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Zach GilbertNEWS EDITOR

I cant breathe.

Three simple words shook America to its core this summer and ignited a fiery fury that continues to blaze to this day.

While the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement didnt start in 2020 having been formed seven years prior, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin it certainly earned more attention this year than ever before, as the nation became embroiled in protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Not only were governments forced to investigate institutional racism on both a local and federal scale (with studies soon even revealing racial disparities in Nebraskas own criminal justice system, as African Americans made up 20% of arrests in Nebraska from 2014-2019, despite representing just 5% of the population, according to the Center for Public Affairs Research at UNO), but individual Americans were also compelled to confront their own biases and prejudices.

This newfound awareness and acknowledgement of ongoing societal and political racism caused a cultural reckoning unlike this country has ever seen, but the path to progress is far from over. With a new presidential administration on the horizon, many are hopeful that change can come sooner rather than later.

Corbin Smith, a Black student journalist from Northwest Missouri State University, shared his thoughts about the continuing pain over Floyds passing, his personal efforts to enlighten others about racism and his faith for Americas future.

I remember watching [the video of George Floyd] and just being heartbroken, Smith said. I felt myself tensing up as if I was the one trying to fight for air. It was really sad, but it wasnt surprising. Unfortunately, I said to myself, Well, here we go again.

As a writer, Smith is wholly passionate about the power of words, and he has used his position as a journalist to elicit empathy and understanding from others.

I wrote my first article discussing BLM back in July, Smith said. Ever since, Ive been constantly writing about my experiences as a Black male in America in hopes of sharing it with those who arent as [familiar] with people of color.

Similarly, he has not been shy about his expectations for the upcoming Biden Administration and what President Biden must do to move the movement forward.

I [recently] wrote an article about what I expect the Biden Administration to do for the Black community, Smith said. In it, I [gave] a shortlist of important things that the Black community needs. However, one thing I left out is that I simply expect the president to make us feel welcome. When Trump was in office, [certain] groups found comfort in outwardly opposing people of color. I want Biden to make people feel like people of color matter, and we dont deserve to be treated as less than.

Aside from political progress, Smith wants to see a societal change most of all.

I hope that more people start to realize and accept that racism is still prevalent in America, Smith said. I pray that Black people can exist without the fear of being targeted by police officers. I pray that we can walk in public without getting dirty looks. I pray that we can soon scream that were frustrated, sad and upset, without being told that were overreacting.

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The summer that shocked the world and where Black Lives Matter goes from here - The Gateway

Journalist Megyn Kelly said in an interview set to be published Friday that the summers Black Lives Matter demonstrations in response to George Floyds death morphed into a movement co-opted by activists.

Kelly told Carlos Watson of "The Carlos Watson Show" that she initially was more sympathetic to the racial justice protests after viral bystanderfootage showed former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for several minutes.

When George Floyd was killed I think a lot of Black people and white people were deeply affected by that tape, she told Watson, the co-founder and CEO of OZY.

And when I saw the riots unfold, my first instinct was how can we ask people to respect law and order and sort of the balance of decency when we dont live that," she saidin a clip of the interviewreleased exclusively to The Hill Thursday ahead of thefull interview.

But Kelly said she began to feel very differently as the summer went on and demonstrations evolved and some activists promoted the slogan defund the police.

I began to feel very differently, as it morphed into more of a political movement, where to me it seemed co-opted by activists, as opposed to just people who wanted change, Kelly said. And some reform in law enforcement turned into defund the police.

The Black Lives Matter movement was started in 2013 by three Black, female organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the manwho fatally shotBlack teen Trayvon Martin in Florida, according to its website.

The defund the police movement refers to plans to reallocate some funding for police departments to social services, such as funding for mental health professionals to respond to certain crises instead of officers.

This is not the way to get buy-in on, you know, what started as I think an earnest effort to improve Black lives, Kelly said.

The former Fox News anchor and NBC News correspondent compared the development of Black Lives Matter over the summer to the #MeToo movement.

It morphed into something that wasnt gonna be all that helpful, she said of the #MeToo movement. It wound up alienating the very group we most need to have buy-in on our progress: men."

And I think the reality of our racial struggle right now, in part, is for Black people to ascend in a meaningful way, the truth is you need white buy-in too, she said.

The deaths of Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., sparked protests across the country and internationally with people calling for reform to law enforcement and an end to police brutality.

The rest is here:
Megyn Kelly: Black Lives Matter 'morphed' into a movement 'co-opted by activists' over summer | TheHill - The Hill

BLACK Lives Matter was called a terrorist group that was said to be plotting a violent overthrow of the government in a police training guide two months ago.

International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) sent thousands of its members a link to the 176-page guide in October as part of a news email update.

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Critics of the document, reported by The Associated Press on Wednesday, said it contained misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric.

The doc titled Understanding Antifa and Urban Guerrilla Warfare is said to contain information that might incite police officers against protesters and people of color.

