buzzfeed--2020-06-02--Tweets, Dissent, And A Virtual Walkout: Facebook Employees Voice Their Concerns With Zuckerberg’s Tr

Tweets, Dissent, And A Virtual Walkout: Facebook Employees Voice Their Concerns With Zuckerberg’s Trump Approach

Facebook employees publicly voiced their disagreement with their company by staging a virtual walkout on Monday , following CEO Mark Zuckerberg ’ s decision not to take action against incendiary comments made by President Donald Trump on the platform last week .
The rare coordinated , worker-led dissent at the social network follows a tense week of demonstrations across the nation .
Last Thursday , in addressing protests in Minneapolis , Trump wrote on Twitter and Facebook that “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts , ” a historically charged phrase that suggested that violent action would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , placing an identical message from the president on its platform behind a warning label , Zuckerberg explained on Friday that Trump ’ s words would be allowed on Facebook , enraging some employees who believed that the comments had gone too far and violated the company ’ s internal policies against inciting violence .
Some openly disagreed with Zuckerberg on social media throughout the weekend , and dozens of them took Monday off in a virtual walk out , first reported by the New York Times , to call attention to their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking down Trump 's post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here , ” Lauren Tan , a software engineer at Facebook , said on Twitter .
“ I absolutely disagree with it.
” With the majority of Facebook employees working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic , workers have found virtual outlets to express their dissent .
Debate has moved beyond the comments section of the company ’ s internal Workplace communication platform to public-facing web sites , including Twitter .
Although Zuckerberg has not made a statement in reaction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ note .
`` We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now , especially our Black community , ” Liz Bourgeois , a Facebook spokesperson , said in a statement .
“ We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership.
” Former employees who spoke with BuzzFeed News said the internal problems at Facebook , where Zuckerberg controls majority shareholder voting power and is the ultimate decision maker , have festered for years .
For some , those problems came to a head following a decision earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the platform even if the paid content contained lies or misinformation .
“ The final straw for me was the paid civic misinformation issue , where Facebook declared that it would not fact check political ads , ” said one former engineer who left in February .
“ I could understand the argument for a ‘ neutral ’ news feed , but when someone is paying us to show content to people that ’ s not “ neutral.
” I felt that it was a politically and financially convenient decision rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a former Facebook employee who left the company after declaring that it had `` a black people problem , '' called the public outcry from his former colleagues “ unprecedented.
” Those employees speaking out were n't just risking their jobs at Facebook , he noted , but also future employment by signaling that they ’ re willing to speak out against their employer .
“ To see people say that they ’ re going to risk it all because it ’ s so dire , that ’ s new and different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Luckie said to BuzzFeed News .
The unrest at Facebook comes after Zuckerberg said that the social network would n't take down a post by President Trump on the Minneapolis protests , despite the CEO 's feeling that it contained “ divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.
” “ I know many people are upset that we 've left the President 's posts up , but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That decision infuriated some employees , some of whom had previously raised concerns on the company ’ s internal forums that their company was already doing too much to appease conservatives .
Following Twitter ’ s decision to take action against what it considered Trump ’ s misinformation on mail-in voting last week , the president signed an executive order last Thursday intended to undercut laws that gave social media companies legal indemnity for content hosted on their platforms .
But it was Trump ’ s suggestion of violence to deal with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the edge .
Over the weekend and into Monday , Facebook employees spoke out on Twitter , a competing social media service that most rank-and-file Facebook workers rarely use to talk about their employer .
“ I do n't know what to do , but I know doing nothing is not acceptable , ” Jason Stirman , a design manager at Facebook , said .
“ I 'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark 's decision to do nothing about Trump 's recent posts , which clearly incite violence .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is n't a neutral position on racism.
” Another Facebook design employee , Ryan Freitas , suggested on Twitter that the company had more than two options when deciding to leave up or take down a post .
There are dozens of actions , he wrote .
`` We know because we designed them . ''
“ Censoring information that might help people see the complete picture *is* wrong .
But giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable , regardless who you are or if it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ head of design on Facebook Portal , a video calling device .
“ I disagree with Mark ’ s position and will work to make change happen.
” Seven members of Facebook ’ s React Core team , which maintains a web framework owned by the company , issued a joint statement in protest of the company ’ s actions .
“ We implore the Facebook leadership to # TakeAction , ” they said .
On Sunday , Axios reported that Zuckerberg personally called the president on Friday following Trump ’ s post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revealed to employees or the public when the Facebook CEO announced his decision to keep the post up on the platform .
Facebook declined to comment to BuzzFeed News on the call between Zuckerberg and the president .
For now , the company 's management has gingerly approached its employees ' dissent , with Zuckerberg announcing on Sunday night that Facebook , a company with a market capitalization of more than $ 660 billion , would donate $ 10 million to `` groups working on racial justice . ''
The company also said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtual walk out would not have to use any paid time off .
But potential Facebook business partners have already taken notice of the internal dissent .
On Monday , online therapy company Talkspace said it would be ending conversations on a deal with Facebook to provide free therapy to Facebook users .
That contract would have totaled in the six figures , according to Talkspace CEO Oren Frank .
`` I hope more companies and individuals will join us , and it will send a strong message to Facebook about where we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Facebook can make this change in a heartbeat , and therefore has the moral imperative to do so . ''

“The final straw for me was the paid civic misinformation issue, where Facebook declared that it would not fact-check political ads,” said one former engineer who left in February. “I could understand the argument for a ‘neutral’ News Feed, but when someone is paying us to show content to people, that’s not 'neutral.' I felt that it was a politically and financially convenient decision rather than something done on principle.”
Mark Luckie, a former Facebook employee who left the company after declaring that it had "a black people problem," called the public outcry from his old colleagues “unprecedented.” Those employees speaking out weren't just risking their jobs at Facebook, he noted, but also future employment by signaling that they’re willing to speak out against their employer.
“To see people say that they’re going to risk it all because it’s so dire, that’s new and different, and hopefully it has a positive effect,” Luckie said to BuzzFeed News.
The unrest at Facebook comes after Zuckerberg said the social network wouldn't take down a post by Trump on the Minneapolis protests, despite the CEO's feeling that it contained “divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.”
“I know many people are upset that we've left the President's posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” Zuckerberg wrote on Friday.
That decision infuriated some employees, some of whom had previously raised concerns on the company’s internal forums that Facebook was already doing too much to appease conservatives. Following Twitter’s decision to take action against what it considered Trump’s misinformation on mail-in voting last week, the president signed an executive order last Thursday intended to undercut laws that gave social media companies legal indemnity for content hosted on their platforms.
But it was Trump’s suggestion of violence to deal with protests that pushed many Facebook workers over the edge. Over the weekend and into Monday, Facebook employees spoke out on Twitter, a competing social media service that most rank-and-file Facebook workers rarely use to talk about their employer.


buzzfeed--2020-06-01--Internal FDA Documents Show How Little Evidence The Agency Had Before Allowing Malaria Drugs To Be U

Internal FDA Documents Show How Little Evidence The Agency Had Before Allowing Malaria Drugs To Be Used To Treat COVID-19

