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solarbirdPolice are starting to harass people for talking about or covering/reporting on police violence. Also, New York police seem to have a new tactic of working to exhaust and intimidate protesters by keeping them from being able to go home, even when trying to. Watch out for that elsewhere.
----- 1 -----
xtra shot of depresso
twitter.com/heyrebitcha
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/heyrebitcha/status/1268243051916509184
Go ahead and digest this real quick.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES showing that typically 110 hours of training are required for firearms and only 8 hours on conflict management and mediation. Meanwhile, hairstylists are required to have between 1500 and 2000 hours of training to practice.]
----- 2 -----
Seattle police chief vows changes in crowd-control tactics
Martha Bellisle, Associated Press
Updated 4:42 pm PDT, Wednesday, June 3, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Seattle-police-chief-vows-changes-in-15315370.php
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Wednesday vowed to make sure her officers' badges are visible when they cover protests and agreed to look into crowd-control tactics, but she defended their need to wear protective equipment.
“What we're seeing out here, it is unprecedented in terms of the level of anger, rage, disappointment, hurt, infuriated people coming together to really express their First Amendment rights of free speech and really talk about what’s been highlighted for us through the death of George Floyd,” she told members of the Community Police Commission during an online meeting.
And while she's sickened by the horror of Floyd's death, she said she has a responsibility to protect lives, property and the officers.
----- 3 -----
NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise
Outside Agitators?
The White House shared a clip from the New York City police commissioner suggesting dangerous looters were collecting bricks for violence. The reality is more complicated.
Tarpley Hitt
William Bredderman
Sam Thielman
Updated Jun. 03, 2020
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nypd-says-looters-are-stashing-bricks-brooklyn-locals-say-otherwise
On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn’s south end that’s been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city.
"This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed “Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities.”
...
But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct.
However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there.
He called his conclusion “simple math.”
----- 4 -----
Solarbird
3 June 2020
https://www.facebook.com/solarbird/posts/10219987358867633
Via emergency alert notification: Seattle's curfew was just _lifted_. (Unknown delay between send and reception of message.)
----- 5 -----
‘You’re dead’: Watch an ex Florida deputy threaten to shoot George Floyd rioters
By Madeleine Marr
June 03, 2020
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article243235376.html
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
Disturbing video of a former Pasco County Sheriff’s deputy ranting about the recent violent protests appeared on Twitter Sunday night.
And now the sheriff’s office is denouncing the ex-employee’s clip, which is reportedly a screengrab of her Snapchat.
In the curse-laden video reshared Sunday by a Black Lives Matter activist with the handlehunterarohm, Katy Anello is seen sitting in her car in Spring Hill, Florida. She says to the camera, “Any [bleeping] threat, threatening character or threatening actions to me, I’m [bleeping] shooting you,” she says.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article243235376.html#storylink=cpy
----- 6 -----
Chip Brownlee
twitter.com/ByChipBrownlee
3 June 2020
https://www.alreporter.com/2020/06/03/huntsville-police-deploy-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-on-protesters/
A Huntsville police lieutenant justified using a "chemical agent" (i.e. tear gas) on peaceful protesters because he said the police department didn't want to "roll the dice" to see if the protest would turn violent.
----- 7 -----
Paimon Gimme A Dope Beat Like...
twitter.com/DJPAIMON
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/DJPAIMON/status/1268399580753858561
Iowa City Police shot tear gas at peaceful protestors who had their hands up #BlackLivesMatter #blm
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
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Opinion: His name is Justin Howell
Opinion editor Joshua Howell says the African American male identified in the Texas press is his little brother, Justin
By Joshua Howell
Jun 3, 2020
http://www.thebatt.com/opinion/opinion-his-name-is-justin-howell/article_93a79c44-a5b6-11ea-aa54-ebc0da33cc35.html
The news broke in the Texas Tribune at around 7:30 in the evening, or roughly halfway on my trip from Austin back to my apartment in College Station. The headline read: “Austin police critically injured a black man during protests against police violence.”
I knew who this unidentified black man was at around 5:45 that morning, though I confess I sometimes have trouble thinking of him as a “man.”
His name is Justin Howell. And he is my little brother.
...
As this column has argued before, if you really want to know what happened, there is no substitute for the raw, unedited video. In it, you will see five people carrying Justin’s limp body toward police headquarters, begging the officers to get him medical attention. As they do, the police fire some 15 rounds (many of which were at the protesters carrying my brother) over the course of about 30 seconds.
“What the f---?” one of them yells.
Exactly.
Because the five people carrying Justin weren’t “begging” to get him medical attention — at least not in the typical sense. According to Chief of Police Brian Manley in a recent press briefing, the protesters “were given direction to bring [Justin] to the officers” after which the demonstrators “were fired upon with less-lethal munitions as they brought [Justin] towards the officers to get him medical help.”
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‘Can’t breathe:’ Tacoma police restraint of Manuel Ellis caused his death, medical examiner reports
June 3, 2020 at 6:44 pm Updated June 3, 2020 at 9:26 pm
By Stacia Glenn
The Tacoma News Tribune
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/cant-breathe-tacoma-police-restraint-of-manuel-ellis-caused-his-death-medical-examiner-reports/
TACOMA — Manuel Ellis died in handcuffs while being restrained on the ground by Tacoma police.
At the time of his March 3 death, officials said the 33-year-old appeared to be suffering from excited delirium, which often includes attempts at violence, unexpected strength and very high body temperature.
They said that might have explained why Ellis allegedly banged on a patrol car and attacked two officers trying to calm him down.
Although Ellis, an openly struggling addict, had drugs in his system when he died, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined Ellis died of respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint.
Hypoxia is a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching body tissues.
Contributing factors included methamphetamine intoxication and dilated cardiomyopathy, commonly known as an enlarged heart.
“The harshest of realities is George Floyd is right here in Tacoma, and his name is Manny,” attorney James Bible, who is representing Ellis’ family, told The News Tribune.
