Summer of 2020---The Civil Unrest Thread--Read OP Before Posting (in memory of George Floyd)

[tshile]

9 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

If I recall correctly, he was the one that didn't shoot her.  The ones that killed her went uncharged.

This is correct. He was charged for firing into a neighbors apartment during the situation. 
 

No one else was charged for anything 

 

 

[China]

George Floyd protesters granted $14M in excessive force lawsuit against police

 

Denver protesters from the racial justice rallies in 2020 were granted $14 million after a jury found that the police used excessive force on them. 

 

A jury of eight found that 11 protesters had their free speech rights and rights to be protected from unreasonable force violated, while others only had their free speech rights violated, The Associated Press reported.

 

The lawsuit came after police used shotguns that contained Kevlar-bags filled with lead to quell protests, with Zach Packard awarded $3 million after he was shot in the head and taken to an intensive care unit.

 

The protests began in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by the police in May 2020.

 

“Hopefully, what police departments will take from this is a jury of regular citizens takes these rights very seriously,” Timothy Macdonald, one of the prosecutors, said after the decision, according to the AP.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[GhostofSparta]

19 hours ago, China said:

“Hopefully, what police departments will take from this is a jury of regular citizens takes these rights very seriously,” Timothy Macdonald, one of the prosecutors, said after the decision, according to the AP.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Or, the cops take from this what they always do:

-They do what they want

-None of them personally get in trouble

-The city/state/whatever pays these lawsuits out of taxpayer funds

-None of these funds are taken from the police dept, current/future police budgets, the police pension, etc.

 

The lesson? Cops can do whatever they want with almost no consequences, so just keep doing what you're doing. Maybe 1 or 2 token "bad apples" get fired, and then quietly hired as cops at some other station a few months later when people stop paying attention.

[China]

Derek Chauvin appeals George Floyd murder conviction

 

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is appealing his conviction for murder in the killing of George Floyd, arguing that jurors were intimidated by the protests that followed and prejudiced by heavy pretrial publicity.

 

Chauvin asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a court filing Monday to reverse his conviction, reverse and remand for a new trial in a new venue, or order a resentencing.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Court says McCloskeys can’t advise right-wing group for free

 

The Missouri Supreme Court denied a request by U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey and his wife to give free legal advice to a conservative activist group as a condition of their professional probation, but McCloskey said Thursday he’ll try to find another right-wing organization to represent.

 

Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St. Louis were placed on probation as lawyers in February. The decision stemmed from their actions in June 2020 when they raised guns at racial injustice protesters who ventured near their home. Under terms of the probation, the couple can continue to practice law.

 

Their probation requires 100 hours of pro bono legal services to approved legal assistance organizations that aid needy Missourians. The state Supreme Court order found that Project Veritas didn’t meet the requirement. The organization is known for hidden camera stings that have embarrassed news outlets, labor organizations and Democratic politicians.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]

49 minutes ago, China said:

Their probation requires 100 hours of pro bono legal services to approved legal assistance organizations that aid needy Missourians. The state Supreme Court order found that Project Veritas didn’t meet the requirement.

 

 

They should do jail time for even thinking it might lol...jeebus.

[China]

Derek Chauvin sentenced to just over 20 years for violating George Floyd's federal civil rights

 

Derek Chauvin was sentenced to just more than 20 years in prison Thursday, nearly seven months after he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated George Floyd's civil rights when he knelt on Floyd's neck for 9½ minutes as he was detaining him in May 2020.

 

Before handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson called Chauvin's treatment of Floyd "offensive" and "unconscionable."

 

"I really don’t know why you did what you did. But to put your knee on another person’s neck until they expire is simply wrong and for that conduct you must be substantially punished," the judge said.

 

Federal prosecutors had asked Magnuson to sentence Chauvin to 25 years, on the high end of the 20- to 25-year range of the plea agreement, saying Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer and acted callously.

 

The defense had asked for 20 years, saying Chauvin was remorseful for what he did and that he has accepted responsibility.

 

Magnuson sentenced Chauvin to 21 years in prison, with credit for the time he has already served, bringing his sentence to 20 years and five months.

 

Chauvin is already serving a 22½-year sentence after he was found guilty of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, in April 2021 in a state case for the death of Floyd. His federal sentence will be served concurrently.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Those boys gonna start carrying tape measures now?

[GhostofSparta]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:47 AM, TradeTheBeal! said:

Those boys gonna start carrying tape measures now?

