Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

As part of the The 12 Interviews of Xmas, we're looking back at some of our classic interviews of 2020. Sinad OConnor was in no mood for pulling punches back in September, as she explained why the success of the Black Lives Matters movement hinged on Trump being removed from the White House. In a searingly honest and impassioned interview, she also spoke to Stuart Clark about her own experiences of racism in the States; the musical heroes that provide light in the darkness; and her spine-tingling version of Mahalia Jacksons Trouble Of The World.

"I actually do believe Donald Trump is the biblical Devil, the fucker.

Sinad OConnor can be accused of many things, but pulling her punches is not one of them. What is very possibly the most important US General Election ever is less than two months away and the Artist Also Known As Shuhada Sadaqat is convinced that The Donald is covering up a pair of horns with that Walnut Whip hairdo of his.

I know this may sound extreme I dont really give a flying fuck what everyone else thinks but I am convinced the man is actually a Satanist, she resumes. Im convinced of it. Klansmen were Satanists, its a satanic organisation. Whatever form it may exist in now, I dont know and I dont want to know, but its origins were satanic. All its rituals, everything about it. These people do exist. Theyre butchers, bakers, candlestick makers. So why not the President of the United States of America? Did you ever read The Master And Margarita?

I cant say I have.

Its a fucking fantastic book by a guy called Mikhail Bulgakov, a Russian author. The Devil basically appears in Moscow because people start declaring theres no God. He shows up and causes havoc all over Russia. But Trump is the Devil character in The Master And Margarita.

Sinad is quick to correct me when I say that Trump is furiously playing the race card at the moment.

Hes not playing, she insists. Nobody should think hes doing this just so he can get elected. He is devilish enough that he believes in this stuff. They should have dragged him out of the White House at the point he separated the first child from their parents at the Mexican border. American people; its a double-edged sword. Their greatest blessing is their greatest curse. Their national trait is kindness and now perhaps theyre being too kind. They should be non-violently dragging him out of the office. They should be going to him like they did with Nixon and saying, Youre not fit for the fucking office, get out. Pretend youve had a heart-attack, a series of mini-strokes, whatever you want, but get the fuck out!

If Trump loses on November 4, you can envisage a scenario where he refuses to leave the White House and tries with the active participation of his white supremacist followers to engineer a coup.Can you imagine if the fucker was in Ireland and didnt vacate the office? Sinad posits. What do you think would happen? The people would drag him out.

Shes worried that despite the healthy lead he currently has in most opinion polls, Joe Biden is going to fall at the final hurdle.

Biden, you know look, hes very sweet and nice and all this shit, but in America its all about testosterone. The candidate has to have more testosterone than Trump, and unfortunately Biden doesnt. Weve got to find out if Kamala does. The person who should have run is Andrew Cuomo. Hes got more testosterone than Trump has ever imagined. But yeah, the problem is that its all bombast and testosterone, really, so in that regard its not looking good. If I were a Rastafarian, Id be looking at the Book Of Revelation and saying this guy is the actual biblical Devil. In which case, this fuckers got another four years in office.

Id love to see Melania go rogue and make a My husband is a fucking monster speech.

I think she went rogue with that (I Dont Care, Do U?) coat she wore, Sinad resumes. Melania has that glint in her eye that looks a bit Satanic to me as well. Ben Carson has that same glint in his eye.

I want to start something called the Melania Trump Taking It For The Team Award, she adds mischievously. She gets the first one, but every year someone else will get it.

The way Sinad sees it, the blame for Trump residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doesnt just lie with the people who voted for him.

We all somehow created Trump, she maintains. He couldnt exist without the zeitgeist. Its a posh word, so maybe Im using it wrong but a prophet appears in its time. Were all, in a way, complicit. Musicians are also complicit if they dont do something. To me, the Black Lives Matter thing has transcended itself. Its not only about Black Lives Mattering, its about needing to get this man out of the fucking White House.

A self-confessed 24/7 rolling news addict whose drug of choice is CNN, Sinad was horrified but not surprised as she watched the George Floyd murder and subsequent rioting unfold.

George Floyd timed with Lockdown and everybody being frustrated and broke, was the perfect storm. The fact of the matter is that he did something very powerful and, again, transcendent in calling for his Mother, you know? Thats what moved me to get involved with this. Before I was annoyed at the telly and everything, but I wasnt thinking, What can I do? even though I cant do bloody much.

Originally earmarked for her next album more of which anon Sinad is giving an October 2 release to her version of Trouble Of The World, an African-American spiritual popularised in 1959 by the wondrous Mahalia Jackson. The song may be decades old but with such lyrics as No more weepin and wailin/ I want to see my mother/ Going home to live with my Lord, it could easily have been written in response to the barbarity meted out to George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department.

I fell in love with the song for the same reason that anyone would fall in love with it, she reflects. The lines about I want to see my Mother who doesnt fall in love with that? So I was as tearful as the next man, frankly, listening to that. Once we did it, I realised it really suits the time now. I was also observing Public Enemy on CNN talking about their track State Of The Union. Chuck D was saying how important it is that artists get out there and make statements.

Asked whether she thinks that there are any younger artists addressing the issues as powerfully as Mahalia Jackson did, Sinad admits that, Im too old to know anything about hip-hop anymore. The last time I listened to a hip-hop record was probably KRS-One. I like the kind of Kendrick Lamar stuff my son listens to. But to be honest, its very hard to beat Straight Outta Compton. Im a gangsta I love gangsta rap. I love Rick Ross. Youre not supposed to like gangsta rap, but, as NWA would say, If it aint tough, it aint me. Its important that artists of all different races get involved with the Black Lives Matter movement, even if you only base it on the grounds that the white rock n roll industry wouldnt exist without the black and African-American contribution to the genre. We wouldnt be here. Were all waving around awards, thanking God for them whereas we should be thanking people like Chuck Berry and Mahalia Jackson. Its important that we get involved and support them. Madonna, for example, going out in a Black Lives Matter t-shirt; these things have power. To some extent, its a bit like getting the atheist to pray for you. It makes more sense because Gods sick of hearing from everyone else all the time!

My son and I had an interesting chat last night, she continues. He was asking me about racism and racists and I was saying that, Thing is, thats the culture they were born into as babies. Theyve had this shit bred into them. They dont know anything else. Probably half of them are salvageable. I even feel sorry for George Bush Jr. I cant believe Im saying that but look at the family he was born into. How can you reject those ideals? So imagine if youre born the son of the Klansman Chief of the Town? What the fuck are you going to do? Youre going to grow up believing what daddy beats into you.

Stopping for the first time in around ten minutes to take a breath nothing, repeat, nothing stops Sinad OConnor when shes in full flight she laughs and says, But to answer your original question, every movement needs a soundtrack, right, and the soundtrack for this particular movement has already been recorded by people like Mahalia Jackson.Sinad is a subscriber to the John Lydon philosophy of anger, if properly channeled, being an energy that can bring about profound long-term change.

A lot of young people have been on Lockdown and you have your agitators and its very easy to focus on the sideshow, which is violence and rioting. The media and Trump love nothing more than for the media to focus on that, but its a tiny minority of people.

Theres a difference between anger and aggression, which is why as part of the little I can do I want to introduce Mahalia back into the picture. You can be angry anger is the first step towards courage but you really dont need to lose your shit. When you have certainty, you dont need aggression. I know that in my own life. The only time Im ever losing my shit is when Im not sure of my ground. Mahalia and the whole movement of that time were non-violent civil disobedience. It was a time when people were prepared to take bullets for each other. Its a time when the churches taught, which they havent since, people to love and sit in the street with each other. People dont have that kind of love anymore.

Sadly, Sinad has been here before with Black Boys On Mopeds from 1991s I Do Not Want What I Havent Got thats the album with Nothing Compares 2 U on it telling the grim story of two London teenagers who died when the bike they were riding crashed during a police chase. I Do Not Want... itself was dedicated to the family of Colin Roach, a 21-year-old British black man who died inside the entrance of a London police station from a gunshot wound.

