LGBTQ Pride Month leaders, in show of solidarity, unite to support George Floyd protests: 'Stonewall was a riot'

 AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY 

IT WAS TWO BLACK QUEENS WHO LED THE PROTESTS
Beth Greenfield ·Senior Editor June 2, 2020, 12:23 PM MDT

The Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ equality movements must support each other, note activists at the start of LGBTQ Pride Month. Here, in a scene from San Francisco Pride 2017, the messages intermingled. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)More

June is LGBTQ Pride Month. But it’s starting out in a way that no one predicted: With Pride organizers shifting their focus to the current racial unrest, and LGBTQ organizations — over 100 at last count — signing on to an open letter pledging support to George Floyd protests across the nation, in a show of solidarity denouncing racism.

“‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’ Those words, written over 30 years ago by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, remind us that indifference can never bridge the divide of hate,” the letter begins. “And, today, they should serve as a call to action to all of us, and to the Movement for LGBTQ equality.”

The letter, which invokes not only Floyd’s name but of other victims of racist violence, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, has been signed by a fast-growing number of organizations — from major players such as GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign and the National LGBTQ Task Force to smaller groups including Louisiana Trans Activists, Out Boulder County and Project PRIDE Sarasota. It makes connections between the protests of today and the roots of the gay civil rights movement.

“We, the undersigned, recognize we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action. The LGBTQ community knows about the work of resisting police brutality and violence,” it notes. “We celebrate June as Pride Month, because it commemorates, in part, our resisting police harassment and brutality at Stonewall in New York City, and earlier in California, when such violence was common and expected. We remember it as a breakthrough moment when we refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically.”

While planned Pride Month celebrations have already been completely altered by being moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures, the latest national events are further impacting the lens through which Pride is being viewed, both officially and through scores of social media posts.

This pride month, we remember the reason we have the rights we do today. We thank the black trans woman who rioted and protested for us. If you do not support Black Lives Matter, do not celebrate Pride. pic.twitter.com/zbhht1NLzk
— rimie rat🌸 (@naeclue) June 1, 2020


pride 51 years ago vs black lives matter today pic.twitter.com/efJrMRZQjn
— slo 🤠🇰🇭 (@slohjm) June 1, 2020


The Stonewall riots were lead by queer POC and were a massive catalyst to the LGBTQ rights movements. If u are queer but dont stand with the Black Lives Matter movement maybe opt out of celebrating pride this month n think about why we have the rights we have. pic.twitter.com/kQ4btTG7Pr

— 𝖗𝖊𝖉𝖗𝖚𝖒 (@prodbyredrum) June 1, 2020

In light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the beginning of Pride Month, let’s talk about the black trans woman that aided and led the LGBTQ+ community into gaining equal rights: Marsha P. Johnson pic.twitter.com/xqTFQp3VcZ
— 𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕤🥱 (@cristaystay) June 1, 2020

“There’s no way you can talk about our community without addressing race,” Julian Sanjivan, co-president of InterPride, tells Yahoo Life. As the former director of New York City’s Pride March, and now deeply involved with the international organization of global Pride events, including the upcoming virtual Global Pride, Sanjivan says they’ve realized “just how intersectional this community is.”

They add, “Within the LGBTQ+ community, at any given point of time, you could see a person who is trans and a person of color and an immigrant, and there are so many other layers to that… within our community and within a single person.”

That’s why kicking off the month with a powerful show of solidarity with protesters became a priority.

“I think people forget that Pride started off because of riots — Stonewall was a riot, after all. We may not have seen a lot of the progress with the LGBT community if that first brick was not thrown in 1969,” Sanjivan says. “So, it was an uprising and still is. It’s not like we’ve achieved equality… [Pride is] a celebration of who we are, loving whoever you love, celebrating your chosen family, and for some, coming out — but it’s also a protest to be recognized. And with the current administration we have, a lot of what we’ve achieved over the years has slowly been taken away. Pride is always a combination of celebration and protest.”

GLAAD’s president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis weighed in with a statement on the organization’s website. “Today marks the first day of Pride Month, and although it may look different this year, the spirit of Pride continues to live on in our community’s resilience in the fight for equality and acceptance for all,” she noted. “And at this very time in our country’s history, this fight has never been more significant… This Pride Month, we’ll be centering and lifting up the voices of Black LGBTQ people. There can be no Pride if it is not intersectional. We are Together in Pride. Black Lives Matter.”

The open letter also mentions Christian Cooper, the black gay man who was targeted by a white woman in Central Park. It also points out the unending rash of violence against trans individuals, particularly transgender women of color, citing the names of the dozen of trans people who have been murdered already this year — Dustin Parker, Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, Yampi Méndez Arocho, Monika Diamond, Lexi, Johanna Metzger, Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos, Layla Pelaez Sánchez, Penélope Díaz Ramírez, Nina Pop, Helle Jae O’Regan and Tony McDade.



#TonyMcDade, we say your name. https://t.co/pfgzkfbJaI

— Out Magazine (@outmagazine) May 29, 2020

“It is no exaggeration to describe it as an epidemic of violence,” the letter points out.



if you are not supporting the black lives matter protests then i don’t want to see you celebrating pride month. remember your history pic.twitter.com/1yrJwg8cxm

— e (@fetishwasabi) June 1, 2020

Similar efforts to raise awareness around the killing of black trans women infused Pride events last year when the series of murders was often discussed in the context of irony, as it was people of color, including late activist Marsha P. Johnson, who played a major role at Stonewall and in the activism that followed.

Read more from Yahoo Life:


Prompted by calls to 'give grace' to cop who killed George Floyd, black activists question the rush to forgive


Why coronavirus mask-wearing orders leave black Americans facing a tough decision


Shuttered LGBTQ community centers feel shutdown fallout: ‘It’s been really hard’

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George Floyd Protesters Get Creative in Moments of Solidarity






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Companies say black lives matter. Employees say it's just for show.

