'Embrace the change': Black officers sidestep unions to support police reform

Erik Ortiz, NBC News•June 15, 2020

After the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta and other recent cases of fatal police encounters, the public clamor for changing the culture of policing is running up against powerful opposition in the form of police union leadership.

But in cities like St. Louis, Miami and New York, some of the calls for significant reform are coming from another place: within police departments themselves, among smaller pockets of officers who don't necessarily feel heard by their police unions or the department brass, which are largely white.

While these mostly Black police officers' organizations aren't as big and so don't wield the same influence as unions and fraternal orders with bargaining power and political pull, they do exist in dozens of communities and often share the same views as the residents they serve on issues of racial discrimination, inequality and overaggressive policing.

"This is a new era in America, and we have to embrace the change," said Charles Billups, president of the Grand Council of Guardians, a Black law enforcement association in New York whose membership includes about 3,000 New York Police Department officers. "If you keep recycling those same people in leadership positions, you'll never get real change. We have to get out of the past and move into the future."

But that can prove to be difficult in places like Chicago, where John Catanzara, the newly elected president of the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7, said last week that any officer in uniform seen kneeling alongside protesters would be subject to discipline, and in Minneapolis, where union boss Lt. Bob Kroll has defied demonstrators' calls to resign over his divisive comments about the Floyd case.

Image: Protesters march near the Minneapolis Police 1st Precinct on June 13, 2020. (Kerem Yucel / AFP - Getty Images)

While Billups said he doesn't support efforts to completely abolish the law enforcement structure, he said the need for addressing racial injustice within policing and the militarization of policing in communities of color are issues that can no longer be ignored.

Until police departments more accurately reflect their communities and, in turn, union leadership represents the diversity of a department, Billups added, legislation that seeks to revamp police procedures will continue to be impeded by an "old guard."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed police reform bills that include banning the use of chokeholds and repeal of a law that has kept police disciplinary records secret for decades — legislation that had for years failed to budge under heavy pressure and strong tough-on-crime rhetoric from law enforcement lobbyists.

As mighty as police unions present themselves, they have historically veered away from the larger organized labor movement, which has been outspoken in recent years in support of investigations into fatal police shootings. The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the United States, for example, is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

In a statement Monday, the national FOP's president, Chuck Canterbury, said he is optimistic about police reform efforts under President Donald Trump and the Senate GOP and has provided feedback to the House's bill, which would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases.

"In our view, President Trump and Congressional leaders are working constructively with law enforcement and community stakeholders to undertake earnest law enforcement reforms that will make our officers and the public they protect safer," Canterbury said.

The death of Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police has been a major catalyst for reform. A Black officers' organization in Miami renewed its complaints about racism within the department and highlighted incendiary remarks by a former police chief in the 1960s — "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" — that were echoed by Trump in recent weeks.

"We're talking about Black men dying. We're talking about systemic racism in police work," Ramon Carr, the vice president of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, which has 300 members and represents about 60 sworn officers, said Friday.

The association has clashed with Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina, a 30-year veteran of Florida's largest municipal police department, and on Friday demanded he resign after he confirmed using racist language in 1997 during what he said was a training class.

"We believe Chief Colina harbors implicit biases and it reflects today on the department," Sgt. Stanley Jean-Poix, the association's president, said. "Whenever we talk to him about our issues, he's tone deaf."

But Colina on Friday defended himself in a video, admitting to using "offensive" words, but as a teaching moment. According to internal documents shared by the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, Colina had used a racial epithet to describe Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood of Miami.

"In 1997, I was an undercover police officer ... and I was teaching a class," Colina said. "I started the class by saying that I was going to be using language that could be very offensive. And that was the point. When you're working undercover, you may have to act and say things you may not normally say otherwise, whether they make you uncomfortable or not. And then I gave many examples of what they could be."

Colina added that the police chief at the time did raise concerns to him about some of the language he used and he was issued a reprimand.

"Not because I'm a bigot or racist, but because they weren't happy with some of the language I used," Colina said.

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He also touted the increased number of Black employees now working for the department during his tenure, and accused a "group of individuals" of using Floyd's death for "self-severing purposes" to push their own agenda.

But members of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association said they would continue calling on city commissioners to dismiss Colina, saying they believe he has neglected to act sufficiently against officers known to have a pattern of racist complaints against them.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FOP


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The demands for reform from within are playing out differently in other cities where the racial dynamics all depend on who holds power.

St. Louis' police union, which represents about 1,300 rank-and-file members of the Metropolitan Police Department, has sparred with Police Chief John Hayden, who is Black, over his handling of protests this month related to Floyd's death.

In a letter to Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, the St. Louis Police Officers' Association said that officers had lost confidence in Hayden for failing to squelch unrest, and that the state should deploy the highway patrol and the National Guard. Among the violence that roiled the city was the shooting of four police officers and the killing of David Dorn, a retired St. Louis police captain who was shot while responding to looting at a friend's pawn shop.

But in a retort to the union, Hayden took a swipe at union business manager Jeffrey Roorda, saying in a tweet that Roorda "feels a need to thrive on crisis, attempts to invoke panic, and is accustomed to an environment wherein he can control the Chief of Police. A person who is as controversial and divisive as he is, through his words and actions, has no seat at my table, and I am not alone in this sentiment."

