CHICAGO

Mayor Lightfoot Won’t Confirm Or Deny Adam Toledo, 13, Was Holding  Gun When He Was Shot Dead By Police, But Believes Prosecutors Who Say He Was Were ‘Correct’

CBSN Chicago01:30 - 2M AGO



CHICAGO (CBS) — At a news conference Thursday ahead of the release of the body cam video of the police shooting that killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she had seen “no evidence whatsoever” that Adam shot at police.

“I don’t want to get into the real substance of this because the independent investigation is going on, but I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever that Adam Toledo shot at the police,” Mayor Lightfoot said.

But as to the reports that Adam was holding a gun when he was shot and killed by police, the mayor declined to confirm or deny it – citing the ongoing investigation – but said she believed it was correct as articulated by prosecutors at a bond hearing for Ruben Roman, a man police said was with him at the time of the shooting.

“It’s not for me to confirm that,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “I’m very aware of what was said at the bond hearing for Mr. Roman. I believe that as articulated, the comments of the State’s Attorney were correct.”

Subsequently, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said a prosecutor misspoke over the weekend in saying Adam had a gun in his hand.

State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Sarah Sinovic told CBS 2’s Chris Tye in a statement: “An attorney who works in this office failed to fully inform himself before speaking in court. Errors like that cannot happen and this has been addressed with the individual involved. The video speaks for itself.”

At the earlier news conference, the mayor added that a slowed-down version of the body cam video is also being released because it was offered to the family, and they agreed it would be helpful. She said it is difficult to see what is going on in the raw video.

“He’s running through an alley. The raw video footage is extraordinarily jumpy,” Lightfoot said. “It’s really hard to see anything.”

Thus, she said, providing a slowed-down frame-by-frame version to see what happened will be helpful.

Mayor Lightfoot also said the video will show the officer springing into action to try to revive Adam and call for medical assistance. She emphasized that every officer is traumatized when they fire their weapon, whether anyone is struck or not.

The mayor earlier said: “I urge everyone reserve judgment until the civilian office of police accountability (COPA) has done its work. And I’m urging COPA, to do that work. Early transparently and with all deliberate speed.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, Toledo’s family viewed the video footage of the teen’s shooting death by police during what authorities have said was an armed encounter in a Little Village alley early on the morning of Monday, March 29.

At a bond hearing Saturday for the man who was with Adam Toledo, prosecutors said Adam had a gun in his hand when an officer shot and killed him.

Prosecutors said while defendant Roman was the one to fire the gun, Adam was holding it when he was shot and killed by police at a point when Roman was already being detained.

 

Adam Toledo, Age 13, Had His Hands in the Air. A Chicago Cop Shot and Killed Him

Post on: April 15, 2021 

 Ezra Brain

Adam Toledo was shot by the police while complying with their orders. Then the state tried to cover it up, claiming that he was shooting at the officers. Body cam footage released on Thursday shows that to be a lie.

Image: Thumy Phan

Adam Toledo died with his hands in the air, following the orders of the Chicago police officer who chased him down. 

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old. He was in the 7th grade. 

In the days following Toledo’s murder, the Chicago PD and their allies in the so-called “justice” system attempted to cover up the murder, clearly realizing that the protest movement kicked off by George Floyd’s murder last summer would not accept the gunning down of a 13 year old at the hands of the cops. They claimed that Toledo had a gun and was shooting at the officers. They charged the man Toledo was with with child endangerment. They said they were investigating. Lori Lightfoot, the Democratic Mayor of Chicago, got on television, cried, and talked about herself as a mother and condemned “gun violence”.

Left Voice is hosting a panel with Bessemer Amazon worker and Black liberation activist, a member of SEIU Drop the Cops and Robin D.G. Kelly, author of Hammer and Hoe to Black struggle and the labor movement.  Sign up and RSVP to the Facebook event.

But Lightfoot knew what would happen. Yesterday she closed one of Chicago’s main bridges to prevent protests from moving throughout the city. 

But the body and dash cam footage released on Thursday show, very clearly, what happened. Toledo was walking with a friend, there were reports of gunshots in the area — allegedly from Toledo’s friend firing the gun, seemingly at random — the cops began to chase them. They yelled for Toledo to stop. He did. They told him to put his hands in the air. He did. And then they shot him. 

