I have a mentally disabled son & what's happening out there cares the hell out of me. He's easily manipulated. We''re his guardians & have to constantly watch what he's doing - his # is 70 so he's smart in some ways that can be dangerous, especially when in comes to the internet. We are also his trustees so we have control over his finances (thank God) because he'd be homeless if we didn't. Unfortunately, there are those out there who don't have any issues with taking advantage & AI is particularly troubling!
Black Lives Matter-Ugliness of Racism.
- Thread starter Ocean Breeze
- Start date
Cop put on paid leave amid probe into police dog attack on surrendering driver
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 25, 2023 • Last updated 3 days ago • 3 minute read
CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio officer was put on leave while he’s investigated for releasing his police dog on a surrendering truck driver even after state troopers told the officer to hold the dog back.
Officer Ryan Speakman was placed on paid administrative leave, Circleville Police Chief G. Shawn Baer in a statement Tuesday. The move is standard procedure in cases where use of force is investigated, Baer said, adding that there would be no further comments until the town’s civilian Use of Force Review Board completes its investigation.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said the recent events in Circleville “should be a lesson, a wake-up call to everyone, that police training in the state of Ohio is not equal.”
The governor told reporters Tuesday that he will propose the state build a “scenario-based training facility” as part of the upcoming capital budget. He also will ask state lawmakers to “explore” permanent funding for the facility so departments of all sizes could use it at no cost, noting smaller police departments may not have the resources needed to cover this kind of training.
Details on what features the training facility might have are still under discussion, said Andy Wilson, the state’s public safety director.
Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog following a lengthy pursuit on July 4 that involved troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and ended near the town. Both the pursuit and the ensuing attack were captured on a police body camera.
The chase began when troopers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mudflap and failed to halt for an inspection, according to a Ohio State Highway Patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called to assist, including a K9 police dog, authorities said.
The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the Highway Patrol incident report and the body cam video. Rose eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.
The body camera video shows Speakman holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard off-camera repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, Speakman deploys the dog and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose.
The trooper shouts “Get the dog off of him!” Rose appears to be in pain and yells “Get it off! Please! Please!” before the attack ends. Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.
Rose was charged with failure to comply, and has not responded to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Messages were also left with attorney Benjamin Partee, who was identified in media reports as Rose’s lawyer.
It’s not clear why he refused to stop for police. Rose is Black, and Speakman is white. Rose told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”
Audio recordings of 911 calls show Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him were “trying to kill” him and he didn’t feel safe pulling over. He also said he was confused about why the officers were trying to stop him and why they had their guns drawn after he briefly stopped the truck before driving away.
The 911 dispatcher repeatedly told Rose he should stop and comply with police, and said the officers weren’t trying to harm him.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 25, 2023 • Last updated 3 days ago • 3 minute read
CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio officer was put on leave while he’s investigated for releasing his police dog on a surrendering truck driver even after state troopers told the officer to hold the dog back.
Officer Ryan Speakman was placed on paid administrative leave, Circleville Police Chief G. Shawn Baer in a statement Tuesday. The move is standard procedure in cases where use of force is investigated, Baer said, adding that there would be no further comments until the town’s civilian Use of Force Review Board completes its investigation.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said the recent events in Circleville “should be a lesson, a wake-up call to everyone, that police training in the state of Ohio is not equal.”
The governor told reporters Tuesday that he will propose the state build a “scenario-based training facility” as part of the upcoming capital budget. He also will ask state lawmakers to “explore” permanent funding for the facility so departments of all sizes could use it at no cost, noting smaller police departments may not have the resources needed to cover this kind of training.
Details on what features the training facility might have are still under discussion, said Andy Wilson, the state’s public safety director.
Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog following a lengthy pursuit on July 4 that involved troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and ended near the town. Both the pursuit and the ensuing attack were captured on a police body camera.
The chase began when troopers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mudflap and failed to halt for an inspection, according to a Ohio State Highway Patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called to assist, including a K9 police dog, authorities said.
The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the Highway Patrol incident report and the body cam video. Rose eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.
The body camera video shows Speakman holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard off-camera repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, Speakman deploys the dog and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose.
The trooper shouts “Get the dog off of him!” Rose appears to be in pain and yells “Get it off! Please! Please!” before the attack ends. Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.
Rose was charged with failure to comply, and has not responded to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Messages were also left with attorney Benjamin Partee, who was identified in media reports as Rose’s lawyer.
It’s not clear why he refused to stop for police. Rose is Black, and Speakman is white. Rose told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”
Audio recordings of 911 calls show Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him were “trying to kill” him and he didn’t feel safe pulling over. He also said he was confused about why the officers were trying to stop him and why they had their guns drawn after he briefly stopped the truck before driving away.
The 911 dispatcher repeatedly told Rose he should stop and comply with police, and said the officers weren’t trying to harm him.
Cop put on paid leave amid probe into police dog attack on surrendering driver
An Ohio officer was put on leave while he's investigated for releasing his police dog on a surrendering truck driver
Mom punched in face while she held baby sues Los Angeles sheriff’s department
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 26, 2023 • 2 minute read
LOS ANGELES — A woman who was punched in the face by a deputy as she held her baby sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging excessive force and wrongful arrest.
Yeayo Russell filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the department and the deputies involved in the July 2022 traffic stop in Palmdale, northeast of Los Angeles. The department released body camera video this month.
“This case is about more than just punches,” said Jamon Hicks, one of Russell’s attorneys. “It is about the way the deputies treated this mother.”
The sheriff’s department did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Russell was a passenger in a car that was stopped for driving at night without headlights. The deputies smelled alcohol and saw three babies who weren’t in car seats and were instead being held, authorities said.
The male driver was arrested on suspicion of driving on a suspended license, driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment. Russell and three other women in the car were held on suspicion of child endangerment.
The edited video released by Sheriff Robert Luna shows Russell’s child being taken from her as she shrieks, then a second woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding another baby.
Deputies try to persuade Russell to give them the child, and she responds, “You’ll have to shoot me dead before you take my baby,” the video shows. As she resists, a deputy punches her several times in the face, and she is handcuffed.
Russell spent four days in jail, separated from her weeks-old infant, causing her distress, Hicks said.
“Hours and hours she had no idea where her child was. Hours and hours she had no idea if her child was OK,” he said.
Russell is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the 10 deputies involved in her arrest and jailing.
The deputy who punched Russell was taken off field duty, Luna said when he released the video July 13. The sheriff said that he found the punching “completely unacceptable” and that he had sent the case to the county district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to charge the deputy. He said he also alerted the FBI.
Luna, a former Long Beach police chief, took over the department in December after defeating incumbent Alex Villanueva and vowed to overhaul the nation’s largest sheriff’s department.
“It’s unfortunate that it took a year for this video to even come out. This is something that the public should have seen right away. And the fact that it took a year, and again credit Sheriff Luna for exposing it, shows the mentality of the county sheriffs in that area,” Hicks said.
Federal monitors continue to oversee reforms that the department agreed to for the Palmdale and Lancaster stations, which are among the busiest in the county.
In 2015, the sheriff’s department settled federal allegations that deputies in those stations had engaged in excessive use of force and racially biased policing that included disproportionately stopping or searching Black and Latino people.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Jul 26, 2023 • 2 minute read
LOS ANGELES — A woman who was punched in the face by a deputy as she held her baby sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging excessive force and wrongful arrest.
Yeayo Russell filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the department and the deputies involved in the July 2022 traffic stop in Palmdale, northeast of Los Angeles. The department released body camera video this month.
“This case is about more than just punches,” said Jamon Hicks, one of Russell’s attorneys. “It is about the way the deputies treated this mother.”
The sheriff’s department did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Russell was a passenger in a car that was stopped for driving at night without headlights. The deputies smelled alcohol and saw three babies who weren’t in car seats and were instead being held, authorities said.
The male driver was arrested on suspicion of driving on a suspended license, driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment. Russell and three other women in the car were held on suspicion of child endangerment.
The edited video released by Sheriff Robert Luna shows Russell’s child being taken from her as she shrieks, then a second woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding another baby.
Deputies try to persuade Russell to give them the child, and she responds, “You’ll have to shoot me dead before you take my baby,” the video shows. As she resists, a deputy punches her several times in the face, and she is handcuffed.
Russell spent four days in jail, separated from her weeks-old infant, causing her distress, Hicks said.
