George Floyd’s Family is Suing Massa'Bator Kanye West for $250 Million over ‘Flagrant’ Remarks about his Death

Massa’bator Kanye [“a lost sheep in Master's clothing” ] ReAssures his White Masters and White Fan Base that Nothing’s Changed, He’s Still Out of His Mind, and thus, No Threat to White Supremacy

From [HERE] George Floyd’s family is seeking legal action against Kanye West over comments he made about the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death.

West, who now goes by the name Ye, falsely claimed that Floyd died from fentanyl use on the podcast Drink Champs, despite the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruling Floyd’s death a homicide after former police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

“Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death,” said Attorney Pat D. Dixon III, who is taking on the case for Floyd’s family. “We will hold Mr. West accountable for his flagrant remarks against Mr. Floyd’s legacy.”

The suit is being filed by Floyd’s mother Roxie Washington on behalf of Floyd’s only daughter, who is a minor. A statement from Dixon said the lawsuit against Ye is over “harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress seeking $250 million dollars in damages.”

The statement also says the family has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Ye for his comments. Representatives for Ye did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story. [MORE]

Congress investigates how Mississippi spent federal funds amid Jackson water crisis

From [HERE] Two congressional committees want Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to explain how the country’s poorest state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds as its predominantly Black capital city struggles with crumbling water infrastructure.

Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent the request in a letter to Reeves on Monday as part of an investigation by the Homeland Security and the Oversight and Reform committees into a safe drinking water crisis that at its height left thousands of Jackson residents without running water this summer.

The breakdown occurred after Jackson was pummeled by days of heavy rain and the city’s main water treatment plant failed. In the past, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, a Democrat, has argued that the city’s public water utility was poorly positioned to handle threats from climate change because Republican state leaders have provided little financial help for the aging system’s challenges. He has estimated that tackling the city’s water troubles, which stretch back decades, could cost billions of dollars. [MORE]

The So-called Clean Energy Revolution is Based on Black Child Labor: US Acknowledges Children (as young as six) in the Congo are Used for the Electric Vehicle Supply Chain

From [HERE] The federal government has, for the first time, included crucial raw materials needed for the clean energy transition under a list of goods that have child or forced labor in their supply chains.

E&E News was the first to report on the change, which the Biden administration rolled out on Tuesday. The administration this week updated the list of goods, which it has maintained since 2006, with polysilicon, used primarily to make solar panels, as well as cobalt, which is a key input in lithium-ion batteries.

The inclusion of these materials in the report is meant to “[draw] attention to critical supply chains in clean energy,” Thea Mei Lee, the Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, said in a foreword to the report. “The information is out there for companies and consumers to leverage against regimes that promote and prop up exploitative labor practices.”

The demand for raw materials for solar panels and batteries is projected to skyrocket over the next few years as the clean energy revolution takes hold. The market for cobalt, in particular, is already growing astronomically as the electric vehicle market expands: demand for cobalt increased by 22% in 2021, while some estimates say it could grow 30% by 2025.

But the labor practices surrounding both these materials have serious issues. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to around 70% of the world’s cobalt resources, an estimated 40,000 of the 255,000 miners involved in the industry are children, some as young as 6 years old. These children often work 12-hour days—some shifts are as long as 24 hours—for pay as low as a few dollars a day.

Around 45% of the world’s polysilicon of the grade needed to produce solar panels, meanwhile, is produced in the Xinjiang region of China. There, research has shown, the Chinese government is putting tens of thousands of the 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities detained there to work producing various goods, including polysilicon.

Last year, the U.S. banned the import of polysilicon from certain companies in China in order to crack down on the horrific labor practices of that supply chain. The import of products containing cobalt from the DRC, however, remains unregulated—and experts told E&E News in March that they don’t expect to see a similar crackdown on cobalt products. (Some human-rights advocates say that hamstringing the industry would be a huge blow to communities that rely on the mines for income, and that working conditions in DRC cobalt mines, while bad, do not meet the standard for forced labor as is seen in China.)

The Biden administration has been working to boost battery production to jumpstart the clean energy revolution, while simultaneously staying mostly silent on how it plans to deal with the problematic labor and environmental practices of mining for materials used in these batteries. The inclusion of cobalt in this report without any plans for a hard ban on imports could effectively create the appearance of a toothless strategy on the problems with mining for clean energy, experts told E&E.

The Black Alliance for Peace says the UN Mission to Haiti Is a Foreign Occupation, Repressing Haitian Sovereignty

From [HERE] Dear Dr. Barnett: 

On September 19, 2022, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) issued a short statement expressing grave concern about worsening conditions in Haiti and pressing for “urgent and immediate attention from the international community.” In light of CARICOM’s more direct engagement in Haitian affairs in recent months, we call on your organization to respect Haitian sovereignty and to support the Haitian masses in their stand against the ongoing occupation of their country by foreign powers. 

Despite the erroneous representation of the current protests in Haiti as simply “gang violence,” the latest demonstrations are a direct result of two factors. First, they are a response to the everyday economic misery caused by rising inflation, especially through the staggering increase in the price of fuel. Second, they are part of a long history of demands for the end of foreign meddling in Haitian affairs, especially via the installation and maintenance of an unelected and illegitimate government by the Core Group, of which the United Nations is a part. 

