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Posts tagged as “Minnesota”

Former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Death of Duante Wright

Former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Death of Duante Wright

By goodblacknews on December 23, 2021

Kim Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright when she drew her handgun instead of her Taser during a traffic stop in April, has been found guilty on two counts of manslaughter.

Jurors deliberated since Monday before coming to a unanimous verdict. Potter, who had served as an officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota for 26 years, will be sentenced at a later date.

To quote npr.com:

Prosecutors did not dispute that the shooting was an accident. But they said that in her 26 years on the force, Potter had undergone extensive firearm and Taser training, including how to avoid confusing the two. They turned to use-of-force experts and the police department’s policy handbook to argue that the use of a Taser was inappropriate to begin with.

“She drew a deadly weapon, she aimed it, she pointed it at Daunte Wright’s chest and she fired,” Assistant Attorney General Erin Eldridge said during the state’s closing argument on Monday.

“This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. This was not entering the wrong password somewhere. This was a colossal screw-up, a blunder of epic proportions,” Eldridge said. “It was precisely the thing she had been warned about for years, and she had been trained to prevent it.”

Minnesota’s  sentencing guidelines recommend approximately seven years for the first-degree charge and four years for the second-degree charge, though prosecutors are likely to advocate for a longer sentence.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/23/1066012247/kim-potter-trial-daunte-wright

JUSTICE: Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of the Murder of George Floyd

JUSTICE: Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of the Murder of George Floyd

By goodblacknews on April 20, 2021

Former police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all counts for the murder of George Floyd. This is an excellent day for justice and accountability.

Continued love and healing to George Floyd’s family, loved ones, the city of Minneapolis and the United States. May this be a true beginning and reckoning for justice in the United States.

Protests Over Killing of Duante Wright in MN Help Lead to Resignations of Brooklyn Center Police Chief and Officer

Protests Over Killing of Duante Wright in MN Help Lead to Resignations of Brooklyn Center Police Chief and Officer

By goodblacknews on April 13, 2021

Police officer Kim Potter resigned yesterday after shooting and killing Daunte Wright, 20, at a traffic stop on Sunday, officials in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, announced. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon also submitted his resignation, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott announced at a press conference.

As the Derek Chauvin trial over the police killing of George Floyd proceeds only 10 miles away in Minneapolis, hundreds of people showed up for a memorial protest at the police department in Brooklyn Center in spite of a 7 p.m. curfew that had been called across much of the Twin Cities area.

Protests also spread across the country Monday night after police officials in Brooklyn Center, Minn., said they believed Potter, who shot and killed Wright, had intended to use her Taser but accidentally fired her handgun instead.

Wright’s parents Katie and Aubrey Wright and their attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storms discuss the death of their unarmed son during a traffic stop and how they are seeking justice with ABC‘s Robin Roberts below:

Commander Tony Gruenig has been named acting police chief as the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension continues to investigate the homicide.

Mayor Elliott is asking for the attorney general to be assigned the case:

https://twitter.com/mayor_elliott/status/1382034692170514436

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officer-shot-killed-daunte-wright-resigns/story?id=77048421

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/13/986764183/protests-grow-in-minnesota-and-around-u-s-over-death-of-daunte-wright

Darnella Frazier, the Young Woman Who Documented George Floyd’s Murder, to be Honored with 2020 PEN America Benenson Courage Award

Darnella Frazier, the Young Woman Who Documented George Floyd’s Murder, to be Honored with 2020 PEN America Benenson Courage Award

By goodblacknews on October 28, 2020

[Daniella Frazier; photo courtesy pen.org]

The literary and free expression organization PEN America announced today that Darnella Frazier, the quick-thinking and courageous young woman who filmed the murder of George Floyd, will receive the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award. PEN America will bestow the award on the 17-year-old Frazier at its virtual gala celebration on December 8.

“With nothing more than a cell phone and sheer guts, Darnella changed the course of history in this country, sparking a bold movement demanding an end to systemic anti-Black racism and violence at the hands of police,” said PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All.

