theintercept--2020-05-28--Left-Right Alliance Takes Aim at Surveillance Bill

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a rare veto threat , promising to reject a renewal of his surveillance authorities if approved by the House of Representatives .
If the FISA Bill is passed tonight on the House floor , I will quickly VETO it .
Our Country has just suffered through the greatest political crime in its history .
The massive abuse of FISA was a big part of it !
Civil libertarians , led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren , D-Calif. , pushed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow an up-or-down vote on that amendment , then send it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could pass with all senators voting .
Pelosi instead told Lofgren to negotiate with House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff , D-Calif. , the New York Times reported , and Schiff watered down the legislation .
The result drew criticism from the left and right — and Trump ’ s attention to the fight .
The Senate had previously approved the renewal through 2023 , and it had been expected to become law with little controversy .
But earlier this month , the Republican-led Senate failed to pass a measure that would limit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ web-browsing history and other online activity without a warrant by a single vote — a vote that Sens .
Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray missed .
Had Pelosi agreed to a simple up-or-down vote on the Senate amendment , it likely would have passed easily , and reauthorization of the broad surveillance authorities , along with some real reforms , would be on their way to becoming law .
The House was initially scheduled to vote late Wednesday evening , but postponed the vote .
Leaders from both the Republican minority and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members to vote no .
Even if it passes , Trump has promised to veto it .
Trump , of course , has been known to break promises , so Pelosi ’ s gamble may still pay off .
For the first time in the history of the House , the lower chamber allowed for remote proxy voting , as dozens of members of Congress stayed away from the floor amid the coronavirus pandemic .
The vote is expected to be close , the result of furious last-minute lobbying by civil libertarians on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well as opposition from Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif .
The politics of surveillance , even in normal times , scramble the typical partisan tendencies , with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , Pelosi , and Schiff often aligning on questions about the breadth and depth of state power to surveil and track Americans .
Opposing those congressional leaders is the civil liberties community , which includes both progressives and conservatives with libertarian leanings , but which rarely can muster a majority in Congress for its defense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has gained new traction in recent months , with Trump ’ s outrage over the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance , or FISA , court ’ s handling of surveillance of his campaign , particularly the deeply flawed application for a warrant to surveil former adviser Carter Page .
Although it was initially designed to review intelligence surveillance applications for suspected agents of a foreign power , after 9/11 the secretive FISA court signed off on expansive interpretations of surveillance law .
Now , as Trump feels victimized by it , he and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Rep. Louie Gohmert , R-Texas , a famously eccentric conservative in the House , remarked at a Rules Committee hearing Wednesday morning on the oddity of House Democrats fighting to give Trump surveillance powers he wasn ’ t asking for , despite his clear determination to use law enforcement for his own political ends .
“ It sure seems strange to me .
For Democrats to vote for this reauthorization , even with these amendments , would have to be sort of saying , we have so much trust in Donald Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they would never lie to a FISA court .
They would never just go after their enemies .
We feel like he can be trusted and so can all the people he ’ s appointed , ” he said .
“ We know he ’ s cleaned out some folks at the Justice Department , FBI , I mean , think about it.
” The unlikely coalition of Trump and the civil libertarians was enough to stall the legal reauthorization of the FBI ’ s “ call detail records ” program , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that allowed federal law enforcement to collect phone records .
The authority lapsed in March after McConnell was unable to force through an unamended reauthorization .
Earlier this month , the Senate reauthorized those programs with additional restrictions , but an amendment that would limit the government ’ s ability to collect internet browsing history without a warrant fell one vote short of the 60 votes it needed to pass .
Pelosi then instructed Schiff to come up with a compromise version with Lofgren , rather than allow an up-or-down vote on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ negotiations was an amendment , introduced by Lofgren and Rep. Warren Davidson , R-Ohio , that reintroduced the restriction on collecting browsing history , but applies it only to U.S. persons .
However , Lofgren ’ s and Davidson ’ s amendment leaves up to interpretation what federal agents should do when they don ’ t know ahead of time whether U.S. persons ’ information would be swept up in information requests — giving the secretive FISA court room to allow bulk collection and task the FBI with purging U.S. person information afterward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Lofgren offered different interpretations of their measure .
“ If the government wants to use a dragnet and order a service provider to produce a list of everyone who has visited a particular website , watched a particular YouTube video , or made a particular search query , it can not seek that order unless it can guarantee that the business records returned will contain no U.S. person IP addresses , or other U.S. person identifiers , ” Lofgren said at a Rules Committee hearing Wednesday morning .
That interpretation was enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wyden , D-Ore .
In a statement , Schiff said that the amendment prohibited orders that “ to seek to obtain ” U.S. persons ’ browsing information , leaving open the possibility that the FBI could seek to collect visitor logs from a website that contained Americans , as long as that was not their primary purpose .
Statements like that , noted Charlie Savage in the Times , can be used by judges to determine legislative intent and confounded what had appeared to be a settled issue .
That led to pushback @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the renewed attention not only risked reforms that had been won in the Senate and failed to win support for the amendment Schiff advocated for , but it also drew a veto threat from Trump .
Wyden , who co-sponsored the failed amendment in the Senate , withdrew his support , saying in a statement that it “ flatly contradicted the intent ” of his amendment in the Senate , and urged the House to consider his version .
The Rules Committee adjourned Wednesday morning without advancing the amendment , meaning that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that passed the Senate .
Lofgren said that she would have preferred an amendment not be limited to U.S. persons , but that it was necessary in order to secure a vote from House leadership on the motion .
“ I know concerns have been raised about limiting this to U.S. persons , ” Lofgren said Wednesday .
“ In my ideal amendment , I would not have included this limitation , but I was led to understand that a compromise might be necessary in order to get a vote.
” David Segal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which lobbied against the legislation , said that Pelosi and Schiff ’ s apparent own goal came from too close of an alliance with the national security establishment , which , he argued , “ has led them to line up against reforms that could have passed , and in support of a bill that harms Americans , might not pass , and would likely be vetoed.
” Trump , too , trashed the compromise , which led House Republican leadership to urge its members Wednesday morning to oppose the bill en masse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along , Pelosi has no path to passage without Republican support .
The opposition of a vast majority of Republicans gifted the CPC a fresh opportunity to flex its muscles in the House , after a disappointing effort to influence coronavirus relief packages .
Trump ’ s turn against surveillance authorities has produced enough Republican opposition that a concerted effort by progressives could block passage .
Rep. Mark Pocan , D-Wisc.
, a CPC co-chair , told The Intercept that the caucus was urging its 92 members to vote no .
“ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not protect people in the United States from warrantless surveillance , especially their online activity including web browsing and internet searches , ” said Pocan and fellow co-chair Pramila Jayapal , D-Wash. , in a statement later on Wednesday afternoon .
“ Despite some positive reforms , the legislation is far too narrow in scope and would still leave the public vulnerable to invasive online spying and data collection.
” On Wednesday , Pelosi was insistent the vote should go forward .
“ With an intelligence bill , with a FISA bill , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Pelosi said .
