The latest on protests against racism and police brutality around the country and the world.

WASHINGTON — A senior State Department official who has served in the Trump administration since its first day is resigning over President Donald Trump’s recent handling of racial tensions across the country – saying that the president’s actions “cut sharply against my core values and convictions.”

Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, submitted her resignation on Thursday. Taylor’s five-paragraph resignation letter, obtained by The Washington Post, serves as an indictment of Trump’s stewardship at a time of national unrest from one of the administration’s highest ranking African Americans and an aide who was viewed as both loyal and effective in serving his presidency.

“Moments of upheaval can change you, shift the trajectory of your life, and mold your character. The President’s comments and actions surrounding racial injustice and Black Americans cut sharply against my core values and convictions,” Taylor wrote in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I must follow the dictates of my conscience and resign as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.”

President Trump walks in Lafayette Park to visit outside St. John’s Church, across from the White House, on June 1. The White House has come under heavy criticism since federal authorities forcefully swept peaceful demonstrators from the park as they protested George Floyd’s death. Associated Press/Patrick Semansky

Taylor, 30, was unanimously confirmed to her position in October 2018 and is the youngest assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in history and the first black woman to serve in that post.

She has been a pivotal behind-the-scenes figure in the administration. Tapped for her legislative expertise and strong relationship with senators due to her work for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Taylor served as the White House’s deputy director for nominations before joining the State Department.

In her White House role, she helped shepherd more than 400 presidential appointments through the Senate, including those of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, CIA director Gina Haspel, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Pompeo.

Read the full story about the resignation of Mary Elizabeth Taylor here.

Portraits of former Confederate leaders removed from Capitol

WASHINGTON — Portraits honoring four former House speakers who served in the Confederacy were removed Thursday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the men “embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.″

Pelosi directed the House clerk to oversee the immediate removal of portraits depicting former speakers from three Southern states: Robert Hunter of Virginia, James Orr of South Carolina and Howell Cobb and Charles Crisp, both of Georgia.

Clerk of the House Cheryl Johnson, right, watches as Architect of the Capitol workers remove a portrait of James Orr of South Carolina that was hanging in the Speakers Lobby on Capitol Hill in Washington. Nicholas Kamm/Pool via Associated Press

Calling the halls of Congress “the very heart of our democracy,″ Pelosi said, “There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor″ to commemorate the Confederacy.

Hours later, the portraits were gone, taken away by workers and placed in storage. The ornately framed portraits had hung outside the House chamber for decades, barely noticed by lawmakers, staffers and journalists who crowded into the carpeted Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the chamber.

Three of the portraits hung near a staircase used by lawmakers to enter the House chamber; Crisp’s portrait was in the Speaker’s Lobby, where portraits of House leaders dating to the earliest days of the republic are displayed in honor.

Pelosi noted that Friday is Juneteenth, honoring the day in 1865 when many African Americans learned of the end of slavery after the Civil War. She called Juneteenth “a beautiful and proud celebration of freedom for African Americans” and noted that this year’s celebration comes “during a moment of extraordinary national anguish, as we grieve for the hundreds of Black Americans killed by racial injustice and police brutality, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others.”

Orr, who served as speaker from 1857-59, swore on the House floor to “preserve and perpetuate” slavery in order to “enjoy our property in peace, quiet and security,” Pelosi said in her letter to the House clerk. Hunter, who served at nearly every level of the Confederacy, including as Confederate secretary of state, was speaker from 1839-41.

Cobb served as speaker from 1849-51, while Crisp served after the Civil War, from 1891-95.

Atlanta police call out in protest, but the force says it’s managing

ATLANTA — Atlanta’s police department reassured residents Thursday that it can still protect the city even though officers are calling out to protest a member of the force being charged with murder for shooting a man in the back.

Prosecutors brought felony murder and other charges against the white officer who shot Rayshard Brooks, saying that Brooks was not a deadly threat and that the officer kicked the wounded black man and offered no medical treatment for over two minutes as he lay dying on the ground. Another officer is being charged with aggravated assault.

Hours later, the Atlanta Police Department tweeted late Wednesday that it had more officers calling out than normal but that it had “enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.”

