The people behind the violence in the American protests of George Floyd.

Ben Crump is a lawyer who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases.

Last week, Senate negotiators declared the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act dead, after it became clear there would be no consensus with Republicans unless Democrats agreed to gut key provisions of the bill.

The point of this bill is to drive change and finally hold police officers and agencies accountable, and Senate Democrats were right to refuse to pass meaningless, watered-down legislation. But their work cannot end there.

Sometimes an issue is simply not ripe for action. But after millions of Americans and others throughout the world have taken to the streets to protest the shocking murder of George Floyd, the issue of police reform and accountability is beyond ripe. And like most things that have festered too long, the Senate’s inaction and blame gaming simply stink.

These days in Washington, it’s nearly impossible to reach bipartisan agreement on anything, let alone something as significant as police reform. Yet Senate Democrats would do well to remember — and avoid letting down — a constituency with a track record of doing the impossible: Black voters.

It was Black voters who turned out in record numbers in Georgia this year to lift Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock to victory, giving Democrats control of the Senate. In the last presidential election, 87 percent of Black voters cast their ballots for Joe Biden, helping to seal his victory and prompting him to declare, “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.”

Last week, Black voters were among the family members of victim after victim of police violence who recorded passionate messages urging Senate action. They included Tamika Palmer, whose daughter Breonna Taylor became a household name after police in Louisville used a no-knock warrantto break into her apartment and gun her down. The George Floyd Act seeks to demilitarize policing by limiting military-grade equipment and banning no-knock warrants in federal drug cases.

Tashyra Prude, the daughter of Daniel Prude, who died in police custody in Rochester, N.Y., with a hood over his head during a mental health emergency, urged passage of the Floyd Act as a step toward better protocols for interacting with people with a mental illness.

Senators heard from Teena Acree, niece of Byron Williams, who was chased while riding a bicycle, then subdued and restrained to the point of death by police who had their body cameras turned off. The Floyd act seeks to ensure the use of body and dashboard cameras by tying federal funds to that requirement.

Senators heard from Alissa Findley, sister of Botham Jean, who was killed by an off-duty policewoman while eating ice cream in his own home, after the officer mistook his apartment for her own. The Floyd act would improve and standardize training, to include measures against discriminatory profiling.

Tiffany Crutcher’s twin brother, Terence Crutcher, was shot while walking away from police with his hands in the air. She, too, made a heartfelt plea for the Floyd act, which seeks to make it easier to prosecute officers who commit misconduct by lowering the legal standard for misconduct from “willfulness” to “recklessness.”

And Philonise Floyd, whose brother would be memorialized in the most meaningful way by this bill’s passage, talked about the lifelong pain his family will suffer and urged that the Floyd act be passed in full, not watered down.

The bill contains — and must retain — critical provisions to end chokeholds and carotid holds, and to eliminate qualified immunity, which shields officers from most civil lawsuits. It would drive accountability by finally creating a national police misconduct registry and by allowing state attorneys and the U.S. Justice Department to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations of police departments to root out toxic police cultures and identify where chronically inadequate training and discipline are creating a threat to the people being policed.

Rather than weakening the bill to win elusive Republican approval, it’s time for Senate Democrats to demonstrate their commitment by bringing it to a floor vote and putting every senator on record.

Black voters will not accept the excuse that the filibuster, a parliamentary relic as outdated as Confederate monuments, makes it impossible to pass meaningful police reform. The filibuster, which was also used to block passage of civil rights and anti-lynching legislation, is not enshrined in the Constitution. It’s a Senate rule that Democrats can change — those very Democrats whom Black voters put into power.

Short of that, Democrats should not expect Black voters to pull off the impossible for them again.

As the brokenhearted family members who lost loved ones to police violence stated over and over in their messages to legislators: “We’re better than this, America.” They’re right. And the U.S. Senate should be better than allowing this important work to remain unfinished.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/26/ben-crump-george-floyd-police-reform-senate-democrats/View attachment 4995965

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Ivan Harrison Hunter, 24, a member of an extremist group that seeks to spark a civil war, pleaded guilty to a single count of rioting this Thursday, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

Prosecutors contend that Hunter travelled from Texas to Minneapolis to sow chaos after George Floyd was killed by police.

Hunter admitted that he fired 13 rounds from an assault rifle into the 3rd precinct police station on May 28, 2020, as other rioters looted and set fire to the building after police evacuated. No one was hurt by the gunfire.

As the Daily Beast notes, Hunter posed as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and was caught on security footage yelling, "Justice for Floyd!" after opening fire on the building.

