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(CNN)It’s a common rule in Asian American households: Don’t bring home a black boyfriend or girlfriend.
“Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother,” the English version of the letter begins. “We need to talk. You may not have many Black friends, colleagues, or acquaintances, but I do. Black people are a fundamental part of my life: they are my friends, my neighbors, my family. I am scared for them.”
Less than 24 hours later, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields stepped down from her job.
“‘They’re going to say it’s (a taser) a deadly weapon. And it’s not,” Justin Miller, an attorney representing Brooks’ family, said a press conference Saturday.
L. Chris Stewart, who is also representing the family, called out the discrepancy between the responses to the coronavirus and racism, highlighting the huge global effort to find a vaccine for Covid-19, while “nobody” tries to “find a vaccine” for civil rights abuses.
“I guess that’s because it doesn’t hit close to home for the people that care.”
WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence said he has “great respect” for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who spoke out against his involvement in a controversial walk with President Donald Trump to pose for photos at St. John’s Church.
“I have great respect for General Milley. He’s leading our Joint Chiefs of Staff with great distinction. I respect his ability to speak for himself about his presence there,” Pence said.
In an interview with CBS News Radio in Pittsburgh on Friday, Pence would not say whether he agreed with Milley that it was a “mistake” to join in when Trump and a group of White House aides walked through Lafayette Square near the White House to visit the historic church, where a basement fire was set during a protest late last month.
“I’ll leave General Milley to his own judgment in that regard,” Pence said.
Milley made waves this week when he said he regretted joining Trump at the church after police and National Guard officers used force to clear largely peaceful George Floyd protesters from Lafayette Square, which drew instant backlash from those who saw it as clearing a path for Trump to have a “photo op” with a Bible.
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” Milley said in remarks for a National Defense University commencement ceremony. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”
Milley’s presence in the photos, while wearing his camouflage combat uniform, drew outrage from some retired military officials.
“I should not have been there,” he said.
Pence was absent from the walk to St. John’s Church that day, which he said was due to “an abundance of caution” because of the protests.
“I was actually encouraged to stay at the White House out of an abundance of caution. It was obviously a volatile environment at moments. So I was encouraged to remain,” Pence said. “But I would have been happy to walk shoulder to shoulder across Lafayette Park with President Trump.”
The protests outside the White House were part of the recent massive demonstrations across the country against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was pinned to the ground for nearly nine minutes by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin while Floyd said he couldn’t breathe on Memorial Day.
Lawmakers are looking at legislation to reform policing to reduce instances of brutality, with Democrats introducing a Justice in Policing Act and Republicans working on their own plan. Trump has said he’s working on an executive order to encourage police departments to follow current professional standards for use of force.
Pence declined to say if he believes there is systemic racism in the country, but said racism does exist: “I acknowledge that there is racism in America, just as there is in every nation on Earth.”
“We’ve obviously had a great challenging history for African Americans over the last 400 years,” Pence said. “But I truly believe that every American can be proud of the progress that we have made over the life of this nation.”
Asked if the choke hold restraining method that applies pressure on the front of the neck and throat to cut off air should be banned for police officers, Pence said it should be “considered.” In a Fox News interview released earlier on Friday, Trump signaled he could be open to banning choke holds. The Democrats’ legislation would put an end to the practice.
Pence was also asked about a photo he tweeted and later deleted that showed him with Trump campaign staffers not adhering to guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He said he is “very confident that all the actions there were appropriate.”
Far-right protesters clashed in London on Saturday with anti-racism demonstrators and police trying to keep the two sides apart after they rallied in London in rival demonstrations, despite strict restrictions and warnings to stay home to contain the coronavirus.
Fights broke out between groups outside London’s Waterloo station, with fireworks thrown before police cordoned off areas. On a nearby bridge, stones were lobbed at police. Sporadic skirmishes continued in central areas.
Commenting on the incident, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a Tweet: “Racist thuggery has no place on our streets. Anyone attacking our police will be met with the full force of the law.”
Racist thuggery has no place on our streets. Anyone attacking the police will be met with full force of the law. These marches & protests have been subverted by violence and breach current guidelines. Racism has no part in the UK and we must work together to make that a reality.
— Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 13, 2020
Demonstrations have been taking place around the world and in parts of the United Kingdom over the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last monht after a white policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement they had arrested five people for offences including violent disorder and assault on police and that six officers had suffered minor injuries. The ambulance service said it had treated 15 people.
In the UK, a debate is raging over monuments to those involved in its imperialist past, especially after the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down and thrown into the harbour of Bristol port last weekend. In London, a statue of Winston Churchill was daubed with the words “was a racist”.
In and around Parliament Square earlier on Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people wearing football shirts, chanting “England, England”, and describing themselves as patriots, gathered alongside military veterans to guard the Cenotaph war memorial.
“Winston Churchill, he’s one of our own,” they chanted, near his statue.
A few kilometres away, anti-racism protesters gathered at Hyde Park, holding Black Lives Matter placards, even though organisers had told them not to attend, fearing clashes.
Police had separated two groups of about 100 people each in Trafalgar Square, one chanting “Black Lives Matter”, and the other racial slurs. Some groups jostled, tossed bottles and cans and set off fireworks, as riot police lined up.