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Roorda did not immediately return a request for comment about how the union views calls for police reform.

Roorda, who is white, has been an outspoken proponent of officers' rights and incited a controversy last year when he posted on Facebook "Happy Alive Day" to Darren Wilson, the former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on the fifth anniversary of the day Wilson, who is white, fatally shot Michael Brown, a black teenager.

Roorda has also been at odds with Kim Gardner, the city's first black chief prosecutor, who earlier this year grabbed headlines for suing the city, the police union and others for what she called a "racially motivated conspiracy" to prevent her from doing her job. Roorda has dismissed Gardner's claims, saying that she wants to "persecute cops instead of prosecuting criminals."

Hayden has found some support from the city's mostly Black police organization, the Ethical Society of Police, which is not a traditional union like the Police Officers' Association but does offer legal representation for its roughly 315 members.


Homicide Sgt. Heather Taylor, the society's president and a 20-year St. Louis police veteran, said the Police Officers' Association should be expected to defend officers in the face of disciplinary action or accusations of wrongdoing, but she believes that white officers, who make up about 65 percent of the department, are given preferential treatment over Black officers. The number of Black officers, she added, has fallen in recent years, from 36 percent to 30 percent of the department.

"The POA has never filed a lawsuit about discrimination when we know there's systemic racism," Taylor said. "If representation hasn't been equal for all officers along racial lines, what do you think it's going to be like for the community that encounters these bad officers?"

The Ethical Society of Police is supportive of legislation introduced last week by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to reform use-of-force policies, although Taylor said city leaders for years have lacked the conviction to act, particularly after the fatal police shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man, in 2011 and the violent unrest that followed in 2017 after the white officer who killed him was acquitted of murder.

Marcia McCormick, a law professor at St. Louis University who has researched the police union's role in the city, said St. Louis has a long, complicated history of people holding on to power to the benefit of their social circles — and to the detriment of Black citizens who have historically endured the effects of segregation and higher arrest rates.

Until change comes to these institutions, sweeping police reform will likely remain out of reach, McCormick added.

"That's the challenge," she said, "is that it doesn't happen."

Bobby Rush: Chicago police union and KKK ‘are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins’

RIGHT ON! ALL WHITE COP UNIONS ARE

Natasha Korecki, Politico•June 14, 2020



CHICAGO — Rep. Bobby Rush on Sunday likened Chicago’s largest police union to the Ku Klux Klan, saying the two organizations “are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins.”

“The number-one cause that prevents police accountability, that promotes police corruption, that protects police lawlessness, is a culprit called the Fraternal Order of Police,” the Chicago Democrat said in an interview with POLITICO on Sunday. “They’re the organized guardians of continuous police lawlessness, of police murder and police brutality. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is the most rabid, racist body of criminal lawlessness by police in the land. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ku Klux Klan then and the Ku Klux Klan now.”

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FOP

Rush’s searing remarks were the latest escalation between him and police after Chicago officers were caught on video lounging in the congressman’s Chicago office for hours while violent police protests roiled the city during the weekend of May 30-31. It adds fuel to unrest in Chicago and across the nation after the death of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

The police union did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

In a news conference on Thursday, top Chicago police brass, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Rush castigated those caught on tape, including three supervisors, saying their actions were indefensible. The officers entered Rush’s office after vandals had broken in, according to city officials. But they stayed inside, napping, popping popcorn and making coffee. Rush said they left behind a one-dollar bill on his desk, in what he considered a gesture of disrespect.

Rush, who was a founding member of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, said the Chicago FOP and the Ku Klux Klan “are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins.” He went on to say the union has a long history of protecting its bad apples instead of expelling them from their ranks.

Lightfoot, who made the video public on Thursday, expressed dismay at police in the recording, saying they would be reprimanded.

“Looting was going on, buildings were being burned, officers were on the front lines truly taking a beating with bottles and pipes, and these guys were lounging — in a congressman’s office,” Lightfoot said. “The utter contempt and disrespect is hard to imagine.”

Since the episode drew national headlines, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, Chicago’s largest police union, contended that Rush’s staff had asked that the officers sit in his office on the night of the protests. A Rush spokesman said that was not true.

“Shame on her for ever questioning their valor and the heroism and the officers of CPD to make it sound like they were letting other officers get the crap beat out of them while they sat there and slept,” John Catanzara, the union president, told Chicago’s NBC news affiliate, referring to Lightfoot. “That is a disgusting accusation. She owes the men and women an apology for even implying that was.”

Catanzara himself has drawn controversy — and notoriety — after publicly expressing his support for President Donald Trump. Trump tweeted congratulations to Catanzara when he was elected as union president in May.

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I was a police chief stopped by my own officer. After Floyd, we need change at all levels.

Isaiah McKinnon, Detroit Free Press Opinion, USA TODAY Opinion•June 15, 2020

DISARM THE POLICE
    DEMILITARIZE THE POLICE
  NO RIOT SQUADS AT PROTESTS
DEFUND THE POLICE


George Floyd could have been me.

That was my first thought when I saw the video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin choking the life out of George Floyd.

In 1957, I was a freshman at Cass Technical High School. As I walked home after speaking with my favorite teacher, four white police officers jumped out of their cruiser, threw me against it and beat me severely. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Officers in the feared “Big Four” were well-known in the black community for brutally maintaining their kind of “Law and Order.” The more I screamed, the more they beat me. Time seemed to stand still as I saw the anger on their faces and the horror on the faces of black people who gathered around us, yelling for the police to stop.

