theroot--2020-12-04--George Gascón Won L.A.’s District Attorney Race—and So Did Reform Activists

This Election Day , activists for justice reform and racial equity saw their vision for L.A. ’ s justice system come to life with George Gascón ’ s win in the Los Angeles County district attorney race .
For eight years , racial justice advocates fought tooth and nail for reform , innovation and transparency at the district attorney ’ s office while the incumbent Jackie Lacey took pains to block our efforts .
Now , despite naysaying from political moderates and conservatives , Gascón has won , sending a powerful message from voters : L.A. ’ s justice system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Gascon ’ s win is a story of how a community of Black advocates rejected a status quo that was killing their communities .
L.A. ’ s incumbent top prosecutor , Jackie Lacey , had been using the district attorney ’ s office to tear L.A. ’ s Black communities apart .
She threw the weight of the office behind widely debunked , ineffective policies that overwhelmingly harm Black people , such as cash bail and lowering the age of criminal responsibility .
Her office notoriously bungled investigations into high-profile crimes committed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean and the police killings of Ezell Ford , Dijon Kizzee , and so many others .
And as the city has embraced the national movement for racial justice and equity , she ’ s been a well-known detractor .
Her own husband , David Lacey , faces criminal charges for pulling a gun on Black Lives Matter protesters .
During her tenure , Lacey upheld a dangerous double-standard that backed harsh , tough-on-crime enforcement in Black and low-income communities while wealthy white defendants and law enforcement ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black people are routinely thrown behind bars for low-level offenses like loitering or minor drug possession while white offenders get a slap on the wrist for far more serious crimes .
In L.A. County , Black people are still 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than white people .
So local and national justice reform activists decided they would work to end Lacey ’ s destructive leadership as district attorney .
In the weeks leading up to this election , my organization Color of Change PAC reached nearly 90,000 Black voters in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ program .
We ran phone , text , mail , and canvassing campaigns and held dozens of community events to build trust , understanding , and long-lasting relationships in Black communities .
Through this work , we are creating truly Black-led venues and platforms to spark Black joy , mobilize Black people , and build a movement to drive real progressive change .
The power of this movement is now clear for all to see .
Across the country , local district attorneys , state attorneys , attorneys general , and other prosecutors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the justice system and reimagining public safety .
They ’ re doing away with discriminatory practices and taking real , actionable steps to be more transparent and to hold themselves and their colleagues in law enforcement accountable .
And we are convincing voters : of the 16 progressive district attorney candidates that we endorsed in this election cycle , more than half rose to power on Election Day .
In a year where viral outbreaks crippled America ’ s jails and prisons , police violence claimed countless Black lives , and white domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have also changed our national conversation about criminal justice reform .
The nationwide wave of protests has been matched with real results that are the result of years of organizing .
Chatham County , Georgia elected its first-ever Black woman district attorney , who won on a platform to hold police accountable and reduce mass incarceration .
States like New Jersey , Arizona , and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational marijuana use , reversing decades of discriminatory drug enforcement .
California reinstated voting rights for more than 50,000 individuals on parole with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in L.A. , voters approved Measure J , one of the most significant proposals in the nation to divert law enforcement funding to community resources like housing , health care , and alternatives to incarceration .
This is the vision that advocates have built , and it ’ s the climate that George Gascón will enter into on Inauguration Day .
We elected Gascón to create a fairer , more equitable justice system in L.A. County and , come January , the same advocates and justice groups that propelled him to office will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This community is clamoring for change ; we must make sure that it happens .
Across the nation , cities are finally embracing advocates ’ model for fairness , justice , and safety .
And at long last , L.A. seems ready to join them .
Rashad Robinson is spokesperson for the Color of Change PAC , one of the largest Black-led Political Action Committee ’ s in the country that is focused on building independent Black political power , amplifying Black voices , electing candidates who share our values , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For more information on Color Of Change PAC , visit votingwhileblack.com .

