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      Republicans accused of hypocrisy over gun safety after Nashville shooting – as it happened

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      That’s it for the US live politics blog. Here’s what happened today:
      Earlier today, the Nashville police department gave a press conference about Monday’s shooting at a local elementary school, where three children and three adults were killed.
      A federal judge has ordered Mike Pence to testify in a special counsel investigation on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, though Pence is able to appeal the ruling.
      Joe Biden commented on his ability to get gun control passed in the wake of Monday’s mass shooting. Biden said that he is only able to “plead with Congress” to act and pass gun control measures.
      Democrats are apparently weighing legislative options in the face of Monday’s shooting, including a discharge petition which could bring legislation to the floor. But Democratic leadership has not provided a timeline to when or if they plan on doing so.
      Republicans, including Tennessee governor Bill Lee, have been accused of hypocrisy for providing their condolences following Monday’s shooting but refusing to support gun control measures.
      Thank you for reading. Join us tomorrow for more updates!Earlier today, the Nashville police department provided more updates on the shooter who killed three children and three adults at an area elementary school on Monday.According to the police, the 28-year-old shooter had legally purchased seven guns. The firearms were hidden from the shooter’s parents as the shooter resided in the family home.The shooter’s parents believed that the shooter owned one gun that had been sold.The shooter used three of the purchased guns to carry out the massacre on Monday at Covenant school, where they were a former student. The shooter had reportedly been receiving treatment for an “emotional disorder”, reported Reuters.The shooter left behind a detailed map of the school as well as what police are describing as a “manifesto”, which indicated that the shooter may have had plans to target other locations.Before carrying out the shooting, the shooter messaged Averianna Patton, a friend and former basketball teammate, writing: “Something bad is about to happen.”Patton told Nashville’s News Channel 5 that she notified police about the message, but said that police showed a lack of urgency.Here are more highlights from Biden’s remarks from NPR’s Asma Khalid:Biden spoke about yesterday’s mass shooting in Nashville while giving remarks at a semiconductor facility in North Carolina about his Investing in America agenda, his administration’s plan to increase job growth.Biden spoke on the shooting in Nashville, adding that the victims’ families deserve action on gun control and “more than a prayer”, referring to thoughts and prayers that are usually offered after such events.Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer responded to questions about whether an assault weapons ban would come to the floor for a vote.During remarks to the press, Schumer said that legislators were “working hard” to get enough votes for a ban to be passed, but declined to give a timeline on if a vote would happen on the issue soon.“Look, as you know, I care passionately about this. I’m the author of the bill that passed in 1994. And we’re working hard to get enough votes to pass it,” said Schumer.Florida representative Maxwell Frost called Republicans “cowards” for their failure to pass gun control.Discussing the Nashville shooting, Maxwell called out “politicians in this chamber that have been bought and paid for by the NRA” for not addressing the issue of gun violence seriously.“It is likely that at this moment, the next mass shooter is planning their shooting. What will this chamber do about it,” said Frost.Read the Guardian’s September 2022 profile of Frost here.The Georgia Democratic party (GDP) has put out a statement denouncing Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s upcoming speech at a local gun shop following yesterday’s shooting in Nashville.Representative Nikema Williams, who is also chair of the GDP, called on DeSantis to cancel the upcoming stop in Smyrna, Georgia, according to a statement from Williams published Tuesday:Holding a campaign event at a gun store days after another horrific school shooting where innocent children were murdered should be beyond the pale, but Ron DeSantis seems to not care.
      DeSantis is showing Georgians exactly where his priorities lie as he advocates for an extreme MAGA agenda that could make it easier for criminals to carry guns in Florida and puts the gun lobby ahead of our children’s lives. DeSantis should cancel this event immediately.DeSantis is scheduled to visit the gun shop on Thursday, 30 March.A federal judge has ordered Mike Pence to testify in a special counsel investigation on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The former vice-president has been ordered to testify about conversations he had with Trump leading up to the January 6 insurrection, reported CNN.The judge has said that Pence can decline to answer questions related to his own actions or the insurrection itself.Pence is able to appeal this ruling.Joe Biden has commented on his ability to get gun control passed following Monday’s massacre at a Nashville elementary school, noting that he can only “plead with Congress” for action.Biden spoke to reporters while on his way to Durham, North Carolina.While making his trip, Biden was asked about his ability to enact firearm restrictions.“I can’t do anything except plead with Congress to act,” said Biden.The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly wrote on the latest updates regarding Tuesday’s shooting in Nashville at an elementary school, available here.The Senate chaplain commented on yesterday’s mass shooting, delivering fiery remarks about the need to move beyond thoughts and prayers in response to gun violence.On Tuesday, Senate chaplain Barry Black began his morning prayer for the Senate with a plea on addressing gun violence.“When babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers. Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing,” said Black during his impassioned prayer.Democrats are now holding a press conference in response to yesterday’s shooting, urging Republicans to work with them and pass gun control legislation.Democrats are apparently weighing legislative options in the face of Monday’s shooting at a Tennessee elementary school, including a discharge petition.Democrats have been critical of Republicans’ responses to the latest mass shooting and are considering potential actions, reports Politico’s Nicholas Wu.“We’re going to have a conversation about all options to deal with the gun violence epidemic in America,” said US House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries to Politico.Tennessee representative Andrew Ogles has responded to criticism he received after yesterday’s Nashville shooting for a 2021 Christmas family photo featuring firearms.Ogles, who represents the district where the shooting took place, did not express regrets on Tuesday over the photo, where Ogles, his wife, and several of his children are holding riffles and smiling.“Why would I regret a photograph with my family exercising my rights to bear arms?” said the representative.An aide to Kentucky senator Rand Paul was stabbed multiple times over the weekend, said the senator in a late Monday statement.A member of Paul’s staff was seriously wounded during the random attack around 5.15 pm eastern time on Saturday, reported ABC News.The assault took place less than two miles outside of the US Capitol building, raising concerns about violence in the capital city.“This past weekend a member of my staff was brutally attacked in broad daylight in Washington, D.C.,” said Paul in a statement to ABC News.“I ask you to join [wife] Kelley and me in praying for a speedy and complete recovery, and thanking the first responders, hospital staff, and police for their diligent actions.”The victim was treated for stab wounds and taken to the hospital for “treatment of life-threatening injuries”, according to a police report obtained by ABC.The suspect was arrested and is being held without bail.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke this morning about yesterday’s shooting, urging Republicans to “show some courage” on passing gun control measures. While speaking on the show Morning Joe, Jean-Pierre spoke about the need for legislation following another mass shooting in a US school.“No other country is dealing with this,” said Jean-Pierre. “No other country is dealing with our kids going to school [and] being slaughtered, being murdered.”“Enough. Enough. Enough,” Jean-Pierre added. “We need Republicans in Congress to show some courage. This is what they owe these parents.Following Monday’s shooting in Nashville, Tennessee governor Bill Lee has come under fire for sharing condolences about the massacre while not supporting gun control in the state. Republican governor Bill Lee shared on Monday that he was “praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community”.But Lee was widely criticized for his comments as Lee refused to pass firearm restrictions in June following a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed.Lee also faced backlash for his comments, as his administration passed a bill in 2021 that allows open carry of handguns without permits in Tennessee.Good morning.Yesterday’s shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, has once again spotlighted the partisan divide on how to address gun violence in schools.Three children and three adults were killed during Monday’s massacre at the Covenant school, a private elementary school, confirmed the Nashville police department. The shooting was carried out by a former student who was shot and killed at the scene.In response to Monday’s tragedy, Democrats have been quick to point out hypocrisy and inaction on gun violence from their Republican counterparts.Tennessee representative Andrew Ogles, who represents the district where the Covenant school is located, said he was “utterly heartbroken” over the shooting in a statement released on Monday, reported the Washington Post.But Democrats and gun control advocates brought up Ogles’ previous defense of guns, including a 2021 Christmas card featuring Ogles’ family smiling and holding riffles.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre similarly accused Republicans of inaction during yesterday’s briefing, stating: “How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress step up and pass the assault weapons ban, to close loopholes in our background check system, or to require the safe storage of guns?” More