‘Fluid situation’
Reporting from central London, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull said the police worked to protect anti-racism demonstrators in Trafalgar Square.
“Clashes erupted between the police and the right-wing protesters who have come out as advertised to protect the national monuments in Parliament Square, in the words of the leader of the group Britain First, one of the organisers,” he said.
“In Trafalgar Square in central London, a group of rival Black Lives Matter protesters are being protected by the police,” Hull added.
Hundreds of people also attended rallies in northern English cities like Liverpool and Newcastle, with many protesters donning masks due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Police said on Saturday that some people were bringing weapons to the London rallies. They imposed route restrictions on both groups and said rallies must end by 5pm (16:00 GMT) in a bid to avoid violent clashes.
“Anyone who thinks they can commit a crime or vandalise property will be arrested,” Commander Bas Javid said in a statement.
President Donald Trump speaks to United States Military Academy graduating cadets during commencement ceremonies.
John Minchillo/AP
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John Minchillo/AP
President Donald Trump speaks to United States Military Academy graduating cadets during commencement ceremonies.
John Minchillo/AP
President Trump addressed the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday as the nation continues to grapple with a public health crisis and unrest following the police killing of George Floyd.
The president delivered his remarks at West Point to an audience of more than 1,000 graduating cadets. The in-person speech was a break from the video addresses that have been ubiquitous this graduation season.
During his address, Trump praised the graduating class, highlighting the military academy’s legacy and the work of individual cadets. He invoked the names of famous graduates, such as Generals Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton, and celebrated the academy’s role in shaping America’s military.
“No force on earth can match the noble power and righteous glory of the American warrior,” Trump said.
United States Military Academy graduating cadets wear face masks as they stand next to their socially-distanced seats during commencement ceremonies, Saturday, June 13.
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John Minchillo/AP
United States Military Academy graduating cadets wear face masks as they stand next to their socially-distanced seats during commencement ceremonies, Saturday, June 13.
John Minchillo/AP
The president told cadets that the moment they entered the academy’s grounds, they “became brothers and sisters pledging allegiance to the same timeless principles.”
“You come from the farms and the cities, from states big and small and from every race, religion, color and creed. But when you entered these grounds you became part of one team one family proudly serving one great nation,” the president said.
For most of his remarks, Trump hewed closely to the themes of the commencement ceremony, extrapolating on the school’s motto, “Duty. Honor. Country.” He did not directly address the ongoing nationwide protests against police violence, but did use his remarks to thank the U.S. National Guard in responding to “recent challenges” among them, “ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets.”
The remarks came against a backdrop of tensions between the president and current and former military leaders over Trump’s response to nationwide protests over police violence.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said hedisagreed with President Trump’s threatened use of the 1807 Insurrection Act to quell the protests.
On Thursday, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he regretted appearing with the president during a photo op that followed the forceful dispersal of peaceful protesters near the White House. The incident prompted a stinging rebuke from the president’s first Secretary of Defense, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, who called it “an abuse of executive authority.”
The president has also said he opposes renaming military bases named for confederate generals despite bipartisan support in Congress.
During his remarks, the president also mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic referring to the disease as “an invisible enemy” from a “distant land called China.”
“We will vanquish the virus,” Trump said. “We will extinguish this plague.”
The pandemic had a marked effect on the ceremony. Cadets who’d been sent home because of the coronavirus were called back for the ceremony.
During the ceremony, graduates were seated six feet away from each other. Cadets also donned masks as they crossed the stage. There was also no handshakes and family had to watch the ceremony remotely.
The victim of a fatal police shooting in Atlanta had moments earlier fired a Taser at one of the cops chasing him, newly released surveillance footage showed Saturday — as the city’s chief of police resigned less than a day after the incident.
Early reports of the altercation that killed Rayshard Brooks, 27, Friday night had indicated Brooks, who was black, was unarmed.
But the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the troubling shooting, released surveillance video Saturday that, officials said, prove otherwise.
In fact, the new video shows a fleeing Brooks turning and firing the police Taser he’d just grabbed off one of the two cops he’d been grappling with.
“These new videos indicate that during a physical struggle with officers, Brooks obtained one of the officer’s Tasers and began to flee from the scene,” the agency tweeted.
Atlanta Police Chief Erika ShieldsAP
“Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks.”
A split second later, the surveillance video appears to show Brooks being shot in the back as he continues to run away.
Brooks was pronounced dead after being taken to an Atlanta hospital.
Officials have not released the names of the two officers involved in the incident.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields during a surprise news conference Saturday.
Brooks turning the stolen Taser on his pursuing officers did not warrant his losing his life, outraged local politicians and activists complained.
“A taser is not a deadly weapon. A gun is,” Georgia voting rights and civil rights activist Stacey Abrams tweeted Saturday.
“Adrenaline and irritation are not the same as mortal fear. Running away should not be punishable by death,” she tweeted.
‘Public safety must mean the public is safe. All of us.”
Demonstrators — already furious over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police — took to the streets Saturday to protest Brooks’s death, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Saturday formally requested that California’s attorney general conduct an independent investigation into the death of a young Black man who was found this week hanging from a tree near Palmdale City Hall.
