Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

On June 23, local filmmaker and photographer Sekou Keita proposed a Black Lives Matter mural at a Carrboro Town Council meeting. Seven months later, Carrboro has two murals supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

After months of Black Lives Matter protests, residents and Town Council members hope the mural will keep the momentum of the movement going and bring the community together. Keita said at the June 23 meeting that he saw art bringing communities together in Greensboro and other cities in North Carolina, and wanted to unify the Town by creating a mural that would speak for all residents.

To see the murals, visit the Carrboro Century Center at 125 W. Main St. or CommunityWorx 100 N. Greensboro St.

Besides the ongoing pandemic, the mural creation process overcame logistical challenges such as determining location, position and design. Town Council member Barbara Foushee said the amount of respect and reverence the murals would receive depended on the presentation of the Black Lives Matter message.

She said she approves of the newly-installed murals on the side of the Carrboro Century Center and the CommunityWorx Thrift Shop, both prominent locations, after voting against the originally proposed mural placement in an Oct. 6 Town Council meeting.

Up high on the Century Center? That's a place of reverence and respect, you know?" Foushee said. "Reverence and respect to the message behind the mural, which is supporting the Black lives within the community and across the nation."

Both murals were painted by Black artists. Erbriyon Barrett, an Atlanta-based muralist, painted the Black Lives Matter mural on the Carrboro Century Center, home to the Carrboro Police Department. Barrett said painting the Black Lives Matter message on that building in particular made him realize how serious the Carrboro Town Council was about bringing representation to the community.

"That was very interesting to me in a good way, not a bad way," he said. "It was just like, 'Oh wow. They're really serious about this.' So I really appreciate that.

He said he appreciated the dedication the Council showed toward the mural creation process and how the community welcomed him with open arms.

It's important because I know we couldn't do this 40, 50 years ago out of fear, out of not knowing what's gonna happen next," Barrett said. "We have a bigger voice than we had back then.

Barrett completed the "Black Lives Matter" mural on Jan. 15.

The community came together to create the mural on the CommunityWorx building. Tyrone Small, a local artist and mural coordinator, led a team of four student artists from surrounding high schools, who created all of the design and renderings for the building.

The team completed the mural on Dec. 18. It was Smalls first time leading a team, and he said the students drove the project with their dedication to bringing people together and making their voices heard.

They wanted to have a voice in a time where they felt like they weren't heard," Small said. "For them to say that, and then come up with the brand-new piece that they did, you can take away something from everything in this particular piece. That's what I love about it. It just speaks in so many different ways in all languages."

Foushee shared similar sentiments and said the murals show Carrboros dedication to bringing equal representation to their community.

We're very proud of the murals and the message that it sends as far as the Town and the Council's continuing commitment to the Black community, as well as to dismantling racism and balancing the scale, Foushee said.

@sarahgraybarr

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com

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'Reverence and respect': Carrboro honors Black Lives Matter with two murals - The Daily Tar Heel

Falling midwaybetween Donald Trump's second impeachment and Joe Biden's inauguration, Jan.16 markeda less-noticed but arguably more important commemoration, the 235thanniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. That is nowcommonly recognized as the first law to establish religious freedom, and was one of three achievements that its author, Thomas Jefferson, had inscribed on his tombstone. That datehas been officially recognized as Religious Freedom Daysince 1993, and amidso much political tumult, it went almost overlooked this year. But it goesto the core of what America is all about, what Trump's supporters are trying to destroy, and what Black Lives Matter demonstrators so emphatically affirmed this past year.

Jefferson's statute provided unlimited freedom of conscience for all a pluralistic paradise.But ever since Barack Obama's election in 2008, the religious right has seized on Religious Freedom Day as a key part of itsOrwellian propaganda campaign to redefine religious freedom as a license to discriminate, an exclusionary license forreligious bigotry and sectarian dominance the exact opposite of what Jefferson fundamentally believed in. Soit's only natural that both Jefferson and the Virginia Statute are almost entirely absent from any of the right's gaslighting celebrations of religious freedom.

Since 2016 (as I've reported),a growing chorus of religious and secular progressives organized in part by people like Frederick Clarkson, senior research analyst at Political Research Associates have pushed back, seekingreclaim Jefferson's original intent, which he later made explicit, writingthat the Statute contained "within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohametan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."Recovering the original meaning also entails pushing back against the right's anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ politics, which they've sought to protect under the mantle of their own beliefs, while forcing those beliefs on others.

Of course, Jefferson hascome in for increasing criticism from the left as well, due to his slaveholder status, which looms larger than ever after lastyear's historic Black Lives Matters protests. But rather than argue over Jefferson's undeniable individual flaws, there's a growing movement in the Black religious community to adopt a much broader and deeper critical view of the discourse of religious freedom, even if it was initially promulgated by a slave-owning empire. These new voices are more in synch than at odds with those previously engaged in the battle to reclaim religious freedom, as seen in a roundtable forum produced by Political Research Associates, "Religious Freedom and the Machinations of the Christian Right," held on Jan.14.

Two days earlier, the shared perspective among Black Christians and non-Christians was richly explored in Freedom Forum's book launch and webinar, "African Americans & Religious Freedom: New Perspectives for Congregations & Communities." Black people in the Americas, enslaved with a set of Christian justifications "and displaced from their lands, culture, religions and ancestors, have a unique and fierce historical commitment to the ideals of freedom," Baptist theologian Faith B. Harris writes in the first chapter of the book (pdf here). "With their very presence, New World Africans have a unique claim to religious freedom, despite the rhetoric embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."

As the New York Times' 1619 Project reminds us, this presence predates Jefferson's statute by more than a century and a half. Harris continues: "Indeed, Black religion is best expressed by an enduring relationship to a freedom-loving/giving God. Theologian Kelly Brown Douglas argues that in the Black theological imagination, God is free and to be in a relationship with God is to be free."

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., raises provocative questions about the very language involved. "The concept of religious freedom strikes me as another rhetorical arrow in the quiver of nationalistic propaganda," he writes. "I am not moved by a nation that trumpets liberty while exterminating First Nations people, brutally enslaving and extracting labor from Africans and crushing the poor masses by hocking the universal benefits of capitalism."

From the beginning of European colonization in North America, Vanderbilt theologian Teresa L. Smallwood notes, "It was the twin discourses of race and religion which shaped the discourse of religious freedom. The organizing principle of British colonial societies followed a religious logic and privileged landholding white men. These religious men acted brutally and used the labor of enslaved Africans to generate considerable wealth." In contrast, she notes, "Whatever the convention Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, non-denominational, Indigenous African Americans exercised religious freedom largely as a means of resistance and in the face of prolonged tyranny."

