Politics and Current
North Carolina police officer dragged 66-year-old black woman from car and pinned her to wet concrete for parking violation, video shows
Marilyn Jean Fields, a 66-year-old black woman from North Carolina known in her community for her volunteer work, admits she broke the law when she parked in the hearth lane outside a Piggly Wiggly supermarket on a rainy day to buy a loaf of bread — together with several other cars that were also illegally parked that day.
But she said that doesn’t excuse a 22-year-old Kinston police officer named Karl “Blake” Davis, who dragged her from his car, slammed her against it, then placed her face down on the asphalt, sat on her and ordered her to “stop resisting.”
“I’m not resisting,” Fields may be heard saying in a video recorded by a witness because the officer rests his full body weight on her.
The incident occurred on July 18 at about 6:50 p.m. when Fields drove to a food market within the pouring rain to buy a loaf of bread and noticed other cars parked in the hearth lane, a typical occurrence in town, she said.
However, upon entering the shop, an worker used a bullhorn to inform customers to move their cars out of the hearth lane because Kinston police had already arrived and were issuing tickets.
Fields said she ran out of the shop without buying the bread to move her car, telling herself she would just buy it one other day.
When she got outside, she noticed a Kinston police officer issuing a ticket to one other driver, so she headed toward her car, hoping to drive away.
However, as she pulled out of the hearth lane and headed toward the parking lot exit, the identical police officer stopped in front of the car and signaled for her to stop.
He then demanded her driver’s license so he could issue her a ticket. Fields said the officer spoke to her in an aggressive tone, like she was a “dog,” and asked the officer if he spoke to all residents in an identical tone.
But before she knew it, he had pulled her out of the car, pressed her against the body, and laid her face down on the wet asphalt, pressing his knee against her back.
The witness began recording the altercation because the officer was on top of her, telling her to stop resisting and put her hands behind her back. But she said it was difficult for her to put one hand behind her back since it was underneath her body and he was leaning on her along with his full weight.
She was then taken to the police station, where an officer left her car within the parking lot with the engine running, the doors open and her purse lying on the passenger seat.
Community members who knew Fields contacted her family to allow them to know concerning the car, so that they went to the parking lot and secured the car, Fields told Atlanta Black Star in a phone interview.
Police statement
The Kinston Police Department said officers were initially called out to cope with a driver who had locked his keys in his car, but later noticed cars parked in the hearth lane and began issuing tickets.
The following statement was published on Facebook On July 19, describing his version of events:
Fields’ nephew, who goes by the Facebook name King Yari, said Kinston police have an extended history of racial profiling within the town of about 20,000 people, most of whom are black.
But despite the fact that the U.S. Census shows that Kinston is greater than 64 percent black and lower than 25 percent white, there are only a handful of black officers on the police department, her nephew said.
In 2019, Kinston police officers met with community members to discuss ways to address the systemic racism that has led to inequality between whites and blacks, according to TESTIMONIES.
In 2017, black residents of Kinston filed a lawsuit against town, alleging that town intended to demolish historic black homes while ignoring white homes as a part of a program to expropriate them.
The case was dismissed at lower levels before reaching the North Carolina Supreme Court, which ruled in July that the lower court had erred in its decision and subsequently reversed the case and remanded it for a brand new trial, meaning it would return to the appellate court so the justices can correct the error, according to Capital B News
Politics and Current
A Washington police officer who shot a black man with his hands in the air over a stop sign, then dragged his body and slammed it into the ground, remains on the force despite an $8 million payout to his family
The city of Lakewood, Washington, has reached an agreement with the family of a 26-year-old black man who was shot thrice by an officer who claimed he was acting in self-defense.
He said Joquin died on May 1, 2020, after Officer Michael Wiley stopped him for running a stop sign. The $8 million settlement announced last week is coming to an end federal civil rights lawsuit Joquin’s parents filed a criticism against the officer, who claimed their son had lunged for a gun lying on the floor of his vehicle.
According to the lawsuit, Wiley approached Joquin’s automobile with a gun drawn and told him, “Shut up or you’ll get shot.” The lawsuit states that Joquin, as Wiley requested, had his hands up when he was shot. After the shooting, Wiley allegedly pulled Joquin out of the automobile and “threw him to the ground.”
Wiley was involved in one other expensive suit v. Lakewood in 2017. He was one in every of three officers found by a jury answerable for the death of one other young black man, Leonard Thomas, for a record $15.1 million. A post-trial settlement was reached in exchange for $13 million and a promise not to appeal.
