This surveillance camera captured additional footage of George Floyd’s fatal arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota (warning: distressing).
In US news and current events today, a second camera angle shows George Floyd’s arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which eventually led to the 46-year-old Black man’s death and prompted protests calling for justice for George Floyd across the country.
Surveillance camera footage from a nearby restaurant shows what appears to be the first contact between George Floyd and Minneapolis police officers. George Floyd died shortly after his contact with the officers.
For more updates on George Floyd, follow NowThis News.
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Saturday, May 30, 2020
Trudeau: Canadians watching US unrest and police violence in ‘shock and horror’
Prime minister condemned racism and called on Canada to ‘stand together in solidarity’ against racial hate as protests continue in US
Leyland Cecco in Toronto THE GUARDIAN Fri 29 May 2020
Prime minister condemned racism and called on Canada to ‘stand together in solidarity’ against racial hate as protests continue in US
Leyland Cecco in Toronto THE GUARDIAN Fri 29 May 2020
Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, Canada, on 29 May.
Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock
Canadians are watching unrest and police violence in the United States in “shock and horror”, Justin Trudeau said on Friday – but the prime minister cautioned that his country also has entrenched problems with racism.
The city of Minneapolis has been rocked by a third night of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after a white police officer knelt on his neck as he lay on the ground following arrest.
“Many Canadians of diverse backgrounds are watching, like all Canadians are, the news out of the United States with shock and with horror,” Trudeau told reporters at a daily briefing.
“Anti-black racism – racism – is real. It’s in the United States but it’s also in Canada and we know people are facing systemic discrimination, unconscious bias and anti-black racism every single day,” said Trudeau, calling on the country to “stand together in solidarity” against racial hate. “We have work to do as well in Canada.”
Racial inequities continue to persist throughout the country – a grim reality that is often apparent during interactions with police.
In December 2018, the province of Ontario released a landmark report that found black residents in Toronto – the country’s largest city – are 20 times more likely to be shot dead by the police than white residents.
“It’s a very Canadian tradition to speak in platitudes, to refer to the underground railroad and to speak about Canada as a haven and a place that acknowledges its past mistakes,” said Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives. “But we continue to see similar structural harms and structural kinds of violence as we do in places where leaders make more overtly vitriolic statements towards black communities.”
Play Video
2:48 How the killing of George Floyd has upended America – video report
Last month, 26-year-old D’Andre Campbell was shot dead by police inside his own home, north of Toronto, after Campbell himself called 911.
Earlier this week, the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet said a police officer shoved the young woman over the balcony of the family’s 24th-floor apartment, where she fell to her death. The case is currently under investigation by an arms-length police watchdog.
Maynard also pointed out the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a disproportionate impact on black and indigenous residents, who are overrepresented in the country’s prison population.
“We continue to see prisons and jails being epicentres of outbreaks,” she said. “Yet there is failure on the part of the federal government to meaningfully release to release prisoners.”
Trudeau’s unprompted remarks marked a notable departure for a leader who has gone to great lengths to avoid irritating his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
Canada is hailed for its tolerance but is it ready to confront its racism?
Read more
Canadian prime ministers have traditionally refrained from discussing political and social turmoil in the US – Canada’s main ally and largest trading partner.
Justin Trudeau has long spoken about the need to tackle racism, but his re-election campaign was marred by pictures of him in blackface as a young man.
Canadians are watching unrest and police violence in the United States in “shock and horror”, Justin Trudeau said on Friday – but the prime minister cautioned that his country also has entrenched problems with racism.
The city of Minneapolis has been rocked by a third night of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after a white police officer knelt on his neck as he lay on the ground following arrest.
“Many Canadians of diverse backgrounds are watching, like all Canadians are, the news out of the United States with shock and with horror,” Trudeau told reporters at a daily briefing.
“Anti-black racism – racism – is real. It’s in the United States but it’s also in Canada and we know people are facing systemic discrimination, unconscious bias and anti-black racism every single day,” said Trudeau, calling on the country to “stand together in solidarity” against racial hate. “We have work to do as well in Canada.”
Racial inequities continue to persist throughout the country – a grim reality that is often apparent during interactions with police.
In December 2018, the province of Ontario released a landmark report that found black residents in Toronto – the country’s largest city – are 20 times more likely to be shot dead by the police than white residents.
“It’s a very Canadian tradition to speak in platitudes, to refer to the underground railroad and to speak about Canada as a haven and a place that acknowledges its past mistakes,” said Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives. “But we continue to see similar structural harms and structural kinds of violence as we do in places where leaders make more overtly vitriolic statements towards black communities.”
Play Video
2:48 How the killing of George Floyd has upended America – video report
Last month, 26-year-old D’Andre Campbell was shot dead by police inside his own home, north of Toronto, after Campbell himself called 911.
Earlier this week, the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet said a police officer shoved the young woman over the balcony of the family’s 24th-floor apartment, where she fell to her death. The case is currently under investigation by an arms-length police watchdog.
Maynard also pointed out the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a disproportionate impact on black and indigenous residents, who are overrepresented in the country’s prison population.
“We continue to see prisons and jails being epicentres of outbreaks,” she said. “Yet there is failure on the part of the federal government to meaningfully release to release prisoners.”
Trudeau’s unprompted remarks marked a notable departure for a leader who has gone to great lengths to avoid irritating his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
Canada is hailed for its tolerance but is it ready to confront its racism?
Read more
Canadian prime ministers have traditionally refrained from discussing political and social turmoil in the US – Canada’s main ally and largest trading partner.
Justin Trudeau has long spoken about the need to tackle racism, but his re-election campaign was marred by pictures of him in blackface as a young man.
Canada is hailed for its tolerance but is it ready to confront its racism?
Critics say common narrative obscures realities of how race relations really play out in country as a fledgling conversation is finally under way
Ashifa Kassam in Toronto THE GUARDIAN Tue 12 Jul 2016
Critics say common narrative obscures realities of how race relations really play out in country as a fledgling conversation is finally under way
Ashifa Kassam in Toronto THE GUARDIAN Tue 12 Jul 2016
A member of the Black Lives Matters movement speaks to members as they stage a sit-in at the annual Pride parade in Toronto. Photograph: Mark Blinch/AP
They sat calmly on the hot pavement; their black and gold outfits a jarring contrast to the sea of rainbow flags and banners surrounding them. Minutes earlier the parade – the crown jewel of Toronto’s month-long Pride celebrations – had been in full swing, its floats heaving through the city’s main arteries alongside thousands of revellers.
Canada's indigenous people raise voices as youth activism surges
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/18/canada-indigenous-youth-activists-first-nations
Now it had come to a standstill. “We refuse to move,” said a member of Black Lives Matter Toronto, her voice crackling as it came through the megaphone. “We are calling you out.”
The group had joined the parade as an honoured group. Now it was staging a sit-in as a dozen or so protesters argued that Pride in the city had become the antithesis of the principles of inclusion – a space for white, gay males.
Black Lives Matter Toronto brandished a list of demands, ranging from increased funding and support for black and South Asian groups at Pride to the removal of police floats and booths from future events.
The sit-in dragged on for nearly 30 minutes before Pride organisers stepped forward to sign the list of demands and the parade moved on.
Last week’s blockade of Pride was the most high-profile – and most contentious – protest so far by the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter. It prompted a vociferous debate in Canada’s media, but while much of the discussion has focused on the sit-in, others have stepped back to point out what they say is a remarkable shift; after years of Canadians shying away from the topics of race and racism, a fledgling conversation is finally under way.
Canada is celebrated around the world for its diversity, tolerance and multiculturalism, often held up in contrast to the UK’s recent Brexit vote and the rise of Donald Trump as a political candidate south of the border. For many this narrative has obscured the realities of how multiculturalism in Canada plays out on the ground.