“With remarkable steadiness, Darnella carried out the expressive act of bearing witness, and allowing hundreds of millions around the world to see what she saw. Without Darnella’s presence of mind and readiness to risk her own safety and wellbeing, we may never have known the truth about George Floyd’s murder. We are proud to recognize her exceptional courage with this award.”

Frazier documented the death of the 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, one of whom—Derek Chauvin—pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck, well after Floyd lost consciousness. Frazier’s video quickly spread across social media and led to a wave of community outrage, a major investigation, and Chauvin’s arrest, as well as the dismissal of the three other officers.

Floyd’s killing, along with the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, and others, drove a wave of activism across the country crying out for racial and economic justice.

Frazier will receive the award at the 2020 PEN America Gala, this year being held virtually on December 8 and, for the first time, combining the annual Los Angeles and New York Galas, streamed to supporters around the world. The all-virtual gala will include special guests, performances, readings, and the presentation of multiple PEN America honors.

Boxing Champion Floyd Mayweather to Pay George Floyd’s Funeral Expenses

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2020
Floyd Mayweather Jr. (photo: wikipedia.org)

As reported by The Grio, boxing champion Floyd Mayweather offered last week to cover all funeral expenses for George Floyd. His generous offer has been accepted.

To quote from blackamericaweb.com:

According to Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, the Floyd family has accepted his offer. “He’ll probably get mad at me for saying that, but yes, [Mayweather] is definitely paying for the funeral,” he told ESPN on Monday, June 1. “Floyd has done these kind of things over the last 20 years,” he added.

The gesture came about through an unexpected six degrees of separation. Anzel Jennings, CEO of The Money Team Record Label, apparently grew up with George Floyd in Houston, Texas.

Jason Lee of Hollywood Unlocked spoke to Jennings and reports that Anzel reached out to the family on behalf of the boxer.

He will reportedly pay for three ceremonies, one in Houston, Minnesota and Charlotte, North Carolina. A fourth is tentatively planned and Mayweather has agreed to bear the costs for that funeral as well.

Read more: https://thegrio.com/2020/06/01/floyd-mayweather-george-floyd-funeral/

 https://blackamericaweb.com/2020/06/02/floyd-mayweather-will-pay-for-george-floyds-funeral/

Former WNBA Player Tamara Moore Becomes 1st Black Woman Head Coach of Men’s College Basketball Team

By goodblacknews on April 28, 2020
Former WNBA Player Tamara Moore (photo via nbcnews.com)

According to nbcnews.com, former WNBA guard Tamara Moore has been hired as the men’s basketball head coach at Mesabi Range College in Virginia, Minnesota, making her the only woman to be the head coach of a men’s collegiate program in the country currently. And the first African American woman to hold that job in the U.S., ever.

“Now, it’s time for me to show you guys and show people that women are just as knowledgeable as men to coach the game,” she told ESPN.

To quote nbcnews.com:

Moore’s rise to head coach started from an early age. In high school, she was Minnesota’s Miss Basketball winner in 1998, later playing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was named 2001 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time First Team All-Big Ten selection.

After college, Moore spent six seasons in the WNBA from 2002 to 2007, playing for seven different teams throughout her career before playing overseas. She was the girls’ basketball coach at Edison High School in Minneapolis before accepting her new position as the men’s basketball and softball head coach at Mesabi Range College.

Moore, 40, said that coaching men doesn’t faze her, and that she hasn’t been asked how male players will respond to her.

“I can use my recruiting calls in this process as an answer to that question: I didn’t even get that question once,” Moore said. “My resume speaks for itself.”

Moore isn’t the first woman to coach a basketball team. In the 1990s, Kerri-Ann McTiernan became the first woman in the country to be the head coach of a men’s college basketball team at Kingsborough Community College in New York. Moore’s hiring also follows a record 11 women who served as assistant coaches in the NBA 2019-20 season.

To read more, go to: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/former-wnba-player-tamara-moore-becomes-only-female-head-coach-n1183091

St. Cloud State University in MN Honors its 1st Black Graduate by Renaming Building Ruby Cora Webster Hall

By goodblacknews on November 23, 2018
Ruby Cora Webster, St. Cloud State University’s first black graduate (photo via St. Cloud State Archives)

via jbhe.com

St. Cloud State University in Minnesota recently dedicated one of the institution’s original academic buildings after the school’s first African American graduate, Ruby Cora Webster.

