CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A man sentenced to life in prison on federal hate crime charges for deliberately driving his car into anti-racism protesters during a white nationalist rally in Virginia is set to face a state judge who could add another life sentence, plus 419 years.
James Alex Fields Jr., 22, will be sentenced Monday for killing one person and injuring dozens during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017.
Last month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.
A state jury has recommended a sentence of life, plus 419 years. Under state law, Judge Richard Moore is allowed to go lower than the jury’s recommendation, but cannot go higher.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said judges in Virginia generally tend to stick with the jury’s recommended sentence. In Fields’ case, the state sentence will be mainly symbolic since he has already received a life sentence on federal charges.
“For his purposes, he has one life to give, so this is a largely academic exercise,” Turley said.
People who were hurt in the attack and the family of the woman who was killed are expected to make victim impact statements during Monday’s hearing in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
Fields, an avowed white supremacist who kept a photo of Adolf Hitler on his bedside table, drove from his home in Maumee, Ohio, to attend the rally, which drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The event also drew counterprotesters who demonstrated against the white nationalists.
Violent skirmishes between the two sides prompted police to declare an unlawful assembly and to order the groups to disband before the rally could even begin. Later that day, Fields plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer , 32, and injuring more than two dozen others.
The event stirred racial tensions around the country. President Donald Trump sparked controversy when he blamed the violence at the rally on “both sides,” a statement that critics saw as a refusal to condemn racism.
During Fields’ state trial, his attorneys focused on his history of mental illness and traumatic childhood.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An 18-year-old Kansas man has been charged in the April attack that wounded New York Giants draft pick Corey Ballentine and killed one of his Washburn University teammates, Dwane Simmons.
Francisco Alejandro Mendez was charged Friday with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and five counts of aggravated battery in the April 28 attack, the Shawnee County district attorney’s office said in a news release.
Mendez is being held on a $1 million bond. His case doesn’t appear yet in online court records, and his attorney, Victoria Chundak-Gallaway, in an unrelated criminal case didn’t immediately reply to a phone message left Saturday at her office.
Washburn football coach Craig Schurig told the Topeka Capital-Journal that he called Ballentine on Friday to inform him that Mendez had been charged.
“You could tell there was a relief in his voice,” Schurig said. “It just helps — it helps to know that the people responsible are starting to get caught. And this is a big step. It was nice to be able to communicate with him some really good news.”
Schurig said he exchanged texts with Dwane Simmons’ father, Navarro Simmons, earlier Friday.
“You can’t imagine what the Simmons family is going through, but today is a very good day,” the coach said.
Ballentine, who was shot in the rear end, missed the Giants’ rookie minicamp in early May while he recovered. He played in 46 games as a cornerback for Washburn, finishing with 186 tackles, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and five interceptions. In his final season, he won the Cliff Harris Award, which goes to the small college defensive player of the year.
A nationwide survey was conducted among different African-American communities, and they were asked about where they thought the country was heading. This is why it was found that they were quite pessimistic when it comes to the prospects that have been brought forward by the Trump administration.
The Country is on The Wrong Track
84% of the people involved in the survey said that the country is on the wrong track. This is quite a large number of people who are pessimistic about their circumstances and their future. About two-thirds of the Black community said that they were worried about the future policies of the President and how they could negatively affect the Black community.
In Comparison to Obama’s Presidency
This was the only time to which this recent survey’s findings could be matched to. To no one’s surprise, the variances were off the charts. In a 2011 poll, it was found that as many as 71% of the population int the Black community thought that they were happy with the President’s policies.
In Comparison to Bush’s Presidency
A few years earlier, a similar poll had also been conducted in the presidency of George W. Bush. In this poll, researchers had determined that about 51% of the population in the Black community thought it was a great time to be in America.
Race Relations
These huge differences in numbers are quite clear and explain the situation of the Black community nowadays. According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, it was found that as many as 81% of the entire population thought race relations were the ‘big problem’. Compared to the 44% of who thought this was the problem back in 2009, it is quite clear that the current government has faced with improving race relations.
Other surveys have also highlighted that the Black community had already begun to get pessimistic a few months before Donald Trump got elected. President Obama had made quite a lot of breakthroughs for these relations and people believe that the current president has rolled back on everything his predecessor strived to achieve.
More than half of the people involved in the recent survey were of the opinion that they were deprived of policies that benefited them in terms of higher education, public schools and quality education and access to childcare.
Some families went even as far as saying that pessimism influenced their decision on whether they should have children in America!
Another day, another example of Black women’s bodies being policed.
Case in point: A Black doctor claims an American Airlines flight attendant told her to cover up on a flight from Jamaica to Houston because her outfit was ‘too revealing.”
After the news of the incident went viral, officials from the airline apologized on Tuesday, telling Dr. Latisha “Tisha” Rowe that were “concerned about [her] comments.”
“We…reached out to her and our team at the Kingston airport to gather more information about what occurred,” American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson, adding, “We apologize to Dr. Rowe and her son for their experience, and have fully refunded their travel.”
“We are proud to serve customers of all backgrounds and are committed to providing a positive, safe travel experience for everyone who flies with us.”
But Dr. Rowe is not having it, stressing that she was “humiliated” and targeted” on her flight, because of her race and her curvy figure.
“To me, that felt like a slap in the face, because I felt appropriately dressed,” Rowe told CNN.
“But I’m being told indirectly, in front of my son that — you know, it felt like ‘you look like a slut, so let’s fix this.’ ”
That, and other passengers were wearing similar outfits, yet none of them were pulled to the side by staff.
“There were definitely other passengers wearing tropical attire, short-shorts. One was also a mother, traveling with a child and she said, ‘Your shorts are longer than mine and no one said anything to me,” Rowe recalled for Good Morning America.
While American Airlines also promised to refund Rowe for her tickets, she isn’t trying to hear that noise either.
Rowe is clear: She wants an explanation and a dress code policy that is clear and applies to everyone involved.
“I will be empowered to dress the way that I feel comfortable, dress the way I feel appropriate. If you are going to have a dress code, it should be applied equally to every person, to every shape, to every race,” the family physician stressed.
Now this story became public earlier this week when Rowe wrote on social media that while on her way to Jamaica from Florida last month, she was asked to deplane and wear a blanket over her romper.
“Here is what i was wearing when @AmericanAir asked me to deplane for a talk. At which point I was asked to “cover up”. When defending my outfit I was threatened with not getting back on the flight unless I walked down the aisle wrapped in a blanket. #notsofriendlyskies”
Here is what i was wearing when @AmericanAir asked me to deplane for a talk. At which point I was asked to “cover up”. When defending my outfit I was threatened with not getting back on the flight unless I walked down the aisle wrapped in a blanket. #notsofriendlyskiespic.twitter.com/AYQNNriLcq
WASHINGTON (AP) — Starkly injecting race into his criticism of liberal Democrats, President Donald Trump said Sunday that four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all of the women are American citizens and three were born in the U.S. His attack drew a searing condemnation from Democrats who labeled the remarks racist and breathtakingly divisive.
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……
Following a familiar script, Republicans remained largely silent after Trump’s morning broadsides against the four women. But the president’s nativist tweets caused Democrats to set aside their internal rifts to rise up in a united chorus against the president.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump wants to “make America white again.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, after jousting for days with Pelosi, said Trump “can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”
Trump, who has a long history of making racist remarks, was almost certainly referring to Ocasio-Cortez and her House allies in what’s become known as “the squad.” The others are Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Only Omar, from Somalia, is foreign-born.
Ocasio-Cortez swiftly denounced his remarks . “Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States,” she tweeted, adding that “You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.” Omar also addressed herself directly to Trump in a tweet, writing: “You are stoking white nationalism (because) you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, summed up the Democratic response: “Racial arsonist strikes again. Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth.”
With his tweet, Trump inserted himself further into a rift between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez, just two days after he offered an unsolicited defense of the Democratic speaker. Pelosi has been seeking to minimize Ocasio-Cortez’s influence in the House Democratic caucus in recent days, prompting Ocasio-Cortez to accuse Pelosi of trying to marginalize women of color.
“She is not a racist,” Trump said of Pelosi on Friday.
On Sunday, Trump’s tone took a turn.
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” he tweeted.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
He added: “These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
The attacks may have been meant to widen the divides within the Democrat caucus, which has been riven by internal debate over how far left to go in countering Trump and over whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings against the president. Instead, the president’s tweets, which evoked the trope of telling black people to go back to Africa, brought Democrats together.
THIS is what racism looks like. WE are what democracy looks like. And we’re not going anywhere. Except back to DC to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday. pic.twitter.com/vYzoxCgN0X
“Let’s be clear about what this vile comment is: A racist and xenophobic attack on Democratic congresswomen,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate.
Another 2020 contender, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, tweeted at the president: “This is racist. These congresswomen are every bit as American as you — and represent our values better than you ever will.”
Mr. President, the country I “come from,” & the country we all swear to, is the United States.
But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet. https://t.co/HLKQCotR8T
Few Republicans weighed in on the president’s comments. Congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Sen. Tim. Scott of South Carolina, the only Republican black senator.
Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a previously scheduled appearance on “Face the Nation” on CBS, said only: “You’re going to have to ask the president what he means by those specific tweets.”
Shortly after the tweets, and a later presidential post defending the harsh scenes at a border detention facility where hundreds of migrant men are being held in sweltering, foul-smelling conditions, Trump left the White House to go golfing at his Virginia club.
Trump appeared unbowed Sunday night when he returned to Twitter to say it was “so sad” to see Democrats sticking up for the women. “If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior,” he tweeted, “then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!”
Saluting these women. Stay pushing. Stay shining. Stay working. Stay a pain in the ass of the #RacistInChief and all his co-horts. Stay true to who you are. Stay safe. Stay together. Stay making us proud. #FourQueenspic.twitter.com/jkcXe6Z96F
It was far from the first time that Trump has been accused of holding racist views.
In his campaign kickoff in June 2015, Trump deemed many Mexican immigrants “rapists.” In 2017, he said there good people on “both sides” of the clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators that left one counter-protester dead. Last year, during a private White House meeting on immigration, Trump wondered why the United States was admitting so many immigrants from “shithole countries” like African nations.
Repeatedly, Trump has painted arriving immigrants as an “infestation” and he has been slow in condemning acts of violence committed by white supremacists. And he launched his political career with false claims that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Despite his history of racist remarks, Trump has paid little penalty in his own party.
Though a broad array of Republicans did speak out against his reaction to Charlottesville, they have largely held their tongues otherwise, whether it be on matter of race or any other Trump provocation. Fearful of his Twitter account and sweeping popularity among Republican voters, GOP lawmakers have largely tried to ignore the provocative statements.
Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential hopeful from California, tweeted, “Let’s call the president’s racist attack exactly what it is: un-American.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in suburban Westchester County.
Pressley, the first black woman elected to the House from Massachusetts, was born in Cincinnati.
Omar, the first Somali native elected to Congress and one of its first Muslim women, was born in Somalia but spent much of her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp as civil war tore apart her home country. She immigrated to the United States at age 12, teaching herself English by watching American TV and eventually settling with her family in Minneapolis.
Tlaib was born in Detroit.
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Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thousands of Louisianans broke out sandbags or fled to higher ground Thursday as Tropical Storm Barry threatened to turn into the first hurricane of the season and blow ashore with torrential rains that could pose a severe test of New Orleans’ improved post-Katrina flood defenses .
National Guard troops and rescue crews in high-water vehicles took up positions around the state as Louisiana braced for the arrival of the storm Friday night or early Saturday.
Barry could have winds of about 75 mph (120 kph), just barely over the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane, when it comes ashore, making it a Category 1 storm, forecasters said.
But it is expected to bring more than a foot and a half (0.5 meters) of rain in potentially ruinous downpours that could go on for hours as the storm passes through the metropolitan area of nearly 1.3 million people and pushes slowly inland.
President Donald Trump on Thursday night declared a federal declaration of emergency for Louisiana, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who declared an emergency earlier in the week as the storm brewed in the Gulf of Mexico, warned that the storm’s blow could form a dangerous combination with the already-high Mississippi River, which has been swelled by heavy rain and snowmelt upriver this spring.
“There are three ways that Louisiana can flood: storm surge, high rivers and rain,” Edwards said. “We’re going to have all three.”
He said authorities do not expect the Mississippi River to spill over its levees — something that has never happened in New Orleans’ modern history — but cautioned that a change in the storm’s direction or intensity could alter that.
As of Thursday night, Barry was about 85 miles (137 kilometers) south of the mouth of the Mississippi, with winds around 50 mph (80 kph). A hurricane warning was posted for a 100-mile stretch of Louisiana coastline just below Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Southeast of New Orleans, authorities handed out sandbags and people piled into cars with their pets and began clearing out. Plaquemines Parish, at Louisiana’s low-lying southeastern tip, ordered the mandatory evacuation of as many as 10,000 people, and by midafternoon the area was largely empty.
Justice of the Peace David McGaha waited with his mother, his wife and their 15-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter for a ferry so they could evacuate to his mother’s house in Alabama.
“If the river wasn’t so high, we’d probably stay. You have to worry about the water that’ll be pushing against those levees,” he said. “They made a lot of improvements to the levee, but they haven’t completed all the projects.”
Clarence Brocks, 65, a Plaquemines Parish native and volunteer fire chief who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina 14 years ago and had to start over from scratch, found himself packing up again.
“We’re in between two major bodies of water and the only thing protecting us is two, 18-foot levees, and one of them failed already for Katrina,” he said.
The National Hurricane Center said as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain could fall in parts of eastern Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, and the entire region could get as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters). The New Orleans area could get 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 centimeters) through Sunday, forecasters said.
Meteorologist Benjamin Schott said the chief concern is not the wind: “Rainfall and flooding is going to be the No. 1 threat with this storm.”
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that the pumping system that drains the city’s streets is working as designed but that Barry could dump water faster than the pumps can move it.
“We cannot pump our way out of the water levels … that are expected to hit the city of New Orleans,” she warned.
However, the city did not plan to order evacuations because Barry was so close and because it was not expected to grow into a major hurricane. Officials instead advised people to keep at least three days of supplies on hand and to keep their neighborhood storm drains clear so water can move quickly.
Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding in New Orleans in 2005 and was blamed altogether for more than 1,800 deaths in Louisiana and other states, by some estimates.
In its aftermath, the Army Corps of Engineers began a multibillion-dollar hurricane-protection system that isn’t complete. The work included repairs and improvements to some 350 miles (560 kilometers) of levees and more than 70 pump stations that are used to remove floodwaters.
The National Weather Service said it expects the Mississippi to rise to 19 feet (5.8 meters) by Saturday morning at a key gauge in the New Orleans area, which is protected by levees 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7.6 meters) high.
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Associated Press reporters Chevel Johnson in New Orleans and Janet McConnaughey and Sarah Blake Morgan in Plaquemines Parish contributed to this report.
A person with knowledge of the situation says the Oklahoma City Thunder have traded Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Paul in a swapping of top point guards. The Thunder also are getting first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, plus the right to swap first-rounders in two other seasons, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the trade has not been announced.
ESPN first reported the agreement.
Paul is a nine-time All-Star, Westbrook an eight-time selection. Paul has 9,181 career assists, the most among active players. Westbrook has 138 triple-doubles, tied with Magic Johnson for second-most in NBA history behind only Oscar Robertson’s 181. Both members of Houston’s new glitzy backcourt are recent MVPs: Westbrook won it in 2017, Harden won it in 2018. And the trade means that the NBA’s two highest scorers over the last five seasons — Harden with 11,958 points, Westbrook with 10,025 — are now teammates.
Westbrook and Harden were Thunder teammates for three seasons, the last of those being the 2011-12 campaign when that duo and Kevin Durant took Oklahoma City to the NBA Finals. They lost in five games to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, and Harden departed that summer for Houston — where he’s been an All-Star ever since.
But when the Thunder agreed last week to trade Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers — in a move that essentially sealed 2019 NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard’s decision to leave Toronto for the Clippers — it became clear quickly that Westbrook would be on the move as well. And this trade, when completed, will mean that Thunder general manager Sam Presti has added eight first-round picks to the team’s stockpile in the last week or so.
Oklahoma City got five first-round future selections as part of the George trade. The Thunder are getting two more in this trade, and got a 2020 first-round pick in the deal completed earlier this week that sent Jerami Grant to Denver.
It’s the latest bold transaction in a wild offseason of movement that already saw Leonard become the first reigning Finals MVP change teams in the offseason after winning that award, Anthony Davis get traded from New Orleans to the Los Angeles Lakers, All-Star point guards like Kyrie Irving (Boston to Brooklyn), Kemba Walker (Charlotte to Boston) and D’Angelo Russell (Brooklyn to Golden State) change teams, Durant leave the Warriors for Brooklyn, Jimmy Butler go from Philadelphia to Miami in a sign-and-trade, Al Horford move from Philadelphia from Boston.
“Craziest NBA summer by far,” longtime NBA guard Jamal Crawford tweeted.
Paul and Harden were teammates for two seasons in Houston. The Rockets had a 3-2 lead over Golden State in the 2018 Western Conference finals when Paul injured a hamstring, and the Warriors rallied to win that series in seven games on the way to the NBA title. This past season, Houston was ousted in the second round by the Warriors.
The 34-year-old Paul is owed roughly $125 million over the final three years of his contract, including a $44.2 million option for 2021-22. Westbrook, who turns 31 early next season, is owed $171 million over the final four years of his existing deal.
HONOLULU (AP) — Intense turbulence struck an Air Canada flight to Australia on Thursday and sent unbuckled passengers flying into the ceiling, forcing the plane to land in Hawaii.
The flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “un-forecasted and sudden turbulence,” about two hours past Hawaii when the plane diverted to Honolulu, Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said in a statement.
“The plane just dropped,” passenger Stephanie Beam told The Associated Press. “When we hit turbulence, I woke up and looked over to make sure my kids were buckled. The next thing I knew there’s just literally bodies on the ceiling of the plane.”
A woman behind her hit the ceiling so hard that she broke the casing of an oxygen mask, said Beam, of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Of the 37 passengers and flight crew members injured, nine had serious injuries, emergency responders said. Thirty people were taken to hospitals.
Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Chief Dean Nakano said the injured ranged in age from children to the elderly. Customs agents and emergency responders met passengers at the gate at the Honolulu airport to ensure they could get medical attention quickly.
Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright said injuries included cuts, bumps, bruises, neck pain and back pain. More than two dozen people were taken to hospitals, she said.
Llyn Williams was traveling with his wife Erica Daly back to their home in Sydney, Australia. His wife was injured and taken to the hospital.
He said when they hit the violent turbulence, “Everybody who was not seated and belted in hit the roof, almost everybody in our cabin.”
Williams described the cabin afterward as frightening, with plastic lying around and oxygen masks dangling. “A lot of blood everywhere,” he said. “It was really quite scary.”
Andrew Szucs, originally from Ontario but now living in Sydney, was not injured.
There had been turbulence before the abrupt drop and he was awake, bracing himself.
“Then all of a sudden the plane dropped and went sideways,” Szucs said. “And that’s when the people who were strapped in flew, hit the ceiling.”
He said the pilot came on the radio and said they didn’t see the turbulence on radar and had “no warning this kind of air drop was going to happen.”
Babies and children were crying as crew members went through the cabin assessing injuries. About 15 minutes later, there was an announcement asking for passengers who are medical professionals to help, Beam said.
Sandy Marshall of Sydney was injured, with her two children unhurt.
“I didn’t have my seat belt on at the time. My child was sleeping on me, and I went straight up into the ceiling,” she said.
Most of the impact was to her head, but she also suffered a laceration under her right eye, bruising and muscular pain in her neck.
The turbulence happened at 36,000 feet (10,973 meters) about 600 miles (966 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu, said U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 269 passengers and 15 crew members, according to Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.
Air Canada was arranging hotel accommodations and meals in Honolulu and options for resuming the flight.
“If we’re going to be stuck somewhere, I can think of worse places,” said Beam, traveling with her 10- and 11-year-old children.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The debate between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other House Democrats over migrant children in detention at the border was wrenching enough. Then it became about race.
First, the freshman’s chief of staff compared more centrist Democrats to 1940s segregationists. Then Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY., accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “singling out” her and fellow newcomers, all women of color.
By Thursday, the rhetoric escalated, overshadowing the agenda and pushing House Democrats way off message with the most divisive upheaval since they took control of the chamber this year. Longtime lawmakers were stunned.
“How dare they try to play the race card at this point,” said Rep. William Lacy Clay, an African-American Democrat from Missouri who faces a primary challenge backed by allies of Ocasio-Cortez. He called those making the claims “ignorant” of racial history. “It shows the weakness of their argument. It’s damaging to this party and the internal workings of the Democratic party.”
Rep. John Lewis, the Civil Rights icon, shared his view.
Lewis said it was “a little too far” for the staff member to compare lawmakers to segregationists.
“We all must work together, pull together for the country’s good,” the Georgia Democrat said in an interview. “The great majority of the caucus membership tends to work together and get along. We need to go forward, not backward.”
The problems have been developing for weeks, mounting as Congress struggled to pass a border funding package, but now may force a reckoning among Democrats that spills beyond Capitol Hill and into the 2020 campaigns.
Late last month, tensions grew between liberals, including Ocasio-Cortez and the “squad” of three other freshmen, and centrists from the Problem Solvers, Blue Dog and New Democratic caucuses over protections for migrant children and families in detention. With time ticking before funding ran out — and lawmakers set to leave town for the July 4th holiday — centrists revolted, forcing Pelosi to drop liberal demands and approve a more modest Senate version of the bill.
And then the fallout began.
“Didn’t realize this needed to be said, but: you can be someone who does not personally harbor ill will towards a race, but through your actions still enable a racist system. And a lot of New Democrats and Blue Dogs did that today,” tweeted Saikat Chakrabarti, the chief of staff for Ocasio-Cortez. It was an extraordinary attack by a staff member on elected officials.
“This is in reference to my comparing Blue Dogs and New Democrats to 1940s Southern Democrats,” he wrote in another. “Southern Democrats enabled a racist system too. I have no idea how personally racist they all were. And we’re seeing the same dynamic play out now.”
That weekend, in trying to tamp down the divisions, Pelosi dismissed the influence Ocasio-Cortez and the squad — Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. — in a Sunday newspaper column. But it seems to have only enhanced their stature.
Allies of the foursome swiftly came to their defense, suggesting Pelosi was marginalizing the women of color who are the new face of the party. Chakrabarti tweeted his own critique of Pelosi.
Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “the persistent singling out … it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful … the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
In a fundraising email Thursday, Justice Democrats, the progressive group that recruited Ocasio-Cortez to run for office, criticized Pelosi for “singling out four new leaders who are progressive women of color.” The group is backing a handful of primary challengers to congressional Democrats, aiming for 25.
On Capitol Hill, the centrists got to work. Aides were quick to point out the co-chairwoman of the Blue Dog Coalition, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, is a refugee and the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress. Two members of the coalition are African American lawmakers who lived through segregation. One of the members of the New Democratic Coalition, Rep. Terri Sewell, who is African-American, represents her hometown, Selma, Ala., as well as Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, and had reached out multiple times to Ocasio-Cortez after the tweets, to no response.
“I personally experienced Dixiecrats’ bigoted policies growing up,” Sewell said in a statement. “So, to even insinuate that I, or any other member of the New Dems, would promote policies that are racist and hateful or ones that would negatively impact communities of color is deeply offensive and couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., another co-chairman of the Blue Dogs and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said he has warned his staff off such actions. “It’s sad, it’s very sad.”
One freshman, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who won what had been a Republican-held seat in New Jersey, said the centrist lawmakers “work really hard to build broad coalitions. When people in the progressive wing of the party disagree, I do feel like they’re not kind of lining up their sights on the right target.”
Progressives and those allied with the Ocasio-Cortez and the squad wanted to shift the debate.
“Can we just talk about the issues we’re dealing with? We have kids in cages,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who said she was frustrated by the ongoing situation. “It’s not about AOC. … It’s about progressives and our relationship to the Democratic caucus and our priorities.”
Pelosi said she had been unaware of the tweet it until lawmakers brought it to her attention “some almost crying, some very upset and angry.”
She spoke at length on the turmoil during a private meeting of House Democrats this week and on Thursday said she was done talking about her relations with Ocasio-Cortez and the others.
“They took offense because I addressed, at the bequest of my members, an offensive tweet,” she said.
“How they’re interpreting and carrying it to another place is up to them, but I’m not going to be discussing it any further.”
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Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump abandoned his controversial bid to inject a citizenship question into next year’s census Thursday, instead directing federal agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases.
He insisted he was “not backing down,” declaring in a Rose Garden announcement that the goal was simple and reasonable: “a clear breakdown of the number of citizens and non-citizens that make up the United States population.”
But the decision was clearly a reversal, after the Supreme Court blocked his effort by disputing his administration’s rationale for demanding that census respondents declare whether or not they were citizens. Trump had said last week that he was “very seriously” considering an executive order to try to force the question. But the government has already begun the lengthy and expensive process of printing the census questionnaire without it, and such a move would surely have drawn an immediate legal challenge.
Instead, Trump said Thursday that he would be signing an executive order directing every federal department and agency to provide the Commerce Department with all records pertaining to the number of citizens and noncitizens in the country.
Trump’s efforts to add the question on the decennial census had drawn fury and backlash from critics who complained that it was political, meant to discourage participation, not only by people living in the country illegally but also by citizens who fear that participating would expose noncitizen family members to repercussions.
Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, and the lawyer who argued the Supreme Court case, celebrated Thursday’s announcement by the president, saying: “Trump’s attempt to weaponize the census ends not with a bang but a whimper.”
Trump said his order would apply to every agency, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. The Census Bureau already has access to Social Security, food stamp and federal prison records, all of which contain citizenship information.
Trump, citing Census Bureau projections, predicted that using previously available records, the administration could determine the citizenship of 90 percent of the population “or more.”
“Ultimately this will allow us to have a more complete count of citizens than through asking the single question alone,” he contended.
But it is still unclear what Trump intends to do with the citizenship information. Federal law prohibits the use of census information to identify individuals, though that restriction has been breached in the past.
At one point, Trump suggested it could help states that “may want to draw state and local legislative districts based upon the voter-eligible population.” That would mark a change from how districts are drawn currently, based on the entire population, and could increase Republican political power.
Civil rights groups said the president’s efforts had already sown fear and discord in vulnerable communities, making the task of an accurate count even harder.
“The damage has already been done,” said Lizette Escobedo of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
The Census Bureau had stressed repeatedly that it could produce better citizenship data without adding the question.
In fact, the bureau had recommended combining information from the annual American Community Survey with records held by other federal agencies that already include citizenship records.
“This would result in higher quality data produced at lower cost,” deputy Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin had written in a December 2017 email to a Justice Department official.
But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, ultimately rejected that approach and ordered the citizenship question be added to the census.
The American Community Survey, which polls 3.5 million U.S. households every year, already includes questions about respondents’ citizenship.
“It’s a retreat back to what he should have done from the beginning,” said Kenneth Prewitt, a former Census Bureau director.
Trump’s administration had faced numerous roadblocks to adding the question, beginning with the ruling by the Supreme Court temporarily barring its inclusion on the grounds that the government’s justification was insufficient. Two federal judges also rejected the Justice Department’s plan to replace the legal team fighting for inclusion.
But Trump insisted his administration was pushing forward anyway, publicly contradicting government lawyers and his commerce secretary, who had previously conceded the case was closed, as well as the Census Bureau, which had started the process of printing the 2020 questionnaire without the controversial query after the Supreme Court decision.
As he has many times before, Trump exploded the situation with a tweet, calling reports that the fight was over “FAKE!”
A week of speculation about the administration’s plans and renewed court battles ensued as Trump threw out ideas, including suggesting last week that officials might be able to add an addendum to the questionnaire with the question after it was printed. And he toyed with the idea of halting the constitutionally mandated survey entirely while the court battle played out.
Attorney General William Barr, however, said that the government had no interest in delaying the count and that, while he was confident the census question would have eventually survived legal review, the process would have taken too long to work its way through the courts.
Trump had offered multiple explanations for why he believed the question was necessary to include in the once-a-decade population count that determines the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives for the next 10 years and the distribution of some $675 billion in federal spending.
“You need it for Congress, for districting. You need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going? How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they not citizens? You need it for many reasons,” he told reporters last week, despite the fact that congressional districts are based on total population, regardless of residents’ national origin or immigration status.
If immigrants are undercounted, Democrats fear that would pull money and political power away from Democratic-led cities where immigrants tend to cluster, and shift it to whiter, rural areas where Republicans do well.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday accused Trump of pushing the question “to intimidate minorities, particularly Latinos, from answering the census so that it undercounts those communities and Republicans can redraw congressional districts to their advantage.”
He later called Trump’s move a “retreat” that “was long overdue and is a significant victory for democracy and fair representation.”
___
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
A seemingly deranged St. Petersburg,Florida woman was arrested for contaminating the ice cream at a local business with her spit, urine, and snot — forcing the shop to close for days, police say.
Jung Soon Wypcha, 66, has been charged with criminal mischief and tampering with consumer products after tainting $2,000 worth of ice cream at Lu Lu’s Ice Cream shop in Indian Shore, according to the arrest affidavit sent to USA TODAY by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
Wypcha was caught on video tampering with the store’s products on several different occasions beginning June 17, the criminal complaint states. Cameras caught her using a bathroom without closing the door and not washing her hands afterward. She then walks over to a freezer and rubs her hands on the ice cream.
Additional videos show her picking her nose and sticking her hands in the desert as well as spitting in the product, BuzzFeed reports.
She was also filmed on June 22 peeing in a bucket used to churn ice cream then pouring her urine into a sink used to wash utensils and bowls.
Georgia police are looking for answers in the case of a woman who was discovered dead inside her apartment last month.
According to reports, the body of 39-year-old Fabiola Thomas was found in a bathroom by her roommate the morning of June 8.
A cause of death has not been determined, but police said the woman was seen walking around her vehicle in the parking lot of her apartment complex about half an hour before she was discovered dead.
