The Commentariat -- June 1, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Amir Vera of CNN: "An independent autopsy found that George Floyd's death was a homicide and the unarmed black man died of 'asphyxiation from sustained pressure.' The autopsy says compression to Floyd's neck and back led to a lack of blood flow to his brain. Floyd was essentially 'dead on the scene' in Minneapolis on May 25, said Ben Crump, attorney for the Floyd family.... 'The ambulance was his hearse,' Crump told reporters Monday.... 'There is no other health issue that could cause or contribute to the death,' said Dr. Michael Baden, one of the independent medical examiners. 'Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That's not true.' The independent autopsy's findings come after the Hennepin County Medical Examiner found 'no physical findings' to 'support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation," according to the criminal complaint." Mrs. McC: Dr. Vin Gupta, an MSNBC medical expert, said the county's autopsy was not credible. Dr. Eddie Glaude said on MSNBC that it has become clear that there is a conspiracy among the police, the Hennepin County attorney & medical examiner to cover up the cause of Floyd's death. (paraphrases)
Ben Kesslen of NBC News: "A man was shot dead in Louisville after police officers and the Kentucky National Guard 'returned fire' while clearing a large crowd early Monday. Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said in a statement that at around 12:15 a.m. his officers and the National Guard were sent to a parking lot to break up a crowd. 'Officers and soldiers began to clear the lot and at some point were shot at,' Conrad said in a statement. 'Both LMPD and National Guard members returned fire, we have one man dead at scene[.]' In a statement Monday morning, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ... said he has asked the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the shooting."
Justin Glawe, et al., of the Daily Beast have more on the tanker truck that barreled into a crowd of thousands peacefully protesting on the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis: "Laura Eltawely told The Daily Beast she and her husband, Ahmad, along with their four small children, were trying to exit the bridge when police drove up an entrance ramp and inexplicably fired tear gas into the crowd fleeing the truck. 'They were openly gassing people that they knew were running away from the incident they were responding to,' Eltawely said Sunday. The couple and their kids, aged 1 month to 10 years old, took shelter in an apartment building. 'This was a daytime peaceful demonstration,' Eltawely added. 'We had no idea there would be clashes with police.'" Related stories linked below. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that these cops elected a white supremacist to head their union. According to several reports I've heard on TV, after some people on the bridge dragged the truck driver from his cab & began beating, a larger number of protesters moved to protect him even though he had tried to run them down. There's now video of the incident in this Star Ledger report.
A Real President Shares His Thoughts. Barack Obama in Medium: "First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation -- something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood. On the other hand, the small minority of folks who've resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. A President* Makes Another "Unhinged" Rant. Ed O'Keefe of CBS News: "President Trump unloaded on the nation's governors Monday morning, calling them 'weak' for failing to more aggressively enforce law and order over the weekend, as some of the nation's biggest cities burned in the wake of the death of George Floyd. On a video teleconference, the president warned that the law enforcement presence across Washington is set to intensify later Monday. He said the protests are ruining the nation's standing on the world stage. And he called on governors to pass new bans on flag burning, a constitutionally protected expression of free speech. 'Washington was under very good control, but we're going to have it under much more control,' Mr. Trump said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by CBS News. 'We're going to pull in thousands of people.' He added later: 'We're going to clamp down very, very strong.'... During the call, the president repeatedly called into question the leadership and decisions made over the weekend by governors and big-city mayors, imploring them to make broader use of the National Guard and other military capabilities. 'You're making a mistake because you're making yourselves look like fools,' he told the governors at one point. 'And some have done a great job. But a lot of you, it's not --it's not a great day for our country.... You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you. You're going to look like a bunch of erks. You have to dominate,' the president told governors.... 'And most of you are weak.'... One participant on the call described the president's words and tone as 'unhinged.'" ~~~
~~~ ** Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "There is zero chance that Trump can set things right. His own White House advisers don't even want him to try.... Like [Lyndon] Johnson, Trump should step aside. It won't fix everything, but he won't fix anything. He is completely used up and utterly bankrupt."
Casey Tolan & Ashley Fantz of CNN: "During the Obama administration, high-profile police shootings of black men like Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Laquan McDonald in Chicago helped spark sweeping federal investigations and reforms of biased policing practices.... But under ... Donald Trump, the Department of Justice has all but abandoned broad investigations into unconstitutional policing practices, a half-dozen former DOJ lawyers who worked on similar cases told CNN -- essentially giving up on one of the federal government's most effective tools to fight police misconduct. While the Justice Department launched 12 investigations of law enforcement agencies for practices that violate the Constitution during George W. Bush's first term, and 15 during Barack Obama's first term, the department has opened only a single public investigation of that kind in the three and a half years since Trump became president, according to legal experts and DOJ records."
