Our live coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests has moved here.
The mayor of a mostly white New Jersey township is apologizing for his comments during an anti-discrimination protest organized by residents of a neighboring community.
That didn’t go over well with the crowd, and several people could be heard expressing their disapproval in a video from the event.
“Hey folks, listen, I can’t say I’m for anybody if I don’t know you. I’m for people. Good people, law-abiding, hard-working, good family, good friends, people with good intentions,” he said. “If you’re black great, if you’re white, great. If you’re Hispanic, great.”
“It doesn’t matter. I judge people on how you judge me. If you wanna be my friend and stick your hand out, I’ll shake your hand. I’ll look you in the eye.”
He released another statement on Wednesday, writing online that “If I didn’t care. I wouldn’t be here.”
Across the United States, statues of Christopher Columbus are being taken down as protesters point to his role in violent colonization at the expense of Indigenous communities.
The conversation around race, history and violence is taking place around the world as well – in New Zealand, a statue of a British naval captain who fought land wars with Maori was removed from public grounds after a formal request by a tribal organization.
The Hamilton City council said they decided to remove the statue of Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton after “it had become clear the status was likely to be vandalized,” said the city publication “Our Hamilton.”
The city was renamed after Captain Hamilton, who was a commander of the Esk and was killed at the Battle of Gate Pa, according to a guide produced by the city council.
Some context: New Zealand has its own history of violent colonization by white Europeans.
Recent years have seen increased scrutiny on Captain James Cook, the preeminent British explorer of the Pacific in the eighteenth century, whose arrival opened the way for often brutal imperialism and colonialism.
Activists in New Zealand and Australia have pushed highlight this bloody history; last fall, a Maori tribe banned a replica of Captain James Cook’s ship from docking at its village during a national commemoration of Cook’s first encounter with indigenous New Zealanders.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told CNN on Thursday night that the police officers filmed lounging in a congressman’s office on June 1 as protests and looting occurred throughout the city was “one of the most disgraceful, disrespectful things” she has ever seen.
“We are absolutely not going to tolerate it,” she said.
Asked how difficult it is to discipline officers, she said, “They do have extraordinary due process rights, which is in and of itself a problem that we’ve go to fix.”
What happened: 13 Chicago police officers lounged and slept in the congressional campaign office of US Rep. Bobby Rush on June 1, while protests raged citywide.
The officers, who included three supervisors, were seen on video sleeping in the office, eating the congressman’s popcorn and talking on the phone, Rush and Lightfoot said.
The incident came to light after Rush reviewed security camera footage from his office, the mayor explained at a news conference.
A man in Portsmouth, Virginia, suffered life threatening injuries on Wednesday night when protesters partially dismantled the city’s Confederate monument, according to Virginia State Police.
The Portsmouth Police Department has requested that State Police conduct the investigation into that bodily injury. Any and all charges to be placed will be determined by the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office for the city of Portsmouth, according to State Police.
Portsmouth Mayor John L. Rowe, Jr. said the police had done the right thing in confining vandalism to one piece of public property, thus protecting lives and the nearby private property.
He also noted that in 2017, the city council adopted a resolution to move the Confederate monument to a cemetery as soon as the governing laws clearly permitted its relocation. According to Rowe, that resolution remains in effect.
Also addressing the incident in Portsmouth, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander issued a statement last night, asking for peaceful protests and safety in his own city, saying “an individual was seriously injured in an attempt to remove a statue in Portsmouth. We are praying for his full recovery and hope that this incident will not be repeated in other localities.”
In a tweet on Thursday night, President Donald Trump tweeted, “The Radical Left Democrats: First they try to take away your guns. Then they try to take away your police!”
Some context: In the past week, calls have been growing around the country to defund, demilitarize, and in some cases, even dismantle the police.
What does this mean? It’s as straightforward as it sounds: Instead of funding a police department, a sizable chunk of a city’s budget is invested in communities, especially marginalized ones where much of the policing occurs.
In some places, the protests have actually worked. A veto-proof supermajority of the Minneapolis city council pledged to defund and dismantle the police force.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would move funding from the NYPD to youth and social services.
And Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti agreed to slash between $100 million to $150 million from the proposed funding for the LAPD budget.
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The ongoing protest in Seattle around the East Precinct police station is not a threat to public safety, said city mayor Jenny Durkan on Thursday night.
“We’ve got four blocks in Seattle… that is more like a block party atmosphere,” Durkan told CNN. “It’s not an armed takeover. It’s not a military junta.”
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best expressed frustration earlier today that protesters had demanded the removal of police barricades, only to erect their own.
The police building was boarded up and emptied, and Durkan says there is no timetable yet for officers to return. “I don’t know. We could have the Summer of Love,” said Durkan.
She also responded to President Donald Trump, who had tweeted earlier today, “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will.”
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A Bronx teenager was allegedly tased on the face multiple times by police who mistook him for a rioter, his lawyer has told CNN.
Jahmel Leach, 16, was left with facial fractures and damage to his jaw, said his lawyer, Mark Shirian.