We applaud your concern for Haiti. We have also noted the support your member nations have given to Caribbean and Latin American self-determination. For this reason, we would like to remind CARICOM members that the U.S., Canada, France, and other Western countries, along with the Core Group, and UN missions such as MINUSTAH, are directly responsible for the current conditions in Haiti. Attempting to solve the current crisis in Haiti through a dialogue between unelected and illegitimate Haitian “stakeholders” will not be successful. It will only serve the needs of non-Haitians.

We share with you the words of a coalition of Haitian grassroots organizations explaining the main reason for the currency protests:

“[T]hese popular protests are part of a struggle for a Haiti free from suffocating foreign interference, gangsterization, this extreme manufactured misery and an anti-national, illegitimate, criminal political regime established by the Core Group of which the UN is a member.”

A brief historical contextualization is in order:

The UN Mission to Haiti Is a Foreign Occupation Repressing Haitian Sovereignty

As you surely are aware, the United Nations became an occupying force in Haiti after the U.S.-France-Canada-led 2004 coup d’état against Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We must note that, in addition to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, only Jamaica’s P.J. Patterson, in his capacity as leader of CARICOM, spoke up against the coup.

Following the coup, the UN took over from U.S. forces. Under Chapter VII of the UN charter, the UN established the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (or MINUSTAH), for the tasks of military occupation under the guise of establishing peace and security. The Workers Party-led government of Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then betrayed the Haitian people and undercut Haiti’s sovereignty by agreeing to lead the military wing of the UN mission in Haiti.

Ten Reasons Why the U.N. Occupation of Haiti Must End

The history of the UN in Haiti has been a history of violence. An expensive, multi-billion dollar operation, MINUSTAH had between 6,000 and12,000 military troops and police stationed in Haiti alongside thousands of civilian personnel. Like the first U.S. occupation (1915-1934), the UN occupation under MINUSTAH was marked by its brutality and racism towards the Haitian people. Civilians were brutally attacked and assassinated. “Peace-keepers” committed sexual crimes. UN soldiers dumped human waste into rivers used for drinking water, unleashing acholera epidemic that killed between 10,000 and 50,000 people. The UN has still not been held accountable for this needless death.

The Core Group — an international coalition of self-proclaimed “friends” of Haiti — came together during the MINUSTAH occupation. Non-Black, un-elected, and anti-democratic, the goal of the Core Group is to oversee Haiti’s governance. Meanwhile, as with the first occupation, the United States and MINUSTAH trained and militarized Haiti’s police and security forces, often rehabilitating and reintegrating rogue members. The United States, in collusion with MINUSTAH and the Core Group, also over-rode Haitian democracy, installing both neo-Duvalierist Michel Martelly and his Haitian Tèt Kale Party (PHTK), alongside Martelly’s protege and successor, the late Jovenel Moïse.

It is claimed that this occupation officially ended in 2017 with the dissolution of MINUSTAH. But the UN has remained in Haiti under a new acronym: BINUH, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. BINUH has had an outsized role in Haitian internal political affairs. For example, soon after Moïse was assassinated, its representative, Helen La Lime, asserted that Claude Joseph would be installed as Haiti’s leader. Later, the “Core Group” switched gears and demanded that Ariel Henry should be president. And this is exactly what happened when a “new” Haitian government was announced on July 20, 2021, with Henry as leader. This, without any say from the Haitian people, without any pretense of a democratic process, without any concern for Haiti’s sovereignty.

UN Occupation Increases Violence and Instability

Haiti currently has an unelected, unpopular, unaccountable, and illegitimate prime minister, propped up by the United States and the western nations. Meanwhile, Haiti’s security situation has deteriorated considerably as groups, armed by the transnational Haitian and Levantine elite, continue their attacks on the Haitian people. We must emphasize that, in the eighteen years that the United Nations mission has participated in the occupation of Haiti, the Haitian people have only experienced violence and political instability. You must recognize the foreign occupation of Haiti has left it in a state of disarray and violence.

The consequences of Foreign Meddling and Occupation

We must remind you that this is the sixth week of protests of the Haitian people against both the U.S.-backed puppet government of Ariel Henry and the continued occupation and meddling of the Core Group and the UN itself. With all the talk of Haitian “lawlessness,” one would never know that the other main reason for the protests was the illegitimate government’s decision, under IMF austerity dictates, to cut fuel subsidies, amid spiraling inflation and economic insecurity. Hear the people’s words:

“This new decision, taken to the detriment of the interests of the people, has aroused his anger and also intensified a protest movement already initiated, whose objective is the recovery of our sovereignty, the recovery of Haiti’s destiny by Haitians, the establishment by Haitians of a legitimate government, capable of defending the interests of the people and meeting the various challenges of the moment.”

No to Occupation. Yes to Self-Determination.

The speed at which contemporary events are moving in Haiti makes it difficult for those outside the Caribbean republic to understand its internal political dynamics. Because of this, it is easy to resort to historical cliches and short-hand analyses in an attempt to neatly package and summarize or flatten what are oftentimes complex, structural, and historical formations whose origins are as much rooted outside than inside the country. Thus to outsiders Haiti is in the middle of a crisis, a never-ending crisis marked by lawlessness and violence, by the failure of government and the collapse of the state, and by a savage populism paired with well-armed, predatory gangs.

We believe this representation of Haiti is fueled by an ancient racism premised on the notion that Haitian people (and African people more generally) are incapable of self-government, and this notion, in turn, nurtures the rationalization for the strengthening of the current mandate for the continued international occupation of Haiti.

