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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Louisville TV reporter shot by rubber bullet while covering protest

 

One of the most dangerous jobs to have during the civil unrest prompted by the police-involved deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd is not actually being a police officer brought in to control the unruly crowds. They are authorized to carry and use a myriad of weapons and they do.  No, it is not them.

But working in media and actually journaling the mayhem for television is possibly more perilous than those in law enforcement. Why? Because your team is small, you are not protected and moreover if you are filming you can’t watch you back.

Ask Kaitlin Rust.

Minneapolis Police theGrio.com
Minneapolis Police create a blockade. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

READ MORE: Don Lemon slams Trump over George Floyd: no one wants to hear from you

She was simply doing her job as a field reporter on Friday, covering the local Louisville protest for the city’s NBC affiliate WAVE 3 when she was intentionally shot by a police officer.

While the camera was rolling and moving to a different location, a police officer in full gear started shooting directly at the reporter and crew. In the video, captured by the network, you can see the police (as if in a movie) peppering Rust and her team.

Rust screams, “I’m getting shot.” A voice from the station asks if she is “ok?” and she replies, “I’m ok … It’s those rubber bullets.”

The voice asks, “Who are they aiming that at?” as more shots can be heard and the male voice answers, “Now they are shooting at the photographer.” As Rust says, “They are shooting at us. Like directly at us.”

“Why are they doing that? Do they not know … obviously, they see the camera,” the female voice says from the station.

Confused Rust says, “I don’t know” and then she clears the scene.

The video of the shooting went viral on Twitter within minutes. By an hour, the clip had already eclipsed 1.5 million views.

SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents broadcasters, released a statement condemning the attack. They deemed it to be a brazen attack on two unarmed citizens and democracy.

“SAG-AFTRA condemns the reprehensible actions of this police officer who, without provocation or justification, fired upon journalists who were doing their jobs. The assault also had a traumatizing effect on viewers at home who watched the officer aim and fire repeatedly during the live broadcast,” the union said.

READ MORE: CNN reporter arrested while covering Minneapolis protests, governor apologizes

Omar Jimenez from CNN was arrested live on air in Minneapolis as he was covering the protest on Friday.

He was released immediately, and the governor of Minnesota called the network to apologize and investigate why he was taken into custody. No word on if the Kentucky governor will apologize on behalf of the police force or see why he shot at the NBC crew.

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Don Lemon calls out Hollywood stars by name during protest coverage

CNN anchor Don Lemon apparently has had enough of Hollywood’s silence on the string of demonstrations across the country in protest of George Floyd‘s death and ongoing police brutality against Black Americans.

On Saturday night while covering the intense protests in cities like Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, New York City and Los Angeles — the home of Hollywood’s biggest names — Lemon questioned why so few celebrities have publicly come out to say something.

“What about Hollywood?” asked Lemon who said that Tinseltown was “strangely quiet.”

READ MORE: Minnesota residents clean up after George Floyd protests

“I see them on Twitter saying, ‘oh, I’m loving what Don’s doing’ … but they got to do more than that. Especially Black celebrities and Black leaders — and white celebrities,” Lemon said as CNN’s news feed displayed a Starbucks store in Los Angeles set ablaze.

“Why aren’t they helping these young people? These young people are out there standing on the platform … the edge of the abyss by themselves.

“Yes I’m calling you out. You can be mad at me all you want,” he added. “You’re sitting there and you’re watching TV and you’re bitching about it and you’re saying, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe this is happening. What’s going on?'”

Getting more personal, Lemon said “stop texting me and asking me, ‘oh my god, Don, what is happening to our country?’ Get on television and do something and help these young people instead of sitting in your mansions and doing nothing and have some moral courage and stop worrying about your reputation and your brand.”

Apparently not through with his tough-love message to his celebrity friends, Lemon decided to go one step further by calling out a few celebrities by name.

READ MORE: White women in Louisville line up to form human shield to protect Black protesters 

“By me calling out your name, it doesn’t mean I’m calling you out. It means I love you, Ellen [DeGeneres]. It means I love you, Oprah,” he said, adding “and I know they give millions of dollars to charity every year.”

Clarifying why he was calling them out, Lemon said the country needs their “visibility in helping to speak out for these young kids. And you may be doing something that I don’t know about, and if you are then I apologize.”

The always vocal journalist then went on to drop a few more names from Hollywood who he’d like to see step up.

