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City of Honolulu cancels plan to pay grieving widow of unarmed black man murdered by police $1.5 million settlement after 40 armed officers show up at protest

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Hawaii police protest widow receiving settlement

Honolulu City Council has decided not to pursue a $1.5 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement over the 2021 police killing of a former South African rugby star, after strong opposition from law enforcement and city officials . The civil case will now go to court.

The settlement was approved by town attorney and the council’s legal committee after three years of mediation and negotiations with lawyers representing the widow of Lindani Myeni, an unarmed black man who was shot 4 times during a temporary and violent encounter with Honolulu police responding to a call. a 911 call regarding an alleged burglary attempt.

Hawaii police widow protests after settlement
Lindsay Myeni testified before the City Council (Lindani Myeni Facebook/ScreenshotOlelo TV/2024)

However, town council unexpectedly delayed a vote to approve the settlement last month after greater than 40 armed and uniformed officers, led by the police chief, showed up in council chambers in protest while Myeni’s widow, Lindsay Myeni, other residents and city leaders expressed emotional testimony for and against the settlement.

City Council President Tommy Waters then canceled last week’s scheduled full council vote on the settlement, saying the matter ought to be decided in court, Hawaii News Now reported.

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Waters said discussion of the case at the October board meeting “devolved into what resembled a heated civil trial, with speakers presenting impassioned arguments and facts from both sides. It is clear that the legal framework and procedural safeguards of the judicial system are best placed to deal with this case.”

Honolulu prosecutor Steve Alm, who previously declined to charge the officers and told council members last month that police acted in self-defense once they shot Myeni, in an announcement expressed satisfaction that the plea vote was rejected.

“The resolution of this case would also mean that the officers involved were motivated by racial prejudice,” he said. “There was no evidence of this.”

Bridget Morgan-Bickerton, a lawyer representing the Myeni family, called the overwhelming police presence at the October city council meeting a “bullying and intimidation” tactic intended to influence the council to change its decision on the settlement. Civilbeat reported.

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“And it is clear that it did,” Myeni’s attorney Jim Bickerton told Atlanta Black Star, noting that in September the council’s legal committee voted 8-1 to approve the settlement “after a detailed presentation of the facts by their own attorneys in a confidential meeting.” No latest facts have emerged. The only latest thing was the police showing up and making it clear how outraged they were that they couldn’t freely kill an unarmed black man.”

The wrongful death lawsuit alleged that the officers engaged in rash, unreasonable use of deadly force and that their actions were motivated by racial animosity toward Myeni, who’s Black.

Before the meeting, Myeni entered a multifamily Airbnb property and was told to leave by two residents of one of the properties. Myeni can have confused the property with a similar-looking temple round the corner or one other historic constructing, Bickerton said, noting that Myeni had a penchant for visiting historic sites in Hawaii.

The doorbell video shows Myeni casually taking off her shoes before entering the constructing while wearing a conventional Zulu headdress. Conversations between people inside are muffled. After leaving, Myeni said, “Sorry,” and quickly placed on his shoes.

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In any event, Myeni left peacefully when asked to achieve this, the suit claims.

Dash camera and body-worn video of the incident show officers arriving as Myeni stood within the driveway and a lady who was a guest at the property shouted: “It’s him! It’s him!”

The lawsuit states that since it was a dark, moonless night and the property was poorly lit, and the officers counting on the element of surprise didn’t use sirens or announce themselves as police officers, they then aimed blindingly vibrant Maglites at his face and ordered him to come down, Myeni probably mistook them for robbers.

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“Who are you? Who are you?” Myeni’s words might be heard at the start of the meeting within the bodycam footage.

His subsequent actions – lunging, grappling and punching officers, who burned and shot him – were self-defense, his attorneys argued, noting that between the primary time he punched Myeni and the officer who shot him the primary time.

“That’s an impossibly short time for any officer to assess that Lindani posed a significant risk of serious bodily injury,” Bickerton said, adding that Myeni was unarmed and standing about eight feet from Cpl. Garrick Orosco when Orosco shot Myeni within the stomach.

