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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.”

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.

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.

Trump voters remember when America was great.

They remember when smart, capable white men didn’t lose their jobs to unskilled diversity staff. They clearly remember when colleges admitted students based on “merit” slightly than affirmative motion. Before the anti-white “woke mob” began imposing “cancel culture”, black people didn’t at all times complain about racism, men had sex with women, transgender people didn’t exist, women didn’t have abortions, and Mexicans stayed in Mexico.

Except it never happened.

Even if this era of American greatness never happened, many white people. That’s why Trump based his entire presidential campaign solely on white fear, xenophobia and resentment. This is also why his chaotic, racist try and return to the White House was so successful. The recent president-elect has managed to tap into what white America wants most:

Size.

And in the first round, Donald Trump is elected attorney general Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

You should not be shocked that accused of human traffickingelection denial pro-criminal, anti-justice, single parent an adult black child could develop into the next attorney general. After all, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News commentator who was prevented from approaching the president by the Department of Defense because of his connections with extremist groupshe could develop into secretary of defense. Literally nine Indian tribes prohibited Trump’s election to Chief of Homeland Security from their Native American homelands. Right-wing extremist Stephen Miller will function deputy chief of staff policy and advises DHS in its fight against right-wing extremists. Trump desires to allow billionaire whose firms take advantage of the federal government increase the effectiveness of the federal government. To be fair, Musk shall be sharing the position of director of government efficiency with famous people fraud Vivek Ramaswamy. To convey power to the rest of the world, Trump selected Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

If any of the above worries you about America’s future, don’t fret. In America, being average and white is the first requirement for becoming great. In fact, to grasp how white mediocrity has develop into the default in Donald Trump’s plan to construct a white America team, all you have to do is have a look at organizing at the intersection of competitiveness, capitalism, and American exceptionalism.

I remember when the Dallas Cowboys were great.

As a kid growing up in the Eighties, the Cowboys made the Super Bowl almost yearly. Led by one of the best coaches in NFL history, Tom Landry’s team dominated skilled football. Thanks to their dominance, the team gained a nationwide fan base, cementing the franchise in skilled football history as “America’s Team.” That’s why I fell in love with the perfect example of sports exceptionalism – because they were the best. Ask anyone. They remember.

Except it never happened.

While I clearly remember the team of my youth appearing in lots of Super Bowls, they really won one championship before I became an adult. Worse still, I used to be probably too young to recollect the 1978 Super Bowl. The Cowboys weren’t even amongst the top 10 teams in the tournament Eighties. According to current mathematicsThe Buffalo Bills of the Nineteen Nineties were higher than the Cowboys in that decade of the Nineteen Nineties. Turns out “great” coach Tom Landry is in the rankings 37 all-time winning percentage and has never been named coach of the yr in his life. And apparently fans didn’t call the Cowboys “America’s Team.” The nickname comes from NFL Videos scenario.

But who cares about these “woke” facts? If you think that the band’s popularity is the result of marketing, selective amnesia, and bandwagoning, then you definately simply hate the Cowboys. If fans feel that their team is the best, that is what counts. That’s why Jerry Jones is the owner the most beneficial sports team in the world. And why does everyone hate Jerry Jones? Yes, his record as an owner was there average since purchasing the team in 1989.

Ultimately, he just desires to make the American team great again.

Yes, Donald Trump is principally the Jerry Jones of politics – a snake oil salesman masquerading as a business tycoon. They are each old men who’ve built fortunes despite ruining their businesses. They share a Love Down penises of male athletes and so they each hate Colin Kaepernick. They each want us to imagine that they’re smart and their sons are smarter. No Jones or Trump they appear to understand how the sun works. But to be fair, there are others. One of them is a racist who has aligned himself with anti-blackness time AND time AND time AND time Again.

The second is Donald Trump.

Despite their dismal track record as leaders, America cannot get enough of them. At the starting of each season’s campaign, their fans are convinced that they shall be great. On the other hand, it is not hard to imagine that Matt Gaetz knows anything about justice in the event you imagine that Dak Prescott will win the Super Bowl. I remember when Ezekiel Elliott was a real runner and Marco Rubio was a real conservative.

