FedEx Fires Employee Who Mocked George Floyd's Death in Front of Trump Yard Signs

(Newsweek) FedEx employee was fired by the company after videos appeared on social media showing him and several other men apparently mocking the death of George Floyd during a protest.

The FedEx employee knelt on the neck of a white man in front of a lumber yard as a Black Lives Matter protest passed by. Referencing Floyd, who died while in police custody, the man yelled at the crowd, "He's dead because he didn't comply." Videos of the counterprotest were posted on various social media platforms, enabling some users to identify the individuals involved in the display. A sign promoting the re-election of President Donald Trump was hung from a truck behind them.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1270371068692307973

Insurance telemarketers fined $225M for a billion robocalls

(Boston Herald) The Federal Communications Commission Tuesday proposed a $225 million fine, its largest ever, against two health insurance telemarketers for spamming people with 1 billion robocalls using fake phone numbers.

The FCC said John Spiller and Jakob Mears made the calls through two businesses. State attorneys general of Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas also sued the two men and their companies, Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, in federal court in Texas for violating the federal law governing telemarketing, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The FCC said the robocalls offered plans from major insurers like Aetna and UnitedHealth with an automated message. If consumers pressed a button for more information, however, they were transferred to a call center that sold plans not connected to those companies.

Reached by phone at the number listed for JSquared, Spiller declined to comment. He declined to provide contact information for Mears and said neither would speak before talking to an attorney.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/06/09/insurance-telemarketers-fined-225m-for-a-billion-robocalls/

So what has protesting accomplished?

(I found this wonderful post that a friend of a friend sent on to me)

So what has protesting accomplished?

👉🏾Within 10 days of sustained protests:
Minneapolis bans use of choke holds.

👉🏾Charges are upgraded against Officer Chauvin, and his accomplices are arrested and charged.

👉🏾Dallas adopts a "duty to intervene" rule that requires officers to stop other cops who are engaging in inappropriate use of force.

👉🏾New Jersey’s attorney general said the state will update its use-of-force guidelines for the first time in two decades.

👉🏾In Maryland, a bipartisan work group of state lawmakers announced a police reform work group.

👉🏾Los Angeles City Council introduces motion to reduce LAPD’s $1.8 billion operating budget.

👉🏾MBTA in Boston agrees to stop using public buses to transport police officers to protests.

👉🏾Police brutality captured on cameras leads to near-immediate suspensions and firings of officers in several cities (i.e., Buffalo, Ft. Lauderdale).

👉🏾Monuments celebrating confederates are removed in cities in Virginia, Alabama, and other states.

👉🏾Street in front of the White House is renamed "Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Military forces begin to withdraw from D.C.

Then, there's all the other stuff that's hard to measure:

💓The really difficult public and private conversations that are happening about race and privilege.

💓The realizations some white people are coming to about racism and the role of policing in this country.

💓The self-reflection.

💓The internal battles exploding within organizations over issues that have been simmering or ignored for a long time. Some organizations will end as a result, others will be forever changed or replaced with something stronger and fairer.

Globally:

🌎 Protests against racial inequality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd are taking place all over the world.

🌎 Rallies and memorials have been held in cities across Europe, as well as in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.

🌎 As the US contends with its second week of protests, issues of racism, police brutality, and oppression have been brought to light across the globe.

🌎 People all over the world understand that their own fights for human rights, for equality and fairness, will become so much more difficult to win if we are going to lose America as the place where 'I have a dream' is a real and universal political program," Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the US, told the New Yorker.

🌎 In France, protesters marched holding signs that said "I can't breathe" to signify both the words of Floyd, and the last words of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who was subdued by police officers and gasped the sentence before he died outside Paris in 2016.

🌎 Cities across Europe have come together after the death of George Floyd:

✊🏽 In Amsterdam, an estimated 10,000 people filled the Dam square on Monday, holding signs and shouting popular chants like "Black lives matter," and "No justice, no peace."

✊🏽 In Germany, people gathered in multiple locations throughout Berlin to demand justice for Floyd and fight against police brutality.

✊🏾 A mural dedicated to Floyd was also spray-painted on a stretch of wall in Berlin that once divided the German capital during the Cold War.

✊🏿 In Ireland, protesters held a peaceful demonstration outside of Belfast City Hall, and others gathered outside of the US embassy in Dublin.

✊🏿In Italy, protesters gathered and marched with signs that said "Stop killing black people," "Say his name," and "We will not be silent."

✊🏾 In Spain, people gathered to march and hold up signs throughout Barcelona and Madrid.

✊🏾 In Athens, Greece, protesters took to the streets to collectively hold up a sign that read "I can't breathe."

✊🏾 In Brussels, protesters were seen sitting in a peaceful demonstration in front of an opera house in the center of the city.

✊🏾In Denmark, protesters were heard chanting "No justice, no peace!" throughout the streets of Copenhagen, while others gathered outside the US embassy.

✊🏾 In Canada, protesters were also grieving for Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black woman who died on Wednesday after falling from her balcony during a police investigation at her building.

✊🏾 And in New Zealand, roughly 2,000 people marched to the US embassy in Auckland, chanting and carrying signs demanding justice.

💐 Memorials have been built for Floyd around the world, too. In Mexico City, portraits of him were hung outside the US embassy with roses, candles, and signs.

💐 In Poland, candles and flowers were laid out next to photos of Floyd outside the US consulate.

💐 And in Syria, two artists created a mural depicting Floyd in the northwestern town of Binnish, "on a wall destroyed by military planes."

Before the assassination of George Floyd some of you were able to say whatever the hell you wanted and the world didn't say anything to you...

THERE HAS BEEN A SHIFT, AN AWAKENING...MANY OF YOU ARE BEING EXPOSED FOR WHO YOU REALLY ARE. #readthatagain

Don't wake up tomorrow on the wrong side of this issue. Its not to late to SAY,

"Maybe I need to look at this from a different perspective."

"Maybe I don't know what its like to be black in America..."

"Maybe, just maybe, I have been taught wrong."

There is still so much work to be done. It's been a really dark, raw week. This could still end badly. But all we can do is keep doing the work.

Keep protesting.

WE ARE NOT TRYING TO START A RACE WAR; WE ARE PROTESTING TO END IT,
PEACEFULLY.

How beautiful is that?

ALL LIVES CANNOT MATTER UNTIL YOU INCLUDE BLACK LIVES.

YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN YOU DO NOTHING TO STOP SYSTEMIC RACISM & POLICE BRUTALITY.

YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN BLACK PEOPLE ARE DYING AND ALL YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT IS THE LOOTING.

YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN YOU ALLOW CHILDREN TO BE CAGED, VETERANS TO GO HOMELESS, AND POOR FAMILIES TO GO HUNGRY & LOSE THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE.

DO ALL LIVES MATTER? YES. BUT RIGHT NOW, ONLY BLACK LIVES ARE BEING TARGETED, JAILED, AND KILLED EN MASSE- SO THAT'S WHO WE'RE FOCUSING ON.

🖤🖤🖤BLACK LIVES MATTER🖤🖤🖤

IF YOU CAN'T SEE THIS, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

*I do not know the original author*

Ummm is it just me - or is there some weird posting going on tonight?

Miami hospital workers take a knee for racial equality

MIAMI – More than 100 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers knelt outside of Jackson Memorial Hospital on Thursday afternoon, joining the nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice.

It was part of a national movement called White Coats for Black Lives, which empowers healthcare workers to speak out against inequality.

The demonstration at Jackson took place just after noon in front of the Holtz Children’s Hospital, and the group remained knelt in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to reflect the time George Floyd was pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck.

It came as these medical workers continue to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

“In the cancer world, we talk about double hits with mutations, and this feels like a double hit,” Dr. Tobenna Ubu said. “You know, the communities were already suffering, and now we’re suffering even more.”

The hospital workers held signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” in reference to Floyd’s last words.

One sign read: “Take it from a registered nurse. When someone can’t breathe ... help them!”

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/06/04/miami-hospital-workers-take-a-knee-for-racial-equality/

A Practical Guide to Defunding the Police

(Rolling Stone) Activists are demanding cities ‘defund the police.’ Here’s what they mean

The year Philando Castile was shot and killed during his 49th routine traffic stop, this one for a broken taillight, the Minneapolis Police Department was halfway through a highly respected, three-year program designed to restore trust between the community and police. Two years later, MPD had, by its own account, implemented a host of the trendiest police reforms: body cameras, de-escalation and crisis intervention training, mindfulness training. It even rewrote its use-of-force guidelines to emphasize “the sanctity of life.” Two years after that, George Floyd was killed — handcuffed, flat on his stomach, held down by three MPD officers, including Derek Chauvin, pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck.

Now activists in Minneapolis are calling for more than just reform: They want the Minneapolis Police Department defunded — and those calls are catching on elsewhere as demonstrations against police brutality sweep across the country and peaceful protesters are met with more barbarism for speaking out against it.

Defunding the police does not mean stripping a department entirely of its budget, or abolishing it altogether. It’s just about scaling police budgets back and reallocating those resources to other agencies, says Lynda Garcia, policing campaign director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “A lot of what we advocate for is investment in community services — education, medical access… You can call it ‘defunding,’ but it’s just about directing or balancing the budget in a different way.”

The concept is simple: When cities start investing in community services, they reduce the need to call police in instances when police officers’ specific skill set isn’t required. “If someone is dealing with a mental health crisis, or someone has a substance abuse disorder, we are calling other entities that are better equipped to help these folks,” Garcia says. When people get the specific help they need earlier, they’re less likely to end up in the kind of dangerous situation police might be called to diffuse — situations that often turn deadly for those individuals.

(Read More) https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/defund-the-police-1007254/

Watch This 10 Year-Old Rip Thru Rage Against the Machine's 'Guerrilla Radio' for Black Lives Matter

South Florida congresswoman urges Biden to pick Val Demings as running mate

(South Florida Sun Sentinel via msn) Congresswoman Lois Frankel said Wednesday she would like presidential candidate Joe Biden to pick her Central Florida colleague, Congresswoman Val Demings, as the Democratic candidate for vice president.

“Val Demings is the best choice for Joe Biden’s VP. Why? She’s a true leader, experienced, and uniquely qualified to address the changes we need to end police brutality against black Americans,” Frankel wrote on Twitter, adding the hashtags #ValforVP and #BidenDemings.

Demings, a former Orlando police chief serving her second term in the U.S. House, was catapulted to the national stage as one of the House impeachment managers who presented the case against President Donald Trump to the Senate earlier this year.

She’s been talked about for months as a possible Biden running mate pick, especially since Biden promised to pick a female running mate.

In recent days, as a black former police chief, Demings has received added national attention, including an interview on the NBC “Meet the Press” program, in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

As black former police chief, she’s been on cable TV — and on the NBC “Meet the Press” program — in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.

Outside her Central Florida base, voters don’t know Demings well. A May 15 Florida Atlantic University poll found 4% of Florida Democrats surveyed favored her as Biden’s running mate.

Florida is a critical state in the presidential election. It awards 29 electoral votes, more than 10% of the 270 needed to win. And its statewide elections are often decided by razor-thin margins. In 2016, for example, Trump won 49% of the vote statewide to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 47.8%.

But vice presidential candidates historically haven’t made a difference in determining the outcome, with the exception of John F. Kennedy’s running mate Lyndon Johnson in 1960.

Frankel represents most of Palm Beach County, including West Palm Beach, where she once served as mayor. She was Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives during the contentious aftermath of the 2000 presidential election featuring George W. Bush and Al Gore.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/south-florida-congresswoman-urges-biden-to-pick-val-demings-as-running-mate/ar-BB14ZcuD?li=BBnb7Kz

Higher Ground (my heart and soul so needed to hear this again)

Today is Blackout Tuesday

(Wikipedia) Blackout Tuesday is a collective action originally started by elements of the music industry to protest racism and police brutality.

The action, organized in response to the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor,is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Businesses taking part are encouraged to abstain from releasing music and other business operations.

The call to action was initiated by music executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas, Senior Director of Marketing at Atlantic Records.

Businesses are participating in different manners. Black Americans are asked to not buy or sell on this day to show economic strength and unity. Spotify announced it would be adding a 8-minute and 46-second moment of silence to certain podcasts and playlists for the day.

On Instagram, users participate by posting a single photo of a black square alongside the hashtag #blackouttuesday.

Organizations supporting Blackout Tuesday suggest this day can be an opportunity for reflection on racism and the effects of it on society. Others suggest it is an opportunity to take time from work to focus on helping others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_Tuesday