Link Roundup June 2020

Buffalo Cop Loses Job And Pension After She Intervenes With Fellow Officer Choking A Suspect

"I'm like, 'Greg! You're choking him,' because I thought whatever happened in the house he was still upset about so when he didn't stop choking him I just grabbed his arm from around Neal Mack's neck," said Horne. ABC reported that Kwiatkowski then turned and punched Horne in the face. She said she needed the bridge of her nose replaced after the blow. The obstruction charge against Horne stated that she "jump[ed] on officer Kwiatkowski's back and/or [struck] him with her hands." However, in his own testimony, Kwiatkowski said, "she never got on top of me."

Boris Johnson urged to publish BAME Covid-19 review immediately

Boris Johnson is under pressure to immediately publish the findings of an inquiry into why black and minority ethnic groups have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, after accusations that it has been delayed over fears it could stoke racial tensions.

Coronavirus: Pandemic sees spike in learning disabled deaths

The "targeted" analysis by the CQC looked at deaths of people with a learning disability and/or autism that it was notified of via care providers, and also those where a learning disability was indicated on the death notification form. It found there had been a 134% increase in deaths, with 53% related to coronavirus.

Kpop Fans Spam Grand Rapids Police Department With Fancams After Crashing Dallas Police App

The evidence portal set up by the Grand Rapids police requires users to enter a phone number, and Kpop fans are encouraging each other to enter the numbers of other police departments, as well as the numbers of government buildings and city halls.

Police open fire on queer bar giving first aid and washing pepper spray out of Black Lives Matter protesters’ eyes

The sheriff’s office use of force policy states “that no weapon, either deadly or less-than-lethal will be used against any subject that is offering only passive or verbal resistance”, and that “less-than-lethal” weapons are only appropriate if a person poses “immediate risk of death or serious physical injury to themselves or others and other less forceful options are not reasonably available”.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump denies tear gas use despite evidence

“They didn’t use tear gas,” Trump said Wednesday on Fox News Radio. The U.S. Park Police denied using tear gas, yet acknowledged deploying a pepper compound, which the CDC and other scientific organizations list as one form of tear gas.

None of 99 arrested during downtown Cleveland riots were from outside Ohio, countering Cleveland police chief’s statements

No court or jail records indicate, however, an arrest Williams mentioned in a late Sunday Facebook Live news conference about a man driving into the city with an “incendiary device.”

54 Percent of Americans Think Burning Down Minneapolis Police Precinct Was Justified After George Floyd's Death

According to the poll, 17 percent said the actions were fully justified and 37 percent said partially justified, for a total of 54 percent. In comparison, 38 percent said that the action was not at all justified. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

SF resident was kneeling when fatally shot by Vallejo police during civil unrest

Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco died after the shooting at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, but police did not tell the public the man was killed — or disclose the circumstances of the shooting — until Wednesday at a news conference outside City Hall, a day after calling in 50 troops from the National Guard to help control protests and rioting sparked by the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd.

Buffalo officers quit special team after 2 officers suspended for allegedly shoving 75-year-old to ground

The 57 officers resigned from the emergency unit but not from the force. The Buffalo mayor's office told CNN that the 57 members that resigned from the unit make up the entire active emergency response team.

Law Enforcement Seized Masks Meant To Protect Anti-Racist Protesters From COVID-19

UPDATE: 3:45 p.m. June 5 ― Federal authorities released the seized masks on Friday morning, hours after this HuffPost article was published.

Barr Promises to Sic Terror-Hunters on Protesters

Barr said the Justice Department would tap Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs)—regional groups that ordinarily unite area FBI agents with state, local and federal law enforcement to monitor and pursue suspected terrorists—to “identify people in the crowd, pull them out and prosecute them.”

Black tech leaders issue call to action to fight racial injustice in the Bay Area

The effort, called “Black Tech for Black Lives,” pulls together a set of specific, actionable commitments intended to “support frontline leaders working to create a more just world.” The pledge is designed to elevate Bay Area community leaders working in tech’s epicenter on specific policy goals regarding issues like policing reform, local elections and by hiring and supporting more Black talent in tech.

The DEA Has Been Given Permission To Investigate People Protesting George Floyd’s Death

The DEA is limited by statute to enforcing drug-related federal crimes. But on Sunday, Timothy Shea, a former US attorney and close confidant of Barr's who was named acting administrator of the DEA last month, received approval from Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer to go beyond the agency’s mandate “to perform other law enforcement duties” that Barr may “deem appropriate.”

Police academies spend 110 hours on firearms and self-defense. They spend 8 hours on conflict management.