This larger perspective grounded in the basic material experience of slavery, resistanceand continued struggled puts the focus on deeds more than words, and on practices, institutionsand history more than disembodied arguments, be they theological, philosophical, judicial or political. A key text cited by several contributors was Tisa Wenger's 2017 book "Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal." Wenger explained:

Rather than asking how adequately Americans have achieved this freedom or how rapidly it advanced,I wanted to know who appealed to religious freedom, for what purposes, and what it meant to them. Somewhat unexpectedly, race and empire quickly emerged as key themes in my analysis. I found that some of the most frequent and visible articulations of American religious freedom were exclusive, even coercive. The dominant voices in the culture linked racial whiteness, Protestant Christianity, and American national identity not only to freedom in general but often to this freedom in particular.The most audible varieties of religious freedom talk ...helped define American whiteness and make the case for U.S.imperial rule.

But in response, the racialized and colonialized subjects of U.S. empire also rearticulated thisfreedom to defend themselves and their traditions. For them, religious freedom became a way to redefine communal identities, to carve out space for themselves and their traditions within the confines of a racialized empire, and even to resist its mandates.

Her book focuses on the period from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to World War II, "a pivotal period in our histories of race and empire but one that most scholarship on religious freedom has neglected," she explains. Muchthe same sorts of observations can be applied all the wayfrom the colonial era to the present. And her perspective frames both the embrace of and skepticism toward the idea of religious freedom.

"There has always been just enough religious freedom in America for Black folk to nourish dreams of freedom, but hardly ever enough religious freedom for those dreams to be fully realized," writes Lamar. "This conundrum is, in essence, the foundation upon which my reluctant identification with the ideal of religious freedom rests who has unimpeachable, unassailable religious freedom in America? Wenger reminds us that for Native Americans and Black nationalists it was curtailed. Who then can take this American ideal and use it to craft theological visions unmolested by imperial power? Can Black churches ever fully enjoy this ideal?"

On the other hand, Rahmah A. Abdulaleem,executive director ofKARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, sees a stronger underlying foundation in the lived reality of African-American life the religious diversity and pluralism she traces back to colonial times in her book chapter, "Race, Religious Pluralism and Religious Freedom," which she brought up to date in her forum presentation.

"I think it's important to focus on the fact that after 9/11 so many Americans were asked, 'Do you know any Muslims?' and most African-Americans could say, 'Yeah, I know Muslims. I grew up with them. They're in in my family.' We weren't others," she said. "So African Americans really need to focus on the fact that we always welcome others. It's always been important to us because we know what's like to be in the minority. We know what it's like to be otherized."

She continued with a moving and important family example:

My grandmother was blessed with 11 children and she considers herself a Universalist but not as a Universalist for the Universalist Church. She's like, "I'm universalist because my oldest daughter was a Buddhist, I have a daughter who is a deaconess in the Baptist Church, I have a son who's an imam, I have two sons that are Catholic." It's so important that for her they're all her children and they all are having some kind of connection to something bigger than them.

These important Black voices have not yet been woven into the heart of religious freedom debates. But the promise of their imminent inclusion is a cause for renewed hope. While the religious right feeds constantly on victimhood fantasies, the African-American experience grounded in four centuries of actual victimhood has produced a rich diversity of humane and sober religious responses, along with its own freethinking and atheist traditions as well.

Indeed, a fair amount of the discussion held by Political Research Associates intersected with perspectives and concerns raised in the Freedom Forum book and webinar. As Frederick Clarkson put it:

This profoundly liberatory thing we call religious freedom came out of this morass of racism and genocide and extraordinary criminality, that the very people who were opposing Empire colonialism effectively replaceddomestically. Sowhat they did do was to giveus this extraordinary idea of religious freedom: "OK,we still have an empire of sorts, but you are free to think differently than the people who hold power." You can therefore speak differently andyou can have an oppositional press and you can organize politically differently. That was the opening, and they recognized that. But they realized their time as rulers might end, and should end. That is the extraordinary paradox of American culture and democracy that we actually still live through in many respects today.

"When you talk about urgently needing to address religious freedom and decolonization," ex-evangelical writer Chrissy Stroop said, "one thing that I think it's important to point out is how intertwined white supremacy is with white Christianity and particularly the white evangelical tradition. S, the same people who are trying to argue that religious freedom means their freedom to discriminate against other people in a Christian nation are the primary people who are fighting to maintain white supremacism, though many of them would not admit to that."

Stroop went on to cite the example of six seminaries within the Southern Baptist Convention, which "recently issued a statement condemning critical race theory and intersectionality as incompatible with Baptist theology, incompatible with the Bible as the Southern Baptists understand it." Stroop noted that Southern Baptists formed in the 1840s, in a schism from Baptists in the North over whether a slaveholder could be a Christian missionary.

"The Southern Baptist Convention has apologized for that legacy, and yetfails to fully reckon with it," Stroop said. "This explicit rejection by the official Southern Baptist structures of antiracist scholarship and antiracist analytical tools is quite striking," particularly given what has recently transpired.

"For someone like Albert Mohler who is the head of the flagship Southern Baptist seminary to come along and say after last Wednesday's insurrection that he's shocked that Christians would do this, that they would form a mob and storm the capital in support of the racist president, is really quite rich," Stroop remarked. "He just basically made this very racist move, and now he's saying,'I can't believe that people would actually take that to the streets [and]try to overturn an election."

Another participant, the Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson, director of spiritual care and activism at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, has co-authored an article at Religion Dispatches with Clarkson, "We Can't Have Religious Freedom Without Reproductive Freedom." She brought that connection into the discussion as well, with specific reference to the recent Senate election in Georgia election.

"One of the issues that was raised by some regarding the Rev. Raphael Warnock [who took office this past week] was that he could not be a Christian minister and a supporter of reproductive freedom," Jacksonsaid. To Warnock's opponents, it was as if "he didn't have a right to have a conscience of his own that would embrace both of those, that in many ways he didn't have the right to be a whole person and bring his theology and his politics in this intersectional way that came out with a different result from what people thoughthe should have."

Individual conscience is supposed to be primary in the Baptist tradition a fact that hassomehow been utterly disappeared overthe last 40 years. But Jackson reminded us that Baptists weren't alone in this regard:

Some of you may knowthere is a doctrine within Catholic teaching that says the primacy of conscience hasgreater weight than teachings of the church, and I love that. Martin Luther, who was one of the shapers of the Reformation, also talked about the importance of conscience, and that followingbehind the church hierarchy was not as critical in his own spiritual and religious understanding as following his conscience.So we're in this era now where people are being villainized if their understanding of their conscience does not align with someone else's. That is a supremacist orientation that really not only flies in the face of what it means to be a human living in dignity, it also flies in the face of what it means to be a democratic republic.

She went on to say that while some people are psychopaths or sociopaths, "For most of us conscience leads us to a deep morality that is rooted in compassion and love. Conscience, I believe for most of us, guides us to a higher nature that opens our hearts and our minds and our politics to way of being in society with one another that I think is really critical."