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra “will lend additional expertise and oversight into this important investigation and provide the community with the answers they deserve,” Barger said in a statement. “It is my hope that our collective efforts will help to support those struggling and grieving surrounding the circumstances of this tragedy.”
Thousands of protesters gathered in Palmdale on Saturday to mourn 24-year-old Robert Fuller, whose death has sparked alarm in the Antelope Valley as investigators try to determine whether it was a suicide or if foul play was involved.
Authorities initially said they suspected it was a suicide, but then backed off that statement and ordered an autopsy. His body was found hanging from a tree near City Hall early Wednesday.
Many of the people at Saturday’s memorial expressed anger and frustration at Fuller’s death and what they see as a rush by authorities to label it a suicide. On Friday, Lt. Kelly Yagerlener of the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office said a decision on the cause of Fuller’s death has been deferred pending an investigation. A full autopsy is planned.
“They suspect suicide?” one woman in the crowd said Saturday. “How can they say that? I can say I suspect a lynching.”
“I believe the family deserves the benefit of the doubt. Not the coroner’s office,” said one man, who said he planned to ask the district attorney to investigate the death.
Diamond Alexander, Fuller’s sister, addressed the growing multiethnic crowd in the courtyard behind Palmdale’s City Hall.
“We want to find out the truth on what really happened,” Alexander said. “Everything they told us is not right. We just want the truth. My brother was not suicidal. He was a survivor. He was street smart.”
Another speaker, Pharaoh Mitchell, called on the small green space to be renamed Robert Fuller Memorial Park.
Activist Najee Ali then led the crowd, which by noon had swelled to about 2,000, on a half-mile march down the center of Sierra Highway to the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station, where he first took a knee for a moment of silence before pounding on the glass doors of the building, demanding to speak with an officer.
A dozen deputies in riot helmets stood tightly bunched on the other side of the tinted glass as a Sheriff’s Department helicopter circled overhead. After half an hour, Lt. Derrick Ballentine, the watch commander, came out a side door to address the crowd and take questions.
Fuller’s death is still being investigated by homicide detectives, Ballentine said, adding that he had no updates. The lieutenant said he, personally, would have no problem with an independent probe, which Ali intends to call for on Monday.
But Ballentine said that was not his call. After he spoke, the marchers returned to City Hall in a peaceful march.
The California Legislative Black Caucus reflected on the death of George Floyd and urged the passage of several bills intended to address inequality in the state.
Fuller’s death has generated intense attention, especially after weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Kim Kardashian West tweeted about the case, urging people to sign a petition demanding a full investigation.
Community members confronted city officials at a news briefing Friday, questioning why they were quick to label Fuller’s death a suicide and asking whether he might have been a homicide victim.
The residents asked whether there were cameras around the park. The city said there were no outdoor cameras, and video recorders on a nearby traffic signal could not have captured what happened.
Some community members detailed examples of racism in the high desert city, including Confederate flags, and said officials should not be quick to dismiss it as playing a role in Fuller’s death.
“We have a history with nooses. We don’t like ropes around our necks,” said one man. “It was a message for the protest we had in Palmdale and Lancaster.”
City Manager J.J. Murphy acknowledged, “Maybe we should have said it was ‘an alleged suicide.’” Then he added: “Can I also ask that we stop talking about lynchings?”
A Black man was shot and killed by police Friday outside a fast-food restaurant in Atlanta. Authorities say he resisted being taken into custody.
The audience erupted with cries of “Hell no!”
“I have doubts about what happened,” said Marisela Barajas, who lives in Palmdale. After the news conference, Barajas walked over and joined a crowd gathering at the tree where Fuller‘s body was found. An American flag flew nearby.
“All alone, in front of the City Hall — it’s more like a statement,” she said. “Even if it was a suicide, that in itself is kind of a statement.”
Palmdale officials said they support an independent investigation of the case.
“The city of Palmdale is joining the family [of Robert Fuller] and the community’s call for justice, and we do support a full investigation into his death,” Palmdale Public Information Officer John Mlynar said. We will settle for nothing less than a thorough accounting of this matter.”
The Antelope Valley has a substantial Black population. There have been repeated allegations of racist policies, including a U.S. Justice Department finding that officials worked to drive Black people out of public housing.
Five years ago, the Los Angeles County Housing Authority agreed to pay $2 million to victims of alleged discrimination, and some families who lost their housing assistance will have the chance to get it back.
At the same time, the Sheriff’s Department agreed to pay $700,000 and implement policies aimed at preventing racial bias. The Justice Department launched an investigation in 2011 into allegations that people of color — particularly Black people — living in federally subsidized housing in Lancaster and Palmdale were being harassed and discriminated against by sheriff’s deputies and county housing agency officials.
Public health officials continued to warn that the virus has not changed, despite eased restrictions allowing some businesses to reopen and larger gatherings to take place.
More than a hundred congregants and friends of the Cochran Avenue Baptist Church marched through Mid-Wilshire protesting the treatment of Black people across the country.
