Conflict erupts at Minneapolis, L.A. protests over George Floyd death

[loomer]

Additional shootings, this time in Davenport. 4 wounded, 2 dead - only one injured from the police, which does make me raise an eyebrow at the narrative of them being ambushed.

[The Romulan Republic]

The ACLU has created an app to record instances of police misconduct:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/31/us/a ... index.html

(CNN)The American Civil Liberties Union has an app that allows people to record their interactions with law enforcement. It could come in handy during ongoing protests over police misconduct, says a spokesperson for the organization.

The ACLU first released the "Mobile Justice" app in 2015 for users to record possible police misconduct. Videos are automatically uploaded to the organization's server to ensure they are saved even if a phone is seized or destroyed.

With protests erupting in at least 30 US cities over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the ACLU is encouraging people to document their interactions with police in case the situation escalates.

"There is no doubt that moments like these highlight the importance of the app," Marcus Benigno, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Southern California, told CNN. "Without a video of the unfortunate and tragic incident, we probably wouldn't even know George Floyd's name."

Video captured Floyd pleading that he couldn't breathe while being held down with a knee on his neck by a Minneapolis police officer.

The ACLU first launched the app following the deaths of unarmed black teenagers Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, which ignited the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014.

While thousands take to the streets to protest police brutality as unarmed black men continue to die in the hands of law enforcement, Benigno said citizens are encouraged now more than ever to assert their First Amendment right to film law enforcement while they are on active duty in case the situation escalates.

How to use the app
When a user goes to their state's Mobile Justice app, they are given an option to record a video which is downloaded to their phone and directly sent to that ACLU chapter for staff to review. Before submitting, users must add a report describing the location of the incident, who was involved, names of the officers in the video if known, and any additional details.

Users can also report an incident they witnessed and learn more about their rights to take photos and videos with audio recordings, which differ from state to state.

In the upcoming months, the app -- which is currently available in 17 states and the District of Columbia -- will be accessible to everyone in all 50 states while respecting each state's laws, Benigno said.

Along with capturing misconduct, the Mobile Justice app also helps deescalate situations between law enforcement and citizens.
"The initial goal was to make sure abuses from law enforcement were caught on camera, so we can ultimately reform the system, but what we're seeing is it's not just about capturing abuse," Benigno said.

"It's become a deescalation tool. It can help people feel empowered while forcing officers to take a second to reevaluate the situation. There are countless videos showing people asserting their right to film with a sense of security and safety."

[loomer]

Does anyone have any people on the ground in DC? The DCBlackout tag is full of misinfo but some of what's coming out in between deletion waves is pretty alarming.

[Zaune]

My sister-in-law, who is ordinarily rather a lot more mentally stable than me, posted in a Skype group last night about how if the Dallas PD start using "non-deadly" weapons in her neighbourhood she can justify escalation of force. I sympathise, but I'm slightly worried.

[PainRack]

My sister-in-law, who is ordinarily rather a lot more mentally stable than me, posted in a Skype group last night about how if the Dallas PD start using "non-deadly" weapons in her neighbourhood she can justify escalation of force. I sympathise, but I'm slightly worried.

.......

That's honestly horrifying....

A scenario where cops and civilians shooting at each other would be the shit hit the fan moment.

[Ralin]

The ACLU has created an app to record instances of police misconduct:

Users can also report an incident they witnessed and learn more about their rights to take photos and videos with audio recordings, which differ from state to state.

In the upcoming months, the app -- which is currently available in 17 states and the District of Columbia -- will be accessible to everyone in all 50 states while respecting each state's laws, Benigno said.

So what about the states where it's illegal to record the police?

[Ralin]

My sister-in-law, who is ordinarily rather a lot more mentally stable than me, posted in a Skype group last night about how if the Dallas PD start using "non-deadly" weapons in her neighbourhood she can justify escalation of force. I sympathise, but I'm slightly worried.

.......

That's honestly horrifying....

A scenario where cops and civilians shooting at each other would be the shit hit the fan moment.

As opposed to the norm of just cops shooting at civilians?

[loomer]

Somehow I missed Barr's statement. It doesn't have legal standing to schedule antifascists as domestic terrorists (and, I'll note, anarchists are at the front of all forms of anti-fascist action, especially non-violent) but pointing the terrorism taskforces at left organizers is a massive intimidation tactic.

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Attorney General William P. Barr's Statement on Riots and Domestic Terrorism

Attorney General William P. Barr has issued the following statement:

“With the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful and legitimate protests have been hijacked by violent radical elements. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda.

