Latest news with #BlackLivesMatter
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Sacramento police must apologize for harming a California state senator
The Sacramento Police Department wrongfully detained a California Senator after she was the victim of a traffic accident, claiming she was showing 'objective signs of intoxication.' Yet Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, maintained her innocence. And with the release of a toxicology report on Friday by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, her name and record have officially been cleared. Now, the Sacramento Police Department and its chief, Kathy Lester, owe the legislator a public apology. Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang released a strong statement on Friday in support of Cervantes and also urged the city's police department to publicly apologize. 'As a public institution, we must take responsibility when harm is caused, especially to someone who has dedicated their life to public service,' Vang wrote in a statement. 'A sincere apology is the first step toward accountability and rebuilding trust with our community.' Unfortunately, Cervantes is unlikely to receive an apology. I know this because I also deserved an apology after the Sacramento Police Department handcuffed and attempted to detain me while I was reporting on a protest inside City Council chambers last March, despite my First Amendment and state-given rights to be present inside the room. Not only did an apology never come from the police, but it took more than six months before any representative from the department would even sit down with someone from The Bee to discuss it privately. Even then, police officials only wanted to meet with my editor, not with me. So this incident is deeply unsurprising. The Sacramento Police Department has a history of abusing its power. From the 2018 killing of an unarmed Stephon Clark, to their behavior at the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 for which they are being sued, to Cervantes' detention on May 19 of this year, how are Sacramentans expected to hold any trust in their police? 'If this can happen to a State Senator, imagine how many everyday residents have been harmed similarly, many of whom we may never hear about,' Vang said. 'We must hold our public servants, especially law enforcement officers, to a higher standard. They are entrusted with the safety and well-being of our communities.' Perhaps the worst and most degrading aspect of this is that it's not inconceivable that Cervantes' ethnicity and gender had something to do with the police's suspicions that day, even though she was the victim of a sideswipe and in the hospital being checked for injury when the detention occurred. She was a victim and yet she was treated as a suspect. Still, Chief Lester will be holding out her hand for millions more in her department's budget next year at the next council meeting on June 10, just as the city tries to climb out of its $44 million deficit — and every other department has willingly offered cuts. Every child knows that when you are in the wrong, you apologize. There can be no reasonable excuse or delay from the SPD now.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Terrified residents of 'Mad Max' Kansas City reveal the truth about why it's spinning out of control
The Mad Max movie series offered a terrifying vision of society collapsing into anarchic tribal violence amid resource wars and ecocide. In present-day Kansas City, Missouri, water and electricity still flow, but residents say much about their hometown now resembles the diesel-punk mayhem captured by the movie franchise. The streets have been overrun by petrol-head bike and ATV gangs that mount sidewalks and mow down pedestrians. The sidewalks are full of trash. Homelessness is out of control. Locals lock their doors as gunshots ring out through the night. One of them told the Daily Mail it was like living in 'Kans-ghanistan.' Many point to Mayor Quinton Lucas, accusing him of undercutting the police in the years since he chanted, 'No justice, no peace', as Black Lives Matter activists torched cars in 2020. Crooks and hoodlums have little to fear, residents said, as Kansas City has not had its own jail since 2009, and can only access a few dozen detention beds in lockups in nearby counties. They also blamed Jean Peters-Baker, a self-styled 'justice seeker' who was panned for 'soft-on-crime' policies in the 13 years she was the county prosecutor, a job she left in January. In a chilling exit interview, Peters-Baker admitted that violence was 'still really high,' that she'd failed to get a handle on gun crime, and wanted a job that was 'a little less hard.' 'If people were killing each other with rocks, I could have probably gotten a lot more done,' she told KSHB 41. Lucas and Peters-Baker declined our requests for comment. Earlier this month, the Democratic mayor said his city's spiraling crime wave was down to the cops — not him. Mary Nestel, 59, a lifelong Kansas City resident, and other locals, don't buy it. 'We're just heartbroken and almost in tears about what's being destroyed right in front of us,' the insurance agent told the Daily Mail. 'Our leaders are more interested in their personal agendas and filling their pockets than listening to the citizens who are affected by their poor decisions every day.' She spoke after another brutal week in the Missouri city of half a million people, once better known for its barbecue, jazz music, and picturesque fountains. A man and a woman were shot and killed after an argument erupted outside a home in south Kansas City; police tried to regain control of streets overrun by ATV and dirt bike gangs and sideshows. In recent weeks, an ATV driver knocked down a police officer and then injured him again while pulling a wheelie. A woman pedestrian was injured on Cinco de Mayo weekend by a dirt bike wheelie stunt in the busy downtown restaurant district. The dystopian scenes recall the Mad Max movies, which saw a 'road warrior', played by Mel Gibson in the original and Tom Hardy in the reboot, battle gangs riding motorbikes and ATVs across the Australian desert. Another video of brazen lawlessness emerged this month, showing two people mercilessly punching and kicking another on the sidewalk at a bus stop downtown at night. Restaurant owners say their eateries are empty after 8pm, as locals are too scared to leave their homes. Kansas City now ranks among the most dangerous cities in America, with homicides peaking at 182 in 2023 and still scarily high. The 'City of Fountains' has the worst homelessness crisis in the US, with 96 percent of unhoused people sleeping on streets, in cars, or derelict buildings, federal housing data show. Sidewalks are strewn with garbage, business owners wash human waste off pavements each morning, says Nestel. Jay, a former Kansas City resident who didn't share his surname, said gunshots echoed through his neighborhood nightly and three of his neighbors were killed in the 18 months he lived there. 'I've since moved back to South America, where the only gunshots I hear are in my nightmares, where I imagine being back in Kansghanistan,' he said. Nestel and Mark Anthony Jones, a downtown resident who heads a district GOP committee, blamed Lucas, saying the mayor championed soft-on-crime polices since the George Floyd race riots erupted in early 2020. 'It's all connected: the homeless, the crime, the lack of leadership,' said Nestel. 'When Lucas in 2020 stood at Washington Square Park and raised his fist and said 'No justice, no peace' and defunded the police department, he started the ball rolling.' Jones also blamed former prosecutor Peters-Baker for embracing 'policies of not enforcing laws against non-violent crimes.' 'That set the stage for minor offenses to get more and more common,' Jones said. 'No consequences for criminals leads to big consequences for folks who want to live safe lives.' Police don't bother to book car thieves and other lower-level offenders as there are not enough jail beds to process them, he said. The city's jail shuttered in 2009, and it's since used a few dozen beds at lockups in nearby counties. There are plans to build a new city jail, but it won't be open for several years. City council members are even mulling a stopgap 'modular jail' that could be built in six months. Lucas has repeatedly rejected claims he tried to 'defund' city police after the BLM riots of 2020. Kansas City is the only city in the state where the local elected officials, by law, have almost no authority in how the police department's budget is spent. Lucas and some city council members in 2021 tried to divert $42 million of the police budget toward community engagement and intervention — but that was blocked by a judge. He has since rowed with the state over how much budget Kansas City must spend on policing. The force was hit with more budget cuts this week, after having to pay out more than $18 million from two recent lawsuits. Speaking with the Daily Mail earlier this month, Lucas slammed the gangs, but rejected claims he's responsible for the city's collapse. He said Kansas City could 'handle this moment' and that a police recruitment drive would get more officers on the streets in the coming months. 'More than anything, we need to make sure that there are real consequences for those who are engaging in reckless and foolish behavior in downtown Kansas City,' he added. 'I have great confidence in the city being able to handle this moment and many others,' said the mayor, who lives in a four-bedroom, $500,000 home. Peters-Baker left Kansas City soon after her term ended, records show. She did not answer our requests for an interview. Speaking with KSHB 41 in December, she said she was 'smart-on-crime,' not soft, but added that she was hamstrung by other officials. 'There's so many things I'd hoped for when I got into that job. One was that violence would be reduced,' she said. 'Politically, it's gotten so awful.' Nestel tried and failed to get a seat on the city council in 2023. She co-founded a civic group of business owners and residents called the Real Kansas City that runs clean-ups in parks and other run-down areas. The group's Facebook page has 2,300 members, who post about Kansas City's chaos and policies that have solved social problems in Omaha, St. Louis and other mid-size cities. Members hope they can turn the tide before Kansas City becomes more like the Mad Max wasteland, she says. 'We're very passionate about our city and determined to help,' Nestel says.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Five years ago: Black Lives Matter rally in Rochester, chaotic aftermath
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Rochester activists will be holding events marking what they call five years of resistance. On this day in May 2020, protests began in Downtown Rochester after the murder of George Floyd during an encounter with police in Minneapolis. Hundreds of people showed up to Rochester's Black Lives Matter rally, but as it was ending, chaos ensued near the Public Safety Building. Cars were seen burning, police cars were vandalized, and there was looting. Multiple people were arrested and charged with the car fires and destruction of public property. Multiple community members praised the peaceful protests but condemned the destructive aftermath. Police said it was caused by 'professional protesters' and 'outsiders.' Then-Mayor Lovely Warren said the actions of these people overshadowed the protests. After the destruction, many residents in the community pitched in to help as businesses that were affected began to rebuild. Protests continued and would pick up again later that year, upon the community learning about the death of Daniel Prude. Free the People Roc plans to hold an event at 6 p.m. Friday evening at the Lodge in MLK Park. The event is described as a celebration and a time to look to the road ahead. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Glasgow Times
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Everything you need to know about the 'Stop Reform' Glasgow summit
Following the success of Reform UK and Nigel Farage in the recent English council elections, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) is hosting a "Stop Reform 2026" summit ahead of next year's Scottish Government election. The day will build towards the launch of the official campaign, aiming to build a "mass movement" to challenge the nationwide rise of fascist and racist rhetoric before the election takes place. Where will it be held? The summit will take place from 11am until 5pm on Saturday, May 31, in The Boardwalk on Glasgow's Brunswick Street. It is a ticketed event and will feature a range of speakers and workshops throughout the day. Who is speaking at the summit? There are a number of speakers listed for the morning plenary, including: Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer Humza Yousaf, former First Minister Roz Foyer, STUC general secretary Samira Ali, SUTR nationwide organiser Matt Kerr, Scottish Labour councillor for Cardonald Why now? In a social media post announcing the summit, SUTR said: 'Nigel Farage claims to be a 'man of the people', but he is a tax-dodging millionaire who attended one of the most expensive private schools in Britain. Reform has pledged to cut taxes for the largest corporations, cuts for public services and it tries to point the finger away from the rich. 'In Scotland, polls project Reform could enter the Scottish parliament in the May 2026 election with up to 15 MSPs. 'We say this is not inevitable. Mass campaigning and anti-racist organising has helped turn the tide against the far-right before — and we can do it again.' The summit will feature a number of workshops such as detailing how culture can help 'turn the tide' against prejudice, trade unions against racism and justice for Sheku Bayoh — a Black Lives Matter in Scotland workshop. There will also be a break where attendees can visit picture galleries and stalls hosted by campaign groups involved in the summit. Final tickets for those wishing to attend are available here.
Axios
20 hours ago
- Axios
Chicago artists work to preserve Black Lives Matter art
Black Lives Matter murals and public art were all over Chicago after George Floyd's murder in 2020, but five years later, it can be difficult to find some of those works. Why it matters: The protests against police brutality were an inflection point in a city with a complicated history of policing. Artists expressing their feelings about that moment and the larger social justice movement was natural in a city known for its public art. Flashback: As protests wove through Chicago neighborhoods in the summer of 2020, Paint the City founders Missy Perkins and Barrett Keithley connected artists with businesses who wanted to show their support for Black Lives Matter. "It was just a thing where we just couldn't sit back and kind of watch this happen and not do something. We were obviously both feeling like, 'What kind of action can we take?'" Perkins tells Axios. "We know so many artists from all over the place that could go out and create these inspiring murals as a way to help people or as a way to engage in a conversation." Perkins says the group created hundreds of artistic boards across the city. Yes, but: All of those boards are not currently on display to the public. Many were shown in the 2021 exhibition "Resilient Voices," at the DuSable Museum in Washington Park, but Perkins says they're now in storage in need of restoration and a permanent home. Paint the City is exploring funding avenues to make that happen. State of play: Other groups, including the Sounding Boards Garden initiative, created displays that are still open to the public. In a lot behind Harmony Community Church in North Lawndale sits an outdoor gallery of colorful painted boards, including a portrait of Floyd, a large fist with the phrase "Power to the People," and a black cherub wearing boxing gloves and floating in space. Zoom out: George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, where police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd, is ensnared in a development battle about what to do with the streets around the memorial created after Floyd's death. Washington, D.C., has dismantled its Black Lives Matter Plaza for what Mayor Muriel Bowser said will instead become an area celebrating America's 250th birthday, which is in 2026. Context: Following the 2020 protests, activists also called for the dismantling of public art and monuments across the country, saying they reinforced white supremacy. Most notable in Chicago was the removal of two Christopher Columbus statues, one of which the city plans to loan to the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. The city created the Chicago Monuments Project to determine what to do with the other controversial public art. Reality check: The group identified 41 objects that "privilege whiteness, social elites and the powerful above all other people" and recommended that several be placed in storage, but none have been, CBS reported this month.
