‘Insensitive and isolated’: Rev. Sharpton slams Trump at Tulsa Juneteenth celebration - live updates

Nicholas Wu, Courtney Subramanian, Bart Jansen, Tim Willert, and Savannah Behrmann, 

USA TODAY•June 19, 2020


President Trump changes his MAGA rally date in Tulsa over Juneteenth choice

SUPER SPREADER EVENT 

HUMAN SACRIFICE BY TRUMP TO WIN RE-ELECTION 

TULSA, Okla. – About a mile away from the arena where President Trump will hold a Saturday rally, the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke to a field filled with people on the campus of Oklahoma State University - Tulsa, near where the city's infamous 1921 race massacre took place.

Sharpton, one of several speakers for this year’s Juneteenth celebration in Tulsa, said “they tell their children that Lincoln freed the slaves. The fact is the slaves freed Lincoln.” He also rejected claims that protesters for the Black Lives Matter movement were violent.

“We are not violent, we're fighting violence,” he said to the crowd.

Sharpton said Juneteenth needed to be a federal holiday, because “it's the first date this country stepped toward living up to the model that announced that all men were created equal.”

Several lawmakers have introduced legislation to make the day a holiday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks during a Juneteenth celebration in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19, 2020, the day before President Donald Trump was scheduled to host a rally there.

“The president said he was coming on June 19,” Sharpton said to boos from the audience, who were watching in the rain, and slammed the president for admitting he did not know about Juneteenth.

He said that Trump's admission showed he was “not qualified” to represent the country as a head of state. Sharpton also called Trump “insensitive and isolated,” especially when “he was born and raised in New York, where two-thirds of New York is black and Latino.”

Earlier in the week, Trump claimed that "nobody had ever heard of" the June 19 holiday before the controversy surrounding his rally, which he originally scheduled to be on Juneteenth.

— Nicholas Wu, Courtney Subramanian, Savannah Behrmann

Tulsa mayor lifts curfew ahead of Trump's rally

Tulsa officials have rescinded a curfew tied to President Donald Trump's controversial rally scheduled there Saturday in an extraordinary reversal that came after Trump spoke with the city’s mayor.

But in another update Friday night, Tulsa officials announced a police zone downtown for Secret Service and police to eject "individuals that are only present to break the law and disrupt the rights of people assembling peacefully."

"In lieu of the Executive Order, a secure zone has been established by the United States Secret Service in cooperation with the Tulsa Police Department and multiple law enforcement agencies," the department posted.

The reversal came hours before Trump was set to touch down for the pivotal campaign event. The president tweeted on Friday, “I just spoke to the highly respected Mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the #MAGA Rally. Enjoy yourselves - thank you to Mayor Bynum!”

The move represented a reversal by Bynum, a Republican, who hours earlier imposed a curfew to cover Friday and Saturday nights based on projections that 100,000 people could attend and concerns about civil unrest.

The timing of that curfew represented a challenge to Trump rally attendees, many of whom have been lined up for days at the BOK Center in anticipation of the rally.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum speaks during a news conference at police headquarters in Tulsa, Okla., on June 17, 2020. President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday in Tulsa.

Bynum said in a statement that he imposed the curfew Thursday at the request of Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, after consulting with the Secret Service and based on their intelligence. Bynum said the Secret Service asked the city Friday to lift the curfew.

“Today, we were told the curfew is no longer necessary so I am rescinding it," Bynum said.

Trump’s rally is being closely watched by supporters and critics because it is his first event since a rally in North Carolina in March during the early weeks of the coronavirus. Local health officials in Oklahoma had recommended against holding the massive indoor event for fear it could spread the virus further.

After the curfew was announced, Trump supporters lined up outside the 19,000-seat BOK Center were forced to move as city officials began setting up concrete barriers to section the area ahead of expected crowds of thousands who plan to attend.

Kelli Butler, 43, drove with her husband Dan and 13-year-old son Friday morning from Stillwell, about an hour southeast of Tulsa. Butler, who arrived at about 8:30 A.M. local time, said some of the groups, hovered under tents and seated in camping chairs, were told to move behind the barriers but were told their place in line would be honored.

– John Fritze, Nicholas Wu, Courtney Subramanian, Savannah Behrmann

State Supreme Court denies challenge to rally

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday denied a request for a temporary injunction to block the BOK Center in Tulsa from hosting President Donald Trump's campaign rally Saturday.

The justices cited a lack of any mandatory language in the state's reopening plan, which provides social distancing guidelines for entertainment venues.

Attorneys in Tulsa filed a lawsuit earlier this week on behalf of two businesses and two residents to stop ASM Global, which manages the 19,000-seat arena, from hosting the rally "to protect against a substantial, imminent and deadly risk to the community."

They argued the rally should be prohibited because it would act as a "spreader" event for the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Paul DeMuro, a lawyer who brought the case, said the goal was to enforce Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidlines.

“The only winner today is the virus. The virus won," DeMuro said. "Our lawsuit didn’t fail. Our local leaders failed us.”

The petition cited a rise in documented cases of COVID-19 in Tulsa County, which have spiked in recent days. Oklahoma set a new state record for case increases in a single day on Thursday, confirming 450 new cases. The state added 352 new cases on Friday, giving it 802 new cases in two days.

"Despite this alarming uptick ... ASM Global plans to host an event that will bring tens of thousands of people into an enclosed area in downtown Tulsa ... without putting precautions in place to prevent the spread of the virus," the petition stated.
 

James Massery, left, of Preston, Okla., and Daniel Hedman, of Tulsa, Okla., supporters of President Donald Trump, camp outside the BOK Center in Tulsa on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, four days before his scheduled rally Saturday.

"All credible, qualified medical experts, including the CDC, agree that this type of mass-gathering indoor event creates the greatest possible risk of community-wide viral transmission."

The Trump campaign said it will check attendees temperature as they come in, provide hand sanitizer and issue masks but not require they be worn. Tickets to the rally come with a liability waiver that says the campaign or other parties associated with the event cannot be held liable for exposure to the coronavirus.

In addition, the BOK Center will provide personal protective gear to event staff, periodically clean and disinfect the arena during the rally, and install plexiglass partitions at all concessions stands.

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said earlier this week that people concerned about the spread of COVID-19 at the rally should stay home.

– Tim Willert, The Oklahoman

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - JUNE 19: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump sleep in the early morning while lined up to attend the campaign rally of U.S. President Donald Trump near the BOK Center, site of tomorrow's rally, June 19, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 775525014 ORIG FILE ID: 1250658372

Trump campaign: Hope any protests are peaceful

A Trump campaign spokesman said Friday peaceful protests are common around the president’s rallies, but that officials hope the latest event in Tulsa on Saturday doesn’t become as violent as protests for racial justice in other cities.

Trump tweeted Friday that “protesters, anarchists, looters or lowlifes” won’t be treated like in New York, Seattle or Minneapolis, but that Tulsa will “be a much different scene!”

Civil-rights advocates have argued that Trump lumped peaceful protesters, who have a First Amendment right to protest, with the violent rioters. Marc Lotter, the director of strategic communications for the Trump 2020 campaign, told MSNBC that the campaign hopes the protests remain peaceful.

“Well, I think if they’re peaceful and if they’re agitating and getting into the violence and other things that will be a different story,” Lotter said. “But we normally have peaceful protests going on around our rallies. And we would hope that anybody that’s coming in from out of town would continue to honor that peaceful tradition in our country and not go to violence.”

Lotter also said the campaign is providing masks for attendees, but wouldn’t mandate they be worn because people are free to make their own decisions.

“Well, we’re making the masks available and we encourage anyone who wants to wear one to be able to do so,” Lotter said. “But we also understand that this is an individual choice. And that people have a right to make the decision for themselves whether they want to come to the rally, whether they want to come inside, whether they want to be outside and also if they want to wear a mask. This is a risk that people know and that they are free to make the decisions that best reflect their needs, their desires and their own personal health.”

–Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Trump threatens Tulsa protesters on rally eve

President Donald Trump threatened to crack down on protesters expected to show up at his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, the first such event since the coronavirus pandemic sidelined his campaign schedule.

“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “It will be a much different scene!”

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said Trump was referring to "destructive" protesters, noting that buildings have been burned, looted, and vandalized during recent demonstrations against police brutality.

President Donald Trump announces an executive order on police policy June 16 in Washington.

"These things are unacceptable," she said. "And we will not see that in Oklahoma."

The president’s tweet came hours after Tulsa mayor G. T. Bynum imposed a curfew, citing expected rally crowds of more than 100,000, planned protests and the civil unrest that has already erupted in the city and around the nation this month.

Trump drew widespread and bipartisan criticism for his last interaction with protesters, when U.S. Park Police and other law enforcement agencies used force to clear Lafayette Square near the White House so the president could pose with a Bible in front of the historic St. John’s Church.

The latest threat also drew fire.

William Kristol, former editor of The Weekly Standard, posted on Twitter that the constitutional right "of protesters are the same in Tulsa as elsewhere in the US. So are the 1A rights of Trump supporters. It's up to OK and Tulsa authorities to follow the law and protect all citizens. But what Trump's doing is inciting his followers to extra-legal action."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Trump of "threatening peaceful protesters standing up for justice."

–John Fritze, USA TODAY

Police: Threats to Trump rally from social media

Concerns among Tulsa officials about the potential for violence outside Trump's rally Saturday appeared to come from social media postings, according to Tulsa police.

Jeanne Pierce, a Tulsa Police Department spokesperson, told USA TODAY the city's information on threats came from social media postings on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Craigslist. Pierce cited posts on Craigslist that urged people to come to Tulsa and make trouble or for people infected with COVID-19 to attend and expose others to the sometimes fatal illness. At least some of the posts have been confirmed fake.

They "don’t know if they’re hoaxes or they’re true but it’s a precautionary measure,” Pierce explained.

Asked about the mayor's estimate of over 100,000 people at the rally, Pierce said the numbers were what the White House press office had told the city, factoring in the 19,1990-person capacity of the arena and the overflow capacity outside.

– Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY

Curfew imposed ahead of rally

The mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, imposed a curfew ahead of President Donald Trump's campaign rally there, prompting officers to move out supporters who had been camping out in front of the arena.

Mayor G. T. Bynum announced the order Thursday evening, citing the expected crowds of more than 100,000, the planned protests and the civil unrest that has already erupted in the city and around the nation this month.

Bynum also said he's received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies "that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive or violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally." 
FAKE A LIE BY THE COPS
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/cops-most-deranged-lies-and-bizarre.html

Bynum said the order is needed to protect health and safety and preserve lives and property.

The curfew of parts of the city's downtown started at 10 p.m. Thursday and is in effect until 6 a.m. Saturday. It begins again at the conclusion of Trump's rally and continues into Sunday morning.

“Big crowds and lines already forming in Tulsa,” Trump tweeted Friday morning, hours after the curfew went into effect.

Big crowds and lines already forming in Tulsa. My campaign hasn’t started yet. It starts on Saturday night in Oklahoma!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020

He also issued this warning: "Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!"

Trump supporters began lining up outside the BOK Center days in advance of the rally.

"Sacrificing a week of our lives is nothing for what Trump has done for us," Robin Stites, who arrived on Monday to secure the No. 2 place in line, told the The Oklahoman earlier this week. YOU WILL BE SACRIFICING MORE THAN THAT IF YOU GET COVID-19


IF RE-ELECTED THIS WILL BE THE FLAG OF THE USA 

Trump supporter Randall Thom waves a giant Trump flag to passing cars outside the BOK Center June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise.

In a Facebook post Thursday evening, the Tulsa Police Department said anyone in violation of the mayor's executive order will be asked to leave the area. Those who refuse may be cited or arrested.

In addition to the curfew, the order bans Molotov cocktails or other combustible devices.

"This is an unprecedented event for the City of Tulsa and has hundreds of moving parts," the post said. "We are asking for everyone’s help in making this a safe event for all citizens."

More: Health experts fear Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa could turn into a coronavirus 'super spreader' event

More: Oklahoma coronavirus cases surge, hospitalizations rise ahead of Trump's Tulsa rally
Oklahoma City festival postponed for COVID-19

Organizers of an Oklahoma City celebration of Black culture postponed the event Friday because of concerns about gathering crowds during a time when the number of COVID-19 cases is surging in the state.

The Plaza District in the city had scheduled a half-dozen events during the weekend collectively called “Solidarity in the Plaza: Black Lives Matter,” to showcase Black artists, vendors, filmmakers and performers.

But the event that coincided with Juneteenth on Friday was expected to draw 10,000 people at a time when health officials have warned that any large gatherings could spread the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're crushed. We were so excited to do something that felt important and like a celebration and artistic. But we just have to put safety and public health first," Selena Skorman, the Plaza District’s executive director, told The Oklahoman. "We are definitely going to reschedule."

The number of state cases of COVID-19 rose by 450 on Thursday, in a surge beyond the 259 infections reported Wednesday.

“You can’t say Black Lives Matter and then put the lives of those who are most vulnerable to the disease at risk,” Chaya Fletcher, one of the Plaza District event organizers, said in a statement. “Black people have been disproportionately affected by COVID and it is our responsibility to not contribute to the increase in those numbers.”

– Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump Tulsa rally: Sharpton slams president at Juneteenth celebration

Former NFL player turned artist pens powerful essay on racism: 'The choice to stay silent is a privilege that Black folks do not have'

Emily Rella, Yahoo Life•June 19, 2020

Joshua Keyes marches in Houston following the killing of George Floyd. (D.E. Digital Group)

A former NFL player who left sports for a career in art is back in the spotlight thanks to his powerful open letter speaking out about the systemic racism he has faced as a Black man.

On June 3 — nine days after the killing of George Floyd and amid global protests — former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans linebacker Joshua Keyes posted a letter on Instagram expressing his frustration over racial injustice and citing personal instances of discrimination that he has endured, including being called racist slurs and having cops follow him.

“In my 27 years of life, I’ve been called a n***** to my face countless times,” wrote Keyes, in the letter that has since been shared widely on social media. “I’ve been pulled over, pulled out of my car and slammed on the hood because the police had suspicions that the car I was driving wasn’t mine. That it was ‘too nice to be owned by a n*****.’

“I’ve been denied access to restaurants,” continued Keyes, who has become a professional artist since leaving the Texans in 2018. “I’ve been followed through retail stores while shopping. I’ve been
asked for multiple forms of identification when making simple purchases, while the white people in front
of me were not. I was picked out of a section at a sporting game because someone was sitting in a seat that wasn’t theirs. They suspected it was me — the only Black person sitting in the section — it was not.

“I’ve been out to eat and watched a couple refuse to sit at the open table next to me. I’ve been followed by cops on jogs through neighborhoods. I know people who have woken up in the middle of the night to crosses being burned in their yards. I know people who are locked up in private prisons for petty crimes. I’ve watched people cross the street while I’m walking toward them in the same direction. I’ve stepped into elevators and observed women hide their purses behind their backs. These are some of my experiences. Every Black person in America has experienced similar, if not worse things.”
Related Video: Understanding Racial Trauma

Keyes’s essay goes on to talk about the systemic history of racism in America, from slavery to Jim Crow to what underlying racist policies still exist today. He also called out non-allies and non-Black people who are choosing to remain silent and are thus complicit in the face of racism.