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old. 

Lightfoot, in her emotional and performative statement upon the release of the footage, was quick to highlight that the murderer rushed to provide medical treatment. And the footage does show the murderer crouching over the body calling for help and asking his victim to “stay with him.” But Toledo died. Because he was shot by a police officer with his empty hands in the air. 

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old. 

Protests are already sweeping across Chicago, full of fury at yet another senseless police murder of a child. Toledo was shot down in the street with his hands over his head while he was complying with the cop’s orders. 

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old.

There is nothing more to say. If you don’t understand by now, then this article won’t convince  you. I don’t know how many more people need to die before we realize what the role of the police in a capitalist society is. They don’t care if they kill. They’ll shoot first and sort things out later. And there always is a story, later, about why they couldn’t help but murder someone. They thought their gun was a taser, he was pointing the AirSoft gun at you, he was raising his hands. His hands were in the air. And they gunned him down.

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old. 

Chicago spends over $4.8 million a day on their police force. $5 million a day as their schools suffer, as their social programs get cut, as city-wide austerity rages. $5 million a day to shoot boys with their hands in the air. And then Lori Lightfoot has the gall to get on television and cry. Crocodile tears from another bourgeois politician who cares more about protecting the police and the system of capitalism they protect than literal children. Lightfoot is, after all, battling the teachers unions to force teachers and students back to school, even if it is unsafe, and is refusing to adequately fund schools. 

Adam Toledo was thirteen years old. But it doesn’t matter his age. He was killed by a cop with his empty hands in the air. 

Last night, members of organized labor drove the National Guard from the union hall in Minneapolis. The transit workers union refused to transport arrested protesters. This is the only way forward: we must unite the labor movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Left into an unstoppable  force that will fight in the streets and the workplace to bring down this entire murderous system. This system that shoots children with their hands in the air. 

LEFTVOICE

HE HAD A TOY GUN

Mother of teen killed by trooper mourns ‘awesome young man’

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

April 14, 2021

This undated photo provided by Kristee Boyle shows Boyle's 16-year-old son Peyton Ham. A trooper responding to a pair of 911 calls fatally shot Ham, on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, outside a home near the State Police barracks in Leonardtown, Md. Investigators determined that Ham had an airsoft gun and a knife and pointed the replica toy gun at the trooper, State Police Superintendent Woodrow Jones III said during a news conference Tuesday. (Kristee Boyle via AP)

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a Maryland State Police trooper was an honor student who loved cooking with his mother and spirited political debates at the family dinner table, the teenager’s relatives said Wednesday.

A written statement from the family doesn’t address the circumstances of Peyton Ham’s encounter with the trooper who shot him Tuesday afternoon outside a home near the State Police barracks in Leonardtown. Investigators determined that Ham had an airsoft gun and a knife and pointed the replica toy gun at the trooper, who was responding to a pair of 911 calls, according to State Police Superintendent Woodrow Jones III.

Instead, the family statement focuses on their memories of Ham and his academic and personal achievements. They described him as “an incredibly smart, gifted sweet young man” with a “Alex P. Keaton” type personality, referring to the conservative, overachieving character played by Michael J. Fox on the 1980s-era sitcom “Family Ties.”

“Our family is absolutely heart broken and shattered over this sudden, unexpected loss of life of a talented young man, filled with promise,” the statement says. “Words cannot express the gratitude our family is feeling with the overwhelming love and support being extended by our friends and family in our amazing community.”

Ham’s mother, Kristee Boyle, provided The Associated Press with a copy of the family’s statement. During a brief telephone call, she described her son as “an awesome young man.”

“It’s a horrific situation,” Boyle said.

A witness saw Ham in the driveway of a home “in a shooting stance” and pointing the gun at the trooper, who fired at the teenager and wounded him, Jones said Tuesday during a news conference. Another witness told investigators Ham then pulled out a knife and tried to get up, according to the superintendent.

“The trooper ordered him to drop the knife before he fired again,” Jones told reporters.

The airsoft gun that the teenager wielded is commonly used to shoot BBs and is “a close representation of an actual handgun,” Jones said.

The trooper who shot Peyton Ham responded alone within minutes of the State Police receiving two 911 calls about someone acting suspiciously, according to the superintendent.