After what felt like hours, they told me to get my ass out of there. I ran home crying but did not tell my parents, fearful that it would put them in danger. I was 14, the same age as Emmett Till when he was killed in Mississippi two years earlier. I was scared, angry and confused. Why did they hurt me?

That day, I promised myself that I would become a Detroit police officer and change the Detroit police force from the inside.

After graduating and serving four years in the Air Force, including a deployment to Vietnam, I joined the Detroit Police Department on Aug. 2, 1965.

As a rookie officer, I encountered overt and casual bigotry and routine denigration and brutality. Many white officers refused to ride alongside black officers. Some made cardboard dividers in patrol cars — designating the “white” section from the “colored.” Others used Lysol to “disinfect” seats where black officers sat. Some of my white colleagues refused to speak with me during shifts, dared not eat near or with me, and frequently used the N-word to describe me and the African American citizens they were sworn to protect.
A white colleague tried to kill me

Two years later, I felt the sting of betrayal as an officer during the 1967 rebellion. One night, after a grueling shift, two white DPD officers pulled me over. I was still in uniform, badge affixed to my chest and a #2 pin on my collar, indicating that I worked in the 2nd Precinct. I identified myself as a fellow officer, thinking they would see me as an equal. Instead, one pointed his gun at me and said, “Tonight you’re going to die, n-----,” before discharging his weapon. I dove back into my vehicle and miraculously managed to escape. I realized then that not even our shared uniform could save me from their racism. And I wondered that if they were willing to shoot and kill a black police officer, what were they willing to do to black civilians?

As a supervisor a few years later, I stopped a group of officers from beating three black teens. I was finally in a position to hold them accountable for their excessive use of force. But my precinct commander yelled at me for attempting to "ruin the lives of those good officers." I witnessed this kind of complicity repeatedly. When other officers reported abuse, as they should, they were ostracized, transferred to lesser assignments and treated so poorly that many quit.

Enforcing the law while black: I understand the anger but don't defund police. It could make things worse.

During these years, my mental salvation was education. I earned three degrees, including a master’s degree and Ph.D. When I became chief of police of Detroit in 1994, it was important for me to root out the bad officers — like those who beat me as a teenager and tried to kill me in 1967. I also worked to rebuild trust with the community, which for too long felt like it was at the mercy of a violent and indifferent police force. It was my mission as chief to make a difference in the lives of Detroiters.

It was incredibly difficult, however, to eradicate implicit biases and systemic racism in the department. When I was chief, a white DPD officer pulled me over one night. He approached my unmarked vehicle and without looking at me, asked for my license and registration. Wanting to see how far this would go, I said, "Yes officer." At some point, he recognized who he had stopped and immediately apologized. My question to him was, “Why did you stop me?” He said, "I thought it was a stolen car." The officer was reprimanded for his actions.

Joe Biden: We must urgently root out systemic racism, from policing to housing to opportunity

Later, as deputy mayor, I attended a Criminal Justice Forum in Washington, D.C., with police chiefs and other high-ranking officials from major cities in America. I told them my story and asked what suggestions they had to rid our departments of similar acts. No one said anything. Unfortunately, silence has been the norm in most departments for too long.
Serve, protect and end discrimination

If my uniform, badge and education cannot protect me from anti-black violence, what can? Now is the time to get to the heart of the matter: There must be a major effort to fundamentally restructure police departments so that they actually do what they promise: Serve and protect all people.

This should include a change at all levels. Here's what we must do to get started:

►Require higher aptitude and fitness standards for incoming recruits.

►Require regular mental health checkups to deal with the stress and challenges of law enforcement.

►Develop a nationwide database of all officers to prevent bad officers from jumping departments to avoid marks on their permanent record.

►Stop promoting officers to become supervisors who have multiple disciplinary complaints, particularly, to positions of first-line leaders like sergeants and lieutenants.

►Rehabilitation within police unions. Their intransigence makes it almost impossible to fire and hold officers accountable for breaking the law and the public’s trust.

The relationship between the community and the police is fundamentally changing. Departments should be at the forefront of a transformative model of public safety, for all possible outcomes, including defunding the police. The arrest of Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police officers for the murder of George Floyd is a move in the right direction. As hundreds of thousands of people around the world demand accountability, now is the time for a meaningful change so that no one, especially black men and women, has to ever again think “that could have been me.”

Isaiah McKinnon is a retired chief of the Detroit Police Department, retired associate professor of education at University of Detroit Mercy and former deputy mayor of Detroit. This column originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I could have been George Floyd but I lived: Former Detroit police chief

Trump's Tulsa rally evokes a tragic 1921 example of the systemic racism he won't face

Ellis Cose, Opinion columnist, USA TODAY Opinion•June 16, 2020


Tulsa race massacre of 1921: The painful past of 'Black Wall Street


It’s possible President Donald Trump’s reason for scheduling his let’s-forget-COVID-19 rally in Tulsa had nothing to do with stirring up racial mischief. It’s possible that the event, as Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt suggested, was conceived simply to celebrate the (certainly premature) reopening of the state. It’s even possible that the originally announced date (June 19, or Juneteenth — a day commemorating the emancipation of America’s formerly enslaved) was chosen for some reason other than insulting African Americans.