Authorities said the body showed signs of trauma, and Thomas’ sister told Channel 2 Action News that police and family members haven’t been able to locate the woman’s cellphone since her death.
TODAY AT 4:
"We need closure."
The family of a #Roswell woman, Fabiola Thomas, wants answers after her suspicious death. What police are telling us about the investigation. pic.twitter.com/ftWenWreGq
Detectives are searching for anyone who saw Thomas before 8 a.m. that Saturday, and investigators are looking to speak with anyone who knew her, said Sgt. Britney Rodgers, spokeswoman for Roswell police.
“We don’t have a cause of death and she was relatively young,” Rodgers told Channel 2. “We’re trying to find any information that may be out there just in case we don’t know something that we need to … The circumstances are suspicious and the cause of death is unknown.”
Anyone who had regular contact with Thomas or saw her in the days leading up to her death is asked to contact Roswell Detective Omar Jones at 770-640-4473 or ojones@roswellgov.com. Information can also be submitted anonymously to the Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-844-8477 or the Crime Stoppers website.
BET founder Bob Johnson is getting pressed like a panini after recent comments he made which appear to shine a positive light on Donald Trump.
In a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Hadley Gamble, Johnson who was a lifetime Democrat, said he no longer found a home in his political party.
“The party in my opinion, for me personally, has moved too far to the left,” Johnson said. “And for that reason, I don’t have a particular candidate (I’m supporting) in the party at this time,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, if a Democrat is going to beat Trump, then that person, he or she, will have to move to the center and you can’t wait too long to do that.”
Johnson became the first Black billionaire in 2001 when he sold BET to Viacom for $2.3 billion in stock and needless to say seems more concerned with Trump’s “ability” to manage the economy over his divisive rhetoric and policies. “I think the economy is doing great, and it’s reaching populations that heretofore had very bad problems in terms of jobs and employments and the opportunities that come with employment … so African-American unemployment is at its lowest level, ” Johnson said.
“I give the president a lot of credit for moving the economy in a positive direction that’s benefiting a large amount of Americans,” he continued. “I think the tax cuts clearly helped stimulate the economy. I think business people have more confidence in the way the economy is going.”
Just like Trump, Johnson seems to believe that the low unemployment rate for African-Americans cancels out all the other many ways in which Black people struggle daily to be seen and heard in America, under the racist regime of Trump’s presidency. Johnson’s comments also point to the large-scale disconnect which can occur when the comfortability of money overshadows the greater good.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to tamp down calls for his resignation, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on Wednesday defended his handling of a sex-trafficking case involving now-jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein, insisting he got the toughest deal he could at the time.
In a nearly hour-long news conference, Acosta retraced the steps that federal prosecutors took in the case when he was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida a decade ago, insisting that “in our heart we were trying to do the right thing for these victims.” He said prosecutors were working to avoid a more lenient arrangement that would have allowed Epstein to “walk free.”
“We believe that we proceeded appropriately,” he said, a contention challenged by critics who say Epstein’s penalty was egregiously light.
The episode reignited this week when federal prosecutors in New York brought a new round of child sex-trafficking charges against the wealthy hedge fund manager. And on Wednesday, a new accuser stepped forward to say Epstein raped her in his New York mansion when she was 15.
Jennifer Araoz, now 32, told “Today” she never went to police because she feared retribution from the well-connected Epstein. She now has filed court papers seeking information from Epstein in preparation for suing him.
While the handling of the case arose during Acosta’s confirmation hearings, it has come under fresh and intense scrutiny after the prosecutors in New York brought their charges on Monday, alleging Epstein abused dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for massages, then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges; if convicted he could be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Acosta’s lawyerly presentation was an effort to push back against growing criticism of his work in a secret 2008 plea deal that let Epstein avoid federal prosecution on charges that he molested teenage girls. A West Palm Beach judge found this year that the deal had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act because the victims were not informed or consulted.
He was also out to persuade President Donald Trump to keep him on the job as Democratic presidential candidates and party leaders called for his ouster.
Acosta insisted his office did the best it could under the circumstances a decade ago. He said state authorities had planned to go after Epstein with charges that would have resulted in no jail time until his office intervened and pressed for tougher consequences, a contention that is supported by the record. The alternative, he said, would have been for federal prosecutors to “roll the dice” and hope to win a conviction.
“We did what we did because we wanted to see Epstein go to jail,” Acosta said. “He needed to go to jail.”
But Epstein only was given 13 months in a work-release program, which let him work out of the jail six days a week. Acosta said it was “entirely appropriate” to be outraged about that leniency, but he blamed that on Florida authorities. “Everything the victims have gone through in these cases is horrific,” he said, while repeatedly refusing to apologize to them.
“I think it’s important to stand up for the prosecutors” in his old office, he said.
His account did not sit well with Barry Krischer, who was the Palm Beach County attorney during the case. Krischer, a Democrat, said Acosta “should not be allowed to rewrite history.”
Acosta’s South Florida office had gotten to the point of drafting an indictment that could have sent Epstein to federal prison for life. But it was never filed, leading to Epstein’s guilty plea to two state prostitution-related charges. In addition to the work-release jail sentence, Epstein was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.
Krischer said the federal indictment was “abandoned after secret negotiations between Mr. Epstein’s lawyers and Mr. Acosta.” He added: “If Mr. Acosta was truly concerned with the State’s case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 53-page indictment that his own office drafted.”
Acosta has said he welcomes the new case, and earlier defended himself on Twitter, crediting “new evidence and additional testimony” uncovered by prosecutors in New York for providing “an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice.”
Pressed on whether he had any regrets, Acosta repeatedly suggested that circumstances had changed since the case arose. “We now have 12 years of knowledge and hindsight and we live in a very different world,” he said. “Today’s world treats victims very, very differently.”
Trump has, so far, also defended Acosta, praising his work as labor secretary and saying he felt “very badly” for him “because I’ve known him as being somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job.”
Though Trump may have made the tagline “You’re fired!” famous on his reality show “The Apprentice,” he has shown a pattern of reluctance to fire even his most embattled aides. Trump, for instance, took months to dismiss Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency administrator despite a dizzying array of scandals, and allowed Jeff Sessions to remain as attorney general for more than a year even as he railed at and belittled him.