“I’ve been observing who has stayed silent,” Keyes wrote. “I see you hiding to protect your name and brand from counterparts that might not agree if you say something. I see you putting your own popularity ahead of the lives of innocent people who are being lynched in the streets.”

The essay ends with a call to action for allies.

“If this letter inspires you to change, this is what we need,” he says. “We need you to stand by us. We need you to shut your mouths and just listen. We need you to stand by our sides and fight the fight with us at ALL times.”

While his words resonated with many, the Houston-based artist tells Yahoo Life he has received pushback from some critics.

“The manager of a small art supply store, which I’ve been supporting by shopping at them exclusively for over a year, got wind that I wrote a letter on Instagram addressing racism," Keyes says. “When I was picking up some supplies, the manager mentioned the article and said, ‘You know the slaves weren’t kidnapped but instead went willingly.’ Not only is that statement false, but he also flippantly disregards any wrong-doing of white people.”

But comments like that aren’t deterring Keyes, who has taken part in protests following Floyd’s death.

"I marched with George Floyd’s family and 60,000 others in Houston, Texas," he says. “These protests are very important because they show unity and strength in numbers. A large united group of people is dangerous to those in power who want to keep us divided. Although the threat of danger was imminent, as a Black man, I’m more concerned for my safety when I’m pulled over by the police for a routine traffic stop.”

Keyes is also pouring his feelings into art through his latest solo art project, titled ASCEND, which is set to tentatively debut in September. ASCEND will be a 12-piece show exemplifying Keyes’s skills and signature style of painting and drawing with bright colors, which is already in the early stages of development.

“I am currently exploring a narrative of growth,” Keyes tells Yahoo Life of the artwork’s message. “I believe that our mission on this earth is to improve it as much as possible, to leave a blueprint for the future generations to build upon to curate into a beautiful world. I have chiseled these beliefs down to three pillars: love, authenticity and economic freedom.”

Keyes notes that it will likely take years to “eradicate all of the policies set in place to oppress people of color.” But there are actions white allies can take to help begin to turn the tide.

“In order to help ‘even the score,’ actionable steps must be taken,” he says. “White people can get involved by joining Black-led grassroots movements in their community that advocate for dismantling racist laws and defunding police. Donating to bail funds and other programs that benefit disenfranchised people is helpful to those who have become involved in the criminal justice system. Supporting Black businesses promotes economic growth in historically deprived communities. ... Vote in every local election for people who support overdue reform. Support Black-owned businesses and amplify people of color in every arena.

Staying silent is not an option, he adds.

“Participating in systems that benefit you, and then choosing to remain silent in regards to others who are disenfranchised from those very systems is not neutrality because it is beneficial to you,” Keyes explains. “The choice to stay silent is a privilege that Black folks do not have. ... The white community must continue to listen and learn. Openly listen to our stories of oppression and refrain from getting defensive and dismissive. These stories will make you uncomfortable, but the feeling of discomfort will allow you to be receptive to understanding why us people of color have been fighting for reform.

“Just because the events of yesterday are no longer the headlines of today, it does not mean it is over,” he continues. “It does not mean that hundreds of years of oppression are resolved ... there are many ways to speak out. Some people choose to sign petitions, donate money, post on social media, make phone calls to representatives. They just cannot sit still. Lastly, remember this: Your words remain empty until your words become your actions and your actions become habits.”

Keyes is also calling on the Black community to continue to support one another from within.

“The Black community also needs to unify," he explains. “Our culture has become divided by prejudice we have curated in our own communities against each other through colorism. The Black community must unite as one. We must lift each other up at all times.”

Read more https://news.yahoo.com/joshua-keyes-powerful-essay-racism-163114535.html

Ben Carson Inadvertently Makes the Case for ‘Systemic Racism’ on Fox News

FORMER BRAIN SURGEON NOW BRAIN DEAD

Matt Wilstein, The Daily Beast•June 17, 2020


During an appearance with Martha MacCallum on Fox News Wednesday night, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson accidentally made the exact opposite argument of the one he was trying to make.

After once again defending the police officers who have now been charged with the killing of Rayshard Brooks, saying there was “wrong on both sides,” Carson addressed the larger debate over “systemic racism” in America.

“We live in a period of time where, if there’s any incident that goes on that involves a Black person and a white person, you can be guaranteed that the term ‘racism’ is going to be thrown into it,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, there are lots of interactions that occur between people that have nothing to do with race, but we impose that on everything.”

Ben Carson Defends Atlanta Police Officer Who Killed Rayshard Brooks on ‘Fox News Sunday’

From there, Carson outlined what might happen in the United States if systemic racism is acknowledged.

“If we say the system is systemically racist, then it gives us the excuse that we need to try to completely change the system,” he said. To those who say they want to “remake America,” Carson said, “First you have to make the case that America is broken,” something he obviously believes not to be the case.“Do we have defects? Absolutely,” he added. “We’re inhabited by imperfect people. But why don’t we look at situations like what just occurred in Atlanta, let’s dissect this and let’s make sure that we put in place policies so that people don’t continue to have these types of situations arise. That would be much smarter than getting into our respective corners and demonizing each other and getting angry all the time.”

Nodding in agreement, MacCallum finally chimed in with, “Wise words, Dr. Carson.”

For the activists who have been wanting America to address systemic racism in policing and other aspects of American society for years, that “excuse” for change that Carson describes is exactly what they have been fighting for. They probably couldn’t have put it better themselves.

NYPD officer bragged about taking off protester's mask and pepper-spraying him, bodycam footage shows

INSIDER•June 18, 2020

NYPD officers stand in formation as nearby demonstrators hold an anti-racism rally in Times Square, June 1, 2020, in New York City. Scott Heins/Getty Images NOT WEARING MASKS WAS ILLEGAL AT THE TIME IN THE CITY AND STATE.

A police officer gloated to his colleagues about tearing off a protester's mask and pepper-spraying him, footage from that officer's body camera shows.

The officer, Michael Sher, has been suspended without pay since June 5, the NYPD said.

The protester, Andrew Smith, has called for Sher to face "great consequences."


Andrew Smith, a Black man, had his hands in the air when a New York police officer ripped off his mask and pepper-sprayed him. The May 30 incident in Brooklyn was caught on camera and circulated widely on social media.

When the NYPD published body camera footage on Tuesday, another detail emerged: The officer — who a law enforcement source identified to Insider as Michael Sher — bragged to his colleagues just minutes after the incident.

"I took the guy's goggles, I ripped the s--- off and I used it," Sher said in the video, captured by his own body camera. The NYPD did not immediately respond to questions about the incident.

"It felt like a searing pain," Smith told a local NBC News affiliate. "There should be great consequences for that – and not just a slap on the wrist."

"At a certain level, I've come to expect the police to do things that they shouldn't do," Smith added.

Sher was suspended without pay on June 5, the NYPD said. Because in-person court proceedings are adjourned until October, any investigation into Sher and other instances of police violence would not be rushed, the law enforcement source told Insider.

Body camera footage from the protest.NYPD/YouTube

Smith's attorney, Alain Messena, has called on Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez to pursue criminal charges against Sher.

"They have had this information for at least a week. It begs the question, what are you waiting for? Why hasn't this officer been arrested? Why hasn't this officer been charged?," Messena wrote in a letter cited by NBC News. "Andrew Smith has patiently given the Kings County District Attorney's Office the benefit of the doubt. We are beginning to question whether the close ties between NYPD and the District Attorney's Office is preventing the office from charging this officer. If true, that is unacceptable."

Gonzalez's office launched an investigation "shortly after the incident," Oren Yaniv, a spokesperson for Gonzalez, told Insider. "It's an active investigation and we are looking, among other things, to interview other potential victims and witnesses that were seen in the bodycam video."