At one point, Pastor Charles Johnson asked the marchers to take a knee. He then led them in prayer.
“We pray for a public witness to all the injustice that’s in our community,” he said.
The marchers headed along San Vicente Boulevard winding through residential streets with a stop in a neighborhood known as Little Ethiopia. They were heading to the La Brea Tar Pits.
Antoinette Jordan, 50, marched alongside her boyfriend, Quinn. Jordan attends the church and said it was her third protest march.
Throughout these protests she’s been thinking of her adult sons who are medical caregivers. The last few months have been hard for them.
Torrance police identified the woman at the center of a social media storm over racist, anti-Asian tirades caught on video as Long Beach resident Lena Hernandez, 56.
“You got COVID you gotta worry about, and then you gotta worry about being a Black man,” she said.
These demonstrations “help give people a voice,” she said, “I learned: The louder you sing, the more audible you are, the better your message comes across.”
Outside the largest jail in Los Angeles County, doctors and medical workers donned their white jackets and took to the streets in downtown on Saturday to protest the treatment of black people across America. They drew a direct connection between the racial inequities in healthcare with the danger Black people face in jails and on the street.
Chants of “care not cages” and “defund the sheriff” rang through the air as two dozen sheriff’s deputies looked on.
“We coming for your budget!” one speaker yelled. “We coming for your pensions!”
In the crowd, medical workers spoke about how they have been held up as heroes during the coronavirus pandemic. It lead many of them to believe that they should use their platform to speak up about how deadly mass incarceration has been to communities of color.
Sapan Thakur, a physical therapist in Pomona, wore a shirt with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick emblazoned on the front under his white jacket. He said the last several weeks have been an awakening for him about the importance of speaking up.
“I was on the sidelines. I was paying attention, but being silent makes you complicit,” he said. “If I can come out on a day off, it’s something.”
Some protesters spoke about how challenging it was for their patients to get satisfactory healthcare and felt that more money should be devoted to programs that house people, educated them and keeps them healthy.
“We’re not just here to do no harm, but to stop harm where it’s happening,” said demonstrator Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson.
“It is not the outcome we had hoped; to be able to find the children safe. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of JJ and Tylee,” the Rexburg Police Department said in a press release.
The remains were found at Chad Daybell’s Fremont County home after authorities obtained a search warrant, police said Tuesday. Daybell was taken into custody and questioned that same day and later charged with two counts of concealing evidence. His bail has been set at $1 million.
A complaint alleges that Daybell concealed the remains between Sept. 22, 2019, and June 9, 2020.
Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan.Freemont County Sheriff’s Office
Prosecuting attorney Rob Wood said Wednesday during a court appearance by Daybell that the manner of concealment of one of the bodies was “particularly egregious,” but did not elaborate. A probable cause affidavit in the case has been sealed, according to court documents.
Police said an autopsy confirmed the remains belong to Tylee and Joshua, who were 17 and 7 years old, respectively, when they went missing in September.
Rexburg police began searching for them in November after they tried to conduct a welfare check on Johsua, who was adopted and had special needs.
Vallow and Daybell had refused to cooperate with the investigation into the missing children and left the state, police said in a December statement.
In February, the couple was found in Hawaii, and Vallow was arrested and extradited to Idaho on charges of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children. She is being held on a $1 million bond. Vallow has pleaded not guilty, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities have not said if Vallow and Daybell will face additional charges. Attorneys for the couple could not immediately be reached on Saturday.
Vallow is also being investigated in the death of Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell, who was found dead in her home in October. The death was initially ruled as natural but has since classified as suspicious, and her remains were exhumed for an autopsy in December.Chad Daybell, a self-published author who has written more than two dozen books about near-death and doomsday events, and Vallow married weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death.
A man reported to Atlanta police for sleeping in a car blocking the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant was shot and killed in a late-night struggle after he failed a field sobriety test and resisted arrest, Georgia authorities said on Saturday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said it was asked by the Atlanta police department to investigate the shooting of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, which happened at a Wendy’s restaurant late on Friday.
Brooks was African American. His death comes at a time of heightened tension over police brutality and calls for reforms across the US following the 25 May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Atlanta was among cities where large crowds of protesters took to the streets.
A crowd gathered on Saturday outside the restaurant where Brooks was shot. Gerald Griggs, an attorney and a vice president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, estimated there were 150 people protesting.
“The people are upset,” Griggs said. “They want to know why their dear brother Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed when he was merely asleep on the passenger side and not doing anything.”
Even though Brooks struggled with officers, Griggs said, “they could have used nonlethal force to take him down.”
A relative of Brooks, Decatur Redd, spoke to reporters and the crowd.
“I’ve watched this on the internet, from the whole George Floyd situation to us coming together like we’re doing and this whole thing landed on my doorstep with my little cousin,” he said.
“We’ve been watching this happen for so many years, with young black boys around the country just dying in vain – I just don’t want that to continue and keep happening like that.”
Redd added that he was shocked the incident had happened in Atlanta.
“I didn’t think it would hit right here, man. I thought this city was better than that. They’ve got to answer. Somebody’s gotta say something. We need to at least know that the city is with us.”
