There have been over 8.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world. The virus has killed nearly half a million people around the globe. Here in the United States, the virus has taken the lives of over 120,000 Americans.
Some states are seeing increases including Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. While other states which were once hotspots are seeing declines. Michigan, New York, and New Jersey are all “on track” to contain the virus.
National Geographic maintains a running tally organized by the state which is updated daily. They note that new cases are beginning to decline in hard-hit areas such as New York City. But the steady overall tally for the nation means spikes are occurring elsewhere.
In Chicago, researchers have identified a unique strain of coronavirus.
A nurse administers a coronavirus test. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
According to NBCChicago, researchers at Northwestern University have identified a strain of the virus that appears to be directly linked from the early outbreak in China.
In a statement, the university explains that genetic differences in the virus could impact the way that vaccines are created and deployed. Dr. Egon Ozer explained that these differences in strains could also account for the differences in symptoms. “This is the first clear evidence that genetic differences in the viruses are associated with differences in the characteristics of the infections that they cause.”
Dr. Ozer said that the fact that Chicago is an international hub could account for the type of strain that struck the city. The state of Illinois has suffered more than 6,000 deaths.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota told NBC’s Meet the Press that the virus may not ease over the summer and fall. “Right now, I don’t see this slowing down through the summer or into the fall,” Osterholm said, “I don’t think we’re going to see one, two, and three waves. I think we’re just going to see one very, very difficult forest fire of cases.”
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When you are a Grammy-award winning producer/songwriter/keyboardist/remixer and your credits include the likes of Michael Jackson, TLC, Monica, Madonna, Will Smith, Brandy, Rihanna, Kanye West, Gwen Stefani, and many others, you might be satisfied with these accomplishments. Not so. Dallas Austin wants more and has recently relaunched the label that allowed him to be successful within the music industry. Rowdy Records is making a return that will have past and current industry heads watching.
BLACK ENTERPRISE was able to speak to the Atlanta legend about his foray into education and how he aims to continue adding to the legacy of Rowdy Records.
You’re relaunching Rowdy Records after so many years, what motivated you to do so and what can we anticipate this time around?
I wanted to be back in control of my brand and the music and after going inside and being a senior VP at Island Def Jam a few years ago, I could see where the footprint of Atlanta music was heading from a corporate standpoint and how disconnected it was to what was really happening in the culture of music from the start. This time you can expect the brand to be the difference in music and in culture.
We are in a totally different era due to advances in technology and with the capacity of artists to reach out directly to their audience. How do these changes alter the way you do business?
It changed the way we do business drastically, but it still boils down to having a gut feeling about the music and the artist. As a producer, the advancements have been amazing because you have way more options. From a songwriter’s side, it hasn’t been so amazing because of the way digital deals are structured. As a label owner and having a new distribution company, I am excited to combine the knowledge of before with the digital platform, as this will be the first time I have had a digital distribution company.
You’re doing a collaboration with Georgia State University. What are the specifics of the partnership and how did it come about?
One day I was speaking to a marketing class at Georgia State and they were using imitation projects instead of real ones for their class assignments. Georgia State had just opened the new media center and through Dr. Kay Beck and Linda Cannon, a business partner of mine, we all came up with a program that allowed the students to work on projects that were really coming out into the marketplace and get credited on their resumes for their work whether it be in marketing, digital, promotions, etc. This is all a spinoff of the Dallas Austin Foundation for music in schools where we put recording studios in inner-city schools and give kids the opportunity to develop that trade. So far, we have done 10 schools and we are looking to expand into the curriculum next school year. We have been working with the Urban League Atlanta and the Entertainment Caucus in developing these programs.
You’ve been involved in the industry for over 30 years, how do you separate the artistic side of Dallas Austin and the business aspect? How has your approach changed over the years?
When I was younger it was more difficult because the creativity always overrode the business decisions and that can be detrimental to your bottom line. As we have grown, we have learned that we are still dealing with a product. Even though you should have an emotional attachment to it, it still has to be sold, marketed, and promoted in the hopes of it being successful not just creatively, but also financially.
To what do you attribute your longevity in the game and what advice would you give someone who wants to to have an extensive and purposeful career like you have?
I attribute it to my ability to always admire and find inspiration in things and people around me. My dream was to always be as great as Quincy Jones. If you want longevity, it is not about the sprint. You always [have to] ask yourself “Where do you want to be five years from now?’ and stay focused working on that goal. If you are excited and passionate about it, you will work on it 24/7; the day never ends until you feel the feeling of accomplishment.
A noose was found in the garage stall of Black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace on Sunday prompting an investigation. The incident occurred on the first day that racing was set to resume since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 5,000 fans came out to attend. However, the race was moved to Monday due to inclement weather.
