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NEW YORK (AP) Black Lives Matter has been a lot of things in its brief, fiery life.

It has been a slogan, a rallying point. A movement that led protests coast to coast, calling for America to get serious about preventing Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement. A heaven-sent resource for people like Helen Jones, desperate for justice after her son died in a Los Angeles County jail.

Black Lives Matter saved us, because we had nobody, said Jones.

Now, BLMs influence faces a test, as voters in Tuesdays election consider candidates who endorsed or denounced the BLM movement amid a national reckoning on race.

Were a very young organization with a whole lot of visibility in a really short amount of time, Patrisse Cullors, one of three BLM co-founders, told The Associated Press. It would be false, she said, for anyone to put it on us solely around what happens in this election cycle.

And in fact, many Republican and Democratic candidates vying for federal, state and local office have moved vociferously toward the political center or further to the right, making it clear that they back the blue or do not support calls for defunding the police. Neither President Donald Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden would reduce police budgets in local communities.

Still, there are reasons for BLM supporters to feel optimistic, some activists say. The group is flush with cash, which it is using in the hopes of playing a significant role in the election. There is a growing roster of candidates whove been nurtured, inspired or supported by the movement: For example, St. Louis area residents are all but certain to elect Cori Bush, a Ferguson protester who is running for Congress.

For the first time, people can hear and consider candidates who will come out and acknowledge the fact that police commit harms against Black and brown folks, said Tiffany Cabn, a national political organizer for the Working Families Party who helped the party recruit progressive-minded prosecutors.

___

In the blink of an eye, BLM has gone from social media hashtag to an immensely influential movement and an organization with millions of dollars at its disposal to push messaging around defunding police departments as a way of addressing systemic racism.

It began just seven years ago, with the emergence of the movement amid its organizers outrage over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

A year later, BLM marched onto the global stage after an uprising in the wake of Michael Browns death at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The three women who founded BLM were already activist powerhouses. Cullors had established her own social justice organization in Los Angeles, Power and Dignity Now. Opal Tometi had been executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, advocating for social and economic prosperity of Black immigrants to the U.S. Alicia Garza, had been a special projects director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, fighting for the rights of professional nannies and other caregivers.

They saw the need to make BLM more than a slogan, Garza said.

We were getting people who were wanting to start chapters, and they were from all over the place, she said. We would be asking them, Well, what else do you have in your community? And they would say, Nothing. We were in the middle of a literal storm and needing to fly a plane as youre building it.

BLM formed a network of chapters in 2015, building infrastructure and an organization that drew funding from celebrities like Beyonc, Jay-Z and Prince.

Its first-ever Los Angeles chapter came to the aid of Helen Jones. She believes her 22-year-old son, John Thomas Horton III, was murdered in 2009 through neglect of sheriffs deputies who stuck him in a closet-sized, windowless cell and left him in solitary confinement for weeks. Though officials determined that Horton hanged himself, Jones said injuries on his body suggest that he was brutally beaten.

She needed a champion to keep her sons case in the spotlight. Enter Black Lives Matter. She worked with local movement organizers and other victims families to demand stronger civilian oversight of the county jails via a 2020 ballot initiative. Voters approved the measure in March, granting a sheriff oversight commission subpoena powers to investigate civilian complaints.

BLMs profile increased quickly. In 2017, the founders were awarded the Sydney Peace Prize.

In 2018, Cullors appeared on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony with prominent voices in the #MeToo and transgender rights movements. Across social media platforms, the Black Lives Matter movement boasts a following of millions.

I think over the past seven or eight years, so many people within Black Lives Matter have been asking what started out as questions that were only ever asked in academia questions like, What can we do about police brutality? and What to do when we feel we cant call the police, said Janaya Khan, the networks international ambassador and co-founder of its Canadian branch.

So now in this time of pandemic, when so many people are experiencing a kind of precarity, one that so many Black people already know intimately, there are questions that theyre asking and we have some answers that we can offer, Khan said.

Since the wave of protests sparked by George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, BLM has undergone a somewhat quiet transformation. As the words Black lives matter began appearing in city-sanctioned street murals coast to coast, the BLM network banked millions of dollars from a surge of donations so much that Cullors established a grant fund of more than $12 million.

While Garza and Tometi stepped away from day-to-day stewardship of BLM years ago, Cullors remains executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. Its existing chapters, including those in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit, are now autonomous entities that are eligible to receive funding from the network, Cullors said.