No need. It's like how an experienced cops doesn't need a radar gun to say you were speeding (https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/Media/ohio-cops-radar-gun-ticket-drivers/story?id=10815868), I'm sure the courts will side with their LEO buddies and decide cops can just guess what 8 feet is and arrest you just fine.

[PokerPacker]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:47 AM, TradeTheBeal! said:

Those boys gonna start carrying tape measures now?

Why carry a tape measure, when instead they can just charge at you and now you're inside their crime-committing buffer.

[China]

Ex-cop Thomas Lane gets 2 1/2 years on George Floyd killing federal charge

 

A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for violating George Floyd's civil rights, calling Lane's role in the restraint that killed Floyd "a very serious offence in which a life was lost" but handing down a sentence well below what prosecutors and Floyd's family sought.

Judge Paul Magnuson's sentence was just slightly more than the 27 months that Lane's attorney had requested, while prosecutors had asked for at least 5 1/4 years in prison - the low end of federal guidelines. Lane was convicted earlier this year of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care.

 

Lane, who is white, held Floyd's legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd's neck with his knee for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Bystander video of Floyd, who was Black, pleading that he could not breathe sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world in a reckoning over racial injustice over policing.

 

Two other officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were also convicted of violating Floyd's civil rights -- for depriving Floyd of his right to medical care and for failing to intervene to stop Chauvin -- and will be sentenced later.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Cooked Crack

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

[Llevron]

Sting of good weeks by the DOJ. 

 

There is one more name on the list im waiting for hear but i can wait until next week to keep the streak going  👀

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

A Minnesota county board has blasted its local sheriff’s office for the “racist, heinous, highly disrespectful” treatment of non-white jail officers who were segregated and prohibited from guarding former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin while he was detained for murdering George Floyd. 

 

On Tuesday, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners signed off on a nearly $1.5 million settlement after the officers sued for racial discrimination while working at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, a facility run by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, in May 2020. The board also officially apologized to the officers Devin Sullivan, Mohamud Salad, Timothy Ivory, Anabel Herrera, Stanley Hafoka, Nathaniel Gomez-Haustein, Cedric Dodds, and Chelsea Cox.

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Pregnant Black activist serving 4 years for protest comments

 

A pregnant Black activist serving four years in prison for her behavior at racial justice protests will have her sentence reconsidered as she struggles to reach her due date behind bars.

Raising questions about free speech and equal justice, Brittany Martin, 34, was found guilty this spring of breaching the peace in a high and aggravated manner over comments she made to police. Her lawyers have been pushing for a lesser sentence amid increasing concerns about her health and that of her baby, due in November.

 

Advocates with Black Voters Matter have been circulating a petition calling for her release. Civil rights attorney and former state lawmaker Bakari Sellers will tell the judge on Sept. 12 that the punishment is unjust.

 

“She’s in jail because she talked in America,” said Sybil Dione Rosado, her trial attorney. “She’s a dark-skinned Black woman who is unapologetically Black and radical.”

 

Martin moved with her four younger children to Sumter, South Carolina, from Iowa in spring 2020 and was “ready to go and protest” after the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd sparked a nationwide movement that year, her sister said.

 

But Martin also had someone else on her mind: In 2016, Sumter police fatally shot her brother-in-law 19 times when officers said he fired a gun after a chase in a stolen car. When she took to the streets, she carried grief over her family’s past.

 

In court, prosecutors presented police body camera recordings including snippets of those demonstrations. Shared with the AP, they don’t show her laying hands on any officers. Videos from May 31, 2020 show Martin chanting “No justice, no peace,” in an officer’s face. Police donned riot gear and discussed using tear gas before letting the crowd disperse.

Martin used stronger language days later.

 

“Some of us gon’ be hurting. And some of y’all gon’ be hurting,” Martin told officers. “We ready to die for this. We tired of it. You better be ready to die for the blue. I’m ready to die for the Black.”

 

The jury acquitted Martin of inciting a riot and reached no verdict on whether she threatened officers’ lives. Her legal team was “elated” when jurors found her guilty only of breaching the peace, punishable by no more than a $500 fine and 30 days in jail, investigator Tony Kennedy recalled.

 

State law defines breachers of the peace as any disturbers, “dangerous and disorderly persons” or people who utter “menaces or threatening speeches.” But prosecutors presented the charge as a “high and aggravated” crime, which carries up to 10 years imprisonment. Rosado said Judge Kirk Griffin did not allow her to explain the distinction, and the possibility of a much stiffer penalty, to the jury.