Kamilah Newton,Yahoo Life•June 12, 2020

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Prompted by ongoing national George Floyd protests, big brands have been rushing to put out statements of diversity and Black Lives Matter solidarity — only to face swift backlash as past employees, citing their own past experiences, come forward to call out what they say is behind-the-scenes hypocrisy.

Companies that have posted messaging on their websites and respective social media accounts, and have sent emails to employees denouncing racism and discrimination, have ranged from Amazon to Zara. However, a number of these same companies have received backlash from former employees who have criticized an alleged culture of bigotry within each one — and in some cases effecting change as a result.

Starbucks promised to “confront racism” in a June 1 Instagram post, for example — and on Thursday, one employee took to Twitter to call out what she described as the company’s double standard. “I might get fired for this, but I’m calling Starbucks out,” she tweeted. “How are y’all gonna say we can’t wear anything BLM because it’s a personal issue, but have us wear and profit off pride month shirts, cups [and] gift cards. BLM and Pride were created to fight injustice, what’s the difference?”

I might get fired for this but I’m calling @Starbucks out, how are y’all gonna say we can’t wear any anything BLM bc it’s a personal issue,but have us wear and profit off pride month shirts,cups,gift cards. BLM and Pride were both created to fight injustice, what’s the difference
— 🙎🏽‍♀️ (@0ri_Molina) June 11, 2020

In response, Starbucks tweeted that it will be collaborating with the Black Partner Network to send out shirts “in support of [its] Black partners, customers and communities”; on Friday, the company went even further, reversing its stance to now allow employees to wear items in support of Black Lives Matter.

Also this week, ex-employees of Vogue magazine blasted the brand for its alleged racist practices.

Following a staff memo from Anna Wintour, apologizing for “hurtful and intolerant mistakes," employees of color took to social media to share their upsetting experiences. Shelby Ivey Christie, who worked as a media planner for Vogue in 2016, tweeted that working there was “the most challenging and miserable” time of her career, citing experiences of alleged racism, bullying from white colleagues and inadequate pay. She wrote, “There was an instance where a white male exec on the digital biz team dressed up in a chicken suit, with gold chains, sagging pants + rapped to our entire biz org as a meeting ‘kickoff.’ HR was present and laughing.” She offered more in a thread with details about purported nepotism and black co-workers who were overqualified and yet overworked and underpaid.

I will say this: my time at Vogue, at Condé Nast, was the most challenging + miserable time of my career — The bullying + testing from white counterparts, the completely thankless work, the terrible base pay + the racism was exhausting.
— Shelby Ivey Christie (@bronze_bombSHEL) June 9, 2020

Another former employee, Zara Rahim, spoke out as well, noting that in 2017 she was hired as communications director for Vogue, where, she says, she was the only woman of color in a leadership role. She recalls being given “diversity responsibilities” on top of her job requirements, which didn’t result in extra pay, but equated to having a whole other job.

“I was told in the end I was ‘complaining too much,’” she tweeted. Rahim explains that she has trauma connected to her past employment at Condé Nast and claims that, at one point, she was being “paid nearly 50k less” than the white woman who held the director title before her — and that, since leaving, her salary has jumped by $60,000. She tweeted, “There are people who hold these keys and have held them for decades. They know what they are doing, fire them.”

Fuck it if I get sued for this but I got a $5k raise for my promotion to a director title and still was paid nearly $50k less than the white woman who had the job before me. https://t.co/dJeaEKW9Ro
— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) June 9, 2020


what's the phrase for giving a woman of color a leadership role with half the support and less pay and then adding more responsibilities to their plate solely because they're a POC? anyone? does glass cliff cover this?
— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) June 10, 2020

Additionally, journalist Noor Tagouri, who was never employed by Vogue but was photographed for a feature in the magazine’s February 2019 issue — only to be misidentified in the magazine as Pakistani actress Noor Bukhari. In attempts to rectify the mistake, she was offered a written feature, but was prohibited from addressing the mishap. Instead, Tagouri offered to do a separate feature on the topic, but was allegedly told that Vogue wouldn’t publish two diversity pieces in one year. Further, she says she was offered to lead a free diversity event and was turned down because it might be interpreted that “Vogue has a problem.”

Lol. I just wanna say - when I met with the executive editor of Vogue after being misidentified in the magazine (never met with/got an apology from AW) - they asked me to write an *UNRELEATED* Upfront piece for an issue. (THREAD)
— NOOR (@NTagouri) June 10, 2020

This week, Condé Nast CEO Robert Lynch reportedly sent an email to staff, pledging to investigate and act “on all current and historic claims of pay inequities and inappropriate workplace behavior.” Additionally, he committed to holding a town hall series and creating an “external advisory council focused on anti-racism and inclusion topics,” in order to ensure “equitable representation within our content across our print, digital and video.”

Starbucks and Condé Nast, however, were not alone in being called out for racism and hypocrisy.

Last week, Los Angeles retail brand Anthropologie posted a Maya Angelou quote on Instagram, calling for equality — only to have its comments flooded with claims of egregious discriminatory practices, including, but not limited to, having secret code names for black customers.

Hey @Anthropologie. Your policy of racial profiling is disgusting. Your employees (US and Canada) tell stories about the codename “nick” they were directed to use when forced to profile black customers. The time for tranparency, apology and CHANGE is NOW.
— Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) June 11, 2020

That comment section soon became overrun by retail workers detailing the code names for black customers allegedly used by other major retailers. Over the years, many of the names used to racially profile shoppers have surfaced in claims by ex-employees and lawsuits against companies including Zara and Versace; now former Anthropologie employees say that the use of the code name “Nick” was used to refer to black shoppers, and that they were told to surveil black shoppers.

Another allegation noted that, just days before posting a black square in support of Blackout Tuesday, Anthropologie asked queer black model and writer Lydia Okello to participate in Anthropologie’s “Slice of Happy” Pride Month campaign — in exchange for a free outfit, nothing close, she says, to the usual rates.

The company soon responded with an Instagram post promising to support the black community by pledging $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund and by diversifying its workforce.