“ But in all humility , we have to have a bill.
” By late Wednesday evening , the vote was postponed .
Update : May 27 , 2020 , 9:40 p.m .
ET This piece has been updated to reflect that the House ’ s vote , scheduled for Wednesday evening , has been postponed .

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a rare veto threat, promising to reject a renewal of his surveillance authorities if approved by the House of Representatives.
If the FISA Bill is passed tonight on the House floor, I will quickly VETO it. Our Country has just suffered through the greatest political crime in its history. The massive abuse of FISA was a big part of it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
The Senate had previously approved the renewal through 2023, and it had been expected to become law with little controversy. But earlier this month, the Republican-led Senate failed to pass a measure that would limit the FBI’s ability to access web-browsing history and other online activity without a warrant by a single vote — a vote that Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray missed.
Civil libertarians, led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., pushed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow an up-or-down vote on that amendment, then send it back to the Senate, where it could pass with all senators voting. Pelosi instead told Lofgren to negotiate with House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the New York Times reported, and Schiff watered down the legislation. The result drew criticism from the left and right — and Trump’s attention to the fight.
Had Pelosi agreed to a simple up-or-down vote on the Senate amendment, it likely would have passed easily, and reauthorization of the broad surveillance authorities, along with some real reforms, would be on their way to becoming law.
The House was initially scheduled to vote late Wednesday evening, but postponed the vote. Leaders from both the Republican minority and the Congressional Progressive Caucus said they were whipping members to vote no. Even if it passes, Trump has promised to veto it. Trump, of course, has been known to break promises, so Pelosi’s gamble may still pay off.
For the first time in the history of the House, the lower chamber allowed for remote proxy voting, as dozens of members of Congress stayed away from the floor amid the coronavirus pandemic. The vote is expected to be close, the result of furious last-minute lobbying by civil libertarians on both the left and right, as well as opposition from Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
The politics of surveillance, even in normal times, scramble the typical partisan tendencies, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Pelosi, and Schiff often aligning on questions about the breadth and depth of state power to surveil and track Americans. Opposing those congressional leaders is the civil liberties community, which includes both progressives and conservatives with libertarian leanings, but which rarely can muster a majority in Congress for its defense of the Bill of Rights.
The civil liberties argument has gained new traction in recent months, with Trump’s outrage over the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court’s handling of surveillance of his campaign, particularly the deeply flawed application for a warrant to surveil former adviser Carter Page. Although it was initially designed to review intelligence surveillance applications for suspected agents of a foreign power, after 9/11 the secretive FISA court signed off on expansive interpretations of surveillance law. Now, as Trump feels victimized by it, he and his allies have found religion on the question.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, a famously eccentric conservative in the House, remarked at a Rules Committee hearing Wednesday morning on the oddity of House Democrats fighting to give Trump surveillance powers he wasn’t asking for, despite his clear determination to use law enforcement for his own political ends.
“It sure seems strange to me. For Democrats to vote for this reauthorization, even with these amendments, would have to be sort of saying, we have so much trust in Donald Trump and the people he’s appointed that they would never lie to a FISA court. They would never just go after their enemies. We feel like he can be trusted and so can all the people he’s appointed,” he said. “We know he’s cleaned out some folks at the Justice Department, FBI, I mean, think about it.”
The unlikely coalition of Trump and the civil libertarians was enough to stall the legal reauthorization of the FBI’s “call detail records” program, an amended version of the Patriot Act that allowed federal law enforcement to collect phone records. The authority lapsed in March after McConnell was unable to force through an unamended reauthorization.
Earlier this month, the Senate reauthorized those programs with additional restrictions, but an amendment that would limit the government’s ability to collect internet browsing history without a warrant fell one vote short of the 60 votes it needed to pass.
Pelosi then instructed Schiff to come up with a compromise version with Lofgren, rather than allow an up-or-down vote on the Senate language. The result of those negotiations was an amendment, introduced by Lofgren and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, that reintroduced the restriction on collecting browsing history, but applies it only to U.S. persons.
However, Lofgren’s and Davidson’s amendment leaves up to interpretation what federal agents should do when they don’t know ahead of time whether U.S. persons’ information would be swept up in information requests — giving the secretive FISA court room to allow bulk collection and task the FBI with purging U.S. person information afterward. The agreement broke down when Schiff and Lofgren offered different interpretations of their measure.
“If the government wants to use a dragnet and order a service provider to produce a list of everyone who has visited a particular website, watched a particular YouTube video, or made a particular search query, it cannot seek that order unless it can guarantee that the business records returned will contain no U.S. person IP addresses, or other U.S. person identifiers,” Lofgren said at a Rules Committee hearing Wednesday morning. That interpretation was enough to win the backing of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
In a statement, Schiff said that the amendment prohibited orders that “to seek to obtain” U.S. persons’ browsing information, leaving open the possibility that the FBI could seek to collect visitor logs from a website that contained Americans, as long as that was not their primary purpose.
Statements like that, noted Charlie Savage in the Times, can be used by judges to determine legislative intent and confounded what had appeared to be a settled issue.
That led to pushback from both the left and right, and the renewed attention not only risked reforms that had been won in the Senate and failed to win support for the amendment Schiff advocated for, but it also drew a veto threat from Trump. Wyden, who co-sponsored the failed amendment in the Senate, withdrew his support, saying in a statement that it “flatly contradicted the intent” of his amendment in the Senate, and urged the House to consider his version.
The Rules Committee adjourned Wednesday morning without advancing the amendment, meaning that the House will vote on the version that passed the Senate.
Lofgren said that she would have preferred an amendment not be limited to U.S. persons, but that it was necessary in order to secure a vote from House leadership on the motion. “I know concerns have been raised about limiting this to U.S. persons,” Lofgren said Wednesday. “In my ideal amendment, I would not have included this limitation, but I was led to understand that a compromise might be necessary in order to get a vote.”
David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, which lobbied against the legislation, said that Pelosi and Schiff’s apparent own goal came from too close of an alliance with the national security establishment, which, he argued, “has led them to line up against reforms that could have passed, and in support of a bill that harms Americans, might not pass, and would likely be vetoed.”
Trump, too, trashed the compromise, which led House Republican leadership to urge its members Wednesday morning to oppose the bill en masse. If roughly 1 in 5 go along, Pelosi has no path to passage without Republican support.
The opposition of a vast majority of Republicans gifted the CPC a fresh opportunity to flex its muscles in the House, after a disappointing effort to influence coronavirus relief packages. Trump’s turn against surveillance authorities has produced enough Republican opposition that a concerted effort by progressives could block passage.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., a CPC co-chair, told The Intercept that the caucus was urging its 92 members to vote no.
“We have grave concerns that this legislation does not protect people in the United States from warrantless surveillance, especially their online activity including web browsing and internet searches,” said Pocan and fellow co-chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., in a statement later on Wednesday afternoon. “Despite some positive reforms, the legislation is far too narrow in scope and would still leave the public vulnerable to invasive online spying and data collection.”