It is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it. The continued violence and destruction of property endangers the lives and livelihoods of others, and interferes with the rights of peaceful protestors, as well as all other citizens.

It also undercuts the urgent work that needs to be done – through constructive engagement between affected communities and law enforcement leaders – to address legitimate grievances. Preventing reconciliation and driving us apart is the goal of these radical groups, and we cannot let them succeed.

It is the responsibility of state and local leaders to ensure that adequate law enforcement resources, including the National Guard where necessary, are deployed on the streets to reestablish law and order. We saw this finally happen in Minneapolis last night, and it worked.

Federal law enforcement actions will be directed at apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law.

To identify criminal organizers and instigators, and to coordinate federal resources with our state and local partners, federal law enforcement is using our existing network of 56 regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF).

The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”

Source

[loomer]

Proportionate Response

When destroying a police precinct is a reasonable reaction.
By Steven W. Thrasher
May 30, 20205:55 AM

In the early days of the pandemic, did you ever fantasize what we’d do when people could go outside again and gather together? Did you dream of a better, “post-pandemic” America? One with more hugs, more mutual care and concern for our fellow humans, having all gone through (in differing and unequal ways, but still having shared) a harrowing common experience?

People are going out again, all over the United States. But it’s not to celebrate a vaccine or a debt jubilee. The first national connecting event coming out of lockdown is mass protest against police violence after the lynching of George Floyd, and the state’s attempt at suppressing it. The coronavirus—which disproportionately is killing Black Americans—drove us inside. Policing—which also disproportionately is killing Black Americans—is drawing us back out. Almost overnight, the streets have gone from largely empty—though the rate of police killings remained mostly unchanged—to filled with thousands of masked people, often being gassed or beaten. The conditions before, during and after the lockdown are part of a continuum in America—a miserable nation maintained by policing.

For about a decade, I’ve been reporting on police violence in the United States—or rather, I’ve been reporting on the violence of policing, because what I’ve witnessed is that policing is always violent. The order the police protect and sustain is an order in which needed resources remain in the hands of the few. Whether or not they are actually killing or beating somebody, police are always threatening the use of lethal violence (mostly at the poor, disproportionately at Black and other nonwhite people), and that is a form of violence itself. And as I’ve reported on the violence of policing, the encouraging rebellions against it, and the subsequent attempted suppression of those uprisings, a common line of questioning comes up, mostly from white people:

Why did they burn down that Kwik Trip gas station/CVS/Target? Those businesses help and bring jobs to their community! Don’t they know they are hurting their own communities? Why are they destroying their own communities?

Let’s put aside for a moment that such questions elide how much corporations actually “help” low-income communities where they have businesses, making sales of necessary goods to nearby residents while paying poverty wages to their workers that make sustainable life impossible. At their core, the questions assume the destruction of property is more worrisome than the destruction of life—otherwise, a person wouldn’t wonder why the destruction of life by the police in recent years has triggered the destruction of property. In communities where businesses are protected and people are not, damaging commercial property emphasizes the upside-down values of the usual order of things. As NPR Code Switch host Gene Demby wrote on Twitter, “Spike Lee said that when Do The Right Thing came out, a lot of critics thought it irresponsible to show Mookie throw a trash can through the window of Sal’s pizzeria bc it would encourage riots…but they had far less to say about the cops choking Radio Raheem to death.”

But if there is anything unclear about why protesters would rebel against businesses to respond to the police killings of Michael Brown or Freddie Gray, there should be absolutely no confusion about the logic of destroying a police station in response to the police killing of George Floyd. You can agree with or disagree with the action. But you cannot deny that there is a logic in targeting a police station after the police have lynched a man in broad daylight, on video. It’s an attempt to create a different order in the society.

The old ruling assumptions about policing seem neither as necessary or inevitable as they did before. Killings of Black people at the hands of police are not new, but the discourse around them does seem to have shifted with the George Floyd “I can’t breathe” video. I was genuinely surprised when Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis Police officers were fired so quickly for the gruesome killing, considering it took five years for Daniel Pantaleo to be fired from the NYPD following the Eric Garner “I can’t breathe” video. I was mildly shocked when the University of Minnesota’s president wrote that the school would scale back its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department and will “no longer contract with the [MPD] for additional law enforcement support”; this is a not the “a few bad apples” approach we’ve been accustomed to, but an acknowledgment of the fundamental danger the entire Minneapolis Police Department poses to a university community. And I was outright amazed, the morning after the Third Precinct was burned, when Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that “’Brick and mortar is not as important as life,” and the city’s public schools terminated their contract with the police.