“The Atlanta Police Department is able to respond effectively to 911 calls. Please don’t hesitate to call if you have an emergency,” the department tweeted Thursday.

Nikita Gleen raises his hand skyward near a Wendy’s restaurant on Wednesday in Atlanta. The restaurant was where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by police. Gleen says he was a friend of Rayshard Brooks and will miss him. Former Atlanta police Officer Garrett Rolfe faces charges including felony murder in the fatal shooting of Brooks on June 12. Many officers called out sick on Thursday in protest over the charges. Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

It’s not clear how many officers have called out, but just one officer showed up for work Thursday morning in Zone 6, which covers much of Atlanta’s east side and which several dozen are assigned to patrol, said Vince Champion, southeast regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers.

Atlanta officers are walking off their shifts or not responding to calls because they feel “abandoned, betrayed, used in a political game,” Champion told the Associated Press.

“What they realized is that the city, meaning the mayor and the police department, does not support them,” Champion said.

Read the full story about Atlanta here.

Richmond judge extends order barring removal of Lee statue indefinitely

RICHMOND — A judge has indefinitely extended an injunction that prevents the governor from removing the iconic statue of Robert E. Lee from state property on Monument Avenue.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced June 4 that he would remove the Lee statue, which towers 60 feet over Richmond’s grandest residential boulevard, and put it in storage. The action was partly in response to ongoing demonstrations over police brutality against African Americans nationwide, but Richmond has struggled for years over its Confederate iconography.

Workers for The Virginia Department of General Services install concrete barriers around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond on Wednesday. Associated Press/Steve Helber

On June 8, Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo granted a temporary injunction to block the state from taking down the statue for 10 days, responding to a lawsuit filed to try to save the 130-year-old monument.

Cavedo extended that order indefinitely at a court hearing Thursday, but said he found the complaint flawed over questions of legal standing, which he gave the plaintiff 21 days to fix.

When lawyers for the state objected, the judge said the statue “belongs to the people.” He scheduled another hearing for July 23.

The General Assembly passed a bill earlier this year that allows localities to remove war memorials on their own property. Northam signed that bill into law, and Richmond’s City Council has said it will act to remove the other four Confederate memorials on Monument Avenue when the law goes into effect July 1.

But a lawsuit contends that Northam’s effort to take down Lee violates the terms of the deed granting the site to the state in 1890. The injunction was granted in connection with that suit, which was brought by William C. Gregory, identified as a great-grandson of a couple who were signatories to the deed.

Gregory argues that the state promised to “affectionately protect” the statue when it annexed the land it stands on from Henrico County.

Confederate statue to be moved from central spot at Ole Miss

JACKSON, Miss. — A Confederate monument will be moved from a prominent spot at the University of Mississippi to a Civil War cemetery in a secluded part of the Oxford campus.

The state college board met Thursday and approved a proposal to move the monument. No timeline was given for the move.

The estimated cost of the move is $1.2 million, which will be paid with private donations, not public money, the board said.

The decision comes amid widespread debate over Confederate symbols as people across the U.S. and in other countries are protesting racism and police violence against African Americans.

The University of Mississippi was founded in 1848, and the marble statue of a saluting Confederate soldier was put up in 1906. It is one of many Confederate monuments erected across the South more than a century ago.

Critics say its display near the university’s main administrative building sends a signal that Ole Miss glorifies the Confederacy and glosses over the South’s history of slavery.

A former University of Mississippi student was arrested May 30 after he spray painted “Spiritual Genocide” and left bloody hand prints on the monument. He was charged with defacing public property, and the monument has already been cleaned.

The statue was a rallying point in 1962 for people who rioted to oppose court-ordered integration of the university.

Pro-Confederate groups from outside the university rallied at the monument in February 2019 prompting Ole Miss basketball players to kneel during the national anthem, in protest of the rally. Student government leaders voted two weeks later to ask administrators to move the monument to the cemetery, where Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Shiloh are buried.