“Hours and hours she had no idea where her child was. Hours and hours she had no idea if her child was OK,” he said.
Russell is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the 10 deputies involved in her arrest and jailing.
The deputy who punched Russell was taken off field duty, Luna said when he released the video July 13. The sheriff said that he found the punching “completely unacceptable” and that he had sent the case to the county district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to charge the deputy. He said he also alerted the FBI.
Luna, a former Long Beach police chief, took over the department in December after defeating incumbent Alex Villanueva and vowed to overhaul the nation’s largest sheriff’s department.
“It’s unfortunate that it took a year for this video to even come out. This is something that the public should have seen right away. And the fact that it took a year, and again credit Sheriff Luna for exposing it, shows the mentality of the county sheriffs in that area,” Hicks said.
Federal monitors continue to oversee reforms that the department agreed to for the Palmdale and Lancaster stations, which are among the busiest in the county.
In 2015, the sheriff’s department settled federal allegations that deputies in those stations had engaged in excessive use of force and racially biased policing that included disproportionately stopping or searching Black and Latino people.
Mom punched in face while she held baby sues Los Angeles sheriff’s department
A woman who was punched in the face by a deputy as she held her baby sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Ohio officer fired after letting his police dog attack a surrendering truck driver
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Patrick Orsagos, Bruce Shipkowski And Samantha Hendrickson
Published Jul 26, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A police officer in rural Ohio was fired Wednesday after he released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver despite state troopers telling him to hold the K9 back.
The Circleville Police Department said Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and his termination is “effective immediately.” His firing comes a day after the department said he was on paid administrative leave, which is standard during use-of-force investigations.
The town’s civilian police review board has found Speakman didn’t violate department policy when he deployed the dog, Wednesday’s police statement said, adding that the review board doesn’t have the authority to recommend discipline.
Department officials said they would have no further comment on the matter “at this time” since it’s a personnel matter. Messages seeking comment from Speakman were not immediately returned.
The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, a police union Speakman belongs to, said Wednesday it had filed a grievance on his behalf and that he was fired without just cause.
Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog following a lengthy pursuit on July 4 involving the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The episode was captured on a police body camera.
Troopers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mudflap and failed to halt for an inspection, according to a highway patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called in to assist.
The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the incident report and the body cam video. Rose eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.
The body camera video shows Speakman holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard off-camera repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, Speakman deploys the dog and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose, who yells “Get it off! Please! Please!”
Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.
He was charged with failure to comply, and hasn’t responded to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Attorney Benjamin Partee, who is representing Rose, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear why he refused to stop for police. Rose is Black, and Speakman is white. Rose told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”
Audio recordings of 911 calls show Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him were “trying to kill” him and he didn’t feel safe pulling over. He also said he was confused about why the officers were trying to stop him and why they had their guns drawn after he briefly stopped the truck before driving away.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Patrick Orsagos, Bruce Shipkowski And Samantha Hendrickson
Published Jul 26, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A police officer in rural Ohio was fired Wednesday after he released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver despite state troopers telling him to hold the K9 back.
The Circleville Police Department said Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and his termination is “effective immediately.” His firing comes a day after the department said he was on paid administrative leave, which is standard during use-of-force investigations.
The town’s civilian police review board has found Speakman didn’t violate department policy when he deployed the dog, Wednesday’s police statement said, adding that the review board doesn’t have the authority to recommend discipline.
Department officials said they would have no further comment on the matter “at this time” since it’s a personnel matter. Messages seeking comment from Speakman were not immediately returned.
The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, a police union Speakman belongs to, said Wednesday it had filed a grievance on his behalf and that he was fired without just cause.
Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog following a lengthy pursuit on July 4 involving the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The episode was captured on a police body camera.
Troopers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mudflap and failed to halt for an inspection, according to a highway patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called in to assist.
The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the incident report and the body cam video. Rose eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.
The body camera video shows Speakman holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard off-camera repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, Speakman deploys the dog and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose, who yells “Get it off! Please! Please!”
Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.
He was charged with failure to comply, and hasn’t responded to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Attorney Benjamin Partee, who is representing Rose, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear why he refused to stop for police. Rose is Black, and Speakman is white. Rose told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”
Audio recordings of 911 calls show Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him were “trying to kill” him and he didn’t feel safe pulling over. He also said he was confused about why the officers were trying to stop him and why they had their guns drawn after he briefly stopped the truck before driving away.
Ohio officer fired after letting his police dog attack a surrendering truck driver
A police officer in rural Ohio was fired Wednesday after he released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver.
Black people need ‘safe spaces’ to enjoy great outdoors
Author of the article
enette Wilford
Published Jul 27, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
Not so black and white.
A black journalist took a basic wilderness survival class and discovered that “safe spaces” were being created so that black people can avoid “trauma” from white people.
Char Adams, a reporter for NBC News’ NBC BLK, wrote in the first-person report about her love of the great outdoors — even though it was considered “white people stuff.”
The class taught Adams things like putting up shelter, starting fires, tying basic knots, poisonous creatures to avoid and filtering water for drinking. But as the lone black woman there, she wondered aloud if communing deeply with nature was “truly a ‘white thing.'”
“What did I get myself into?” she asked herself.
Adams wanted to break the stereotype that black people do not enjoy being outdoors and spoke with other black outdoorsy types who created spaces in order to avoid “harassment” and “trauma” from white people.
While many of the groups were created to find like-minded people, they also wanted to combat racism from the Jim Crow Era, a time when black people were banned from national parks.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots prompted one woman to find a “space for black women” like herself. She ended up creating a group herself.
“There were a lot of Black people looking for safe spaces to go camping and just experience the outdoors,” Toyin Ajayi, who launched Outdoorsy Black Women in 2021, a “safe space” for black people to go camping where they wouldn’t be harassed or discriminated against.
“People would go to campgrounds, and there would be Trump flags flying everywhere,” Ajayi said. “I wanted to build a safe space for that.”
Adams’ essay was actually published last month but a fresh tweet from NBC News gave it new life — and the Internet was not happy with the revival.
“Literally no one has been keeping people from hiking based on skin color,” one person wrote.
“Trauma related to being outdoors?” another user asked. “You gotta be sh***ing me.”
Another added: “The word trauma is severely overused.”
One person commented, “Black narcissism is off the charts,” while another joked, “Wow, nature. You’re racist.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article
enette WilfordPublished Jul 27, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
Not so black and white.
A black journalist took a basic wilderness survival class and discovered that “safe spaces” were being created so that black people can avoid “trauma” from white people.
Char Adams, a reporter for NBC News’ NBC BLK, wrote in the first-person report about her love of the great outdoors — even though it was considered “white people stuff.”
The class taught Adams things like putting up shelter, starting fires, tying basic knots, poisonous creatures to avoid and filtering water for drinking. But as the lone black woman there, she wondered aloud if communing deeply with nature was “truly a ‘white thing.'”
“What did I get myself into?” she asked herself.
Adams wanted to break the stereotype that black people do not enjoy being outdoors and spoke with other black outdoorsy types who created spaces in order to avoid “harassment” and “trauma” from white people.
While many of the groups were created to find like-minded people, they also wanted to combat racism from the Jim Crow Era, a time when black people were banned from national parks.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots prompted one woman to find a “space for black women” like herself. She ended up creating a group herself.
“There were a lot of Black people looking for safe spaces to go camping and just experience the outdoors,” Toyin Ajayi, who launched Outdoorsy Black Women in 2021, a “safe space” for black people to go camping where they wouldn’t be harassed or discriminated against.
“People would go to campgrounds, and there would be Trump flags flying everywhere,” Ajayi said. “I wanted to build a safe space for that.”
Adams’ essay was actually published last month but a fresh tweet from NBC News gave it new life — and the Internet was not happy with the revival.
“Literally no one has been keeping people from hiking based on skin color,” one person wrote.
“Trauma related to being outdoors?” another user asked. “You gotta be sh***ing me.”
Another added: “The word trauma is severely overused.”
One person commented, “Black narcissism is off the charts,” while another joked, “Wow, nature. You’re racist.”
‘NATURE, YOU'RE RACIST:’ Black people need ‘safe spaces’ to enjoy great outdoors
A writer took a wilderness survival class and learned “safe spaces” were being created so black people can avoid “trauma” from white people.
