The arrest of 33 Russian mercenaries amid election chaos in Belarus is testing Putin's patience
Mitch Prothero
Aug 10, 2020

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi occupation, on July 2, 2014. RIA Novosti/REUTERS

No one believes Aleksander Lukashenko won 80% of the presidential vote in the Belarus election — that's why there was fighting on the streets of Minsk this weekend.

The chaos is likely to irritate Russian president Valdimir Putin, who has long wanted Belarus to stay closer to Moscow than Europe.

But Belarus officials arrested 33 Russian mercenaries, allegedly on their way to the Middle East, at a spa outside Minsk, complicating Putin's next move.

Putin will probably have to make a deal to get them back, security sources familiar with NATO's thinking tell Insider.

Sunday's re-election of Aleksander Lukashenko as president of Belarus appears to have been a debacle: He claims to have received over 80% of the vote, sparking violence overnight from incredulous opposition supporters who simply don't believe the numbers. Officially, Lukashenko defeated a slate of challengers including principal rival Svetlana Tikhanovskay, the wife of a jailed opposition figure who was forced by the arrests of her campaign staff Saturday to go into hiding in the capital of Minsk.

At least 120 people were detained in protests that spread to Brest, Gomel, and Grodno, among other Belarus cities.

Demonstrators could be seen on social media confronting police in the wake of the announcement. They claim pre-voting ballot stuffing by the incumbent party of 27 years started before polling had begun, and pointed to inflated vote counts in multiple precincts as evidence. In one case, activists recorded video of a poll worker escaping the back of a polling station on a ladder while clutching bags of what the activists claim are excess ballots. 


Now, analysts and intelligence services are wondering how Russia, and its mercurial president, Vladimir Putin, will react to the unrest.
Lukashenko has played Putin against the EU for years

Lukashenko's longstanding ability to play the European Union to its west and Russia to its east off one another to bring in international assistance has increasingly irritated Putin, who has long pushed for a closer economic and political union with Belarus, according to a NATO military intelligence official based in the Baltics. Talks between Belarus and Russia collapsed in January after Lukashenko reportedly demanded far more economic support from Moscow than the estimated $10 billion it receives annually in subsidized oil and natural gas imports.


The official, who does not have authorization to speak on the record, asked for anonymity in exchange for speaking freely about the crisis. The source's analysis was confirmed by two other NATO/EU intelligence officials.

"It's not a great situation in general but doubly dangerous because nobody can say for sure what Putin will do," the NATO official said.

"The polling was a fraud but this was expected by everyone from the EU to the Belarus people to the Kremlin," said the official. "After 27 years of moderate success in keeping Belarus neutral between Russia and the West, Lukashenko fell out of touch with his people. This is a normal crisis for a dictator like him. What's unusual is Russia's confused position."
Lukashenko 'has these mercenaries rounded up supposedly on their way to the Middle East and Putin freaked out'

It was the July 29 arrest of around 33 Russian citizens, allegedly mercenaries for a Kremlin-backed private military company operating in the Middle East, in a spa outside of Minsk that set things truly on edge, agreed the three European intelligence sources.


"[Lukashenko] has these mercenaries rounded up supposedly on their way to the Middle East and Putin freaked out," said the NATO official. "Several of them appear to have worked with the separatists in Donbass [Ukraine] and there's arrest warrants in Kiev for them. Preventing them from being sent to Kiev for trial, where they would almost certainly embarrass Putin, is a top priority and stopping the anarchy right now in Minsk. And the utmost priority is keeping Belarus out of the EU's orbit and cosy with Moscow."


All three intelligence officials agree that the strife over the election benefits Putin's agenda.


"Lukashenko is clashing with his own people and drawing ire from the EU, so if he wants to stay in power he's going to have to crawl back to Putin for political and financial support," said the official. "How far [Putin] is willing to go to keep [Lukashenko] in power probably depends on what happens next but it's clear from the stern wording of the Kremlin congratulatory statement sent today that Putin will expect a new enthusiasm from Minsk for its regional agenda."

Putin's statement was not subtle: "I expect that your statesmanship will facilitate the further development of mutually beneficial Russian-Belarusian relations in all spheres, as well as the further enhancement of cooperation within the Union State," it said, according to a telegram published by TASS.


"My guess is that Lukashenko will extract some support from Putin and eventually return the mercenaries," Insider's source said.