Another facet of the fight to reclaim religious freedom was highlighted in a virtual briefing on the recently-heard Supreme Court case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. As the ACLU succinctly explainsit,"On November 4, the Supreme Court heard a case that could allow private agencies that receive taxpayer-funding to provide government services such as foster care providers, food banks, homeless shelters, and more to deny services to people who are LGBTQ, Jewish, Muslim, or Mormon." Thisbriefing was closed to the press, but the moderator, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, from the Faith & Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, spoke with Salon afterwards.

"It's a common purpose across many faith groups we work with that we cherish religious freedom and want to celebrate Religious Freedom Day, and reject the false use of religious freedom to discriminate," Graves-Fitzsimmons said. "We want to do both at the same time." He was admittedly one of the few people who woke up the day after the November election to listen to the oral arguments in the Fulton case. But millions of people stand to be affected. "We are facing a challenge of raising awareness around this case, because there's so much going onand the Fulton case could have far-reaching implications beyond the particular circumstances in the case involving the City of Philadelphia and Catholic Social Services," he said. He explaind:

It is part of a larger trend we're seeing, which isconservative legal advocacy groups taking something that is a real core value, like religious freedom, and using it in a deceptive way to attack LGBTQ people and create alicense to discriminate that extends beyond LGBTQ people you have this foster care agency in South Carolina that's saying, "We won't work with Catholics or Jews." So the license to discriminate is broader than LGBTQ people,although that's the issue in this case. Itthen extends to reproductive health and abortion rights, andwe've seen recently at the Supreme Court the use of distorted religious freedom arguments as an excuse to spread the coronavirus. We saw a switch in the Supreme Court's views since Amy Coney Barrett joined the Supreme Court. They went in a different direction than what Justice Roberts and the more liberal justices had done earlier in the pandemic.

But if the Fulton case, and others like it, have gotten too little attention, that's even more true of religious freedom issues in the military, where long-standing Supreme Court doctrine subordinates religious expression to the military mission, which is to preserve freedom for all Americans. That in turn depends on maintaining unit cohesion, good order, moraleand discipline which religious proselytizing necessarily undermine. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been fighting Christian nationalism as a destructive force in the military for more than 15 years, warning that it is fundamentally incompatible with the military's mission.

Some branches of the military are better, some worse, at restraining this corrosive force. The Air Force Academy, where MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein graduated, is arguably the worst. One of its graduates, Larry Brock, was one of two insurrectionists wearing combat gear arrested in the wake of the Jan.6 Capitol invasion.

"The Air Force Academy is an unconstitutional train wreck of fundamentalist Christians, disgrace and shame," Weinstein told Salon. "Everybody at the Air Force Academy, the cadet wing, the staff and the faculty, all swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the gospel of Jesus Christ." The failure to live up to that oath can be seen in the fact that MRFF still has "hundreds of clients there, the vast majority of whom are Christians being persecuted by other Christians," Weinstein explained. "For years we've had we still have cadets at the Academy pretending to be fundamentalist Christians," purely because"they hope they'll be left alone."

in an open letter to the Air Force Academy, posted at Daily Kos, the MRFF wrote:"We warned you that this radical, right-wing influence found not only at USAFA, but tolerated or even endorsed by senior officers throughout the Air Force, caused a toxic leadership environment anderoded unit cohesion, good order, morale, and discipline.We constantly worried and warned that these seemingly (to some) innocuous events would lead to embarrassment for our Air Force Academy or worse and that's exactly what's happened."The letter goes on:

The MRFF now calls on the Air Force Academy to not only clearly and publicly condemn the actions of its graduate, Mr. Brock, in the harshest possible manner, but also to call on all other USAFA graduates who attended the insurrection to identify themselves and either turn themselves in to police if they broke the law or disavow the violence and storming of the Capitol if they, themselves, behaved in an otherwise peaceful manner.

To further clarify, Weinstein told Salon, "When you retire and accept a paycheck, you are still under the [Uniform] Military Code of Justice." Brock, like other ex-military insurrectionists, he argued,"should be brought back into the Air Forceand should face a general court martial. He should be visibly and aggressively punished for what he did, as should anyone else that is getting a retirement check."

This is only a small andselective slice of activities related to Religious Freedom Day. In PRA's roundtable, for example, author and journalist Kathryn Joyce discussed her 2019 New Republic article, "The Man Behind the State Department's New 'Natural Law' Focus," illuminating how premodern Catholic teaching about natural law wasused by Trump's State Department to delegitimize modern concepts of human rights concepts that the U.S. governmenthas played a crucial role in developing and promoting. Another roundtable participant, Minnesota State Sen.John Marty, has introduced a resolution honoring the true meaning of Religious Freedom Day.

In the Freedom Forum webinar, Charles Watson Jr., director of education at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, gave a spirited articulation of the centrality of freedom, in a sense that takes nothing away from anybody else:

I always tell people, I don't want a Biblical noose around my neck, and I don't want God shackles around my feet. I have to be free to change my mind, if I get better information, and my faith has to be free. And the only way for me to have that freedom is to be free to change my mind, think about God how I see fit to think about God, without government interference, and especially without somebody else that doesn't even care enough about me and my body to take up the mantel and fight for me.

This sense of freedom has Baptist roots that long predate Thomas Jefferson and, as Jackson noted, has Catholic and Lutheran roots as well. But Jefferson's contribution was to enshrine that sensibility in law, protecting it as neverbefore. Because Jefferson's vision is so central to the American project and its entire history, there are inevitableramifications everywhere throughout our public life. And because the religious righthas mounted such a sustained attack on his vision, seeking to turn it into a vampiric, soulless caricature of itself, there are countless battlefronts large and small on which Jefferson's vision must be defended and, of absolute necessity,enlarged.

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The struggle for religious freedom from Thomas Jefferson to Black Lives Matter - Salon

Black Lives Matter Protest, Antrell Williams

On January 6th, as a Trumpist mob threatened to shut down Congress and the democratic process, a well-known picture of law enforcement bias was made evident once more. As white men and women broke police barriers, smashed windows, and stormed the Capitol, they were often treated with kid gloves by police who seemed surprised these people could turn violent. The contrast with how Black Lives Matter protesters were treated in the same city just months before could hardly have been sharper.

Research by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) provides further documentation of this divide. Over the course of the last several years, ACLED and the Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) at Princeton University have been gathering data about political violence, protest, and police response.

Based on ongoing data collection, in their analysis, Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020, Dr. Roudabeh Kishi and Sam Jones found that 93 percent of all demonstrations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement were nonviolent. Yet, according to ACLED, the use of force against mostly peaceful BLM protesters escalated quickly in over 170 events, or nearly one in 10 demonstrations. This level of police intervention is three times that faced by demonstrators in protests unassociated with BLM.

When police mobilize, the use of force is common. As Kishi and Jones detail, Authorities have used forcesuch as firing less-lethal weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray or beating demonstrators with batonsin over 54 percent of the demonstrations in which they have engaged.