On Wednesday, Pelosi was insistent the vote should go forward. “With an intelligence bill, with a FISA bill, no one is ever really that happy,” Pelosi said. “But in all humility, we have to have a bill.” By late Wednesday evening, the vote was postponed.
Update: May 27, 2020, 9:40 p.m. ET
This piece has been updated to reflect that the House’s vote, scheduled for Wednesday evening, has been postponed.


theintercept--2020-05-29--Twitter Restricts Access to Trump's Threat to Shoot Minneapolis Protesters

threat to have protesters in Minneapolis shot by the military , issued in a tweet early Friday morning , prompted Twitter to restrict access to the president ’ s message , ruling that it violated the social network ’ s policy against “ glorifying violence.
” In the tweet , posted just before 1 a.m. Eastern Time , Trump first wrote that “ THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd , ” the black man whose killing on Monday by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his throat as he gasped for air has prompted protests and rage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soldiers open fire unless local authorities in Minneapolis regain control , adding , “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts.
” The tweet was soon covered by an initial warning message , which said the president ’ s comments violated the platform ’ s rules , but had not been removed because “ it may be in the public ’ s interest ” to be able to read them .
As Twitter noted in its explanation of why it had added “ a public interest notice ” to the tweet , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ older Americans who might remember where they first heard it .
The words were spoken in 1967 by Walter Headley , a racist Miami police chief , who told reporters that his officers would open fire if looting broke out in the city ’ s predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood .
Headley repeated the phrase the following year when protests in Liberty City devolved into riots during that summer ’ s Republican National Convention in Miami , which nominated Richard Nixon for the presidency .
The protests were prompted , in part , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop and frisk ” policy targeting black citizens and his preference for “ shotguns and dogs ” in the policing of a community demanding civil rights .
Trump ’ s reference to Headley ’ s comments was unlikely to have been accidental .
In 2016 , Trump told a New York Times reporter that his own acceptance speech was inspired by Nixon ’ s in 1968 .
“ I think what Nixon understood is that when the world is falling apart , people want a strong leader whose highest priority is protecting America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The 60s were bad , really bad .
And it ’ s really bad now .
Americans feel like it ’ s chaos again.
” “ This Tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line , its connection to violence , and the risk it could inspire similar actions today , ” the company said in a thread explaining its decision .
“ We ’ ve taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance.
” In line with Twitter ’ s policy on tweets that it would have removed from the platform but for the public interest exception , the company added that “ engagements with the Tweet will be limited .
People will be able to Retweet with Comment , but will not be able to Like , Reply or Retweet it.
” The mayor of Minneapolis , Jacob Frey , was asked to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and an earlier one calling him “ very weak , ” at a news conference early on Friday .
Frey shook his head in disbelief as the tweets were read to him .
“ Well , let me say this , ” Frey responded .
“ Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions .
Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis .
Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis .
We are strong as hell .
Is this a difficult time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be damn sure that we ’ re going to get through this.
” Twitter ’ s decision to draw a line for Trump came just hours after he issued an executive order threatening to make it easier for users to file lawsuits against the company for perceived political bias .
The order was a transparent act of retaliation against the company for having appended a fact-checking note to a tweet in which Trump made a range of false claims about plans for California to make it easier for registered voters to vote by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jaffer , the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University , told Adweek that the executive order itself violated the First Amendment because it was an act of government retaliation .
“ The order was born unconstitutional because it was issued in retaliation for Twitter ’ s fact-checking of President Trump ’ s tweets , ” Jaffer said .
Jaffer ’ s colleague Katie Fallow , a senior attorney at the First Amendment Institute , noted that unusual language that appeared to have been added to the order without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motive even clearer.
” “ Twitter now selectively decides to place a warning label on certain tweets in a manner that clearly reflects political bias , ” one part of the order reads .
“ As has been reported , Twitter seems never to have placed such a label on another politician ’ s tweet.
” What ’ s odd , as Fallow notes , is that the order references “ another politician ” without saying that the first politician it is concerned with here is Trump , although that is quite clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subtle hint is that the order throws in a gratuitous attack on the company ’ s failure to label tweets by Rep. Adam Schiff , who led the impeachment of Trump , in which he supposedly “ mislead his followers by peddling the long-disproved Russian Collusion Hoax , and Twitter did not flag those tweets .
”

Donald Trump’s bloodthirsty threat to have protesters in Minneapolis shot by the military, issued in a tweet early Friday morning, prompted Twitter to restrict access to the president’s message, ruling that it violated the social network’s policy against “glorifying violence.”
In the tweet, posted just before 1 a.m. Eastern Time, Trump first wrote that “THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd,” the black man whose killing on Monday by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his throat as he gasped for air has prompted protests and rage. The president then threatened to have soldiers open fire unless local authorities in Minneapolis regain control, adding, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
The tweet was soon covered by an initial warning message, which said the president’s comments violated the platform’s rules, but had not been removed because “it may be in the public’s interest” to be able to read them.
Readers who clicked past that screen were able to read the inflammatory tweet, but with the warning message above it.
As Twitter noted in its explanation of why it had added “a public interest notice” to the tweet, that last phrase was even uglier to older Americans who might remember where they first heard it. The words were spoken in 1967 by Walter Headley, a racist Miami police chief, who told reporters that his officers would open fire if looting broke out in the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods.
According to a contemporary news report, from December 28, 1967, when Headley announced that he was declaring war on “young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign,” he added, “we don’t mind being accused of police brutality.” The goal of his crackdown on Miami’s black community, Headley said, was to unleash “an epidemic of law and order.”
Headley repeated the looting and shooting threat the following year when protests in the Liberty City neighborhood devolved into riots during that summer’s Republican National Convention in Miami, which nominated Richard Nixon for the presidency.
As NPR reports, the pro-segregation presidential candidate George Wallace also used the looting and shooting phrase on the campaign trail in 1968.
The protests in Miami that summer were prompted, in part, by anger over Headley’s “stop and frisk” policy targeting black citizens and his preference for “shotguns and dogs” in the policing of a community demanding civil rights.
As Jonathan Myerson Katz noted, the protests turned violent when a white man drove through a black rally in a car with a “Wallace for President” bumper sticker on the evening of Aug. 7, 1968. The police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. Three people were killed by the police and a black reporter for The Washington Post, Hollie West, was arrested in Liberty City by officers who refused to acknowledge his press credentials.
Trump’s reference to Headley and/or Wallace was unlikely to have been accidental. In 2016, Trump told a New York Times reporter that his own acceptance speech was inspired by Nixon’s in 1968. “I think what Nixon understood is that when the world is falling apart, people want a strong leader whose highest priority is protecting America first,” Trump said. “The 60s were bad, really bad. And it’s really bad now. Americans feel like it’s chaos again.”
“This Tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today,” the company said in a thread explaining its decision. “We’ve taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance.”
In line with Twitter’s policy on tweets that it would have removed from the platform but for the public interest exception, the company added that “engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Retweet with Comment, but will not be able to Like, Reply or Retweet it.”
The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, was asked to respond to the president’s tweet, and an earlier one calling him “very weak,” at a news conference early on Friday.