I remember those boys, I remember Colin Roach, I remember Rodney King. There was that awful case of the man, James Byrd Jr., who was tied to a car and dragged behind a pick-up for three miles by white supremacists. I could barely sing my gig that night. This shit has been going on in America for centuries, and since I set foot in London in the middle of 1985. There were riots going on then in Brixton. None of this is new.

The trouble is that in English and Irish culture, the anger is trained out of us, Sinad rues. Its not polite to be angry. Anger is looked on as being a terrible thing. Its very repressed and we need to get over that.

While Sinad hasnt officially released any new music since 2014s Im Not Bossy, Im The Boss topped the Irish chart and reinvigorated her career everywhere else, last year saw her leak one of the demos, Milestones, that shed been working on in Belfast with David Holmes.

After a middle section that reflects on her own personal battles to be heard and treated with respect, its denouement finds Sinad driving through the graveyards of Dickson/ Of which there are still black and white ones/ What a thing to happen in the nation/ Even in death, segregation.

Dickson is a little town in Tennessee, she explains. I often lie when Ive made albums and said they arent autobiographical, and that perhaps theyre faction, half-fact, half-fiction, but these are very autobiographical. I didnt mean to write an autobiographical record, Im just letting the record make itself via-my subconscious.

So when did this particular trip through Tennessee take place?

It was when Dr. Phil flew in with his little fairy suit and wand, and whipped me down to this little town, Sinad says of the TV psychologists very public intervention in the mental health problems she was having in 2017 whilst living in New Jersey. Its the diary of my time there. Im talking to two characters in the song one of them being Phil and other the guy who ran the place Phil sent me to. Did you ever see the scene in The Simpsons where Ralph, the kid whos in love with Lisa, has his heart torn apart? Well, that happened to me Driving through the graveyards of Dickson. What happened was that I was finally getting out of the fucking place I was put in, not that they were they did their best, or whatever, Im sure I was out of order. Im in a taxi, and theres only one taxi driver in the whole of Dickson, whos got a bullet in his fucking head from Vietnam, and he thinks hes a fine thing because hes on to all the women. We were passing this beautiful graveyard, a mini-version of Pere Lachaise in Paris, beautiful white stone and on the other side is the animals graveyard with tiny stones and little black, very unkempt graves. So I said to this guy, Oh, is that the animal graveyard? and he said, Thats the black folks graveyard but I dont hang out with them. And like what happened to that boy in The Simpsons, my heart just fucking cracked.

It wasnt Sinads first time encountering institutionalised racism whilst traversing the States.

Id be going around stores with Robbie Shakespeare (of Sly & Robbie fame), and people would be following him thinking he was going to steal something, not knowing hes Robbie fucking Shakespeare and he could buy the whole store. Ive seen how every time you fill in a form in America for anything you have to say what colour you are. Youre always identified by your ethnicity. I couldnt believe a human being could think or say what that taxi man said to me. There was only one black girl in the place Dr. Phil sent me to, and I went crying to her a couple of times. Id literally put my face into her hand and fucking howl crying to her, and she was nearly crying saying she was really moved that Id chosen to go to her. And Im thinking, Why is she that moved? Shes a lovely fucking woman.

Snead is also acutely aware of Ireland needing to put its own house in order, starting with the dismantling of the obscenity, which is Direct Provision.

Just Google the history of Ballinamore and its Syrian refugees, she sighs. Ive never been inside any of these places, but it sounds to me that its exactly like whats going on in Mexico at the border. You cant invite people into your country to offer them asylum and then not give them genuine sanctuary. Thats not sanctuary. We can do better.

Amen to that. Whilst this is necessarily serious shit were talking about today, let us not forget that Sinad OConnor also happens to be as funny as fuck.

When we last met in 2014 she had me howling with her story about Brian Eno unwittingly calling the Archbishop of Canterbury a cunt look up the Sinad Human Touch interview on hotpress.com for the full Archbishop of Cunterbury saga and a couple of days back she ruled Twitter with her #KnittingCompares2U hashtag.

I have to have something to keep me occupied while Im in safe social distancing mode after being in London last week shooting a video with Don Letts, she laughs before extolling the virtues of the British capital.

I love London. I ache when Im there because I miss it so bad. I went over I was 18 and lived in it for 17 years, so it was equal lifetimes there.

Where we were making the video there was totally a buzz, she says. What I adore, which I havent seen in Dublin, is guys and girls going round with boom-boxes on the back of their bikes blaring hip-hop or roots reggae. Fucking fantastic! What really impressed me was that every fucker over there was wearing a mask. Around Peckham where I was, maybe 2% of the people I passed werent.

How was Don Letts who, incidentally, gets 11 out of 10 in the hero stakes for introducing me to righteous stuff like Dr. Alimantado, Culture, Big Youth and I-Roy during the mid-70s when he acted as the middleman between reggae and punk.

Ah, Don is a lovely man, she coos. The kindest man. Like David Holmes. I always say that Davids the sort of guy whod give you the shirt off his back.

As soon as Lockdown was lifted in June, Sinad hotfooted it up to Belfast where Holmes has his own studio and the biggest record collection youve ever seen.

He sends me records to listen to a lot, and I dont always get round to listening to them because I dont want to be influenced to write in a particular way, she says. I met David when I sang at Shane MacGowans 60th birthday gig in the Concert Hall. He came up to me afterwards backstage and pretty much begged me to make a record with him. We work really well together because I go up once every three months when Ive actually got a song, and we just bang it down for the whole time Im there.

Sinad has been quite guarded in the past about her writing process, but on a serious roll today reveals that, Im very limited in my musical ability, by which I mean I cant play an instrument well enough to sit it takes me a long time to come up with songs because, basically, Ive got two feet for hands and I only know about six chords and Ive used a capo on those six chords to get a bunch of albums out. Its quite slow but most of the time I get there.

In addition to coming up with excruciatingly bad puns, Sinad has also used her Twitter to flog an old motorbike of hers to Dundalk trad rowdies The Mary Wallopers, and direct her followers to such gems as Marvin Gayes His Eye Is On The Sparrow, Sister Rosetta Tharpes This Little Light Of Mine and Big Mama Thorntons Ball And Chain, which she reckons to be the best live female performance in history.

About seven years ago, I began to educate myself a bit more, musically. I went on a discovery journey through blues. There are little clips of Willie Dixon and Chuck Berry talking about songwriting. Chicago blues is my favourite because you can dance to it. I dont really listen to sad stuff if Im sad, do you know what I mean?"

I do. Another song Sinad cant get enough of is Keep On Pushing, the Curtis Mayfield belter, which fired up the 1960s civil rights movement.

I love Curtis! Part of the initiation into manhood when each of my sons turned 14 was me giving them a Curtis Mayfield album.

My first time saying hello to Sinad was in October 1999 when she presented Nina Simone with a Hot Press Lifetime Achievement Award in Dublin. Did she get to pick Ninas amazing brain at all?

For all the sins I ever committed, the one thing Im going to regret is that I had some shit on my mind about a man, she sighs. Somebody came down to me and said, Miss Simone is upstairs if youd like to go and talk to her. And I didnt go up because I was so head-fucked. I wish to God that I had. You know the way they say that when you die, the people you love will come to get you? I have a bunch of musicians who I hope are coming to get me, so Ive included her in my bunch.

Of all the idols shes met in this realm who were the most impressive?

When I first went to the Grammys, I met Anita Baker who I was so into. She was wandering around with this rose, and she gave it to me and I kept it for ages. I met Al Green who is obviously Jesus Christ. Thats a whole other playlist I love Simply Beautiful. The Grammys was also my first experience of meeting Sarah Vaughan. She was a chainsmoker so she was coughing, like me, throughout the soundcheck, and then her performance that night was stellar. So that reassured me about smoking. I met Dizzy Gillespie, and his face went out like a balloon when he was playing. That was killer. Al Green had a shirt on made out of real gold.

As fab as Anita, Al, Sarah, Dizzy et al were, the person who, Sinad says, moved me most was Lou Reed.

