Thursday, June 25 top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, June 25. Here are top news briefs.
The Los Angeles City Council is working on a plan to replace LAPD officers with “unarmed service providers” for certain 911 calls. This would redirect funding to professionals who are trained to deal with mental health issues, substance abuse, or homelessness. The proposal is aimed to reduce violent encounters between armed officers and individuals, especially in Black or Brown communities. There is a similar proposal in Eugene, Oregon.
In Wilmington, North Carolina, three police officers were fired after being caught on video making racist and threatening comments a few weeks ago. A dashcam video recording showed an officer, Kevin Piner, speaking on his phone with another officer that they would go out and start slaughtering “f—— n——” because he felt a civil war was coming. There was another video recording that showed Piner telling another officer who pulled up next to his car that he thought a Black police officer in his department was “bad news,” “a piece of s——,” and suggested without showing concern that BLM protesters might kill him. The investigation led to the firing of Piner and two other officers who interacted with him. The Wilmington police chief said they must establish new reforms for policing here at home and throughout this country. The local district attorney will review cases in which the three officers testified to determine if there was bias.
In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis signed a police accountability law that ends the “qualified immunity” defense. It means the public can sue officers for misconduct. The law bans chokeholds, prohibits police from aiming tear gas or rubber bullets at protesters’ head or torso area, and requires all law enforcement officers in the state to wear body cameras by July 1, 2023 with the footage required to be released to the public if a misconduct complaint is filed.
Polis also said he would order a re-examination of the circumstances of the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was unarmed and died after a violent arrest involving three police officers, a chokehold and a medic injecting 500mg of ketamine in his body. He died in August after the officers approached him based on a “suspicious person” report. Almost three million people signed a petition to demand justice for McClain.
NASCAR released an image of the noose that was found in Bubba Wallace’s garage in Talladega on Sunday, which prompted a FBI investigation that concluded the rope was used for a garage pull rope and was there since October. NASCAR said they checked all 1,684 garage stalls at 29 tracks they race in and found that there were 11 pull ropes that were tied and only one that was tied in a noose. NASCAR said they couldn’t find out who tied the rope into a noose and why it was tied that way. Wallace is the only Black driver in NASCAR’s top racing level and was outspoken against confederate flags being flown during races, so tensions were high when the noose was found on Sunday. We now see an image of it. Wallace said he is very grateful to NASCAR for supporting him and that if people accuse him of orchestrating a hoax, it only fuels his competitive drive to shut everyone up.
The CDC said there could be 23 million Covid-19 cases in the U.S., which is far higher than the 2.3 million currently confirmed cases. The CDC made this estimate after gathering blood samples during antibody testing. The CDC said many who are infected are asymptomatic. Axios explained that the U.S. has fewer deaths now compared with March and April, which may be because older adults are more careful. We have fewer deaths but higher cases.
Chuck E. Cheese has filed for bankruptcy protection. The restaurant chain said it was already struggling before the coronavirus pandemic, but with many venues closed for months, it has to file for bankruptcy. They operate 734 restaurants in 47 states and 16 countries. The restaurant hopes to restructure and recover.
That is all the top news briefs for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://laist.com/latest/post/20200624/LAPD-city-council-911-response-unarmed
https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2020/06/24/fired-wilmington-cop-we-are-just-going-to-go-out-and-start-slaughtering-them-f-ni-i-cant-wait-god-i-cant-wait-free-read/?fbclid=IwAR2rQ5D5Fyq6qgTRpdU6clh8a_7iOY_AUDe76SvfMAxywUnUPZVnoGzVVgM
https://www.tmz.com/2020/06/24/bubba-wallace-nascar-noose-investigation-cnn-don-lemon/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-trumps-fast-track-removal-rejected-asylum/story?id=71448530