Writing in the Guardian, Lois Beckett reports on broader data that show that law enforcement was about three times more likely to use force against leftwing versus rightwing protests.

The disparity in police response only grew when comparing peaceful leftwing versus rightwing protests. Looking at the subset of protests in which demonstrators did not engage in any violence, vandalism, or looting, law enforcement officers were about 3.5 times more likely to use force against leftwing protests than rightwing protests, with about 1.8 percent of peaceful leftwing protests and only half a percent of peaceful rightwing protests met with teargas, rubber bullets, or other force from law enforcement.

These findings would not surprise Letitia James, attorney general for the state of New York. Her offices review of New York Citys response to protests earlier this year found, as reported by Marty Johnson in The Hill, a pattern of deeply concerning and unlawful practices that the NYPD [New York Police Department] utilized in response to these largely peaceful protests.The NYPD arrested or detained hundreds of protesters, legal observers, medics and others without legal justificationin total, we found over 155 incidents of officers using excessive and unreasonable force against protesters.

Chidozie Obasi, writing for Harpers Bazaar, puts it more plainly:

The differing treatment of the police, which we saw so plainly at the Capitol, says a lot about white supremacy. It exemplifies how much racial disparity is engrained in the nations system and how white privilege sits at the heart of racial injustice. In times of political strife and social angst, to see the scary reality of racial inequality taken to extreme proportions, look to the US: if Black people were the ones climbing up walls and causing havoc, the consequences would have been far more devastating. More guns would have been fired and the death toll would have been much higher, all at the hands of white power. To put it simply: if you are white and angry you get away with untold crimes, but if you are Black and show a sentiment of anxiety, if you protest for basic human rights, you are demonized.

ACLEDs researchers warned back in December 2020 that the trajectory of right-wing mobilizations were on the increase, albeit met with very limited government intervention (low levels of force, rare arrests, minimal legal consequences), while the total number of demonstrations involving militias increased dramatically after the election.

The question of how to reform our approaches to law enforcement and policing is being hotly debated. We may breathe more easily provided Inauguration Day passes calmly, but would do well to not lose sight of the underlying fragility of our nation.Martin Levine and Sofia Jarrin

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A Tale of Two Systems: Police Response to Black Lives Matter and Proud Boys - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly

To the editor:

Its astonishing to me as I read the rants in Sound Off that some writers cannot understand the difference between the taking of the U.S. Capitol and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Both were public group displays based on the frustration of those groups about the state of American politics and society. But that is the only similarity.

The far rights invasion of our seat of government was driven by the unfounded lies of a sore loser. One persons inability to recognize that he lost an election was amplified by supporters who thought they would benefit by sustaining his claims.

Those claims were unsubstantiated by any proof and rejected wherever they were challenged, even as it became clear that his views and style of governing were unacceptable to the majority of Americans.

On the contrary, Black Lives Matter demonstrators were out en masse to bring attention to generations of people affected by unequal opportunity and treatment by the society in which they live, and by unequal treatment by law enforcement.

A plethora of data substantiate their grievances.

This is an extraordinary time in America when such narrow minded individuals, who do not have the courage to sign their names to their proclamations, can equate the demonstrations of those seeking to overturn a free and fair election to demonstrations of those seeking to repair centuries of racism.

Marc Klein

North Andover

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Letter: Little similarity between Capitol riots and Black Lives Matter protests - Eagle-Tribune

Often, in our quest to be white allies to Black and Brown communities, we take action whenever it makes sense for us, jumping on the bandwagon of fighting injustice when it is convenient for us, not the people were speaking up for. Anti-racism advocacy by white allies fighting for systemic change is a positive thing there are plenty of amazing people here in C-U doing the anti-racist work around the clock without any need for recognition but the work of most tends to be short-lived.

A divided Champaign City Council voted down a Black Lives Matter mural proposal last week. Its one example of how, as a city, we are not ready for the celebratory hurrahs and congratulatory social media posts announcing an end to racial inequality in Champaign. The city elected officials and its residents havent done the work necessary to prove that Black Lives Matter in Champaign. Though the street mural would undoubtedly be a meaningful proclamation, right now, a mural is an empty performative gesture.

As a whole, the city council must acknowledge that they havent done enough to combat racism in our community, a sentiment expressed by a few members of the council at last weeks session. Anti-racism work is ongoing; one does not simply complete a workshop and become fully anti-racist. Individuals and systems must be subject to regular checks and adjustments. If were not able to accept that, then it is a fools errand to think that a street mural is going to magically create equality.

We know those who worked hard to present this concept to city council last year have the best of intentions, and we applaud them for their efforts. We are glad to see the council fielding this type of discussion. We realize the individuals spearheading the concept arent trying to make a mural to literally save lives, but a mural is merely a Band-Aid, not a cure.

We dont need to start with a mural, but instead, with actions and policies that prioritize the lives and well being of Black people. We need to take actions that ensure that simply surviving this white supremacist patriarchy is no longer an achievement and that thriving in a community that values and supports all its members is our measure for success.

Though the street mural would undoubtedly be a meaningful proclamation, we believe this is putting the cart before the horse. However, this isnt to say we dont disagree with the actions of the city council, needlessly penny-pinching a minuscule budget for the project and then trying to pretend it isnt about money or efforts. The money is there, as are plenty of opportunities to utilize it. There are ways to take action with the citys economic power that wont break the bank.

Admitting that we need to put literal dollars and cents in places that arent on a street next to the city building is a start. Can the Garden Hills neighborhood finally get its streetlamps and other capital improvements? Can we incentivize grocers to open up in Downtown and Midtown Champaign instead of bars and restaurants? These are just a couple among many potential items the city council could take action on in conjunction with a street mural.

It is acceptable to be disappointed that the vote didnt pass while simultaneously being able to admit that were not quite prepared to make this street mural a reality. The fact that this mural vote failed showcases how far we have to go before a city-funded street mural isnt just a virtue signal by elected officials. The mural needs to be a planting of the flag of anti-racism in Champaign, a celebration of real, actionable items and changes that improve the lives of Black residents. It takes time, patience, money, energy, and selflessness to dismantle racist systems.

We have to do better than slapping a mural on the street and proclaiming that Black lives do, in fact, matter. We must prove it with our actions. We cant solve all of our citys problems with racial inequality in one fell swoop, but we can take steps to ensure we are on the path towards equality. Then, and only then, can we discuss a mural celebrating what weve accomplished together.

The Editorial Board is Jessica Hammie, Julie McClure, and Patrick Singer.

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Action is the key to supporting Black Lives Matter : Opinion - Smile Politely - Champaign-Urbana's Online Magazine

Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis attorneys who famously pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters during this summers racial unrest in an effort to protect their property, sat for a revealing interview with OZYs co-founder and CEO on The Carlos Watson Show. You can find some of the best cuts here from the full interview, which you can find on the shows podcast feed.

Carlos Watson: How do you guys think back about that night as you stand here today in January?