The first caller, a man, said he thought that the suspiciously acting “guy” had a gun, Jones said, adding, “The dispatcher asked for his location, but the call was disconnected.”

The second 911 caller also said he saw a “guy” acting suspiciously and thought he had a gun, according to the superintendent. That caller gave a street address for the suspicious person but hung up without giving a name, according to Jones.

After the shooting, the trooper who shot the boy called for emergency medical personnel while other troopers and sheriff’s deputies gave him first aid. Ham later died at a nearby hospital. Jones said police recovered the airsoft gun and a knife at the scene.

The teenager was white, as is the trooper who shot him, according to State Police spokesman Greg Shipley. In an email on Wednesday, Shipley said he expects the trooper’s name to be released this week.

The trooper who shot the teen has been with the State Police for two years and seven months and has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, Jones said.

Hollywood Street Protest For Daunte Wright Draws Heavy Police Presence

By Bruce Haring

April 16, 2021 

YouTube

A protest against the death of Minnesota man Daunte Wright in a confrontation with police spilled into Hollywood Thursday night, as several hundred people marched and held a vigil at Sunset and Vine.

Police were out in force to monitor the event, which saw protesters take over the street in a march that started in mid-evening. The marchers chanted Wright’s name and Black Lives Matter.

The street protest follows another earlier this month in Hollywood regarding the death of Louisville, Kentucky resident Breonna Taylor. That protest resulted in a more aggressive police response.

The Thursday night protest in Hollywood was one of many nationwide this week, as Wright’s death and the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis for his role in the death of George Floyd has heightened tensions

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Trevor Noah On Racist Police Incidents: “Where Are The Good Apples?” – Deadline

Trevor Noah On Racist Police Incidents: “Where Are The Good Apples?”

Greg Evans
Associate Editor/Broadway Critic@GregEvans5

April 15, 2021 

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah bypassed punchlines in the impassioned video he posted yesterday about police brutality, posing the question, “Where are the good apples?”

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Season 26, Ep. 81 - April 12, 2021 - Miguel - Full Episode | Comedy Central US (cc.com)

“We’re told time and time again that these incidents we keep experiencing are because of bad apples” on the police forces, Noah says early in the video.

Noah says the video was prompted by recent news of police encounters with Black men, including the incident in Windsor, Virginia, in which two officers handcuffed and pepper-sprayed Black Latino Army Lt. Caron Nazario. “He’s in military fatigues, he’s one of the troops, and he’s being treated like trash from the cops, and not just as a troop but as a human being,” Noah says.

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“They claim they were afraid but there’s only one person exhibiting fear in that video and it’s him.”

The Daily Show host also references the deaths of Daunte Wright, Philando Castile and George Floyd.

“I’m not saying there are no good policeman, don’t get me wrong,” Noah says, “but where are the good apples? Where are the cops who are stopping the cop from putting his knee on that neck? Where are the other cops when Philando Castile is losing his life?”

He continues, “I think there are many people who are good on the police force…but I think it’s because they themselves know if they do something they’re going against the system. The system is more powerful than any individual. The system in policing is doing exactly what it’s meant to do in America and that is to keep poor people in their place. Who happens to be the most poor in America? Black people…”

Noah concludes by stating that the system is not broken because “it’s working the way it was designed to work.”

“We’re not dealing with bad apples,” he says. “We’re dealing with a rotten tree that happens to grow good apples, but for the most part the tree that was planted is bearing the fruit that it was intended to.”

Minneapolis Transit Union Refuses to Transport Arrested BLM Protesters

Post on: April 14, 2021 

 Nina DeMeo

The transit workers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 100 issued a statement saying that they refuse to aid police by transporting protestors. These workers stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of Daunte Wright by police in Brooklyn Center, MN.

Daunte Wright, only 20 years old, was brutally murdered by the police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb just outside Minneapolis, on Sunday afternoon. In the midst of the Derek Chauvin trial, this police murder was yet another brutal reminder that the police murder and terrorize Black people and that Chauvin isn’t just one “bad apple.” 

Following Wright’s murder, the police left his body lying in the streets for hours. Protesters gathered to mourn and have continued to protest every day since. A curfew has been instituted, and the already militarized area has become even more militarized. Armored cars are driving through the streets and the National Guard are stationed in front of places like Walmart to protect private property. They are even calling on public transit buses to be used to transport protesters. 