"Prosecutors say Hunter came to Minneapolis in the days following Floyd's murder after corresponding on Facebook with Michael Solomon of New Brighton, Minn., and Benjamin Teeter of Hampstead, N.C. The men had been part of the 'Boogaloo Bois,' a group that exploits tensions to further violence," MPR reports. "According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group presents itself as libertarian and race-blind and calls for armed insurrection against what they see as government tyranny. But the [Southern Poverty Law Center] says the Boogaloo Bois' origins are violently racist. The group emerged online early in the last decade, and 'boogaloo' was associated with a call for a race war. The term is often used by white nationalists and those seeking to generate chaos."

If convicted, Hunter faces a maximum prison term of five years.

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U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden gave probation Friday to confessed MAGA rioter Danielle Doyle, rejecting the prosecutors' recommendation for home confinement.

McFadden equated Doyle's conduct in breaching the U.S. Capitol to that of "riots and mobs" that conducted anti-racism protests nationally after George Floyd's murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The judge used that example to scold prosecutors, as reported by the Associated Press.

"McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those accused in 2020 summertime protests, reading out statistics on riot cases in the nation's capital that were not prosecuted.

"'I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in this city,' McFadden said during Danielle Doyle's sentencing for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a throng of other rioters. Prosecutors recommended two months of home confinement for Doyle, who is from Oklahoma.

"As McFadden sentenced Doyle, he said he thought she was 'acting like all those looters and rioters last year. That's because looters and rioters decided the law did not apply to them.'

Despite these concerns, McFadden said Doyle's behavior was not excusable. He called it a 'national embarrassment,' and again likened it to the police brutality protests following the death of George Floyd last year that made 'us all feel less safe."

The Associated Press reporting provided some context.

"The statements by McFadden, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, were a major departure from the other federal judges overseeing insurrection cases so far, despite other Trump appointees on the court assigned to the hundreds of cases. They have generally discussed seriousness of the crime and its unique place in American history - different from other violent free speech protests because it sought to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.

The Associated Press analyzed more than 300 criminal cases stemming from the protests incited by Floyd's murder, showing that many leftist rioters had received substantial sentences, rebutting the argument that pro-Trump defendants were treated more harshly than Black Lives Matter protesters.

The AP also noted this:

"By contrast, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday sentenced another rioter, Andrew Ryan Bennett, to three months of home confinement, accepting the request by prosecutors. Bennett was accused of espousing conspiracy theories about the election and used "pugnacious rhetoric" in posting about his plans to be in Washington."

Doyle's arrest had drawn extra attention because she had been a front-office employee of the Oklahoma Thunder NBA franchise over the past decade. She pleaded guilty to "parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building."

You can read the FBI statement of facts in her case here.

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Another batch of body camera videos released Tuesday show how Minneapolis police officers became increasingly militaristic in their attempt to clamp down on protesters five days after George Floyd was killed.

They mocked some demonstrators and sought out others who were breaking curfew and fired rubber bullets indiscriminately at them. They made racially tinged remarks, mocked the working press and celebrated direct hits with their rubber bullets. As citizens hurled insults at the officers — saying this is exactly the sort of behavior they were protesting — MPD officers continued to fire on people as they fled.

This article was originally published at Minnesota Reformer.

“We're unarmed!" a woman yelled at the officers in one video. “What are y'all tryin' to do?"

“Go home!" an officer yelled back.

When a citizen yelled about the police being civil servants, an officer replied “F*** you!"

A woman hollered at the police: “What the f*** are we gonna do to you? We're out here peacefully protesting; this is f***ing America! We can say what we want!"

That prompted a barrage of shots from officers.

As people chanted “No justice, no peace" and “I'm unarmed," the officers fired less-lethal rubber bullets along Lake Street in the hours leading up to their arrival at Lake Street and 14th Avenue. That's where Jaleel Stallings — after being hit with a rubber bullet — fired back with a real gun because, he said, he didn't know they were cops and thought he'd been hit with a real bullet. The Army veteran would later testify during his trial that he thought they were white supremacists and purposely missed them to try to scare them off.

Earlier, the SWAT team had been joking and laughing as they punctured vehicle tires and fired 40mm rubber bullet launchers at people violating curfew — marveling at their weaponry's effectiveness.

But everything changed when they came upon Stallings and his friends.

All night, their rubber bullets had prompted citizens to flee or cry out in pain, but Stallings — armed with a pistol for which he had a permit — quickly fired three shots back at the SWAT team's unmarked white van, prompting the officers to pile out and yell “shots fired." Once Stallings heard them, he dropped his weapon and went to the ground. Despite his defenseless position, two officers beat him for about 30 seconds and then arrested him.

It was all caught on bodycam and surveillance video.

More than a year after the protests, no officers have been disciplined — except for an officer who violated MPD policy by speaking to a reporter anonymously — and multiple class action lawsuits against the city are pending, including one brought by journalists. An outside review of their response is also being done by a Chicago firm.

