Greene County Democrat

Tag: George Floyd

  • Newswire : Remembering George Floyd

    Mural honoring George Floyd

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

     

    “The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse.

    It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

    The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden.

    Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

    In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process.
    “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who kneeled on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those nine minutes and 26 seconds on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill in a convience store in Minneapolis.

  • Newswire : White House demands Rep. Hakeem Jeffries ‘Apologize’ for Non-Threat to ‘Fight’ Trump ‘in the Streets’

     

    Cong. Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Minority leader in the House of Representatives addresses the press

    By Zack Linly, NewsOne

    If President Donald Trump and the MAGA-fied GOP are nothing else, they are a bottomless open bar of white tears, hypocrisy, caucasity and Karen energy. For all of their tough talk about revolution, “civil war,” the weakness of “the left,” and big, bad MAGA alfa-males, all they need to hear is anything remotely aggressive coming out of a Black person’s mouth for them to go into full snowflake mode and start crying about “violent rhetoric.”
    Recently, white conservatives have lost their damn mind over relatively benign remarks made by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), which they have intentionally misconstrued as a threat to “fight” Trump and his MAGA goons “in the street.”
    First, let’s start with what Jeffries actually said.
    “Right now, we’re going to keep focus on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working-class Americans across the country with the bill,” Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference, alongside Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, where he criticized Trump’s handling of the recent air collision in Washington, D.C., including his short-lived freeze on federal funding and his absurd and factless suggestion that DEI practices had anything to do with the tragedy. “That’s not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”
    Now, the Trump administration’s whiney-ass response:
    “While President Trump remains focused on uniting our country and delivering the mandate set by the American people, the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, incites violence calling for people to fight ‘in the streets’ against President Trump’s agenda,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told Fox News Digital. “This unhinged violent rhetoric is dangerous. Leader Jeffries should immediately apologize.”
    “Will Minority Leader Jeffries apologize for this disgusting threat? Or will he double down on the same calls for violence that have plagued the country for years?” White House asked in a press release.

    Right-wingers up and down social media predictably followed suit in abandoning any semblance of logic, intentionally ignoring the “fight it legislatively” and “fight it in the courts” part of Jeffrey’s speech and deciding he was making some gangsta-ass pro-riot statement just because he used the words “in the street.”

    Again, the caucasity here is just overflowing. Let’s just set aside the fact that, in 2021, Trump told Jan. 6 rioters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” just moments before they went to the Capitol and attacked police officers, broke through barricades, scaled walks, broke into offices and threatened legislators — all inspired by Trump’s baseless election fraud propaganda. Forget about all of that.

    Republican conservative leaders, including elected officials, spent the last two years making not-so-veiled threats of violence if Trump isn’t reelected and repeatedly insisting that any legal actions taken against their MAGA messiah could result in a second “Civil War.”

    It was only a few months ago that then candidate Trump was on stage at one of his rallies warning Kamala Harris supporters that they might get “hurt” if they happened to be in the crowd.

    Violent rhetoric has become a GOP love language since the party collectively bowed down to Trump, normalizing his childish tantrums, boorish behavior, bigoted remarks and propaganda that has proven to be dangerous. Speaking of which…
    In 2021, just a few months after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Republicans who had just gotten done protecting their MAGA cultist from being impeached for inspiring the riot, which they vehemently denied they did, tried the same white, fragile and Karen-esque nonsense with Rep. Maxine Waters that they’re trying with Jeffries now.
    Waters was speaking to protesters in Minnesota while attending a demonstration on behalf of Daunte Wright when she said she and the crowd are “looking for a guilty verdict” for Derek Chauvin, who was still on trial for the murder of George Floyd.
    “We’ve got to stay in the streets, and we’ve got to demand justice,” she said. “I am hopeful that we will get a verdict that says, ‘guilty, guilty, guilty,’ and if we don’t, we cannot go away,” she added. “We’ve got to get more confrontational.”
    Sen. Ted Cruz, one of Trump’s most passionate defenders during his second impeachment, joined other prominent Republicans in accusing Waters of “actively encouraging riots and violence,” as if it weren’t perfectly clear that she was talking about non-violent resistance.
    So, just to recap: Trump and his ilk baselessly suggest DEI caused the air collision, Hakeem Jeffries calls them out on it, Trump and his ilk disingenuously claim the angry Black man is encouraging violence — defaulting to their tried and true fearmongering against outspoken Black people — and now the White House is demanding an apology.
    Again — the real snowflakes are at it again and their caucasity continues to know no bounds. 

