Jake Paul Has Been Charged In Connection With The Looting Of An Arizona Mall

RICH WHITE GUY LOOTS

WELL WHO DID YOU THINK WAS LOOTING BUT A WANNABE THUG

Paul, 23, is facing two misdemeanor charges, criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, after he was filmed among looters at the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.

David MackBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 4, 2020


Leon Bennett / Getty Images

YouTuber Jake Paul has been charged by authorities in Arizona in connection with the looting of a Scottsdale mall over the weekend amid protests against police brutality.

Paul, 23, is facing two misdemeanor charges, criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, according to a news release from the Scottsdale Police Department provided to BuzzFeed News.
In now-deleted footage shot by his videographer Andrew Blue, Paul is seen walking through the closed, largely empty Scottsdale Fashion Square mall on Saturday night as people around him started vandalizing stores.

The footage went viral and police said they "received hundreds of tips and videos" identifying the "social media influencer...as a participant in the riot."



Mo@mograsmick

@fluffysmolcloud Here’s the deleted video07:39 AM - 31 May 2020
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"Our investigation has revealed that Paul was present after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly and the rioters were ordered to leave the area by the police," said police. "Paul also unlawfully entered and remained inside of the mall when it was closed."

Paul has maintained he did not participate in any looting or vandalism and was only there to film events.

"We were strictly documenting, not engaging," he wrote. "I do not condone violence, looting, or breaking the law."



Jake Paul@jakepaul

04:27 PM - 31 May 2020
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The videos of Paul did not show him vandalizing or stealing, but he could be seen being handed a bottle of alcohol that appeared to be stolen from a PF Chang's restaurant.

Sgt. Ben Hoster of the Scottsdale Police Department told BuzzFeed News Paul was issued a summons to appear in court in a month.

A lawyer and an agent for Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

They Marched For Breonna Taylor And Repeated A Powerful Message: “Black Women Are Not An Afterthought”

Tenelle Veira single-handedly organized a protest specifically for Breonna Taylor, saying Black women are often overlooked when people talk about police brutality.

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter

Clarissa-Jan LimBuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From
Brooklyn, New Yor
Posted on June 4, 2020,



Bryan Woolston / Reuters

A protest against Breonna Taylor's killing in Louisville, Kentucky, May 29.


BROOKLYN — In the middle of a street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, hundreds of people, mostly white, knelt silently and listened. In front of them stood Tenelle Veira, the protest’s organizer, wearing a white Black Lives Matter T-shirt and a black beret. She held a megaphone and faced the crowd, speaking quietly and calmly, so everyone had to lean in to listen.

“I want you all to imagine what it must have felt like to be sleeping in your bed,” the 29-year-old said, pausing for emphasis, “when three police officers kick down your door, waking you up and shooting you eight times.”


“I want you to stand up,” she said. The crowd stood up. “We have work to do.”

Veira’s protest — one of dozens that took place in New York City on Wednesday, and one of countless around the world — was in the name of justice for Breonna Taylor, an EMT and emergency room technician who was killed by police on March 13.

Taylor was asleep in bed with her boyfriend when three Louisville police officers in plain clothes took a battering ram to her door and killed her. They fired about 20 rounds, hitting Taylor at least eight times.

The police were investigating acquaintances of Taylor’s boyfriend who they believed were selling drugs. It’s unclear whether her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was involved. The police have said they fired their weapons only after Walker fired his, which Taylor’s family vehemently disputes, saying the couple thought they were experiencing a break-in. There’s no body camera footage of her killing.


She would have turned 27 on Friday.

It took two months for Taylor’s death to become a national news story, and that was only after Kentucky’s attorney general announced an investigation in May. That was days after a graphic video showed two white men killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in February, and a week before police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. Of these three highly publicized cases, the police who killed Taylor are the only ones not facing charges.


Ema O'Connor / BuzzFeed News

Tenelle Veira
At the protest in Brooklyn, as thousands marched more than five miles up Bedford Avenue, the longest street in Brooklyn, Veira reminded everyone that the three officers who fired their weapons on Taylor still have their jobs at the Louisville Metro Police Department, and that the investigation into the incident is still ongoing nearly three months after Taylor’s death.

Taylor was killed during the height of fears over the coronavirus, and there was no video footage of the incident to rocket across social media, two factors that may have contributed to the delayed outrage over her death. Protesters who spoke to BuzzFeed News on Wednesday have another reason why Taylor’s case didn’t receive much attention: She’s a Black woman.

“I'm tired of Breonna's name being an afterthought,” Veira told the crowd as it paused for breath in Williamsburg. “I'm tired of hearing men's names and then Breonna's name. Give her the respect she deserves.”

This was the reason Veira organized the march, she told BuzzFeed News after the crowd had reached its destination and started to disperse to other protests or to make it home before Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 8 p.m. curfew. She cares deeply about Floyd and Arbery, she said, but Taylor deserves as much attention. A GoFundMe page created for Floyd’s family had raised $12.5 million by Thursday morning. Taylor’s had only raised $1.7 million. (In contrast, fundraisers for the funeral for Tony McDade, a Black transgender man killed by police last week in Tallahassee, Florida, has only raised $132,602.)