But even approaching this matter with a mind as open as humanly possible, it’s difficult to see how any sane person ever thought the Tulsa rally was a good idea. Indeed, in changing the date (supposedly at the suggestion of Black allies who worried a Juneteenth rally might be seen as tactless), Trump essentially admitted the scheme was half-baked and tone-deaf from the beginning.

At a time when a racially diverse coalition is demanding a new approach to both policing and race, one would think the last thing on Trump’s to-do list would be a rally evoking one of the worst pogroms in American history. That only would make sense if Trump had decided to add his voice to the millions protesting the justice system’s treatment of African Americans — if Trump, in other words, was on the side demanding an end to racism.

What is systemic racism?: Here's what it means and how you can help dismantle it
Tulsa riot illustrates systemic racism

Yes, I can hear you laughing. This is the same Donald Trump who, since the death of George Floyd, has devoted his time to justifying the status quo — or worse. He has ranted about “domestic terror” (which seems to be his definition of lawful protest) while threatening to unleash “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers” on American citizens. When not tweeting such nonsense, he and his team crusade against the term “systemic racism,” claiming it does not exist in American law enforcement — or presumably in American life.

There is a certain irony in the Trump administration making that argument at the very moment we are focused on the 1921 riot that serves as a textbook example of how systemic racism works.

An African American church burns in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The state commission appointed to study the riot in Tulsa issued a report in 2001 noting that beginning the evening of May 31, 1921, a “mob destroyed 35-square-blocks of the African American Community.” It was “a tragic, infamous moment in Oklahoma and the nation’s history” and the worst "civil disturbance since the Civil War.” A precise death toll was impossible to come by, but the commission put the number at somewhere between 38 and “well into the hundreds.”

Like so much racial craziness in America, the Tulsa riot was ignited by an interaction between a young African American man and a young white woman. Dick Rowland worked as a shoeshine boy near the building where Sarah Page was an elevator girl. Rowland apparently came into the building to use its “coloreds only” bathroom. He may have tripped as he entered the elevator and grabbed Page’s arm to steady himself. For whatever reason, Page screamed.

Overcoming history: Pandemic and police killings reveal brutal status quo. We can fix this. Why won't we?

The next morning, Rowland was arrested. The Tulsa Tribune ran a front-page story headlined, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator,” and might have run an additional article headlined, “To Lynch Negro Tonight.” Details on the second article are unclear, as all copies mysteriously vanished from the Tribune’s archives. What is clear is that white mobs gathered at the courthouse. Armed African Americans showed up to observe them. A shot was fired and chaos ensued. When the smoke cleared, a vibrant community reputed to be the most prosperous in Black America was no more.

The Associated Press blamed “agitation by a few irresponsible negroes” goaded on by “negro radicals.” 

Mobs targeted successful Blacks

That summer, the American Civil Liberties Union reprinted a pamphlet, "Lynching and Debt Slavery," authored by William Pickens, field secretary of the NAACP. Pickens argued that white Southerners were determined to keep African Americans in economic bondage. Mob violence erupted, he wrote, when whites suspected Blacks of trying to escape that system. Consequently, said Pickens, “when race riots break out, especially in the South, the prosperous and well-to-do colored men … are the ones most likely to be forced to leave the community. They may be compelled to abandon all their property posthaste to get away with their lives.”

As a well-to-do African American community, Tulsa’s so-called Black Wall Street was a glittering affront to white Southerners. It was a quiet repudiation of the revered Ku Klux Klan.

Why are there no Black Donald Trumps? Part of the answer lies in places such as Tulsa.
Joe Biden: We must urgently root out systemic racism, from policing to housing to opportunity

In 2018, New York Times reporters looked into the origins of Trump’s wealth. They concluded that his father gave him $413 million in today's dollars, which enabled the son to screw up in business, cheat on his taxes and end up a rich man: a bonafide American success story.

No Black American of Trump's generation has such a story. The mobs made sure no one would. If you wish to understand institutional racism, read the story of Tulsa, then read the story of Trump. It is not that difficult a concept to grasp, unless you have no intention of getting it. Unless you have no regard for history and no appetite for facts.

Trump, of course, is famously intolerant of facts. He seems to view them the way he once viewed the coronavirus — something troublesome that one day “like a miracle … will disappear."

Ellis Cose, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is the author of "Democracy, If We Can Keep It: The ACLU’s 100-Year Fight for Rights in America" and "The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America," both due out this year. Follow him on Twitter: @EllisCose

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump Tulsa rally evokes one of the worst pogroms in American history

Seattle City Council votes to ban police from using tear gas, pepper spray

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday night to ban police from using tear gas, pepper spray and several other crowd control devices after officers repeatedly used them on mostly peaceful demonstrators protesting against racism and police brutality.

The 9-0 vote came amid frustration with the Seattle Police Department, which used tear gas to disperse protesters in the city’s densest neighborhood, Capitol Hill, just days after Mayor Jenny Durkan and Chief Carmen Best promised not to.

The council heard repeated complaints from residents forced out of their homes by the gas even though they weren’t protesting; one resident said his wife doused their child’s eyes with breast milk.