Broad visibility and influence have come at a high personal cost for prominent BLM voices. Black Lives Matter, as a slogan, elicited All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter responses from foes. It also meant Cullors, Garza, Tometi and many others associated with the BLM movement have faced threats, as well as surveillance by local and federal law enforcement, Cullors said.

Days before the election, Cullors released a video announcing she and Garza had been contacted by the FBI after their names were found on a list of activists a white supremacist allegedly intended to harm.

No threats against me or my movement will stop this revolution, Cullors said in the video. And we will be here. We will show up to the polls and we will organize.

___

BLM has launched a political action committee to support candidates, campaigns and legislation. And as the voting wraps up, the organization is hosting pandemic-safe drive-in rallies, text-banking voters and leveraging its millions to run ads focused on increasing the Black vote.

One aim is to press sweeping federal legislation known as the BREATHE Act, a bill drafted by the policy table of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition formed in 2014 that now includes more than 150 affiliate organizations that make up the broad Black liberation struggle.

The act, not yet introduced in Congress, would divest federal resources from incarceration and policing, including the elimination of a Department of Defense program that allows local law enforcement agencies to obtain excess military equipment equipment that has been used against BLM protests.

At the state and local level, the Working Families Party, a coalition member, said it expects a stellar Election Day performance from its slate of progressive district attorney candidates in Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Colorado and Florida. The candidates, some of them incumbents, have pledged to take up or continue policies such as declining to prosecute low-level drug offenses, not seeking cash bail, and holding police accountable for brutality.

There is some concern that the results of the presidential election might be misinterpreted as either an endorsement or a rejection of BLM.

I do worry that people will see a Biden victory and say that it shows Black Lives Matter was supported, said Justin Hansford, a Ferguson protester and law professor who now serves as director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University. Thats sort of like the most twisted thing you can think, because he has adamantly stated that he will increase police budgets.

Biden has supported providing more funding to law enforcement so that they can hire and train officers to better deal with calls involving emotionally distressed or mentally ill citizens. Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from cities that vote to decrease police department funding.

If theres going to be any sort of success for Black Lives Matter on a political platform, Hansford said, its going to be traction at the local level, in cities and states across the country.

___

Morrison is a member of the APs Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

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Black Lives Matter faces test of its influence in election - The Associated Press

The Poynter Institutes Politifact claimed it was mostly true that an anti-Black Lives Matter Flag replaced the American flag behind President Trump at a recent rally but the flag that was referenced was the pro-police thin blue line flag.

The thin blue line is a symbol that represents the police officers who separate order from chaos, according to Thin Blue Line USA, a company that sells merchandise featuring the flag supporting law enforcement, veterans and first responders.

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The thin blue line flag is flown to show support for our heroes in law enforcement and serves as a consoling reminder they will always be there to protect us, the Thin Blue Line USA website notes. For those who walk it, the thin blue line is a reflection of courage, a pledge of brotherhood and a tribute to those who have fallen in the line of duty.

However, Politifact claimed a Facebook post that labeled the flag an anti-Black Lives Matter flag is mostly true.

Free Beacon executive editor Brent Scher noticed the article and was in disbelief, writing WTF?

The flag was flown behind Trump during a campaign event in Wisconsin earlier this month, prompting a college professor to declare it was intended to reject Black Lives Matter.

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"Tonight in Wisconsin. First the anti-Black Lives Matter flag flew outside his rallies, then beside the American flag. Now it has replaced the American flag. Thats significant, a Dartmouth College professor claimed.

Politifact explored the claim, noting that Thin Blue Line USA began marketing the flag in 2014, shortly after the Black Live Matter movement picked up steam. Politifact even cited a Marshall Project story about the origins of the flag.

The flag has no association with racism, hatred, bigotry, Thin Blue Line USA president Andrew Jacob told the publication. Its a flag to show support for law enforcementno politics involved."

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Jacobs told Marshall Project that the flag was not a direct reaction to the first Black Lives Matter protests, but admitted he mayhave first noticed the image during widespread pro-police response to the protests.

Politifacts takeaway is that the Thin Blue Line flag has become a prominent part of the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement -- which arose to counter the Black Lives Matter movement.

That said, while it is possible to support both, Trump has made clear he opposes the Black Lives Matter protests -- and made that opposition, and a strong law-and-order message, a prominent part of his re-election campaign. So, those attending the rally or seeing the images could easily see the flag as an anti Black Lives Matter flag, Politifact wrote. We rate the claim Mostly True.