Left Voice is hosting a panel with Bessemer Amazon worker and Black liberation activist, a member of SEIU Drop the Cops and Robin D.G. Kelly, author of Hammer and Hoe to Black struggle and the labor movement.  Sign up and RSVP to the Facebook event.

But, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 won’t fall in line. They put out a statement today saying that bus drivers should not be called on to transport protesters. As the statement reads, “ATU Local 1005 applauds our members’ stand and continues to support our members in the struggle for Black Lives Matter”. 

This is part of the tradition from the summer’s Black Lives Matter movement, where bus drivers all over the country refused to transport protesters who were in the streets protesting against police terror. Union locals around the country issued statements such as this one, standing on the side of Black people and all oppressed people against the police. 

This situation highlights that Daunte Wright’s murderer, who was president of her union local, has no business in the labor movement. Cops have no place in unions. They aren’t workers — they harass and kill workers. Conversely, workers have the power to fight the police at the workplace. They can refuse to transport them, as the ATU has, and they can shut down the ports on the West Coast like the ILWU did last summer. Workers have the most powerful weapon — the strike — when the police harass and murder Black people like Daunte Wright.

The ATU statement ends by saying, “We continue to stand in solidarity with our members as we did last summer during the George Floyd uprising when our members refused to transport young arrested protesters, who are justifiably angered at the injustice of racism, oppression and violence of the inequality inherent in the system we live under.” Solidarity with the transit workers and the protestors demanding justice for Daunte Wright. 

WHITE MAN WHINE

Feminism To Blame For Daunte Wright's Death, Everything Else

Robyn Pennacchia

April 15, 2021 1

 Wonkette

Just a few weeks after being kicked out of YouTube's Partnership Program for a bizarrely racist rant about Black farmers, conservative "comedian" Steven Crowder now has something to say about the killing of Daunte Wright.

It's not good.

Conservatives have a vested interest in pretending that systemic racism against Black people doesn't exist, particularly in police departments, as well as pretending that there is absolutely no kind of problem with cops killing or otherwise brutalizing unarmed Black people. Because if there is a problem with cops killing unarmed Black people, everything else falls apart. So Steven Crowder has figured out a way for conservatives to be able to admit that maybe Daunte Wright did not deserve to be killed for an out-of-place air freshener.

After seeing the video of the shooting, Crowder determined that the problem wasn't racism, or an extreme overreaction by police officers to an air freshener, but feminism. Because Kimberly Ann Potter is a woman and women shouldn't be police officers, but feminism lied to them and said they could be. Even though it is a job for the menfolk.

This brilliant theory, however, requires that one ignore the many, many examples, even just this year, of male police officers killing unarmed Black people.





Transcript via Media Matters:
The issue here is the accidental shooting and the woman who didn't know the difference between a Taser and a firearm. And not only that, her partner crosses that line of sight on the barrel like three times. This woman was a danger to herself and her partners. And I will tell you this: This is the issue that I have with female officers. Oh, can you say it? What is a female cop going to do if not shoot? Whether it's a Taser or a gun. That guy clearly said, "Oh, this is my chance," the second — the second he was passed from the big, burly male officer to the female officer. "Taser, Taser, Taser, Taser." And she couldn't even tell that she had a loaded firearm aimed at her own partner.

This is something that I think is pretty important. It relates to everything. I was talking about this with you yesterday. It relates to feminism and how they've lied to women. We've seen this, obviously, with the female officers, women in the military where they create gender-neutral fitness tests and then more women fail so they say, "Well, we'll have a gender-neutral test, which we already lowered the bar to make sure more women passed, but now we're going to take into account biological differences." What? And then, by the way, if you claim to be a woman and you're a man, you can take the gender-neutral but biologically different test. "Yeah, we want you to go to the front lines and you don't have to do a tummy tuck, just do planks." Good, September 11, that will keep the terrorists shuddering in their boots, if they have boots over there. Shuddering in their sandals.

A tummy tuck is a surgical procedure meant to remove excess fat and skin from the abdominal area. He's thinking of leg tucks. The leg tuck was in fact the number one most failed requirement for both men and women in the Army's physical fitness test, and because the Army would like more soldiers please, and would also like to be able to keep older active soldiers on duty, they have given everyone the option of doing a plank for two minutes, which also demonstrates core strength.