A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary order banning Seattle police from using tear gas, pepper spray, foam-tipped projectiles or other force against protesters, finding that the department had used less-lethal weapons “disproportionately and without provocation,” chilling free speech in the process

As leaders warned of US meat shortages, overseas exports of pork and beef continued

THIS WOULD APPLY IN ALBERTA TOO 

Kyle Bagenstose, USA TODAY•June 16, 2020


As U.S. meat production plummeted in April following a rash of coronavirus outbreaks and closures at processing plants across the country, industry and political leaders sounded an alarm.

Factory closures were “pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” Kenneth Sullivan, CEO of Smithfield Foods, the country’s largest pork producer, warned in a public message April 6.

As closures worsened three weeks later, John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, put his name on a full page ad in The Washington Post and The New York Times warning that America’s “food supply chain is breaking.”

“Our plants must remain operational so that we can supply food to our families in America,” Tyson said.

The next day, President Donald Trump threw the industry a lifeline. He invoked the Defense Production Act to declare it was crucial to keep meat plants open and operating. He had used the authority just once before: to ramp up production of personal protective equipment. The move elevated American meat processing into a privileged position.

“It is important that processors of beef, pork, and poultry in the food supply chain continue operating and fulfilling orders to ensure a continued supply of protein for Americans,” Trump wrote in his executive order.

But Americans were never at risk of a severe meat shortage, a USA TODAY investigation found, based on an analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data and interviews with meat industry analysts.

Instead, some critics say, the fear was used to justify the executive order, which provided some liability protection for meatpacking plants. It also created a uniform system of rules, set by the federal government, to keep plants open rather than leave the closure of meatpacking plants to a patchwork of state and local health authorities.

Amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, a worker restocks chicken in the meat product section at a grocery store in Dallas, Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

“We’ve been very skeptical about these claims around shortages,” said Ben Lilliston, a co-executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, which advocates for fair and sustainable food systems. “I think they were able to use the idea of food shortages as leverage to get those two things.”

Federal data reviewed by USA TODAY show that although American beef and pork production did tank in a six-week period stretching from mid-March to the executive order, exports of hundreds of millions of pounds of meat continued. The amount of beef and pork products exported over that time period actually exceeded the amount of lost production when compared with 2019 levels.

Lilliston pointed out the industry also never drew down meat supplies sitting in “cold storage” warehouses in the middle of the supply chain, which he said would have indicated faltering supply.

In fact, red meat and poultry products in cold storage grew by about 40 million pounds from March to April, reaching 2.5 billion pounds, USDA data show.

“Cold storage can tell you something. … If the levels are still pretty high there, that tells you they haven’t tapped into that,” Lilliston said.

Other experts also made a distinction between the “spot shortages” of meat – temporary shortages of some products in some places – that spiked in early May and a truly critical lack of protein-rich products.

“We’re not going to run out of meat,” Steve Meyer, an economist for Kerns & Associates, an agricultural commodities firm in Iowa, told USA TODAY in late April. “Buy what you need, and leave some for somebody else, and I think we’ll all get through this OK.”

Others say it’s more complicated. Economists warn that a sharp curtailment of exports to shore up domestic supplies could harm long-term trade relationships and possibly backfire as companies lose a profit motive to slaughter more animals. And Sarah Little, a spokeperson for the industry group North American Meat Institute, said efforts to stabilize the industry were to ensure that a serious shortage never arrived.

“While there was less variety to consumers, or certain regional areas may have experienced shortages of meat, it wasn’t a widespread shortage,” Little said. “It never got to a point where we thought Americans would not have access to food. That is never something our companies would want to see. And that’s why it was so important to be able to continue operations.”

But Tony Corbo, a senior government affairs representative of the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, said he saw a disconnect between the alarming language the industry used in April and the continued exports.

“There’s this incongruity between the Tysons of the world and the Smithfields of the world wringing their hands, saying this is going to cause all kinds of disruptions to the domestic meat supply, while at the same time behind everybody’s back they’re exporting,” Corbo said.
Production drops as exports rise

In the crucial month leading up to Trump’s executive order, USDA data show beef and pork production was in sharp decline. From March 20 to April 24, the industry produced 171 million fewer pounds of beef and pork than during the same stretch last year.

But the industry exported about 636 million pounds over the same time span, nearly four times the deficit. That number has since grown to more than 1.3 billion pounds exported through early June.

And while the U.S. does export significant quantities of “variety meat” products such as feet and tails that most Americans don’t eat, data from the U.S. Meat Export Federation shows those products accounted for less than 25% of the weight of exports in April.

Joe Schuele, vice president of communications for the federation, said that even among non-variety meats, some pork and beef products are more popular overseas. That includes exports of beef short plate, a tough and fatty meat, to Japan, and pork picnic, a shoulder cut popular in Mexico.

Federal export figures do not detail which cuts are being exported.

Data does show that the overall trends of meat production and export began to diverge by early April and grew further apart leading up to Trump’s executive order. During those several weeks, production of beef and pork dipped below 2019 levels, but exports soared above the amounts seen a year earlier. In the week ending April 23, the industry exported 98.6 million pounds of pork overseas, the second-highest total of 2020.

Lilliston said the continued push to export wasn’t surprising. The nation’s largest meat companies, which also include JBS and Cargill, are now global operations, with products flowing to wherever the most value is to be had, he said.