Fox News Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

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Politifact: 'Mostly true that pro-police thin blue line flag is anti-Black Lives Matter' - Fox News

(JTA) An episode in which three visibly Jewish men were harassed with slurs during the aftermath of a racial justice protest in Philadelphia this week was instigated by an adherent of a fringe extremist movement connected to an anti-Semitic shooting last year.

The incident, which was captured in a video circulated widely on social media, happened late Tuesday night, after demonstrations erupted across the city protesting the killing one day earlier by police of Walter Wallace, an African American man.

Amalek, Amalek, what are yall doing down here? a man off camera says, referencing a biblical tribe traditionally seen as the eternal enemy of the Jews. Yall know that were the real Jews, right?

A handful of people then advance on the three Jews, urging them to leave. At one point, someone pushes one of the three Jews, who later moves behind a line of police officers. One man appears to try to shield the Jews from the man holding the camera, who later calls the Jews synagogue of Satan.

That term is used by extremist sectors of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement (which is different from Jews of color) and offered one clue about what had taken place. But the video left some questions unanswered: What happened before it began? Who was doing the shouting? Was one of the Jews wearing a t-shirt with a white power symbol?

Interviews with two of the Jewish men and a longer video of the same incident provided answers. They paint a picture of an unprovoked verbal assault on a group of people who said they were there out of curiosity.

At least one of the Jewish men has shared content from far-right activists and returned home believing, as he had previously, that the Black Lives Matter movement is anti-Semitic even though the verbal abuse he received reflected the rhetoric of a separate movement.

Parts of the Black Hebrew Israelites constitute a fringe group that operates independently of racial justice activists, and long predates and is unconnected to Black Lives Matter. The extremist segments of the movement see Jews as impostors and believe themselves to be the true representatives of Judaism, making anti-Jewish rhetoric a regular part of their activity.

That movement, according to Brian Levin, a professor who studies hate crimes, also has a tendency to kind of glom onto any kind of event or controversy, and frequently aims to instigate conflict. The shooters in the attack on a Jersey City kosher supermarket last year were also Black Hebrew Israelites.

Around election times and particularly when there are conspiracy theories and discussions of elites, the first stop is always the Jews, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. But the Black Hebrew Israelites are anti-Semitic no matter where you run into them.

For the Jewish men in the videos, two of whom were wearing yarmulkes, the encounter came as they stood at an intersection in West Philadelphia when they were approached, unprompted, by a man yelling the anti-Semitic slurs. The man had previously been taunting a row of police standing with shields at the intersection.

In another video shot that night at the same intersection, a voice can be heard saying, Get your Jewish ass on.

The Philadelphia Police Department told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency it has no further information on the incident.

The man who appears to have shot the extended video and uploaded it to Instagram has the handle @hoi_philly. HOI, or the House of Israel, is a subgroup of Black Hebrew Israelites that also took part in a widely publicized altercation at the March for Life in 2019.

The owner of the Instagram account has posted other content disparaging Jews. This week, he posted a meme juxtaposing a photo of an Orthodox man wearing a yarmulke with a photo of a Black man. The caption reads Jew-ish below the Orthodox man and Jew below the Black man.

While extremist Black Hebrew Israelite activity hasnt changed recently, it now exists in the context of a rising tide of polarization and extremism nationally surrounding Election Day. But the groups extremist activists do not fit neatly onto the countrys polarized political divide, and are not progressive. Some members are known to shout misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic epithets on the street.

In such a fraught environment, extremists of all kinds are starting to take to the streets, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Weve already been in a period of heightened street activity. Were also going to see more street activity in the days to come and this is emblematic of the things that are happening.

Two of the Jewish men in the video spoke with JTA, though both asked that their names not be printed and denied knowing each other before meeting that night, shortly before the video was taken. One of the Jews, a student at a yeshiva in New Jersey, said he and a friend had come to Philadelphia to visit acquaintances and later came to the protest to see firsthand what they had seen in the news and pay tribute to Wallaces life.

We went down there to pay our respects and assess the situation, he said. When people began saying anti-Semitic things to him, he said, We didnt think that it would escalate. We were nodding in approval and listening and understanding their hurt. There was a life lost. I didnt read too much into the details.