But hey, Steven Crowder's got sexism to do here. And transphobia. And racism.
Here's the thing, we convince young women that they add value in ways that they don't because we convince young women that they add value in ways that a man would add value. So, let's use this with a female officer there, OK? And I know this isn't a rookie. She's been on the force for over two decades from what I understand. [...]

But this woman probably goes out — you see this a lot with women in the military, women in the police force saying, "Look, I aced my exam." Well, great. You now have reached the bottom rung of men in physical capability. You can't physically subdue somebody, so you have to shoot them, so you have to tase them. Men want a partner in the police force that can watch their back. They don't care that you did well for a woman, they want the most capable person there humanly possible. You add no value if you did the female push-ups. You add no value if you scored off the charts on a written exam if you panic in the field.

And what about all the men who "panic in the field"? Because there sure seem to be a lot of them. Very regularly, these big burly male police officers say they just panicked. Is male panicking different from female panicking somehow? Because it seems like it is not.

Contrary to what Crowder would like to get at here, there is not actually a widespread issue with female officers "panicking" and shooting people or mistaking guns for tasers. Rather, female officers are far less likely to discharge their weapon while on duty. A 2017 Pew survey found that while 30 percent of male officers have used their gun while on duty, only 11 percent of female officers have done the same. Male officers are also more likely to believe that aggression is more effective than courtesy "in certain parts of the city," and are more likely to "agree that some people can only be brought to reason the hard, physical way."


Men were also more likely to say that the job had made them callous.

There is, however, a widespread issue with police officers in general, regardless of gender, overreacting to perceived threats when a Black person is involved and then killing them as a result of that overreaction. Why? For one, due to the deeply ingrained belief that Black people, Black men in particular, are more of a threat to them than are white people. Which is racist. For another, because they find it easy to detach themselves from the humanity of the Black people they are dealing with, and that makes it a lot easier to ignore them when they are crying for their mothers and saying they can't breathe. Which is also racist.

Now, we could say that Steven Crowder's ability to look at case after case of mostly male police officers killing unarmed Black people, see one female cop, and shout that it's because of feminism, has something to do with him being a man. Perhaps on some level it does — but that doesn't mean he couldn't be just as bad at looking at evidence and drawing the wrong conclusions if he were a woman. After all, Laura Ingraham exists.

[Media Matters]

Killed over a Car Air Freshener: Outrage Grows over Police Shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota

•Apr 13, 2021

Democracy Now!


Protests continue in the Minneapolis area after a white police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, during a traffic stop Sunday in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. The deadly shooting took place about 10 miles from where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd. Just before he was killed, Wright called his mother to say he was being pulled over — allegedly because an air freshener was obscuring his rearview mirror. The Brooklyn Center police chief claims Kimberly Potter, a 26-year police veteran who has served as the police union president for the department, accidentally pulled a gun instead of a Taser. 

The Star Tribune reports Daunte Wright is the sixth person killed by Brooklyn Center police since 2012. Five of the six have been men of color. "Unfortunately, there has not been a serious attempt to change the phenomenon of driving while Black, which is something that happens to Black people on a routine basis in the Twin Cities and across the state of Minnesota," says Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. We also speak with Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who says policing in the United States is as dangerous to Black and Brown people as ever. "They are deadly. They kill Black and Brown people," says Hussein.

TRIGGER WARNING: SAN FRANCISCO POLICE OFFICER WITH RECORD OF KILLING BLACK MEN CAUGHT ON CAMERA

by Christian Spencer

April 8, 2021 

(blackenterprise.com)

Police line at a crime scene [istockphoto.com]

A motorist’s camera footage will be used as evidence against a San Francisco Bay Area police officer who shot and killed a homeless Black man.

On March 11, Tyrell Wilson was allegedly gunned down by officer Andrew Hall in Danville. According to ABC News, the Wilson family’s lawyer, John Burris, claims that the officer violated the man’s civil rights and he plans to file a federal civil rights suit against the officer.

Related Stories: POLICE KILLED AT LEAST 164 BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF 2020

Wilson, a 37-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, was reportedly throwing rocks from an overpass onto a highway. Hall arrived on the scene and noticed Wilson was armed with a folding knife in his right hand and a bag in his left hand.

