Tag Archives: racism

Gunman targeting white men kills three in Fresno, California

A road is blocked by police tape after a multiple victim shooting incident in downtown Fresno, California, U.S. April 18, 2017. Fresno County Sheriff/Handout via REUTERS

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – A gunman who went by the nickname Black Jesus killed three white men in downtown Fresno, California, on Tuesday, and fired at another before he was taken into custody while shouting “Allahu Akhbar,” police said.

The suspect, 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad, was also wanted in connection with the fatal shooting last week of an unarmed security guard at a Motel 6 in Fresno, Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters at a press conference.

Dyer said Muhammad fired at least 16 rounds from a large-caliber handgun in less than a minute at four downtown Fresno locations at about 10:45 a.m. local time before he was spotted running through the streets by a police officer.

“Immediately upon the individual seeing the officer he literally dove onto the ground and was taken into custody and as he was taken into custody he yelled out ‘Allahu Akhbar,'” Dyer said. The term means “God is great” in Arabic.

“He does not like white people,” Dyer said, citing the suspect’s statements after being arrested and his Facebook postings. The chief said Muhammad, who is African American, used the nickname Black Jesus.

All four of the men killed on Tuesday were white, as was the security guard and the other man Mohammad shot at but missed.

Dyer said it was too early to rule out terrorism and that his department had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate, but portrayed the incident as “a random act of violence.”

“These individuals who were chosen today did not do anything to deserve what they got,” he said. “These were unprovoked attacks by an individual who was intent on carrying out homicides today, and he did that.”

Dyer said Muhammad had been identified quickly as the prime suspect in the Motel 6 shooting on April 13 and that police had been urgently seeking him across the Fresno area since then.

Fresno is an agricultural hub in California’s central valley, about 170 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Muhammad has a criminal history that includes weapons and drug charges and had spent time in state prison, Dyer said.

County government buildings were placed on lockdown during the shooting spree and residents were urged to shelter in place.

Local television images showed what appeared to be a body covered in a yellow tarp in a street near where police tape marked off several crime scenes.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman; Editing by Richard Chang)

Texas to consider Mexican-American textbook critics decry as racist

School bus

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – The State Board of Education in Texas is expected to hear testimony next week from critics of a new textbook for Mexican-American studies who say the tome is riddled with mistakes and perpetrates demeaning stereotypes.

The book’s publisher, run by an evangelical Christian and self-described Republican patriot, argues it is academically sound and is being targeted by those advancing a liberal political agenda.

A decision by the Texas State Board of Education to approve the book could have wide ramifications. The conservative board is responsible for buying 48 million textbooks a year, and volumes that win its support often are marketed by publishers to school districts nationally.

The textbook being considered at a hearing on Tuesday in Austin, titled “Mexican American Heritage,” was the only one submitted after Texas put out a request for a book to be used in a proposed high school elective course on Mexican-American studies.

One of the few liberal members of the board, Ruben Cortez, said in a statement this week that the book “describes Mexicans as lazy, alleges that Mexican culture does not value hard work and that Mexicans bring drug and crime into the country.”

He commissioned a body of academics, mostly professors of history, to examine the book. They said in a report this week it was filled with errors and did not meet state standards.

“We have a web of racist assertions that are built in passages, that are built on multiple errors. This is a textbook that is a polemic against the Mexican-American community,” said Trinidad Gonzales, a history instructor at South Texas College who was on the book review team.

One passage regarded as biased concerned views employers have had of Mexican workers.

It reads: “Stereotypically, Mexicans were viewed as lazy compared to European or American workers … It was also traditional to skip work on Mondays, and drinking on the job could be a problem.”

Cynthia Dunbar, chief executive of Momentum Instruction which published the book, said in a phone interview the criticism is unfounded.

“There is absolutely no context, motivation and no agenda to in any way do anything negative or detrimental to Mexican-Americans or Mexican-American history,” said Dunbar, a former Texas state school board member from 2007 to 2011 who is now based in Virginia.

She is listed as a contributor to the book, which was written by two people whose credentials are not listed.

The state board likely will make a decision later this year whether to approve the book.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Marguerita Choy)

In U.S. cities hit by killings, shared concerns over cops tactics, race

Law officers march down a street during protests in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

By Tom Polansek

(Reuters) – Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, compares the city’s mostly white police department to “an occupying force” when its officers go into black neighborhoods.

In Baton Rouge, minorities are “very wary of police and often afraid of them,” says Michele Fournet, a veteran criminal defense lawyer there.

Long before they were rocked this month by local police killings of black men, the two U.S. cities were grappling with similar problems – police forces viewed by many as overly aggressive and unrepresentative of black communities.

Activists and residents in both places have urged law enforcement to spend more time in neighborhoods building relationships and trust as part of “community policing” efforts. Many would also like the cities to hire more black officers.