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Mike Dunford
twitter.com/questauthority
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/questauthority/status/1268363001649913858
[THREAD]
The Sergeants Benevolent Association is openly telling its members that they are fighting a "war on New York."
No, that's not a joke.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE of letter]
[NEXT]
Sergeants Benevolent Association is telling its members that they work "for a higher power." The fuck you do; you work for the people of New York City.
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St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden Is Done Messing With Jeff Roorda
Posted By Doyle Murphy on Wed, Jun 3, 2020
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/06/03/st-louis-police-chief-john-hayden-is-done-messing-with-jeff-roorda
St. Louis police Chief John Hayden says he has no interest in police union spokesman Jeff Roorda's "Monday-morning quarterbacking" and won't negotiate with him.
That's probably a reasonable position to take any time when it comes to the the St. Louis Police Officers Association's tough-talking business manager, but Hayden was responding Roorda's comments today in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.
The story details the union's attempt to backdoor the chief by asking Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to send the National Guard or state police to take over command of the law enforcement response to late-night chaos on city streets.
"We have no confidence in this police chief and the only safe way for our police officers to respond to this civil disobedience going forward is for somebody else to be making command decisions," Roorda told the newspaper.
Dealing with the complaints of police unions comes with being the chief any police department that has one, but Roorda stands out as a particularly venomous character, whether its antagonizing people with his "Happy Alive Day" love letter to ex-Ferguson cop Darren Wilson on the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown's death, blaming then-President Barack Obama for the killing of police in Dallas or saying St. Louis' first black Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner needed to leave office "by force or by choice."
Roorda told the Post-Dispatch that Hayden bungled the response to violence that followed nonviolent marches in the city. But the chief mocked Roorda as a non-cop. (Roorda was fired from the Arnold Police Department in 2001 for filing false reports.) And said he didn't have the experience leading officers to criticize the command staff's decisions.
----- 12 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268595464422789121
261 - Pittsburgh, PA: police show up at a woman's doorstep the next day after she posts video of them shooting and beating protestors for sport
[QUOTED TWEET]
Paula Reed Ward
twitter.com/PaulaReedWard
4 June 2020
Woman claims police tried to intimidate her after she shared video of East Liberty protest https://post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/06/03/East-Liberty-protest-Abigail-Rubio-says-Pittsburgh-police-intimidated-video/stories/202006030158
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T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268649159952936962
264 - Streamwood, IL: police show up on a kid's doorstep because he posted on social media that there would be a peaceful protest later that night
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
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mcc
twitter.com/mcclure111
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/mcclure111/status/1268603525199691776
Minneapolis city council member, ward 5
[QUOTED TWEET]
Jeremiah Ellison
twitter.com/jeremiah4north
4 June 2020
We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.
And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together.
We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.
It’s really past due. twitter.com/benjaminpdixon…
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Police open fire on queer bar giving first aid and washing pepper spray out of Black Lives Matter protesters’ eyes
Lily Wakefield
June 3, 2020
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/03/lgbt-bar-raleigh-north-carolina-ruby-deluxe-tim-lemuel-black-lives-matter-police-brutality-racism/
An LGBT+ bar owner in North Carolina was fired at by police during ongoing Black Lives Matter protests for simply running a first aid station on his own property.
In the wake of the death of George Floyd, protests against ongoing police brutality against Black people have broken out across the US.
Tim Lemuel owns Ruby Deluxe in Raleigh, North Carolina, and on Monday night, June 1, he kept watch outside his bar to stop protestors vandalising the building, according to The News and Observer.
In the parking lot of the LGBT+ bar, Lemuel and his staff set up a first aid station for protestors, handing out granola bars, bottled water and helping them wash pepper spray out of their eyes.
They had been there for around seven hours, Lemuel said, before police showed up.
In a widely-circulated video officers can be seen appearing around the corner and shouting: “Move!” The bar owner repeatedly replies: “This is my business, I rent this place.”
But the police officers continue to approach, as Lemuel slowly backs away, shouting: “You’ve been told. I don’t care where you go, you gotta go.”
An officer then fires what appears to be a shotgun, twice, and says: “The game is over. Get out!”
Eric Curry, a spokesperson for Wake County sheriff’s office, said that the officers were responding to an anonymous tip that the group had been helping Black Lives Matter protestors.
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Research Says Violent Cops Cause Violent Protests
by Matt Baume • Jun 4, 2020
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/04/43839908/research-says-violent-cops-cause-violent-protests
You will be shocked, simply SHOCKED, to learn that after decades of researching effective methods for police response to large crowd actions, researchers have found — and you’re never going to believe this — that when cops show up in military gear and get aggressive, they actually make protest violence worse!
That’s one of the findings in “New Directions in Protest Policing,” a 2015 paper that reviews decades upon decades of police history and the conclusions of multiple separate commissions. Police that dress like they’re going to war, who try to control First Amendment expression rather than facilitate it, and who act in arbitrary ways can inflame violence and jeopardize their own safety and that of the public.
The paper was written by Edward R. Maguire, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and it dives all the way back to the nation’s founding and the civil unrest that led to the creation of the United States.
He notes that in the last 50 years, police responses have shifted between a couple of different models: In the '60s and '70s, there was the “escalated force” model, which assumed that protesters would be compliant if they saw that they were hopelessly outmatched by the police; that was followed in the '80s and '90s by the “negotiated management” model, in which police remained in close communication with protesters so that neither side was surprised by the other; then the '90s gave rise to the “command and control” model in which police saw their role as dominating protests no matter how much force is required.
We have Seattle police to thank, in part, for the development of “command and control” (Miami played a role as well). The 1999 WTO protests in Seattle were decentralized, and police had few protest leaders to communicate with; so they launched into mass arrests and deploying chemical agents. Gosh that sounds familiar.
As it turns out, when crowds see police as unfair, unpredictable, and a threat, people no longer regard cops as legitimate authorities and are more likely to disobey. So when Fargo's deputy police chief is caught inciting riots, for example, or when Colorado police are seen firing the first shot at people who are just standing around, they’re endangering everyone.