Frey shook his head in disbelief as the tweets were read to him.
Mayor Frey responds to the President’s tweets: Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis. Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell.. pic.twitter.com/BtMyjrA6on — Acyn (@Acyn) May 29, 2020
“Well, let me say this,” Frey responded. “Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis. Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we’re going to get through this.”
Later on Friday, after the police officer seen on video killing Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, the mayor described that “as an essential first step” in a tweet of his own.
The man who killed George Floyd has been charged with murder. This an essential first step on a much longer road toward justice and healing our city. — Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 29, 2020
Trump, who had been expected to address the killing of Floyd, and his own provocative taunt, at a White House news conference, instead confined his remarks to inflaming tensions with China, by changing the terms of the U.S. relationship to Hong Kong and declaring a full withdrawal from the World Health Organization, before departing without taking a single question.
The President escapes his own press conference to evade questions on Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/e7jKzlvlTL — Acyn (@Acyn) May 29, 2020
His administration did, however, devote some time to trying to dodge the Twitter restriction, by using the White House Twitter feed to quote the president’s inflammatory rhetoric. That White House tweet was soon restricted too, with the same warning label.
Anger over Trump’s rhetoric spread widely on Friday. Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot called Trump’s comment “profoundly dangerous.”
Lori Lightfoot not holding back on Trump! pic.twitter.com/rNOVT8D42N — ???????? ?? ? (@_MarcusD3_) May 29, 2020
“His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges,” she added. “And we cannot, absolutely not, let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words, it begins with ‘F’ and it ends with ‘you.’ I will not remain silent while this man cynically tries to turn this incredibly painful moment into one for his own political gain.”
Twitter’s decision to draw a line for Trump came just hours after he issued an executive order threatening to make it easier for users to file lawsuits against the company for perceived political bias. The order was a transparent act of retaliation against the company for having appended a fact-checking note to a tweet in which Trump made a range of false claims about plans for California to make it easier for registered voters to vote by mail during the ongoing pandemic.
Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told Adweek that the executive order itself violated the First Amendment because it was an act of government retaliation. “The order was born unconstitutional because it was issued in retaliation for Twitter’s fact-checking of President Trump’s tweets,” Jaffer said.
“The First Amendment protects Twitter’s right to respond to the president’s speech, including by attaching warnings to tweets that glorify violence,” Jaffer said in a statement sent to The Intercept. “Fundamentally this dispute is about whether Twitter has the right to disagree with, criticize, and respond to the president. Obviously, it does. It is remarkable and truly chilling that the president and his advisers seem to believe otherwise.”
Jaffer’s colleague Katie Fallow, a senior attorney at the First Amendment Institute, noted that unusual language that appeared to have been added to the order without much review, “make the retaliatory motive even clearer.”
Exhibit one million in 1st Amendment claim of government retaliation. https://t.co/tYq8cfFhXS — Katie Fallow (@KatieFallow) May 28, 2020
“Twitter now selectively decides to place a warning label on certain tweets in a manner that clearly reflects political bias,” one part of the order reads. “As has been reported, Twitter seems never to have placed such a label on another politician’s tweet.”
What’s odd, as Fallow notes, is that the order references “another politician” without saying that the first politician it is concerned with here is Trump, although that is quite clear from the context. Another less than subtle hint is that the order throws in a gratuitous attack on the company’s failure to label tweets by Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment of Trump, in which he supposedly “mislead his followers by peddling the long-disproved Russian Collusion Hoax, and Twitter did not flag those tweets.”
Updated: Friday, May 29, 12:45 p.m. PDT
This article was updated with a new headline and more details about the events on 1968, and to report the arrest of the police officer who killed George Floyd, as well as new comments from the mayors off Minneapolis and Chicago, and President Donald Trump’s failure to take any questions during a White House news conference.


theintercept--2020-05-29--Mehdi Hasan and Ilhan Omar on Police Brutality and the Murder of George Floyd

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The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar about systemic racism, the militarized police response to protests in Minneapolis — which is in Omar’s district — and what real justice looks like for George Floyd’s family and black and brown communities across the country.
Live: Monday, June 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET


theintercept--2020-05-29--The George Floyd Killing in Minneapolis Exposes the Failures of Police Reform

the police killing of George Floyd engulfed Minneapolis for a third night on Thursday , and solidarity protests broke out in cities across the country , there was both a sense that the country had been through this before — too many times — and that the stakes had begun to shift .
In the Twin Cities , where Floyd ’ s killing at the hands of officer Derek Chauvin was just the latest in a series of high-profile police killings in the last five years , those who took to the streets in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ misconduct and brutality by local police had brought many protests and much talk of reform .
But Floyd ’ s death was an urgent reminder that here , as across the country , police reform had failed , and that the time had come for something different .
“ They call for training , but are they doing the training , and is the training being internalized ?
” said Moriah Stephens , a special education teacher , as she stood near a highway overpass in St. Louis Park , the suburb where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cars honked in support .
“ I can tell you 50 times over that my life matters and I would like you to speak out about the fact that my life matters , and you can hear me say that 50 times , but are you going to do it ?
” “ I ’ m tired of being angry , and I ’ m tired of being tired , and I ’ m tired of seeing new hashtags , ” she added , referring to a recent wave of police killings and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I ’ m lucky I ’ m alive .
I can stand here .
I can shout .
There ’ s part of me that ’ s like , I need to use what I have — I have my life and I need to use it , but I ’ m also tired of doing that.
” Stephens , who had joined protests after the police killings of Philando Castile in a Minneapolis suburb in 2016 , said her father was currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment .
She was reluctant to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak that had already taken nearly 1,000 lives in Minnesota , and like many protesters was wearing a mask and standing at a distance from others .
“ I ’ m not supposed to be around people .
But that ’ s where I ’ m at.
” In Floyd ’ s neighborhood , the signs people carried recalled protests following earlier police killings while also raising new demands .
They said “ I can ’ t breathe ” — George Floyd ’ s last words as Chauvin kneeled on his neck for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the last words of Eric Garner , who was killed six years ago by a New York police officer , igniting a movement against police violence of which Floyd ’ s death is just the latest chapter .
After Garner ’ s death , as after the death of Michael Brown the same year in Ferguson , Missouri , and those of scores of other black men and women killed by police since then , protesters called for the officers to be held accountable .
But there were new calls at Thursday ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Community Not Police ” — that tapped into a more recent and growing movement demanding not so much police reform and accountability as abolition , through the defunding of police departments .
“ In the wake of George Floyd ’ s murder by MPD officer Derek Chauvin , and the Minneapolis Police Department ’ s escalated violence against the city ’ s grieving Black community , Minneapolis is in desperate need of visionary leadership , ” the Minneapolis group Reclaim the Block wrote in a statement calling on the city council to defund @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time to invest in a safe , liberated future for our city .
We can ’ t afford to keep funding MPD ’ s attacks on Black lives.
” There were signs some local leaders were starting to see it the same way .
Under pressure from students , the University of Minnesota announced this week that it would scale back its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department .