After Stallings was acquitted of all eight charges in July — testifying that he acted in self defense — his lawyer, Eric Rice, fought to be allowed to release the bodycam videos. Rice said this is the last of the bodycam videos he will be releasing.

The videos show Sgt. Andrew Bittell — the leader of the SWAT team that fired at Stallings — puncturing the tires of vehicles earlier that night, telling his unit they need to puncture two tires because people can easily change one flat tire.

At one point, after the officers fired on people across a bridge, a person yelled back that someone was hit in the face, but they continued firing. The SWAT team later talked about a group of people approaching, and Bittell said, “Let 'em come." They discussed ambushing them, and then fired multiple 40mm rounds at the civilians.

Later as the team was near Blaisdell Avenue and Lake Street, where a group of protesters were chanting, an officer told Bittell that when the protesters saw police coming in an alley, they ran away. The SWAT team advanced, firing on them, prompting many to flee. The four people who didn't were arrested.

One officer told Bittell he disagreed with expending so many resources to enforce the curfew.

“I so disagree with f***in' doing the curfew s***," he said. “I mean to spend all this resources on f***ing four arrests — I mean Jesus f***in Christ."

An officer told Bittell the people were “pusses" because “You get within 30 feet of them and they run."

“You got to hit 'em with the 40s," the sergeant responded.

At one point, the officers were firing from so far away that Bittell didn't realize he nearly fired at cops before another officer stopped him.

Later, the officers laughed in the back of the van as one talked about “anarchists" they saw earlier. He imitated the cartoon character Elmer Fudd, joking about hunting down the “anarchists."

After the unit went to Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue, an officer suggested to Bittell that they should go find civilians out past curfew. Bittell agreed, saying they would be the “head of the snake now."

Later, as their white van made its way down Lake Street, when the unit saw people at the Stop-N-Shop gas station at 17th Avenue, Bittell told the driver to speed up and said, “Let 'em have it, boys."

The officers shot multiple rounds at the people at the gas station, not knowing it was the gas station owner, neighbors and relatives guarding the station from more looting, as well as bystanders, including a Vice News reporter who had his hands up and was yelling, “Press!"

A SWAT team member pushed the reporter to the ground, and as he lay there with his press card up, another officer pepper-sprayed him in the face.

The bodycam of the officer who was driving the SWAT team's unmarked van showed officers complaining about the media. Lt. Johnny Mercil walked up to the van driver, Michael Osbeck,Jr., and said, “F*** these media."

“They think they can do whatever they want," Osbeck said.

Then Mercil implied Black people were responsible for looting and fires, saying, “I got no problem with that; I'd love to scatter 'em but it's time to f***in' put people in jail and just prove the mayor wrong about this white supremacist (inaudible). Although this group probably is predominantly white, because there's not looting and fires."

An officer agreed, saying the white people had told him they were from Minneapolis.

Mercil was in charge of MPD's use-of-force training and months later would testify during Chauvin's murder trial that officers are trained to use the least amount of force needed to meet their objective.

After Stallings was hit with a rubber bullet, fired back, was beaten, arrested and taken to a hospital, an officer secured the scene while it was processed by investigators.

Bodycam video shows MPD Commander Bruce Folkens talking to an officer, and when the officer mentioned that it was a “busy night," Folkens replied, “It's nice to hear that we've moved to — tonight it was just nice to hear 'We're gonna go find some more people.' Instead of chasing people around… you guys are out hunting people now. It's just a nice change of tempo."

“Yep, agreed," the officer said.

“F*** these people," Folkens said.

MPD spokesman Garrett Parten declined to comment on the officers' actions. “Due to the ongoing internal investigation, MPD is unable to comment at this time," he said.

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A civil rights complaint was filed against a woman accused of telling a Black child who accidentally broke her son’s toy that she would “kneel on his neck” and calling him a racial slur, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said Thursday.

Kristina Graper threatened the 9-year-old boy who was playing in a neighborhood park with her son on May 10, according to the complaint filed in Strafford County Superior Court.

Graper’s son pushed the boy, and that push resulted in the boy “breaking a foam missile or foam bullet” that belonged to Graper’s son. Her son ran home to tell her what happened.

Graper then went back to the park and found the other child, threatening him that she would “kneel on his neck,” according to the complaint. A witness told Graper that her behavior was unnecessary, and then Graper started yelling at that person. She called the child a racial slur before returning home, the complaint said.

Graper’s race was not mentioned in the complaint.

The child’s mother later called police. When she met with them on June 1, Graper denied saying she would kneel on the boy’s neck, but instead said words to the effect of, “you wonder why you guys get (expletive) kneeled on,” according to the complaint.

