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Posts tagged as “police brutality”

U.S. Justice Department Indicts Four Former Minneapolis Police Officers on Federal Charges for George Floyd’s Death

U.S. Justice Department Indicts Four Former Minneapolis Police Officers on Federal Charges for George Floyd’s Death

By goodblacknews on May 7, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice, lead by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, has indicted four former Minneapolis police officers in connection with the killing of George Floyd.  The charges allege the officers violated Floyd’s constitutional rights, according to court documents filed in federal court in Minnesota.

According to cnn.com, the indictment says Derek Chauvin — who was convicted on second-degree murder charges in Floyd’s death — deprived Floyd of the right to be free from “unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”

Former officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were also charged in connection with their failure to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, per the indictment. Chauvin, Thao, Kueng and the fourth officer, Thomas Lane, all face a charge for failing to give Floyd medical aid.

Such federal charges are rare, notes npr.org, because it is difficult to meet the high legal bar they require. Prosecutors are charged with proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin acted “willfully” to deprive Floyd of his civil rights and used force that was “constitutionally unreasonable.”

Additionally, Chauvin faces a separate federal indictment related to a 2017 incident where he allegedly used a neck restraint “without legal justification” on a 14-year-old and beat the teenager in the head with a flashlight.

Several weeks ago, the Justice Department also filed federal hate crime charges against the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

Campaign Zero Activist Organization Launches National Campaign to Ban ‘No-Knock’ Police Raids

Campaign Zero Activist Organization Launches National Campaign to Ban ‘No-Knock’ Police Raids

By goodblacknews on December 5, 2020

According to colorlines.com, data-driven, activist-led organization Campaign Zero recently launched their ‘End All No-Knocks’ campaign with the goal of transforming the way police search warrants are executed across the nation.

To quote colorlines.com:

Police raids disproportionately impact Black communities, according to research conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). No-knock warrants allow officers to legally force their way into private residences without announcing themselves or their purpose. “These raids, often carried out for low-level drug offenses, are executed at night by forcible entry, which commonly involves breaking through doors with battering rams, military-grade weapons and flash-bang explosives,” Campaign Zero said in its statement. Such practices endanger the community and can severely traumatize (or kill) children in the process—and in the case of Breonna Taylor, these warrants can also tragically lead to death.

“Simply banning No-Knock warrants isn’t going to make us safer and hold police accountable,” stressed Katie Ryan of Campaign Zero in an emailed statement. “In practice, knock-and-announce warrants can be executed like a No-Knock warrant so we must couple banning No-Knock warrants with heavy restrictions on the issuance and execution of all search warrants.”

DeRay McKesson, co-founder of Campaign Zero, said in a statement, “The trauma, injuries, and many deaths of innocent people make the practice of military-style warrant executions unsafe and barbaric.”

To read more: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/activists-launch-national-campaign-ban-no-knock-police-raids

The American Medical Association Declares Racism a Public Health Threat in New Policy

The American Medical Association Declares Racism a Public Health Threat in New Policy

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2020

New policy adopted by physicians at the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Special Meeting of its House of Delegates (HOD) recognizes racism as a public health threat and commits to actively work on dismantling racist policies and practices across all of health care.

In June 2020, the AMA Board of Trustees acknowledged the health consequences of violent police interactions and denounced racism as an urgent threat to public health, pledging action to confront systemic racism, racial injustice and police brutality.

The new policy approved by the AMA, representing physicians and medical students from every state and medical specialty, opposes all forms of racism as a threat to public health and calls on AMA to take prescribed steps to combat racism, including: (1) acknowledging the harm caused by racism and unconscious bias within medical research and health care; (2) identifying tactics to counter racism and mitigate its health effects; (3) encouraging medical education curricula to promote a greater understanding of the topic; (4) supporting external policy development and funding for researching racism’s health risks and damages; and (5) working to prevent influences of racism and bias in health technology innovation.

