The Atlanta officers who dragged two college students out of their car while they sat in traffic amidst a Black Lives Matter protest will not face prosecution, per NBC News. The former Fulton-County District Attorney Paul Howard announced arrest warrants for the six officers involved but the prosecutor said they could not be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

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In May of 2020, Messiah Young and Taniya Pilgrim were trying to get past a crowd of demonstrators after city curfew when they were confronted by police. Per the body camera footage that was released a day later, the officers arrested Young while he pleaded for them to let him go. The two were also stunned with Tasers.

The prosecutor decided to dismiss the arrest warrants filed against the six officers: Ivory Streeter, Mark Gardner, Lonnie Hood, Roland Claud, Willie Sauls and Armon Jones.

More on the decision from NBC News:

“Not only was law enforcement acting within the scope of their legal authority in their actions to obtain compliance, their actions were also largely consistent with the Atlanta Police Department’s own use of force policy,” Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Samir Patel said in a statement Monday.

He said he is “unable to find probable cause to prosecute the officers involved for a crime under Georgia law.”

Patel’s statement says video that was distributed after the incident “was not an accurate portrayal of the entire encounter between Mr. Young, Ms. Pilgrim, and law enforcement.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was meant the first videos that circulated online or the body camera video.

Source: Atlanta Officers who Dragged Students From a Car During a Protest Escape Prosecution

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Two people were killed and another was wounded as shots were fired late Tuesday in Kenosha during the third night of unrest in Wisconsin following the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, authorities said.

The shootings were reported at about 11:45 p.m. in an area where protests have taken place, Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik said in a news release. They happened after police drove away protesters from in front of a courthouse that had been the site of the main clashes between protesters and authorities.

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Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said one victim was shot in the head and another was shot in the chest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Beth didn’t know where the other person was shot, but his or her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Beth told the Journal Sentinel that armed people had been patrolling the city’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the shooter was among them.

“They’re a militia,” Beth said. “They’re like a vigilante group.”

Cellphone video of at least two of the shootings that was posted online shows what appears to be a white man with a semi-automatic rifle jogging down the middle of a street as a crowd and some police officers follow him. Someone in the crowd can be heard asking “What did he do?” and another responds that the man had shot someone.

GRAPHIC WARNING: This video contains extreme violence that may be triggering for viewers.

The man with the gun stumbles and falls, and as he’s approached by people in the crowd, he fires three or four shots from the seated position, hitting at least two people, including one who falls over and another who stumbles away to frantic shouts of “Medic! Medic!”

With the crowd scattering, the shooter stands up and continues walking down the street as police cars arrive. The man puts up his hands and walks toward the squad cars, with someone in the crowd yelling at police that the man just shot someone, but several of the cars drive past him toward the people who had been shot.

Source: Two people killed in 3rd night of unrest over Jacob Blake shooting

So far this year, at least 21 trans people have been murdered, most of them Black. Every week since the beginning of June, at least two Black trans women have been murdered. Tiffany Harris, a trans woman, was stabbed to death in New York City on July 26 by a man who is suspected to have had a relationship with her. Another trans woman, Queasha Hardy, was shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with no suspect yet to be identified. Brian Powers, a transmasculine person, was found shot to death in Akron, Ohio, on June 13, and there are still no leads on a suspect in the case. Most of the trans women murdered are young — Harris was 32 and Hardy was only 24. The disproportionate violence faced by Black trans women contributes greatly to the fact that their average life expectancy is only around 35 years of age. This should horrify all of us.

The dangers faced by the trans and nonbinary community are often ignored by mainstream media and politicians alike. Even with the recent focus on the Black Lives Matter movement, the murder and violence against Black trans people is being overlooked, and goes along with the fact that Black women who are murdered are not getting the same attention or respect as men. The story of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot in her home by police officers who still have not been arrested, is just one example of how the system continues to brutalize and fail Black women across the board.

At the end of the day, misogynoir and transphobia are deeply interlinked, and must be dismantled if we’re to protect our most vulnerable neighbors.

This issue is not faced by the Black community alone, but by society as a whole. Transgender and gender non-conforming people of all races still face prejudices and daily attacks on their being — from being legally denied health care and jobs, to legislation actively being pushed to undermine their humanity daily.