Sheera Frenkel & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "Dozens of Facebook employees, in rare public criticism on Monday of their own company, protested executives' decision not to do anything about inflammatory posts that President Trump had placed on the giant social media platform over the last week. The employees, who took the day off by logging into Facebook's systems and requesting time off to support protesters across the country, also added an automated message to their emails saying that they were out of the office in a show of protest.... More than a dozen current and former employees have described the unrest as the most serious challenge to [Mark] Zuckerberg's leadership since the company was founded 15 years ago.... 'Facebook's inaction in taking down Trump's post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here,' said Lauren Tan, a Facebook engineer, in a tweet on Friday. 'Silence is complicity.'" ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Swan of Axios: On Friday, after Trump had sent his 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' tweet, & Twitter had squelched it, "Trump phoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During the call, Zuckerberg 'expressed concerns about the tone and the rhetoric,' according to a source familiar with the call. Zuckerberg 'didn't make any specific requests," the source said. A second source familiar with the call said the Facebook boss told Trump that he personally disagreed with the president's incendiary rhetoric and that by using language like this, Trump was putting Facebook in a difficult position." Mrs. McC: Aw, Mark, I feel so sad for you.
An ad by the conservative Lincoln Group to air in some swing states & in the Washington, D.C. market:
Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "The Army has determined 16 West Point cadets have tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to the campus for a commencement address by President Trump scheduled for June 13, according to sources on Capitol Hill. The affected cadets, a fraction of the 850 who have returned to the campus since spring break in March, are receiving treatment but are not showing symptoms of the disease, Army Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the West Point superintendent, said in an interview. Williams, who declined to specify the number of cadets affected, said screening and safety procedures will allow the ceremony to be held safely."
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Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you have ever lived or worked in a major American city, you can turn on the teevee and find your old haunts under siege and/or on fire. In the 1960s -- the last time widespread rioting plagued the nation -- there was no cable TV, there was no Internet. The news reached us in small clips on the evening news and in newspaper & magazine photos & stories. Unless you lived in the thick of a hard-hit city, the experience was not so immediate as it is today. It was shocking then; it is more shocking now.
The New York Times' live updates Monday of protests around the country are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.
What a Real President Would Do in a Crisis. Rishika Dugyala of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday left his home for a site in Wilmington, Del., that has seen protests over the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer.... Videos on his Instagram story show the presumptive Democratic nominee taking photos and chatting with other masked men.... Wilmington was one of the cities that saw peaceful protests take a turn Saturday when people began looting businesses." Mrs. McC: Sadly, no pix published yet of Bunker Boy tweeting while crouched in a corner of a hermetically-sealed White House basement closet.
The New York Times' live updates Sunday of protests around the country are here. "In Washington, the police fired tear gas at protesters who set fires near the White House. In Minneapolis, a tanker truck sped into a crowd on a highway overpass as hundreds of demonstrators scattered for safety. And in New York and other cities, a tense mood followed a night of street battles, burned cars and hundreds of arrests. The United States remained a tinderbox of emotion, anger and spasms of violence on Sunday, the sixth day of nationwide unrest since the death of yet another black man at the hands of the police. The death of the man, George Floyd, last week in Minneapolis set off days of protracted protests. In Santa Monica, Calif., looters shoved aside barricades to vandalize and ransack stores Sunday, while in nearby Huntington Beach protesters against police brutality clashed with right-wing groups. And in Louisville, a tense confrontation in the middle of a crowded street was partially defused when a black woman stepped forward and offered a policeman in riot gear a hug." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here. "At least five people have been killed in violence that flared as demonstrations in parts of the country devolved into mayhem. Gunfire rang out from Detroit to Indianapolis, where authorities said people were slain in shootings connected to the protests. In Omaha, a 22-year old black protester was killed in a struggle with a local business owner on Saturday night." ~~~
~~~ Hunkered in His Bunker. "President Trump was taken by Secret Service agents to an underground bunker at the White House on Friday night, according to two officials familiar with the incident, as protests over Floyd's death erupted near the presidential residence." An AP story about Bunker Boy is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let me think. What other world leader do we associate with living in a bunker as his nation crumbled around him? No doubt Trump was confined to his bunker Sunday night, too, as fires burned in Lafayette Park right next to the White House. Fortunately, Trump was able to take his Twitterphone with him: he sent out a tweet at 8 pm that said only "FAKE NEWS!" in extra-large caps. Apparently the Secret Service is trying to calm him by telling him all the mayhem he sees on the teevee -- including right outside his front door -- is some kind of made-for-TV extravaganza. "It's just like 'The Apprentice," Sir. All fake."