The training guide claims that Black Lives Matter and Antifa are revolutionary movements whose aims are to overthrow the U.S. government.

The guide also reportedly alleges BLM and the leftist protest group are planning extreme violence.

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It has many unsupported claims including that both movements have trained, dedicated snipers stationed in certain cities, are fronts for Russia and China, and planned attacks before and after last months presidential election.

The doc also claims that those who protested in Portland and Seattle this year were useful idiots designed to give cover to the hard-core, terrorist trained troops that would follow.

Extreme acts of violence are expected and called for, the document warns.

The paper claims that military officials who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are concerned about the movements because they have witnessed these types of terrorist groups organizing, creating insurgencies and the horrible consequences of it.

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The police training guide also claims the FBI is clueless about the nature of their supposed threat and, like the news media, has wrongly focused attention on violence carried out by white supremacists.

Harvey Hedden, who serves as the groups executive director, said the document was a members opinion, and said it was open for debate and criticism.

There will always be differences of opinion on training issues but so long as the disagreements remain professional and not personal we do not censor these ideas, he told the AP.

I am willing to allow the trainer to evaluate the information themselves.

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Just like law enforcement, I am afraid BLM has earned some of these criticisms and others might be overgeneralizations, Hedden said.

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after black teenager Trayvon Martin was shot to death in Florida by one-time community watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was later acquitted.

The movement has grown as fatal shootings of black people by police officers are increasingly recorded and shared on social media, sometimes as confrontations are still unfolding.

Black Lives Matter regularly campaigns against institutional racism and violence towards black people, and speaks out against police brutality, and racial inequality.

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ILEETAs mission statement says the police group is committed to the reduction of law enforcement risk and saving lives through high-quality training.

Phillip Atiba Goff, a Yale University professor who is an expert on racial bias in policing, said the document is dangerous.

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Its stunning. Its distressing in many ways. Its untethered to reality, Goff, CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, said.

I worry that it leads to people dying unnecessarily.

Goff added that police execs hes spoken to about the training document said they're "disturbed by it."

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He and others said it was irresponsible for the group to promote the paper.

Goff, whose group works with departments to make policing less racist and deadly, said the document showed why its important for critics to engage directly with local law enforcement to make changes.

Otherwise, he said, you are abandoning that profession to the worst impulses of this country.

Continue reading here:
Black Lives Matter called TERRORIST group plotting a violent revolution to overthrow government in cop tra - The Sun

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of government' gets done, and where we sat together in the park as the evening sky grew dark.

We begin in Kentucky, where the police department in Louisville is having a really bad year, and it's about to get even worse. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

The charges themselves are ghastly. In one way or another, they appear to involve all of the city's law enforcement apparatus and a healthy portion of city government. And it's clear that the police department and city hall had the same initial reaction that every institution, from Penn State to the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts, had. They looked for a way to bury the evidence.

Almost 800,000 pieces of evidence? Somebody's going to jail behind this. And it's another example of the culture of impunity that grows within too much of law enforcement. Policing in this country needs to change, top to bottom, and if that makes "swing district" congresscritters uncomfortable, then that's the way it goes.

Neilson BarnardGetty Images

We move along to Utah, where the pandemic is spiking, as it is everywhere, and where we once again find our fellow citizens holding out against the jackboots of public health. From the St. George News:

This, however, seems a little nuts.

Is this a thing now? People deliberately spreading the 'Rona because FREEDOM! or something? Apparently, the Department of Justice thought so, at least theoretically. Are a huge number of our fellow citizens absolutely unconscionable morons? Experts are divided.

Joe RaedleGetty Images

We move on to Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis seems determined to cast the deciding "yes" vote in the survey mentioned above. In addition to hiring some third-rate sports blogger from Ohio to do "data analysis" on the pandemic in Florida, DeSantis is also taking some action against people who say mean things to him on the street, as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel explains.

Almost none of this authoritarian swill is constitutional. (The no-bail provision belongs in North Korea.) And immunizing drivers who run down protestors in the street?

And that's not all. DeSantis also proposed adjusting the state's Stand Your Ground law, the one that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin and get away with it, to a point where they might as well rename it Kyle's Law, after freedom fighter Kyle Rittenhouse, The Kenosha Kid. From the Miami Herald:

There's serious competition for the title of The Next Trump, and DeSantis is only one of the favorites. That's what worries me.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Natural Gas Dowser Friedman of the Plains brings us the saga of yet another charter school outfit that's only in it for The Kids. From the Tulsa World:

The Oklahoma legislature, which never has been mistaken for the People's Liberation Army, is furiously demanding that the state's Department of Education be audited, and Governor Kevin Stitt has had no choice but to join the legislature in this demand.

