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Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 1
This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant news and updates in here, unless it's especially significant.
This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant news and updates in here, unless it's especially significant.
Their body cameras were either not turned on or not being worn at the time of the shooting
EDIT: and apparently the police chief was just fired over it.
My work runs a 24/7 schedule, so our Slack is never completely dead.
Here are snippets posted by a coworker who lives in Capitol Hill, which is a central neighborhood in Seattle, and where many of tonight's protests have been located.
15 minutes later:
Reminder that "tear gas" is the euphemistic name for a variety of chemical weapons whose use is banned in wartime.
They're using it in sufficient quantities, in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Seattle, that it's seeping into homes and waking up infants and children.
In a video conference with governors, law enforcement, and national security issues today, Trump slams governors as 'weak,' urges crackdown on protests
He also endorsed Sen. Tom Cotton's (R-Ark.) call on Monday to deploy active-duty military forces "if local law enforcement is overwhelmed", potentially using the Insurrection Act.
The leader of the united states has just advocated that protesters be sent to jail for 10 years.
Stop and let that sink in.
Just days after he advocated using deadly force against looters, which is blatantly unconstitutional (and just plain disgusting). That tweet alone should have been a presidency-ender in any sane world, but now it's just another one on the pile.
Nick Waters of Bellingcat is compiling a running Twitter archive of incidents of police violence against journalists here: https://mobile.twitter.com/N_Waters89
Family-commissioned autopsy says George Floyd's death was "homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain," contradicting the preliminary findings from the Hennepin County medical examiner.
The Hennepin County medical examiner has now released an updated autopsy report (PDF) that also classifies it as a homicide. Quoting the relevant section:
It looks like they've declined to comment so far on why the preliminary findings were different.
My guess is deeply entrenched and institutionalized processes to soften and obscure police abuse and brutality.
Trump is now dispersing peaceful protesters via the police prior to his speech scheduled today.
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This is going to make things worse. More people are going to come out to protest as a result of this and it’s going to escalate tension.
CNN is now stating that this was all done in order to get a photo opportunity at the church
He only gets to do this to DC because we don’t have statehood. The states are going to tell him where he can stick it. But I worry about the cities in red states, especially states with real bad rural/urban splits like in Raleigh or Cleveland. In many of these places the state governments are itching to tear the cities down.
I am watching this from Europe, and this is actually just crazy. Can't believe this is happening in a supposedly democratic country which prides itself on free speech.
With the new military order, can he subvert that?
He’s restricting the military order to DC because we’re not a state, just a federal district. He can invoke the military here because we don’t have full representation as citizens.
The proper states are run by the governors and Trump can’t do this to them without them requesting it.
I assume the generals will explain to him that it's illegal:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
He can federalize the National Guard, though:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act
Apparently this has never been done without the consent of the state government.
Oh yeah, that's going to cause an escalation.
Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence’
Episcopal Bishop ‘Outraged’ Trump Tear-Gassed Protesters to Use ‘Our Church as a Prop’
D.C. bishop blasts Trump over church photo op, 'abuse of sacred symbols'
She just called what Trump did "disgusting" and "profane" on CNN a few minutes ago, too.
From samswey on Twitter
Link to the whole thing on Thread Reader, which I think is usually easier to read long threads through: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1180655701271732224.html
That was a good read, finally some facts in this cesspool of knee-jerk reactions and armchair politicking.
Greatly appreciate the link! Thanks
Killer Mike had a really good speech on this delivered to the City of Atlanta.
Hmm. Tonight so far is the first night I'm seeing a lot less protest activity on snapchat. Crowds seem smaller. There's still some shit going down in NY, LA, DC, etc, but the nationwide crazy seems to be abating a bit. Of course, it's not dark yet.
I did notice that snapchats went dark around the white house. Someone's jamming the shit out of that area so nothing gets uploaded. Every clip is over an hour old and that's a glaring difference in time compared to any other protest hotspot I click on.