The complaint said the encounter distressed the child, who understood the comments to be a reference to the murder of George Floyd last year. He began to cry when he heard her words and has been afraid to return to the park, and will only do so “when other children are there to help keep him safe,” the complaint said.

Last year, millions of people watched the footage of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, pleading for air as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck until he stopped breathing. Former Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in April on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

A phone number could not be found for Graper and there was no lawyer listed for her in the case file. A message was left at a possible social media contact.

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hanimmal said:

https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-new-hampshire-attorney-generals-office-new-hampshire-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-d75a2ea1c88d933100128873d5ba2e7aView attachment 5004623

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mooray said:

What are your thoughts on this, the legal part? She's clearly a pos, but I'm not really seeing the civil rights complaint, which would be a threat of violence as a means of denying access to a public place. In order for a threat to be criminal, a reasonable person must believe the threat is legit and imminent, but I'd say that's obviously not the case here, it's just a really shitty comment. And if the threat falls apart, then so does the civil rights part. Probably going through the motions just to make a point and bring her into the spotlight, which is a win, even if the complaint itself isn't going anywhere.

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https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/03/218614650/judge-says-you-cant-say-that-word-period

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mooray said:

They're misrepresenting that quite a bit. You can't do that at work. As much as we don't like it, you should always be able to throw around whatever racist language you want in public, then hopefully our ever-improving consequence society takes care of the rest, because that way you get the punishment that's deserved while simultaneously preserving the 1a.

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mooray said:

What are your thoughts on this, the legal part? She's clearly a pos, but I'm not really seeing the civil rights complaint, which would be a threat of violence as a means of denying access to a public place. In order for a threat to be criminal, a reasonable person must believe the threat is legit and imminent, but I'd say that's obviously not the case here, it's just a really shitty comment. And if the threat falls apart, then so does the civil rights part. Probably going through the motions just to make a point and bring her into the spotlight, which is a win, even if the complaint itself isn't going anywhere.

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A woman in New Hampshire is facing a civil rights complaint after authorities say she was motivated by race when she threatened a nine-year-old Black child by calling him a “n****r” and telling him she would “kneel on his neck.”

New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced that his office had filed an enforcement action against Kristina Graper, 51, of Dover for violating the state’s Civil Rights Act.

The complaint, filed Thursday in Strafford County Superior Court, claims that Graper threatened the nine-year-old boy, referred to as D.H. in court documents, after he accidentally broke a toy belonging to Graper’s son.

According to the filing, D.H. and Graper’s son were playing in a neighborhood park on May 10 when Graper’s child “pushed” D.H. and caused him to break “a foam missile or foam bullet” that belonged to Graper’s child. Graper’s child then ran home and told his mother what happened.

“Afraid, D.H. ran away, but the defendant was able to catch up to him,” the complaint states. “The defendant threatened D.H. that she would kneel on his neck.”

A bystander, identified as A.P., heard Graper threaten D.H. and attempted to intervene, telling Graper that her behavior was “unnecessary.” Graper allegedly responded by yelling at A.P. As D.H. continued to return home, he allegedly “heard [Graper] scream the word ‘n****r’ at him.”

D.H.’s mother called the Dover Police Department and filed a report against Graper, whose race was not mentioned in the complaint.

“When police met with the defendant on June 1, 2021, the defendant initially could not recall the incident but then recounted how D.H. broke her child’s toy,” the complaint states. “The defendant denied telling D.H. that she would kneel on his neck, and instead, she recalled stating words to the effect ‘you wonder why you guys get fucking kneeled on.’ She also denied calling D.H. a n****r but later stated it was because ‘they’ do not know how to shut their ‘n****r pie holes.’”

The attorney general’s office said that the encounter with Graper “had an impact upon D.H.,” as he understood her threat as a reference to George Floyd‘s death at the hands of now-convicted murderer Derek Chauvin.

“When the defendant made her threat to D.H., he began to cry,” the complaint states. “Since the threat, D.H. has been afraid to return to the park and will only do so when other children are there to help keep him safe.”

The complaint alleges that Graper violated D.H.’s civil rights by making a threat to use physical force that was motivated by the child’s race.

“D.H.’s race motivated the defendant’s threat,” the complaint states. “The very nature of the defendant’s threat invoked D.H.’s race as the threat was a reference to the widely-publicized murder of George Floyd that occurred in 2020. The defendant’s use of racial slurs directed at D.H. further evidenced the racial motivation for the defendant’s threat.”

The state is seeking a judgement of up to $5,000 from Graper and a temporary restraining order prohibiting her from further civil rights violations for up to three years.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to an email from Law&Crime seeking additional comment. There was no attorney listed for Graper on the online case docket. The Associated Press was unable to reach Graper by phone, email, or social media.

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