I knew that I loved Lou Reed, but I didnt know how much I loved him until I met him at The Whos 50th birthday, she reminisces fondly. Id been a bit naughty and asked someone to ask Lou if I could sing backing vocals with him. He came in and acting all fatherly said, I hear you want to sing with me. Yeah, of course you can. I could see his lips moving but I couldnt comprehend what he was saying. I had to get my friend to hold my hand!

That was the second time he was extraordinarily kind to me. The first was after the Pope business. I was a bit of a pariah among musicians and artists. I remember going to do the Channel 4 TV show The White Room and everyone was kind of treating me like, Oh yeah, theres that crazy bitch. Lou was on the show too and made a point in rehearsal of coming straight over and hugging me as if we knew each other really well, and saying fuck you! to everyone. That was really fucking nice. Hes the person who moved me the most, definitely.

Coming in a close second are Israel Vibration, a Kingston, Jamaica trio whose Prophet Has Arisen was one of the classic reggae tunes Sinad covered on 2005s Throw Down Your Arms.

Their music kept me alive at times when I seriously thought I might have died. Benjamin Zephaniah took me to one of their gigs. I thought we were going for a laugh, which we were, but the next thing I knew I was onstage with the band, holding the lead singers hand, singing all these songs that kept me alive.

Sinad being Sinad, shes also used her Twitter to ramp up her criticism of Trump whilst studiously ignoring the rent a bigot replies were back to that thing about controlled anger and generally having her say about causes, controversies and people close to her heart. Todays going into bat is for Adele whos been lambasted on social media for wearing braids.

I dont think its fair to call it cultural appropriation, she ventures. Adele grew up in areas of London where there are lots of West Indians, and West Indians are very inspiring people. Its a sideshow; its a shiny object. Its exactly what the Devil wants us talking about because its a distraction from the actual issue.

Everyone on earth shares whats called the Eve gene, Sinad says switching into mitochondrial science mode. Were all traceable back to one African woman. So the whole idea of racism is a fucking joke. And Africa is the First World. Inside Trump, in fact, is an African woman. Every time I think about that, I laugh.

I just wish shed hurry up and burst out of him Alien-style!

Don Letts said Im sticking my neck out doing this because I could be accused (of cultural misappropriation), and it kind of made me snort my tea out my nostrils, Sinad resumes. All of my idols happen to be black rock n roll musicians. Thered be no such thing as white rock music if the prophet Chuck Berry didnt exist and thered be no such thing as reggae if the prophet Lee Perry hadnt come along. If youre going to make the cultural appropriation argument, well then, fuck me, I might as well never get out of bed and sing a song. And I certainly may as well never have sung a Prince song!

While the recording has been gathering apace I was up with David in Belfast the other day, it really is one of my favourite places in the world, she enthuses Sinad still doesnt know when her new album will be hitting the racks.

I really want the shit out now, she sighs. I slipped out the Milestones demo without asking anyone, and thats not kosher. Everyones nervous Ill do it again because I get very impatient, but I wont. It all depends on when Ill be able to go out and tour it.

Also awaiting a release date is a new memoir, which will probably have one or two people quaking in their boots.

I used to keep a tour diary/blog, so the publisher has asked me to write it in the present tense, which allows for humour, she says. Its certain vignettes rather than every detail.

The silver lining to the Covid cloud being that Sinad will have more time to devote to the Fetac Level 5 Healthcare Support course shes signed up for at the Bray College of Further Education. Is she excited about becoming what she describes as more or less a death midwife?

Yeah, she says smoking a fucking cigarette! comes the grinned reply to my final question. Im excited but also scared because I havent been to school since I was about fourteen. I hope I dont have a learning disability or something. I think Ill be fine because I love the subject. This is step one, really. Itll be three years training before I work in the area I really want to work in, which is palliative care. I dont know how to use a Word document. Ive only ever used Apple, so I dont know if Ill be able to write an assignment to get the fucking diploma.

Were exchanging jovial post-interview good byes when Sinad gets serious again.

I just want to say whats the best way to put this? Im not preaching to the choir here. I dont want to come across like Im being patronising. You cant grow up in an African-American household and not be exposed to people like Mahalia Jackson. My hope is to get everyone else out of their fucking chairs and dancing, which is what happened when NWA released Fuck Tha Police. We used to jump around the clubs in Stephens Green to that. Youre dancing whilst at the same time the message is sinking in. Thats what Im trying to achieve with this.

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THE 12 INTERVIEWS OF XMAS: Sinad O'Connor on Trump, Black Lives Matter and 'Trouble Of The World' - hotpress.com

A high-stakes presidential election that played out amid a pandemic and a racial justice movement. A marquee U.S. Senate matchup that put a storied Massachusetts political dynasty on the line. And an abrupt changing of the guard on Beacon Hill that capped it all off.

Its been a pivotal year in American and Massachusetts politics an unprecedented time that Boston University presidential historian Thomas Whalen said carries similar historical significance to the nation-changing assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the world wars and the 1918 flu pandemic.

We are going to be talking about this year for a very long time to come, Whalen said. And the aftereffects of this year are still to be written.

Take a look back through the Heralds biggest political stories of 2020:

Dont call it a comeback, but when the Democratic primaries got underway in February it seemed like former Vice President Joe Bidens third presidential bid was about to bite the dust. Biden suffered a gut punch of a fourth-place finish in Iowa and fled New Hampshire before finishing fifth there. But his fortunes soon changed and by November, Biden, 78, became the oldest person ever elected president, and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, became the first Black woman and first South Asian woman elected vice president. But President Trump who was briefly sidelined from campaigning by COVID-19 is continuing to challenge the election results.

Speaking of comebacks, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey staged one for the history books when he fended off a Democratic primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III. Markey was down by double digits when Kennedy launched his bid. But the 74-year-old Green New Deal coauthor harnessed the power of the youth and progressive movements to notch a 10-point victory over Kennedy, 40, and beat Republican challenger Kevin OConnor in November.

It was good to be an incumbent in Massachusetts this year. The entire Bay State congressional delegation was re-elected, save Kennedy, who will be succeeded by Democrat Jake Auchincloss in the 4th Congressional District.

But Bay State pols didnt get very far in the presidential race.U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warrens Oval Office bid flamed out after she failed to win a single state. Warrens since been passed over for the vice presidency and most Cabinet positions under Biden. Former Govs. Deval Patrick and Bill Weld didnt fare well, either.

State Rep. Robert DeLeo ended his historic run as the Massachusetts House Speaker on Tuesday and Quincy Democrat Ronald Mariano was elected his successor.

City Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbellfired the starting pistol for the 2021 Boston mayoral race as the two announced their runs in September. Either one would be the first person whos not a white man to hold the powerful position. Mayor Martin Walsh hasnt yet said whether hell run for a third term hes been discussed as Bidens potential Labor secretary but signs point to yes.

A thread that ran through every level of politics in 2020 was the call for change in policing. Several high-profile police killings of Black people in the spring ignited waves of Black Lives Matter demonstrations at home and across the nation this summer. Bostons city council passed various changes to policing, including creating a civilian review board, and the state Legislature approved its own police reform bill that would create a licensing process for officers.

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2020 politics in review: Trump vs. Biden, Markey vs. Kennedy and Black Lives Matter - Boston Herald

An image of Covid hero Captain Sir Tom Moore and a Black Lives Matter fist lit up the London sky as Britain ushered in 2021.

The dazzling fireworks and light show also included tributes to the NHS and other notable figures who represented the bravery and turmoil of a torrid last 12 months.

As fireworks blasted in impressive fashion from Tower Bridge in a stripped back but still impressive extravaganza, several projections filled the sky over the O2 Arena as the TV cameras watched on.

One of which showed the NHS logo in a heart while a child's voice said "Thank you NHS heroes".

The 100-year-old former British Army officer Sir Tom, from Yorkshire, made himself a national treasure after he raised 33 million for the NHS by walking around his back garden.

A huge projected outline of the familiar sight of the pensioner standing at his walking frame and giving a thumbs-up shone over the arena, backed by a chorus of voices calling "Thanks Captain Tom".