We ask that you think with all seriousness about the relationships among nations in our region. All nations should be able to chart their own destiny, not just some. You must know the history of the proud Haitian people whose Revolution changed the course of world history and material aid helped the liberation of the Americas from colonial rule and enslavement. Despite the continued affront to its self-determination, the people of Haiti will continue to fight for its liberation.

The Black Alliance for Peace, in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, absolutely stands against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti, and continues to demand an end to the unending meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers. We call for the dissolution of the imperialist Core Group, an end to Western support for the unelected and unaccountable puppet government of Ariel Henry, and for the respect of Haitian sovereignty.

Signed,

The Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

Justice Department announces settlement to resolve lending discrimination claims against Evolve Bank and Trust

From [HERE] On September 29, 2022, the Justice Department announced a proposed consent order with Evolve Bank and Trust to resolve allegations of lending discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and national origin in the pricing of its residential mortgage loans from at least 2014 through 2019.

Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, Evolve Bank maintains mortgage lending offices and provides mortgage lending services in 15 states.  Pursuant to the settlement, Evolve Bank must establish a settlement fund of $1.3 million to compensate affected borrowers, and must also pay a $50,000 civil penalty.  By way of background, after opening an investigation, the Justice Department filed a complaint alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by Evolve Bank.  The Justice Department alleged that Evolve Bank’s loan pricing resulted in Black, Hispanic and female borrowers paying more in their “discretionary pricing” components of home loans than White or male borrowers for reasons unrelated to their creditworthiness.  This “discretionary pricing” component allegedly allowed Evolve Bank’s loan officers  to set artificially high interest rates for reasons having nothing to do with the borrower’s credit qualifications or loan characteristics and then to offer discounts without any requirement for a loan officer to provide or document a justification.

The proposed consent order requires Evolve Bank, for a period of four years, to maintain policies that reduce loan officer discretion, employ a fair lending officer who will work in close consultation with the bank’s leadership, and provide fair lending training to its personnel.

The Department of Justice consent order with Evolve is just the latest of a series of consent orders that the CFPB and/or DOJ have entered into this year with banks and non-banks involving alleged discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act and/or Equal Credit Opportunity Act.  As is typically the case, the DOJ had no evidence of direct discrimination against members of a protected class and relied instead on the disparate impact theory in alleging violations of these statutes.  The major takeaway from recent matters is that redlining and the use of discretionary pricing are likely to continue to be matters that draw the attention of the DOJ and CFPB.

Corpse Biden Pardons Thousands of People Convicted of Federal Marijuana Possession as His Fellow White Liberals Fill the Jails with Black People in DC, NYC, Chicago, LA etc.

From [HERE] President Biden on Thursday pardoned(link is external) all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that “makes no sense” (article available here)(link is external).

The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia.

Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession. The number of convictions under state laws vastly outnumbers those who have been charged with a violation of federal laws.

“Sending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives — for conduct that is legal in many states,” Mr. Biden said on Twitter(link is external) on Thursday. “That’s before you address the clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction. Today, we begin to right these wrongs.”

Marijuana is already fully legal in about 20 states, and some other states have relaxed criminal penalties.

Proclamation available here(link is external).

Ninth Circuit Court Rules that Law Criminalizing Homelessness Violates Eighth Amendment

From [HERE] Grants Pass, Ore. has more homeless residents than shelter beds, forcing some homeless to sleep in public spaces. Easy fix, says the town, we'll just make that illegal. Ninth Circuit(link is external): You can't ticket the involuntarily homeless just for being homeless. “We affirm the district court’s ruling that the City of Grants Pass cannot, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, enforce its anti-camping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there is no other place in the City for them to go.” Dissent: Even if that's right, it has to be assessed person by person, not on a class basis. This case “should be overturned or overruled at the earliest opportunity.”

New Study Finds Significant Racial Disparities in the Administration of the Death Penalty in Liberal St. Louis County. Death is 3.5 Times More Likely to Be Imposed if the Victim was White

From [HERE] A study of more than 400 death-eligible murder cases in St. Louis County, Missouri over a 27-year period has found significant racial disparities in the county’s administration of the death penalty based upon the race of the victim.

St. Louis County is liberal area - St. Louis county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.

An expert report by University of North Carolina political scientist Frank R. Baumgartner released on September 20, 2022 found that the likelihood that a death sentence would be imposed in St. Louis County was 3.5 times greater if the victim was white, as compared to cases in which the victim was Black. The race-of-victim effects “persist[ed] after the introduction of controls for aggravating and mitigating factors,” Baumgartner wrote, “meaning that these disparities cannot be explained by legitimate case characteristics.”

Baumgartner’s study was prepared in connection with defense efforts to obtain clemency for death-row prisoner Kevin Johnson, a teen offender sentenced to death for killing a white police officer. It covered the years 1991–2018, tracking the period in which former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch was in office. Voters ousted McCullough in 2018 after he failed to indict a white police officer for the murder of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, which incited the Ferguson protests. 

Baumgartner found statistically significant evidence that white lives mattered more to county prosecutors than Black lives during McCullough’s tenure, with the greatest race-of-victim disparities in the treatment of cases occurring at the stages of the case in which prosecutors had the greatest discretion. While more than twice as many of the 408 death-eligible cases that came before county prosecutors during the study period involved Black victims (68.4% to 31.6%), nearly two-thirds of the 29 cases that resulted in death sentences in the county involved victims who were white (62.1% to 37.9%). (Click to enlarge graphic.) On average, 7.1% of death-eligible cases resulted in death sentences. However, death was imposed in 14.1% of white-victim cases, as compared to 4.0% of cases in which the victim was Black.