 

Prosecutors did not respond to interview requests. Sumter police said it would be inappropriate to comment, given the potential for additional action.

 

Sellers called the sentence “beyond the pale.”

 

“The fact is you have people who stormed the Capitol, who led to the death of law enforcement, who tried to overturn an election and fracture democracy. And they’re getting two months, three months, six months,” Sellers said. “And Brittany Martin gets four years.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 11/9/2021 at 2:17 PM, China said:

 

The only person who survived being shot by Kyle Rittenhouse takes the stand

 

Gaige Grosskreutz, the only person who survived being shot by Kyle Rittenhouse last year at a chaotic demonstration in Kenosha, Wis., took the stand in a pivotal moment in Rittenhouse's homicide trial.

 

In three hours of dramatic testimony Monday, Grosskreutz, 27, acknowledged that he was armed with a pistol on the evening of Aug. 25, 2020, but said that his hands were raised when Rittenhouse raised his rifle at him and that he feared for his life.

 

"I was never trying to kill the defendant," he testified. "In that moment, I was trying to preserve my own life. But doing so while also taking the life of another is not something that I'm capable of or comfortable doing."

 

Rittenhouse's defense lawyers have said Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense when he fired his AR-15-style rifle that night.

 

In cross-examination, they emphasized Grosskreutz's Glock pistol — which was in his hand at the moment Rittenhouse shot him — and proximity to Rittenhouse, just about 3 feet, at the time of the shooting. Grosskreutz said he was not intentionally pointing the weapon at Rittenhouse.

 

Grosskreutz, a paramedic from Milwaukee, had attended dozens of Black Lives Matter demonstrations that summer, acting as a medic and legal observer. He carried medical supplies, made livestreams of the events and wore a hat that read "paramedic."

 

Grosskreutz was also carrying his handgun holstered in the small of his back. His conceal-carry permit was expired at the time — which Grosskreutz said in testimony that he was unaware of that night.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Gaige Grosskreutz, Who Was Shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, Files Court Papers to Change His Name After ‘Two Years of Death Threats from Right Wing Lunatics’

 

Gaige Grosskreutz, the Wisconsin man who was shot in the arm by Kyle Rittenhouse on Aug. 25, 2020, wants to change his legal name. That’s according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which cited “a conservative news outlet” as the original source of the information.

 

Grosskreutz’s petition, the Journal-Sentinel said, was supposed to have been “secret,” and its leak reportedly led Grosskreutz’s attorney to call for a probe into how the matter became public. However, the petition is indeed referenced on the public court docket under Grosskreutz’s name as Kenosha County case number 2022CV6150. It is listed only as a “confidential name change.” The actual records contained in the docket are fully sealed; only the docket entry is public.

 

The “conservative news outlet” in question, the Kenosha County Eye, is reportedly operated by Kevin Mathewson, the former Kenosha alderman who the Journal-Sentinel said had asked armed volunteers to defend the city during a period of civil unrest.

 

“Mathewson then covered the Rittenhouse trial as a freelance photographer and got into a public yelling match with one of the prosecutors at one point,” the Journal-Sentinel noted.

 

Grosskreutz’s attorney, Kimberly Motley, told the Milwaukee newspaper that she believed someone in the clerk of court’s office leaked the petition for a name change to Mathewson’s news outlet and demanded to know who had access to the file. The newspaper indicated that the court clerk was looking into that complaint.

 

Grosskreutz reportedly released the following statement through Motley to the Journal-Sentinel:

 

Quote

Yes, after two years of death threats from right wing lunatics I made the difficult decision to change my name for the protection of me and my family.

 

But the real story here isn’t that I am seeking to change my name, but that a process that is supposed to protect and shield those in danger was undermined and sealed information was released to the right wing media within hours of my filing.

 

I was told that my filing was confidential. I demand that the court investigate how this was leaked to ensure that those seeking protection in the future receive the protection to which they are entitled. On Tuesday, I was denied that protection.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

George Floyd's daughter announces $250M lawsuit against Kanye West

 

The mother of George Floyd's daughter announced they are filing a $250 million lawsuit against Kanye West over his recent statements about Floyd's death. The rapper, who goes by Ye, erroneously declared on a podcast that Floyd died from fentanyl, not as the result of police brutality.

 

"Kanye's comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd's life and to profit from his inhumane death," attorney Pat D. Dixon III said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the goal with the lawsuit is to "hold Mr. West accountable" for his "flagrant remarks."