Another major company, Publix supermarkets, is also being taken to task following an announcement of its “commitment to diversity.” At least three employees, in locations in Alabama and Florida, have spoken out about being told to flip or remove their Black Lives Matter masks — or be sent home. Publix did not respond to Yahoo Life’s request to comment on the matter.

The list of companies being cited for behaving badly behind the scenes while making seemingly anti-racist public statements is large and growing:
L’Oréal

On June 1, L’Oréal shared an Instagram post that said, “Speaking out is worth it,” prompting some to remind the cosmetics brand of the time when it fired a model for doing just that: In 2017, the company fired U.K. model Munroe Bergdorf for calling out "the racial violence of white people" in a Facebook post. In response to the company’s recent statement of solidarity, the model did not miss the opportunity to hold L’Oréal accountable for its past practices. “Excuse my language but I am SO angry,” Bergdorf wrote. “You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy... You do NOT get to do this. This is NOT okay, not even in the slightest.” In response, the company has offered her a seat on its U.K. diversity and inclusion advisory board.

Did you forget? pic.twitter.com/pE5EyKsnTK

— 𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖑 (@xlovur) June 1, 2020
Facebook

Also on June 1, in response to a Facebook employee “virtual walkout” over President Trump’s recent posts, Mark Zuckerberg wrote in solidarity with protesters. “We stand with the black community,” he wrote before committing to a donation of $10 million to “groups working on racial justice.” However, many took the opportunity to remind the social media giant that it doesn’t have the best equality track record. Over the years, Facebook has been accused of failing black employees and censoring black users. Just days after the backlash, Facebook removed almost 200 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups.


NFL

On May 30, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “The NFL family is greatly saddened by the tragic events across our country,” offering condolences to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Additionally, football teams have been posting black squares in support of Blackout Tuesday. But back in 2017, the league shut out Colin Kaepernick for “taking a knee” during the National Anthem to protest police brutality, and Twitter users jumped at the chance to remind them. Since the backlash, Goodell has admitted that they were “wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier” and the league has announced that it would pledge $250 million over the next 10 years to help fight systematic racism. But some say it’s not enough.


The #NFL has made billions of exploiting black men’s lives and descriminated against @Kaepernick7 for taking a stand - $250M is nothing! We demand more. #BlackLivesMatter
— Shaun BLM 🇰🇪 (@ShaunBLM) June 12, 2020
Refinery29

On June 2, Refinery29 blacked out its homepage and Instagram and has been sharing posts in solidarity with the black community — prompting an ex-employee to speak out. Alese Edwards tweeted, “Hey @Refinery29, cool blacked out homepage! But you know what real allyship looks like? Paying your Black employees fairly, having Black women in top leadership positions & addressing the microagressions your Black employees deal with from management on a daily basis.” Edwards’s tweet was met with a slew of replies from former employees who had also had enough. In response to the allegations, Christene Barberich, co-founder of Refinery29, announced that she would be resigning.

Hey @Refinery29, cool blacked out homepage! But you know what real allyship looks like? Paying your Black employees fairly, having Black women in top leadership positions & addressing the microagressions your Black employees deal with from management on a daily basis.

— Ashley Alese Edwards (@AshleyAlese) June 2, 2020
Amazon

On May 31, Amazon posted a tweet saying it stood “in solidarity with the Black community... in the fight against systemic racism and injustice.” The ACLU looked into its practice of selling facial recognition technology. Amazon Ring, a video doorbell that has received criticism from civil rights organizations for partnering with police departments and creating a way “for police to request or access footage without a warrant, and then store it indefinitely.” In response, Amazon announced it will impose a one-year ban on the sale of its face-recognition technology to police.

Cool tweet. Will you commit to stop selling face recognition surveillance technology that supercharges police abuse? https://t.co/DfnAhyw2PW

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 31, 2020
TikTok

On June 2, TikTok also participated in Blackout Tuesday — disabling all playlists “to observe a moment of reflection and action,” but in the past, it’s been criticized for allowing racist content, blocking the Black Lives Matter hashtag and inequitable treatment of black content creators. Earlier this year, they were called out after teen dancer Jalaiah Harmon was not given credit for the dance craze she pioneered called the Renegade. Some say TikTok’s algorithm may be to blame, “elevating White creators while limiting the visibility and reach of creators of color.”

TikTok later apologized for the suppression of Black Lives Matter posts, calling it a “technical glitch.” It’s also since acquired a new CEO, Kevin Mayer, who said it was an “important time to support Black employees, users, creators, artists, and our broader community,” committing himself to the cause. Additionally, the growing social media platform said it is donating $3 million to nonprofit organizations that help the black community and promised $1 million toward “fighting the racial injustice and inequality that we are witnessing in this country.”


While you here can you remind them that Tik Tok is cancelled too!! They blocked the blm hashtag but allow the racist post about black ppl to go viral. Black people please stop using Tik Tok! Stay to the cause
— So Hollywood (@Simply_Keen) June 11, 2020
McDonald’s

On June 3, McDonald’s posted a video to its Twitter page captioned, “They were one of us,” referring to victims of police brutality such as Michael Brown, Atatiana Jefferson and George Floyd, for whom “the entire McDonald’s family grieves.” The video further explained that the company is standing for “victims of systemic oppression,” but many were quick to call the company hypocritical, with Color of Change tweeting a video that reads, “McDonald’s workers still lack a living wage, paid sick leave and union rights,” which are “a part of systemic oppression.” Echoing the sentiments, the ACLU tweeted, “Black lives are more than a marketing campaign. McDonalds, are you listening?”