Sup Ct Upholds Black Man's Death Sentence by All White Jury for Murdering his White Wife Even Though 3 Jurors “vigorously opposed" Interracial Marriage and Mannequin-Like Defense Atty Failed to Object

From [HERE] The Supreme Court denied review Tuesday in the case of Andre Thomas, a Black man sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of his wife (who was white) and their biracial son by an all-white jury that included three people who expressed opposition to interracial marriage and miscegenation.

These jurors said on questionnaires that they “oppose” or “vigorously oppose people of different racial backgrounds marrying and/or having children,” that interracial relationships were against God’s will, and that people “should stay with [their] Blood Line.”

But Mr. Thomas’s counsel did not even question two of them about their stated bias, much less strike them from the jury even though they had peremptory strikes available. And as Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out in dissent, the one juror who was questioned about his views on race “never retreated from his ‘beliefs about interracial marriage.'”

Views about interracial intimacy are even more highly charged than those about interracial violence, Justice Sotomayor explained. “Historians have long recognized that interracial marriage, sex, and procreation evoke some of the most invidious forms of prejudice and violence,” she wrote.

In this case, the State “fanned the flames” when it urged the jury to impose the death penalty. After the prosecutor asked jurors, “Are you going to take the risk about [Thomas] asking your daughter out, or your granddaughter out?” and reminded them about the “string of girls” who testified they’d had romantic relationships with Mr. Thomas, the all-white jury sentenced him to death.

On appeal, Mr. Thomas argued that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to question or strike the biased jurors, and as a result, he was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury that included three jurors who expressed bias against him.

The state courts and lower federal court denied relief, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed, finding in a divided opinion that defense counsel’s “decision to forego questioning three of the four jurors about racial bias was simply a matter of trial strategy.”

But no reasonable strategy would lead a defense lawyer not to question these jurors, Justice Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “To the contrary, the hostility the jurors expressed in their questionnaires strongly suggested that their presence would infect the proceedings with racial bias.”

The dissent found that Mr. Thomas’s conviction and death sentence clearly violate the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel. “By failing to challenge, or even question, jurors who were hostile to interracial marriage in a capital case involving that explosive topic,” the dissent wrote, “Thomas’ counsel performed well below an objective standard of reasonableness.”

The Court’s decision contributed to a long history of state and federal courts tolerating racial bias and discrimination in the selection of juries.

The dissent underscored that courts—including the Supreme Court—are duty-bound to confront racial prejudice and ensure that racially biased jurors are not seated, especially in a death penalty case. Citing the Court’s own recent precedent, the dissent wrote:

No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberations or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime. Ignoring issues of racial bias in the jury system “damages ‘both the fact and the perception’ of the jury’s role as ‘a vital check against the wrongful exercise of power by the State.’”

Will Any Government Authorities Be Held Accountable for Poisoning Black People’s Water in Flint? Judge Tosses Criminal Charges against 7 Officials

From [HERE] A Michigan judge dismissed charges Tuesday against seven people in the Flint water scandal, including two former state health officials blamed for deaths from Legionnaires’ disease.

Judge Elizabeth Kelly took action three months after the Michigan Supreme Court said a one-judge grand jury had no authority to issue indictments.

Kelly rejected efforts by the attorney general’s office to just send the cases to Flint District Court and turn them into criminal complaints, the typical path to filing felony charges in Michigan.

“Simply put, there are no valid charges,” Kelly said.

The ruling wipes out criminal charges against Nick Lyon, former director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Snyder’s former senior adviser Richard Baird; former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley; Dr. Eden Wells, the former chief medical executive for MDHHS; Jarrod Agen, former director of communications and former chief of staff for Snyder; and Nancy Peeler, who served as the Early Childhood Health Section manager at MDHHS.

Kelly’s decision doesn’t affect former Gov. Rick Snyder. That’s only because he was charged with misdemeanors and his case is being handled by a judge in a different Flint court. But he, too, was indicted in a process declared invalid by the Supreme Court.

The most serious charges dismissed by Kelly on Tuesday had been filed against Wells and Lyon, each of whom faced nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 15 years in prison; and Agen and Baird, who were each charged with perjury, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

In 2014, Flint managers appointed by Snyder took the city out of a regional water system and began using the Flint River to save money while a new pipeline to Lake Huron was being built. But the river water wasn’t treated to reduce its corrosive qualities. Lead broke off from old pipes and contaminated the system for more than a year.

Separately, the water was blamed for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, which typically spreads through heating and cooling systems.

Former state health director Nick Lyon and former chief medical executive Eden Wells were charged with involuntary manslaughter in nine deaths linked to Legionnaires’. They were accused of failing to timely warn the Flint area about the outbreak.

Lyon’s attorneys praised Kelly’s decision and urged the attorney general’s office to close a “misguided prosecution.”

“This misuse of the criminal justice system has to stop,” Chip Chamberlain and Ron DeWaard said. “Misleading statements about what Director Lyon did or didn’t do contribute nothing to a constructive public dialogue and do not represent justice for anyone.”

Judge rules there's still work to do, extends contract for Cleveland police federal monitor

From [HERE] In an order filed Thursday in federal court, the judge overseeing the Cleveland police consent decree, Solomon Oliver, made clear that the city has a ways to go before its police department will be released from the seven-year-old agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the order, Oliver extended the contract of the monitor who evaluates the city’s progress on police reforms by two years, until October of 2024. In a statement from Mayor Justin Bibb's spokesperson, Marie Zickefoose, the administration said it will seek to move on the next step in the consent decree, known as the sustainability phase.