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David Fahrenthold
twitter.com/Fahrenthold
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1268371595367788545
In Minneapolis, cops pulled a WashPost reporter over in a traffic stop for knocking on the door of the police union's leader.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Mark Berman
twitter.com/markberman
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1268369635520454661
Bob Kroll, the Minneapolis police union chief who hasn’t responded to calls and messages seeking comment, called the cops on a reporter who knocked on his door https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/03/george-floyd-police-officers-charges/
[EMBEDDED IMAGE FROM STORY. Text from original source:
Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union, has not responded to multiple requests for comment but said in a letter to union members Monday that the officers were terminated “without due process.”
A Washington Post reporter who knocked on Kroll’s door was soon pulled over by a police officer who said that Kroll had reported suspicious activity on his front porch and that “he doesn’t want any press.”
]
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Adrienne Spinning Side Kick Gibbs
twitter.com/AdrienneWrites
1 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AdrienneWrites/status/1267534983054254081
[THREAD]
My cousins pulled over for Chicago police at brickyard yesterday at 1 pm and police bust the windows out, pulled one out by her hair. Glass got in her eyes. Police took one of my cousins and took the car. They left her mother and my other cousin - the driver - in the lot.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[MORE]
Several witnesses posted about this on several social media. She was in the backseat. Why was she taken into custody? Why were the windows broken out the car? Why were they called such foul names?
They went to grab food, and discovered the mall was closed.
That's not a crime
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
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Alt. Public Lands
twitter.com/AltPublicLands
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AltPublicLands/status/1268522605260058624
Denver Colorado folks. I can’t tell for sure if this is a traffic light but lots of cars stopped at it. This picks up where DPD shoot and gas a car w/ pregnant woman, repeatedly. I watched about 15 minutes from that point. Oh ya, forgot..Pandemic. Hope is imagining Trump’s trial.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Jake Morphonios
twitter.com/morphonios
4 June 2020
You can see the entire incident here.
[LINK TO VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9164&v=S4-5pbk_Vpk&feature=emb_title
]
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T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268334881827930112
216 - New York City, NY: NYPD has spent taxpayer money on custom fake taxis, so they can arrest innocent protestors who are trying to go home
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
----- 21 -----
Fact check: Police did destroy a medic area during protests in Asheville, North Carolina
John Boyle
Katie Wadington
USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-police-destroy-medic-station-asheville/3124847001/
The claim: Asheville, NC, police destroyed a medical station during Tuesday night's protest
After protests in Asheville, North Carolina, social media posts that show law enforcement busting water bottles went viral.
The incident Tuesday was caught on video and described by a medic volunteer.
The protest marked the third day of demonstrations in Asheville in response to the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
What happened?
Video by the Citizen Times shows Asheville police officers in riot gear and holding shields forming a protective circle around officers stomping and stabbing water bottles. Other officers destroyed medical supplies such as bandages and saline solution.
Sean Miller, a UNC-Asheville student who is head of communication for the medical team, said the 10-12 medics present were all clearly marked as such and did not provoke police in any way.
----- 22 -----
Cops Turn Violent on Queer Protesters in Manhattan
Posted on June 3, 2020
Matt Tracy
https://www.gaycitynews.com/cops-turn-violent-on-queer-protesters-in-manhattan/
A powerful demonstration at the Stonewall Inn on June 2 shined a much-needed spotlight on recent deadly violence targeting Black transgender individuals, but shortly after the city’s new 8 p.m. curfew the NYPD pounced on the queer peaceful protesters, punching them and beating them with batons before rounding them up and arresting them, activists said.
Thousands of folks gathered at Stonewall for a 5 p.m. protest to highlight the cases of Black transgender victims of deadly violence and police murders, including the deaths last month of Tony McDade, a Black transgender man shot to death by police in Tallahassee, Florida, and Nina Pop, a Black transgender woman who was stabbed to death by an assailant in her Missouri apartment.
DecrimNY, the coalition aiming to comprehensively decriminalize sex work in New York City, helped take the lead on organizing the event. In a continuation of the nationwide protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the protest that started at Stonewall and continued in the streets marked an opportunity for the community to also pay respects to fallen Black trans folks who have disproportionately been the victims of violent killings. The demonstration marked the second straight night of action near the site of the historic gay bar commemorating the lives of queer and other people of color who died at the hands of police.
“Trans women of color were centered, they controlled their space, they held the park… it was powerful,” activist Jay W. Walker, who was on hand for the Stonewall demonstration, told Gay City News. “The speeches were raw, full of anger, full of emotion, but always, from beginning to end, a peaceful protest.”
But it was also the second straight night of curfew imposed on the city — this time at 8 p.m. after an 11 p.m. curfew on June 1 — and activists said law enforcement officers were emboldened by the early cutoff.
“I was here in ‘85 and I remember it was a particularly corrupt group of cops whose slogan in the late ‘80s was ‘we own the night,’” Walker recalled. “This 8 o’clock curfew is literally Bill de Blasio giving NYPD ownership of the night without anyone to observe them.”
----- 23 -----
Alexandra Erin
twitter.com/AlexandraErin
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1268547515038806018
[THREAD]
Police say they can't do their jobs unless:
1. They are allowed to open fire at the *slightest* fear for their lives.
2. They are allowed to use force to punish people they find disrespectful.
3. They are allowed to lie to the people they serve.
Conclusion: They're unqualified.
[NEXT]
I mean, I can't think of a job I've had where I wasn't expected to solve my problems without shooting or beating anyone. There certainly *are* jobs where lying to the public is basically the job, but it's hard to imagine why a public servant should be one of them.
[NEXT]
If you want to know why I'm in favor of abolishing the police rather than reforming them, the really short answer is: the police themselves say that policework is impossible with these reforms.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
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More Than 400 Current And Former Members Of The De Blasio Administration Say The Mayor Is Failing At His Job
By Brigid Bergin, WNYC and Jake Offenhartz
June 4, 2020
https://gothamist.com/news/more-400-current-and-former-members-de-blasio-administration-say-mayor-failing-his-job
Over 400 current and former employees in the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio have signed an open letter denouncing the mayor’s treatment of peaceful protesters and his refusal to reign in the NYPD.