NYPD Police officers listen as Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York President Pat Lynch.PBA IS NOT A UNION IT IS A WHITE COP FRATERNAL LODGE TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Since anti-racist protests erupted in New York and around the country last month, the NYPD has come under fire for numerous instances of police brutality against peaceful protesters. Videos of NYPD officers using violence against peaceful protesters have circulated widely on social media.

When a reporter asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo about instances of police bludgeoning protesters with batons, he said the question itself was "a little offensive." There are too many videos of police beating protesters to list them all.

"A police officer doing their job, do you think there is any sensible police officer who believes their job is bludgeoning a peaceful person with a baton?" Cuomo asked at a press conference in early June.

Days earlier, footage emerged of two NYPD cruisers driving through a crowd of protesters, and of an officer aiming his handgun at protesters.

Voices have been overheard on a citywide police scanner saying, "Run them over" and "Shoot those motherf---ers," referring to protesters.

Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module

Read the original article on Insider

Fact check: Images of witches, 'Amish' supposedly at Floyd protest are out of context

Adrienne Dunn, USA TODAY•June 19, 2020

The claim: Witches and the Amish protested the death of George Floyd

As thousands have gathered across the country — and the world — to protest the death of George Floyd, police brutality and systemic racism, photographs and videos from the protests have gone viral.

At the center of the protests is the phrase Black Lives Matter, a movement that began in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who fatally shot the unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin.

A Facebook post falsely indicates that "witches" and "Amish" are at a protest following George Floyd's death.

The movement has been met with pushback for years, but in recent weeks it has seen widespread support from politicians, celebrities, organizations and businesses — some of which had previously voiced criticisms.

Among the viral images of protests were claims about groups that supported the movement. Some of the most reshared posts claimed that remote groups had joined the protest.

One viral post included two photos and claimed that witches and the Amish had joined protests saying "You know how wrong you gotta be for witches and Amish to be on the same side?"
Are those photos authentic? Did witches and the Amish join protests?

The post includes two photos, one of people dressed like witches and one of a group that the user identifies as the Amish. The two photos are real, but they have been taken out of context and misidentified.

The photo of the people in witches' clothing is actually from a 2017 protest in Boston. The "witches" held signs saying "Hex white supremacy" and "Good night alt-right."

The photo was taken by Scott Eisen and can be seen in a Guardian article about the counterprotesters or on Getty Images. The people in the photo are not explicitly identified, so it is unknown whether they are simply dressed up in costumes or actually identify as members of Wicca or other witch communities.

The other photo, which has widely circulated with claims that the people are Amish, has also been misidentified.

The image is real and it's recent, but the people in the photo are actually members of the Church of God.

The group has attended various protests and addressed the viral posts about being Amish in a message on Facebook, "We're onsite in Minneapolis, sharing the message of God's love to a hurting community. We're not #Amish, of course, but we are part of the one human family and we must stand together against oppression."
Our rating: False

The claims in the post are FALSE. While both of the photos in the post are real, they were taken out of context and misidentified.

The photo of witches does not identify the people — so it is unknown if they were dressed up or if they identify as members of witch communities — and was actually taken during a 2017 protest in Boston. The image of people described as "Amish" is actually a photo of members of the Church of God.

Our fact-check sources:

The Guardian, Rightwing rally and counter-protest in Boston – in pictures

The Church of God Facebook posts

Seattle police union expelled from large labor group

GOOD RIDDANCE TO A FAKE UNION OF WHITE COPS

Associated Press•June 18, 2020
  

In this June 3, 2020, file photo, police officers behind a barricade look on as protesters fill the street in front of Seattle City Hall, in Seattle, following protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. The King County Labor Council, the largest labor group in the Seattle area, vote Wednesday night June 17 to expel the city’s police union, saying the guild representing officers failed to address racism within its ranks. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

   

Flowers are placed next to an image of George Floyd on a fence surrounding Cal Anderson Park, Wednesday, June 17, 2020, inside what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in Seattle. Police pulled back from several blocks of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood near the Police Department's East Precinct building earlier in the month after clashes with people protesting the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

In this June 3, 2020, file photo, a Seattle police officer yells out orders at Seattle City Hall as protesters march toward them, in Seattle, following protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. The King County Labor Council, the largest labor group in the Seattle area, vote Wednesday night June 17 to expel the city’s police union, saying the guild representing officers failed to address racism within its ranks. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

SEATTLE (AP) — The largest labor group in the Seattle area has expelled the city's police union, saying the guild representing officers failed to address racism within its ranks.

The vote Wednesday night by the King County Labor Council to exclude the Seattle Police Officers Guild comes after weeks of protests in the city over police brutality and racism following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

It's also significant as the labor council is politically influential. Local elected leaders are reluctant to go against the umbrella group of more than 150 unions and 100,000 workers.

“Any union that is part of our labor council needs to be actively working to dismantle racism in their institution and society at large,” the labor council said on Twitter after the vote. The police union “has failed to do that work" and is no longer part of the council, the labor alliance said.

The Seattle Times reports that the delegate vote was 45,435 to expel, with 36,760 voting to keep the police union within the council.

Before the vote, police union President Mike Solan told delegates the police union wanted to stay involved with the council and was “willing to learn.”

“We are human beings and we are workers who are committed to this city and committed to the community," Solan said. “We see a future, one that engages in these robust conversations, and in particular to race and how the institution of racism impacts all labor unions.”

Labor council representatives said the police guild could be readmitted at some point in the future.

“At this point, I just can’t justify to our members, ones who are staffing the medical tents and getting gassed" by the Seattle Police Department and having the Seattle Police Officers Guild at the table, “using our unity as a shield to justify contracts that go against our principles and mission," said Jane Hopkins, a registered nurse and executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.

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

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 do so.

Police have now largely left a several block area of Capitol Hill, which for more than a week has been the site of active protests by demonstrators who have dubbed the area the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.”

Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County said in a statement Thursday that it stands with the labor council in demanding acknowledgement and addressing of institutionalized racism in Seattle policing, and that police accountability be included in contract negotiations.

The organization said it has demanded a seat at the negotiating table and that the mayor has responded by putting those police contract negotiations on hold until there is a plan for community representation.

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

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

'We are the ones who keep us safe': How abolitionists see an America without police and prisons

ABOLISH THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX 

#PIC

Alex Woodward, The Independent•June 19, 2020

Minneapolis councillor Alondra Cano speaks at a rally after two weeks' protest over the death of George Floyd and wider problems of police violence: AP

Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser — whose city streets just blocks from the White House had been painted with massive yellow block letters reading "defund the police" — told CNN on 8 June that those words don't necessarily mean what some might assume.

"I think a lot of people have different meanings for what they mean when they say 'defund the police', and as I've listened and read, most people are saying they want reform," she said, "and they want good policing."

Her remarks were echoed by pundits and lawmakers across the US as millions of people continue to protest police brutality and the killings of black Americans by police while repeating the mantra to shift the nation's priorities when it comes to public safety. Meanwhile, the phrase has been weaponised by Donald Trump as a campaign cudgel against his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who has nothing to do with the abolition movement.

But police and prison abolitionists who have carried the phrase through decades of organising — against police violence, mass incarceration and their disproportionate and deadly impacts among communities of colour — say "defund the police" means exactly what it says.

Abolitionists are challenging lawmakers and communities to make policing and prisons obsolete.

"Defund the police means defund the police," says Critical Resistance member Kamau Walton. "One of the things to be wary and sharp about is the co-opting and mixed messaging in this moment. A lot of people are trying to say there's a difference between police reform, defunding the police and abolition. And the call to defund the police is abolitionist. It's a step towards abolition. It is not a separate, moderate or watered-down thing."