Plot thickens in principal's tragic suicide
Author of the article:Joe Warmington
Published Jul 31, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
The plot has thickened in the tragic suicide of a school principal, as documents now show the equity and diversity training — alleged to have led to his downfall — was awarded as a sole-sourced contract.
Principal Richard Bilkszto, 60, took his own life July 13 after a period of depression which a lawsuit claims resulted from a race training course he took in 2021.
According to a lawsuit launched by Bilkszto, he had a verbal disagreement with the course’s instructor while offering pushback to the instructor’s claim that Canada is more racist than the United States.
As Brian Lilley reported last week, transcripts of the training sessions — highlighted in Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the TDSB over his treatment at these seminars — allege Kojo Institute’s founder and CEO Kike Ojo-Thompson offered up Bilkszto as an example of white supremacy, which his lawsuit argued “implicitly referred to Bilkszto as a racist and a white supremacist.”
Wrote Lilley: “This is the operation of white supremacy and you saw it with your own eyes,” the court filing quotes Ojo-Thompson as saying in reference to Bilkszto.
Meawnhile, Ojo-Thompson said “the allegations made against me and KOJO Institute within Mr. Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board are false, and we are not a party to the lawsuit,” and “while the coverage by right-wing media of this controversy is disappointing and led to our organization and team members receiving threats and vitriol online, we will not be deterred from our work in building a better society for everyone.”
Ojo-Thompson, whose Kojo Institute for 20 years has offered ”anti-racism and anti-oppression” and “anti-Black racism” training to firms and institutions, fired back, saying she is being singled out by politicial opponents.
“This incident is being weaponized to discredit and suppress the work of everyone committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she said in a statement.
But what now has come to light are documents and Toronto District School Board minutes that show the Kojo Institute retained for this training was done without a traditional tender or bidding process. A TDSB agenda from 2020 shows that the Kojo Institute was awarded a “sole-sourced” contract from July 2020 until May 2021 for “$81,000.”
A TDSB document explains “during the pandemic, there were not many organizations who had the capacity or experience (to) commit to online training of large groups or participants.”
Since there are many other equity training firms available, this claim should be investigated.
The TDSB has not yet commented on the emergence of the information about the sole-sourced contract. But since there was one, it brings into question whether they should have any involvement in any probe into this?
When asked for comment, TDSB Spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz cited last week’s statement that the board “launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic passing of Richard Bilkszto, retaining King International Advisory Group, an experienced and well-respected investigative firm with multi-disciplinary expertise in conducting thorough investigations.”
The TDSB also said it wants “this investigation to be conducted in a professional, sensitive and respectful manner” and that “regular equity training sessions for all staff support student achievement and well-being and are an important aspect of the board’s approved multi-year strategic priorities. Effective learning takes place in a supportive environment that fosters honest dialogue and is based on respect and learning.”
If the allegations in the lawsuit are accurate, then that did not appear to happen here.
However, now that documents indicate there was not a normal tendering process to hire Ojo-Thompson and her Kojo Institute, it’s now vital that a third party be given carriage to conduct an independent investigation.
A man’s good name is in the hands of this probe and it needs to be done impartially. And Ojo-Thompson and the TDSB should be afforded the same courtesy.
As the Toronto Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein has contended, it would be appropriate for the province to commence a coroner’s inquest into this matter.
The $81,000 used for this training that may have resulted in the death of one of the participants was, after all, taxpayers’ money.
Now taxpayers are entitled to know how it was decided this firm would get the contract without competition, and what were the factors behind the decision?
jwarmington@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Joe Warmington
Published Jul 31, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
The plot has thickened in the tragic suicide of a school principal, as documents now show the equity and diversity training — alleged to have led to his downfall — was awarded as a sole-sourced contract.
Principal Richard Bilkszto, 60, took his own life July 13 after a period of depression which a lawsuit claims resulted from a race training course he took in 2021.
According to a lawsuit launched by Bilkszto, he had a verbal disagreement with the course’s instructor while offering pushback to the instructor’s claim that Canada is more racist than the United States.
As Brian Lilley reported last week, transcripts of the training sessions — highlighted in Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the TDSB over his treatment at these seminars — allege Kojo Institute’s founder and CEO Kike Ojo-Thompson offered up Bilkszto as an example of white supremacy, which his lawsuit argued “implicitly referred to Bilkszto as a racist and a white supremacist.”
Wrote Lilley: “This is the operation of white supremacy and you saw it with your own eyes,” the court filing quotes Ojo-Thompson as saying in reference to Bilkszto.
Meawnhile, Ojo-Thompson said “the allegations made against me and KOJO Institute within Mr. Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board are false, and we are not a party to the lawsuit,” and “while the coverage by right-wing media of this controversy is disappointing and led to our organization and team members receiving threats and vitriol online, we will not be deterred from our work in building a better society for everyone.”
Ojo-Thompson, whose Kojo Institute for 20 years has offered ”anti-racism and anti-oppression” and “anti-Black racism” training to firms and institutions, fired back, saying she is being singled out by politicial opponents.
“This incident is being weaponized to discredit and suppress the work of everyone committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she said in a statement.
But what now has come to light are documents and Toronto District School Board minutes that show the Kojo Institute retained for this training was done without a traditional tender or bidding process. A TDSB agenda from 2020 shows that the Kojo Institute was awarded a “sole-sourced” contract from July 2020 until May 2021 for “$81,000.”
A TDSB document explains “during the pandemic, there were not many organizations who had the capacity or experience (to) commit to online training of large groups or participants.”
Since there are many other equity training firms available, this claim should be investigated.
The TDSB has not yet commented on the emergence of the information about the sole-sourced contract. But since there was one, it brings into question whether they should have any involvement in any probe into this?
When asked for comment, TDSB Spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz cited last week’s statement that the board “launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic passing of Richard Bilkszto, retaining King International Advisory Group, an experienced and well-respected investigative firm with multi-disciplinary expertise in conducting thorough investigations.”
The TDSB also said it wants “this investigation to be conducted in a professional, sensitive and respectful manner” and that “regular equity training sessions for all staff support student achievement and well-being and are an important aspect of the board’s approved multi-year strategic priorities. Effective learning takes place in a supportive environment that fosters honest dialogue and is based on respect and learning.”
If the allegations in the lawsuit are accurate, then that did not appear to happen here.
However, now that documents indicate there was not a normal tendering process to hire Ojo-Thompson and her Kojo Institute, it’s now vital that a third party be given carriage to conduct an independent investigation.
A man’s good name is in the hands of this probe and it needs to be done impartially. And Ojo-Thompson and the TDSB should be afforded the same courtesy.
As the Toronto Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein has contended, it would be appropriate for the province to commence a coroner’s inquest into this matter.
The $81,000 used for this training that may have resulted in the death of one of the participants was, after all, taxpayers’ money.
Now taxpayers are entitled to know how it was decided this firm would get the contract without competition, and what were the factors behind the decision?
jwarmington@postmedia.com
WARMINGTON: Plot thickens in principal's tragic suicide
The plot has thickened in the tragic suicide of a Toronto public school principal.
Biotech firm settles with family of Black woman whose cells were first human cells to be successfully cloned
Tissue was taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks' tumour before she died of cervical cancer
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lea Skene And Sarah Brumfield
Published Aug 01, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
BALTIMORE — More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.
Tissue taken from the Black woman’s tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.
Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.
Doctors harvested Lacks’ cells in 1951, long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today. Lawyers for her family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known. The company unjustly enriched itself off Lacks’ cells, the family argued in their lawsuit, filed in 2021.
The settlement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all day Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore. Some of Lacks’ grandchildren were among the family members who attended the talks.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, announced the settlement late Monday. He said the terms are confidential.
“The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court and will have no further comment about the settlement,” Thermo Fisher representatives and attorneys for the Lacks family said in a joint statement.
HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. They became known as the first immortalized human cell line because scientists could cultivate her cells indefinitely. That meant scientists anywhere could reproduce studies using identical cells.
The remarkable science involved — and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom had chronic illnesses and no health insurance _ were documented in a bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in an HBO movie about the story.
A poor tobacco farmer from southern Virginia, Lacks got married and moved with her husband to Turner Station, a historically Black community outside Baltimore. They were raising five children when doctors discovered a tumor in Lacks’ cervix and saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy.
Lacks died at age 31 in the “colored ward” of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was buried in an unmarked grave.
Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them.