This is according to a 2006 report from the Department of Justice, which looked at the median time state and local academies spent on various law enforcement skills. The report is a decade old, but it’s the most recent data we have on how much time is usually spent training police officers to diffuse tense situations.

The Treasury’s tweet shows slavery is still misunderstood

And the slave owners not only received compensation from the British taxpayer, they won another concession, the euphemistically titled “apprenticeship” system. What this meant was that the slaves themselves were forced to work the fields for a further six years after the supposed abolition of slavery – 45 hours a week for no pay.

EPA limits states and tribes' ability to protest pipelines and other energy projects

The new rule would set a one-year deadline for states and tribes to certify or reject proposed projects - including pipelines, hydroelectric dams and industrial plants - that could discharge pollution into area waterways. It also would limit any reviews to include only water quality impacts, based on a more narrow definition of the Trump administration finalized last year.

The Police Are Targeting Protest Medics

On top of instigating violence with peaceful protesters and escalating the demonstrations with shows of force and military-style gear and vehicles (and the actual military), police officers have targeted essential workers such as health care personnel and food deliverers, as well as journalists, including a HuffPost reporter.

Sex workers seek end of 'walking while trans' loitering law

“For many of us, sex work has meant survival,” said Jessica Raven, who said she got into sex work as a minor after running away from abuse in the foster care system. Raven is now an advocate for sex workers and a leader of the decriminalization effort.

Man who trains San Jose police about bias severely injured by riot gun during George Floyd protest

"I really just couldn't watch it anymore," Sanderlin said. "And just kind of made like a parallel walkover, put my hands up, and just stood in the line of the fire and asked them to please not do this." The video shows the officers' training their riot guns on Sanderlin. He stood a good distance away, made no aggressive motions to police, yet they fired on him several times, one round hitting him in the groin.

Trump signs order removing environmental review of major projects

The order would slash the requirements in a number of landmark environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires rigorous environmental review before building new infrastructure like highways or pipelines.

Buffalo police officers plead not guilty to assaulting 75-year-old man at demonstration

Flynn said he was prepared to charge the officers on Friday, but he "didn't want to pour gasoline on the fire" after he learned 57 officers resigned from the Emergency Response Team on Friday and "they weren't going to come last night to protect the city of Buffalo."

In New York, major crime complaints fell when cops took a break from ‘proactive policing

So, with the drop in relatively low-level police activity, what happened to serious crime in the city? The scientists found that civilian complaints of major crimes dropped by about 3% to 6% during the slowdown.

Why do online trolls call SWAT teams? Because the police hurt people

Police brutality is an on-demand service in the United States

Why police can violate your constitutional rights and suffer no consequences in court

Police approached West because they believed her ex-boyfriend, who had an outstanding felony arrest warrant, was inside her home. (He wasn’t.) West gave the police permission to enter her home — an important fact because it meant that police could enter without a warrant — and lent an officer her key. But West did not expect the police to smash her windows. Or to fire so much tear gas into the home that it saturated her possessions and made the house unlivable for two months. Or to fire tear gas canisters at such velocity that her walls and ceilings suffered extensive damage. The city gave her only $900 to cover her losses, plus a hotel room for three weeks.

The most cost-effective way to help the homeless is to give them homes

A 2017 RAND Corporation analysis of the Housing for Health program in LA County concluded that the county saved about 20 percent by putting people with complex mental health issues in supportive housing rather than relying on law enforcement and emergency room visits.

Donate to These Orgs to Support Black Trans People

Black trans people often face a specific set of structural, institutional, and personal barriers to accessing basic needs like housing, employment, and safety due to the intersections of their identities. According to 2012 data from Lambda legal, nearly one in two Black transgender people has been to prison, and Black trans people are also much more likely to face discriminatory policies and threats of sexual assault once behind bars. Black transgender individuals are also at higher risk of experiencing homelessness and poor mental health. In 2019 alone, at least 19 Black trans women were killed by fatal violence. As Black transgender people live at the nexus of two of the most economically and politically disadvantaged groups in this country, they are in need of specific and ongoing support.

Videos Show Cops Slashing Car Tires at Protests in Minneapolis

As the protest on Sunday evening turned hairy, with law enforcement tear-gassing peaceful groups soon after curfew, Mogelson went to check on his car, showing his press pass to officers along the way. (Media were exempt from the curfew.) One officer took a picture of his press pass and said he would “radio it up the chain so everyone knew that car belonged to the press,” said Mogelson. When he came back later that evening to retrieve his car, officers informed him that the tires were punctured. “They were laughing,” Mogelson recalled. “They had grins on their faces.”