As protests spread to small-town America, militia groups respond with online threats and armed intimidation

In Omak, Wash., a city of fewer than 5,000 located in the foothills of the Okanogan Highlands, plans for a demonstration began in a private chat on Facebook Messenger.

But public threats poured in when Sinai Espinoza, a 19-year-old student at a local community college, joined other young women in promoting their “Peaceful March for George Floyd.” The violent messages on social media included a vow that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” echoing President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on Twitter. Another characterized the upcoming gathering as “free target practice.”

When the march unfolded earlier this month, bringing more than 400 people to a park opposite the public library, an armed militia stood guard – at ground level but also atop nearby roofs, as if ready to act as snipers.

Albuquerque police detain members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, an armed civilian group, following the shooting of a man during a protest over a statue of Spanish conquerer Juan de Oñate on Monday. Adolphe Pierre-Louis/The Albuquerque Journal via Associated Press

Albuquerque police detain members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, an armed civilian group, following the shooting of a man during a protest over a statue of Spanish conquerer Juan de Oñate on Monday, June 15. Adolphe Pierre-Louis/The Albuquerque Journal via AP

“Honestly, it was terrifying,” Espinoza said. “They claimed they were there to protect the city from outsiders, but it felt more like preparation to kill.”

The demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality that have convulsed major metropolitan areas, from Minneapolis to Miami, have also made their way into small-town America, redrawing the geography of the Black Lives Matter movement. But the activists spearheading unlikely assemblies in rural and conservative corners of the country have faced fierce online backlash and armed intimidation, which in some places is unfolding with the apparent support of local law enforcement.

The dangers that armed militias bring with them were laid bare this week in Albuquerque, where a 31-year-old was arrested in connection with a shooting that injured a protester seeking the removal of a statue of a Spanish conquistador. The eruption of gunfire followed a standoff between protesters and members of a group that calls itself the New Mexico Civil Guard – one of a number of militia and paramilitary units reacting to recent protests that have occasionally descended into rioting and looting.

The reaction, local activists say, threatens not just their safety and free-speech rights. It also endangers their ability, they say, to take the movement touched off by the police killing of George Floyd beyond urban hubs – to places like Omak or Bethel, Ohio, a village of 2,800 where a recent protest drew 700 counterprotesters.

“If the protesters are younger or fewer in number or more on the timid side, which can be the case in places that haven’t traditionally seen movements for racial justice, then the militias can have a chilling effect,” said Judith Heilman, the executive director of the Montana Racial Equity Project, which the former police officer says is the sole black-led nonprofit organization in the state.

The armed mobilization sheds light on the growth of anti-government militia groups, whose efforts – often coordinated on Facebook and other online platforms – have expanded since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide outburst of protests for racial justice. Militia activity has marked recent protests in places across the country, often driven by false online alerts about infiltration by antifa and other left-wing militants.

Read the full story here.

Black creators sue YouTube, alleging racial discrimination

A group of black YouTube creators filed suit against the company this week, alleging that the platform has been systematically removing their content without explanation.

The suit, filed in federal court in Northern California, outlines alleged discrimination against four creators, who post YouTube videos to earn advertising revenue. YouTube is part of tech giant Google.

The suit is the latest in a series of allegations that YouTube’s software, which can automatically remove videos suspected of violating the company’s policies, discriminates against certain people, such as LGBT groups. It comes during a national reckoning over racial discrimination in which companies like Google have promised to push for change.

YouTube uses its “absolute, and ‘unfettered’ control over access to approximately 95 percent of all video content that is available to the public,” the lawsuit alleges, to “rig the game, by using their power to restrict and block Plaintiffs and other similarly situated competitors, based on racial identity or viewpoint discrimination for profit.”

YouTube spokespeople declined to comment on the lawsuit. In the past, YouTube has denied that its software discriminates against people, and it has said that its algorithmic approach to content moderation is protected under the law.

Catherine Jones, creator of the YouTube channel Carmen CaBoom, said the platform removed the channel, alleging nudity. But none of her videos contained nudity, the lawsuit says. Other videos Jones produced were removed because of alleged hate speech, a designation the suit says is untrue.