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      Republican congressman says ‘we’re not going to fix’ school shootings

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      After the latest massacre of schoolchildren in the United States, the Republican congressman Tim Burchett answered the question Americans have all but given up asking of their elected officials by telling reporters: “We’re not going to fix it.”The three-term congressman from Tennessee, the state where an intruder fatally shot three nine-year-old students and three adults at a small Christian school on Monday, appeared to compare the expectation of safety for American schoolchildren with that of soldiers fighting Japanese suicide attackers during the second world war.“It’s a horrible, horrible situation, and we’re not going to fix it,” Burchett said. “Criminals are gonna be criminals. And my daddy fought in the second world war, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said, ‘Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out, and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’”Asked whether there was a role for Congress to play in preventing tragedies that are exceedingly common in the US while being exceedingly rare in the rest of the world, Burchett responded: “I don’t see any real role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly … I don’t think you’re going to stop the gun violence. I think you got to change people’s hearts. You know, as a Christian, as we talk about in the church, and I’ve said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country.”Burchett, 58, has a reputation as “perhaps one of the least filtered members” of Congress, according to a recent profile in Politico that focused on his penchant for somewhat offbeat jokes.His substantive track record is less distinct from his rightwing peers. Burchett was first elected to Congress in 2018, after two decades in the Tennessee state legislature and as mayor of Knox county. He describes himself as an “avid gun owner” and received an A rating from the National Rifle Association’s political action committee, which noted his opposition to bans on semi-automatic weapons. The far-right Heritage Foundation rates his voting record at 95%, thanks in part to his opposition of a bipartisan gun control bill and universal background checks for gun purchases. He was also among 125 House Republicans to sign an amicus brief backing one of the efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election.But Burchett has not always had such a laissez-faire attitude toward crime nor such a cynical attitude toward legislators’ role.In 2006, while serving in the Tennessee state legislature, he sponsored legislation to ban salvia divinorum, an herb with psychoactive properties. “It’s not that popular,” Burchett said of the drug at the time. “But I’m one of those who believes in closing the barn door before the cows get out.“In certain hands, it could be very dangerous, even lethal.”In 2022, after voting against Democratic legislation to fund police departments, Burchett attributed a “violent crime spike” to “liberal soft-on-crime policies and the radical Defund the Police movement”.Burchett has introduced one piece of legislation related to public safety during his tenure in Congress: the 2019 “Unmasking Antifa Act”. The bill sought to create “a new criminal civil rights violation for wearing a disguise while interfering with another person’s exercise of a protected right or privilege”. Had it passed, the bill would have punished people committing crimes while wearing masks with prison sentences of up to 15 years. More