This Election Day, activists for justice reform and racial equity saw their vision for L.A.’s justice system come to life with George Gascón’s win in the Los Angeles County district attorney race. For eight years, racial justice advocates fought tooth and nail for reform, innovation and transparency at the district attorney’s office while the incumbent Jackie Lacey took pains to block our efforts. Now, despite naysaying from political moderates and conservatives, Gascón has won, sending a powerful message from voters: L.A.’s justice system is in dire need of an overhaul.
Gascon’s win is a story of how a community of Black advocates rejected a status quo that was killing their communities. L.A.’s incumbent top prosecutor, Jackie Lacey, had been using the district attorney’s office to tear L.A.’s Black communities apart. She threw the weight of the office behind widely debunked, ineffective policies that overwhelmingly harm Black people, such as cash bail and lowering the age of criminal responsibility. Her office notoriously bungled investigations into high-profile crimes committed against Black individuals, like the killings of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean and the police killings of Ezell Ford, Dijon Kizzee, and so many others. And as the city has embraced the national movement for racial justice and equity, she’s been a well-known detractor. Her own husband, David Lacey, faces criminal charges for pulling a gun on Black Lives Matter protesters.
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During her tenure, Lacey upheld a dangerous double-standard that backed harsh, tough-on-crime enforcement in Black and low-income communities while wealthy white defendants and law enforcement (literally) got away with murder. Black people are routinely thrown behind bars for low-level offenses like loitering or minor drug possession while white offenders get a slap on the wrist for far more serious crimes. In L.A. County, Black people are still 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than white people.
So local and national justice reform activists decided they would work to end Lacey’s destructive leadership as district attorney. In the weeks leading up to this election, my organization Color of Change PAC reached nearly 90,000 Black voters in Los Angeles through a grassroots-level voter contact program. We ran phone, text, mail, and canvassing campaigns and held dozens of community events to build trust, understanding, and long-lasting relationships in Black communities. Through this work, we are creating truly Black-led venues and platforms to spark Black joy, mobilize Black people, and build a movement to drive real progressive change.
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The power of this movement is now clear for all to see. Across the country, local district attorneys, state attorneys, attorneys general, and other prosecutors are embracing advocates’ visions for reforming the justice system and reimagining public safety. They’re doing away with discriminatory practices and taking real, actionable steps to be more transparent and to hold themselves and their colleagues in law enforcement accountable. And we are convincing voters: of the 16 progressive district attorney candidates that we endorsed in this election cycle, more than half rose to power on Election Day.
In a year where viral outbreaks crippled America’s jails and prisons, police violence claimed countless Black lives, and white domestic terrorism went virtually unchecked, activists nationwide have also changed our national conversation about criminal justice reform. The nationwide wave of protests has been matched with real results that are the result of years of organizing. Chatham County, Georgia elected its first-ever Black woman district attorney, who won on a platform to hold police accountable and reduce mass incarceration. States like New Jersey, Arizona, and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational marijuana use, reversing decades of discriminatory drug enforcement. California reinstated voting rights for more than 50,000 individuals on parole with the passage of Proposition 17. And in L.A., voters approved Measure J, one of the most significant proposals in the nation to divert law enforcement funding to community resources like housing, health care, and alternatives to incarceration.
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This is the vision that advocates have built, and it’s the climate that George Gascón will enter into on Inauguration Day. We elected Gascón to create a fairer, more equitable justice system in L.A. County and, come January, the same advocates and justice groups that propelled him to office will be working to ensure that he delivers. This community is clamoring for change; we must make sure that it happens.
Across the nation, cities are finally embracing advocates’ model for fairness, justice, and safety. And at long last, L.A. seems ready to join them.
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Rashad Robinson is spokesperson for the Color of Change PAC, one of the largest Black-led Political Action Committee’s in the country that is focused on building independent Black political power, amplifying Black voices, electing candidates who share our values, and holding them accountable to our communities. For more information on Color Of Change PAC, visit votingwhileblack.com.