In their complaint, Lacks’ grandchildren and other descendants argued that her treatment illustrates a much larger issue that persists today: racism inside the U.S. medical system.
“The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,” the complaint reads. “Too often, the history of medical experimentation in the United States has been the history of medical racism.”
Thermo Fisher argued the case should be dismissed because it was filed after the statute of limitations expired, but attorneys for the family said that shouldn’t apply because the company continues to benefit from the cells.
In a statement posted to their website, Johns Hopkins Medicine officials said they reviewed all interactions with Lacks and her family after the 2010 publication of Skloot’s book. While acknowledging an ethical responsibility, it said the medical system “has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line.”
Crump, a civil rights attorney, has become well known for representing victims of police violence and calling for racial justice, especially in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. The Lacks family joined him Tuesday morning near Baltimore’s waterfront to announce the settlement and pay tribute to Lacks on what would have been her 103rd birthday. The group brought balloons and a cake to celebrate.
“We did it — and what a birthday present today,” Crump said during the news conference.
Lacks’ only surviving child, Lawrence Lacks Sr., lives to see justice done, grandson Alfred Lacks Carter Jr. said. Now 86, Lawrence Lacks was 16 when his mother died.
“There couldn’t have been a more fitting day for her to have justice, for her family to have relief,” Carter said. “It was a long fight — over 70 years — and Henrietta Lacks gets her day.”
Last week, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, both Maryland Democrats, introduced a bill to posthumously award Lacks the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Henrietta Lacks changed the course of modern medicine,” Van Hollen said in a statement announcing the bill. “It is long past time that we recognize her life-saving contributions to the world.”
torontosun.com
Tissue was taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks' tumour before she died of cervical cancer
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lea Skene And Sarah Brumfield
Published Aug 01, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
BALTIMORE — More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.
Tissue taken from the Black woman’s tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.
Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.
Doctors harvested Lacks’ cells in 1951, long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today. Lawyers for her family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known. The company unjustly enriched itself off Lacks’ cells, the family argued in their lawsuit, filed in 2021.
The settlement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all day Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore. Some of Lacks’ grandchildren were among the family members who attended the talks.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, announced the settlement late Monday. He said the terms are confidential.
“The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court and will have no further comment about the settlement,” Thermo Fisher representatives and attorneys for the Lacks family said in a joint statement.
HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. They became known as the first immortalized human cell line because scientists could cultivate her cells indefinitely. That meant scientists anywhere could reproduce studies using identical cells.
The remarkable science involved — and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom had chronic illnesses and no health insurance _ were documented in a bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in an HBO movie about the story.
A poor tobacco farmer from southern Virginia, Lacks got married and moved with her husband to Turner Station, a historically Black community outside Baltimore. They were raising five children when doctors discovered a tumor in Lacks’ cervix and saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy.
Lacks died at age 31 in the “colored ward” of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was buried in an unmarked grave.
Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them.
In their complaint, Lacks’ grandchildren and other descendants argued that her treatment illustrates a much larger issue that persists today: racism inside the U.S. medical system.
“The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,” the complaint reads. “Too often, the history of medical experimentation in the United States has been the history of medical racism.”
Thermo Fisher argued the case should be dismissed because it was filed after the statute of limitations expired, but attorneys for the family said that shouldn’t apply because the company continues to benefit from the cells.
In a statement posted to their website, Johns Hopkins Medicine officials said they reviewed all interactions with Lacks and her family after the 2010 publication of Skloot’s book. While acknowledging an ethical responsibility, it said the medical system “has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line.”
Crump, a civil rights attorney, has become well known for representing victims of police violence and calling for racial justice, especially in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. The Lacks family joined him Tuesday morning near Baltimore’s waterfront to announce the settlement and pay tribute to Lacks on what would have been her 103rd birthday. The group brought balloons and a cake to celebrate.
“We did it — and what a birthday present today,” Crump said during the news conference.
Lacks’ only surviving child, Lawrence Lacks Sr., lives to see justice done, grandson Alfred Lacks Carter Jr. said. Now 86, Lawrence Lacks was 16 when his mother died.
“There couldn’t have been a more fitting day for her to have justice, for her family to have relief,” Carter said. “It was a long fight — over 70 years — and Henrietta Lacks gets her day.”
Last week, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, both Maryland Democrats, introduced a bill to posthumously award Lacks the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Henrietta Lacks changed the course of modern medicine,” Van Hollen said in a statement announcing the bill. “It is long past time that we recognize her life-saving contributions to the world.”
Biotech firm settles with family of Black woman whose cells were first human cells to be successfully cloned
Tissue was taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks' tumour before she died of cervical cancer
Cop holds innocent family at gunpoint after making typo while running plates
'We made a mistake,' Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 01, 2023 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 4 minute read
a family is mistakenly stopped and held by Frisco police.
a family is mistakenly stopped and held by Frisco police.
FRISCO, Texas — A Texas police department is apologizing after a typo made while checking a license plate resulted in officers pulling over what they wrongly suspected was a stolen car and then holding an innocent Black family at gunpoint.
Frisco police acknowledged the traffic stop was caused by an officer misreading the car’s license plate. As the officer saw it leaving a hotel in the city north of Dallas, she checked its Arkansas plate as “AZ” for Arizona — but should have run it as “AR.”
The driver of the car, her husband and one of the two children being driven by the Arkansas couple to a youth basketball tournament can all be heard sobbing on body camera video posted online by police in Frisco, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them.”
The video shows an officer pointing his handgun toward the Dodge Charger as he orders the driver to get out and walk backward toward officers with her hands raised. Also in the car were the woman’s husband, their son and a nephew.
Police order one of the children to step out and lift his shirt. The driver’s husband and the other child are told to stay inside and raise their hands through the open windows.
“I’ve never been in trouble a day of my life,” the pleading driver says on the video. “This is scaring the hell out of me.”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop told the driver she was pulled over because her license plate was “associated essentially with no vehicle.”
“Normally, when we see things like this, it makes us believe the vehicle was stolen,” the officer tells the crying woman on the body-camera video.
Frisco police said in their statement Friday that all the department’s officers have received guidance stressing the need for accuracy when reporting information. The department said its review will aim to “identify further changes to training, policies and procedures” to prevent future mistakes.
A Frisco police spokesman, officer Joshua Lovell, said the department had no further comment Tuesday, citing the ongoing police review of the traffic stop. He declined to provide a copy of the police incident report to The Associated Press, saying a formal records request would have to be filed for the public information.
On the body-camera video released from the July 23 traffic stop, tensions are heightened briefly when the driver tells police she has a gun locked in her car’s glove compartment.
“Occupants of the car, leave your hands outside the car. We know there is a gun in there,” one of the officers holding a handgun shouts at the passengers. “If you reach in that car, you may get shot.”
Civil rights lawyer David Henderson reviewed a video that showed part of the stop and told the Dallas Morning News he thinks the family was profiled, adding that he believes police violated the family’s constitutional rights.
A Black woman having a firearm in her vehicle also may have played a role, he said.
“In cases I’ve seen involving people of color who have a license to carry, as soon as they alert the police to the fact that they have a weapon, the police change drastically in terms of how they deal with them,” Henderson said.
More than seven minutes pass before officers on the scene holster their weapons after recognizing their mistake and approach the car.
One of the children keeps his hands on the back of the car as the driver’s husband gets out, telling the officers they’re travelers from Arkansas and had just finished breakfast before their car was stopped.
“Listen, bro, we’re just here for a basketball tournament,” the sobbing man tells the officers. One of the children can also be heard crying as the man adds: “Y’all pulled a gun on my son for no reason.”
The officers apologize repeatedly, with one saying they responded with guns drawn because it’s “the normal way we pull people out of a stolen car.” Another assures the family that they were in no danger because they followed the officers’ orders.
“Y’all cooperate, nothing’s going to happen,” the officer says. “No one just randomly shoots somebody for no reason, right?”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop and was among those with guns drawn was also Black. She explains that when she checked the license plate, “I ran it as AZ for Arizona instead of AR” for Arkansas.
“This is all my fault, OK,” the officer says. “I apologize for this. I know it’s very traumatic for you, your nephew and your son. Like I said, it’s on me.”
The driver’s husband is visibly shaken after police explain what happened.
He says that he dropped his phone after the car was pulled over. “If I would have went to reach for my phone, we could’ve all got killed.”