Such calls having been growing across the country since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager, by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014. Since then, a wave of anti-police protests has spread across the country fueled by high-profile police killings of other black men, including Baltimore police detainee Freddie Gray last year.

“Whether it’s Baton Rouge or Ferguson or Baltimore or Minnesota, we need more community policing,” said Cleve Dunn Jr., a black business man and political consultant in Baton Rouge.

(Racial make-up of Baton Rouge, Minneapolis police: http://tmsnrt.rs/29Bf9We)

Police spokesmen from Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, in statements, said their departments had each made significant strides toward diversity in their forces.

The Minneapolis Police Department said it has been “a national leader and has set national ‘best practice’ standards in community engagement and community policing.”

Officials from St. Anthony, Minn., which provides police service to Falcon Heights and employs the officer who shot Castile, did not respond to questions.

Alton Sterling, the Baton Rouge man who was shot by police on July 5, had peddled CDs for years and law enforcement officers would have known he was not a threat if they were more familiar with the area, local residents said.

One officer is notorious for harassing local black residents, to the point where he has been given a street nickname of “Bro Stupid,” said Burnell Williams, who works with at-risk youth and ex-prisoners for the nonprofit group Against All Odds.

Blacks made up about 55 percent of Baton Rouge’s population in 2010, but only 30 percent of the police force in 2013, according to U.S. government data.

Similar disparities affect Minneapolis, near the tiny city of Falcon Heights where Philando Castile was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on July 6.

STAFFING PROBLEMS

Blacks in Minneapolis were 8.7 times more likely than whites to be arrested for low-level offenses, such as trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to a study of arrests from 2012 to 2014 that the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota published last year.

Blacks accounted for about 19 percent of Minneapolis’ population in 2010 but just about 9 percent of the city’s police officers in 2013, according to U.S. data.

Black residents of Minneapolis and nearby towns said the lack of a requirement for police to live in the jurisdictions they patrol has kept officers disconnected from neighborhoods. Some U.S. cities have instituted residency requirements for police.

“You have mostly white officers patrolling a poor black neighborhood where they have no real nexus to the community, where there are high rates of complaints against the use of excessive force by police and the over-criminalization of the African American community,” Levy-Pounds said.

Some Minneapolis police and residents said staffing shortages limited officers’ ability to do more community policing.

Bob Kroll, president of the city’s police union, said the department needs to increase its numbers by about 20 percent. Without more officers, “you’re just going call to call to call, 9-1-1,” he said.

Ronald Edwards, a black civil rights activist in Minneapolis who contacted Reuters at the request of the police department, said he believed the city’s police chief was doing her best to improve race relations.

However, he said “you don’t have enough officers to deploy them and do the things that really begin to break down the barriers between people of different colors.”

In Dallas, where five police officers were murdered in the wake of the shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana, police Chief David Brown told reporters on July 11 that community policing was the best way to deter crime and protect officers.

Brown, a 33-year department veteran, noted that 2015 was the 12th year of crime reduction in Dallas, more than any other major American city.

Police “have done this by also protecting the civil rights of our citizens,” Brown said of the decline.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Ernest Scheyder, Letitia Stein, Nick Carey and Tom Polansek; editing by Stuart Grudgings)

Protests, U.S. gun violence worry some black travelers from abroad

Police scuffle with demonstrator

By Gina Cherelus

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With protests hitting many U.S. cities, the deadly ambush of Dallas police, and the ever-present threat of gun violence, four countries have urged citizens to be on alert if visiting the United States, and some black travelers are worried about making the trip.

Some African community groups in the United States and elsewhere told Reuters that family members of those already in America were scared by recent events, and some had been warned by relatives to reconsider any trip.

“When we talk to them in the community, some of the things that they say are, ‘there are so many crazy things happening in your country that if I can avoid coming I won’t come,'” said Ibrahima Sow, president of the Association of Senegalese in America.

The Bahamas, Bahrain, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates have warned citizens to be on guard if visiting U.S. cities rocked by sometimes violent protests that erupted over the last week following the fatal shootings of two black American men by police.

In stark terms, the Bahamas told young men especially to exercise “extreme caution” when interacting with police. “Do not be confrontational and cooperate,” it said.

Sow said concerns about travel to the United States have been high since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His group gives specific guidance to Senegalese travelers about how to behave with the police.

“We say there are things that you need to know if you are stopped by the police,” Sow said. “We tell people to be cautious and when you get stopped in the streets by police don’t move your hands, don’t move your body, don’t do anything.”

‘JUST AWFUL’

Some similar organizations in Europe said they also had longstanding advice that they give to members who are thinking about visiting the United States.

“I would feel less safe there than four or five years ago,” said Louis-Georges Tin, president of France’s Council of Black Associations, which gathers about 100 organizations in France to fight against racism and promote French ties with Africa.