Statistics paint a far bleaker picture: between 2005 and 2015, the number of black inmates in federal prisons in Canada jumped by 69%. In Toronto, 41% of children and youth in the care of child welfare services are black, despite making up just 8% of the youth population in the city.
Suicide rates for young indigenous males are 10 times higher than those of non-indigenous youth, while for young females the number climbs to a staggering 21 times higher.
People in Canada generally will do anything to avoid talking about raceDesmond Cole, journalist
Last week Muslims across the country denounced an increase in hate crimes directed at them, with the number of reported incidences doubling between 2012 and 2014. In Vancouver and Toronto, more than half of those living in poverty belong to racial minorities.
“People in Canada generally will do anything to avoid talking about race,” said Desmond Cole, a journalist who has long chronicled race issues in Canada, including his personal experience as a black man who has been subject to random police checks more than 50 times.
“The most frequent way that we do that in Canada is to say we are not the United States. The United States is the place where racism exists, so any conversation about race ought to be about the United States and not Canada.”
Despite this, glimpses of the cracks in the system have at times been laid bare for the world to see. Many First Nations communities continue to struggle with what their leaders call “third world living conditions”, from a lack of clean water to overcrowded houses riddled with mould.
Toronto – known globally as one of the world’s most diverse cities – also elected the late Rob Ford as city mayor, despite his vitriolic outbursts towards Jews, black people and the LGBT community.
Welcome to the new Toronto: the most fascinatingly boring city in the world
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/04/new-toronto-most-fascinatingly-boring-city-guardian-canada-week
“How is it that a person like Rob Ford could preside over a presumably multicultural city like this and be celebrated even as he attacked minority groups?” Cole asked. “That’s your multiculturalism.”
The mere existence of a Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter suggests all is not well in Canada’s approach to race, said Janaya Khan, one of the group’s founders. Efforts are also currently under way to start chapters in Vancouver and Montreal.
In recent days the group has been bombarded with hate mail and death threats over their actions during Pride. They have also received messages of support for their strong stance on police floats and booths.
“If police officers want to be present, particularly LGBT officers, that’s fine,” said Khan. “But they should not be in uniform, they should not be armed. They should not be representing an establishment that actively seeks to eradicate certain populations of people. That feels fair to me.”
The Toronto chapter was launched in 2014, and the founders initially came together as a reaction to events south of the border, including the death of Michael Brown, the black teenager fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri.
But events closer to home – such as the death of Jermaine Carby, a 33-year-old shot dead after being pulled over by police in a municipality near Toronto – convinced the group to formalise their presence in Canada, seeking to spark a similar conversation on race, privilege and power north of the border.
The group has since taken on carding – random police checks that disproportionately target black people – and challenged Toronto police over the death of Andrew Loku, a mentally ill 45-year-old man shot last year by police at a subsidised housing complex after he refused to drop the hammer he was holding.
Their efforts have helped yield promises of a public consultation from Ontario’s premier, a city council vote to review the police investigation unit through a lens of anti-black racism and a coroner’s inquest into the death of Loku.
“What we’re seeing is a real shift in the narrative of how people understand racism in Canada and, more specifically anti-black racism in Canada,” Khan said.
But the persistent idea of Canada as a colourblind country means the group must often start by countering this idea.
“We often end up finding ourselves having to disprove before we can prove,” she said. Little data exists on racialised groups – as minorities are at times referred to in Canada – and the small number of black people in the country means the movement must seek out allies. “One of our most powerful mantras is Black Lives Matter on Indigenous Land.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest First Nations protesters sing as they take part in a ‘Idle No More’ demonstration in Toronto. Photograph: Reuters
It’s a nod to another group whose frontline activism has helped pry open a space for discussion on race in Canada. Idle No More, the indigenous-focused protest movement, was born out of a frustration with the public’s lack of interest in the many reports, commissions and court cases highlighting the devastating effects of racism on indigenous peoples.
People are dying, we have murdered and missing indigenous women … Racism impacts us in a very direct wayPamela Palmater
“Idle No More said, if people aren’t going to listen, we’re going to show you,” said Pamela Palmater, a member of the group and head of the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
“We don’t want to live this way any more. People are dying, we have murdered and missing indigenous women, our kids are in foster care, we’re overrepresented in prison. Racism impacts us in a very direct way.”
Some four years after the movement launched, the conversation remains confined to mostly indigenous people, racialised minorities and a few key allies, she said. “I don’t think that Canadians are actually fully engaged in a conversation about racism.”
The push to take this conversation from the margins to the mainstream is set to be bolstered by the Ontario government in the coming weeks. On Thursday, the province will hold the first of a series of public meetings aimed at tackling systemic racism.
“When you look at employment, when you look at poverty, when you look at incarceration, when you look at academia, there’s a stark contrast between some particular groups and others,” said Michael Coteau, the provincial minister at the helm of Ontario’s recently created Anti-Racism Directorate.
“And I think it’s our job to ensure that if there are barriers that are identified, that
They sat calmly on the hot pavement; their black and gold outfits a jarring contrast to the sea of rainbow flags and banners surrounding them. Minutes earlier the parade – the crown jewel of Toronto’s month-long Pride celebrations – had been in full swing, its floats heaving through the city’s main arteries alongside thousands of revellers.
Canada's indigenous people raise voices as youth activism surges
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/18/canada-indigenous-youth-activists-first-nations
Now it had come to a standstill. “We refuse to move,” said a member of Black Lives Matter Toronto, her voice crackling as it came through the megaphone. “We are calling you out.”
The group had joined the parade as an honoured group. Now it was staging a sit-in as a dozen or so protesters argued that Pride in the city had become the antithesis of the principles of inclusion – a space for white, gay males.
Black Lives Matter Toronto brandished a list of demands, ranging from increased funding and support for black and South Asian groups at Pride to the removal of police floats and booths from future events.
The sit-in dragged on for nearly 30 minutes before Pride organisers stepped forward to sign the list of demands and the parade moved on.
Last week’s blockade of Pride was the most high-profile – and most contentious – protest so far by the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter. It prompted a vociferous debate in Canada’s media, but while much of the discussion has focused on the sit-in, others have stepped back to point out what they say is a remarkable shift; after years of Canadians shying away from the topics of race and racism, a fledgling conversation is finally under way.
Canada is celebrated around the world for its diversity, tolerance and multiculturalism, often held up in contrast to the UK’s recent Brexit vote and the rise of Donald Trump as a political candidate south of the border. For many this narrative has obscured the realities of how multiculturalism in Canada plays out on the ground.
Statistics paint a far bleaker picture: between 2005 and 2015, the number of black inmates in federal prisons in Canada jumped by 69%. In Toronto, 41% of children and youth in the care of child welfare services are black, despite making up just 8% of the youth population in the city.
Suicide rates for young indigenous males are 10 times higher than those of non-indigenous youth, while for young females the number climbs to a staggering 21 times higher.
People in Canada generally will do anything to avoid talking about raceDesmond Cole, journalist
Last week Muslims across the country denounced an increase in hate crimes directed at them, with the number of reported incidences doubling between 2012 and 2014. In Vancouver and Toronto, more than half of those living in poverty belong to racial minorities.
“People in Canada generally will do anything to avoid talking about race,” said Desmond Cole, a journalist who has long chronicled race issues in Canada, including his personal experience as a black man who has been subject to random police checks more than 50 times.
“The most frequent way that we do that in Canada is to say we are not the United States. The United States is the place where racism exists, so any conversation about race ought to be about the United States and not Canada.”