Black lives are more than a marketing campaign. @McDonalds, are you listening? https://t.co/2Hrxxn4Kiq

— ACLU (@ACLU) June 11, 2020
Reformation

On May 31, Reformation posted a list of organizations that they would be supporting, including Black Lives Matter and the NAACP, but it wasn’t long before the company’s alleged racially insensitive past resurfaced, with former employee Elle Santiago taking to Instagram to share her experiences. That included an occasion when the brand’s founder, Yael Aflalo, allegedly said the company was “not ready" to feature black models.


lol at reformation “hiding a racist corporate culture” these are from 2014 and 2016 pic.twitter.com/afsfivRgrh

— ً (@writtendirected) June 7, 2020

Users on Twitter quickly dug up photos from both 2014 and 2016, one showing Aflalo and the brand’s producer at the time, Elana Rosenblatt, eating fried chicken to “celebrate” Black History Month. The other photo is an Instagram post from Reformation captioned, “Hot out the factory,” while, in the background is what looks to be a sweatshop with employees of color hard at work, still making the very dresses being advertised.

On Friday Aflalo resigned, leaving her position to its former president, Hali Borenstein.

NYPD lieutenant apologizes to colleagues for kneeling during protest

FORCED TO RECANT BY KKK WHITE KOPS 

Janelle Griffith, NBC News•June 12, 2020


A lieutenant with the New York Police Department who knelt alongside George Floyd protesters apologized for doing so in an email to his colleagues, writing, "The cop in me wants to kick my own a--."

In a June 3 email obtained by NBC New York, the officer, Lt. Robert Cattani, said his kneeling with protesters "goes against every principle and value that I stand for."

Cattani was among at least four officers who submitted to demonstrators' chants of "NYPD take a knee" during a May 31 protest in Lower Manhattan, according to the New York Post, which first reported the email.

The police lieutenant told his colleagues in the email that he had trouble sleeping after he "made a horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters demands and kneeled alongside several other officers."

The symbolic pose gained prominence in 2016 after Colin Kaepernick, then quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, began kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest racial inequality and police brutality against people of color.

In his email, Cattani said he knelt to appease protesters.

"The conditions prior to the decision to take a knee were very difficult as we were put center stage with the entire crowd chanting," he wrote.

“I know I made the wrong decision," he added. "We didn't know how the protesters would have reacted if we didn't and were attempting to reduce any extra violence."

He said he thought that by kneeling, maybe "one protester/rioter who saw it would later think twice about fighting or hurting a cop."

Cattani said he spent the first part of his career working to build a reputation as a good cop and that he "threw that all in the garbage" on May 31.

"I know that it was wrong and something I will be shamed and humiliated about for the rest of my life," he wrote.

Protesters across the country and around the world have called for greater police accountability since George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers involved in the arrest were also fired and face charges of aiding and abetting murder.

Cattani was not the only officer in New York City to take a knee with protesters. The city's top uniformed officer, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, joined hands with and knelt alongside protesters in Washington Square Park on June 1. He drew praise from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who tweeted later that day: "We're lucky to have people like Chief Monahan wearing the uniform. He believes in Neighborhood Policing with all his heart."

But some others, such as the city's public advocate, Jumaane Williams, have been critical of the gesture by people who have not been active in the racial justice movement.

In reference to recently introduced police reforms in New York, Williams said on "AM Joy" on MSNBC this week: "It should not have taken 8 or 9 days of unrest" on these issues we have been speaking about for such a long time. "All of the people who now find it easy to take a knee because of the unrest, many years ago were excoriating people like Colin Kaepernick."

Writer Roxane Gay tweeted on June 5: "I need cops and politicians and white people more broadly to stop kneeling. We don't need you to kneel. We need you to stand up for real, radical, sustained change."

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea meanwhile, in speaking directly to officers on Thursday, said they need to listen to public sentiment and understand why people are protesting, NBC New York reported.

“I’ve heard police officials this week talking about how could people feel this way," Shea said. "The quicker we realize that, the quicker we get to a solution."

Two NYPD officers have been suspended without pay for conduct during the Floyd protests. One of them, Vincent D'Andraia, was seen in a video shoving a woman to the ground on May 29 at a demonstration in Brooklyn. He was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing.

FAKE NEWS
Fox News Used Digitally Altered Photos in Coverage of Seattle Protests and ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’

Samson Amore The Wrap June 13, 2020



Fox News has repeatedly published digitally altered photographs as part of a series of stories about protests on Seattle’s Capitol Hill that aired June 12.

The misleading images were first discovered by the Seattle Times, which raised the issue to Fox News.

“Fox’s site had no disclaimers revealing the photos had been manipulated. The network removed the images after inquiries from The Seattle Times,” The Times reported June 12.

The photos are purported to be taken inside Seattle’s so-called “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” a six-block radius in downtown Seattle that is now outside police control. The area was established May 25 after Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered Seattle police to abandon their East Precinct station during protests against the May 25 killing of George Floyd. Seattle residents have nicknamed the reclaimed police station the “Seattle People Station.”

One of the altered images used by Fox News shows a civilian standing outside a demolished storefront with a military assault rifle. The Seattle Times reports the image is not one photograph but a “mashup” of several photos from different days and different photographers — created by layering images from riots in downtown Seattle on May 30 under a Getty Images photo of a man with a gun. Fox News also published an alternate version of this image, where the armed man appeared to stand in front of a sign that said, “You are now entering Free Cap Hill.”

Fox removed the images, telling the Times “we have replaced our photo illustration with the clearly delineated images of a gunman and a shattered storefront, both of which were taken this week in Seattle’s autonomous zone.”

However, according to the Times, that statement and the new photos are also misleading. The gunman photo is from June 10, but the storefront image it has been combined with is a Getty Images photo dated May 30, the paper said.

Fox also used images from protests in other states in its coverage of the Seattle unrest. The network published an image of burning streets in St. Paul, Minnesota as part of its package on Seattle May 30, along with the headline “CRAZY TOWN.” Fox has since also removed that image.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported Seattle is negotiating with Black Lives Matter activists to determine a way to clear the Autonomous Zone and return the area to a semblance of normal. The local activists say they won’t leave the area until the City meets a list of demands, which include redirecting half of the Seattle Police Department’s budget to aid the black community.

Black Lives Matter spokesperson Jessica Kilpatrick told the Wall Street Journal about the unrest, “it’s a temporary occupation until we get our demands met.”