Critical Resistance, a national abolitionist organisation co-founded by revolutionary scholars Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, has sought the dismantling of a "prison-industrial complex", one in which for-profit prisons rely on government support for their expansion, justified by swollen prison populations, despite outside reforms to reduce America's world-leading incarceration rates.

Gilmore has argued that prisons and police have served as a "catch-all" response to address social and moral failures that would be better served by richer investments in social services that can prevent conditions that enable crime in the first place.

Instead of cities spending a lion's share of their budgets on their police departments, abolitionists argue that money should support affordable housing, healthcare, child care, mental health treatment and other services.

A 2017 report from the Centre for Popular Democracy, Black Youth Project 100 and Law for Black Lives found that several major cities have "stripped funds from mental health services, housing subsidies, youth programs, and food benefits programs, while pouring money into police forces, military grade weapons, high-tech surveillance, jails, and prisons".

The United States is the world's incarceration capital, housing a quarter of the world's prisoners in a nation that represents only 5 per cent of the global population.

It also disproportionately jails black people — African Americans make up 13 per cent of the US but more than 40 per cent of prison populations.

Abolitionists also seek to end the prison system's legacy of racism, from its roots in plantation-era America to its echoes in mass incarceration today.

Following the ending of enslavement at the end of the US Civil War, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery except for those convicted of a crime, allowing the adoption of "black codes" in economically devastated southern states at the end of the war to impose harsh penalties against newly freed black Americans for minor crimes, ensuring their continued "free" labour in prison.

"Convict leasing" would go on to provide labour for massive private infrastructure, while legalised segregation and Jim Crow-era terror criminalised black Americans.

Organisers argue that the system can't be "repaired" or "reformed" because it is doing what it set out to do; efforts to "reform" merely entrench law enforcement's role in policing and imprisoning communities.

Abolition is "absolutely getting rid of the systems and tools that support oppression, punishment and marginalisation of people," Walton says. "That means getting rid of policing, getting rid of imprisonment, [and] dismantling surveillance and court systems that are used to inflict harm, trauma and violence on marginalised people. And it also means changing what we prioritise and how we define safety, and it means building up institutions, systems, tools and resources that actually keep our folks safe."

Abolitionists argue it's not enough to "reform" these institutions but to divest from them entirely, with city budgets directing millions of dollars earmarked for law enforcement into other community services, not as a one-time emergency fix but as a long-term solution to repair and transform the conditions that create violence.
"Abolition is about being more forward-thinking and preventative and not only just responding to harm and violence but also investing in our communities and caring for each other so we prevent a lot of that violence from happening in the first place," Walton says. "When communities are stable, healthy and thriving, we know there's a lot less harm and violence."

Following unrest and protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, groups across the US began adopting an abolitionist framework, gaining broader support and traction across organisations in public health, housing and other areas, as well as direct action campaigns like bailout funds and community efforts to stop local jail expansions.

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and global protests against police violence, abolitionists have counted some victories across the US, paved not just by the growing demonstrations but by the groundwork from community groups in prior decades.

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously supported a resolution to determine a community-supported replacement for the city's police force. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also announced his intention to strip $250 million from the city's police department budget, which tops $1.8 billion, and redirect funds into youth programs, healthcare and other areas.

New York City police commissioner Dermot Shea also dissolved a plainclothes unit that has been criticised for pitting police against communities it serves.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, following the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, also ordered her city's police department to "immediately adopt" deescalation policies, including holding officers accountable for their "duty to intervene" against another officer's use of deadly force.

Both chambers of Congress, meanwhile, are eyeing extensive policing reform packages, while self-described "law-and-order" president Donald Trump issued a set of policing guidelines, including funds for training and a ban on chokeholds — "except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law".

Following New York's passage of a massive legislative package with sweeping reforms, Governor Andrew Cuomo told protesters: "You won."

But abolitionists argue that incremental efforts ultimately do nothing to stop police violence and merely reinforce the institutions they have sought to disband, pointing to a history of investigations about police misconduct that all led to similar outcomes, while police killings and abuse persisted.
gettyimages-1248266122.jpg

Abolitionists painted a massive 'defund the police' message in Washington DC. (Getty Images)

Critical Resistance started its 8 To Abolition campaign as a counter to 8 Can't Wait, which was roundly criticised by abolitionist groups for its incrementalist approach to preventing police brutality.

The 8 Can't Wait platform calls for a ban on chokeholds, although these were already banned by the NYPD for more than two decades when Eric Garner was killed.

It also would require officers to warn people before they shoot them, which is already required in a majority of police departments, and would require officers to "exhaust all alternatives" before shooting. But officers have often cited perceived threats to their life in deadly encounters, which meet the legal threshold for use of deadly force.

A "duty to intervene" — also invoked by Mayor Bottoms — was in place in Minneapolis as three other officers looked on while Derek Chauvin placed his knee into the neck of Mr Floyd for nearly nine minutes.

In The New York Times, organiser Mariama Kaba argues that commissions, studies and the "best practices" that emerge from police abuse investigations from as early as 1894 only "served as a kind of counterinsurgent function each time police violence led to protests."

There were calls for reform following the 1967 uprisings in cities across the US and as a response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991 as well as to the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014.

While Barack Obama's President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing led to bias training and use-of-force recommendations and community listening sessions after the Ferguson protests, a task force member noted in the report that "policing as we know it must be abolished before it can be transformed."

"The philosophy undergirding these reforms is that more rules will mean less violence," Kabe writes. "Why on earth would we think the same reforms would work now? We need to change our demands. The surest way of reducing police violence is to reduce the power of the police, by cutting budgets and the number of officers."

That urgency is underscored by the coronavirus pandemic, Walton says, as millions of recently unemployed Americans navigate rent, healthcare and other needs without a safety net.

"When people are put in situations where they're not able to live in the homes they've been in, where they're not able to get access to running water in the midst of a pandemic, that puts them with a lot less options," Walton says. "We are not prioritising folks being able to shelter in place during a pandemic, and we don't have any services that balance that out, but we aren't willing to protect people and keep them safe."

But Princeton University sociologist Patrick Sharkey, who is sympathetic to the abolitionist movement, argues that while communities should have a greater role in reducing harm in their communities, "those who argue that the police have no role in maintaining safe streets are arguing against lots of strong evidence."

"One of the most robust, most uncomfortable findings in criminology is that putting more officers on the street leads to less violent crime," he writes in The Washington Post. "Considered alongside the brutal response to protests over the past few weeks, this evidence forces us to hold two incongruent ideas: Police are effective at reducing violence, the most damaging feature of urban inequality. And yet one can argue that law enforcement is an authoritarian institution that historically has inflicted violence on black people and continues to do so today."

Abolition argues for restorative justice, or repairing relationships that existed in communities, as well as transformative justice, which shapes communities to prevent future harm.

"There is this effort to want to believe that there is someone else who is going to keep us safe, and if we give them the tools that they need they will finally do it right, but that's not the case," Walton says. "We are the ones who keep us safe, and we're the ones who deserve to be invested in."

Rather than public safety spearheaded by police, abolitionists call for the communities themselves to take the lead. Neighbours can learn to deescalate incidents, respond to mental health issues and hold one another accountable for their communities. Most conflicts could be disrupted through mediation, or defused by social workers or mental health workers and other care providers.

But the calls to abolish police and prisons don't ignore the inevitability of violence. Instead, abolitionists argue that police don't actually stop violence from happening, and that a better administration of justice should come from communities holding people accountable. Addressing the conditions that lead to people committing violence would prevent it from happening in the first place, they argue, while prisons don't inherently repair the health or harms that lead to a person's imprisonment, including their mental health, addiction or abuse.

The National Crime Victimisation Survey found that roughly half of all sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated assaults go unreported. For every 1,000 people who commit sexual assault, roughly 995 do not spend any time in prison, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the nation's largest organisation against sexual violence.