Belarus Citizens Go into Battle – How Long Can Resistance Last?
Sarah Hurst
10 August 2020 

A man injured during a protest against the results of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. Photo: Viktor Drachev/TASS

As ‘Europe’s Last Dictator’ Alexander Lukashenko claims victory in the Presidential election, Sarah Hurst reports on clashes with riot police and the future of popular protest

Tens of thousands of people across Belarus protested and clashed with riot police last night as official exit polls in the presidential election gave Alexander Lukashenko almost 80% of the vote. His main opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has claimed victory, and the long lines at polling stations indicate that she won decisively.

An unofficial exit poll conducted by 76 activists who spoke to 85,500 people gave Tikhanovskaya 72.1% and Lukashenko 13.7% of the vote. Results reported by embassies in overseas voting reflected the unofficial result.

Earlier in the day a video emerged of a polling station official in Minsk coming out of a window and climbing down a ladder carrying a bag of what might have been ballot papers.

Tikhanovskaya was greeted by a cheering crowd when she arrived at another polling station to cast her vote. Performance artist Alexei Kuzmich entered a Minsk polling station wearing a raincoat and came out of the voting booth wearing only a loincloth, then assumed the pose of Jesus on the cross with red marks on his hands and feet, and held up his ballot paper with a drawing of a penis on it. He was subsequently taken in for questioning by police.


THE WOMEN RISKING EVERYTHING to Oppose Belarus’ Dictator Lukashenko
Sarah Hurst

Voters reported finding tiny dots on their ballot papers in the box for Lukashenko. A vote for anyone else would mean the ballot was spoilt, as there would be two marks on it.

People gathered outside their local polling stations when polls closed, clapping election officials in some districts where the votes appeared to have been counted honestly and booing those who reported a win for Lukashenko. Later they gathered in city squares and shouted “Go away!”, directed at Lukashenko.

In Minsk, hundreds of police and military vehicles had been deployed. Police used water cannon and stun grenades and fired rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds, who stayed out until the early hours. One police van drove into a protester at high speed. Authorities said about 3,000 people throughout the country were arrested.

Today Lukashenko said the election went off “like a festival” and accused several countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK, of organising the protests. He denied shutting down the internet so that footage of police violence couldn’t get out, blaming foreign countries for that too. China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov were among the authoritarians who congratulated Lukashenko on his “win”.

The EU called on Lukashenko to ensure that votes were counted fairly, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for an emergency summit on Belarus, saying, “The authorities have used force against their citizens, who are demanding change in the country. We must support the Belarusian people in their quest for freedom.”

‘SASHA 3%’Time is Up for Belarus’ Dictator Revolution is Underway
Paul Niland

Belarusians don’t show any sign of giving up, with the 12,000 workers at the Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ) announcing a strike and people preparing to take to the streets again this evening.

The question now is whether the country will see a scenario similar to what happened in Ukraine in 2014 and Armenia in 2018, when leaders eventually gave in, or if it will be more like Venezuela, with Lukashenko hoping people will become exhausted after months of protests.

Either way, we could be in for a long haul.

Trump says Spanish Flu of 1918 ended WWII – a conflict that didn’t start until two decades later

President also got year pandemic started wrong

Matt Mathers @MattEm90

Donald Trump has inaccurately claimed that the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 ended WWII – a conflict that did not begin until two decades later.

Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday evening, the president also got the year the pandemic started wrong.


“The closest thing is in 1917, they say, the great pandemic,” Mr Trump told reporters.
“It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War,” he added.



The Spanish Flu began in 1918, with the first infections recorded around March that year.
Watch more

\Trump repeats false claim children are ‘immune’ to Covid-19

The pandemic lasted until 1920 and did, as Mr Trump alluded to, kill millions of people.

But WWII did not break out until 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war two days later, sparking a conflict that would last six years.

The war ended in 1945 when the Axis powers surrendered.

Japan surrendered unconditionally in August 1945 after the US had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.


White House officials said that the president misspoke and had, in fact, been referring to WWI which began in 1914 and ended in 1918.

According to Peter C Wever and Leo van Bergen, the Spanish Flu greatly affected all sides during WW1, claiming thousands of lives.

Read more

100 years on from the Spanish Flu, we are facing another pandemic

“The disease had a profound impact, both for the military apparatus and for the individual soldier,” the pair wrote in a paper published in the Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses journal.