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      Biden says gun violence ‘ripping our communities apart’ after Tennessee shooting

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      The White House led reactions in a shocked America with a call for tightening gun control in the US after a 28-year-old woman opened fire at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, killing six, including three children.“While you’ve been in this room, I don’t know whether you’ve been on your phones, but we just learned about another shooting in Tennessee – a school shooting – and I am truly without words,” first lady Jill Biden said at an event in Washington as reports of the shooting at the Covenant School began circulating.“Our children deserve better. And we stand, all of us, we stand with Nashville in prayer,” she added.President Joe Biden addressed the mass school shooting soon after, and reiterated his calls to Congress to take legislative action.Biden called the shooting “heartbreaking, a family’s worst nightmare”. He said more needs to be done to stop gun violence.“It’s ripping our communities apart,” he said, and called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, saying we “need to do more to protect our schools”.“It’s about time we began to make some more progress,” he added.Earlier this month Biden announced a new slate of executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence and the proliferation of guns sold to prohibited people. The measures were aimed at stiffening background checks, promoting more secure firearms storage and ensuring law enforcement agencies get more out of a bipartisan gun control law enacted last summer. But his actions did not change government policy, but instead directed federal agencies to ensure compliance with existing laws and procedures.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the Nashville school shooting “devastating”, “heartbreaking”, and “unacceptable”.“How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban, to close loopholes in our background check system or to require the safe storage of guns?” she added.“Our children should be able to go to school feeling safe, feeling protected. People should be able to go to the grocery stores feeling safe,” Jean-Pierre said.Nashville police said the shooter – who has not yet been publicly named – killed three kids and three adults before being shot dead by police.“At one point she was a student at that school, but unsure what year,” the Metro Nashville police department chief ,John Drake, said at a press conferences. He declined to give the ages of those who had been killed.“Right now I will refrain from saying the ages, other than to say I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” Drake said.According to reports, the woman entered the school through a side door at 10.13am. She began firing on the second floor using two assault-style rifles and a handgun. By 10.27am, she had been shot dead.The private school with 200 students opened in 2011. It is not believed to have armed guards.Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, said he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant” and asked people to “please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community”.Nashville Mayor John Cooper said his “heart goes out to the families of the victims”.“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” he added.As parents rushed to collect their children from a nearby church, a police officer offered condolences. “I know this is probably the worst day of everyone’s lives,” the officer was heard to tell parents. “I can’t tell you how sympathetic we are.” More

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      in US Politics

      The drag show bans sweeping the US are a chilling attack on free speech | Suzanne Nossel

