US policing

Subterms

    More stories

    • 188 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Enough of the senseless killings’: Biden calls Chauvin verdict ‘a start’ as Democrats demand action

      by

      Addressing the nation on Tuesday evening, Joe Biden said the guilty verdict for the former Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin was “a start”. But, he said, “in order to deliver real change and reform, we can and we must do more”.“Protests unified people of every race and generation in peace and with purpose to say enough,” Biden said. “Enough. Enough of the senseless killings. Today’s verdict is a step forward.“The guilty verdict does not bring back George,” he continued, noting that he had called the Floyd family after the news had come. “George’s legacy will not be just about his death, but about what we must do in his memory.”Many lawmakers and public figures celebrated the verdict while also calling for more to be done, echoing years-long demands by Black Lives Matter activists for systemic change.Cori Bush, the Black Lives Matter activist who was elected last year to represent Missouri in the US House of Representatives, said the verdict “is accountability, but it’s not yet justice.”Kamala Harris, who spoke before Biden, said the administration would work to help pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that Harris – as a senator – introduced last summer along with Senator Cory Booker and Representative Karen Bass. “This bill is part of George Floyd’s legacy,” she said. “The president and I will continue to urge the Senate to pass this legislation, not as a panacea for every problem, but as a start. This work is long overdue.”Democratic lawmakers echoed Harris, while Republicans, who have obstructed the bill’s passage for nearly a year, remained largely silent.[embedded content]Bass, a Democrat of California, said she hoped the verdict today would re-energize efforts to pass the police reform bill into law. The bill passed the House this year with no Republican support – and it faces a major hurdle in the Senate, where Republicans are expected to block it with a filibuster.“We need to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and put it on President Biden’s desk,” she said, speaking with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on Capitol Hill. “Because that will be the first step to transforming policing.”In any case, she later told reporters, the Chauvin verdict “gives us hope” for some sort of policing bill. Bass has been in informal talks with Republican lawmakers to develop a bipartisan compromise and hopes a deal can be reached “by the time we hit the anniversary of George Floyd’s death” on 25 May, she told reporters.The rare guilty verdict came as a shock and a relief to many lawmakers and public figures. Following its announcement Bass hugged Gwen Moore, a Democratic representative of Wisconsin and fellow member of the CBC. “I was knocked off my feet,” Moore told Bass, as they embraced.Ilhan Omar, the US representative for Minneapolis, said the verdict represents a type of justice that feels “new and long overdue,” adding: “Alhamdulillah!”Remarks by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, however, raised some eyebrows. In an address from Capitol Hill, she said: “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice. For being there to call out to your mom, how heartbreaking was that, call out for your mom, ‘I can’t breathe,’” she said.As many listeners and watchers pointed out, Floyd didn’t choose to sacrifice himself or to be a martyr – he was killed.“I know someone wrote this for her. Someone else edited the draft. Most likely yet another person approved it. And then she said it,” said the writer Mikki Kendall. “This is a long trail of fail.”Barack Obama praised the efforts of Black Lives Matter activists and people around the world protested in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing.“As we continue the fight, we can draw strength from the millions of people – especially young people – who have marched and protested and spoken up over the last year, shining a light on inequity and calling for change,” Barack and Michelle Obama said in a joint statement. “Justice is closer today not simply because of this verdict, but because of their work.”In a call to Floyd’s family, Biden reiterated his promise to enact meaningful change. “We’re going to stay at it until we get it done,” he said. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Republicans demand action against Maxine Waters after Minneapolis remarks

      by

      The Republican leader in the House of Representatives and an extremist congresswoman who champions “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” have demanded action against the Democratic representative Maxine Waters, after she expressed support for protesters against police brutality.On Saturday, Waters spoke in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police last week.The California congresswoman spoke before final arguments on Monday in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd for more than nine minutes last May, resulting in the Black man’s death and global protests.“I’m going to fight with all of the people who stand for justice,” said Waters, who is Black. “We’ve got to get justice in this country and we cannot allow these killings to continue.”Tensions are high in Minneapolis.Waters said: “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”Of Chauvin, Waters said: “I hope we’re going to get a verdict that will say guilty, guilty, guilty. And if we don’t, we cannot go away.”On Sunday night the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said: “Maxine Waters is inciting violence in Minneapolis – just as she has incited it in the past. If Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi doesn’t act against this dangerous rhetoric, I will bring action this week.”Waters, 82, a confrontational figure sometimes known as “Kerosene Maxine”, made headlines last week by telling the Ohio congressman Jim Jordan to “respect the chair and shut your mouth” during a hearing with Anthony Fauci, the chief White House medical adviser.She regularly clashed with Donald Trump, angering some Democratic leaders. In 2018, Waters said people should harass Trump aides in public. Pelosi called the comments “unacceptable”. The Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, went for “not American”.Observers said McCarthy’s most likely course of action is to seek formal censure – a move unlikely to succeed unless enough Democrats support it.From the far right of McCarthy’s party, the Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene compared Waters’ words with those of Trump, when he told supporters to march on Congress and overturn his election defeat, resulting in the deadly Capitol riot of 6 January.“Speaker Pelosi,” she tweeted. “You impeached President Trump after you said he incited violence by saying ‘march peacefully’ to the Capitol. So I can expect a yes vote from you on my resolution to expel Maxine Waters for inciting violence, riots, and abusing power threatening a jury, right?”Trump did tell supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”. He also said: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”In February, Greene lost committee assignments over conspiracy-laden remarks. At the weekend, she dropped plans to start an “America First Caucus” based on “Anglo-Saxon political traditions”.Some Democrats want to expel Greene from Congress. That too is unlikely to succeed. More

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Chauvin trial: use-of-force defense witness says ‘I felt Derek Chauvin was justified’ – live

      by

      Key events

      Show

      5.27pm EDT
      17:27

      Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake is back on the job

      2.16pm EDT
      14:16

      Brooklyn Center mayor calls for more community-based policing, names new acting chief

      1.44pm EDT
      13:44

      Police chief and officer resign over fatal shooting of Daunte Wright

      11.54am EDT
      11:54

      Floyd was ‘very’ startled when police pointed gun at him, witness tells Chauvin jury

      10.39am EDT
      10:39

      The Chauvin prosecution rests

      8.55am EDT
      08:55

      Proceedings to resume in Chauvin murder trial

      Live feed

      Show

      5.27pm EDT
      17:27

      Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake is back on the job

      Joanna Walters

      Around three months after it was announced that the officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back last summer would not face criminal charges, the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, announced that the officer is back on the job.
      Without mentioning Blake’s name or details of the shooting last year, beyond referring to a “use of force incident” the Kenosha Police Department put out a statement via Twitter this afternoon.