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Amid the rush to assign blame for the widespread violence and vandalism breaking out in American cities, accusations that extremists or other outside agitators were behind the destruction continued to ricochet online and on the airwaves on Sunday.... The Trump administration blamed what it called the radical left, naming antifa..., that has come to be associated with a diffuse movement of left-wing protesters who engage in more aggressive techniques like vandalism. Others said white supremacists and far-right groups were responsible.... Far-right adherents generated an avalanche of posts on social media in recent days suggesting the unrest was a sign that the collapse of the American system they have long awaited was at hand. These groups, known as 'accelerationists,' attempt to promote any circumstances that might speed that goal.... [Some] believe that sparking a race war would ultimately bring about the establishment of a pure white ethnic state in at least part of the current United States.... Some participants included heavily armed members of the militia movement, ardent supporters of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.... Members of hate groups or far-right organizations filmed themselves, sometimes heavily armed or waving extremist symbols, at demonstrations in at least 20 cities in recent days...." An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Can He Do That? Nope. Maggie Haberman & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that the United States would designate a group of far-left anti-fascism activists as a terrorist organization, a declaration that lacked any clear legal authority, as his administration sought to blame the group for violent protests across the nation over the weekend.... It was not clear that Mr. Trump's declaration would have any real meaning beyond his characteristic attempts to stir a culture-war controversy, attract attention and please his conservative base. First, antifa is not an organization. It does not have a leader, membership roles or any defined, centralized structure.... More important..., the laws that permit the federal government to deem entities terrorists and impose sanctions on them are limited to foreign groups. There is no domestic terrorism law.... Nevertheless, in a statement after Mr. Trump's tweet, Attorney General William P. Barr said the F.B.I. would ... identify violent protesters, whom he also called domestic terrorists.... Earlier Sunday, Mr. Trump's national security adviser, Robert C. O'Brien, had blamed such activists during appearances on CNN and ABC News, saying that he had not seen anything to corroborate reports by the Department of Homeland Security and the news media that far-right groups were also stoking violence." A Politico story is here. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ David Fahrenthold & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Police in several cities significantly increased their use of force Saturday night against protesters decrying police use of force -- wielding batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray in incidents that also targeted bystanders and journalists. Some of the most aggressive actions were taken by police in Minneapolis, where the protests began. There, a video posted online showed police arresting a local TV cameraman, firing nonlethal projectiles at a CBS TV crew and firing a round that scatters paint into a group of people watching from their front porch.... The use of force by police sometimes seemed unconnected to any threat that they faced, and aimed at people who had little to do with the violent protests.... 'I supported the actions that were out there. I gave the order to go with them,' said Gov. Tim Walz (D), though he said the use of force toward reporters was 'unacceptable.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Brian Stelter of CNN: "From Minneapolis to Washington DC, from Louisville to Las Vegas, reporters are facing assault and arrest while reporting on widespread protests and unrest. At least a half dozen different incidents were reported on Friday, starting with the wrongful arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis and ending with the arrest of two photographers in Las Vegas. Another disturbing episode took place on Saturday, when Ian Smith, a photojournalist for KDKA TV in Pittsburgh, said he was 'attacked' by protesters downtown. 'They stomped and kicked me,' he wrote in a tweet from the back of an ambulance. 'I'm bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life. Thank you!'... Many TV networks are dispatching private security guards to support journalists who are in the field at protests.... Security guards were involved when a Fox News crew was harassed and chased out of Lafayette Park, one block from the White House, on Friday night. Videos of the incident showed protesters cursing at Fox and criticizing right-wing media." There's more. It's awful. A photographer in Minneapolis says a rubber bullet blinded her in one eye. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Matthew Dessem of Slate: "The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane. Here are some of the ways law enforcement officers escalated the national unrest." Dessem goes on to republish first-hand accounts. Here's one from Michael Adams of Vice News, who was in Minneapolis : "Police just raided the gas station we were sheltering at. After shouting press multiple times and raising my press card in the air, I was thrown to the ground. Then another cop came up and peppered sprayed me in the face while I was being held down." The full thread of Adams' experience at the gas station is here. Take the time to watch some of the brief videos in Dessem's post. They're horrifying. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Frances Robles of the New York Times reports some of the same stories. "The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press logged about 10 different incidents that ranged from assaults to menacing in Phoenix, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Minneapolis." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, Donald, you might want to designate a few of these police departments as "domestic terrorist groups," like the force in Minneapolis who hit Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske with a rubber bullet, then chased down her, along with other reporters even as the journalists were begging to cooperate. "Hennessy-Fiske said she escaped after scaling a wall, with two bloody wounds to her leg. On Sunday, President Trump and officials in Minnesota praised the more aggressive police response the night before." Oh. So no terrorist designation, I guess. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: But of course the really worst thing about this tweety-declaration is Trump's difficulty with capitalization. He wrote that he had "designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization." There's no reason to capitalize "terrorist" or "organization," except perhaps as a joke, as one might capitalize, say, "Morbidly Obese Orange Menace." And by setting "antifa" in all caps, it appears Trump thinks "antifa" is an acronym, like, say, "MOOM." Maybe "Anyone Not a Trump-Indoctrinated FAn"??? It isn't; "antifa" is short for "anti-fascist." Sad!
Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "By targeting antifa..., Mr. Trump effectively paints all the protests with the brush of violent radicalism without addressing the underlying conditions that have driven many people to the streets. Mr. Trump spent Sunday out of sight, even as some of his campaign advisers were recommending that he deliver a nationally televised address before another night of violence.... While some aides urged him to keep off Twitter, Mr. Trump could not resist blasting out a string of messages earlier in the day berating Democrats for not being tough enough and attributing the turmoil to radical leftists.... While Mr. Trump has been a focus of anger, particularly among the crowds in Washington, aides repeatedly have tried to explain to him that the protests were ... about broader, systemic issues related to race, according to several people.... Privately, advisers complained about his tweets, acknowledging that they were pouring fuel on an already incendiary situation. 'Those are not constructive tweets, without any question,' Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate, said in an interview on 'Fox News Sunday.'" A related NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the funniest sentence in Baker & Haberman's story: "A group of advisers discussed plans for [Trump to lead] a series of 'listening' events." Ha ha ha ha ha. Donald Trump can't listen to anybody, ever. Even the grieving family of George Floyd. ~~~
~~~ Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "A condolence phone call from ... Donald Trump ended up frustrating George Floyd's brother, who said Trump 'didn't give [him] the opportunity to even speak. 'It hurt me,' Philonise Floyd said in an interview Saturday on MSNBC.... The call with Trump was 'so fast,' Floyd told the Rev. Al Sharpton on 'Politics Nation.'... 'It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like: "I don't want to hear what you're talking about."'" Mrs. McC: When is a condolence call not a condolence call? When Trump calls a black person. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "Derek Chauvin ... embodied something essential about Trumpism: It's us versus them. That's the poison ethos at the heart of police brutality, and it's the septic core of our 45th president's philosophy. Neither a toxic cop nor Donald Trump sees himself as a servant of all the people they've sworn to protect. They are solely servants of their own. Everyone else is the enemy."
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "In cities across America on Sunday, people awoke to see shattered glass, charred vehicles, bruised bodies and graffiti-tagged buildings. Demonstrators gathered again in peaceful daytime protest of racial injustice. By evening, thousands had converged again in front of the White House, where people had rioted and set fires the night before. President Trump stayed safely ensconced inside and had nothing to say, besides tweeting fuel on the fire. Never in the 1,227 days of Trump's presidency has the nation seemed to cry out for leadership as it did Sunday, yet Trump made no attempt to provide it.... Trump let his tweets speak for themselves. One attacked the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis; another announced that his administration would designate the antifa movement a terrorist organization; a third accused the media of fomenting hatred and anarchy; and in yet another, he praised himself for the deployment of the National Guard and denigrated former vice president Joe Biden. In one of his missives, Trump wrote, 'Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!'"
Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "When Trump first addressed the nation as its president on Jan. 20, 2017, he depicted the nation's cities as domestic combat zones and declared 'this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.' Back then, it was hyperbole at best. But it's become reality on his watch, and he has encouraged further violence. More than 100,000 Americans have lost their lives, and another 40 million their livelihoods, amid a coronavirus pandemic to which Trump was slow to react. Against that backdrop, cities across the country are now combustible cauldrons of fear, anger, fire and tear gas as Trump has responded to the violence with threats and little evidence of understanding its cause. Since the police killing of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis last week, Trump has largely thrown rhetorical Molotov cocktails over the front lines of the national uprising from the safety of his White House bunker. In other words, the president met protests against state violence with calls for more of it."