Immigrant detainees say ICE is using coronavirus disinfectant sprays that cause bleeding, burns and pain

Safety guidelines for HDQ Neutral issued by its manufacturer, Spartan Chemical, warn that the disinfectant is “harmful if inhaled” and that it “causes severe skin burns and serious eye damage.” The guidelines specify that HDQ Neutral should be used “only outdoors or in a well-ventilated area” and protective gear should be worn while handling the chemical. According to the complaint about Adelanto, which is one of the country’s largest ICE detention centers, staff there are spraying HDQ Neutral “every 15-30 minutes” on surfaces throughout the housing unit, which lacks ventilation. The complaint said “at least nine” detainees have experienced severe symptoms from the spray since May 11, including blisters, rashes, bleeding, fainting, breathing difficulties, headaches, stomach pain and nausea. Multiple detainees complained of receiving inadequate care for these symptoms.

Patterns Of Death In The South Still Show The Outlines Of Slavery

On two yellowed, taped-together sheets of paper, the counties of the Southern U.S. are shaded to reflect the percentage of inhabitants who were enslaved at the time. Bolivar County, Mississippi, is nearly black on the map, with 86.7 printed on it. Greene County, Alabama: 76.5. Burke, Georgia: 70.6. The map is one of the first attempts to translate U.S. census data into cartographic form and is one of several maps of the era that tried to make sense of the deep divisions between North and South, slave states and free. But the reason the map resurfaces so frequently is not just its historical relevance. Rather, it’s because the shading so closely matches visualizations of many modern-day data sets. There is the stream of blue voters in counties on solidly red land in the 2016 presidential election, or differences in television viewing patterns. There’s research on the profound lack of economic mobility in some places, and on life expectancy at birth. On major health metrics in the U.S., the shaded counties on the antebellum map still stand out today. Maps of the modern plagues of health disparities — rural hospital closings, medical provider shortages, poor education outcomes, poverty and mortality — all glow along this Southern corridor.

Chicago PD Made Bus Drivers Ferry Them to Protests. One Driver Is Suing His Bosses to Fight It.

“CTA management shouted insults at me and threatened to fire me on the spot,” he wrote in the same post. “They said we couldn’t discuss if it was safe to drive CTA ‘police charters.’ They said we were promoting a wildcat strike…management continued to shout over us as they stated they were calling the police to forcibly disband the meeting.”

George Floyd's Autopsy and the Structural Gaslighting of America

By Monday, June 1, in the context of widespread political pressure, the public received two reports: the preliminary autopsy report commissioned by Floyd’s family by private doctors, and—shortly thereafter—a summary of the preliminary autopsy from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. Both reports stated that the cause of Floyd’s death was homicide: death at the hands of another.

The racism that killed George Floyd was built in Britain

The British government could have had the humility to use this moment to acknowledge Britain’s experiences. It could have discussed how Britain helped invent anti-black racism, how today’s US traces its racist heritage to British colonies in America, and how it was Britain that industrialised black enslavement in the Caribbean, initiated systems of apartheid all over the African continent, using the appropriation of black land, resources and labour to fight both world wars and using it again to reconstruct the peace. And how, today, black people in Britain are still being dehumanised by the media, disproportionately imprisoned and dying in police custody, and now also dying disproportionately of Covid-19.

Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives

This was the first time gay people had openly marched in New York, demanding equality. There had been an annual picket in Philadelphia in front of Independence Hall for a few years, led by the Mattachine Society, the first major gay rights organisation. But that was a courteous affair, says Shelley. "I went to Philadelphia. Women had to wear dresses. I hated it from the bottom of my heart. We walked around with our signs and the tourists were looking at us like we were something out of the zoo as they ate their ice cream. I thought 'This isn't me, it's fake.'"

Rediscovering the African-American graveyard beneath a Baltimore shopping center

And there, in the cemetery beneath the parking lot, Smith confronted a new type of racism: the racism that followed black people even after their deaths. “Finding out that a space that was so important to our community was just kind of discarded,” said Smith, sent a message to the city’s African Americans: “We’re not human, we’re not worthy of being remembered.” She’d been to the strip mall. She went to high school nearby. Yet in all those years, she never once heard anyone talk about the cemetery.

Biden campaign opposes calls to 'defund the police'

Democrats have largely embraced calls to reform police departments, but have stopped short of endorsing calls to defund police. Republicans have seized on the issue to argue Democrats are going too far with their calls for reforms.

'KKK President' arrested for hitting protester with his truck

Henrico Police also confirmed a juvenile was in the truck with Rogers. Witnesses said that it was a teenager.