Fox News spokesperson Caroline Shanahan provided TheWrap a copy of the editor’s note Fox News published addressing the issue. “Editor’s Note: A FoxNews.com home page photo collage which originally accompanied this story included multiple scenes from Seattle’s ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’ and of wreckage following recent riots. The collage did not clearly delineate between these images, and has since been replaced. In addition, a recent slideshow depicting scenes from Seattle mistakenly included a picture from St. Paul, Minnesota. Fox News regrets these errors.”

Read original story Fox News Used Digitally Altered Photos in Coverage of Seattle Protests and ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’ At TheWrap

Who are police protecting and serving? Law enforcement has history of violence against many minority groups

Rick Jervis, USA TODAY•June 13, 2020

AUSTIN – If she sees a crime being committed, Ishia Lynette is more likely to call her father than police.

Her reluctance to turn to law enforcement for protection stems from growing up half Black and half Mexican in El Paso, Texas, and witnessing her African American father arrested – twice – for minor traffic violations and relatives harassed by police.

“From very early on, I was fearful of the police,” said Lynette, 30, who now lives in Austin and works with the Austin Justice Coalition, which advocates for police reform and accountability. “I can’t think of a time when I called the police unless it was very necessary – like a murder.”

Global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25 death have called for massive overhauls of police, with some groups demanding that American cities defund police departments. Many law enforcement agencies embrace a mission to "protect and serve" but the debate over police brutality and funding has raised questions about just who these departments keep safe.

Police departments have a long history of violence and aggression toward many minority communities in the U.S., including Latino, Muslim, LGBTQ and Black Americans, creating a deep mistrust of police that has resulted in many minority communities already under-using police departments because they are reluctant to call them for help.

Two young boys join LGBTQ community members and Black Lives Matter protesters holding signs and chanting slogans on an intersection in West Hollywood, Calif. on June 3, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

Police relations in Black communities have been at the center of worldwide protests, ever since Floyd, 46, who is Black, was pinned to the ground in Minneapolis by officers after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill at a grocery store. In a video of the encounter, Floyd gasped for breath as officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while three other officers looked on.

Other minority groups, such as Latino and LGBTQ Americans, have also faced decades of strained relations with police and are hesitant to call on them, according to experts, activists and studies.

Recent cases include:

Tony McDade, a 38-year-old transgender man, was shot and killed by Tallahassee police two days after Floyd was killed.

Mike Ramos, 42, who was shot and killed in April by Austin police after they answered a call of people doing drugs in an apartment complex parking lot. Police later said he didn't have a gun.

Earlier this month, California Highway Patrol officers repeatedly shot Erik Salgado, 23, after a traffic stop. His pregnant girlfriend survived but was severely injured.

Fear of police in African American communities could be traced back generations to “slave patrols” that worked with sheriff’s departments across the South to capture and terrorize runaway slaves, said David J. Thomas, a criminologist at Florida Gulf Coast University and retired veteran police officer. Through the years, departments have attempted reforms – such as hiring more minority officers – but those efforts have fallen short of restoring confidence to black communities, he said.

The Department of Justice under Barack Obama launched a series of lawsuits and consent decrees on police departments known to have civil rights violations. But those efforts all but vanished under President Donald Trump, he said.

“There’s nobody that oversees local law enforcement when they run amok,” Thomas said. “Law enforcement without oversight is a very dangerous thing.”

Alexander Weiss, an expert on police staffing who has helped reform police departments in major U.S. cities, said that distrust of police – especially after publicized incidents of police brutality – often leads to minority communities refusing to call police for help, further endangering those neighborhoods.

A study by his consulting firm in February in Baltimore showed that white, affluent areas of the city called on police more than twice the number of times as neighborhoods populated by minority groups.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges here,” Weiss said.

A 2013 PolicyLink/University of Illinois at Chicago study revealed that 32% of U.S.-born Latinos would rather tell a church or community leader about a crime than law enforcement. That number rises to 50% for foreign-born Latinos.

“The Latino community is mistrusting and actually fearful of some of the police in their communities,” said Claudia Ruiz, a policy analyst with UnidosUS, a Washington-based Latino advocacy group. “Latinos have some of the lowest reporting statistics in the U.S.”

One of the biggest barriers in improving relations and avoiding civil rights violations in Latino communities is lack of good data, Ruiz said. Local law enforcement agencies often include race but not ethnicity in arrest records, a discrepancy UnidosUS is lobbying Washington to fix, she said.

“It’s very hard to call for changes in how law enforcement interacts with Latinos when the data is not complete,” Ruiz said.

Blacks and Latinos are not the only groups that have complained of police mistreatment. In 2017, a New York federal judge approved a settlement that protected Muslims and others from New York Police Department investigations into political or religious activity. The agreement stemmed from lawsuits that accused the NYPD of illegally surveying Muslims in the wake of the 911 terrorist attacks.

To repair mistrust between police and minority communities, police officials have been bolstering training among their ranks and encouraging more hiring of minority officers, said Cindy Rodriguez, president of the National Latino Peace Officers Association.

Her group offers training to departments around the U.S. that encourage inclusiveness, both inside and outside of agencies, she said. Rodriguez said she's also encouraged by NLPOA's growing size: In the past four years, the group has welcomed 600 new members and grown by 12 chapters.

Those minority officers go into neighborhoods and bridge a lot of gaps, she said.

"That’s how you gain the trust," Rodriguez said. "It's going into the community and doing things."

The modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. began with a response to police brutality: the 1969 Stonewall riots. Violent street demonstrations erupted on the streets of New York City after an early morning police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a popular hangout for the area’s gay men and lesbians. Today, popular LGBTQ Pride events are held toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots.

Through the years, new laws and police practices have improved police reaction to LGBTQ rights, but widespread harassment and discrimination still exists in the community at the hands of police, said Avatara Smith-Carrington, a law fellow at Lambda Legal, a New York-based organization that supports LGBTQ rights.

And people in the LGBTQ community who are also Black or brown often receive even harsher treatment from police, Smith-Carrington said. Many of them are reluctant to call police to report crimes for fear of being harassed themselves, Smith-Carrington said.