Another Jewish man in the video has publicly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and came to the protest wearing a shirt bearing the OK hand gesture, which in the shirts context is a white supremacist symbol, in addition to dogs seemingly making Nazi salutes. (The shirt was created by a far-right activist who first gained notoriety after he was prosecuted for teaching his girlfriends dog to make a Nazi salute.)

The Jewish mans recent Twitter feed is a stream of almost exclusively pro-Trump and anti-left-wing posts, including retweets of a few people associated with the far right. He has written and retweeted tweets that call the Black Lives Matter movement a terrorist organization as well as anti-Semitic. After first telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had come to the protests just to observe, he later acknowledged that he had prior opinions about it and wanted to see if he would experience anti-Semitism.

I did have a preconceived opinion, he said. I came there because I wanted to get my own first person perspective and see, whats this all about? Are they actually going to say anti-Semitic things to me? Its hard to believe until it actually happens to you. I didnt think they were actually going to and I was shocked out of my mind when they did.

He said that police officers also shoved him as he was leaving the protest.

That mans takeaway from the incident is what Graie Hagans, a Jew of color who lives in West Philadelphia and has participated in this weeks racial justice protests, said he was concerned about this week. Hagans says he is deeply heartbroken because of Wallaces death and police abuse hes seen, and he is concerned that the video will reinforce the mistaken idea, among some Jews, that crowds of Black people are inherently dangerous.

Its what gets reaffirmed for us as Jewish people when the story and the setup continue to be the danger posed by gathered Black folks, said Hagans, the vision praxis director for Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish organization. Me and three other Black folks gathered has a very different story and feel to it than four white folks gathered.

The entire incident comes against a context in which a vocal minority of American Jews are deeply skeptical of or opposed to Black Lives Matter, accusing it of anti-Semitism. They have pointed to instances where synagogues were vandalized amid protests and to anti-Israel rhetoric from parts of the movements loose network.

But the majority of the Jewish community does not appear to share those feelings. Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish organizations have pledged their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and Jewish leaders have taken part in the racial justice protests that swept the country earlier this year, including this week in Philadelphia.

Earlier Tuesday night, a group of rabbis joined an interfaith clergy contingent in Philadelphias racial justice protests. Rabbi Annie Lewis, co-president of the Board of Rabbis of Philadelphia, said the alliance between Jewish and African-American clergy in the city is more representative of the Jewish role in the protests than an anti-Semitic act by a member of a fringe group.

Everywhere in the world, theres anti-Semitism and racism, but the stories that need to be told in Philadelphia are of Black clergy working in partnership with White Jewish clergy, all of us, to call out for justice and work against all kinds of hate. Were trying to lift up, together, ways we can work together peacefully.

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A widely circulated video showed Jews being harassed at Black Lives Matter protest. The attacker is part of a fringe group. - JTA News - Jewish...

Though masked killer Michael Myers is sitting out this years Halloween much like the rest of the world, fear not: The next entry in the Halloween franchise, Halloween Kills, has a new teaser trailer.

Directed by David Gordon Green, this is the 10th installment in the series originated by John Carpenter and serves as a direct sequel to his 2018 Halloween. Written by Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems, Halloween Kills launches October 15, 2021 from Universal Pictures. Watch the trailer below.

During a recent interview with SiriusXMs Jess Cagle and co-host Julia Cunningham (via Collider), returning star Jamie Lee Curtis talked about her role as survivor Laurie Strode and teased the movies timely resonance with the current moment.

What we were seeing around the country of the power, of the rage of voices, big groups of people coming together enraged at the set of circumstances, thats what the movie is, she said. The movie is about a mob. And so its very interesting because it takes on what happens when trauma infects an entire community. And were seeing it everywhere with the Black Lives Matter movement. Were seeing it in action and Halloween Kills weirdly enough, dovetailed onto that, proceeded it, it was written before that occurred, but then of course, so when you see it, its a seething group of people moving through the story as a big angry group, its really, really, really intense. Its a masterpiece.

Also starring in Halloween Kills are Judy Greer, Anthony Michael Hall, and Kyle Richards. Green and screenwriter Danny McBrides Halloween co-written by Jeff Fradley brought Michael Myers back into the good graces of both critics and audiences in 2018, earning positive reviews and racking in a scary-good $255 million globally off a $10 million budget. The 2018 version served as a direct sequel to John Carpenters 1978 classic, ignoring the many sequels and remakes in between.