Nicole Lewis, whose Nicole’s View channel earns $6,000 to $7,000 per year, says 17 videos were removed or archived for unknown reasons, according to the lawsuit. Kimberly Carleste Newman said 700 or more videos from her channel, the True Royal Family, have disappeared, and she doesn’t know why or how to get them back, the lawsuit says. And Lisa Cabrera says her 4,423 videos have generated 20 million views, but 68 of them were removed with no explanation, according to the suit.

YouTube has said in the suit filed by LGBT YouTube creators last summer that its algorithms don’t discriminate against people for their gender or race. That suit is ongoing.

A memorial continues to grow Monday at the site of the arrest of George Floyd. Floyd died in police custody after video shared online by a bystander showed former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck during his arrest as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Associated Press//Jim Mone

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota prosecutors acknowledged Wednesday that a police officer had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 7 minutes, 46 seconds – not the 8:46 that has become a global symbol of police brutality.

The initial complaint alleges Derek Chauvin “had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive.” But timestamps cited in the document’s description of the incident, much of which was caught on video, showed Chauvin had his knee on Floyd for 7 minutes, 46 seconds, including 1 minute, 53 seconds after Floyd appeared to stop breathing.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office said in a statement that “these kinds of technical matters” can be handled in a future amendment to the criminal case if it becomes necessary.

The Associated Press began asking about the error the day after the initial charges were filed, but prosecutors had repeatedly declined to address it as their 8 minutes and 46 seconds began to be used by protesters around the globe for its symbolism.

Black filmmakers and executives get honest about their experiences in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES — After George Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police last month, Hollywood entertainment companies sent out a flurry of statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement’s fight against police brutality and systemic racism.

Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman in a scene from “Harriet.” “This conversation needed to happen for a long time about racism and race in our industry,” said Erivo. Glen Wilson/Focus Features via Associated Press

Studios, music labels and streaming services promised donations to antiracist nonprofits and declared their commitment to diversity. Internal memos called for reflection on the industry’s poor record of inclusion and diversity.

Still, the entertainment industry’s long history of failures when it comes to race continues to weigh on the minds of many of the black filmmakers, executives and others interviewed by The Los Angeles Times. Many note the stark absence of black executives in studios’ ranks. The Writers Guild of America West’s Committee of Black Writers on Friday published an open letter to studios demanding that actions follow words.

The Times interviewed nearly two dozen black entertainment industry professionals, spanning directors, producers, writers, designers, agents and executives. They discussed systemic racism in Hollywood, what needs to change and their frustration with years of talk and little action.

“This conversation needed to happen for a long time about racism and race in our industry,” said Cynthia Erivo, the actor, singer and songwriter who was nominated for two Oscars for 2019’s “Harriet.” “It feels like for the first time people are listening.”

Read the full story about race in Hollywood here.

FBI launched database on police use of force last year, but only 40 percent of police participated

On Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order calling for, among other things, the establishment of a database on police use of force. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans included a similar provision in their own reform bill. But the FBI already has such a database – and so far a majority of police are not participating in it.

The FBI launched that program, the National Use-of-Force Data Collection project, last year. Now, with another wave of protests against police brutality gripping the country, many police agencies have not responded to the voluntary call for information about their officers — only 40 percent submitted their data for 2019, the FBI said. And the database has yet to be published. The first report is planned for this summer.

Surrounded by law enforcement officials, President Trump signed an executive order on police reform on June 16. Associated Press/Evan Vucci

In his executive order on police reform issued Tuesday, President Trump called for “a database to coordinate the sharing of information” between law enforcement agencies on “instances of excessive use of force related to law enforcement matters,” and said that the Attorney General “shall regularly and periodically make available to the public aggregated and anonymized data from the database.” It was not immediately clear if the FBI’s Use-of-Force project will be the vehicle for that order.

Trump’s order also states that federal funds should be withheld if a police department doesn’t submit its data, as does the reform bill submitted by Senate Republicans on Wednesday.

For decades, the FBI has collected crime data from police departments across the country, in its Uniform Crime Reports, and participation there is nearly 100 percent. But as with the annual crime reports, participation in the Use-of-Force project is voluntary

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories