Black Lives Matter protests: Activist's gaffe on Winston Churchill statue
A debate to rages over ripping down historic statues, one protester has had an unfortunate moment on TV that the internet seized on.
less than 2 min read
June 15, 2020 - 1:48AM
A protester has been involved in an unfortunate moment on live TV after she was asked about a statue of Winston Churchill.
Mr Churchill, best known for leading the UK to victory in World War II, died in 1965.
However the former PM has been in the news recently after a statue of him in London was repeatedly defaced by Black Lives Matter protesters.
In an interview on Channel 4 News yesterday, Lambeth Independent Police Advisory Group chair and community activist Lorraine Jones said she wasn’t sure if the statue of Mr Churchill should stay.
“I’ve heard many arguments on both sides. Some say that he’s a racist. Some say that he’s a hero," Ms Jones said.“I haven’t personally met him.
“But what I would say is that that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community.”
It comes amid revelations the officers involved collected their shell casings rather than giving first aid to Mr Brooks.
It is claimed they waited more than two minutes before even checking his pulse, a lawyer for Brooks’ family claims.
The live blog has now been flicked off but scroll down to see how the day's news unfolded.
Updates
Activist's awkward gaffe on Winston Churchill statue
A London activist has been involved in an unfortunate moment on live TV, claiming she'd never "personally met" former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Mr Churchill, best known for leading the UK to victory in World War II, died in 1965.
However the former PM has been in the news recently after a statue of him in London was repeatedly defaced by Black Lives Matter protesters.
In an interview on Channel 4 News yesterday, Lambeth Independent Police Advisory Group chair and community activist Lorraine Jones said she wasn’t sure if the statue of Mr Churchill should stay.
The obvious awkward moment is that Mr Churchill passed away more than 50 years ago.
“I’ve heard many arguments on both sides. Some say that he’s a racist. Some say that he’s a hero," Ms Jones said.
“I haven’t personally met him.
“But what I would say is that that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community.”
Cop-involved shooting in Minnesota
There's been another shooting in Minnesota, the same state where George Floyd was killed late last month.
The shooting occurred in St Cloud, an hour away from Mr Floyd's home in Minneapolis.
A number of conflicting reports hit social media tonight as some St Cloud locals claimed the officers involved in the shooting had shot and killed a teenage boy.
But in a statement tonight, St Cloud Police said officers had been attempting to arrest an 18-year-old man when he allegedly pulled a gun.
Police allege the suspect shot one of the officers in the hand before being arrested.
The shot officer and the 18-year-old, who received a cut in the altercation, were taken to hospital.
Cop could be charged with murder by Wednesday
The police officer involved in the killing of Rayshard Brooks over the weekend could be charged with murder by Wednesday.
Police said Sunday the department had terminated Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, and officer Devin Brosnan was placed on administrative duty.
Mr Rolfe had worked for the department since October 2013, and Mr Brosnan since September 2018.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will present the findings of its investigation to prosecutors.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a statement Sunday he hopes to reach a decision by midweek on whether to bring charges against the officers.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms also announced at a news conference on Saturday that Police Chief Erika Shields had decided to step down.
“I do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force,” Bottoms said.
James Clyburn, an African-American member of Congress from South Carolina, said he was incensed by the killing.
“This did not call for lethal force. And I don’t know what’s in the culture that would make this guy do that. It has got to be the culture. It’s got to be the system,” he said, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union.
Ardern accused of avoiding New Zealand's colonial history
Jacinda Ardern is playing a long game on questions of New Zealand’s racism and decolonisation, sidestepping tricky issues highlighted by Black Lives Matter protests.
In keeping with her deferential style on cultural and Maori flashpoints, the prime minister isn’t picking sides on statues, place renaming and systemic racism.
In the past fortnight, Ms Ardern has been indirect on questions that have sprung from the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Two weeks ago she declined to say whether she believed US president Donald Trump is racist.
She criticised protesters who did not socially distance at rallies despite a week without new cases of COVID-19.
Today, Ms Ardern didn’t accede to the protest organisers’ request to publicly condemn the police violence that led to Mr Floyd’s death, and avoided answering whether she believed New Zealand was “suffering systemic racism”.
Ms Ardern isn’t one to dwell on previous misdeeds or revolutionise Kiwi systems. Instead, she hopes to reform.
“We do acknowledge that change is needed and none of these things are going to happen quickly because they do need to be systemic,” she told Radio NZ, pointing instead to practical changes made.
“It’s making sure you have more Maori representation in your DHBs (district health boards) … even more Maori represented within the police. All of that creates change.”
Her government is championing a language renewal, with growing numbers speaking Maori.
Maori government representation has grown and she has begun an annual commemoration of the New Zealand Wars in October.
“My leadership, I would like to think, is making it finally universal that New Zealand children will learn New Zealand history in schools,” she said.
“That’s the kind of thing that creates change.”
Still, many – including the thousands protesting in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin on Sunday – would prefer Ms Ardern to be bolder.
In Hamilton last week – the centre of Ms Ardern’s home region, the Waikato – a statue of Captain John Hamilton was removed from the town square by the council, to prevent it being vandalised or destroyed by Maori who decry his role in colonial-era killings.
Given the city bears Captain Hamilton’s name, there are renewed calls for the city to be re-badged as ‘Kirikiriroa’.
Ms Ardern said it was “fantastic” that many Kiwi places were adopting interchangeable names – similarly to Aotearoa New Zealand – but wouldn’t be drawn on individual places.
“I am required and forced to have a view on many, many things. There are some things that local people should take the lead on,” Ms Ardern told Newshub.