The University of Minnesota was the first public institution to cut ties with MPD after the killing of George Floyd .
On Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issued a resolution to terminate the school district ’ s contract with the Minneapolis Police Department .
And protesters called for more action to curtail the role of police altogether .
“ The system is not broken .
It ’ s doing exactly what it was designed to do ; that ’ s what people need to wrap their heads around , ” said Imani Jackson , who grew up in St. Louis Park .
“ We need to create an entire new one.
” Reform Is Not the Answer In the hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was clear that the national conversation around police violence , set in motion by the killings of Brown and Garner in 2014 , had finally begun to change .
Chauvin , as well as three officers who had stood by without intervening as he killed Floyd , were promptly fired .
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo , who took the helm of the department three years ago following backlash over another police killing , called for an FBI investigation .
Mayor Jacob Frey called for the officers to be charged .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with third-degree murder and manslaughter — a charge that means the officer had no intent to kill and left some protesters disappointed .
“ People weren ’ t having it no more , ” said Sam Martinez , an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar .
“ The system knew that.
” A number of law enforcement and elected officials across the country also quickly denounced the Minneapolis officers ’ actions — public criticism that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago .
In New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ echoes of Eric Garner ’ s and where at least 72 protesters were arrested last night in a solidarity demonstration , Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter to condemn Floyd ’ s killing .
“ What we saw in Minnesota was deeply disturbing .
It was wrong , ” tweeted Shea .
“ This is not acceptable ANYWHERE.
” “ I am horrified , ” tweeted de Blasio .
“ George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight and the man who killed him was a police officer.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s comments stood in stark contrast with their defense of Daniel Pantaleo , the officer who killed Garner .
Pantaleo was fired last summer , five years after Garner ’ s death .
“ It took him five years to take any action in the Eric Garner case , and now he wants immediate action in Minneapolis , ” said Alex Vitale , who runs the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College , echoing widespread criticism of de Blasio ’ s statement .
Even the National Fraternal Order of Police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country and a staunch defender of officers involved in killings of unarmed people in the past , released a statement criticizing the Minneapolis officers ’ actions .
“ Based on the by-stander ’ s video from this incident , we witnessed a man in distress pleading for help , ” the group wrote in a statement that was soon echoed by many local chapters of the union .
“ There is no doubt that this incident has diminished the trust and respect our communities have for the men and women of law enforcement.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ condemnations , including by law enforcement , were more a matter of political expediency than anything else .
“ I think that is politically convenient for all of them , ” said Kandace Montgomery , director of Black Visions Collective , a Minnesota-based racial justice group , which is affiliated with Reclaim the Block and the Movement for Black Lives .
“ Until they actually offer real solutions and offer real policies that address the inherent violence of police departments , it ’ s all talk.
” “ That ’ s all well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to me until they actually start making concrete changes in how they do business in their police department , ” echoed Neill Franklin , a retired police major and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership .
Franklin pointed to the long history of complaints of abuse and excessive force filed against the officers responsible for Floyd ’ s death — and to the fact that reports of police misconduct , nationwide , are kept from public view largely because of union contracts that protect officers no matter their conduct .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ now voicing their disgust about what happened in Minneapolis .
Well , how about you now move to make these personnel records public ?
” said Franklin .
“ If you really are concerned as a police leader in what ’ s happening , not just with Mr. Floyd , but case after case , rework the union contracts .
… We need to change these laws so that we have the ability to take swift action.
” But while calling for greater transparency — including a national database tracking officers terminated for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ move from department to department — Franklin acknowledged efforts to reform police had largely fallen short .
“ Reform is not the answer , we ’ ve been trying it for decades , and as you can see , we ’ re just not getting anywhere , ” he said .
“ We need a new paradigm of policing in the United States .
It needs to be completely dismantled and reconstructed , not changing a policy here or there.
” “ We are still working with a model of policing in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this country , that was born out of a white supremacy in this country , ” he added .
“ That ’ s why reform won ’ t work and that ’ s why we haven ’ t made any traction whatsoever on this issue of race , as we ’ ve seen with the death of Mr. Floyd.
” In fact , the swift condemnation of the Minneapolis officers was largely a testament to the deep crisis policing has been facing for years .
That crisis was only exacerbated by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has left communities reeling and feeling that their government , across institutions , has failed them in unprecedented ways .
“ Police have realized that their basic legitimacy is being challenged here , and they had better figure out some way to get out from under this , ” said Vitale , who wrote a book that has both anticipated and informed the growing national movement to defund police .
“ So if that means throwing a few individual officers under the bus , they are happy to do that.
” The reluctance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Floyd ’ s killing was yet another sign of how little has changed .
“ There is other evidence that doesn ’ t support a criminal charge , ” said County Attorney Mike Freeman , who compared Floyd ’ s death to that of Freddie Gray , who died in the custody of Baltimore police in 2015 — a rare case in which the officers involved were charged with murder 12 days after the incident .
That prosecution was ultimately unsuccessful .
“ It was a rush to charge , it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said of Gray ’ s case , despite the fact that Floyd ’ s death , unlike Gray ’ s , was clearly caught on camera .
“ When it ’ s the average citizen who gets arrested and charged for something , the arrest is made immediately as soon as you have probable cause for an arrest , ” noted Franklin , the retired cop .
In Ferguson , the top prosecutor ’ s refusal to charge officer Darren Wilson in 2014 led to weeks of protests as a grand jury sifted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bring charges .
In Minneapolis , it took three days of protests for Chauvin to be arrested and charged .
Some protesters set several buildings on fire , including the Third Precinct headquarters , where Chauvin worked .
And as they did after protests erupted in Ferguson , Missouri , police responded to protests of Floyd ’ s death with tear gas and rubber bullets , at one point spraying tear gas out of a moving vehicle onto an apparently peaceful crowd .
Several protesters , as well as some journalists , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Walz mobilized the National Guard , and after Chauvin was arrested , Frey set an 8 pm curfew for the weekend .
President Donald Trump , as Obama did after Gray ’ s killing in Baltimore , called protesters who looted stores “ thugs ” — though unlike Obama , Trump also called for them to be shot .
In fact , Michael Brown ’ s death in Ferguson ushered in an era of police reform that saw federal and local governments invest heavily in police training , including on racial bias , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials promised would bring about accountability .
Floyd ’ s death was yet another reminder that those reforms have failed .
“ This is happening after five years of being told , ‘ Don ’ t worry , we ’ re getting the training , ’ ” said Vitale .
“ The de-escalation training , the anti-bias training , the mindfulness training … why aren ’ t things getting any better ?
” As evidence mounts of the failures of police reform , some departments and unions are beginning to embrace calls for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who they continue to insist are not representatives of their institutions as a whole .
But while protesters continue to call for individual officers to be arrested and prosecuted , there is a growing recognition that police misconduct will continue , no matter how many reforms politicians enact , as long as policing exists at the present scale .
“ They are desperate .
They see that they ’ ve got a major credibility problem and that there are active campaigns to take their money away , ” said Vitale .
“ This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way to fix policing is completely naive and misguided .