  • Walmart pulls back on DEI efforts, removes some LGBTQ merchandise from website 

    By Melissa Repko, CNBC

    Walmart on Monday confirmed that it’s ending some of its diversity initiatives, removing some LGBTQ-related merchandise from its website and winding down a nonprofit that funded programs for minorities.

    The nation’s largest employer, which has about 1.6 million U.S. workers, joined a growing list of companies that have stepped back from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts after feeling the heat from conservative activists.

    Some have also attributed changes to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year that struck down affirmative action programs at colleges.

    Those companies include Tractor Supply, which said in June it was eliminating DEI roles and stopping sponsorship of Pride festivals. Lowe’s, Ford and Molson Coors have also walked back some of their equity and inclusion policies in recent months.
    Others, such as Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light and Target, have faced sharp backlash and falling sales after marketing campaigns or merchandise focused on the LGBTQ community.

    In a statement, Walmart said it is “willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America.”

    “We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the statement said.

    Walmart’s DEI changes were first reported by Bloomberg News. Among the changes, Walmart will no longer allow third-party sellers to sell some LGBTQ-themed items on Walmart’s website, including items marketed to transgender youth like chest binders, company spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said.

    She said it also recently decided to stop sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that tracks companies’ LGBTQ policies, or with other similar organizations.
    Additionally, the big-box retailer is winding down the Center for Racial Equity, a nonprofit that Walmart started in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder sparked protests across the country. At the time, Walmart and the company’s foundation pledged $100 million over five years to fight systemic racism and create the center.

    Over the past year, the company has phased out supplier diversity programs, which gave preferential financing to some groups, such as women and minorities, after the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action.

    It’s also moved away from using the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” or DEI in company documents, employee titles and employee resource groups. For example, its former chief diversity officer role is now called the chief belonging officer.

    Yet, Walmart will continue to award grants, disaster relief, and funding to events like Pride parades, but with more guidelines of how funding can be used, Blakeman said.
    Some recent changes came on the heels of pressure from conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who threatened a consumer boycott of Walmart. Starbuck, a vocal DEI-opponent who had also put heat on Tractor Supply, touted Walmart’s changes in a post on X, describing them as “the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America.”

    Walmart had conversations with Starbuck over the last week and already had some DEI-related changes underway, Blakeman said.

  • Newswire : The deep significance of Black ‘1870’ pins worn for SOTU address

     1870 pin and explanation card, worn by Congressional Black Caucus members and others
    Members of Congressional Black Caucus meet with President Biden and Vice President Harris

    By: Marquise Francis, Yahoo News

    As President Biden approaches the lectern for Tuesday’s State of the Union speech to address the country’s top issues before Congress, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats will be making a bold statement of their own — albeit a silent one.
    Many of them will be wearing black pins with the year “1870” on them, which marks the date of the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person that occurred in the United States. The pins are a call for action on reforming the institution of policing that has killed thousands of Black people in the 153 years since.
    “I’m tired of moments of silence. I’m tired of periods of mourning,” New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who came up with the idea to create the pins, told Yahoo News. “I wanted to highlight that police killings of unarmed Black citizens have been in the news since 1870 and yet significant action has yet to be taken.”

    On March 31, 1870, 26-year-old Henry Truman, a Black man, was shot and killed by Philadelphia Officer John Whiteside after being accused of shoplifting from a grocery store.
    Whiteside had allegedly chased Truman into an alley when at some point Truman turned to ask what he did wrong, and the officer fatally shot him, according to an account in the Philadelphia Inquirer the following day. At trial, Whiteside claimed that he had been ambushed by a crowd while he chased Truman. Whiteside was later convicted of manslaughter. That same year the country adopted the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote.
    Over a century and a half since Truman’s killing, a steady stream of Black people have been killed by law enforcement, including 1,353 since 2017, according to data from Statista, a digital insights company. In fact, Black Americans are three times as likely to be killed by police than white people and account for one in four police killings, despite making up just 13% of the country’s population.
    Many of the parents, siblings and children of Black people killed by police over the last decade will be in attendance at Tuesday’s address as guests of members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The attendees include the families of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was gunned down by Cleveland police in 2014 on a playground; Amir Locke, the 22-year-old fatally shot by Minneapolis police in a predawn, no-knock raid last year; Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old fatally beaten by Memphis police during a traffic stop early last month and a dozen other families who have lost loved ones.
    “I hope today that we can get Congress to see that we need to pass this bill because this should never happen,” Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, said Tuesday afternoon at a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
    In 2022 alone, police killed 1,192 people, more than any year in the past decade, according to a new report released last week by nonprofit Mapping Police Violence. Black people accounted for more than 300 of those killings. The report also claimed that many of these killings could have been avoided by changing law enforcement’s approach to such encounters, such as sending mental health providers to certain 911 calls.
    In his State of the Union address, President Biden acknowledged the presence of Tyree Nichol’s parents, among the invitees, siting in the President’s box. Biden also urged the Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was put forth following the murder of 46-year-old George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, seeks to end excessive force, qualified immunity and racial bias in policing and to combat police misconduct. The bill has passed the House of Representatives twice in the previous Congress, but has continued to fail in the Senate.
    Following the most recent police killing of Nichols, members of the Black Caucus are cautiously optimistic that change will soon come.