This new outlook was developing and spreading long before the police encountered George Floyd. Black Lives Matter activists and scholar organizers like Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Keeanga-Yahmahtta Taylor and Mariame Kaba deserve credit for raising consciousness about the carceral state. Occupy Wall Street activists deserve credit for helping Americans to see that the real looting is happening with wealth transfers towards the ruling class, and endured police intimidation and abuse to do it. Clearly such work is getting more people to challenge the premises of policing more seriously.

But the pandemic has also given many more Americans a chance to see which parts of the status quo are really protected in a crisis, and what policing means for them. When gun-waving protesters swarm legislatures, demanding that public health orders be lifted so people can be sent back to work, what gives them the space to shout down the majority? Policing. When eviction courts reopen and many of the 40 million people out of work are evicted, how will that be carried out? Policing.

Policing has been strangling civic life in Minneapolis and across the country all along. In 2017, Forbes wrote about research which broke down the cities with the largest police budgets. Minneapolis was number nine, spending $163 million each year—nearly 36 percent of its general fund. Only Chicago and Oakland spent a larger percent of their general funds on policing, at 40 and 41 percent respectively. (New York City spent the most money by far, at nearly $5 billion, but that only comes to 8 percent of its budget.)

When I read this Thursday night, I thought to myself: Imagine what kind of city Minneapolis could be if it wasn’t spending that much of its tax dollars on policing. What if Minneapolis had invested that money in homes for the unhoused? In medicine for the sick? In public health officials to help with infectious disease? In food for the hungry? What if Minneapolis put its police budget towards the very resources which would make policing as presently practiced unnecessary? What if every city did the same?

What we are seeing in the streets of Minneapolis and Memphis and New York and Los Angeles is the result not just of a decade of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist organizing amped up by the pandemic. We are also witnessing a rebellion against the many inequities exposed by the pandemic. Health, space, income, race, and the ability to stay away from person-to-person job duties have produced enormous disparities in the impact of the coronavirus. Wall Street has been made so whole it is soaring while renters—prevented from working—have been largely left out to dry. The same forces causing today’s pandemic-fueled inequality were at work when Occupy Wall Street protesters first occupied Zuccotti Park in 2011, and many strands of American protests from the past decade are now working together.

As any military tactician or social justice organizer can tell you, direct action gets the goods. The destruction of a police precinct is not only a tactically reasonable response to the crisis of policing, it is a quintessentially American response, and a predictable one. The uprising we’ve seen this week is speaking to the American police state in its own language, up to and including the use of fireworks to mark a battle victory. Property destruction for social change is as American as the Boston Tea Party and the Stonewall Riots. And before he unconvincingly qualified a statement so violent Twitter put it behind a warning screen, the president saying he would order shots fired to protect property—that’s as American as the MOVE bombing and apple pie.

source

Dr. Thrasher's somewhat controversial for his stance on Israel, so some caution may be warranted, but this is a potent read. I hadn't realized just how strong the response was to burning the Third Precinct - I wonder if more stations will go up in flames by the end of this, and what the outcome of those will be.

[loomer]

Trump has come out of hiding. What does he have to say?

About what you'd expect, naturally.

President Trump slams governors as 'weak'
Urges crackdown on protests, arrests, long prison terms

Jonathan LeMire, Zeke Miller and Alan Suderman

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday derided the nation's governors as "weak" and demanded tougher crackdowns on protesters in the aftermath of another night of violent protests in dozens of American cities.

Trump spoke to governors on a video teleconference with law enforcement and national security officials, telling the local leaders they "have to get much tougher" amid nationwide protests and criticizing their responses.

"Most of you are weak," Trump said. "You have to arrest people."

The days of protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after he was pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer. They turned violent in several cities, with looting and mayhem, and fires ignited in the historic park across from the White House.

The president urged the governors to deploy the National Guard, which he credited for helping calm the situation Sunday night in Minneapolis. He demanded that similarly tough measures be taken in cities that also experienced a spasm of violence, like New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

"You've got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you'll never see this stuff again," said Trump. "We're doing it in Washington, D.C. We're going to do something that people haven't seen before."

The president told the governors they were making themselves "look like fools" for not calling up more of the National Guard as a show for force on city streets.

Attorney General Bill Barr, who was also on the call, told governors that a joint terrorist task force would be used to track the agitators and urged local officials to "dominate" the streets and control, not react to crowds, and urged them to "go after troublemakers."