“It's not their mission to feed U.S. citizens,” Lilliston said. “They view the U.S. as a really important market, perhaps their most important market. But it's not 'Our job is to fill their grocery stores so people have enough to eat.’”

Hli Yang, a Tyson spokesperson, said the criticism was unfair.

“We export responsibly and assess market dynamics, such as COVID-19’s impact in the U.S., before making decisions,” Yang said.

Yang added that the company had been “prioritizing” beef and pork sales in the U.S. market.

“We also voluntarily curtailed beef and pork exports that fit the tastes of domestic consumers to try to meet U.S. demand during this challenging time,” Yang said.

Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance for Smithfield, said there’s a delay between production and export that meant food exported at the height of the pandemic was “ordered and processed” months before.

“More recently, U.S. exports have declined as a result of lower production amid COVID-19,” Lombardo said.

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s executive order for this story, referring the matter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA did not respond to requests for comment.

Exports’ explosive growth

Agricultural economists say that improving domestic supply by limiting exports may not be as simple as it seems.

Over the past several decades, America’s meat industry has increasingly relied on exports for growth and profits. The U.S. now exports more meat than ever before, growing from less than 2% of production in 1960 to about 23% of pork, 16% of chicken, and 11% of beef in 2019, USDA data show.

“Most of the demand for meat has not been inside the United States,” said Jayson Lusk, head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. “It’s been outside the country, so it’s not surprising U.S. producers looking to grow their markets have looked elsewhere to try to find additional customers.”

Buoyed most recently by the Trump administration’s reworking of trade agreements with China and Mexico, 2020 was expected to be a banner year for exports, particularly pork. Farmers had expanded their herds in anticipation, leaving a glut once COVID-19 struck, which required some farmers to do traumatic mass cullings and placed additional pressure on plants to reopen.

Experts also say exportation has become deeply ingrained in the supply chain, down to the farm level. Some animals are primarily raised to send specific cuts overseas, with the remainder of the animal heading to U.S. supplies.

Lombardo, the Smithfied representative, said meat processing facilities are typically equipped to produce specific products, whether for retail, restaurants or exports. Converting them for another use takes time.

“Food supply chains are complex and products for one market cannot always be immediately reconfigured for another,” Lombardo said.

Without an export incentive, domestic supply could also dip, others said.

“I think those considering restricting exports overestimate the extent it would increase domestic consumption and underestimate the adverse economic impact,” said Glynn Tonsor, a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University.

Some remain skeptical that curtailing exports would hurt domestic supply. Roger Horowitz, a history professor and meat industry expert at the University of Delaware, said he believes companies would find a way to make use of all animals parts domestically or transfer costs to consumers, although perhaps for less money.

“Export restrictions could hurt profits, but not American consumers,” Horowitz said.

But Lusk added that any short-term domestic gains realized by curtailing exports could also result in long-term damage to trade relations.

“The issue is that there are real people and real relationships on the other end of those trade deals,” Lusk said. “If one cancels a contract today, do they lose that customer next month? What does that do to the profitability of the packing plant and the pork producers?”
The risks to workers

At the mercy of the economic equation are the nation’s meatpacking workers, who risk contracting COVID-19 in the workplace. While the Trump administration and industry leaders say conditions have improved for employees after workplace safety guidelines were implemented last month, workers continue to fall ill.

By tracking public reports, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found that 10,000 meatpacking workers had fallen ill by May 5, with at least 45 deaths. Those numbers have since grown to more than 24,000 infections and at least 90 deaths.

For one plant inspector within the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), it didn’t sit well that administration officials raised the specter of meat shortages while exports continued. The FSIS employs several thousand inspectors who visit meatpacking plants daily; at least four have died from COVID-19.

According to the inspector, who spoke with USA TODAY under condition of anonymity, FSIS officials initially addressed inspectors in April and said there was an urgent need to remain on the job, despite the risks of COVID-19.

Tyson Foods installed plastic barriers between worker stations at its meat and poultry plants to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.

“Because the meat supply to all Americans, including the inspectors’ families, kids, and grandkids could fail, leading to widespread meat shortages and malnutrition,” the employee recalled officials saying.

Agency officials later changed the tone of communications and are now simply thanking inspectors for doing their job, instead of citing concerns about food shortages, which the USDA inspector said was appreciated.

But USDA leadership is still using the argument publicly. In a June 9 statement announcing that meat production had returned to 95% of 2019 levels, USDA secretary Sonny Perdue again justified the push to keep meatpacking plants open by citing risks to the domestic food supply.

“I want to thank the patriotic and heroic meatpacking facility workers, the companies, and the local authorities for quickly getting their operations back up and running, and for providing a great meat selection once again to the millions of Americans who depend on them for food,” Perdue said.

Debbie Berkowitz, who spent six years as chief of staff and senior policy adviser at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and is now director of the National Employment Law Project’s worker health and safety program, criticized the administration, saying worker safety has been jeopardized on a false premise.

“They just decided those lives were OK to sacrifice … and for what?” Berkowitz said. So many of (the) plants sent their pork to China. It wasn’t about feeding America.”

Lilliston said the tension between worker safety, domestic supply and export highlights a potential weakness of the modern-day U.S. meat industry. He advocates a reevaluation of how much power rests in the hands of just a few meatpacking companies whose primary mission is to grow exports.