Even when they are convicted , as rare as that is , there ’ s really no evidence that this feeds back into changes in how policing is done.
” Reducing the size of police departments by curbing their resources , he and others argue , will be far more effective at reducing police violence than any costly effort to improve the police .
“ These ‘ defund and fund alternatives ’ kinds of movement are much more threatening to police chiefs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are bending over backwards to try to get out ahead of this thing , ” said Vitale .
“ People in the movement are shifting : They are not calling for body cameras and more training .
More and more people are like , ‘ Fuck that , take their money away.
’ ” The movement against police brutality took off in Minnesota after police killed Jamar Clark in 2015 .
The 24-year-old black man was shot in the head by a pair of officers who said they had acted in self-defense , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wake of his death , community members shut down Interstate 94 and occupied the 4th Precinct in North Minneapolis for more than two weeks .
Despite intensive organizing by groups like the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar , an internal investigation by the Minneapolis police department found that the two officers who killed Clark did not so much as violate a department policy .
Since then , local movements have pushed for justice for the families of victim after victim of police violence in Minnesota .
Among those killed was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pulled over by St. Anthony police in the suburb of Falcon Heights in 2016 , whose girlfriend began livestreaming after an officer shot him as Castile reached for his wallet .
In 2017 , Justine Ruszczyk , also known as Justine Damond , a 40-year-old white woman , was approaching a Minneapolis police car to report a potential sexual assault when a startled police officer shot and killed her .
And in 2018 , body camera footage revealed Minneapolis police chasing Thurman Blevins , a 31-year-old black man who they said was carrying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death .
Jeronimo Yanez , the officer who killed Castile , was acquitted , and prosecutors declined to file charges against the officers who killed Blevins .
Mohamed Noor , who killed Ruszczyk , was sentenced to 12 years in prison — a sentence that some felt only came because Ruszczyk was white and Noor is black .
Her family was awarded a record $ 20 million settlement .
At least a dozen police reform bills have failed to make meaningful progress in the state legislature since 2015 .
The most recent effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a task force that included police as well as anti-police-brutality organizers .
After a series of public hearings , the group released a list of 28 proposals for reform in February , including creating a specialized unit in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for investigating instances of deadly force .
Then Covid-19 hit , and the follow-up actions required by the state legislature stalled .
On the heels of Michael Brown ’ s death in Ferguson and of a series of other high-profile police killings , in 2014 Minneapolis became one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Building Community Trust and Justice — a multimillion-dollar program that was the Obama administration ’ s response to the national call for police accountability .
The initiative , widely replicated in police departments across the country , promoted a “ community based ” approach to policing in response to criticism of so-called broken windows policing and New York-style stop-and-frisk .
“ The whole idea was that if police had implicit bias training , so more money for training police , and were using technology for more accountability , and that if police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re interacting with the community , that that will promote a better idea of policing , and more cooperation with police , ” said Nancy Heitzeg , a sociology professor at St. Catherine University in Minneapolis , who has studied the initiative .
“ That was the theory , ” she said .
“ And what does it say about the limits of reform that the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis police department could be part of a multi-year , multimillion-dollar national project to enhance police community relations , and after all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” After years of investment in improved policing with no results to show for it , “ the conversation has changed , ” she added .
“ There ’ s much more of a public awareness and conversation about abolition , and what that means and what that might look like .
… I think people were radicalized by Jamar Clark and Philando Castile .
And then they saw the contradictions around Justine Damond.
” Montgomery , the director of Black Visions Collective , said that organizers are tired of just calling for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past a conversation around prosecuting the police and individual officers — that doesn ’ t change anything .
It doesn ’ t prevent another Philando Castile or George Floyd , ” said Montgomery .
“ To me and many of my comrades , police reform is irrelevant.
” Some demands have shifted to community control .
Organizer Sam Martinez told The Intercept that the Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar wants a board similar to a city council or school board to run the police : controlling its budget , approving union contracts , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the board would have to be fundamentally different from previous civilian police review councils that law enforcement has mostly ignored .
For his part , Mayor Jacob Frey , who critiqued police during an election campaign that took place in the aftermath of Ruszczyk ’ s killing , increased the police budget last year by more than $ 8 million , part of an effort to put more officers on the street .
He has called his brand of police reform “ community-oriented ” policing , where more officers would build stronger relationships @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local police union has maintained powerful sway over the fate of the mayor ’ s tepid reform efforts .
This summer , Frey banned police officers from participating in warrior-style trainings that promote an attitude that lethal threats to police are everywhere .
Yanez , the officer who killed Castile , had participated in one such training .
In response , Minneapolis police union head Bob Kroll , an avid Trump supporter , stated that the union would offer the training free to any officer who wanted it .
Montgomery argues that defunding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ For too long we have invested a massive amount of money in an institution that continues to prove itself to be failing and to be inadequate to address the safety needs of our community , ” said Montgomery .
“ Defunding is about allocating the abundance of resources we do have to things that have been proven to work ” — like housing , health , and education .
On Friday morning , organizers with Reclaim the Block delivered a petition to Minneapolis city council members , demanding that they agree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , cut the current budget by $ 45 million to help manage Covid-19 shortfalls , invest in community-led health and safety strategies , and work to compel the police department to stop inflicting violence on community members .
The elected officials were given a deadline of 8 a.m. Saturday to respond .
“ My greatest hope is that our city council , our mayor , folks across the country take this opportunity to look at solutions that actually keep us safe and away from the police , ” said Montgomery .
“ My @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something that looks like justice but won ’ t change our future and won ’ t guarantee that we won ’ t have to be doing this in a couple of weeks or months or years .
”

As protests over the police killing of George Floyd engulfed Minneapolis for a third night on Thursday, and solidarity protests broke out in cities across the country, there was both a sense that the country had been through this before — too many times — and that the stakes had begun to shift.
In the Twin Cities, where Floyd’s killing at the hands of officer Derek Chauvin was just the latest in a series of high-profile police killings in the last five years, those who took to the streets in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic were tired and exasperated. Years of misconduct and brutality by local police had brought many protests and much talk of reform. But Floyd’s death was an urgent reminder that here, as across the country, police reform had failed, and that the time had come for something different.
“They call for training, but are they doing the training, and is the training being internalized?” said Moriah Stephens, a special education teacher, as she stood near a highway overpass in St. Louis Park, the suburb where Floyd had lived, waving as passing cars honked in support. “I can tell you 50 times over that my life matters and I would like you to speak out about the fact that my life matters, and you can hear me say that 50 times, but are you going to do it?”
“I’m tired of being angry, and I’m tired of being tired, and I’m tired of seeing new hashtags,” she added, referring to a recent wave of police killings and other racist incidents across the country. “I’m lucky I’m alive. I can stand here. I can shout. There’s part of me that’s like, I need to use what I have — I have my life and I need to use it, but I’m also tired of doing that.”
Stephens, who had joined protests after the police killings of Philando Castile in a Minneapolis suburb in 2016, said her father was currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. She was reluctant to go out in the middle of a Covid-19 outbreak that had already taken nearly 1,000 lives in Minnesota, and like many protesters was wearing a mask and standing at a distance from others. “I’m not supposed to be around people. But that’s where I’m at.”
