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Black Lives Matter Plea Deal Falls Apart

An agreement reached between the Cumberland County district attorneys office and a group of Black Lives Matter protesters fell apart Wednesday in a dispute over a required restorative justice session. Now it appears prosecutors will reinstate misdemeanor charges, which had been put on hold.

Last July, police arrested 17 protesters after they blocked off a busy street in Portlands waterfront commercial district. In exchange for having criminal charges against them put on hold, the protesters agreed to participate in the restorative justice meeting with Police Chief Michael Sauschuck and other officers. It was supposed be held at a neutral location the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church.

According to prosecutors, the deal included a provision that the meeting would be split into two groups, with separate sessions held over the course of the day. If that proved a success, and the protesters each paid a fine, the charges could eventually be dropped.

Chief Sauschuck and I arrived there and it became very clear that they were not coming to the table with the conditions that we had laid out ahead of time, says Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ackerman.

Ackerman says the 17 demanded that they all stay together in one group for the meeting. For law enforcement, that was a nonstarter.

The process of restorative justice is really about the bigger picture. And having a meaningful discussion about how can we address your concerns and understand them and how can you address ours and where we are coming from. That was not their attitude when we walked in unfortunately, Ackerman says.

None of the protesters could be reached for comment. Stacey Neumann, a lawyer for one of them, says she believes the conflict can be resolved outside of court.

Nobody, as far as I am aware of, has done a restorative program at this large of a scale before, so I think there was a lot of moving pieces how information was shared or not shared so I dont think it was about goodwill on anybodys part, I really dont, she says.

I didnt see a group that arrived with good faith, I saw a group that came in with demands and changes to a written agreement with the district attorneys office, and that just sends a poor message from the very beginning, Sauschuck says.

He drew a contrast between this particular groups style of protest and open lines of communication between police and participants in many other recent protests and rallies in Portland, including the womens march two weekends ago that drew as many as 10,000 but had no arrests or significant conflicts with police.

We do it all the time, so I am absolutely disappointed that an issue like this, which had very important messages at its core, turned into an example of how not to do a protest, how not to do a rally, how not to do an event, Sauschuck says. Because I think you lose the message and its too important of a message to have it lost that way. We just have to do a better job, and were more than happy to talk with people or work with people in any of those settings.

Ackerman says theres still a possibility that the two sides could return to the restorative justice model. But she and her boss, District Attorney Stephanie Anderson, both say they expect theyll move toward motions and a trial.

Read more:
Black Lives Matter Plea Deal Falls Apart - MainePublic.org

Minneapolis Police Department

A Minnesota man charged with felony first-degree assault and riot charges in the November 2015 shooting of five people at a Black Lives Matter protest was convicted by a jury Wednesday.

The Star-Tribune reports that the jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Allen Lance Scarsella, 24, guilty on all counts following two weeks of testimony.

Scarsella was charged with 12 counts of first-degree assault and one count of riot in connection with the shooting at a Nov. 23, 2015, Black Lives Matter protest over the police-involved death of Jamar Clark.

The verdict surprised many in the black community who expected to hear not guilty, Minneapolis NAACP President Jason Sole told the Star-Tribune.

One of those surprised by the verdict was Cameron Clark, one of Scarsellas shooting victims, and Jamar Clarks cousin. He reportedly nodded in relief as each decision was read, and a few others in the courtroom cheered.

Im so happy for the four other brothers who were shot, Cameron Clark said. Im glad we got justice, but the fight isnt over.

According to the Star-Tribune, protesters had formed an encampment at the Minneapolis Police 4th Precinct following Jamar Clarks death at the hands of police in 2015.

Scarsella and three friends went to the encampment to live-stream as they trolled the protesters. Scarsella had done so previously with another friend a few days earlier when they wore masks and drove by, hurling racial slurs at those gathered.

A video of Scarsella showed him holding up a gun and saying, Were locked and loaded. Were going to make the fire rise.

From the Star-Tribune:

That video circulated online, causing protesters to become suspicious of anyone who came to the encampment with a mask.

Scarsella and his friends covered their faces when they showed up a few days later. Protesters quickly went up to them and demanded they take off their masks, according to trial testimony. When they refused, the four went north up a street as protesters followed. The pursuit stopped, but then several protesters said they heard someone from Scarsellas group shout the n-word.

Me and a group of people started running toward them, said Wesley Martin, one of the shooting victims.

About a block from where the group of four started, Scarsella opened fire and unloaded his magazine on a group of about seven protesters.

Martin, Cameron Clark, Tevin King, Walter Hoskins and Draper Larkins were all shot that night. King suffered the most serious injuries and required emergency surgery; the bullet remains inside him because a doctor deemed it too dangerous to remove.

In addition to Scarsella being charged, Nathan Gustavsson, 22; Daniel Macey, 27; and Joseph Backman, 28, were charged with second-degree riot and aiding an offender.

Scarsella testified that he shot in self-defense because his life and Gustavssons were in danger, and that he fired when he thought he saw one of the protesters pull out a knife.

Scarsella has been jailed since the shooting in lieu of $500,000 bail and is scheduled for sentencing March 10, when he faces a maximum sentence of nearly 20 years in prison.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman lauded Wednesdays verdict.

As I said at the time we charged Mr. Scarsella and his companions, the racist language he used in the videos and on social media is just not acceptable, and the actions he took as a result of those racist beliefs were heinous, Freeman said. The jury obviously saw it the same way.

Read more at the Star-Tribune.

See the article here:
Minn. Man Found Guilty of Shooting Black Lives Matter Activists During Protest - The Root

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The financing is listed on the Foundations website. It includes a June 1, 2016 grant to the International Development Exchange, which is in a contractual relationship with Black Lives Matter to process donations for the group.

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The Associated Press reported the International Development Exchange, also known as IDEX, has been acting as a mostly unseen financial arm of Black Lives Matter, with the ability to receive grants and tax-deductible donations on the groups behalf.

More recently, the relationship evolved into a contractual partnership that will run through at least mid-2017, the AP reported.

According to the Foundations website, the purpose of the $900,000 grant was to:

Enhance local and place-specific interventions to address issues impacting the lives of Black community members, families and children by building the infrastructure and capacity of the national #BlackLivesMatter to support and strengthen their local chapters organizing capacity.

On June 1, 2015, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided $30,000 to the Praxis Project, Inc. to support, according to the charitys website, the inaugural BlackLivesMatter Chapter Retreat.

On Tuesday, the Kellogg Company announced its decision to pull ads from Breitbart News, explaining its 45,000,000 monthly readers are not aligned with our values as a company. In response, the news agency launched a #DumpKelloggs petition and has called for a boycott of the famous food manufacturer.

Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow encouraged the boycott of Kellogg products:

Breitbart News is the largest platform for pro-family content anywhere on the Internet. We are fearless advocates for traditional American values, perhaps most important among them is freedom of speech, or our motto more voices, not less. For Kelloggs, an American brand, to blacklist Breitbart News in order to placate left-wing totalitarians is a disgraceful act of cowardice. They insult our incredibly diverse staff and spit in the face of our 45,000,000 highly engaged, highly perceptive, highly loyal readers, many of whom are Kelloggs customers. Boycotting Breitbart News for presenting mainstream American ideas is an act of discrimination and intense prejudice. If you serve Kelloggs products to your family, you are serving up bigotry at your breakfast table.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, meanwhile, was founded in 1930 by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, and has gone on to become one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the U.S.

Kellogg himself set up an endowment for the foundation by donating Kellogg Company stock and other investments to fund the charity.

The stock continues to fuel the foundation.

The foundations website relates some of the strong ties between the charity and the company, both of which are based in Battle Creek, Michigan:

The foundation receives its income primarily from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust, which was set up by Mr. Kellogg. In addition to its diversified portfolio, the trust continues to own substantial equity in the Kellogg Company. While the company and the foundation have enjoyed a long-standing relationship, the foundation is governed by its own independent board of trustees. The foundation receives its income primarily from the trusts investments.

Aaron Klein is Breitbarts Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him onTwitter @AaronKleinShow.Follow him onFacebook.

With additional research by Joshua Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

More:
Black Lives Matter - breitbart.com

A restorative justice meeting that had been planned between Portland police and the 17 protesters arrested this summer during a Black Lives Matter protest was called off at the last second Wednesday, according to an attorney involved in the case.

The collapse of the agreement between prosecutors and the protesters will likely mean a return of criminal charges for the group, who could have avoided such penalties under the deal.

The two sides could not agree on how the meeting should proceed in two groups held separately, or as one and who should be allowed to observe the process. The district attorneys office attempted to enforce part of the agreement to divide the protesters into two sessions; the protesters wanted to remain together.

The protesters also objected to the presence of an observer from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, and to the presence of Rachel Talbot Ross, a state legislator and head of the local chapter of the NAACP, who was asked by the protesters to leave.

It became very clear that they were not coming to the table with the conditions that we had laid out ahead of time, said Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ackerman, who prosecuted the cases.

Ackerman said she gave notice to the protesters attorneys ahead of time that she would be inviting the ACLU and the NAACP to observe. It was unclear why their presence became an issue.

Part of the dispute seems to stem from the lack of specificity in the agreed-upon terms filed in court.

The two outside groups were never explicitly included in the agreement signed by the protesters, and the restorative justice process was to be completed as directed by the district attorneys office, according to court documents.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said that, in hindsight, her office should have spelled out all of the terms more clearly.

Anderson, who did not speak at the news conference but answered questions from a reporter afterward, said she was disappointed.

We should have had every single one of the defendants signs a contract, Anderson said. We bent over backwards to resolve these charges, and let me tell you, this left a bad taste in police officers mouths.

Each of the protesters who were arrested was charged with one count of obstructing a public way. Some were also charged with other offenses, such as disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.

The deal with the District Attorneys office allowed the protesters to admit to violating a city disorderly conduct ordinance, a civil infraction which was discharged by the court, in exchange for the chance at a future dismissal of all charges if the protesters fulfilled their end of the deal.

Each protester would have to donate $140 to the victims compensation fund and $60 to pay for the restorative justice meeting.

The plan had been for the 17 protesters to meet with Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck in two separate groups over the course of the day. But the protesters said they wanted to remain together during the meeting, said Attorney Stacey Neumann, who represented protester Shadiyo Ali.

Fred Van Liew, who was scheduled to facilitate the restorative justice meeting, agreed to the change, Neumann said, but Ackerman then canceled..

The original incident arose after demonstrators blocked a section of Commercial Street last July 15, a busy Friday night in the Old Port. Portland police said the protesters failed to get a permit and discuss their plans with police, unlike a similar protest the week before.

The leaders of the earlier protest had met with police beforehand to discuss their plans and the route their march would follow. By contrast, Portland police said they tried to contact the organizers of the July 15 march before it began, but were rebuffed.

The protesters gathered in Lincoln Park early in the evening and then marched, chanting, down Pearl Street to Commercial Street, with a police car in front of the group and two cruisers behind. There were a few shouts back and forth between protesters and some bystanders who objected to the Black Lives Matter chants, and a handful of drivers were delayed when protesters holding a banner blocked Custom House Wharf.

The demonstrators removed the banner when asked to by police, who watched the protest for more than three hours before making arrests when the demonstrators refused to disperse.

Other protesters continued the demonstration and those arrested were released a few hours after they were taken into custody.

This story will be updated.

Read more:
Plea deal between prosecutor, Portland Black Lives Matter protesters collapses - Press Herald

Black Lives Matter Vancouver may have only come together in 2016, but the group is eager to commemorate and celebrate the long history of the black community in Vancouver.

Cicely-Belle Blain said she started the group last summer in solidarity with the movement which originated in 2013 in the United States as a response to institutional racism experienced by black people.

"We wanted to also show that there are black people in Canada and racism is still a thing that exists here in Canada," she said.

Blain said the black community in Vancouver isn't huge, yet her group still gets comments like "this is an American problem" and "you don't belong here."

"Even though we're a very small group, there's still a lot about blackness to be celebrated ... particularly in this city there was a rich, vibrant black history."

Although her group is small, Black Lives Matter Vancouver founder Cicely-Belle Blain (centre) says she is eager to revive the spirit of Vancouver's historic black communities. (Vancouver Dyke March/Facebook)

Celebrating that community history is one of key focuses on the group in the month and year ahead.

"There used to be a very big population of black people here in Vancouver but then it was wiped out by things like the building of the Georgia [Street] viaduct which wiped out Hogan's Alley where there was a thriving black community," she explained.

"That led black people to be pushed further out into the suburbs or even east into the rest of Canada ... In Vancouver,we're kind of siloed and we don't really have much of a sense of community."

Blain said her group will be hosting some events like an art workshop which she says will be primarily for and within Vancouver's black community.

"It's going to be our focus this year to look more internally and create spaces that are safe and comfortable for black people," Blain said.

With files from The Early Edition

To listen to the interview, click on the link labelled Black Lives Matter Vancouver founder on Black History Month

Go here to see the original:
Black Lives Matter Vancouver marks Black History Month - CBC.ca