The New York Police Department did not immediately answer questions about Leach’s arrest, saying the matter was under internal review.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a 16-year-old was arrested in the Bronx on June 1, after police saw the person pour an unknown liquid on a trash pile in the middle of the road and light it on fire.
According to his lawyer, Leach was walking home at the time, and was not part of any protests or rioting. Leach denies the allegations against him and has not been charged, Shirian told CNN.
“They had no grounds to arrest him,” Shirian said. “Are we going to allow them to police the youth in that way?”
Leach’s family gave a press conference on Thursday, with supporters wearing shirts saying “Justice for Jahmel Leach.” Leach’s family alleged that he was released to his parents only partially clothed, in a hospital gown.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the internal police investigation to be completed with “speed and transparency.”
“I want to make sure we get the truth, and I want to make sure we follow through based on what the facts tell us,” De Blasio said Thursday.
When Minneapolis-based activist Michelle Gross learned the name of the officer who planted his knee on the neck of George Floyd until after he lost consciousness, she wasn’t surprised.
Gross, who has tracked 20 years’ worth of complaints against Minneapolis police, identified the officer by cross-checking the badge number seen in the video of Floyd’s death against her records. It belonged to Derek Chauvin – a familiar name.
Gross, of the non-profit Communities United Against Police Brutality, argues that Chauvin – who had 18 prior complaints filed against him and received reprimands for only two of them – exemplifies the way problematic officers repeatedly thwart accountability in Minneapolis.
Punishment is rare: Only about 1.5% of complaints filed against Minneapolis police have resulted in suspensions, terminations or demotions between 2013 and 2019, according to a CNN analysis of data from the city’s Office of Police Conduct Review, which investigates complaints.
That office, which is separate from the police department but works with officers to resolve complaints, received about 2,013 complaints against police within its jurisdiction in that time.
Read CNN’s full investigation here:
A woman from Tacoma, Washington, was arrested today for burning five Seattle Police vehicles during protests on May 30.
The US Attorney’s Office says Margaret Aislinn Channon is charged with arson for the fires near the Westlake Center shopping complex, where police were responding to protests.
Prosecutors say they found Channon due to distinctive tattoos on her hands and elbows that were visible in surveillance videos and scene photos. They matched those tattoos to a prior police report identifying Channon and multiple Instagram pages.
Channon allegedly set the vehicles on fire by lighting an aerosol spray to simulate a blowtorch, “putting the public at risk and creating the very real possibility of a structure fire amidst the throng of people protesting downtown,” said US Attorney Brian Moran in a written statement.
Channon is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon. It is not immediately clear whether she has an attorney.
Breonna Taylor, the Louisville emergency medical technician who was killed by police in her own home, would be “amazed to see the world changing,” said her mother Tamika Palmer on Thursday, speaking to CNN.
Earlier tonight, the Louisville Metro Council passed “Breonna’s Law” – an ordinance banning “no-knock” search warrants and regulating the execution of search warrants and the use of body camera equipment during the execution of search warrants.
It was Breonna’s 27th birthday last week. Mourners and activists around the country marked her birthday on social media and in marches on the streets.
“She was loving and caring and she loved to help people,” Palmer said. “She loved to be around family. Everybody loved her. Her co-workers, her friends, her family. She just was full of life … You couldn’t ask for a better child at all.”
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In Seattle, protesters have occupied the area in front of a downtown police station – and they’re showing no signs of moving, even as evening approaches.
The police station has been “overtaken by these protesters,” said CNN Correspondent Dan Simon from the scene. “It’s totally been defaced.”
The sign at the front of the building, which used to read “Seattle Police Department,” now reads “Seattle People Department.”
After days of clashes, the police decided to try and de-escalate the situation and “essentially abandoned the department,” he said. That’s when protesters flooded in.
The situation remains peaceful and lighthearted at the moment. “It really has the feel of a street festival,” Simon said – there are people serving food to the crowds, there’s a medical tent set up, and the demonstrators even watch movies and play live music at night.
“It’s sort of a contradictory situation. On the one hand, it began with force, but right now it’s peaceful,” Simon said.
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she wants to “move in a completely different direction on policing.”
She called for changes like licensing police officers and changing state laws to provide a baseline of acceptable conduct. Lightfoot also said we need to “eliminate the problem of so-called pass the trash, where an officer gets disgraced, gets fired, and then he just moves down the road to the next town.”
“We’ve got to make sure that we really hit them where it hurts, and make sure if you have been convicted of a crime, if you resign under investigation, you lose your pension. That should just be automatic,” she told CNN on Thursday.
Lightfoot said she is determined to use the unrest happening across the country to make changes.
Some context: This comes after 13 city police officers, including three supervisors, were caught on video hanging out in Rep. Bobby Rush’s campaign office last week as businesses nearby were being looted.
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Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown said the absence of the top three law enforcement officials at a roundtable with President Trump on Thursday about “justice disparities” in America “says a lot.”
Brown, a Democrat who was elected two years ago, was one of three key black law enforcement officials in the Dallas, Texas, area not invited to attend the event.
She said that decision “causes one to raise the brow.”
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, Brown said she would have considered attending the roundtable, “simply because it is about policing.”