  • Newswire : FBI reports sharp rise in hate crimes targeting Black and Asian people

    By Stacy M. Brown NNPA

    Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,759 criminal incidents and 10,532 related offenses motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Further, the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, 2020, reported 7,554 single-bias incidents involving 10,528 victims. Percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that 61.9 percent of victims found themselves targeted because of the offenders’ race, ethnicity, or ancestry. Further, 20.5 percent fell victim because of bias toward the offenders’ sexual orientation, 13.4 percent because of the offenders’ religion, 2.5 percent because of the offenders’ gender identity, 1 percent the offenders’ disability, and 0.7 percent because of the offenders’ gender bias. Specifically, in its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation, the FBI noted that the number of hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level in 12 years, driven by assaults targeting Black and Asian people. The rise in hate crimes occurred in a year of renewed protests for racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. “The rise in hate crimes is sad but predictable given the well-documented efforts by elected officials and political candidates to foment hate and division for partisan gain, especially during the 2020 election season and amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, stated in a news release. Hewitt noted that The Lawyers’ Committee filed several lawsuits within the last year to address hate incidents by people emboldened by an atmosphere in which blatant lies flourish and the truth often questioned. “Our clients were assaulted by racially motivated mobs, beaten by police using racially charged language, and targeted with thousands of racist robocalls delivering misinformation,” Hewitt added. “While horrific on their own, all indications are that these incidents are still grossly underreported. Although hate crimes prey on historically disenfranchised groups, our government should treat these crimes as a threat to the very foundations of our democracy – a threat that we dismiss at our own peril.” The FBI’s report revealed that of the 7,426 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2020, 53.4 percent were for intimidation, 27.6 percent were for simple assault, and 18.1 percent were for aggravated assault. Of the 2,913 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, most (76.4 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 23.6 percent of crimes against property. Law enforcement classified 193 additional offenses as crimes against society. The FBI said this crime category represents society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug violations. They said those crimes typically are victimless where property isn’t the object. Of the 6,431 known offenders, 55.2 percent were White, and 20.2 percent were Black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: Ethnicity was unknown for 47.5 percent of these offenders. Of the 5,915 known offenders for whom ages were known, 89.1 percent were 18 years of age or older.