Despite this, glimpses of the cracks in the system have at times been laid bare for the world to see. Many First Nations communities continue to struggle with what their leaders call “third world living conditions”, from a lack of clean water to overcrowded houses riddled with mould.
Toronto – known globally as one of the world’s most diverse cities – also elected the late Rob Ford as city mayor, despite his vitriolic outbursts towards Jews, black people and the LGBT community.
Welcome to the new Toronto: the most fascinatingly boring city in the world
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/04/new-toronto-most-fascinatingly-boring-city-guardian-canada-week
“How is it that a person like Rob Ford could preside over a presumably multicultural city like this and be celebrated even as he attacked minority groups?” Cole asked. “That’s your multiculturalism.”
The mere existence of a Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter suggests all is not well in Canada’s approach to race, said Janaya Khan, one of the group’s founders. Efforts are also currently under way to start chapters in Vancouver and Montreal.
In recent days the group has been bombarded with hate mail and death threats over their actions during Pride. They have also received messages of support for their strong stance on police floats and booths.
“If police officers want to be present, particularly LGBT officers, that’s fine,” said Khan. “But they should not be in uniform, they should not be armed. They should not be representing an establishment that actively seeks to eradicate certain populations of people. That feels fair to me.”
The Toronto chapter was launched in 2014, and the founders initially came together as a reaction to events south of the border, including the death of Michael Brown, the black teenager fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri.
But events closer to home – such as the death of Jermaine Carby, a 33-year-old shot dead after being pulled over by police in a municipality near Toronto – convinced the group to formalise their presence in Canada, seeking to spark a similar conversation on race, privilege and power north of the border.
The group has since taken on carding – random police checks that disproportionately target black people – and challenged Toronto police over the death of Andrew Loku, a mentally ill 45-year-old man shot last year by police at a subsidised housing complex after he refused to drop the hammer he was holding.
Their efforts have helped yield promises of a public consultation from Ontario’s premier, a city council vote to review the police investigation unit through a lens of anti-black racism and a coroner’s inquest into the death of Loku.
“What we’re seeing is a real shift in the narrative of how people understand racism in Canada and, more specifically anti-black racism in Canada,” Khan said.
But the persistent idea of Canada as a colourblind country means the group must often start by countering this idea.
“We often end up finding ourselves having to disprove before we can prove,” she said. Little data exists on racialised groups – as minorities are at times referred to in Canada – and the small number of black people in the country means the movement must seek out allies. “One of our most powerful mantras is Black Lives Matter on Indigenous Land.”
FacebookTwitterPinterest First Nations protesters sing as they take part in a ‘Idle No More’ demonstration in Toronto. Photograph: Reuters
It’s a nod to another group whose frontline activism has helped pry open a space for discussion on race in Canada. Idle No More, the indigenous-focused protest movement, was born out of a frustration with the public’s lack of interest in the many reports, commissions and court cases highlighting the devastating effects of racism on indigenous peoples.
People are dying, we have murdered and missing indigenous women … Racism impacts us in a very direct wayPamela Palmater
“Idle No More said, if people aren’t going to listen, we’re going to show you,” said Pamela Palmater, a member of the group and head of the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
“We don’t want to live this way any more. People are dying, we have murdered and missing indigenous women, our kids are in foster care, we’re overrepresented in prison. Racism impacts us in a very direct way.”
Some four years after the movement launched, the conversation remains confined to mostly indigenous people, racialised minorities and a few key allies, she said. “I don’t think that Canadians are actually fully engaged in a conversation about racism.”
The push to take this conversation from the margins to the mainstream is set to be bolstered by the Ontario government in the coming weeks. On Thursday, the province will hold the first of a series of public meetings aimed at tackling systemic racism.
“When you look at employment, when you look at poverty, when you look at incarceration, when you look at academia, there’s a stark contrast between some particular groups and others,” said Michael Coteau, the provincial minister at the helm of Ontario’s recently created Anti-Racism Directorate.
“And I think it’s our job to ensure that if there are barriers that are identified, that
If violence isn't the way to end racism in America, then what is?
Arwa Mahdawi
The uncomfortable truth is that, sometimes, violence is the only answer left
A man rides a bicycle past a burned out building Friday after a night of protests and violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images
A riot is the language of the unheard
When you are oppressed there is no acceptable way to fight against your oppression. You get branded “unpatriotic” for peacefully taking a knee to protest against police brutality. You get vilified for using boycotts as a non-violent tool of resistance. You get called “THUGS” when, after the murder of yet another unarmed black man by the police, you protest in the streets.
The sickening video of George Floyd being killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, which followed the murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, has sparked demonstrations across America. In Minneapolis some of the protests have turned violent: buildings (including a police precinct) have been set on fire and a Target store was looted. Donald Trump reacted by promising bloody reprisal, tweeting: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Others have reacted with hand-wringing. There have been a lot of cries that “violence is never the answer!” and “rioting is counter-productive!”
But if violent unrest isn’t the answer then what is? How exactly do you go about ending police brutality and systemic racism in America? Should protesters go home and write sternly worded letters to their representative? Should they emulate Madonna and post videos of their kids dancing in protest? Should they peacefully take a knee? Should Americans simply vote Trump out and vote Joe Biden in instead? You know, the guy whose 1994 crime bill significantly contributed to mass incarceration in America? Should people patiently wait for incremental change?
“A riot is the language of the unheard,” Martin Luther King Jr said in a 1967 speech that is currently reverberating through social media for obvious reasons. “And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that … the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity.”
That speech was 53 years ago and America still isn’t listening. The uncomfortable truth is that, sometimes, violence is the only answer left. We like to pretend otherwise, which is why civil rights movements are often conveniently sanitized. The women’s suffrage movement, for example, is often celebrated as “non-violent”. It wasn’t: if went through a very militant phase. “If men use explosives and bombs for their own purpose they call it war,” the British suffragette Christabel Pankhurst wrote in 1913, “and the throwing of a bomb that destroys other people is then described as a glorious and heroic deed. Why should a woman not make use of the same weapons as men?”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not glorifying violence – that’s what the president of the United States is doing. And I’m certainly not calling for violence. I’m simply saying we must interrogate what we call “violence” and what we call “policy.” Many of the people yelling “violence is not the answer” about the riots in Minneapolis are the same people who wholeheartedly support America’s endless wars. Many of the people condemning the looters in Minneapolis are the same people who venerate billionaires. Loot a TV and you’re a dangerous criminal; loot a country and you’re an enterprising capitalist.
America has no problem with riots or looting as long as it’s the “right” people doing it. And we’re all forced to pay for this worldview: American taxpayers have paid an average of $8,000 each and over $2tn in total for the Iraq war alone, according to a January report from the Brown University Costs of War project. Which raises the question: if violence is never the answer, then why does America spend so much money on it?
UK
Teachers can legally refuse to return over health risk, says union
Exclusive: NASUWT threatens legal action to defend teachers against forced restart on June 1
Richard Adams and Sally Weale
Fri 15 May 2020
Teachers can legally refuse to return over health risk, says union
Exclusive: NASUWT threatens legal action to defend teachers against forced restart on June 1
Richard Adams and Sally Weale
Fri 15 May 2020
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach/ Photograph: Simon Boothe/NASUWT/PA
Teachers can legally refuse to return when schools reopen unless they get the same protections against coronavirus as other frontline staff, one of the UK’s leading teaching unions has warned.
In a letter to local authorities seen by the Guardian, the 300,000-strong NASUWT threatens to invoke legal action to defend teachers against being forced back into schools on 1 June because of the risk to their health.
The union’s letter marks a significant hardening against the government’s push to reopen primary schools in England from 1 June. It comes as one academy chain says it is aiming to invite pupils back on that date.