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      The drag show bans sweeping the US are a chilling attack on free speechSuzanne NosselThe breadth of these bills is staggering, and many go beyond their purported goals of protecting children from obscenityWhen Bill Lee donned a cheerleader uniform, fake pearls and a wig as part of high school senior year antics, he probably didn’t think the goofy costume would come back to bite him. But, more than 40 years later, the now governor of Tennessee is at the forefront of efforts to ban the innocent costumes he and his friends once wore, waging a battle that strikes at the heart of our first amendment freedoms.Since the beginning of this year, at least 32 bills have been filed in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia targeting drag performances, with more on the way.A US state shelved my book – yet all I was doing was trying to help people live their lives | Fox FisherRead moreTennessee was the first to pass its bill into law last week, barring “adult cabaret performances” on public property or in places where they might be within view of children. The bill bans, among other things, “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers”. Violators may face misdemeanor or even felony charges.In Texas, at least four different bills would put venues that host drag performances in the same category as adult movie theaters and strip clubs.Driving support for these bills is discomfort and distaste for expression that defies conventional gender norms. The growth of library Drag Queen Story Hours – programs that feature drag performers as a way to provide “unabashedly queer role models” for kids – have led some to question whether young children should be exposed to those who defy traditional gender patterns.Participation in Drag Queen Story Hours is voluntary – libraries decide whether to program these events and families choose whether to attend them – but some critics seem to regard their very existence as deviant or dangerous. This reaction is part of a wider backlash against the increased visibility of transgender and non-binary identities. States and communities have banned books featuring transgender characters and prohibited teaching about transgender identities in school.Though the history and cultural role of drag goes well beyond current tensions over transgender issues, this form of performance and display has now come into the crosshairs. Drag performances have been targeted with violence and are now the subject of state laws to limit or even outlaw them.Anti-drag legislation varies from state to state, but tends to share some common provisions. Most bills define a drag performer as someone performing while using dress, makeup and mannerisms associated with a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth. A number of bills include lip-syncing within their definitions and many specify that the person must be performing for an audience.Some bills would designate any establishment that hosts drag performances as an “adult” or sexually oriented business, often making it illegal for such businesses to be located within a certain distance of schools or residential areas.While the details of the legislation may change from state to state, most of these bills represent a broad and dangerous chilling of Americans’ right to free speech. The US supreme court has repeatedly found that clothing choices are a constitutionally protected form of expression under the first amendment.The Tennessee law’s reference to “prurience” – defined as something intended to arouse sexual interest – should limit the sweep of the law so it doesn’t affect things like children’s story hours. But, inevitably, concerns over the intent and enforcement of the law will cast a chill over shows, jokes or comedy bits that might be anywhere close to the line. That chilling is intentional: by targeting drag performances, lawmakers intend to intimidate transgender and non-binary performers and shows into hiding.Drag queen storyteller says readings ‘help youngsters discover true selves’Read moreThe breadth of the bills is staggering, and many would risk chilling expression that goes well beyond the drafters’ purported goals of protecting children or limiting displays that may border on the obscene.Productions of Shakespeare plays like As You Like It or Twelfth Night – both of which feature cross-dressing characters – could run afoul of some of these bills, as might a singer performing the musical version of Mrs Doubtfire. Sandy Duncan’s performance as Peter Pan would be banned under several of these bills. Movies like White Christmas, Tootsie, Some Like It Hot, Bridge on the River Kwai and South Pacific – all of which feature comic performances by men wearing women’s clothes – could be off-limits for screenings in schools or libraries.Even Governor Bill Lee’s decades-old dress-up could lead to serious legal repercussions under the law he just signed, if it were to be interpreted and enforced broadly. If students wore similar costumes today on the grounds of a public high school, and then went on to make a sexual joke in front of a small group, their behavior might be criminalized.The legislation has even broader impacts for transgender people. Under some draft laws a string quartet with a transgender violinist might not be able to perform chamber music. A trans chef talking about their new cookbook could be restricted to venues designated as “adult businesses”.It’s perfectly fair for parents to want to decide how and when their young children engage with questions of gender identity. But the drive to protect children from witnessing people whose dress defies traditional gender binaries must not become the basis for draconian restrictions impinging upon the free expression rights of children and adults alike.Whether it’s youthful pranks, beloved plays, historical costumes or adult performances, the ability to dress up and play characters unlike yourself is core to artistic expression. In the name of curbing drag, legislatures across the country are dragging down first amendment freedoms for all.
      Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of Pen America and the author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All
      TopicsDragOpinionUS politicsRepublicansTennesseeLGBTQ+ rightscommentReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Tyre Nichols funeral: Kamala Harris condemns ‘violent act not in pursuit of public safety’ – latest