theroot--2020-12-05--CDC's New Numbers Show Black Americans and Other People of Color Dying at Higher Rates From COVID-19

CDC's New Numbers Show Black Americans and Other People of Color Dying at Higher Rates From COVID-19 Than It Previously Reported

After initially saying that Black Americans are dying at about two times the rate of their white counterparts from COVID-19 , the CDC has updated its publicly reported figures to show that the racial disparity in deaths from the disease is even wider .
An adjusted data report published by the agency this week now shows that Black people are actually dying from the coronavirus at almost 3 times the rate of their white counterparts .
The change came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( D—Mass . )
requested that the agency account for the disproportionate age breakdown in COVID-19 deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overall mortality rate for different racial demographics , reports CNBC .
In a letter to the CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield sent last month , Warren said the agency ’ s publicly shared data on the death rate in communities of color did not “ tell the full story ” because the rates did not adjust for age , which is a standard approach to measuring disease impact .
The agency previously said Hispanic and Black Americans were dying at a rate of about one and two times higher than Caucasians , respectively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Indians or Alaska Natives have died at a rate 2.6 times that of White Americans .
The CDC previously put that figure at 1.4 times as high as White Americans .
The CDC ’ s previous infographic , which downplayed the disproportionate burden on communities of color , was widely shared , including in the agency ’ s “ Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine.
” The CDC appears to have updated the analysis on Nov. 30 .
Warren says the new estimates are alarming and should serve as a wake-up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the racial disparities and the systemic racism that underlies them .
The CDC has made no public announcement of the changes outside of sharing a new death rate infographic on its website .
The incoming Biden administration will be tasked with responding to the racially disproportionate way this pandemic is playing out across the country by targeting the myriad of factors—structural inequities in access to healthcare , food , and fair employment among them—causing non-white Americans to be sickened and killed more often by COVID-19 .
Meanwhile , on Friday the U.S. reached @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a staggering 2,010 average daily deaths from the virus , reports CNN .
Though health care workers and other high risk groups are expected to begin receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks , it will likely be months before most of the population will be able to do the same—and even longer for anything resembling herd immunity to be a reality , given latent fears and proliferating conspiracy theories about the safety of the newly developed vaccines .

After initially saying that Black Americans are dying at about two times the rate of their white counterparts from COVID-19, the CDC has updated its publicly reported figures to show that the racial disparity in deaths from the disease is even wider.
An adjusted data report published by the agency this week now shows that Black people are actually dying from the coronavirus at almost 3 times the rate of their white counterparts. The change came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D—Mass.) requested that the agency account for the disproportionate age breakdown in COVID-19 deaths experienced by people of color in the overall mortality rate for different racial demographics, reports CNBC.
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In a letter to the CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield sent last month, Warren said the agency’s publicly shared data on the death rate in communities of color did not “tell the full story” because the rates did not adjust for age, which is a standard approach to measuring disease impact.
From CNBC:
The agency previously said Hispanic and Black Americans were dying at a rate of about one and two times higher than Caucasians, respectively. The updated analysis also shows that American Indians or Alaska Natives have died at a rate 2.6 times that of White Americans. The CDC previously put that figure at 1.4 times as high as White Americans. The CDC’s previous infographic, which downplayed the disproportionate burden on communities of color, was widely shared, including in the agency’s “Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine.” The CDC appears to have updated the analysis on Nov. 30.
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Warren says the new estimates are alarming and should serve as a wake-up call to the federal government to address the racial disparities and the systemic racism that underlies them.
The CDC has made no public announcement of the changes outside of sharing a new death rate infographic on its website.
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The incoming Biden administration will be tasked with responding to the racially disproportionate way this pandemic is playing out across the country by targeting the myriad of factors—structural inequities in access to healthcare, food, and fair employment among them—causing non-white Americans to be sickened and killed more often by COVID-19.
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Meanwhile, on Friday the U.S. reached a record high of 227,885 coronavirus cases and a staggering 2,010 average daily deaths from the virus, reports CNN.
Though health care workers and other high risk groups are expected to begin receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, it will likely be months before most of the population will be able to do the same—and even longer for anything resembling herd immunity to be a reality, given latent fears and proliferating conspiracy theories about the safety of the newly developed vaccines.