Don't shoot, I'm disabled

The police say they broke into the apartment solely to help Adam. They say they acted the way they did to restrain him and get him medical care. In spite of the footage, Milwaukee's District Attorney John Chisholm went so far as to rule that "there was no basis to conclusively link Mr Trammell's death to the actions taken by the police officers". No officers were prosecuted.

Major Problems With Voting in Atlanta as 5 States Hold Primaries

Nikema Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said she had 84 text messages reporting voting problems within 10 minutes of the polls opening at 7 a.m. Ms. Williams, who is a state senator from Atlanta, said that in some locations the voting machines did not work and in at least one other no machines ever arrived.

A Woman Who Makes Bags For Michael Kors Was Sent To One Of The Most Crowded Prisons In The World For A Facebook Post

Depending on who you are and which part of the world you live, venting on social media has either become a seamless part of your life or something that could endanger it and everything you love. The day after she complained about her employers on Facebook, the 30-year-old single mother received a summons to the supervisor’s office at Superl. The note said someone at the office wanted to meet her. When she got there, Soy said the supervisor presented her with a document that included a warning and an admission — by signing it with her thumbprint, Soy would admit she had made a mistake, and that, if she were to do so again, the factory would start a disciplinary process against her. BuzzFeed News has seen a copy of the letter Soy was asked to sign by her employers at Superl.

Activists Say Democrats’ Proposed Chokehold Ban Won’t Work

In fact, the type of chokehold that killed Garner in 2014 had been banned in New York City for more than a decade at the time. The officer responsible for his death was fired five years later without being charged in relation to Garner’s death. In the four years leading up to Garner’s death, New York City received more than 1,000 chokehold complaints against its police officers. “In the midst of that in New York, chokeholds were banned in some way shape or form,” says Monifa Bandele of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a human rights organization that focuses on Black communities. “The response was to dump money into trainings. And we still result in losing the lives of Black people in our community.”

Top Tulsa police officer: 'We're shooting African Americans about 24 percent less than we probably ought to be'

Public Radio Tulsa noted that in the podcast interview Yates alleges without evidence that journalists and an unnamed group are being paid to lie about policing, saying “they've made regular Americans believe that cops are just hunting blacks down the street and killing them.”

IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology

IBM has tried to help with the issue of bias in facial recognition, releasing a public data set in 2018 designed to help reduce bias as part of the training data for a facial recognition model. But IBM was also found to be sharing a separate training data set of nearly one million photos in January 2019 taken from Flickr without the consent of the subjects — though the photos were shared under a Creative Commons license.

Audio Engineers Built a Shield to Deflect Police Sound Cannons

LRADs are pitched to law enforcement as “non-lethal” tools for crowd control, and the police departments have claimed that they should not be considered weapons. But much like tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, LRADs can cause permanent physical harm. In 2017, a New York City judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs who had sued the NYPD for its use of the device against Black Lives Matter protesters in 2014.

Oakland school board and superintendent back elimination of district police

In addition, school staff — teachers, principals, counselors and other administrators — call for police help more than 2,000 times every year, according to district data. From June 2019 to January 2020, the calls resulted in three arrests.

Failure to protect: How an Oklahoma child abuse law treats women differently than men

But when it comes to failure to protect, there is a gender gap in Oklahoma. According to the latest data provided to 60 Minutes from Oklahoma's district attorneys, there are 41 women in prison for failure to protect, but just 16 men. Even though government statistics show men and women abuse children at nearly the same rate.

California health official resigns amid face mask controversy, threats

Quick issued her order in late May to try to limit the spread of the virus as the county began reopening more businesses. A similar order is in place in neighboring Los Angeles County. Days later, Orange County’s sheriff said he wouldn’t enforce the order. In recent weeks, scores of residents have attended county board meetings to demand officials lift it, while others have bombarded officials with emails to defend it.

Face masks no longer required in Orange County as more businesses like gyms get OK to reopen

Days after Orange County's chief health officer resigned amid criticism over her order requiring the public to wear face masks, the new interim health officer lifted that requirement as other businesses were given the green light to reopen.

DeVos issues rule barring colleges from granting coronavirus relief funds to DACA recipients

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a rule Thursday that would ban colleges from granting coronavirus relief funds to noncitizens, including those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program. The rule finalizes the Education Department’s (DOE) interpretation of a provision in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that Congress passed in March which allocated $12.6 billion to colleges to fund emergency grants for students affected by campus closures.

'They don't belong': calls grow to oust police from US labor movement

This week the Writers Guild of America, East – a trade union of TV writers and digital journalists – called for the removal of the International Union of Police Associations from the AFL-CIO, the labor federation which represents them both.