Signed by the NASUWT’s general secretary, Patrick Roach, the union’s letter threatens to delay that start date by forcing the government and local authorities to consider their legal obligations.
The union says it has “fundamental concerns” about guidance issued by the government this week, saying it was inconsistent with guidance given to other workplaces, including care homes and the NHS.
“Stringent guidance has been issued for the NHS, for care homes and for employers across the UK. It is unacceptable that this has not been the case for schools,” it says.
“The NASUWT believes that teachers and other school staff have the right to the same consideration and protections, and to be confident that their health and welfare, as well as that of pupils, is at the heart of any planning for wider opening.”
The union said it had to warn local authorities as employers, and the government, that they risked legal action for “breach of duty of care and personal injury due to foreseeable risk, and any other legal recourse available” if efforts were made to force teachers into classrooms during the epidemic.
“The NASUWT recognises that schools and employers have been placed in a situation where the wrong decision will result in people becoming seriously ill and dying, and will therefore appreciate that there can be no compromise on health and safety.
“If this means that schools are unable to open safely before September, because they are unable to make arrangements to safeguard their staff and pupils, then that position must be accepted,” Roach said.
It comes as councils in England call for the power to close schools and nurseries to protect vulnerable families in the event of local Covid-19 outbreaks, as pressure grows on the government to reveal its scientific evidence on transmission.
The Local Government Association (LGA) – which represents nearly all of England’s councils – says that “local flexibility” is needed to reopen primary schools, as well as the ability to close them if testing reveals clusters of new Covid-19 infections.
The association said a major concern was the likely impact in areas with more vulnerable residents, including “communities where there is higher risk, such as those with a high proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic residents”.
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/home-schooling-boosts-parents-interest.html
Teachers can legally refuse to return when schools reopen unless they get the same protections against coronavirus as other frontline staff, one of the UK’s leading teaching unions has warned.
In a letter to local authorities seen by the Guardian, the 300,000-strong NASUWT threatens to invoke legal action to defend teachers against being forced back into schools on 1 June because of the risk to their health.
The union’s letter marks a significant hardening against the government’s push to reopen primary schools in England from 1 June. It comes as one academy chain says it is aiming to invite pupils back on that date.
Signed by the NASUWT’s general secretary, Patrick Roach, the union’s letter threatens to delay that start date by forcing the government and local authorities to consider their legal obligations.
The union says it has “fundamental concerns” about guidance issued by the government this week, saying it was inconsistent with guidance given to other workplaces, including care homes and the NHS.
“Stringent guidance has been issued for the NHS, for care homes and for employers across the UK. It is unacceptable that this has not been the case for schools,” it says.
“The NASUWT believes that teachers and other school staff have the right to the same consideration and protections, and to be confident that their health and welfare, as well as that of pupils, is at the heart of any planning for wider opening.”
The union said it had to warn local authorities as employers, and the government, that they risked legal action for “breach of duty of care and personal injury due to foreseeable risk, and any other legal recourse available” if efforts were made to force teachers into classrooms during the epidemic.
“The NASUWT recognises that schools and employers have been placed in a situation where the wrong decision will result in people becoming seriously ill and dying, and will therefore appreciate that there can be no compromise on health and safety.
“If this means that schools are unable to open safely before September, because they are unable to make arrangements to safeguard their staff and pupils, then that position must be accepted,” Roach said.
It comes as councils in England call for the power to close schools and nurseries to protect vulnerable families in the event of local Covid-19 outbreaks, as pressure grows on the government to reveal its scientific evidence on transmission.
The Local Government Association (LGA) – which represents nearly all of England’s councils – says that “local flexibility” is needed to reopen primary schools, as well as the ability to close them if testing reveals clusters of new Covid-19 infections.
The association said a major concern was the likely impact in areas with more vulnerable residents, including “communities where there is higher risk, such as those with a high proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic residents”.
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/home-schooling-boosts-parents-interest.html
Home schooling boosts parents' interest in teaching as a career
Survey of 2,000 people in lockdown across the UK also finds a growing respect for teachers among parents of school-age children
The survey found that 3% of respondents had thought of switching to teaching during lockdown - enough to solve a generation of staff shortages. Photograph: Alamy
School closures have turned the UK into a nation of temporary teachers since the coronavirus lockdown – and that may have inspired some people to seek new careers in the classroom, according to a new survey.
the coronavirus lockdown – and that may have inspired some people to seek new careers in the classroom, according to a new survey.
Now Teach, the charity co-founded by the former journalist Lucy Kellaway, encourages older workers to change careers, and has found that the lockdown has increased the status of school teachers among the population at large, as parents have come to appreciate the joys of designing scientific experiments that impart knowledge rather than just make a mess in the kitchen.
The survey of 2,000 UK adults found that 3% said they had “been thinking about becoming a teacher and I wasn’t before the coronavirus lockdown”, while a further 5% agreed that they had been “already thinking about becoming a teacher before the coronavirus lockdown but I’m thinking about it more seriously now”.
Lucy Kellaway plans to lead the way to teaching for career changers
“The leap in interest in teaching is exactly what I’d hoped would happen during this wretched time,” said Kellaway, who left her post as a columnist at the Financial Times in 2016 and is now an economics teacher at Mossbourne Victoria Park academy in east London.
While 3% might not sound significant, Kellaway points out that across the UK population as a whole that would amount to more than enough recruits to solve any teaching shortages in Britain’s schools for a generation.
Now Teach said it has seen a 70% rise in applications for its training programme between March and May this year, at the height of the lockdown.
One of those, Aisha Singleton, who worked in publishing in Norwich, said: “My previous industry had so many opportunities and I have many great memories of it, but the bottom line is, I don’t feel I’ve really helped anyone.
“When coronavirus broke out, I thought, ‘I want to inspire young people, I want to be giving back.’ This pandemic has given me the final push in that direction.
“When children go back to school in September, they’re going to need support, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
The survey found that despite some high-profile complaints, 64% of parents have enjoyed the experience of home schooling and only 9% reported a negative experience – which Kellaway thought might help explain the new attraction of a career in teaching.
The desire to change careers was strongest among workers who are still in full-time employment, according to the survey, rather than those who had been furloughed or were unemployed during the lockdown.
Teachers can legally refuse to return over health risk, says union
Read more
“I co-founded Now Teach four years ago because I hoped there were other professionals out there who, like me, wanted to do something more useful with their lives. The pandemic has made this point more powerfully than I ever could. It has shone a light on the emptiness of some jobs and made people want to do something that really matters,” Kellaway said.
The survey also found that respondents with school-age children – who have spent the past two months home schooling – “overwhelmingly reported increased gratitude to teachers and respect for what they do”, compared with just 4.5% who said their respect had lessened.
This came despite high-profile attacks on teaching unions by some in the media and government, over their concerns about the safe return of pupils into schools.
The tree that changed the world map
Deep in the Andean rainforest, the bark from an endangered tree once cured malaria and powered the British Empire. Now, its derivatives are at the centre of a worldwide debate.
By Vittoria Traverso 28 May 2020
Unfurling in a carpet of green where the Andes and Amazon basin meet in south-western Peru, Manú National Park is one of the most biodiverse corners of the planet: a lush, 1.5-million hectare Unesco-inscribed nature reserve wrapped in mist, covered in a chaos of vines and largely untouched by humans.
Where to see the rare cinchona tree
Manú National Park, Peru: A haven of biodiversity, the Unesco nature preserve is home to an estimated 5,000 plant species.
Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador: One of the last places to spot Ecuador’s national tree. Hiking through its misty trails, you may also encounter the spectacled bear, one of the Andes’ most emblematic animals.
Cutervo National Park, Peru: Peru’s oldest protected area is famous for its pre-Columbian archaeological remains, 88 species of orchids and for being the last remaining cloud forest in the Peruvian highlands.