However, Wever and van Bergen are reluctant to conclude that the pandemic brought and to or changed the course of the war.

“It struck all the armies and might have claimed toward 100,000 fatalities among soldiers overall during the conflict while rendering millions ineffective,” they added.

“Yet, it remains unclear whether 1918 pandemic influenza had an impact on the course of the First World War.”

Monday’s error was the second verbal blunder the president has had in a matter of days.

Last week, Mr Trump pronounced Thailand and “Thighland” when delivering a speech at Whirlpool factory in Ohio.

AND HE CANNOT PRONOUNCE ORIGIN 

HE PRONOUNCES IT ORANGE 

Trump Schooled Online 

After Claiming '1917' Flu Pandemic 'Probably Ended' WWII;

World War II began in 1939, 

And the Spanish flu pandemic began in 1918.

By Josephine Harvey, HuffPost US 

President Donald Trump got history wrong on multiple counts Monday when he claimed that the “1917” Spanish flu pandemic likely led to the end of World War II ― which began more than two decades later.

“The closest thing is in 1917, they say, the great pandemic. It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people,” Trump said during his White House press briefing. “Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick.”

Leading up to that comment, Trump had been praising his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 160,000 people in the U.S., claiming without evidence that without his ban on foreign travelers, millions more would be dead.

Trump has incorrectly referred to the year of the 1918 pandemic dozens of times, even though his own grandfather Frederick Trump died of it in New York City in 1918.


The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War pic.twitter.com/jSltuSYim2
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) August 10, 2020


The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 overlapped with the final months of World War I, which is ostensibly what the president intended to refer to. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was first identified in military personnel in the spring of 1918 before spreading to an estimated 500 million people worldwide. It continued until the following year. The spread was likely exacerbated by the widespread deployment of troops, crowded wartime living conditions and other effects of the war, the CDC states.


World War II began in 1939.

Given the Trump campaign’s repeated efforts to frame presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as lacking mental acuity, Twitter users did not allow Trump’s gaffe to slide.

Critics, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub and conservative group The Lincoln Project joined the fray:

The Second World War ended in 1945. It’s cruel for @DonaldJTrumpJr and family to let @realDonaldTrump stand out there like this. https://t.co/E0v9VAcBWX
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 10, 2020

The President of the United States of America is the stupidest man in the world. https://t.co/O1CSD5eAIy
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) August 11, 2020


Trump: In 1917, the great pandemic, where they lost 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War.

1. The pandemic happened in 1918, not 1917.

2. About 37 million people died in WWI, not 50 to 100 million.

3. The Second World War ended in 1945, not in 1917. https://t.co/EEsnVUkXcE
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 10, 2020

A significant part of Trump’s (and the Trump campaign’s) message against Biden has been that Biden gets confused and makes speaking mistakes. https://t.co/pfNGzsQYt2
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 11, 2020

The president thinks the Spanish Flu probably ended World War Two (!) because “all the soldiers were sick.”]\

The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki fell 75 years ago yesterday, bringing a long and devastating war to a shattering, violent end.
Remember history. Don’t distort it.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 10, 2020

By the way the 1918 flu pandemic started in 1918, not 1917.
World War 2 ended in 1945
And for some reason it's the Trump Campaign that's trying to run on mental fitness.
— The Lincoln Project 🏴‍☠️ (@ProjectLincoln) August 11, 2020

The republicans are worried about Joe Biden’s mental acuity https://t.co/NpmQGSqcjp
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) August 10, 2020

If anyone says anything about Joe Biden flubbing a line ever again, just post the clip of Trump saying the 1917 pandemic ended the Second World War over and over again.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) August 11, 2020

Trump says the Spanish Flu in 1917 "probably" ended the Second World War.
The Spanish Flu was in 1918 and WWII ended in 1945. It's "probably" a good thing the Secret Service cut that press conference short. pic.twitter.com/sHQj2Uqov6
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) August 10, 2020

"The closest thing is, uh, in 1917, they say, uh, The Great- the Great Pandemic; & it certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million ppl; probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick."
-The US President just spoke this sentence
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) August 10, 2020

The genius MAGA crowd who worships and defends the guy who can’t pronounce “Yosemite” or “Thailand” and says the 1917 pandemic probably ended WW2 thinks Joe Biden is mentally compromised. https://t.co/xt2KY8l1kQ
— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) August 11, 2020