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For example, the Trump administration recently stated that transgender people do not fall under the clause that prevents discrimination in health care under the Affordable Care Act, leaving trans people even more vulnerable. In the midst of a global pandemic, where we all need and deserve access to reliable, affordable healthcare, this move is especially cruel.

Not only is justice for Black trans lives important for the trans people who are often at the forefront of the struggles for justice and equality — rights that often result in benefits to other communities — it’s important for anyone who purports to care for Black lives. People who are not Black, as well as Black cisgender folks, should be as committed to ensuring justice for Black trans women as they are for our cisgender siblings. It’s up to each of us to push back against transphobia when it presents its ugly head in spaces with the people and communities we hold dearly.

While laws in this country have added some protections for the LGBTQ/SGL community, there are systems our society has in place and things we are taught in schools and through the media that are designed to suggest that difference is to be tolerated — rather than celebrated — at best. This makes it difficult to hold space for people who do not affirm the parts of ourselves we find the most beauty in.

There are some concrete steps we can all take, starting today. Having conversations with people in our personal lives who are misinformed about trans folks, and the many positive contributions that Black trans and Black non-binary people continue to make, is vital. Resources like the National Black Justice Coalition’s Gender Toolkit provide language and facilitate conversations about gender justice for all Black women. Participating in the Census before October 31, 2020 and voting in the upcoming elections are essential as well — too many political and elected officials are using politics to profit from the pain of the most marginalized members of our community, and we need to keep them out of office.

Source: If Black Lives Really Matter, Protecting Black Trans Lives Is Essential

By Viviane Faver

Allentown, Pennsylvania –  Cops were filmed Saturday night, restraining a man on the ground outside the emergency room of the Sacred Heart Campus of St. Luke’s Hospital. One cop used his elbow on the man’s neck to restrain him before switching to his knee.

The case is being investigated, and according to the statement, cops were outside the hospital for an unrelated situation when they saw a guy staggering in the street, vomiting, and stopping in the driveway of the ER. 

Police say the hospital staff and officers interacted with the man, who started to yell and spit at them. The man was “non-compliant, which required officers to restrain.”

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The video was released on various social media and caught the attention of groups like Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley, who demanded answers from the police. By late Saturday, a protest was organized in front of the police station.

“People think that it couldn’t happen here and it has been happening, and it happened yesterday. So enough is enough”, said Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley leader Justin Parker.

The video drew more attention to remembering the same police violence in the George Floyd case. And it was even posted on twitter by Floyd’s lawyer, Ben Crump:

“@AllentownPolice held down this man’s face to the pavement and then one of its officers placed their knee on his neck!! This happened yesterday and is exactly what led to #GeorgeFloyd’s death. We need this officer’s name and badge # NOW. #ICantBreathe.”

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.

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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.

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.

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

NEW YORK (AP) — In law enforcement, they’re referred to as “nonlethal” tools for dealing with demonstrations that turn unruly: rubber bullets, pepper spray, batons, flash-bangs.

But the now-familiar scenes of U.S. police officers in riot gear clashing with protesters at Lafayette Park across from the White House and in other cities have police critics charging that the weaponry too often escalates tensions and hurts innocent people.

“When you see riot gear, it absolutely changes the mood,” said Ron Moten, a longtime community organizer in the nation’s capital who was out demonstrating this weekend. He said it takes away any perception the officers could be empathetic.

“If I went up to speak with a police officer and I’m covered in armor and holding a shield and a stick, don’t you think they would regard me as a threat?”

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

“When we see riot gear, as black people it takes us back 400 years,” he said.

Protesters in Denver arrived at the hospital with injuries from police projectiles that caused one person to lose an eye and left three other people with permanent eye damage, said Prem Subramanian, a physician who operated on some victims following demonstrations late last month.

“They weren’t accused of any crime, and they came in with devastating eye injuries,” Subramanian said, adding that he was so upset about it that he complained to city officials, who promised to investigate any abuses. “We’re learning the consequences of using these weapons.”

Source: Injuries at protests draw scrutiny to use of police weaponry

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Black Lives Matter Is Winning

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