Thomas was holding his 4-year-old son when he was shot in the stomach by a Lakewood SWAT sniper. Wiley reportedly announced “Jackpot!” Testimony shows he spoke on the police radio after Thomas was shot and later praised his colleague for taking the “million-dollar f–king shot,” according to trial testimony. Thomas bled to death, begging cops not to take his boy.
Evidence from Thomas’ trial “revealed that Wiley was an exceptionally aggressive officer who had an insufficient understanding of the use of force, was willing to use weapons, explosives and unnecessary force, and who demonstrated a striking lack of concern for life,” Joquin filed the family’s lawsuit.
Wiley remains in service. Joquin’s lawsuit alleged that Lakewood police were “unreasonable and reckless” in continuing to employ him regardless that a jury in Thomas found that he had violated the victim’s civil rights.
A previous attempt to dismiss Joquin’s lawsuit was blocked by the US District Judge David Estudillo. Wiley, the judge wrote in his August order, had a “documented history of using force against people he helped detain.”
He said there was enough evidence for the jury to find that “Joquin did not engage in furtive or threatening behavior during the encounter.”
Dawn Kortner, Joquin’s mother, he said in a 2021 interview, she never believed Wiley’s account.
“I feel like it’s overkill,” Kortner said. “He took steps he shouldn’t have taken. I believe he was too aggressive and I would like him to be held accountable for what he did. He shouldn’t receive a pension and sit at home and enjoy his children when we will not enjoy Said.
Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office Attorney Mary Robnett declined to press charges against Wiley for Joquin’s death.
In a letter to Lakewood Police Chief Mike Zaro, Robnett cited Joquin’s “unpredictable and dangerous behavior” in running a stop sign in front of police on a busy road. She also concluded that bullet trajectory evidence showed that Joquin didn’t raise his hands when Wiley shot him.
Wiley was also cleared for internal examination.
In a statement, Lakewood officials said: “Any life cut short is a tragedy and we can only imagine the suffering and pain they experience. The decision to reach an agreement was made with the best outcome for all parties involved in mind.”
Politics and Current
Without Kamala Harris in the White House, Democrats are turning to Hakeem Jeffries
As Democrats proceed to lick their wounds following Kamala Harris’ stunning defeat to President-elect Donald Trump, all eyes are on Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), whose party in Congress has little likelihood of regaining the majority in the House of Representatives.
If Democrats manage to win the House, it’s going to give the party its only hope of slowing Trump’s agenda. Jeffries, a 54-year-old congressman from Brooklyn, New York, also became Speaker of the House, making history as the first African American to hold the position, just two steps of separation in the line of presidential succession.
As Donald Trump begins to appoint members of his second administration’s Cabinet to be tasked with implementing his agenda – which incorporates proposed mass deportations, the elimination of racial equity programs and big cuts in federal spending – Democrats’ ability to play defense will probably be crucial to mitigating this. , which they see as potentially critical blows to vulnerable communities.
Democrats view Jeffries, the current House minority leader, as a key leader of the party, especially if his caucus can gain a majority. This would involve the commission’s control – which incorporates significant subpoena power – and shaping the federal budget. At the very least, it might enable Democrats to force Republicans to make concessions where possible.
As a six-term congressman known for sticking to his word, Jeffries is a respected and admired politician in the Democratic Party.
Payne said Jeffries, who represents a “generational turn” in the party, “has shown that he is a truly gifted communicator and communicator.” He added: “He has some different skill sets that other Democrats may not be able to. And I think that’s something that Democrats will really benefit from.
Payne continued if elected Speaker of the House, “(Jeffries) will become the most important Democrat in the country with any power. She is essentially taking over the mantle that Nancy Pelosi took on when she was re-elevated to speaker during Trump’s first presidency.”
But Payne cautioned that even when Democrats manage to amass a razor-thin majority in the House, it’s going to still be an uphill battle.
He noted that the caucus will include many Democrats “from districts where Donald Trump is popular.” “You still have to hold together a club that will come under cross-pressure from Donald Trump, who is more popular than he was four and eight years ago.”
At this point, Plaskett noted that Democrats would want to take a leaf out of her book as a member of Congress representing a U.S. territory.
“I have limited voting rights, so I understand what it means to punch above your weight,” said Plaskett, who said that being a political minority in Congress requires “cooperating with members of the Democratic caucus, as well as the Republican caucus when it is advantageous to do so for the interests of (our) voters.”