 

The lawsuit will go after West's "business partners" and "associates" as the comments caused "harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress." Gianna is the sole beneficiary of Floyd's estate.

 

"The interests of the child are priority. George Floyd's daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her," added Attorney Nuru Witherspoon.

 

Roxie Washington, acting on behalf of her and Floyd's child, Gianna, retained the Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law. They fired off a cease and desist to West.

"Mr. Floyd's cause of death is well-settled through evidence presented in courts of law during the criminal and civil trials that were the result of his untimely and horrific death.

 

Nevertheless, you have maliciously made statements that are inaccurate and unfounded, causing damage to Mr. Floyd's estate and his family," the letter reads, which was obtained by Yahoo Entertainment.

 

West brought up Floyd on the Drink Champs podcast while touting conservative pundit Candace Owens's documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Portland Van Abductions

 

Some hours before he was abducted by a squad of feds in camouflage tactical gear, Mark Pettibone was playing a pickup game of Frisbee.

 

It was what had become a normal night for the summer of 2020 in Portland, Oregon. The city was now four months into the pandemic and two months into the ongoing protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Maryland officials order the reinvestigation of about 100 deaths in police custody

 

After George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, Maryland's former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler was called in as a defense witness for the 2021 trial.

 

On the stand, Fowler testified that, based on his study of the forensic evidence, Floyd's death should be classified as "undetermined" and not a homicide, due to a medley of factors including heart disease, drug use and carbon monoxide exposure.

 

Chauvin was later convicted of murder and manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. But Fowler's testimony — which contradicted the Hennepin medical examiner's determination that Floyd's death was a homicide — sparked immediate concern among hundreds of his peers around the country, who suggested he might be motivated by racial or pro-law enforcement bias.

 

As a result, officials in Maryland launched a review last year of similar "in-custody" death reports that were performed during Fowler's tenure at the helm of the state medical examiner's office.

 

Now, that probe has spurred further scrutiny.

 

After reviewing the work by Fowler and his team on over 1,300 cases in which people died in police custody, an independent audit design team is recommending that the state reinvestigate about 100 of those. The cases share key similarities, including the absence of an "obvious medical cause of death," and they each involved physical restraint.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Candace Owens Threatens George Floyd's Family: 'I Think That I Have Grounds To Sue'

 

Candace Owens is threatening to sue the family of George Floyd as she aims to defend her friend Kanye West. According to Mediaite, Owens ranted on her recent podcast, bashing Floyd’s family who plans to file a $250 million lawsuit against West. After the rapper claimed that Floyd’s death was caused by a drug overdose instead of police brutality.

 

“I’m also sick of frivolous lawsuits. You know, if this is actually considered credible — if you can sue somebody because you’re feeling ’emotionally distressed’ because of them going out and saying things — well then I think that I have grounds to sue George Floyd’s estate,” Owens said on Wednesday.

 

The conservative pundit described the complaint against West as “nothing more than a PR stunt.”

 

“I have grounds to sue George Floyd’s family for doing this little PR stunt. It’s causing me a ton of distress,” she said. “I feel angry and I feel upset with the fact that I am fighting for Black America to be freed from the lies, while these people are fighting to keep them in the dark.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

George Floyd's murder causes a drop in Minneapolis police recruitment numbers

 

Inside the Minneapolis Police Academy's sprawling campus on the city's north side, six people sat soberly and listened to a handful of officers and city officials made their pitch about joining an understaffed department that was synonymous with the murder of George Floyd.

 

Officers would live in a bustling, vibrant metro area with a high quality of life, they said, working in a large department where they could choose a wide variety of career paths with comprehensive benefits.

 

But those who take the oath must understand it is a dangerous job and that they would be expected to protect the sanctity of human life, even if it means reining in a fellow officer.

Everything they do must be aimed at rebuilding trust in a city left in tatters by the killing of Mr Floyd and other Black men.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Sen. Rubio calls for investigation into 2020 protests if Republicans regain majorities

 

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is making his case for a congressional oversight committee to investigate the protests that rocked the country following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Somehow, I don't think that means investigating the malfeasance by police that led to those protests.

 

And the GOPs entire plan if they regain the majority is to conduct endless investigations and try to undo anything democrats have done.  They don't actually have a plan to govern and provide policies that help Americans.  They can all **** off.

 

Maybe Rubio can find the answer to this:

 

More Than Two Years After George Floyd’s Murder Sparked a Movement, Police Reform Has Stalled. What Happened?