Halloween Kills will be followed up in October 2021 with Halloween Ends, David Gordon Greens last effort in the franchise. Series maestro John Carpenterrecently saidthat these upcoming Halloween films probably wont be the last, even if they do finally put an end to the Laurie Strode/Michael Myers story.

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Halloween Kills Teaser: Jamie Lee Curtis Says Its a Masterpiece That Ties to Black Lives Matter - IndieWire

Wearing T-shirts, buttons or hats supporting political candidates at the polls is illegal. But in the pandemic era, voters are now being reminded that the electioneering rules also apply to face masks.

According to the law, a person may not electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party within 100 feet of a polling place.

It's really a protected area that should be just focused on providing the access to the ballot and voting processes without any kind of interruption or any kind of chaos, or stress, or concerns, said Bruce Sherbet, elections administrator for Collin County.

For years, election officials have had to ask voters to turn their political shirts inside out and leave their accessories in the car. This election cycle, poll workers are also dealing with political messages on some face masks intended to protect voters from the coronavirus.

Sherbet said Collin County judges this year are offering plain disposable masks to cover the political ones, he said.

We strongly encourage masks, so if someone is wearing them, we don't want to be too inconvenient with it as long as they can just cover it up, Sherbet said.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an electioneering ban at polling places in 1992, meaning that states could create laws to prevent voter intimidation and ban electioneering around polling places.

What can I wear to the polls?

Electioneering specifically includes advocating for or against any political candidate, measure or political party.

Sherbet said this means while a "Make America Great Again" hat or Joe Biden button would count as electioneering, a Black Lives Matter or Dont tread on me message would not because they are advocating for a movement.

But electioneering could be interpreted and enforced differently across the state.

In 2016, a San Antonio man wore a T-shirt and hat supporting Donald Trump. He removed the hat, but not the Basket of Deplorables shirt. He was arrested on electioneering charges.

In 2012, a woman in Williamson County was asked to cover up her shirt that read "Vote the Bible."

Ultimately, it falls upon local Election Officials to make the final determination as to what constitutes electioneering, said Stephen Chang, spokesperson for the secretary of states office in an email.

According to the secretary of states office, voting clerks and election judges decide what counts as electioneering and have the authority to ensure there is no electioneering in that area.

So why are there so many signs and political volunteers outside my polling site?

Within 100 feet of the polls, electioneering is not allowed. But outside of that boundary, campaigns are free to wave signs, hand out fliers, advocate for proposals and wear whatever campaign gear they want.

But campaign volunteers and advocates cannot use sound amplification devices or loudspeakers, which must be 1,000 feet away from the polls.

While those who control or own the building used for voting cannot prohibit electioneering, they can enact reasonable regulations of the time, place and manner electioneering happens. For example, a reasonable regulation would be prohibiting electioneering on sidewalks to keep them clear for pedestrians, according to the secretary of state's office.

Whats the difference between electioneering and voter intimidation?

Voter intimidation is illegal nationally, regardless of where it takes place at a polling location, said David Becker, executive director at the Center for Election Innovation & Research, in an email.

So, if any conduct goes from being merely expressive to intimidating toward voters, it would be outlawed regardless of where it occurred, Becker said.

He said generally electioneering is ordinary campaign activity.

The difference is that voter intimidation is when someone does anything that could negatively affect a voter when they go to vote. This includes making people feel in physical danger or uncomfortable, verbally accosting them and any other activity that someone shouldnt have to endure while exercising their most fundamental right, he said.

The ACLU website says voter intimidation can include aggressively questioning voters about citizenship or criminal record and falsely representing oneself as an elections official. It also includes spreading false information about voter requirements and voter fraud.

What should I do if I see electioneering?

Sherbet said its best to tell an election judge at the voting location if you see what could be illegal electioneering. He said they are trained to handle electioneering and if someone notifies the election office, the office will relay the message to the judge at that location.

According to the secretary of states office, local voting clerks and election judges decide what counts as electioneering. While serving in that capacity, they have the authority of a district judge to ensure there is no electioneering. If judges or clerks have questions, they can ask their local election office or the secretary of states office.

Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

"A MAGA face mask? A Black Lives Matter T-shirt? Heres what you can and cant wear to vote in Texas" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/28/texas-voters-wear-polls-2020/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

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A MAGA face mask? A Black Lives Matter T-shirt? Heres what you can and cant wear to vote in Texas - FOX 4 Dallas