Protesters marched and chanted Breonna Taylor's name for a second night in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday – after a grand jury decided no police officer would be charged directly with her death in March.
On Thursday night, police made several arrests, including the Kentucky state representative, Attica Scott, a Democrat who has called for justice for Taylor, who shot dead in a botched raid
Continue reading...Demonstrations occurred in several major US cities Wednesday after just one police officer charged with wanton endangerment
Fresh protests were expected in Louisville and elsewhere in America on Thursday as public anger and sadness continued to ripple out from the Kentucky city in the wake of the announcement that no police officers would be charged directly with the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March.
The civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, speaking on behalf of Taylor’s relatives, said the family was “outraged, they were insulted and they were, mostly, offended” by the conclusion of a grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in more than a dozen cities across the US after a grand jury decided not to directly charge police officers for the killing of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville police as officers carried out a no-knock warrant in March.
Two police officers were shot in Louisville amid growing nationwide protests. It was confirmed both officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries on Wednesday evening
Continue reading...The Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron, urged protesters to make their voices heard peacefully after only one police officer involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, Brett Hankison, was indicted by a grand jury. Hankinson faces three charges of wanton endangerment for endangering people living in nearby apartments, but he was not charged for shooting Taylor. The other two officers present, who also fired multiple times at Taylor in her apartment, were not charged
Continue reading...The Guardian has found that millions have been spent to implement and defend laws widely regarded to be ineffective and discriminatory
Restrictive ‘voter identification’ laws pushed by Republicans, and widely regarded to be ineffective and discriminatory, have cost taxpayers at least $36m in just a few states, the Guardian can reveal.
It’s well documented that restrictive voter ID laws are ineffective and discriminatory. The type of voter fraud they claim to prevent is a myth, and the burden of showing an ID disproportionately lands on students, low-income voters, and African Americans.
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In Los Angeles, protesters marched through the downtown area before shutting the 110 freeway.
From @KTLA: protestors have shut down the 110 freeway pic.twitter.com/1WI75tIMOl
LAPD seen trying to detain protesters after squad car windows smashed, officer attacked downtown https://t.co/uHrpaRp3xm pic.twitter.com/gmxNAdO1uM
Demonstrator in DTLA made a cordon blocking the road out of Bird scooters pic.twitter.com/aV8c63SG4k
Kellie Chauvin, the wife of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, is divorcing her husband because of his role in Floyd’s death.
Kellie Chauvin,
Through her attorney wife of former Officer Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis Police Officer charged with murdering #GeorgeFloyd released a statement saying she is devastated by Floyd’s death, sends condolences to his family and is divorcing her husband @wcco pic.twitter.com/A5n7bYgdbK
Incident at conservative rally draws backlash from Democrats and Republicans
Political leaders in Kentucky have condemned rightwing protesters against the state’s measures to fight the coronavirus, after the demonstrators hanged an effigy of Democratic state governor Andy Beshear from a tree.
The incident happened on Sunday during a protest in favor of gun rights and other mostly conservative causes. Several men produced a rope and an effigy and strung it from a tree outside the state capitol building in Frankfort.
Continue reading...Authorities in Kentucky said four children died and one is missing after a buggy carrying an Amish family was swept away in the current while trying to cross a low-water bridge.
Six people were in the horse and buggy that overturned on Wednesday in Salt Lick, Bath county, Kentucky state police said in a statement.
Continue reading...New bureaucratic hurdle where voters must carry ID with a photo likely to affect minorities and students
Last month, Kentucky elected Democratic governor Andy Beshear in a closely watch election – a landmark blue win in a mostly conservative state. One of the core promises of his campaign was to restore voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions, which he fulfilled immediately after taking office.
Related: The biggest voting rights win in recent US history – and the Republicans trying to thwart it
Continue reading...Matt Bevin under avalanche of criticism after pardoning 428 people in final days of term including two convicted child rapists
When the former Republican governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin was asked in a recent radio interview how he could justify having pardoned on his last day in office a child rapist, he replied: “Which one?”