Mark McCloskey: The interesting thing to us is that only that first night, only June 28 ever gets reported by the media. And that was the easier of the two events. The mob came back on July 3 with the express intent of killing us and burning down the house. And now this mob was estimated between 500 and 1,000. And that was the scary night. That was the time when we really thought the end had come. We had a long time trying to get some security and the people we normally hire in our business from time to time we hire secondary employment cops nobody wanted to get involved because of the bad press we attract. We were referred to a high-end global security firm thats based about 50 miles from here.

Theyve gotten bad press over the Ferguson incident and they didnt want to get involved. The guy finally tells me: What Id do is just take whatever you cant live without, put it in your cars, drive away and just abandon your house. And I said, Well, no effing way in heck Im going to do that. Were going to go down with this ship if we have to.

Ive gotten a call from the White House earlier in the week. And one of the guys at the White House said the president wanted to express his support. If theres ever anything we can do for you, give us a call, let us know. So now its Thursday night before that Friday, July the third, we had every belief that we were going to die. And our daughter who was staying with us came and gave us a hug and a kiss and took her favorite stuffed animal from when she was 3 years old and left thinking shed never see us again.

And I got back from the White House on the phone and I said, well, you said that theres ever anything you can do give us a call. So its a heck of a good time. And so he gave me Mark Meadows cellphone number. I called up Mark Meadows and tell him the story. And then the next call I made was to Tucker Carlson. And I was sitting on the bench in the kitchen and Patty was sitting beside me, sobbing because we thought we were going to die. We had not been to sleep since that previous Sunday night. Wed spent the whole week hiding valuables and stuffing things in walls and under beds and stuff. And Tucker put us on the air and said, Im talking to Mark McCloskey, and I hear Patty sobbing in the background and told the story. When that Friday came, we were pretty certain we were going to die. But it all came together. We had tremendous support at the end. We had some SEALs came up from Texas and from one guy, fourth-generation cattle farmer. A Navy SEAL drove in from Kansas, just put his gear in his truck and drove here. We have support from from the government. As result of Tucker Carlsons call, there were maybe 10 or so secondary employment cops from rural jurisdictions that werent afraid to have their name on the press if they had to.

CW: So, if someone were to say to you, I hear that, and I hear some of what youre saying. They may say, I dont agree with all of it. I dont agree with your characterization of it, but I understand that if youre outside and there are lots of people out there and theres noise and theres concern, and theres lots of stress all around, I understand how someone could come to that place. But that if youd stayed in the house, if youd not pulled guns out, that they would not have come in and that they likely would have just moved on and kept walking through the neighborhood. You say what to that?

MM: Am I supposed to interview each person as they breached that gate and say, Are you the good protester or are you the violent mobster? Are you a person who just wants to make some noise so you get on TV, or are you one of those people that shot police officers and burn 7-Elevens and kill [police officer] David Dorn? Am I supposed to individually assess each of these people as they walk through the gate? Its ridiculous.

I mean, we were terrified, legitimately so, and look what did happen. No shot got fired. Nobody got hurt. Not even a sidewalk got painted. The only casualty that day, other than our psyches, was an iron gate that had been there since 1888. What happened when they leave here? They go to the Mayor Krewsons house. They shoot fireworks through a window trying to set it on fire. They accost news reporters with semi-automatic weapons. This was not a crowd which you could trust to be harmless, and every indication was that they had no intention of being harmless.

Patty McCloskey: Well, the interesting thing is uninformed people, I see it in the paper, Ive seen it in a lot of things, saying that this street was chosen because its a bastion of white supremacy or white imperialism or something. They dont know. The neighbor right across the street from me is Black and his father was Black. Theyve been living there since 1972. Next-door to me, a mixed couple, Black and white, with mixed children. I have

MM: Gay guys across the street next-door.

PM: gay guys, white guys, Chinese people. I mean, everybody. I mean

MM: There are 42 houses in this street. As of right now, I think that there are probably what, five? That are African American. Mostly theyre, well, not mostly, I hate to characterize, lots of mixed couples, gay couples, and its been that way for the whole 33 years weve been there. This has always been about as diverse a neighborhood as youre going to find in St. Louis.

PM: And liberal.

MM: And liberal. St. Louis, as you may know, is one of the most racially divided cities in the country. I knew that south St. Louis was almost all white, north St. Louis is almost all Black, and theres very little interchange between the races here with the exception of this specific neighborhood, where its always been a mixed neighborhood and no ones ever had any problem with it.

PM: But I see newspaper articles written saying no Black person would ever be allowed to live there. In fact, They werent allowed to live there, they say, under the restrictions. That was never under our restrictions. That never happened. There have been people here and happily. Were all happy. Its kind of shocking that they can say these things. I think that the people that maybe that decided, Hey, lets stop in on this particular street because they are all those things you mightve heard about in the paper, theyre just uninformed and the papers at fault for that.

CW: Do you think on race relations hes been a good president?

PM: Yeah, I believe so. Because when I see the mainstream news, theyre putting those things together, saying that race relations and prison reform are the same thing. Because were putting people in prison, African Americans in prison, for things that you wouldnt for white-collar crime. So I put those things together, but I think there were opportunity zones, I think hes set up like in St. Louis. Theres a zone here where hes bringing in extra help for police to help an African American community. I dont know any African American that wants fewer cops. He says, Ill give you more cops because they need help. Theyre afraid. I would say 85 percent of our clients are African American and have been for 15 years. And we become very close. Were not these kinds of people that just say, you know, Sign you up and well see you. We dont even know who you are. We come in and talk to them daily. And I know what theyre like, and I

CW: Sorry, you said 85 percent. So 85 percent of your clients are African American?

PM: Yes.

CW: And what has happened since this? Have they stayed? Have African Americans continued to be your clients or have they said, I dont like what I saw. I dont like what I heard. I like you as a person, but I dont respect the choices youve made. And have they chosen other lawyers?

PM: Everyone has said, I would have done the same thing as you. I talked to my friends that would have done the same thing as you. One was the girl that I told you about that called and said, I still love you. And I know thats not you. And I know that they want you to pay for it. But not one has left and not one has said. And weve gotten calls from clients from way back saying, I know you people, and I would have done the same thing and I understand it. And so not a one.

CW: Now, I was surprised in some of the interviews that I thought I heard you say that you supported Black Lives Matter. Is that true? I dont want to put words in your mouth. Is that true?

MM: My lawyer said it in those words one time and I corrected him, and Ive corrected it on every media event thats asked me that question. I support equal justice under the law. I support equal rights for all people. Im a big believer in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I recognize the Black Lives Matter organization as a Marxist organization. Thats antithetical to everything I believe in. I believe that amongst other things, the biggest impediment to success in the African American community is degradation of family values and the lack of cohesive family organization and Black Lives Matter disavows traditional families, Black Lives Matter disavows

CW: Mark, Mark, Mark, sorry. You think thats a bigger impediment to Black success than systemic racism?