Trump's angry exhortations at the nation's governors came after a night of escalating violence, images of fires and looting and clashes with police filling the nation's airwaves and overshadowing the largely peaceful protests. The protests grew so heated Friday night that the Secret Service rushed the president to an underground bunker previously used during terrorist attacks.

Trump continued his effort to project strength, using a series of inflammatory tweets and delivering partisan attacks during a time of national crisis.

As cities burned night after night and images of violence dominated television coverage, Trump's advisers discussed the prospect of an Oval Office address in an attempt to ease tensions. The notion was quickly scrapped for lack of policy proposals and the president's own seeming disinterest in delivering a message of unity.

Trump did not appear in public on Sunday and was not scheduled to so Monday either.

Secret Service agents rushed Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades.

Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after he was pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer. The demonstrations in Washington turned violent and appeared to catch officers by surprise. They sparked one of the highest alerts on the White House complex since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

"The White House does not comment on security protocols and decisions," said White House spokesman Judd Deere. The Secret Service said it does not discuss the means and methods of its protective operations. The president's move to the bunker was first reported by The New York Times.

The president and his family have been shaken by the size and venom of the crowds, according to the Republican. It was not immediately clear if first lady Melania Trump and the couple's 14-year-old son, Barron, joined the president in the bunker. Secret Service protocol would have called for all those under the agency's protection to be in the underground shelter.

Trump has told advisers he worries about his safety, while both privately and publicly praising the work of the Secret Service.

Demonstrators returned Sunday afternoon, facing off against police at Lafayette Park into the evening.

Trump continued his effort to project strength, using a series of inflammatory tweets and delivering partisan attacks during a time of national crisis.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a message from a conservative commentator encouraging authorities to respond with greater force.

"This isn't going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys," Buck Sexton wrote in a message amplified by the president.

In recent days security at the White House has been reinforced by the National Guard and additional personnel from the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police.

The Justice Department deployed members of the U.S. Marshals Service and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration to supplement National Guard troops outside the White House, according to a senior Justice Department official. The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Source

[Jub]

Here's an article about the agitators that largely agree with loomer's take on the issue:

Over the weekend, large-scale demonstrations erupted in cities across the United States in protest of the senseless killing of George Floyd by a police officer. As some protests descended into violence and looting, several local and national officials blamed the uprising on "outside agitators." This explanation is a gross oversimplification with an ugly racial history. It has been used repeatedly to marginalize real grievances and to ignore systemic racism.

While there are certainly people attempting to exploit the unrest, there is a long history of government officials using the trope of "outside agitators" to delegitimize protests of racial injustice.

"I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), whose city is the epicenter of the protest, said Saturday. “They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades.”

"Every single person we arrested last night, I’m told, was from out of state," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III (D) said, "What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here."

Their comments were echoed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), who said, "about 20 percent are Minnesotans, and 80 percent are outside."

Arrest records tell a very different story. Investigative reporter Brandon Stahl reviewed 69 arrest records from Minneapolis-based police "for rioting, unlawful assembly and burglary-related crimes from Friday to Saturday." Of those, 56 were from Minnesota, and five were "unknown." There were just eight arrests of people from other states. In St. Paul, 12 of the 18 arrests were Minnesota residents. A city spokesman acknowledged his error and said the mayor "went with the information he had at the time."

In 1965, for example, notoriously racist Alabama sheriff, Jim Clarkwhose posse tear-gassed and clubbed civil rights protesters in Selma, blamed the situation on "outsiders" like Martin Luther King Jr. He said that the "local people" would "settle down" once King and other outsiders left.

In 1963, King broke down the perniciousness of the "outside agitator" trope in a letter he wrote while jailed in Birmingham after participating in a non-violent protest. (He was arrested because a judge issued an injunction banning all demonstrations.) King was responding to eight white members of the clergy who said segregation should be fought only in courts and objected to demonstrations "directed and led in part by outsiders."

I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in"... I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

King believed in non-violence, but also warned against dismissing the underlying cause of riots. "Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots," King said in a 1967 speech, "In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?"

Trouble in New York
The danger of the "outside agitator" trope played out over the weekend in New York City. On Saturday night, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio (D) claimed that many protesters in New York City were "coming in from outside."

He then went on to defend the actions of the police who drove through a crowd of protesters.

"It's inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers. That's wrong on its face, and that hasn't happened in the history of protest in NYC," DeBlasio said, "Officers have to get out of the situation. It's a very, very tense situation and imagine what it'd be like if you're just trying to do your job and you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I'm not gonna blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation."