There is hard data that shows "Bernie Bros" are a myth

"Bernie followers act pretty much the same on Twitter as any other follower," Winchell says of his results. "There is one key difference that Twitter users and media don't seem to be aware of.... Bernie has a lot more Twitter followers than Twitter followers of other Democrat's campaigns," he added, noting that this may be partly what helps perpetuate the myth.

A housing ‘apocalypse’ is coming as coronavirus protections across the country expire

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. was experiencing what housing experts and advocates deemed an eviction crisis. More than 2 million people face eviction each year, far more than the number of people who faced foreclosure at the height of the 2008 mortgage crisis.

How to Physically Prepare for a Protest

In terms of physical fighting, ACAB, I have to stress that it’s absolutely crucial right now to follow the lead of Black organizers and voices right now; if you’re a non-Black protester itching to throw hands, it would be wrong of you to just go ahead and do that when organizers and the prevailing voices are saying they want a non-violent protest. This doesn’t mean you can’t defend yourself in the right situation, or try to defend or protect others who are being physically threatened or harassed, but our goal should be to respect the leadership of Black people.

Trump’s 2020 budget proposal seriously cuts the nation’s safety net

The $4.7 trillion budget proposal, which encompasses everything from funding for food aid, education, and health care to national defense, seeks to slash $845 billion from Medicare — a program Trump notably promised to leave untouched — cut from Medicaid through major structural reforms, as well as a 9 percent cut across non-defense programs, all while increasing the defense budget to $750 billion, 5 percent more than the 2019 budget.

White Woodlynne Cop Ryan Dubiel Charged After Pepper Spraying a Black Teen Who Was Sitting on a Stoop

Later, Abernathy did return with an answer for Gym. No, the city will not ban the use of tear gas, he said, explaining that he didn’t think it made sense to “take out tools from the tool bag” available to police officers during true crises.

HHS Moves to Curtail Abortion, Transgender Health Protections (2)

This continues the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back protections in health care for LGBT people. The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights sees preserving “religious freedom” as essential to making sure health-care professionals don’t get penalized for the actions they do or don’t do in their jobs because of their moral beliefs.

Transgender Health Protections Reversed By Trump Administration

Under the new rule, a transgender person could, for example, be refused care for a checkup at a doctor's office, said Lindsey Dawson, associate director of HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other possible scenarios include a transgender man being denied treatment for ovarian cancer, or a hysterectomy not being covered by an insurer — or costing more when the procedure is related to someone's gender transition.

It’s Time to Archive the Internet Archive

While damages haven't been set, the publishers could claim up to $150,000 in statutory damages per infringement, for each of the 1.4 million copyright works in the emergency library. They're also demanding a preliminary and permanent injunction of the Internet Archive, and anyone involved with it, from reproducing and distributing more works, and that all current copyrighted copies on the site be destroyed—effectively shutting down the entire library.

Philadelphians experiencing homelessness build protest encampment on Ben Franklin Parkway: ‘We all matter’

With the help of WRC and Occupy PHA, a movement that advocates for fair housing, the group formed a list of six demands, including: building permanent low-income housing; sanctioning encampments as no-police zones; stopping the clearing of encampments; and firing police officers who mistreat the homeless.

City loses right to defend itself in lawsuit brought by former undercover cop

An Ontario court has stripped the Hamilton Police Services Board and former chief Glenn DeCaire of the right to defend themselves in a lawsuit brought by a former undercover police officer.

Louisville police release Breonna Taylor incident report – it lists her injuries as "none"

When officers were given the opportunity to explain how the fatal events of that night unfolded under the report's "notes/narrative" section, they wrote only "PIU investigation," for Public Integrity Unit.

NYPD lieutenant apologizes for kneeling alongside George Floyd protesters

In a June 3 email obtained by The Post, Lt. Robert Cattani of the Midtown South Precinct wrote that he lost sleep over the “horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters’ demands.”

He Tweeted That He Was the Leader of Antifa. Then the FBI Asked Him to Be an Informant.

In Klamath Falls, Oregon, a wave of Facebook-assisted conspiracy theories spread word that antifa was coming to town by the busloads, prompting local residents to take up arms and flood the streets. The New York Police Department, meanwhile, has turned over residents arrested for curfew violations to FBI agents for interrogations about their political beliefs.

The Black Lives Matter Revolution Can’t Be Co-Opted By Police and Lawmakers

The past three months have revealed for many that the priorities of the U.S. government are protecting capital and private property. This has been displayed during the coronavirus pandemic through the neglect of “essential workers,” and the speed with which both Democratic and Republican governors rushed to “reopen” the economy. It’s even more obvious now through the show of military force against peaceful protesters.