As coloured lights shone at various points up the Thames, leading to more fireworks above Wembley Stadium, the Black Lives Matter movement was also recognised.

Viewers saw its clenched-fist symbol, which became recognised worldwide amid the protests which followed the death of Minnesota man George Floyd in police custody in May.

As the televised display began, a male voice recited a poem which set the theme: "In the year of 2020 a new virus came our way; We knew what must be done and so to help we hid away."

A later tribute came for BAME NHS workers - "so many of the nurses and doctors and consultants and cleaners, the helping hands guiding us through this storm".

The 10-minute display also featured a humorous nod to one of the "new normals" of 2020 - working from home.

The sounds of a video conference call starting up were heard, before the now-familiar and somewhat desperate words rang out - "No, you're on mute!" - as a mute logo filled the night sky.

Finally, the show ended with a ecological rallying call in the much-loved voice of Sir David Attenborough, reminding all of a reality shown so starkly in the past 12 months - the fragility of life on earth.

"Our planet is unique - a living world of diversity and wonder," Sir David said. "It's also fragile.

"With a new year comes the opportunity for change, and if we act in 2021 we can make a world of difference.

"Together we can turn things around. Together we can restore our fragile home, and make it a happy new year for all the inhabitants of planet Earth."

Speaking at Christmas, Captain Sir Tom said while our lives may seem bleak right now, "things will get better and next year, we'll be alright".

The rest is here:

Captain Tom and Black Lives Matter fist light up London skies for New Year display - Mirror Online

AS REVELLERS celebrated the start of a new decade last New Years Eve, authorities in China confirmed doctors were treating more than a dozen cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in the city of Wuhan.

This unknown virus, which would later be named Covid-19, led to a global crisis in 2020, with more than a million lives lost and the world facing one of mankinds biggest challenges in the 21st century.

Borders slammed shut, economies plunged and unprecedented peacetime measures were imposed on populations all over the world as global leaders responded to a health crisis which has changed the course of history.

While coronavirus may have dominated 2020, Brexit was back on the cards in early January and the UK formally left the EU on January 31, beginning an 11-month transition period.

No doubt influenced by Brexit, the term Megxit was coined a week into the new year when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced plans to step back as senior royals.

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It was later revealed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that the UKs earliest known coronavirus death occurred in the week ending January 31, the same week the countrys first cases were reported.

Perhaps a sign of troubled times ahead for the UK, Storm Ciara battered the country in early February, just weeks before mass flooding was exacerbated by Storm Dennis.

Sajid Javid quit as chancellor in a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle in February and was replaced by his former deputy at the Treasury, Rishi Sunak, in the biggest shock of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons shake-up of his ministerial team.

Mr Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds announced they were engaged and expecting a baby, on the same day the Home Offices top civil servant Sir Philip Rutnam resigned, accusing Home Secretary Priti Patel of bullying.

Manchester Arena bomb-plotter Hashem Abedi, 23, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life in March, and was later handed a record 55-year jail term.

Scores of major sporting and cultural events were suspended that month, along with local elections, as the UKs coronavirus death toll continued to rise.

Experts and politicians accepted the virus could no longer be contained as the country moved to the delay phase, while Britons travelling abroad were urged to return, employees told to work from home and schools were closed.

On March 23, Mr Johnson announced strict new curbs on life in the UK, with businesses across the country shuttered for months on end, in efforts to protect the NHS and save lives.

Among those to become infected with the virus was the Prince of Wales, while Mr Johnson spent three days in intensive care during his battle with Covid-19.

A grim milestone was passed when the hospital death toll reached 10,000 in early April, the same month concerns were raised about the situation in care homes and a lack of protective personal equipment (PPE) for healthcare staff.

Sir Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party the day before the Queen addressed the nation, saying if we remain united and resolute in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, we will overcome it.

Later that month as testing targets were made and PPE shortages dominated headlines the Prime Minister told the country it was passing through the peak of the outbreak.

There was public outcry over Dominic Cummings lockdown trip to Barnard Castle in May, the same month face coverings began to recommended for public transport and indoor spaces.

Black Out Tuesday was held globally on June 2 in response to the death of George Floyd in the US, which sparked anti-racism protests across the UK.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and dumped in Bristol Harbour, the same month the UKs coronavirus death toll mounted 50,000.

Non-essential shops were permitted to open, crowds flocked to beaches amid balmy conditions and Leicester became the first area to have a local lockdown imposed following a spike of cases in the city.

Elsewhere in June, a decision to extend the childrens food voucher scheme into the summer holidays became the latest in a string of U-turns performed by the Government during the pandemic.

There was another U-turn in August when it was announced A-level and GCSE results in England would be based on assessments by teachers.

The rule of six came into force in September the same month the Covid-19 alert level for the UK was increased to Level 4, meaning transmission of the virus is high or rising exponentially.

Also that month, former MP Charlie Elphicke was jailed for two years at Southwark Crown Court for three counts of sexual assault against two women.

Mr Johnson unveiled a new three-tier alert level system for England in October, while the UK exceeded one million lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus since the start of the outbreak.

England entered its second national lockdown at the start of November, the same month that the Prime Minister congratulated US president-elect Joe Biden on his victory over Donald Trump.

The UKs terror threat level was raised from substantial to severe following attacks in France and Austria, while the UK Government and devolved administrations announced plans for Christmas bubbles.

It was announced Mr Cummings would leave his role as chief adviser after a bitter public power struggle gripped Number 10, the same month Sir Philip Greens retail empire Arcadia plunged into administration.

In early December, the UK became the first country to approve the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and grandmother Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first patient to receive the jab.

But less than two weeks later, after a rise in cases due to a new mutant variant of the virus, Mr Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for almost 18 million people in London, south-eastern and eastern England with a two-week lockdown while households were told they should only gather for one day in the rest of England, Scotland and Wales. People in Northern Ireland were advised to do the same.

Fears about the highly infectious new strain prompted European countries to halt flights and ferry crossings from the UK and the Governments Cobra civil contingencies committee discussed how to maintain freight flow to and from the UK.

Meanwhile talks on a post-Brexit trade deal continued after tense negotiations failed to achieve a breakthrough.

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Coronavirus, Megxit and Black Lives Matter: Review of the year 2020 - South Wales Argus

This year was no longer than any other, yet it contained enough news for several. Here are our top arguments that charted how the world changed in real time.

By Daniel W. Drezner, April 11

As the realization that the pandemic was here to stay sunk in, pundits sought insight in unexpected places. Among them, Tufts Universitys Daniel W. Drezner offered lessons for COVID-19 from zombie movies. Unfortunately, he warned, the zombie genre can explain more about the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic than anyone should be comfortable with. A film in this canon, he explained, almost always starts with civilization and ends with a post-apocalyptic hellscape. At times this year, that has seemed to be exactly where the world was heading. But fortunately, Drezner pointed out, there are at least some differences between the living dead and humans in 2020. The zombie genre is overly pessimistic about the adaptability of human beings. We can and should be more hopefulgood news for 2021.

By Elise Thomas, April 14

Some attempts to understand the causes and consequences of the pandemic were even more outside the box than Dreznersand not in a good way. As the journalist Elize Thomas explained, COVID-19 was the perfect fodder for conspiracy theories. While propaganda campaigns amid pandemics are nothing new, what is new in the current crisis is the global information environment in which it is playing out. For example, social media platforms have a way of smashing social contexts into one another so that messages tailored for one audience end up hitting others as well and being interpreted in unanticipated ways. Networked media also allows rumors to spread quicklyso that misinformation has reached millions of eyes before anyone can correct it. For governments seeking to build trust and communicate clearly, Thomas wrote, its a nightmare. For those looking to sow chaos and doubt, its an opportunity.