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      “We are here to celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols … Mrs Wells, Mr Wells, you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage and your grace,” Harris said to Tyre Nichols’ parents in an address at the funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We mourn with you and the people of our country mourn with you. We have a mother and a father who mourned the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father…
      When we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe…
      “This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety… When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe…
      We demand Congress pass the George Floyd Policing Act … Joe Biden will sign it … It is non-negotiable,” she added.“There is no substitute for federal legislation,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as she told reporters on Thursday that president Joe Biden will continue urging Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would combat police brutality, racial profiling and excessive force by police officers.At White House briefing. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: The president told Tyre Nichols’ family he would keep pushing Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to his desk. “There is no substitute for federal legislation.” pic.twitter.com/lfiWG4kvQW— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 1, 2023
      The funeral service of Tyre Nichols has concluded with Nichols’ family exiting the ceremony first while other attendees stood and waited for their turn.Flower arrangements were also removed.Singers sang the 1964 song A Change Is Gonna Come by American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, as well the 2009 song Oh How Precious by American gospel musician Kathy Taylor.“Tyre was a beautiful person and for this to happen to him is just unimaginable,” said Tyre Nichols mother RowVaughn Wells as she wept at the podium while delivering her address..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The only thing that’s keeping me going is the fact that I really truly believe my son was sent here on an assignment from God and I guess now his assignment is done. He’s been taken home…”
      “I want to thank all the community activists for being there for my family…the chief of police for acting swiftly, the district attorney, the state of Tennessee…I want to thank my lawyers…
      I just need…that George Floyd bill…passed. We need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way and all the other parents here that lost their children. We need to get that bill passed because if we don’t, the next child that dies, their blood is going to be on their hands.”Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells similarly called for justice for Tyre Nichols, saying, “We have to fight for justice. We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids…”.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“What’s done in a dark will always come to the light, and the light of day is justice for Tyre, justice for all the families that have lost loved ones to brutality of police or anybody,” he added.One of Tyre Nichols’ sisters recited a poem she wrote at the funeral service called “I’m Just Trying To Go Home.”“I’m just trying to go home.Is that too much to ask?I didn’t break any laws along this path.I’ve skated across barriers designed to hold me back.I’m just trying to go home where the love is loud and the smiles are warm like the sunsets that comfort me in the coldest of my storms.I’m just trying to go home.I hear the sirens,I hear the flashing lights.The directions are clear.Black skin go left, blue skin go right.I’m just trying to go home.Don’t I deserve to feel safe?Batons, badges, blue lights against my face.I’m just trying to go home.Does anyone hear the pain in my cry, the struggle in my breath?God replied, ‘Come home my son, now you can rest.’”Attorney Ben Crump said that Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has pledged to introduce a Tyre Nichols clause to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that seeks to combat police brutality and racial bias in policing.Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor were born on the same day and the same year – June 5, 1993 – civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in his address.Crump asked the crowd of attendees to acknowledge Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor who was killed on March 13, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky by police during a botched raid.“I want to acknowledge Tamika Palmer… I know you said it brought back so many memories and pain so if you would stand up so let us at least acknowledge Breonna Taylor’s mother,” Crump said as the crowd clapped and stood up.Civil rights attorney Ben Crump calls for “equal justice” in his address at Tyre Nichols’ funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“It really is a plea for justice…it is a plea for Tyre Nichols the son…for Tyre Nichols the brother…for Tyre Nichols the father but most of all, it is a plea for justice for Tyre Nichols the human being,” Crump said.
      “Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?” Crump said of the five Memphis police officers who beat Nichols to death.
      “We have to make sure they see us as human beings and once we acknowledge that we are human beings worthy of respect and justice, then we have have the God given right to say ‘I am a human being and I deserve justice not just any justice but equal justice.’”“All he wanted to do was get home,” Reverend Al Sharpton said of Tyre Nichols..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Home is not just a physical location. Home is where you are at peace. Home is where you’re not vulnerable. Home is where everything is alright…
      “He said, all I want to do is get home. I come to Memphis to say the reason I keep going is, all I’m trying to do is get home… I want to get where they can’t treat me with a double standard — I’m trying to get home. I want to get where they can’t call me names no more — I want to get home. I want to get where they can’t shoot and ask questions later — I’m trying to get home. Every black in America stands up every day trying to get home.”“You don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself,” Reverend Al Sharpton said of the five Black police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Why do they go ahead? Because they feel that there is no accountability. They feel that we are going to angry a day or to and then we’re going to go onto something else. But some of us do this everyday. Some of us believe…the dream has to come true. Some of us are going to fight…
      I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but we won’t stop until we hold you accountable,” Sharpton said as he called for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to be passed.
      “We’re not asking for anything special… we’re asking to be treated equal. And to be treated fair.”“In the city where they slayed the dreamer… what has happened to the dream?” Reverend Al Sharpton said, referring to Martin Luther King Jr who famously delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. “What is happening to the dream in the city where the dreamer laid down and shed his blood?” Sharpton said.“The reason…[why] what happened to Tyre is so personal to me, it was that five Black men that wouldn’t have had a job in the police department, would not ever be thought of to be in elite squad…in the city that Dr. King lost his life…you beat a brother to death,” said Reverend Al Sharpton who visited the Lorraine Hotel earlier this morning where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 55 years ago..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors that you walked through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors. You didn’t get on the Police Department by yourself. The police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march and go to jail, and some lost their lives to open the doors for you. And how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing,” Sharpton said.“We are here to celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols … Mrs Wells, Mr Wells, you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage and your grace,” Harris said to Tyre Nichols’ parents in an address at the funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We mourn with you and the people of our country mourn with you. We have a mother and a father who mourned the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father…
      When we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe…
      “This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety… When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe…
      We demand Congress pass the George Floyd Policing Act … Joe Biden will sign it … It is non-negotiable,” she added.Reverend Al Sharpton has called on vice president Kamala Harris to share a few words at the funeral.Reverend Al Sharpton has opened up his address by recognizing the families at the funeral who have lost their children to police brutality, including those of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.Vice president Kamala Harris is seen greeting and joining the family of Tyre Nichols at the funeral.@VP Kamala Harris joins the parents of Tyre Nichols here at the funeral in Memphis. #TyreNichols pic.twitter.com/SjQMAAdXnx— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) February 1, 2023 More