Officers slashed tires on vehicles parked amid Minneapolis protests, unrest

Among the vehicle owners whose tires were damaged was Star Tribune reporter Chris Serres, who was covering the protests the night of May 30 and returned to the Kmart lot about 1 a.m. to find that his car was among a few dozen with flattened tires. “As far as I could see, it looked like all their tires had been slashed,” Serres said.

Family demands answers after unarmed black man killed by N.J. trooper, attorney says

He said Gordon twice removed his seatbelt and put it back on as the trooper instructed. But the third time, as he apparently removed his seatbelt and tried to get out of the cruiser, the trooper got physical with him and eventually shot him multiple times, Wagstaff said. He then handcuffed the bleeding man, the attorney said.

Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

In 2002, the National Football League introduced measures to address the lack of black managers in American football. Named after the NFL’s diversity committee chair Dan Rooney – who died in April this year – the Rooney rule worked through a rather mild method of opening up opportunities for people of colour. When a senior coaching or operations position became available, teams were required to interview at least one black or minority ethnic person for the job. This was a shortlist requirement only. Teams were under no obligation to hire that person. The rule wasn’t a quota. Neither was it enforcing an all-black shortlist, or a rigid percentage target. Instead, it was a “softly-softly” attempt to rebalance the scales. The Rooney rule was implemented a year after it was introduced. A decade after the rule’s implementation, evidence showed that it was working. In those years, 12 new black coaches had been hired across the US, and 17 teams had been led by either a black or Latino coach, some even in quick succession. The general consensus was that the sport’s bosses had begun to see candidates that they wouldn’t have previously considered.

Japan's forgotten indigenous people

The Ainu have had a difficult history. Their origins are murky, but some scholars believe they are descendants of an indigenous population that once spread across northern Asia. The Ainu called Hokkaido “Ainu Moshiri” (“Land of the Ainu”), and their original occupation was hunting, foraging and fishing, like many indigenous people across the world. They mainly lived along Hokkaido’s warmer southern coast and traded with the Japanese. But after the Meiji Restoration (about 150 years ago), people from mainland Japan started emigrating to Hokkaido as Japan colonised the northernmost island, and discriminatory practices such as the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act displaced the Ainu from their traditional lands to the mountainous barren area in the island’s centre.

Lawsuit over online book lending could bankrupt Internet Archive

While Grimmelmann was fairly bullish on the publishers' legal prospects, he disagreed with one aspect of the industry's argument. The Internet Archive is officially a non-profit, but the publishers' lawsuit portrays the group as effectively a commercial operation profiting from copyright infringement. It points out that IA has earned millions of dollars from contracts to scan books on behalf of partners such as other libraries. But Grimmelmann told Ars that this fundamentally misunderstands the motivations of Brewster Kahle, the founder of Internet Archive and still its driving force.

Medical Workers Fighting COVID Say Cops Are Attacking Them

Maredith Drake, a 44-year-old mother and volunteer firefighter at regional burns (think Burning Man, but smaller), claimed in a Facebook post she had been taken to the hospital on Sunday night after Austin officers shot her in the hands with bean bag rounds from “no more than three feet away” as she was trying to help a man who’d been shot in the head and was convulsing. She said they fired at her despite the fact that she was wearing a firefighter shirt with a red and white medical cross, with another cross taped to her helmet.

Tyson reinstates policy that penalizes absentee workers

Physical distancing is nearly impossible in plants that operate processing lines at very fast speeds. There have been at least 44 meatpacking worker deaths and over 3,000 workers testing positive for Covid-19, according to estimates from United Food & Commercial Workers International Union.

Here’s Where the Movement to Defund Police Is Gaining Momentum

In New York City, lawmakers and policing reform advocates have called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to slash millions in police funding as the state budget faces what one official called “economic devastation not seen since the Great Depression.” In Los Angeles, four City Council members have introduced a proposal to reverse the mayor’s planned 7 percent police funding increase. In Durham, North Carolina, protesters gathered at a local theater this week for a “Defund the Police” protest. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the African American Roundtable—backed by more than 65 organizations—called on the city to divest $75 million from the police department and to reinvest $50 million into public health, with the rest going to housing cooperatives. In Philadelphia, where the mayor has proposed a $14 million increase in police funds, activists have been signing up in droves to testify virtually at a city budget hearing next week in protest.

Officer charged with killing George Floyd still eligible for pension worth more than $1 million

The laws governing whether pensions can be stripped from police accused of misconduct vary depending on the state. Less than half of states have laws that allow for pensions to be taken away from police who were convicted of any kind of felony, while some other states allow pensions to be taken away for specific crimes like corruption or sexual crimes against minors but not for the conviction of an officer for using excessive force, according to 2017 research published in the Journal of Law, Economics and Policy.