DeBlasio's decision to blame the protests on outsiders and his decision to defend police officers driving through protesters are related. It's easier to defend violent action by the police directed at outsiders who came to the city to create trouble. It's much harder to defend the potentially deadly use of force against your own constituents.

In another widely-circulated video, an NYPD police officer pulls down the mask of a protester and pepper sprays his face.

On Sunday, DeBlasio praised the police on "tremendous restraint overall." He "could not immediately provide information on where the outside agitators are coming from."

Trump casually threatens to deploy the military to kill Americans
The "outside agitator" trope was also aggressively embraced by Trump and his administration. In one tweet, Trump described the protestors as opponents of "good, hardworking Minneapolis residents who want peace."

Attorney General Bill Barr, without citing any evidence, echoed Trump, claiming that "outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda."

Neither Trump nor Barr acknowledged that the 80% figured cited by Waltz was debunked. Instead, Trump warned that "Crossing State lines to incite violence is a FEDERAL CRIME." That was followed by a threat to use "the unlimited power of our Military" against Americans.

Trump had particular disdain for the protesters who showed up at the White House in Washington, DC. He not only claimed they were outsiders but also "professionally managed" with little regard for the "the memory of George Floyd." Trump praised the Secret Service for coming down "hard" on anyone who got "too frisky." He said the officers were prepared to use "vicious dogs" and the "most ominous weapons I have ever seen" against the crowd.

It's a vivid example of how the outside agitator trope creates a destructive cycle. The trope is used by Trump, and others, to justify excessive use of force by law enforcement. But excessive use of force by law enforcement is what catalyzed the demonstrations in the first place. The use of excessive force in response to the unrest will likely make things worse.

It's worth noting that I got this from my aunt who's career in city-level politics was cut short by her chronic illness. This isn't just some ignorant ranting from people who don't know better.

[Jub]

Another good read with differing viewpoints about the lasting impact of riots.

[Jub]

A lot of companies have things to say about the state of the world right now, but I personally like Sony's approach:

We have decided to postpone the PlayStation 5 event scheduled for June 4.

While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and let more important voices be heard.

It's simple and to the point while still showing which side they wish to be seen on.

[Highlord Laan]

Is your surprised face ready?

The autopsy says George Floyd died from asphyxiation. The medical examiner's preliminary report said there were no findings to that effect.

An independent autopsy, in calling George Floyd's death a homicide, determined he died of "asphyxiation from sustained pressure" -- a finding that is at odds with the medical examiner.

The autopsy commissioned by Floyd's family says compression to the neck and back, caused by officers kneeling on him, led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.

Floyd was essentially "dead on the scene" in Minneapolis on May 25, Ben Crump, attorney for the family, said Monday.
Multiple videos of Floyd's death show former police officer Derek Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, along with other officers kneeling on his back.
CNN reached out to Hennepin County officials for comment.
Hennepin County medical examiner says Floyd didn't suffocate
The independent autopsy's findings came after the Hennepin County Medical Examiner found "no physical findings" to "support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation," according to a criminal complaint released by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Friday.
Preliminary autopsy results cited in the complaint involving Chauvin said combined effects of being restrained, any potential intoxicants in Floyd's system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, probably contributed to the man's death. Toxicology results can take weeks.

he complaint noted the findings are preliminary and the full report from the medical examiner is pending.
Dr. Michael Baden, one of the independent medical examiners, said "there is no other health issue that could cause or contribute to the death."
"Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That's not true," Baden said.
Floyd's cause and manner of death remain pending and is being investigated by local, state and federal law enforcement, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office said in a statement.
"George died because he needed a breath. He needed a breath of air," Crump told reporters.
Attorney calling for charges against all officers
Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds in total and two minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd was unresponsive, according to the criminal complaint against Chauvin.
The fired officer has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Crump said he should be charged with first-degree murder.

The other three officers seen in the video have been fired, but not charged.
Floyd family attorney Antonio Romanucci said the three "need to be charged criminally" since, he said, "they knew what they were doing could cause death."
A homicide is the death of a person caused directly by another person. It includes murder and manslaughter. In order to be culpable, you only need to know that what you're doing could cause death, Romanucci said.
"They knew they were employing restraints that could or might cause death," he said.
Protests erupt across the country after Floyd's death
Floyd's death was just another in a string of incidents that illustrate law enforcement's continued strained relationship with African American men. In the days following Floyd's death, protests that erupted in cities across the country called for justice.
Protests over the weekend typically began peacefully during the day, then sometimes turned violent at night, with protesters hurling rocks and other objects at police and officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets on crowds.
Crump, the Floyd family attorney, called on Americans to end the violence and destruction caused by protests.
"We understand the righteous anger," Crump said. "But the violence is absolutely unacceptable. Unacceptable to George and unacceptable to us."
CNN's Stephanie Gallman, Steve Almasy, Artemis Moshtaghian and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.