Semilla Bendita Botanical Garden, Peru: This botanical garden operated by local environmentalists is home to more than 1,300 native species – including orchids and cinchonas.
But if you hack your way through the rainforest’s dense jungle, cross its rushing rivers and avoid the jaguars and pumas, you may see one of the few remaining specimens of the endangered cinchona officinalis tree. To the untrained eye, the thin, 15m-tall tree may blend into the thicketed maze. But the flowering plant, which is native to the Andean foothills, has inspired many myths and shaped human history for centuries.
“This may not be a well-known tree,” said Nataly Canales, who grew up in the Peruvian Amazonian region of Madre de Dios. “Yet, a compound extracted from this plant has saved millions of lives in human history.”
Today, Canales is a biologist at the National Museum of Denmark who is tracing the genetic history of cinchona. As she explained, it was the bark of this rare tree that gave the world quinine, the world’s first anti-malarial drug. And while the discovery of quinine was welcomed by the world with both excitement and suspicion hundreds of years ago, in recent weeks, this tree’s medical derivatives have been at the centre of another heated global debate. Synthetic versions of quinine – such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine – have been touted and largely disputed as possible treatments for the novel coronavirus.
Peru's lush Manú National Park is one of the last places on Earth where you can see the endangered cinchona tree (Credit: RPBMedia/Getty Images
For centuries, malaria, a disease caused by a mosquito-borne parasite, has plagued people across the world. It ravaged the Roman Empire; it killed between 150 to 300 million people in the 20th Century; and, according to the World Health Organization, nearly half of the world’s population still lives in areas where the disease is transmitted.
Medieval remedies to cure “mal aria” (“bad air” in Italian) reflected the erroneous belief that it was an airborne disease and ranged from bloodletting to limb amputations to cutting a hole in the skull. But in the 17th Century, the first known cure for it was allegedly found here, deep in the Andes.
The world's first anti-malarial drug was extracted from the bark of this tree – a discovery that has changed the world map (Credit: Celso Roldan/Getty Images)
According to legend, quinine was discovered as a malaria cure in 1631 when the Countess of Cinchona, a Spanish noblewoman married to the viceroy of Peru, fell ill with a high fever and severe chills – the classic symptoms of malaria. Desperate to heal her, the viceroy gave his wife a concoction prepared by Jesuit priests made with the bark of an Andean tree and mixed with clove and rose-leaf syrups and other dried plants. The countess soon recovered and the miraculous plant that cured her was named “cinchona” in her honour. Today, it’s the national tree of Peru and Ecuador.
People across Europe began writing about a 'miraculous' malaria remedy discovered in the jungles of the New World
Most historians now dispute this tale, but as with many legends, parts of it are true. Quinine, an alkaloid compound found in cinchona’s bark, can indeed kill the parasite that causes malaria. But it wasn’t discovered by Spanish Jesuits.
“Quinine was already known to the Quechua, the Cañari and the Chimú indigenous peoples that inhabited modern-day Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador before the arrival of the Spanish,” said Canales. “They were the ones that introduced the bark to Spanish Jesuits.” The Jesuits crushed the cinnamon-coloured bark into a thick, bitter powder that could be easily digested. The concoction came to be known as “Jesuits Powder”, and soon, people across Europe began writing about a “miraculous” malaria remedy discovered in the jungles of the New World. By the 1640s, Jesuits had established trade routes to transport cinchona bark throughout Europe.
Though Spanish Jesuits are often credited with discovering quinine, indigenous communities knew of it long before Europeans arrived (Credit: ajiravan/Getty Images)
In France, quinine was used to cure intermittent fevers of France’s King Louis XIV at the court of Versailles. In Rome, the powder was tested by the Pope’s private physician and distributed for free by the Jesuit priests to the public. But in Protestant England, the drug was met with some scepticism, as some doctors labelled the Catholic-promoted concoction a “papal poison”. Oliver Cromwell allegedly died of malarial complications after refusing “Jesuit Powder”. Nevertheless, by 1677, cinchona bark was first listed by the Royal College of Physicians in its London Pharmacopoeia as an official medicine used by English physicians to treat patients.
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To fuel their cinchona craze, Europeans hired locals to find the precious “fever tree” in the rainforest, scrape its bark with a machete and take it to cargo ships awaiting in Peruvian ports. Increased demand for cinchona quickly led the Spanish to declare the Andes “the pharmacy of the world”, and as Canales explained, the cinchona tree soon become scarce.
As Europeans hired locals to harvest more quinine to fuel their colonial pursuits, cinchona trees became increasingly scarce (Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Cinchona’s value soared during the 19th Century, when malaria was one of the greatest threats faced by European troops deployed in overseas colonies. According to Dr Rohan Deb Roy, author of Malarial Subjects, obtaining adequate supplies of quinine became a strategic advantage in the race for global domination, and cinchona bark turned into one of the world’s hottest commodities.
Quinine is frequently cited by historians as one of the major 'tools of imperialism' that powered the British Empire
“European soldiers engaged in colonial wars frequently died of malaria,” said Deb Roy. “Drugs like quinine enabled soldiers to survive in tropical colonies and win wars.”
As he explains, cinchona was especially used by the Dutch in Indonesia; by the French in Algeria; and most famously, by the British in India, Jamaica and across South-East Asia and West Africa. In fact, between 1848 and 1861, the British government spent the equivalent of £6.4m each year importing cinchona bark to store for its colonial troops. As a result, quinine is frequently cited by historians as one of the major “tools of imperialism” that powered the British Empire.
The British government invested a fortune in cinchona bark to produce enough quinine to ward off malaria in its overseas colonies (Credit: Dizzy/Getty Images)
“Much like countries today are rushing to get to a Covid-19 vaccine to get a competitive advantage, countries back then rushed to get quinine” explained Patricia Schlagenhauf, a professor of travel medicine at the University of Zurich specialising in malaria.
Churchill allegedly said the drink had saved 'more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire'
It wasn’t just cinchona bark that was valuable. Its seeds become a high-demand commodity too. “British and Dutch governments wanted to plant cinchona in their own colonies to stop their dependence on South America,” Deb Roy explained. But choosing the right seed wasn’t easy. Each of the 23 species of cinchona has a different quinine content. It was thanks to locals with indigenous botanical knowledge that Europeans could secure quinine-rich species to export abroad.
By the mid-1850s, the British had successfully established “fever tree” plantations in southern India, where malaria was rampant. Soon, British authorities started distributing locally harvested quinine to soldiers and civil servants. It’s long been rumoured that they allegedly mixed gin with their quinine to make it more palatable, thus inventing the first tonic water and the famous gin and tonic drink. Today, small amounts of quinine are still found in tonic water. But as Kim Walker, who co-authored the book Just the Tonic points out, this British origin story is likely a myth. “It seems like they added whatever was handy” – be it rum, brandy or arrack, she explained.
In the mid-1850s, the British established "fever tree" plantations in southern India, where malaria was rampant (Credit: Hulton Deutsch/Getty Images)
Plus, as Schlagenhauf adds, quinine has a short lifespan in the body so sipping on a gin and tonic at cocktail hour would not be enough to guarantee protection against malaria. Nevertheless, the myth of gin and tonic as a potent anti-malaria prevention tricked even Winston Churchill, who allegedly said the drink had saved “more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.”