That sentiment was echoed by others including Paul Rose of britishafrocaribbean.com, a website and think tank for the British Afro Caribbean community. He said social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter had raised awareness of what he called “atrocities” by U.S. police.

“You don’t want to find yourself in situations where you are confronted with the police,” Rose said. “Look at the incarceration rates of black men in America, look at the effects of the economic downturn, which affect the black community far more. The stats are just awful.”

Some people already living in the United States said the turbulence is sometimes too much for their visiting relatives, even if the perception is worse than the reality.

“I have a cousin who is here right now and she’s even scared to go outside to 34th street,” said Zainab Bunduka, a 55-year-old employee at New York City’s North Shore Hospital. She is originally from the West African country of Sierra Leone, which was ravaged by civil war during the 1990s.

“She’s scared because we don’t have all these gunshots back home,” said Bunduka.

(Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London and Chine Labbe in Paris; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Sniper was plotting larger assault, taunted Police

Demonstrators stand outside the Louisiana State Capitol building during a rally in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

By Brian Thevenot and Erwin Seba

DALLAS (Reuters) – The U.S. military veteran who fatally shot five Dallas police officers last week was plotting a larger assault, authorities said, disclosing how he had taunted negotiators and written on a wall in his own blood before being killed.

Protests against U.S. police tactics continued for a third straight day on Sunday, with scores arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after authorities warned that violence during street demonstrations over the fatal police shootings of two black men last week would not be tolerated.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown told CNN on Sunday Micah X. Johnson had improvised as he used “shoot-and-move” tactics to gun down officers during a demonstration on Thursday, the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.

Brown said a search of Johnson’s home showed the gunman had practised using explosives, and that other evidence suggested he wanted to use them against law enforcement officers.

“We’re convinced that this suspect had other plans,” he said. The fatal police shootings of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana last week led the 25-year-old Texas shooter to “fast-track” his attack, Brown said.

Johnson, a black veteran who served in Afghanistan, took advantage of a spontaneous march that began toward the end of the protest over those killings. Moving ahead of the rally in a black Tahoe SUV, he stopped when he saw a chance to use “high ground” to target police, Brown said.

Johnson was killed by a bomb-equipped robot but Brown said before then he sang, laughed at and taunted officers, and said he wanted to “kill white people” in retribution for police killings of black people. “He seemed very much in control and very determined to hurt other officers,” the police chief said.

SURPRISE ATTACK

Brown said police were caught off guard when protesters broke away from Thursday’s demonstration, and were thus exposed as they raced to block off intersections ahead of the marchers.

Johnson’s military training helped him to shoot and move rapidly, “triangulating” his fire with multiple rounds so that police at first feared there were several shooters.

Brown defended the decision to use a robot to kill him, saying that “about a pound of C4” explosive was attached to it.

He said Johnson had scrawled the letters “RB” in his own blood on a wall before dying. “We’re trying to figure out through looking at things in his home what those initials mean,” Brown said.

The U.S. Department of Defense and a lawyer who represented Johnson did not return requests for information on his military history or the status of his discharge.

PROTESTS, ARRESTS, MEMORIALS

The mass shooting amplified a turbulent week in the United States, which was again convulsed by the issues of race, gun violence and use of lethal force by police.

Even as officials and activists condemned the shootings and mourned the slain officers, hundreds of people were arrested on Saturday and Sunday as new protests against the use of deadly force by police flared in U.S. cities.

Protesters faced off with police officers wearing gas masks on Sunday evening in Baton Rouge. Media, citing Baton Rouge police, reported that at least 48 people were taken into custody after demonstrators clashed with police following a peaceful march to the state capitol.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, 21 officers were injured on Saturday when they were pelted with rocks, bottles, construction material and fireworks.

Three countries have warned their citizens to stay on guard when visiting U.S. cities rocked by the protests.

Speaking in Madrid during a European tour, U.S. President Barack Obama said attacks on police over racial bias would hurt Black Lives Matter, a civil rights movement that emerged from the recent police killings of African-Americans but has been criticized for vitriolic social media postings against police, some of them sympathetic to Johnson.

“Whenever those of us who are concerned about failures of the criminal justice system attack police, you are doing a disservice to the cause,” the United States’ first black president told a news conference.

At a Texas hospital, wounded mother Shetamia Taylor sobbed as she thanked police who shielded her and her son in Dallas as bullets flew.

And at Dallas’ Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Roman Catholic parishioners gathered on Sunday for their weekly service and to remember the fallen officers.

“I would like you to join me in asking: ‘Who is my neighbor?'” the Rev. Eugene Azorji, who is black, told the congregation. “Those who put their lives on the line every day to bring a security and peace, they represent our neighbor.”

A candlelight vigil is set for 8 p.m. on Monday in Dallas City Hall plaza.