The city is currently in the assessment phase, where the monitor evaluates whether policies and training are taking hold in the department. A recent assessment of the city's use-of-force incidents found that the department was largely following new policies. But an assessment of recruiting and hiring practices was more critical. The monitor is still planning to conduct assessments of the department's community engagement efforts, adherence to new search and seizure policies and officer misconduct investigations, among others.

It's unclear if the city is seeking to skip past those assessments. In the sustainability phase, the monitor would conduct significantly less oversight of the department.

The city entered into the federal consent decree in 2015 after a U.S. Justice Department investigation found a pattern of excessive force by Cleveland police.

Just last month, the city argued in federal court that it had achieved the goals of the consent decree. Law Director Mark Griffin told the court the city has met big-picture benchmarks and only had procedural details left to work out.

The city claimed to have decreased officer use-of-force incidents, improved officer accountability and established effective crisis intervention training for officers to use when responding to people in a mental health crisis.

A progress report issued by the monitor prior to the hearing, and arguments made by the monitor and Department of Justice at the hearing, contradicted those claims. Oliver said then that the city still had work to do and, with his order Thursday, indicated they’ll be under federal oversight for at least the next two years.

“It is clear that, while the city has made substantial progress, it has not yet achieved substantial and effective compliance at this time,” Oliver wrote in the order.

Community Police Commission co-chair Lew Katz agreed with the court’s decision that the city is not finished with the consent decree. He said the city had pressed for a quick end to the agreement recently by relying on the widespread belief that Mayor Justin Bibb was supportive of police reform.

“Now show it’ is basically what the monitor’s report said,” Katz said.

The commission also released a report Thursday, based on the monitor’s status update, that found the city still has to complete more than half of the 300-plus requirements in the consent decree.

According to that report, the city has only completed about 31% of the community policing requirements in the consent decree and 37% of the search and seizure reforms. The area where the police department had made the most progress, crisis intervention, still was only two-thirds complete.

The report also found progress of just a little more than 1% of the consent decree’s requirements since Mayor Justin Bibb took office in January.

“I’m not sure [the Bibb administration] has put enough effort in in their first 9 months in office,” Katz said.

NJ Police Must Now Be Licensed to Obtain the Right to Attack People [if all Power Comes from the People and people can’t give something they don’t have then How Did Cops Obtain their Right to Attack?]

From [HERE] New Jersey became the 47th state to establish a police licensure program when Governor Phil Murphy signed bill S2742/A4194 into law in July 2022. The new legislation, allocating $6 million for the program, requires all law enforcement officers to hold a current, valid license issued by the Police Training Commission (PTC) in order to become and remain employed anywhere in the state. To obtain a license, which must be renewed every three years, officers must pass training courses and psychological evaluations and adhere to uniform, statewide, professional standards.

“Officers holding these licenses will be proven professionals who fulfill their duties with honesty and integrity, helping law enforcement strengthen and rebuild the bonds of trust between police and residents,” says Murphy.

The new law also grants the PTC the authority to remove the license of any officer who violates professional standards, including being convicted of any crime or act of domestic violence, having two or more DUI offenses, and supporting violence, hatred, discrimination or bias against any race, creed, sexual orientation or anything else protected by the federal law against discrimination.

“The bill, while it is progress, is not as strong as it could or should be,” says Racquel Romans-Henry from the Trenton-based advocacy group Salvation and Social Justice.

“We were looking for there to be an addition of some group that represents communities most impacted by policing,” says Yannick Wood from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. His organization also calls for the creation of a public, national, government-owned database of licensing decisions and civilian review boards for complaints of police misconduct.

Cop Claims He was Fired After Revealing that LAPD Authorities use Quotas to Make Gang and Gun-related Arrests and Seizures, Lawsuit Filed in Liberal Los Angeles

From [HERE] On Wednesday, LAPD Officer John Walker filed a retaliation suit against the city seeking unspecified damages after alleging that his efforts to speak out about commanders’ enforcing purportedly illegal quotas regarding gang contact and gun-related arrests and seizures led management to take career-damaging steps against him to keep him quiet.

Walker was assigned to Metro Division in 2015 after applying for and being selected for a coveted position on the SWAT team. However, problems began not long after when, as part of a Metro expansion by then-Chief Charlie Beck, Walker and other LAPD officers were pressured to increase the production of specific crime statistics, the suit states. The command staff allegedly ordered Walker and other Metro officers to report higher numbers of contacts with gang members, to make more gun-related arrests and seizures, and to take more gang members into custody.

“The clear message to (Walker) from the department and its various levels of command staff was that officers needed to make more arrests related to gangsters and guns,” the suit states.

In roll calls and briefings, it was “all about the guns,” according to the suit, which further alleges that “minimums had to be met. At Metro, if an officer went more than a day or two without producing a gang or gun arrest, commanders made it clear that the officer’s production needed to increase, with more gang arrests meaning the best chances of promotion the suit alleges. “This was part of the methodology used to send and enforce the message: `Do as we say regarding our demands of arrests … or you are done here,”‘ the suit goes on.

Walker’s career was eventually “irreparably harmed” when the department allegedly retaliated against him beginning in January 2020 by ordering him to remain at home, removing his police powers, stripping him of his gun and serving him notice of an intent to downgrade his LAPD position, the suit alleges.