theroot--2020-12-05--Judge Orders Restoration of DACA, Obama-Era Program for Undocumented Immigrants Brought to the US as

Judge Orders Restoration of DACA, Obama-Era Program for Undocumented Immigrants Brought to the US as Children

When Donald Trump took office as President , his administration began implementing policies driven by bigotry and a seeming desire to target all initiatives put in place by the Obama White House .
That was the background of the government ’ s move to suspend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ) , the program put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2012 to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation .
After the Trump administration ’ s attempt to completely eliminate the program was blocked by the courts this year , acting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chad Wolf issued a memo in July that froze new DACA applications and sharply limited the ability of enrolled ‘ Dreamers ’ to legally work in the U.S. A federal judge has now reversed that memo and ruled that the program be restored , reports CBS News .
Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to post a public notice by Monday that states the department will accept and adjudicate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ) petitions from immigrants who qualify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enrolled in it .
Garaufis also instructed officials to grant approved applicants work permits that last for two years , instead of the one-year period proposed by the Trump administration over the summer .
Though the movement around immigration in America has been most visibly tied to members of the Latino and Hispanic communities , at least 575 , ooo undocumented Black immigrants reside in the U.S. according to data from the Pew Research Center .
Under the new ruling , nearly a million potential beneficiaries—including Black immigrants from the Caribbean , Africa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ access the protections of DACA , which allows eligible recipients to gain work permits and travel outside of America without fear of being unable to return to the country they have lived in since childhood .
To be eligible for DACA , applicants must have arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 , have a clean criminal record , and hold a high school diploma , GED , or have served in the military .
While the Justice Department could appeal the ruling , President-elect Joe Biden has signaled his plans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he takes office .
DACA does not provide a path to legal permanent residency or citizenship , and Biden has also pledged to advance legislation that would help undocumented immigrants brought here as children become citizens .

When Donald Trump took office as President, his administration began implementing policies driven by bigotry and a seeming desire to target all initiatives put in place by the Obama White House. That was the background of the government’s move to suspend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2012 to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
After the Trump administration’s attempt to completely eliminate the program was blocked by the courts this year, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf issued a memo in July that froze new DACA applications and sharply limited the ability of enrolled ‘Dreamers’ to legally work in the U.S.
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A federal judge has now reversed that memo and ruled that the program be restored, reports CBS News.
From CBS:
Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to post a public notice by Monday that states the department will accept and adjudicate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) petitions from immigrants who qualify for the program but are not currently enrolled in it. Garaufis also instructed officials to grant approved applicants work permits that last for two years, instead of the one-year period proposed by the Trump administration over the summer.
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Though the movement around immigration in America has been most visibly tied to members of the Latino and Hispanic communities, at least 575, ooo undocumented Black immigrants reside in the U.S. according to data from the Pew Research Center. Under the new ruling, nearly a million potential beneficiaries—including Black immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America—will be able to access the protections of DACA, which allows eligible recipients to gain work permits and travel outside of America without fear of being unable to return to the country they have lived in since childhood.
To be eligible for DACA, applicants must have arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, have a clean criminal record, and hold a high school diploma, GED, or have served in the military.
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While the Justice Department could appeal the ruling, President-elect Joe Biden has signaled his plans to prioritize the protection of Dreamers when he takes office. DACA does not provide a path to legal permanent residency or citizenship, and Biden has also pledged to advance legislation that would help undocumented immigrants brought here as children become citizens.