The interview went downhill from there. Bevin said he had allowed Micah Schoettle, 41, who was serving a 23-year sentence for rape, incest, sodomy and other sexual offenses to walk free last week after less than 18 months in prison because his nine-year-old victim had been found to have her hymen intact.
Continue reading...The incumbent Republican governor Matt Bevin has refused to concede the election in Kentucky, citing unspecified 'irregularities'. The Democratic challenger Andy Beshear declared himself the winner after securing 49.2% of the vote to Bevin’s 48.8%. While Donald Trump won Kentucky with more than 60% of the vote in 2016 and remains popular in the state, Bevin polls as one of America’s most unpopular governors
Continue reading...The Democratic challenger Andy Beshear has declared victory in the Kentucky governor's race, but the Republican incumbent Matt Bevin has refused to concede, citing unspecified 'irregularities'. In a speech in Lexington on Monday night, Donald Trump – who won Kentucky by 30 percentage points in 2016 – told voters they needed to re-elect Bevin, or else pundits would say the president 'suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world'
Continue reading...Federal judge says 2018 law would create ‘substantial obstacle’ to abortion rights
After a federal judge struck down a Kentucky abortion law that would halt a common second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies, the state’s anti-abortion Republican governor immediately vowed to appeal.
Related: All the president’s judges: how Trump can flip courts at a record-setting pace
Continue reading...Officials say DNA testing rules out the unnamed teen as being Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared from Illinois aged six
Authorities have rejected a teenager’s claim that he is a missing Illinois boy who disappeared in 2011 at six.
Related: Teen says he is missing boy who escaped from kidnappers
Continue reading...The Kentucky high school student filmed in an apparent standoff with a Native American activist in Washington DC says he was 'not disrespectful' during the interaction, as a spokesman for Donald Trump said students from Covington high school may be invited to the White House
Continue reading...Conservatives have realized they can construct a parallel reality and have it accepted
In just four days, teenager Nick Sandmann and his fellow students at Covington Catholic high school have gone from social media pariahs to conservative heroes.
On Tuesday night, Fox News hosts continued to feast on the controversy, which was sparked by a standoff between Covington Catholic high school students and a Native American veteran called Nathan Phillips. Footage show students wearing pro-Trump Maga hats taunting the Omaha tribe elder. The relentlessly repeated talking point — that there was a collective “rush to judgment” on the boys because they were Trump supporters – was used by conservative anchors Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to attack mainstream media and left leaning social media users.
Continue reading...Debate around the incident reverberated culturally and politically amplified by an aggressive entry into the argument by Trump
The spectacle of a crowd of white teens in pro-Trump caps mocking a Native American activist on the National Mall just days before Martin Luther King Jr day was perhaps not needed to demonstrate that America’s social fabric is stretched thin.
The explosion of a media controversy around the incident was probably not necessary to drive participants in the ensuing debate into their usual partisan crouches.
Continue reading...New footage has emerged of the confrontation between school pupils in Maga hats and a Native American protester that went viral last weekend. While the original clip appeared to show the students surrounding the man and mocking his chants, the additional video shows he approached the group after they became enraged by the taunts of a separate group of Black Hebrew Israelites
Continue reading...Initial footage appeared to show students, some wearing pro-Trump Maga hats, from a Kentucky high school taunting Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe elder
Longer video footage of a confrontation between a Native American activist and Kentucky high school students at a protest has surfaced, providing fresh insight into the controversial encounter and offering a broader view of deepening divisions in America.
Related: Kentucky teenager denies mocking Native American veteran
Continue reading...Student Nick Sandmann says video of him next to Nathan Phillips has been misrepresented, leading to ‘outright lies’
A high school student seen with classmates appearing to confront a Native American veteran has issued a statement saying that video footage of the incident gave the false impression that the teens were instigators in the confrontation.
Nick Sandmann, a student from the private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in northern Kentucky, was seen in the video standing face to face with the Indian activist, Nathan Phillips, staring at him with a smile, while Phillips sang and played a drum.
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