In a 2012 study released by Legal Lambda, 73% of those surveyed reported having some face-to-face encounter with police over the previous five years and 21% said police had been hostile toward them. Another 14% of respondents reported being verbally assaulted by police, according to the study.

One gay man in the study reported being called a homophobic slur and beat up by police in Washington, D.C., then charged with assaulting them and forced to plead guilty to being under the influence of his HIV medication.

The recent protests sparked by Floyd’s death are a good opportunity to shine an equally bright light on LGBTQ rights, Smith-Carrington said.

“The beauty of this movement right now is that it’s elevating and amplifying the harm that happens to communities of color,” they said. “These same incidents of violence at the hands of police also happen to LGBTQ people across the spectrum.”

In Austin, Brenda Ramos, Mike Ramos's mother, has been speaking at rallies drawing thousands of protesters following Floyd's death, raising awareness of police brutality on people of all races and colors.

"My son, Mike, my baby, was shot and killed by Austin police officer Christopher Taylor one month ago. I cried every day," she said at a May 31 gathering alongside parents of other slain victims. "Now, I'm in this terrible heartbreaking club. It's a club of mothers of black Americans who have been murdered by police."

Lynette, the Austin activist, said she doesn’t agree with completely abolishing police but does think many of the millions of dollars that go into paying for more officers and weapons could be better used toward eradicating homelessness, improving mental health and overall empowering communities historically weary of police.

“We will keep having the same issue as to how minority communities interact with police until we can build that trust back up,” she said. “At this point, it’s gone.”

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Police brutality makes many minority groups afraid of law enforcement

ALL Police 'woefully under trained' on using force, experts sayMARTHA BELLISLE, Associated Press•June 11,2020

BURIEN, Wash. (AP) — Seattle officers hold down a protester, and one repeatedly punches him in the face. In another run-in, officers handcuff a looting suspect on the ground, one pressing a knee into his neck — the same tactic used on George Floyd.

The officers were captured on videos appearing to violate policies on how to use force just days after Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police, setting off nationwide protests.

With calls for police reforms across the U.S., instructors and researchers say officers lack sufficient training on how and when to use force, leaving them unprepared to handle tense situations. Better training can’t fix all the issues facing the nation’s police departments, but experts believe it would have a big impact.

“The skills are not taught well enough to be retained and now the officer is scrambling to find something that works,” said William Lewinski, executive director at Minnesota-based Force Science Institute, which provides research, training and consulting to law enforcement agencies.

Its two-year study of three large U.S. police academies says skills like using a baton or taking down an aggressive offender deteriorate dramatically within two weeks.

A recent Associated Press investigation found that a lack of firearms training has resulted in unintentional shootings by law enforcement. It’s the same problem with use-of-force techniques, Lewinski said.

“Police officers across the country are woefully undertrained,” said Sean Hendrickson, an instructor at Washington state’s police academy in suburban Seattle.

The AP was invited to the facility to see use-of-force training, a component of a 2012 federal agreement to reform the Seattle Police Department after officers were found to routinely use excessive force. The academy is considered one of the more progressive in the country for trying to mirror what officers will face on the streets.

There's classroom work, and cadets learn to combine skills by play-acting scenarios. In an old building decorated to look like an apartment, one officer plays the offender and others try to deescalate tensions, take away his weapon and put him in handcuffs.

In a parking lot, officers pair off. One wears padding on their shins and the other practices swinging a baton, hitting low on the legs.

They also learn to arrest someone who’s fighting back. An instructor plays the suspect, with one officer bear-hugging his legs and another wrapping his arms around him to take him to the ground. That officer presses against him chest to chest until he “wears himself out,” instructor Rich Lee said.

Then they flip him over, still holding his legs, with an officer's knee in the center of his back as they handcuff him.

Police in the Seattle videos didn’t use those techniques. No one held the suspects’ legs and one officer had his knee on a suspect's neck until his partner pushed it off.

In Washington state, cadets must complete 720 hours of training, “but those skills start to degrade immediately,” Hendrickson said. Some states only require 400 to 500 hours of academy training and require 24 hours or less of training once they’re on the job. Often, follow-up training is online, not hands-on.

“There’s no profession that trains so little but expects so much,” Lewinski said.

But not all officers can be taught, he acknowledged. When it came to Derek Chauvin, the officer charged in Floyd’s death, “I’m not sure that training would have made a difference,” Lewinski said. “What he did was definitely criminal.”

Protesters are demanding reforms ranging from cutting funding to banning chokeholds. There's been success in some states, such as California, where the governor ordered the police training program to stop teaching a neck hold that blocks blood flowing to the brain.

A measure introduced this week in Congress would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and address training.

“A profession where you have the power to kill should be a profession where you have highly trained officers that are accountable to the public,” U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters.

Reforming police use-of-force training was a major issue in 2014 and 2015, following the deaths of several black men at the hands of police, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown and others. In New York City, where Garner died, the nation’s largest police department retrained all patrol officers, dismantled how beat cops did their jobs and moved to a community policing model where officers were encouraged get to know their precincts and focus on deescalation.

It looked like police reform was gaining traction nationwide, but as the 2016 election took the spotlight, the effort faded, especially after the Justice Department shifted its civil rights priorities.

Most academies bombard officers with one subject, like communication, and then move to the next topic, like use of force, without integrating those skills, making them easy to forget, Force Science studies say.

An example of successfully using training can be seen in a video of a security guard who took two stolen AR-15's from some young men during the Seattle protests. The guard with military training hired to protect several journalists secured one gun and then calmly walked up to the second suspect, took the firearm out of his hands and unloaded it.

“His movements were very deliberate, even under those stressful circumstances,” Hendrickson said. “When you've done it enough times, that's going to dictate how smooth you're able to take control. He didn't have to think about those skills."

Lacking skills leads to bad reactions, Hendrickson said.

“I’ve been in situations where I’m frantic and the other officer is cool, calm and collected,” he said. “How did they do that without screaming? It all comes back to training. When we lack confidence, a lot of times we raise our voice, start swearing. It's all about fear.”

