Daily Kos Recommended: Throwing a sandwich ends in death for Black teen restrained until he lost consciousness

Daily Kos Recommended

• Throwing a sandwich ends in death for Black teen restrained until he lost consciousness
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  Security surveillance video released Tuesday showed a 16-year-old boy who threw a sandwich at another teen being restrained until he lost consciousness at a Michigan youth facility. That child, Cornelius Fredericks, died May 1, two days after the incident at Lakeside Academy, a facility that houses children in foster care or the juvenile justice system, according to NBC News. Fredericks, a ward of the state, wasn’t involved in the juvenile justice system and was only at the facility because his mother died and his father was deemed unable to take care of him, the news network reported.

  At least three of the staff members shown piling on top of Fredericks were more than 6 feet tall and weighed at least 215 pounds, according to a state special investigation report addressed to Steven Laidacker, executive director of the facility. “Due to the severity of the violations, disciplinary action against your license is recommended,” an investigator stated in the letter.
  Former nurse Heather Newton McLogan and staff members Zachary Raul Solis and Michael Joshua Mosley—who were all fired along with seven other staff members at the facility—were also charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse in the incident. McLogan is accused of waiting 12 minutes after the child was restrained to call 911, state officials reported. Fredericks’ family also filed a civil lawsuit against the facility on June 22, accusing the facility of negligence.

  "In fact, video from Lakeside Academy even shows a staff member placing his/her weight directly on Cornelius's chest for nearly ten minutes as Cornelius lost consciousness," an attorney stated in the lawsuit. "Cornelius's scream of 'I can't breathe' was not enough to get the staff members to stop the excessive restraint." 

  Neither was the child urinating on himself, the family's attorney Geoffrey Fieger told NBC News. "Certainly this type of behavior is not human,” he said. “It can only be akin to a subhuman-type species that would inflict this behavior on children."

  The facility has had more than 30 investigations since 2016 regarding staff qualifications, discipline, behavior management, resident restraint, and premise maintenance, attorney Tenia Goshay said in the suit. The staff members named in the suit were accused of violating policy in six different incidents involving the "improper use of de-escalation techniques" or "improper restraints," Goshay said in the suit. "The documented history and repeated investigations of Defendants' improper use of restraints on residents should have put the Defendants on notice that change was needed," the attorney said in the suit.

  Sequel Youth and Family Services, which oversees Lakeside Academy, called Fredericks' death "senseless and tragic. The actions taken by the staff members in that video do not adhere to the Sequel and Lakeside Academy policies and procedures," the family services business said.

  However, Anastase Markou, McLogan's lawyer, told NBC News his client thought the child was "faking" his loss of consciousness. "She's been accused of not doing something based on some form of legal duty, which I'm still trying to decide what legal duty she had," Markou told the news network.

  Kiana Garrity, Mosley's attorney, told NBC News Fredericks threatened his peers. "They did not restrain him for throwing food as alleged," Garrity said. "That's a made-up narrative by Lakeside. They're lying through their teeth to cover their policies."

  Donald Sappanos, one of Solis’ attorneys, predicted all three staff members charged would be acquitted because they followed their employee handbook, NBC News reported.
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• Calls for 'Boycott GOYA' grow after CEO praises Trump
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• If you are a member of the Latino community, or if you cook and eat food made with recipes from the Caribbean and Latin America, you are probably familiar with GOYA products. I took a quick look in my kitchen cabinet and found three: a can of gandules (pigeon peas), frijoles negros (black beans), and some adobo—a multi-spice seasoning. 

  CEO GOYA Foods CEO Robert Unanue paid a visit to the White House and lavishly praised Donald Trump on Thursday. His support for a president who puts kids in cages, dismissed and paper toweled Puerto Rico, and describes Latinos as “thugs” and “rapists” sparked a social media backlash with trending hashtags of #BoycottGoya, and #Goyaway.   
  The Unanue family, one of America’s richest, are billionaires; perfect buddies for The Donald. Let’s see how they react to people deciding not to add a pinch of GOYA Adobo to their meals.

  Some Twitter responses:

  I’m going to take Ana Navarro’s advice and donate the GOYA products on my shelf to my local food bank.

  Happy eating—without GOYA.
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• Those right-wingers who praised Sweden's response to COVID-19 are looking pretty stupid now
  
• Daily Kos and other news outlets have seen big increases in site traffic during the coronavirus crisis—yet the news media industry is collapsing as ad dollars evaporate. Please start a $3 monthly recurring today.
  
• 82 test positive for COVID-19 after attending Missouri Christian summer camp
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• Despite reported surges of COVID-19 infections and the threat of contracting the virus still high in the U.S., many businesses are resuming operation under the guise of normalcy. Nationwide, some individuals are ignoring pleas from experts to continue social distancing and are instead resuming everyday activities as if the virus no longer exists.

  As children across the country begin attending summer camps, fear of spreading the COVID-19 virus is being dismissed as all but a hoax. Nevertheless, a summer camp in Missouri shut down last week following a coronavirus outbreak in which more than 40 children and staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials said. Within days after the children returned home to 10 different states, the number increased to 82.
  The summer camp belongs to a network of Christian sports camps in Missouri, known as the Kanakuk Kamps. After announcing its plans to open starting May 30, the camp network issued a statement on its website assuring parents that camps “are focused on taking all reasonable measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our Kamps."

  The camp located in Lampe, Missouri, was one of several of the network’s overnight camps; the chain prides itself on having approximately 20,000 children attend its camps each summer. According to the company’s website, children between the ages of 13-18 can attend the camp for up to four weeks and participate in activities including Bible studies and sports training.  

  While a video on Kanakuk's website said all campers and staff members would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days before attending camp to avoid the spread of the virus, no measures were taken to ensure this requirement was followed outside of a health card issued to parents to fill out.

  News of the outbreak spread on July 2 when health officials confirmed that at least 41 campers and staff tested positive, and by July 6 that number had doubled. Parents were made aware of the outbreak and resulting closure through an email last week, NBC News reported. "As your Kamper returns home," the email read, "we recommend that you consider a 14-day self-quarantine for your child and monitor for symptoms of COVID-19." The email was followed by an announcement on Facebook by the Stone County Health Department confirming the number of positive cases. "The decision to close has resulted in all campers, counselors and staff to return to their homes," the Department said on Facebook. "SCHD will be working closely with Kanakuk Kamps to identify exposed individuals and quarantine those individuals, as necessary."

  Despite the concern that should be associated with infecting such a large group of children and staff from across the country, the camp network has not mentioned the outbreak on any of its social media channels and continues to share pictures of campers participating in activities. In addition, the state has not issued any changes in guidelines to avoid another potential outbreak as businesses resume operation. According to People, Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health, announced that his agency does not plan to shut down other summer camps despite the outbreak. “We think school is incredibly important to kids. We also think camps are important,” Williams said Monday. According to Williams, the Kanakuk Kamps site associated with the outbreak plans to reopen after testing all staff members.

  Kanakuk Kamps is not alone. Other camps across the country have opened and closed following both children and staff contracting COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. Ultimately, it is up to parents to decide whether the risk to send their children to a camp amid a pandemic is worth it or not.

  As cases surge in the U.S. and increasingly affect younger populations, Donald Trump has called for schools to open for in-person learning, in addition to the administration issuing a new rule that foreign nationals attending school in the U.S. are not allowed to take a full online course load if they wish to stay in the country. Since the start of this pandemic, the Trump administration has failed to adequately respond to the virus and dismissed the severity of it. With camps and schools resuming as they were prior to the virus, there’s no stopping further outbreaks and spread.
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• 'It sounded like a war': Bystander details hearing Phoenix police shoot, kill her son's friend
  
• Trump can't figure out why coronavirus-ravaged America shouldn't open its schools
  
• 18-year-old Andrés Guardado was shot 5 times in back by police, independent autopsy finds
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• An independent autopsy performed at the request of the family of Andrés Guardado has found that the 18-year-old student and part-time security guard was shot in the back five times by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy last month, NBC News reports. 

  Guardado’s family, already frustrated over the lack of answers regarding his killing by police on June 18, requested the independent autopsy after the department put a “security hold” on the L.A. County coroner’s results. “These findings confirm what we have known all along,” his family said according to LAist, “which is that Andrés was unjustifiably killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy.”
  “Lawyers for the Guardado family have said that officials’ failure to explain exactly what prompted the shooting has made the family's grieving process that much more difficult,” NBC News said, as well as anger around an allegation by police that he was armed. Police claim they found an unmarked gun at the scene that had not been fired, “leading police to believe that Andres didn’t fire it,” the report continued. 

  "We do not believe that he had a gun," family attorney Adam Shea said according to NBC News. "There was a gun at the scene. How and why that gun was there and who it belonged to is a question that needs to be answered." Doubt around the police’s claims are only heightened following a Los Angeles Times report that Miguel Vega, the officer who reportedly killed the 18-year-old, has already faced a number of accusations of misconduct in the past, including “making false statements in an investigation.”

  While Vega initially refused to make a statement to investigators, NBC News reports he’s set to be interviewed in the coming days. Both Vega and Chris Hernandez, the officer who was with him the day he shot and killed Guardado, are still employed by the sheriff’s department but officials wouldn’t say where they’re currently assigned, the report said.

  Raising more alarms about a lack of transparency is the fact that sheriff’s department has yet to turn over evidence requested by the county’s inspector general. “On June 22, 2020, my office requested documents and video recovered in the investigation into the shooting of Andres Guardado. We have received no response,” the County of Los Angeles Office of Inspector General wrote to Sheriff Alex Villanueva this week. “I ask that you provide us the items requested immediately.”

  Recent data has found that Latinos follow Black Americans in the demographic most violently affected by police violence. 

  "It's not an issue that's associated with Latinos in the same way that it's associated with African American men in particular,” Rep. Joaquin Castro said according to NPR, “but it has been a real problem for the Latino community throughout the country, particularly in inner city neighborhoods of folks being profiled, folks being killed over the years.” 

  “Of course the years of systemic racism and voicelessness are not near the same level the Black community has been forced to endure,” AL DÍA News’ Ericka Conant rightfully notes, “but the recent deaths of multiple Latinx individuals at the hands of police have reignited the call to end police brutality against Latinx people as well.”

  Guardado’s family has said they will not rest until their loved one receives justice. "Our son did not deserve to die this way," they said according to NBC News. "Andres was a good boy, he was our son and he had so much life ahead of him."
• 
  
• On second thought, CDC not changing guidelines for reopening schools just to please madman Trump
  
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