New Yorkers Said ‘F**k The Police,’ So The Police Rioted

And yet by Monday, New York’s Democratic governor, the city’s mayor and the country’s Republican president had settled on similar solutions to all the turmoil: suppressing this historic uprising with more armed agents of the state. To the protesters, it felt like their government still hadn’t heard them at all, and probably had never been listening in the first place.

What a World Without Cops Would Look Like

What does this end up looking like on a practical level, say, if my car gets stolen?

A friend of ours, they had their car stolen. The police actually recovered it and arrested the driver. So they were like, “See? We need police.” And I said, “Well, let’s dig a little deeper here. What do we know about the person who got arrested that stole your car?” “Uh, the police said that he’d been arrested a bunch of times and there was drug paraphernalia left in the car?” And I’m like, Hmm. So we tried policing a bunch of times with this guy. Did it prevent your car from getting stolen? No. Is this person stealing cars because they have a drug problem? Probably. Is sending them to jail over and over again fixing their drug problem? No. Okay, if we want to reduce vehicle thefts, the first time that we come in contact with this person, we’ve got to start trying to address what’s driving their problematic behavior.

Protesters’ Rights

The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. Make sure you’re prepared by brushing up on your rights before heading out into the streets.

Riots are destructive, dangerous, and scary — but can lead to serious social reforms

When Baltimore burst into riots after Freddie Gray died in police custody, its policing problems received a lot more attention by the press — and even led to a US Justice Department investigation that found a local police department plagued by racist practices.

Wake deputies defend force used against owner of Raleigh LGBTQ bar during protest

The officers were Wake County sheriff’s deputies, and they were responding to an anonymous tip that people were supplying water and other supplies to protesters, Eric Curry, a spokesman for the sheriff, said in an email. He would not name the officers nor the type of munitions or gun, other than to say it’s a tool “for riot-related crime control.”

What I mean when I say I want to abolish the police

Something is very, very wrong in American police culture. This is why the saying “ACAB” — or “All cops are b*****ds” — has become a popular rallying cry. It doesn’t actually mean every single cop is a bad cop, just like saying Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean white lives don’t. “ACAB” means every single police officer is complicit in a system that actively devalues the lives of people of color. Bad cops are encouraged in their harm by the silence of the ones who see themselves as “good.”

Six Ideas for a Cop-Free World

While law enforcers have existed in one form or another for centuries, the modern police have their roots in the relatively recent rise of modern property relations 200 years ago, and the “disorderly conduct” of the urban poor. Like every structure we’ve known all our lives, it seems that the policing paradigm is inescapable and everlasting, and the only thing keeping us from the precipice of a dystopic Wild West scenario. It’s not.

Abolish the Police. Instead, Let’s Have Full Social, Economic, and Political Equality.

One day, while walking into my building, avoiding all eye contact with the two officers, I heard one of them say to other “Wanna do a vertical?” as I put my keys in the front door. A vertical is when police enter a building and go from top to bottom, scoping the place out for any potential criminal activity. I remember that these are the circumstances under which Akai Gurley was killed.

Thinking about how to abolish prisons with Mariame Kaba: podcast & transcript

CHRIS HAYES: There's a section of James Foreman's book "Locking Up Our Own," which I think is a really good book where he talks about the ways in which the demands, and the politics of black political organizers and black political leaders in the period of high crime, and elevated homicides, and violent crime in the crack years was, we want A through Z, and then, they go to the State Capital, the State Capital says, “Here's more money for cops."

Facebook finally removed Trump campaign ads with inverted red triangle — an infamous Nazi symbol

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said the following: “Despite violating Facebook’s terms of service, the ads were approved by Facebook in the first place. Yet again we see another example where Facebook can’t even meet the bare minimum standards they set for themselves — either because they’re incapable or because they’re in cahoots. Either way, the pattern is alarming.”

Landmark civil rights law extends to LGBTQ employees, Supreme Court rules

The case decided Monday arose when Gerald Bostock was fired from his job as a child welfare advocate for Clayton County just south of Atlanta shortly after he joined a gay softball league. He lost his case in federal courts in Georgia. His case was combined with two others in which courts in New York and Michigan ruled for gay or transgender employees.