Of course, the gin and tonic is just one drink tied to the “fever tree”. Today, the most famous cocktail in Peru may be the American-invented pisco sour, but the most popular among Peruvians is arguably the bitter, quinine-flavoured pisco tonic, a homegrown invention that’s often mixed with maiz morado (purple corn) from the Andes to make a pisco morada tonic. If you’ve ever sipped liqueurs like Campari, Pimm’s or the French aperitif Lillet (a key ingredient in James Bond’s famous Vesper martini), you’ve tasted quinine. It’s also found in Scotland’s “other” national drink, Irn-Bru, and in what is reported to be Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite drink, gin and Dubonnet – an aperitif which, coincidentally, was invented by a French chemist to make quinine more palatable for French troops stationed in North African colonies.
Just as the British drank gin and tonic to avoid malaria in their colonies, French troops in North Africa sipped quinine-rich Dubonnet (Credit: Christophel Fine Art)
Quinine was eventually pushed aside in the 1970s by artemisinin, a drug derived from the sweet wormwood plant, as the world’s go-to malaria remedy. Still, the legacy of quinine runs deep around the world. Today, Ban-dung, Indonesia, is known as “The Paris of Java” because the Dutch transformed this once-sleepy port into the world’s largest quinine centre, brimming with Art Deco buildings, ballrooms and hotels. English is widely spoken in places as diverse as India, Hong Kong, Sierra Leone, Kenya and coastal Sri Lanka; and French in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria today partly because of quinine. And in Spanish, there is still an expression that states, “ser más malo que la quina” – which roughly translates as, “to be worse than quinine”, a reference to the bark’s bitter taste.
At the height of the global “quinine hunt” in the 1850s, Peru and Bolivia both established monopolies over their highly lucrative tree bark exports. In fact, much of La Paz’s Neoclassical cathedral and many of the cobblestone streets running through the city’s plaza-filled historic centre today were built with cinchona bark, which at one point accounted for 15% of Bolivia’s total tax revenue.
Today, many of the streets in the historic centre of La Paz – as well as its striking cathedral – were built with money from cinchona bark (Credit: rchphoto/Getty Images)
However, the centuries-long demand for cinchona bark has left a visible scar on its native habitat. In 1805, explorers documented 25,000 cinchona trees in the Ecuadorean Andes. The same area, now part of the Podocarpus National Park, counts just 29 trees.
It is to plants that we owe some of the major medicinal breakthroughs in human history
Canales explained that the removal of quinine-rich species from the Andes has changed the genetic structure of cinchona plants, reducing their ability to evolve and change. Part of Canales’ work, in collaboration with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew outside London, is to look at old cinchona bark specimens preserved in museums to study how human behaviour may have altered the plant. “We think that cinchona may have evolved to contain less quinine because of overharvesting,” she explained.
Recently, the World Health Organization halted studies of quinine’s synthetic descendant, hydroxychloroquine, as a possible coronavirus treatment amid safety concerns. Despite the fact that the drug is now developed in labs versus extracted from forests, Canales says the protection of the cinchona and the endangered “pharmacy of the world” that nurtures it, is crucial for the discovery of new drugs in the future.
Today, scientists believe that centuries of harvesting has changed the genetic structure of cinchona plants in the Andes (Credit: Celso Roldan/Getty Images)
In the absence of government protection of cinchona, local conservation groups are stepping in. Environmental organisation Semilla Bendita, literally “blessed seeds”, is planning to plant 2021 cinchona seeds for the 200th anniversary of Peru’s independence in 2021, and scientists like Schlagenhauf hope that more efforts to preserve the Andes’ biodiversity will follow.
“What the story of quinine shows is that biodiversity and human health go hand in hand,” Schlagenhauf said. “People often think of plant-based remedies as ‘alternative medicine’, but it is to plants that we owe some of the major medicinal breakthroughs in human history.
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POSSE COMITATUS
Pentagon puts military police on alert as protests over George Floyd’s death continue across US
The get-ready orders were sent verbally after US President Donald Trump asked for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis
Anger over the police killing of George Floyd continues to spread, with one person killed in Detroit and protests outside the White House
A protester gestures as cars burn behind him as violence continues to erupt following the death of George Floyd, a unarmed black man who died after a white policeman knelt on his neck for several minutes. Photo: AFP
As unrest spread across dozens of American cities on Friday, the Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty US military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd sparked the widespread protests.
Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours.
The get-ready orders were sent verbally after US President
Donald Trump asked Defence Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.
Demonstrators kneel before police in Minneapolis on Friday night. Photo: AP
Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Advisor Robert O’ Brien and several others. The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, a senior Pentagon official who was on the call.
“When the White House asks for options, someone opens the drawer and pulls them out so to speak.” the official said.
The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
“If this is where the president is headed response-wise, it would represent a significant escalation and a determination that the various state and local authorities are not up to the task of responding to the growing unrest,” said Brad Moss, a Washington-based attorney, who specialises in national security.
Members of the police units were on a 30-minute recall alert early on Saturday, meaning they would have to return to their bases inside that time limit in preparation for deployment to Minneapolis inside of four hours. Units at Fort Drum are slated to head to Minneapolis first, according to the three people, including two defence Department officials. Roughly 800 US soldiers would deploy to the city if called.
Cars on fire in Minneapolis during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Photo: AFP
Protests erupted in Minneapolis after video emerged showing a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Floyd later died of his injuries and the officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and
charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.
The protests turned violent and on Thursday rioters torched the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct near where Floyd was arrested. Mayor Jacob Frey ordered a citywide curfew at 8pm local time, beginning on Friday. Peaceful protests picked up steam as darkness fell, with thousands of people ignoring the curfew to walk streets in the southern part of the city. Some cars were set on fire in scattered neighbourhoods, business break-ins began and eventually there were larger fires.
The unrest has since spread across the country, with protests, some violent, erupting in cities including Washington DC, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered 500 of his National Guard troops into Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding communities.
But a Pentagon spokesman said Walz did not ask for the Army to be deployed to his state. “The department has been in touch with the governor and there is no request for Title 10 forces to support the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement,” the spokesman said. Title 10 is the US law that governs the armed forces, and would authorise active duty military to operate within the US
The three officials with direct knowledge of the potential deployment say the orders are on a classified system, known as the Secret internet Protocol Router or SIPR for short. Active-duty forces are normally prohibited from acting as a domestic law enforcement agency. But the Insurrection Act offers an exception, allowing the military to take up a policing authority it otherwise would not be allowed to do.
In scenes both peaceful and violent across the nation, thousands of protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “Say his name. George Floyd.” They hoisted signs reading: “He said I can’t breathe. Justice for George.”
Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency early on Saturday to activate the state National Guard as violence flared in Atlanta.
Pentagon puts military police on alert as protests over George Floyd’s death continue across US
The get-ready orders were sent verbally after US President Donald Trump asked for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis
Anger over the police killing of George Floyd continues to spread, with one person killed in Detroit and protests outside the White House
A protester gestures as cars burn behind him as violence continues to erupt following the death of George Floyd, a unarmed black man who died after a white policeman knelt on his neck for several minutes. Photo: AFP
As unrest spread across dozens of American cities on Friday, the Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty US military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd sparked the widespread protests.
Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours.
The get-ready orders were sent verbally after US President
Donald Trump asked Defence Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.
Demonstrators kneel before police in Minneapolis on Friday night. Photo: AP
Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Advisor Robert O’ Brien and several others. The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, a senior Pentagon official who was on the call.
“When the White House asks for options, someone opens the drawer and pulls them out so to speak.” the official said.
The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
“If this is where the president is headed response-wise, it would represent a significant escalation and a determination that the various state and local authorities are not up to the task of responding to the growing unrest,” said Brad Moss, a Washington-based attorney, who specialises in national security.
Members of the police units were on a 30-minute recall alert early on Saturday, meaning they would have to return to their bases inside that time limit in preparation for deployment to Minneapolis inside of four hours. Units at Fort Drum are slated to head to Minneapolis first, according to the three people, including two defence Department officials. Roughly 800 US soldiers would deploy to the city if called.