** P.D. Pepe, in today's Comments thread, takes a fond look back at what Citizen Trump had to say about President Barack Obama during the protests & riots following the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
David Gergen in a CNN opinion piece: "Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama< /strong>-- two Republicans, two Democrats -- served as our 'Mourners in Chief.' All four bound us together for a few moments, and we remembered who we are and who we can be. Why has our current 'Mourner in Chief' gone AWOL? God knows. But his flight from responsibility is yet another sadness among this week's tragic losses." Mrs. McC: Sorry, David, Trump has 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to touch down on an alternate planet where he is a hero & all his lies are true. (Also linked yesterday.)
This AP story has brief items on protest developments in cities around the U.S.
Minnesota. Alex Johnson of NBC News: "Minnesota's governor appointed state Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday to lead the prosecution of any cases arising from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.... Gov. Tim Walz announced Ellison's appointment as lead prosecutor shortly after the Hennepin County prosecutor said he had asked Ellison to 'assist' in the investigation, two days after 10 members representing Minneapolis in the state House asked Walz in a letter to transfer the case to Ellison. 'Unfortunately, our constituents, especially constituents of color, have lost faith in the ability of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to fairly and impartially investigate and prosecute these cases,' the letter said. Walz said that he had spoken extensively with Floyd's family, who had asked that Ellison take over the case...." ~~~
~~~ Shaila Dewan & Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times: "In nearly two decades with the Minneapolis Police Department, Derek Chauvin faced at least 17 misconduct complaints, none of which derailed his career. Over the years, civilian review boards came and went, and a federal review recommended that the troubled department improve its system for flagging problematic officers. All the while, Mr. Chauvin tussled with a man before firing two shots, critically wounding him. He was admonished for using derogatory language and a demeaning tone with the public. He was named in a brutality lawsuit. But he received no discipline other than two letters of reprimand. It was not until Mr. Chauvin, 44, was seen in a video with his left knee pinned to the neck of a black man, prone for nearly nine minutes and pleading for relief, that the officer, who is white, was suspended, fired and then, on Friday, charged with murder.... Even as outrage has mounted over deaths at the hands of the police, it remains notoriously difficult in the United States to hold officers accountable, in part because of the political clout of police unions, the reluctance of investigators, prosecutors and juries to second-guess an officer's split-second decision and the wide latitude the law gives police officers to use force." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Chauvin Is Not Alone. Emily Siegel, et al., of NBC News: "Since the beginning of 2015, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 4 times, according to an NBC News analysis of police records. Several police experts said that number appears to be unusually high. Minneapolis police used neck restraints at least 237 times during that span, and in 16 percent of the incidents the suspects and other individuals lost consciousness, the department's use-of-force records show. A lack of publicly available use-of-force data from other departments makes it difficult to compare Minneapolis to other cities of the same or any size." ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "As we briefly alluded to a couple days ago, the head of the Minneapolis police union is a white supremacist with a history of both engaging in and explicitly supporting abusive conduct by police. Last year, he appeared at a Trump rally to praise him for ending attempts by Obama's DOJ to reign in police misconduct. Lemieux goes on to quote extensively from a post by Jonathan Chait, linked 2nd here. ~~~
~~~ Daniel Politi of Slate: "In a confusing episode that authorities are still trying to clear up, a tanker truck sped toward a crowd of thousands of demonstrators who were marching on a bridge in Minneapolis late Sunday afternoon to protest the killing of George Floyd. Demonstrators managed to scatter, and surprisingly there were no immediate reports of any seriously injured protesters. The harrowing scene was caught on video from multiple angles and shows how the tanker truck barreled toward the crowd that was on the I-35W bridge." ~~~
~~~ James Walsh of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "... witnesses on the 35W bridge over the Mississippi River said dozens of marchers were sitting or had taken a knee for a moment of silence when the truck came hurtling toward them and stopped halfway across the bridge. Then demonstrators swarmed the cab and appeared to drag the driver out of the truck. Minneapolis police closed in and took the driver, who was injured, into custody. An Otsego, Minn., man was being held on probable cause for assault. The state said it had no confirmation of any protesters being injured, but some may have sought medical attention themselves. [State Public Safety Commissioner John] Harrington said between 5,000 and 6,000 people were on the bridge at the time. The State Patrol and the BCA are investigating the incident as a criminal matter." ~~~
~~~ KSTP St. Paul Update: "Authorities have identified a truck driver who was arrested after he drove through a crowd protesting on I-35W in Minneapolis as Bogdan Vechirko. Vechirko has been booked in the Hennepin County Jail." Includes mugshot, which shows an apparent injury to the bridge of Vechirko's nose.