In a statement, Fulton county district attorney Paul Howard said his office was not waiting for the GBI to finish its investigation.
“My office has already launched an intense, independent investigation of the incident,” Howard said, adding that members of his staff “were on scene shortly after the shooting, and we have been in investigative sessions ever since to identify all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.”
Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat who gained national prominence running for governor in 2018 and is reportedly a contender to be Joe Biden’s presidential running mate, tweeted of the shooting that “sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death”.
“The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force,” Abrams said. “Yes, investigations must be called for but so too should accountability.”
The GBI said its agents were reviewing video taken by witnesses. The agency also posted to Twitter a plea for witnesses to come forward, saying some at the scene “chose not to be interviewed by GBI agents”.
Officers were responding to a complaint of a man in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru who was asleep, causing customers to drive around the vehicle. After Brooks failed a field sobriety test, the officers attempted to place him into custody, the GBI said. He resisted and a struggle ensued, leading the officer to deploy a Taser.
“Ultimately, when the officer used a Taser, it was ineffective for the suspect,” Atlanta deputy police chief Timothy Peek told reporters at the scene on Friday night. “It did not stop the aggression of the fight. And so the suspect was able to take the officer’s Taser from him.”
Peek said a second officer also attempted to use a Taser on the struggling man, “but it didn’t work against the suspect as well.”
The GBI said in statement it was investigating reports “that the male subject was shot by an officer in the struggle over the Taser”.
Brooks was transported to a local hospital where he died after surgery, the GBI said. One officer was treated for an injury and discharged.
The officers involved in the shooting were not identified.
Solan called for local leaders to help restore order after anti-cop protesters declared a six-block section of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood to be an “autonomous” area and a “cop-free zone.”
Solan told host Harris Faulkner that legitimate issues of police brutality and racism had been “stolen by unreasonable activists in the city of Seattle.
“And now, they control six square blocks,” he added. “They control the precinct. And that is a direct result of our city-elected officials lacking the political willpower to enforce the rule of law.”
“And, this is the closest I’ve ever seen our country, let alone the city here, to becoming a lawless state when public safety issues are deeply, deeply concerning,” Solan went on.
People walk near a sign that reads “You are entering free Capitol Hill,” Thursday in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
“And, if…unreachable activists have taken over an East Precinct voluntarily given up by an elected officials’ decisions, what’s to stop them from taking another precinct?” he asked. “And…West Precinct — where 300 protesters marched on it two nights ago, where officers were ordered back inside, outside the perimeter — If we lose that flagship precinct, that houses the 911 communications center. Therefore, if that becomes disabled, how do we provide public safety services to the entire city?”
“This is how serious this conversation is,” he asserted.
Seattle’s Democratic mayor, however, had a different take on the demonstration. On Thursday, Jenny Durkan told CNN that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) was more akin to a patriotic “block party.”
“We need leadership from somebody. Because it’s not occurring in the city right now,” Solan urged.
“The overall Seattle community, the reasonable people, fully support reasonable activism. Not this unreasonable activism that, sadly, has taken our city hostage,” he told Faulkner.
‘We need rule of law here. And, as a Seattle resident, I am so embarrassed,” he added. “And, as a proud professional public safety officer, we are more than willing to be brought to the table as a stakeholder. But, we have yet to be invited, and our open letter to the mayor has yet to [be] publicly acknowledged.”
“We need some serious help in Seattle,” Solan concluded.
WASHINGTON – Now that the Republican National Committee has chosen Jacksonville, Florida, as the new backdrop for President Donald Trump’s speech accepting his party’s 2020 nomination, the stage is set for the big party that the president so badly wanted.
With balloons, confetti and an auditorium packed with MAGA hat-wearing Trump fans, the setting is meant to advance the president’s new campaign theme, “The Great American Comeback,” as he pushes for the full reopening of the nation’s economy even as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
The Republican National Convention, set for Aug. 24-27, will build off the campaign rallies that Trump is holding again starting with Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week. The goal: choreograph a sharp contrast with the Democratic National Convention that’s set to take place one week earlier, Aug. 17-20, in Milwaukee.
Although still clouded by uncertainty in the era of COVID-19, radically different conventions are coming into focus.
Democrats said they are working with Milwaukee and Wisconsin officials and intend to follow safety guidelines, as opposed to RNC officials who bolted Charlotte, North Carolina, for Trump’s speech after state and city leaders sought a scaled-back convention. The DNC’s approach matches the message of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who has chastised Trump for not listening to public health experts during the pandemic.
That gives Democrats an opportunity as well – to show they are taking the coronavirus crisis seriously and feel the pain of those struggling, while Trump carries on with business as usual.
The Democratic National Committee intends to maintain a presence in Milwaukee, with the city’s arena, Fiserv Forum, still locked in as the convention campus. But party officials haven’t said whether that will include Biden’s acceptance speech, or how many other top Democrats and delegates will attend.
Regardless, don’t expect an auditorium packed to the rafters as Democrats adhere to social distancing.
Some have speculated about a “virtual convention” – a combination of Zoom meetings and live-streamed speeches – although what that would look like isn’t clear. DNC officials are remaining tight-lipped but expect to announce some plans soon, perhaps by the end of the month.