Though Walker’s position was not downgraded, the suit explains he believes the reason for that is the LAPD “realized that it acted hastily and improperly.” Nonetheless, other elements of alleged retaliation from the LAPD has damaged Walker’s reputation, his ability to promote and his chances to be selected for other units and specialized assignments.

Requiring specific numbers of certain types of arrests violates the arrest quota in the state Vehicle Code and also potentially violates other due process and constitutional requirements. Further, the LAPD’s decision to allegedly retaliate against Walker and other officers was done to send a message to the entire Metro officer population to be quiet and to not speak out regarding the potentially unlawful policies and practices, the suit states.

In addition to adversely impacting Walker’s health, according to the suit, “The retaliation will cause (Walker) to have to take a different career and retirement path … and will adversely affect his income, pension and other benefits.”

“Freedom Loving” Republicans Call Mandela Barnes Radical for Protesting the Police Murders of Black People (conduct that is Already illegal) and Seeking Enforcement of Existing Laws (the status quo)

WOW. NOW PROTESTING WHEN COPS MURDER BLACK PEOPLE IN THE STREET OR TURN THEIR “RIGHTS” ON AND OFF LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH IS “RADICAL??” WATCH YOUR MIND B/C DOGGY IS FUCKING WITH IT. BW SAYS:

Debate in a de-mockery cannot be stilled but it can be controlled and constrained within “proper” bounds. Doggy sets the table for us or “controls the spectrum of ideas” discussed by “citizens” - encouraging us to think within certain boundaries of “thinkable thought” while enforcing the belief that freedom reigns. Such debate or “resistance” is desirable for tyrants in a corporate police state because it keeps the peasants thinking they are participating, knowledgable or involved without providing them any real means to achieve freedom.” [MORE] Dr. Amos Wilson states, "the central aim of the ruling elite's ideology process is to define the "domain of discourse." That is, the corporate elite seeks to define the limits of "acceptable ideas" and to define what is worth talking about, worth learning, teaching, promoting, and writing about. Of course, the limits of the "acceptable," the "responsible," are set at those points which support and justify the interests of the elite itself." [MORE]

Elite whites (republicans and democrats) have drawn the parameters of Black dissent by programming Blacks to believe that what is actually common sense and essentially conservative is somehow "radical" politics. Therefore, Blacks reject common sense in rejecting "the radical" or what is perceived as "radical." Consequently, obedient Blacks will not pursue things that anyone else with common sense would pursue- because to do so would be radical. The resisters OR BLM are not resisting anything. They are expressing genuine, common sense outrage at an unaccountable system of white collective power: racist suspect jurors, judges, prosecutors, fellow cops, media and businesses that support, defend and finance a cop’s right to murder or harm Blacks. But what else? [MORE]

THEY LOVE DOGMA AND BELIEFS NOT FREEDOM. From [DEPENDENTMEDIA] It's not really news that Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, vying to be the state's first Black U.S. senator, has on occasion strongly criticized American police. 

He's made his thoughts known in a number of forums. 

But it is news when it turns out that Barnes offered his harsh words about American law enforcement to a Russian-funded media outlet. Barnes, a Democrat, is taking on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson next month. 

Johnson, of course, has had his own Russian problems.

Records show that Barnes did six interviews with RT, formerly Russia Today, in 2015 and 2016, during his second term as a state lawmaker. RT is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Kremlin.

In May 2015, for instance, Barnes told RT that police brutality is a “total epidemic” in the United States. A month earlier, he posted a screenshot of his interview with RT on the Baltimore protests, commenting, "People are tired of being targets." [WHOOH. crazy talk there. cops are fantastic public masters who provide excellent compulsory rulership, especially to Blacks] [MORE]

Black Teen Sues Warren Police for $20M for Beating and Stomping Him to Make Arrest after Traffic Stop

From [HERE] Attorneys for a Black teenager have filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against the city of Warren, its police department and six officers after the teen was beaten, stomped on, bloodied and injured by arresting officers during a June traffic stop.

The officers arrested Tyler Wade, who was 17 at the time, on June 2 after they pursued a stolen car he was driving through several cities starting in Warren. Body camera footage shows the stop and arrest, including multiple officers pulling the teen from a white sedan and striking him repeatedly.

The teen's attorney, James King, said he believes race played a role in the incident and noted it appears all but one of the officers involved are White.

"What troubles me the most is that people in the city of Warren have committed far worse crimes than what Tyler was alleged of committing," King said. "Unfortunately, they don't look like Tyler, so they're not treated the same way upon arrest."

Wade, a Detroit resident, claims he did not know the car was stolen. At one point, the vehicle stalled on West Woodward Heights Boulevard and North Chrysler Drive in Hazel Park.

"The officer approaches, points the gun at Tyler, orders him to raise his hands and you'll see Tyler doing exactly that. He has his hands raised," said King, who is with the Cochran Firm in Detroit. "When he tries to turn the car off, the officer slaps his hands and tells him again not to move so Tyler did exactly that, didn't move."

Officers pulled Wade from the driver's seat from the passenger side and onto the ground.

"Once he's on the ground was when the beating starts," King said during a Wednesday interview with The Detroit News at his law office in downtown Detroit.

The video shows an officer punching Wade in the head and face nine times. He gets kicked in the back, stomped on and punched in the face again.

"All you hear Tyler saying is 'I'm not resisting, I'm putting my hands up,' and he keeps asking 'Why are you hitting me?' over and over again," King said.

Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told WJBK-TV (Channel 2) in June that the department's use-of-force policy had been violated and an officer was given a "lengthy suspension" after an internal affairs division investigation.

Dwyer declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday but said there's “no question in my mind” that Wade was resisting officers.

Six officers are named in the lawsuit, listed only by their last names and their badge numbers.

In the body camera footage, one officer can be heard saying "all right" repeatedly as he attempts to handcuff Wade.

"The force that was used against him was unnecessary. It was excessive and it was unreasonable," King said.

Wade had a concussion, his braces were knocked out, blood vessels in his eye were ruptured and he has permanent scarring, headaches and blurred vision, his attorney said. Several of the injuries, including those to his mouth and eye, may require surgery in the future, King said.

"I don't remember that much about the situation because it was like, I blacked out during that moment when it happened," Wade said. "It's been kind of hard for me to remember things in general after the situation happened."

Wade was taken to a hospital after the arrest and more body camera footage shows an officer at the scene questioned by an emergency medical technician. The EMT asked an officer how Wade received the injuries to his face; the officer responded: "We did have to put him to the ground because he was resisting. ... His face may or may not have scraped the ground."

Wade had no criminal history at the time of the incident. The teenager pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property and fleeing from the authorities, which is not an admission of guilt,King told The News. He received probation in juvenile court and returned home, King said.

Wade was given a probationary sentence and has been taking it "one day at a time" at home since the incident.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of gross negligence; assault and battery; violating Wade's constitutional rights; and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. Besides the monetary damages, the suit seeks "declaratory, equitable, and/or injunctive relief, including, but not limited to implementation of institutional reform and measures of accountability."

"What happened to Tyler was a clear violation of the Constitution. The force that was used against him was unnecessary, it was excessive and it was unreasonable," King said. "Even though we can't undo the harm that's been done, maybe we can make them whole again in the form of monetary damages."

King said Wade is lucky they have footage so it isn't his word against the officers'.

"Fortunately, in this event and in this matter, we have body cam, and the body cam showed exactly what happened," King said. "To see a grown man attack a child like that is troubling."

Wednesday was the first time Wade and his mother, Bianca, had watched the entire footage, which was displayed during a press conference at the Detroit law office. Tyler Wade said he has been traumatized and is now afraid of police.

"I don't like leaving the house anymore," Wade said. "I still haven't recovered. I don't know if I'll ever recover, honestly."

A bystander recorded the arrest from across the street, and the footage was widely circulated on social media in the weeks following the arrest. Bianca Wade didn't learn about what happened to her son until she was sent the bystander's video later that day. Her first reaction was: "Where's my son?"

"This was my first time seeing it up close, and it's hard to watch because this is your baby," she said.

Months after the incident, the Wade family said they have received no apology from the Warren Police Department. [MORE]

Witness says 15-year-old Black Teen Jaheim McMillan 'Had His Hands Up' When Gulfport Cops Shot Him to Death and there was 'No Urgency' to Save Him because the Ambulance Arrived without a Siren

From [HERE] The shooting of a Black teenager by police in Gulfport, Mississippi, has led to outcry from family members and activists who say the teen was unarmed with his hands up when he was confronted by police. The teen died days later after being taken off life support.

Police say 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan was armed and refused to drop his weapon when officers fired at him following a foot chase.

The hashtag #JusticeForJaheim has been trending on social media, with some posting photos of the teen bleeding out while handcuffed on the ground.

During the Oct. 6 incident, officers responded to a 911 call about five teens waving firearms at passing cars and began chasing one of them, according to Gulfport police chief Adam Cooper, who held a press conference on the officer-involved shooting Wednesday.

Cooper told reporters that one officer observed McMillan was armed and gave orders for him to stop and drop his weapon.

"McMillan did not comply," Cooper said.

Cooper also claimed McMillan "turned his body and weapon towards the officer," so the officer fired at him.

Debra Stout, a Long Beach, Mississippi, resident told ABC News she witnessed the encounter and said she saw McMillan with his hands up. She says she was waiting outside her home for a phone call when she heard the gunshots.

"I did hear gunshots, I ducked. I didn't know where they were coming from," Stout told ABC News in a zoom interview. "There were guys on the ground, then I noticed the boy who passed away at the front door, but before that I did see him with his hands up."

Stout says she could not see if McMillan was armed. "I didn't know if he was alive or dead," she said.

She said she believes there was a lack of urgency in the medical response to McMillan, because the ambulance, she said, arrived on scene without a siren on.

"I feel terrible. I probably have to get counseling," Stout told ABC News. "I dream about it every night."

Family members disagree with Cooper's claims that Jaheim was armed.

"If Gulfport Police Department had footage of my little cousin holding a gun, best believe it would already have been released," one family member, Court Elle Bolton, said in a Facebook post.

A spokesperson for the Gulfport Police Department declined to comment. Family members of McMillan did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment.

The Mississippi Attorney General's office has jurisdiction on cases where officers use deadly force, Cooper said during the press conference. He said the Gulfport Police Department is "cooperating fully" with the AG's investigation and will conduct an internal investigation.

Family members of McMillan also claimed in a Facebook video they were initially barred from entering a hospital in Mobile, Alabama, where the teenager was airlifted to following the shooting. The hospital – USA Children & Women's Hospital – did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. [MORE]

Jury of Sheeple Ok’s Murder of Black Woman in Parking Lot by White Baytown (TX) Cop. Cop Said He Feared for His Life as He Stood Over Pamela Turner and Shot Her 5X [Sheeple Believe Anything Cops Say]

From [HERE] A Texas police officer was acquitted Tuesday of an assault charge related to the 2019 fatal shooting of Pamela Turner, a woman with a history of mental illness, after the two struggled over his stun gun.