California. Brittany Martin of Los Angeles Magazine: "Video captured by World Magazine reporter Sophia Lee Hyun ... depicts a police SUV stopped at a crosswalk on a mostly empty street adjacent to [Los Angeles'] Pershing Square. Two people stand directly in front of the vehicle.... After a moment of hesitation at the crosswalk..., the driver swerves and accelerates as a man falls to the ground and appears to briefly slip beneath the vehicle&'s front end. Rather than stop, the vehicle rapidly reverses into the empty street, then turns and speeds away. According to Hyun the victim was not severely injured.... The sight of a police vehicle striking a civilian is reminiscent of a number of reports from Saturday's protests in New York City. That city's mayor has called today for a formal investigation into law enforcement behavior after at least two police SUVs were documented plowing into a group of demonstrators." Includes video (Mrs. McC: which caused me to gasp.)
New York. Henry Austin, et al., of NBC News: "New York Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the New York City Police Department after a pair of the force's SUVs drove into a crowd during Saturday's protest against George Floyd's death. De Blasio reacted after videos were posted to social media, which showed protestors moving a yellow barrier in front a police vehicle in Brooklyn. Protestors threw traffic cones and other items at the SUV as a second vehicle arrived and slowly drove through the crowd forming around it. The first vehicle then drove into the barricade at a higher speed, sending people sprawling. Multiple city officials told NBC News there were no injuries as a result of the incident.... In a news conference late Saturday, he called the video 'upsetting,' but said protestors were wrong to surround the SUVs." Includes video. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe de Blasio would have been less complacent if his daughter were one of the protesters the police drove into. ~~~
~~~ Larry Celona & Tamar Lapin of the New York Post: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter was arrested at a Manhattan protest on Saturday night, law enforcement sources told The Post on Sunday. Chiara de Blasio, 25, was taken into custody around 10:30 p.m. after cops declared an unlawful assembly at 12th Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, the sources said. She had allegedly been blocking traffic on Broadway and was arrested after refusing to move, the source said." ~~~
Running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalized. No matter who does it, no matter why. -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), stating the obvious in a tweet, Sunday ~~~
~~~ Dana Rubenstein & Jeffery Mays of the New York Times: "... Mayor Bill de Blasio's conflicted response to the incident highlighted the challenges he has faced in managing a crisis rooted in issues he has long pledged to tackle in New York City: racial discrimination, police abuses and inequality. At a news conference on Sunday, the mayor called for an investigation, but also took pains to try to explain the officers' actions, saying that the situation 'was created by a group of protesters blocking and surrounding a police vehicle, a tactic that we had seen before in the last few days, a tactic that can be very, very dangerous to everyone involved.... And we've seen direct attacks on police officers, including in their vehicles.'"
Washington, D.C. Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "The third day of protests in the nation's capital over George Floyd's death began with bent knees, raised fists and pleas that this night, unlike the last, would remain peaceful.... Then came darkness and with it, another night of mayhem. American flags and parked cars and buildings were lit ablaze -- including St. John's Church, a historic landmark opened in 1816 and attended by every president since James Madison. Firefighters quickly extinguished the basement fire, which police was intentionally set. Downtown, metal baseball bats bashed through shop windows, and looters roamed, hitting stores in Tenleytown and Friendship Heights miles from the White House. In the park, protesters faced the familiar pop, pop, pop of pepper bullets and stinging clouds of tear gas...."
Earth. Javier Hernández & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "In many parts of the world, the death of yet another black man at the hands of the police in the United States is setting off mass protests against police brutality and reviving concerns that America is abandoning its traditional role as a defender of human rights. On the streets of Berlin and Vancouver, in halls of power in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Beijing, a chorus of criticism has erupted alongside the unrest in the United States over the death of George Floyd.... Paired with the global anger at American police violence ... has been another demand: that lawmakers heed the signs of racism and police abuse in their own countries.... Beyond local instances of racism and police violence, the widespread condemnation also reflected growing unease about America's rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage.... In many places, demonstrators are taking direct aim at Mr. Trump and his policies...." The article reports reactions & events in numerous countries. ~~~
~~~ Danica Kirka of the AP: "Nations around the world have watched in horror at the civil unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd.... Thousands gathered in central London on Sunday to offer support for American demonstrators. Chanting 'No justice! No peace!' and waving placards with the words 'How many more?' at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored U.K. government rules banning crowds because of the pandemic. Police didn't stop them. Demonstrators then marched to the U.S. Embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building.... Protesters in Denmark also converged on the U.S. Embassy on Sunday. Participants carried placards with messages such as 'Stop Killing Black People.' The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was the scene of protests on Saturday [and in Berlin's Kreuzberg area] ... Sunday... In China, the protests are being viewed through the prism of U.S. government criticism of China's crackdown on anti-government protests in Hong Kong.... Russia accused the United States of 'systemic problems in the human rights sphere.'
