Louisville Fires Officer; Trump Aligns With Cops: Protest Wrap
Trump Rally Filled Less Than a Third of Arena: Protest Wrap
(Bloomberg) -- Louisville police fired one of the officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, saying he “wantonly and blindly” fired 10 shots into her apartment in March, AP reports. Taylor was shot eight times in a no-knock raid in a drugs investigation. The suspect didn’t live at her house and no drugs were found. She died of her injuries, sparking widespread protests.
President Donald Trump aligned himself squarely with law enforcement in a speech to supporters in Arizona on Tuesday, abandoning sympathy for people protesting police brutality or its victims, as he sought to stabilize his re-election campaign. Trump didn’t mention George Floyd’s name in his remarks, and criticized liberals for not protesting homicide rates in major cities. A speaker at his event criticized the planned rebranding of Aunt Jemima breakfast foods.
Twitter Inc. flagged Trump’s post threatening D.C. protesters as violating its anti-abuse policy. Trump has criticized Seattle’s mayor for allowing a six-block, police-free protest zone. Mayor Jenny Durkan said Monday the police department would return to a precinct building they vacated earlier this month inside the zone. Meanwhile, tensions at the Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C. escalated as protesters lit an American flag on fire.
The president said on Twitter that he had ordered the arrest of “anyone who vandalizes or destroys” a statue, monument or other federal property after protesters tried to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson near the White House. Washington D.C.’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, says she’ll file a bill to remove the statue from Lafayette Park just north of the White House.
In Charleston, the city began removing a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun. Two schools in Bergen County, New Jersey, will get rid of their ‘Cowboys’ and ‘Indians’ nicknames. A school in Virginia named after Robert E. Lee will be renamed, with Barack Obama and John Lewis among the options to replace it. And national parks in California are removing references to giant trees named after the Confederate general, though it would take an act of Congress to rename them.
Statues coming down aren’t all Confederate. Protesters in Wisconsin pulled down a statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg, an abolitionist who fought and died for the Union during the Civil War, and dumped it into a lake. They also took down a statue called ‘Forward,’ a woman designed to represent progress in the state, designed by a female sculptor in 1893. It’s unclear why either of those statues was targeted.
Democrats will block a Republican policing reform bill in the Senate, saying it falls far short of what is needed to enforce accountability for state and local departments in dealing with racial disparities. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, says he’ll move to reconsider the measure if it’s blocked.
Read more: BGOV OnPoint: House and Senate Policing Bills, Side-by-Side
Police comedy TV show ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ will scrap its first four episode scripts and start over to reflect recent events, USA Today reported. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, whose show airs on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network, apologized for appearing in blackface in skits he performed in the 1990s. The FBI concluded that there was no hate crime at Talladega Superspeedway, Nascar said, capping an episode that risked setting back efforts to improve its image. Harley-Davidson Inc. and Polaris Inc. are ousting a dealer from their retailer networks after racist comments disparaging Black Lives Matter protesters were posted to his personal Facebook page.
Key Developments:
- The City of London Has a Slavery Problem
- Engel Imperiled by Challenge From Left as Vote Counts Delayed
- As Facebook Boycott Gains Steam, Small Advertisers Stay Put
- Black Real Estate Executives Seek Lasting Change in Diversity
- Jogger Shooting Spurs Georgia Hate-Crime Law After a 16-Year Gap
- Walmart Says It Will No Longer Sell The Mississippi State Flag
- Google, Facebook Diversity Pledges Follow Scant Progress on Race
- Redskins’ Name and Logo Questioned Amid NFL Fight Against Racism
See more from Bloomberg’s QuickTake:
Trump’s remarks didn’t include a mention of George Floyd’s name:
In England, football club Burnley apologized for a banner flown by supporters:
Atlanta pays respects to Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot in the back by a police officer this month.
Data scientist’s warning on bias in algorithms:
More on Google pledge to boost hiring of Black workers at senior levels:
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