The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
The Food and Drug Administration authorized two malaria drugs boosted by President Donald Trump to treat COVID-19 in March based on threadbare evidence , according to an agency review obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit .
The review also raised serious questions about shoddy practices at overseas factories that manufactured and donated the drugs for use in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The use of the drugs to treat COVID-19 has been politically charged from the start .
On March 19 , as the number of coronavirus cases in the US started to surge , President Donald Trump called for widespread use of the two drugs , chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate , to treat the new disease , for which there is no known cure .
Nine days later , the FDA issued an emergency use authorization ( EUA ) , a special provision that allows the agency to quickly greenlight the widespread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health emergency , allowing the malaria drugs to be used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients .
Medical experts , meanwhile , raised concerns about the drugs saying they could cause serious health issues and were not proven to work .
Even the FDA issued a warning , four weeks after its authorization , cautioning that use of the drugs outside hospitals could cause “ life-threatening ” heart problems .
Then , a top science official in the Trump administration alleged that the emergency authorization was dangerous and came about as a result of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority , claimed he was pressured to sign off on the EUA , and was retaliated against after raising safety concerns about the malaria drugs and their importation from low-quality factories in India and Pakistan .
“ There was n't sufficient data at the time to support the use of this drug without close physician supervision , '' Bright told Congress , after filing a whistleblower complaint in May .
Days after that , President Trump stunned the nation by announcing on live television that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What do you have to lose ?
” he asked .
The FDA documents , released publicly now for the first time , outlined what data the agency used to make the hot-button decision to allow widespread use of the drugs .
The EUA review , conducted by six FDA officials , referred to only two studies of the malaria drugs , which either showed negligible results or have since been called into question altogether .
If you have any information to share about this story or anything else relating to the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out via one of our secure tipline channels .
At its center was a controversial French study that claimed that the malaria drug , combined with an antibiotic , was very effective at treating coronavirus infections .
That study has since been criticized because of numerous problems , including failing to include the outcomes of patients on the drugs who died or were hospitalized .
Two weeks after the study was published , the publisher issued a notice saying the study did not meet its `` expected standard . ''
The FDA review @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 patients that showed the drugs had little to no effect on patient outcomes , and a letter from Chinese scientists that said it was effective — but was not backed up with any data .
The review also included a reference to 16 clinical trials that were still underway and noted that many doctors had a “ substantial interest ” in trying the drugs .
According to the review document , officials briefly warned about the risks of giving the drugs to patients with heart problems as part of a longer section @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or hydroxychloroquine-related cardiac conduction disorders ( i.e .
QT prolongation , ventricular arrhythmias ) are rare but life-threatening adverse reactions and are usually associated with long-term use and high cumulative doses , ” officials wrote .
The document also reviewed the risks posed by the millions of doses of the drugs that were donated for use in the US .
Analyzing the 1 million chloroquine tablets donated to the US by Bayer Pharmaceuticals , the review noted they were made at never-inspected factories in India with “ a low reputation for quality.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in India whose other factories had failed previous FDA inspections .
That meant , “ facilities used to manufacture this chloroquine are presumed to have even lower standards of quality.
” A chemical analysis of the chloroquine pills conducted on March 27 , also among the public records , indicated the tablets contained small impurities but met standards .
“ Based on the scientific evidence available to FDA , it is reasonable to believe that these products may be effective in treating the serious or life-threatening disease , COVID-19 , ” the FDA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have some hints now of what they were depending on '' for the EUA , said Peter Lurie , a former FDA executive who now leads the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest .
`` It still seems to me to be a thin read and one is left with the question of whether the approval had something to do with pressure from the White House . ''
Since the review was submitted , growing evidence has suggested that these drugs may do more harm than good .
After a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently halted , French , Italian , and Belgian officials last week all banned the use of the drug as a therapy for the novel coronavirus .
“ I think it 's fair to ask whether the FDA — expert in assessing drug data — should or could have spotted those issues , ” Ohio State University law professor Patricia Zettler , former FDA associate chief counsel during the Obama administration , told BuzzFeed News by email .
Zettler added , however , that the standard for an emergency use authorization is always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal review of the EUA application for the malaria drugs as a possible COVID-19 treatment outside of clinical trials :

The Food and Drug Administration authorized two malaria drugs boosted by President Donald Trump to treat COVID-19 in March based on threadbare evidence, according to an agency review obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The review also raised serious questions about shoddy practices at overseas factories that manufactured and donated the drugs for use in American hospitals, according to the documents.
The use of the drugs to treat COVID-19 has been politically charged from the start.
On March 19, as the number of coronavirus cases in the US started to surge, President Donald Trump called for widespread use of the two drugs, chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate, to treat the new disease, for which there is no known cure. Nine days later, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA), a special provision that allows the agency to quickly greenlight the widespread use of unapproved drugs during a public health emergency, allowing the malaria drugs to be used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Medical experts, meanwhile, raised concerns about the drugs saying they could cause serious health issues and were not proven to work. Even the FDA issued a warning, four weeks after its authorization, cautioning that use of the drugs outside hospitals could cause “life-threatening” heart problems.
Then, a top science official in the Trump administration alleged that the emergency authorization was dangerous and came about as a result of political pressure. Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, claimed he was pressured to sign off on the EUA, and was retaliated against after raising safety concerns about the malaria drugs and their importation from low-quality factories in India and Pakistan. “There wasn't sufficient data at the time to support the use of this drug without close physician supervision," Bright told Congress, after filing a whistleblower complaint in May.
Days after that, President Trump stunned the nation by announcing on live television that he was taking the drugs himself. “What do you have to lose?” he asked.
The FDA documents, released publicly now for the first time, outlined what data the agency used to make the hot-button decision to allow widespread use of the drugs.
The EUA review, conducted by six FDA officials, referred to only two studies of the malaria drugs, which either showed negligible results or have since been called into question altogether.
If you have any information to share about this story or anything else relating to the coronavirus, email dan.vergano@buzzfeed.com or reach out via one of our secure tipline channels.
At its center was a controversial French study that claimed that the malaria drug, combined with an antibiotic, was very effective at treating coronavirus infections. That study has since been criticized because of numerous problems, including failing to include the outcomes of patients on the drugs who died or were hospitalized. Two weeks after the study was published, the publisher issued a notice saying the study did not meet its "expected standard."
The FDA review also cited a small Chinese trial of 30 patients that showed the drugs had little to no effect on patient outcomes, and a letter from Chinese scientists that said it was effective — but was not backed up with any data. The review also included a reference to 16 clinical trials that were still underway and noted that many doctors had a “substantial interest” in trying the drugs.
According to the review document, officials briefly warned about the risks of giving the drugs to patients with heart problems as part of a longer section detailing warnings and precautions. “Chloroquine- or hydroxychloroquine-related cardiac conduction disorders (i.e. QT prolongation, ventricular arrhythmias) are rare but life-threatening adverse reactions and are usually associated with long-term use and high cumulative doses,” officials wrote.
The document also reviewed the risks posed by the millions of doses of the drugs that were donated for use in the US. Analyzing the 1 million chloroquine tablets donated to the US by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the review noted they were made at never-inspected factories in India with “a low reputation for quality.” The pills were made by a manufacturer in India whose other factories had failed previous FDA inspections. That meant, “facilities used to manufacture this chloroquine are presumed to have even lower standards of quality.”
A chemical analysis of the chloroquine pills conducted on March 27, also among the public records, indicated the tablets contained small impurities but met standards.
“Based on the scientific evidence available to FDA, it is reasonable to believe that these products may be effective in treating the serious or life-threatening disease, COVID-19,” the FDA officials concluded.
“At least we have some hints now of what they were depending on" for the EUA, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA executive who now leads the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It still seems to me to be a thin read and one is left with the question of whether the approval had something to do with pressure from the White House."
Since the review was submitted, growing evidence has suggested that these drugs may do more harm than good. After a second clinical trial involving the drugs was recently halted, French, Italian, and Belgian officials last week all banned the use of the drug as a therapy for the novel coronavirus.
“I think it's fair to ask whether the FDA — expert in assessing drug data — should or could have spotted those issues,” Ohio State University law professor Patricia Zettler, former FDA associate chief counsel during the Obama administration, told BuzzFeed News by email. Zettler added, however, that the standard for an emergency use authorization is always low.
Here is a copy of the federal review of the EUA application for the malaria drugs as a possible COVID-19 treatment outside of clinical trials:


buzzfeed--2020-06-01--We're Living In A Vacuum Of Political Leadership

In the last week : Over 100,000 Americans were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 , a disease that has disproportionately killed poor and black people in the United States ; George Floyd , a black man in Minneapolis , died after a white police officer — with the apparent participation of three other officers — crushed his neck with a knee for nearly nine minutes ; protests built across the country for days , leading to repeated clashes with police and fires across America ’ s biggest cities .
In the last week : President Donald Trump has continued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cable news host is a secret murderer ; continued to promote a coronavirus “ cure ” that his own medical advisers say is ineffective ; fought endlessly with Twitter over misinformation on his own account ; and tweeted that “ looters ” should be shot in the hours after the first large protests began in Minneapolis .
In the immediate aftermath of waves of intense protests and unrest , Trump temporarily disappeared into a bunker before tweeting complaints at DC ’ s mayor .
Bill de Blasio , mayor of the country ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as members of the police force he theoretically controls were repeatedly seen assaulting demonstrators that former allies and leaders in his own party threw up a bat signal .
Government officials in Minnesota and elsewhere blamed shadowy “ outsiders ” for inciting violence in their cities , and many defended police misbehavior or delayed consequences for it .
Americans are living in a vacuum of political leadership .
After years of voting for and elevating people who pledge to shatter the establishment , Americans are in cascading crises that elected officials in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imperative to solve .
In a national crisis with an absence at the top , the country ’ s political leadership is as weak as its least capable local leaders .
The response to the Minneapolis police , the NYPD , the fire-burners in Washington doesn ’ t just stay in those cities .
It seeps out — frustration with the country ’ s systems is nationalized .
There are capable local leaders .
Atlanta ’ s leadership , both Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and police Chief Erika Shields , have distinguished themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and about demonstrators in the last several days , including with Bottoms ’ pleas for people to stop damaging buildings and property and to stay at home .
Bottoms fired two police officers over the weekend for using excessive force Saturday night , while other mayors initiated lengthy reviews .
Houston police Chief Art Acevedo , shouting with a cracking voice , has effectively rallied against both political racism and “ these little white guys with their skateboards ” who just want to light fires .
But this year ’ s crises have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ localized political will .
Acevedo ’ s cry for justice and civility has been watched almost 6 million times on Twitter .
But the video of an NYPD officer shoving a small woman in Brooklyn so hard that she smashed her head onto a curb has been watched almost 5 million times ; the video of an NYPD van ramming into a crowd of protesters , flinging them aside , has been viewed almost 31 million times .
A looter can livestream themself breaking into luxury stores on Instagram .
For the better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , CNN aired live footage of their own Atlanta headquarters , guarded by a phalanx of riot police , as people outside went about smashing the building ’ s glass .
To say the obvious thing : Very little happens any more in isolation .
Viral video of police brutality in Minneapolis spreads and enrages in New York and LA and Atlanta , the coronavirus moves without borders .
This isn ’ t something that even the best mayor or governor can close up on their own .
A weak or absent response @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other things , de Blasio has excused the police officers who drove into the crowd of protesters Saturday and both de Blasio and Gov .
Andrew Cuomo delayed imposing coronavirus stay-at-home orders for key days in early March ) can ignite fury and COVID-19 outbreaks in Wisconsin .
The decades of racial and economic inequality that have led to this year are national problems : The structures that have left black and Latino Americans more likely to have the underlying health conditions that make them more likely to die from the coronavirus ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ black communities ; decades of excluding nonwhite Americans from access to the country ’ s wealth and property , both as a matter of policy and as personal or corporate judgment .
As the economy has cratered under COVID , almost 40 % of American households living on less than $ 40,000 annually have experienced job loss , while the stock market is on a path to recovery .
But as the initial federal coronavirus relief begins to dry up , there ’ s nothing really happening nationally , unless your idea of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s no reason to be surprised by the national political leadership vacuum three years into the Trump presidency .
Trump was not elected to “ preach civility , ” “ restore calm , ” “ rise to the moment , ” or whatever your preferred cliché might be .
He was elected to change what political leadership looks like , to tell the country 's governors on a Monday call that they 'll look like `` jerks '' if they do not `` dominate '' the demonstrators .
But we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a president who tweets “ LAW AND ORDER ” with the burning of American cities , a president who claims to take hydroxychloroquine to great effect while Americans struggle to understand exactly where they are in the cycle of a pandemic .
The vacuum has gotten to this : Americans aren ’ t even sure if it ’ s safe to go outside .