Tl;dr: Medical examiner that works closely with police says it totally wasn't their fault. Independent examiner calls bullshit after actually doing his job with integrity.

Let the fucker walk. See what happens. And for the record, yes the violence is both acceptable and needed. It's not like peaceful protests have so much as caused a dent with this bullshit.

[Elfdart]

One giveaway that the authorities are ginning up the violence is that they've deliberately targeted reporters. You don't see protesters shooting or beating up journalists.

[The Romulan Republic]

While I hope that this will lead in the long term to major reforms in policing, as well as the immediate accountability of charging the guilty officers, I feel like the best thing that's come out of this so far has been the sight of Trump cowering in his bunker, and the resulting ridicule.

In politics, at least American politics, part of being seen as "Presidential" is being seen as strong and decisive. Nothing seems to kill a campaign faster than the candidate being seen as weak. This is probably all the more true for Trump, who has built his presidency on projecting an image of a "law and order" strong man.

I don't know if this will hurt him- a lot of things that should have have slid right off him in the past. But if anything hurts him, even with his base, it'll be the sight of him cowering in his bunker while all this is happening.

[Zaune]

I don't know if this will hurt him- a lot of things that should have have slid right off him in the past. But if anything hurts him, even with his base, it'll be the sight of him cowering in his bunker while all this is happening.

Ironic that it's probably the most sensible decision he's made since this whole shitshow started, isn't it?

Assuming of course that this was voluntary on his part, and not a result of his Secret Service detail getting sick of him trying to tell them how to do their jobs (and probably trying to order them to do something incredibly unhelpful like shoot into the crowd) and dragging him down there by force.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Music Industry has organized a blackout tomorrow in solidarity:

https://cbc.ca/music/black-out-tuesay-m ... -1.5592990

After a week of nationwide protests in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the music industry is hitting pause on business as usual in support of Black Lives Matter protesters and the Black community.

Taking place on Tuesday, June 2, and given the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused, what is now being called Black Out Tuesday was created by Atlantic senior director of marketing Jamila Thomas and former Atlantic executive Brianna Agyemang (now a senior artist campaign manager at Platoon) as a way to disrupt business as usual this week.

"In response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other Black citizens at the hands of police, #TheShowMustBePaused is an initiative created by two Black women in music in observance of the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard. We will not continue to conduct business as usual without regard for Black lives."

"The music industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry," their statement continues. "An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations and their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable."


While the site theshowmustbepaused.com suggests ways to mindfully observe the date, labels have started posting what they're going to do specifically on the day.

Warner Music Canada, home of Neon Dreams, Barenaked Ladies and Just John x Dom Dias, posted that its business will "not go on as usual."


The label followed that up with ways others can get involved.


Interscope Records, home to Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Carly Rae Jepsen and Billie Eilish, will refrain from releasing music all week, and will donate to "organizations that help bail out protesters."


San Francisco-based Father/Daughter Records, which counts Partner and Shamir as artists on its roster, has decided not to stay silent, but to take a different approach.


Drake's OVO label has not tied its early June 1 response to Black Out Tuesday, but it did post what actions it would be taking this week.

On a related note, one of my artist friends on Facebook posted this today:

Tomorrow, I will be participating in #BlackoutTuesday and will not be posting on social media, acting, or writing. Instead, I will be spending the day engaging with and learning from the work of Black artists, academics, and activists and participating with community organizations. Fellow non-Black artists and friends, I hope you will too.

#BlackLivesMatter #TheShowMustBePaused

So, in solidarity, I will not be posting on social media (including this board) tomorrow, or engaging in my usual creative pursuits, and will instead dedicate some time to better educating myself on the perspective of the Black community.

[The Romulan Republic]

Anonymous may have made its move: the Minneapolis Police Department website appears to have been taken down by a DDoS attack:

https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/a ... 234621332/

The internet was abuzz late Saturday night with speculation that Anonymous — the decentralized hacker collective — had successfully disabled the Minneapolis Police Department website, in retaliation for the murder of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis PD site, as well as the parent City of Minneapolis site, became inaccessible late Saturday, according to multiple user reports.