“The AMA recognizes that racism negatively impacts and exacerbates health inequities among historically marginalized communities. Without systemic and structural-level change, health inequities will continue to exist, and the overall health of the nation will suffer,” said AMA Board Member Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., M.B.A.

“As physicians and leaders in medicine, we are committed to optimal health for all, and are working to ensure all people and communities reach their full health potential. Declaring racism as an urgent public health threat is a step in the right direction toward advancing equity in medicine and public health, while creating pathways for truth, healing, and reconciliation.”

“Me Too” Founder Tarana Burke Making Activism More Accessible Via “Me Too Act Too” Site

“Me Too” Founder Tarana Burke Making Activism More Accessible Via “Me Too Act Too” Site

By goodblacknews on October 15, 2020

[Me Too Founder Tarana Burke photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images]

The Me Too Movement against sexual violence and sexual harassment gained widespread attention three years ago. In 2020, the movements against racial violence, police brutality and the ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic have also emerged as dominating issues of our times.

According to the Huffington Post, Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement and a longtime activist, knows people are outraged ― and overwhelmed. So Burke and the Me Too organization, in collaboration with creative data marketing agency FCB/SIX, are launching a new digital platform called “Me Too Act Too” that allows activists, experienced and new, to educate themselves and get involved.

To quote from Huff Post:

“I think one of the mistakes that we make on the movement side is that there’s so much judgment around what it means to be an activist or what it means to be active. And if you’re not doing it a certain way, then you’re not really contributing. And that’s not true,” Burke told HuffPost.

Me Too Act Too is a crowd-sourced digital platform that gives “survivors, advocates and allies tools to work toward a world free of sexual violence,” according to the organization. The website is meant to be an accessible tool for people who may not see themselves as career activists or who do not have the ability to devote a large amount of time to this work.

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/

Activist Zyda Culpepper Mellon Brilliantly Explains How White Colleagues, Friends and Family Can Be True Allies (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on May 30, 2020

Good Black News is grateful to brilliant young woman Zyda Culpepper Mellon for taking the time to put her thoughts and feelings on current events sparked by the brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd into words and sharing her spot-on, heartfelt and timely message.

Mellon’s video appeared first on Facebook three days ago and has started going viral. Now, with her permission, Good Black News is sharing it directly on our site.

Mellon’s labor not only educates and challenges those who need it, it offers a tool to those who are struggling to find the words to say to white colleagues, friends and family while dealing with so much anger and trauma:

(Facebook: Zyda Culpepper; Instagram: @zydacsoprano; Twitter: @ZydaMellon)

New Basquiat Exhibit at Guggenheim in NY to Center His Cultural Activism and Identity

By goodblacknews on April 30, 2019
Jean-Michel Basquiat Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart), 1983 Acrylic and marker on wood, framed, 63.5 x 77.5 cm Collection of Nina Clemente, New York © Estate of Jean-Michael Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar Photo: Allison Chipak © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2018

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

An exhibition of rarely-seen work by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat will be on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York from June 21 to November 6 this year.

The Basquiat’s “Defacement”: The Untold Story exhibition will be supplemented with work by other artists of Basquiat’s generation and will explore a formative chapter in the artist’s career and the role of cultural activism in New York City during the early 1980s.

The exhibition takes as its starting point the painting Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart), created by Basquiat in 1983 to commemorate the fate of the young, Black artist Michael Stewart at the hands of New York City transit police after allegedly tagging a wall in an East Village subway station.

Originally painted on the wall of Keith Haring’s studio, Defacement was not meant to be seen widely and has rarely been exhibited in a public context. With approximately twenty paintings and works on paper by Basquiat and his contemporaries, this presentation around Defacement will examine Basquiat’s exploration of Black identity, his protest against police brutality, and his attempts to craft a singular aesthetic language of empowerment.

The works on view by Basquiat will further illustrate his engagement with state authority as well as demonstrate his adaptation of crowns as symbols for the canonization of historical Black figures. Also featured will be archival material related to Stewart’s death, including diaries and protest posters, along with samples of artwork from Stewart’s estate.

