot by his videographer Andrew Blue, Paul is seen walking through the closed, largely empty Scottsdale Fashion Square mall on Saturday night as people around him started vandalizing stores.

The footage went viral and police said they "received hundreds of tips and videos" identifying the "social media influencer...as a participant in the riot."



Mo@mograsmick

@fluffysmolcloud Here’s the deleted video07:39 AM - 31 May 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite



"Our investigation has revealed that Paul was present after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly and the rioters were ordered to leave the area by the police," said police. "Paul also unlawfully entered and remained inside of the mall when it was closed."

Paul has maintained he did not participate in any looting or vandalism and was only there to film events.

"We were strictly documenting, not engaging," he wrote. "I do not condone violence, looting, or breaking the law."



Jake Paul@jakepaul

04:27 PM - 31 May 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite


The videos of Paul did not show him vandalizing or stealing, but he could be seen being handed a bottle of alcohol that appeared to be stolen from a PF Chang's restaurant.

Sgt. Ben Hoster of the Scottsdale Police Department told BuzzFeed News Paul was issued a summons to appear in court in a month.

A lawyer and an agent for Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

They Marched For Breonna Taylor And Repeated A Powerful Message: “Black Women Are Not An Afterthought”

Tenelle Veira single-handedly organized a protest specifically for Breonna Taylor, saying Black women are often overlooked when people talk about police brutality.

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter

Clarissa-Jan LimBuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From
Brooklyn, New Yor
Posted on June 4, 2020,



Bryan Woolston / Reuters

A protest against Breonna Taylor's killing in Louisville, Kentucky, May 29.


BROOKLYN — In the middle of a street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, hundreds of people, mostly white, knelt silently and listened. In front of them stood Tenelle Veira, the protest’s organizer, wearing a white Black Lives Matter T-shirt and a black beret. She held a megaphone and faced the crowd, speaking quietly and calmly, so everyone had to lean in to listen.

“I want you all to imagine what it must have felt like to be sleeping in your bed,” the 29-year-old said, pausing for emphasis, “when three police officers kick down your door, waking you up and shooting you eight times.”


“I want you to stand up,” she said. The crowd stood up. “We have work to do.”

Veira’s protest — one of dozens that took place in New York City on Wednesday, and one of countless around the world — was in the name of justice for Breonna Taylor, an EMT and emergency room technician who was killed by police on March 13.

Taylor was asleep in bed with her boyfriend when three Louisville police officers in plain clothes took a battering ram to her door and killed her. They fired about 20 rounds, hitting Taylor at least eight times.

The police were investigating acquaintances of Taylor’s boyfriend who they believed were selling drugs. It’s unclear whether her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was involved. The police have said they fired their weapons only after Walker fired his, which Taylor’s family vehemently disputes, saying the couple thought they were experiencing a break-in. There’s no body camera footage of her killing.


She would have turned 27 on Friday.

It took two months for Taylor’s death to become a national news story, and that was only after Kentucky’s attorney general announced an investigation in May. That was days after a graphic video showed two white men killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in February, and a week before police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. Of these three highly publicized cases, the police who killed Taylor are the only ones not facing charges.


Ema O'Connor / BuzzFeed News

Tenelle Veira
At the protest in Brooklyn, as thousands marched more than five miles up Bedford Avenue, the longest street in Brooklyn, Veira reminded everyone that the three officers who fired their weapons on Taylor still have their jobs at the Louisville Metro Police Department, and that the investigation into the incident is still ongoing nearly three months after Taylor’s death.

Taylor was killed during the height of fears over the coronavirus, and there was no video footage of the incident to rocket across social media, two factors that may have contributed to the delayed outrage over her death. Protesters who spoke to BuzzFeed News on Wednesday have another reason why Taylor’s case didn’t receive much attention: She’s a Black woman.

“I'm tired of Breonna's name being an afterthought,” Veira told the crowd as it paused for breath in Williamsburg. “I'm tired of hearing men's names and then Breonna's name. Give her the respect she deserves.”

This was the reason Veira organized the march, she told BuzzFeed News after the crowd had reached its destination and started to disperse to other protests or to make it home before Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 8 p.m. curfew. She cares deeply about Floyd and Arbery, she said, but Taylor deserves as much attention. A GoFundMe page created for Floyd’s family had raised $12.5 million by Thursday morning. Taylor’s had only raised $1.7 million. (In contrast, fundraisers for the funeral for Tony McDade, a Black transgender man killed by police last week in Tallahassee, Florida, has only raised $132,602.)