  • Newswire : UN Rights Chief: Reparations needed for people facing racism

    Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

    By: Jamey Keaten, Associated Press

    GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights chief, in a landmark report launched after the killing of George Floyd in the United States, is urging countries worldwide to do more to help end discrimination, violence and systemic racism against people of African descent and “make amends” to them — including through reparations. The report from Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, offers a sweeping look at the roots of centuries of mistreatment faced by Africans and people of African descent, notably from the transatlantic slave trade. It seeks a “transformative” approach to address its continued impact today. The report, a year in the making, hopes to build on momentum around the recent, intensified scrutiny worldwide about the blight of racism and its impact on people of African descent as epitomized by the high-profile killings of unarmed Black people in the United States and elsewhere. “There is today a momentous opportunity to achieve a turning point for racial equality and justice,” the report said. The report aims to speed up action by countries to end racial injustice; end impunity for rights violations by police; ensure that people of African descent and those who speak out against racism are heard; and face up to past wrongs through accountability and redress. “I am calling on all states to stop denying — and start dismantling — racism; to end impunity and build trust; to listen to the voices of people of African descent; and to confront past legacies and deliver redress,” Bachelet said in a video statement. While broaching the issue of reparation in her most explicit way yet, Bachelet suggested that monetary compensation alone is not enough and would be part of an array of measures to help rectify or make up for the injustices. “Reparations should not only be equated with financial compensation,” she wrote, adding that it should include restitution, rehabilitation, acknowledgement of injustices, apologies, memorialization, educational reforms and “guarantees” that such injustices won’t happen again. Bachelet, a former president of Chile, hailed the efforts of advocacy groups like the Black Lives Matter movement, saying they helped provide “grassroots leadership through listening to communities” and that they should receive “funding, public recognition and support.” The U.N.-backed Human Rights Council commissioned the report during a special session last year following the murder of Floyd, a Black American who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison last week. Protests erupted after excruciating bystander video showed how Floyd gasped repeatedly, “I can’t breathe!” as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to stop pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck. The protests against Floyd’s killing and the “momentous” verdict against Chauvin are a “seminal point in the fight against racism,” the report said. The report was based on discussions with over 340 people — mostly of African descent — and experts; more than 100 contributions in writing, including from governments; and review of public material, the rights office said. It analyzed 190 deaths, mostly in the U.S., to show how law enforcement officers are rarely held accountable for rights violations and crimes against people of African descent, and it noted similar patterns of mistreatment by police across many countries. he report ultimately aims to transform those opportunities into a more systemic response by governments to address racism, and not just in the United States — although the injustices and legacy of slavery, racism and violence faced by African Americans was clearly a major theme. The report also laid out cases, concerns and the situation in roughly 60 countries including Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Colombia and France, among others. “We could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts of the lives of people of African descent today,” Mona Rishmawi, who heads a unit on non-discrimination in Bachelet’s office. “Our message, therefore, is that this situation is untenable.” Compensation should be considered at the “collective and the individual level,” Rishmawi said, while adding that any such process “starts with acknowledgment” of past wrongs and “it’s not one-size-fits-all.” She said countries must look at their own pasts and practices to assess how to proceed. Rishmawi said Bachelet’s team found “a main part of the problem is that many people believe the misconceptions that the abolition of slavery, the end of the transatlantic trade and colonialism have removed the racially discriminatory structures built by those practices. “We found that this is not true,” said Rishmawi, also denouncing an idea among some “associating blackness with criminality … there is a need to address this.” The report called on countries to “make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination” such as through “formal acknowledgment and apologies, truth-telling processes and reparations in various forms.” It also decried the “dehumanization of people of African descent” that was “rooted in false social constructions of race” in the past to justify enslavement, racial stereotypes and harmful practices as well as tolerance for racial discrimination, inequality and violence. People of African descent face inequalities and “stark socioeconomic and political marginalization” in many countries, the report said, including unfair access to education, health care, jobs, housing and clean water. “We believe very strongly that we only touched the tip of the iceberg,“ Rishmawi said, referring to the report. ”We really believe that there is a lot more work that needs to be done.”

