SEATTLE—As demonstrations swept America last month in response to prosecutors failing to charge police for killing Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, hundreds of protesters here mobilized for their latest confrontation with cops. Around 1 a.m. on Sept. 24, a team of officers, many riding bicycles, advanced on activists in the freewheeling area of this city once known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) or Capitol Hill […]
George Floyd Protests
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This week, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron made the bombshell announcement that the cops who fatally shot Breonna Taylor would not be charged with killing her, calling their use of force in the March raid “justified to protect themselves.” In that justification, he said that one witness corroborated the three officers’ insistence that they knocked and identified themselves at Taylor’s Louisville home while executing a search […]
LOUISVILLE—Protests over prosecutors failing to indict any cops for the March killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor flared up again here Thursday, even as the city was still picking up the pieces from an explosive night of violence and unrest. Less than 24 hours after Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a conservative Trump ally, declined to charge officers for fatally shooting Taylor, a Black emergency medical worker, during […]
LOUISVILLE—On Wednesday night, at least 20 members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, were observed guarding storefronts in downtown Louisville amid sometimes violent unrest over the lack of charges in the police killing of Breonna Taylor. The businesses included Bader’s Food Mart—which is also a Shell gas station—Stewart’s Pawn Shop, and Hampton Inn Downtown Louisville, all at or near the intersection of Jefferson and […]
Four people are dead. One criminal trial is pending, while a second will never take place. And amid all that death and uncertainty, the two shooters at the heart of the incidents are enjoying spectacular martyr status on the right. Jake Gardner, an Omaha, Nebraska, bar owner, who shot and killed a Black man during local Black Lives Matter protests in May, died of suicide this […]
Minneapolis prosecutors argued Friday that the four ex-cops charged in George Floyd’s death should face a single jury after participating in the May 25 incident “together”—but their lawyers argued a collective trial would be against the “interest of justice” in the latest indication the men are turning on each other. During a court appearance, attorneys for Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane, and J. Alexander […]
As nearby volunteers in reflective vests and medical-grade face masks swept broken glass and righted overturned trash cans in Wilmington, Delaware, earlier this summer, former Vice President Joe Biden promised to heal the pain of civil unrest sparked by racist violence. “We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us,” Biden vowed, one day after a night of protests and scattered […]
St. Louis police officer Tamarris Bohannon, a 29-year old father-of-three, died on 30 August after being critically wounded in the line of duty a day earlier. Retired law enforcement officers and academics have discussed growing social tensions in the US and increasing risks law enforcement agents are now facing. The African American officer was ambushed while responding to a call of a shooting near Tower Grove […]
Two self-described “Boogaloo Bois” were charged on Friday for allegedly conspiring and attempting to aid Hamas, the extremist Islamist group, as part of “their desire to overthrow the government” after protests erupted in Minneapolis over the police-killing of George Floyd. Michael Robert Solomon, 30, and Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, were charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the Department […]
Daniel Prude was naked when Rochester, New York, police ordered him onto the snowy ground in March. The only thing besides handcuffs that officers placed on his body before he went unconscious? A white mesh bag commonly known as a “spit hood.” Prude, 41, died of homicide asphyxiation on March 30, after a week in a coma. His demise began after he experienced an apparent mental […]
The Metropolitan Police Department on Thursday released bodycam footage of an officer fatally shooting 18-year-old Deon Kay seconds after arriving at the scene in Washington, D.C. Officers say the Black teen “brandished a firearm” during the Wednesday encounter, prompting one cop to shoot him in the chest. He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, spurring immediate protests across the nation’s capital that continued into […]
Fresh off of publicly encouraging his supporters to commit voter fraud and vote for him twice, President Trump on Tuesday issued a memo announcing the federal government’s plans to cut off “lawless zones” from federal funding. The five-page document, sent to Attorney General Bill Barr and director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, claims that “anarchy” is taking over Democratic-run cities and calls […]
In a piercing appraisal of the growing strife unraveling under President Donald Trump’s first term, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused him of stoking, and even starting, civil unrest that is proliferating across the country. Trump has been a “toxic presence in our nation for four years” who is “poisoning our very democracy,” Biden said forcefully in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The speech offered a moment of methodical, […]
As a Black queer millennial, I’m often told I’m strong. For my mere existence alone is often said to be an act of resilience. I live in a world where people who look like me are being extrajudicially killed by cops on viral videos. A global pandemic is taking away my skinfolk more rapidly than any other population. And bigotry, H.I.V., gun violence, opioids, and poverty […]
As Kenosha, Wisconsin, continues to reel from the police shooting of Jacob Blake, residents are increasingly turning their anger to so-called outside agitators who some say invaded the city to sow chaos amongst the protests—and even kill demonstrators. “They [outsiders] tore up our neighborhood, this is our neighborhood, this is where we shop at. These are not Kenosha people,” Lonnie Stewart, 60, told The Daily Beast. […]
I dare you to examine the 1989 murder of Yusuf Hawkins and tell me America has changed. Yusuf Hawkins was a 16-year-old Black teenager who, along with three friends, went to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, one summer night to look at a used car his buddy Troy had found for sale in the newspaper. Yusuf didn’t know anyone in Bensonhurst, but he and his friends found themselves surrounded […]