The man then turns away from the officers, walks to the passenger side of the car and bows his head, sobbing loudly.
torontosun.com
'We made a mistake,' Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 01, 2023 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 4 minute read
a family is mistakenly stopped and held by Frisco police.
a family is mistakenly stopped and held by Frisco police.
FRISCO, Texas — A Texas police department is apologizing after a typo made while checking a license plate resulted in officers pulling over what they wrongly suspected was a stolen car and then holding an innocent Black family at gunpoint.
Frisco police acknowledged the traffic stop was caused by an officer misreading the car’s license plate. As the officer saw it leaving a hotel in the city north of Dallas, she checked its Arkansas plate as “AZ” for Arizona — but should have run it as “AR.”
The driver of the car, her husband and one of the two children being driven by the Arkansas couple to a youth basketball tournament can all be heard sobbing on body camera video posted online by police in Frisco, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them.”
The video shows an officer pointing his handgun toward the Dodge Charger as he orders the driver to get out and walk backward toward officers with her hands raised. Also in the car were the woman’s husband, their son and a nephew.
Police order one of the children to step out and lift his shirt. The driver’s husband and the other child are told to stay inside and raise their hands through the open windows.
“I’ve never been in trouble a day of my life,” the pleading driver says on the video. “This is scaring the hell out of me.”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop told the driver she was pulled over because her license plate was “associated essentially with no vehicle.”
“Normally, when we see things like this, it makes us believe the vehicle was stolen,” the officer tells the crying woman on the body-camera video.
Frisco police said in their statement Friday that all the department’s officers have received guidance stressing the need for accuracy when reporting information. The department said its review will aim to “identify further changes to training, policies and procedures” to prevent future mistakes.
A Frisco police spokesman, officer Joshua Lovell, said the department had no further comment Tuesday, citing the ongoing police review of the traffic stop. He declined to provide a copy of the police incident report to The Associated Press, saying a formal records request would have to be filed for the public information.
On the body-camera video released from the July 23 traffic stop, tensions are heightened briefly when the driver tells police she has a gun locked in her car’s glove compartment.
“Occupants of the car, leave your hands outside the car. We know there is a gun in there,” one of the officers holding a handgun shouts at the passengers. “If you reach in that car, you may get shot.”
Civil rights lawyer David Henderson reviewed a video that showed part of the stop and told the Dallas Morning News he thinks the family was profiled, adding that he believes police violated the family’s constitutional rights.
A Black woman having a firearm in her vehicle also may have played a role, he said.
“In cases I’ve seen involving people of color who have a license to carry, as soon as they alert the police to the fact that they have a weapon, the police change drastically in terms of how they deal with them,” Henderson said.
More than seven minutes pass before officers on the scene holster their weapons after recognizing their mistake and approach the car.
One of the children keeps his hands on the back of the car as the driver’s husband gets out, telling the officers they’re travelers from Arkansas and had just finished breakfast before their car was stopped.
“Listen, bro, we’re just here for a basketball tournament,” the sobbing man tells the officers. One of the children can also be heard crying as the man adds: “Y’all pulled a gun on my son for no reason.”
The officers apologize repeatedly, with one saying they responded with guns drawn because it’s “the normal way we pull people out of a stolen car.” Another assures the family that they were in no danger because they followed the officers’ orders.
“Y’all cooperate, nothing’s going to happen,” the officer says. “No one just randomly shoots somebody for no reason, right?”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop and was among those with guns drawn was also Black. She explains that when she checked the license plate, “I ran it as AZ for Arizona instead of AR” for Arkansas.
“This is all my fault, OK,” the officer says. “I apologize for this. I know it’s very traumatic for you, your nephew and your son. Like I said, it’s on me.”
The driver’s husband is visibly shaken after police explain what happened.
He says that he dropped his phone after the car was pulled over. “If I would have went to reach for my phone, we could’ve all got killed.”
The man then turns away from the officers, walks to the passenger side of the car and bows his head, sobbing loudly.
Cop holds innocent family at gunpoint after making typo while running plates
A Texas police department is reviewing errors made by officers who pulled over what they wrongly suspected was a stolen car
Jury acquits Louisiana trooper caught on camera pummeling Black driver
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jim Mustian
Published Aug 02, 2023 • 3 minute read
Brown holds down motorist Aaron Larry Bowman during a traffic stop
In this Friday, May 30, 2019 image from Louisiana State Police Trooper Jacob Brown's body camera video, Brown holds down motorist Aaron Larry Bowman during a traffic stop. PHOTO BY JACOB BROWN /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight.
The case of Jacob Brown was the first to emerge from a series of FBI investigations into troopers’ beatings of Black men during traffic stops in Louisiana and underscored the challenges prosecutors face convicting law enforcement officials accused of using excessive force.
After a three-day trial in Monroe, jurors found Brown not guilty of depriving Aaron Bowman of his civil rights during a 2019 beating that left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head.
Brown, who defended the blows to investigators as ” pain compliance,” would have faced up to a decade in federal prison if convicted.
Brown’s defense attorney, Scott Wolleson, told The Associated Press he was grateful for the verdict. “The men and women of the jury recognized the risks law enforcement officers like Jacob Brown face on our behalf every day,” he said.
Bowman’s attorney, Ron Haley, said the acquittal “shows it’s incredibly hard to prove a civil rights violation in federal court.” He added that the attack had “fundamentally changed” Bowman’s life.
“He was low-hanging fruit for Jacob Brown,” Haley said.
The acquittal comes as federal prosecutors are still scrutinizing other Louisiana state troopers caught on body-camera video punching, stunning and dragging another Black motorist, Ronald Greene, before he died in their custody on a rural roadside. That federal probe is also examining whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who beat Greene following a high-speed chase.
Body-camera footage of both the Bowman and Greene beatings, which took place less than three weeks and 20 miles apart, remained under wraps before the AP obtained and published the videos in 2021. The cases were among a dozen highlighted in an AP investigation that revealed a pattern of troopers and their bosses ignoring or concealing evidence of beatings, deflecting blame and impeding efforts to root out misconduct.
State police didn’t investigate the Bowman attack until 536 days after it occurred and only did so weeks after Bowman brought a civil lawsuit. It ultimately determined Brown “engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions,” failed to report the use of force to his supervisors and “intentionally mislabeled” his body-camera video.
The AP found Brown, who patrolled in northern Louisiana, was involved in 23 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and his 2021 resignation — 19 of which targeted Black people. Brown still faces state charges in the violent arrest of yet another Black motorist, a case in which he boasted in a group chat with other troopers that “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
In the wake of the AP’s reporting, the U.S. Justice Department last year opened a sweeping civil rights investigation into the state police that remains ongoing.
On the night that Bowman was pulled over for “improper lane usage,” Brown came upon the scene after deputies had forcibly removed Bowman from his vehicle and taken him to the ground in the driveaway of his Monroe home. Video and police records show he beat Bowman 18 times with a flashlight in 24 seconds.
“I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” Bowman can be heard screaming between blows.
Brown is the son of Bob Brown, a longtime trooper who oversaw statewide criminal investigations and, before retiring, was the agency’s chief of staff. The elder Brown rose to the agency’s second in command despite being reprimanded years earlier for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jim Mustian
Published Aug 02, 2023 • 3 minute read
Brown holds down motorist Aaron Larry Bowman during a traffic stop
In this Friday, May 30, 2019 image from Louisiana State Police Trooper Jacob Brown's body camera video, Brown holds down motorist Aaron Larry Bowman during a traffic stop. PHOTO BY JACOB BROWN /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight.
The case of Jacob Brown was the first to emerge from a series of FBI investigations into troopers’ beatings of Black men during traffic stops in Louisiana and underscored the challenges prosecutors face convicting law enforcement officials accused of using excessive force.
After a three-day trial in Monroe, jurors found Brown not guilty of depriving Aaron Bowman of his civil rights during a 2019 beating that left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head.
Brown, who defended the blows to investigators as ” pain compliance,” would have faced up to a decade in federal prison if convicted.
Brown’s defense attorney, Scott Wolleson, told The Associated Press he was grateful for the verdict. “The men and women of the jury recognized the risks law enforcement officers like Jacob Brown face on our behalf every day,” he said.
Bowman’s attorney, Ron Haley, said the acquittal “shows it’s incredibly hard to prove a civil rights violation in federal court.” He added that the attack had “fundamentally changed” Bowman’s life.