Policy
Democrats also see an incredible opportunity to strengthen Black political power in Washington with the elevation of Hakeem Jeffries.
“Him coming out as a black man from Brooklyn and being a major foil for Donald Trump — I think that’s important at a time like this,” Payne said.
But Congressman Clyburn cautions that Jeffries must overcome a few of the challenges Harris faced as the first woman and first person of color to function vice chairman.
“It’s a big burden that needs a lot of help to carry,” said the lawmaker who served as House majority whip and deputy Democratic leader.
“Kamala Harris suffered for this reason. I took it upon myself to check many individuals who kept telling me that she wasn’t this and he or she wasn’t that, she didn’t do that and he or she didn’t try this,” he recalled. “I’d ask them what number of women have been vice presidents before? She took office two months before you criticized her conduct.
As the first speaker of the Black House, Clyburn had doubts that Jeffries could be “allowed to get his sea legs… to master this job from day one.”
Seawright, the Democratic strategist, said Jeffries won’t only be speaker of the House but additionally leader of the entire national party, which he believes must “rebound, learn and grow as the next election cycles approach” in 2025 and 2026. The role Jeffries will play will probably be crucial “whether we win a majority or not.”
After the devastating defeat in the 2024 election, Seawright said Jeffries and other Democratic Party leaders need to rethink their message to voters.
Politics and Current
Donald Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff sparks outrage from CNN guest and others who remember Stephen Miller’s white nationalist views
President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime adviser and anti-immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy in his recent administration.
Fresh off a tumultuous election cycle, the nation’s eyes now turn to who Trump appoints to his Cabinet and keeps in his inner circles. The announcement of Miller’s nomination comes days after Trump announced that his campaign manager, Susan Wiles, can be his chief of staff.
Miller is a longtime member of Trump’s camp, serving as an in depth aide within the president-elect’s first campaign and a senior adviser in his first White House administration.
He helped shape rigid immigration deterrence policies during Trump’s first term, equivalent to separating migrant children from their parents and implementing a highly controversial travel ban on majority-Muslim countries.
Miller continued to give attention to this issue throughout the ultimate weeks of Trump’s second presidential campaign, assuring Americans of this mass deportations will probably be a top priority once the president-elect returns to office.
Miller made headlines in 2019 after he was discovered sending white nationalist literature and propaganda to news editors on the far-right news organization Breitbart. A former Breitbart author leaked over 900 emails to the location Southern Poverty Law Center revealing that several of Miller’s immigration policy proposals were modeled on extremist source material.
After Trump was removed from office in 2020, Miller founded and led the conservative organization America First Legal, which formed the premise of a broad anti-DEI movement, filing quite a few discrimination lawsuits alleging that “anti-white racism” was rampant in corporations and colleges and universities .
America First Legal was behind the litigation that led last summer to the Supreme Court’s landmark 6-3 decision declaring race-based affirmative motion college admissions policies unconstitutional.
NEW: Donald Trump is anticipated to call Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy, in keeping with CNN.
Miller is a robust supporter of secure borders and has repeatedly called for mass deportations.
Miller says he hopes deportations will increase 10-fold to greater than… pic.twitter.com/9gSFO7vcXc
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 11, 2024
In 2021, the group also filed a successful lawsuit looking for to dam a $29 billion program for restaurants run by women and minorities from going into effect. The organization argued that this system discriminated against white-owned businesses.
Many Trump supporters reacted positively as news of Miller’s recent White House post began to spread. There are also opposing reactions. CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer bristled on the news of the nomination.
“Well, that is what people voted for. I suggest that many individuals who voted for Donald Trump return and watch Stephen Miller’s many interviews and media appearances. And you see who he’s. He is a vile man, a racist and a xenophobe, and his family has disowned him,” Setmayer said on CNN’s news program Monday.
11/11/24 10:42 ET CNN Press Room Anchor Jim Acosta @acosta With/
CNN Senior Reporter Steve Contorno @stevecontorno
Founder of the Alliance for Black Equality Alvin Tillery
CEO of Seneca Project, @TaraSetmayer
Subject: Appointment of Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy pic.twitter.com/u1LcNrszRz
— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) November 11, 2024
Adding: “And that’s now who is near power within the White House, mainly number 2, next to Susie Wiles, within the ear of the president of the United States. Well, I suppose the upside is that no less than he won’t be DHS secretary or attorney general.
Miller’s role as deputy chief of staff for policy means he’ll work with Wiles and take responsibility for implementing Trump’s policy proposals.
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