Webster graduated from the university in 1909 with a degree in elementary education. The daughter of former slaves, she was born in Ohio and moved with her family to St. Cloud, where she attended high school. After college, she became a teacher, married twice, and relocated to Missouri and later to Canada. Webster died in 1974.

The former Business Building, now known as Ruby Cora Webster Hall, houses the department of English, the Writing Center, the Intensive English Center, the department of political science, and the department of ethnic, gender, and women’s studies.

Last year, after the university implemented a non-donor related naming policy, Dr. Christopher Lehman, chair of the department of ethnic, gender, and women’s studies, spearheaded the proposal to rename the academic building after Webster. It received extremely positive feedback from the community, with 2,200 signatures collected to support the proposal.

“I commend and applaud Dr. Christopher Lehman for his initiative in researching and bringing to light the significance of Ruby Cora Webster to our school’s history and the importance of naming this building after her,” St. Cloud President Robbyn Wacker said. “Ruby is someone from our university’s early history that exemplified hope, courage and resilience and who believed in something greater than herself.”

Source: https://www.jbhe.com/2018/11/st-cloud-state-university-names-academic-building-after-its-first-black-graduate/?fbclid=IwAR37A-eVvZzIJjVhUqRpYbuAuAXJQ6CHvwCcOS08FDQeaXzztPf-d–KQ48

Minnesota Finally Gets an African-American Museum Thanks to Co-Founders Tina Burnside and Coventry Cowens

By goodblacknews on September 29, 2018
Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery co-founders Tina Burnside, left, and Coventry Cowens. Above, the museum’s fourth-floor interior and some of its exhibits. (photo by Leila Navidi via startribune.com)

by Alicia Eler via startribune.com

A reproduction of a 19th-century purple dress with white lace collar is positioned on a stand, as if waiting for its owner to slide it on. A copy of the Green Book, an historic guide that helped steer travelers toward black-welcoming businesses, is gently perched under a glass case. Large panels explaining the history of African-Americans in Minnesota stand in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.

This isn’t a scene from the Minnesota History Center or even the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It is the new Minnesota African American Heritage Museum & Gallery in north Minneapolis.

Co-founded by civil rights attorney Tina Burnside and writer/education administrator Coventry Cowens, the museum addresses a long-standing gap in the Twin Cities. “Minnesota is one of the few states that does not have a museum dedicated to the African-American people in the state,” said Burnside.

For 30 years there have been repeated attempts to remedy that. Why has it taken so long? “I couldn’t tell you why,” she said. “Perhaps it’s a question for the people of Minnesota.”

The museum is entirely volunteer-run. At its soft opening Sept. 8, more than 200 people packed into the spacious fourth-floor gallery it shares with Copeland Art and Training Center in the new Thor Construction headquarters at Penn and Plymouth avenues N.

Like a mini-history center, it is similar to places like the Hennepin History Museum or the Somali Museum of Minnesota. Parking and admission are free.

The inaugural exhibition, “Unbreakable: Celebrating the Resilience of African Americans in Minnesota,” which runs through December, focuses on early settlers in the 1800s, black female heroes, the Great Migration from the South, and war veterans who fought abroad yet faced racism at home. Exhibitions will rotate every three to four months. The next one, opening in January, will focus on the civil rights movement in Minnesota before the 1960s, with a focus on the development of the NAACP in the Twin Cities and Duluth in the early 1900s.

While Chicago was a major destination on the Great Migration north, some continued on to Minnesota. A 2017 census report put the black share of Minnesota’s population at 6.5 percent, about half as much as Illinois.