The racist incident occurs just weeks after Wallace successfully advocated for the removal of Confederate symbols from the sport. NASCAR banned the symbols on their tracks and cars. However, according to reports, vehicles waving and flying the Confederate flag lined the boulevard outside the track, and a plane above pulled a banner of the flag proclaiming, “Defund NASCAR.”
In a statement, NASCAR said they are “angry and outraged,” by the incident saying, “we cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act.” They said that they will investigate and identify the person involved and “eliminate” them from the sport.
Fans are not allowed near the garage areas, therefore the organization feels that someone with credentials must have placed the noose in Wallace’s garage stall.
Wallace is the highest-level African American race car driver in NASCAR. He drives a No. 43 Chevrolet for Richard Petty. In a lengthy statement on Twitter, Wallace wrote, “Today’s despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism.”
He continued, “I have been overwhelmed by the support from people across the NASCAR industry, including other drivers and team members in the garage. Together, our sport has made a commitment to driving real change and championing a community that is accepting and welcoming of everyone.”
Wallace has received an outpouring of support from celebrities on Twitter including LeBron James who said the incident was “sickening.”
Sickening! @BubbaWallace my brother! Know you don’t stand alone! I’m right here with you as well as every other athlete. I just want to continue to say how proud I am of you for continuing to take a stand for change here in America and sports! @NASCAR I salute you as well! ๐๐พ✊๐พ๐ https://t.co/1TwkjVHai5
Fellow NASCAR drivers said the incident was “enraging and heartbreaking at the same time.”
God help us. The level of evil it takes to do something like this is disgusting. This is enraging and heartbreaking all at the same time. pic.twitter.com/FovpeTwINu
Working remotely isn’t an entirely new concept. According to astudy by the International Workplace Group, 70% of professionals around the globe work flexibly at least one day each week. It’s also no surprise to hear of someone who’s doing this full time.
So if your company is one of those that have adopted remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, you might be wondering how you can ask for more remote work days when things begin to shift back to normal.
Keep reading to see the current state of remote work, then how you can use this information to help you ask your boss for more remote work days even after social distancing and quarantine becomes a thing of the past.
The Current Remote Work Situation
Employers have to be agile in responding to this pandemic, and one of the solutions to keep their employees working and help their companies stay afloat is by enforcing work from home policies.
Gallup Panel dataclaims that in just three weeks during the lockdown, the percentage of employees working from home doubled from 31% to 62%.
We can now see the work from home trends take off in a number of companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Square, and Shopify among others.
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square, even allowed his employees towork from home “forever.”If anything, this shows us how top executives are preparing for the future of work.Could working from home be a permanent setup for many professionals in the years to come?
We also know how employees themselves feel about working remotely. In a recentstudy, three in five U.S. workers prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible once restrictions on business and school closures are lifted.
However, even if remote work is increasingly becoming more common nowadays, sometimes it’s still up to the employees to advocate for it. How can you make sure you’re part of that 25% to 30%?
We recommend bringing it up to your employer, so make sure to follow these helpful tips below to make a good case.
5 Tips to Ask for More Remote Work Days after COVID-19 Restrictions are Lifted
Arm yourself with the facts
The most effective thing to help you in your goal to work more remote days are the facts to prove that working remotely is actually good for you as the employee and for the company as a whole. Help build your case to your boss by understanding the landscape of remote work in your industry.
Luckily, there are already a number of sources online that show the benefits of working from home.GallupandFlexjobsare two resources you could read up on in preparing a negotiation with your employer.
Here are some of the positive outcomes of working remotely:
Increases employee engagement: Engagement is key in driving performance. Astudyshows that an optimal engagement boost occurs when employees spend 60% to 80% of their time working off-site, which is about three to four days in a five-day workweek.
Positive environmental impact: When more people work from home, fewer greenhouse gases are emitted in the environment and they are more likely to make environmentally sound choices—opting to use less paper and monitoring their air conditioning.
Better work-life balance: When remote work comes with flexible schedules, employees have more control of their time which usually leads to stronger outcomes. With this, they are able to attend to the needs of their personal life.
Less commute stress: According to the United States Census Bureau, people spend about100 hours commuting and 41 hours stuck in trafficevery year. The amount of time wasted on the road is amplified by theincreased level of stress and anxietythat comes with spending more than 30 minutes in one-way commuting. Thus, not having to commute when you work remotely has positive impacts on both your physical and mental health.
Increased money savings for the employee and the company: Employees who work from home can save$2,000 up to $6,500 a year. This is because expenses like commute fares, gas, parking fees, lunch outs, and others that are usually required when you have to report to work every single day are eliminated. On the other hand,companies can save around $11,000 per year for every employeeas overhead costs, operational costs, transit subsidies, and the like are minimized.
Happier and healthier work life: Overall, working from home has proven to promote a happier and healthier work life as employees are able to control their time according to how they want it.