In the last week: Over 100,000 Americans were confirmed to have died of COVID-19, a disease that has disproportionately killed poor and black people in the United States; George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, died after a white police officer — with the apparent participation of three other officers — crushed his neck with a knee for nearly nine minutes; protests built across the country for days, leading to repeated clashes with police and fires across America’s biggest cities.
In the last week: President Donald Trump has continued to tweet a conspiracy theory suggesting a cable news host is a secret murderer; continued to promote a coronavirus “cure” that his own medical advisers say is ineffective; fought endlessly with Twitter over misinformation on his own account; and tweeted that “looters” should be shot in the hours after the first large protests began in Minneapolis.
In the immediate aftermath of waves of intense protests and unrest, Trump temporarily disappeared into a bunker before tweeting complaints at DC’s mayor. Bill de Blasio, mayor of the country’s biggest city, was so absent as members of the police force he theoretically controls were repeatedly seen assaulting demonstrators that former allies and leaders in his own party threw up a bat signal. Government officials in Minnesota and elsewhere blamed shadowy “outsiders” for inciting violence in their cities, and many defended police misbehavior or delayed consequences for it.
Americans are living in a vacuum of political leadership. After years of voting for and elevating people who pledge to shatter the establishment, Americans are in cascading crises that elected officials in this country do not have the ability or imperative to solve.
In a national crisis with an absence at the top, the country’s political leadership is as weak as its least capable local leaders. The response to the Minneapolis police, the NYPD, the fire-burners in Washington doesn’t just stay in those cities. It seeps out — frustration with the country’s systems is nationalized.
There are capable local leaders. Atlanta’s leadership, both Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and police Chief Erika Shields, have distinguished themselves in how they’ve spoken to and about demonstrators in the last several days, including with Bottoms’ pleas for people to stop damaging buildings and property and to stay at home. Bottoms fired two police officers over the weekend for using excessive force Saturday night, while other mayors initiated lengthy reviews. Houston police Chief Art Acevedo, shouting with a cracking voice, has effectively rallied against both political racism and “these little white guys with their skateboards” who just want to light fires.
But this year’s crises have repeatedly shown the limits of isolated or localized political will. Acevedo’s cry for justice and civility has been watched almost 6 million times on Twitter. But the video of an NYPD officer shoving a small woman in Brooklyn so hard that she smashed her head onto a curb has been watched almost 5 million times; the video of an NYPD van ramming into a crowd of protesters, flinging them aside, has been viewed almost 31 million times. A looter can livestream themself breaking into luxury stores on Instagram. For the better part of an hour on Saturday night, CNN aired live footage of their own Atlanta headquarters, guarded by a phalanx of riot police, as people outside went about smashing the building’s glass.
To say the obvious thing: Very little happens any more in isolation. Viral video of police brutality in Minneapolis spreads and enrages in New York and LA and Atlanta, the coronavirus moves without borders. This isn’t something that even the best mayor or governor can close up on their own. A weak or absent response in New York (where, among other things, de Blasio has excused the police officers who drove into the crowd of protesters Saturday and both de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo delayed imposing coronavirus stay-at-home orders for key days in early March) can ignite fury and COVID-19 outbreaks in Wisconsin.
The decades of racial and economic inequality that have led to this year are national problems: The structures that have left black and Latino Americans more likely to have the underlying health conditions that make them more likely to die from the coronavirus; a century of nationwide police harassment of black communities; decades of excluding nonwhite Americans from access to the country’s wealth and property, both as a matter of policy and as personal or corporate judgment. As the economy has cratered under COVID, almost 40% of American households living on less than $40,000 annually have experienced job loss, while the stock market is on a path to recovery.
But as the initial federal coronavirus relief begins to dry up, there’s nothing really happening nationally, unless your idea of justice is long-running committee investigations. There’s no reason to be surprised by the national political leadership vacuum three years into the Trump presidency. Trump was not elected to “preach civility,” “restore calm,” “rise to the moment,” or whatever your preferred cliché might be. He was elected to change what political leadership looks like, to tell the country's governors on a Monday call that they'll look like "jerks" if they do not "dominate" the demonstrators.
But we’re now seeing in full the incoherent matching of a president who tweets “LAW AND ORDER” with the burning of American cities, a president who claims to take hydroxychloroquine to great effect while Americans struggle to understand exactly where they are in the cycle of a pandemic. The vacuum has gotten to this: Americans aren’t even sure if it’s safe to go outside.


buzzfeed--2020-06-01--Dallas Police Asked People To Call Out Protesters. People Flooded Their App With K-Pop Instead.

On Sunday , the Dallas Police Department asked people to send in `` video of illegal activity '' from the Black Lives Matter protests in the city through the iWatch Dallas app , where people can submit photo , video , or text tips about possible crimes .
Instead , it received a flood of pictures and videos of K-pop artists .
In response to the tweeted request from Dallas Police , hundreds of K-pop fans replied with photos and videos of their favorite artists .
Many people also claimed to have submitted videos of the police harming protesters , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ artists , to the iWatch Dallas app .
Within hours of the original tweet , the Dallas Police Department followed up with a tweet that the iWatch Dallas app was down temporarily `` due to technical difficulties . ''
( K-pop fans confirmed they too were having difficulties submitting to the app . )
Hundreds of people subsequently replied to this Dallas PD tweet with memes and videos of K-pop artists .
Protests against police brutality have swept through the United States this week , with major demonstrations happening in Minneapolis , New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles , Oakland , and Dallas .
Police have often escalated peaceful protests and lashed out violently .
In addition to the streets , protesters have also begun taking action online as well .
Dozens of people submitted one-star reviews to the iWatch Dallas listings on both the Google Play Store and iOS App Store .
Many people used their reviews to say Black Lives Matter and call for justice for George Floyd .
It ’ s unclear if K-pop fans from Twitter overwhelmed the app with traffic , causing it to stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply wanted people to stop submitting photos and videos through the app .
The Dallas Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
The digital protest started when a tweet from Twitter user @ 7soulsmap , which showed a screenshot of the original Dallas PD tweet , got retweeted thousands of times .
A few hours later , @ 7soulsmap responded to their own tweet with a video and said , `` If y ’ all post this one on their app I ’ ll send you a $ 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ THE APP AND SEND ALL YOUR FANCAMS !
!
! ''
Twitter @ ngelwy said in the now-deleted quote tweet of @ 7soulsmap .
`` SEND THEM ALL !
!
!
MAKE THEIR JOBS AS HARD AS POSSIBLE !
!
!
GET THEM FRUSTRATED !
!
!
MAKE THEM TAKE DOWN THE APP !
!
! ''
Hundreds of people responded to the @ 7soulsmap tweet , and several people shared screen recordings uploading K-pop videos to the iWatch Dallas app .
User @ ngelwy later apologized for encouraging people to download the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , noting that the app asks for a user 's location before they submit a tip .
If a user tries to submit a tip without sharing their location , the app displays an error message that says `` User is not registered . ''
@ 7soulsmap , who declined to be identified by name , told BuzzFeed News that they are happy with how people responded to their tweet .
“ I feel like many people share the same sentiments in regards to how they view excessive use of force by law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trust in them from the public has withered , ” @ 7soulsmap said .
“ Black Lives Matter PERIOD.
” @ 7soulsmap added that many people who talked about submitting photos and videos of police brutality also noted that they would censor the faces of protesters from these uploads .
Police departments around the country often have access to a variety of surveillance tools that can be used to target protesters .
The Minneapolis Police Department , for example , has used the facial recognition tool Clearview AI — which scraped billions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power its face-matching algorithm — more than 160 times .
Facial recognition could be used to identify protesters depicted in pictures or videos posted on social media , or captured on CCTV cameras or home surveillance cameras , like Ring .
“ I ’ m happy to see how many people are willing to help the protesters keep their identities hidden and stay safe , ” @ 7soulsmap said .