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      in Elections

      Your Monday Briefing: The Fallout from a Police Beating

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      Also, violence is flaring in Israel and the West Bank.People gathered in protests across the country after the footage was released.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesU.S. grapples with another police beatingThe release of a video on Friday showing five officers with the Memphis Police Department pummeling and pepper-spraying Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, prompted horror and disgust from law enforcement officials, lawmakers and other people across the U.S.The officers, according to the video, escalated their use of physical force and gave conflicting orders. It does not appear that Nichols fought back during the beating. At one point, he yelled out for his mother. Once medics were on the scene, they stood by for more than 16 minutes without administering treatment.Nichols had been stopped for what the police originally said was reckless driving. He died three days later, and an independent autopsy found that he “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”The City of Memphis released the video a day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder and other felonies. The five officers are all Black, a fact that has shifted the national conversation toward police culture itself. Many argue that the police system and its tactics foster racism and violence more than the racial identity of any particular officer does.Response: The country has grappled repeatedly with high-profile cases of Black men and women being killed by police officers. The relatively swift release of the footage reflects a national shift about how police investigate and talk about those cases.Fallout: On Saturday, the Memphis Police Department announced that it had disbanded the controversial unit in which the five officers had worked.Tyre Nichols: A skateboarder and nonconformist, Nichols cut his own path from California to Tennessee.In January alone, at least 30 Palestinians have been killed, including five children. So have seven Israelis.Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesViolence flares in Israel, the West BankA series of raids and attacks since Thursday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have left more than 20 people dead. Yesterday, an 18-year-old Palestinian man was fatally shot outside an Israeli settlement.Israel’s new far-right government has been in power for only a month. But on its watch, Israelis and Palestinians have already experienced one of the most violent phases, outside a full-scale war, in years. Nine Palestinians were shot dead on Thursday morning, in the deadliest Israeli raid in at least a half-decade. Yesterday, a tenth person died. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue in Jerusalem, the deadliest attack on civilians in the city since 2008. On Saturday, an attacker who the police said was 13 years old shot and injured two Israelis near a settlement in East Jerusalem.In response, Israel’s government on Saturday said it planned to expedite gun licenses for Israeli citizens, reinforce military and police units to carry out more arrests of Palestinians and conduct operations aimed at seizing Palestinians’ weapons.What’s next: Analysts fear that Israeli policies are likely to inflame an already volatile situation, our Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley, reports. Rising frustration and violence among young Palestinians are also contributing to a combustible situation.The missing capsule came from a Rio Tinto mine.Jorge Guerrero/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA missing radioactive capsule in AustraliaAuthorities in Western Australia are searching for a dangerously radioactive capsule. It’s smaller than a penny and could be anywhere along a vast desert highway.The device, part of a sensor used in mining, is believed to have fallen off a truck that drove from a Rio Tinto mine in Western Australia’s remote north to Perth, the state capital. The 870-mile trip (1,400 kilometers) took several days. The search involves the use of radiation detectors. “What we are not doing is trying to find a tiny little device by eyesight,” an official said.If you spot it: Stay at least five meters away. The capsule contains cesium-137. An hour of exposure at about a meter away equals having had 10 X-rays. Prolonged contact can cause skin burns, acute radiation sickness and cancer.THE LATEST NEWSThe Australian OpenNovak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in straight sets.Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic won the men’s singles title at the Australian Open, a year after he refused to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and missed the tournament. It’s the 10th time he has won the tournament, and his 22nd Grand Slam title.Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus won the women’s singles title. She beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.Asia PacificA bus in Pakistan fell into a ravine and caught fire, killing at least 40 people.Floods in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, killed at least four people, the BBC reports, after the area suffered its worst recorded downpour.China’s oil and gas consumption fell in 2022 for the first time in decades.Most Australians under 35 support moving the date of Australia Day from Jan. 26.Asia is cold. Blame the polar vortex.The War in UkraineUkraine’s military said its soldiers had repelled Russian attacks on villages near the eastern city of Bakhmut.The Kremlin outlawed Meduza, a leading independent news site based in Latvia.The Czech Republic decisively elected Petr Pavel, a retired senior NATO general, as its president, cementing its position as a supporter of Ukraine.U.S. officials overseeing aid insist that Ukraine is tackling corruption after the recent dismissal of top officials.Two men facing Russia’s draft used a fishing boat to seek asylum in the U.S.Around the WorldPeru’s government is portraying demonstrators as pawns for nefarious interests.Marco Garro for The New York TimesProtests are growing in Lima, led largely by Indigenous, rural and poorer Peruvians who are calling on the president to resign.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain fired Nadhim Zahawi, the chair of the Conservative Party, over his tax affairs.Donald Trump held his first public events after formally opening his comeback bid for the White House.The Netherlands and Japan will join the U.S. in banning some shipments of their chip technology to China.A Morning ReadPeople with Gallic inclinations. Or, perhaps, people under the influence of French civilization.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe Associated Press caused a brouhaha when it offered a style tip: “We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled.” That didn’t sit well with the French. (What else would we call them, “people of Frenchness”?) “In fact, the French rather like being stereotyped as the French,” our Paris bureau chief writes. “They undergo Frenchness with considerable relish.”ARTS AND IDEASFuture cringeOne day we’ll look back on the early 2020s and wonder: What were we thinking? The Times asked more than 30 people from academia, the media, the arts and beyond to weigh in on what they think will one day make us cringe.Their responses include: the monarchy, plastic bottles, selfies and gender-reveal parties. Also, the pandemic and our responses to it, and using the word “journey” to describe anything other than a perilous trek.Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired magazine, gave my favorite answer, which includes: “Eating dead animals. Not being able to have two spouses at once. Fearing human clones. (They are serial twins.) Wrapping food in plastic. Thinking you needed permission to visit another country.”PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookChristopher Testani for The New York TimesPeanut butter-glazed salmon is fast and fun.What to Watch“Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne, just might be the best detective show in 50 years.What to Listen toSam Smith’s fourth album, “Gloria,” includes bold, danceable tracks.The News QuizHow closely did you follow last week’s headlines?Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Doctors’ org. (three letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. The Times is on TikTok. Check us out @nytimes.Start your week with this narrated long read about threats to the Amazon. “The Daily” is about Iran’s protests.We’d like your feedback. You can reach us at briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      in US Politics