Having information like this can help show your employer that working remotely has had documented, research-based positive impacts on companies, employees, and even to the environment.
Use yourself as a case study
After showing the facts, you can actually use yourself as an example. How was your performance during the remote work period?
Global Workplace Analyticsmentions that one of the biggest holdbacks of remote work is trust—it’s hard for managers to trust their people to work untethered. If your employer doesn’t trust you now, then it could be very difficult to build your case.
You can help build that trust by being a top performer, especially while working remotely. It’s best that you analyze your work performance first before you negotiate with your employer.
Some questions you should consider are the following:
Have you had any remarkable work accomplishments during the remote work period?
Have you received positive feedback from your co-workers?
How productive were you at home/working remotely compared to when you’re in the office?
How were you able to build or sustain your rapport with your co-workers and clients?
If your answers to these questions put you in a good light, then make sure you take note of these when you talk to your boss. However, if you think you still need to improve on your performance, then use this time as an opportunity for the future.
Get colleagues involved
The testimonies of your fellow colleagues can support your request.
If they, too, think that working remotely can both help themselves and the company, then invite them to pitch in to the plan. They might have positive experiences of their own while working from home that could help strengthen your case.
Put together a plan
Ultimately, your goal should be to address any potential challenges of working from home. Given this, it’s best to anticipate any questions or concerns your employer might have.
Put yourself in your employer’s shoes and ask yourself: how can I assure my boss that I could work just as well—if not, better—working remotely?
Here are things to help you flesh out your plan:
1. Proposed remote work schedule
Detail the remote work schedule you prefer. Also, talk about how you’ll be able to attend regular meetings remotely. However, make sure to assure your employer that you’ll be present in-house when needed.
2. Your digital tools for project management and security
Since your boss won’t be there to closely monitor you, assure them that you have the tools to remain in constant communication with your team. Aside from this, you can build up your case by mentioning all the tools you intend to use to support your remote workdays.
Project Management Tools
Slack:Slack is a business communication platform that allows you to chat with your colleagues in channels that you can organize per topic.
Zoom:Zoom is a cloud-based, peer-to-peer software platform that’s used for telecommuting, teleconferencing, distance education, and social relations.
G Suite:G Suite is composed of a variety of collaborative cloud-based tools such as Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Drive, and other essentials you need for remote productivity.
Security Tools
Norton: Norton provides individuals and companies with firewalls, which helps keep you and your company safe while working from home. It essentially works by filtering traffic and blocking out external parties or websites from accessing information and data from your work computers.
Surfshark:Surfshark is a secure VPN service that helps protect your online data. To assure your boss that you intend to take remote work seriously and with great caution, you may propose an affordable company VPN plan to make sure you’re accessing even sensitive company data securely.
Customer Service
ZenDesk: ZenDesk is an omnichannel customer experience software that helps you provide more streamlined support for your customers without adding more stress to your team. Especially when you’re unable to solve in-person customer or client concerns, software like this can help your company manage customer support from anywhere.
Weave: Come extra prepared by proposing business texting tools like Weave to ease your employer’s mind about how to manage customer service remotely. Business texting tools allow you to talk to your clients or customers as long as you have your phone with you.
3. Schedule of remote work rotation with colleagues
What’s an effective work rotation that’s best for everyone? Make sure to detail the reasons how and why this schedule can help you and your colleagues be more productive at home.
4. How you can contribute to your company’s culture even remotely.
Discuss plans on how you can still contribute to your company’s culture while working away from the office. How will you apply the core values of your company while working remotely? Give concrete examples of how you can showcase these values even when communicating with colleagues and clients or customers online.
5. Offer a trial run
If working remotely is a new territory for your company, you could offer a trial period to help your employer ease into the idea. A moderate schedule such as working remotely one or two days a week could be a great way to start.
Have a conversation
Once you’ve prepared everything, now’s the time to have that conversation with your employer.
When the time comes, make sure you bring up your request face to face or via video call. Armed with your research and prep work, try to lead the conversation to show your boss that you came equipped.
Begin by sharing your desire to work remotely, which should heavily be supported by the benefits it could give to the company and to yourself.
Talk about successful projects you’ve completed or led during the remote work period. Make sure you state concrete examples that are backed up by numbers, facts, or testimonies from your colleagues.
Lastly, make your request as specific and as clear as possible. Make it a conversation, not a demand.
Key Takeaways
Working remotely can be a permanent or more-frequent reality for you post-pandemic. Don’t be discouraged if your employer denies your requests for more remote work days at first, but be sure to make these requests with as much information and preparation as you can.
For decades, many in the Black community have felt Black people should not pay taxes. Over the years, some have pushed the so-called “Black Tax Credit.” Some tried it. Of course, the IRS wasn’t in agreement. It was reported as a tax scam. But now hip-hop mogul Ice Cube, 50, wants the IRS to exempt Black people from paying taxes.