“They’re not ready to give it up. Even when there are problems here domestically,” Lilliston said. “It really shows the power I think in some ways, of that sort of export-above-all mentality.”

No export restrictions, but May dip anyway

Although it was within his power to curtail exports under COVID-19, Trump declined to do so under the April 28 executive order. That broke from an earlier order on personal protective equipment, which invoked the Defense Production Act while telling manufacturers such as 3M that “it is the policy of the United States to prevent domestic brokers, distributors, and other intermediaries from diverting (PPE) material overseas.”

On May 1, CNBC cited current and former Trump administration officials in reporting that Trump was asked about the prospect of restricting meat exports on a private call with meat industry CEOs.

Trump responded that “he was not interested in restricting exports at this time,” CNBC reported.

The White House declined to comment to USA TODAY.

While U.S. meat production rallied, exports destabilized through May.

The amount of pork sent overseas crashed in the week after Trump’s executive order, dropping below 2019 levels. It has since moved back into year-over-year growth, but beef and pork exports have been on a downward trajectory since the executive order.

As meat production now nears 2019 levels, signaling a return toward some semblance of normalcy, the White House did not say if Trump has made any determination under what circumstances he would rescind the order.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meat shortages were unlikely despite warnings from Trump, meatpackers

Breonna Taylor's legacy could be an end to no-knock warrants

Louisville's ban on no-knock search warrants, the kind used in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, may be the start of something bigger. State Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, said she expects to prefile within the next week a bill to ban no-knock warrants in Kentucky. And U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has already said is filing a bill he's calling the "Justice for Breonna Taylor Act" that effectively would end no-knock warrants in the U.S.

Police investigating a drug case obtained a warrant with a no-knock provision for Taylor's apartment, though officials have said that officers knocked before crashing through the door. Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker has said he did not hear anyone announce that they were police, and fired at what he thought were intruders. Taylor was killed in the ensuing gunfight. No drugs were found.

– Matt Mencarini, Louisville Courier Journal

Contributing: The Associated Press

Petition demands Dolly Parton statues replace confederate memorials in Tennessee

Jenna Ryu, USA TODAY Published June 15, 2020

Historical Confederate monuments are being taken down and defaced from protests over the death of George Floyd. Storyful

As confederate memorials are being taken down nationwide, one petition is calling for them to be replaced with those of "a true Tennessee hero": Dolly Parton.

The Change.org petition started by Alex Parsons on June 11 asks Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee State House to replace confederate monuments with statues of the country singer, who "has worked her entire life to bring us closer together."

"Aside from her beautiful music, which has touched the hearts and lives of millions of Americans, Dolly Parton's philanthropic heart has unquestionably changed the world for the better," Parsons wrote on Thursday.



Dolly Parton turns 74

More: MusiCares 2019 Person of the Year: Dolly Parton is first country singer honored after lifetime of music

"From the Dollywood foundation that has provided books and scholarships to millions of American children, to the millions of dollars she has donated to dozens of organizations such as the Red Cross and COVID-19 research centers, Dolly Parton has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away."


This petition addresses the national debate regarding the removal of confederate memorials across the country following the death of George Floyd. Fellow singer Taylor Swift took to social media to criticize the existing confederate statues.

"As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things. Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were despicable figures in in our state history and should be treated as such," the 30-year-old singer wrote on Friday.

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Tennessee House GOP moves to make camping outside the Capitol a felony

Natalie Allison, Nashville Tennessean

Published  June 15, 2020

VIDEOS AT THE END OF ARTICLE

Two days after protesters set up a small campsite outside the state Capitol, House Speaker Cameron Sexton on Monday moved to amend state law to make doing so a felony.

After reports online Friday that a group of individuals planned to establish an "autonomous zone" outside the Capitol, Sexton, R-Crossville, quickly announced he was prepared to pass legislation to increase from a misdemeanor to a felony the criminal offense of camping on certain state property.
Justin Jones and other protesters face off with Tennessee State Troopers outside the State Capitol building in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, June 15, 2020. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)

A current state law, passed in February 2012 on the heels of an Occupy Nashville protest months before, makes it a misdemeanor to camp on state property that isn't marked for doing so, though the state's current definition of camping is somewhat murky.

While Gov. Bill Lee on Friday said autonomous zones "will not be tolerated," no protesters were arrested as they remained outside the Capitol day and night throughout the weekend, and officials were uncertain whether their actions met the current law's criteria for camping.

The group set up multiple tents around the site where a statue of Edward Carmack was located outside the Capitol before being torn down by protesters two weeks ago, though there is no evidence the protesters ever went inside the tents to sleep.


Sexton's amendment was presented in the finance committee by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, who had sponsored an earlier bill increasing penalties for rioting.

Hours later, a group of protesters — including activist Justin Jones and others who were involved in the weekend demonstration — were blocked outside the Capitol from approaching, despite saying they intended to attend the 6 p.m. House floor session.

After initially being told by troopers they were prohibited from doing so, Sexton's office clarified that five of them would be allowed inside based on the remaining seats available in the gallery, the capacity of which has been reduced during the pandemic.

Jay Terry, 23, greets a crowd of protesters after being released following a citation for disorderly conduct outside of the State Capitol building in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, June 15, 2020. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)
Bill amendment would make camping, graffiti on state property a felony

Sexton's bill amendment would make camping on most state property a felony, as well as vandalizing state property, which is also currently a misdemeanor.