Philando Castile Fund Aims to Feed Children in Need, Wipe Out School Lunch Debt and Keep His Legacy Alive 

By goodblacknews on September 1, 2017

Philando Castile (photo via blavity.com)

via blavity.com
Over and over again, it has been proven that Philando Castile was a kind hearted and loving man. One thing that he often did as the cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori in St. Paul, MN was paid for the lunch of students who were unable to do so. “No child goes hungry so we ensure that every student has breakfast and also lunch whether they can pay or not,” Stacy Koppen, Nutritional Services Director for St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) told WCCO.
Some students are eligible for free school lunch, but many aren’t. When students can’t pay for their lunch, they will run a debt. “Lunches just for one elementary student are about $400 a year,” Koppen said. “When a student couldn’t pay for their lunch, a lot of times (Castile) actually paid for their lunch out of his own pocket,” she said. Castile’s kind gesture moved the heart of one college professor to keep the ball rolling despite Castile’s untimely death.
Inver Hills Community College professor Pam Fergus typically assigns her students in her Diversity and Ethics class a service project, but this time created her own. “His death changed who I am,” Fergus said. Her project is called Philando Feeds the Children. The project started with a $5,000 goal that was then doubled and so far has raised over $13,800 with 90 days left to donate. Castile’s mother Valerie also told WCCO and Fergus she plans to match the final total with her own donation. “She said the only thing I want for my son is for people to remember him with honor and dignity,” said Fergus.
St. Paul Schools have also started their own campaign, Food For Thought, which allows people to make a donation to clear lunch debts.“That campaign helped us raise almost $40,000 (last year) and it helped almost 2,000 students who couldn’t pay for their meals,” said Koppen. “This year we have almost 900 students who currently appear that they need our help as well.”
To read more, go to: New Philando Castile Fund Aims To Wipe Out School Lunch Debt And Keep His Legacy Alive | BLAVITY

Philando Castile Family Reaches $3M Settlement with City of St. Anthony, MN

By goodblacknews on June 26, 2017

Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile (photo via eurweb.com)

by Amy Forliti via thegrio.com
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The mother of Philando Castile, the black motorist killed by a Minnesota police officer last July, has reached a nearly $3 million settlement with the city that employed the officer, avoiding a federal wrongful death lawsuit that attorneys said could have taken years to resolve. The settlement to be paid to Valerie Castile, who is the family’s trustee, was announced Monday and comes less than two weeks after officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges connected to her son’s death.
Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, was shot five times by Yanez during a traffic stop after Castile told the officer he was armed. Castile had a permit for his gun. The shooting gained widespread attention after Castile’s girlfriend, who was in the car with her then-4-year-old daughter, livestreamed its gruesome aftermath on Facebook. The acquittal of Yanez, who is Latino, prompted days of protests, including one in St. Paul that shut down Interstate 94 for hours and ended with 18 arrests.
The $2.995 million settlement for Valerie Castile will be paid by the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust, which holds the insurance policy for the city of St. Anthony. The plan for distribution of funds requires approval by a state court, which could take several weeks. Robert Bennett, who along with attorney Glenda Hatchett is representing Valerie Castile, said a decision was made to move expeditiously rather than have the case drawn out in federal court, a process that would “exacerbate and reopen terrible wounds.” The settlement will also allow the family, the city and community to work toward healing, Bennett said.
“No amount of money could ever replace Philando,” a joint statement from the attorneys and city of St. Anthony said. “With resolution of the claims the family will continue to deal with their loss through the important work of the Philando Castile Relief Foundation.” Bennett said the foundation’s mission is to provide financial support, grief counseling, scholarships and other help to individuals and families affected by gun violence and police violence.
Bennett said Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, is not part of the settlement. Reynolds has also hired an attorney, but it’s not clear if she is still planning a lawsuit or has any standing for a federal claim. Reynolds’ attorney did not return messages Monday.
The settlement happened faster than others stemming from the killings of black men by police officers elsewhere. Last week, a $1.5 million settlement was reached in the case of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old who was killed by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri. That settlement came nearly three years after the death of Brown, whose parents sued the city.
Bennett said his decades-long relationship with Joe Flynn, the attorney who represented St. Anthony in Castile’s case, helped bring a quick resolution. He also said the city of St. Anthony has a commitment to make positive changes to their police department. The city is undergoing a voluntary review by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, with the goal of improving trust between the police department and the communities it serves.
To read full article, go to: Philando Castile family reaches $3M settlement in death | theGrio