Black People in the US Were Enslaved Well into the 1960s

Most shocking of all was their fear. I saw time and time again, people were afraid to share their stories. They were afraid to give this information to me, even behind closed doors decades later. They believed that they might somehow get sent back to a plantation that wasn’t even operating anymore. As I would realize, people are afraid to share their stories, because in the South so many of the same white families who owned these plantations are still running local government and big businesses. They still hold the power. So the poor and disenfranchised really don’t have anywhere to share these injustices without fearing major repercussions. To most folks, it just isn’t worth the risk. So, sadly, most situations of this sort go unreported.

Columbus Police Knock Double Amputee to Ground, Leave Him To Crawl For Help

Several videos show the man's prosthetic legs and feet laying next to him on the ground, but demonstrators who recorded the incident said on Reddit and Twitter that police removed them from the scene.

‘State-sanctioned violence’: US police fail to meet basic human rights standards

Among the failings identified by the law scholars, some police forces violate the requirement that lethal force should only be wielded when facing an immediate threat and as a last resort. Some departments allow deadly responses in cases of “escaping suspects”, “fugitives”, or “prevention of crime” – all scenarios that would be deemed to fall well outside the boundaries set by international law.

Google employees demand company stop selling tech to police

Google, for example, has publicized how Clarkstown Police Department uses G Suite for sharing information and digital evidence. Meanwhile, Google is also a partner and donor to the Seattle police foundation and its venture capital arm, GV, has invested in startups working on artificial intelligence technology for police.

Minneapolis Banned Warrior-Style Police Training. Its Police Union Kept Offering It Anyway.

Citing the “killology” mentality, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey ultimately banned the training last year but the move infuriated Minneapolis Police Union President Lt. Bob Kroll. Shortly after the decision was announced, Kroll called the ban illegal and said that the union would continue to make the training available to any interested officers. “It’s not about killing, it’s about surviving,” Kroll said at the time.

It Doesn’t Look Like the Protests Are Causing a COVID-19 Spike

The absence of surges in the cities with massive demonstrations but few other large gatherings has taken many officials and health analysts by surprise. However, as they’ve examined the data and the video footage, one thing has clarified matters, to an extent: A large percentage of the protesters wore masks.

One of America’s Most Powerful Unions Will Shut Down 29 Ports on Juneteenth

On Friday, 38,000 union dockyard workers will shut down all 29 of the U.S.’s Pacific Coast ports to protest the killing of George Floyd, in the most sweeping action yet taken by a labor union in solidarity with protests against nationwide police brutality this spring.

Port of Oakland shut down by dockworkers in observation of Juneteenth

The day of action — expected to shut down the port for all of Friday — was held on Juneteenth (June 19), a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. With support of the ports, workers stopped processing cargo and rallied to mark the anniversary and call for police reform.

San Francisco police turned off body cameras before illegal raid on journalist, memo says

The two-paragraph document, written two weeks after the raid by Lt. Pilar Torres, does not offer a full rationale on why the cameras should not have been activated for the operation, except to note that “(Acting) Captain Braconi cited this situation was a confidential investigation and BWC footage could compromise the investigation.”

Descendants of Tulsa's 1921 race massacre seek justice as the nation confronts a racist past

Franklin said there were airplanes that dropped turpentine bombs on the community. He said it is still unclear who the planes belonged to or who the pilots were, but said it was the first time a US community was bombed from the air.

Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA in big win for Dreamers

Critically, however, Roberts pointed out in his decision that it wasn't necessarily unconstitutional for the Trump administration to terminate DACA, but the way it did so was. The chief justice pointed out toward the end of his opinion that the administration's Department of Homeland Security could simply revisit its legal strategy on how to unwind DACA in the future.

Texas Governor Says 'No Reason Today To Be Alarmed' As Coronavirus Cases Set Record

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday the state's highest-ever number of new COVID-19 cases: 2,622. He also reported a second record high: 2,518 people hospitalized with the virus in Texas, up from 2,326 a day earlier. Despite the concerning uptick in people sick with the virus, Abbott said that the reason for his news conference was to let Texans know about the "abundant" hospital capacity for treating people with COVID-19. He and other officials spent much of the briefing touting the state's hospital bed availability.

A Powerful Petrochemical Lobbying Group Advanced Anti-Protest Legislation in the Midst of the Pandemic

West Virginia isn’t the only state to advance such anti-protest measures in the midst of the pandemic. Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor, who has been widely praised for his response to Covid-19, signed a similar critical infrastructure law on March 16, and South Dakota’s governor signed another on March 30. Alabama’s bill passed the state Senate on March 12 and is currently being considered by the House; Mississippi’s passed the House on March 4 and awaits action from the Senate. Particularly striking is a new amendment to Louisiana’s existing critical infrastructure law, now awaiting the governor’s signature, which would prescribe up to 15 years’ imprisonment for entering a critical infrastructure property without authorization during a state of emergency.