Protesters call attention to deaths of two more black men
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Anti-racism protesters on Saturday sought to call attention to the deaths of two more black men — one who was found hanging from a tree in California and another who was fatally shot by police outside an Atlanta restaurant. The Atlanta police chief resigned hours later.
Meanwhile in Europe, far-right activists scuffled with police in London and Paris as more Black Lives Matter demonstrations unfolded nearly three weeks after George Floyd, another black man, died at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer who pressed a knee to his neck.
Atlanta police were called late Friday about a man said to be sleeping in a car blocking a Wendy’s restaurant drive-thru. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was investigating reports that 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks failed a sobriety test and was shot in a struggle over a police Taser.
By Saturday evening, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that she had accepted the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields. The announcement came as roughly 150 protesters marched outside the restaurant. The mayor also called for the immediate firing of the officer who opened fire on Brooks.
“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer,” Bottoms said.
She said it was Shields’ own decision to step aside as police chief and that she would remain with the city in an undetermined role. Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant would serve as interim police chief until a permanent replacement is found.
Mississippi faces reckoning on flag’s Confederate emblem
JACKSON, Miss. — The young activists who launched a protest movement after George Floyd’s death are bringing fresh energy to a long-simmering debate about the Confederate battle emblem that white supremacists embedded within the Mississippi state flag more than 125 years ago.
Anti-racism protests have toppled Confederate statues and monuments across the United States in recent days, and even NASCAR banned the display of the rebel flag. But Mississippi has been a holdout for years in displaying the emblem in the upper-left corner of its banner.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves rejects the idea of a legislative vote on erasing the symbol. If the flag is to be redesigned, “it should be the people who make that decision, not some backroom deal by a bunch of politicians in Jackson,” Reeves said this week.
The mere mention of removing the Confederate emblem from the Mississippi flag stirs anger in its defenders, who tell people to leave the state if they don’t like it.
The issue has gained new momentum since Floyd was killed last month by Minneapolis police. Thousands of people turned out June 6 in downtown Jackson for a protest organized by Black Lives Matter. One of the organizers, 18-year-old Maisie Brown, read a list of demands that started with “the removal of all Confederate symbols and memorabilia.”
Georgia nursing staff back with family after virus lockdown
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Nadia Williams shrieked with surprise and emotion Saturday as she embraced her mother for the first time since agreeing nearly three months ago to live at the elder-care facility where she works.
Park Springs just outside Atlanta took the unusual approach of having roughly 70 employees shelter in place on campus to protect its residents from the coronavirus. It lifted that restriction over the weekend, and Williams and other employees headed home for the first time since March 30.
“It shocked me a lot,” Williams, 30, said about seeing her mom. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to see them for another few weeks.”
Nursing homes — among the hardest hit places by the pandemic — have limited visitors and screened people for the virus. Park Springs’ administrators said they feared those strategies might not be enough to keep their more than 500 residents safe. But the staff lockdown was not a measure they could sustain forever, said Donna Moore, chief operating officer of the company that owns Park Springs.
“This is week 11,” Moore said on a Zoom call Wednesday.
Kim Jong Un’s sister threatens S. Korea with military action
SEOUL, South Korea — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened military action against South Korea as she bashed Seoul on Saturday over declining bilateral relations and its inability to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
Describing South Korea as an “enemy,” Kim Yo Jong repeated an earlier threat she had made by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of a “useless” inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong.
Kim, who is first vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, said she would leave it to North Korea’s military leaders to carry out the next step of retaliation against the South.
“By exercising my power authorized by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“If I drop a hint of our next plan the (South Korean) authorities are anxious about, the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to the General Staff of our army,” she said. “Our army, too, will determine something for cooling down our people’s resentment and surely carry out it, I believe.”
From wire sources
Officer charged in Floyd’s death eligible for pension money
MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is eligible to receive pension benefits during his retirement years even if he’s convicted of killing George Floyd, according to the Minnesota agency that represents retired public workers.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of George. Video of the arrest shows Chauvin, who is white, using his knee to pin down the neck of George, who was black and handcuffed, for several minutes as Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. George’s death has sparked protests around the world.
The Minnesota Public Employees Retirement Association said in a statement that former employees who meet length-of-service requirements qualify for benefits regardless of whether they quit or are fired. Those payments are not affected by criminal charges or convictions, the agency said, citing state law.
A review of police payroll, salary and contract information obtained by CNN estimates that Chauvin’s annual payments would be around $50,000 or more if he elected to begin receiving distributions at age 55. Chauvin was a member of the Minneapolis police force for 19 years.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, did not immediately return an email request seeking comment.