As for court systems, abolition would dramatically reduce the number of people in pretrial detention — people held in jails before they're convicted of a crime. The number of people in US jails before they've been convicted swelled by 433 per cent from the 1970s to 2015, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

A 2018 report from the National Institutes of Health determined that a "combined investment in a public health, community-based approach to violence prevention and a criminal justice approach focused on deterrence can achieve more to reduce population-level rates of urban violence than either can in isolation."

The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, for example, shifted from thinking about transformative justice within "communities" to "pods", which are "made up of the people that you would call on if violence, harm or abuse happened to you", had witnessed, or wanted accountability for.

"Why can't we be the ones taking care of each other, instead of police, who tend to escalate and further traumatise people when that doesn't need to happen?" Walton argues. "Why not invest in people who are going to see you as a neighbour, a cousin, a friend, a loved one, that they care for and want to take care of? That's the idea behind the solutions we want to see, that they need to be based in communities that see people as people, people connected to them and that they're accountable to."

Read more

The underreported scourge of police violence against black women

Is the BLM movement finally changing America’s legacy of racism?

What the George Floyd protests really look like from on the ground

Trump rolls back Obama police reforms, then says Obama made no reforms

Democrats and Republicans move ahead with separate police reform bills

Trump's executive order on police reform is 'inadequate’, Schumer says

New York lawmakers to pass sweeping police reform measures

Cops’ Most Deranged Lies and Bizarre Claims About the Protests

Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast•June 18, 2020

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photo Getty

Protesters are not filling ice cream containers with concrete. Shake Shack employees are not putting bleach in milkshakes. And buses full of anti-fascists are not about to descend on a small town near you.

That’s just what police are saying.

As protests over racial justice and police brutality unfold across the country, police departments are taking to social media to tell their side of the story. The trouble is, they’re frequently wrong—and sometimes so wildly so that it begs the question of why they even bother.

Christopher Slobogin, director of Vanderbilt University’s criminal justice program, said cops can be mistaken, just like everyone. But sometimes police lie because they view themselves as in opposition to criminals, who also lie.

“It’s possible that police concoct lies because even though they know what they’re saying isn’t true, they believe the lie is in service of a greater good,” Slobogin told The Daily Beast. “If cops are convinced that, overall, they’re in the right, what’s a little lying here and there? I think that’s human nature, not just cops. But the problem, the cops have the power, they have the weapons, and people in authority tend to believe them.”

New York Cops Beat Protesters for Crime of Being There

What follows is a smattering of the most impactful, egregious, or just plain weird fibs, panicky projections, falsehoods, or exaggerations about protests to come from cops, their spokespeople, and their unions in recent weeks.

Dairy Disinfo

The New York City Police Benevolent Association, which represents city police officers, claimed this week that workers at Shake Shack had put a bleach-like substance in officers’ milkshakes. The PBA—which joined a similar claim made by the Detectives’ Endowment Association—cited no evidence, aside from officers’ apparent gastrointestinal distress after they purchased Shake Shack’s notoriously heavy drinks while on the job. An official NYPD investigation quickly cleared Shake Shack workers of wrongdoing.

No Concrete Proof

New York City police also claimed internally this month that protesters were filling ice cream containers with concrete—presumably to throw at cops as projectile weapons—and leaving them at a construction site. Twitter users quickly noted that, not only was the concrete in coffee cups instead of ice cream containers, but that mixing concrete samples in coffee cups is standard practice for construction workers. The cups were even labeled with workers’ notes on the concrete composition. The construction site where the cups were apparently recovered even had a permit for concrete work.

Phantom Brick Piles

In Brooklyn, NYPD hyped up a rumor about protesters gathering brick piles to throw during protests. “This is what our cops are up against,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted, parroting the rumor, which has also been promoted by President Donald Trump. “Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC.” Reporting by The Daily Beast and other outlets cast doubt on those claims, pointing out that they were near a construction site, and nowhere near protests.
Time Travel

On Monday, New York City’s Sergeants Benevolent Association (another police union) tweeted a video of protesters running through a Brooklyn street and throwing things at a cop car. “This was tonight,” the SBA tweeted, “Flatbush Ave Brooklyn.” The tweet also implied that a program that discourages unnecessary arrests was responsible for the chaos. In fact, there was no chaos that night in Brooklyn. The video was from May, and that area of Flatbush Avenue had long been calm, reporters covering the protests noted. 

Murder Bus

In Columbus, Ohio, police tweeted evidence of what they said was a clear violent scheme: a bus full of rocks, clubs, and a meat cleaver. “There was a suspicion of supplying riot equipment to rioters,” Columbus Police tweeted. “Charges pending.” In fact, Columbus Alive reported, police had stumbled across a colorfully painted circus bus. The frightened circus troupe told the outlet that the “clubs” were juggling clubs, the rocks were crystals, and the meat cleaver was pulled from the troupe’s cooking utensils. “Yeah, there’s a hatchet on the bus—with a bunch of wood sitting next to a wood-burning stove,” the bus’s owner said, noting that the vehicle was literally his house.

Technically Tear Gas

U.S. Park Police offered an oft-changing explanation for firing irritants at protesters in Washington D.C.’s Lafayette Park in order to clear it for a Trump photoshoot in early June. Police initially denied using “tear gas” in a statement, then walked that back, claiming that, technically, the projectiles were “smoke canisters and pepper balls.” Nevertheless, reporters for D.C.’s WUSA9 recovered tear gas casings from the scene—and as Vox noted, “tear gas” can be a broad term, sometimes referring to the pepper projectiles Park Police admitted to using. Attorney General William Barr also falsely claimed that pepper spray “is not a chemical irritant. It’s not chemical.” The Washington Post’s fact-checking department awarded the claim “four Pinnochios,” which is the maximum number of Pinnochios.

A Bad Trip

Police in Buffalo, New York, became the focus of national ire after they were filmed pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground, causing him to lose consciousness and bleed from the head. But before the video went viral, Buffalo Police offered a different characterization of the incident. “During [a] skirmish involving protestors, one person was injured when he tripped & fell,” police said in a statement. The video would later reveal that the man was alone when he calmly approached officers. He has a fractured skull and is still unable to walk, his lawyer said this week.

Small Biz Shakedown

After protesters took over a six-block area in Seattle, the city’s police claimed—without evidence—that the activists were extorting businesses in the area. Police appeared to walk back that claim several days later, after the local business association and prominent businesses in the area said they’d seen no indication of the alleged protection racket. Some businesses even said they were volunteering with the protests.

The Antifa Express

Multiple police departments have promoted a hoax about anti-fascists coming to their towns by the busload to wreak havoc. In Oregon, Curry County Sheriff John Ward shared a Facebook post warning that "3 buss loads of ANTIFA protestors are making their way from Douglas County headed for Coquille then to Coos Bay." Hundreds of locals reportedly stood outside with guns overnight awaiting the menace that never came.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

More than 2 weeks after start of nationwide protests, little sign of COVID spike, but officials remain cautious

Hunter Walker and Sean D. Naylor Correspondents, Yahoo News•June 19, 2020

Fauci on George Floyd protests: 'I'm concerned' about the possible spread of the coronavirus

When protests started after the May 25 killing of George Floyd, health experts worried that the large gatherings could spark outbreaks of the coronavirus. Yet more than two weeks since those protests hit their peak, there is little evidence that has happened, though officials caution it is far too early — and the circumstances far too complicated — to draw any broad conclusions.

“We’re not seeing an increase in cases associated with the demonstrations (as of yet),” New York City Department of Health spokesman Michael Lanza wrote in an email to Yahoo News on Tuesday.

Between June 3 and June 14, New York City reported an average decline of approximately 8.3 percent in the number of positive cases each day. In the seven days immediately preceding potential post-protest incubation, New York City reported an average increase of roughly 11 percent in the number of positive cases each day.