“He was low-hanging fruit for Jacob Brown,” Haley said.
The acquittal comes as federal prosecutors are still scrutinizing other Louisiana state troopers caught on body-camera video punching, stunning and dragging another Black motorist, Ronald Greene, before he died in their custody on a rural roadside. That federal probe is also examining whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who beat Greene following a high-speed chase.
Body-camera footage of both the Bowman and Greene beatings, which took place less than three weeks and 20 miles apart, remained under wraps before the AP obtained and published the videos in 2021. The cases were among a dozen highlighted in an AP investigation that revealed a pattern of troopers and their bosses ignoring or concealing evidence of beatings, deflecting blame and impeding efforts to root out misconduct.
State police didn’t investigate the Bowman attack until 536 days after it occurred and only did so weeks after Bowman brought a civil lawsuit. It ultimately determined Brown “engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions,” failed to report the use of force to his supervisors and “intentionally mislabeled” his body-camera video.
The AP found Brown, who patrolled in northern Louisiana, was involved in 23 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and his 2021 resignation — 19 of which targeted Black people. Brown still faces state charges in the violent arrest of yet another Black motorist, a case in which he boasted in a group chat with other troopers that “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
In the wake of the AP’s reporting, the U.S. Justice Department last year opened a sweeping civil rights investigation into the state police that remains ongoing.
On the night that Bowman was pulled over for “improper lane usage,” Brown came upon the scene after deputies had forcibly removed Bowman from his vehicle and taken him to the ground in the driveaway of his Monroe home. Video and police records show he beat Bowman 18 times with a flashlight in 24 seconds.
“I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” Bowman can be heard screaming between blows.
Brown is the son of Bob Brown, a longtime trooper who oversaw statewide criminal investigations and, before retiring, was the agency’s chief of staff. The elder Brown rose to the agency’s second in command despite being reprimanded years earlier for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office.
Jury acquits Louisiana trooper caught on camera pummeling Black driver
A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist
Ex-Mississippi officers plead guilty to racist assault on 2 Black men during raid
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael Goldberg
Published Aug 03, 2023 • 2 minute read
Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, as the former officers, all of whom are white, appeared in federal court.
Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, as the former officers, all of whom are white, appeared in federal court.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth.
The charges were unsealed Thursday as the former officers appeared in federal court.
The Justice Department in February launched a civil rights probe into allegations levied by the two men. They said the five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer burst into a home without a warrant on Jan. 24 and subjected the men to brutality.
Court documents say that on Jan. 24, the officers burst into the home without a warrant, then handcuffed and used a stun gun on the two men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.
The officers assaulted them with a sex object, beat them and used their stun guns repeatedly over a roughly 90-minute period. The episode culminated with one deputy placing a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing, which cut his tongue, broke his jaw and exited out his neck, the court documents said.
The officers did not give him medical attention, instead discussing a “false cover story to cover up their misconduct,” as well as planting and tempering with evidence, the documents said.
The victims are identified only by their initials in the documents, but Jenkins and Parker have publicly discussed the episode and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June, seeking $400 million in damages.
Court documents said the officers gave themselves the Goon Squad nickname “because of their willingness to use excessive force and and not to report it.” The officers went to the home in Braxton because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house, court documents said. Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid, the court documents show.
Those charged in the case are former Rankin County Sheriff’s Department employees Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield.
The documents identified Elward as the person who shot Jenkins, and Opdyke and Dedmon as the ones who assaulted the two men with a sex object.
The Justice Department in February launched the civil rights probe into allegations levied by Jenkins and Parker.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced on June 27 that all five deputies involved in the Jan. 24 episode had been fired or resigned. Hartfield was later revealed to be the sixth law enforcement officer at the raid. Hartfield was off-duty when he participated in the raid, and he was also fired.
The deputies were charged under what’s known as a criminal information filed in federal court, a document that describes the basis for bringing criminal offenses against a defendant. Unlike an indictment, a criminal information does not require a grand jury’s vote.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Michael Goldberg
Published Aug 03, 2023 • 2 minute read
Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, as the former officers, all of whom are white, appeared in federal court.
Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, as the former officers, all of whom are white, appeared in federal court.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth.
The charges were unsealed Thursday as the former officers appeared in federal court.
The Justice Department in February launched a civil rights probe into allegations levied by the two men. They said the five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer burst into a home without a warrant on Jan. 24 and subjected the men to brutality.
Court documents say that on Jan. 24, the officers burst into the home without a warrant, then handcuffed and used a stun gun on the two men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.
The officers assaulted them with a sex object, beat them and used their stun guns repeatedly over a roughly 90-minute period. The episode culminated with one deputy placing a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing, which cut his tongue, broke his jaw and exited out his neck, the court documents said.
The officers did not give him medical attention, instead discussing a “false cover story to cover up their misconduct,” as well as planting and tempering with evidence, the documents said.
The victims are identified only by their initials in the documents, but Jenkins and Parker have publicly discussed the episode and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June, seeking $400 million in damages.
Court documents said the officers gave themselves the Goon Squad nickname “because of their willingness to use excessive force and and not to report it.” The officers went to the home in Braxton because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house, court documents said. Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid, the court documents show.
Those charged in the case are former Rankin County Sheriff’s Department employees Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield.
The documents identified Elward as the person who shot Jenkins, and Opdyke and Dedmon as the ones who assaulted the two men with a sex object.
The Justice Department in February launched the civil rights probe into allegations levied by Jenkins and Parker.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced on June 27 that all five deputies involved in the Jan. 24 episode had been fired or resigned. Hartfield was later revealed to be the sixth law enforcement officer at the raid. Hartfield was off-duty when he participated in the raid, and he was also fired.
The deputies were charged under what’s known as a criminal information filed in federal court, a document that describes the basis for bringing criminal offenses against a defendant. Unlike an indictment, a criminal information does not require a grand jury’s vote.
Ex-Mississippi officers plead guilty to racist assault on 2 Black men during raid
The charges were unsealed Thursday as the former officers appeared in federal court.
Family mistakenly held at gunpoint by Texas cops say kids have been traumatized
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 03, 2023 • 2 minute read
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Black woman from Arkansas who was held at gunpoint along with three family members when Texas police wrongly suspected their car was stolen said Thursday that she decided to speak out after seeing video from a passerby and realizing two officers had aimed firearms at her 13-year-old son while his hands were up.
“I was there present in that moment, but where they had me I couldn’t see everything, so when I seen that video it really broke me, it really broke me bad,” Demetria Heard said during a news conference in Little Rock.
Police in the Dallas suburb of Frisco have apologized and acknowledged that during the July 23 traffic stop, an officer misread the Dodge Charger’s license plate as the family left a hotel to go to a basketball tournament.
Heard was driving, and her son, 12-year-old nephew and husband, Myron Heard, were passengers. Family members of the two boys say they have been traumatized and are reluctant to talk about what happened.
“We all make mistakes, but notice your mistake before they’ve got several guns on my family,” Myron Heard said.
“This escalated to 1,000 when it could have stayed at .5,” he said.
Body camera video from the stop showed that more than seven minutes passed before officers holstered their weapons after recognizing their mistake. They apologized repeatedly, with one saying they responded with guns drawn because it’s “the normal way we pull people out of a stolen car.” Another assured the family that they were in no danger because they followed the officers’ orders.
The officer who initiated the stop and was among those who drew their weapons was also Black. She explained that when she checked the license plate, “I ran it as AZ for Arizona instead of AR” for Arkansas.
“This is all my fault, OK,” the officer said, as captured by the video. “I apologize for this. I know it’s very traumatic for you, your nephew and your son. Like I said, it’s on me.”
But Demetria Heard said that she felt that the officer seemed dismissive, not apologetic.
“You didn’t even seem genuine at all,” Heard said. “You were just trying to plead your case.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 03, 2023 • 2 minute read
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Black woman from Arkansas who was held at gunpoint along with three family members when Texas police wrongly suspected their car was stolen said Thursday that she decided to speak out after seeing video from a passerby and realizing two officers had aimed firearms at her 13-year-old son while his hands were up.
“I was there present in that moment, but where they had me I couldn’t see everything, so when I seen that video it really broke me, it really broke me bad,” Demetria Heard said during a news conference in Little Rock.
Police in the Dallas suburb of Frisco have apologized and acknowledged that during the July 23 traffic stop, an officer misread the Dodge Charger’s license plate as the family left a hotel to go to a basketball tournament.