Republicans to straddle between Charlotte, Jacksonville
The RNC’s party business will remain in Charlotte, the original host of the full convention, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, while the “celebration” will take place in Jacksonville. Republicans are limiting the presence in Charlotte to 336 delegates, six from each state and territories. All 2,511 delegates will be able to attend the Jacksonville festivities.
The schedule of the two-city arrangement isn’t set, but Trump would deliver his speech on the final night, a Thursday, if the convention follows tradition.
The move shifts Trump from one battleground state where the president has a slight lead over Biden, North Carolina, to another in Florida, where polls have shown him trailing. Trump carried Florida in 2016 and desperately needs to win it again for his reelection.
In an interview on Fox News, McDaniel on Friday noted that Jacksonville is also near Georgia, another state where polling shows a tightening race.
“But what we really get to highlight is that companies are opening up, that America’s opening up and these states where businesses are allowed to thrive economically are growing and adding jobs and helping with the transition to greatness as the president is showcasing time and time again,” she said.
McDaniel couldn’t say when asked whether attendees would have to sign releases that they won’t sue the RNC, like they do for his upcoming rallies, if they contract COVID-19. “We haven’t even gotten there yet.”
Several Republican governors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, lobbied for the convention, but Democratic mayors of cities in the hunt – including Nashville, Orlando and Phoenix – raised cost concerns, safety objections or both. An exception was Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, a Republican and former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, who aggressively pushed for the event.
“Here in the River City, we do things big and bold, and we will be ready,” Curry said in a video after the RNC announced the move.
Under Florida’s “Phase 2” reopening rules that began June 4, auditoriums, as well as bars and pubs, were allowed to open to 50% capacity.
But Curry said he expects Trump to speak before a full arena and for the guidelines to be different by August. A spokeswoman for Curry said the mayor anticipates DeSantis to implement the guidelines for the White House’s Phase 3 of reopening, which allows full attendance at indoor arenas.
Democrats say safety is top priority
Democrats said they are striving for a “middle ground” – something in between the full-fledged celebration that Trump covets and an online virtual format. Party officials don’t foresee having satellite conventions across the country, one idea recently floated.
DNC officials hope to maintain flexibility to either scale-up if social distancing measures are relaxed or scale the convention back if needed for health concerns. The DNC’s production team is exploring a range of options, including remote broadcasts of certain speakers – think Hillary Clinton’s surprise appearance in the 2016 DNC convention the night before her acceptance speech.
DNC chairman Tom Perez confirmed this week that Democrats are still coming to Milwaukee, saying he looks forward “when we descend on Milwaukee to celebrate our party, to have a safe and effective convention where we will highlight Joe Biden and his historic choice as a running mate.”
But he did not say how many Democrats that would include: “We don’t know the answer today because we don’t know what the public health situation on the ground will be.”
Many party insiders expect a hybrid event, where some but not all delegates will travel to Milwaukee and some but not all speakers will appear before a live audience in the city.
Perez said: “Unlike Donald Trump, we are actually going to listen to the public health experts as we come to Milwaukee because we believe it’s really important to have a safe, exciting, inspiring convention in Milwaukee and I’m confident we can do that.”
Biden last month said he doesn’t know whether he will be coming to Milwaukee to accept the nomination.
The DNC already delayed the convention, originally set for July, to provide more time to prepare during the pandemic.
Delegates of each state were recently polled by the DNC whether they would be willing to travel to Milwaukee for the convention. The DNC rules and bylaws committee approved a resolution in May to allow virtual voting among delegates, enabling them to still participate in party business if they choose to stay at home. The DNC is expected to soon formally adopt the changes.
Milwaukee recently entered Phase 3 of its reopening plan, which allows public events of no more than 250 people and 25% capacity. Indoor areas of restaurant and bars are also limited to 25% capacity.
To help steer the convention planning, the Biden campaign this month made two new hires: Addisu Demissie, a longtime Democratic strategist who managed New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential campaign, and Lindsay Holst, who worked as Biden’s digital director when he was vice president.
Katie Peters, a spokeswoman for the DNCC, said Democrats are “committed to protecting public health and we’re determined to find new ways to make our event as inclusive and engaging as possible.”
Although still finalizing plans, she said Democrats “will be be ready to unite the nation around our shared values and launch our nominee on a path to victory.”
The evolution of the political convention
Both the Trump and Biden campaigns will look to the conventions to boost their polling as they enter the final months of the race, although any bump is historically offset by the other party’s convention.
Biden, especially, could face a major challenge for television viewership if the convention is scaled back.
Modern conventions have been glitzy, no-drama affairs tantamount to coronations. The four-day orchestrated events are usually held in giant sports arenas and feature up-and-coming political stars in a build-up culminating with the nominee’s prime-time acceptance speech on the final night.
Future presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches that helped catapult them to the White House.
That was different from decades ago when the conventions were more akin to smoke-filled rooms. Party brokers decided who would be on the ticket, guided by influential special interests such as labor and industry.
At the time, the gatherings could be unpredictable and raucous, as the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago proved to be. Sometimes it took multiple rounds of voting among delegates to choose the nominee. The last convention that provided any real mystery was 1976 in Kansas City where incumbent President Gerald Ford defeated Ronald Reagan for the GOP nomination.
