Tag: George Floyd

What’s different about this moment? Primarily the number of Americans supporting protests over racial injustice.

Washington Post logoIt’s common for lawmakers, activists and others who have been engaged in efforts to end police violence and racism to say this moment feels different.

What seems so obviously different is just how popular their message has become.

When viewing the protests around the country — and even the world — it’s impossible not to notice the demographic diversity. While demonstrators five years ago in Ferguson, Mo., after the killing of Michael Brown were mostly black and from cities with large black and working-class populations, the current protests include significant numbers of white demonstrators and have been held in affluent communities from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Provincetown, Mass. Continue reading.

Ivanka Trump’s anger reveals her ‘dissociated princess’ schtick is no longer ‘viable’: family biographer

AlterNet logoOn Tuesday, writing for Vanity Fair, Trump family biographer Emily Jane Fox revealed how first daughter Ivanka Trump’s political strategy of playing the “dissociated princess” has played to her advantage — and how recent events suggest her strategy is reaching its limits.

“Ivanka’s ability to operate on this otherworldly separate track — both from the president and from the everyday realities and rules that surround most Americans — was both an asset to the kind of power she cared about and a contrast from her father,” wrote Fox. “She ignored the harsher realities of the administration she was part of by creating a distinct narrative that she could market to those who were open to buying it as a way to both aid her father and whatever role she would ultimately decide to take on once he leaves the White House. It is a kind of impulse control and compartmentalization that the elder Trump does not possess. Her father is temperamentally unable not to dwell on and rave about exactly what is on his mind or the public consciousness at that precise moment, even when it’s in his obvious political interest to do so.”

“Her dissociative ability played out again over the weekend,” wrote Fox. “The controversy unfolded on Thursday, when Wichita State University Tech decided it would not air a speech that Ivanka had prerecorded for its virtual graduation ceremony on Saturday. The school made the decision after students and staff condemned the White House’s response to the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Ivanka had been asked to deliver the address in February, and she recorded the address, which largely talked about coronavirus and did not address matters of race, before the protests began.” However, following outrage, the school acknowledged the lineup was insensitive and canceled her engagement. Continue reading.

Trump sides with deranged conspiracy theories over Black Lives Matter protesters

Washington Post logoThe White House communications team has gone to great lengths to present President Trump’s position on the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests as evenhanded and sympathetic. He has twice offered scripted responses to the protests that approximate the expected tone of a president faced with roiling unrest, including his comments from the White House Rose Garden on June 1 when he declared that he was “an ally of all peaceful protesters.”

That federal officials were simultaneously using tear gas, batons and explosive devices to clear a nearby park of peaceful protesters was simply a coincidence.

Efforts to present Trump as understanding of the protests, though, conflict with the president’s obvious and visceral dislike of what is happening and his determined effort to cast the protests as an extension of violent far-left opposition to American ideals. Trump keeps insisting that the worst effects of the early demonstrations were a function of “antifa,” a loosely knit movement that opposes fascism and racism. Antifa is a useful enemy for Trump in the moment, allowing him to avoid criticizing black protesters and to identify the opposing wing of American politics as dangerous. That the role of antifa has been limited has not prevented Trump from blaming it broadly. Continue reading.

Trump’s tweet on protester sparks GOP backlash

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s tweet about a 75-year-old Buffalo protester is getting pushback from Republican senators.

Trump on Tuesday floated that an elderly man pushed to the ground by police in Buffalo, N.Y., during a protest over the police killing of George Floyd could be a “set up” and an “ANTIFA provocateur.”

The tweet sparked immediate backlash from GOP senators and caused broader headaches as lawmaker after lawmaker was approached by reporters with a copy of the tweet. Continue reading.

Romney challenges Trump with Black Lives Matter march

The Hill logoSen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is challenging President Trump’s antagonistic stance toward Black Lives Matter protesters at a time when Trump’s support in the polls is dropping.

