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COMMUNITY Social Justice Thread: R.I.P. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor & now Tyre Nichols

www.theroot.com

Minnesota Corrections Officers File Lawsuit Claiming All Non-White Officers Were Barred From Guarding Derek Chauvin

Minority corrections officers at the Ramsey County Jail filed a lawsuit with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights Friday alleging that they were barred from performing their duties anywhere near the vicinity of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of...
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Minority corrections officers at the Ramsey County Jail filed a lawsuit with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights Friday alleging that they were barred from performing their duties anywhere near the vicinity of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd. The eight officers say their supervisor had no confidence that they could do their jobs without their races guiding their decisions and now they don’t have confidence that their white bosses respect them as professionals.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Chauvin was booked at the county jail the same day he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
As Chauvin arrived, all officers of color were ordered to a separate floor, and a supervisor told one of them that, because of their race, they would be a potential “liability” around Chauvin, according a copy of racial discrimination charges obtained by the Star Tribune.
“I understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate — solely because of the color of our skin,” wrote one acting sergeant, who is black. “I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate.”
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The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office originally denied the allegations but the jail’s superintendent, Steve Lydon, eventually copped to it.
InNewsWeekly.com originally reported the allegations of racial discrimination at the jail on May 30—the day after Chauvin was booked. Reuters asked a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office about the corrections officers’ claims made in the article and that spokesperson told them via email that there was “no truth to the report” and that Chauvin “was treated according to procedure.”
The spokesperson also noted that black corrections officers were “assigned to guard him as part of the regular routine,” but that claim is directly refuted by one of the eight officers—a black man who was an acting sergeant and usually supervises the transports of high-profile inmates—who said he was stopped in the middle of performing a routine frisking of Chauvin and replaced with a white officer, according to the Tribune. He was reportedly told by another sergeant that all minority corrections officers were ordered off of the floor where Chauvin was being held and that they were all replaced with white officers.
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Eventually, Lydon admitted to his superiors that he kept all officers of color away from Chauvin claiming that he did it “to protect and support” them.
“Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings,” Lydon said, the Tribune reports. Lydon’s bosses apparently didn’t buy his explanation and he was demoted for the offense. But that did nothing to make the eight officers feel better about their work environment.
From the Tribune:
Nearly a week after the initial incident, dozens of jailers met with Sheriff Bob Fletcher and elected an acting sergeant to read a two-page letter on the behalf of the minority staff. The note recalled his confrontation with Lydon, the shock he felt upon being called “a liability” around Chauvin and the command to notify other officers of color that they were being reassigned to a different floor.
“I immediately left feeling sick to my stomach,” the letter states. “The hurt and anger these officers displayed was evident not only in their body language, but in their voice.”
The sergeant went on to explain that the order caused division among the ranks and cast doubt on the professionalism of even veteran officers. He did not request Lydon’s termination, but said his judgment “caused us officers to lose faith in his ability to run this facility.”
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A number of officers at the jail also reported seeing Chauvin receiving special treatment. They claim to have seen surveillance footage from May 30 which shows a white lieutenant who was granted special access to Chauvin’s cell allowing the former officer to use her cellphone while in lockup, the Tribune reports.
As for the officers who were allegedly barred from working near Chauvin, their lawsuit describes a “hostile work environment” where they “were, and continue to be, deeply humiliated, distressed, and negatively impacted by the segregation order.”
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They dont do all this for all these white domestic terrorist, but the sec black people group together theyre guns blazing

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Government Spy Planes and Drones Were Surveilling Recent Black Lives Matter Protests

New reports have revealed that both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were using spy planes and other airborne surveillance technology to monitor the protests for black lives that have been taking place across the country.
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New reports have revealed that both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were using spy planes and other airborne surveillance technology to monitor the protests for black lives that have been taking place across the country.

Despite saying it does not monitor activity protected by the First Amendment, the FBI used a Cessna jet specially equipped with cameras for long-range video surveillance to capture footage above protests in Washington D.C. earlier this month, reports Buzzfeed News.

From Buzzfeed:
Normally, this elite spy plane is deployed for some of the FBI’s most important surveillance missions, providing eyes in the sky when federal agents arrest drug traffickers or violent gang members. But this isn’t the first time it has flown over Black Lives Matter protests: A BuzzFeed News review of flight tracking records has established that the same aircraft circled above Baltimore in April and May of 2015, during the unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray from severe injuries sustained in police custody.
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A Freedom of Information request filed by the ACLU in 2015 revealed that the FBI had recorded video surveillance footage via planes flown over protests in Baltimore against the killing of Freddie Grey.
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The Department of Homeland Security has also gone full throttle in monitoring Americans practicing their constitutional right to assemble over the past few weeks. More than 270 hours of demonstration footage from across 15 cities was logged by Homeland Security using drones, helicopters, and airplanes, the New York Times reported.

From the Times:
Aircraft filmed demonstrations in Dayton, Ohio; New York City; Buffalo and Philadelphia, among other cities, sending video footage in real time to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a branch of Customs and Border Protection.
The footage was then fed into a digital network managed by the Homeland Security Department, called “Big Pipe,” which can be accessed by other federal agencies and local police departments for use in future investigations, according to senior officials with Air and Marine Operations.
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House Democrats wrote to the acting head of Homeland Security Chad Wolf earlier this month about their concern at surveillance taking place above demonstrations in Minneapolis, saying “the deployment of drones and officers to surveil protests is a gross abuse of authority and is particularly chilling when used against Americans who are protesting law enforcement brutality.”

The letter requested a list of jurisdictions where the DHS has conducted or assisted in conducting protest surveillance since May, and who in each jurisdiction made the request for such assistance.

The question of who is making these orders is an especially relevant one.

A preliminary investigation by the National Guard recently found that a lack of clarity in orders was what led to a military helicopter flying low and kicking up strong wind and debris around protestors in Washington on June 1—a common tactic used by military in overseas combat zones according to CNN.

The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that the drones it used to monitor recent protests in Minneapolis, Buffalo, and Del Rio in Texas were not programmed to fly low enough to detect faces, but I wouldn’t take their word for it.

Stay woke, y’all.
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I got a response to my email from my congress rep that I talked to on Saturday in person. I'll list the bilsl he mentioned so that we can be aware and do our due diligence in reading the language and holding them accountable to pass meaningful law.

-H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that aims to end racial profiling, change the culture of law enforcement, and empower our communities. The Justice in Policing Act works to end racial and religious profiling by mandating discrimination training and requiring law enforcement to collect data on their investigatory actions, so that they can be held accountable for their decisions. It bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants for drug cases. It also increases police accountability by expanding the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate police departments and improves data collection on police misconduct and use-of-force. These are meaningful reforms, but we need to do much more.

-H.R. 1714, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, which prevents transfers of equipment that is inappropriate for local policing, such as military weapons, long-range acoustic devices, grenade launchers, weaponized drones, and armored military vehicles. This bill will ensure that military equipment that is not necessary for local policing will not be transferred to any police unit. I also cosponsored H. Res. 988, which calls on Congress to condemn police brutality, racial profiling and take urgent legislative action to save lives.

-cosponsored the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, which would eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement and restore Americans' ability to obtain relief when police officers violate their legal and constitutionally-secured rights.

There were two other bills he is a part of, that deal with studying the effects of racism and studying the social disparities that affect black men and boys. I'm not a fan of these "commissions" that are tasked with studying shit we already know. I will admit maybe my stance on those should be reflected on.

I encourage of yall to contact every damn rep you can find and ask them what bills are they sponsoring/supporting to hold these killer cowards accountable.
 
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