Obama fought WWII but was forced to concede defeat because of the pandemic of 1917 and since then the cupboards have been bare. They couldn't even test for it because there weren't any tests. All the while our soldiers didn't have any bullets. No bullets. Could you imagine? No bu
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 11, 2020


If you were wondering why President Drink Bleach has botched the response for 7 straight months:
In 1917 "the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 150 million people. Probably ended the second world war. All the soldiers were sick." pic.twitter.com/R9YRAcvCZj
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewBatesNC) August 10, 2020


How is this not an example of some sort of brain problem or dementia? He has repeatedly, on numerous occasions, claimed the Spanish flu was in 1917, not 1918. He must have been corrected dozens of times. He still says 1917. It’s not some sort of politically useful lie. Why do it? https://t.co/EEFifIJxjg
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 10, 2020

Bolton Won’t Vote for Trump This Fall: ‘He’s Not Competent’

Former national security advisor says he also won’t vote for Joe Biden

Ross A. Lincoln | August 11, 2020


ABC


In a new interview with Business Insider to promote his best-selling Donald Trump tell-all, “The Room Where It Happened,” John Bolton says he doesn’t plan to vote for Donald Trump. But to any Democrats who think (or worry) Bolton might cross the aisle, relax: He says doesn’t plan to vote for Joe Biden either.

“I’m not going to vote for Biden for philosophical reasons, and I’m not going to vote for Trump for philosophical reasons and because he’s not competent,” the former national security advisor told Business Insider.

Bolton didn’t elaborate on what those “philosophical” differences are, though he did say that he doesn’t actually plan to cast his vote for a viable candidate in any sense. Instead, he told BI he’s “thinking of names” to write in, though he declined to share them out of fear doing so would cause “a two-minute Twitter rant by the president, and they don’t need that.”

Also Read:

Seth Meyers Is Really Tired of Trump Trying to Steal Obama's Accomplishments (Video)

Bolton drew distinctions between himself and Trump. For instance, he said he opposes any delay of the 2020 election, something Trump has hinted he might do despite having absolutely no legal authority to do so. “It’s completely beyond any reasonable consideration to delay the election. It’s set by statute and the idea of changing it at the last minute, I just think no one in the Republican Party was prepared to accept outside of the White House staff, perhaps. And I found it very troubling that the president would even talk about it,” he said.

But Bolton also seemed to agrees with Trump, saying he is largely against mail-in voting and early voting, measures that expand voter access to people who don’t have the luxury of taking off work to vote on a Tuesday and can also keep people safe amid the coronavirus pandemic. “I think there’s a central element of democratic theory that we have the opportunity as a nation to do one thing all together on one day,” he said, “that we all show up at the polling place and vote.”

That said, Bolton does say Trump’s response to the pandemic has been “a failure,” and said overall Trump “ranks at the bottom” among U.S. presidents, and that he thought about resigning more than once during his final months as national security advisor. So why didn’t he? “If you thought about resigning each and every time something objectionable happened, you’d last about three or four hours in the job,” he told Business Insider.

Read the full article here.

THE QUESTION IS WILL HIS PAC JOIN THE OTHER

ANTI-TRUMP REPUBLICANS IN ATTACKING TRUMP

TRUE CRIME STORIES

WHERE YOU CAN'T TELL 

THE GOOD GUYS FROM THE BAD
Just as every cop is a criminal. And all the sinners saints. 

DISARM DEMILITARIZE DEFUND DISBAND
THE WHITE ANGLO-SAXON MALE POLICE FORCE

DC police union moves to block mandatory release of body cam footage

NOT JUST THE UNION; MANAGEMENT, 
AND THEIR POLITICAL HANDLERS TOO


By Reuters August 10, 2020

Enlarge Image

A Washington DC Metropolitan Police officer walks past an umbrella reading: "Defund Police" on the steps of a city government building.REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo

WASHINGTON — The Washington, D.C., police union said on Monday it asked a court to block the mandatory release of body camera footage and names of police officers involved in shootings.

The federal district passed a police reform law in July after weeks of protests in the nation’s capital and across the globe against systemic racism and police brutality, sparked by the killing of African-American man George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Floyd’s death, as well as other high-profile incidents of police brutality, led three dozen states to introduce initiatives to change or study policing, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Washington’s emergency legislation requires the Metropolitan Police Department to release the names of officers and body camera footage within five days of an officer-involved shooting or the use of serious force, among other measures.