Jerrell Wills, manager of the applied-skills division at the Washington academy, said racial tension is a reason he wants to improve how officers are taught.

A black man who's been in law enforcement for 30 years, Wills said he's been racially profiled and had people threaten to call the police for no good reason. Now, he worries about his sons.

“That's why the work we do is so important,” Wills said. “Because I care about this industry, my community and my African American community.”

Letters to the Editor: Try this: Don't call the police. Use respect to de-escalate dangerous situations

MORE MEDIATORS LESS COPS

Los Angeles Times Opinion•June 13, 2020

Dozens of protesters are arrested for curfew violations in downtown Los Angeles on June 2. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: When it comes to proposals to defund the police, the word "defund" is misleading. "Redirected" is more apt. Redirected funds would address mental health and substance abuse problems, education needs and resources for impoverished communities. Focusing on these would reduce crime.

In my 30 years as executive director of Friends Outside in Los Angeles County, a 48-year-old nonprofit that serves inmates, ex-inmates and their families, I have contacted the police one time. We serve all who come to us, never screening for the nature of their criminal record or for how long they have been out of prison.

Our staff, 45% of whom have a criminal record, is trained to de-escalate situations. Our holiday parties in Watts attracted 550 clients, and we never had one problem in 10 years. Young men who appeared to be gang members would arrive to see what was happening and say something like, "Cool, as long as it is for the community." No police or security companies were ever used or needed. Respect goes a long way when dealing with people.

This is not to say the police have no role to play. But for the vast majority of situations, police intervention should be the last resort, not the first.

Mary Weaver, Studio City

To the editor: Columnist Doyle McManus believes that "defund the police" might be the worst campaign slogan ever. How is it any worse than "make America great again"? It's a matter of perspective.

Recent events of police brutality have made it abundantly clear that the system is unjust. As a taxpayer, I do not approve of my hard-earned dollars being allocated toward a system that prioritizes incarceration over care.

If we divest from police, then we will be able to invest in communities. Allocating funds toward healthcare, mental health services, programs for homeless people, education and nutrition will undoubtedly result in less crime and therefore reduce the need for police.

Whether or not one likes the slogan, I encourage people to become educated about the movement to defund the police rather than dismiss it as a poorly constructed catchphrase.

Lisa Lynch, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Today's police officers have to walk a very fine line. They must be friends to their communities, de-escalate difficult situations and refrain from abusing their power.

Many officers do well with that. However, as soon as there is an active shooter, we all want that Rambo cop who has no fear and is ready to run into harm's way.

Matthew D. Kerster, Gardena

..

To the editor: We must remember that the Obama administration and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, during his tenure, initiated pattern-or-practice investigations into local police departments nationwide.

The Justice Department, through the legal processes, put pressure on local police departments that had a pattern or practice of violating the constitutional rights of their citizens to clean up their act. Systemic racism, abuses of power, excessive force, unconstitutional searches and the like were targeted.

This made for better police practices and safer communities.

In September 2017, then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Session's Department of Justice, under President Trump, brought these investigations to a virtual halt. Police reform became "voluntary," which is just another term for nonexistent.

It is long past time to bring back these investigations. Justice demands it.

Christopher T. Armen, Woodland Hills

The writer is a criminal defense attorney.

Chicago's police union president says officers who kneel with Black Lives Matter protesters could be kicked out of the organization
SO CALLED POLICE UNIONS ARE NOT LABOR UNIONS THEY ARE FRATERNAL ORDERS OR ASSOCIATIONS OF WHITE COPS

Kelly McLaughlin INSIDER•June 12, 2020
Police force at the Chicago protests for George Floyd , on May 30, 2020 during a protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.More

Jim Vondruska/NurPhoto via Getty Images


John Catanzara, the new president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police criticized officers' decisions to kneel with protesters at Black Lives Matter demonstrations in an interview with Fox32 Chicago.

He said now is not the "time or place" to be kneeling with protestors, and said officers would be "risking being brought up on charges and thrown out of the lodge" if they did so.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called his comments "really unfortunate."

The president of Chicago's police union said that any officer who kneels with Black Lives Matter protestors could be kicked out of the organization.

John Catanzara, the new president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police told Fox32 Chicago that he didn't believe the current Black Lives Matter protests that broke out after the death of George Floyd were the "time or place" to be kneeling.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FOP
"If you kneel, you'll be risking being brought up on charges and thrown out of the lodge," Catanzara, who has been in office for a month, told Fox32. "This was about defunding and abolishing the police officers. And you're going to take a knee for that? It's ridiculous."


Police have been photographed kneeling with protesters at demonstrations across the US in recent weeks, as tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets daily calling for police reform and the end of police violence. There have also been reports of police officers driving squad cars into crowds, attacking people with pepper spray and batons, and shooting rubber bullets at journalists and demonstrators.

In New York, one NYPD lieutenant apologized for taking a knee with protesters and fellow police department members.

"The conditions prior to the decision to take a knee were very difficult as we were put center stage with the entire crowd chanting," he wrote in his apology, seen by the New York Post. "I know I made the wrong decision. We didn't know how the protesters would have reacted if we didn't and were attempting to reduce any extra violence."

When asked about Catanzara's comments, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said they didn't "dignify" a response.

"I don't really think that we should credit those kinds of really unfortunate comments, and I'm not going to dignify them with any further response," she said.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=POLICE+UNIONS

Floyd’s death hastens shift in police pop culture portrayals
HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press•June 13, 2020

FINALLY THE BORING REPETITIVE LAW & ORDER SUV IS BOOTED OFF AIR

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America Protests-Fictional Cops
In this image released by NBC, Jason Beghe portrays Hank Voight, left, in a scene from the crime series "Chicago PD." The May 25 killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has set off protests worldwide and transmitted images of law enforcement that long remained far outside the narratives of crime stories. (Matt Dinerstein/NBC via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Gary Phillips, a prize-winning crime novelist from Los Angeles, grew up on TV shows that showed a world nothing like the one he lived in.