By early Sunday, the sites were still experiencing access problems, sporadically requiring visitors to enter “captchas” verifying they weren’t bots in a front-end hosted by internet security firm Cloudflare — a signal the sites were experiencing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, designed to render an internet service unusable by flooding it with bogus traffic. (A separate site for the Minneapolis Police Department, insidempd.com, appears to be unaffected.)

The disruption to the Minneapolis municipal sites came after a Facebook page claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous posted a video on May 28 warning the Minneapolis PD that it “will be exposing your many crimes to the world” and that “this week’s brutal killing of George Floyd… is merely the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high-profile cases of wrongful death at the hands of officers in your state.” The video, which has been viewed over 1.8 million times, features a figure wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and an electronically altered voiceover, which are hallmarks of the group.

The death of Floyd, who was killed May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis PD, has ignited nationwide protests and rioting. On Friday, former police officer Derek Chauvin, who had kneeled on Floyd’s neck, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The chatter about Anonymous’ apparent resurfacing after three years of inactivity to join the Black Lives Matter protest after Floyd’s murder also led “Mr. Robot” — USA Network’s dystopian hacker drama starring Rami Malek — to become a top-trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. through early Sunday. “Mr. Robot,” which concluded its fourth and final season last fall, made direct references to Anonymous via the show’s anarchic hacker network called “fsociety.”

Amid the ongoing civil unrest Saturday in Minneapolis, the city’s police pepper-sprayed and arrested NBC News’ Simon Moya-Smith; that came after Minnesota state troopers arrested CNN’s Omar Jimenez and his crew on Friday. Also Saturday in Minneapolis, two L.A. Times staffers said state police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a group of journalists at point-blank range, and photographer-author Linda Tirado tweeted that she was blinded in her left eye by what she thinks was a rubber bullet.

The @LatestAnonNews Twitter account, which claims to be run by “multiple Anons,” did not explicitly take credit for the outages of the Minneapolis Police Department and city government sites, but it retweeted others who suggested those were the result of an attack carried out by the group.

The Minneapolis PD website has been taken offline by Anonymous & they're threatening to take down any government website for any organization attacking protestors

— William LeGate (@williamlegate) May 31, 2020

We are interventionist.
We are hacktivist.
We are journalist.
We are activist.
We are justice.
We are legion.
Expect us.

We are from the internet.
We are #Anonymous.
We are everywhere.#GeorgeFloydProtests pic.twitter.com/NU3FXG7SCp

— Anonymous (@LatestAnonNews) May 31, 2020

[chimericoncogene]

Americans and westerners in general, by the standards of and in the impressions of East Asians, are mean, pushy people who yell at staff a lot and make lots of demands impolitely, and who talk to you in public even though they don't know you (who makes conversation with strangers or yells at them for tiny misdemeanors? That's not normal - here, a littering kid has a 75% of just being given short harsh looks).

The experiences of people I know with American police suggests that they are very nosy, very aggressive, and very intrusive. I know someone - a fifteen year old East Asian girl - who got yelled at by a cop (with a bullhorn, from across the pond) for pretending to feed ducks in Central Park (she just wanted to have fun with ducks). Such a thing would be inconceivable in East Asia. Cops are too lazy to bother with this moronic stuff like kids littering or whatever. And who has time to pull people over for speeding? Just tag it and mail the guy the bill!

Perhaps this reflects a more extroverted, "nosy" and aggressive cultural milleau in North America, resulting in both more aggressive people and requiring more aggressive cops (overaggressive at this point, it seems).

[The Romulan Republic]

Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, to deploy active duty military without the permission of state governments:

https://msn.com/en-ca/news/newspolitics ... r-BB14Tflu

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is considering invoking a 213-year-old federal law that would allow him to deploy active-duty U.S. troops to respond to protests in cities across the country, according to four people familiar with the internal White House discussions.

Trump has warmed to the idea of using the Insurrection Act, a law first adopted in 1807, to deploy troops as his frustrations mount over continued protests in response to the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who was killed by a white police officer.

Some of the president's aides have been encouraging him for days to invoke the act, as he weighs options for exercising executive powers to address the crisis.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story but at a briefing with reporters Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany left open the possibility that the president could invoke the Act.

"The Insurrection Act, it's one of the tools available, whether the president decides to pursue that, that's his prerogative," McEnany said.

Governors can request the federal government send active duty troops to help in cases of civil unrest like the widespread protests plaguing U.S. cities. But, so far, no state governors have requested active duty troops to assist and instead have relied on local law enforcement and National Guard soldiers and airmen on state active duty.