“THE HIGH COST OF RACISM: BLACKS in America should be exempt from paying any taxes for 462 years. This would help to start repairing the damage done to us by America. OUR BILL IS PAID BY NOW. No more”, Ice Cube tweeted.
In another tweet, he wrote, “We will ask for board seats, hefty shares of the company and you will pay a heavy-heavy fine for what you’ve done. Or we will ask the believers in justice. To not support your business for 40 days & 40 nights … WE DONT REALLY GIVE A F–K IF WE WE’RE BEING FAIR OR NOT. Hos-style is my style!”
Additionally, Cube shared a video of Michael O’Meara, the president of New York state’s group of Police Benevolent Associations. During a recent news conference, O’Meara said that the media, legislators, and others have been trying to “shame” police officers since Floyd died, and officers are being treated like “animals and thugs,” Atlanta Black Star reported.
Contradicting O’Meara’s claims, Cube added footage of officers assaulting people.
“YOUR TAX PAYER DOLLARS PAY FOR THIS TYPE OF TREATMENT,” he posted. “But the whistle blowers are the bad guys? How? Truth is anti-police?”
Cube has been very vocal on Twitter since George Floyd’s death on May 25 at the hands of Minnesota police. So upset was Cube that he recently opted out of an appearance on “Good Morning America” to promote his new music business comedy, “The High Note.”
He tweeted at 5:37 a.m. the morning of the interview, “I apologize to everyone expecting to see me on Good Morning America today. But after the events in Minnesota with George Floyd I’m in no mood to tell America, good morning.”
Speaking out against police brutality and racism isn’t new for Cube.
“Early records like ‘Straight Outta Compton’, ‘AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted’ and ‘The Predator’ are the sound of a man wrestling for control of the narrative about his own community,” NME reported.
Ice Cube started his acting career with the John Singleton breakthrough film, “Boyz n the Hood.”
“In the early work, it was important to try to convey a message in movies,” Cube told NME. “Then I got to a point where I felt, you know, my music is hardcore. I’m talking about a lot of shit that’s real depressing. People want to laugh, man!”
Cube started screenwriting with the1995 stoner hit comedy “Friday.” Sequels followed. Hollywood seemed to love Cube — and vice versa. In fact, he is the “only actor to have at least five highly-successful movie franchises (‘Friday,’ ‘Barbershop,’ ‘Are We There Yet?,’ ‘Ride Along,’ and ‘21 Jump Street’),” Pride Publishing Group reported.
Cube said he started to lean towards comedies “because people want to escape when they go to the movies.”
In recent years, Cube has become best known as an actor in big-budget “popcorn comedies” such as “21 Jump Street” (2012), “Ride Along” (2014), and “Fist Fight”(2017), but he remained vocal about the issues that plague the Black community.
Prior to the death of Floyd, Ice Cube tweeted about the candidates in the upcoming presidential election. “Hold the Black vote hostage until one of ’em comes with A Black Agenda that we’re satisfied with. It’s not our job to fix the country’s mess until we fix our mess…#fuckyoupayme.”
That tweet was in response to Joe Biden’s comment on The Breakfast Club, when he told Charlamagne tha God, “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
Following the tragic death of Floyd, Cube again turned to Twitter on May 28 to call out the police. He wrote: “How long will we go for Blue on Black Crime before we strike back???”
“Ice Cube continues to represent the best of the genius of hip-hop that transforms the world into a better place for (those) who cry out for freedom and justice,” said Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Pride Publishing reported.
THE HIGH COST OF RACISM: BLACKS in America should be exempt from paying any taxes for 462 years. This would help to start repairing the damage done to us by America. OUR BILL IS PAID BY NOW. No more.
What scary RACIST don’t know. Treat us fairly and you might not see us to much. Our neighbors will be nice and livable full of excellence and opportunity. The country owes us 400 years of backpay.
Later this year, astronauts on the American module of the ISS will be able to test out the toilet before NASA puts it on crewed vehicles for deep-space missions.
When people go back to work, they won't want to return to the office wear of the Before Times. So sporty clothing brands are pivoting to productive comfort.
Black Lives Matter chapter in Lansing, Michigan is demanding a 20% police defunding estimated to be around $10 million, according to its calculation.
Angela Waters Austin, the group’s leader wants Mayor Andy Schor to resign if he refuses to defund the local police department and reinvest it into the Black community.
More than 100 arms-bearing people rallied in front of City Hall with demands for social change. In addition to the $9.6 million to be withdrawn from the Lansing Police Department and funneled into the Black community, they asked for a commitment to defeat President Donald Trump in the November election. Should the mayor not agree to the request, they wanted him to resign.
When Austin she told them that she asked Schor to resign, one of the protesters chimed in, “We don’t ask. We demand!”