"I watched them all, ‘Dragnet,’ ‘Adam 12,’ ‘The Wild, Wild West,’ ‘Mannix,’ ‘Cannon,’ ‘Peter Gunn’ reruns and on and on. Now these were white guys and they were tough but fair and even-handed,” he told The Associated Press in a recent email, referring to popular programs mostly from the 1960s and 1970s.

“I remember a ‘Dragnet’ episode where tight-ass Joe Friday solved racism among black and white officers in a weekend retreat. But I was a kid growing up in South Central and even then some part of me knew a lot of this was jive. We knew the cops out of Newton and 77th Division policed the ’hood a lot different than shown on TV.”

The May 25 killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck, has set off protests worldwide and transmitted images of law enforcement that long remained far outside the narratives of crime stories — beatings and lethal chokeholds of handcuffed suspects, firing mace and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, harassing and cursing at journalists.

Police stories have evolved far from the prime of Sgt. Friday. But the idealized crime fighter remains a cultural touchstone even when countered by such recent narratives as Ava DuVernay's Netflix series “When They See Us,” about the wrongfully convicted Central Park Five, and Angie Thomas' “The Hate U Give,” a best-selling novel about a black teen murdered by police that was adapted into a feature film of the same name.

“Hopefully what we're seeing on TV now, and on social media, is that bubble being popped,” Thomas told the AP.

Protests have already changed television. “Cops,” which for 33 seasons helped shape an authorized narrative that allowed viewers to sympathize and identify with real police on patrol, was dropped this week by the Paramount Network. A&E did the same with a similar show, “Live PD,” one of its mostly highly rated programs. Earlier this year, five police procedurals were consistently in the Nielsen company's top 20 ratings, including NBC’s “Chicago PD” and CBS’s “FBI.” Now, even those portraying law enforcement officials are pulling back: Griffin Newman, who appeared as a detective on the CBS series “Blue Bloods,” announced he was donating his earnings from the show to help raise bail for arrested protesters.

The divide between crime fiction and real life dates back to the genre's origins, more than 200 years ago. Law enforcement violence and corruption were extreme in the mid-19th century and some police forces were rooted in the patrols that used to chase down runaway slaves. Meanwhile, “The police in early crime fiction were depicted as good, courageous, and brilliant,” says Otto Penzler, the crime fiction publisher and bookseller.

In the 20th century, shows such as “Dragnet” and “Highway Patrol” were collaborations between law enforcement and the entertainment business, to the point where J. Edgar Hoover was permitted to vet the politics of the actors appearing in “The FBI,” the long-running series starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Otherwise, police and other officials were portrayed as jaded and self-contained in the fiction of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, comical and bumbling like the Keystone Kops or the misfits of “Police Academy,” rumpled and savvy like Peter Falk's Columbo, or witty and indomitable like Bruce Willis' New York City detective John McClane in the “Die Hard” movies.

Walter Mosley, known for his “Easy Rawlins” novels about a black detective in Los Angeles, noted that even if the plot included a bad cop “it wouldn't be instituonalized. It would be that cop is bad because he or she is a bad person.”

For Gary Phillips and many others, it took years to find stories in which they could see themselves. Naomi Hirahara, the Edgar Award winning author of the Mas Arai detective novels, remembered the “fantasy” or watching the white male protagonists in “Columbo,” “The Rockford Files” and other shows. As an adult, she was drawn to African American crime writers such as Mosley and Chester Himes, and now admires Rachel Howzel Hall’s novels about the African American LAPD homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton, books “revealing the complexity of a black woman in a system that has traditionally disempowered minorities.”

Penzler and others cite Joseph Wambaugh's 1971 novel “The New Centurions” as a turning point in showing a more realistic portrait of police, although no single trend has prevailed. Over the past 50 years, the image of law enforcement has sometimes mirrored debates between liberals and conservatives. Sidney Lumet's 1973 film “Serpico” dramatized the corruption of New York City police and the heroism of the real-life title character's willingness to speak out. Around the same time, Clint Eastwood's “Dirty Harry” movies positioned Eastwood's San Francisco lawman as a needed rule-breaker in a system too permissive of crime. Spike Lee's landmark 1989 release “Do the Right Thing,” in which a black man is choked to death by police, was released two weeks after the premiere of “Lethal Weapon 2” and the crowd pleasing defiance of Mel Gibson's Sgt. Martin Riggs.

“Cops,” which allowed the departments it covered significant control over its content, has been contrasted by the tougher perspective of Lena Waithe’s Showtime series “The Chi." But even shows like “The Wire,” and “The Shield” that take frank looks at police abuses can end up making the audience identify with officers.

“At first it’s ‘police are dirty bums’ and it’s ‘look at the awful thing they did,’” says Miki Turner, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in diversity and controversial topics in the entertainment industry and television. “And th

Africa's most famous silverback gorilla Rafiki has been killed by poachers and people are heartbroken

#BUSHMEAT 

Posted 10 hours ago by Louis Staples in discover

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One of Africa’s most famous mountain gorillas, Rafiki, has been killed.

Four men have been arrested in Uganda and face a life sentence if found guilty of killing an endangered gorilla.

Rafiki was killed by a sharp object that penetrated his internal organs, an investigation found. There are only 1,000 of his species left in Uganda and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) described Rafiki's death as a "very big blow".

The silverback gorilla was the leader of a group of 17 mountain gorillas.

Bashir Hangi from the UWA told the BBC:

The death of Rafiki leaves the group unstable and there is the possibility that it could disintegrate.

It has no leadership at this time and it could be taken over by a wild silverback.

To find the poachers, a UWA team tracked a suspect to a nearby village, where he was found with hunting equipment. He admitted that he, and three others, had been hunting smaller animals in the park and that he killed Rafiki in self-defence when he was attacked.

The mountain gorilla species is restricted to protected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. They are classified as endangered.

On social media, people were devastated about the gorilla’s death.

After his sudden death, it's not clear who the next leader of his tribe will be, or if it will continue.