Foreign Policy illustration

By Kelebogile Zvobgo and Meredith Loken, June 19

Still reeling from the pandemic, over the summer the United States faced a reckoning with an even deeper problem. As protesters took to the streets to march against police violence and systemic racism, the field of international relations, or IR, was also due for some self-reflection. In a June article, Kelebogile Zvobgo, the director of the International Justice Lab at William & Mary, and Meredith Loken, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explained that the major schools of IR theoryrealism, liberalism, and constructivismare built on raced and racist intellectual foundations that limit the fields ability to answer important questions about international security and organization.

Indeed, they pointed out, [c]ore concepts, like anarchy and hierarchy, areraced: They arerootedin discourses that center and favor Europe and the West. And their use isracist: These invented binaries are used to explain subjugation and exploitation around the globe. Whats needed now, they urged, is a willingness among those who teach IR to better integrate scholarly work on race into every aspect of their curriculums.

By Lee Drutman, Sept. 22

Other institutions seemed stretched to the breaking point, too, especially as the U.S. presidential election approached. Expanding on his theory of a political doom loop, New Americas Lee Drutman warned in September that the United States two main political parties were heading for collapse after the election. Every few decades, he explained, the parties have reshuffledand theyre now overdue. Thats because, over time, the principles that unite a coalition together in one moment frayand the governing ideologies that solved a previous problem create their own future problems, demanding a new ideology.

To be sure, he wrote, voting loyalties are sticky. And especially in a two-party system, breaking from a coalition comes at a high cost if the opposing coalition cant accommodate your demands either. That is why it typically takes a major event, like an economic depression or a major conflict over race, to break a coalition apart. And if a pandemic, a major movement to address racism, economic disaster, and an extremely partisan election arent just such a prompt, what is?

By Paul Musgrave, Nov. 26

In late fall, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh exploded into war, occasioning a reexamination of some foundational ideas about development and peace. UMass Amhersts Paul Musgrave looked at the idea that economic integration makes war less attractive, as pithily simplified by the journalist Tom Friedman: His thesis, originally expounded in a1996 column, proposed to explain the decline in war as a result of the expansion of global capitalism: No two countries that both have a McDonalds have ever fought a war against each other.

Yet here were Armenia and Azerbaijanboth with plenty of Golden Archesat war. The world, Musgrave argued, might well be entering a new phase of more violent conflictincluding major warsand globalization will no more prevent them than burgeoning trade before Archduke Ferdinands assassination prevented World War I. In other words, beyond all the other problems the United States will be facing in 2021, rising tensions around the world might just be the most enduring.

Excerpt from:

From the Pandemic to Black Lives Matter and the US Election, Here Are Foreign Policy's Top Arguments From the Year That Changed Everything - Foreign...

Ottawa-area artists Celestina, left, and Hasina are part of the Full Femme arts collective, which, in conjunction with Gallery 101, are offering a series of workshops aimed at developing young Black artistic talent. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Planting seeds

After an infographic shared on Instagram sparked a conversation on the lack of Black artists represented by Ottawas commercial art galleries, one non-profit gallery came up with the funding to help change that picture. Gallery 101 struck a deal with the Ottawa-Gatineau arts collective, Full Femme, to launch Expansions, a series of online, interactive workshops aimed at giving practical information to young, Black LGBTQ+ artists, including those who are neurodiverse or have a disability. Its an important step in making space for young, Black artists in Ottawas cloistered art world.

Positions of power

Two of Ottawas most established arts entities welcomed Black directors this year. Caribbean-born Carleton University grad Osmel Maynes returned to the city to take over the top job at the Capital Pride festival. He arrived in time for the inaugural Winter Pride fest, then led the organization in devising a virtual iteration of the main event in August, declaring that Pride is never cancelled. Meanwhile, Kwende Kefentse stepped into a demanding position as the first executive director of the 45-year-old community radio station CKCU-FM. His vision of transforming the station into a multimedia community broadcaster got off to a good start with this years funding drive, which exceeded its goal of $150,000.

Businesses blossom

Actor-storyteller Jacqui Du Toit and poet-musician Jamaal Jackson Rogers, two of the co-owners of the Origin Arts and Community Centre, plan to launch a theatre company that will focus on Black stories. Another venture of Rogers has been years in the making: the Black Rhino Artist Retreat will be a peaceful rural setting for artists of any colour to create and relax, with features such as a pool, sauna, gym, stage and bar. Also in the works is an Afro-Black cultural centre in the downtown core, the brainchild of musician Wise Atangana, who believes that creativity is the key to dismantling anti-Black racism.

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2020 in review: Five ways Black Lives Matter affected the arts in Ottawa - Ottawa Citizen

"I have been more inspired and creative during the pandemic than I might normally be while on the road...The pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the tensions of the election have mostly created a sense of gratitude for what I have and closeness with the people near me," he said.

In the 'zine, the R&B crooner also looked back on the impact of his career from his early trio of 2011 mixtapes to his latest smash LP After Hours. "I was laser focused back then and I'm laser focused right now. This has been the story of my 20s." he said. "I feel like I spent the last 10 years creating a sound and most of my career, I've either been running away from it or duplicating it. After Hours was the perfect piece of art for me to show my tenure in the industry."

Released back in March, just one week after the pandemic ground life to a sudden halt, After Hours debuted atop the Billboard 200, earning The Weeknd his fourth career No. 1 album. During 2020, he also collaborated with the likes of Maluma ("Hawi" remix), Rosala ("Blinding Lights" remix), Calvin Harris ("Over Now") and Juice WRLD ("Smile").

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The Weeknd Reveals Next Album Will Be Inspired by Pandemic, Black Lives Matter Movement - Billboard

The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor set off protests like the nation has never seen more than 15 million people marched in the name of justice for Black lives this summer. So its no surprise that the rallying cry out on the streets was still on voters minds when they cast their ballot in November.

According to preliminary data from AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey conducted for the Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago, roughly a fifth of all voters said the racial justice protests were the single most important factor when voting in the election.

But just like Americans views on wearing a mask or social distancing, the protests have become a politically divisive issue 53 percent of those voters went for Biden, 46 percent voted for Trump. Some conservative voters focused on the small percentage of looting and vandalism associated with the unrest, calling the protests childish, according to interviews conducted by the New York Times, while progressives and first-time voters were inspired by the movement to make radical change.

In the end, the Black Lives Matter movement and protests shaped the results of the election: Many organizers worked to get people out to vote, with Black voters turning out in droves, despite obstacles of voter suppression. Black voters also helped flip key battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania to elect Joe Biden, while voters in cities across the country approved ballot measures on police accountability.

Still, despite these wins, there is much work to be done, according to both activists and Democratic voters. Patrisse Cullors one of three women founders of Black Lives Matter, along with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi says this work must remain constant and varied.

We are going to use protests, Cullors told Vox. Were also going to use our power, and the halls of power to make sure change happens.

This includes launching a political action committee to raise funds to elect and defeat candidates a big step for a grassroots organization like Black Lives Matter. Meanwhile, organizers in cities and towns across the country the movement has no single leader will continue to mobilize local communities in the fight against police violence.

I spoke with Cullors about how the protests impacted the elections, how Americans can address the political divide in this country, and what to expect from the organization in the new Biden-Harris administration. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential election. Democrats flipped key battleground states. Tell me about the impact the Black Lives Matter movement, and the protests this summer, had on getting people out to vote.

We really wanted to galvanize the energy from the streets this summer and move it to the ballot box. Just through our massive, multi-million dollar Get-Out-The-Vote efforts, weve texted 6 million new voters. We partnered with the Hamilton casts to make absentee ballot instructional videos.

We worked with a live creative agency called Trap Heals, where we did Get-Out-The-Vote drive-in events in California, Michigan, and Georgia. We also started a Dear White People campaign, looking at the way in which the GOP was trying to paint Black Lives Matter in a negative light, so we started to run ads across the Midwest to combat the demonization of Black Lives Matter.

Most of our work during this election cycle was very much hands-on. Through our PAC, we signed 6,000 volunteers for 10,000 shifts to phone-bank in battleground states. Weve knocked on thousands of doors in Miami-Dade, Philadelphia, and Atlanta to bring registered voters to polls on Election Day.