Records of previous incidents, dating back to the beginning of the body-camera program in October 2014, were to be released by Aug. 15. The police union argued in its court filing, made on Aug. 7, that releasing those records could harm officers’ reputations.

“The release of the body-camera footage and names of officers will unjustly malign and permanently tarnish the reputation and good name of any officer that is later cleared of misconduct concerning the use of force,” the union said in a statement.

Nationwide data on police discipline is limited. A Reuters investigation found that many police union contracts call for disciplinary records to be kept private or erased and make it difficult for citizens to file complaints.

Experts have said body-worn cameras or bystander footage can increase the likelihood of attention to or discipline for police misconduct.

On July 31, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser released footage related to killings in three officer-involved deaths.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The district’s attorney general’s office declined to comment.

Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said the organization agreed with the union that there was a right to privacy, but said it did not apply to officer-involved shootings. He noted that some of the issues the union brought up with the law are already addressed with certain checks.

“We don’t think that the identity of a law enforcement officer who’s engaged in official conduct is a matter of sensitive personal information at all,” Spitzer said.

The union’s latest move comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit it filed, which argued that the portion of the reform law that stripped it of the right to negotiate with management over the discipline of members was unconstitutional.

• NEWS WIRE

 

• Company News

5h ago

Seattle Police Chief Resigns After City Council Slashes Funding

Fola Akinnibi, Bloomberg News

SEATTLE, WA - JUNE 29: Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best holds a press conference outside of the departments vacated East Precinct in the area known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) on June 29, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. The press conference was held near the site of an early morning shooting that left one person dead and one in critical condition. "Enough is enough," she said. Four shootings in less than two weeks have taken place in the vicinity. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images) , Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will leave the city’s police department, Mayor Jenny Durkan said, hours after the Seattle City Council voted to shrink its police force by 100 officers, trim the department’s budget and lower the salary of the chief.

Best “concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was a change in leadership, in the hope that would change the dynamics to move forward with the City Council,” Durkan said in a statement. A news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time Tuesday, local TV station KIRO-7 reported. Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz will step into the vacant position atop Seattle’s police force.

The council voted earlier Monday to shrink the police department through layoffs and attrition and cut about $3 million from this year’s roughly $400 million budget. Additionally, Chief Best would have seen her salary reduced by $10,000 to $275,000, less than an earlier proposal to slash her pay by $100,000. The cuts came as part of a broader budget revamp due to shortfalls caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seattle’s move marks the latest step by a local government to reduce funding for police in the wake of the nationwide protests sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Large cities like New York and Los Angeles have reallocated money from their police forces to other programs. City councils in Washington D.C. and Oakland, California have also cut police funding.

Mayor Durkan and Best, the city’s first Black woman police chief, had cautioned against the reductions, arguing that they would jeopardize public safety in the city and reduce the diversity of the force by cutting the youngest, and most diverse, members.

Seattle’s cuts may not end here. Calls to defund are likely to continue as the city prepares its budget for the next fiscal year in the fall. Council member Kshama Sawant said she wants to go even further.

“Our fight to defund SPD in the coming months won’t get easier -- it will only be more challenging,” Sawant said in a statement released after a preliminary vote. “But my Council office, and my organization, Socialist Alternative, look forward to continuing to organize with and work alongside the courageous community organizers.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Top Female Chief Quits, Accusing N.Y.P.D.  

of Widespread Gender Bias

Lori Pollock says in a lawsuit that the Police Department systematically denies women a chance to compete for top jobs.

Chief Lori Pollock says in a lawsuit she hoped to become the first female chief of detectives but was demoted instead. Credit...Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times

Ashley Southall

Aug. 11, 2020,

Shortly after Dermot F. Shea was appointed New York City’s police commissioner, he summoned one of the department’s highest-ranking women to his office and told her there would be some changes.

The woman, Chief Lori Pollock, was in charge of the department’s data-driven, crime-fighting strategy and had asked to be considered to become the next chief of detectives. It was a coveted promotion that two of her predecessors had received, including Mr. Shea.

PAYWALL 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/nyregion/nypd-women-discrimination.html

© 2020 The New York Times Company

Another Portland protest broken up after activist's arrest

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: 11 August 2020 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The arrest during a Portland, Oregon protest of a Black woman who became a leading activist in the racial justice movement after she was assaulted by a white supremacist three years ago has galvanized local and national Black Lives Matter groups.