The armed group’s confidence began to show.
“We demand the police be defunded because they have never protected Black people,” Austin said.
Protestors try to enter the Michigan House of Representative chamber and are being kept out by the Michigan State Police after the American Patriot Rally organized by Michigan United for Liberty protest for the reopening of businesses on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 30, 2020. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Austin stated law enforcement tear-gassed protesters in downtown Lansing, but white, armed protesters who confronted Governor Gretchen Whitmer during an anti-shutdown at the Capitol were protected.
Other speakers had their opportunity to express themselves, including a former Black employee in the mayor’s office, Natasha Atkinson.
“When they don’t value our neighborhoods that we put our hard-earned money into … now is the time, Lansing, to decide where you stand,” Atkinson said, according to theLansing City Pulse.
Atkinson got fired in February, claiming it was due to bias, Lansing City Pulse reported.
Austin plans on scheduling another protest at the Capitol with the intent it will be a statewide event.This particular chapter is one Austin co-founded, though she admitted that the group never protested like this until now.
She cited her inspiration from Paul Birdsong, a prominent new BLM leader in the Lansing area who has led daily protests since June 1, according to theLansing State Journal.
“Paul has been holding things down night after night after night under the threat of white supremacists in spite of the lack of protection of the police of the city of Lansing and the mayor,” Austin said.
“You deserve the right to be protected,” she said. “You own the city.”
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When a new HBO billboard popped up in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles recently it caused quite the stir because it covered a Kobe Bryant tribute mural. Fortunately, the network moved quickly to take it down and avoided major backlash.
According to TheWrap, they reached out to WarnerMedia about the questionable placement and the company got the vendor responsible to take it down in a hurry.
TheWrap also contacted Great Outdoor, which owns the space and commissioned the mural by Gustavo Zermeรฑo Jr.
“We actually commissioned the artist to paint this mural up there because we had a couple open months on it. This idea was all approved by the artist and we preserved the mural so in between ad campaigns the mural will be back. The artist told us that he will reach out to anyone that says anything to let them know that he approved this idea and he was trying to find a creative way to support Kobe’s foundation. This mural is owned by us and we are protecting it,” they said in a statement.
Vanessa Bryant has been photographed in front of one of the murals in Los Angeles that have been painted in tribute to her late husband and daughter, but she’s had to block fan pages on social media that are dedicated to them.
(Photo: Vanessa Bryant Instagram)
She explained why recently.
“Thx so much for all the love…@nataliabryant and I have unfortunately had to block fan pages because it’s been really hard to go online and constantly see pics of our beloved Gigi and Kobe under every single square of our explore pages,” she posted on her Instagram page.
“Blocking the fan pages has helped change the algorithm…We love you all but please understand that we had to do this for our own healing not because we don’t appreciate your love.”
Bryant’s page has also now been set to private.
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NEW YORK (AP) — In law enforcement, they’re referred to as “nonlethal” tools for dealing with demonstrations that turn unruly: rubber bullets, pepper spray, batons, flash-bangs.
But the now-familiar scenes of U.S. police officers in riot gear clashing with protesters at Lafayette Park across from the White House and in other cities have police critics charging that the weaponry too often escalates tensions and hurts innocent people.
“When you see riot gear, it absolutely changes the mood,” said Ron Moten, a longtime community organizer in the nation’s capital who was out demonstrating this weekend. He said it takes away any perception the officers could be empathetic.
“If I went up to speak with a police officer and I’m covered in armor and holding a shield and a stick, don’t you think they would regard me as a threat?”
“When we see riot gear, as black people it takes us back 400 years,” he said.
Protesters in Denver arrived at the hospital with injuries from police projectiles that caused one person to lose an eye and left three other people with permanent eye damage, said Prem Subramanian, a physician who operated on some victims following demonstrations late last month.
“They weren’t accused of any crime, and they came in with devastating eye injuries,” Subramanian said, adding that he was so upset about it that he complained to city officials, who promised to investigate any abuses. “We’re learning the consequences of using these weapons.”
Protesters hold signs as they gather to protest police brutality and racism in the US, with the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2020. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
He said the injuries rivaled what he saw treating shrapnel damage to eyes of soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who were injured by explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rubber bullets and similar projectiles have damaged eyes or blinded at least 20 individuals from ages 16 to 59, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, since protests began over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Other tactics were on display at Lafayette Park, where police used chemical agents to break up a peaceful protest minutes before President Donald Trump posed for pictures outside a nearby church this month. In Buffalo, an officer used a baton to shove a 75-year-old man to the ground before that officer and others marched past as blood collected beneath the man’s head.
Amnesty International, a global human rights group, has questioned whether equipping officers “in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable.”
The growing use of less-lethal weapons is “cause for grave concern” and may sometimes violate international law, said Agnes Callamard, director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University and a United Nations adviser.