“And from that point on, as you know, we have maintained that because this was an unlawful use of force against an unarmed person, Lindani was justified in using deadly force in defense. You don’t shoot someone just because he knocked out two officers. You can attack him. You can beat him. You can use pepper spray. You can put three guys on him, but you don’t shoot him. So yes, after this Lindani is now fighting for her life. He realizes, “These guys are going to kill me.” I’m going to die tonight. He had every right to fight as hard as he could.

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In court documents, Officer Brent Sylvester said he fired the ultimate three-shot salvo that killed Myeni because he feared for Orosco’s life, who Myeni was lying on top of at the time and punched him within the face. Orosco suffered serious facial fractures and still has not returned to work.

Bickerton said police and the district attorney “created a false narrative” about conditions at the scene and the sequence of events that led Myeni to attack the officers.

“The bottom line is, until he got shot, he didn’t punch anyone in the face or break anyone’s bones,” Bickerton said. “So he got into an argument, in his opinion, with people he couldn’t identify because his lights blinded him and they didn’t tell him who he was.”

Bickerton claims the officers’ “aggressive and disrespectful” behavior towards Myeni was based on racial animosity. “It was very contrary to the way our officers usually conduct themselves with the word ‘Aloha.’ Knowing the culture as well as I do, if it had been a Japanese, Hawaiian, or Caucasian man, Officer Orosco would not have addressed him that way. There was no “Sir, this is the police, show your hands.” It was, “Get on the ground!” And “F-you,” after which just saying, “Shoot him.”

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Giving evidence at the City Council hearing, prosecutor Alm disputed the plaintiffs’ claims that Myeni didn’t know his attackers were police officers.

“I don’t see the police doing anything wrong,” he said. “I was told they were being criticized for not saying, ‘Police, police.’ They are wearing uniforms that everyone can see,” he said.

Bickerton, frustrated that the district attorney was “meddling in a civil matter,” responded last week: by publishing video from a police body camera showing Cpl. Orosco repeatedly said within the moments after the fatal shooting that he “didn’t see” the suspect.

If police officers cannot see well, which means Myeni cannot either, Bickerton said, adding that police have a legal obligation to report on themselves and their goal in such unclear circumstances.

The lawsuit seeks damages and compensation for Lindsay Myeni and her two children, who’re currently 3 and 5 years old. Her lawyers initially asked for $5 million at the beginning of the settlement process, then agreed to accept $1.5 million after lengthy negotiations with town, managed by a former judge and mediator.

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Now that the settlement has been invalidated, Bickerton said: “It is for the jurisdiction to decide whether to award damages and, if so, how much. However, in proposing this award, I am certainly guided by the many large awards I have seen across the country. Because this is the only way to reduce the risk to everyone’s safety from a police force that feels irresponsible and can simply wield weapons willy-nilly. An award of significant damages would discourage this type of conduct, so we will certainly ask for it.”

There will probably be a hearing Thursday to set a trial date, which is able to likely happen inside a number of weeks within the second half of next 12 months, Bickerton said.


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This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Donald Trump under fire after he was caught on Hot Mic

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In some ways, the White House tried to manage the narrative on Wednesday.

After taking on the rotation of reporters allocated to cover the day by day schedule of the president – work previously carried out by Association of White House Corresponders -President Donald Trump went a step further, asking one in every of the reporters of the brand new within the press pool, together “Fox and Friends” by Lawrence Jones to say to the viewers: “We did a great job, please. Ok? “

“Say it was unbelievable,” said the president after casting the primary meeting of the office of the second term on February 26. The White House was already cut off, however the Audio Associated Press channel remained and captured the moment of a hot microphone.

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US President Donald Trump, to whom the Golf legend of Tiger Woods joined, speaks through the party of the Foreign Black History within the Eastern White House on February 20, 2025 in Washington. (Photo of Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Jones, who has already lobbyed a number of inquiries to Softball for the president (including “Who is your favorite member of the office?”) I didn’t disappoint.

“The president chose members of the office who can really present their ideas and their ideas. He does not have to worry that they will leave and blow up everything-they are on the same side, “said the co-host Steve Doocy.