Heard was driving, and her son, 12-year-old nephew and husband, Myron Heard, were passengers. Family members of the two boys say they have been traumatized and are reluctant to talk about what happened.
“We all make mistakes, but notice your mistake before they’ve got several guns on my family,” Myron Heard said.
“This escalated to 1,000 when it could have stayed at .5,” he said.
Body camera video from the stop showed that more than seven minutes passed before officers holstered their weapons after recognizing their mistake. They apologized repeatedly, with one saying they responded with guns drawn because it’s “the normal way we pull people out of a stolen car.” Another assured the family that they were in no danger because they followed the officers’ orders.
The officer who initiated the stop and was among those who drew their weapons was also Black. She explained that when she checked the license plate, “I ran it as AZ for Arizona instead of AR” for Arkansas.
“This is all my fault, OK,” the officer said, as captured by the video. “I apologize for this. I know it’s very traumatic for you, your nephew and your son. Like I said, it’s on me.”
But Demetria Heard said that she felt that the officer seemed dismissive, not apologetic.
“You didn’t even seem genuine at all,” Heard said. “You were just trying to plead your case.”
Family mistakenly held at gunpoint by Texas cops say kids have been traumatized
Video from the stop showed that more than seven minutes passed before officers holstered their weapons after recognizing their mistake.
Arrest warrants issued after video of Alabama riverfront brawl goes viral
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 07, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Police said Monday that arrest warrants have been issued in connection with a riverfront brawl in Alabama’s capital that drew nationwide attention after video showed a group of white people pummeling a Black riverboat worker, an exchange that sparked a massive fight.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said there are currently four active warrants and more could be issued after authorities review more footage. Police said Sunday that several people were detained and charges are pending.
Video circulating on social media showed a large melee Saturday that appeared to begin when a crew member of a city-operated riverboat tried to get a pontoon boat moved that was blocking the riverboat from docking.
A white man shoved and punched the Black crew member, according to the video taken by a riverboat passenger and published by WSFA. The conflict escalated when several white people joined in on attacking the Black crew member. A separate video shows that several Black passengers then confronted the pontoon boat group after the riverboat docked, sparking another brawl that was largely split along racial lines.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said police will hold a briefing Tuesday to provide an update on the situation.
“While there is a lot of activity and interest in this, we know that we’ll come through this together as a community collectively as we have other situations,” Reed told news outlets on Monday, according to al.com. Reed said no one has been arrested yet.
Reed said in a statement Sunday that Montgomery police acted “swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.”
“This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system,” Reed said.
The fight took place along Montgomery’s downtown riverfront which the city has worked to developed into a tourist and recreation area with restaurants, bars and hotels.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 07, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Police said Monday that arrest warrants have been issued in connection with a riverfront brawl in Alabama’s capital that drew nationwide attention after video showed a group of white people pummeling a Black riverboat worker, an exchange that sparked a massive fight.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said there are currently four active warrants and more could be issued after authorities review more footage. Police said Sunday that several people were detained and charges are pending.
Video circulating on social media showed a large melee Saturday that appeared to begin when a crew member of a city-operated riverboat tried to get a pontoon boat moved that was blocking the riverboat from docking.
A white man shoved and punched the Black crew member, according to the video taken by a riverboat passenger and published by WSFA. The conflict escalated when several white people joined in on attacking the Black crew member. A separate video shows that several Black passengers then confronted the pontoon boat group after the riverboat docked, sparking another brawl that was largely split along racial lines.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said police will hold a briefing Tuesday to provide an update on the situation.
“While there is a lot of activity and interest in this, we know that we’ll come through this together as a community collectively as we have other situations,” Reed told news outlets on Monday, according to al.com. Reed said no one has been arrested yet.
Reed said in a statement Sunday that Montgomery police acted “swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.”
“This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system,” Reed said.
The fight took place along Montgomery’s downtown riverfront which the city has worked to developed into a tourist and recreation area with restaurants, bars and hotels.
Arrest warrants issued after video of Alabama riverfront brawl goes viral
Police said that arrest warrants have been issued in connection with a riverfront brawl in Alabama's capital that drew nationwide attention.
Teen who helped beaten dock worker hailed a hero
Author of the articleenette Wilford
Published Aug 08, 2023 • 1 minute read
Screen grab of teen in water swimming towards fight on dock.
Screen grab of teen in water swimming towards fight on dock. Twitter
A teenager in Alabama has been called “Black Aquaman” on social media for jumping off a boat and swimming to help a dock worker getting throttled.
The 16-year-old, identified only as Aaren, was one of many people who rushed to save a Black security guard during an attack on the Montgomery Riverfront over the weekend.
Now, a representative for the boy is applauding Aaren’s quick action and said the family loves his new nickname, which has been trending on social media since the weekend.
“In the face of adversity, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years,” Makina LaShea said in a statement.
“The overwhelming love and support pouring in from all corners of the state and surrounding areas have deeply touched Aaren.”
The family also requested Aaren’s anonymity be kept intact so he can “process and reflect on the whirlwind of emotions he’s experiencing,” adding that he will “continue being a force for good in the world.”
It is believed the fight began when the dock worker asked a group of men to move their boat.
That sparked another group, including Aaren, to jump in and help the worker.
“Homie deserves an Olympic medal,” wrote one person.
“Imagine complaining about the Little Mermaid being black only for a black dude to hop out the water and hit you with a rock bottom,” a second fan wrote.
Another added: “Let the history books reflect…. The first black man to ever swim to a fight!!”
The fight broke up once officers arrived at the scene.
At least four warrants have been issued as authorities review video footage.
Police said Sunday that several people were detained and charges are pending.
facebook.com
torontosun.com
Author of the article
enette WilfordPublished Aug 08, 2023 • 1 minute read
Screen grab of teen in water swimming towards fight on dock.
Screen grab of teen in water swimming towards fight on dock. Twitter
A teenager in Alabama has been called “Black Aquaman” on social media for jumping off a boat and swimming to help a dock worker getting throttled.
The 16-year-old, identified only as Aaren, was one of many people who rushed to save a Black security guard during an attack on the Montgomery Riverfront over the weekend.
Now, a representative for the boy is applauding Aaren’s quick action and said the family loves his new nickname, which has been trending on social media since the weekend.
“In the face of adversity, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years,” Makina LaShea said in a statement.
“The overwhelming love and support pouring in from all corners of the state and surrounding areas have deeply touched Aaren.”
The family also requested Aaren’s anonymity be kept intact so he can “process and reflect on the whirlwind of emotions he’s experiencing,” adding that he will “continue being a force for good in the world.”
It is believed the fight began when the dock worker asked a group of men to move their boat.
That sparked another group, including Aaren, to jump in and help the worker.
“Homie deserves an Olympic medal,” wrote one person.
“Imagine complaining about the Little Mermaid being black only for a black dude to hop out the water and hit you with a rock bottom,” a second fan wrote.
Another added: “Let the history books reflect…. The first black man to ever swim to a fight!!”
The fight broke up once officers arrived at the scene.
At least four warrants have been issued as authorities review video footage.
Police said Sunday that several people were detained and charges are pending.
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‘BLACK AQUAMAN:’ Teen who helped beaten dock worker hailed a hero
A teenager in Alabama has been called “Black Aquaman” for jumping off a boat and swimming to help a dock worker getting throttled.
Two more arrested in Alabama riverfront brawl captured on video
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 09, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
drew national attention.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said the two men turned themselves in on Wednesday to be arrested. A total of three men are charged in connection with an attack on a riverboat captain and another dock worker that sparked a riverside brawl in Alabama’s capital city. One man turned himself in earlier in the week.
The melee, where sides broke down along racial lines, began Saturday evening when a moored pontoon boat blocked the Harriott II riverboat from docking in its designated space along the city’s riverfront.
The riverboat co-captain took another vessel to shore to attempt to move the pontoon boat and was attacked by several white people from the private boat, police said. Video showed him being punched and shoved. Crew members and others later confronted the pontoon boat party, and more fighting broke out.
The video showed people being shoved, punched and kicked, and a Black man hitting a white person with a chair. At least one person was knocked into the water.
The three white boaters are so far the only people charged. Police have said more charges are likely as they continue to review video footage of the fight.
Video of the brawl circulated on social media and put a national spotlight on Alabama’s capital city.