“It would have been an insult to Breonna Taylor and all the Black women and girls out there to stay home and pretend this isn’t happening,” Veira told the crowd.

Many people at Wednesday’s protest did not know it was specifically devoted to Taylor. Several people held signs referring to Floyd. Four people told BuzzFeed News that they were not aware of the protest’s purpose.

“I have been wanting to brief myself on the crimes that happened with Breonna Taylor,” Ghana Elshazz, a 38-year-old health and wellness student, told BuzzFeed News. She did not realize this was a march for Taylor specifically; she added that she believed that women were often “sidelined” during broader protests against police brutality.

Briana Barker and Patricia Bellegarde also didn’t realize that the protest was for Taylor until they joined the crowd in Brooklyn. Barker told BuzzFeed News she’s glad they showed up.

“We have to honor her life as well. Her life was taken unjustly as well,” Barker said.

Bellegarde said she’s fighting for herself and the children she’ll have in the future.

“A cop can go home and take off his clothes and be OK. I cannot take off my skin. I am Black regardless of where I go,” she said. “And not only am I Black, I am a Black woman. So if you’re already at a disadvantage for being a woman, and you’re already at a disadvantage for being Black, imagine being both.”


Clarissa-Jan Lim / BuzzFeed News
Briana Barker and Patricia Bellegarde.


Others joined specifically to honor Taylor.

“I want to fight for her and fight for all the women that went through the same thing,” Tenneille Johnson, 24, told BuzzFeed News.

Johnson said the fight for racial justice is a woman’s fight.

“I want justice, and I want us to be appreciated — especially women,” she said. “Because we’re the ones that always be put, like [Veira] said, an afterthought. We matter, too. We’re on the front line fighting for Black men, too.”


Tanz, a protester who declined to share their last name, came out “to specifically support Breonna Taylor and support all Black lives: women, men, trans women, trans men.”

Five protesters told BuzzFeed News they were marching in part due to their personal experiences as Black women in America — and the gender and racial discrimination their friends and family have faced.

Charity Belgrave, 22, recalled a traumatizing incident with the NYPD when she was younger.

“Me and my cousin, we were just minding our own business. We got stopped by cops because we fit a description or whatever, and I went to put my MetroCard away, and a bunch of cops had their guns drawn on me,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Belgrave said she never wants to see anyone else go through an experience like that, “especially not my women, my brothers, my sisters — nobody.”

Veira hit on a similar theme. “To those who say Black women have attitudes, that we have tone problems,” she said to the protesters. “Imagine Breonna did not get shot that night and had to go to work the next day after having her door kicked out. What kind of mood should she have been in?”

Taylor’s memory has been present in protests elsewhere in the country. Outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, her name repeatedly rang out in the crowd alongside George Floyd’s.

DC resident Bart Sheard, who carried a "Justice for Breonna" sign to the protest, said in recent days he's seen a surge in people wanting to learn more about the victims of police violence.


"It took a little bit longer for people to learn about Breonna's story,” he said, adding that Floyd’s death has galvanized people to rise up. "We're keeping their voices alive and representing them. The four police that were involved with the murder of George Floyd have been arrested, and we have to make sure that the people who killed Breonna Taylor are brought to justice as well."


Joseph Prezioso / Getty Images
People gather to protest the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in Boston, May 29.

In San Francisco, a crowd of more than 10,000 people gathered in the city’s Mission District on Wednesday. Some carried signs with Taylor’s name, others chanted it.

“Say his name! George Floyd. Say her name! Breonna Taylor,” the crowd said in unison as they traversed Market Street, San Francisco’s main thoroughfare, past a mural of former city supervisor and civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

Police kept their distance and protesters were allowed to voice themselves long after an 8 p.m. curfew. People with signs paid homage to Floyd and other Black citizens who were killed. There were remembrances for Arbery and Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old man who was killed in 2009 at an Oakland train station by a police officer. At San Francisco's Hall of Justice, one of the protest’s end points, the crowd even sang the name of Emmett Till, whose 1955 lynching in Mississippi became a foundation for the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.


In Brooklyn, Veira kept leading the crowd back to two poignant chants.

“How many shots?” She asked over the megaphone.

“Eight shots,” the crowd responded.

“Say her name,” she said. The crowd complied.

“Where are my men? Say her name,” Veira asked. The collective voice of the crowd audibly deepened.

“Breonna Taylor.”

Veira says she’s never organized anything before in her life. She is a makeup artist with a significant following on Instagram. She and many of her friends in the styling and makeup industry haven’t been able to work during the pandemic. Instead, they have been sitting in their homes, watching videos of Black people being harassed and killed by the police, reading articles, and getting more and more outraged. Veira decided it was time for her to do something.