Cars on fire in Minneapolis during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Photo: AFP
Protests erupted in Minneapolis after video emerged showing a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Floyd later died of his injuries and the officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and
charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.
The protests turned violent and on Thursday rioters torched the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct near where Floyd was arrested. Mayor Jacob Frey ordered a citywide curfew at 8pm local time, beginning on Friday. Peaceful protests picked up steam as darkness fell, with thousands of people ignoring the curfew to walk streets in the southern part of the city. Some cars were set on fire in scattered neighbourhoods, business break-ins began and eventually there were larger fires.
The unrest has since spread across the country, with protests, some violent, erupting in cities including Washington DC, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered 500 of his National Guard troops into Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding communities.
But a Pentagon spokesman said Walz did not ask for the Army to be deployed to his state. “The department has been in touch with the governor and there is no request for Title 10 forces to support the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement,” the spokesman said. Title 10 is the US law that governs the armed forces, and would authorise active duty military to operate within the US
The three officials with direct knowledge of the potential deployment say the orders are on a classified system, known as the Secret internet Protocol Router or SIPR for short. Active-duty forces are normally prohibited from acting as a domestic law enforcement agency. But the Insurrection Act offers an exception, allowing the military to take up a policing authority it otherwise would not be allowed to do.
In scenes both peaceful and violent across the nation, thousands of protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “Say his name. George Floyd.” They hoisted signs reading: “He said I can’t breathe. Justice for George.”
Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency early on Saturday to activate the state National Guard as violence flared in Atlanta.
Some demonstrators smashed police cars and spray-painted the iconic logo sign at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. At least three officers were hurt and there were multiple arrests, Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said, as protesters shot at officers with BB guns and threw bricks, bottles and knives.
Demonstrators paint on the CNN logo during a protest in Atlanta. Photo: AP
The Guard was also on standby in the District of Columbia, where a crowd grew outside the White House and chanted curses at President Trump. Some protesters tried to push through barriers set up by the US Secret Service along Pennsylvania Avenue, and threw bottles and other objects at officers wearing riot gear, who responded with pepper spray.
A person was killed in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone in an SUV fired shots into a crowd of protesters near the city’s Greektown entertainment district, police said. In Portland, Oregon, protesters attacked police headquarters on Friday night and authorities said they lit a fire inside. In Virginia’s capital, a police cruiser was set on fire outside Richmond police headquarters, and a city transit spokeswoman said a bus set ablaze was “a total loss”, news outlets reported.
Minneapolis police station torched amid protests over George Floyd’s death
29 May 2020
Video posted to social media showed New York City officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they took people into custody and cleared streets. One video posted to social media showed on officer slam a woman to the ground as he walked past her in the street.
Demonstrators rocked a police van, set it ablaze, then scrawled graffiti across its charred hulk and set it on fire a second time as officers retreated from the area. Blocks away, protesters used a club to batter another police vehicle.
Flames erupt from a New York City Police Department van set ablaze during a protest of the death of George Floyd in police custody. Photo: AP
Protesters in Houston, where George Floyd grew up, included 19-year-old Jimmy Ohaz, who came from the nearby city of Richmond, Texas. “My question is how many more, how many more? I just want to live in a future where we all live in harmony and we’re not oppressed.”
Demonstrators on the West Coast blocked highways in Los Angeles and Oakland. Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies reportedly shot at a fleeing SUV that was shown on video striking protesters before fleeing the scene. San Jose police reported the shooting but said their officers were not involved.
US cop accused of killing black man involved in 3 shootings, 17 complaints
29 May 2020
Portland, Oregon, police said at least one shooting was tied to the protest, although details weren’t immediately available. Officers also said that gas was deployed after people threw projectiles at them.
Earlier, thousands of people attended a peaceful evening vigil that lasted three hours. Hundreds then began marching through downtown, with scattered vandalism along the route. Officers declared the event an “unlawful assembly” around 11pm, saying they would use force to disperse crowds.
Police officers in Oakland, California, stand behind a canister of tear gas during a protest sparked by the death of George Floyd. Photo: AP
About 1,000 protesters in Oakland, California, smashed windows, sprayed buildings with “Kill Cops” graffiti and were met with chemical spray from police. Oakland Police said several officers were injured by projectiles.
Several demonstrators were detained in Los Angeles and one officer received medical treatment,
police said. An LAPD vehicle had its windows smashed, and CNN reported that someone wrote “killer” on a patrol car. At least one city bus was vandalised.
Demonstrators paint on the CNN logo during a protest in Atlanta. Photo: AP
The Guard was also on standby in the District of Columbia, where a crowd grew outside the White House and chanted curses at President Trump. Some protesters tried to push through barriers set up by the US Secret Service along Pennsylvania Avenue, and threw bottles and other objects at officers wearing riot gear, who responded with pepper spray.
A person was killed in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone in an SUV fired shots into a crowd of protesters near the city’s Greektown entertainment district, police said. In Portland, Oregon, protesters attacked police headquarters on Friday night and authorities said they lit a fire inside. In Virginia’s capital, a police cruiser was set on fire outside Richmond police headquarters, and a city transit spokeswoman said a bus set ablaze was “a total loss”, news outlets reported.
Minneapolis police station torched amid protests over George Floyd’s death
29 May 2020
Video posted to social media showed New York City officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they took people into custody and cleared streets. One video posted to social media showed on officer slam a woman to the ground as he walked past her in the street.
Demonstrators rocked a police van, set it ablaze, then scrawled graffiti across its charred hulk and set it on fire a second time as officers retreated from the area. Blocks away, protesters used a club to batter another police vehicle.
Flames erupt from a New York City Police Department van set ablaze during a protest of the death of George Floyd in police custody. Photo: AP
Protesters in Houston, where George Floyd grew up, included 19-year-old Jimmy Ohaz, who came from the nearby city of Richmond, Texas. “My question is how many more, how many more? I just want to live in a future where we all live in harmony and we’re not oppressed.”
Demonstrators on the West Coast blocked highways in Los Angeles and Oakland. Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies reportedly shot at a fleeing SUV that was shown on video striking protesters before fleeing the scene. San Jose police reported the shooting but said their officers were not involved.
US cop accused of killing black man involved in 3 shootings, 17 complaints
29 May 2020
Portland, Oregon, police said at least one shooting was tied to the protest, although details weren’t immediately available. Officers also said that gas was deployed after people threw projectiles at them.
Earlier, thousands of people attended a peaceful evening vigil that lasted three hours. Hundreds then began marching through downtown, with scattered vandalism along the route. Officers declared the event an “unlawful assembly” around 11pm, saying they would use force to disperse crowds.
Police officers in Oakland, California, stand behind a canister of tear gas during a protest sparked by the death of George Floyd. Photo: AP
About 1,000 protesters in Oakland, California, smashed windows, sprayed buildings with “Kill Cops” graffiti and were met with chemical spray from police. Oakland Police said several officers were injured by projectiles.
Several demonstrators were detained in Los Angeles and one officer received medical treatment,
police said. An LAPD vehicle had its windows smashed, and CNN reported that someone wrote “killer” on a patrol car. At least one city bus was vandalised.
George Floyd And Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Worked Security At The Same Nightclub. People Who Worked With Them Can't Believe It.
The club’s owner said former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would sometimes "overreact and lash out quickly" while working as a security guard at the popular club.
Brianna SacksBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 29, 2020,
Kerem Yucel / Getty Images
Flowers, signs, and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died while in custody of the Minneapolis police
The death of George Floyd after being pinned to the ground in a neck chokehold by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was arrested on murder charges today, has sparked unrest across the country and become a political flashpoint — yet another example of a white officer unleashing deadly force on a black man.