The Glenn Heights Police Chief Vernell E. Dooley, who is African American, was invited. Glenn Heights is south of Dallas and has a population of about 16,000 people.
More details: At the roundtable, the President confirmed that the White House is finalizing an executive order on policing standards in the wake of national outcry over George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minnesota.
Brown reiterated that members of local law enforcement agencies have to be at the table for any substantial police reform.
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A bipartisan group of Mississippi state lawmakers want to remove the emblem of the Confederate battle flag from the Mississippi state flag, and appear to have support from at least one powerful Republican lawmaker.
The push from state lawmakers was approved by Republican Speaker of the Mississippi House Philip Gunn during a closed-door meeting, state Rep. Robert Johnson told CNN.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are in the process of wrangling votes for a resolution to allow changes to be made to the flag. All 45 Democratic members of the Mississippi House have signaled they will support that resolution. However, bipartisan support is needed to reach the necessary two-thirds majority.
Why this matters: The move comes following renewed efforts nationwide to remove memorials to the Confederacy as the nation grapples with the intertwined legacies of institutionalized racism and police brutality.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced he would remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, but a judge has since blocked its removal. NASCAR declared Wednesday it is banning the Confederate flag at its races, and the US Navy and Marines have also moved to ban the Confederate battle flag from public display.
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The Louisville Metro Council in Kentucky passed an ordinance today banning “no-knock” search warrants.
The ordinance, which will be known as “Breonna’s law,” also regulates the execution of search warrants and the use of body camera equipment during the implementation of all search warrants.
Breonna Taylor was killed after officers forced their way inside her home and exchanged gunfire with her boyfriend, while executing a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.
The council’s vote was 26-0 in favor of the ordinance.
The ordinance requires all Louisville Metro Police Department officers present in the execution of a warrant to be equipped with an operating body camera, which has to be activated no later than five minutes prior to all warrant executions.
All recorded data also has to be retained for five years following an executing action, according to the ordinance.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont says he is working on “common sense solutions” related to policing including police accountability and collaborating more with communities.
He said his administration is meeting with legislative leadership on both sides of the aisle “to see if we can find some common sense solutions to build upon the very far-sighted bill that was passed last year.”
On defunding police: Lamont said he did not think they would defund the Hartford Police Department.
“That would shock me,” he said “I believe in police departments, I believe in community policing, I believe policing is much more effective when you work in collaboration with the community.”
Lamont said he does think there needs to be an investment in resources in other areas as well.
“But I would bring in the social service providers as well. It’s not an either/or, cut from here, social service there. I think you need both to address the real needs that are out there,” he said.
President Trump said the United States needs to keep law enforcement “strong” and discussed issues facing police officers across the country in a clip of an interview released Thursday evening.
Trump harshly criticized the officers involved in the death of George Floyd, calling their actions “eight minutes of horror” and “a disgrace.”
Fox News’s Harris Faulkner interviewed the President after his roundtable at a Dallas, Texas, church.
In the clip of the interview, Trump said that he thinks “we are going to do a lot of good things” in the aftermath of nationwide protests, but that “we also have to keep our police and law enforcement strong.”
Trump called being a police officer a “very tough job,” and said that “we’ve seen some terrible things happen to police officers.”
“Most of the police officers are really good people,” the President added.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said the city will not be accepting federal troops to move out protesters who are occupying the area in front of a downtown police station.
President Trump tweeted earlier Thursday to Durkan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee: “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will.”
Durkan said the overwhelming majority of protests have been peaceful.
“One of the things this President will never understand is that listening to the community is not a weakness,” Durkan said. “It’s a strength.”
The Seattle Police Department East Precinct building was emptied after crowd control barriers in front of the building were removed. Police Chief Carmen Best said their efforts to ease tensions have not been reciprocated.
“Instead of marching, the protesters, after complaining about police barricades, established their own barricades,” Best said.
Durkan said he believed the Capitol Hill protests are not more dangerous than demonstrations that regularly occur in the community.
“I’ve got news for people: It’s been ‘autonomous’ my whole lifetime,” said Durkan. “It is not an armed Antifa militia no-go zone.”
Los Angeles, California, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed rethinking the way governments spend money on law enforcement saying, “you can support public safety and reimagine it at the same time.”
He said that while police officers need to be there to help people who are victims of violent crimes, or caught in sex trafficking or domestic violence situations, they should not be asked to deal with other problems like homelessness or mental health.
Garcetti said he supports budgeting more money for other resources.
He told CNN on Thursday that police should not have to “solve what needs investments in education, health care, and social workers rather than just always putting that on the backs of our police officers.”
“Maybe there’s a smarter way that’s better for our police officers and the public to look at our future,” he added.
Some background: After facing backlash over how Los Angeles Police Department officials treated protesters during the first week of demonstrations following George Floyd’s death, city officials on Monday said they will not prosecute those arrested for curfew violations and failure to disperse.
The L.A. City Attorney’s Office said it will develop new programs focused on the relationship between the community and law enforcement and plans to implement them later this summer.
Watch: L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks to CNN’s Erin Burnett