In Floyd’s neighborhood, the signs people carried recalled protests following earlier police killings while also raising new demands. They said “I can’t breathe” — George Floyd’s last words as Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than seven minutes, but also the last words of Eric Garner, who was killed six years ago by a New York police officer, igniting a movement against police violence of which Floyd’s death is just the latest chapter. After Garner’s death, as after the death of Michael Brown the same year in Ferguson, Missouri, and those of scores of other black men and women killed by police since then, protesters called for the officers to be held accountable. But there were new calls at Thursday’s protests — such as “Fund Community Not Police” — that tapped into a more recent and growing movement demanding not so much police reform and accountability as abolition, through the defunding of police departments.
“In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by MPD officer Derek Chauvin, and the Minneapolis Police Department’s escalated violence against the city’s grieving Black community, Minneapolis is in desperate need of visionary leadership,” the Minneapolis group Reclaim the Block wrote in a statement calling on the city council to defund the police department. “Now is the time to invest in a safe, liberated future for our city. We can’t afford to keep funding MPD’s attacks on Black lives.”
There were signs some local leaders were starting to see it the same way. Under pressure from students, the University of Minnesota announced this week that it would scale back its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department. The University of Minnesota was the first public institution to cut ties with MPD after the killing of George Floyd. On Friday afternoon, Minneapolis public schools board members issued a resolution to terminate the school district’s contract with the Minneapolis Police Department. And protesters called for more action to curtail the role of police altogether.
“The system is not broken. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do; that’s what people need to wrap their heads around,” said Imani Jackson, who grew up in St. Louis Park. “We need to create an entire new one.”
Reform Is Not the Answer
In the hours immediately after Floyd’s death, it was clear that the national conversation around police violence, set in motion by the killings of Brown and Garner in 2014, had finally begun to change. Chauvin, as well as three officers who had stood by without intervening as he killed Floyd, were promptly fired. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who took the helm of the department three years ago following backlash over another police killing, called for an FBI investigation. Mayor Jacob Frey called for the officers to be charged. On Friday, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter — a charge that means the officer had no intent to kill and left some protesters disappointed.
“People weren’t having it no more,” said Sam Martinez, an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar. “The system knew that.”
A number of law enforcement and elected officials across the country also quickly denounced the Minneapolis officers’ actions — public criticism that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
In New York City, where Floyd’s death carried echoes of Eric Garner’s and where at least 72 protesters were arrested last night in a solidarity demonstration, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter to condemn Floyd’s killing. “What we saw in Minnesota was deeply disturbing. It was wrong,” tweeted Shea. “This is not acceptable ANYWHERE.” “I am horrified,” tweeted de Blasio. “George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight and the man who killed him was a police officer.”
De Blasio’s and Shea’s comments stood in stark contrast with their defense of Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who killed Garner. Pantaleo was fired last summer, five years after Garner’s death.
“It took him five years to take any action in the Eric Garner case, and now he wants immediate action in Minneapolis,” said Alex Vitale, who runs the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, echoing widespread criticism of de Blasio’s statement.
Even the National Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country and a staunch defender of officers involved in killings of unarmed people in the past, released a statement criticizing the Minneapolis officers’ actions. “Based on the by-stander’s video from this incident, we witnessed a man in distress pleading for help,” the group wrote in a statement that was soon echoed by many local chapters of the union. “There is no doubt that this incident has diminished the trust and respect our communities have for the men and women of law enforcement.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey fired four police officers following the killing of George Floyd in their custody. Photo: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images
But critics warned that the public condemnations, including by law enforcement, were more a matter of political expediency than anything else. “I think that is politically convenient for all of them,” said Kandace Montgomery, director of Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based racial justice group, which is affiliated with Reclaim the Block and the Movement for Black Lives. “Until they actually offer real solutions and offer real policies that address the inherent violence of police departments, it’s all talk.”
“That’s all well and good, but it means nothing to me until they actually start making concrete changes in how they do business in their police department,” echoed Neill Franklin, a retired police major and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Franklin pointed to the long history of complaints of abuse and excessive force filed against the officers responsible for Floyd’s death — and to the fact that reports of police misconduct, nationwide, are kept from public view largely because of union contracts that protect officers no matter their conduct.
“There are police chiefs who are now voicing their disgust about what happened in Minneapolis. Well, how about you now move to make these personnel records public?” said Franklin. “If you really are concerned as a police leader in what’s happening, not just with Mr. Floyd, but case after case, rework the union contracts. … We need to change these laws so that we have the ability to take swift action.”
But while calling for greater transparency — including a national database tracking officers terminated for misconduct so they wouldn’t just move from department to department — Franklin acknowledged efforts to reform police had largely fallen short.
“Reform is not the answer, we’ve been trying it for decades, and as you can see, we’re just not getting anywhere,” he said. “We need a new paradigm of policing in the United States. It needs to be completely dismantled and reconstructed, not changing a policy here or there.”
“We are still working with a model of policing in this country that was born out of slavery in this country, that was born out of a white supremacy in this country,” he added. “That’s why reform won’t work and that’s why we haven’t made any traction whatsoever on this issue of race, as we’ve seen with the death of Mr. Floyd.”
In fact, the swift condemnation of the Minneapolis officers was largely a testament to the deep crisis policing has been facing for years. That crisis was only exacerbated by the current health and economic emergency, which has left communities reeling and feeling that their government, across institutions, has failed them in unprecedented ways.
“Police have realized that their basic legitimacy is being challenged here, and they had better figure out some way to get out from under this,” said Vitale, who wrote a book that has both anticipated and informed the growing national movement to defund police. “So if that means throwing a few individual officers under the bus, they are happy to do that.”
The reluctance of prosecutors to charge the officers responsible for Floyd’s killing was yet another sign of how little has changed. “There is other evidence that doesn’t support a criminal charge,” said County Attorney Mike Freeman, who compared Floyd’s death to that of Freddie Gray, who died in the custody of Baltimore police in 2015 — a rare case in which the officers involved were charged with murder 12 days after the incident. That prosecution was ultimately unsuccessful. “It was a rush to charge, it was a rush to justice,” Freeman said of Gray’s case, despite the fact that Floyd’s death, unlike Gray’s, was clearly caught on camera.
“When it’s the average citizen who gets arrested and charged for something, the arrest is made immediately as soon as you have probable cause for an arrest,” noted Franklin, the retired cop.
In Ferguson, the top prosecutor’s refusal to charge officer Darren Wilson in 2014 led to weeks of protests as a grand jury sifted through evidence in the case before declining to bring charges. In Minneapolis, it took three days of protests for Chauvin to be arrested and charged. Some protesters set several buildings on fire, including the Third Precinct headquarters, where Chauvin worked. And as they did after protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, police responded to protests of Floyd’s death with tear gas and rubber bullets, at one point spraying tear gas out of a moving vehicle onto an apparently peaceful crowd. Several protesters, as well as some journalists, were arrested. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz mobilized the National Guard, and after Chauvin was arrested, Frey set an 8 p.m. curfew for the weekend. President Donald Trump, as Barack Obama did after Freddie Gray’s killing in Baltimore, called protesters who looted stores “thugs” — though unlike Obama, Trump also called for them to be shot.