It clarifies language in the state's existing law about camping on state property to specify that merely erecting a tent would qualify as camping, and thus be a felony if done on state property without permission.


Lamberth said the felony vandalism provision would also apply to using chalk to draw on state property, as protesters did over the weekend. The Tennessee Highway Patrol cleared the area at one point to allow part of the Capitol grounds to be pressure washed.

"Every dollar we have to spend of the people's money cleaning up vandalism is money we can't spend on helping treat those who have mental health issues," Lamberth told the committee.

The bill comes with an estimated $9,100 cost for incarcerations and therefore cannot advance without budget negotiations. Lamberth said he hopes the legislature can find a way to fund it.

Protesters gather on the sidewalk outside the Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, June 13, 2020. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)


According to the bill's fiscal note, no one has been convicted of the current camping misdemeanor in the last five years, the period of time studied for determining the cost of the proposed amendment.

"We hope this bill sends a strong message that peaceful protesters are welcome in Tennessee, but rioters and looters will not be allowed to steal the spotlight from the message peaceful protesters are ardently trying to convey," Lamberth said afterward.

Neither accounts from officials nor observations from reporters indicated any physical violence taking place at the weekend protest, and organizers maintained their intention was to remain peaceful.

COMPLETE COVERAGE
Nashville protests

Protesters plan to camp out in front of Capitol, claiming area as autonomous zone

Civil Rights Movement stalwarts weigh in on George Floyd protests

In their own words: 18 Middle Tennesseans on why they protested


In a statement, Adam Kleinheider, spokesman for Lt. Gov Randy McNally, said the Senate version of the bill has not moved out of the judiciary committee, which has finished its business for the year.

"As of today, no one has requested this bill be taken up under the Senate’s limited criteria," Kleinheider said. "If and when it is, it will be considered as any other bill."

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

Rayshard Brooks Was Killed by Police. Here's How to Demand Justice.By Emily Dixon June 16, 2020

SHUTTERSTOCK

Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was killed by white police officer Garrett Rolfe in Atlanta on Friday, June 12.

Rolfe fired three times at Brooks as he ran away, hitting him twice in the back.
Donate to Brooks' family, sign petitions demanding justice, and donate to bail funds for protestors below.

HIS LAWYER PRESENTED A PHOTO OF THE THIRD BULLET HAVING GONE THROUGH AN SUV WINDOW JUST MISSING A COUPLE OF KIDS IN THE CAR.

Rayshard Brooks planned to go skating with his oldest daughter on Saturday, June 13, to celebrate her birthday. He didn't make it: On Friday evening, he was killed by white police officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot Brooks twice in the back as he tried to run away.

On June 12, Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, fell asleep in his car in a Wendy's drive-through in Atlanta, as the Guardian reports. Police were called, and Brooks co-operated with a sobriety test, chatting to Officers Rolfe and Devin Brosnan about his daughter's birthday. The officers patted Brooks down, and knew he was unarmed.

"I watched the interaction with Mr Brooks and it broke my heart," Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on CNN, according to the Guardian. "This was not confrontational. This was a guy that you were rooting for."

According to footage taken by a bystander, Brooks struggled when the officers attempted to arrest him, the Guardian reports, before appearing to grab a Taser from Brosnan and running away. Brooks appeared to fire the Taser once behind him as he ran, pursued by Rolfe, according to the New York Times, but the darts did not land anywhere near the police officer. Even before Brooks pointed the Taser, Rolfe had reached for his handgun; he fired at the fleeing Brooks three times, hitting him twice in the back. The father of four died in hospital following surgery.

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Tomika Miller, the wife of Rayshard Brooks, hugs their daughter Memory, 2, during a press conference in Atlanta. The heartbroken family said they're determined to have his death spark positive change.

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Tomika Miller, Brooks' widow, told CNN that Rolfe did not have to shoot her husband. "I wouldn't have used a gun," she said, saying the officers could have tackled him or let him run. "I don't think it was necessary to shoot." Mayor Bottoms also said Rolfe's use of deadly force was unjustified, as CNN reports. "While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a distinction between what you can do and what you should do," she said.

The Fulton county medical examiner declared Brooks' death a homicide after an autopsy on Sunday, June 14, as the Guardian reports. Atlanta police chief Erika Shields resigned on Saturday, June 13, the day after Brooks' death, while Rolfe has been fired and Brosnan has been placed on administrative leave. Neither have been charged with Brooks' murder.

Brooks' widow Miller told CNN that her husband "always kept [her] spirits up" and "pushed [her] to be better," allowing her to "grow into the woman [she is] today." She has questions for Rolfe and Brosnan. "Do they feel sorry for what they took away?" she said. "If they had the chance to do it again, would they do it the same way or would they do it totally different?"
How can I help demand justice for Rayshard Brooks?

Sign a petition calling for justice for Rayshard Brooks here.

Donate to a fundraiser for Brooks' family here.

Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund for protestors here.

Split a donation between bail funds across the country here.

Donate to Black Lives Matter here.

Sign the Black Lives Matter petition to #DefundThePolice here.

Donate to the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of Black organizations across the U.S., here.

Black Lives Matter


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EMILY DIXON

Is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives.