Tag: George Floyd

U.S. Watched George Floyd Protests in 15 Cities Using Aerial Surveillance

New York Times logoFrom Minneapolis to Buffalo, Homeland Security officials dispatched drones, helicopters and airplanes to monitor Black Lives Matter protests.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Department of Homeland Security deployed helicopters, airplanes and drones over 15 cities where demonstrators gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, logging at least 270 hours of surveillance, far more than previously revealed, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

The department’s dispatching of unmanned aircraft over protests in Minneapolis last month sparked a congressional inquiry and widespread accusations that the federal agency had infringed on the privacy rights of demonstrators.

But that was just one piece of a nationwide operation that deployed resources usually used to patrol the U.S. border for smugglers and illegal crossings. Aircraft filmed demonstrations in Dayton, Ohio; New York City; Buffalo and Philadelphia, among other cities, sending video footage in real time to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a branch of Customs and Border Protection. Continue reading.

Leader of House GOP Police Reform Push Supports Racist and Violent Police Union Leader

Pete Stauber has tweeted support for Bob Kroll, who swore to ‘fight for jobs’ of officers who killed George Floyd

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Representative Pete Stauber, who House Republicans just tapped to lead their police reform efforts, has a history of supporting Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis Police Union, whose career is full of racist, inflammatory, and outright violent behavior.

In late 2019, Stauber tweeted a photo of himself and Kroll and declared that he’s “proud to stand by” the police union head, whose controversial career has included: Continue reading “Leader of House GOP Police Reform Push Supports Racist and Violent Police Union Leader”

Trump knows he’s losing his grip on his base

AlterNet logoIt was pretty stunning to see NASCAR — an emblem of Donald Trump’s core support — decide to ban the Confederate flag from all events and properties.

It shouldn’t be stunning, of course, because the flag is a symbol of white supremacy. But Trump world has embraced it for years, because, well, they embrace white supremacists. The action came days after the only black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, wore a t-shirt that read “I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” and a NASCAR official, Kirk Price, who is black, took a knee during the national anthem.

For perhaps the first time since his presidency began, Trump, in the wake of the enormous response to George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, is seeing some in his own base — and the icons and institutions that demarcate his base — appearing to pull away from him, at least on the issue of police brutality against African-Americans but perhaps on more. Continue reading.

Housing Finance and Policy Division Approves COVID-19 and Civil Unrest Rebuilding Measures

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today., the Housing Policy and Finance Division chaired by Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL- St. Paul) held a remote hearing to approve housing proposals related to the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.

HF 9, authored by Rep. Hausman, extends certain private tax-exempt bonds for affordable housing.

“At a time when affordable housing is critically needed, this just provides a means for projects to move forward,” said Rep. Hausman. “This measure extends a timeline for bonds to fund affordable housing and it received a unanimous approval.”

HF 82, authored by Rep. Hodan Hassan (DFL-Minneapolis), assists residential and commercial tenants in areas of civil unrest to rebuild the community.

“Many of the damaged and destroyed buildings were black and brown-owned,” said Rep. Hassan. “These owners were caught in the middle of two pandemics – COVID-19 and civil unrest. Our vibrant communities will only survive and thrive if they rebuild with our help.”

A full agenda and supporting documents can be found on the committee’s webpage. Video of the hearing will be broadcast live on the House website.

A recording of the hearing will be available on House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel.

Phone tapes: Concerned Minneapolis 911 dispatcher asked police supervisor to respond to George Floyd scenePhone tapes: Concerned Minneapolis 911 dispatcher asked police supervisor to respond to George Floyd scene

911 dispatcher recorded asking supervisor to respond to Floyd scene.

A 911 dispatcher watching real-time footage of George Floyd’s arrest in south Minneapolis last month became concerned about the officers’ behavior and told a police supervisor she didn’t want to “snitch” but thought he should be made aware of the situation, according to an audio recording.

The supervisor promised to “find out” what was happening, but didn’t immediately respond to the scene.

The recording of a phone conversation between the supervisor and the dispatcher — neither of whom was identified — was released Monday on the city’s website, along with transcripts of two 911 calls about the incident. Continue reading.

Officials familiar with Lafayette Square confrontation challenge Trump administration claim of what drove aggressive expulsion of protesters

Washington Post logoDuring the nearly two weeks since authorities charged at peaceful protesters to push them from D.C. streets — about 30 minutes before President Trump walked through the area for a photo op — his aides, the attorney general and federal law enforcement officials have sought to shield the president from political fallout with a simple defense: one scene, they say, had nothing to do with the other.

The notion that the street-clearing offensive around Lafayette Square was already planned, and separate from Trump’s decision to visit a nearby church, has emerged as the administration’s central explanation for scenes of federal officers shoving protesters with shields and firing pepper balls, chemical grenades and smoke bombs at retreating crowds on June 1.

“This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter one block,” Attorney General William P. Barr told CBS News last week. Continue reading.

‘They’re cooked’: Trump team ‘terrified’ because voters are no longer buying GOP’s racist ‘hoodoo juice’

AlterNet logoIn a column for the Daily Beast, longtime political observer Michael Tomasky wrote that Donald Trump and Republicans hoping to ride their coded language and veiled racist rhetoric to victory in November are starting to realize it is no longer working on voters and they are “terrified.”

With the public in an uproar over the murder of George Floyd — among others Black Americans  — at the hands of police, the columnist suggested that we have possibly entered into a new era where one of the Republicans major talking points come election time are falling on deaf ears as voters increasingly reject racist appeals for their votes.

Noting the Republicans and the president likely “hate” the change in attitude, Tomasky points out that their future as a governing party hangs in the balance if they don’t adapt to evolving attitudes in a country that is rapidly becoming more diverse. Continue reading.

Protests in Trump country test his hold in rural white areas

In the lake country 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, hundreds danced, prayed and demanded racial justice in Cadillac, a Michigan town that was long home to a neo-Nazi group.

It was not an isolated scene. In eastern Ohio, even more demonstrated in rural Mount Vernon, a town with its own current of racial intolerance, just as others did in Manheim, Pennsylvania, a tiny farming town in Lancaster County, with its small but active Ku Klux Klan presence.

The protest movement over racial injustice has quickly spread deep into predominantly white, small-town America, notably throughout parts of the country that delivered the presidency for Donald Trump. Across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, more than 200 such demonstrations have taken place, many in cities with fewer than 20,000 residents, according to local media, organizers, participants and the online tracking tool CrowdCount. Continue reading.

GOP struggles to confront racial issues

The Hill logoLess than five months before the election, congressional Republicans are struggling to confront a host of thorny racial issues that have been unexpectedly thrust into the 2020 campaign spotlight.

They’re still scrambling to craft a response to nationwide protests against police brutality following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, divided over whether to rename Army bases named after Confederate leaders and resistant to banning all Confederate statues from the Capitol.

The resistance to remove the Confederate statues — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argue states should decide which figures represent them in the hallowed building — is even creating friction in the party. Continue reading.

Scant evidence of antifa shows how sweeping the protests for racial justice have become

Washington Post logoIn the two weeks that saw an uprising against racial injustice and police brutality spread from the streets of Minneapolis to cities across America, the specter of violent, left-wing militants invoked by President Trump and a chorus of conservative voices has yet to materialize.

Instead, multiracial crowds have appeared in every corner of the United States, as the president sent more than a dozen tweets blaming clashes with police on antifa, the label associated with anti-fascist protesters who infamously sparred with far-right figures after his election in 2016. He went so far as to say he would designate antifa as a “terrorist organization,” though he does not have the legal authority to apply that label to a domestic group.

The nation’s top law enforcement officials joined the president’s attacks. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray directed blame for violence tinging the protests over the killing of George Floyd at “anarchists like antifa and other agitators.” Attorney General William P. Barr claimed, but did not offer, “evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity.” Continue reading.