George Floyd: The personal cost of filming police brutality

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52942519

By the time 17-year-old Darnella Frazier started recording, George Floyd was already gasping for air, begging, repeatedly, "please, please, please".

The camera had been rolling for 20 seconds when Mr Floyd, 46, uttered three more words that have now become a rallying cry for protesters.

"I can't breathe," Mr Floyd said.

The words were slightly muffled. He strained to speak as he laid face down in handcuffs, pinned to the floor by three police officers. One of those officers, 44-year-old Derek Chauvin, pressed a knee against Mr Floyd's neck.

 

'It Was a Tinderbox.' How George Floyd’s Killing Highlighted America's Police Reform Failures

https://time.com/5848368/george-floyd-police-reform-failures/

Floyd’s death under the knee of the white MPD officer on May 25 has reignited furor over the persistence of police brutality against people of color in the United States. As Americans gathered to protest in more than 70 cities, they raged against the same tepid solutions proposed by local and national leaders that have fallen far short in the past: opening investigations, firing police officers, and simply promising more reforms.

Nowhere is that pattern clearer than in Minneapolis. More than half a dozen government investigations and reports reviewed by TIME show that the same reforms were recommended time and again over the past two decades in the MPD to increase accountability, curb use-of-force violations and build up community trust — with seemingly little implementation. “People in this community have been very concerned about the Minneapolis Police Department for a long, long time,” says Hans Lee, a pastor at Minneapolis’ Calvary Lutheran Church. “It was a tinderbox.”

 

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Brian Arbour: Trump reelection threatened by low approval ratings, coronavirus pandemic and racial strife

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-election-biden-brian-arbour

Voters seem to have made up their minds about President Trump early, and are fixed in their opinions about him. The fact that his numbers have moved so little across his presidency shows that voters know what they think about the president.

If you want President Trump to win reelection this November, these numbers are bad news. When presidents run for reelection, the campaign is often seen as a referendum on their leadership.

For each of these measures above, a majority of Americans have a negative opinion of President Trump. In all, 54 percent disapprove of the job he is doing as president, 55 percent have an unfavorable impression of him, and 52 percent say they will vote for another candidate.

Of course, there is still plenty of time for Trump and his supporters to make their case to the nation about why he should be reelected. Trump won in 2016 by driving down public approval of his opponent through caustic attacks on her character and integrity; he’s likely to do the same in the next few months.

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Draing the swamp! Donald Trump Jr's rare sheep hunt 'cost US taxpayers $75,000'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52999375

Researchers say the Trump family take 12 times as many trips as the Obamas.

The Crew report accuses the Trump family of draining the Secret Services' finances with their average of 1,000 more trips per year, many for leisure, than the previous first family.

"This trip is just one example of the expenses the Trump family is incurring with American taxpayers, and if just one of Don Jr's trophy hunting trips cost more than $75,000, it's staggering to think how high the total bill must be," the report's authors conclude.

The remarkable collapse of Donald Trump's polling numbers

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/10/politics/donald-trump-gallup-approval/index.html

 One of the defining traits of President Donald Trump's time in office has been the consistency of his poll numbers.

No matter what he said, did or tweeted, his numbers stayed steady. Somewhere between 40-45% approved of the job he was doing while 50-55% disapproved.

Which is why what Gallup reported in its latest tracking poll, released on Wednesday morning, is so striking.

Trump's job approval in the new Gallup data is at 39%, which is bad but not the big story. That big story is the fact that Trump's new numbers represent a double-digit tumble from a Gallup poll just two weeks ago in which his approval stood at 49%.

That's a stunning dip. And it's across the board. He's down 7 points in approval among Republicans and independents and 9 points among Democrats. And it all seems tied to the way in which Trump reacted to the death of George Floyd while in police custody and the protests that have broken out nationwide in its aftermath.

Capitol Hill Republicans watch Trump's eroding standing with unease amid worries about November

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/10/politics/republicans-trump-nervous/index.html

GOP senators are anxiously watching President Donald Trump's eroding political standing amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic -- coupled with his erratic response to the unrest stemming from the death of George Floyd -- and are uneasy that the political fallout could end with a disastrous Election Day up-and-down the ticket.

