Tuesday, June 2 top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Tuesday, June 2. Here are top news briefs.
Retired boxing star Floyd Mayweather said he would pay for George Floyd’s funeral services which is scheduled for June 9 in Houston, Floyd’s hometown. There will be another funeral services in Minnesota and North Carolina, and Mayweather will cover the costs. AP News reported that Mayweather has been in contact with Floyd’s family and that they accepted his offer.
Yesterday evening in Washington, D.C., police dressed in riot gear fired tear gas and dispersed crowds of protesters near the White House to clear a path for President Donald Trump to walk from the White House to an Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park.
Trump was giving a speech at the White House at the time in which he said if law enforcement and the National Guard couldn’t stop the violence in American cities, he would deploy the U.S. military and quickly solve the problem.
After walking through the cleared space to the St. John’s Episcopal Church, President Trump held up a bible and said “We have a great country. We will fix it. We will come back strong and will be greater than ever before.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said federal police used munitions on peaceful protesters a full 25 minutes before the 7 p.m. curfew and did it without provocation.
ABC News reported that Attorney General Bill Barr was the one who made the order to force protesters to disperse. Barr was seen walking with Trump to the church.
An Episcopalian bishop, Mariann Budde, said she was outraged because “… the president just used a Bible… and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus…”
Trump made another church visit this morning at the National Shrine, a place used used by Catholics. Trump was with the First Lady. It enraged yet another church leader. The Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory said Trump misused and manipulated the facility because their religious principles are to defend the rights of all people, even with whom we might disagree. The archbishop criticized the use of tear gas on Monday night.
In Atlanta, six police officers were charged with crimes for violently arresting two college students in a car who were driving in a car in the downtown area on Sunday night after curfew. Body camera footage shows a group of police officers breaking a car window. Officers discharged taser guns at both the students. Two of the officers were fired while the other four were reassigned to desk duty. The criminal charges range from aggravated assault, pointing a gun, damage to property, and simple assault.
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In St. Louis, four police officers were shot on Monday night. Three were hit in the leg or foot while the fourth was hit in the arm. All have been released from the hospital. Police Chief John Hayden said they were standing near a line when they were shot. Hayden said a 77-year-old man named David Dorn was shot and killed outside of a pawn shop that was looted overnight Tuesday. He was a retired police captain and it seems like he was trying to stop looters because he was a friend of the pawnshop owner. News reports said there was a Facebook live video that showed him dying. The video has been taken down. 55 businesses in the St. Louis area were burglarized or damaged and 25 people were arrested.
New York Post reported that a man from Illinois, Matthew Rupert (28) was arrested after Facebook videos showed him in the Twin Cities passing out explosives and destroying property and saying, “we come to riot.” He then went to Chicago and said he wanted to loot there and start a riot. He was arrested in Chicago and will be transferred to Minnesota to face charges of civil disorder, possession of unregistered explosives, and organizing riots.
There have been news reports and videos on social media of white people taking advantage of the protests to cause mayhem. One of them is a man named Bartels who caused damage in Pittsburgh. Police found spray paint and firearms in his home.
The mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, said she saw multiple videos that showed many white males starting fires and looting. She said she feared that the black community would shoulder the blame for property damage.
In Birmingham, Alabama, a large Confederate monument was taken apart by crews hired by the city. The monument was 115 years old and 54 feet high. Protesters had tried to topple it on Sunday night, and now it’s professionally removed. There was a confederate statue that was taken down in Alexandria, Virginia that was removed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Los Angeles County is under a curfew for a third straight night from 6 p.m. local time until 6 a.m. San Francisco, Oakland, D.C., New York City, and Cleveland are also under curfew.
Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura issued a statement in which they said they are “anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country.”
Former President Barack Obama wrote a post on Medium titled “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change.” He voiced support for protesters by saying they represent a genuine frustration over police practices and the broader criminal justice system. He said a small minority of folks have resorted to violence and said we should not excuse it or participate in it. Obama encouraged people to bring real change by voting for officials at the state and local levels who have oversight over police departments. He said voter turnout must go up and that we have to choose both protesting and being involved with politics.
There are thousands of people who are peacefully protesting in D.C., Dallas, Los Angeles, and other cities. In Houston, George Floyd’s family walked with protesters.
The State of Minnesota has filed a civil rights charge against the Minneapolis Police Department. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the state’s Department of Human Rights will investigate the police department’s policies and actions over the past 10 years to determine if they engaged in systemic discriminatory practices.
That is all the news updates for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://apnews.com/b6774d466293f2538804e16fac1e69a6
https://www.c-span.org/video/?472686-1/president-walks-st-johns-church
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/live-fulton-announces-findings-atlanta-police-excessive-force-case/IwWL0tioOHNAtC29Ad2xGL/
https://nypost.com/2020/06/02/we-came-to-riot-man-live-streamed-handing-out-explosives/
https://apnews.com/810a6cb13ce6cdbde5b534661c5f2da6
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/news/st-louis-police-mourn-death-of-captain-killed-by-looter
https://medium.com/@BarackObama/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/state-minnesota-files-civil-rights-charge-against-minneapolis-police-department-n1222476