That began to change with the 1980 conventions. By then, most of the drama played out in state primaries and caucuses in the winter and spring. The conventions were foregone conclusions, promotional events made for television.
Trump calls for new GOP platform after adopting 2016 version
These days, thousands of large donors, long-time activists and prominent politicians descend on the chosen city to celebrate and showcase the party’s strengths.
But they’re not all pomp and party. Delegates officially vote one state at a time in roll-call fashion on the presidential and vice presidential nominees. They also gather to vote on the party platform.
On that end, Trump’s decision to move his nomination speech to Jacksonville created a dilemma for Republicans.
Under party rules, the executive committee of the RNC carried over the party’s 2016 party platform that takes aim at the “current president” – Obama at the time, but Trump now – when it chose Wednesday not to formally adopt a platform for 2000.
Party leaders decided it didn’t make sense to ask all delegates to pay to fly to Charlotte to vote on the platform, the New York Times reported, when they would also be going to Jacksonville for speeches of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump on Friday called for a new platform.
“The Republican Party has not yet voted on a Platform. No rush. I prefer a new and updated Platform, short form, if possible,” the president tweeted.
The president didn’t say whether that vote will take place in Charlotte or Jacksonville.
Contributing: Craig Gilbert and Bill Glauber, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Christopher Hong, the Florida Times-Union
President Trump issued a call for national unity in a tightly scripted address to the 2020 graduating class of West Point on Saturday morning, the first time he has spoken to cadets of the storied US Military Academy.
“It was this school that gave us the men and women who fought and won a bloody war to extinguish the evil of slavery within one lifetime of our founding,” he said on a crystalline day in the Hudson Valley.
“It was under the leadership of West Point graduates like the legendary General Mathew Ridgway that the Army was at the forefront of ending the terrible injustice of segregation,” he added. Ridgway de-segregated the Army while commanding troops in the Korean War.
“With the grace of god and the heroes of West Point, America will always prevail,” Trump said.
The graduation ceremony for the 1,107 members of the Class of 2020 was closed to guests. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said the school was aiming for a “small, safe graduation ceremony.”
The speech came as states around the country continue to loosen pandemic lockdown restrictions that have kept millions of Americans at home and without work for months – and amid continuing unrest in America’s cities in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.
“I also want to thank the men and women of our national guard who respond with precision for so many recent challenges, from hurricanes and natural disasters to ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets,” Trump said, in his only direct reference to the crisis.
Following similar guidelines from the US Air Force Academy ceremony in April, graduating West Point cadets were seated six feet apart from each other. Trump dispensed with the customary handshake for each graduate, instead saluting each of them as they approached the speakers’ dais in pairs.
Mandatory testing of the 1,100 cadets last week revealed at least 15 cadets who tested positive for COVID-19, though none have shown symptoms.
Later Saturday Trump is expected to attend a big-money campaign fundraiser at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Vice President Pence gave the graduation address to West Point cadets last year.
A district of Beijing was on a “wartime” footing and the capital banned tourism on Saturday after a cluster of novel coronavirus infections centred around a major wholesale market sparked fears of a new wave of COVID-19.
Concern is growing of a second wave of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.66 million people worldwide and killed more than 420,000, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread.
The virus was first reported at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, in December.
Chu Junwei, an official of Beijing’s southwestern Fengtai district, told a briefing on Saturday that the district was in “wartime emergency mode”.
Throat swabs from 45 people, out of 517 tested at the district’s Xinfadi wholesale market, had tested positive for the new coronavirus, though none of them showed symptoms of COVID-19, Chu said.
A city spokesman told the briefing that all six COVID-19 patients confirmed in Beijing on Friday had visited the Xinfadi market. The capital will suspend sports events and inter-provincial tourism effective immediately, he said.
One person at an agricultural market in the city’s northwestern Haidian district also tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 without showing symptoms, Chu said.
As part of measures to curb the spread of the virus, Fengtai district said it had locked down 11 neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the market.
French police unionists fire blue flares as they demonstrate with a banner reading” No police, no peace” down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Friday.
Michel Euler/AP
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Michel Euler/AP
French police unionists fire blue flares as they demonstrate with a banner reading” No police, no peace” down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Friday.
Michel Euler/AP
French police say they are being stigmatized during protests in France against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
On Thursday, police gathered in front of precincts across the country and threw down their handcuffs in a symbolic gesture against what they say is unfair criticism.
“The police in France have nothing to do with the police in the U.S., and we’re not racist,” said Fabien Vanhemelryck, the head of the main police union in France, as he joined dozens of police officers demonstrating Friday morning along the Champs-Élysées.
Just days after Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, more than 20,000 Parisians defied a ban on gatherings during the pandemic to demand the truth about the death of a black Frenchman named Adama Traoré while in police custody in 2016.
The protesters said the French police, like their American counterparts, are endemically racist, a charge denied by many top officials in a country that likes to consider itself colorblind.
Mathieu Zagrodzki is a specialist on law enforcement and a lecturer at the University of Versailles. He says police violence in France cannot really be compared to the levels of violence in the U.S.