      ‘We’re not done’: end of Scorpion unit after Tyre Nichols death is first step, protesters say

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      ‘We’re not done’: end of Scorpion unit after Tyre Nichols death is first step, protesters sayCall for release of information on all officers and an end to pre-textual traffic stops, such as pulling people over for loud music Along Main Street, just outside Memphis City Hall, a swarm of white and Black protesters and organizers gathered under the sprinkling rain to mark a significant victory: the city police department had just announced they would permanently disband the so-called Scorpion unit whose officers were involved in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.Memphis police disband unit whose officers fatally beat Tyre NicholsRead moreStill, they argued, that was just the first step in getting justice for Nichols, whose shocking death has stunned and angered much of America and reopened a debate over racism and police brutality. “We’re not done,” one organizer said through a megaphone. “We’ve got a long way to go.”They called for the release of information on all officers and personnel involved in Nichols’s death on top of the murder charges laid against the five Black officers who attacked the 29-year-old. They also demanded an end to pre-textual traffic stops, such as pulling people over for broken tail lights and loud music, and the dissolution of other units and task forces the Memphis police department operates.Before the announcement of the Scorpions disbandment, demonstrators had marched past a fire station and Memphis police headquarters and chanted “Justice for Tyre”. The protest had come just a day after the city released video footage of the brutal mass beating that had led to Nichols’s death. At one point, protesters surrounded police vehicles that had blocked off the streets.Once the group made a loop around the area and returned to City Hall, Amber Sherman, an organizer, recounted part of the statement released by Memphis police and added: “If we can do one, we can do them all!”Ending the unit, one of several police task forces in Memphis dispatched to neighborhoods to suppress crime, had been one of several demands protesters and Nichols’s family made in the aftermath of the Nichols’s death. In a statement, the family’s attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said that the unit’s dissolution marked an “appropriate and proportional” response to Nichols’s death and a “decent and just decision” to Memphis residents.“We hope that other cities take similar action with their saturation police units in the near future to begin to create greater trust in their communities,” they said. “We must keep in mind that this is just the next step on this journey for justice and accountability, as clearly this misconduct is not restricted to these specialty units. It extends so much further.”Martavius Jones, chair of the Memphis city council, told the crowd that it was now on city officials to take further action to reform the police department. “Hold us accountable,” he told the crowd. LJ Abraham, a local community organizer, and others looked over to Jones and reiterated they would.Jones, who grew up in Memphis and has been on the city council since 2015, told the Guardian that he gave credit to the police chief and Shelby county district attorney for respectively firing and charging five officers but would listen to residents for guidance.“We’re the body that can put forth reforms that can address this, and do our best to try to prevent this from happening again,” Jones told the Guardian.JB Smiley, vice chair of the Memphis city council, called for charges against “each and every officer” involved in Tyre Nichols’s death and urged citizens to “pull up” to upcoming city council meetings to make their voices heard.Smiley said in a statement that one police officer who “tased Tyre Nichols and who compelled the other officers to stomp him” to be fired, echoing what other organizers have expressed. He plans on introducing amendments to city ordinances that would bolster transparency by making Memphis police report traffic stops and track use of force complains and other misconduct.“We don’t stand for police brutality in the city of Memphis,” Smiley said. “This will never happen again in any other city because we will set the standard people will take suit and will be served and policy is implemented across this nation.Abraham, who says she has lived in Memphis since she was 12, told the Guardian that organizers are still demanding that Memphis police dismantle other task forces they run such as the multi-agency gang unit and transparency in releasing body camera footage. She showed the Guardian video from 2020 from a woman showing multiple Memphis police kneeling on her husband’s back while they tried to handcuff him, reportedly on his property.“Right now, when somebody is shot by police, we can’t see that video,” Abraham said, adding that four people had been killed by Memphis police since November. “The only reason we got to see Tyre’s footage was because of the manner in which he died.”Abraham recalled a moment outside a cocktail bar when she interacted with police after a patron made a “racist comment” toward her brother. During that interaction a year ago, Abraham says she was “aggressively attacked and thrown into a police car”.“For me it shines an additional layer into how aggressive the Memphis police department feels they need to be when there’s no need for aggression. In these traffic stops, people are fearful that either they are getting the shit beat out of them or they’re going to die,” Abraham said. “That shouldn’t be an expectation from people whose salaries we pay who are hired to protect and serve…It should never constitute someone getting murdered by the police.”“We’re not stopping until our demands are met,” she added. “This will keep going.”TopicsTyre NicholsUS policingUS politicsMemphisTennesseenewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      This Is How Red States Silence Blue Cities. And Democracy.