We also endorsed candidates up and down the ballot from the president down to the school board. We spent a lot of our time focused on electives who are going to fight for Black lives and working with Black voters and new Black voters, in particular to get them out and to really teach them on how to use mail-in ballots.

Tell me more about the Black Lives Matter PAC and what its currently focused on. I know one of the states that Black voters helped flip blue for Joe Biden was Georgia and much of that was with the help of Black women organizers. What are your current efforts for the Senate runoff in Georgia, which will dictate which party has the majority?

For our PAC, we are going to focus all of our efforts on Georgia for the Senate runoff elections. Were coordinating a coalition of Black-led organizations to ensure were working together and putting all of our resources together in the best way possible. Well be phone banking, texting, knocking doors, running ads in digital and TV to help not just replicate but improve upon the record turnout we saw in November.

We are so grateful for the work of Stacey Abrams, Ns Ufot, LaTosha Brown, and their respective organizations for the groundwork that theyve done in Georgia. So we want to just build with them and continue to build off of that. Georgia will decide who controls the Senate, and if we win, then well have the political environment for progressive and affirmative legislative agenda ideas. We know that elected officials, and our current system, isnt a magic fix to getting Black people closer to freedom, but it is an important part.

How do you see Black Lives Matters relationship with the upcoming Biden administration? Tell me about the types of legislation the organization wants to push.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation sent a letter to Biden and Harris requesting a meeting. We did that the day they were announced as the Vice President-elect and President-elect. So were looking forward to having that meeting with them directly to discuss our agenda. We believe that we need legislation that affirms and values Black lives. It could be comprehensive and intersectional.

During the uprising in the summer, our movement came together with the movement for Black Lives when we wrote the BREATHE Act. We see it as a modern-day civil rights bill and the legislative love letter to Black people.

The BREATHE Act actually offers a complete reimagining of public safety, it offers community care, and it really reevaluates how we spend money as a society, especially towards the most marginalized parts of our communities.

Its invested in non-punitive and non-carceral approaches to community safety and its really trying to shrink the current criminal legal system that has completely decimated Black people. The BREATHE Act centers the protection of Black lives, including Black mothers, Black trans people, Black women, and Black men. So that is going to be a central piece of our work.

Some of the wins this election were ballot measures on police reform, but most of them arent nearly as radical as defunding the police. What can we expect to see in the future on upcoming ballots? What is some of the work youre doing around that?

Well be working to support the implementation of Measure J, which is here in Los Angeles County. It doesnt defund police, but thats an oversimplification. What it does is actually allow for Los Angeles to fund solely a non-punitive system.

And while in the short term, it may not defund the police, in the long term, it offers us an opportunity to show elected officials that policing and incarceration dont work. And if we could show them by proving it to them, by investing in communities, then, in fact, the social service of policing will be a shrinking system.

Black Lives Matter has been around for over seven years now. Tell me what it was like to see a shift this summer white people in suburbs and small towns actually chanting Black Lives Matter and putting signs in their windows and is that shift something we can hold on to?

Yes, I think that we can hold on to it as long as we fight for it. We know that once the GOP started to see the power of Black Lives Matter, especially in this election year, they went after us. They demonized us. And so we saw the number of white people that stopped defending Black Lives Matter based on the polls. We need people to not allow for fear-mongering to stop them from being allies of our movement. We need them to see the necessity of this movement.

The political divide in this country is still so stark from wearing masks to election misinformation to views on policing to even the nationwide protests this summer. How is Black Lives Matter working to cover the gap? How should other folks fill that divide?

Our elected officials are divided on a lot, but when you talk about division, I think one of the main issues is access to our democracy. Were keeping people out of the system, primarily Black and brown and low-income folks, so what we end up with is a political system that has this artificial divide when thats not actually the case.

Were looking at the Electoral College that makes votes in Wyoming count way more than votes in California, which makes very little sense outside of the racist structure of the Electoral College.

The filibuster lets one senator hold up legislation that the majority agrees upon. Our current court system is packed with ultra-conservatives who are willing to strike down voting rights, health care, and is now actively hostile towards abortion rights, and queer and trans rights. Im thinking a lot about voter ID laws, and other forms of suppression that keep people of color from voting at disproportionate rates. And the most obvious is our two-party system that reinforces these political divides. We need an additional political party or more for poor and working-class, Black and brown families.

The unfortunate reality is the system keeps peoples voices silenced, and it makes our government work worse. What Black Lives Matter is really calling for is real democracy a democracy that creates a progressive agenda that allows for everybody inside of this country to enjoy the fruits of democracy.

With a Biden-Harris win, clearly the work is not yet done and theres no magic fix to systemic racism. What kind of short-term and long-term changes and reforms do you think everyday people should focus on when it comes to racial justice and holding the police and elected officials accountable?

Keep fighting locally. The work at the local level is the most important work. What we do at the local level impacts the national work. Our Black Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter PAC are going to keep doing the work to build a world where all Black lives matter. When it comes to bringing the movement to the halls of power, we are particularly thrilled to see folks like Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, who are part of the movement, taking that step into the political arena.

I just want to pick Cori Bush up, because shes a perfect example of the type of people we need inside. She went from the street and now shes in Congress, and she represents us unapologetically. Our movement will never lie to people and say get this person in office and everything youve desired will come true, because thats not true. History has shown that to us. If it were, Black Lives Matter would not need to exist.

What we do believe is that we have to be in the streets organizing for a better future for our people. Its about building a political environment. Its about building a social environment and a cultural environment. Sometimes were gonna have awful candidates and we cant stop fighting. We have to fight for change. We saw that for four years, we essentially lived in purgatory in this country because of what Donald Trump did to marginalized people. But our movement did not stop fighting. We didnt put down the baton because we had a fascist in office. In fact, we grew stronger so we see ourselves being able to maintain that strength and build that strength.

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Black Lives Matter has its eyes on Biden and the Georgia Senate election runoffs - Vox.com

Following the May death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody Albany experienced a slew of protests and riots, New York repealed a law that restricted access to police disciplinary records and a statewide mandate to reimagine policing was instituted. To learn how these events have impacted policing in New Yorks capital city, I rode along with an Albany Police lieutenant and spoke with a local Black rights activist.

Perfect Storm

Albany is experiencing one of the most violent years in its history. There have been more than 100

shootings in the city in 2020, an increase of over 240% since last year. As I ride down Central Avenue in Albany Police Lieutenant Devin Andersons patrol car, he says its the result of a perfect storm.Bail reform. Discovery reform. The George Floyd incident, and the pandemic all at once within a short period of time has changed policing, Anderson said.

Implicit Bias

Anderson has been an officer in the Albany Police Department for 14 years. He says the recent unrest around civil rights has affected policing more than the COVID-19 pandemic. But he says his fellow officers dont deserve to be targets of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I can only speak for Albany PD that I dont believe we have a race problem in any way shape or form, Anderson said.

I asked him what he meant by race problem.

I do not believe the people I work with make decisions based on race, Anderson said. Its as easy as that. Yes, we are primarily in the inner city neighborhoods which are primarily minority but thats because thats where were called for service. Thats where were needed. Its not Its not a racial thing.

Anderson, who is white, is pretty indignant about the accusation that the Albany Police Department might have racist cops. He says Albany has been a frontrunner in fair policing for decades. The department was named in President Obamas 2016 Task Force on 21st Century Policing as an example of what to do right.

Weeks after I rode along with Officer Anderson, on November 1, David Haupt, a four-year veteran of the Albany Police Department, was caught on body camera footage making racially charged statements.

Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins says that officer will be terminated.

I do believe that law enforcement has become the main target for societys problems right now, Anderson said.

Anderson says its not that racism doesnt exist, but its not fair to pin all the frustration on the police.They dont know me. They dont know anything about me, Anderson said. Theyre making assumptions based on social media and news media and rumors and stuff like that with theyre ignorant. They dont they have no knowledge of what actually happens.