Demonstrators took to the streets again Monday night and police broke up a protest outside a police precinct substation after they said protesters shined strobe lights at officers and hurled eggs and water bottles at them.

Nine people were arrested when clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing rocks and golf balls in the mayhem. One officer suffered an arm injury in a scuffle for which she was treated and released from a hospital, Portland police said in a statement Tuesday morning.

Portland has endured more than two months of often violent, nightly protests since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis.

Authorities said Demetria Hester, 46, won't be charged following her predawn Monday arrest after a protest that started Sunday night and turned violent outside the union headquarters for Portland's police.

She had been booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer during the protest. Hester´s arrest drew a sharp rebuke from national Black Lives Matter activists, who are increasingly focusing on demonstrations in Oregon´s largest city.

FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2020, file photo, Demetria Hester reacts to verdicts of guilty on all twelve counts at the Jeremy Christian trial in Portland, Ore. One of the protesters arrested in Portland, Oregon early Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, is a Black woman who was assaulted by a white supremacist in a high-profile case three years ago and who now leads a group of "moms" in racial justice protests each night. Hester, 46, was booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer during a protest that began Sunday night and stretched into the early morning hours. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, Pool, File)

After her release, Hester told reporters that she would keep protesting and joined others in announcing plans for a fundraiser to send Black mothers to Washington, D.C.

"I was born and bred to do this. This is a dream come true," Hester said. "This is a revolution and we´re getting reparations."

Hester and 15 other people were arrested during Portland´s 73rd consecutive nights of protest, when a group of about 200 demonstrators gathered at a park and then marched to the union headquarters building, where some people set fires outside the building and launched fireworks at officers.

Two officers were injured, including one who was burned on the neck when a firework exploded, police said. Police declared that the event was a riot shortly after 10 p.m. and began arresting people, including Hester.

President Donald Trump again seized on the protests in the city where he has harshly criticized local Democratic officials and said on Twitter that Portland was "out of control." He urged Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to bring in the Oregon National Guard.

Civil rights groups in Portland and members of the international Black Lives Matter organization, who traveled to Portland, decried Hester´s arrest and said the city was at the center of the racial justice protest movement.

"The struggle here in Portland has become almost ground zero because what we´ve seen under this administration is the kind of flexing that we haven´t really seen in our generation, ever," said Janaya Khan, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto. "People only protest when politicians and policies and police have failed to protect them. "

Hester gained prominence in 2017 when she was assaulted by a white supremacist while riding a light-rail train. The man who attacked Hester, Jeremy Christian, stabbed two men to death the following night and critically injured a third man when they came to the defense of two Black women - one of them wearing a Muslim head-covering - who were being harassed by Christian.

Hester gave emotional testimony this spring at Christian´s murder trial. Christian was convicted and given two life sentences without possibility of parole.

Hester has reappeared in public this summer as one of the main organizers of a group of mostly white parents who have been protesting nightly. She leads marches each night, using a bullhorn to chant in a voice cracking with fatigue.

____

Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus

FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2017, file photo, Demetria Hester speaks during a press conference in Portland, Ore. Hester, 46, was booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer during a protest that began Sunday night, Aug. 9, 2020 and stretched into the early morning hours. Hester was assaulted by a white supremacist in a high-profile case three years ago and who now leads a group of "moms" in racial justice protests each night. (AP Photo/Steven DuBois, File)

Portland police officers walk through the Laurelhurst neighborhood after dispersing protesters from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office early in the morning on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020 in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

CORRECTS DAY TO FRIDAY - A protester leads a crowd of demonstrators toward the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020 in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

CORRECTS DAY TO FRIDAY - A protester taunts Portland police as they guard the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020 in Portland, Ore. Police say demonstrators threw or launched items including rocks, frozen or hard-boiled eggs and commercial-grade fireworks toward officers early Saturday. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Demetria Hester, center, speaks to the media after being released from the Multnomah County Justice Center on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Hester became a leading activist in the racial justice movement after she was assaulted by a white supremacist three years ago. Authorities said Hester won't be charged following her arrest early Monday. Hester had been booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer during the protest that began Sunday night. Hester's arrest drew a sharp rebuke from national Black Lives Matter activists, who are increasingly focusing on demonstrations in Oregon's largest city. (Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian via AP)