“Join me on Wednesday June 3rd for a peaceful yet impactful protest in solidarity calling for justice for Breonna Taylor and her family. This week would of been Breonna’s birthday and she would of been 27 years old,” Veira wrote to her 10,900 followers on May 30. “Many times when women of color are murdered and abused by police we don’t see the same outrage. Our voices need to be just as loud when they kill innocent Black women. Let us use our voices and demonstration so that those three officers are held accountable, terminated and charged for the murder of Breonna.”


Angela Weiss / Getty Images
Protesters during the Brooklyn march for Breonna Taylor.

Veira got some help from friends but mostly organized the protest alone. She said she only expected about 50 people; when she got to the starting location, there were already a few hundred people there. As they walked through Brooklyn, passing from historically Black neighborhoods into Hasidic neighborhoods, through gentrified Williamsburg to the waterfront, more and more people joined, stretching about five blocks as neighborhood residents looked on, occasionally yelling their thanks and support. A couple of police cars and a few officers were at the head of the protest, but there was a significant lack of police presence compared to other New York protests that have turned violent in recent days.

At least six of the attendees and co-organizers told BuzzFeed News they understood the anger of the people across the country who have been smashing windows and setting fires, and said they couldn’t judge that anger. But overall they were glad this protest was peaceful.

“If you are upset about something, so angry that you feel like breaking something — and everybody has felt that way — imagine feeling that every single day and unable to do anything about it,” one of three cousins who attended the protest together, but asked to remain anonymous to protect their privacy, told BuzzFeed News.

"This isn't new, either. It happened with Sandra Bland, and it happens with all the women murdered by police in this country," another of the cousins said, referring to the 2015 case of a woman who was jailed for a traffic violation and then found dead in her cell. The death was ruled a suicide, but her family claims she was killed by police. "You only see them second."


Veira said she understands the protests after curfew, the demonstrations that turn violent. But she didn’t want something she organized to go that way. She wanted to show that hundreds of people can make a point without causing destruction. And from beginning to end, it remained peaceful.

She led the protesters to Domino Park in Williamsburg on the East River, next to the old sugar factory where, just before its destruction, artist Kara Walker created a massive installation of sculptures made out of sugar, representing the history of exploitation, murder, and enslavement of Black people in America.

Veira climbed up the bleachers and told the protesters to gather around her, taking over the park. She thanked everyone for leaving their houses, for risking their health during the pandemic for a worthy cause, and for staying peaceful.

“And I say to all of my Black brothers here, speak up for us,” she said to applause and cries of agreement.

“I understand there’s a lot of men that get slaughtered in the street, and they will get their justice,” she continued. “We will make sure they get their justice, but you make sure we get ours.”

Ryan Mac contributed reporting from San Francisco. Paul McLeod contributed reporting from Washington, DC.

Ema O'Connor is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. She is based in New York.

TOM LEHRER WE WILL ALL GO TOGETHER WHEN WE GO

Police Departments Have Received Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Military Equipment Since Ferguson

The Defense Department’s "1033” military-equipment program has come under heavy scrutiny, but local law enforcement are continuing to receive supplies.

John TemplonBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on June 4, 2020

GO HERE TO SEE GRAPHS ACCOMPANING ARTICLE
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johntemplon/police-departments-military-gear-1033-program

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Police prepare to confront demonstrators who are protesting the killing of George Floyd, May 30 in Minneapolis.

Police wearing full-body riot gear are driving armored vehicles through the streets of America’s cities in response to the protests across the nation sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The scenes recall the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over another police killing, when public outcry over what appeared to be a massively disproportionate show of force brought scrutiny to a federal program that transfers unused military equipment to local law enforcement. The Ferguson Police Department was a beneficiary of that Department of Defense arrangement, known as the 1033 program.



Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Police tactical vehicles are seen parked at the police command center after protests and riots along Florissant Avenue in response to Michael Brown's shooting by a police officer, Aug. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.

But despite pledges from public officials including then-president Barack Obama to review and restrict the program, the spigot of battlefield-caliber heavy equipment never stopped flowing.

Since Ferguson, in fact, local law enforcement agencies have received more than $850 million worth of equipment through the DoD program, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis of federal data. The 1033 program is broad and includes a wide range of supplies (some of the gear is as benign as coffee makers), but the haul also includes heavily armored personnel carriers, aircraft, ammunition, and other military equipment.

While there are many ways for law enforcement agencies to acquire military-grade equipment, including outright purchases and grants, the 1033 program remains an important way for agencies to acquire big-ticket items at little to no cost.

The program, which expanded on prior efforts to dispose of surplus military gear, was created under the Clinton administration and authorized "all law enforcement agencies to acquire property for bona fide law enforcement purposes that assist in their arrest and apprehension mission." The emphasis in the legislation was to focus on preventing terrorism and drug trafficking, rather than crowd and riot control.

Critics, including former Congress member Duncan Hunter and Sen. Rand Paul, have repeatedly warned that the gear is “excessive” and blurs the lines between military and police tactics. A December 2014 White House review of the 1033 program found that the transfers “can foster an environment at the local level in which it is difficult to distinguish between the appropriate military use and the appropriate [law enforcement agency] use of the same equipment
There are also concerns that the federal government does not provide local law enforcement with proper training on how to use potentially lethal equipment — or, for that matter, even whether it manages to keep track of what goes where.

In a 2017 audit, the Government Accountability Office was able to acquire over 100 controlled items, “including night vision goggles, simulated rifles, and simulated pipe bombs, which could be potentially lethal items if modified with commercially available items,” with a total value estimated at $1.2 million, from the 1033 program by creating a “fictitious federal law enforcement agency” to file an application.

Public officials have, in the past, appeared to heed such concerns, particularly in the wake of the Ferguson protests, which were sparked by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, by a white police officer.

“At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message,” said then-attorney general Eric Holder in a statement on Aug. 14, 2014. The following May, Obama issued an executive order that prohibited the transfer of certain items from the 1033 program, including bayonets and grenade launchers, while requiring law enforcement agencies to provide more information in order to get others, such as tactical vehicles and riot gear.

But that order was rescinded in August 2017 by the Trump administration, removing much of the oversight of the program and allowing more equipment to be transferred. “Those restrictions went too far,” said then-attorney general Jeff Sessions. “We will not put superficial concerns above public safety.”

The Department of Defense’s data shows only how much equipment is currently held by law enforcement agencies, and does not track equipment that was received and subsequently disposed of, or returned to the federal government. Still, as of this March, the arsenals of local law enforcement agencies currently include 494 mine-resistant vehicles, at least 800 pieces of body armor, more than 6,500 rifles, and at least 76 aircraft acquired through the 1033 program post-Ferguson.

The mine-resistant vehicles, which can weigh about 24 tons, stand up to 13 feet tall, and have a gun turret on top, were designed to withstand improvised explosive devices and ambushes in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than to assist with crowd control. No police agency currently possesses more than two of the vehicles that were transferred since Ferguson, but many have gone to tiny, often rural departments with fewer than 50 officers.

Larger departments have also recently received the vehicles, known as MRAPs. The New York City Police Department, for example, received at least two through the 1033 in recent years, as has the Memphis Police Department. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Department in Minnesota, which contains the city of St. Paul, also received one in 2016. Jefferson County, Alabama, which contains Birmingham, received one this year.

The largest single recipient of body armor has been the Milwaukee Police Department, which has taken in more than 250 pieces since August 2014. The Pentagon has also given out more than 200 riot control face and body shields to departments around the country.

Aircraft — which can be used for surveillance, transport, and crowd control — have been hotly sought after as well. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, for example, acquired three fixed-wing aircraft in 2015, including two Skytruck planes. Aircraft from agencies of all sizes patrolled the skies above major protests this past weekend.

Now that protests over police violence have broken out again, and this time on a far larger scale, some of that military might is being put to use. Mine-resistant vehicles have been used throughout the country over the past week, in cities including Minneapolis, Miami, and Washington, DC.


Ricardo Arduengo / Getty Images

A Miami Police officer watches protesters from an armored vehicle during a rally in response to the recent death of George Floyd in Miami, May 31.

In response, some politicians have again begun calling for more regulation of the Pentagon program. After Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, tweeted on Monday that he would introduce legislation to “discontinue” the 1033 program, a staffer for Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, replied that his office would be glad to help with the effort.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, said on Twitter on Monday that he will “push for the House to restrict the program that provides military gear to police departments.”

Notably, one of the items Sessions specifically mentioned when Obama’s executive order was rescinded were bayonets. Over the past 14 months, at least 167 of the rifle-mounted weapons have been sent to local law enforcement agencies, according to the data.

It is not clear, however, if any bayonets have been used to confront protesters in the past week.

John Templon is a data reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. His secure PGP fingerprint is 2FF6 89D6 9606 812D 5663 C7CE 2DFF BE75 55E5 DF99

This Is What 100 Years Of Protests For Racial Justice Looks Like In America

I THOUGHT THESE THREE WERE PARTICULARLY POIGNANT IN LIGHT OF THE FAILURE OF THE SENATE TO PASS AN ANTI-LYNCHING LAW BECAUSE OF RAND PAUL

RIGHT CLICK TO EXPAND PHOTOS

THE FIRST VICTIM OF BRITISH FIRE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

WAS CRISPUS ATTICUS A BLACK MAN.

ERIE 
A silent march in New York City to protest the police treatment of Black people during riots in St. Louis, 1917. Thousands marched down Fifth Avenue without saying a word. They chanted no chants, sang no protest songs. The only sounds were the disconcertingly mournful thuds of muffled drums and, of course, the marchers' footsteps on the hot pavement. It was a parade of silent protest.

More than 3,000 people carried signs in Washington, DC, urging the end of lynching in America, 1922.

Protesters stand outside the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum with signs and nooses around their necks, Jan. 1, 1934.

This Is What 100 Years Of Protests For Racial Justice Looks Like In America

From the 1917 silent protests in the streets of Manhattan to the recent national unrest following the killing of George Floyd, these pictures capture the long and tumultuous struggle for racial justice in the US.

Gabriel H. SanchezSenior Photo Essay Editor
Posted on June 5, 2020, at 11:44 a.m. ET



As demonstrators across the US are raising their voices following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police, powerful images of these protests are circulating throughout the world. These photos can define a movement for years to come, and become the foundation from which future generations are able to frame their own struggles for civil liberties.

“Most Americans today learn about the Civil Rights Movement through photographs,” wrote historian Mark Speltz in Time following the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Photographs from modern America’s defining social justice struggle are critical touchstones in the visual narrative of our nation’s past.”

The struggle for civil rights has a long visual history. For the sake of simplicity, we focused on the past 100 years, starting with 1917 when thousands of protesters took to the streets of Manhattan in mournful silence, in response to the East St. Louis race riots, which killed dozens of Black people and left thousands more homeless.

A century later, and in stark contrast to the silent protest of 1917, are the photographs captured in the days after Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. There, demonstrators were met with severe force, reminiscent of the major flashpoints of the civil rights era in the 1960s — moments like the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. Those pictures are seared into our collective memory and offer a visual roadmap of what has been accomplished and what is left to be done.

These images also reveal how little has changed in the decades since. “Despite the distance of the decades,” Speltz wrote in 2016, “the moving imagery of the emerging Black Lives Matter movement builds upon a visual narrative of protest and struggle that remains all too relevant in the present.”

These pictures chronicle over one century of protests for racial justice in America

State troopers beat a man leaving a concert by Paul Robeson at the Old Hollow Brook Golf Club in Cortlandt Manor, New York, Sept. 4, 1949. Troopers and police, who were supposed to protect concertgoers from anti-Robeson protesters, joined them in harassing them instead.

Extract from Mining Review 2nd Year No. 11 (1949) The highlight of this 1949 issue is the visit of American actor and singer Paul Robeson to Woolmet Colliery near Edinburgh. Robeson was also a renowned (and often persecuted) left-wing political activist and he made several visits to British mining communities. On this occasion he sings "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" for miners in the canteen, a song about an American trade unionist who was allegedly framed on a murder charge and executed in 1915. Robeson had long been something of a hero to the British mining community, ever since he starred in the film Proud Valley (d. Pen Tennyson, 1940) as an American sailor stranded in Cardiff who finds work in a Welsh colliery (the newsreel opens with a short clip from the film).

SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTO'S HERE 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/100-years-of-racial-justice-protest-in-america

DISARM THE POLICE TWO

THIS PICTURE IS AN OBSCENITY 

DISARM THE POLICE

A University Is Under Fire After A Professor Tweeted About Comparing The "Behavioral Profile" Of Black Americans To Asian Americans

Current University of Central Florida students and faculty are calling for professor Charles Negy's termination.

Tanya ChenBuzzFeed News Reporter


Posted on June 5, 2020


Charles Negy@CharlesNegy
Sincere question: If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming "systematic racism" exists?09:42 PM - 03 Jun 2020
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The University of Central Florida is being forced to respond after one of its professors of psychology posed a racist question on Twitter, asking if systemic racism would "exist" if "Afr. Americans as a group had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans."

School officials, including UCF's president Alexander Cartwright, released a statement this week saying they "condemn" professor Charles Negy's tweet "in the strongest terms," and they've launched an investigation.

However, despite huge calls for action by both students, alumni, and other faculty members, Negy is still an active professor, a spokesperson for the school confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

On Wednesday, Negy tweeted, "If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming 'systematic racism' exists?"

The tweet remains up and has drawn a ratio of loud and angry responses.

Many of them are from current and former students, some of whom identified as Asian American. They wrote back to Negy, laying out all the reasons why his tweet is ignorant and steeped in racism.



「 adrian 」@aaydurian

@CharlesNegy As an Asian American student attending UCF, I am deeply angry at this message perpetuating the model minority myth to deny the injustices against Black communities. NEVER proclaim monolithic APIDA experiences again until you have learned about systemic racism02:22 AM - 04 Jun 2020
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Many quickly called out the "model minority myth," or the flawed logic often used toward Asian Americans as a racial wedge between them and other minority groups.

"As a student that goes to @UCF, an Asian American student, I am deeply offended that this UCF Psychology professor is using the minority model myths and stereotypes to invalidate the injustice and systemic racism that Black communities face daily," user @cailiboone9 wrote.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to some of the students and alumni who are responding, as well as Negy.

User @aaydurian, a current junior at the school, told BuzzFeed News that instances like this are nothing new for students of color on campus. She just hopes that the school can take a firmer stance this time.

"I hope to see UCF truly stand against anti-racism by removing [Negy] of his position and creating specific student government agencies for Black, Asian, and Hispanic students to educate our student body on racial identities and provide more platforms and funding for our cultural student organizations," she said.

Some who've identified themselves as Negy's fellow faculty are expressing their outrage as well. "We must do better for our students," one wrote.