“It would have been an insult to Breonna Taylor and all the Black women and girls out there to stay home and pretend this isn’t happening,” Veira told the crowd.

Many people at Wednesday’s protest did not know it was specifically devoted to Taylor. Several people held signs referring to Floyd. Four people told BuzzFeed News that they were not aware of the protest’s purpose.

“I have been wanting to brief myself on the crimes that happened with Breonna Taylor,” Ghana Elshazz, a 38-year-old health and wellness student, told BuzzFeed News. She did not realize this was a march for Taylor specifically; she added that she believed that women were often “sidelined” during broader protests against police brutality.

Briana Barker and Patricia Bellegarde also didn’t realize that the protest was for Taylor until they joined the crowd in Brooklyn. Barker told BuzzFeed News she’s glad they showed up.

“We have to honor her life as well. Her life was taken unjustly as well,” Barker said.

Bellegarde said she’s fighting for herself and the children she’ll have in the future.

“A cop can go home and take off his clothes and be OK. I cannot take off my skin. I am Black regardless of where I go,” she said. “And not only am I Black, I am a Black woman. So if you’re already at a disadvantage for being a woman, and you’re already at a disadvantage for being Black, imagine being both.”


Clarissa-Jan Lim / BuzzFeed News
Briana Barker and Patricia Bellegarde.


Others joined specifically to honor Taylor.

“I want to fight for her and fight for all the women that went through the same thing,” Tenneille Johnson, 24, told BuzzFeed News.

Johnson said the fight for racial justice is a woman’s fight.

“I want justice, and I want us to be appreciated — especially women,” she said. “Because we’re the ones that always be put, like [Veira] said, an afterthought. We matter, too. We’re on the front line fighting for Black men, too.”


Tanz, a protester who declined to share their last name, came out “to specifically support Breonna Taylor and support all Black lives: women, men, trans women, trans men.”

Five protesters told BuzzFeed News they were marching in part due to their personal experiences as Black women in America — and the gender and racial discrimination their friends and family have faced.

Charity Belgrave, 22, recalled a traumatizing incident with the NYPD when she was younger.

“Me and my cousin, we were just minding our own business. We got stopped by cops because we fit a description or whatever, and I went to put my MetroCard away, and a bunch of cops had their guns drawn on me,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Belgrave said she never wants to see anyone else go through an experience like that, “especially not my women, my brothers, my sisters — nobody.”

Veira hit on a similar theme. “To those who say Black women have attitudes, that we have tone problems,” she said to the protesters. “Imagine Breonna did not get shot that night and had to go to work the next day after having her door kicked out. What kind of mood should she have been in?”

Taylor’s memory has been present in protests elsewhere in the country. Outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, her name repeatedly rang out in the crowd alongside George Floyd’s.

DC resident Bart Sheard, who carried a "Justice for Breonna" sign to the protest, said in recent days he's seen a surge in people wanting to learn more about the victims of police violence.


"It took a little bit longer for people to learn about Breonna's story,” he said, adding that Floyd’s death has galvanized people to rise up. "We're keeping their voices alive and representing them. The four police that were involved with the murder of George Floyd have been arrested, and we have to make sure that the people who killed Breonna Taylor are brought to justice as well."


Joseph Prezioso / Getty Images
People gather to protest the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in Boston, May 29.

In San Francisco, a crowd of more than 10,000 people gathered in the city’s Mission District on Wednesday. Some carried signs with Taylor’s name, others chanted it.

“Say his name! George Floyd. Say her name! Breonna Taylor,” the crowd said in unison as they traversed Market Street, San Francisco’s main thoroughfare, past a mural of former city supervisor and civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

Police kept their distance and protesters were allowed to voice themselves long after an 8 p.m. curfew. People with signs paid homage to Floyd and other Black citizens who were killed. There were remembrances for Arbery and Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old man who was killed in 2009 at an Oakland train station by a police officer. At San Francisco's Hall of Justice, one of the protest’s end points, the crowd even sang the name of Emmett Till, whose 1955 lynching in Mississippi became a foundation for the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.


In Brooklyn, Veira kept leading the crowd back to two poignant chants.

“How many shots?” She asked over the megaphone.

“Eight shots,” the crowd responded.