After deliberating for several hours over two days, a jury found Baytown Officer Juan Delacruz not guilty of aggravated assault by a public servantfor the May 2019 shooting death of Turner in the parking lot of an apartment complex where they both lived in suburban Houston.

Delacruz, who is Hispanic, shot Turner after a struggle with the 44-year-old Black woman that a bystander captured on video. Authorities say the confrontation began after Delacruz tried to arrest Turner on warrants for several misdemeanor charges.

The footage showed Delacruz standing over Turner and reaching down to try to grab her arms. Turner then yells, “I’m pregnant.” Moments later, something flashes as she reaches her arm out toward the officer. Suddenly, Delacruz pulls away and fires five gunshots.

The verdict upset Turner’s family. Her family and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said jurors were prevented by the judge from hearing evidence related to past encounters Turner and Delacruz had and his knowledge about her struggles with mental illness.

“This is not fair, and we are tired of it,” said Antoinette Dorsey-James, Turner’s sister.

Ogg called Turner’s death a tragedy and said that when “the jury isn’t able to receive all the evidence, it’s hard for justice to be heard.”

Greg Cagle, one of Delacruz’s attorneys, said that the police officer shot Turner in self-defense only after she used his stun gun against him and that he feared for his life.

“Pamela Turner made a decision to evade arrest, to resist arrest, take a weapon from a police officer, not only take it but then use it against him,” Cagle told jurors Monday.

During closing arguments Monday, prosecutors questioned whether Delacruz was in danger, saying that he had been able to move several feet away after the confrontation and that he shot Turner while she was still on the ground.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Turner’s family, has said she was not pregnant but had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

“She wasn’t perfect, and we’ve not tried to hide that from you guys today,” prosecutor Timothy Adams told jurors. “But the fact is she did not deserve to die on the sidewalk, a few feet from her home.”

Crump, who in recent years has represented victims of police brutality and vigilante violence and has been the lawyer for the families of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, called the jury’s verdict “a setback in the effort for equal justice under the law in America.”

After her death, rallies critical of the police shooting were held by Black Lives Matter Houston and community activists.

Delacruz, who has been with the Baytown police department since 2008, did not face any disciplinary action after the shooting and was placed on administrative assignment within the police department while awaiting his trial.

In a statement, the Baytown police department said it’s still doing an internal review of the shooting.

“While there may be differing opinions on the verdict, this case was tried in a court of law before a jury of Harris County citizens. We ask for respect of this legal process and for citizens to express themselves in a peaceful manner,” the police department said.

If he had been convicted, Delacruz would have faced from five years to life in prison.

A federal civil rights lawsuit Turner’s family has filed against Delacruz and the city of Baytown remains pending.

Lawsuit Claims a Provocative White Cop in a Rockford High School Attacked a Black Teen by Slamming Him Headfirst into a Hallway Floor, Causing Brain Damage

From [HERE] A high school student from Rockford, Illinois suffered a skull fracture after being body slammed on the floor by a police officer, per the Rockford Register Star. Though the incident happened last year, his injuries resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Now both the school and the officer are facing a lawsuit.

In fall of 2021, Parris Moore was wandering the hallways when he was supposed to be in class, the report says. Per the video footage, it seemed he had walked off after getting in disagreement with a teacher. The report stated he had been sent home the previous day for refusing to lower his hoodie. The assistant principal tried to stop Moore from walking but he resisted their attempts to reel him back.

Rockford officer Bradley Lauer, who was working as a school resource officer, got involved, resulting in Moore being dragged out of a room and slammed on to the ground head-first. Al Hofeld, Moore’s attorney, called the incident an evident abuse of force.

Read more about the situation from Rockford Register Star:

Hofeld said the family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rockford Public Schools, the city of Rockford, Lauer and school administrators. He argues the officer used excessive force and that he tried to play down the incident, telling family members that Moore had slipped and fell.

“Police treated a minor, non-violent discipline issue as a violent crime and used deadly force against a short, thin 14-year Parris Moore,” Hofeld said, describing Moore as a bright teen who has never been in trouble before at school.

The student was “knocked out cold, physically limp and motionless on the floor for several minutes,” Hofeld said. “The complaint alleges that Lauer’s use of excessive force gave (Moore) a traumatic brain injury that has resulted in what is now permanent, brain damage, including a changed personality and permanent deficits in memory, language, and fine motor control.”

Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara sided with Officer Lauer, claiming Hofeld’s law firm only released part of the story in an effort to work up the public. Though, any other details about the incident doesn’t change the fact that Moore sustained long-term injuries as a direct result of Lauer’s force. The footage says it all.

As if Black kids aren’t being criminalized in everyday life, they also face it at school. The US Department of Education reported Black students without disabilities made up 30 percent of school-related arrests between 2017 and 2018. The current interest in increasing police presences in schools for the sake of preventing a mass shooting ignores the racial profiling Black students face as a result. Leon Smith, executive director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, told CNN that school resource officers just make the situation worse.

“Having the police officer there, they feel constantly watched and surveilled. They see what they perceive to be unfair searches and seizures and (police) encourage students to inform on each other. It ends up creating an environment of fear and distrust,” he said.

For any other students who look like Moore, this incident has certainly incited the emotions Smith described.