It’s unclear if K-pop fans from Twitter overwhelmed the app with traffic, causing it to stop working, or if the police department simply wanted people to stop submitting photos and videos through the app. The Dallas Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The digital protest started when a tweet from Twitter user @7soulsmap, which showed a screenshot of the original Dallas PD tweet, got retweeted thousands of times. A few hours later, @7soulsmap responded to their own tweet with a video and said, "If y’all post this one on their app I’ll send you a $1, I promise."
"DOWNLOAD THE APP AND SEND ALL YOUR FANCAMS!!!" Twitter @ngelwy said in the now-deleted quote tweet of @7soulsmap. "SEND THEM ALL!!! MAKE THEIR JOBS AS HARD AS POSSIBLE!!! GET THEM FRUSTRATED!!! MAKE THEM TAKE DOWN THE APP!!!"
Hundreds of people responded to the @7soulsmap tweet, and several people shared screen recordings uploading K-pop videos to the iWatch Dallas app. User @ngelwy later apologized for encouraging people to download the app and encouraged people to delete it, noting that the app asks for a user's location before they submit a tip.
If a user tries to submit a tip without sharing their location, the app displays an error message that says "User is not registered."
@7soulsmap, who declined to be identified by name, told BuzzFeed News that they are happy with how people responded to their tweet.


buzzfeed--2020-06-02--Mueller Memos Part 7: These Documents Reveal What People Close To The President Told Mueller’s Team

Mueller Memos Part 7: These Documents Reveal What People Close To The President Told Mueller’s Team About Trump And Russia