  • Newswire: Justice Dept. opens policing probe over Breonna Taylor Death

    Louisville demonstration for Breonna Taylor

    By: Michael Balsamo, Associated Press

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is opening a sweeping probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky, over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday. It’s the second such probe into a law enforcement agency by the Biden administration in a week; Garland also announced an investigation into the tactics of the police in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd. The attorney general has said there is not yet equal justice under the law and promised to bring a critical eye to racism and legal issues when he took the job. Few such investigations were opened during the Trump administration. The 26-year-old Taylor, an emergency medical technician who had been studying to become a nurse, was roused from sleep by police who came through the door using a battering ram. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired once. A no-knock warrant was approved as part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home. Investigation looks for ‘pattern or practice’ The investigation announced Monday is into the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government and the Louisville Metro Police Department. It is known as a “pattern or practice” — examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing — and will be a more sweeping review of the entire police department. Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Breonna Taylor’s family, posted a celebratory message on social media shortly after the announcement. “Boom. Thank you,” he wrote. Aguiar and other attorneys negotiated a $12 million settlement in September with the city of Louisville over Taylor’s death. The investigation will specifically focus on whether the Louisville Metro Police Department engages in a pattern of unreasonable force, including against people engaging in peaceful activities, and will also examine whether the police department conducts unconstitutional stops, searches and seizures and whether the department illegally executes search warrants, Garland said. The probe will also look at the training that officers receive, the system in place to hold officers accountable and “assess whether LMPD engages in discriminatory conduct on the basis of race,” among other things, he said. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted last week of murder in Floyd’s death, but no one has been charged in Taylor’s, though her case, too, fueled protests against police brutality and systemic racism. “No-knock” warrants debated nationally Her death prompted a national debate about the use of so-called “no knock” search warrants, which allow officers to enter a home without waiting and announcing their presence. The warrants are generally used in drug cases and other sensitive investigations where police believe a suspect might be likely to destroy evidence. But there’s been growing criticism in recent years that the warrants are overused and abused. Prosecutors will speak with community leaders, residents and police officials as part of the Louisville probe and will release a public report, if a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct is discovered, Garland said. He noted that the department has implemented some changes after a settlement with Taylor’s family and said the Justice Department’s investigation would take those into account. “It is clear that the public officials in Minneapolis and Louisville, including those in law enforcement, recognize the importance and urgency of our efforts,” Garland said. Louisville hired Atlanta’s former police chief, Erika Shields, in January. She became the fourth person to lead the department since Taylor’s death on March 13, 2020. Longtime chief Steve Conrad was forced out in the summer after officers responding to a shooting during a protest failed to turn on their body cameras. Two interim appointments followed before Shields was given the job. Shields stepped down from the top Atlanta post in June after the death of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who was shot in the back by police in a restaurant parking lot. Shields remained with the Atlanta department in a lesser role. Kentucky’s lawmakers passed a partial ban on no-knock warrants last month. The measure would only allow no-knock warrants to be issued if there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the “crime alleged is a crime that would qualify a person, if convicted, as a violent offender.” Warrants also would have to be executed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Associated Press Writer Dylan Lovan in Louisville contributed to this report. 