“I also think it’s great,” Jones replied. “They are guys who normally – and girls – are used to communicate their ideas. They divide the president’s vision and communicate it in such a concise way. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it in administration. “

“It is people who show how uncertain this president is,” said one in every of the critics who responded to a viral report on the moment of Caugh-on-Camera. “He knows that most of them we watched, right?” Someone said.

In fact, the meeting was dominated by Elon Muskwho opened with a weak joke, saying: “Well, I should simply call myself modest technical support,” and from there he initiated. Photos showed that the president was napping through the presentation of Musk.

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Referring to his work as “necessary”, Musk presented one other federal agency within the Doge chopping block. “We spend lots within the defense department, but we spend that over a trillion dollars for interest. If this happens, the country goes, it is going to turn into de facto bankrupt – he said.

Jones was not the one Trump friendly correspondent who joined the press pool on Thursday.

The correspondent of Brian Glenn’s chief house from Real America, perhaps essentially the most absorbing the Networks Pro-Trump network, and the correspondent of the White House Newsmax, James Rosen, were a part of Gaggle, replacing older media, including the Associated Press, which was blocked within the events of the White House for refusing to call the Mexican bay with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexican America after the president announced a change performed by the manager.

Meanwhile, the Association of White House correspondents announced that it might now not coordinate the common range of the White House until the dispute over unlimited access to the media is sustained. Also on Wednesday, the president announced He will sue reporters who use the common practice of anonymous quotes in unfavorable stories or books about it. Such quotes are sometimes used to cause greater honesty from the source, which otherwise might be afraid to talk.

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What does all this mean for residents? Less difficult questions and a more favorable relationship for the president, whose crossing of the management has now not checked by Congress.

This explains why this clip He was on the web on Thursday with “The Simpsons”. When the owner of the nuclear plant, Montgomery Burns, decides to use for the governor, his campaign suggests dinner with the Simpsons family to assist the energy director involved with voters from the working class. Lisa Simpson is forced to ask This is an issue From a guest dinner of a guest:

“Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have a fugitive momentum. Why are you so popular?”

Get used to it.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicwjeliniu

(Tagstotransate) Donald Trump

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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USAID cuts are already hitting countries around the world. Here are 20 projects that have been closed

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Countries around the world already feel the influence of Trump’s administration decision to eliminate over 90% of foreign assistance contracts and reduce the financing of around $ 60 billion. A number of hours after the announcement at the starting of this week, The programs have been closed, Leaving tens of millions of individuals without access to life -saving care.

About 10,000 contracts with the American International Development Agency were accomplished on Wednesday, in letters sent to non -governmental organizations around the world.

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Letters said that the programs were rejected “for the convenience and interests of the US government”, based on an individual with knowledge of the content that they spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly on this subject.

Many programs are present in the fragile countries that are highly depending on American help with a purpose to support healthcare systems, nutrition programs and stop hunger.

Here, several key projects around the world, which AP confirmed, have been closed:

1: In Congo, the motion of a bunch of help against hunger will stop to treat tens of hundreds of malnourished children from May, which, based on a charity, will make children put children in “deadly danger”.

2: According to the Committee on Cadastral Risk Management in Ethiopia in Ethiopia, help stopped for over 1 million people. The Ministry of Health was also forced to terminate the contract of 5,000 employees throughout the country, focused on stopping HIV and malaria, vaccination and assist in a difficult situation in coping with the trauma of war.

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3: In Senegal, the largest malaria project was closed. According to a USAID worker, who was not authorized to talk over with the media. Mother and youngsters’s health and nutrition services were also closed. They provided look after tens of hundreds of pregnant women and treatment that would prevent acute malnutrition.

4: In South Sudan, the International Emergency Committee closed a project that provides access to prime quality health and nutrition services over 115,000 people.

5: The program closed by the Norwegian refugee council in Colombia left 50,000 people without saving their lives, including in the northeast, where the growing violence caused a humanitarian crisis once a generation. This included food, shelter, clean water and other basic items for people displaced in the region.

6: According to the International Rescue Committee, 90 community cuisines closed in the capital in the torn war of Sudan, leaving greater than half 1,000,000 people without consistent access to food.