MM: I dont I cant answer that question. I can tell you from personal experience of living in the murder capital of the world for most of my life, St. Louis is a remarkably dangerous place if youre an African American, and thats because of Black-on-Black violence. So we had 262 murders in the city of St. Louis last year, highest murder rate in 50 years, almost exclusively Black-on-Black violence, and no one wishes to address that issue. And certainly Black Lives Matter does not wish to address that issue.

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What the McCloskeys Have to Say About Black Lives Matter and Their Mixed-Race Neighborhood - OZY

As cries of "no justice, no peace" and "Black lives matter" once again rang out in streets across the country this summer, policymakers were faced with the most intense calls yet to increase racial equity in policing.

Kansas was not immune to those discussions in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minn., police. Protests followed in Topeka, Wichita and scores of other communities, as residents again sought changesin their backyards and across the state.

Whether state legislators will consider advancing aggressive reforms favored by those activists, however, remains unclear. And some changes, like alterations to how police departments are funded, can only be pursued at the local level.

But there are things that could be done statewide if lawmakers so choose.

A panel formed by Gov. Laura Kelly in the wake of Floyd's death published recommendations late last year for changes that could be taken, both by state agencies and by legislators.

Some of those reforms, such as a ban on no-knock warrants, might be a bridge too far for the Republican-controlled Legislature. Others may be workable but could get lost in a hectic session that is at perpetual risk of being affected by COVID-19.

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear open to a discussion on the issues.

"I just want to ensure that we hold every aspect of society to a standard of equity and civility," said Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, Kan. "There should be an opportunity to employ better policing and those tactics that are less likely to result in harm."

Perhaps the most significant of the recommendations from Kelly'sCommission on Racial Equity and Justice was curbing the use of no-knock warrants, which are warrants issued that do not need to be served with any sort of warning for residents inside.

Many local governments barthe use of no-knock raids already. Topeka Police Department, for instance, has not used no-knock warrants for "many years," according to Chief Bill Cochran and Topeka City Council passed a measure putting that ban into city law over the summer.

But the practice has gained renewed scrutiny after Louisville resident Breonna Taylor was killed by police executing a no-knock warrant in March. Scores of municipalities began considering an end to the practice, although many law enforcement agencies defend it as necessary in cases involving potentially dangerous individuals.

Activists counter that they can be used with deadly force against people of color, such as in Taylor's death. Haley said he planned to formally introduce legislation to ban the practice in the coming weeks.

"We need to re-evaluate what is legal and underscore what is illegal before any police officer puts on a uniform and wears a badge," Haley said.

Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, a member of the Kansas Criminal Justice Reform Commission, said he was surprised to learnthe discretion available to law enforcement in determining if a no-knock warrant was necessary.

He said he was hesitant to remove a tool from the toolbox of law enforcement but was open to revisiting the practice more broadly.

"Adding some oversight? I think there is room for that conversation," he said.

Other states have begun looking at ways to better share personnel records forofficers, reducing the odds that someone with a record of using force or other infractions can slip through the cracks and gain employment in another agency.

This is less of an issue in Kansas than in other states. A 2019 law requires that prospective officers applying for a job must sign a waiver allowing records from their prior employment to be shared between agencies.

But the Commission on RacialEquity and Justice's recommendations encourage barring fired officers from being re-hired elsewhere. The proposals also suggest requiring review of those personnel files, as well as making the process easier and more transparent.

Currently, theKansas Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training investigates officer misconduct, which generally involves cases of officers themselves breaking the law for everything from drug dealing to arson.

The number of cases investigated by CPOST has increased in recent years thanks to funding increases but still is a small minority of all law enforcement personnel in the state. Their reports are available to hiring agencies who seek them out.

But Rep. J. Russell Jennings, R-Lakin, said there could be some merit to the idea of expanding that database to include reports from individual agencies, whether they are state or local, to give hiring personnel a fuller idea of a prospective employee's background.

"I think that is a fair conversation to have," said Jennings, who chairs the House Corrections Committee.

Owens agreed, noting that it could be a tool for giving police chiefs and sheriffs the ability to make the right hiring decisions.

"There is room to look at making sure that our chiefs and our sheriffs have the information they need and access to it to make sure they are making good hiring decisions," he said.

Another practice that gained scrutiny over the summer was the use of chokeholds and neck restraints by law enforcement, even by law enforcement agencies that had supposedly banned them as being too dangerous.

Some activists pushed more departments to ban neck restraints, citing them as low-hanging fruit that could prompt immediate change.

Others pushed for larger-scale reforms, pointing out thatFloyd's death occurred after an officer kneeled on his neck, despite the fact that the Minneapolis Police Department had banned the practice for many years.

Haley said he is still looking at introducing legislation banning chokeholds statewide. That would mean more departments would join law enforcement agencies in Topeka, Wichita and Hutchinson in either banning or sharply limiting the practice.

One area that could create a bipartisan consensus is expanding training for law enforcement agencies on racial bias and when to use deadly force. That could be supplemented by creating better standards for ongoing training curriculum.

Jennings noted that some of this does not even require legislation. The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, he said, could unilaterally elect to change or heighten training standards on its own.

The Commission on Racial Equity and Justice also noted that CPOST, the entity which certifies officers, could also work with the Attorney General's Office to incorporate racial bias into the certification process.

But there are areas that would require legislative action. Officers could be required to completeKLETC training before being allowed to carry a firearm in the line of duty, and other professional development requirements could be expanded, as well.

Law enforcement agencies themselves have not weighed in on this change, although Owens said he believes they would be open to more training in an effort to ensure they can carry out their duties in as effective a manner as possible.

"No matter what profession you are in, but especially law enforcement, you want to be better at your jobs, we want to be better at what we are doing," he said. "More training, more opportunity to learn ... will certainly be very beneficial and I don't think there is opposition to doing that from within law enforcement."

That could focus on interacting with an individual in a mental health crisis.

"How do you engage in de-escalation in situations with any number of folks?" Jennings said. "Whether that is race issues, is it potentially a mental health issue. How do you deal with someone experiencing some sort of a psychotic breakdown ... the response to people in crisis is not a cookie-cutter kind of thing. And I think our officers need to be well-trained in a variety of methodologies for effective interventions and de-escalations short of having to get to a point of use-of-force."

Some have criticized more training as a Band-Aid thatdoes not substantively change the broader law enforcement system. Haley said he understands that point but still feels it is a discussion worth having.

"I certainly want to see training as a part of it and the expectation that the training is heavy on response or procedure, how to respond to unfolding events in the pursuit, questioning and apprehension of any individual," he said.

The Commission onRacial Equity and Justice report included a host of other recommendations, ranging from limiting qualified immunity, allowing officers to be subject to civil lawsuitsfor their actions,to developing better ways of responding to calls involving an individual experiencing a mental health crisis.

But whether any of these will actually gain traction in the Legislature remains unclear.