He references a demonstration in Albany in May. Following peaceful protests earlier on, a man threw a brick at a patrol car and several people hurled trash at a line of cops. The tense standoff lasted for hours as officers used horses, tear gas, and explosives to disperse the crowd.

I mean half those people werent from Albany and have never dealt with an Albany cop, Anderson said. I mean Albany we werent involved in any of the stuff people are protesting about. We havent been involved in any of the stuff people are protesting about. Its just that, if it happens in Minneapolis, Minnesota because of the way the 24-hour news cycle and social media and everything like that

Recent History Leading To Mistrust

Dr. Alice Green is the Executive Director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She is a Black woman

and has been an activist in the community for decades. She says the Albany Police Department may not have been involved in any of the recent, viral instances of police brutality, but they do not have a spotless record.

The Center for Law and Justice was started because six police officers who knew this one young man who was mentally handicapped was making noise and they followed him to his apartment. He locked the door on them. They climbed up the roof and looked through the window and blew Jessie Davis brains out, Green said.

In the 1984 incident, Green says Davis was found to have a keychain and a toy truck in his hand, but police said he came at them with a knife and a fork.

But those police officers got off, Green said. They werent indicted, they got off. We have gone through killings of Black people in Albany. Maybe not yesterday. But we have.

And then theres the case of 19-year-old Ellazar Williams, who was shot in the back by an Albany Police officer in 2018 and paralyzed. APD cleared Detective James Olsen of any wrongdoing. Green says the community hasnt trusted city police since.

We have a long history of police brutality in Albany and of killing of Black people, Green said. No, the country didnt hear about Ellazar, but that doesnt mean it didnt happen.

There are very hard-working, well-trained officers in this department that go out every day to do the best they can, Anderson said. Mistakes happen. We dont work in a zero defect world. As long as theyre attempting to do the right thing I dont We dont work in a zero defect world. As long as their intent was to do the right thing. Mistakes of the heart versus mistakes of the mind.

People make mistakes thats part of the bad apple philosophy, Green said. That if something happens in the police department, if an officer does something wrong, its that officer. Hes a bad apple in an otherwise good, fair department.

Green says police departments focus their training on individual officers, teaching them to reject stereotypes. She says this isnt helpful because everyone has implicit bias, and while its good to work on that, its treating a symptom, not the disease. The disease, she says, is that systemic racism is historically inherent in all police departments.

Albany Police Department Spokesman Steve Smith released the implicit bias training to WAMC, dated June 2015.

A recent report on racial bias in the Albany Police Department by an outside auditor hired by the city finds differences in the outcome of arrests based on a persons skin color. The audit also says there is a need for better data collection regarding traffic stops and a clarification of the APD's use of force policy for officers.

Green doesnt recommend implicit bias training.

If Im an individual police officer I would shrug it off and say, Well youve taught me that everybody has

biases so dont blame me. Theres nothing wrong with me, were saying youve got to look at the system and how individuals fit into the system, Green said. So I see that as a real problem, thats something weve been trying to get the police department to understand. If youre put into a system that routinely operates on those stereotypes: that Black people are inherently criminal, that they are most likely going to commit a crime, that theyre dangerous, that theyre violent Youre going to react, and the police department will support you, youre going to react to that person because of the institutional bias thats there.

In other words, you wont be racist sitting in a classroom but out on the street you will still react differently to a Black man approaching you than a white man. And, Green claims, if you shoot that Black man, the police department will back you.

Proactive Policing

Anderson says things have been tense with the community, but they could be worse.

If we were doing real proactive policing again I think that it would probably get worse pretty quick, Anderson said.

According to Anderson there are two approaches: Reactive and proactive policing. Reactive is waiting for a call on the radio and responding. But by then the incident has already happened. You didnt prevent anything. Proactive is patrolling the streets, identifying sketchy situations, and asking people what's going on. Maybe dispersing a crowd before it gets rowdy. Maybe breaking up a dice game.

Green says this entire concept is racist. She says its profiling, and the opposite of community policing.They dont do that in white communities, Im gonna tell you that right now, Green said. But when they do it in Black communities you are using stereotypes, you are causing people who do not trust you to mistrust you even more.

She says Black people want the same thing as everyone else: to feel safe and not be constantly interfered with.

Could very well be a violation of the constitutional rights of those people who are gathered on the street, which they have a right to do, and they also have a right not to be stopped by the police without cause, Green said.

But Anderson says the community calls the cops about the loitering, dice, and partying. The same community that will yell insults at him on the street.

The general public in other parts of the city arent missing out on anything. Its not affecting them. Its in the areas that are screaming to defund the police that are most affected by it. Thats why crime is up, Anderson said.

Green says theres just as much crime where white people live, specifically drugs, but the police arent in those neighborhoods breathing down their necks.

Sol Greenberg was a DA in Albany years back and he told me, he says, Hey were gonna go where we think we can actually see people violating laws. OK? So that means were gonna be in the Black community because you cant see whats going on in white communities. They can close their doors, they can be in their backyard or be in their offices, be involved in drugs at the very same level if not higher than Black people, therefore Black people are the ones who get arrested, Green said.

Greenberg, a Democrat who was Albany County District Attorney for roughly 25 years before retiring in 2000, died in 2017.

Anderson says right now, cops are between a rock and a hard place. The rock is residents wanting to feel safe. The hard place is residents not wanting cops around. He says theres uncertainty and hesitation.Nobody wants to be the next 5 minute, 15 second clip I guess on the news, you know, for doing something thats taken out of context, Anderson said. And somebody has a cell phone video that only shows part of the incident. Not the whole incident. So nobody wants that to be them.

Use of Force and So-Called Black-on-Black Crime

Anderson says people need to remember that cops are called to control dangerous situations, and he says that requires force.

Kneeling is I mean if somebody is fighting and wants to get up you have to put your body weight on them and the most effective way to do that is a knee, Anderson said. You get pain compliance and muscle compliance right there, you know, you have to control somebody you have limited options especially if theyre larger than you if you can get on top of them and hold them down a knee on the back, or a knee on the shoulder, a knee on the side of the head its excruciating and very good at holding a person in place.

Anderson admits that national attention on police behavior is having an effect, just maybe an unintended one.

I am positive I know that officers are definitely going to hesitate to use force in a situation where its going to be run through the media, tried by the media, youre going to be taken out of work run the risk of being doxxed where all your personal public information is put out and thats happening all over the country right now with the protests, Anderson said. So, yes. Officers are going to hesitate to use force so I do believe that it is possible that theyre more likely to use force on a white person than somebody else.

Green says, why use force at all? She says its time to reimagine the role of the police in the community, as Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered.

And I doubt very much if police officers are going to go around shooting white people because the white community will not stand for it, Green said. They will not stand for their sons or their daughters being brutalized by police. Trust me -- that will not happen.

Anderson maintains that if someone ends up on the pavement with a knee to their back, its because they did something to get there. Like swing a baseball bat while approaching a cop, which I saw happen the night I rode along with him.

The general public dictates the people we are dealing with dictate the amount of force used when force

is used, dictate how a situation is handled, Anderson said. A gentleman swinging a baseball bat over his head as I am talking to somebody while walking toward me, runs the risk of having force used against him. Thats probably not a good idea.

Anderson says every shooting that came across his desk this summer was minority on minority. Dr. Green and Anderson have different theories as to why.

Just the The culture With those groups Are violent, Anderson said. Nobody fights with their fists anymore they settle scores with guns. I mean, society is desensitized.

Green says its racist to say that certain cultures are more violent, and points to the long legacy of segregation. She says if you are Black and all your neighbors are Black and you have a conflict with someone you know, chances are that person will also be Black.

It should not be defined as Black on Black crime because theres also white on white crime. Same thing, Green said.

FBI data from 2017 says 80% of white victims were killed by white offenders, 88.5% of Black victims were killed by Black offenders.

Does that mean that my skin determines whether Im violent? I dont think so. Does my skin determine that Im a criminal? I dont think so. You know? Does my skin say Im inferior? I dont think so, Green said.

Education

One thing Officer Anderson and Dr. Green agree on is that education plays a role in the success of Black communities.

Education is part of it. Mediation is part of it. Hope is part of it, Anderson said. You know, when these kids idolize the kids that are out on the street, living that life, thats the life theyre gonna live.Green says its more about lack of funding for schools.

In January 2020, statistics gathered by the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at Brandeis University on the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 show that Black children in Albany are 7.6 times more likely than white children to live in neighborhoods with substantially lower opportunities to grow up healthy.

If you live in the city of Albany your tax base is much less than someone who lives in Loudonville, Green said. So your school system has less money.

Green says less money means less resources, like equipment for virtual learning during the pandemic. She calls it a school to prison pipeline.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, at the end of 2018, about 1.5 million Americans were in prison in the United States.

According to 2018 census data, there were about 40 million Black people in the U.S. and about 250 million white people. So about six times as many white people. But according to the Bureau of Justice statistics National Prisoner Statistics Program , in 2018 about 51,000 white people were in federal prisons and about 67,000 Black people were in federal prisons.

The imprisonment rate of Black males was 5.8 times that of white males, and the imprisonment rate of Black females was 1.8 times the rate of white females.

50-A

Dr. Greens Center for Law and Justice has called for greater transparency from the Albany Police Department for years, including repealing 50-A, a policy she says officers used to hide behind when they used excessive force, saying personnel records could not be released. After lawmakers moved on the matter, Governor Cuomo signed a repeal of 50-A this year following the death of George Floyd.

But Anderson says the call from protestors to subpoena officers personal records is the wrong solution.

People dont like being arrested, Anderson said. People make false complaints against the cops all the time because its a way of de-legitimizing their arrest. Every cop thats got more than a couple days on the street, more than five years say, has had false complaints made against him, myself included. Theyre unsubstantiated, theyre unfounded if that file goes out people are still going to see that those complaints were made. The general public believes those complaints because right now the general public doesnt believe the police.

Anderson says the equivalent would be if someone said that every story I reported was false because they didnt like something I wrote about them.

But there are reporters who make stuff up, I said. And there are cops who do bad things so what is then the solution to prove that a cop has a history of racism? Whats the solution then?

There are how many hundreds of thousands of cops in America, Anderson said. How many hundreds of thousands of calls for service go out on a daily basis? And how many legitimate complaints happen? Like I said, people dont like getting arrested. People make false complains all the time.

Courts in New York are still sorting out whether unsubstituted claims can be released under the repeal of 50-A, or if it only applies to substantiated claims.

Green claims she has had to file Freedom of Information requests to get reports on shootings in the past. She says she still hasnt received the full report on an incident on First Street, for which an officer was arrested and two more were suspended.

Smith, the APD spokesperson, says APD has cooperated as much as the law allows during an ongoing investigation, saying, Dr. Green did submit a FOIL request regarding the First Street incident, thats the process for turning over any documents and we turned over what were legally able to turn over. That case is still ongoing with the officers going through the process in accordance with their collective bargaining agreements.

The community needs to know when its police officers are misbehaving, or acting unprofessional, Green said. And also, its an issue of transparency, which we consider the biggest problem in the police department. They dont share information they should with the community. They also hide body cam recordings.

We dont just arbitrarily release body cam footage because of witness privacy and victim privacy and we dont want to compromise any ongoing investigations, Smith said, adding that when it comes to the First Street incident, Dr. Green was one of only two people outside of the police department to view the footage.

In April 2019, after Green saw the footage, she told WAMC it was disturbing, saying officers showed up at to a house call on First Street and broke down the door after the man who answered it asked if they had a warrant.

"They said 'if you don't come out or let us in, we're gonna go in and get you.' And that's exactly what they did, Green said. They got through the door, pulled the man who was at the door out of the apartment and basically threw him into the street. And then the video shows police officers beating the gentleman with a stick."

Five-year veteran officer Luke Deer beat the man with a nightstick. Deer was arrested. Two other officers were suspended.

Defund the Police?

Officer Anderson says people shout things at him all the time now. Like, defund the police or various expletives, not suitable for the radio.

Law and order is what keeps America what it is, Anderson said. If the police werent here we would devolve into chaos. I mean, youre seeing that in other parts of the country where the riots continue and the police are taking a really big step back. So its got to work itself out.

Dr. Green argues police are exacerbating the problem, saying they dont prevent crime, they only react to it. Green says only if impoverished communities improve will crime numbers fall.

Its the community and the way people are treated, the way they are allowed to survive with dignity, that helps deal with anti-social behavior, Green said.

Green says she doesnt favor the term defund the police because it implies that police departments would be abolished and there would just be an empty hole. She says the justice system needs to be focused on rehabilitation.

Like Albany's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD program, which attempts to provide treatment services for addiction and mental illness for individuals who commit low-level crimes -- instead of sending them to jail. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy announced this fall that the program will receive an $898,000 grant from the U.S Department of Justice. Dr. Green says she helped write the budget proposal for the program, but was not informed that one had been approved, for how much, or where the money would go.

Green says she hopes it goes to creating more case managers for community outreach.

The prisons have been shown to exacerbate the problem, Green said. Prisons cause criminal behavior. They do not solve the problem. So weve got to rethink all that that punishment isnt necessarily the answer to public safety. I would change the name of the Albany Police Department to the Albany Department of Public Safety. Its everybodys job to be involved in it in different kinds of ways. Weve got to do something to get rid of that culture that thinks black people are inferior and that theyre criminal.

Green says crime comes from poverty, not skin color. She says people who have little money and who feel marginalized make decisions based on survival that privileged people dont have to make.

Poverty and racism can put stress on certain groups where they might feel they have to respond in certain kinds of ways, Green said.

Green says you cannot begin to understand systemic racism if you dont learn the history of the United States.

Green says the disadvantages of Black people can be traced to slavery, and so can policing -- when she says police officers were used to bring escaped slaves back to plantations and would announce when lynchings would occur, like it was entertainment.

But Green doesnt think police officers are bad.

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Policing, Racism And The Black Lives Matter Movement In Albany - WAMC

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) The Oklahoma City chapter of Black Lives Matter laid out a list of demands after police shot and killed an armed teen robbery suspect.

Police say 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez allegedly robbed a gas station near Western Ave. and I-240 Monday night.

Protestors marched for justice for Rodriguez Wednesday night. Witnesses say he dropped the gun before officers fired.

On the night of the shooting, police said he wasnt listening to commands.

He came out with the gun in his hand, he did not follow officer instructions while coming out with the gun in his hand, ultimately he was shot, MSgt. Gary Knight said.

Black Lives Matter held a press conference Thursday responding to what happened.

The consistent used of lethal force by police officers must stop, Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, said. The killing of civilians by agents of the state shows a complete disregard for the value of all human lives.

Rodriguez was shot by six officers. Five fired lethal rounds, and one fired non-lethal rounds.

[That] raises questions about the policies, practices and training protocol of all police departments that lead to six police officers choosing to act as judge, jury, and executioner of a minor who complied with their instructions, Dickerson said. It is appalling that OCPDs most recent victim was 15 years old, a 15 year old child.

Black Lives Matter is calling for Police Chief Wade Gourley to resign.

His position adds to the egregious culture of disregard for human life and dignity of all people, Dickerson said.

Theyre also calling for the resignation of all the officers involved in Rodriguezs death.

Their pension should be transferred to the family of the slain victim and victims, Dickerson said.

She says theyre asking the city manager to terminate the chief if he doesnt submit his resignation in seven days. Theyre also asking for an independent investigation and the suspension of lethal force.

If all of the officers had utilized non-lethal rounds as one officer had the wherewithal to do, a childs life wouldve been spared, Dickerson said.

The group also called for Gourleys resignation over the summer. The chief said then that the department is working on listening to the community and making improvements.

However, protestors dont think thats happening.

The Oklahoma City police department seems to promote the ideology that no lives matter, Dickerson said.

This is the third fatal officer-involved shooting in Oklahoma City in a few weeks.

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Black Lives Matter calls for police chief and officers involved in shooting teen to resign - KFOR Oklahoma City