“Place names, statues, these are rightfully things that are dealt with at a local level. Kirikiriroa Hamilton … that is a matter for them.”
The 39-year-old used an example from North Island’s East coast, her favoured holiday spot, to suggest she did not favour the removal of imperial monuments including of Captain James Cook.
“In Gisborne, yes you have statues of Cook, but you also have a statue of (Maori chief) Te Maro of Ngati Oneone, who was amongst those killed during Cook’s arrival,” she said.
“They said (Cook is) part of our history but we haven’t been telling our whole history. I personally am of the view that we have been remiss in not always telling our full history.”
– Ben McKay, AAP
Incredible scenes at Black Trans Lives Matter protest
Thousands of people have turned out to peacefully protest for African American transgender people in Brooklyn, New York.
The Black Trans Lives Matter protest took place outside Brooklyn Museum.
Protesters were told to wear white with aerial images showing the true scale of the protest.
The Trump administration on Friday finalised a regulation that overturned Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.
The policy shift, long-sought by the president’s religious and socially conservative supporters, defines gender as a person’s biological sex.
The Obama regulation defined gender as a person’s internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination.
LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex- reassignment treatment, and even for transgender people who need medical care for common conditions such as diabetes or heart problems.
Video shows protester being wrestled to the ground
A video from East Meadow, New York, shoing a protester being wrestled to the ground by police has gone viral over the weekend.
It shows Terrel Tuosto of West Hempstead, a nearby town on Long Island, walking alongside Nassau County police officers.
He is told repeatedly by officers to “move to the side” of the street and he responds, “we’ve got this whole street.”
Peaceful protest in East Meadow, NY (Long Island):
An officer abruptly stops so the protestor walking behind him bumps into the cop.
Then the man is violently arrested.
Bystanders: “they kneeled on his neck & had about 6 officers holding him down.”pic.twitter.com/uNK5DOaFRo
However, officers are seen in the video again telling Mr Tuosto and other protesters to remain on the southbound side of the street.
Mr Tuosto continues to walk before an officer appears to stand in front of him, causing a collision.
The officers are then seen restraining Mr Tuosto and shoving him into the ground. Protesters can be heard on the video yelling at police officers.
The police force said three protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and said that police repeatedly made attempts to keep protesters away from moving lanes of traffic.
“This safety precaution was met with strong opposition and resistance which resulted in the arrests of these subjects,” the force said in a statement.
In an address to the nation, Mr Macron said France would be “uncompromising” in its fight against racism after days of demonstrations over alleged prejudice among police forces.
Angry crowds have toppled statues of colonial figures in Britain and the United States, and there has been an intensified scrutiny of the records of key leaders of the colonial era in Europe.
But Mr Macron said the country would not obscure elements of its history or dismantle statues of public figures who may have advocated racist views or policies.
“The Republic will not wipe away any trace or any name from its history. It will not forget any of its works. It will not take down any of its statues but lucidly look at out history and our memory together,” he said.
AFP. Picture by Denis Charlet/AFP
Sydney James Cook statues defaced
Police are appealing for information after a statue of Captian James Cook was defaced in Sydney's east over the weekend.
Black spray paint was used to deface the statue, located on the corner of Belmore Road and Avoca Street in Randwick, between 8pm on Saturday and 8.45am on Sunday.
Pictures taken of the statue on Sunday show the phrase "no pride in genocide" and the outline of an Aboriginal flag drawn onto the monument. The graffiti was cleaned by Randwick Council on Sunday.
EXCLUSIVE | Images of the defaced Captain Cook statue on Belmore Road, Randwick.
The incident comes as a statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park was also graffitied with black spray paint on the weekend with the messages "no pride in genocide" and "sovereignty never ceded".
Wife of Rayshard Brooks wants officers in jail
Tomika Miller, the wife of Rayshard Brooks, says she wants the officers involved in the altercation that led to his death to go to jail.
“I want them to go to jail,” she told CBS. “I want them to deal with the same thing as if it was my husband who killed someone else.
"If it was my husband who shot them, he would be in jail. He would be doing a life sentence. They need to be put away.”
Speaking about her husband, Mrs Miller said, “Rayshard Brooks is everybody. Just like George is everybody. We are all the people, we are all God’s children.”
Rayshard Brooks autopsy released
Rayshard Brooks – whose death has sparked a fresh wave of unrest in the US – was shot twice in the back, his autopsy shows.
The report says that Mr Brooks died from organ damage and blood loss from the two gunshot wounds after an altercation with police in Atlanta.
The autopsy, performed on Sunday, lists Mr Brooks’ cause of death as gunshot wounds to the back, the manner of death is listed as homicide.
Meanwhile new bodycam footage shows what happened in the moments before the fatal shooting.
It shows the 27-year-old man was sleeping in his car and reportedly blocking a Wendy’s drive through when police interviewed him and made him do a sobriety test.
Footage shows the officers trying to handcuff him, but he runs away. The footage shows Mr Brooks holding a taser as he runs. He can be see pointing it back at the officer chasing him. A number of gunshots can then be heard.
It comes amid revelations the officers involved collected their shell casings rather than giving first aid to Mr Brooks.
It is claimed they waited more than two minutes before even checking his pulse, a lawyer for Brooks’ family claims.
Witnesses said that “the officers went and put on plastic gloves and picked up their shell casings after they killed him — before rendering aid,” lawyer L. Chris Stewart said at a press conference Saturday, a day after Brooks was shot dead trying to avoid a drunk-driving arrest.
“They appear to be caring more about covering their tracks than providing aid,” he said of the officers, Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan.
“Aid that could have saved his life if allegedly he was taken to the hospital and died in surgery. But they didn’t give that to him.”