Rob Dvorak@rob_dvorakPhD
As a psych prof @UCF let me say that the ignorance by my colleague is unacceptable. It’s even more unacceptable that he teaches a course requiring racial sensitivity and self-awareness. I’m ashamed to be associated with my dept rn. We must do better for our students. #UCFfirehim04:02 PM - 04 Jun 2020
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The hashtag #UCFfirehim is being used with a clear message from those affiliated with the school: They want Negy fired.

When reached, Heather Smith, the director of the school's media relations, provided BuzzFeed News with a transcript of a recent town hall meeting between the school's president and top officials and its students.

The town hall was previously scheduled for COVID-related discussions, "however, university leadership also took the opportunity to address Dr. Negy’s tweets," Smith said.

"These posts do not reflect the values of UCF, and I strongly condemn these racist and abhorrent posts. I understand the anger it has caused many of our students, staff, and faculty," Cartwright said. "I promise you this is a matter that has our full attention, and we have launched an inquiry to quickly – but fully – evaluate this situation."

According to the transcript, Cartwright said he wants to "learn from [students'] experiences" and added, "I want to ensure you that Black Lives Matter."


beep boop not a bot (Sam)@blipbloop9001
@CharlesNegy As a former UCF cross cultural psychology student of yours, shut up. @ucf @ucfdoi @UCFCartwright It is embarrassing this guy is part of your faculty and was allowed to teach a class like that with these beliefs03:49 AM - 04 Jun 2020
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Beyond the school's immediate community, Negy's tweets have drawn all kinds of other responses. Many of them from Twitter users who felt compelled to educate an educator.

Paul Krueger@NotLikeFreddy
@CharlesNegy -America was built specifically on a foundation of anti-Blackness -America has built system after system specifically to keep down Black Americans -we Asians don’t fit into the nonsense Model Minority myth you’re peddling -Asian and Black luminaries still experience racism04:03 AM - 04 Jun 2020
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readwithcindy 💩@readwithcindy
Putting Asians as the "model minority" to justify the mistreatment of black people is disgusting. We're not here for you to pit us against another group and erase our struggles while dismissing another. https://t.co/OjEtlkEgQz05:09 PM - 04 Jun 2020
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Actor Ken Jeong even responded to Negy, simply tweeting, "Go Fuck Yourself."

Ken Jeong@kenjeong
Sincere response: Go Fuck Yourself. Love, Ken Jeong, MD https://t.co/oHRrP6aDsP05:01 AM - 04 Jun 2020
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Tanya Chen is a social news reporter for BuzzFeed and is based in Chicago.

Police Are Arresting Peaceful Black Protesters Using Force, And The Videos Are Alarming

"Because he was Black, they felt that they needed five cops to tackle him to the ground and drag him to behind the other cops.

Posted on June 5, 2020

Stanton Sharpe / Sipa USA via AP
A protester is arrested in Santa Monica on May 31 during a protest against the killing of George Floyd.


Almost two weeks since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the protests against police killings of unarmed Black people across the country show no signs of stopping. Clashes between law enforcement and protesters have so far resulted in more than 11,000 arrests in the US as some demonstrations spiral into scenes of unrest and violence.

But several Black protesters and organizers told BuzzFeed News they've been targeted by police at these protests for not doing anything at all — and viral cellphone videos are reinforcing their feeling that police are carrying out the very behavior that has compelled people to take to the streets: targeting and responding violently to peaceful Black protesters.


Nakia-Renne Wallace — one of the main organizers of the protests in Detroit, alongside her uncle, Tristan Taylor — told BuzzFeed News that police arrested more than 100 peaceful protesters this week. Taylor was anticipating being charged with inciting a riot, but the Detroit police chief later said his actions ultimately didn’t warrant the charge.

“The only people who were there for violence were the police,” Wallace said.

Khalil Coleman, an organizer in Milwaukee, said he too has experienced police arresting nonviolent Black demonstrators during the protests. "Black lives don't matter to the police and to the system overall. Black lives is a commodity," he told BuzzFeed News. "They know that there has been a system [allowing police to] get away with what they have always been getting away with, and that's the abuse of Black people."

In the past two weeks, police have been filmed reacting with disproportionate violence toward protesters and even bystanders, displaying the kind of behavior Black and brown communities say they have long been familiar with.


At a Las Vegas protest on May 29, a protester captured on video the moment police officers swarmed an unarmed Black man in the crowd. In the video, the man lies on the ground in front of the police, then gets up and does not appear to move. The police then rush at him suddenly, as several of them tackle him to the ground while the crowd screams.

ً@MAYAWUB
LVPD TACKLING AN UNARMED PEACEFUL PROTESTER, 5 POLICE OFFICERS FOR ONE UNARMED BLACK MAN?04:57 AM - 30 May 2020
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"There was absolutely no warning," the person who took the video, Maya, told BuzzFeed News about the arrest. (Maya asked to only be identified by her first name).

There was no indication that protesters were provoking police, Maya said. "The only sense I got of why they arrested him was because they could. We were peaceful, talking to them, trying to speak peacefully. They didn’t want that. They wanted us to stop protesting," she said.