  • Newswire: Day 2 of Chauvin trial was rife with emotional witness testimony

    Former Officer Chauvin has knee on George Floyd’s neck

     By:  Paige Elliott, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

    The second day of the Derek Chauvin murder trial was full of emotional and heart-wrenching witness testimony. Witness after witness spoke of the despair, helplessness, and the struggle to come to grips with what they witnessed when George Floyd lost his life under the knee of Chauvin on March 25, 2020. In agonizing detail, the witnesses, many of whom are underage and therefore not shown on video by court order, described how heartbroken and haunted they remain over Floyd’s killing almost a year ago. Donald Williams continued his testimony from the opening day of the trial. The prosecution walked Williams through what he witnessed on Memorial Day when he stumbled upon the scene of Floyd’s fatal arrest while headed to Cup Foods. It was revealed on Tuesday that Williams, like 911 operator Jenna Scurry who testified the day before, “called the police on the police.” After Floyd was taken away in an ambulance, an emotional Williams called 911 to report the incident. “I believe I had just witnessed a murder,” Williams recalled. Williams added that he placed the call because he “didn’t know what else to do,” as he couldn’t establish a human connection—what he termed as a “human being relationship”—with the police on the scene, so he reached out for help. Tears streamed down his face when his call was played in the courtroom. Defense attorney Eric Nelson spent a lot of time trying to undercut Williams’ experience and knowledge as a mixed martial arts fighter and former wrestler. However, Williams was not on the stand as an expert. As legal analyst Laura Coates said on CNN, “They’re attacking the very idea that he [Williams] was never there to present.”  Williams also rejected the idea presented by the defense that the bystanders grew into an angry mob as time wore on. “I grew professional. I stayed in my body. You can’t paint me out to be angry,” he said. Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. Attorney, and legal analyst told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the defense’s cross-examinations of the witnesses so far was “mediocre” because it has taken Nelson “a very long time to make minor points. The best cross-examinations are short and simple,” he said. “And so far, from what I’ve seen from the defense, the cross-examinations have not been short and have not been simple.” Darnella Frazier, 18, was the second witness to take the stand on Tuesday. As a minor at the time of Floyd’s death, her face was not shown on camera, though the court has allowed her last name to be printed. Though unseen, Frazier’s voice effectively conveyed her pain. At times she spoke in hushed tones, with her voice breaking.  We learned that Frazier was on her way to Cup Foods with her young cousin, but like Williams, she never made it into the store. Instead, she escorted in her cousin so she wouldn’t witness what was happening between Floyd and the police officers outside. Frazier stayed outside and eventually took out her camera and began recording—her video of the incident is what was initially posted on social media and sparked the national and international outcry against Floyd’s killing. Frazier, though emotional, was consistent on the witness stand. She recalled Floyd stating, “I can’t breathe; please get off of me,’” while he lay handcuffed in the prone position under Chauvin’s knee. “He cried for his mom. He was in pain,” said Frazier. “He seemed like he felt it was over for him. He was suffering. It was a cry for help.” She recalled the bystanders saying to Chauvin: “You’re hurting him,” “Are you enjoying this?” “His nose is bleeding,” and “You’re a bum. She said she didn’t recall Chauvin offering any “care” for Floyd at any time she was there. “If anything,” she said, “he was actually kneeling harder. He was shoving his knee in his neck. I felt like he was feeding off of our energy.” Like Williams, Frazier countered the defense’s claim that the crowd was hostile. “Any time someone tried to get close, they [the cops] were defensive, so we couldn’t even get close,” Frazier said. She pointedly noted that the only violence she saw that day was from the police officers, and that Chauvin “had a cold look, heartless. It seemed like he didn’t care.“ When the paramedics arrived, Frazier said Chauvin still didn’t release his knee from Floyd’s neck. “No, the ambulance person had to get him to lift up. He checked his pulse first while Mr. Chauvin’s knee still remained on George Floyd’s neck. The paramedic made a motion to get up,” she recalled. The defense’s line of questioning centered on Frazier having limited knowledge of what else had occurred prior to her arriving and what else may have been going on in the surrounding area at the time. Inexplicably, the defense asked if the video she recorded changed Frazier’s life. She replied that it had. This left the door open for the prosecution to redirect and ask Frazier to explain how the video changed her life. She replied, “When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, my cousins, and uncles because they are all Black. I have a Black father; I have a Black brother … I look at how that could have been them.” She continued, “I stay up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and for not physically interacting and not saving his life. But it’s not what I should have done, it’s what he [Chauvin] should have done,” she said through tears. It was the most emotional moment of the trial thus far and widely seen as a misstep by the defense. “The lesson here,” said Rosenberg about the defense’s line of questioning, “unless you really have something to add by opening your mouth and talking in court, sit down and be quiet.” Frazier’s nine-year-old cousin took the stand next; she capped an emotional first half of the afternoon before recess. She was seen in surveillance video with the word “love” on her shirt, but what she witnessed at her tender age was anything but.  She gave a brief testimony describing what she saw that day and how it made her “sad and kinda mad” because she felt the cops were stopping Floyd’s breathing and hurting him. She also recalled how a paramedic had to ask Chauvin to release his knee from Floyd’s neck.  The defense did not cross-examine her. Two other underage witnesses took the stand, including Kaylynn Ashley Gilbert, 19, who was on her way to Cup Foods to buy a phone charger. She ended up joining the bystanders and taking phone footage of Floyd’s death. She teared up on the witness stand and said she felt like she “failed” Floyd because the police preventing her from helping him. The day closed with moving and at times pointed testimony from Genevieve Hansen, 27, a firefighter and certified EMT worker who was out walking when the commotion on the corner of 38th St. & Chicago Avenue caught her attention. She said she heard someone say, “They’re killing him” and walked over to see what was going on.  She was immediately alarmed by what she saw. “I was concerned to see a handcuffed man who was not moving with officers with their whole body weight on his back and a crowd that was stressed out,” she recalled. Hansen wanted to render medical aid to Floyd. “I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities,” Hansen said, “and this human was denied that right.” She, like two other witnesses, also called 911 to report what she saw.  Hansen and Nelson had a few heated exchanges when Nelson tried to paint the bystanders as an angry mob. Hansen said she was more desperate than angry. “I don’t know if you’ve seen anybody be killed, but it’s upsetting,” she said. Judge Peter Cahill struck her comment from the record.

