George Floyd, Times Square Billboard, Rampant Police Violence, Assault on Voting Right at Sunset TV!
- Don Lichterman
- Jun 10, 2020
- 11 min read
Times Square Billboard Tallies Lives Lost to COVID-19 Inaction
A 56-foot billboard called the Trump Death Clock was unveiled in Times Square in New York City. The tally of lives lost to government inaction was created by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, who says, “On behalf of all of those who needlessly lost their lives to this failed leadership in a pandemic, we need a symbol, a symbol that cries out not only for accountability, but also for more responsible and responsive stewardship, going forward.” As of the Friday morning broadcast, the death toll count was nearly 47,000 and growing.
Why COVID-19 is a "perfect storm of terribleness" for Black Americans
“COVID-19 Has Been Racialized”: Black Scholar Jill Nelson Arrested for Chalking “Trump = Plague”
Black and Brown communities are being disproportionately targeted and policed in New York City’s response to the spread of COVID-19. We speak with author and activist Jill Nelson, who was herself arrested by NYPD in April for writing “Trump = Plague” in chalk on an abandoned building in her Washington Heights neighborhood. The 67-year-old scholar was handcuffed, taken to the police station and held for five hours. Now she is speaking out. The president is “telling us that as people of color, and older people, we should just die,” says Nelson. “It’s ridiculous.”
Hear heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of animals grieving the loss of their loved ones
Bring young kids over for a read aloud of PETA-approved children’s book, “Our Farm.” Listen along as TeachKind’s Megan and her stepdaughter Lilly read a collection of poems written from the perspective of the resident animals of Farm Sanctuary. PETA's mission statement is that animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way: https://www.peta.org/about-peta/
The Protests Made a Huge Difference: All Four Minneapolis Cops Charged in Killing of George Floyd
After more than a week of nationwide protests, all four Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd have been charged with murder or aiding and abetting murder in a case that triggered historic protests across the country. “If you look at the video … the pressure from all three officers on Mr. Floyd’s body contributed to his death,” says activist and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. “They heard the man pleading, saying 'I can't breathe,’ and they had a callous disregard for his life.”
Tamika Mallory: Nationwide Uprising Against State Violence Shows People Have Reached Breaking Point
As Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison files charges against all four Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, a mass uprising against police brutality continues. “At this point, we’re looking at a nation and a world that has decided that what we saw happen on camera … is no longer acceptable, and we cannot continue to meet and ask and cry and beg for change. People have taken to the streets to demand change,” says Tamika Mallory, former national co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March.
Our System Is Corroded: Carol Anderson on Rampant Police Violence and Assault on Voting Rights
On Thursday, disturbing new details were revealed in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man who was chased, ambushed and shot dead by a group of white men in Georgia in what many have called a modern-day lynching. In a nearly seven-hour hearing, a state judge concluded all three men — Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan — would stand trial for Arbery's murder, after special agent Richard Dial of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified Travis McMichael said "f—ing n—" after shooting and killing Arbery. We speak with professor Carol Anderson, author of "White Rage," about Arbery's slaying, the nationwide protests, anti-lynching legislation being debated in the Senate and the upcoming election.
“Essential Labor, Expendable Lives”: Mass Transit Workers Worry About Safety as NYC Begins to Reopen
As New York City begins to partially reopen, we look at what it means for the nation’s largest public transportation system. “It’s a very stressful and dangerous situation,” says Seth Rosenberg, a subway operator, shop steward with the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and a member of a small coalition of transit workers called Local 100 Fightback. “The safety measures are not in place to protect transit workers or riders.”
DACA Recipients “Want to Be in the Streets Building Solidarity” But ICE Arrests 3 at Phoenix Protest
Immigration agents are facing accusations of targeting protesters who are recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Police in Phoenix, Arizona, arrested community activist Máxima Guerrero as she was leaving a protest on May 30 with a group of legal observers. She was one of three DACA recipients arrested over that weekend in Phoenix. We get an update from Sandra Castro Solis with the Phoenix-based grassroots immigrant justice group Puente Human Rights Movement, who says that despite the risks, “we’re in a moment where people want to be out in the streets building that solidarity.”
Minneapolis City Council Vows to Dismantle Police Dept. After Mass Protests & Grassroots Organizing
After nearly two weeks of historic protests, the Minneapolis City Council has announced it will move to dismantle the city’s police department in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. “We’ve got to create a system of public safety that works for everybody,” says Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison.
Defund the Police: Linda Sarsour & Mychal Denzel Smith on What Meaningful Change Would Look Like
Amid growing calls in New York City for police accountability, Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged to shift some of the city’s funding for police and reallocate it to social services. We get response from Linda Sarsour, longtime Palestinian American Muslim organizer and co-founder of Until Freedom, which along with others has led the push to institute meaningful change. We also speak with author Mychal Denzel Smith, who notes that “one thing that’s come of this global pandemic of COVID-19 is an understanding of what constitutes essential, what do we actually need. And police have shown that they are inessential.”