Governors often prefer the National Guard forces in these cases because they can legally perform law enforcement duties in the U.S., whereas troops on active duty cannot or they violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

But, the president could invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops without a request from a state. Those troops would be allowed to conduct law enforcement missions. To invoke the act, Trump would first have to issue a proclamation to "immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time," according to the law.

In the past the Justice Department has drafted such proclamations. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the Act has been invoked many times throughout U.S. history although rarely since the 1960's Civil Rights Era. The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992, for instance, during the Los Angeles riots after the brutal police beating of Rodney King. In that instance, however, the move was requested by then-California Gov. Pete Wilson, not invoked solely by the president.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the possibility that the president could invoke the Act.

One of Trump's allies outside the White House, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act "if necessary" so U.S. troops can "support our local law enforcement and ensure that this violence ends tonight."

[mr friendly guy]

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5004 ... orge-floyd

More than 60 reporters attacked, arrested or harassed since George Floyd protests began, group says
BY JOE CONCHA - 06/01/20 10:52 AM EDT

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) said it has tallied more than 60 incidents in which journalists covering demonstrations over death of George Floyd during the course of his arrest by Minneapolis police were attacked, arrested or harassed by protesters or police in the past 48 hours alone.

Now protests from Western governments against US human rights violations in 3, 3, 3, 3, .....yeah ok, not going to happen, at least from the Anglosphere.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5004 ... orge-floyd

More than 60 reporters attacked, arrested or harassed since George Floyd protests began, group says
BY JOE CONCHA - 06/01/20 10:52 AM EDT

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) said it has tallied more than 60 incidents in which journalists covering demonstrations over death of George Floyd during the course of his arrest by Minneapolis police were attacked, arrested or harassed by protesters or police in the past 48 hours alone.

Now protests from Western governments against US human rights violations in 3, 3, 3, 3, .....yeah ok, not going to happen, at least from the Anglosphere.

While not specifically about violence against the press, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada did issue a statement at the start of this condemning the killing of Floyd and anti-Black racism in both countries. It wasn't as strong as might have been hoped for, but still seen as a departure from the usual behaviour of a Canadian PM towards unrest in the United States:

https://theguardian.com/world/2020/may/ ... ion-racism

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.”

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.

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.

In other news, I got this off Robert Reich's Facebook, though I've heard it reported elsewhere:

Trump continues to drag our nation into authoritarianism. In his Rose Garden address earlier tonight, he called the violence that has broken out at protests against police killings across the country “acts of domestic terror” and said he would deploy “heavily armed” military personnel to crush the protests. This follows his earlier remarks to governors, who he called “weak” for not quelling the unrest brutally enough, apparently.

As he made his escalatory rhetoric, police indiscriminately fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of entirely peaceful protesters near the White House. The police forcefully dispersed the crowd before the city’s 7 P.M. curfew went into effect — all so Trump could parade across the area and stage a photo op in front of a church.

This is the moment our country is in: our president is deploying the military to perpetrate violence against their fellow citizens — because their fellow citizens are protesting unjust violence at the hands of the state. Trump is not pretending to act as president of our democracy any longer. He is an authoritarian, through and through.

So yeah. DC police fired on a crowd of peaceful protesters so that Trump could do a photo op.

[Zaune]

Well, so much for him withdrawing to the White House panic room and staying out of the goddamn way.

[The Romulan Republic]

To follow up on my last post, the bishop of St John's Episcopal Church in DC, which Trump used for his stunt, has condemned the action, and said that the church was not notified in advance of Trump's intention to use it for a photo op, or of the plans to disperse protesters with tear gas:

https://thedailybeast.com/episcopal-bis ... -as-a-prop

The bishop who oversees St. John’s Episcopal Church, which President Donald Trump visited on Monday evening shortly after police used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to a clear a path for him, was “outraged” that the president would use that place of worship for a photo-op on Monday night.

Speaking with Washington Post reporter Michelle Boorstein, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, the diocese of Washington, D.C., said that neither she nor the rector in charge of the church—which suffered fire damage during Sunday evening’s protests—were informed in advance of the visit, nor were they told “that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”

Budde continued: “Holding a bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to enflame violence. I am beyond. We need moral leadership and he’s done everything to divide us and has just used one of the most sacred symbols of the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

The Episcopal bishop of DC – who oversees the DC church Trump just stopped at – tells the @washingtonpost she is "outraged" and that neither she nor the rector was asked or told… “that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.." 1/3

— Michelle Boorstein (@mboorstein) June 2, 2020