The letter includes a scathing evaluation of de Blasio’s performance on criminal justice reform, despite it being one of the main commitments that drew many of these staffers to work for the administration, particularly after he made ending the misuse of stop and frisk a central theme in his 2013 mayoral campaign.
“Our time in the Mayor’s Office showed us that the change we had hoped for, and fought for, might never come,” the letter states.
The current and former staffers list a set of demands they say must be met, because de Blasio "is on the brink of losing all legitimacy in the eyes of New Yorkers."
The staffers want the city to slash $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2021 from the NYPD’s nearly $6 billion operating budget, fire of all NYPD officers found to have used excessive force during protests—or to have covered their badges, and release their disciplinary records.
Finally they seek the appointment of an independent commission, “in the vein of the Knapp and Mollen Commissions,” to investigate the city’s response to the recent protests against police violence.
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Seattle Residents Got Tear Gassed in Their Own Apartments
by Nathalie Graham • Jun 4, 2020
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/04/43840246/seattle-residents-got-tear-gassed-in-their-own-apartments?cb=a15e09057aa13dc2c88d805a7dd5ce84
Maggie has started taping the windows in her apartment in Capitol Hill. She still ends up coughing each night, but it's not as bad as it was Monday night when the Seattle Police Department fired tear gas and pepper spray across the residential neighborhood.
Maggie, whose name has been changed out of fear of backlash she's already gotten from posting about her experience on Twitter from some "local right-wing militia dudes" as she described, lives right near where the George Floyd protests have been happening each night this week on Capitol Hill. She hasn't been participating in the demonstrations because of the pandemic and the vulnerable people who live in her apartment building but she says she's "100 percent in solidarity" with the movement.
On Monday, she was watching and participating from her apartment window. Suddenly, there were flashbangs. She grabbed her camera. It looked like fire. A cloud of smoke billowed upwards. Her partner rushed over yelling to close the windows. Maggie started coughing. Tears were streaming down her face. "I was like 'Oh my god, we have gas in here,'" Maggie said.
Maggie is one of many Capitol Hill residents who has choked on SPD's militarized crowd-clearing tactics from inside her own home this week. She was incapacitated, she said, her mind racing. She ran into the hallway. Her neighbors were all there too in search of breathable air. One couple next door sat with their six-month-old baby, some had their small pets, others went to check on the immuno-compromised neighbors upstairs in their 70s. It took about two hours for their units to become breathable again.
"I don’t want to make this about me or us," Maggie told me. "But it's shocking when it enters our home."
----- 26 -----
Julián Castro
juliancastro
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1268381369668943872
Breaking curfew is no excuse for senselessly beating someone on their way home twitter.com/NYPDnews
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Three police attack, beat man on bicycle]
----- 27 -----
Medical Workers Fighting COVID Say Cops Are Attacking Them
“I don’t know if it’s because they noticed my hospital ID or if it’s because they saw the blood, but they stopped, threw my phone at me, and I walked back to the hospital.”
Olivia Messer
Reporter
Updated Jun. 02, 2020
https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-medical-workers-fighting-covid-say-cops-are-attacking-them-at-george-floyd-protests
Twenty minutes after leaving his job at a Brooklyn hospital on Saturday night, 32-year-old Rayne Valentine was lying in the fetal position on the sidewalk.
He’d been beaten and kicked by New York police officers, his hospital ID smeared with his own blood, he told The Daily Beast.
Valentine, a Marine veteran who worked as a chef before the pandemic hit the restaurant industry, got a job in March at Kings County Hospital Center. He has spent the past several months moving medicine and patients around the facility, as well as piling hundreds of dead bodies—many of them COVID-19 victims—into refrigerated morgue trucks.
Valentine told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that he needed a job, but, like many Americans, he also felt helpless and wanted to contribute on the front lines of the deadly pandemic. Unfortunately, his is just one of many horrifying stories of medical workers, firefighters, and paramedics who’ve been heralded as heroes—only to be tear gassed or beaten by police during the days of civil unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“They needed people,” said Valentine. “The first day I was [at the hospital], we loaded up 45 bodies in a few hours. I saw a lot of the staff having breakdowns. It was scary for a lot of people.” But Valentine felt that his military background—serving four years overseas in the Marine Corps—meant he could handle seeing things that the average American may not be able to process.
But even his time overseas did not prepare him for Saturday.
- Police: 110 hours training on firearms and self defence; 8 hours on conflict resolution; hairdressers between 1500 and 2000 hours to practice. Digest that.
- [SEATTLE] Seattle police chief vows changes in crowd-control tactics
- [NEW YORK CITY] NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise
- [SEATTLE] Emergency notification system: Seattle curfew LIFTED
- [FLORDIA] ‘You’re dead’: Watch an ex Florida deputy threaten to shoot George Floyd 'rioters'
- [HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA] A Huntsville police lieutenant justified using a "chemical agent" (i.e. tear gas) on peaceful protesters because he said the police department didn't want to "roll the dice" to see if the protest would turn violent.
- [IOWA CITY] Iowa City Police shot tear gas at peaceful protestors who had their hands up [EDITOR: The video is pretty clear here and it's confirmed by other tweets]
- [AUSTIN, TEXAS] Opinion: His name is Justin Howell [EDITOR: This one is really bad]
- [TACOMA, WASHINGTON STATE] ‘Can’t breathe:’ Tacoma police restraint of Manuel Ellis caused his death, medical examiner reports
- [NEW YORK CITY] The Sergeants Benevolent Association is openly telling its members that they are fighting a "war on New York."