Demetria Hester, second from left,leaves the Multnomah County Justice Center on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Hester became a leading activist in the racial justice movement after she was assaulted by a white supremacist three years ago. Authorities said Hester won't be charged following her arrest early Monday. Hester had been booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer during the protest that began Sunday night. Hester's arrest drew a sharp rebuke from national Black Lives Matter activists, who are increasingly focusing on demonstrations in Oregon's largest city. (Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian via AP

Video Showing Florida Police Attempting To Handcuff 8-Year-Old Draws Outrage

The 2018 arrest showed "how our educational and policing systems train children to be criminals by treating them like criminals," said lawyer Benjamin Crump.

By Josephine Harvey, HuffPost US

The arrest of an 8-year-old boy at a Florida school in 2018 has sparked an outcry after civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the boy’s family, posted online footage of police attempting to handcuff the child.


Crump shared police body camera footage on Sunday night of the incident, which had been viewed more than 1.5 million times as of Monday evening. He said in an emailed news release that the boy’s mother, Bianca N. Digennaro, had retained him.

The arrest took place at Gerald Adams Elementary in Key West, Florida, on Dec. 14, 2018, after the boy reportedly punched a teacher in the chest, according to an arrest report obtained by the Miami Herald. The child was arrested on a felony battery charge, according to the report. He is not named due to his age.

In a statement, Crump said the boy had an individual education plan in place to assist with a disability.

“Instead of honoring and fulfilling that plan, the school placed him with a substitute teacher who had no awareness or concern about his needs and who escalated the situation by using her hands to forcibly move him,” Crump said.

“When he acted out, the teacher called the police, who threatened him with jail and tried to put him in handcuffs, which fell off because he was too little.”

The video shows police officers first telling the child he’s going to jail and then asking him to place his hands up against a cabinet so they can attempt to handcuff him. They stop when the boy’s hands prove too small to be cuffed. They then walk him out of the school with his hands in front of him. When they reach the exit, one officer has a word with the child.

Unbelievable!! @KWPOLICE used “scared straight” tactics on 8yo boy with special needs. He's 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs, but they thought it was appropriate to handcuff and transport him to an adult prison for processing!! He was so small the cuffs fell off his wrists! pic.twitter.com/iSTlXdKas6— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 10, 2020

“You understand this is very serious, OK?” the officer says in the footage. “I hate that you put me in this position that I have to do this. The thing about it is, you made a mistake. Now it’s time to learn from it and grow from it, not repeat the same mistake again.”

Crump called the incident a “heartbreaking example of how our educational and policing systems train children to be criminals by treating them like criminals.” If convicted, the child would have become a convicted felon at just eight years old, he noted.

“This little boy was failed by everyone who played a part in this horrific incident,” he said.

Crump ― who is also representing the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor ― and civil rights attorney Devon Jacob, will file a federal lawsuit against the officers, school officials, the city of Key West and the Monroe County School District, the statement said.

Key West Police Chief Sean T. Brandenburg told the Miami Herald Monday that his officers did nothing wrong.

“Based on the report, standard operating procedures were followed,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Monroe County School District said in an email to HuffPost that the district has not been involved in any litigation about the incident in question. “Due to the possibility of this matter becoming a legal issue in the future, we have been advised not to make further comment about the incident at this time,” the statement said.

A City of Key West representative did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The video drew condemnation from advocacy groups and many others online, including former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, who called the footage “unbelievable.”

“Police should have no role in punishing our kids or pulling traumatic stunts like this in our schools,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union called for an end to police presence in schools, as did the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Violent interactions like this between children with disabilities and police cause long lasting harm and trauma to kids and their families,” the SPLC tweeted.

“Arresting an 8 year old child and sending him to jail is NEVER acceptable. Police have no place ‘disciplining’ our kids in schools.”




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Josephine HarveyTrends Reporter, HuffPost
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The Police Force Stampede in Portland on August 8, 2020 

by MIKE HASTIE AUGUST 10, 2020

I was in attendance of another BLM demonstration  in Portland, Oregon this weekend. I say attendance,  because eventually if there is going to be any real  changes in this country, we need more attendance. If there is going to be real Police Reform in the U.S. then the resistance calling for that reform has to be  constant, or shall we say relentless. That is why the  demonstrations have been going on every night in  Portland for the past 70 + days. There are certainly  a lot of different opinions as to how that should be  played out. It is hard to tell where this is all going  in Portland, or any other major city across America. And, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has put so many things on drastic hold.