Before Jacob Blake was shot at least seven times in the back on Sunday night, the Kenosha, Wisconsin police department had long been plagued by aggressive officers, claims of corruption, and a lack of accountability—including the grisly beating of two teenagers on video and a fatal shooting by a cop who was on his first day back at work after another shooting. “Corruption, lies, multiple evidence […]
After an evening of unrest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Wisconsin authorities vowed that “justice will be served” as the city of Kenosha imposed a curfew and the governor called in the National Guard. A video of the shooting that was recorded by a bystander appears to show a Kenosha police officer shooting the Black 29-year-old several times at point-blank range as he tried […]
After two months of protests across from the State Capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee lawmakers voted for a tidy way to disperse their new neighbors: making it illegal to camp there. The law, which also targets protests on public property, makes convictions punishable by up to six years in prison—and even loss of voting rights. The Tennessee bill, passed by the state legislature last week, was […]
Far-right militia, pro-Confederacy groups and anti-fascist counter-protestors faced off on Saturday in tense scenes at Stone Mountain, Georgia, home of the largest monument to the Confederacy. To prepare for the confrontation, park officials closed off entry to the giant rock carving of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson. The city suspended bus services and urged residents to avoid the city center entirely “out of […]
Since he was in elementary school summiting flagpoles, eating his lunch at the top of basketball hoops, and wriggling his way up the exposed seams of brick buildings, Kai Lightner has been a fearless climber. The 20-year-old professional from Fayetteville, North Carolina, has tackled some of the hardest routes in the world, ascending the formidable Era Vella in Margalef, Spain, when he was just 15. Still […]
The NYPD embedded at least one undercover informant among protesters demonstrating against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death, a newly unsealed court filing reveals. The disclosure was buried in an FBI affidavit in the case of Jeremy Trapp, 24, who was arrested by the NYPD on July 17, after he allegedly attempted to cut the brake lines on an NYPD van parked in […]
For nearly a month, Riot Ribs served barbecue, tacos, jalapeno poppers—whatever they had on hand—from a series of tents near the site of ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon. Then, on Tuesday, the food collective announced an abrupt closure. Someone was impersonating the group and swindling money, members said. Riot Ribs was among an emerging network of mutual aid groups aimed at distributing free food to protesters […]
The late congressman John Lewis famously encouraged Americans to stir up “good trouble,” and former President Barack Obama did just that in his eulogy for the late civil rights pioneer on Thursday. Obama earned multiple standing ovations during a speech littered with political barbs aimed at the Trump administration’s crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters and stymied efforts to address voter suppression. Recounting Lewis’ relentless activism, […]
As several Arkansas police officers pinned Lionel Morris on the floor of Harps Food Store in February, with the knee of one officer pressing into his back, the 39-year-old begged for help, repeatedly crying out “I can’t breathe.” The Conway Police Department said that on Feb. 4, the supermarket reported that two men had removed a drone from its packaging. When officers arrived on the scene, […]
A man seen breaking windows in a viral video of Minneapolis protests is suspected to be a known member of a white supremacist group, cops have alleged in a search warrant affidavit. The man in question, Mitchell Carlson, has not been charged with a crime. The video, filmed on May 27, showed a man dressed in all black methodically smashing windows of an AutoZone in Minneapolis […]
On Sunday night, John Oliver kicked off the latest edition of his acclaimed late-night show Last Week Tonight by addressing the ongoing brutalizing of Black Lives Matter protesters by Trump’s federal agents in Portland, Oregon. “The protests in Portland have actually been going on daily for nearly two months now, since the killing of George Floyd,” said Oliver. “But the deployment of federal agents was a […]
Shots rang out in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday as hundreds of members of dueling militia groups faced off during a planned protest against police brutality. The march was initially planned by the Not Fucking Around Coalition—an all-Black armed militia founded by Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John “Jay” Johnson—to protest the death of 26-year-old Black woman Breonna Taylor at the hands of Louisville cops. The “Three Percenter” […]
This story was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter here. OLYMPIA, Wash.—On a rainy June day, the manager of a Motel 6 outside Olympia decided one guest had to leave. The woman had been smoking indoors and had an unauthorized visitor. She appeared to be on drugs and was acting erratically. Normally, that manager might […]
The disturbing federal crackdown happening against Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon, may seem like an obscure, far-away problem for some Americans right now. But Trevor Noah broke down on Tuesday night why everyone should be worried. “Portland has now seen more than 50 straight days of Black Lives Matter protests,” the Daily Show host said. “But over the last few days, something new has […]
PORTLAND—“I’m going to do something, that I can tell you. Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these – Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country,” President Trump said Monday in Washington. “More federal law enforcement, that I can tell you. In Portland, they’ve done a fantastic […]
The crackdown by federal law enforcement in some American cities is on the verge of going national, according to knowledgeable Trump administration sources. As previewed by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows over the weekend and President Donald Trump on Monday, the administration intends to send federal law enforcement into Democratic-run cities—whether those cities want federal police help or not. Multiple sources expected Chicago, a […]
The St. Louis couple that gained notoriety after pointing loaded firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters passing by their home last month joined a Trump campaign event late Friday to recount the terror they experienced on that fateful day when demonstrators encroached on their sidewalks. They noted that they’d since gotten “support from the White House on down.” Speaking to Kim Guilfoyle, campaign adviser and partner […]