The Las Vegas Police Department told BuzzFeed News that officers "created a mobile field force arrest team" to take the man into custody, a tactic used when officers "enter a crowd with the intent of detaining or arresting a person."

"During events where a person is identified as an agitator or someone who is inciting violence, those persons are removed out of the crowd so others can protest peacefully," the LVPD said.

Maya said she was "terrified and confused" when the police arrested the man. "Cops are the ones that have the guns, the batons, the tasers, the pepper spray. What do we, the protesters, have? Our voices, our words," Maya said. "Why are the police using so much force on people who have their hands up and hearts out?"

Wallace said she has "absolutely" seen police single out Black protesters. She said this was partly because Black organizers are the ones leading the demonstrations and are therefore "automatically" more prominent.


But police are also targeting Black protesters, Wallace said, because "that's what they know, that's what they've always done. They know how to single out Black people."

Michael Houston, a 24-year-old Black man, was at a protest in Oakland, California, on Sunday when he decided to give a speech in a show of support for the demonstrators. Two officers then approached Houston, who was standing near the designated media area, to tell him that he did not have press credentials and then proceeded to remove him from the crowd.


A video of the interaction was taken by journalist Shane Bauer, who posted it on Twitter. Bauer noted in a tweet that he himself did not have media credentials, and was wearing a black hoodie and carrying a skateboard.

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Shane Bauer@shane_bauer

This 24-year-old black man gives a moving speech to thank nonviolent protesters who are being arrested in Oakland tonight. Watch the whole thing to see how the police react.04:09 AM - 02 Jun 2020
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Oakland police did not respond to a request for comment, but Houston told BuzzFeed News that he believes police removed him because he was a Black man who spoke up. "It wasn't until I started speaking out — that's when they decided to arrest me," he said.

"It just goes to show, you have to just shut up and be quiet. And if you don't and you speak up, then you'll definitely be arrested," Houston said. "And with Shane, him not having his credentials, and him being white — that was OK."

Maya, the woman who took the video in Las Vegas, said she believes police reacted with such force "absolutely" because the man she filmed was Black.

"If the protester that did get tackled was white, it would have never happened," she said. "Because he was Black, they felt that they needed five cops to tackle him to the ground and drag him to behind the other cops."

Of course, not all the people injured or arrested by police while acting in a nonviolent manner have been Black. One of the most high-profile incidents of viral police violence occurred on Thursday evening when officers in Buffalo, New York, were filmed pushing an elderly white man to the ground. The man had to be taken to a hospital in a serious condition after he hit his head and began bleeding on the pavement.

Geneviéve Jones-Wright, an activist and legal director at PANA San Diego, a group advocating for refugees, has been calling for more scrutiny of how police deal with protesters. She told BuzzFeed News that from what she's seen in the past two weeks, police have frequently been escalating the already-high tensions with protesters. "The protesters are not inciting the violence. It is the police coming into the protest [and] inciting the violence a lot of the times," she said.

That appeared to be the case during a protest in Kansas City, Missouri, where police in riot gear were filmed over the weekend spraying a chemical agent in the face of two peaceful Black protesters.

The video shows a Black protester criticizing police from a distance about "prematurely using excessive force." A row of officers then approach the man and a Black woman next to him and spray a chemical directly into their faces. They then drag the Black man away, while several white protesters next to them remain untouched by police.



🤍🖤🤎@Elise_Villa

@kcpolice WE are disappointed. This man was using his WORDS and was responded to with WEAPONS. #BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorge02:43 AM - 31 May 2020
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Sgt. Jake Becchina told BuzzFeed News in a statement that the man's arrest is one of 151 police made over the weekend. "The protestor in the video was arrested for municipal/city protest related charges. He did not resist his arrest. However, the associated response from the crowd was aggressive and violent by throwing various objects and physically interfering with the arrest, which is also a crime for which they were not arrested for at that time, that is what led to the officer's response with pepper spray," Becchina said.

The video, however, does not show protesters throwing objects or interfering with the arrest.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas's office directed BuzzFeed News to his tweets addressing the protests, and announcing that the county prosecutor is conducting an "external review."

Wallace, the Detroit activist, said police officers' behavior toward Black protesters today is nothing new. "We can go back to almost every pivotal moment in this country in terms of the struggle of Black and brown lives. We saw what the police did at the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We saw what the police did at Bloody Sunday. We saw how the police treated the Black Panther Party," she said. "This is not new. It is, in fact, their purpose."

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. She is based in New York.

Lawmakers Call For Halt To Covert Surveillance Of Protesters By DEA
Following a BuzzFeed News report revealing that the Justice Department authorized the spying, two members of Congress called the program “antithetical to the American people’s right to peacefully assemble.”



Posted on June 5, 2020

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Two lawmakers have called for the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop conducting covert surveillance on civilians as part of the government’s plan to confront widespread protests following the killing of George Floyd last week.