- [ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI] St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden Is Done Messing With Jeff Roorda
- [PITTSBURGH] Pittsburgh, PA: police show up at a woman's doorstep the next day after she posts video of them shooting and beating protestors for sport
- [STREAMWOOD, ILLINOIS] Streamwood, IL: police show up on a kid's doorstep because he posted on social media that there would be a peaceful protest later that night
- [MINNEAPOLIS] Another Minneapolis city council members calls for dismantling the police
- [NEW YORK CITY] Police open fire on queer bar giving first aid and washing pepper spray out of Black Lives Matter protesters’ eyes
- [SEATTLE] Research Says Violent Cops Cause Violent Protests
- [MINNEAPOLIS] WashPost reporter over in a traffic stop for knocking on the door of the police union's leader.
- [CHICAGO] Police attack car full of people stopping at mall
- [DENVER] DPD shoot and gas a car w/ pregnant woman, repeatedly.
- [NEW YORK CITY] NYPD have custom fake taxis to arrest people trying to go home
- [ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA] Fact check: Police did destroy a medic area during protests in Asheville, North Carolina
- [NEW YORK CITY] Cops Turn Violent on Queer Protesters in Manhattan
- Police say they can't do their jobs unless they can commit lethal violence at will without consequence
- [NEW YORK CITY] More Than 400 Current And Former Members Of The De Blasio Administration Say The Mayor Is Failing At His Job
- [SEATTLE] Seattle Residents Got Tear Gassed in Their Own Apartments
- [NEW YORK CITY] Three police attack, beat man on bicycle
- [NEW YORK CITY] Medical Workers Fighting COVID Say Cops Are Attacking Them
----- 1 -----
xtra shot of depresso
twitter.com/heyrebitcha
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/heyrebitcha/status/1268243051916509184
Go ahead and digest this real quick.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES showing that typically 110 hours of training are required for firearms and only 8 hours on conflict management and mediation. Meanwhile, hairstylists are required to have between 1500 and 2000 hours of training to practice.]
----- 2 -----
Seattle police chief vows changes in crowd-control tactics
Martha Bellisle, Associated Press
Updated 4:42 pm PDT, Wednesday, June 3, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Seattle-police-chief-vows-changes-in-15315370.php
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Wednesday vowed to make sure her officers' badges are visible when they cover protests and agreed to look into crowd-control tactics, but she defended their need to wear protective equipment.
“What we're seeing out here, it is unprecedented in terms of the level of anger, rage, disappointment, hurt, infuriated people coming together to really express their First Amendment rights of free speech and really talk about what’s been highlighted for us through the death of George Floyd,” she told members of the Community Police Commission during an online meeting.
And while she's sickened by the horror of Floyd's death, she said she has a responsibility to protect lives, property and the officers.
----- 3 -----
NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise
Outside Agitators?
The White House shared a clip from the New York City police commissioner suggesting dangerous looters were collecting bricks for violence. The reality is more complicated.
Tarpley Hitt
William Bredderman
Sam Thielman
Updated Jun. 03, 2020
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nypd-says-looters-are-stashing-bricks-brooklyn-locals-say-otherwise
On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn’s south end that’s been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city.
"This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed “Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities.”
...
But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct.
However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there.
He called his conclusion “simple math.”
----- 4 -----
Solarbird
3 June 2020
https://www.facebook.com/solarbird/posts/10219987358867633
Via emergency alert notification: Seattle's curfew was just _lifted_. (Unknown delay between send and reception of message.)
----- 5 -----
‘You’re dead’: Watch an ex Florida deputy threaten to shoot George Floyd rioters
By Madeleine Marr
June 03, 2020
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article243235376.html
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
Disturbing video of a former Pasco County Sheriff’s deputy ranting about the recent violent protests appeared on Twitter Sunday night.
And now the sheriff’s office is denouncing the ex-employee’s clip, which is reportedly a screengrab of her Snapchat.
In the curse-laden video reshared Sunday by a Black Lives Matter activist with the handle
hunterarohm, Katy Anello is seen sitting in her car in Spring Hill, Florida. She says to the camera, “Any [bleeping] threat, threatening character or threatening actions to me, I’m [bleeping] shooting you,” she says.Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article243235376.html#storylink=cpy
----- 6 -----
Chip Brownlee
twitter.com/ByChipBrownlee
3 June 2020
https://www.alreporter.com/2020/06/03/huntsville-police-deploy-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-on-protesters/
A Huntsville police lieutenant justified using a "chemical agent" (i.e. tear gas) on peaceful protesters because he said the police department didn't want to "roll the dice" to see if the protest would turn violent.
----- 7 -----
Paimon Gimme A Dope Beat Like...
twitter.com/DJPAIMON
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/DJPAIMON/status/1268399580753858561
Iowa City Police shot tear gas at peaceful protestors who had their hands up #BlackLivesMatter #blm
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
Opinion: His name is Justin Howell
Opinion editor Joshua Howell says the African American male identified in the Texas press is his little brother, Justin
By Joshua Howell
Jun 3, 2020
http://www.thebatt.com/opinion/opinion-his-name-is-justin-howell/article_93a79c44-a5b6-11ea-aa54-ebc0da33cc35.html
The news broke in the Texas Tribune at around 7:30 in the evening, or roughly halfway on my trip from Austin back to my apartment in College Station. The headline read: “Austin police critically injured a black man during protests against police violence.”
I knew who this unidentified black man was at around 5:45 that morning, though I confess I sometimes have trouble thinking of him as a “man.”
His name is Justin Howell. And he is my little brother.
...
As this column has argued before, if you really want to know what happened, there is no substitute for the raw, unedited video. In it, you will see five people carrying Justin’s limp body toward police headquarters, begging the officers to get him medical attention. As they do, the police fire some 15 rounds (many of which were at the protesters carrying my brother) over the course of about 30 seconds.
“What the f---?” one of them yells.
Exactly.
Because the five people carrying Justin weren’t “begging” to get him medical attention — at least not in the typical sense. According to Chief of Police Brian Manley in a recent press briefing, the protesters “were given direction to bring [Justin] to the officers” after which the demonstrators “were fired upon with less-lethal munitions as they brought [Justin] towards the officers to get him medical help.”
