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NEW YORK (WABC) -- As the decade comes to a close, we are taking a look back at the stories that shaped the 2010s in New York City.

There was no shortage of tragedy and conflict over the past 10 years, but there were plenty of stories of triumph.

This was a decade of activism as our communities took to the streets to fight for what they believed in: Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the Women's March, protesting the travel ban and demanding equal rights of all.

These are the stories that defined the last decade in New York City.

View stories of the decade through photos:

2010:

We kicked off the decade with a war against salt. In January, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Health Department unveiled a plan to make New Yorkers healthier and urged restaurants to reduce salt levels in their food by 25 percent. The effort was part of a constellation of initiatives to promote public health, but some derided the push as indicative of a nanny state.

The narrative of the year soon segued from health fears to terror fears. On May 1, a car bomb failed to detonate in Times Square in an attempted terror attack.

Faisal Shahzad was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to commit an act of terrorism.

While fears of terrorism lingered almost a decade after 9/11, a controversy brewed in lower Manhattan over the proposal to build a mosque near Ground Zero, called Park51.

The majority of the public was opposed to the idea, and some relatives of the victims of 9/11 said they found the proposal offensive, but others expressed support and were in favor of promoting interfaith peace and freedom of religion.

The controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque" became a campaign issue in the 2010 midterm elections and also sparked a national debate over religious tolerance and sensitivity to 9/11 victims.

A story that fascinated the nation later that summer was the dramatic stunt pulled by disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater on Aug. 9.

Slater apparently became fed up with passengers after their flight landed at Kennedy Airport and deployed the emergency slide from the aircraft and took off -- allegedly with a beer in hand.

Despite being arrested and facing serious charges, Slater's getaway stunt garnered him national support and made a viral star in these early days of social media.

Weather stories would prove to be defining moments of the decade.

A notable story involved tornadoes that spun through Brooklyn and Queens on the evening of Sept. 16 -- leaving a trail of damage in their wake. At least one person was killed in the storms.

And it was certainly a white day AFTER Christmas that year when a blizzard dumped between 18-24 inches of snow in NYC.

This was also the year that Humans of New York first launched -- giving the rest of the world a personal look into the lives of everyday New Yorkers.

2011:

The death of Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn shocked the city in July. The 8-year-old boy was kidnapped after he asked for directions during his walk home and his dismembered body was later found after an extensive search across the city.

The medical examiner said he was given a lethal cocktail of drugs before he was smothered to death. Levi Aron is serving 40 years to life for kidnapping and killing Kletzky.

Sept. 11 of that year marked the somber 10-year anniversary since terrorists attacked the Twin Towers.

The 9/11 Memorial was officially dedicated on the anniversary and opened to the public the next day.

Less than a week after the memorial opened, protesters descended onto Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan for what would become Occupy Wall Street -- a weeks-long movement in the Financial District to push the government to address a range of issues like unemployment, the funding of wars and the foreclosure crisis.

It didn't take long for the movement to spread beyond the streets of NYC and onto main streets across America.

Do you remember that it snowed this year on Halloween? A nor'easter that some remember as "Snowtober" brought an early blast of snow to the tri-state area.

The year came to an end as the mystery of the Gilgo Beach serial killer was only getting started. On November 29, police announced that they believed the previous deaths of multiple people were likely connected, leading to fears that a serial killer was lurking on Long Island just miles away from NYC.

The still unidentified serial killer is believed to be responsible for at least 10 deaths over the course of 20 years -- and the victims were mainly women associated with prostitution.

2012:

2012 was a year that started with excitement over sports, but will be remembered for the tragedy that struck by the end of the year.

The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. Not long after the excitement of that win, a personality from another sport stirred up a global frenzy.

In what will be remembered as "Linsanity," Jeremy Lin rose to fame after he unexpectedly led a winning turnaround for the New York Knicks.

The Knicks started selling his No. 17 jerseys and T-shirts and merchandise at stands throughout Madison Square Garden. Restaurants around the city started selling special food and drink items in Lin's honor, Ben & Jerry's created a special ice cream and he was even the subject of a documentary film that premiered at Sundance.

In baseball news, Gary Carter, a member of the 1986 world champion Mets, died on Feb. 16 at the age of 57 after a battle with brain cancer. The Mets added a memorial patch to their uniforms in Carter's honor for the entire 2012 season.

It was in April of that same year that the New Jersey Nets moved to the Barclays Center to become the Brooklyn Nets.

Although sports dominated the headlines for the first part of the year, the narrative shifted when Superstorm Sandy devastated the area at the end of October.

The storm slammed NYC with a surge of water that killed 44 people and plunged parts of the city into darkness. Flooding damaged tens of thousands of homes, drowned subways and forced hospitals and nursing homes to evacuate.

In a controversial decision, the NYC Marathon was canceled that year because of the storm's aftermath.

Communities are still recovering to this day after the damage and destruction left behind by the storm.

Hearts broke across New York City when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people, including 20 children, were murdered in a crime that shocked the world.

2013:

After a long life in the public eye, the former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, died on Feb. 1. Koch made his mark on the city during his tenure as mayor from 1978 to 1989.

That same year marked the beginning of another mayoral administration: Bill de Blasio was first elected to the position on Nov. 5.

The election year wasn't free of scandalous headlines -- this is the year that the infamous Anthony Weiner sexting scandal cost him the election.

Weiner had attempted to make a return to politics after his previous scandal in 2011, but ultimately lost the mayoral primary after admitting to sexting multiple women following his resignation from Congress.

2013 wasn't all about politics -- transportation also rolled into the headlines. Citi Bike officially launched on May 27 of that year and no one can forget about BridgeGate.

The first traffic closures that evolved into the infamous BridgeGate scandal happened on Sept. 9. Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly were later convicted of creating the traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge for politically motivated reasons.

The year ended on a sad note with the Metro-North crash at Spuyten Duyvil on Dec. 1. Four passengers were killed and dozens were injured when the train derailed in the Bronx.

2014:

This year brought New York City into the national spotlight for multiple stories.

On the morning of March 12, a gas explosion in East Harlem leveled two apartment buildings and killed eight people. At least 70 other people were injured in the tragic incident.

The police chokehold death of Eric Garner on July 17 sparked protests around NYC and the country as it fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Dec. 20 murders of two NYPD police detectives sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn shocked the city. The gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, apparently cited Garner's death as a motive.

Garner's daughter publicly spoke out and showed her support for fallen officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.

All eyes were on New York City earlier that year as the Ebola crisis arrived in America.

Dr. Craig Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola on Oct. 23.

After returning from working with Doctors Without Borders in Africa, city officials rushed to find other people he may have come into contact with in NYC. Before he showed symptoms, he rode the subway, walked the High Line and even went bowling in Brooklyn.

After he recovered from the disease, Mayor de Blasio declared that NYC was Ebola-free.

Finally, the eyes of America and around the world fell on New York City on Nov. 3 when One World Trade Center officially opened -- marking a chapter of rebirth and renewal after the terror attacks.

2015:

The first quarter of 2015 was marked with disaster:

-A Metro-North train struck a passenger car in Valhalla on Feb. 3, killing six people and injuring more than a dozen others.

-Seven children were trapped and killed on March 21 when a fire broke out in their Midwood, Brooklyn, apartment.

-Two people were killed and 13 others were injured in a deadly gas explosion in the East Village on March 26. The owner of the building, an unlicensed plumber and a general contractor. would all later be found guilty in 2019.

The year also provided moments that will go down in pop culture history:

-On June 16, Donald Trump rode down an escalator in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to officially launch his presidential campaign.

-Lin-Manuel Miranda did not throw away his shot and opened his mega-successful "Hamilton" on Broadway on Aug. 6 -- arguably changing Broadway forever.

-Two words: Pizza Rat. Who would have thought a video of a hungry rat enjoying a New York slice would be a part of NYC history? Pizza Rat remains a viral sensation to this day.

The Pope's visit to NYC was a highlight of the latter part of the year. Pope Francis visited New York City from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 as part of his visit to North America.

In his short visit to the city, he addressed the United Nations, visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, visited children at a school in East Harlem, made his way through Central Park and even held a Mass at Madison Square Garden.

New Yorkers felt a sense of pride and hope as the Holy Father forever left his touch on our city.

2016:

2016 got off to a cold and snowy start when the biggest blizzard in our city's history hit NYC in January -- leaving behind more than 26 inches of snow.

In a still-unsolved mystery, a tourist from Virginia lost his foot when he stepped on an explosive in Central Park on July 3. It is still unclear if the explosion had something to do with celebratory firecrackers ahead of the 4th of July or if it was intentionally placed there to do harm.

Later that summer, the murder and sexual assault of 30-year-old jogger Karina Vetrano on Aug. 2. shocked the city.

Vetrano left for a run through the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens but she never returned home. Her murder went unsolved for six months until Chanel Lewis was arrested and charged in 2017. He was found guilty and sentenced to life without parole in April 2019.

September of that year was plagued with crime: Chelsea bomber Ahmad Rahimi set off pressure cooker bombs in New Jersey and Chelsea on Sept. 17. He was captured days later after a shootout with police.

Fortunately no one was killed or seriously injured in the explosions, but dozens of people were wounded.

It was the end of an era when the iconic Carnegie Deli closed its doors for good at the end of the year. New Yorkers said goodbye to giant pastrami sandwiches and huge slices of strawberry cheesecake.

2017:

After decades of talk, the Second Avenue subway finally opened on Jan. 1 and East Siders rejoiced.

On March 16, FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo was mowed down by her own ambulance while she was on the job. The mother of five's death struck a chord with New Yorkers.

On May 18, 23 pedestrians were mowed down in Times Square. Police said the driver was high on drugs -- - possibly synthetic marijuana. An 18-year-old tourist from Michigan, Alyssa Elsman, did not survive.

New Yorkers came together to support their brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria made landfall there on Sept. 20.

In October of that year, reports by the New York Times and The New Yorker would eventually lead to the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. This reports not only led to his fall from grace, they spurred the #MeToo movement.

Because of the empowerment movement, women around the world broke their silence to speak out against the sexual assault and harassment they had suffered.

On Oct. 31, a day that should have been happy and full of fun turned horrific when Sayfullo Saipov drove a pickup truck onto a bike path full of runners and cyclists along the West Side Highway in a Halloween terror attack. Eight people were killed -- six of whom were tourists.

That wasn't the last act of terror that year -- on Dec. 11, suspect Akayed Ullah injured four people when he partially detonated a pipe bomb in a tunnel at Port Authority.

No one was killed, but several people were injured.

Just days after Christmas that year, 13 people were killed in an apartment fire in the Belmont section of the Bronx on Dec. 28 -- marking New York's deadliest fire in 25 years.

Officials said it appeared a young child playing with a stove caused the fire. The child's mother escaped the apartment with her kids but left the front door open, which acted like a chimney and allowed the fire to quickly travel up the stairs.

2018:

The death of innocent 15-year-old Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz on June 20 outraged people in his Bronx community and far beyond.

#JusticeForJunior soon went viral and became a cry for justice for the teen who was chased into a bodega by gang members and killed in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity.

Fourteen suspects were arrested in the murder and the first five to stand trial were all found guilty and later sentenced to life in prison in 2019.

2018 will also be remembered as the year that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, rose to the national spotlight. The Bronx native was officially elected on Nov. 6 to serve as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th Congressional district.

That year she became the youngest woman to serve in U.S. Congress. And whether people loved her or hated her, there was no denying she made a splash in the world of politics.

The city was on edge for days in October when suspicious packages that supposedly contained pipe bombs were mailed to critics of President Trump, including CNN, causing the Time Warner Center in NYC to be evacuated.

None of the devices exploded, but the fear that they could prompted responses from bomb squads out of precaution. Eventually Cesar Sayoc was arrested in Florida on Oct. 26.

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The 2010s: These are the stories that defined the decade in NYC - WABC-TV

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(CNN) - These days, it feels like there's a petition for every cause imaginable.

Saving the Amazon rainforest? Check. Making Baby Yoda an emoji? Also check.

But some petitions are more successful than others.

The petition-hosting site Change.org considers a number of factors in determining which had the biggest impact: the number of people who signed, the zeitgeist and the conversations sparked and whether anything changed as a result, said Michael Jones, the platform's managing director of campaigns.

"People really see online petitions as a tool to help them fix something that is systemically broken," Jones said.

Over the past decade, people took to Change.org to raise attention to criminal justice issues, honor community heroes and challenge pharmaceutical companies and other businesses.

These are 10 of the biggest victories, according to Change.org.

After 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was was killed on February 26, 2012, his parents Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton started a petition calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch leader who shot him.

More than 2.2 million people signed in support of the cause. Within a week, it had become the one of the most popular petitions in the website's history, with 877,110 signatures.

The local tragedy soon became an international movement. Civil rights activists, politicians and protesters rallied behind Trayvon's family and took to the streets to demonstrate against his killing.

In April 2012, Change.org declared the petition a victory after a Florida state attorney announced that charges of second-degree murder would be lodged against Zimmerman.

Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013. But Trayvon's death forced a conversation about police brutality and inequality and helped give rise to one of the most prominent movements of the decade: Black Lives Matter.

Zimmerman is now suing Trayvon's parents, prosecutors and state authorities, alleging there was a conspiracy to frame him and demanding more than $100 million in damages.

Trayvon's parents and their attorney called the lawsuit "unfounded and reckless."

Maryland high school student Sydney Helfand started a petition in January urging Congress to pass the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act to make animal cruelty a federal felony.

The PACT Act had come extremely close to becoming law in 2017. Though the Senate passed it unanimously, it stalled in the House.

Nearly 800,000 people signed the petition and in November, the Senate passed the bipartisan legislation that the House had approved a month earlier.

US Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida credited Helfand, in part, for the bill's success. President Donald Trump signed the PACT Act into law.

As the trial of Casey Anthony, who was accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008, played out in 2011, a petition called for the creation of Caylee's Law, which would make it a felony for a parent of a guardian to fail to report a missing child if the child could be in danger.

It was one of the first petitions of the decade to go viral, Change.org says, ultimately attracting more than 1.3 million signatures.

At least 10 states since then have passed versions of Caylee's Law. Critics say the laws would negatively affect mostly innocent parents who may be grieving the tragic loss of a child.

Death row prisoner Rodney Reed was sentenced more than 20 years ago for the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop, Texas.

Reed says he is innocent, and attorneys from the Innocence Project say they have evidence that exonerates him. The lead prosecutor in his case maintains that he is guilty.

Reed was scheduled to be executed on November 20. But in the weeks leading up to that date, outcry to stop the execution grew from supporters, including celebrities, clergy and lawmakers.

More than 2 million people signed a petition at freerodneyreed.com, and a petition on Change.org garnered more than 300,000 signatures.

Days before he was scheduled to die, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blocked Reed's execution, allowing a lower court to consider additional evidence.

After West Coast rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle was killed in 2019, Najee Ali, a community organizer and Los Angeles resident, called on a city councilman to name an intersection for the artist.

More than 500,000 people signed the petition in the days after Nipsey's death. Less than two weeks later, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to rename the intersection of West Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles as "Nipsey Hussle Square." It's the site of Nipsey's Marathon Clothing store, near where he was fatally shot.

After a woman who goes by "K" said she was sexually assaulted by a tour guide who worked at a business promoted by TripAdvisor, she contacted the website in an effort to warn other tourists, The Guardian reported in March.

But the company suggested that she leave a review about the incident, K said in a Change.org petition. When she wrote a review, TripAdvisor did not publish it because it wasn't written as first-person account, according to The Guardian.

With the help of the Change.org team, K started a petition demanding that TripAdvisor "stop covering up sexual assaults," calling on the company to do more to warn users about businesses where assaults had been reported.

The petition received more than 500,000 signatures in the weeks after, and TripAdvisor announced changes to how it handles reviews and reports of sexual assault. But K and other activists maintained that the company still hadn't gone far enough.

After protests outside TripAdvisor's New York offices and continued pressure, the company announced further changes to its policies, including commitments to partner with sexual assault support groups.

In June, K declared that the petition had been successful.

"With these updates, TripAdvisor has shown that they are committed to both improving the experience for survivors and providing people with the information they need to travel safely," she wrote. "I'm thrilled to declare our campaign a victory."

After 12 years as a Scout, Ryan Andresen was told by his Boy Scout troop in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 that he couldn't receive the Eagle Scout award, the highest rank in the organization.

The reason? Because he had come out as gay.

Ryan's mother Karen Andresen started a petition to protest the troop's decision, garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures and national media attention.

In a historic decision in 2013, the Boy Scouts of America voted to end its ban on openly gay youth. But it wasn't until 2015 that the organization announced it would lift its ban on gay adult leaders.

When she was 16 years old, Cyntoia Brown was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who had bought her for sex.

Years after her sentencing, her case gained widespread attention and inspired the viral hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown after A-list celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West publicly advocated for Brown's release.

In 2018, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Brown must serve at least 51 years in prison before she would be eligible for release. After that ruling, a petition on Change.org called for then-Gov. Bill Haslam to grant her clemency.

He did so in January, and Brown was released from prison in August at the age of 31.

In July, Teva Pharmaceuticals announced it had made a "business decision" to discontinue Vincristine -- a drug used to treat childhood cancers including leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors.

Childhood cancer survivor and pediatric oncology nurse Liliana Haas said the drug helped save her life and the lives of many children she works with each day. So, she took to Change.org in October to demand that the pharmaceutical company bring the drug back.

More than 215,000 people signed the petition, and the issue garnered national media attention. In November, Teva Pharmaceutical responded directly to Haas' petition and announced it would again start producing the life-saving drug.

Five years after a New York Police Department officer was accused of fatally choking Eric Garner, the Justice Department announced it would not bring charges against him.

Days later, Emerald Snipes Garner, Eric Garner's youngest daughter, launched a petition demanding that NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo be fired.

The petition received more than 144,000 signatures. Protesters interrupted the Democratic presidential debate in July to call attention to the issue, and New York Mayor and then-presidential candidate Bill de Blasio was asked why Pantaleo was still on the force.

In August, New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill fired Pantaleo. He is suing to get his job back.

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10 petitions that made impact - KXLY Spokane

It was a sunny day in July 2014 when Eric Garner was killed. The 43-year-old African American man had been approached by New York City police officers on suspicion that hed been selling loose cigarettes. After a few words were exchanged, the officers attempted an arrest. When Garner pulled away, the officers tackled him. One white officer put the father of six in a chokehold. As he lay face down on the ground under a pile of grown men, Garner pleaded for air. I cant breathe, he warned a total of 11 times before losing consciousness.

An hour later, he was dead. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide and the autopsy implicated the police. When a video of the incident hit social media, it set off a firestorm. The killing became a watershed moment in the fight for racial justice and Garners final words a rallying cry. The impact was felt all across the country, including in the small Indiana city of South Bend, where 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was serving his first term as mayor. The moment would test the young politician and leave some in his community feeling as though hed come up short.

Today, even after his rise in the polls in some early primary states, Buttigieg boasts negligible support among black Democrats, a key demographic in the race for the Democratic nomination. At the same time, his presidential campaign has put his record in South Bend particularly on race relations under a microscope. His response to the reverberations of the Garner killing in South Bend, where he tried to chart a middle ground between calls for racial justice and denial of the problem, is another example of what critics say is his failure to understand and tackle systemic racism. Buttigiegs campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

On December 13, 2014, just five months after Garners death, during its televised warmup for its game against Michigan, the Notre Dame womens basketball team wore black T-shirts with the words I Cant Breathe emblazoned across the front in big white letters.

The ensuing, predictable controversy made it into the national news cycle. Following the game, Jason Barthel, a white police officer from the city of Mishawaka, began selling slogan tees of his own from his store, South Bend Uniform, which frequently did business with the city of South Bend, including a sale for $800 days before the basketball game. The shirts prominently featured a police badge over a thin blue line with the words Breathe Easy across the top and Dont Break the Law on the bottom.

The shirts sparked outrage within the community and on social media. In a post on its Facebook page, South Bend Uniform tried to defuse some of the anger, explaining that Breathe Easywas actually referring to knowing the police are there for you.

We are all one people and this is by no means is a slam on Eric Garner or his family, God rest his soul, the post read. Lets [sic] all band together as AMERICANS regardless of our feelings and know we can and will be better!

Barthel, meanwhile, told the media that he had wanted to inject the police perspective into the conversation that was sparked by the Notre Dame womens team.

Were here to protect the public, and we want you to breathe easy knowing that the police are here to be with you and for you and protect you, he told CBS affiliate WSBT22.

In other interviews, however, he was more explicit about the shirts meaning and implications.

When you break the law, unfortunately, theres going to be consequences, and some of them arent going to be pretty, Barthel explained to the South Bend Tribune. Unfortunately, thats the reality.

Three members of South Bends city council including the bodys only two serving African American men issued a statement with the president of the South Bend branch of the NAACP. The release condemned the shirts and requested that local vendors discontinue sales. It also had an ask for Buttigieg.

In the past, the City of South Bend has done business with one of these local vendors, it read, referring to South Bend Uniform. It is our hope that Mayor Buttigieg and Mayor Wood of Mishawaka will join us in unifying our communities and not support this dangerous message.

The first-term mayor, however, did not weigh in immediately, allowing the controversy to grow. When he did speak out during a local news interview, it was not the response the statements writers had hoped for.

Buttigieg asserted that the two sides of the controversy were really not that divided after all. Theyre being portrayed like theyre on two different sides, but theyre not even talking about the same thing, he explained. Were talking about two different things. And one of those is the way that race is playing a role in our criminal justice system. And the other is about the safety of police officers who go out there every day and risk their lives. And I fear that were being led down this path that you have to choose between being pro-minority/pro-equal rights and pro-police.

The mayors remarks on the controversy did not reassure his constituents who had wanted to see Buttigieg distance himself from Barthels message.

He refused to touch it, said councilmember-elect Henry Davis Jr., who was one of the drafters of the 2014 statement and launched an unsuccessful primary challenge against the mayor the following year. And when he touched it, he agreed with both sides. His 2015 run for mayor, he said, was partly motivated by Buttigiegs reaction to the shirts.

I just really thought that he was very insensitive, he continued. I was looking for somebody to have a heart. We knew that the guy had just died from being choked to death. It was on video and it was clear on what happened with the police.

Davis, who was re-elected to the city council this year, noted that the incident is a part of the mayors larger, problematic record on issues affecting the black community. He pointed out that during Buttigiegs tenure, two unarmed black men have died at the hands of law enforcement.

Thats too much, he said.

Demonstrators protest the shooting death of Eric Logan outside of the South Bend police station following his funeral on June 29, 2019, in South Bend, Ind.

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Indeed, in 2012, shortly after Buttigieg entered office, Michael Deshawn Anderson died in police custody, prompting a wrongful death lawsuit, which Andersons family eventually dropped. In June of this year, 54-year-old Eric Logan was fatally shot by white officer Sgt. Ryan ONeill, whose body camera was turned off at the time and who had an alleged history of making racist comments. The killing received national attention this summer in light of Buttigiegs presidential run and even prompted the mayor to cancel campaign events to return home for a town hall where he was confronted by an outraged community.

Hes also come under scrutiny for his firing of South Bends first black police chief after it was revealed that he had improperly taped senior white officers making racist statements about him and other black officers. Buttigieg has since admitted that firing the police chief, Darryl Boykins, was a mistake, but hes thus far refused to release the tapes. And while Boykins was fired, the white officers who were on the tapes faced no disciplinary action.

On the presidential campaign trail, the mayors campaign appeared to chalk up Buttigiegs low levels of support among black voters to homophobia within the black community. The rollout of his Frederick Douglass Plan for Black America, meant to tackle systemic racism, was equally problematic, as the campaign claimed to have endorsements from 400 black South Carolinians, but subsequent investigation by The Intercept revealed that nearly half of the names were of white people. Moreover, some of the claimed endorsers had not actually signed on.

City Councilmember Oliver Davis, who also signed the 2014 statement, publicly rebuked Buttigieg late last month when he endorsed Joe Bidens presidential campaign. Speaking about the young mayors difficulty reaching black voters, Davis told Politico, For us, this has been a consistent issue that has not gone away.

In his 2015 State of the City address, even as Buttigieg attempted to assuage concerns about the race-related controversies plaguing his administration, he used the phrase all lives matter, widely understood as a rebuke of the Black Lives Matter movement. The blunder resulted in fierce pushback from progressives when the speech resurfaced earlier this year. Buttigieg said he stopped using the phrase after he understood its implications.

Stories like these have not helped Buttigieg win over black voters. In the aftermath of the Logan shooting, an exasperated Buttigieg was caught on tape telling a black woman whod asked how he expected black folks to support him, Im not asking for your vote.

You aint getting it either, the woman responded.

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Pete Buttigieg and South Bend's I Can't Breathe Controversy - The Intercept

In September 2018, President Donald Trump won an important First Amendment victory. By a 3-0 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that neither Trump nor his campaign could be held liable for injuries suffered by protesters at the hands of Trump supporters during a March 2016 rally even though the then-candidate had yelled to get em out of here.

The courts reasoning was based on the straightforward application of free-speech principles: Trump had not advocated violence at the Kentucky rally (in fact, he had also said dont hurt em), and therefore he couldnt be successfully sued even though some people were roughed up.

The decision may have been a disappointment for those who thought Trump should be held accountable for his careless words. But under the First Amendment, political speech receives the highest level of protection except in the most extreme circumstances.

Now, though, those principles are in danger. Based on a similar set of facts, the 5th Circuit ruled recently that a police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, can sue Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson for injuries he received at the hands of a rock-throwing protester even though, as The Washington Post reported, Mckesson did not throw the rock or tell anyone else to throw it.

Mckesson had organized the 2016 demonstration following the police killing of a black man named Alton Sterling. The police officer, whose identity has not been revealed, claims that Mckesson acted negligently by not foreseeing that the demonstration could become violent.

The goal of lawsuits like these is to prevent people from showing up at a protest out of the fear that they might be held responsible if anything happens, Mckesson said in a statement released by the ACLU, which earlier this month asked the Supreme Court to take up the case. If this precedent lasts, it could make organizers all across the country responsible for all types of things they have no control over, such as random people coming into a protest and causing problems. We cant let that happen.

The Supreme Court precedent that protected Trump and that, by all rights, should protect Mckesson is NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., a case decided in 1982. The NAACP in 1966 called for a boycott of white-owned businesses in Claiborne County, Mississippi a nonviolent form of protest that nevertheless led to some acts of violence. In 1969, several of the business owners sued the NAACP and were successful in the state courts. But the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NAACP could not be held liable for engaging in nonviolent free-speech activities regardless of actions taken by people not under the organizations control.

Although the cases against Trump and Mckesson, like the case against NAACP, were for alleged civil offenses, its also worth noting the high bar the Supreme Court has set for incitement to violence in criminal cases. In the landmark 1969 case of Brandenburg v. Ohio, the court threw out the conviction of Ku Klux Klan leader Clarence Brandenburg because the threats he made at a rally against African Americans and Jews were non-specific and would not result in imminent violence.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, the ACLUs lawyers argue that allowing the lawsuit against Mckesson to proceed would have a chilling effect on anyone who might wish to organize a nonviolent protest.

Given the regularity with which violence and First Amendment activity co-occur and the vagaries of state law liability rules, the lawyers wrote, only the most intrepid citizens would exercise their rights and risk ruinous liability if they could be held liable for the wrongful acts of others.

Ben Wizner, director of the ACLUs Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, put it this way in the Washington Post story: If this is allowed to stand, anybody can show up and throw a rock at a protest to bankrupt a movement they disagree with. People know when they step into the street that they might have to spend some hours in jail or pay a fine. But if they might have to pay a multi-million dollar civil judgment thats something theyre not prepared for, and cant possibly be expected to prepare for.

The case should prove to be a telling indicator of where the Supreme Court stands on free speech now that it has swung sharply to the right. Only four of the nine justices are needed take up the case.

Traditionally, even the courts more conservative members have proved to be staunch advocates of the First Amendment. But if Trumps justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, were to break with that tradition, the case of DeRay Mckesson v. John Doe could prove to be a signal moment in our march to a less open, less free society.

WGBH News contributor Dan Kennedys blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

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Why A Lawsuit Against A Black Lives Matter Activist Could Deal A Staggering Blow To The First Amendment - wgbh.org

Before entering 2020, Detroit Todays Stephen Henderson closesout this year and the decade by taking a look back to reflect on some of the biggest news stories, cultural moments and the people who leftus.

The panel includesCrains Detroit Business Senior Editor Chad Livengood, journalist and editor Nancy Derringer and political and communications consultant Greg Bowens.

Derringer says Donald Trump is the person of the decade, meanwhile Bowens says its the creator of the Bird Scooter TravisVanderZanden.

Livengood says his general overarching rule is that this has been the decade ofdisruption.

He says the last ten years have been about disruptors, both in business and in politics and culture,pointingto the self-implosion of K-Mart, the rise of Trump and services like DoorDash, Lyft andUber.

Henderson also mentions the passing of several notable figures including: Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin, John Conyers, John Dingell, Robin Williams, Nelson Mandela, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Prince, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Gordie Howe, Muhammad Ali, Cokie Roberts, Maya Angelou, Damon Keith, Mike Ilitch, David DiChiera, Whitney Houston, L Brooks Patterson, Anthony Bourdain, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Petty, Chuck Berry and Bill Milliken.

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The Decade of Disruption: Me Too, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump and More - WDET