The question of health risks from mass gatherings is a fraught one, because supporters of President Trump have claimed a double standard, in which some public health officials who have pushed for closures of businesses have recently expressed public support for the protests. While it’s hard to know why the Floyd protests haven’t caused a spike, at least not yet, supporters point to the fact that the protests were outdoors and encouraged the widespread use of face coverings, which organizers even helped distribute.

Analyzing the effect of the demonstrations is complicated by many variables, including irregularities in how daily numbers are reported, overall progress on the coronavirus and protesters from outside the various cities. Also, the demonstrations coincided with reopening measures and warmer weather, which have led more people to venture outside, including in defiance of social distancing recommendations.

Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, noted recent crowds at city restaurants and concurred that it is too soon to determine the effect the protests may have had.

“We’re keeping a close eye on the metrics, but at the moment it’s too soon to say what effect things like last weekend’s restaurant crowding or the protests will have, if any. Stay smart, wear a mask and wash your hands,” Azzopardi told Yahoo News.

Anti-police-brutality protesters in New York City earlier this month. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

In Minneapolis, where large protests began shortly after Floyd was killed and are ongoing, Casper Hill, a spokesman for the city, also cited variables, and he said it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about any impact the protests may have had there.

“It is too soon to report on that given the delay in reporting and the testing timeline. Additionally, we only have access to Minneapolis data and protesters came from other places so the State may be a better source of information overall,” Hill wrote in an email to Yahoo News on Wednesday evening.

Julie Bartkey, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health, said it may take 42 days from the end of the protests to be clear about their impact.

“Because of the potential for asymptomatic spread of this virus, giving an ‘all-clear’ time frame is difficult,” Bartkey said in an email on Tuesday. “We need to allow about 21 days for the first generation of infections to appear (i.e. 21 days from exposure to test result – 14-day incubation plus another few days to seek health care or get tested and for the result to come to us); but if there is asymptomatic spread in a household, it could be another 14-21 days for those secondary cases to appear.”

For now, however, Minnesota has not seen a high positivity rate in tests from protesters. Bartkey said Health Partners, a health care provider in the state that is conducting testing, has conducted coronavirus tests on 8,500 people at its sites “where the person is confirmed to have been at a protest, vigil or clean up mass event.” Of this, Bartkey said there has been “a 1-percent positivity rate.”

Protesters in Minneapolis on Saturday. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

Washington, D.C., saw some of the largest protests in the country, particularly between May 29 and the first week of June. In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, said it was too early to tell what impact the demonstrations may have had.

“I cannot give you trends on that,” Nesbitt said in response to a question from a reporter. “We would expect again, because of the incubation period of the virus, that it would be too early to start to make any inference about trends that we’re seeing being related to people’s participation in First Amendment demonstrations.”

Nesbitt also pointed to “complicating epidemiological factors,” which included the phased reopening taking place at the same time as the protests.

At that same press conference, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said that, as of Wednesday, the city had “achieved 13 days of sustained decline in community spread” of the virus.

Chicago has also been a site of major protest activity since Floyd’s death. Kim Junius, a spokesperson for the Cook County Department of Health, which covers Chicago, said it is not possible to draw a conclusion about the protests, although officials there are monitoring the situation.

“We have not seen any increases as of yet related to protests,” Junius said in an email. “We are monitoring COVID-like illness using emergency room chief complaints, which is often used to detect potential issues before formal diagnoses are made or clusters are reported.”

The county, she added, is “keeping a watchful eye on it.”

Erica Duncan, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Public Health, provided a similar response. “At this time we haven’t seen any impact on cases due to the protests,” Duncan wrote on Wednesday.

On the West Coast, there have been large protests in multiple cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. “We don’t have any information about positive cases conclusively linked to the protests,” a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Department of Health wrote in an email.

In response to questions about potential cases of the coronavirus linked to the protests, San Francisco’s Department of Health issued a statement that expressed support for the demonstrations while also encouraging protesters to get tested by their health care provider or at two free sites run by the city.

“We support the right to protest injustice, and doing so safely is critically important, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,” the statement read, adding, “San Francisco supports the community in taking civic action, and also supports continued vigilance against the coronavirus. We are offering free COVID-19 testing for people who have been to recent protests and want to be tested.”

The San Francisco Department of Health also specified that “the two testing sites mentioned above do not ask people getting tested if they recently have participated in any demonstrations. Therefore, we do not know the data for protesters who have tested positive.”

“We are monitoring closely for any correlation between the protest demonstrations and the [number] of positive cases,” the statement read.

Demonstrators near the White House on June 6. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Along with concerns about the spread of COVID-19 among protesters, there is also risk for the police and law enforcement who responded, though data on police is not easily available from the cities with the biggest protests.

In New York, the NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the number of coronavirus cases in the department and whether any were linked to protests.

In Minneapolis, John Elder, the public information officer for the city’s police force, noted it has had an increase, but the total number of cases remains in the single digits.

“We have increased by one,” Elder said in a phone conversation on Wednesday. “We have had four cases, and we have increased up to five at this time.”

Elder noted that this small number of cases makes Minneapolis an “anomaly” compared with other “major city departments” that have seen hundreds of cases.

“A lot of the protesters were wearing masks, a lot of our officers were wearing masks,” Elder said of the demonstrations. “We did have a very, very proactive approach to this. We had a COVID task force put together. We did everything we could to get … supplies in the hands of our staff.”

That equipment included personal protective gear like masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, as well as supplies to clean uniforms.

While large protests are ongoing in Minneapolis, Elder said they are now largely peaceful, eliminating the “face to face contact” between officers and demonstrators that occurred during more violent clashes in the early days of the protests.

In Washington D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department is reporting 142 cases of the coronavirus among “sworn personnel.” That figure includes three new cases since June 4, or a spike of 2.2 percent in the period when incubation could have occurred following the protests.

In Chicago, the police department said that, as of Wednesday morning, there were 569 total cases of the coronavirus among civilian and sworn personnel. The department’s public information officer, Sally Brown, said “there has not been a spike in cases” among Chicago’s police force since the protests.

A protester confronts a New York City police officer on May 28. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

On the West Coast, Sgt. Michael Andraychak, a public information officer for the San Francisco Police Department, told Yahoo News that, as of Thursday, it had “six members” who tested positive for COVID-19. “There is nothing to indicate that any of these cases are related to recent protests,” Andraychak added.

The Los Angeles Police Department has reported a pronounced spike in new coronavirus cases. According to Officer Norma Eisenmann, as of Wednesday there were 177 cases among the department’s sworn and civilian personnel. That’s an increase of 35 cases, or about 24.6 percent, since June 3, though it’s difficult to know whether that was a result of protests, or the recent record-setting increases in the city at large.

Alex Comisar, deputy communications director for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garceitti, responded to questions about the increase in coronavirus cases among LAPD officers with a statement on Friday that emphasized the steps the city has taken to protect its police force.

“COVID-19 is as dangerous today as it was the moment we experienced our first case, and Mayor Garcetti is taking every possible step to protect Angelenos from this deadly illness. Los Angeles was the first city in the country to make free testing available to our essential workers, including police officers,” Comisar said. “These officers and first responders are on the front lines of this crisis, and the Department is taking extensive precautions to keep them safe.”

Along with local police forces, the National Guard was deployed to cities around the country to respond to protests. As the Guard took up its protest missions, there was a concern that not only might its members get infected, but their deployment could shift resources away from COVID-19 testing. Neither appears to be the case, according to spokespeople from multiple states’ Guard bureaus.