“French police kill from 10 to 15 people a year,” he says. “American police kill more than 1000.”
But Zagrodzki says both forces disproportionately target minorities.
A 2017 report by the French state civil liberties guardian, the Défenseur des Droits, says people perceived as black or Arab are 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than the general population.
“The difference with the U.S. and France is that in France I don’t fear for my life,” says Thierry Picaut, a black actor who participated in a rally this week.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced a ban on police use of chokeholds and said there would be zero tolerance for racism in law enforcement.
The police say they need the chokehold to restrain violent individuals and keep dangerous situations from escalating. Officers say Castaner has betrayed them.
Zagrodzki says strong police unions makes reform difficult to achieve – and he say French law-enforcement is in a state of crisis.
“The police paid a high toll in the terrorist attacks,” he says, referring to a series of bloody incidents in 2015. That was followed by the long and frequently violent “yellow vest” protests that all but paralyzed France for much of last year.
The strain on officers has been intense “They have worked more than 25 million hours of overtime in the past few years,” Zagrodzki says, “and the the number of suicides is very high.”
A district of Beijing was on a “wartime” footing and the capital banned tourism on Saturday after a cluster of novel coronavirus infections centred around a major wholesale market sparked fears of a new wave of COVID-19.
Concern is growing of a second wave of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.66 million people worldwide and killed more than 420,000, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread.
The virus was first reported at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, in December.
Chu Junwei, an official of Beijing’s southwestern Fengtai district, told a briefing on Saturday that the district was in “wartime emergency mode”.
Throat swabs from 45 people, out of 517 tested at the district’s Xinfadi wholesale market, had tested positive for the new coronavirus, though none of them showed symptoms of COVID-19, Chu said.
A city spokesman told the briefing that all six COVID-19 patients confirmed in Beijing on Friday had visited the Xinfadi market. The capital will suspend sports events and inter-provincial tourism effective immediately, he said.
One person at an agricultural market in the city’s northwestern Haidian district also tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 without showing symptoms, Chu said.
As part of measures to curb the spread of the virus, Fengtai district said it had locked down 11 neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the market.
A man who was turned away from a bar in Texas on Friday night shot and wounded at least eight people in the parking lot, police said.
Police were searching for the gunman, who fled the scene, the San Antonio police chief, William McManus, said at a briefing early on Saturday.
The gunman was part of a small group that left a bar in northern San Antonio and walked across the street to Rebar, a large nightspot that often has live music and DJ performances.
The group was turned away at the door because they were “inebriated”, McManus said.
The police chief said one of the members of the group responded by saying: “Don’t you know who I am? I’m a UFC fighter from California.”
That man then walked back to his car across the street, got a long rifle, walked back to the Rebar parking lot and opened fire, McManus said.
The victims were five women and three men between the ages of 23 and 41. Their exact conditions were not immediately known but McManus characterized them as stable at local hospitals, where they took themselves. The most serious injury was suffered by someone who was shot in the back, he said.
Two others were grazed but didn’t accept treatment, the police chief added.
Although the shooter remained at large, McManus said he didn’t believe there was any risk to the area. Further details weren’t immediately available.
Rebar is about two miles south-east of San Antonio international airport. A call to the phone number listed on its website was not answered.
New York City leaders Friday came out in support of a plan to cut $1 billion from the city’s police budget as protests across the country continue against systemic racism and police use of force.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo and other leaders said in a joint statement that they’ve already identified savings that could reduce spending on the police in its budget for fiscal 2021.
“We believe that we can and should work to get to $1 billion in cuts to New York City’s police spending in the Fiscal 2021 budget, an unprecedented reduction that would not only limit the scope of the NYPD, but also show our commitment towards moving away from the failed policing policies of the past,” they said. “There is no doubt that this is an ambitious goal, but it is one that the time we are in calls for – both here in New York City and nationwide.”
The leaders said they would achieve the goal by “reducing uniform headcount through attrition, cutting overtime, shifting responsibilities away from the [New York Police Department], finding efficiencies and savings in OTPS spending, and lowering associated fringe expenses.”
The announcement comes as protests across the nation spark a reckoning with police use of force and the funds cities give their police departments.
The demonstrations were in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. His death has led to calls from activists for some money currently allocated to the police to instead be directed to other social services, though Republicans have dismissed the idea.
“Our budget must reflect the reality that policing needs fundamental reform. Over the last few weeks, we have seen an outpouring of New Yorkers demanding change from their leaders. It is our job to listen – and to act,” the New York City lawmakers said. “We will not let this moment pass, and we will fight for the budget they deserve.”
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch slammed the council’s statement, saying it would be responsible for every new crime victim.
“For decades, every time a city agency failed at its task, the city’s answer was to take the job away and give it to the NYPD. If the City Council wants to give responsibilities back to those failing agencies, that’s their choice,” Lynch told New York 4. “They won’t be able to throw cops under the bus anymore.”
New York is only the latest city to explore its relationship with its police department. The Minneapolis City Council unanimously voted Friday to explore a new safety model after all of its members vowed to disband the city’s police department.
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