Can anyone tell me how that is deserving of third degree murder? Sounds a lot like intentional killing to me, hence second degree?
Also, is there not an option for the AG to say "I think this is 2nd degree, but definitely third degree. I'mma charge both and go with whatever I can prove."? Seems shitty to force the AG to play that kind of a game a priori. Whether intention can be found seems like a reasonably simple question to ask of a jury.
Second degree is rather hard to prove. You'd have to argue that at some point he decided consciously "I'm going to kill this man". A simple "I'm an idiot" or "I didn't think I'd kill him" plea would Bea legitimate defense. To get a jury to unanimously agree is very, very difficult. Negligence leading to murder, is 3rd degree, is a walk in the park.
Ultimately I think this shows the need for more officer training, to ensure officers are aware about the lethality of their actions so they can't plead ignorance. But given the state of police training I think that defence would, unfortunately, fly.
I think people should never forget that this man died because someone thought he might have ripped off a small business for a measly $20 using a counterfeit bill. This has nothing to do with how officers are trained. It has everything to do with how, as an institution, police departments prioritize private property over human life. That officer should have done nothing more than ask George Floyd “did you use a counterfeit bill?” and if Floyd answered “No”, then all that officer should have done at that point was make a note of the physical appearance of the person of interest just in case a future complaint is made. Literally no reason a physical altercation should have ever occurred in the first place.
Yeah, but that doesn't make it second degree.
I think "I didn't think I'd kill him" goes out the window when he initiated that intervention without any need to do so (guy was in the cop car and restrained already.) and when his colleague advised him to check vitals and roll the guy over. A fellow cop told him that he should check vitals and he kept going. If you still think you wouldn't kill him, you need to be put away for everyone's safety.
I still don't think this can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Especially with a 12 person jury. Like, I get it, I'd personally say it's second degree. But I doubt it'd stick.
It got upgraded to second degree today, which is interesting. I think it's a more fitting charge but I'm worried it won't stick.
Third degree is when an intentionally malicious act leads to an accidental death, with no other felony committed, apparently. If I may offer my unqualified opinion: Chauvin's goal was simply to restrain Floyd, but he chose to do so in a manner he should have known was dangerous. Floyd died as a result, giving Chauvin this charge. Chauvin was also given a manslaughter charge, probably to throw more at him and improve the odds of something sticking (commonly done in cases).
He was warned multiple times by his colleague that maybe they should roll him over or check his vitals. There is no way this was unintentional if he kept at it. I could see a defense of "he was still struggling, so I couldn't let go", but that went out the window once he kept the knee in his neck after Floyd passed out. Chauvin pulling Floyd out of the cop car also seems to me like an excuse to abuse powers. Guy was properly restrained and in the car already. My reading of 2nd degree murder is that we either need intention or the attempt to commit a felony. If abuse of police powers is a felony, we even have both.
I dunno about you, but if someone says "I can't breathe" and then passes out, and bystanders and your colleagues tell you to check vitals and do something, and you fail to do so for several minutes after loss of consciousness, that's not an accident. If I tell you "this button makes the bomb explode", and then you push that button and then the bomb explodes, you'd have to argue that you are severely mentally disabled to not understand the consequences here, or you'd have to argue that I, your colleague, am very untrustworthy. If neither of these is the case, then you meant for the bomb to explode.
That is an option the prosecutor has, and used, but in this case they used it to charge Chauvin with both 2nd-degree manslaughter and 3rd-degree murder.
This means that a jury would have the option to acquit on the murder charge and convict on the manslaughter charge, if they so chose. The jury doesn't, as far as I know, have the option to upgrade the charges to 2nd-degree murder, even if they thought the evidence supports that. Only the prosecutor can do that.
Troy Hunt posted an analysis of the "hack" of the Minneapolis Police Department that's been getting shared around a lot and attributed to Anonymous, showing that it's almost certainly a fake cobbled together using data from previous breaches.