Republicans mostly believe there is still enough time to right the ship during this volatile year, particularly if the positive jobs report from Friday is an early indication of an economic rebound.

But they are fully aware that poll after poll has shown Trump losing ground to former Vice President Joe Biden and multiple surveys show Democrats ahead by a sizable margin in the so-called generic ballot over which party should control Congress.

Republicans are keenly aware that the President's consistent controversies at a time of national crises -- whether it was the police confrontation with protestors outside the White House last week or his baseless tweet about an injured elderly protestor in Buffalo on Tuesday -- has continually put them on the defensive during a high-stakes election year.

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Read former Defense Secretary Mattis' statement on Trump's handling of nationwide protests

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/read-mattis-statement-on-trumps-handling-of-nationwide-protests.html

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

 

Fear at the root of America's race problem

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1929128/fear-at-the-root-of-americas-race-problem


More to the point, in this context, is the fact that about 30% of American civilians killed by the police are African-Americans, although they are only 13% of the US population.
 

When It Comes to Police Brutality, Fear is Also a Factor

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2014/12/05/when-it-comes-to-police-brutality-fear-is-also-a-factor

 Cops can get into a state of mind where they're scared to death. When they're in that really, really frightened place they panic and they act out on that panic. I have known cops who haven't had a racist bone in their bodies and in fact had adopted black children, they went to black churches on the weekend, and these are the white cops. But you know what they had in their minds that made them act out and beat a black suspect unwarrentedly? They had fear. They were afraid of black men. I know a lot of white cops who have told me. And I interviewed over 900 police officers in 18 months and they started talking to me. It was almost like a therapy session for them.

 

They would say things like, "Ms. Rice I'm scared of black men. Black men terrify me. I'm really scared of them. Ms. Rice, you know black men who come out of prison, they've got great hulk strength and I'm afraid they're going to kill me. Ms. Rice, can you teach me how not to be afraid of black men." I mean these [are] cops who are 6'4". You know, the cop in Ferguson was 6'4" talking about he was terrified. But when cops are scared, they kill and they do things that don't make sense to you and me.

Twitter says fake "Antifa" account was run by white supremacists

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-fake-antifa-acount-white-supremacists-removal/

Twitter has shut down multiple accounts that it says were operated by a white supremacist group posing as liberal groups encouraging violence.Twitter said the white supremacist group Identity Evropa used one fake account, @Antifa_US, to call for violence in majority white suburbs, in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement. The account's removal was first reported by NBC News.

 

Arlington’s Decision to Withdraw its Police Officers from the District of Columbia

https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/arlingtons-decision-to-withdraw-its-police-officers-from-the-district-of-columbia/

As has been widely reported, for the sake of a photoshoot for the President, peaceful protesters were forcefully dispersed without being given enough time to comply with orders to move back. Our officers had no idea that the effort to move protesters was for any reason other than to construct a temporary barrier.

 

Trump Threatens to Deploy Military in Response to Protests: A Closer Look

'We the People' trumps 'commander-in-chief'

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/02/opinions/trump-military-force-insurrection-act-resistance-suri/index.html

For almost 100 years, this restriction on presidential power gave cover to flagrant violations of federal authority in the South -- including voter suppression, Jim Crow segregation and, worst of all, repeated extrajudicial lynchings, which continued until 1960s. Even as the power of the president grew in the shadow of the Second World War, he had little military reach within the states. Governors and mayors were the heavies; the Constitution set it up that way.

President Trump's threats to deploy the US military to states, despite resistance from governors, are claims of direct authority he does not possess. He is making a political judgment about the protests, and forcing his preferred response on local law enforcement institutions operating in their constitutionally defined spaces.

Citizens should continue to protest peacefully. We have a right to demand justice in our communities, and the US military that we support with taxpayer dollars should stay free of these issues. Our soldiers have plenty of work to do abroad, and this president has nothing to offer our communities but more suffering and hate.

Democracy requires justice and healing in our neighborhoods, not military domination on our streets.

Trump Sics Military On Peaceful Protesters And Clergy To Make Way For Bible Photo Op