She said the “basic rationale for less-lethal weaponry is legitimate” after courts called for law enforcement agents to be given equipment enabling them to respond proportionately when necessary. In 1990, the U.N. issued basic principles on their use.
Projectiles caused 53 deaths and 300 permanent disabilities among 1,984 serious injuries recorded by medical workers in over a dozen countries from 1990 to 2015, said Rohini Haar, an emergency room doctor in Oakland, California, and primary author of the 2016 Physicians for Human Rightsreport assembled with civil rights groups.
A protester takes a knee in front of San Jose Police officers during a protest on East Santa Clara Street in San Jose, Calif., on May 29, 2020, after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Photo by Dai Sugano/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
She said there “are so many cases of misuse, it seems almost impossible to use them correctly.”
Whether rubber, foam or bean bags, they exit guns with the force of a bullet and should not be used against protesters because they can maim and bounce or ricochet unpredictably, Haar said.
Police, private security forces and military units seek to cause pain or incapacitate individuals with more than 75 types of rubber or plastic bullets from manufacturers in countries including the U.S., Brazil, China, Israel, South Africa and South Korea, according to the report, “Lethal in Disguise.”
Wade Carpenter, police chief in Park City, Utah, said the tools are necessary when peaceful rallies are “hijacked by individuals that have come in with a nefarious purpose to create the riots, the looting, those type of things.”
Many police forces “are very stringent on their training,” said Carpenter, an official with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has 32,000 police official members in 167 countries. “They’re very accountable, and others, you know, it’s kind of all over the board.”
Officers target lawbreakers who attack police with bricks or baseball bats, but sometimes less-than-lethal options are “not perfectly accurate, so, that’s always a risk and those are calculated risks,” Carpenter said.
It’s not just projectiles. Chemical irritants, banned in warfare by international law since 1925, are also criticized.
Police officers hold their line during protests on September 21, 2016 in Charlotte, NC. The North Carolina governor has declared a state of emergency in the city (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Chemical agents sometimes cause violent coughing, a worry during a pandemic. A 2012 study of more than 6,700 U.S. Army soldiers concluded that a common riot control chemical agent more than doubled the chance of contracting an acute respiratory illness such as pneumonia.
Seattle’s mayor and police chief early this month banned tear gas for 30 days before a federal judge ordered the city to stop using pepper spray, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. A Dallas judge made a similar ruling.
Acting on a federal lawsuit, a judge in Denver temporarily limited the use of projectiles and tear gas by the police, finding a strong likelihood that the police department violated constitutional rights.
In early June, the police chief in Austin, Texas, said his department would no longer fire beanbag projectiles at crowds after two demonstrators were hospitalized after being hit in the head, including a 16-year-old boy.
In New York City, the nation’s largest police department has not used rubber bullets or tear gas during protests. At a City Council hearing, police officials were pressed on whether officers should even be armed with batons after the city’s mayor promised “minimum force.”
First Deputy Police Commissioner Benjamin Tucker told council members that helmets and batons, necessary to protect officers, “are not window dressing.”
Carpenter, the Utah chief, said Floyd’s death left all officers feeling it “tarnished all of their badges” and do not relish the violence that’s come with some of the protests.
“We live, many of us, in the communities we police,” Carpenter said. “Unfortunately, there are instances like this that have happened that have really created a wedge between officers and the communities they serve and love.”
___
Associated Press writer Ashraf Khalil in Washington contributed to this report.
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A man charged in the killing of George Floyd was confronted by a patron at a Minnesota grocery store in a video that has been shared widely online.
J. Alexander Kueng, one of four ex-Minneapolis police officers charged in the choking death of Floyd while in custody, was spotted at the store and his sincerity questioned by a woman at Cub Foods in Plymouth, Minnesota, according to TMZ.
In the video posted online by Twitter user @jk3rd_, the user said their sister “caught” Keung who “lynched” Floyd in “cold blood.”
Twitter user @jk3rd_ originally tweeted out a video of his sister approaching and speaking with Kueng, who is still facing charges of second-degree unintentional murder, second-degree manslaughter and aiding and abetting.
The video shows the lady, who is unidentified, asked Kueng what his name is, to which he responds nonchalantly: “Oh, yeah, that’s me.”
“So, you’re out of prison” and “you’re comfortably shopping in Cub Foods as if you didn’t do anything?” she said, going on to say “I don’t think you should be out on bail.”
“I can understand that. I’m sorry you feel that way,” Kueng responded.
look who my sister caught at Cub Foods in Plymouth. J. Alexander Keung, one of the officers who lynched #GeorgeFloyd in cold blood. pic.twitter.com/PVX4pFijab
The lady then said, “No, you’re not sorry,” as he walked away to wait in line to pay for his items. The video went on for over two minutes as she followed him, saying “you should be locked up.”