China. Helen Davidson of the Guardian: "Chinese officials and state media have seized on news of the protests sweeping the US, comparing the widespread unrest to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and accusing Washington of hypocrisy.... The US administration has been vocal in support of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, particularly since Beijing's declaration it would impose national security laws on the semi-autonomous region.... At a press conference on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman, Lijian Zhao urged the US to eliminate racial discrimination and protect the lawful rights of minorities, according to state-backed media, CGTN.... On Sunday China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying posted 'I can't breathe' -- [George] Floyd's last words -- to Twitter, with a screenshot of her American counterpart criticising China's crackdown on Hong Kong.... Zhao also retweeted numerous comments and reports on the protests, including from Russia's deputy representative to the UN, accusing the US of double standards. 'Why US denies China's right to restore peace and order in HK while brutally dispersing crowds at home?' said Dmitry Polyanskiy."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments are here. "Mass protests over police violence against black Americans in at least 75 U.S. cities have spurred concern that the gatherings will seed new outbreaks." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "The United States has delivered two million doses of [hydroxychloroquine] to Brazil for use in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and the two countries are embarking on a joint research effort to study whether the drug is safe and effective for the prevention and early treatment of Covid-19, the White House announced Sunday.... The donated doses will be used as a prophylactic 'to help defend' Brazil's nurses, doctors and health care professionals against infection, and will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected, the White House said."
Lenny Berstein of the Washington Post: "The rules of the covid-19 pandemic, so recently learned at considerable inconvenience, have been discarded on the streets in recent days. Protesters frequently find it impossible to stay six feet apart, to avoid hand-to-hand contact or to dodge the respiratory droplets of their shouting, chanting comrades amid the swirling chaos. And because the virus can be spread by people with no symptoms, it can be impossible to figure out whom to avoid. Officials are clearly worried about the possible impact of the protests on the health crisis. As of Sunday, the United States had recorded 1.7 million coronavirus infections and 103,000 covid-19 deaths -- a disproportionate number of them black and brown people. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said she is concerned about renewed outbreaks caused by large demonstrations in the nation's capital. And Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) urged her city's demonstrators to seek tests for the virus as soon as possible."
Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times Magazine writes a long feature for the magazine on Bill Barr. Mrs. McC: I skimmed parts of the story. Although Schwartz seems to take a neutral POV of Barr -- "some say.../critics argue...," I think Barr comes across in the article as the POS he is (IMHO, of course).
When Quiz Shows Were Crooked But the President Was Not. David Marino-Nachison of the Washington Post: "Herbert Stempel, the Bronx-born brainiac who became a central figure and whistleblower in the game show rigging scandals of the 1950s, a cultural turning point later chronicled in the 1994 movie 'Quiz Show,' died April 7 at a nursing home in New York City. He was 93." The New York Times obituary is here. Mrs. McC: The film "Quiz Show" is painful to watch, but it's a very good movie, IMO. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (15)
There's a very big problem looming that Minnesotans and Americans will face this summer or Fall. That's picking a supposedly impartial jury in the Floyd murder case. In our super saturated media culture it will be almost impossible to find twelve impartial Minnesotans.
One difference between Bolsonaro, Putin and the Pretender.
Haven't seen the Pretender on a horse.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/bolsonaro-saddles-join-rally-brazil-top-court-200601012746495.html
Hard to get a horse in a bunker, I guess.
THE FIRE NEXT TIME:
If we had been able to fire Humpty Dumpty when we had the chance would we be in this kind of chaos? Looking back––always a good idea–-here are the words of a man who would one day be put in this position: This from HuffPo:
"When protesters railed against the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri, Donald Trump knew just who to blame:"
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Our country is totally fractured and, with our weak leadership in Washington, you can expect Ferguson type riots and looting in other places
"Trump also claimed that the rest of the world had laughed at America and then-President Barack Obama over the Ferguson riots:"
@realDonaldTrump
Can you imagine what Putin and all of our friends and enemies throughout the world are saying about the U.S. as they watch the Ferguson riot
@realDonaldTrump
As China and the rest of the World continue to rip off the U.S. economically, they laugh at us and our president over the riots in Ferguson!