“I want to see you Tracee Ellis Ross. I want to see you Tyler Perry. I want to see you Drake. I want to see you my friend, Anthony Anderson. I love you … I want to see you Diddy. I want to see you Jane Fonda, who I love and respect,” said Lemon.

READ MORE: Don Lemon slams Trump over George Floyd: no one wants to hear from you

Making his point clearer, Lemon pointed that even Beyoncé — arguably the most famous person in the world — issued a statement on George Floyd’s death and urged for people to take action through a petition.

“Beyoncé released a message, you can’t?” he said.

Within minutes, Don Lemon’s name became a trending topic on Twitter — largely due to thousands of tweets praising him for his candor.

See some of the reactions below.

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Black men form human shield to protect police officer during protest

Prodigy from Mobb Deep said it best when he rapped, “There’s a war going on outside. No man is safe.”

While the record is over 25 years old, it still rings true. There is a war going on outside and it is traumatizingly scary. What was supposed to be a peaceful expression of protest with the express aim to shed light on the senseless death of George Floyd could now possibly be considered a dangerous act of Helter Skelter.

READ MORE: Target deletes “2020 is our year” tweet after stores are burned during protests

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – MAY 29: People walk past a Black Lives Matters sign after a night of protests and violence on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

But just like there were examples on social media of people (in multiple cities) guarding Targets and local business, not only to stop looters from destroying the multi-million dollar retail store but to ensure that in the morning mothers could go and get milk and pampers for their children, people are coming together to do the right thing.

Earlier, theGrio.com reported that in Louisville, white women lined their bodies up arm-interlocked-with-arms to become a partition between the Louisville police and Black and brown protestors.

In another extraordinary example of pure humanity, coming out of Louisville, a group of Black men formed a human chain to protect a police officer from the riotous crowd after he was separated from his group from those who surely were not there intending to honor the life of Floyd, but with the desire to live out their most reckless fantasy: to hurt a cop.

Images of the brave act went viral on social media.

Bethany S. Mandel @bethanyshondark posted, “Meanwhile this iconic shot out of Louisville of protestors protecting a cop who got separated from his unit.”

Nancy Duncan whose Twitter handle is @ndduncan59 shared with @JoyceWhiteVance and popular TV host @JoyAnnReid. “Last night in Louisville. Protesters protected an officer separated from his squad.”

While there is a war going on outside, there are still some good soldiers making sure the we fight a good and fair fight. #BeSafe

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Target deletes ‘2020 is our year’ tweet after stores are burned during protests

On New Year’s Eve, Target declared that 2020 was going to be their year. In fact, they believed that so much that their corporate communications team tweeted it out from their official blue-check profile.

Well, after this week, the retail chain deleted the post. Why? Cause clearly it is not.

Saturday, after multiple stores in Minneapolis and Oakland, were looted, set ablaze, and basically destroyed in response to the recent George Floyd police-inflicted death, the popular store deleted the optimistic forecast.

COLUMBUS, USA – MAY 30 : Protesters rally outside the state house on the fourth straight day of protests against the death of an unarmed black man who was killed as he was pinned down by a white Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer in Columbus, Ohio, United States on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Megan Jelinger/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

READ MORE: George Floyd’s brother says Trump wouldn’t let him speak during phone call

Customers, Walmart plants, and other social media trolls noticed quickly and dragged the company that helped to put Toys ‘R Us and FAO Schwartz out of business.

It is reported that almost 50 stories have been shut down since Memorial Day. Looters seem to have taken great joy grabbing clothes, toiletries, food, electronics, televisions, and even refrigerators in the riots. Cash registers have been broken and the new self-checkouts broken.

The scenes captured on videos are reminiscent of images one might expect from the Lost Boys from “Peter Pan,” Jack Merridew from “Lord of The Flies” and Max from “Where the Wild Things Are.”

While this is devastating, some people are still awesome. Look at what neighbors have done to rebuild their local Target.

The corporate office communications arm, Target News, issued a statement, “We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing our community. At this time, we have made the decision to close a number of our stores until further notice. Our focus will remain on our team members’ safety and helping our community heal.”

In a statement, CEO Brian Cornell got personal:

“We are a community in pain. That pain is not unique to the Twin Cities—it extends across America. The murder of George Floyd has unleashed the pent-up pain of years, as have the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We say their names and hold a too-long list of others in our hearts. As a Target team, we’ve huddled, we’ve consoled, we’ve witnessed horrific scenes similar to what’s playing out now and wept that not enough is changing. And as a team, we’ve vowed to face pain with purpose.”