The charter industry is a license to loot the public treasury unless strictly regulated. In fact, theoretically, if a kid with a brick in Florida behaved toward a liquor store the way that the charter sharpies behaved toward the Oklahoma taxpayers, Ron DeSantis would let you shoot him.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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This Is the Culture of Impunity That Grows Within Too Much of Law Enforcement - Esquire

This year's nationwide protests demanding racial justice and an end to police brutalitysparked by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black Americansinspired a proposal from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that critics worry will lead to more bloodshed: expanding the state's controversial "stand your ground" law with his drafted "anti-mob" legislation.

The Miami Herald reported Tuesday on the draft, which traces back to promises DeSantis made earlier this year "as he tried to deliver Florida" to President Donald Trump. The presidentwho ultimately won the state but lost the election, though is still refusing to concede to President-elect Joe Bidenhas come under fire for his own forceful response to the protests.

DeSantis' administration has circulated an "anti-mob legislation draft" among Florida lawmakers since his public statements in September, but no related measures have been filed in the state legislature. However, local attorneys are already raising alarm that the proposal "allows for vigilantes to justify their actions," in the words of Denise Georges.

Georges, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor who handled "stand your ground" cases, told the Herald that "it also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crimeand that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly."

As Democrats scold progressives about "defund the police," the governor of the 3rd biggest state by pop. is pushing an "anti-mob" law that critics say will legalize the killing of suspected looters and will punish cities that try to reduce police budgetshttps://t.co/tVEgmnWmIr pic.twitter.com/3pHqTWKIeD

Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) November 10, 2020

Florida passed its "stand your ground" law in 2005and other states, encouraged by the National Rifle Association, followed suit, enacting measures that effectively say people have no duty to retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves. The Florida measure garnered national attention in 2012, after George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in a gated community. Zimmerman's acquittal the next year sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Zimmerman's attorney did not raise a 'stand your ground' defense at the trial," the Washington Post noted in 2014. "But after the trial a juror acknowledged that jurors had discussed the self-defense law before finding Zimmerman not guilty. The law also changed the standard instructions to jurors in homicide cases, so that the judge said that Zimmerman had no duty to retreat and could stand his ground if he felt threatened. (The law may have also played a role in the initial failure of the local police to prosecute Zimmerman.)"

DeSantis' proposal goes even further than 2017 changes to the law that make prosecutors prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that a defendant wasn't acting in self-defense. As the Herald detailed Tuesday:

The proposal would expand the list of "forcible felonies" under Florida's self-defense law to justify the use of force against people who engage in criminal mischief that results in the "interruption or impairment" of a business, and looting, which the draft defines as a burglary within 500 feet of a "violent or disorderly assembly."

Other key elements of DeSantis' proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in "violent or disorderly assemblies," make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets.

Former Miami-Dade prosecutor Aubrey Webb told the newspaper that "the Boston Tea Party members would have been lawfully shot under Florida's law by the British East India Tea Company."

"It dangerously gives armed private citizens power to kill as they subjectively determine what constitutes 'criminal mischief' that interferes with a business," Webb said. "Someone graffiti-ing 'Black Lives Matter' on a wall? Urinating behind a dumpster? Blocking an entrance?"

Webb and Georges were far from alone in criticizing the GOP governor's proposal. Critics warned it could lead to more violence by vigilantes like the white teenager charged with killing racial justice protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August and urged DeSantis to instead focus on the coronavirus pandemic that continues to ravage his state.

Florida @GovRonDeSantis has drafted anti-mob legislation to expand Floridas dangerous Stand Your Ground law, which could allow armed vigilantes to shoot alleged looters or anyone engaged in criminal mischief that disrupts a business. #flapol https://t.co/IARLIAb8Gp

Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 11, 2020

another case in point of how #gunpower is a settler colonial system of social control and social reproduction that delegates the power to kill in a flexible, decentralized fashion so that individuals can kill to "defend" themselves and a broader order of racialized inequality https://t.co/2hvtN8cwXb

inverted vibe curve: burgertown must be defended (@PatBlanchfield) November 10, 2020

more seriously this draft legislation is basically an attempt to give official state sanction to would-be kyle rittenhouses

b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 10, 2020

Hospitalizations for #COVID19 continue to rise.

More Floridians are filing for unemployment.

Small businesses and our tourism economy continues to struggle.

Expanding Stand Your Ground should not be the priority, @GovRonDeSantis. https://t.co/TJuPfIkCmo

Nikki Fried (@nikkifried) November 11, 2020

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, retired Miami-Dade homicide prosecutor Reid Rubin, Miami defense lawyer Phil Reizenstein, and Melba Pearson, a civil rights attorney and former deputy director of Florida's American Civil Liberties Union, all shared concerns about the proposal with the Herald, while others on social media described the draft legislation as "legalizing lynching" and "legalizing murder."

As digital rights activist Evan Greer put it: "This is basically just a license for white people to kill protesters."

Read this article:
DeSantis Responds to Racial Justice Protests With Expanded 'Stand Your Ground' Proposal Slammed as 'Legalized Lynching' - Common Dreams