Trump typically gives his Cabinet secretaries the opportunity to defend themselves publicly in interviews and press conferences before deciding whether to pull the plug. Indeed, he encouraged Acosta to hold Wednesday’s press conference laying out his thinking and involvement in the plea deal, according to a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Early reaction in the White House appeared to be positive, with one official saying the performance was likely enough to buy Acosta more time unless questions about his part in the 2008 case linger in the news.
Trump has his own long personal history with Epstein, but has dissociated himself from the wealthy hedge fund manager, saying this week the two had a falling out 15 or so years ago and haven’t spoken since.
Acosta told reporters that his relationship with Trump remains “outstanding,” but also noted that every member of Trump’s Cabinet serves at the president’s pleasure.
Democratic presidential contenders and party leaders have been calling for Acosta to resign or be fired, and he has been called to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee on July 23. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, welcomed that move, saying Acosta “has a disturbing record on sexual and human trafficking that stretches from the horribly permissive plea agreement he gave to Jeffrey Epstein, up to his time now as Labor Secretary.”
Many Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have taken a wait-and-see approach.
___
Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville in Washington and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A storm swamped New Orleans streets and paralyzed traffic Wednesday as concerns grew that even worse weather was on the way: a possible hurricane that could strike the Gulf Coast and raise the Mississippi River to the brim of the city’s protective levees.
The storm was associated with an atmospheric disturbance in the Gulf that forecasters said was on track to strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend. The National Hurricane Center expected the system to become a tropical depression by Thursday morning, a tropical storm by Thursday night and a hurricane on Friday.
Lines of thunderstorms ranged far out into the Gulf and battered New Orleans, where as much as 8 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell over a three-hour period, officials said.
Mississippi and Texas were also at risk of torrential rains.
In New Orleans, streets turned into small, swift rivers that overturned garbage cans and picked up pieces of floating wood. Water was up to the doors of many cars. Other vehicles were abandoned. Kayakers paddled their way down some streets.
At one point, the storm prompted a tornado warning. The National Weather Service planned to investigate apparent wind damage to at least one house on Bayou St. John, a channel extending from Lake Pontchartrain.
Chandris Rethmeyer lost her car to the flood and had to wade through water about 4 feet (1.22 meters) deep to get to safety. She was on her way home after working an overnight shift when she got stuck behind an accident in an underpass and the water started rising.
“I was going to sit in my car and let the storm pass,” she said. “But I reached back to get my son’s iPad and put my hand into a puddle of water.”
Valerie R. Burton woke up to what looked like a lake outside her door.
“There was about 3 to 4 feet of water in the street, pouring onto the sidewalks and at my door. So I went to my neighbors to alert them and tell them to move their cars,” she said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and said National Guard troops and high-water vehicles would be positioned all over the state in advance of more heavy rain.
“The entire coast of Louisiana is at play in this storm,” Edwards said.
Forecasters said Louisiana could see up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain by Monday, with isolated areas receiving as much as 18 inches (46 centimeters).
The additional rain could push the already swollen Mississippi River precariously close to the tops of levees that protect New Orleans, officials said.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans said the agency was not expecting widespread overtopping of the levees, but there are concerns for areas south of the city. The weather service expects the river to rise to 20 feet (6 meters) by Saturday morning at a key gauge in the New Orleans area, which is protected by levees 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7.6 meters) high.
The Corps was working with local officials to identify low-lying areas and reinforce them, he said. He cautioned that the situation may change as more information arrives.
“We’re confident the levees themselves are in good shape. The big focus is height,” spokesman Ricky Boyett said.
New Orleans officials have asked residents to keep at least three days of supplies on hand and to keep their neighborhood storm drains clear so water can move quickly. As the water from Wednesday morning’s storms receded, people worried about what might come next.
Tanya Gulliver-Garcia was trying to make her way home during the deluge. Flooded streets turned a 15-minute drive into an ordeal lasting more than two hours. She was supposed to head out of town for a weekend trip but now wonders whether the flights will take off.
“This is going to be a slow storm …. That’s what I’m concerned about,” she said.
Wednesday’s flooding was reminiscent of floodwaters that surprised the city during an August 2017 rain. That flood exposed major problems at the agency overseeing street drainage. It led to personnel shake-ups at the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and required major repair efforts.
On Wednesday, the board said 118 of 120 drainage pumps were operational and the agency was fully staffed. But the agency’s director says that much rain in such a short time would have overwhelmed any drainage system.
___
Associated Press writers Kevin McGill and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.
We have to admit that until this story we had never heard of Malik McDowell, an NFL player with a massive build. Now that we have, all we can say is that this guy is lucky to be alive.
Once you check out the video of McDowell, 23, fighting a cop and resisting arrest, it’s not hard to see why it’s a miracle he’s not six feet under. All you have to do is watch the incredible video.
The incident happened on a snowy night last February in Lathrup Village, Michigan when an officer pulled over McDowell — a 6’6″, 300-pound defensive tackle — after he witnessed McDowell’s Jeep spinning out on the road after speeding.
During the stop, which took place in front of a gas station, the officer ordered McDowell to stay seated in his car, but Malik disobeyed — and repeatedly demanded to speak with a supervisor.
As the officer continues to verbally engage with McDowell, who was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd round of the 2017 NFL Draft, he tries to leave his vehicle and walk into the gas station convenient store.
The cop grabs McDowell and tells him to put his hands behind his back … but again, McDowell disobeys and begins to fight back against the officer, knocking over shelves of food in the process.
The officer repeatedly warns McDowell to stand down or else he would be tased. Once McDowel’s on the ground, the officer instructs him to get on his stomach, but the NFL player refuses … so the cop deploys his taser.
That’s when McDowell rips out the prongs — while he’s being tased — and attacks the officer.
The two wrestle around the store until backup eventually arrive and help take McDowell into custody.
At one point during the struggle, McDowell tells the officer, “Don’t shoot me.”
The backup officer, who helped subdue McDowell, later wrote in a police report that Malik “grabbed for my gun as I was trying to grab his arm.”
Cops say McDowell “had a strong odor of intoxicants emanating from his person” — but they did not specify if they smelled alcohol or drugs.