In fact, Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson ushered in an era of police reform that saw federal and local governments invest heavily in police training, including on racial bias, and in technology like body cameras that officials promised would bring about accountability. Floyd’s death was yet another reminder that those reforms have failed.
Police face off with demonstrators outside the police station as protests continue in the wake of the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Oct. 22, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“This is happening after five years of being told, ‘Don’t worry, we’re getting the training,’” said Vitale. “The de-escalation training, the anti-bias training, the mindfulness training … why aren’t things getting any better?”
As evidence mounts of the failures of police reform, some departments and unions are beginning to embrace calls for individual accountability for “bad cops” who they continue to insist are not representatives of their institutions as a whole. But while protesters continue to call for individual officers to be arrested and prosecuted, there is a growing recognition that police misconduct will continue, no matter how many reforms politicians enact, as long as policing exists at the present scale.
“They are desperate. They see that they’ve got a major credibility problem and that there are active campaigns to take their money away,” said Vitale. “This whole idea of jailing killer cops as a way to fix policing is completely naive and misguided. Even when they are convicted, as rare as that is, there’s really no evidence that this feeds back into changes in how policing is done.”
Reducing the size of police departments by curbing their resources, he and others argue, will be far more effective at reducing police violence than any costly effort to improve the police. “These ‘defund and fund alternatives’ kinds of movement are much more threatening to police chiefs, which is why I think they are bending over backwards to try to get out ahead of this thing,” said Vitale. “People in the movement are shifting: They are not calling for body cameras and more training. More and more people are like, ‘Fuck that, take their money away.’”
The Conversation Has Changed
The movement against police brutality took off in Minnesota after police killed Jamar Clark in 2015. The 24-year-old black man was shot in the head by a pair of officers who said they had acted in self-defense, a story some witnesses disputed. In the wake of his death, community members shut down Interstate 94 and occupied the 4th Precinct in North Minneapolis for more than two weeks. Despite intensive organizing by groups like the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, an internal investigation by the Minneapolis police department found that the two officers who killed Clark did not so much as violate a department policy.
Since then, local movements have pushed for justice for the families of victim after victim of police violence in Minnesota. Among those killed was Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black motorist pulled over by St. Anthony police in the suburb of Falcon Heights in 2016, whose girlfriend began livestreaming after an officer shot him as Castile reached for his wallet. In 2017, Justine Ruszczyk, also known as Justine Damond, a 40-year-old white woman, was approaching a Minneapolis police car to report a potential sexual assault when a startled police officer shot and killed her. And in 2018, body camera footage revealed Minneapolis police chasing Thurman Blevins, a 31-year-old black man who they said was carrying a gun, and shooting him to death. Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who killed Castile, was acquitted, and prosecutors declined to file charges against the officers who killed Blevins. Mohamed Noor, who killed Ruszczyk, was sentenced to 12 years in prison — a sentence that some felt only came because Ruszczyk was white and Noor is black. Her family was awarded a record $20 million settlement.
A niece of Jamar Clark protested with a photograph of the two Minneapolis police officers who were involved in Clark’s murder on Oct. 15, 2016, in Minneapolis. Star Tribune via Getty Images
At least a dozen police reform bills have failed to make meaningful progress in the state legislature since 2015. The most recent effort began last July, with the appointment of a task force that included police as well as anti-police-brutality organizers. After a series of public hearings, the group released a list of 28 proposals for reform in February, including creating a specialized unit in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for investigating instances of deadly force. Then Covid-19 hit, and the follow-up actions required by the state legislature stalled.
On the heels of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson and of a series of other high-profile police killings, in 2014 Minneapolis became one of six cities to pilot the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice — a multimillion-dollar program that was the Obama administration’s response to the national call for police accountability. The initiative, widely replicated in police departments across the country, promoted a “community based” approach to policing in response to criticism of so-called broken windows policing and New York-style stop-and-frisk.
“The whole idea was that if police had implicit bias training, so more money for training police, and were using technology for more accountability, and that if police officers were more respectful when they’re interacting with the community, that that will promote a better idea of policing, and more cooperation with police,” said Nancy Heitzeg, a sociology professor at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, who has studied the initiative.
“That was the theory,” she said. “And what does it say about the limits of reform that the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis police department could be part of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar national project to enhance police community relations, and after all of that, here we are?”
After years of investment in improved policing with no results to show for it, “the conversation has changed,” she added. “There’s much more of a public awareness and conversation about abolition, and what that means and what that might look like. … I think people were radicalized by Jamar Clark and Philando Castile. And then they saw the contradictions around Justine Damond.”
Montgomery, the director of Black Visions Collective, said that organizers are tired of just calling for prosecutions. “We’re moving past a conversation around prosecuting the police and individual officers — that doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t prevent another Philando Castile or George Floyd,” said Montgomery. “To me and many of my comrades, police reform is irrelevant.”
Some demands have shifted to community control. Organizer Sam Martinez told The Intercept that the Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar wants a board similar to a city council or school board to run the police: controlling its budget, approving union contracts, and deciding disciplinary actions. Martinez says the board would have to be fundamentally different from previous civilian police review councils that law enforcement has mostly ignored.
For his part, Mayor Jacob Frey, who critiqued police during an election campaign that took place in the aftermath of Ruszczyk’s killing, increased the police budget last year by more than $8 million, part of an effort to put more officers on the street. He has called his brand of police reform “community-oriented” policing, where more officers would build stronger relationships with community members.
Meanwhile, the local police union has maintained powerful sway over the fate of the mayor’s tepid reform efforts. This summer, Frey banned police officers from participating in warrior-style trainings that promote an attitude that lethal threats to police are everywhere. Yanez, the officer who killed Castile, had participated in one such training. In response, Minneapolis police union head Bob Kroll, an avid Trump supporter, stated that the union would offer the training free to any officer who wanted it.
Montgomery argues that defunding police is the only meaningful way forward. “For too long we have invested a massive amount of money in an institution that continues to prove itself to be failing and to be inadequate to address the safety needs of our community,” said Montgomery. “Defunding is about allocating the abundance of resources we do have to things that have been proven to work” — like housing, health, and education.
On Friday morning, organizers with Reclaim the Block delivered a petition to Minneapolis city council members, demanding that they agree to never again increase the police funding, cut the current budget by $45 million to help manage Covid-19 shortfalls, invest in community-led health and safety strategies, and work to compel the police department to stop inflicting violence on community members. The elected officials were given a deadline of 8 a.m. Saturday to respond.
“My greatest hope is that our city council, our mayor, folks across the country take this opportunity to look at solutions that actually keep us safe and away from the police,” said Montgomery. “My fear is that we will settle for something that looks like justice but won’t change our future and won’t guarantee that we won’t have to be doing this in a couple of weeks or months or years.”