Paintings and prints made by other artists in response to Stewart’s death and the subsequent criminal trial of the police officers charged in his killing to be presented include Haring’s Michael Stewart—U.S.A. for Africa (1985); Andy Warhol’s screenprinted “headline” paintings from 1983 incorporating a New York Daily News article on Stewart’s death; David Hammons’s stenciled print titled The Man Nobody Killed (1986), and Lyle Ashton Harris’s photographic portrait Saint Michael Stewart (1994), all of which are testaments to the solidarity among artists at the time and the years following.

To learn more: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/basquiats-defacement-the-untold-story

Colin Kaepernick Named Face of Nike’s 30th Anniversary of ‘Just Do It’ Campaign

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2018

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

According to hollywoodreporter.com, Nike unveiled the face of its campaign celebrating 30 years of its “Just do it” campaign – none other than that of Colin Kaepernick.  In the ad, the former NFL quarterback is looking at the camera, and printed over the image is: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt.”

Kaepernick has been a Nike athlete since 2011, but the Super Bowl QB has not played on a team since 2016. Kaepernick created a national firestorm when he began kneeling during the National Anthem in an effort to protest African-American inequality and police brutality in America.  Since then, a number of players on all teams have kneeled or raised a fist during the anthem for the same protest.

Last season, as the debate over protesting was burning ever hotter, the NFL and the NFL Players Association defended the right for those who wanted to protest peacefully.

According to bleacherreport.com, Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the Niners in March 2017 and hasn’t been able to find a new team since. An April visit with the Seattle Seahawks was postponed after he did not assure the franchise he’d stand for the anthem if signed, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told Steve Wyche of NFL Media about the decision he made in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

The 30-year-old quarterback filed a collusion grievance against the league, which claimed he was being kept out of the league because of the protests he started. His argument received a boost last week when arbitrator Stephen B. Burbank ruled there was enough evidence to require a full hearing.

Although Kaepernick has received numerous honors for his efforts, including being named GQ magazine’s Citizen of the Year for 2017, the movement he started remains polarizing.

Meanwhile, NFL owners approved anthem rules in May that would force players to stand if they are on the field or they must remain in the locker room during the anthem. Teams with players who did not comply with the new policy would be subject to league fines, and teams could also hand out individual punishments. Those guidelines are on hold, however, as discussions between the NFL and the players’ union continue with the 2018 season set to start this Thursday.

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

Officer Who Shot and Killed Philando Castile Charged With Manslaughter

By goodblacknews on November 16, 2016

Philando Castile (photo via madamenoire.com)

article by Victoria Uwumarogie via madamenoire.com
Prosecutor John J. Choi of Ramsey County, Minnesota announced today that Officer Jeronimo Yanez will face three criminal charges for shooting and killing Philando Castile in July. Castile’s death, if you will recall, came just a day after the police-involved shooting death of Alton Sterling.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Choi said that Yanez’s use of deadly force was not justified as he “never removed or tried to remove” the gun he had in his pocket during the traffic stop. Yanez has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. The latter charges were applied since both Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old child were present in the car and put in danger during the shooting.
Officer Yanez killed 32-year-old Philando Castile on July 6 during a stop in Falcon Heights. The St. Anthony police officer shot Castile after spotting his gun, and the New York Times reported that Yanez’s lawyer claims that Castile didn’t follow commands. However, in Facebook live video recorded by Castile’s partner, Diamond Reynolds, she said that Castile was license to carry his weapon and was trying to make Yanez aware of his gun when he was shot.
The livestream video showed Castile bleeding with the officer standing nearby, and it was viewed millions of times. Those who knew Castile had nothing but great things to say about the school cafeteria manager following his death, and those who didn’t know him, for the most part, were demanding action.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Yanez is the first officer since 2000 to be charged in a police-involved death in Minnesota, this despite there being more than 150 deaths involving police in the state since that time.
To read more, go to: Officer Who Shot And Killed Philando Castile Charged With Manslaughter