BuzzFeed News sued the US government under the Freedom of Information Act for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller ’ s team kept secret .
Today we are publishing the seventh installment of the FBI ’ s summaries of interviews with witnesses in the investigation .
The latest batch of documents shows that during two interviews in late 2017 , former White House counsel Don McGahn gave FBI agents mixed signals on Gen. Michael Flynn .
On one hand , McGahn believed that the national security adviser ’ s “ time was up ” after lying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak , and that there was “ no way Flynn did not know he had talked about sanctions on the calls.
” But McGahn , a critical figure in the Mueller investigation , also recalled a debriefing with Acting Attorney General Sally Yates that made him feel as though Flynn “ was not in [ redacted ] trouble.
” McGahn said he asked Yates if the agents had “ really pinned him down.
” Flynn assured him that the investigation was winding down , according to the FBI summaries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president , McGahn explained the Logan Act , which prohibits unauthorized individuals from negotiating with foreign governments .
He also assessed “ no clear 1001 violation ” — false statements to the FBI — by Flynn .
The records are heavily redacted and do not indicate what happened at a subsequent meeting with Yates that McGahn requested .
After Flynn was fired , FBI Director James Comey has previously said the president told him , “ I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go.
” According to the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the president denied this to his lawyer — but added that he was “ allowed to hope.
” Trump did not think he had crossed any lines , McGahn said .
McGahn recalled how the president pressed him to have special counsel Robert Mueller removed and that he was tasked with stopping former Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself .
The 34 pages of interview summaries show McGahn reflected for agents on other parts of his time in the White House .
Early in the administration , McGahn said that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to properly communicate with the Justice Department : Leave it to the White House counsel , McGahn explained .
“ Having that framework prevents the White house from ‘ nosing in ’ on investigations , ” McGahn said .
He also recalled speaking to the president about Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his role in the Russia investigation .
McGahn “ sort of talked ” with Trump about whether Manafort had any information that was “ potentially harmful ” to the president .
The rest of this section is redacted , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview , the agents asked McGahn about an obscure message that said , “ No comms/serious concerns about obstruction.
” McGahn explained that it was his way of expressing concern about the press team saying “ crazy things ” and that he urged them not to spin it .
On second thought , let 's not meet with the Russians James Jay Carafano , a national security and foreign policy expert at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation , appeared to bolster former attorney general Jeff Sessions ' contention that Sessions pushed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meeting in March 2016 .
Carafano recalled that at the meeting , which included Trump and other campaign advisers , George Papadopoulos said he could make a connection between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin .
Papadopoulos would eventually plead guilty in the Mueller probe to lying to investigators about his efforts to communicate with Russians .
Carafano told investigators that Sessions `` voiced his concerns '' that such a meeting could violate the Logan Act , which prohibits ordinary citizens from engaging in foreign policy .
Sessions testified in Congress in late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meeting and Papadopoulos ' offer , but believed he told Papadopoulos he was n't authorized to represent the campaign with the Russians .
Papadopoulos reportedly told a person he met at a Chicago bar in April 2018 that Sessions `` encouraged '' him at the March 2016 meeting .
Papadopoulos did n't appear to make too much of an impression on Carafano — Carafano recalled `` a young man with dark hair '' bringing up the Russia connection , and told investigators he did n't know the man `` and never saw him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 , FBI agents interviewed a man who told them about the origins of a Delaware non-profit that was created just months before the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and backed by a group of wealthy Russians .
Though the interview summary does not reveal the man ’ s name , he is identifiable as Robert Arakelian based on his mention of a BuzzFeed reporter who had knocked on his door , as well as other factors .
Robert Arakelian was the listed president of the non-profit , the Human Rights Accountability Global @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group lobbied US political figures to change the Magnitsky Act , a sanctions law targeting wealthy Russians involved in a $ 230-million tax fraud .
Angered by the law , the Russian government halted US adoptions of Russian children .
The foundation was created with the stated purpose of working to resume the adoptions , but lawmakers have said the group ’ s focus was largely on Magnitsky .
“ There was n't an indication that this was linked to a Russian government effort , ” according to Arakelian ’ s interview summary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they could remove the name Magnitsky they could then go to the Russian government which would lift the adoption ban in a quid pro quo scenario.
” In June 2016 , two of the foundation ’ s representatives attended the much-scrutinized meeting at Trump Tower at which senior Trump campaign officials had thought they would receive compromising information on Hillary Clinton .
They were frustrated when those two representatives — Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin — used the opportunity to largely promote the foundation ’ s cause .
Though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported that Mueller was scrutinizing the foundation , the Arakelian interview summary provides the first documentary evidence that the foundation was being probed by the FBI .
BuzzFeed News also reported that Mueller had records showing that the foundation ’ s bank had flagged a half-million dollars in payments from its wealthy backers as suspicious .
Arakelian told FBI agents that Denis Katsyv , a Russian whose company was accused of laundering the proceeds of the Magnitsky fraud , invited him to a meeting to discuss a job .
Arakelian told investigators that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were discussing adoption issues ” and talking about creating the foundation .
Arakelian said the meeting was attended by Katsyv , Veselnitskaya ( who worked for Katsyv ) , Akhmetshin , and a man named Ed Lieberman , a longtime DC attorney and former lobbyist who has worked closely with Akhmetshin , along with a couple of others .
At the end of the meeting , Katsyv offered Arakelian a job , he said , for which he was paid .
Though his position is redacted in the interview summary , Arakelian was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president , treasurer , secretary , and director of the foundation .
Arakelian “ believed it sounded more important then [ sic ] it was , ” the summary says .
He also appeared to tell the agents that “ he was not a decision maker and did not direct anyone.
” Rather , it was Akhmetshin who “ was the decision maker and told [ redacted ] who to meet.
” “ Akhmetshin and Lieberman worked as lobbyists for HRAGIF , ” the interview summary said .
The foundation also worked with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ Connor and Potomac Square Group , and they “ received checks for services.
” Arakelian said “ [ f ] inding money wasn ’ t [ his ] job , ” and that he “ assumed that only Katsyv and Veselnitskaya were doing that.
” Meanwhile , Veselnitskaya “ was involved in working with Russia on adoption issues , ” he said .
Veselnitskaya has since been accused of secretly coordinating with the Russian government while defending Katsyv in a Magintsky-related case brought against him .
The foundation was officially created in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ records , and Arakelian is listed as the incorporator .
But Arakelian told the FBI he “ was not involved in the incorporation ” and that it was actually Lieberman and the law firm BakerHostetler who “ conducted ” it .
The interview summary also says that Arakelian didn ’ t find out about the Trump Tower meeting until he heard about it on CNN the next year , further suggesting that he knew very little about the actual workings of the foundation , despite his official titles .
The newest batch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2017 , agents interviewed an individual whose name is redacted , but who is identified as a female Trump campaign staffer and transition official who went on to work for the National Security Council .
The person told investigators she was hired to work for the Trump campaign after Walid Phares , who served on Trump ’ s foreign policy team , connected her with the campaign .
The FBI had investigated whether Phares was secretly working for the Egyptian government to influence the campaign , the New York Times recently reported .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigators were interested in what she knew about the connections between Phares and Egypt .
The woman told the FBI that she “ received several emails from Phares ” while he was on a trip to Egypt in 2016 , including two emails in September discussing efforts to set up a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi .
The two men ended up meeting that month , and the woman believed “ the meeting was eventually coordinated through officials from the Egyptian Embassy and the Trump campaign.
” Someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ name was not revealed told investigators about strange developments involving Paul Manafort ’ s laptop .
While Manafort was in jail awaiting trial , he was approved to use a laptop in the jail 's law library to look at documents related to his case .
The administrator account was password-protected so that he could n't access the internet .
According to the witness , however , on Aug. 21 , 2018 — the day that the jury found Manafort guilty — the administrator password did n't work .
Manafort 's lawyers previously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jail and then brought it back again , but the witness said they got a note indicating the lawyers had n't changed the password .
It was unclear who had .
The witness also said that someone ( that name , too , is redacted ) brought two USB drives for Manafort .
One of the drives was labeled `` Blank . ''
It did not appear to have any files , but when the witness plugged it in , the memory was half full .
After reconfiguring the drive , the witness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called `` trash '' that `` contained a large number of hidden files . ''
The witness did n't open the files and notified the Alexandria sheriff 's department .
A lawyer for Manafort did not return a request for comment .
Someone call the help desk , part II Russia 's hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2016 , which led to the leak of large caches of emails , may have had more personal consequences for some of the people who worked there , an unidentified DCCC employee told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people '' had personal income tax returns falsely filed under their names in 2017 , and that the DCCC paid for credit monitoring services for employees .
The woman said she did n't get any alerts for suspicious credit activity , but described the prospect of having her personal emails released `` terrifying . ''
A spokesperson for the DCCC did not return a request for comment .
Russian intelligence was able to hack the DCCC through a tactic known as spear phishing — sending emails crafted to look legitimate but that actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hacker access to the person 's email account and other information .
Presented with printed copies of some of the spear phishing emails sent to the DCCC , the employee told investigators that they were `` convincing '' and `` appeared legit . ''
A heavily redacted December 7 , 2017 , interview investigators conducted with former communications director Hope Hicks contains additional details about the fallout of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump , Jr. and other senior campaign officials were offered dirt on Hillary Clinton .
Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meeting was focused on Russian adoption , leaving out the offer of compromising information on Clinton .
Hicks told investigators she told Trump that The New York Times obtained emails that contradicted the president ’ s account .
“ Trump told Hicks not to respond to the story which Hicks thought was odd since Trump usually considered not responding to be the ultimate sin , ” Hicks ’ s interview summary said .
“ Trump asked Hicks to confirm this meeting was about Russian adoption to which she confirmed that ’ s what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the interview summary said .
“ Trump told her to just respond with the fact it was about Russian adoption.
” The interview summary goes on to say that Trump rejected a statement she had prepared about the meeting , arguing “ they were saying too much.
” “ Trump told Hicks not to explain so much but just say he took a brief meeting and it was about Russian adoption.
” Previous installments of the Mueller memos have revealed important new information about the investigation and the events that preceded it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ last year showed that Manafort was still advising the Trump campaign three days before Election Day in 2016 — despite his having been fired as campaign manager nearly three months earlier .
That fact , wrote Trump ’ s next campaign manager , Steve Bannon , in an email , needed to be kept secret or “ they are going to try to say the Russians worked with wiki leaks to give this victory to us.
” Rick Gates , Manafort ’ s longtime business partner who served as deputy campaign chair , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 , interview that after it was revealed that the Democratic National Committee ’ s computer server had been compromised , Manafort began pushing the idea that Ukraine had orchestrated the hack .
That unfounded conspiracy theory persisted in right-wing circles long after the US intelligence community concluded Russia was in fact responsible .
Indeed , during the July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that eventually prompted Trump 's impeachment , he asked Zelensky to help investigate the Ukraine hack theory .
A day after Gates spoke to Mueller ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kushner was interviewed by the team .
He described a meeting he had prior to the election with Sergey Kislyak , the Russian ambassador at the time , who told him : `` we like what your candidate is saying .
It 's refreshing . ''
“ They discussed Syria and having the Russian generals brief ” then-national security adviser Michael Flynn , Kushner told the investigators .
According to the 33-page interview summary , Kushner asked whether they could create a back-channel line of communication with the Kremlin via the Russian Embassy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proposal , the records show , and later told another Trump adviser that Kushner “ should meet with someone else who was a better channel through which to communicate to Putin.
” The 448-page Mueller report was the most hotly anticipated prosecutorial document in a generation .
But it reflected only a tiny fraction of the primary-source documents that Mueller ’ s team had amassed over the course of its two-year probe .
In May 2019 , BuzzFeed News , and later CNN , filed FOIA lawsuits against the FBI and the Justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of pages of interview summaries of the witnesses who spoke to FBI agents and prosecutors .
Following an October ruling by a federal judge ordering the release of the documents , the two agencies began turning over the 302s last November .
Under the court order , they must disclose records every month , and thus far , the government has released summaries of more than 100 interviews — totaling nearly 2,000 pages — of some of the more than 500 witnesses who spoke to Mueller ’ s team during the course of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released so far under the court order have been heavily redacted , leaving vast swaths of information about the case obscured from view .
BuzzFeed News has challenged some of those redactions , arguing in court that one category of exemption that the government has cited to justify the withholdings is legally unfounded , politically motivated , and was implemented solely to protect the president .
Although the Mueller investigation led to 37 indictments and seven convictions , Trump has aggressively sought to discredit it , repeatedly referring to it as a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supported by Attorney General Bill Barr , who has been accused of intentionally misrepresenting Mueller ’ s findings and who has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in several cases related to the investigation .
Most recently , the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of asking a judge to dismiss charges against Flynn , Trump ’ s former national security adviser , despite the fact that he had voluntarily pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI .
Barr claimed in an interview with CBS Evening News earlier this month that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perjury trap ” for Flynn .
Last year , Barr also tapped a US attorney in Connecticut , John Durham , to investigate the origins of the Russia probe .
BuzzFeed News is still pursuing five lawsuits demanding that the government release a huge volume of other records generated by the Mueller investigation , including search warrants , memoranda , talking points , financial records , and legal opinions , as well as any documents that address discussions between Barr and other high-ranking Justice Department officials about the decision not to charge Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which opposes the release of those documents , have claimed they could total some 18 billion pages and take centuries to redact and release .