----- 9 -----
‘Can’t breathe:’ Tacoma police restraint of Manuel Ellis caused his death, medical examiner reports
June 3, 2020 at 6:44 pm Updated June 3, 2020 at 9:26 pm
By Stacia Glenn
The Tacoma News Tribune
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/cant-breathe-tacoma-police-restraint-of-manuel-ellis-caused-his-death-medical-examiner-reports/
TACOMA — Manuel Ellis died in handcuffs while being restrained on the ground by Tacoma police.
At the time of his March 3 death, officials said the 33-year-old appeared to be suffering from excited delirium, which often includes attempts at violence, unexpected strength and very high body temperature.
They said that might have explained why Ellis allegedly banged on a patrol car and attacked two officers trying to calm him down.
Although Ellis, an openly struggling addict, had drugs in his system when he died, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined Ellis died of respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint.
Hypoxia is a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching body tissues.
Contributing factors included methamphetamine intoxication and dilated cardiomyopathy, commonly known as an enlarged heart.
“The harshest of realities is George Floyd is right here in Tacoma, and his name is Manny,” attorney James Bible, who is representing Ellis’ family, told The News Tribune.
----- 10 -----
Mike Dunford
twitter.com/questauthority
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/questauthority/status/1268363001649913858
[THREAD]
The Sergeants Benevolent Association is openly telling its members that they are fighting a "war on New York."
No, that's not a joke.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE of letter]
[NEXT]
Sergeants Benevolent Association is telling its members that they work "for a higher power." The fuck you do; you work for the people of New York City.
----- 11 -----
St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden Is Done Messing With Jeff Roorda
Posted By Doyle Murphy on Wed, Jun 3, 2020
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/06/03/st-louis-police-chief-john-hayden-is-done-messing-with-jeff-roorda
St. Louis police Chief John Hayden says he has no interest in police union spokesman Jeff Roorda's "Monday-morning quarterbacking" and won't negotiate with him.
That's probably a reasonable position to take any time when it comes to the the St. Louis Police Officers Association's tough-talking business manager, but Hayden was responding Roorda's comments today in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.
The story details the union's attempt to backdoor the chief by asking Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to send the National Guard or state police to take over command of the law enforcement response to late-night chaos on city streets.
"We have no confidence in this police chief and the only safe way for our police officers to respond to this civil disobedience going forward is for somebody else to be making command decisions," Roorda told the newspaper.
Dealing with the complaints of police unions comes with being the chief any police department that has one, but Roorda stands out as a particularly venomous character, whether its antagonizing people with his "Happy Alive Day" love letter to ex-Ferguson cop Darren Wilson on the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown's death, blaming then-President Barack Obama for the killing of police in Dallas or saying St. Louis' first black Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner needed to leave office "by force or by choice."
Roorda told the Post-Dispatch that Hayden bungled the response to violence that followed nonviolent marches in the city. But the chief mocked Roorda as a non-cop. (Roorda was fired from the Arnold Police Department in 2001 for filing false reports.) And said he didn't have the experience leading officers to criticize the command staff's decisions.
----- 12 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268595464422789121
261 - Pittsburgh, PA: police show up at a woman's doorstep the next day after she posts video of them shooting and beating protestors for sport
[QUOTED TWEET]
Paula Reed Ward
twitter.com/PaulaReedWard
4 June 2020
Woman claims police tried to intimidate her after she shared video of East Liberty protest https://post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/06/03/East-Liberty-protest-Abigail-Rubio-says-Pittsburgh-police-intimidated-video/stories/202006030158
----- 13 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268649159952936962
264 - Streamwood, IL: police show up on a kid's doorstep because he posted on social media that there would be a peaceful protest later that night
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
----- 14 -----
mcc
twitter.com/mcclure111
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/mcclure111/status/1268603525199691776
Minneapolis city council member, ward 5
[QUOTED TWEET]
Jeremiah Ellison
twitter.com/jeremiah4north
4 June 2020
We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.
And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together.
We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.
It’s really past due. twitter.com/benjaminpdixon…
----- 15 -----
Police open fire on queer bar giving first aid and washing pepper spray out of Black Lives Matter protesters’ eyes
Lily Wakefield
June 3, 2020
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/03/lgbt-bar-raleigh-north-carolina-ruby-deluxe-tim-lemuel-black-lives-matter-police-brutality-racism/
An LGBT+ bar owner in North Carolina was fired at by police during ongoing Black Lives Matter protests for simply running a first aid station on his own property.
In the wake of the death of George Floyd, protests against ongoing police brutality against Black people have broken out across the US.
Tim Lemuel owns Ruby Deluxe in Raleigh, North Carolina, and on Monday night, June 1, he kept watch outside his bar to stop protestors vandalising the building, according to The News and Observer.
In the parking lot of the LGBT+ bar, Lemuel and his staff set up a first aid station for protestors, handing out granola bars, bottled water and helping them wash pepper spray out of their eyes.
They had been there for around seven hours, Lemuel said, before police showed up.
In a widely-circulated video officers can be seen appearing around the corner and shouting: “Move!” The bar owner repeatedly replies: “This is my business, I rent this place.”
But the police officers continue to approach, as Lemuel slowly backs away, shouting: “You’ve been told. I don’t care where you go, you gotta go.”
An officer then fires what appears to be a shotgun, twice, and says: “The game is over. Get out!”
Eric Curry, a spokesperson for Wake County sheriff’s office, said that the officers were responding to an anonymous tip that the group had been helping Black Lives Matter protestors.
----- 16 -----
Research Says Violent Cops Cause Violent Protests
by Matt Baume • Jun 4, 2020
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/04/43839908/research-says-violent-cops-cause-violent-protests
You will be shocked, simply SHOCKED, to learn that after decades of researching effective methods for police response to large crowd actions, researchers have found — and you’re never going to believe this — that when cops show up in military gear and get aggressive, they actually make protest violence worse!
That’s one of the findings in “New Directions in Protest Policing,” a 2015 paper that reviews decades upon decades of police history and the conclusions of multiple separate commissions. Police that dress like they’re going to war, who try to control First Amendment expression rather than facilitate it, and who act in arbitrary ways can inflame violence and jeopardize their own safety and that of the public.
The paper was written by Edward R. Maguire, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and it dives all the way back to the nation’s founding and the civil unrest that led to the creation of the United States.
He notes that in the last 50 years, police responses have shifted between a couple of different models: In the '60s and '70s, there was the “escalated force” model, which assumed that protesters would be compliant if they saw that they were hopelessly outmatched by the police; that was followed in the '80s and '90s by the “negotiated management” model, in which police remained in close communication with protesters so that neither side was surprised by the other; then the '90s gave rise to the “command and control” model in which police saw their role as dominating protests no matter how much force is required.
We have Seattle police to thank, in part, for the development of “command and control” (Miami played a role as well). The 1999 WTO protests in Seattle were decentralized, and police had few protest leaders to communicate with; so they launched into mass arrests and deploying chemical agents. Gosh that sounds familiar.
As it turns out, when crowds see police as unfair, unpredictable, and a threat, people no longer regard cops as legitimate authorities and are more likely to disobey. So when Fargo's deputy police chief is caught inciting riots, for example, or when Colorado police are seen firing the first shot at people who are just standing around, they’re endangering everyone.
----- 17 -----
David Fahrenthold
twitter.com/Fahrenthold
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1268371595367788545
In Minneapolis, cops pulled a WashPost reporter over in a traffic stop for knocking on the door of the police union's leader.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Mark Berman
twitter.com/markberman
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1268369635520454661
Bob Kroll, the Minneapolis police union chief who hasn’t responded to calls and messages seeking comment, called the cops on a reporter who knocked on his door https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/03/george-floyd-police-officers-charges/
[EMBEDDED IMAGE FROM STORY. Text from original source:
Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union, has not responded to multiple requests for comment but said in a letter to union members Monday that the officers were terminated “without due process.”
A Washington Post reporter who knocked on Kroll’s door was soon pulled over by a police officer who said that Kroll had reported suspicious activity on his front porch and that “he doesn’t want any press.”
]
----- 18 -----
Adrienne Spinning Side Kick Gibbs
twitter.com/AdrienneWrites
1 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AdrienneWrites/status/1267534983054254081
[THREAD]
My cousins pulled over for Chicago police at brickyard yesterday at 1 pm and police bust the windows out, pulled one out by her hair. Glass got in her eyes. Police took one of my cousins and took the car. They left her mother and my other cousin - the driver - in the lot.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[MORE]
Several witnesses posted about this on several social media. She was in the backseat. Why was she taken into custody? Why were the windows broken out the car? Why were they called such foul names?
They went to grab food, and discovered the mall was closed.
That's not a crime
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 19 -----
Alt. Public Lands
twitter.com/AltPublicLands
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AltPublicLands/status/1268522605260058624
Denver Colorado folks. I can’t tell for sure if this is a traffic light but lots of cars stopped at it. This picks up where DPD shoot and gas a car w/ pregnant woman, repeatedly. I watched about 15 minutes from that point. Oh ya, forgot..Pandemic. Hope is imagining Trump’s trial.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Jake Morphonios
twitter.com/morphonios
4 June 2020
You can see the entire incident here.
[LINK TO VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9164&v=S4-5pbk_Vpk&feature=emb_title
]
----- 20 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268334881827930112
216 - New York City, NY: NYPD has spent taxpayer money on custom fake taxis, so they can arrest innocent protestors who are trying to go home
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
----- 21 -----
Fact check: Police did destroy a medic area during protests in Asheville, North Carolina
John Boyle
Katie Wadington
USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-police-destroy-medic-station-asheville/3124847001/
The claim: Asheville, NC, police destroyed a medical station during Tuesday night's protest
After protests in Asheville, North Carolina, social media posts that show law enforcement busting water bottles went viral.
The incident Tuesday was caught on video and described by a medic volunteer.
The protest marked the third day of demonstrations in Asheville in response to the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
What happened?
Video by the Citizen Times shows Asheville police officers in riot gear and holding shields forming a protective circle around officers stomping and stabbing water bottles. Other officers destroyed medical supplies such as bandages and saline solution.
Sean Miller, a UNC-Asheville student who is head of communication for the medical team, said the 10-12 medics present were all clearly marked as such and did not provoke police in any way.
----- 22 -----
Cops Turn Violent on Queer Protesters in Manhattan
Posted on June 3, 2020
Matt Tracy
https://www.gaycitynews.com/cops-turn-violent-on-queer-protesters-in-manhattan/
A powerful demonstration at the Stonewall Inn on June 2 shined a much-needed spotlight on recent deadly violence targeting Black transgender individuals, but shortly after the city’s new 8 p.m. curfew the NYPD pounced on the queer peaceful protesters, punching them and beating them with batons before rounding them up and arresting them, activists said.
Thousands of folks gathered at Stonewall for a 5 p.m. protest to highlight the cases of Black transgender victims of deadly violence and police murders, including the deaths last month of Tony McDade, a Black transgender man shot to death by police in Tallahassee, Florida, and Nina Pop, a Black transgender woman who was stabbed to death by an assailant in her Missouri apartment.
DecrimNY, the coalition aiming to comprehensively decriminalize sex work in New York City, helped take the lead on organizing the event. In a continuation of the nationwide protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the protest that started at Stonewall and continued in the streets marked an opportunity for the community to also pay respects to fallen Black trans folks who have disproportionately been the victims of violent killings. The demonstration marked the second straight night of action near the site of the historic gay bar commemorating the lives of queer and other people of color who died at the hands of police.
“Trans women of color were centered, they controlled their space, they held the park… it was powerful,” activist Jay W. Walker, who was on hand for the Stonewall demonstration, told Gay City News. “The speeches were raw, full of anger, full of emotion, but always, from beginning to end, a peaceful protest.”