National Guard Bureau spokesman Army Maj. Rob Perino said that as of June 5, around the height of many of the protests, the National Guard had 41,506 personnel supporting civil unrest missions across 33 states and the District of Columbia, while another 37,485 Guardsmen were conducting COVID-19 missions.

“It’s not going to appear that states are sacrificing one mission for another,” Perino said. “We have a very deep bench of 450,000 troops nationwide.”

Of 18 states that Yahoo News queried, officials in 12 – New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, West Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — said they had not been forced to cut the number of Guard personnel working on COVID-19 missions in order to provide forces to support local law enforcement during the protests.

Members of the California National Guard outside Los Angeles City Hall on May 31. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)
A spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard said fewer than five personnel had to move from one task to the other, while a spokesperson for the Georgia National Guard acknowledged there had been “a lot of juggling” involving the more than 2,000 Guard personnel who had been conducting COVID-19-related missions immediately prior to the civil unrest, but she was unable to immediately say how many of the more than 3,000 Guard troops who Georgia now counts as being involved in either COVID-19 or domestic unrest missions had to be shifted from the former to the latter. “We never stopped working COVID-19,” she said.

However, a spokesperson for the Florida National Guard said that of the 550 Florida Guardsmen who conducted civil unrest missions, “a couple of hundred” had been redirected from COVID-19 duty. “The Soldiers who were conducting COVID-19 missions prior to being redirected to civil unrest missions were primarily involved in the operation of Community Based Testing Sites,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Caitlin Brown. ”Those Soldiers were backfilled, and any COVID-19 mission that was affected was fully operational again within 24 hours.”

Spokespersons for the California and District of Columbia National Guards did not respond to queries.

Army Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for the Illinois National Guard, disputed a news account that stated that the state’s Guardsmen had been reassigned from COVID-19 testing sites “to help local police departments reduce violence and protect property.” That did not happen, he said, in part because the COVID-19 missions were being paid for by the federal government, with any support to law enforcement coming out of the state’s coffers.

There also did not appear to be any known sharp increases of cases among Guardsmen in those states contacted by Yahoo News.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles on June 3. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)

Spokespeople for Guardsmen who deployed from other states to support law enforcement authorities in handling the protests in Washington, D.C., said that for the most part they wore masks and took all possible precautions to avoid catching or spreading the coronavirus.

For the 400 Mississippi National Guardsmen who deployed to D.C., “the guidance provided for the staging area and the on-site mission was to maintain social distancing wherever and whenever possible, and to don masks whenever social distancing was not a viable option in maintaining mission focus,” said Army Lt. Col. Deidre Smith, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Guard, in an email to Yahoo News.

The Mississippi Guardsmen were screened for the virus before departing Mississippi and daily during the mission, and were placed in quarantine while completing their military orders upon their return to their home state, according to Smith. As of June 12, none of them had tested positive for COVID-19.

The Idaho National Guard also deployed “just over 400” troops to D.C., according to Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Borders, a spokesperson for the Idaho Guard. All the Idaho Guardsmen were issued masks and screened for COVID-19 before they left for D.C., according to Borders, who added that their mission, which was to protect the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, meant they avoided close contact with protesters.

The Idaho Guardsmen wore masks on their flights to and from Washington, and were sent home to self-isolate upon their return, according to Borders. As of June 12, “we have no positive tests in the Idaho National Guard,” he said.

Trump global media chief faces GOP backlash over firings

MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press•June 18, 2020


The Voice of America building, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new chief of U.S.-funded global media is facing a conservative backlash over his decision to fire the heads of two international broadcasters, adding to concerns about the direction of the agency, which oversees the Voice of America and other outlets.

The criticism of Michael Pack, who defended his personnel moves, is unusual because it’s coming from supporters of President Donald Trump who had backed his controversial nomination to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media over staunch Democratic objections.

Trump allies, including former adviser Sebastian Gorka, have offered public support for the ousted head of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Alberto Fernandez, while others have taken issue with the firing of the head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jamie Fly.

Pack, a conservative filmmaker and onetime associate of Trump adviser Steve Bannon, sacked both of them late Wednesday in a purge of USAGM’s outlets, which also include Radio Free Asia and the Cuba-focused Radio/TV Marti. Those moves have alarmed Democrats who fear Pack intends to turn the agency into a Trump administration propaganda machine.

“Every action I carried out was — and every action I will carry out will be — geared toward rebuilding the USAGM’s reputation, boosting morale, and improving content,” Pack said in a statement released by the new agency's new public affairs staff.

The statement called the moves “significant and long-overdue” and said Pack and his team are “committed to eradicating the known mismanagement and scandals that have plagued the agency for decades."

In addition to the agency chiefs, Pack dismissed veteran broadcast news executive Steve Capus, who had been a senior adviser to the organization and its leadership, according to two congressional aides and an AGM employee, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Capus, who was previously president of NBC News for nearly eight years, did not respond to a query sent to an AGM work email address.

And, he ousted the head of the Open Technology Fund, a non-broadcast arm of the AGM that works to provide secure internet access to people around the world. Last week, Fund chief Libby Liu submitted her resignation, effective in mid-July, but she was removed with the others.

There was no public explanation of why Pack would dismiss any of the officials, let alone those favored by conservatives beyond the general statement of improving the agency.

The firing of Fernandez, in particular, has raised conservative hackles. A former career diplomat fluent in Arabic, Fernandez had been hailed by conservatives for bringing what they saw as balance to the Arabic-language outlets AlHurra television and Radio Sawa.

“Ambassador Fernandez was the greatest asset America had in foreign broadcasting,” Gorka wrote on Twitter shortly after the dismissals became public.

Michael Doran, a former National Security Council and State Department official during President George W. Bush's administration, called Fernandez's ouster “asinine" and said that without him, "Pack will be as effective as a drugged bug in a bottle.”

David Reaboi, a noted conservative national security analyst, was even more critical, calling Fernandez's removal “shameful." “It was unusual for the pro-American side to get represented, and Alberto always made sure it did," he told the AP. "It was a model for recapturing territory from the far left and righting the ship.“

“Michael Pack gets confirmed by the Senate and, rather than take stock and talk to people who know what’s happening, he fired everybody," Reaboi wrote. “Michael Pack destroyed that because he was too dumb to listen — or too dumb to be able to figure out the difference between friends and enemies.”

The dismissal of Fly, a former staffer for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also attracted criticism, including from Mark Dubowitz, a well-known advocate of the Trump administration's hawkish policies on Iran. “Poor decision to fire (Fernandez) and (Fly) whose exemplary leadership of MBN and RFE/RL respectively, made America’s public diplomacy more effective, more persuasive and more consistent with American interests and values,” he wrote.

Juan Zarate, a Republican former NSC and Treasury staffer, agreed, calling the two dismissals “incomprehensible." “I’ve watched both for years work with integrity to promote US interests abroad," he wrote.

In addition to Fernandez and Fly, Pack also removed the head of Radio Free Asia, Bay Fang, and the acting chief of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting on Wednesday. He replaced each outlet's corporate board of directors with allies and installed himself as chairman of each.

One of the people added to the board of Radio Free Asia, Jonathan Alexandre, attracted particular concern from Democrats who noted that he is also director of public policy for the conservative Liberty Counsel, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group for opposing gay rights.

The director and deputy director of the Voice of America, Amanda Bennett and Sandy Sugawara, resigned from their positions on Monday. Taken together, top House Democrats who oversee AGM funding said Pack's moves were dangerous.

“That Mr. Pack took this drastic measure in his first week on the job is shocking, and we have deep concerns that he takes the helm of a critical agency with the intent to prioritize the Trump administration’s political whims over protecting and promoting independent reporting, which is a pillar of freedom and democracy," said Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Nita Lowey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, denounced the firings as an “egregious breach” of the agency’s mission. Menendez had led an unsuccessful fight to block or at least delay Pack’s confirmation.