(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder, Jason Lange, David Bailey, Ruthy Munoz and Lisa Garza; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Daniel Wallis; Editing by Peter Cooney, Chris Michaud and Paul Tait)

What led to the Deadliest Attack on police officers since 9/11?

Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas

By Kami Klein

What led to the ambush of Police officers and the death of five police officers who were standing guard during a peaceful protest in Dallas? What caused this tragedy? What will be the answer to these kinds of violent attacks? The factors are numerous and create a storm of emotion from all sides.  

Many woke this morning with news of another shooting, another ambush, more lives lost.  In the previous days we have read about and watched on video, Facebook and television the ugly pictures of police confrontations that have led to the shootings of black men by white officers.  Black Lives Matter protests were planned in cities all over the United States because of the deaths of Philando Castile from St. Paul, Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.  But while all other protests were violence free, a deadly plot went into effect to cause the demise of white police officers.

This ambush of police officers ended with the shooting of 12 people, 5 police officers dead and 7 wounded.  In the words of Chief of Police, David Brown, from today’s press conference in Dallas,

“All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”   

Chief Brown’s words  were not directed at white or black.  He happens to be a black police officer who began his statement speaking for law enforcement of every color and race. “We are hurting, our profession is hurting, Dallas officers are hurting.  We are heartbroken.”  

At approximately 9 p.m. Thursday night shots rang into the night, picking off police officers who were standing guard at a Black Lives Matter protest. The protesters had gathered after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile, 32, at a traffic stop outside St. Paul. His girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car with him. Reynolds live streamed the aftermath on Facebook.

A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone video.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said he and others in the police department participated in the planning of the rally and many protesters talked about how peaceful it was with police officers posing for and taking pictures with many of the protesters.  

According to Fox news, approximately 60 rounds were fired that led to chaos in the streets as citizens and officers alike frantically looked for cover.

CNN issued a report from an eyewitness, Ismael Dejesus, who was in his downtown Dallas hotel room when he heard “popping sounds.” He went to the balcony to see what was going on.

At first he thought he was hearing fireworks but then he saw someone kill a police officer.  

Dejesus, who filmed parts of the chilling exchange, told CNN that he saw the suspect get out of a Chevy Tahoe SUV wearing tactical clothing.  He had a rifle, AR-15 with a large magazine, He went over to a pillar put a magazine in and started firing.  Dejesus said that the attack looks planned, prepared and that he knew just where to stand, with ammo ready.  

The shooter was seen standing by a white pillar spraying bullets to the left and right, which Dejesus believes was to bring the police closer to him.

‘”He was trying to get a commotion going, trying to get cops’ attention.”

When one officer attempted to engage the shooter one-on-one, he was killed by multiple shots fired at point blank range.

“It looked like an execution honestly. He stood over (the officer) after he was already down and shot him maybe three to four times in the back. It was very disturbing to watch.

“He shot without any fear. He didn’t care.”

The gunfire was followed by a standoff that lasted for hours in a parking garage of a local college, with a suspect who the Dallas police chief   said had told authorities “he was upset about the recent police shootings” and “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” He was killed when police detonated a bomb robot.

The Associated Press identified the gunman as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25.

Reuters reported that Johnson was a member of the group “Black Panther Party Mississippi” on Facebook, which has over 200 members. Earlier this month he shared a video showing what he described as white people killing what looked like dolphins or whales.

The U.S. Army said Johnson had served as a private first class in the Army Reserve, made up of part-time soldiers, and was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014. It said Johnson served from March 2009 to April 2015 and was a carpentry and masonry specialist with the 420th Engineering Brigade based in Texas.

The investigation will continue in Dallas on the shooting while the traditional debate on gun control begins.  Many sources report that after these kinds of mass shootings, gun sales surge and more Americans are buying fire arms than ever before.   

The Crime Prevention Research Center (CDRC)  an independent research and education organization has created studies over several years in which research backs a massive increase in background checks (one of the only ways to track the majority of new gun owners)  and applications for conceal and carry on firearms with all mass shootings. From these numbers, it seems that most American’s prefer to be armed and are finding the environment in the United States one in which they feel more secure in owning a gun.  

With racism still a factor in America,and the shortage of well qualified police officers whose numbers continue to dwindle, the political factions cannot seem to come together  on a plan of action.  Americans across the country are feeling a sense of helplessness,uncertainty and fear.

The understanding and answers will only come when we realize that it is not a question of whether you are black or white, a police officer or not, democrat, republican or independent;  ALL lives matter! 

As Chief Brown closed today’s press conference asking the world for prayer and consideration.

“Please join me in applauding these brave men and women who do this job under great scrutiny, under great vulnerability. Who literally risk their lives to protect our democracy. We don’t feel much support most days, let’s not make today most days. Please, we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these who carried out this tragic, tragic event. Pray for these families”