But it was also the second straight night of curfew imposed on the city — this time at 8 p.m. after an 11 p.m. curfew on June 1 — and activists said law enforcement officers were emboldened by the early cutoff.
“I was here in ‘85 and I remember it was a particularly corrupt group of cops whose slogan in the late ‘80s was ‘we own the night,’” Walker recalled. “This 8 o’clock curfew is literally Bill de Blasio giving NYPD ownership of the night without anyone to observe them.”
----- 23 -----
Alexandra Erin
twitter.com/AlexandraErin
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1268547515038806018
[THREAD]
Police say they can't do their jobs unless:
1. They are allowed to open fire at the *slightest* fear for their lives.
2. They are allowed to use force to punish people they find disrespectful.
3. They are allowed to lie to the people they serve.
Conclusion: They're unqualified.
[NEXT]
I mean, I can't think of a job I've had where I wasn't expected to solve my problems without shooting or beating anyone. There certainly *are* jobs where lying to the public is basically the job, but it's hard to imagine why a public servant should be one of them.
[NEXT]
If you want to know why I'm in favor of abolishing the police rather than reforming them, the really short answer is: the police themselves say that policework is impossible with these reforms.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 24 -----
More Than 400 Current And Former Members Of The De Blasio Administration Say The Mayor Is Failing At His Job
By Brigid Bergin, WNYC and Jake Offenhartz
June 4, 2020
https://gothamist.com/news/more-400-current-and-former-members-de-blasio-administration-say-mayor-failing-his-job
Over 400 current and former employees in the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio have signed an open letter denouncing the mayor’s treatment of peaceful protesters and his refusal to reign in the NYPD.
The letter includes a scathing evaluation of de Blasio’s performance on criminal justice reform, despite it being one of the main commitments that drew many of these staffers to work for the administration, particularly after he made ending the misuse of stop and frisk a central theme in his 2013 mayoral campaign.
“Our time in the Mayor’s Office showed us that the change we had hoped for, and fought for, might never come,” the letter states.
The current and former staffers list a set of demands they say must be met, because de Blasio "is on the brink of losing all legitimacy in the eyes of New Yorkers."
The staffers want the city to slash $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2021 from the NYPD’s nearly $6 billion operating budget, fire of all NYPD officers found to have used excessive force during protests—or to have covered their badges, and release their disciplinary records.
Finally they seek the appointment of an independent commission, “in the vein of the Knapp and Mollen Commissions,” to investigate the city’s response to the recent protests against police violence.
----- 25 -----
Seattle Residents Got Tear Gassed in Their Own Apartments
by Nathalie Graham • Jun 4, 2020
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/04/43840246/seattle-residents-got-tear-gassed-in-their-own-apartments?cb=a15e09057aa13dc2c88d805a7dd5ce84
Maggie has started taping the windows in her apartment in Capitol Hill. She still ends up coughing each night, but it's not as bad as it was Monday night when the Seattle Police Department fired tear gas and pepper spray across the residential neighborhood.
Maggie, whose name has been changed out of fear of backlash she's already gotten from posting about her experience on Twitter from some "local right-wing militia dudes" as she described, lives right near where the George Floyd protests have been happening each night this week on Capitol Hill. She hasn't been participating in the demonstrations because of the pandemic and the vulnerable people who live in her apartment building but she says she's "100 percent in solidarity" with the movement.
On Monday, she was watching and participating from her apartment window. Suddenly, there were flashbangs. She grabbed her camera. It looked like fire. A cloud of smoke billowed upwards. Her partner rushed over yelling to close the windows. Maggie started coughing. Tears were streaming down her face. "I was like 'Oh my god, we have gas in here,'" Maggie said.
Maggie is one of many Capitol Hill residents who has choked on SPD's militarized crowd-clearing tactics from inside her own home this week. She was incapacitated, she said, her mind racing. She ran into the hallway. Her neighbors were all there too in search of breathable air. One couple next door sat with their six-month-old baby, some had their small pets, others went to check on the immuno-compromised neighbors upstairs in their 70s. It took about two hours for their units to become breathable again.
"I don’t want to make this about me or us," Maggie told me. "But it's shocking when it enters our home."
----- 26 -----
Julián Castro
juliancastro3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1268381369668943872
Breaking curfew is no excuse for senselessly beating someone on their way home twitter.com/NYPDnews
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Three police attack, beat man on bicycle]
----- 27 -----
Medical Workers Fighting COVID Say Cops Are Attacking Them
“I don’t know if it’s because they noticed my hospital ID or if it’s because they saw the blood, but they stopped, threw my phone at me, and I walked back to the hospital.”
Olivia Messer
Reporter
Updated Jun. 02, 2020
https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-medical-workers-fighting-covid-say-cops-are-attacking-them-at-george-floyd-protests
Twenty minutes after leaving his job at a Brooklyn hospital on Saturday night, 32-year-old Rayne Valentine was lying in the fetal position on the sidewalk.
He’d been beaten and kicked by New York police officers, his hospital ID smeared with his own blood, he told The Daily Beast.
Valentine, a Marine veteran who worked as a chef before the pandemic hit the restaurant industry, got a job in March at Kings County Hospital Center. He has spent the past several months moving medicine and patients around the facility, as well as piling hundreds of dead bodies—many of them COVID-19 victims—into refrigerated morgue trucks.
Valentine told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that he needed a job, but, like many Americans, he also felt helpless and wanted to contribute on the front lines of the deadly pandemic. Unfortunately, his is just one of many horrifying stories of medical workers, firefighters, and paramedics who’ve been heralded as heroes—only to be tear gassed or beaten by police during the days of civil unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“They needed people,” said Valentine. “The first day I was [at the hospital], we loaded up 45 bodies in a few hours. I saw a lot of the staff having breakdowns. It was scary for a lot of people.” But Valentine felt that his military background—serving four years overseas in the Marine Corps—meant he could handle seeing things that the average American may not be able to process.
But even his time overseas did not prepare him for Saturday.