Minnesota AG Ellison warns: ‘It’s hard to convict the police’
Two officers hit by an SUV in Buffalo, New York, along with two others struck by gunfire.
I'm finally about to head to bed so will add more stuff when I wake up, but at least one especially notable piece of news from last night is probably worth mentioning more than any others:
St. John’s church across from the White House was set on fire, as was a small building just south of it inside Lafayette Square park (satellite pic and 360 pic showing both buildings with White House to the right of them for reference).
Cities Across Bay Area Establish Curfews, But Oakland Holds Off For Now
San Leandro Hit Hard By Looters As Unrest Spreads Across East Bay
Hayward Imposes 8 pm to 5 am Curfew to Quell Looting, Preserve Rights To Civil Demonstrations and Protests
The 8 pm curfew is now for all of Alameda County.
Protest is about to start across the street from me in the East Bay. My leasing office is boarding up right now.
The president is now threatening to send in the US military to quell protests
Peaceful protests in Baltimore contrast sharply with 2015 riots and unrest now sweeping some American cities
Really disturbing trend I've noticed is that police officers are covering up their badge numbers.
You can see it clearly in this shot of a Seattle police officer. It looks like they're wearing two layers of clothing, with the badge number obscured on the outer layer but not on the inner layer. The cynic in me wonders if this is a way of complying with the letter of the dress code but making it easy to obscure one's identity by zipping up the outer layer to hide the badge on the inner layer.
The official explanation given for this is that they're mourning bands. It seems rather suspicious to me to have a legal way for an officer to hide their identity and use the excuse "I'm doing it to mourn my fallen coworkers".
NYPD avatars on Twitter are even adopting it. And this video shows close-ups of a whole line of NYPD cops with the "mourning bands" covering their badge.
The doublespeak is reaching farcical levels.
The Latest: Police say 4 officers shot in St. Louis protests
Watch this video of an Australian cameraman being punched by police live on air: https://twitter.com/brett_mcgurk/status/1267662905383596032?s=21
And the female presenter being hit with a baton as she runs from police:
https://twitter.com/ashleemullany/status/1267596369562394627?s=21
The links are switched
Not much to say about this -- this woman's speech nails it.
http://reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/guyjqc/ny_resident_tells_rioters_how_the_damage_affects
It's going to get bad in Omaha tonight, and while I don't think it's a good idea I completely understand. As if things weren't bad enough, the police and DA have exacerbated the situation by letting Gardner walk.
For those curious what you're referring to:
No charges will be filed against Omaha bar owner who fatally shot protester, Don Kleine says
No charges in Scurlock death; family responds after Douglas County attorney outlines lack of case
Thank you for adding those. I'm just really pissed off about this whole thing right now. Apparently Gardner's bar is getting evicted, so we've got that at least.
I Am An Oakland Police Officer. AMA About The Protests and Looting in Oakland
What's the vibe of that subreddit typically? Some of the comments seem...off. eg.
I'm not really sure, but it seems like there are a variety of opinions. From previous topics, some are quite concerned about crime and disorder.
Yeh there seems to be a lot of pearl-clutchers, more concerned about "order" than fights for justice.
I think that's an unjustified insult. If you aren't concerned about what's going on, you're not paying attention. It's a dangerous time and it's perfectly understandable that a lot of people are stressed out over it.
Fair enough. I'm not suggesting that's actually true of the people, just that it seems like there's more concern about the disorder of the protests than the injustice in American law enforcement.
I'm very concerned about what's going on. I'm furious that America has created an institution of law enforcement that so easily produces widespread police brutality against protestors, and I'm furious that America has a Republican party so committed to white supremacy and aPresident that actively whips up violent responses to protest by invoking white supremacist talking points ("looting and shooting" tweet).
Just saw a really powerful 5 minute video on CNN that I think everyone should watch:
Three generations of black men: 'We're stuck in a time capsule'
MPD cops in DC tear gas a home
My local Rite Aid was looted last night. We are under curfew now.
I am taking my website offline in a manner similar to this.