“Say her name,” she said. The crowd complied.

“Where are my men? Say her name,” Veira asked. The collective voice of the crowd audibly deepened.

“Breonna Taylor.”

Veira says she’s never organized anything before in her life. She is a makeup artist with a significant following on Instagram. She and many of her friends in the styling and makeup industry haven’t been able to work during the pandemic. Instead, they have been sitting in their homes, watching videos of Black people being harassed and killed by the police, reading articles, and getting more and more outraged. Veira decided it was time for her to do something.

“Join me on Wednesday June 3rd for a peaceful yet impactful protest in solidarity calling for justice for Breonna Taylor and her family. This week would of been Breonna’s birthday and she would of been 27 years old,” Veira wrote to her 10,900 followers on May 30. “Many times when women of color are murdered and abused by police we don’t see the same outrage. Our voices need to be just as loud when they kill innocent Black women. Let us use our voices and demonstration so that those three officers are held accountable, terminated and charged for the murder of Breonna.”


Angela Weiss / Getty Images
Protesters during the Brooklyn march for Breonna Taylor.

Veira got some help from friends but mostly organized the protest alone. She said she only expected about 50 people; when she got to the starting location, there were already a few hundred people there. As they walked through Brooklyn, passing from historically Black neighborhoods into Hasidic neighborhoods, through gentrified Williamsburg to the waterfront, more and more people joined, stretching about five blocks as neighborhood residents looked on, occasionally yelling their thanks and support. A couple of police cars and a few officers were at the head of the protest, but there was a significant lack of police presence compared to other New York protests that have turned violent in recent days.

At least six of the attendees and co-organizers told BuzzFeed News they understood the anger of the people across the country who have been smashing windows and setting fires, and said they couldn’t judge that anger. But overall they were glad this protest was peaceful.

“If you are upset about something, so angry that you feel like breaking something — and everybody has felt that way — imagine feeling that every single day and unable to do anything about it,” one of three cousins who attended the protest together, but asked to remain anonymous to protect their privacy, told BuzzFeed News.

"This isn't new, either. It happened with Sandra Bland, and it happens with all the women murdered by police in this country," another of the cousins said, referring to the 2015 case of a woman who was jailed for a traffic violation and then found dead in her cell. The death was ruled a suicide, but her family claims she was killed by police. "You only see them second."


Veira said she understands the protests after curfew, the demonstrations that turn violent. But she didn’t want something she organized to go that way. She wanted to show that hundreds of people can make a point without causing destruction. And from beginning to end, it remained peaceful.

She led the protesters to Domino Park in Williamsburg on the East River, next to the old sugar factory where, just before its destruction, artist Kara Walker created a massive installation of sculptures made out of sugar, representing the history of exploitation, murder, and enslavement of Black people in America.

Veira climbed up the bleachers and told the protesters to gather around her, taking over the park. She thanked everyone for leaving their houses, for risking their health during the pandemic for a worthy cause, and for staying peaceful.

“And I say to all of my Black brothers here, speak up for us,” she said to applause and cries of agreement.

“I understand there’s a lot of men that get slaughtered in the street, and they will get their justice,” she continued. “We will make sure they get their justice, but you make sure we get ours.”

Ryan Mac contributed reporting from San Francisco. Paul McLeod contributed reporting from Washington, DC.

Ema O'Connor is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. She is based in New York.

TOM LEHRER WE WILL ALL GO TOGETHER WHEN WE GO

Police Departments Have Received Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Military Equipment Since Ferguson

The Defense Department’s "1033” military-equipment program has come under heavy scrutiny, but local law enforcement are continuing to receive supplies.

John TemplonBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 4, 2020

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https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/police-departments-military-gear-1033-program

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Police prepare to confront demonstrators who are protesting the killing of George Floyd, May 30 in Minneapolis.

Police wearing full-body riot gear are driving armored vehicles through the streets of America’s cities in response to the protests across the nation sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The scenes recall the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over another police killing, when public outcry over what appeared to be a massively disproportionate show of force brought scrutiny to a federal program that transfers unused military equipment to local law enforcement. The Ferguson Police Department was a beneficiary of that Department of Defense arrangement, known as the 1033 program.



Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Police tactical vehicles are seen parked at the police command center after protests and riots along Florissant Avenue in response to Michael Brown's shooting by a police officer, Aug. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.