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7: According to Bangladesh, 600,000 women and youngsters will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, reproductive health services and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.

8. In small critical assistance, equivalent to access to water, food and health services for over 270,000 people, based on a help group, which didn’t wish to be listed for fear of repression.

9. Over 400,000 people in North Burkina Faso lost access to services equivalent to water. According to the help group, which didn’t want to get replaced for fear of a repressiveist.

File-Somalians who escaped from the affected areas are sitting in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of the capital of Mogadishu, Somalia on February 4, 2022 (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Abdi Warsameh, File)

10. In Somalia, 50 health centers serving over 19,000 people were closed per thirty days because health care employees are not paid, based on the American help group.

11. In Ukraine, based on money, humanitarian programs, which last yr reached 1 million people, were suspended, based on the spokesman for the Secretary General of the UN.

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12. Hundreds of mobile health teams and other services were suspended in Afghanistan, they concerned 9 million people, based on the UN spokesperson.

13. According to the UN Secretary General in Syria in Syria, for about 2.5 million people in the northeast of the country ceased to supply services. Also in the north, a dozen or so health clinics, including the primary hospital recommending this area, closed, said doctors without borderlines.

14. In Kenya, over 600,000 people living in drought -harassed areas and chronic sharp malnutrition will lose their access to the rescue lifetime of food and nutrition, based on Mercy Corps.

Officials say that Trump's administration plans to lower the entire part of the USAID work

15. At Haiti, 13,000 people lost access to dietary support, in accordance with actions against hunger.

16. In Thailand, hospitals help around 100,000 Refugees from Myanmar According to the Border Consortium of the Help Group, closed.

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17. According to the International Emergency Committee in Nigeria, 25,000 extremely malnourished children will stop to receive food assistance until April.

18. A program to enhance access to warning systems for disabled people for disabled people was detained in the Philippines.

19. In Vietnam, a program helping disabled people through training carers and providing medical care at home stopped, in accordance with humanity and integration.

20. In Yemen, 220,000 resettled people will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, treatment of rape and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.

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The Associated Press Writers Sylvie Corbet got here in Paris, France, Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Turkey, Evelyn Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, Thalia Beata in New York and Edith Lederer in the United births contributed to this report.

Health supporters in Africa are worried that Trump will introduce a

(tagstransate) @AP

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Politics and Current

Speaker of the New York Council Adrienne Adams is considering Burmoral Run

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NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams ‘Seriously Considering’ Mayoral Run


The speaker of the City Council in New York Adrienne Adams submitted documents to the financial council of the New York campaign to be able to create a campaign committee in the upcoming mayor’s race.

“We currently have chaos and we have reduced confidence in the other side of the town hall,” Adams said in an interview with Gothamist. “That is why I am seriously considering the campaign to become the first woman of the mayor of New York.”

In addition to becoming the first woman chosen as the mayor, Adams could be the first black woman and the first speaker of the city council who took the highest elected place in New York.

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confirmed that Adams would do it Wait until the next week to make the final decision to launch. It is expected to offer the address of the “city state” on March 4.

“I wasn’t looking for it; It was not in my plans – she said, adding, “I believe someone have to be the soul of the city.”

A possible Adams offer for the mayor comes amongst the precipitation with the current mayor, Eric Adams. Adams, who is not related to the mayor, recently joined other city leaders, asking him to subside because of the corruption scandal.

If he joins the race, Adams will join the crowded, qualified field. Comptroller City Brad Lander and his predecessor Scott Stringer, Queens Assemblymber Zohran Mamdani, senator of the state Queens Jessica Ramos and senator of State Brooklyn Zellor Myrie.

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There were also rumors that the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was considering returning to politics and applying for the mayor.

A recent survey with the Honan Strategy Group showed that Cuomo has a most important role in a democratic basic race of 38%. Mamdani is second at 12%, and the mayor of Adams is in third place with 10%. The Adams speaker received only 2% support from survey respondents.

(Tagstranslate) Mayoral Race (T) Adrienne Adams (T) New York City (T) Eric Adams

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