There is one thing that is certain, I continue to learn  from every African-American I hear speak on racism, and how it affects their lives on a daily basis. Many  Black speakers I have heard or met, have been more vulnerable to white audiences. I feel they are taking  more risks in communicating their pain and suffering with white people who they have distrusted for most of their lives. They obviously live in a world that is far different than the white world, and every time they speak, the depth of that difference is more profound. As a result of my connection with Black soldiers in my unit in Viet Nam, and the things they revealed to me, I started to understand  racism at a deeper level when I was listening and watching  their reactions to what was going on around all of us while the United States Government demonized the Vietnamese  people with racist ideology by referring to the Vietnamese as ” Gooks.” There is absolutely no one on the face of the  Earth who is inferior based on skin color or ethnicity. This truth should be the corner stone of all humanity, but unfortunately racism is the cancer of the world.

The demonstration I was present at last night was very  intense, because the location was a residential area, so the police were reluctant to use tear gas because it would permeate the entire neighborhood. As a result of not being  able to use that chemical weapon, the police came at us like a stampede of cattle. There were many flash-bang grenades  used, while police would charge us, and then retreat to an  intersection, regroup, and then charge again. There were  several arrests, as many protesters were in close contact with the police. I was taking pictures up close, because that is where  you have to be in order to get meaningful images of what is going on in front of you, even if the cops are shoving you. I think having two large cameras provides some protection, because the police  can see both of my hands. There were objects thrown at the  police, along with lasers being pointed at them. There were some protesters knocked down to the street, where the cops used their batons, and in at least one occasion a protester was kicked by a  policeman. This happened near a tall van, while I was on the other side of the vehicle. It is still hard to tell where all of these protests  in Portland will end up. There is a very unusual momentum going  on here. Ted Wheeler, the Portland mayor thinks if the protests continue, it will be used to Trump’s advantage come election time.

I do not have an opinion on this, but I would like to be a silent white person in the room while African-Americans discuss if these protests  are a hindrance to Black Lives Matter. I do feel white protesters offer  some protection for African-Americans, who only represent 6% of the Portland population. I cannot believe what has happened in the United States since George Floyd’s execution by a white police officer  was videoed and sent around the world. We shall see how this turmoil  is dealt with, while at the same time America continues to be a Brutal  Global Empire.

“No Lie Can Live Forever.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

More articles by:MIKE HASTIE

Mike Hastie served as an Army Medic in Vietnam.

DONNA SUMMER MACARTHUR PARK EXTENDED

THE ICON HERSELF

Barbra Streisand’s 1979 hit “Enough Is Enough” has been used in a super PAC-sponsored music video that blasts Donald Trump for the president’s record on failing the LGBTQ+ community.

The video is a collaboration between the progressive PAC MeidasTouch and voting awareness group Vote Proud, which was co-founded by Bruce Roberts, the original lyricist and composer of “Enough Is Enough.” The video was released on Tuesday and highlights a variety of clips from the last four years, including Trump denying visas for the same-sex partners of diplomats in 2018, Trump proposing a rule allowing faith-based groups to exclude LGBTQ+ people as foster or adoptive parents in 2019 and Andy Cohen exposing restrictions on gay men donating blood for COVID-19 patients in April.

“Enough Is Enough” plays repeatedly as the video arcs to its conclusion, ending with a message from Streisand herself.

“Vote proud,” said the 78-year-old hitmaker, long an ally of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I wrote Enough Is Enough many years ago,” Roberts said in a statement. “Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer recorded it and had a global #1 record, selling millions. And all these years later it has become an anthem for change and equality in America today. I am proud to be working with MeidasTouch on this initiative to spread the message using my song.”

“We got the rights to the song, with Bruce’s total support ― unlike the methods that Trump uses, where he does not even ask permission from the songwriters,” MeidasTouch co-founder Brett Meiselas added, referencing the Trump campaign’s repeated unauthorized usage of music from the likes of Linkin Park and R.E.M.



The original version of “Enough Is Enough” with Donna Summer, recorded for Streisand’s 21st album, “Wet,” spent 17 weeks on the Billboard charts in 1979.