But despite pledges from public officials including then-president Barack Obama to review and restrict the program, the spigot of battlefield-caliber heavy equipment never stopped flowing.

Since Ferguson, in fact, local law enforcement agencies have received more than $850 million worth of equipment through the DoD program, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis of federal data. The 1033 program is broad and includes a wide range of supplies (some of the gear is as benign as coffee makers), but the haul also includes heavily armored personnel carriers, aircraft, ammunition, and other military equipment.

While there are many ways for law enforcement agencies to acquire military-grade equipment, including outright purchases and grants, the 1033 program remains an important way for agencies to acquire big-ticket items at little to no cost.

The program, which expanded on prior efforts to dispose of surplus military gear, was created under the Clinton administration and authorized "all law enforcement agencies to acquire property for bona fide law enforcement purposes that assist in their arrest and apprehension mission." The emphasis in the legislation was to focus on preventing terrorism and drug trafficking, rather than crowd and riot control.

Critics, including former Congress member Duncan Hunter and Sen. Rand Paul, have repeatedly warned that the gear is “excessive” and blurs the lines between military and police tactics. A December 2014 White House review of the 1033 program found that the transfers “can foster an environment at the local level in which it is difficult to distinguish between the appropriate military use and the appropriate [law enforcement agency] use of the same equipment
There are also concerns that the federal government does not provide local law enforcement with proper training on how to use potentially lethal equipment — or, for that matter, even whether it manages to keep track of what goes where.

In a 2017 audit, the Government Accountability Office was able to acquire over 100 controlled items, “including night vision goggles, simulated rifles, and simulated pipe bombs, which could be potentially lethal items if modified with commercially available items,” with a total value estimated at $1.2 million, from the 1033 program by creating a “fictitious federal law enforcement agency” to file an application.

Public officials have, in the past, appeared to heed such concerns, particularly in the wake of the Ferguson protests, which were sparked by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, by a white police officer.

“At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message,” said then-attorney general Eric Holder in a statement on Aug. 14, 2014. The following May, Obama issued an executive order that prohibited the transfer of certain items from the 1033 program, including bayonets and grenade launchers, while requiring law enforcement agencies to provide more information in order to get others, such as tactical vehicles and riot gear.

But that order was rescinded in August 2017 by the Trump administration, removing much of the oversight of the program and allowing more equipment to be transferred. “Those restrictions went too far,” said then-attorney general Jeff Sessions. “We will not put superficial concerns above public safety.”

The Department of Defense’s data shows only how much equipment is currently held by law enforcement agencies, and does not track equipment that was received and subsequently disposed of, or returned to the federal government. Still, as of this March, the arsenals of local law enforcement agencies currently include 494 mine-resistant vehicles, at least 800 pieces of body armor, more than 6,500 rifles, and at least 76 aircraft acquired through the 1033 program post-Ferguson.

The mine-resistant vehicles, which can weigh about 24 tons, stand up to 13 feet tall, and have a gun turret on top, were designed to withstand improvised explosive devices and ambushes in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than to assist with crowd control. No police agency currently possesses more than two of the vehicles that were transferred since Ferguson, but many have gone to tiny, often rural departments with fewer than 50 officers.

Larger departments have also recently received the vehicles, known as MRAPs. The New York City Police Department, for example, received at least two through the 1033 in recent years, as has the Memphis Police Department. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Department in Minnesota, which contains the city of St. Paul, also received one in 2016. Jefferson County, Alabama, which contains Birmingham, received one this year.

The largest single recipient of body armor has been the Milwaukee Police Department, which has taken in more than 250 pieces since August 2014. The Pentagon has also given out more than 200 riot control face and body shields to departments around the country.

Aircraft — which can be used for surveillance, transport, and crowd control — have been hotly sought after as well. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, for example, acquired three fixed-wing aircraft in 2015, including two Skytruck planes. Aircraft from agencies of all sizes patrolled the skies above major protests this past weekend.

Now that protests over police violence have broken out again, and this time on a far larger scale, some of that military might is being put to use. Mine-resistant vehicles have been used throughout the country over the past week, in cities including Minneapolis, Miami, and Washington, DC.


Ricardo Arduengo / Getty Images

A Miami Police officer watches protesters from an armored vehicle during a rally in response to the recent death of George Floyd in Miami, May 31.