  • Newswire: Biden signs executive orders aimed at tackling racism in America

    President Joe Biden

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


    President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders that his less than two-week-old administration hopes will be a catalyst to tackling America’s long-standing race problem. Biden’s action focused on equity and included police and prison reform and public housing.
    “America has never lived up to its founding promise of equality for all, but we’ve never stopped trying,” President Biden wrote on Twitter just before signing the executive orders.
    “I’ll take action to advance racial equity and push us closer to that more perfect union we’ve always strived to be,” the President proclaimed.
    Within hours of taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, President Biden signed 17 executive orders to reverse damaging policy put forth by the previous administration. Throughout his campaign, President Biden pledged to do his part in the fight against systemic racism in America.
    One of the Jan. 20 executive orders charged all federal agencies with reviewing equity in their programs and actions. President Biden demanded that the Office of Management and Budget analyze whether federal dollars are equitably distributed in communities of color.
    On Tuesday, Jan. 26, the President reinstated a policy from the Barack Obama administration that prohibited military equipment transfer to local police departments. The President noted the disturbing trends he and the rest of the country reckoned with in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others.
    The order prevents federal agencies from providing local police with military-grade equipment, which was used by Ferguson, Missouri officers after police shot and killed an unarmed Michael Brown.
    The previous administration reinstated the policy to allow federal agencies to provide military-style equipment to local police.
    Like Obama, President Biden has said he also would attempt to eliminate the government’s use of private prisons where unspeakable abuses of inmates – mostly those of color – reportedly occur almost daily.
    President Biden also issued a memo that directs the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote equitable housing policies with the executive orders. He also signed an order to establish a commission on policing.

  • Newswire: The Biden/Harris Administration: What’s init for Black America?

    News Analysis By: Dr. Wilmer J. Leon,

    Harris and Biden conferring


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


    America has what it voted for. Trump is gone; though Trumpism must be dealt with in another forum. Despite the failed coup d’état on January 6th, President Biden and Vice President Harris have been sworn in. The Biden/Harris administration is now a reality.
    The majority of Americans are ready for the country to move forward but where does it go and how does it get there? The “empire” of America must now come to grips with a number of structural problems:
    • Across the United States, voter suppression policies continue to disenfranchise the poor and voters of color.
    • In the aftermath of the George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbury murders too many Americans do not feel safe in their own communities.
    • Twenty-four million Americans have contracted COVID-19 and 400,000 have died from
    COVID-19 as the government struggles with the logistics of vaccine distribution and
    inoculation.
    • COVID-19 also continues to ravage the American economy. According to the Department of Labor, the 4-week moving average of first-time filings for unemployment insurance claims was 834,250, an increase of 18,250 from the previous week’s revised average.
    • Also, 30 to 40 million Americans are on the verge of being evicted from their homes in the dead of winter and in the midst of a pandemic.
    The world also knows as W.E.B Du Bois wrote, that the problem of the 20th century is “the problem of the color line.” In 1967 The Kerner Commission warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal” and COVID-19 has highlighted deep-rooted systemic racial disparities in health care; highlighting the adage, when America catches a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.
    As the Biden administration implements its COVID, economic, social justice, education and other programs; African-Americans must be at the forefront of articulating the needs of and for the African American community. “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” It will be fatal for the community if it overlooks the urgency of the moment.
    How quickly Biden appeared to set aside the fact that Black voters saved his candidacy and put him in the White House. He was about to drop out of the race until African-American voters in South Carolina delivered him a resounding win.
    Yet, in December, civil rights leaders had to demand a meeting with the then President-elect in order to express their concerns about a lack of focus on racial equity, social justice, and increased diversity in the Biden-Harris cabinet. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn is on record saying, not enough Black Americans have been nominated to join the incoming Biden administration. “I want to see where the process leads to…But so far it’s not good.”
    Biden has confused gender diversity and diversity of phenotype and pigmentation with the diversity of perspective and policy. Look at the names and records of his cabinet selections and nominees. For the most part it’s “Clinton/Obama retreads” – the same people and perspectives that have given us the neoliberal and imperialists policies that have driven the country into the ditch. Republicans have contributed to this as well. But right now, the focus is on President Biden and Vice President Harris.
    Frederick Douglas told us, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
    What is the African-American community willing to demand?
    We need a Marshall Plan for the African-American community. If the U.S. could spend $15B to rebuild Europe after the devastation of WWII and pass a $740B Defense Authorization Act, the U.S. can invest the needed dollars to rebuild
    the American communities of color that it devastated with three centuries of slavery, the Tulsa race
    riot, the Red Summer of 1919 and the gutting of urban centers with the building of the highway
    system of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
    The African-American community saved Biden’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and put him in the White House. The African-American community saved the Senate for the Democrats with its successful efforts in Georgia.
    The question is not what rewards the Black community will be given for its efforts. Instead, the Black community must decide what it is willing to demand.
    Go to http://www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s
    Prescription at Facebook.com © 2021 InfoWave Communications, LLC