Immigration Agents Target People at Police Brutality Protests, Including a U.S. Citizen Military Vet
As protests against police brutality continue nationwide, immigrant rights advocates are sounding the alarm over the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at some of the demonstrations. A viral video showed a group of ICE agents working with the New York City Police Department to detain a protester at a George Floyd rally in New York City last week, and advocates say agents held the man on the ground as they pointed three guns at him and handcuffed and searched him. He was reportedly released after agents found a military veteran’s ID on him, and is a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican descent. We speak with Mizue Aizeki, deputy director at the Immigrant Defense Project.
Protesters in hundreds of cities across the U.S. are demanding justice for all Black lives and an end to police violence in predominantly peaceful demonstrations, contrary to framings of the actions as violent or marred by looting. The fears around looting and destruction of property distract from the outrage over "bureautic violence" on Black communities that's driving the protests, says Carol Anderson, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide." Anderson cites the parallels between Attorney General William Barr's inability to see injustice and Mitchell Palmer, U.S. attorney general in 1919, who discounted widespread anti-Black violence. "We focus so much on the flames that we miss the kindling. And the kindling is that bureaucratic violence that systematically destroys Black communities, that systematically erodes their citizenship," Anderson tells Democracy Now! "It's a false equivalence, that language of looting."
Trump Threatens Protests with Troops, But Police Have Already Been Militarized — with Deadly Results
The American Civil Liberties Union and Black Lives Matter announced Thursday they are suing President Trump and Attorney General William Barr for authorizing an "unprovoked and frankly criminal attack" on protesters at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., where the National Guard and officers dressed in riot gear fired tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs to disperse peaceful protesters on Monday so Trump could have a photo op with a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. We look at the increasing militarization of the police with Stuart Schrader, author of "Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing."
How Russia Became the Next COVID-19 Hot Spot: Infection Rate Soars with 10,000 New Cases Each Day
How Russia Became the Next COVID-19 Hot Spot: Infection Rate Soars with 10,000 New Cases Each Day. We go to Moscow for an update on the pandemic in Russia, where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, with at least 10,000 new cases a day and the second-highest infection rate in the world, and more than 100 medical workers have died fighting the virus, and many have reported lack of personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, three Russian healthcare workers mysteriously fell from hospital windows over the past two weeks. Two died, and the one who is hospitalized had posted a video online to note the lack of medical equipment and said he had to keep working despite testing positive. We speak with Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker magazine.
How Putin's lack of wide-scale COVID-19 relief is creating "growing economic frustrations" in Russia
How Putin's lack of wide-scale COVID-19 relief is creating "growing economic frustrations" in RussiaThe novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Russia, with at least 10,000 new coronavirus cases reported each day and and the second-highest infection rate in the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday Russia should not rush to lift coronavirus-related restrictions, but he has generally had a "somewhat absent or not very forceful response" to the pandemic, says Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker. Putin has announced a series of nonworking holidays and said that no one should lose their job as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, but has not provided wide-scale economic relief to workers or employers in Russia. The downtick in Putin's popularity — now at 59%, the lowest it’s been in 20 years — can be attributed to "the spillover economic effects that aren’t really being dealt with in a coherent, top-down way," Yaffa tells Democracy Now! "It’s a bit of a paradox that the Kremlin hasn’t really resolved."
Lionsrock · Travel with Purpose
Earlier this year, we entered a short film of our LIONSROCK Big Cat Sanctuary into the International Tourism Film Festival Africa 2020 @ITFFA and won 2nd prize in the Tourism & Accommodation category! The film gives insight of a day in the life of a visitor at LIONSROCK, showcases our world-class sanctuary and it’s world-class hospitality. We are incredibly thankful to our supporters who enable us to continue caring for these majestic animals and giving them a new lease on life. If you haven’t been to LIONSROCK yet, this will give you a sneak peak of what you can expect when visiting. Book your visit here: https://www.lionsrock.org/
#ResetTheWorld - Join the movement now!
How about a world where humans treat all animals and the nature with respect? Where they are protected instead of exploited? In the #COVID-19 pandemic, we have to see the impact of humans on the environment, and consequently, the impact this has for humans themselves. It is now time to take the COVID-19 global crisis as a starting point to reset the system! Your support helps us to put pressure on the decision makers. YOU can make a difference! Be part of it and find out more about how together, we can #ResetTheWorld - https://help.four-paws.org/en/reset-t... FOUR PAWS is the global animal welfare organisation for animals under human influence, which reveals suffering, rescues animals in need and protects them. We advocate for a world where humans treat animals with respect, empathy and understanding. We need your help now to get our movement going.
Sun, water, enrichment and good company: the perfect ingredients for lion brothers Masoud and Terez to have a swell time at our FELIDA Big Cat Centre in the Netherlands!