“It was just absolutely unnecessary and uncalled for,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday of the violence that transpired.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 09, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
drew national attention.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said the two men turned themselves in on Wednesday to be arrested. A total of three men are charged in connection with an attack on a riverboat captain and another dock worker that sparked a riverside brawl in Alabama’s capital city. One man turned himself in earlier in the week.
The melee, where sides broke down along racial lines, began Saturday evening when a moored pontoon boat blocked the Harriott II riverboat from docking in its designated space along the city’s riverfront.
The riverboat co-captain took another vessel to shore to attempt to move the pontoon boat and was attacked by several white people from the private boat, police said. Video showed him being punched and shoved. Crew members and others later confronted the pontoon boat party, and more fighting broke out.
The video showed people being shoved, punched and kicked, and a Black man hitting a white person with a chair. At least one person was knocked into the water.
The three white boaters are so far the only people charged. Police have said more charges are likely as they continue to review video footage of the fight.
Video of the brawl circulated on social media and put a national spotlight on Alabama’s capital city.
“It was just absolutely unnecessary and uncalled for,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday of the violence that transpired.
Two more arrested in Alabama riverfront brawl captured on video
Police in Alabama on Wednesday arrested two more boaters on misdemeanour assault charges in connection with a riverside brawl.
Fourth person charged in riverside brawl in Alabama that drew national attention
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 10, 2023 • 1 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Police in Alabama said Thursday that a fourth person has been arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in connection with a riverside brawl that drew national attention.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said the 21-year-old woman turned herself in to be arrested. She is the fourth person charged with assaulting a Black riverboat crew co-captain in a riverside brawl in Alabama’s capital city.
The melee, where sides largely broke down along racial lines, began Saturday evening when a moored pontoon boat blocked the city-owned Harriott II riverboat from docking in its designated space along the riverfront so more than 200 passengers could disembark.
The riverboat co-captain took another vessel to shore to move the pontoon boat and was attacked by several white people from the private boat, police said. Video showed him being punched and shoved. Riverboat crew members later confronted the pontoon boat party, and more fighting broke out, police said.
Video of the brawl circulated on social media and put a national spotlight on Alabama’s capital city.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Aug 10, 2023 • 1 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Police in Alabama said Thursday that a fourth person has been arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in connection with a riverside brawl that drew national attention.
Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said the 21-year-old woman turned herself in to be arrested. She is the fourth person charged with assaulting a Black riverboat crew co-captain in a riverside brawl in Alabama’s capital city.
The melee, where sides largely broke down along racial lines, began Saturday evening when a moored pontoon boat blocked the city-owned Harriott II riverboat from docking in its designated space along the riverfront so more than 200 passengers could disembark.
The riverboat co-captain took another vessel to shore to move the pontoon boat and was attacked by several white people from the private boat, police said. Video showed him being punched and shoved. Riverboat crew members later confronted the pontoon boat party, and more fighting broke out, police said.
Video of the brawl circulated on social media and put a national spotlight on Alabama’s capital city.
Fourth person charged in riverside brawl in Alabama that drew national attention
Police in Alabama said Thursday that a fourth person has been arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in connection with a riverside brawl
I was just doing my job
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kim Chandler
Published Aug 11, 2023 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 3 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama boat co-captain was hanging on “for dear life” as men punched and tackled him on the capital city’s riverfront, he told police after video of the brawl circulated widely online.
Dameion Pickett, a crew member of the Harriott II in Montgomery, described the brawl in a handwritten statement to authorities included in court documents, saying he was attacked after moving a pontoon boat a few feet so the city-owned riverboat could dock.
Four white boaters have been charged with misdemeanour assault in the attack against Pickett, who is Black, as well as a teen deckhand, who was punched and is white. The deckhand’s mother heard a racial slur before Pickett was hit, she wrote in a statement.
A fifth person, a Black man who appeared to be hitting people with a folding chair during the subsequent fight, has been charged with disorderly conduct, police announced Friday.
Video of the melee sparked scores of memes and video reenactments.
Pickett told police that the captain had asked a group on a pontoon boat “at least five or six times” to move from the riverboat’s designated docking space but they responded by “giving us the finger and packing up to leave.” Pickett and another deckhand eventually took a vessel to shore and moved the pontoon boat “three steps to the right,” he wrote.
He said two people ran rushing back, including one cursing and threatening to beat him for touching the boat. Pickett wrote that one of the men shouted that it was public dock space, but Pickett told them it was the city’s designated space for the riverboat. He said he told them he was “just doing my job.” Pickett said he was punched in the face and hit from behind. Pickett said.
“I went to the ground. I think I bit one of them. All I can hear Imma kill you” and beat you, he wrote. He couldn’t tell “how long it lasted” and “grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life,” Pickett wrote.
After the fight was over Pickett said he apologized to the riverboat customers for the inconvenience as he helped them get off the boat.
The deckhand had gone with Pickett to move the pontoon boat. His mother, who was also on the Harriott, said in a statement to police that her son tried to pull the men off Pickett and was punched in the chest.
Darron Hendley, an attorney listed in court records for two of the people charged, declined to comment. It was not immediately clear if the others had an attorney to speak on their behalf.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Friday that the investigation is ongoing.
Police said they consulted with the FBI and determined what happened on the riverfront did not qualify as a hate crime. Reed, the city’s first Black mayor, said he will trust the investigative process, but said his “perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor.”
“From what we’ve seen from the history of our city — a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation — it seems to meet the moral definition of a crime fueled by hate, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked,” Reed said. “It is a threat to the durability of our democracy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement professionals, partner organizations and the greater community for helping us ensure justice will prevail.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kim Chandler
Published Aug 11, 2023 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 3 minute read
A brawl involving several men at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media
A brawl involving several people at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., was captured in a video shared on social media. PHOTO BY TWITTER SCREENGRAB /BoreCure
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama boat co-captain was hanging on “for dear life” as men punched and tackled him on the capital city’s riverfront, he told police after video of the brawl circulated widely online.
Dameion Pickett, a crew member of the Harriott II in Montgomery, described the brawl in a handwritten statement to authorities included in court documents, saying he was attacked after moving a pontoon boat a few feet so the city-owned riverboat could dock.
Four white boaters have been charged with misdemeanour assault in the attack against Pickett, who is Black, as well as a teen deckhand, who was punched and is white. The deckhand’s mother heard a racial slur before Pickett was hit, she wrote in a statement.
A fifth person, a Black man who appeared to be hitting people with a folding chair during the subsequent fight, has been charged with disorderly conduct, police announced Friday.
Video of the melee sparked scores of memes and video reenactments.
Pickett told police that the captain had asked a group on a pontoon boat “at least five or six times” to move from the riverboat’s designated docking space but they responded by “giving us the finger and packing up to leave.” Pickett and another deckhand eventually took a vessel to shore and moved the pontoon boat “three steps to the right,” he wrote.
He said two people ran rushing back, including one cursing and threatening to beat him for touching the boat. Pickett wrote that one of the men shouted that it was public dock space, but Pickett told them it was the city’s designated space for the riverboat. He said he told them he was “just doing my job.” Pickett said he was punched in the face and hit from behind. Pickett said.
“I went to the ground. I think I bit one of them. All I can hear Imma kill you” and beat you, he wrote. He couldn’t tell “how long it lasted” and “grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life,” Pickett wrote.
After the fight was over Pickett said he apologized to the riverboat customers for the inconvenience as he helped them get off the boat.
The deckhand had gone with Pickett to move the pontoon boat. His mother, who was also on the Harriott, said in a statement to police that her son tried to pull the men off Pickett and was punched in the chest.
Darron Hendley, an attorney listed in court records for two of the people charged, declined to comment. It was not immediately clear if the others had an attorney to speak on their behalf.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Friday that the investigation is ongoing.
Police said they consulted with the FBI and determined what happened on the riverfront did not qualify as a hate crime. Reed, the city’s first Black mayor, said he will trust the investigative process, but said his “perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor.”
“From what we’ve seen from the history of our city — a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation — it seems to meet the moral definition of a crime fueled by hate, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked,” Reed said. “It is a threat to the durability of our democracy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement professionals, partner organizations and the greater community for helping us ensure justice will prevail.”
Alabama boat co-captain attacked in brawl: I was just doing my job
An Alabama boat co-captain was hanging on "for dear life" as men punched and tackled him on the capital city's riverfront, he told police.