The ultimate sin
A heavily redacted December 7, 2017, interview investigators conducted with former communications director Hope Hicks contains additional details about the fallout of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump, Jr. and other senior campaign officials were offered dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Trump and Trump, Jr. had publicly said the meeting was focused on Russian adoption, leaving out the offer of compromising information on Clinton. Hicks told investigators she told Trump that The New York Times obtained emails that contradicted the president’s account.
“Trump told Hicks not to respond to the story which Hicks thought was odd since Trump usually considered not responding to be the ultimate sin,” Hicks’s interview summary said. “Trump asked Hicks to confirm this meeting was about Russian adoption to which she confirmed that’s what she thought it was about,” the interview summary said. “Trump told her to just respond with the fact it was about Russian adoption.”
The interview summary goes on to say that Trump rejected a statement she had prepared about the meeting, arguing “they were saying too much.”
“Trump told Hicks not to explain so much but just say he took a brief meeting and it was about Russian adoption.”
A fuller picture
Previous installments of the Mueller memos have revealed important new information about the investigation and the events that preceded it. Records released to BuzzFeed News and CNN last year showed that Manafort was still advising the Trump campaign three days before Election Day in 2016 — despite his having been fired as campaign manager nearly three months earlier. That fact, wrote Trump’s next campaign manager, Steve Bannon, in an email, needed to be kept secret or “they are going to try to say the Russians worked with wiki leaks to give this victory to us.”
Rick Gates, Manafort’s longtime business partner who served as deputy campaign chair, told investigators during an April 10, 2018, interview that after it was revealed that the Democratic National Committee’s computer server had been compromised, Manafort began pushing the idea that Ukraine had orchestrated the hack. That unfounded conspiracy theory persisted in right-wing circles long after the US intelligence community concluded Russia was in fact responsible. Indeed, during the July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that eventually prompted Trump's impeachment, he asked Zelensky to help investigate the Ukraine hack theory.
A day after Gates spoke to Mueller’s investigators, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was interviewed by the team. He described a meeting he had prior to the election with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador at the time, who told him: "we like what your candidate is saying. It's refreshing."
“They discussed Syria and having the Russian generals brief” then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, Kushner told the investigators. According to the 33-page interview summary, Kushner asked whether they could create a back-channel line of communication with the Kremlin via the Russian Embassy in Washington. Kislyak waved off that proposal, the records show, and later told another Trump adviser that Kushner “should meet with someone else who was a better channel through which to communicate to Putin.”
A historic document, still emerging
The 448-page Mueller report was the most hotly anticipated prosecutorial document in a generation. But it reflected only a tiny fraction of the primary-source documents that Mueller’s team had amassed over the course of its two-year probe.
In May 2019, BuzzFeed News, and later CNN, filed FOIA lawsuits against the FBI and the Justice Department to gain access to the thousands of pages of interview summaries of the witnesses who spoke to FBI agents and prosecutors. Following an October ruling by a federal judge ordering the release of the documents, the two agencies began turning over the 302s last November. Under the court order, they must disclose records every month, and thus far, the government has released summaries of more than 100 interviews — totaling nearly 2,000 pages — of some of the more than 500 witnesses who spoke to Mueller’s team during the course of the investigation.
The majority of documents released so far under the court order have been heavily redacted, leaving vast swaths of information about the case obscured from view. BuzzFeed News has challenged some of those redactions, arguing in court that one category of exemption that the government has cited to justify the withholdings is legally unfounded, politically motivated, and was implemented solely to protect the president.
Although the Mueller investigation led to 37 indictments and seven convictions, Trump has aggressively sought to discredit it, repeatedly referring to it as a “witch hunt.” His efforts have been supported by Attorney General Bill Barr, who has been accused of intentionally misrepresenting Mueller’s findings and who has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in several cases related to the investigation. Most recently, the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of asking a judge to dismiss charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, despite the fact that he had voluntarily pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Barr claimed in an interview with CBS Evening News earlier this month that the FBI had tried to lay a “perjury trap” for Flynn. Last year, Barr also tapped a US attorney in Connecticut, John Durham, to investigate the origins of the Russia probe.
BuzzFeed News is still pursuing five lawsuits demanding that the government release a huge volume of other records generated by the Mueller investigation, including search warrants, memoranda, talking points, financial records, and legal opinions, as well as any documents that address discussions between Barr and other high-ranking Justice Department officials about the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction.
Lawyers for the DOJ, which opposes the release of those documents, have claimed they could total some 18 billion pages and take centuries to redact and release.


buzzfeed--2020-06-02--White People, Read This Before You Text Your Black Friends

To be clear , I understand this is a delicate balance .
A lot of these people sending texts and messages and DMs mean well and are genuinely trying to be helpful and thoughtful .
And there are some black people who welcome and ask for these check-ins from their white friends .
But for me personally , while they ’ re meant to offer comfort , in the midst of all the unceasing awfulness of these past few days , these texts have only made me feel worse .
I ’ m unsure of how to respond , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , about not thanking these white people for thinking of me .
“ I am calling for a national moratorium on texts from guilty white liberals , ” New York Times reporter Astead Herndon tweeted earlier today .
Carla Bruce-Eddings , a black book publicist , tweeted about receiving a lengthy Facebook message from a white woman she had interacted with “ exactly once ” who asked her how she could help educate her three white children about everything that ’ s going on right now .
A couple of black media friends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recipients of texts from white friends , speaking to the striking visibility of black people who work in mainstream media , partly because there are still so few of us .
The texts began on Friday .
One from a guy I don ’ t really speak to on a regular basis , who previously texted me when a dumb tweet I wrote about bras went inexplicably viral .
Then there was a Slack from a coworker and a follow-up Slack the next day .
Then a few texts from friends I talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make me dinner .
And I ’ m not the only black person who has been inundated with text messages from well-meaning white people this weekend .
As the continued momentum of this BuzzFeed Books post suggests , it ’ s clear that many white people have been doing the reading , or at least like to imply that they have .
They have retweeted and read the viral posts about how they can help “ poc ” during times like these ( and it ’ s always “ poc , ” that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if there isn ’ t a world of difference between a wealthy Indian American software engineer and an undocumented Latinx farmworker , for example ) .
“ White allies , check in on your black friends !
” the tweet or the screenshot or the IG story will go .
Show your solidarity , it ’ ll read .
So why is this frustrating ?
There are two issues at play here : One is that there can sometimes be a kind of performativity or virtue signaling that happens when a white @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talk to on a semi-regular basis .
Much like Macklemore ’ s screenshot of his apology to Kendrick Lamar in 2014 for winning a Grammy ; such texts serve as ways to ease the emotional burden and guilt that white liberals feel about their privilege .
Inadvertently , the black person they text becomes a therapist who must reassure their white “ friend ” that they are in fact one of the good ones , exonerating them from their guilt .
And if the white friend is texting them to learn more about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practical ways , it puts the onus on the black friend to teach them , rather than the white friend simply taking the initiative to find — and do — the reading on their own time .
And then , for me , personally , there is the reality that as much as I ache and mourn the deaths of these black men and women , as a black woman from an upper-middle-class background , my experience with police is not the same as George Floyd ’ s or Breonna Taylor ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christian Cooper ’ s experience is not like Eric Garner ’ s or Philando Castile ’ s .
I am less likely to be a victim of such encounters with the police because of my class .
That ’ s not to say I haven ’ t had a run-in with the police before .
When I was a teenager walking to a friend ’ s house in a predominantly white suburb , someone called the cops because there were apparently a spate of burglaries in the neighborhood .
It was confusing and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never feared for my life .
And as much as middle- and upper-class black people like to say that officers are just as likely to shoot at us indiscriminately , the reality is that we still have more resources and power than the working-class black people who have been at the forefront of this movement and who have suffered the most under the heavy hand of the carceral state .
It ’ s not a coincidence that these protests , both in 2015 and now , started in predominantly low-income black areas .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ position of having an altercation with a police officer is far lower than it is for someone like George Floyd , and it has nothing to do with my being more or less “ deserving ” of that treatment .
The high-profile examples of folks like Henry Louis Gates Jr. and even Christian Cooper getting disproportionate press attention for unjustified public displays of racism are indicators of where this power lies .
When Gates , an Ivy League professor , was arrested while trying to enter his own home in 2009 , Barack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States , had a later ill-advised “ beer summit ” with him and the police officer about the encounter .
When working-class black people are unfairly arrested by the police , more often than not , the wider media never hears about it — or if they do , it ’ s usually because the black person has been killed in police custody .
And the amplification of their stories only usually happens if these victims are fortunate enough to have had someone film the encounter .
Just as I am less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for walking down the street , compared to a working-class black trans woman , not all black people feel the brunt of white supremacy in the same way in this country .
It doesn ’ t mean that making more money or having a college education will save you from the scourge of racism — but black people living in poverty are disproportionately affected by the police state , and it ’ s disingenuous to not acknowledge this .

As the continued momentum of this BuzzFeed Books post suggests, it’s clear that many white people have been doing the reading, or at least like to imply that they have. They have retweeted and read the viral posts about how they can help “poc” during times like these (and it’s always “poc,” that generally useless, willfully obfuscating term, as if there isn’t a world of difference between a wealthy Indian American software engineer and an undocumented Latinx farmworker, for example).
“White allies, check in on your black friends!” the tweet or the screenshot or the IG story will go. Show your solidarity, it’ll read.
So why is this frustrating? There are two issues at play here: One is that there can sometimes be a kind of performativity or virtue signaling that happens when a white person texts the one black person they talk to on a semi-regular basis.
Much like Macklemore’s screenshot of his apology to Kendrick Lamar in 2014 for winning a Grammy; such texts serve as ways to ease the emotional burden and guilt that white liberals feel about their privilege. Inadvertently, the black person they text becomes a therapist who must reassure their white “friend” that they are in fact one of the good ones, exonerating them from their guilt. And if the white friend is texting them to learn more about American history or how to help in practical ways, it puts the onus on the black friend to teach them, rather than the white friend simply taking the initiative to find — and do — the reading on their own time.
And then, for me, personally, there is the reality that as much as I ache and mourn the deaths of these black men and women, as a black woman from an upper-middle-class background, my experience with police is not the same as George Floyd’s or Breonna Taylor’s, just as the Harvard-educated black bird-watcher Christian Cooper’s experience is not like Eric Garner’s or Philando Castile’s.
I am less likely to be a victim of such encounters with the police because of my class. That’s not to say I haven’t had a run-in with the police before. When I was a teenager walking to a friend’s house in a predominantly white suburb, someone called the cops because there were apparently a spate of burglaries in the neighborhood. It was confusing and disorienting, but I (naively) never feared for my life. And as much as middle- and upper-class black people like to say that officers are just as likely to shoot at us indiscriminately, the reality is that we still have more resources and power than the working-class black people who have been at the forefront of this movement and who have suffered the most under the heavy hand of the carceral state. It’s not a coincidence that these protests, both in 2015 and now, started in predominantly low-income black areas. The likelihood of me being in a position of having an altercation with a police officer is far lower than it is for someone like George Floyd, and it has nothing to do with my being more or less “deserving” of that treatment.
The high-profile examples of folks like Henry Louis Gates Jr. and even Christian Cooper getting disproportionate press attention for unjustified public displays of racism are indicators of where this power lies. When Gates, an Ivy League professor, was arrested while trying to enter his own home in 2009, Barack Obama, then the president of the United States, had a later ill-advised “beer summit” with him and the police officer about the encounter. When working-class black people are unfairly arrested by the police, more often than not, the wider media never hears about it — or if they do, it’s usually because the black person has been killed in police custody. And the amplification of their stories only usually happens if these victims are fortunate enough to have had someone film the encounter.
Just as I am less likely to be targeted by police merely for walking down the street, compared to a working-class black trans woman, not all black people feel the brunt of white supremacy in the same way in this country. It doesn’t mean that making more money or having a college education will save you from the scourge of racism — but black people living in poverty are disproportionately affected by the police state, and it’s disingenuous to not acknowledge this.


buzzfeed--2020-06-02--Tweets, Dissent, And A Walkout: Facebook Employees Revolt Over Zuckerberg’s Approach To Trump

Facebook employees publicly voiced their disagreement with their company by staging a virtual walkout on Monday , following CEO Mark Zuckerberg ’ s decision not to take action against incendiary comments made by President Donald Trump on the platform last week .
The rare coordinated , worker-led dissent at the social network follows a tense week of demonstrations across the nation .
Last Thursday , in addressing protests in Minneapolis , Trump wrote on Twitter and Facebook that “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts , ” a historically charged phrase that suggested that violent action would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , placing a warning label on the same message from the president on its platform , Zuckerberg explained on Friday that Trump ’ s words would be allowed on Facebook , enraging some employees who believed the comments had gone too far and violated the company ’ s internal policies against inciting violence .
Some openly disagreed with Zuckerberg on social media throughout the weekend , and dozens of them took Monday off in a virtual walkout , first reported by the New York Times , to call attention to their dismay .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump 's post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here , ” Lauren Tan , a software engineer at Facebook , said on Twitter .
“ I absolutely disagree with it.
” With the majority of Facebook employees working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic , workers have found virtual outlets to express their dissent .
Debate has moved beyond the comment section of the company ’ s internal Workplace communication platform to public-facing websites , including Twitter .
Although Zuckerberg has not made a statement in reaction , a Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now , especially our Black community , ” Liz Bourgeois , a Facebook spokesperson , said in a statement .
“ We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership.
” Former employees who spoke with BuzzFeed News said the internal problems at Facebook , where Zuckerberg controls majority shareholder voting power and is the ultimate decision maker , have festered for years .
For some , those problems came to a head following a decision earlier this year to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even if the paid content contained lies or misinformation .
“ The final straw for me was the paid civic misinformation issue , where Facebook declared that it would not fact-check political ads , ” said one former engineer who left in February .
“ I could understand the argument for a ‘ neutral ’ News Feed , but when someone is paying us to show content to people , that ’ s not 'neutral . '
I felt that it was a politically and financially convenient decision rather than something done on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facebook employee who left the company after declaring that it had `` a black people problem , '' called the public outcry from his old colleagues “ unprecedented.
” Those employees speaking out were n't just risking their jobs at Facebook , he noted , but also future employment by signaling that they ’ re willing to speak out against their employer .
“ To see people say that they ’ re going to risk it all because it ’ s so dire , that ’ s new and different , and hopefully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Luckie said to BuzzFeed News .
The unrest at Facebook comes after Zuckerberg said the social network would n't take down a post by Trump on the Minneapolis protests , despite the CEO 's feeling that it contained “ divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.
” “ I know many people are upset that we 've left the President 's posts up , but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies , ” Zuckerberg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some employees , some of whom had previously raised concerns on the company ’ s internal forums that Facebook was already doing too much to appease conservatives .
Following Twitter ’ s decision to take action against what it considered Trump ’ s misinformation on mail-in voting last week , the president signed an executive order last Thursday intended to undercut laws that gave social media companies legal indemnity for content hosted on their platforms .
But it was Trump ’ s suggestion of violence to deal with protests that pushed many Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekend and into Monday , Facebook employees spoke out on Twitter , a competing social media service that most rank-and-file Facebook workers rarely use to talk about their employer .
“ I do n't know what to do , but I know doing nothing is not acceptable , ” Jason Stirman , a design manager at Facebook , said .
“ I 'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark 's decision to do nothing about Trump 's recent posts , which clearly incite violence .
I 'm not alone inside of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ position on racism.
” Another Facebook design employee , Ryan Freitas , suggested on Twitter that the company had more than two options when deciding to leave up or take down a post .
There are dozens of actions , he wrote .
`` We know because we designed them . ''
“ Censoring information that might help people see the complete picture *is* wrong .
But giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable , regardless who you are or if it ’ s newsworthy , ” said Andrew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Portal , a video-chatting device .
“ I disagree with Mark ’ s position and will work to make change happen.
” Seven members of Facebook ’ s React Core team , which maintains a web framework owned by the company , issued a joint statement in protest of the company ’ s actions .
“ We implore the Facebook leadership to # TakeAction , ” they said .
On Sunday , Axios reported that Zuckerberg personally called the president on Friday following Trump ’ s post , a communication that wasn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public when the Facebook CEO announced his decision to keep the post up on the platform .
Facebook declined to comment to BuzzFeed News on the call between Zuckerberg and the president .
For now , the company 's management has gingerly approached its employees ' dissent , with Zuckerberg announcing on Sunday night that Facebook , a company with a market capitalization of more than $ 660 billion , would donate $ 10 million to `` groups working on racial justice . ''
The company also said that employees involved in Monday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to use any paid time off .
But potential Facebook business partners have already taken notice of the internal dissent .
On Monday , Talkspace , an online therapy company , said it would be ending conversations on a deal with Facebook to provide free therapy to the social network 's users .
That contract would have totaled in the six figures , according to Talkspace CEO Oren Frank .
`` I hope more companies and individuals will join us , and it will send a strong message to Facebook about where we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Facebook can make this change in a heartbeat , and therefore has the moral imperative to do so . ''


buzzfeed--2020-06-02--Dallas Police Asked People To Call Out Protesters. People Flooded Their App With K-Pop Instead.


buzzfeed--2020-06-03--Minneapolis Public Schools Voted To End Its Contract With The City’s Police After The Death Of Georg

Minneapolis Public Schools Voted To End Its Contract With The City’s Police After The Death Of George Floyd

