Tag: racial injustice

McEnany: We ‘need to’ be asking whether police brutality caught on video is real

Trump recently promoted a conspiracy theory suggesting a 75-year-old protester attacked by police was faking it.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended Trump’s smear of a 75-year-old peace activist who was brutalized by police, saying Trump’s baseless accusation that the man was a member of antifa and possibly faked his injuries was “legitimate.”

“The president was raising questions based on a report that he saw. They are questions that need to be asked,” McEnany said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

The man had “some very questionable tweets, some profanity-laden tweets about police officers,” she said. Continue reading.

A short history of black women and police violence

Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed by police officers who raided her home.

The officers had entered her home without warning as part of a drug raid. The suspect they were seeking was not a resident of the home – and no drugs were ever found.

But when they came through the door unexpectedly, and in plain clothes, police officers were met with gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, who was startled by the presence of intruders. In only a matter of minutes, Taylor was dead – shot eight times by police officers. Continue reading.

Police unions are the final boss of the law enforcement abolition movement

Over the past few weeks, calls to abolish police departments and dramatically rethink what community law enforcement might look like have been vaulted from a niche — albeit longstanding — issue within progressive circles, and into the raging mainstream debate about race, justice, and equality, after white police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, a Black man, on the streets of Minneapolis in late May.

Police abolitionism, like all seismic social re-imaginings, is not a monolithic movement. Questions about tactics, priorities, and even terminology have punctuated conversations about how best to work toward a police-less society in recent days. But for all the disagreement about what defunding and dismantling police departments looks like, there remains a steady sense that convincing communities of the virtue of abolition is only one part of the equation. Another, perhaps even more intractable obstacle to radical change in this arena are police unions.

Conflict between a progressive movement and groups that frame themselves as — and currently sit alongside other — labor unions might seem at first like an unusual dynamic between camps that are frequently seen as being natural allies. But despite the similar nomenclature, police unions operate very differently from their ostensible peers. Continue reading.

As Public Opinion Shifts on Racism, Trump Digs In

New York Times logoWith much of the country acknowledging that protesters’ frustrations are justified, the president increasingly sounds detached from many voters in the political middle and even some of his allies.

WASHINGTON — NASCAR is demanding that its fans no longer fly Confederate flags at races. The Pentagon and some Republican senators are open to renaming military bases that bear the names of Confederate soldiers. Corporate America is taking stances against racial injustice. A majority of Americans say the police show racial bias in their use of force, and a majority of self-described conservatives acknowledge protesters’ frustrations are at least somewhat justified.

Yet with public opinion shifting quickly on racism in America, and even some of the most cautious leaders and institutions talking openly about discrimination and reconciliation, there is still one glaring outlier: President Trump.

Whether it is suggesting shooting protesters or siccing dogs on them, pre-emptively defending the Confederate names of military installations or arguing that his supporters “love the black people,” Mr. Trump increasingly sounds like a cultural relic, detached from not just the left-leaning protesters in the streets but also the country’s political middle and even some Republican allies and his own military leaders. Continue reading.

A conservative explains why he changed his mind about racism in the US

AlterNet logoConservative writer David French published a powerful essay this week with The Dispatch that gave a fascinating glimpse into how and why he has changed his mind about racism in the United States.

French, who previously wrote for the National Review, is a staunch opponent of President Donald Trump, but he isn’t quite the MSNBC-style Never Trump figure that has become common these days. He vehemently defended the nomination and appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. He’s argued in favor of voting for the Republican lawmakers that enable Trump in 2018, even while he advocates voting against the president. He remains sharply critical of Democrats and much of the progressive worldview.

All of which is to say he’s not a conservative in name only. He’s a true believer. But when it comes to racism, he thinks his ideological compatriots have it badly wrong. Continue reading.

Democrats stiff-arm GOP’s ‘cosmetic’ police reforms

Senate Democrats may be able to secure more ambitious changes if they wait until after the elections.

Senate Democrats are voicing deep skepticism toward the GOP’s newfound embrace of police reform. And they may soon have to decide whether they’ll accept incremental measures or nothing at all.

Though careful not to pre-emptively dismiss South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s work designing a police reform package, Democrats said in interviews Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unlikely to endorse the type of far-reaching legislation needed to respond to police killings of black people and nationwide unrest.

“I don’t think they’re going to propose anything that comes anywhere near enough to what we need to do. We need systemic change,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). “If they propose systemic change then I’m fully supportive of it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more cosmetic.” Continue reading.

Senate at logjam over changing ‘qualified immunity’ for police

The Hill logoQualified immunity is emerging as a key sticking point in the congressional debate over reforming the police.

The legal doctrine, which can protect police officers from civil lawsuits, is facing fresh national scrutiny in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police.

But what, if anything, to do to change it is creating deep divisions in Congress, just as lawmakers are trying to find a larger deal. Continue reading.

Historian explains the bizarre racist theory behind the far right’s hysteria over the George Floyd protests

AlterNet logoExtremists on the far right are deeply troubled by the name Black Lives Matter, viewing it as an assertion that white lives don’t matter — which, of course, it isn’t. Saying that black lives matter isn’t saying that white lives, Asian lives or Native American lives don’t matter; it’s simply pointing out that black lives do matter.

But to far-right extremists, attacking racism is attacking whites in general. And historian Peter Mitchell, in an op-ed for the Guardian, notes some of the ways in which attacks on the George Floyd protests are drawing on the racist Replacement Theory.

According to white nationalists who promote the Replacement Theory, enemies of the white race are seeking to “replace” whites with non-whites in the United States and many other countries. That far-right conspiracy theory, Mitchell notes, was promoted by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2011 book “Le Gran Replacement.” Continue reading.

CrossFit CEO Resigns After George Floyd Tweet Prompts Backlash

The CEO of CrossFit is stepping down after his tweet about George Floyd sparked a social media backlash and led to affiliated gyms and Reebok cutting ties with the exercise brand.

Greg Glassman said in a statement posted on CrossFit Inc.’s website late Tuesday that he decided to retire. Glassman had apologized earlier for tweets that sparked online outrage by connecting Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the coronavirus pandemic. He said he had made a mistake and should have been more sensitive, but denied being racist.

“On Saturday I created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members,” he said. “I cannot let my behavior stand in the way of HQ’s or affiliates’ missions.” Continue reading.

White men mocked George Floyd’s death at a protest. Now a corrections officer in the group has been suspended.

Washington Post logoAs a peaceful Black Lives Matter march made its way through Franklin Township, N.J., the group protesting against police brutality and systemic racism walked past a white man kneeling on the neck of another white man in a mocking reenactment of George Floyd’s death.

The men were part of a group of white counterprotesters with flags supporting President Trump and “Blue Lives Matter” that barked, “Black lives matter to no one,” and “Police lives matter,” at those marching on Monday to remember Floyd, the unarmed black man whose death after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes has sparked widespread protests.

“This is what happens when you don’t comply with the cops!” yelled the man who was kneeling on the other man’s neck, according to a video shared to social media. “Comply with the cops and this wouldn’t have happened! He didn’t comply!” (Floyd did indeed comply with police, according to the criminal complaint filed against the officers.) Continue reading.