Kueng was bailed out for $750,000 on Friday, June 19. According to Minneapolis TV station KARE, he is second officer to be released on bail for the Floyd killing.
Left to right: Former Minneapolis officers Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane. (Photo: Katie Couric/Instagram | Hennepin County Sheriff)
Thomas Lane was released on bail just days prior to Kueng. Ex-officers Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with second-degree murder, and Tou Thao, the only officer on the scene not pinning Floyd to the ground, remain in custody.
Kueng, Lane and Thao were charged for their part in Floyd’s death after he was held on the ground while handcuffed, as Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Chauvin’s charges were upgraded from third-degree murder to second-degree murder.
Floyd died on May 25.
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The late boxing great Muhammad Ali was a vocal advocate for civil rights of Black people during his career. However, on the fourth anniversary of his death, his son, Muhammad Ali Jr. states that his famous father wouldn’t be happy with the Black Lives Matter movement.
During an extensive interview with The New York Post, Ali, 47, said that Black Lives Matter, which doubles as both a slogan and a decentralized activist group, is “racist” and that protesters are “devils.”
“It’s a racial statement,” he said. “It’s pitting black people against everyone else. It starts racial things to happen; I hate that.”
Ali, who is Muslim like his father, feels that Black people shouldn’t be singled out. He was estranged from the senior Ali, who died in 2016, for the last 10 years of his life.
“It’s not just Black lives matter. White lives matter. Chinese lives matter. All lives matter. Everybody’s life matters,” Ali said. “God loves everyone — he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong, no matter who it is.”
The only son of the three-time heavyweight champion of the world had harsh words for George Floyd demonstrators and rioters.
“Don’t bust up s–t, don’t trash the place,” he said. “You can peacefully protest.”
Ali said his father would agree.
“My father would have said: ‘They ain’t nothing but devils.’ My father said, ‘all lives matter.’ I don’t think he’d agree.”
Ali is a supporter of President Donald Trump and believes that his father would be, too, were he alive today.
“I think Trump’s a good president. My father would have supported him. Trump’s not a racist, he’s for all the people,” Ali explained. “Trump is much better than Clinton and Obama. … The only one to do what he said he would do is Donald Trump.”
In response to the protests against police brutality, Ali asserted his support for American police, claiming it’s the few individuals who are to blame for wrongdoings, not the institutions.
“Not all the police are bad, there’s just a few. There’s a handful of police that are crooked, they should be locked up,” Ali said. “I never had a bad scene with a cop. They’ve always been nice and protect me. I don’t have a problem with them.”
Ali currently resides in Hallandale Beach, Florida where he is a landscape gardener and construction worker. He said he receives a monthly payment of $1,000 from his father’s estate.
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I’ll never forget the first time I realized my father’s love for me might be conditional. I was a junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and I had just come out as gay to him over the phone. In a perfect world, my dad would’ve told me he loved me no matter who I loved and, maybe more naively, I hoped that he would tell me that being gay was OK.
Unfortunately, neither of those things happened. To say that my father, an ordained Baptist minister, didn’t take the news well is an understatement. He called me incessantly every day thereafter from our Brooklyn family home to read me scriptures on what the Bible says about homosexuality.
When he learned that I was dating a man in Atlanta, he gave me an impossible ultimatum: end my relationship with my then-boyfriend and essentially become a born again, straight man all with the snap of a finger (if only it wasthatsimple). And if I didn’t, my father said, he would cut me off financially.
“Let whoever you’re with take care of you,” he said. He called it tough love.
It was incredibly heartbreaking and terrifying to make sense of my dad’s rejection and, at just 19, the possibility of being on my own and supporting myself took me to places of sadness and fear that was both familiar and uncharted. On one end I was concerned about my livelihood.Would I have to drop out of college? Would I ever be able to take care of myself?
Gerren Keith Gaynor (far right) with friends on the campus of Morehouse College. (Photo: Courtesy of Gerren Keith Gaynor)
And on the other end, I internalized my father’s rejection of what was technically only a part of me (my sexuality), and yet somehow it felt like he had rejectedall of me. I had played out many scenarios in my head of how my father would react the day I’d finally tell him my truth.
As I’m sure many Black LGBTQ children can relate to, my greatest fear was to become another queer youth kicked out of the nest and left to fend for themselves in an already cruel and scary world where being anything but white and straight felt like a death sentence in America. Sadly, twelve years after my coming out story, only 12 percent of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer youth are out to their parents, according to a 2019 study by theHuman Rights Campaign.
And those brave enough to come out are often faced with not only the rejection but homelessness. What’s more, as is pointed out byThe Trevor Project, “being Black in the United States has its own unique experiences coupled with its own specific challenges, and very little is known about how to address the needs of Black LGBTQ youth. Research has documented a variety of challenges faced by Black youth, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety.”