In a session where members are keenly aware that a rash of COVID-19 cases could send them home at any moment, legislators acknowledge worthy issues might not get the attention they deserve.

"If there is some sense of urgency, we absolutely will try to get to them," Jennings said. "But it is like an alternate universe in here right now."

He noted that there are a host of recommendations from the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight thatare broadly agreed to but did not advance in 2020 due to the pandemic. Moving those first will be a priority, he said.

But Owens said there was still room for the issue to come to the forefront.

"The conversations are there," he said. "It certainly isn't going to be at the bottom of the barrel."

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After a year defined by calls for change in policing, will the Legislature take action? - The Topeka Capital-Journal

Members of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) protest against the death of George Floyd outside U.S. Consulate in solidarity with Black Lives Matter movement on June 8, 2020 in Sandton, South Africa. Gallo Images via Getty Images hide caption

Members of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) protest against the death of George Floyd outside U.S. Consulate in solidarity with Black Lives Matter movement on June 8, 2020 in Sandton, South Africa.

The Black Lives Matter movement became an international phenomenon in 2020. As protesters took to the streets in cities across the U.S. in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minn., so did demonstrators in other countries all with a similar message: Black lives matter.

"There is a George Floyd in every country," South Africa-based journalist Lynsey Chutel tells NPR's David Greene during a recent roundtable interview.

Joining Chutel for Morning Edition's roundtable are Ana Luisa Gonzlez, a freelance journalist based in Colombia and Febriana Firdaus, a freelance investigative journalist based in Indonesia. [To hear the conversation, press the audio button above.]

Demonstrations spread across Colombia in June. They were sparked by the May killing of a young Black man named Anderson Arboleda in Puerto Tejada, who was allegedly beaten to death by police for breaking pandemic rules. Activists called for justice for Arboleda and other young Afro-Latino men killed by police.

"This message of this movement Las Vidas Negras Importan of Black Lives Matter, were young Afro-Colombians who wanted to speak out against police brutality and structural racism," Gonzales says. Like much of Latin America, Spanish colonialism informs many societal divisions in Colombia today, she says.

Yet, most Colombians don't seem to want to talk about racism and colorism, she says. In the most recent census, a majority of Colombians identified as "no race" and "until we acknowledge this debate, we can't change things," Gonzales says.

In South Africa, demonstrators came together following the police killing of 16-year-old Nathaniel Julies, a boy of mixed heritage with Down syndrome. Julies was shot and killed in August by police near his home in a neighborhood of Soweto allegedly for being outside his home during a pandemic lockdown. Chutel says that in the days after young people marched to the police station out of a sense of "deep frustration with this police station and the police force in general who are able to behave with impunity."

Alliance of Papuan Students are seen protesting in Surabaya, Indonesia, on June 16, 2020. Candra Wijaya/Barcroft Media via Getty Images hide caption

Alliance of Papuan Students are seen protesting in Surabaya, Indonesia, on June 16, 2020.

"If you have a police system that was used as the foot soldiers of the apartheid regime, where even though now the police are Black and the communities are Black the culture of policing it still very much that authoritarian, militarized policing system," says Chutel. She says that while protesters directly borrowed some language from the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter Movement, they also made their message uniquely South African by incorporating the phrase "Colored Lives Matter." The word colored, she explains, is an old apartheid segregationist term used to describe someone of mixed heritage in South Africa.

Activists in Indonesia inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement also made the message their own. The phrase #AllPapuanLivesMatter went viral, calling attention to the decades-long secessionist movement in West Papua, which has created tensions between the minority Papuans and ethnic Javanese-majority in the country.

"It's hard for West Papuans to find a rent house [sic] because they always get rejected," Firdaus says. "The landlord literally says it's because they are Black and they are Christian. We are majority Muslim."

Firdaus says ever since Jakarta took control of West Papua from the Dutch in the 1960s as part of the New York Agreement, Indonesia has never allowed Papuans to integrate fully into society. But the #PapuaLivesMatter message might be a turning point "because many young Indonesians right now feel they are emotionally involved with this issue," Firdaus says.

To hear the conversation, press the audio button above.

Ashley Westerman edited and Ryan Benk produced the broadcast version of this story.

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In 2020, Protests Spread Across The Globe With A Similar Message: Black Lives Matter - NPR

Dec 30, 2020 In addition to the coronavirus, 2020 will be remembered for nationwide protests for civil rights and racial justice not seen in this country in more than half a century.

They were sparked in late May when a video went viral of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man named George Floyd. For nearly nine minutes the police officer is seen placing pressure on Floyds neck as he calls out in distress before he is killed.

Millions of people flooded the streets of Minneapolis, New York, Portland, and many other cities, calling for a reckoning over systemic racism in policing and across American society.

Protests also took place in the North Country, where people from Ogdensburg to Westport in Essex County held demonstrations in support of Black lives. Julia Ritchey covered some of these marches this summer and is here to talk with us about their significance.

Anthoni Pope, right, attends a Black Lives Matter march in Ogdensburg on June 1, 2020. Photo: Julia Ritchey, NCPR

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Julia RitcheyHow Black Lives Matter brought the conversation of race and racism to the North Country

MONICA SANDREZKI: Julia, there were several Black Lives Matter marches over the summer, what were they like?

JULIA RITCHEY: The first Black Lives Matter march I attended was in Ogdensburg in June. There were only a few people when I showed up, but ater a while, dozens and dozens showed up as they marched through downtown. I think it surprised people to see places like Ogdensburg, which are demographically majority white, like 80-90 percent in many places, having marches. But what you learn by going is that many people have stories in their own communities of experiencing racism and discrimination. I met one young guy, Anthoni Pope, a 21-year-old, who attended the Ogdensburg Free Academy and he talked about this while wearing a mask that said I cant breathe, which is what George Floyd called out as he was being suffocated.

POPE TAPE: I used to play basketball and football and many other sports for O.F.A. And I have heard discriminating chants at my own games at myself. It does suck. Its something that we as a people should address."

Demonstrators march through downtown Ogdensburg on June 1. Photo: Julia Ritchey, NCPR

A police officer in Ogdensburg prepares to escort a Black Lives matter march on June 1. Photo: Julia Ritchey, NCPR

SANDREZKI: Were most of these gatherings spontaneous?

Three women at a Black Lives Matter vigil in Canton on June 6, 2020. Photo: Julia Ritchey, NCPR

BAXTRON TAPE: It led to change as far as the awareness, making people aware. Making people stand up, stand against and to defend and protect Black lives. Thats whats changed. Nothing in the legal system and in the police departments and all that has changed so far. People are still dying and being targeted, all the stuff that was happening prior. The biggest change is in the communities with the members who actually stood up and supported BLM.

SANDREZKI: How has local law enforcement reacted to these demonstrations?