Hall took swift action to subdue Wilson, but the video shows Wilson appearing to walk backward while Hall advances forward. Wilson was shot in a parking lot used for carpoolers—it was also his home.

Wilson died March 17 at a nearby hospital, ABC News reported.

Danville Police Officer Shoots Homeless Black Man Tyrell Wilson

•Apr 6, 2021

“The video and witness accounts show this was a cold murder. Wilson never had a chance,” Burris said in a statement.

Pending an investigation, Hall is on paid administrative leave, and if he returns to the police department, he has requested a new assignment outside of Danville, his attorney Michael Rains told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“[The video] tells nothing about what occurred there,” Rains said, describing the video as unsteady and weirdly positioned.

There is a history of suspicion against Hall, who similarly shot and killed another Black man in 2018— Laudemar Arboleda, 33.





In that case, Hall testified that he was afraid for his life that Arboleda would run him over, but it was reported by the East Bay Times that Hall did not yell any commands.

Burris did not represent Arboleda, but at the time, he spoke at news conference and said that Hall was reckless and negligent when he shot into a moving car.

Prosecutors with the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office are still investigating the 2018 shooting.

“They didn’t and now he has killed another innocent man. Enough is enough. This officer is a menace,” Burris said about Hall.

Iowa Troopers Arrest BLM Activist as Group Rallies Against Bills Increasing Protest-Related Penalties

US Lorenz Duchamps Apr 9, 2021

The Iowa State Capitol building is seen on Oct. 09, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A Black Lives Matter activist was taken into custody inside the Iowa State Capitol on Thursday after protesters stormed the building to urge lawmakers to reject legislation they oppose.

Police arrested 18-year-old Josephine Mulvihill, a high school student of Des Moines, and charged her with assaulting a police officer, according to a tweet posted by journalist Andy Ngô.  

ANDY NGO IS A RIGHT WING TROLL NOT A JOURNALIST

In a criminal complaint obtained by the Des Moines Register, the officer who arrested Mulvihill, identified as Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dylan Hernandez, said she pushed his arm in order to get his attention after trying to obtain the names and badge numbers of him and a fellow trooper.

A flyer that was posted by Black Lives Matter in order to invite activists to the protest and reject at least four proposals was posted on Twitter, claiming the state is passing “racist and dangerous bills.”

Dozens of activists gathered at the government building to oppose the bills that include Senate File 476, which passed the state Senate in March and now sits in the House. The bill is intended to strengthen “qualified immunity” for law enforcement officers.

The second legislation the activists rallied against is Senate File 534, which seeks to raise penalties for protest-related crimes, as well as give immunity to the driver of a vehicle, “who is exercising due care,” and accidentally hits a protester or rioter blocking the traffic on a public street or is unlawfully assembling.

Other bills opposed by the activists are House File 802, which will limit diversity and inclusion lessons that teach “divisive concepts” such as that Iowa is “fundamentally or systematically racist or sexist,” as well as Senate File 479, which seeks to withhold state funds from cities that defund police budgets.

In the video posted on Twitter by Ngô, the protesters are heard shouting popular slogans by Marxist groups like “no police” before Trooper Hernandez forces Mulvihill to the ground and arrests her.   NGO IS A RIGHT WING TROLL

Troopers are then seen clashing with the activists as Mulvihill is getting escorted out of the building before being put into the passenger seat of a police vehicle.

Angelina Ramirez, who co-organized the April 8 event named “Advocates for Social Justice,” claims state lawmakers passing these bills don’t care about Iowans of color.

She told Iowa Public Radio, “I’m telling you from firsthand exposure to the legislators that are passing these bills—they won’t care about their Black and brown constituents unless they’re forced to. Unless they’re pressured to.”

Majority of Americans Against ‘Defunding the Police’

According to a poll released in March, only 18 percent of Americans support slashing funding to the police.

Another 58 percent of respondents said they oppose the “defund the police” movement, which is often synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the Ipsos/USA Today survey.

Just 28 percent of black respondents and 34 percent of respondents who identify as Democrats support the movement to cut police funding, in addition to 67 percent of white respondents and 84 percent of Republican ones.

“Don’t defund the police department. We need them here to keep law and order,” Kevin Hayworth, 66, of Garner, Iowa, told USA Today . “We need our police department just as they are.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

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