But that doesn’t suggest MAGA voters are silly. They are simply fans of their team, and I understand why people imagine that Donald Trump’s right-wing lineup could make America great again.

I assumed I lived in a country that elected a black woman president. I believed that racism, dementia and stupidity could be enough to disqualify a presidential candidate. I believed that white women would reject whiteness to guard their very own interests. I believed Latinos would do the same. I assumed democracy could defeat white supremacy. I truthfully believed that America could truly be great.

I used to be incorrect.

But I am unable to wait for the next season.

Joy Reid has joined a growing list of progressives saying goodbye to X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, which has tilted sharply to the fitting under the mega-billionaire’s leadership.

“It just wasn’t worth it,” said the MSNBC host, who boasted greater than 1.9 million followers. Reid said her departure has every little thing to do with Musk turning X into the News Max of social media – uncompromisingly pro-Trump.

NBC News reports X’s AI-powered trends section commonly promoted election conspiracy theories and coordinated attacks on Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the months leading as much as the election.

The exodus accelerated after Donald Trump regained the presidency. Since then, Musk has – literally – sided with the Republican standard-bearer and was elected co-chair of a commission to streamline government and dramatically cut federal spending.

“I have not published for a very long time. I simply didn’t need to post content that was purchased by the present owner,” Reid said in a press release. Video from TikTok announcing their breakup.

She claimed that she kept her account because she was afraid that “someone would try to take this name and use it for nefarious purposes.”

Reid asked her followers to affix her on BlueSky, created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

While Company Meanwhile, Instagram Threads claims to have surpassed 275 million lively users.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was one other major candidate for BlueSky. He published his farewell video at X, earlier Wednesday, saying the platform had lost its way.

“I loved interacting with all of you on Twitter and then X all these years, but it’s time for me to go,” Lemon said. “I used to believe it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency and free speech, but now I feel it is not serving that purpose.”

The Guardian, a leftist publication published in the UKwithdrawn from X earlier this week, citing “disturbing content” peppered with “far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”

Around the time Reid said goodbye, pop star Lizzo announced her departure from BlueSky, saying, “We’re leaving toxicity behind in 2024.”

MAGA users he reveled in retreat of the left.

“The Meltdown is hilarious,” one commenter wrote. “Wait until they realize no one cares and crawl back.”

“These leftists would rather escape the last four years than defend them…. Proving that you cannot defend what (sic!) cannot be defended,” trumpeted one other.

Meanwhile, actress Justine Bateman mocked the momentous statements made by public figures like Lemon.

“First a video about leaving, and now a written statement? This is more information than we received from Biden when he dropped out of the race,” Bateman he wrote.

But not only stars migrate from X.

“Every time I opened it, things were being thrown at me that made me feel bad,” Kara Wurtz, a 39-year-old financial executive from St. Louis, he said NBC News. “I noticed that from Tuesday to Wednesday I started seeing a lot more anti-woman things. And I said, “You know what? It’s personal. I’m done.”

When purchasing Twitter in April 2022, Musk promised that the web site wouldn’t take sides.

“For Twitter to be worthy of public trust, it must be politically neutral, which in reality means worrying the far right and the far left equally,” he added. he said.

Musk maintains that X is politically neutral.

“At Platform X, we are very strict about the principles of fair play, a level playing field and fairness to all parties,” he said this month at a town hall event in Pennsylvania. “We want both sides to say their piece and allow for a free debate.”

A spokesman for X wouldn’t say what number of users had left the platform, but indicated metrics revealing 942 million posts last week, an all-time record. David Carr, news and research editor at Likeweb, told NBC that a complete of greater than 115,000 people have had their platform deactivated since Election Day.

X may even see more accounts closed from Friday when a latest regulations for the availability of services goes into effect requiring all users to consent to their posts getting used to coach artificial intelligence.

Regardless of the numbers, it’s clear that X is well on its technique to becoming the subsequent right-wing echo chamber.

BlueSky, however, appears poised to emerge as a leftist enclave, which implies that after again the most important loser will probably be thought diversity.