Monday, June 8 top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Monday, June 8. Here are today’s top news briefs.
Today in Houston, Texas, there was a public viewing of George Floyd’s body in Houston at a church. There were thousands of people who waited in long lines to pay their respects to Floyd, whose body lay in a golden casket. There will be a private funeral tomorrow (Tuesday). He will be buried alongside his late mother in Houston. New York Daily News said Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward, which is near the downtown area.
The Minneapolis City Council has announced they want to defund/disband the Minneapolis Police Department. Minneapolis plans to introduce a different, community-based public safety model. The city council plans to get feedback from community members on what safety means to them and then support it. Fox 9 news explained that a public vote is required to make significant changes.
Council-members said their current system of policing is not keeping our communities safe and has caused pain, trauma, and hurt. They made it clear that they are not advocating for lawlessness or for crime to happen without accountability.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he does not agree with dismantling the MPD. Frey said he wants to push for reform in the police department, but he does not support abolishing it.
The New York Times did an analysis on what defunding police departments would mean. It is to redirect budgets that usually go to overtime police officers or expensive equipment to have it instead go into programs related to mental health, housing, and education, which would provide systemic changes to inequalities and reduce crime and violence. Austin, Texas has revamped their 911 calling system to ask if the caller needs police, fire, or mental health services. In Camden, New Jersey, police officers have resorted to handing out more warnings than tickets. These are examples.
So, there is a new national debate on how cities should manage their police department. Activists have long called for this, but now it’s gaining steam in the national conversation because of George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, said via his spokesperson that he does not support defunding the police. He prefers for there to be “reform,” diversifying police departments so they resemble the communities they serve, and more body cameras.
Biden met with George Floyd’s family today in Houston. The Floyd family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said he listened to the family for more than an hour and that listening is what will begin to heal America.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that 99% of police officers are great, great people, but sometimes we will see horrible things like what we witnessed recently. The White House said this evening that Trump was “appalled” by the movement to defund police. Trump tweeted that he wants “LAW & ORDER!”
Congressional Democrats have proposed a bill that would require police to wear body cameras and use dashboard cameras, ban chokeholds, eliminate “no-knock” warrants, increase accountability for civil rights violations, allow federal funds to be withheld if a local police department did not make reforms, and create a national police misconduct registry.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had two blocks of 16th street that leads up to the White House painted in large, yellow letters, “BLACK LIVES MATTER.” It was painted on Friday. But protesters on the street painted “DEFUND THE POLICE” to call for changes.
There were many, many anti-racist protests over the weekend across the U.S. and the world, including here in Detroit. I participated in a BLM march on Friday evening and it was a very powerful experience. Most rallies around the world were peaceful and drew thousands of people.
On Sunday evening near Richmond, Virginia, a man named Harry Rogers drove his truck into a BLM rally. A news report said parents were trying to grab their kids out of the way. Fortunately, no one was killed, but a cyclist was injured. Rogers was arrested and received multiple serious criminal charges, and then admitted that he was a Ku Klux Klan leader and a “propagandist for Confederate ideology.” Now law enforcement is considering whether to charge him with hate crimes.
In Mobile, Alabama, a Confederate statue was removed on Friday morning. It was there for 120 years and was vandalized recently and then removed without notice. Mayor Sandy Stimpson said moving the statue will not change the past, but that it is about removing a distraction so we may focus clearly on the future.
NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes II, who is the Super Bowl champion with Kansas City Chiefs, posted a powerful video that included more than 20 Black NFL players who called on the NFL to condemn racism, the systemic oppression of black people, and admit they were wrong to silence their players. The video was posted on Wednesday.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Friday that the NFL was “wrong for not listening to NFL players” and that they believe black lives matter and said that without black players, there would be no NFL. The NFL was clearly addressing the controversy over former player Colin Kaepernick and his protests during the national anthem in which he kneeled. The NFL had a strong position against Kaepernick, but now they have changed their tone.
President Trump tweeted that Goodell’s statement was “interesting” and criticized the idea that it would be OK to allow players to kneel and “disrespect our Country & our Flag.” In 2017, Trump said in a speech that NFL protesters were “sons of a b——“ and said owners should immediately fire them and get them off the field. Trump is keeping this same posture.
So with the NFL, we are seeing a significant shift in attitude and statements that would be unimaginable in 2016 or 2017.
That is all the news updates I have for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.fox9.com/…/08/us/what-does-defund-police-mean.h…
https://www.nytimes.com/…/pol…/biden-defund-the-police.html…
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