      by

      NASHVILLE — January in Nashville ushers in two forces for chaos: erratic weather and irrational legislators. Both are massively disruptive. Neither is surprising anymore.In the age of climate change, Mark Twain’s old joke about New England — if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes — is true all over the country. But even careening between thunderstorms and snow, sometimes in a single day, erratic weather is easier to cope with than the G.O.P. Unlike human beings, weather isn’t supposed to be rational.Neither, it seems, are Republicans, at least not anymore, and a blue city that serves as the capital of a red state had better brace itself when the legislature arrives in town. Nothing good ever comes when the Tennessee General Assembly reconvenes, but any Nashvillian paying attention understood that this time the usual assaults would be unusually bad.Last year, when Nashville’s Metro Council voted not to support the state’s bid for the city to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, retaliation was widely understood to be inevitable, according to Nashville’s NPR affiliate, WPLN News.Now we know what shape retaliation will take: Last week, on the first day of the new legislative session, Republicans in both the Tennessee House and Senate introduced legislation that would cut our Metro Council in half. (The bills ostensibly apply to all city governments with a legislative body larger than 20 members, but that’s just Nashville.) If passed, the law would overturn not only a 60-year history but also the will of the Nashville people, who voted in 2015 to keep its 40-member council intact.The new bills set a “dangerous precedent,” according to the Democratic House caucus chair, John Ray Clemmons. “The G.O.P. supermajority’s continued efforts to overstep into local affairs and usurp the decision-making authority of local officials for the purpose of centralizing more and more power at the state level is concerning,” Mr. Clemmons told The Tennessean. “Ultimately, Nashville families know what’s best for Nashville.”Metro Council is larger than the legislative branch of every American city except Chicago and New York, cities that dwarf Nashville. There are good arguments for reducing its size, which is the result of compromises made in 1962 when residents of Davidson County voted to form a metropolitan government, but that’s a different question. What matters here is that the state of Tennessee is once again interfering in the self-governance of the blue city that drives the economic engine of the entire red state. And state lawmakers are doing it for absolutely no reason but spite.There is, of course, a long history of legislative pre-emption in Tennessee. The tactic is also used by Democratic-controlled legislatures, but it is especially egregious in Southern states governed by Republican supermajorities. Just last week, another state lawmaker here introduced a bill that would ban local governments from helping residents fund out-of-state abortions — a policy that members of Nashville’s council have already proposed.It’s no surprise that the party of voter suppression and disenfranchisement is also the party of undermining local governance. But it’s worse this year, or at least it feels worse this year, because this year Nashville voters can’t count on representation at the national level either.The South used to be the land of the Yellow Dog Democrat — someone who would vote a straight Democratic ticket even if the Democratic candidate were a yellow dog — but those days are long gone. There are still legions of Democrats down here, as well as a growing number of voters who are left of the mainstream Democratic Party, but they are clustered in college towns and growing cities like Nashville, where they live and work shoulder to shoulder with old-school conservatives and rabid Donald Trump supporters alike. Joe Biden won Nashville with almost 65 percent of the vote.But thanks to a brutally gerrymandered election map, we didn’t send a moderate Democrat, one who could reasonably represent the interests of both Nashville liberals and Nashville conservatives, to Washington this year. Instead, the newly mutilated Nashville is represented by three of the most militant right-wingers the state has ever elected.This particular injustice likely seems irrelevant to anybody who doesn’t live here. Occurring as it does among so many other political injustices in a nation moving rapidly toward minority rule, even the utter disenfranchisement of an entire American city is hard to get particularly worked up about.But you ought to be worked up about it. You ought to be protesting in the streets about it because what is happening in Tennessee, and in so many other states governed by Republican supermajorities, goes a long way toward explaining what is happening in the U.S. Congress.Andy Ogles, for example, is the newly elected congressman from Tennessee’s redrawn Fifth District, a seat held for two decades by Rep. Jim Cooper back when the seat still included all of Nashville. In Washington, Mr. Ogles immediately allied himself with the nihilist wing of the Republican Party, voting 11 times against Rep. Kevin McCarthy for the speakership. In Nashville, then, we have gone from being represented by a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats to being represented by a founding member of what might well be called the Dead Dog Caucus. What else should we call legislators who have no interest in legislating?In dismembering Nashville to create three Republican voting districts, in other words, the Tennessee General Assembly managed only to nationalize its own brand of chaos. And maybe that was the whole point.Mark E. Green, an ardent Trump supporter who represents Tennessee’s Seventh District, which now includes parts of Nashville, is a vocal election denier. Mr. Green is one of 34 Republican members of Congress who exchanged text messages with the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as the far-right flank of the party sought nominal justification to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Even after the Jan. 6 riot, Mr. Green voted not to certify the 2020 presidential election. As Holly McCall, the editor in chief of the nonprofit news site the Tennessee Lookout, writes, such behavior from elected officials has “seeded our voting public with mistrust that continues to harm our democracy.”But wrecking American democracy is not enough for the Dead Dog Party. Last fall Mr. Green flew to Brazil to do the same thing in that much more fragile democracy. In a trip paid for by the American Conservative Union, he met with Brazilian lawmakers pushing to change election laws. The meeting’s agenda: to discuss “voting integrity policies.” We know what happened next: Thanks in part to one of Nashville’s representatives in Congress, anti-democracy riots are now an American export.Meanwhile, here at home, Mr. Green has just been named chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.Margaret Renkl, a contributing Opinion writer, is the author of the books “Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South” and “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More