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
As an act of survival, I chose to stand down. I went against what was in my heart, which was to fully step into my authentic self for the very first time in my life, and instead, I begrudgingly made the decision to go back inside the closet. It was safer that way.
I continued to be the model son that my dad knew me to be. I excelled in my academics, pursued an early career in campus journalism, and whenever a family member made an awkward comment about whether or not I was dating anyone, I’d mysteriously smile and chuckle without saying a word like the rehearsed closeted gay man I was.
I wish I could say that there’s a happy ending; that eventually my father came around and accepted me as gay. But the truth is my father died two years later and we never got the chance to resolve what would ultimately become an unspoken wound in our relationship.
Anyone who identifies as gay, bisexual, trans, or queer can relate to the loneliness that comes with knowing who you are and not being able to share that fullness and authenticity with the ones you love most. My father died before he got the chance to know the fullness of who his son was. He also died before seeing who his son would ultimately become.
Gerren Keith Gaynor at his father’s gravesite. (Photo: Courtesy of Gerren Keith Gaynor)
That reality is deeply painful. It’s for that very reason why Father’s Day is always a difficult day for me. Not just because of who I lost, but what I lost: the chance to be fully seen, loved and accepted as I am by the man who both created and nurtured me.
In many ways, I feel robbed of an opportunity to heal my somewhat broken relationship with my father. It’s a very complicated love story that has led me to nearly two years of therapy (and counting) to unpack the seen and unseen traumas of being a Black queer boy reared in a Black, conservative Christian household.
To be clear, I grew up in a beautiful and loving home. My father and mother were married for nearly 30 years before he passed, and my parents, who worked city jobs in New York City, did everything in their power to give me and my autistic brother the best that life had to offer. My father sacrificed his body and ultimately his health as he worked overtime nearly every day as an MTA transit worker to get me through private school and eventually college.
In fact, he rarely ever stopped working. Until, of course, he came down with what was thought to be a cold but was actually congestive heart failure. It would ultimately take his life just days after he turned 60.
My father’s death, and by extension Father’s Day, bring up complicated feelings for me. I was blessed enough to have a father who was active in my life, in fact, I felt at times he was a bittooinvolved. He knew my semester schedule by heart and would call me in between classes to talk about nothing at all. Something that once felt smothering is the very thing I yearn to have just one more time.
I’d be lying if I said that I was completely healed from the loss of my father and the chance for him to accept me, but I find comfort in knowing that the love we shared was real, no matter how messy and complicated it may have been.
The truth is I’m still reconciling with the fact that I’ll never get to experience my father’s acceptance. He’ll never get to say sorry for the pain he caused me, and I’ll never get the chance to forgive him for it.But while some things were left unsaid, in my heart I believe my dad would’ve come around to accept his gay son.
In the two months of being back home from college, my dad and I began to bond on another level, not just as father and son, but as two individual men. He was just starting to finally see me as my own person. It became less about what he wanted for my life and more about his curiosity for what I wanted for my life and where it was headed.
The night before he died, my father came into my room for what would be our very last conversation together. I was soon to begin my graduate studies at Columbia University, and he was very excited that his son was attending an Ivy League.
“What do you hope this will do for your career?” he asked me. As I laid out my 10-year plan, I remember him smiling as his face beamed with pride.It was the same pride on his face when I graduated from Morehouse. Seeing his Black son, a first-generation college graduate, accomplish what he and his ancestors never had the privilege of doing was deeply gratifying for him.
Gerren Keith Gaynor with his father on his graduation day at Morehouse College in 2011. (Photo: Courtesy of Gerren Keith Gaynor)
In fact, aside from the day he dropped me off on campus, my graduation was the only time I ever saw my father cry. I can still see the love enveloped in his tears as I looked him in his eyes before he embraced me.
“You make me so proud,” he said during that final late-night chat in my room. “Seeing you graduate was the happiest day of my life after the birth of my four children.”
Looking back on it, there was nothing conditional about my father’s love. And while he never explicitly accepted me as gay, he didn’t have to. I know now that there was nothing that would’ve stopped my father from loving me.
My relationship with my dad may have been complex but it was never absent of love. I hold on to that love on this Father’s Day, reminded that while he may no longer be with me in the physical sense, his loving spirit remains and comforts me when I need him most.
Gerren Keith Gaynor is the Managing Editor at theGrio and co-host of the Dear Culture Podcast. The Brooklyn native is a graduate of Morehouse College and Columbia School of Journalism. Previously, he served as an editor at Fox News, BET and Vibe magazine. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MrGerrenalist.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
Gerren Keith Gaynor is the Managing Editor at theGrio and co-host of the Dear Culture Podcast. The Brooklyn native is a graduate of Morehouse College and Columbia School of Journalism. Previously, he served as an editor at Fox News, BET and Vibe magazine. Follow him on