Medical historian Frank Snowden on how disease devastated Indigenous populations in the Americas
Pandemics, like revolution, war and economic crises, are known to be key catalysts of historic change. Medical historian, professor and author of “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present” Frank Snowden describes one such shift: the spread of scores of infectious diseases with the arrival of European colonizers on the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti and Dominican Republic. Particularly devastating were smallpox and measles. Professor Snowden explains that when Columbus touched down on the island in 1492, it was populated by millions of Indigenous people, but "15 to 20 years later, there were just a couple thousand left." This "differential mortality" would set in motion a chain of events leading to the disappearance of Indigenous religions, the collapse of the Mayan and Incan empires, and the start of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was all due to the "tremendous impact" of new, deadly diseases on the continent.
How Will COVID-19 Change the World? Historian Frank Snowden on Epidemics From the Black Death to Now
How Will COVID-19 Change the World? Historian Frank Snowden on Epidemics From the Black Death to NowHow Will COVID-19 Change the World? Historian Frank Snowden on Epidemics From the Black Death to Now
Michael Keaton Condemns Bear-Cub Photo Ops
Oscar nominee Michael Keaton condemns animal-exploiting operations that tear vulnerable bear cubs away from their mothers and force them to participate in cruel photo-ops and public handling. PETA’s ad will air on Michigan stations urging people to stay away from these abusive operations, like Oswald’s Bear Ranch, which has been participating in this cruel practice for years and are responsible for the suffering of countless bear cubs.
U.S. Deports COVID-19 Positive Immigrants to Haiti & Guatemala
The United States continues to deport thousands during the coronavirus pandemic, causing a dangerous spread of COVID-19 to Central America and the Caribbean. We speak with Haitian American novelist Edwidge Danticat, who says “U.S. deportations to Haiti during coronavirus pandemic are 'unconscionable,'” and go to Guatemala City for an update from reporter José Alejandro García Escobar.
Coronavirus Pandemic Prompts Global Mental Health Crisis as Millions Feel Alone, Anxious & Depressed
Is the coronavirus pandemic generating a mental illness crisis? Millions face isolation, poverty and anxiety. We speak with psychology professor and author Andrew Solomon, as the United Nations calls on governments to put mental health "front and center" in their response to the crisis.
The pandemic is an "enormous" physical and psychological burden on children
On Wednesday, President Trump criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci over his Congressional testimony, questioning Fauci's assertion that schoolchildren might not be safe returning to classrooms in the fall. Author and clinical psychologist Andrew Solomon says that we're right to be concerned about the health and wellbeing of children during the pandemic. Solomon, who authored the bell-selling book "Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity," says that in addition to the potentially fatal consequences of contracting COVID-19 and long-term health effects that we do not yet know, the immediate psychological impact of the pandemic can be devastating. Children are capable not only of detecting but also internalizing and emulating the emotional turmoil of their parental figures, says Solomon. "They can understand the situation is unnatural and bizarre," he says. "The mental illness of parents bleeds over into the mental illness of children. Even just the stress and distress of parents bleeds over into the condition of children."
As the top infectious disease expert testifies to the Senate that needless death and suffering could result from reopening too quickly, author and journalist Naomi Klein says a “pandemic shock doctrine” is beginning to emerge. The U.S. healthcare industry "sees a potential bonanza" in the coronavirus, she says, which represents "a win for them.” She also details how our lives could be transformed into a “living laboratory for a permanent — and highly profitable — no-touch future" that benefits tech companies providing the so-called solutions to the crisis, including in healthcare, education and surveillance.
Standoff in South Dakota: Cheyenne River Sioux Refuse Governor’s Demand to Remove COVID Checkpoints
There's a standoff brewing in South Dakota, where two Native American Indian tribes are upholding their sovereignty by defying orders by Governor Kristi Noem to remove COVID-19 checkpoints from their territories. The Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux tribes say the checkpoints are the best way to protect against the coronavirus entering their communities, which are not equipped to handle an outbreak. The governor says the checkpoints — which are set up on highways on tribal land — are illegal. We speak with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's Chairman Harold Frazier, who says he is defending his people's "right to live."
Why Native American tribes reject South Dakota's order to remove their COVID-19 checkpoints
Two tribes in Sioux country (located in South Dakota) have set up COVID-19 checkpoints on their territories to screen drivers for the disease. Republican Governor Kristi Noem has issued an order to remove the checkpoints, but the Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux tribes say the checkpoints are the best way to protect against the coronavirus entering their communities, which are not equipped to handle an outbreak. "We have eight hospital beds. We don't have no ICU. There are six ventilators," says Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He also emphasizes that the Sioux are exercising their sovereignty and that he is ultimately responsible to the people who elected him, not the state or federal governments. "The governor is not my boss," he says. "We feel that we have every right to do this. We have a treaty."