But for former employees, DJs, and promoters who spent time at El Nuevo Rodeo, a popular Latin nightclub in southeast Minneapolis, the killing has provoked grief, rage, and also shock. Both Floyd, 46, and Chauvin, 44, worked as part-time security guards at the establishment. How was it possible, many asked, that such violence had exploded between two former coworkers who by many accounts worked peacefully in proximity to each other for about a year?
“It’s very shocking,” said Alexander Vasquez Hagen, who worked security at the club several years ago and interacted with Chauvin in that capacity. He said he knew and liked Floyd from the city’s club scene.
“Crazy,” added AJ Jaurequi, a club promoter in the area. He said he wondered if the two men “had some beef with each other, because it’s odd that you’d treat someone you knew like that.”
Maya Santamaria, the club’s former owner, said Floyd, the father of a six-year-old girl, was “a sweetheart” and that “everyone loved him.” Santamaria said she’d hire Floyd for busy nights, to join the 25 other security guards inside the club.
Chauvin, whom she said worked for her nearly every weekend for 17 years, stayed outside, usually in his squad car or checking IDs. The former club owner paid the officer, as well as three to four others, $55 an hour to keep the peace, something she said “the city made [her] do to stay in operation.”
Santamaria recalled that Chauvin, a 19-year-veteran of the department, “was nice but he would overreact and lash out quickly.”
This was particularly true, she said, on nights when the club hosted special events like Twerk Tuesdays and other dance festivals geared toward the black community.
“His face, attitude, posture would change when we did urban nights,” she said, adding that he had a “propensity to pull out pepper spray” and use it on her patrons, something she said she had spoken to him about.
A former bouncer, who worked there until 2014, and a former DJ both said they had never seen or heard of pepper spray being used. A lawyer for Chauvin could not be reached for comment.
On Friday, as Minneapolis braced for a fourth night of protests, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter for the death of his former coworker. The killing was captured on cellphone video and showed Chauvin keeping Floyd in a neck chokehold for more than eight minutes.
The fatal encounter took place outside a convenience store after a store manager who suspected Floyd had tried to pay with a counterfeit bill called police.
“Please, please, I can’t breathe,” Floyd says in a viral video of the encounter. “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd died in police custody. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner later determined that Floyd's "underlying health conditions," including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease, as well as the tactics used by police, contributed to his death.
The club, and Spanish-language radio station La Raza, burned down Thursday night during protests over the killing.
HUNDRED YEAR OLD ODDFELLOWS HALL BURNS DOWN IN MINNEAPOLIS
Maya Santamaria
19 hrs ·
RIP Oddfellows Building. Built in 1909 by the Internacional Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) The Oddfellows building was built to house the philanthropic organization by the same name whose mission was to help the less-advantaged and the poor. One of the iconic places in this wood structure building was the beautiful historic 3rd floor Oddfellows Ballroom, were just about every immigrant community in Minnesota used to host its dances and celebrations throughout its history. From the English, to the Irish, the Italian, the Afro-American, even the punk rock scene in Minneapolis, every part of the community celebrated and partied here. But no community took it on as their own like the Latino Community in South Minneapolis. In the turn of the Century, VANNANDY'S Nightclub made it the first Mexican-owned nightclub in Minneapolis. And then, we opened El Nuevo Rodeo in 2003 and it became the heart of the Latino Community and its celebrations for the next 17 years. Every weekend, the building was alive with dancing couples, shared drinks, dear friends, great food, and even greater concerts. During that time, in 2012, Santamaria Enterprises bought the building and we started PARAISO LOUNGE in the 3rd floor ballroom, and also named it the 27 Event Center, after its location as the heart of DOWNTOWN LONGFELLOW on 27th and Lake. And then came the enigmatic addition of the newest and hottest Latino Radio Station, LA RAZA, and Telemundo MN on the 4th floor. Like a cherry on top, the voice and heartbeat of our community in Minneapolis eminated from that building, day and night. Santamaria Broadcasting has proudly brought Spanish music, talk, and news from the top floor of the Oddfellows building since 2015, while promoting the events and concerts scheduled in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors at El Nuevo Rodeo below.
Both business gave back to the community, hosting free give-aways to children and families throughout the year and hosting community events, including The Cinco de Mayo Minneapolis Festival for over ten years in a row. Spirits of time past could be seen occupying the building, revealing themselves to those of us who slept and worked there overnight. The Town Talk diner and its Iconic Art Deco sign, registered to the Historical Buildings list, El Nuevo Rodeo Restaurant, Latino-owned Integrated Staffing, Ace Cash, and the new-to-open Scores Sports Bar, La Raza, and Sonoma Enterprises all lost their business in the tragic fire in the IOOF that proved to be the last dance for this Minneapolis treasure. She holds so many memories for so many people, her charred skeleton a symbol of this glorious past.
Farewell, IOOF, You will go down in history as the place "where it all started" in the Latino Community. We, like the rest of our neighbors, will rebuild. But the IOOF will never be duplicated.
It breaks my heart to see this big part of our community vandalized like this. George would not have condoned this.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10163571195830430&set=a.172222250429&type=3&theater
19 hrs ·
RIP Oddfellows Building. Built in 1909 by the Internacional Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) The Oddfellows building was built to house the philanthropic organization by the same name whose mission was to help the less-advantaged and the poor. One of the iconic places in this wood structure building was the beautiful historic 3rd floor Oddfellows Ballroom, were just about every immigrant community in Minnesota used to host its dances and celebrations throughout its history. From the English, to the Irish, the Italian, the Afro-American, even the punk rock scene in Minneapolis, every part of the community celebrated and partied here. But no community took it on as their own like the Latino Community in South Minneapolis. In the turn of the Century, VANNANDY'S Nightclub made it the first Mexican-owned nightclub in Minneapolis. And then, we opened El Nuevo Rodeo in 2003 and it became the heart of the Latino Community and its celebrations for the next 17 years. Every weekend, the building was alive with dancing couples, shared drinks, dear friends, great food, and even greater concerts. During that time, in 2012, Santamaria Enterprises bought the building and we started PARAISO LOUNGE in the 3rd floor ballroom, and also named it the 27 Event Center, after its location as the heart of DOWNTOWN LONGFELLOW on 27th and Lake. And then came the enigmatic addition of the newest and hottest Latino Radio Station, LA RAZA, and Telemundo MN on the 4th floor. Like a cherry on top, the voice and heartbeat of our community in Minneapolis eminated from that building, day and night. Santamaria Broadcasting has proudly brought Spanish music, talk, and news from the top floor of the Oddfellows building since 2015, while promoting the events and concerts scheduled in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors at El Nuevo Rodeo below.
Both business gave back to the community, hosting free give-aways to children and families throughout the year and hosting community events, including The Cinco de Mayo Minneapolis Festival for over ten years in a row. Spirits of time past could be seen occupying the building, revealing themselves to those of us who slept and worked there overnight. The Town Talk diner and its Iconic Art Deco sign, registered to the Historical Buildings list, El Nuevo Rodeo Restaurant, Latino-owned Integrated Staffing, Ace Cash, and the new-to-open Scores Sports Bar, La Raza, and Sonoma Enterprises all lost their business in the tragic fire in the IOOF that proved to be the last dance for this Minneapolis treasure. She holds so many memories for so many people, her charred skeleton a symbol of this glorious past.
Farewell, IOOF, You will go down in history as the place "where it all started" in the Latino Community. We, like the rest of our neighbors, will rebuild. But the IOOF will never be duplicated.
It breaks my heart to see this big part of our community vandalized like this. George would not have condoned this.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10163571195830430&set=a.172222250429&type=3&theater
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