The Justice Department temporarily expanded the DEA’s power to collect information on protesters — and to share that intelligence with other law enforcement agencies and make arrests for non-drug related crimes — last weekend. The measure, first reported by BuzzFeed News, followed remarks by Attorney General William Barr that blamed, without evidence, “anarchistic and far left extremist groups” for the unrest.

In a letter sent to Barr and Timothy Shea, the acting administrator of the DEA, Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Karen Bass on Friday called the expansion of the drug agency’s powers “antithetical to the American people’s right to peacefully assemble and to exercise their Constitutional rights without undue intrusion.”

Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee, of which Bass is also a member. The two lawmakers demanded Barr and Shea "immediately rescind" the sweeping new authority granted to the DEA and asked for “a briefing detailing the timeline and rationale for the expansion of authority."

As unrest about racial injustice spread across America over the past two weeks, at times spilling over into property destruction and looting, the Trump administration has taken an increasingly adversarial posture.

In recent days, the Justice Department has deployed agents from the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, Bureau of Prisons, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to back up local police. An email obtained by BuzzFeed News this week showed that the DEA on Tuesday was seeking to send 25 members of its Special Response Team, which among other activities conducts surveillance, to assist with “security” in Washington.

The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, sent officers to multiple cities and launched a Predator drone to circle above protesters in Minneapolis, where a police officer killed Floyd after kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25.

Because the DEA is normally restricted to enforcing drug-related federal crimes, the agency needed special permission to carry out operations against protesters. On Sunday, acting DEA administrator Shea, a former US attorney known to be close to Barr, received written approval to go beyond the normal mandate to perform functions that the attorney general may “deem appropriate.” This expanded authority is for two weeks.

News of the unusual expansion of powers raised concerns among critics, including the ACLU, that gathering intelligence on civilians could infringe on their First Amendment right to protest.

Nadler and Bass, in their letter, raised separate concerns about the DEA’s “history and practice of disproportionately targeting people of color.”

The lawmakers cited a 2009 government report that found Latinos made up 46 percent of DEA’s arrestees but only 16 percent of the US population, and pointed to statistics showing that more than a quarter of the DEA’s arrests of male suspects were for marijuana violations. Nadler and Bass called that track record “out of touch” with contemporary models of enforcing drug laws, and raised concerns that “wider deployment of the DEA may only continue the disproportionate arrest trends that, in part, motivate the expressions of outrage that we are witnessing,”

A spokesperson for the DEA said the agency will “respond appropriately.” The Justice Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The unusual deployment of the DEA and other agencies has also rankled top Senate Democrats who demanded answers by Monday about the use of "extraordinary authorities" to crack down on the protests.

Citing BuzzFeed News's reporting, minority leader Chuck Schumer, along with four other Democratic Senators, sent a letter Friday to Barr, Department of Homeland Security acting administrator Chad Wolf, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt requesting detailed information about federal law enforcement personnel possibly being "inappropriately mobilized in response to protests over the death of George Floyd."

Noting that a “hybrid force” drawing from the Secret Service, US Park Police, and DC National Guard had aided police efforts to forcibly remove protestors from Lafayette Park in Washington using tear gas and rubber bullets, the letter demanded information about what authorities those agencies were exercising and how the Constitutional rights of civilians were being protected in a time of social unrest.

“We are deeply concerned that, in the wake of the horrific killing in Minnesota, there is a lack of transparency regarding the forces you have deployed and under what authorities you have deployed them,” read the letter, which was also signed by Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. “These actions only further undermine the American people’s faith in their law enforcement."

Requests for comment from the Department of Interior, Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon, were not immediately returned.

The DEA's role in gathering intelligence on citizens dates back to the early 1990s, when Barr, serving as attorney general under president George HW Bush, approved a bulk surveillance program that scooped up billions of phone records without warrants or a legal review. Last December, Senators Ron Wyden and Patrick Leahy called for a Justice Department ethics investigation into Barr's decision to authorize the DEA program.

Separately, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter Friday to Chad Wolf, the acting director of the Department of Homeland Security, about the agency’s use of a Predator drone, as well as immigration and border agents to “surveil and intimidate peaceful protesters.”

The committee requested a wide range of documents about the details and costs associated with the agency’s operations.

"The deployment of drones and officers to surveil protests is a gross abuse of authority and is particularly chilling when used against Americans who are protesting law enforcement brutality," wrote Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jamie Raskin, Stephen Lynch, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley.


2020 PROTESTS

The DEA Has Been Given Permission To Investigate People Protesting George Floyd’s Death

Jason Leopold · June 2, 2020

Police Arrested More Than 11,000 People At Protests Across The US

Scott Pham · June 2, 2020

UPDATE
June 7, 2020, at 12:20 p.m.


This story was updated to include information about a letter top Senate Democrats sent to Barr and other agency heads Friday requesting details about their role in quelling the protests.


Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He is a 2018 Pulitzer finalist for international reporting, recipient of the IRE 2016 FOI award and a 2016 Newseum Institute National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame inductee.


Anthony Cormier is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. While working for the Tampa Bay Times, Cormier won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.