Romney made a surprising and stirring gesture on Sunday by marching toward the White House with hundreds of other people protesting police violence against African Americans after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

On Monday, he announced that he is working with Republican colleagues to put together police reform legislation, filling the void left by Trump and GOP leaders in Congress who have not made it a priority.

Big majorities support protests over Floyd killing and say police need to change, poll finds

Washington Post logoAmericans overwhelmingly support the nationwide protests that have taken place since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, and they say police forces have not done enough to ensure that blacks are treated equally to whites, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.

President Trump receives negative marks for his handling of the protests, with 61 percent saying they disapprove and 35 percent saying they approve. Much of the opposition to Trump is vehement, as 47 percent of Americans say they strongly disapprove of the way the president has responded to the protests.

The poll highlights how attitudes about police treatment of black Americans are changing dramatically. More than 2 in 3 Americans (69 percent) say the killing of Floyd represents a broader problem within law enforcement, compared with fewer than 1 in 3 (29 percent) who say the Minneapolis killing is an isolated incident. Continue reading.

Virginia Man Who Drove Truck Into Protest Says He’s A White Supremacist: Prosecutor

Harry H. Rogers was arrested on several charges, including assault and battery, after driving through a crowd of anti-racism protesters.

A Virginia man who drove his pickup truck into a crowd of anti-racism protesters on Sunday is a self-described white supremacist, prosecutors said Monday.

Harry H. Rogers, 36, has been arrested and charged with assault and battery, attempted malicious wounding and felony vandalism after witnesses in Richmond said he drove onto a median, revved his engine and drove into a crowd of protesters.

One person was injured during the incident. The victim was evaluated at the scene and refused further treatment, Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said in a statement issued Monday. Continue reading.

Democrats unveil sweeping legislation in response to protests of police brutality

The Hill logoDemocrats in both chambers introduced sweeping reforms on Monday designed to combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system — the party’s much awaited legislative response to recent police violence against African Americans that’s sparked mass protests across the country and beyond.

Crafted by leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Justice in Policing Act aims to rein in the use of excessive force by law enforcers, particularly the violence targeting blacks and other minorities, who die disproportionately at the hands of police.

The package — the most aggressive crack down on law enforcement to arrive in decades — would establish a federal ban on chokeholds, eliminate the legal shield protecting police from lawsuits, mandate the use of body cameras nationwide, limit federal transfers of military-style weapons to local police, ban military-style weapons for police and create a national database disclosing the names of officers with patterns of abuse. Continue reading.

Texas GOP Officials Smear Soros As Protest Paymaster

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a statewide elected Republican official, has posted multiple memes and comments on his Facebook page in recent days falsely claiming that billionaire George Soros orchestrated nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.

The posts are similar in nature and tone to some of the racist posts by local GOP officials in recent daysthat suggested the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis police custody was done with the intent of starting a race war or to erode black support for President Donald Trump. The posts from those local officials have prompted calls for resignation from the state’s top GOP officials.

One post from Miller on Sunday included an image of Soros with accompanying text that read, “Climate change didn’t work. Impeachment didn’t work. The virus didn’t work. Start the race war.” Continue reading.

Fox News Chart: Killing Black People Boosts Stocks

On Friday evening, Fox News displayed a bar graph showing how well the stock market performed after historical instances of attacking and killing black people. It’s a somewhat ghoulish graphic to release following the murders of George Floyd and Jamel Floyd (no relation) by police and the nationwide protests that have received even more police violence.

“Historically there has been a disconnect between what investors focus on and what happens in the rest of the country,” the Fox News anchorwoman said of the graphic. “For instance in 1968, the week after the tragedy of Martin Luther King, the S&P 500 rose over two percent. Also, up the week of the Rodney King ruling.”

The chart’s data seems to have been taken from a Fortune article entitled, “The stock market has a long history of ignoring social upheaval” in which investment research CEO David Trainer said, “Social unrest issues have very little long-term impact on markets.” The article went on to say that the stock markets tend to look ahead to fiscal responses to international trade conditions and support from the federal government rather than immediate civil unrest. Continue reading.