READ MORE: Trump on George Floyd’s death: ‘I feel very, very badly’

He continued by speaking about how they plan to help people affected by the pandemic, and the pain exacerbated by the civil unrest.

“Every day, our team wakes up ready to help all families—and on the hardest days, we cling even more dearly to that purpose. As I write this, our merchant and distribution teams are preparing truckloads of first aid equipment and medicine, bottled water, baby formula, diapers, and other essentials, to help ensure that no one within the areas of heaviest damage and demonstration is cut off from needed supplies.”

But even as the store is serving the community, they too are feeling the pain intimately.

“Our store and HR teams are working with all of our displaced team members, including the more than 200 team members from our Lake Street store in Minneapolis. We will make sure they have their full pay and benefits in the coming weeks, as well as access to other resources and opportunities within Target.”

Target thegrio.com
Target Store

Cornell continues, “We’ll continue to invest in this vibrant crossroads of the Seward, Longfellow, Phillips, and Powderhorn communities, preserving jobs and economic opportunity by rebuilding and bringing back the store that has served as a community resource since 1976. In any of our other locations that are damaged or at risk, the safety and well-being of our team, guests, and the surrounding community will continue to be our paramount priority.”

It has been difficult 2020 for Target workers (who on average make $12.34 an hour) and are experiencing extreme trauma, displacement, and illness. But even with those stores failing and the people are struggling, the company is corporately is thriving.

According to The Motley Fool, Target reported positive earnings during its 2020 first quarter, which ended May 2nd. The growth is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic that puts customers in the United States in a precarious position to stock up on “stock up on staple food and grocery products.”

Cornell and his team told investors at the top of the month that they expected sales to keep going up based on how the Target team executes their plans throughout the rest of the pandemic.

Unfortunately, this was before Floyd’s murder and the world reacted.

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Black CNN Reporter is Arrested on Live TV While Covering the Minneapolis Protests

Black CNN reporter arrested

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was arrested early Friday morning by the Minnesota State Patrol as he and his colleagues were reporting on the ongoing protests in Minneapolis.

Jimenez, who is black and Latinx, was led away in handcuffs while he was live on air covering the demonstrations over the death of George Floyd by police on Monday. After the officers approached the journalists during the broadcast, the team responded by identifying themselves as reporters and asked the authorities where they wanted them to relocate.

“We can move back to where you’d like. We can move back to where you’d like here. We are live on the air at the moment,” Jimenez told the officers moments before he was taken into custody on live TV. “We’re getting out of your way. So, just let us know. Wherever you’d want us, we will go. We were just getting out of your way when you were advancing through the intersection. Let us know and we’ve got you.”

In response, two police officers put Jimenez in handcuffs without offering an explanation although he asked several times why he was being arrested. His cameraman, who is white, and producer, who is Hispanic, were also detained shortly thereafter.

According to CNN, the arrests were a “clear violation of their First Amendment rights.” CNN reported that network president Jeff Zucker spoke with Gov. Tim Walz, who “deeply apologized” for the “unacceptable” arrests. Jimenez and his crew were released from police custody that same morning.

Gov. Walz also apologized for the incident during a press conference later that day. “In a situation like this, even if you’re clearing an area, we have got to ensure that there is a safe spot for journalism to tell the story. The issue here is trust,” he said. He added that there was “absolutely no reason something like this should happen”.

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers called out Minneapolis police over Jimenez’s arrest, noting that Jimenez complied with police and that a white CNN reporter on the scene was not arrested.

“We saw a reporter who is educated, who is brown, who is doing his job better than anybody around, was in harm’s way, letting the American people see what’s going on on the ground. He complied, he said he would move, and you know his family’s heart is beating right now because he is locked up in prison and killers are still roaming the streets free,” Sellers said, according to Mediaite.

He went on to note that “at CNN we have a white reporter on the ground, and we have a brown reporter on the ground. They are a block apart. The brown reporter is arrested, and the white reporter is telling us what’s happening.”

Sellers added, “You almost have to laugh not to just be furious, because this is America in 2020, and I hate to be cheesy, but the revolution literally is being televised.”

Watch Omar Jimenez’s arrest below.



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