A truck drives down Market Street as part of the "Back the Blue" parade in Potsdam on Saturday, Aug. 15, held a few blocks from a counterdemonstration for Black Lives Matter. Photo: Julia Ritchey, NCPR

The feeling at some of these counter-demonstrations was that police are being blamed for the actions of a few bad apples and there also seemed to be some sense of denial about the North Country lacking the same problems as in bigger places like Rochester or New York, where high profile police killings had taken place. But all you have to do is talk to people of color in these communities to know that they experience discrimination up here, too.

SANDREZKI: What do you mean by that?

RITCHEY: Well, for instance, in July, a Black family in Massena reported finding a noose outside their house in their driveway. The family says the first officer to respond to their call tried to downplay it as a teenage prank and it was only after it received more media attention that the police chief issued a statement condemning the act and calling for tips from the public for who was responsible. Similarly, we also saw racist graffiti pop up around the North Country after these demonstrations started happening, including on a bridge near Saranac Lake. That incident caused the new director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, a Black woman named Nicole Hylton-Patterson, to move out of town. Here she is discussing the incident.

Related stories:

HYLTON-PATTERSON TAPE: What I think is that the community has never had someone like me before here. know what that feels like, and Im not afraid to take it on. Im not afraid to encourage even those especially those who dont want to hear that you can come on board and your interest will be represented as well as we fight together.

SANDREZKI: The New York State Legislature responded to this summers protests with a sweeping set of reforms in mid-June under the Say Their Name agenda. Tell us about that.

RITCHEY: Yeah, that included things like banning chokeholds, making it a crime to call 911 based on a persons race. But probably the biggest change was finally unsealing police disciplinary records, which had been shielded under a statute known as 50-a. Many reform advocates said this allowed police officers with a history of disciplinary records to hop from department to department and escape accountability or being fired.

SANDREZKI: That was on the state level, but on the local level were still seeing some movement, right?

RITCHEY: Yes, so along with the police reforms under the Say Their Name legislation, Gov. Cuomo also issued an executive order calling for modernizing and reinventing police departments across the state. Its a little broad, but essentially hes requiring every police department, sheriffs office, agency across the state to do a thorough review of their policies and procedures, things like use of force, racial bias training, hiring practices, etcetera and come up with a plan. The big thing is it has to include community feedback, so a lot of towns in the North Country have formed advisory committees with members of the public to help them.

They have nine months to do this and submit their progress to the state by April 1 of next year or risk losing their funding.

SANDREZKI: How is it going so far?

RITCHEY: In the North Country, Id say mixed. Some agencies like the St. Lawrence County Sheriffs Department say theyre almost done with their review, while others like the Potsdam Police Advisory Committee have been marked by disagreements and the departure of its only two Black committee members. I dont think anyone was under the illusion this executive order was going to solve systemic racism in policing and racial bias in under a year, but its not clear what the actual result will be if some departments take it seriously and others just check boxes to get their state funding.

SANDREZKI: And youll be following up on the difficult conversations with Potsdams police reforms next week. Julia, thanks so much.

RITCHEY: Thank you.

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How Black Lives Matter brought the conversation of race and racism to the North Country - North Country Public Radio

Glenn Rigoff of Boston flies a Black Lives Matter as he stands at Red Rock Park in Lynn with Lise Pass of Swampscott, right, and woman who didn't wish to give her name, during a demonstration to protest the lack of charges brought against officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor on Saturday. (Spenser Hasak)

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The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked a massive social movement calling for police reform and racial justice that reverberated throughout the North Shore.

The protests and demonstrations, largely involving the group Black Lives Matter, peaked between May 24 and Aug. 22 when more than 10,600 demonstrations were held across the country involving 15 million to 26 million Americans, according to data gathered by the Armed Conflict Location Event Data Project.

The vast majority of these events more than 93 percent involved non-violent demonstrators, though certain protests did feature looting and rioting.

Nearly one in 10 events were met with intervention by police or other authorities. Government personnel used force against protestors in more than half at least 54 percentof these interventions.

Some of these demonstrations featured calls to Defund the Police, a slogan that most activists would describe as shifting resources from the police departments towards other social services addressing mental health, homelessness and addiction.

Through all this, the BLM movement has enjoyed a unique level of support from the general public.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, in June, a large majority of U.S. adults (67 percent) expressed at least some support for the movement, though this number had decreased to 55 percent by September.

Compare this to 1964, when a Gallup poll showed that 74 percent of Americans believed that mass demonstrations during the civil rights movement would hurt the cause of racial equality.

On the North Shore, every city and town was touched by these demonstrations and by the increased focus on racial equity that they brought to the forefront of the political conversation.

In Lynn, several peaceful rallies and events occurred in the wake of the police killings. These rallies sparked conversations that led to the December decision to require Lynn Police Officers to wear body cameras on the job.

In Revere, hundreds marched from the beach to city hall in a peaceful demonstration following Floyds death, and in Nahant a small group of residents gathered in front of the public library to show support for the movement.

In Swampscott, a weekly rally of supporters of President Trump that began in April was countered by protesters, many of whom were associated with the BLM movement. Many Trump supporters disparaged the movement at these rallies, with some referring to the group as Burn, Loot and Murder. The rallies grew to become contentious, and, toward the end of the year, physical, with three arrests of Trump supporters and two arrests of counter-protestors.

In Salem, hundreds of protestors turned out for a June demonstration in front of the police station calling for the removal of Capt. Kate Stephens from the Department for unauthorized tweets she made from the Salem Police Twitter criticizing Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for issuing a permit for a BLM demonstration in the midst of a pandemic. Stephens was eventually demoted.

In Lynnfield and Marblehead, men faced allegations of vandalism of BLM signs and banners. Both towns held peaceful demonstrations following the vandalism.

In Peabody, a memorial commemorating police killed in the line of duty, which was displayed in received community backlash, with a petition to remove the memorial gathering more than 300 signatures. Ultimately, the memorial was not removed.

In Saugus, an October pro-police standout descended into a shouting match between police supporters and those arguing for defunding the police. Several Saugus Selectmen were in the middle of the fray, arguing with demonstrators.

The calls for racial justice and police reform found their way into statewide legislation in the police reform bill.

An original draft of the bill which passed the state legislature would have created an independent, civilian-led commission to standardize the certification, training and decertification of police officers, banned chokeholds, banned use of facial recognition, limited the use of deadly force and required police officers to intervene when witnessing another officer using force beyond what is necessary or reasonable under the circumstances.

Gov. Charlie Baker would not sign the bill into law however, citing concerns over the facial recognition ban and the regulatory power of the civilian commission.

A revised bill, which scales back the power of the civilian commission and the scope of the facial recognition ban has passed the Senate and currently waits for approval from the House.

Regardless of the success of the legislation, there is no doubt scope and influence of the movement.

In action ongoing in the streets, in the sorts of conversations that are occurring in all sorts of settings, in the reforms that have been enactedanyone can see that BLM will shape the North Shore and the nation for years to come.

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Black Lives Matter shaped the nation and the north shore in 2020 - Itemlive - Daily Item