The board of Minneapolis Public Schools voted unanimously Tuesday to end the district ’ s $ 1.1 million contract with the Minneapolis Police Department after the death of George Floyd , saying the actions of city police officers “ run directly counter to the values ” of the school district .
It is among the earliest and most tangible victories so far for activists protesting Floyd ’ s killing , who have demanded that police departments be reformed , defunded , or abolished in order to stem police violence .
Few , if any , school districts have ever taken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Several hundred people , including Rep. Ilhan Omar , gathered outside the district building before the vote .
Students at local high schools and community groups had been organizing for years to try to force the district to remove police , called school resource officers , from city schools .
But after three high-profile police deaths in the city and an incident with a racist Christmas tree , there was little concrete action from officials beyond incremental steps to reduce the number of officers and train police .
Then George Floyd was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Floyd ’ s death was different in part because the conversation seemed to have simply changed , said Nathaniel Genene , a student activist and a junior at a public high school in south Minneapolis .
“ We could have had the debate all day : Do you put your money into police or social services and counselor support ?
” Genene said .
“ That ’ s a back and forth that was going on for a long time.
” Floyd ’ s killing and the outrage that followed , Genene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It was : ‘ Do we align with the Minneapolis police , do they align with our values ?
Can you continue to align yourselves with a group of people that disenfranchise your students ?
’ I don ’ t think it was the same conversation anymore , morally.
” Two days after Floyd 's death began to roil the city with protests and riots , the University of Minnesota said they would cut some ties with the Minneapolis Police Department .
Shortly after , Minneapolis Public School board members introduced a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s own contract with police entirely .
One called immediately for a special meeting .
An onslaught of emails poured in from students and community members , one board member said .
“ This vote is about justice , ” said Siad Ali , the board ’ s director , during the meeting Tuesday .
“ It ’ s about time we end this contract with the Minneapolis police .
They do not meet our values , and therefore , we will have no business with this organization.
” In the wake of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety school resource officers contracted from local police departments , some districts have tried reform measures , including trying to limit officers ’ involvement in any school discipline .
But there ’ s little precedent for a school district ending its contract with police entirely as Minneapolis has , said Marc Schindler , the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute , an advocacy organization .
“ I ’ m not aware of school districts actually making those decisions , ” Schindler said .
As anger over race and policing sparked by what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nationwide , Minneapolis Public Schools ’ termination of the contract could fuel similar pushes in other school districts , Schindler said , along with economic pressures from the coronavirus that will lead districts to rethink how they spend their limited money .
A school board member in Denver , Tay Anderson , called last week for the city ’ s district to cut its ties with police .
“ Hey New York , hey Colorado , hey Nevada , look at us —we ’ re making a change with our voices , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and you can do it too .
Students can do the same thing and pressure our elected officials , ” said Janaan Ahmed , a student activist who graduated from Minneapolis ’ s Patrick Henry High School this week .
“ If it wasn ’ t for the riots that happened on 38th and Lake , if it wasn ’ t for Minneapolis residents getting out in the streets , the nation wouldn ’ t look like what it is right now.
” The push , which Ahmed said she had learned about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years ago , had grown in city schools in recent years after a spate of killings and other incidents by police officers in and around Minneapolis .
There was Jamar Clark , in 2015 .
There was Philando Castile a year later , an employee of St. Paul Public Schools , just across the river .
Two years later , there was the racist Christmas tree , which Minneapolis police officers decorated with Popeye ’ s chicken , malt liquor , and crime scene tape .
Then the Minneapolis police union ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cops for Trump.
” Minneapolis public school students have been among the tens of thousands of protesters flooding the city since Floyd ’ s death .
Some have been caught up in police crackdowns involving tear gas and rubber bullets .
One Minneapolis student activist , Arielle Elmore , said she had seen a former classmate on a live stream who had been hit in the head by a rubber bullet .
He had been one of the first voices she ’ d heard advocating to get police out of her school , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a freshman .
“ That was one of my peers — we walked the halls together , ” Elmore said .
Ahmed thought images like those had forced school board members to confront the reality of police ’ s relationship with students : “ We see police officers tear gassing and shooting rubber bullets at youth that go to Minneapolis Public schools , so how can you sit with yourselves as a school board , as elected officials , with students getting shot ?
” Some 1,600 Minneapolis students responded to a survey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activists , he said in the board meeting Tuesday .
More than 90 % voted for “ total divestment ” from the police department .
Before the vote Tuesday , said one community organizer , adults had for decades dismissed students ’ insistence that school resource officers , meant to enforce safety measures , had in reality made them feel less safe .
“ To see George Floyd on the pavement , already restrained , that was something that was undeniable , ” said Kenneth Eban , an organizer with the group Our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that was sad and unfortunate , because students have been saying this for years .
It feels unconscionable , that you couldn ’ t just listen to the people who were most deeply impacted by what ’ s happening.
” Some officers in Minneapolis schools have close relationships with students .
At North High School , which is predominantly black , the school ’ s resource officer , or SRO , is also the football coach .
A group of ten North students spoke before the vote Tuesday about the officer as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feel safer , according to a reporter for the Star Tribune .
“ With SROs gone , nobody ’ s going to feel safe at school , ” one student said .
Eban said the school officer at North was a “ superstar.
” “ What ’ s important to remember , though , is that this is a system , and the system can not be built off of one superstar , ” Eban said .
“ We need to figure out and identify a new vision of safety for Minneapolis and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We just need to accept the idea that officers don ’ t need to be part of the solution.
” Across town , at South High School— just blocks from the Third Precinct , near where Floyd was killed , which was burned to the ground by protestors last week — there had been tensions with law enforcement for years , students said .
“ Students really don ’ t feel safe because we don ’ t have established relationships with our SROs , ” said Zigi Kaiser , a South student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to trust them in any situation.
” Student activists wanted to be clear on what the vote from the school board meant .
Ahmed said she plans to continue a fight to convince the board to change the name of her high school , named for Patrick Henry , a former slave owner .
And the fact that the board ’ s sole student representative was not allowed to vote on its resolutions ?
“ That ’ s a conversation we ’ re going to have too , ” said Genene .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minneapolis Public Schools : Hey , we ’ re not done , we ’ re just starting , ” Ahmed said .
“ You guys can vote and do this in two hours , imagine what you can do in the next ten hours .
We ’ re not stopping .
”

The board of Minneapolis Public Schools voted unanimously Tuesday to end the district’s $1.1 million contract with the Minneapolis Police Department after the death of George Floyd, saying the actions of city police officers “run directly counter to the values” of the school district.
It is among the earliest and most tangible victories so far for activists protesting Floyd’s killing, who have demanded that police departments be reformed, defunded, or abolished in order to stem police violence. Few, if any, school districts have ever taken such a dramatic step over the issue.
Several hundred people, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, gathered outside the district building before the vote.
Students at local high schools and community groups had been organizing for years to try to force the district to remove police, called school resource officers, from city schools. But after three high-profile police deaths in the city and an incident with a racist Christmas tree, there was little concrete action from officials beyond incremental steps to reduce the number of officers and train police.
Then George Floyd was killed on the street in south Minneapolis.
Floyd’s death was different in part because the conversation seemed to have simply changed, said Nathaniel Genene, a student activist and a junior at a public high school in south Minneapolis.
“We could have had the debate all day: Do you put your money into police or social services and counselor support?” Genene said. “That’s a back-and-forth that was going on for a long time.”
Floyd’s killing and the outrage that followed, Genene said, “just ended that conversation. It was: ‘Do we align with the Minneapolis police, do they align with our values? Can you continue to align yourselves with a group of people that disenfranchise your students?’ I don’t think it was the same conversation anymore, morally.”
Two days after Floyd's death began to roil the city with protests and riots, the University of Minnesota said they would cut some ties with the Minneapolis Police Department. Shortly after, Minneapolis Public School board members introduced a resolution to end the school district’s own contract with police entirely. One called immediately for a special meeting. An onslaught of emails poured in from students and community members, one board member said.
“This vote is about justice,” said Siad Ali, the board’s director, during the meeting Tuesday. “It’s about time we end this contract with the Minneapolis police. They do not meet our values, and therefore, we will have no business with this organization.”
In the wake of increased national scrutiny over the efficacy and safety of school resource officers contracted from local police departments, some districts have tried reform measures, including trying to limit officers’ involvement in any school discipline.
But there’s little precedent for a school district ending its contract with police entirely as Minneapolis has, said Marc Schindler, the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, an advocacy organization.
“I’m not aware of school districts actually making those decisions,” Schindler said.
As anger over race and policing sparked by what happened in Minneapolis reaches a fever pitch nationwide, Minneapolis Public Schools’ termination of the contract could fuel similar pushes in other school districts, Schindler said, along with economic pressures from the coronavirus that will lead districts to rethink how they spend their limited money. A school board member in Denver, Tay Anderson, called last week for the city’s district to cut its ties with police.
“Hey New York, hey Colorado, hey Nevada, look at us — we’re making a change with our voices, just like our parents and neighbors are, and you can do it too. Students can do the same thing and pressure our elected officials,” said Janaan Ahmed, a student activist who graduated from Minneapolis’s Patrick Henry High School this week.
“If it wasn’t for the riots that happened on 38th and Lake, if it wasn’t for Minneapolis residents getting out in the streets, the nation wouldn’t look like what it is right now.”
The push, which Ahmed said she had learned about her first year of high school four years ago, had grown in city schools in recent years after a spate of killings and other incidents by police officers in and around Minneapolis.
There was Jamar Clark, in 2015. There was Philando Castile a year later, an employee of St. Paul Public Schools, just across the river. Two years later, there was the racist Christmas tree, which Minneapolis police officers decorated with Popeye’s chicken, malt liquor, and crime scene tape. Then the Minneapolis police union’s president wore a shirt that read “Cops for Trump.”
Minneapolis public school students have been among the tens of thousands of protesters flooding the city since Floyd’s death. Some have been caught up in police crackdowns involving tear gas and rubber bullets.
Ahmed said she had seen a former classmate on a livestream who had been hit in the head by a rubber bullet. He had been one of the first voices she’d heard advocating to get police out of her school, she said, back when she was a first-year student.
“That was one of my peers — we walked the halls together."
Ahmed thought images like those had forced school board members to confront the reality of police’s relationship with students: “We see police officers tear-gassing and shooting rubber bullets at youth that go to Minneapolis public schools, so how can you sit with yourselves as a school board, as elected officials, with students getting shot?”
Some 1,600 Minneapolis students responded to a survey sent out by Genene and other student activists, he said in the board meeting Tuesday. More than 90% voted for “total divestment” from the police department.