McDowell was eventually charged with 2 counts of felony assaulting and resisting, 1 misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and misdemeanor driving on a suspended license.
Cops obtained a warrant to take a blood sample from McDowell — so he was taken to a nearby hospital for a blood draw. Officers noted McDowell was verbally abusive during the process.
As for the arresting officer, he claims he suffered minor injuries in the altercation including scratches on his hand … but he was otherwise fine.
And as far as McDowell being intoxicated, TMZ Sports obtained his blood results … and they show the NFL player had a blood alcohol content of .189 — over TWO TIMES the legal limit.
McDowell was arraigned back in May — but he’s due back in court later this month.
On top of his tussle with the cops, McDowell has another legal problem – he’s also been accused of concealing a stolen truck back in April.
Despite having all sorts of talent on the field, McDowell was waived by the Seahawks in July 2018 after suffering a concussion and facial injuries in an ATV accident.
PHOENIX (AP) — Hundreds of people including a presidential candidate spoke out on Twitter this week after a 17-year-old black youth was killed at suburban convenience store, allegedly by a white man charged Tuesday with first-degree murder who has said he felt threatened by the boy’s rap music.
Family members have told local media that Elijah Al-Amin would have turned 18 in two weeks and was looking forward to his last year in high school.
Michael Adams walked up to a Black teen, Elijah Al-Amin, as he stood at the soda machine and slit his throat b/c he felt threatened by the music he listened to in his car.
Friends and family hugged Monday at the Islamic Community Center in Tempe, where prayers for the youth were held before burial in Maricopa County.
A modest makeshift memorial outside the convenience store where Al-Amin was stabbed was still erected on Tuesday, with a pair of white porcelain angels, fresh flowers and burning calendars — including one dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Catholic patron saint of Mexico.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said it filed a direct complaint Tuesday charging Michael Adams, 27, in the Thursday morning killing. First-degree murder carries a sentence of life behind bars or death.
Adams is next scheduled to appear in court July 15.
The Twitter hashtag #JusticeForElijah began trending over the Independence Day weekend after police in the suburban Phoenix city of Peoria arrested Adams. He had been released from state prison two days before.
“Another one of our children has been murdered in a heinous and unprovoked way_the DOJ must investigate this hate crime immediately,” Democratic candidate Cory Booker wrote on his Twitter account Monday. “RIP Elijah. #JusticeForElijah.”
Suspect is:
black? A thug.
Hispanic? Illegal immigrant.
Muslim? A terrorist.
White? Mentally ill.
Mental illness should NOT be used as an excuse for white people to get away with acts of hate. Punish all Americans equally!!#JusticeForElijah#BlackLivesMatter
Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian American civil rights activist from Brooklyn, New York, called the crime “outrageous” and said it recalled the 2012 killing of 17-year-old high school student Jordan Davis in Jacksonville, Florida. “Rest in power Elijah Al-Amin,” she wrote.
Michael Dunn, who is white, was later convicted of first-degree murder in that earlier killing, a shooting that erupted during an argument about loud music coming from a car carrying Davis and other black teenagers.
In the Arizona attack, first responders discovered Al-Amin collapsed outside the Peoria Circle K store’s gas pumps and took him to a hospital, where he died. Several people inside the store had watched as Al-Amin was stabbed in the throat and the back before he ran outside.
Officers found Adams nearby with a pocket knife and blood on his body. Adams told them he had felt threatened by the rap music coming from Al-Amin’s vehicle.
Adams’ attorney, Jacie Cotterell, told the judge at his initial appearance hearing that her client was mentally ill and released without any medication, “no holdover meds, no way to care for himself.”
Cotterell said during the videotaped court hearing that “this is a failing on the part of the (Arizona) Department of Corrections.”
Adam’s bond was maintained at $1 million. He had been freed July 2 after serving a 13-month sentence for aggravated assault.
Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said in a statement that “the tragic death is terrible, and Mr. Adams will have to answer for his alleged actions.”
The statement said that when Adams was released he “was not designated seriously mentally ill” and that once the department transported him from the state prison complex in Yuma where he had served his sentence to Maricopa County it “had no further legal authority over him.”
Many of the people commenting on Twitter said that claims about Adams’ mental illness should not be used to explain away what they believe was a hate crime.
There is no hate crime statute in Arizona, but a judge’s determination that a hate crime has occurred can toughen sentencing.
Another white person has been caught on tape calling police on a black person because … well, just because.
In this case, the man, a father was begged by his tearful son not to do it, but we’re sure you know how that turned out.
The white man accused Wesley Michel, a black software engineer, who was visiting a friend at a San Francisco apartment building, of trespassing. The man, who has been identified as Christopher Cukor, asked to know the name of Michel’s friend who lived on the property. When Michel didn’t give his friends name, Cukor called police.
While his father was on the phone, according to the Daily Mail, the man’s son tugged at his jacket and pleaded with him to stop, saying: “Daddy, don’t.”
Michael can be heard saying, “I’m recording you right now and you’re going to be the next person on TV. Just remember that, and you have your son with you.”
Cukor responds, “You don’t need to threaten me, you just need to get out of the building.”
As he tells police that “there’s a trespasser in my building,” his son cries, “Daddy, don’t. It’s for better. I agree with him, daddy.”
Cukor continues talking to police and says the visitor is, “filming me and refusing to leave” continuing that he “tailgated through the door, as I left he walked in.”
Off screen, the man’s friend arrives and is warmly greeted before the white man finally puts his phone down.
The video was originally shared by Michel and was later shared online by activist Tariq Nasheed.
According to Nasheed, Cukor is a YouTube employee who has since deleted his social media accounts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden says the American people “didn’t buy” any insinuation during the Democratic presidential debate that her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, is racist.
In an interview that aired Monday on CNN, the former second lady was asked about Sen. Kamala Harris’ comments last month. The California senator started out by saying she didn’t think Joe Biden was racist, but she criticized him for defending his work with segregationist senators and for opposing mandatory busing of students to desegregated public schools.
Jill Biden says as soon as she heard the words “I do not believe you are a racist,” she thought, “Uh oh, what’s coming next?”
She says, “The American people know Joe Biden. They know his values. They know what he stands for. And they didn’t buy it.”
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