In response, some politicians have again begun calling for more regulation of the Pentagon program. After Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, tweeted on Monday that he would introduce legislation to “discontinue” the 1033 program, a staffer for Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, replied that his office would be glad to help with the effort.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, said on Twitter on Monday that he will “push for the House to restrict the program that provides military gear to police departments.”

Notably, one of the items Sessions specifically mentioned when Obama’s executive order was rescinded were bayonets. Over the past 14 months, at least 167 of the rifle-mounted weapons have been sent to local law enforcement agencies, according to the data.

It is not clear, however, if any bayonets have been used to confront protesters in the past week.

John Templon is a data reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. His secure PGP fingerprint is 2FF6 89D6 9606 812D 5663 C7CE 2DFF BE75 55E5 DF99

This Is What 100 Years Of Protests For Racial Justice Looks Like In America

I THOUGHT THESE THREE WERE PARTICULARLY POIGNANT IN LIGHT OF THE FAILURE OF THE SENATE TO PASS AN ANTI-LYNCHING LAW BECAUSE OF RAND PAUL

RIGHT CLICK TO EXPAND PHOTOS

THE FIRST VICTIM OF BRITISH FIRE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

WAS CRISPUS ATTICUS A BLACK MAN.

ERIE 
A silent march in New York City to protest the police treatment of Black people during riots in St. Louis, 1917. Thousands marched down Fifth Avenue without saying a word. They chanted no chants, sang no protest songs. The only sounds were the disconcertingly mournful thuds of muffled drums and, of course, the marchers' footsteps on the hot pavement. It was a parade of silent protest.

More than 3,000 people carried signs in Washington, DC, urging the end of lynching in America, 1922.

Protesters stand outside the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum with signs and nooses around their necks, Jan. 1, 1934.

This Is What 100 Years Of Protests For Racial Justice Looks Like In America

From the 1917 silent protests in the streets of Manhattan to the recent national unrest following the killing of George Floyd, these pictures capture the long and tumultuous struggle for racial justice in the US.

Gabriel H. SanchezSenior Photo Essay Editor
Posted on June 5, 2020, at 11:44 a.m. ET



As demonstrators across the US are raising their voices following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police, powerful images of these protests are circulating throughout the world. These photos can define a movement for years to come, and become the foundation from which future generations are able to frame their own struggles for civil liberties.

“Most Americans today learn about the Civil Rights Movement through photographs,” wrote historian Mark Speltz in Time following the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Photographs from modern America’s defining social justice struggle are critical touchstones in the visual narrative of our nation’s past.”

The struggle for civil rights has a long visual history. For the sake of simplicity, we focused on the past 100 years, starting with 1917 when thousands of protesters took to the streets of Manhattan in mournful silence, in response to the East St. Louis race riots, which killed dozens of Black people and left thousands more homeless.

A century later, and in stark contrast to the silent protest of 1917, are the photographs captured in the days after Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. There, demonstrators were met with severe force, reminiscent of the major flashpoints of the civil rights era in the 1960s — moments like the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. Those pictures are seared into our collective memory and offer a visual roadmap of what has been accomplished and what is left to be done.

These images also reveal how little has changed in the decades since. “Despite the distance of the decades,” Speltz wrote in 2016, “the moving imagery of the emerging Black Lives Matter movement builds upon a visual narrative of protest and struggle that remains all too relevant in the present.”

These pictures chronicle over one century of protests for racial justice in America

State troopers beat a man leaving a concert by Paul Robeson at the Old Hollow Brook Golf Club in Cortlandt Manor, New York, Sept. 4, 1949. Troopers and police, who were supposed to protect concertgoers from anti-Robeson protesters, joined them in harassing them instead.

Extract from Mining Review 2nd Year No. 11 (1949) The highlight of this 1949 issue is the visit of American actor and singer Paul Robeson to Woolmet Colliery near Edinburgh. Robeson was also a renowned (and often persecuted) left-wing political activist and he made several visits to British mining communities. On this occasion he sings "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" for miners in the canteen, a song about an American trade unionist who was allegedly framed on a murder charge and executed in 1915. Robeson had long been something of a hero to the British mining community, ever since he starred in the film Proud Valley (d. Pen Tennyson, 1940) as an American sailor stranded in Cardiff who finds work in a Welsh colliery (the newsreel opens with a short clip from the film).

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https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/100-years-of-racial-justice-protest-in-america

DISARM THE POLICE TWO

THIS PICTURE IS AN OBSCENITY 

DISARM THE POLICE