And now you, Mr. Presidunce, huddled in your bunker, find yourself in a pretty pickle–––who is laughing now, you sorry ass bastard and to think we got two for one–––the virus AND the riots! A double whammy––ain't we got fun! Your wall––the one you have built around yourself––is falling down, mister, but you will continue to pretend it's somebody else's fault. It's what you do––and have done most of your life.
Since I can't do anything this morning about the larger Humpty Dumpty world I live in, I thought to attack something more my size, the proper spelling of "protester."
When I went the "...or" direction the other day, I had my doubts, so when this morning I saw two succeeding headlines on a news site that had the word ending in "...er" in one and "..or" in the other, I thought it time to get it right.
According to this:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/once-and-all-its-spelled-protester-not-protestor/334452/
It's "...er."
One problem solved. Now I can take the rest of the day off.
@Ken Winkes: Yeah, it's like "advisor/adviser." I naturally go with the more archaic "advisor," but I don't think I've ever written "protestor." Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds or something. Actually, it sounds natural to me to pronounce "advisor" with an "o," but I think I usually pronounce it with the schwa sound. I doubt I've ever pronounced "protester" with an "o" sound. It's strictly schwa.
Problems are so seldom solved. They're merely tucked away.
Colin Kaepernick was blackballed by the NFL (scores of lesser talents who never had a whiff of the Super Bowl, a height to which he led his former team, have been hired since he was cast aside at the insistence of powerful racists), and ripped as an un-American troublemaker and attacked incessantly by the fat little king for daring to take a knee during the national anthem to silently—and peacefully—protest police violence against unarmed black men. “Harumph” went Trump, all Republicans, and much of the media. “Violence? By our wonderful police forces? Never!”
Think he might have had s point?
Ken,
“Protester”? Of course. “Protestor”? Beastly. And like Marie, I always go for advisor rather than adviser. It seems somehow more proper. Although when I think of those offering, ahem, “advice” to Fatty, I’m tempted to always use quotation marks, no matter the spelling.
Resistor/resister?
Both are correct.
But the first is an electrical component, the other a ... fightor?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-governors-george-floyd-protests/2020/06/01/430a6226-a421-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html#comments-wrapper
Didn't see any Pretender criticism of the governors for hiding in their bunkers.
Oh, that's right, they weren't.
Just was told that the independent autopsy of George Floyd came back as "Death by asphyxiation". No mention of pre existing condition or drugs.
@Bobby Lee -
Yes!
And find “*Homicide* by Asphyxia” more to the point.
“An independent autopsy on George Floyd conducted at the request of his family has concluded his cause of death was “homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.”
“The report by Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Allecia Wilson concluded Floyd likely died at the scene. Baden formerly worked as New York City’s chief medical examiner and conducted the autopsy of Eric Garner, a Black man who was put in a fatal chokehold by police in 2014.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-floyd-autopsy-homicide-asphyxia_n_5ed551bcc5b6dbec8578c330
Going to try not to get involved with the -or/-er thing—. I have enough trouble with -ent/-ant endings—!
Watched crazy stuff last night— pictured Lump in his bunker, gathering strength so he could harangue the governors, I guess, the flaming a**hole that he is... Our collective disgust should be sent into the White House on flaming arrows—. Okay, one too many fire metaphors—. Turned off the autopsy report—. A bridge too far for me. Stay safe, everyone—
Sorry to say that I bet Putin is thinking his money was well spent on the Orange Clown. And Trump's advisors/advisers like Flynn, Facebook, Bannon, and Guiliani. What would Dwight Eisenhower think or say about all this, one wonders?
Do not underestimate the power of the fascist right. Officer Chauvin could walk. We will end up with a hung jury, if it even goes to trial, and he could walk. If he is found guilty of anything, it will be failure to allow Floyd George a final word before he assassinated him, for which he will serve fifteen minutes in detention then be reinstated. Like all the announcements that Trump will lose, people vastly underestimate the power of white privileged evil to prevail. If not, how does one account for such rampant, homicidal racism over a century and a half after the Civil War?
Sorry, George Floyd. Anger is not the best partner for commentary.