      Kenosha Police Dept.
      (@KenoshaPolice)
      Media Release pic.twitter.com/wdq5QaNNyk

      April 13, 2021

      Blake said in January of this year that he feared becoming the “next George Floyd” if he had allowed himself to fall down last August when he was shot multiple times in the back and side next to his car after a confrontation with police.T he shooting has left him paralyzed from the waist down.
      The police statement today on behalf of the chief, Daniel Miskinis, said that the incident “was investigated by an outside agency, has been reviewed by an independent expert as well a the Kenosha county district attorney.”
      Officer Rusten Sheskey returned to work with the Kenosha PD on March 31.
      ”Officer Sheskey was found to have been acting within policy and will not be subjected to discipline,” the statement said, adding: “Although this incident has been reviewed at multiple levels, I know that some will not be pleased with the outcome however, given the facts, the only lawful and appropriate decision was made.”

      5.18pm EDT
      17:18

      Testimony from Barry Brodd, who took the stand for Derek Chauvin’s defense as a use-of-force expert, has come to an end.
      Judge Peter Cahill has sent jurors home for the day, and lawyers on both sides are now discussing legal matters.

      5.02pm EDT
      17:02

      The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland is reporting from Minnesota on the death of Daunte Wright, who was killed by police during a traffic stop Sunday in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Wright’s death comes as the trial for Derek Chauvin nears a conclusion, heightening tensions in a city that’s on edge about its outcome.
      Laughland writes:

      As court broke for lunchtime recess, members of George Floyd’s family held a joint press conference with members of Wright’s family.
      It was bitterly cold, with snow pounding the assembled group. Both Wright’s mother, his aunt, cousin and girlfriend addressed reporters along with two of George Floyd’s brothers.
      Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is now representing both families, spoke about the Wright case just as news broke that the Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon and officer Kim Potter who shot and killed the unarmed 20 year-old had resigned. He expressed disbelief that the Wright shooting had occurred while the Chauvin trial was going on.
      “It is unbelievable, something I cannot fathom, that in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a suburb ten miles from where the Chauvin trial regarding George Floyd was taking place that a police officer would shoot and kill another unarmed black man,” Crump said.
      He continued: “If ever there was a time where nobody in America should be killed by police, it was during this pinnacle trial of Derek Chauvin. What I believe is one of the most impactful civil rights police excessive use of force cases in the history of America.”
      Wright’s mother, Katie, told the story of how she had been on the phone to her son as he was apprehended by law enforcement. She spoke through tears and watched as his aunt lead the crowd in a now familiar chant.
      “Say his name!,” she shouted.
      “Daunte Wright”. The group replied.

      Oliver Laughland
      (@oliverlaughland)
      Daunte Wright’s mother Katie is talking about the phone-call she had with her son as he was pulled over by Brooklyn Center police. She’s speaking through tears as the snow continues to fall, flanked by members of the Floyd family. pic.twitter.com/pwE2KyXSLE

      April 13, 2021

      4.47pm EDT
      16:47

      The prosecution has pressed Barry Brodd, a defense expert witness on use-of-force, about whether the crowd surrounding George Floyd’s arrest constituted a threat to police officers.
      Their line of questioning stems from the fact that Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has claimed the crowd was a distraction and potential threat to officers. Prosecutors are questioning Brodd about this because he has previously said a crowd could change the dynamics for officers, thus impacting what constitutes a “reasonable” use-of-force.
      The prosecution is playing body camera video that shows a crowd gather, over time, as police subdue Floyd. In a video from the beginning of Floyd’s subdual, there are only a few people on the sidewalk.
      Prosecutors, through their questioning, point out that there are a “handful of onlookers on the sidewalk”—not the street, not near police. They also point out that the initial crowd is comprised of an elderly man and two teenage girls.
      “They don’t appear to be making any noise at all at this point,” the prosecution says.
      “Not that I can hear, no,” Brodd says.
      “And [they] certainly would not have distracted the defendant?”
      “That I cannot say,” Brodd replies.
      “Well, they’re not doing anything and they’re not saying anything,” the prosecution prods.
      “I think they could have been aware of their presence, and started to plan for it.”
      The prosecution plays another video of the crowd, when more observers have gathered on the sidewalk, some of whom are making statements about the arrest.
      “Was this crowd a threatening crowd?”
      “No,” Brodd concedes.

      Updated
      at 4.49pm EDT

      4.05pm EDT
      16:05

      Amudalat Ajasa

      One of our correspondents in Minnesota, Amudalat Ajasa, has been on location today and yesterday in Brooklyn Center, the suburb of Minneapolis where Duante Wright, 20, was shot dead on Sunday by the police and where people outraged. She’s running around reporting for a forthcoming article, so for now your blogger brings you some of her reportage.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Despite frigid temperatures and snow, people have gathered to mourn the death of #DaunteWright at the new fist monument on 63rd and Kathrene in Brooklyn Center. pic.twitter.com/5uNiE5yLMa

      April 13, 2021

      There has been a particularly raw sense of solidarity-in-tragedy in the area, given that Brooklyn Center is only around 15 miles from the junction in south Minneapolis, now known as George Floyd Square, where Floyd, 46, was killed last May by the police.
      Outside the Cup Foods corner store where Floyd was pinned to the street by now-ex officer Derek Chauvin, who’s standing trial for murder, statements of support have been written for Duante Wright.
      And the original Black power fist sculpture, made out of wood, that graced the intersection until it was replaced recently with a metal one, was quickly transported to Brooklyn Center and appeared at a vigil for Wright yesterday.
      Protest has been constant since Sunday.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside of the Brooklyn Center police department to protest the death of #DaunteWright for the second day in a row. pic.twitter.com/3HgmiazxYe

      April 12, 2021

      They’ve faced police in riot gear. Munitions were fired at protesters last night.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Officers in riot gear are trying to push the protesters into the street. #DaunteWright pic.twitter.com/OxqbLbh7A1

      April 12, 2021

      Protesters chant Wright’s name.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Protesters chant #DaunteWright’s name at the Brooklyn Center police department with a little over an hour before the 7 PM curfew. pic.twitter.com/jMFKe5amno

      April 12, 2021

      And here’s the moment yesterday when some activists outside the Brooklyn Center police and mayoral press conference heard the explanation that the officer Kim Potter, who has since resigned, had meant to draw her Taser to stun Wright but drew her gun by mistake and shot him dead.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Activists and reporters just watched as the body cam video of #DaunteWright is revealed inside the Brooklyn Center police department. The police chief claims the officer accidentally shot her gun instead of her taser. pic.twitter.com/3vOINE9gxj

      April 12, 2021

      Updated
      at 4.09pm EDT

      3.41pm EDT
      15:41

      The prosecution is now cross-examining Barry Brodd, a defense witness called to testify about use-of-force. One thing that Brodd has said earlier was that the prone restraint position isn’t inherently a use-of-force. Derek Chauvin kept his knee against George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes when he was prone against the ground.

      Danny Spewak
      (@DannySpewak)
      Defense witness Barry Brodd says that “maintaining of the prone control, to me, is not a use of force,” and that there were “valid reasons” to keep Floyd face-down because of “space limitations.”

      April 13, 2021

      The prosecution’s questioning of Brodd has made him seem a bit inconsistent. They ask Brodd whether his opinion would change—whether he would consider the prone position a use of force—if it caused an arrestee pain.
      “If the pain was inflicted through the prone control, I would say that is a use of force,” he says.
      Prosecutors ask Brodd whether he thinks it’s “unlikely that orienting yourself on top of a person on the pavement, with both legs, is unlikely to produce pain?”
      “It could,” Brodd says.
      By pressing Brodd on his statement that the prone position doesn’t necessarily cause pain—which does not make much sense—he doesn’t come across as the most reliable witness.

      3.02pm EDT
      15:02

      It hasn’t taken long for Chauvin’s attorney to try casting George Floyd as unpredictable drug user whose behavior changed the playing field for appropriate use-of-force. Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has asked use-of-force expert Barry Brodd whether substance use can affect use-of-force requirements.
      “It has quite a large impact, in my opinion,” Brodd replies. People on drugs might not “be hearing” what officers ask them to do.
      “They may have erratic behavior. They don’t feel pain.”
      “They may have superhuman strength,” he also says. “They may have an ability to go from compliant to extreme non-compliance in a heartbeat.”
      Brodd also says that the prone position might be “safer” for an arrestee who’s handcuffed, because they can’t run off and injure themselves. It might also prevent an arrestee from choking on their own vomit, he claims. More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Joe Arpaio: inside the fallout of Trump’s pardon

      by

      Late August 2017 was supposed to be a celebratory time for Joe Arpaio. The former Maricopa county sheriff had just received Donald Trump’s first presidential pardon after being found guilty of criminal contempt of court.The pardon meant Arpaio was spared a criminal sentence for a federal misdemeanor that could have included up to six months in prison. At a family dinner at a local restaurant the night he received it, he was barely able to touch his linguine with clams and calamari – he had been too busy fielding congratulatory phone calls and media inquiries.But Trump’s pardon could not redeem the political brand of Arpaio, then 85, who was once known as “America’s toughest sheriff,” nor would it help the president’s own long-term popularity in Arizona. Arizona’s electorate was changing, quickly. The state’s extreme immigration laws and Arpaio’s style of enforcement – which in both cases, federal courts had found some aspects unconstitutional – had inspired an energetic, grassroots resistance movement that was reshaping the politics of the state.Instead of having his reputation reinstated with the Trump pardon, Arpaio was met with a fierce backlash. “I’ve got two new titles now,” Arpaio told us weeks after he was pardoned. “‘The disgraced sheriff,’ that’s everywhere, ‘disgraced sheriff.’ And the other one is ‘racist.’ … I lost my ‘America’s toughest sheriff’ title.”Elected sheriff of Maricopa county – which includes Phoenix and Arizona’s most populous county – in 1992, Arpaio once was one of the state’s most popular politicians.He grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, Ciro Arpaio, an Italian citizen, had immigrated to the US in the 1920s, a time when many Americans viewed Italian immigrants as criminally inclined, disease-spreading, job-stealing, shifty, swarthy-skinned invaders.As a child, Arpaio said, he took in the anti-immigrant taunts, and pretended to ignore them. That’s what you did back then, he said.The immigrant’s son grew up to be an unapologetic immigration enforcer, delivering the hardline policies that a growing base of Republican voters in Arizona supported. His deputies helped turn tens of thousands of immigrants over to Ice for deportation. They rounded up day laborers, raided businesses to bust unauthorized immigrant employees working with fake papers, and swarmed neighborhoods where they arrested undocumented drivers and passengers found after stopping cars for minor traffic infractions.His tactics had helped nurture a climate of vitriol against Mexican immigrants in Maricopa county, not so unlike the anti-immigrant hate he had experienced first-hand. Arpaio launched an immigration hotline in 2007 “for citizens to report illegal aliens.” Sheriff’s office records show the move unleashed a flood of tips.County residents wanted Arpaio to investigate their immigrant neighbors and check out a local McDonald’s where the staff suspiciously spoke Spanish. An anonymous hotline caller expressed a desire to “shoot” a Mexican-born activist who was one of Arpaio’s vocal critics, “if I could get away with it.”Arizona’s bitter immigration wars, and Arpaio’s role in them, helped his political brand – for a time. He had been re-elected to a fifth term, his last, in 2012 when he was 80. But his immigration stance led to his political downfall the following election cycle.In 2016, a Latino-led grassroots movement that had spent the previous decade protesting the sheriff’s immigration enforcement tactics, collecting evidence for lawsuits, empowering immigrant communities to know their rights, and registering new voters, had focused their energy on their biggest voter mobilization drive yet. Young people, who had come of age fearing Arpaio’s deputies might deport their immigrant family members, had become eligible voters and registered others.At the same time, moderate Republicans, irritated by Arpaio’s mounting legal fees and controversies, had backed his Democratic challenger. Even as Maricopa county voters helped Trump win the presidency, they rejected their longtime sheriff.Meanwhile, Arpaio was facing legal backlash. Along the years, Arpaio had ignored a federal judge’s order that barred his law enforcement agency from detaining undocumented immigrants who had not been suspected or accused of crimes – and turning them over for deportation.In 2016, the Obama administration’s justice department had announced plans to prosecute Arpaio for criminal contempt of court.Trump’s 2017 pardon provided relief, and hope for a political rebirth. “He is loved in Arizona,” Trump told reporters of Arpaio days after the pardon. “Sheriff Joe protected our borders. And Sheriff Joe was very unfairly treated by the Obama administration, especially right before an election – an election that he would have won.”It did not take long, however, for legal scholars, newspaper editorial boards and historians to pen the rebuke, labeling the pardon an abuse of power, an impeachable offense, unconstitutional, a dog whistle to white supremacists in Trump’s base, cronyism, or any combination of these.“Trump’s pardon elevates Arpaio once again to the pantheon of those who see institutional racism as something that made America great,” read an editorial in the Arizona Republic.The same piece called a federal judge’s guilty verdict against Arpaio “a dose of hard-won justice for a too-flamboyant sheriff who showed little respect for the constitution as he made national news as an immigration hardliner – and let real crimes go uninvestigated.”News outlets revisited years worth of negative coverage about Arpaio, including a class action federal lawsuit filed a decade earlier, in which Latino motorists in Maricopa county had shown that Arpaio’s immigration tactics had violated their civil rights and resulted in racial profiling.By September 2017, it seemed the controversy had left Arpaio surprised, angry and bewildered.“I’m not a racist,” he told us. “You know that. Everybody knows that.”When Arpaio now checked his email, he said, he found a message that called him a “Sicko. Sadist. Depraved vile criminal,” and expressed cruel, violent wishes. Another letter used anti-Italian slurs to address him as a “Fat, Greaseball Dago Piece of Shit,” and referred to the author’s desire to one day “piss on that WOP grave of yours”.In January 2018, Arpaio announced he would run for an open US Senate seat in that year’s election. But he had lost his once loyal Republican base. He came in third place out of three candidates in the GOP primary.I think the defeat of Arpaio made it tangible that we can defeat the villains that haunt our dreamsEven though Arpaio was sidelined in the 2018 election, his legacy continued to galvanize activists and voters. From 2014 to 2018, Latino voter turnout in Arizona jumped from 32% to 49%. In those four years, a few Latino activists who had organized against Arpaio and Arizona’s spate of extreme immigration laws, won seats as Democrats in the Arizona statehouse, chipping away at the Republican majorities. The Latino vote helped Democrat Kyrsten Sinema defeat the Republican Martha McSally for the Senate seat that Arpaio had wanted.Some on the ground organizers credited the surge in Latino turnout in part to voters seeing Arpaio’s defeat two years earlier.Alejandra Gomez, a Mexican American activist with Living United for Change in Arizona who helped mobilize voters in 2016 and 2018, said seeing Arpaio lose and a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage pass had helped convince some first time voters the following election cycle that the act of voting could make a difference.“Every step of the way we have been saying we are going to fight for our community. By that point – we actually delivered,” Gomez said.That same momentum, Gomez predicted at the time, would spill over to the next presidential cycle in 2020.“We demonstrated that it is possible to defeat someone like Arpaio, so it is possible also to defeat someone like Trump,” she said.Still Arpaio’s political ambitions weren’t over. In 2020, he ran for his old job as sheriff in the Republican primary. He crisscrossed the county in a campaign bus plastered with a photo of him with Trump and the slogan, “Make Maricopa county safe again.” The race was close, but again he lost.Meanwhile, the grassroots organizers who had learned how to inspire voters in their fight against Arpaio channeled their energy to mobilizing voters of color.Arizona voters by a narrow margin, picked a Democrat for president for only the second time since 1952, helping cement Joe Biden’s win and Trump’s defeat. Democrat Mark Kelly won his race for a US Senate seat.Maria Castro, a 27-year-old Mexican American activist who first began registering new Latino voters in Maricopa county as a high schooler in 2011, noticed the people whose doors she knocked on in 2020 were unusually eager to vote.“This time around, people were like, ‘Yes, we’re ready to get rid of Trump,’ ” Castro told us. “I think the defeat of Arpaio made it tangible that we can defeat the villains that haunt our dreams.”Arpaio, now 88, may have lost his last three races, but he is holding out hope that the same will not hold true for the man he calls his hero, Trump. “I got beat, came right around and ran again,” Arpaio told us. “So I would like to see him run again.”
      Jude Joffe-Block and Terry Greene Sterling are the authors of DRIVING WHILE BROWN: Sheriff Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance, a new book that tells the story of Arpaio’s rise and fall as the sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county and the determined Latino resistance that fought his unconstitutional policing. Driving While Brown is published by University of California Press and is available on 20 April. More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      Police officers sue Donald Trump for injuries resulting from Capitol riot

      by

      Two US Capitol Police officers have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting the deadly 6 January insurrection and saying he was responsible for physical and emotional injuries they suffered as a result.James Blassingame, a 17-year veteran of the force, and Sidney Hemby, an 11-year veteran, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in US district court for the District of Columbia seeking damages of at least $75,000 each.“This is a complaint for damages by US Capitol Police officers for physical and emotional injuries caused by the defendant Donald Trump’s wrongful conduct inciting a riot on January 6, 2021, by his followers trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit said.Trump has denied responsibility for the rioting, which left five people dead, including a police officer. His office did not immediately return a call for comment on the lawsuit.Before the January insurrection occurred, Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” and march to the US Capitol building during a rally in Washington held on the same day. The former president was impeached, for a historic second time in his presidency, over his incitement of the insurrection – but was acquitted by the Senate in a 57 to 43 vote.The lawsuit cites the former Republican president’s conduct before and beyond the November presidential election, which Joe Biden won, including comments in speeches, on Twitter and during presidential debates.It said Trump stoked violence throughout the 2020 presidential campaign and escalated his false assertion that the election was rigged after the election was called for Biden.“During his 2016 campaign, and throughout his presidency, Trump had threatened violence towards his opponents, encouraged his followers to commit acts of violence, and condoned acts of violence by his followers, including white supremacists and far rightwing hate groups,” it said.The lawsuit also cited Trump’s encouragement to supporters to come to the Capitol on 6 January and so-called “Stop The Steal” campaign in the months after the election, including a tweet on 19 December: “Big protest on DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.“The lawsuit states: “Trump’s December 19th tweet about the January 6th rally was taken by many of his supporters as a literal call to arms.”Both officers suffered physical injuries and emotional injuries during the insurrection, according to the complaint. Hemby suffered neck and back injuries and was sprayed with chemicals, and remains in physical therapy, according to the complaint. Blassingame also suffered head and back injuries during the attack and has since experienced depression.“He is haunted by the memory of being attacked, and of the sensory impacts – the sights, sounds, smells and even tastes of the attack remain close to the surface,” the complaint states. “He experiences guilt of being unable to help his colleagues who were simultaneously being attacked; and of surviving where other colleagues did not.”The lawsuit follows other civil lawsuits filed by a handful of Democrats.Eric Swalwell, Democratic congressman and a former impeachment manager in Trump’s second trial, sued over Trump’s conduct during the insurrection. Swalwell’s lawsuit also targets the former president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and his son, Donald Trump Jr, as well as extremist groups associated with the riot, alleging violations of the anti-terrorism act.The former president and members of his circle have also been sued by the Democrat Bennie Thompson over alleged violations of a post-civil war statute designed against white supremacist violence by the Ku Klux Klan. The suit is being backed by the civil rights advocacy group the NAACP. More

    • 213 Shares149 Views

      in US Politics

      Derek Chauvin trial begins as jury hears of 'excessive force' that took George Floyd's life – live

      by

      Key events

      Show

      5.45pm EDT
      17:45

      “Faded away like a fish in a bag” – witness in Chauvin trial

      4.30pm EDT
      16:30

      Today so far

      3.40pm EDT
      15:40

      CDC study shows Pfizer and Moderna vaccines highly effective in preventing Covid infections

      2.41pm EDT
      14:41

      Biden calls on states to reinstate mask mandates as coronavirus cases rise

      2.24pm EDT
      14:24

      Biden to announce 90% of US adults will be vaccine eligible by April 19, White House confirms

      2.05pm EDT
      14:05

      Georgia sued again over elections law

      1.48pm EDT
      13:48

      Biden to announce big vaccines boost – reports

      Live feed

      Show

      5.45pm EDT
      17:45

      “Faded away like a fish in a bag” – witness in Chauvin trial

      Joanna Walters

      Blistering eye-witness testimony happening now in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd.
      Prosecution witness Donald Williams, 33, a mixed martial arts fighter, was close to the back of the police vehicle next to which, on May 25, 2020, now-former police officer Derek Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the concrete by his neck.
      Williams told the court that he could hear and see Floyd in distress and his martial arts experience indicated to him that Chauvin was choking out Floyd as he kneeled on his neck.
      The jury, and the public watching in court or around the world by live stream, was shown some devastating clips of Chauvin allegedly “shimmying” in what Williams said was a martial arts move, altering his position very slightly so that it put more pressure on – as a fighter does when they have someone in a hold.
      Williams heard Floyd talking about how much pain he was in, his distress as he said he couldn’t breathe, apologized to the officers and begged for his life.
      “The more that the knee was on his neck, and the shimmying going on, the more you see him [Floyd] slowly fade away. His eyes rolled to the back of his head,” Williams said.’
      He described Floyd dying “like a fish in a bag” and said he saw “blood coming ouot of his nose”, adding “he had no life in him any more.”
      Williams described the knee-position as a dangerous “blood choke” intended to cut Floyd’s airway. Williams has previously been heard but unseen shouting angrily at the police from the sidewalk, calling Chauvin a “bum” and accusing him of enjoying what he was doing, as Floyd suffers and begs.

      whudat
      (@whudat)
      On convenience, God works in his ways. For Donald Williams to go to the store and witness George Floyd being murdered with a move he’s well informed of from his MMA fighting. That’s supposed to happen. Testimony: Derek Chauvin looked at him when he said that’s a Blood Choke move. pic.twitter.com/zFqdD43CDK

      March 29, 2021

      5.08pm EDT
      17:08

      By the end of this work-week, all adults – and some teens – will be eligible to get a Covid vaccine in Colorado, Associated Press reports.
      Governor Jared Polis announced the expansion of the vaccine program onMonday, adding that everyone in the state will be able to get a dose by mid to late May. Over 1 million Coloradans have already been fully vaccinated.

      Governor Jared Polis
      (@GovofCO)
      COVID-19 VACCINE UPDATE!Starting Friday, April 2, all Coloradans 16 and up will be eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine and those 18 and up will be eligible for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This is a huge step towards Building Back Stronger here in Colorado. pic.twitter.com/w9uicase56

      March 29, 2021

      “Every day we’re getting closer to ending the pandemic, but it’s not over yet,” Polis said during a news conference.
      Across the US, roughly 95 million people have gotten at least one shot, and close to 53 million have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
      But even as new daily records for numbers of vaccines administered continue to be set, and states continue to ramp up their rates, public health officials have called for continued vigilance. Covid cases are again creeping up in some areas of the country.
      Biden called on states to reinstate mask mandates on Monday, saying that “reckless behavior” was threatening progress made in containing the pandemic.

      Updated
      at 5.38pm EDT

      4.46pm EDT
      16:46

      Hello everyone! I am Gabrielle Canon, signing on to take you through the news for the next few hours.
      First up — Donald Trump jumped on an unusual opportunity to share his feelings about the state of affairs since he’s left office, taking over the microphone during a wedding being held at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend,.
      Celebrity tabloid site TMZ first released the video of the former-president’s rambling toast, where he aired complaints about Biden’s policies and rehashed fabricated accusations of election fraud, before congratulating the happy couple.

      The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly has the story:

      “Y’know,” the tuxedoed former president began, standing in front of a waiting band, “I just got, I turned off the news, I get all these flash reports, and they’re telling me about the border, they’re telling me about China, they’re telling me about Iran – how’re we doing with Iran, how do you like that?”

      Read the rest of the story here:

      4.30pm EDT
      16:30

      Today so far

      That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague Gabrielle Canon will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:

      The trial of Derek Chauvin in connection to the killing of George Floyd started in Minneapolis. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, is facing charges of murder in the second and third degree and manslaughter.
      Prosecutors played the video showing the final moments of Floyd’s life. In the video, Chauvin kneels on Floyd’s neck as Floyd repeatedly says, “I can’t breathe.” Bystanders are also heard urging Chauvin to stop kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
      Joe Biden announced that 90% of American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 19. By that date, 90% of Americans will live within five miles of a vaccination site, the president said. Biden also announced his administration is expanding its pharmacy vaccine program and spending nearly $100 million to vaccinate vulnerable communities.
      The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expressed a feeling of “impending doom” as coronavirus cases rise in the US. During the White House coronavirus response team’s briefing today, Dr Rochelle Walensky said, “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, but right now I’m scared.” The CDC director urged Americans to continue wearing masks and socially distancing to limit the spread of coronavirus as vaccinations ramp up. Biden echoed Walensky’s concerns and asked states to reinstate mask mandates if they have rescinded them.
      A CDC study showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were highly effective at preventing coronavirus infections in real-world conditions. According to the study, the risk of infection was reduced by 90% two weeks after study participants received the second dose of a vaccine.

      Gabrielle will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      Updated
      at 4.35pm EDT

      4.15pm EDT
      16:15

      Amudalat Ajasa

      Protesters outside the Minneapolis court house where former police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd today were acutely aware of the significance of the case and well as the precariousness of the outcome.
      Jason Brown, 40, a vice president of a tech company and the president of Minnesota’s Arc of Justice advocacy group, who is Black, told the Guardian: “I wish for once America would stand up for us. … If [Chauvin] meant to do this or if he didn’t mean to, it happened.”
      Brown is concerned that the jury, which is majority white, may not convict.
      “The jury? I don’t think a Black man could get fair justice in America anywhere,” he said.
      People are braced for the defense to try to tear down Floyd’s character and conduct on the day.
      “[Floyd is] a Black man who’s not really on trial – but he is on trial. He died, but he’s on trial,” Brown said.
      The city has emphasized that peaceful protest is encouraged, despite the heavily-protected court building and the deployment of National Guard troops.
      But there is no doubt that if Chauvin is acquitted or even if convicted on the least serious charge, manslaughter, resulting protests could escalate and spin out of control.
      “If they don’t get it right, we will get it right. The younger generations don’t have patience for nonsense,” Brown said.
      Another protester, who identified only by her artistic moniker of Aesthetic Ash, said she left her home in California last May and has been participating in protests across the country since.
      “I’m here to make sure the community knows that people genuinely care about George Floyd, they care about Breonna Taylor and they care about all the whose lives have been stolen too early,” she said.
      Minnesota has only one previous recorded murder conviction of a police officer in the course of his duty – an officer of color.

      4.01pm EDT
      16:01

      Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech on his proposed infrastructure package on Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
      According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the president will speak in the same union hall where he campaigned for Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb in a 2018 special election.
      Lamb won that special election and has since won two re-election races to remain in the House of Representatives.

      Jonathan Tamari
      (@JonathanTamari)
      Joe Biden is planning to launch his infrastructure pitch in the same Western PA union hall where he campaigned for Conor Lamb in the 2018 special election

      March 29, 2021

      Updated
      at 4.20pm EDT

      3.40pm EDT
      15:40

      CDC study shows Pfizer and Moderna vaccines highly effective in preventing Covid infections

      Richard Luscombe

      In case you missed it: a new CDC study provided “strong evidence” that the two mRNA vaccines approved for use in the US, produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are highly effective in preventing infections in what the agency called “real-world conditions” among healthcare personnel, first-responders and essential workers.
      “This study shows that our national vaccination efforts are working,” said Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
      “These findings should offer hope to the millions of Americans receiving Covid-19 vaccines each day and to those who will have the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated in the weeks ahead.”
      Nonetheless, many experts fear a fourth wave of Covid-19 in the US as variants of the deadly virus continue to circulate in numerous states, many of which have almost fully reopened, and Americans prepare for the summer travel season.
      Despite more than 2.5m vaccinations being administered per day and a shrinking death toll, Walensky believes a fourth wave is imminent.
      “I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” she said. “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I’m scared.”
      Walensky’s concern appears to be backed up by statistics. The US recently passed 30m cases of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the seven-day average of hospital admissions has risen to 4,800, up 200.
      The daily average of new cases has also risen, by 10% in a week, to about 70,000, far higher than the 40,000 to 50,000 daily cases of a few weeks ago.

      3.18pm EDT
      15:18

      Martin Pengelly

      In Michigan, the Associated Press reports, a judge has ordered three men to stand trial regarding a foiled plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer over her coronavirus restrictions.

      Jackson county district court Judge Michael Klaeren ruled there was enough evidence and bound over Paul Bellar, Joe Morrison and Pete Musico to circuit court to stand trial.
      Arguments were heard by Klaeren about whether the men should face trial following three days of testimony. They are accused of aiding six other men charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer. Five more people are also charged in state courts.
      The FBI in October said it broke up a plot to kidnap Whitmer by anti-government extremists upset over her coronavirus restrictions.
      Klareen said there was enough evidence for trial on charges of providing material support for terrorist acts, gang membership and using a firearm during a felony. The judge dismissed a charge of threat of terrorism against Musico and Morrison. Bellar did not face that charge.

      Here’s some further reading…

      2.55pm EDT
      14:55

      As he walked away from the podium, a reporter asked Joe Biden if he believed some states should pause their reopening efforts because of the rise in coronavirus cases across the US.
      “Yes,” the president replied.

      Aaron Rupar
      (@atrupar)
      REPORTER: Do you believe some states should pause their reopening efforts?BIDEN: Yes pic.twitter.com/64ggT1WuYG

      March 29, 2021

      A number of states have relaxed some of their coronavirus-related restrictions in recent weeks, as vaccinations have increased.
      But the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Rochelle Walensky, warned of “impending doom” in connection to the recent rise in cases.
      “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope,” Walensky said during this morning’s briefing from the White House coronavirus response team. “But right now I’m scared.”

      2.47pm EDT
      14:47

      Joe Biden confirmed that 90% of American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 19. By that date, 90% of Americans will also live within five miles of a vaccination site.
      Biden noted that the final 10% of American adults will be eligible to receive the vaccine by May 1, as he previously announced.

      President Biden
      (@POTUS)
      I’m proud to announce that three weeks from today, 90% of adults will be eligible to get vaccinated — and 90% of Americans will live within 5 miles of a place to get a shot.

      March 29, 2021

      The president also announced his administration is expanding its pharmacy vaccination program to 20,000 more local pharmacies, and the federal government is investing nearly $100 million to get vulnerable communities vaccinated.
      “We still are in a war with this deadly virus, and we’re bolstering our defense, but this war is far from won,” Biden said.
      The president concluded his comments by asking Americans to continue to wear masks, socially distance and wash their hands to limit the spread of the virus.

      Updated
      at 3.04pm EDT

      2.41pm EDT
      14:41

      Biden calls on states to reinstate mask mandates as coronavirus cases rise

      Joe Biden is now speaking at the White House to deliver an update on the distribution of coronavirus vaccines in the US.
      The president noted the country has administered a record number of shots in recent days, with 10 million doses being delivered over the three days of this past weekend.
      “That would have been inconceivable in January,” Biden said. “My fellow Americans, look at what we have done over the past 10 weeks.”
      But Biden emphasized that the country’s work to get the virus under control is far from over. Echoing comments from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden asked Americans to continue wearing masks and socially distancing to limit the spread of coronavirus.
      At the White House coronavirus response team’s briefing this morning, the CDC director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, noted coronavirus cases have been on the rise in recent days.
      “We’re giving up hard-fought, hard-won gains,” Biden said.
      The president asked states that have rescinded their mask mandates to reinstate those public health orders.
      “Mask up, mask up. It’s your patriotic duty,” Biden said. “It’s the only way we’ll get back to normal.”

      2.24pm EDT
      14:24

      Biden to announce 90% of US adults will be vaccine eligible by April 19, White House confirms

      The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden will announce today that 90% of American adults will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 19.
      By that date, 90% of Americans will also have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live, the White House said in a new statement.
      According to the statement, Biden will announce his administration is expanding the federal pharmacy vaccination program to 20,000 more local pharmacies across the US.
      The president will also announce nearly $100 million in funding to help vaccinate vulnerable and at-risk communities, as well as Americans with disabilities.
      Finally, Biden will announce his administration is going to establish a dozen more federally-run mass vaccination sites across the country. The White House said earlier today that two such sites will be set up in Gary, Indiana, and St Louis, Missouri.
      Biden is expected to start speaking any moment, so stay tuned.

      2.05pm EDT
      14:05

      Georgia sued again over elections law

      Sam Levine

      Georgia now faces two federal lawsuits over its sweeping new election law, both alleging state Republicans designed the measure to discriminate against Black and other minority voters.
      A suit filed on Sunday by a coalition of civil rights groups, including the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, says the law is intentionally discriminatory and violates the 14th and 15th amendments of the constitution as well as the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
      The measure, signed into law on Thursday by Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, implements a number of changes to Georgia election law. It requires voters to show identification information both when they request and return a mail-in ballot. It also shortens the period in which voters can vote by mail, prohibits providing food and water to voters in line at the polls, limits the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, requires county boards of elections to hear voter challenges within 10 days, and creates a pathway for Republicans in the legislature to meddle in local elections,
      The law “is the culmination of a concerted effort to suppress the participation of Black voters and other voters of color by the Republican state senate, state house and governor,” lawyers representing the groups wrote.
      “Unable to stem the tide of these demographic changes or change the voting patterns of voters of color, these officials have resorted to attempting to suppress the vote of Black voters and other voters of color in order to maintain the tenuous hold that the Republican party has in Georgia.”
      The complaint is the second lawsuit filed challenging the provisions. On Thursday, almost immediately after Kemp signed the measure, the New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter, two civic action groups, filed their own suit challenging the law.
      Joe Biden said on Friday that the US justice department, charged with enforcing the Voting Rights Act, was also “taking a look at the Georgia measure”. The department did not file any major voting rights cases under Donald Trump.
      Several more lawsuits challenging the Georgia law are expected. The suits will likely face an uphill battle among an increasingly conservative federal judiciary, especially at the appellate level that has looked skeptically on claims of voting discrimination in voting recently.

      1.48pm EDT
      13:48

      Biden to announce big vaccines boost – reports

      Martin Pengelly

      Shortly after CDC director Rochelle Walensky spoke about her “sense of doom” about rising Covid case numbers, the White House trailed some altogether more optimistic words to come from Joe Biden this afternoon.
      As Bloomberg News reports it:

      President Joe Biden plans to announce that 90% of US adults will be eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine in three weeks, and that his administration will more than double the number of pharmacies where shots are available, officials familiar with the matter said.
      Biden will make the announcement on Monday afternoon at the White House, marking 19 April as a new milestone in the vaccination effort. He’ll also say that nearly all US adults will be able to get a shot within five miles of their homes, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

      Of course, the two lines of comment are not remotely mutually exclusive. Great strides are indeed being made in vaccinations across the US, with New York ready to vaccinate everyone over 30 and soon all adults, said Andrew Cuomo also on Monday, but case numbers are also rising, virus variants are dangerous and many states are pursuing reopening policies dangerously fast.
      Here’s our current news lead, leading on Walensky’s remarks but “wrapping”, as they in the news business, other developments too:

      1.30pm EDT
      13:30

      Today so far

      The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

      The trial of Derek Chauvin in connection to the killing of George Floyd started in Minneapolis. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, is facing charges of murder in the second and third degree and manslaughter.
      Prosecutors played the video showing the final moments of Floyd’s life. In the video, Chauvin kneels on Floyd’s neck as Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.” Bystanders are also heard urging Chauvin to stop kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
      The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expressed a feeling of “impending doom” as coronavirus cases rise in the US. During the White House coronavirus response team’s briefing today, Dr Rochelle Walensky said, “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, but right now I’m scared.” The CDC director urged Americans to continue wearing masks and socially distancing to limit the spread of coronavirus as vaccinations ramp up.

      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      FBI releases new Capitol attack footage as it seeks to identify 10 suspects

      by

      The FBI has released new footage of the deadly 6 January US Capitol insurrection as it seeks to identify 10 suspects involved in what the agency says were “some of the most violent attacks on officers”.Law enforcement are still pursuing more than 100 suspects from the attack on Congress, which Donald Trump was accused of inciting and led to his historic second impeachment. Hundreds have been arrested after the violent mob invaded the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.But the 10 suspects highlighted this week by the federal authorities are considered amongst the most dangerous still at large.Each of the clips posted to the FBI’s Washington field office website shows the suspects allegedly in the act of assaulting the officers, alongside closeups of their faces, several of them masked but many not.“The FBI is asking for the public’s help in identifying 10 individuals suspected of being involved in some of the most violent attacks on officers who were protecting the US Capitol and our democratic process on January 6,” Steven M D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said in a statement accompanying the footage.“These individuals are seen on video committing egregious crimes against those who have devoted their lives to protecting the American people.”The FBI said it had already received “hundreds of thousands of tips” following the riots that claimed five lives when a mob stormed the Capitol and invaded the US Senate and House of Representatives.At a rally earlier in the day, the former president incited his followers to march to the Capitol building and “fight like hell” in support of his false claims that the election was stolen from him.The massive investigation that ensued led to the arrest of more than 300 individuals, of whom 65 were arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers, the FBI said.The most recent came this week as the agency arrested and charged two men, Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, with assaulting Brian Sicknick, a US Capitol police officer who died in hospital after the attacks.Khater was seen in social media footage discharging a spray he referred to as “bear shit” into the 42-year-old officer’s face, court papers allege. The cause of death is not yet known, although investigators believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance, possibly bear spray, that may have played a role.Earlier this month, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, called the riots “domestic terrorism” in congressional testimony.“That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray told the Senate judiciary committee.“The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a number of years now, and it’s not going away any time soon,” he added, although analysis has concluded that most of the 6 January rioters were unconnected to any extremist group.The alleged assaults captured in the new FBI footage take place in a variety of locations around the capitol. All the suspects are male, and several are wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps that became a signature of Trump’s supporters during his tumultuous presidency.“We’re grateful to the members of the public who have already been a tremendous help in these investigations,” D’Antuono said.“We know it can be a difficult decision to report information about family, friends, or co-workers, but it is the right thing to do.” More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      12 Republicans vote against honoring Capitol police for protecting Congress

      by

      A dozen Republicans voted against a resolution honoring US Capitol police for their efforts to protect members of Congress during the insurrection on 6 January.The House voted 413-12 on Wednesday to award congressional gold medals, Congress’s “highest expression of national appreciation”, to all members of the Capitol police force.The Republicans who opposed this honor included Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. They and other opposing members said they had problems with the text of the legislation.Massie told reporters he disagreed with the terms “insurrection” and “temple” in the legislation.The resolution said: “On January 6, 2021, a mob of insurrectionists forced its way into the US Capitol building and congressional office buildings and engaged in acts of vandalism, looting, and violently attacked Capitol police officers.”It also named the three officers who responded to the attack and died shortly after – Capitol police officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood and Metropolitan police department officer Jeffrey Smith – and said seven other people died and more than 140 law enforcement officers were injured.“The desecration of the US Capitol, which is the temple of our American democracy, and the violence targeting Congress are horrors that will forever stain our nation’s history,” the bill said.Louie Gohmert, a congressman from Texas, said in a statement that the text “does not honor anyone, but rather seeks to drive a narrative that isn’t substantiated by known facts”.Gohmert separately circulated a competing bill to honor Capitol police that did not mention the 6 January attack, according to a copy obtained by Politico. His text also named the officers who died after the insurrection but did not specify the circumstances of their deaths, writing instead that they: “All passed in January 2021.”The other Republicans who voted against the legislation were Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andy Harris of Maryland, Lance Gooden of Texas, Michael Cloud of Texas, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Greg Steube of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia and John Rose of Tennessee.All of the bill’s opponents, except for Massie, voted to object to state’s electoral votes in the presidential election in the hours after the insurrection. More