In the past 24 hours, eight of the top ten most popular posts on Facebook were created by far-right extremists—including Donald Trump, Ben Shapiro, and Franklin Graham.1
Every single day, these far-right figures are spreading radical right-wing conspiracy theories to tens of millions of Americans and are poisoning our news feeds with dangerous misinformation that is eroding our democracy.
Which is why Inequality Media—the progressive nonprofit I founded that counters the right wing's lies with clear, factual, and engaging viral videos and other content—has never been more important.
Inequality Media is one of the only progressive groups with a large enough following to match the biggest right-wing propagandists. Just look at our numbers: Our videos and posts are shared seven times more than Sean Hannity's, our Facebook page receives 15 times more engagement per post than Ben Shapiro, and our videos have been viewed more than 440 million times.
With anti-maskers spreading conspiracy theories as the pandemic rages on and with much of the GOP trying to undermine the election results and steal the presidency, combating the spread of misinformation has never been more critical—but we need your help.
As we leave the Trump administration in the trash heap of history and head into a Joe Biden presidency, we all know that the far right will ramp up their efforts to misinform the public and smear popular progressive reforms.
Just look at what the far right is doing right now. Despite the fact that the election results are crystal clear, right-wing extremists in Congress just rejected a resolution recognizing Joe Biden as president-elect.2
But they won't stop there. Over the next weeks, months, and years, right-wing extremists will fight with everything they have to tank our progressive agenda.
The far-right fearmongers will call demanding health care and housing during a public health and economic crisis "socialism."
They'll wage an all-out war against canceling student debt.
They'll spread vicious lies to try to stop us from treating immigrants with dignity and respect.
They'll spend tens of millions of dollars in deceptive attack ads to try to vilify our efforts to address police violence and protect our environment.
They'll peddle lies that taxing the rich will stifle innovation.
They'll say that stopping catastrophic climate change will bankrupt the economy.
Which means we need to fight back harder than ever. I have big plans to produce viral videos and other content to expose the far right's lies and to educate the public about wealth inequality, racial injustice, health care reform, and more—but I'm going to need your help to bring my ambitious plans to life.
It’s a horrible fundraiser. There’s really no other way to describe it. We can’t wait for the end of the month and hope donations will come in then. They may not. We’re down 20% from just one month ago.
So far only 224 people have donated for December. That is the problem right there.
Trump rushed Barrett onto the US Supreme Court expecting her to get him a second term. She’s failed him twice.
But she’s also expected to help kill Roe v. Wade, thus allowing states to ban all abortions.
Barrett’s fundamentalist supporters say that no matter what other religions believe, human life begins at conception. To save an “innocent child,” governments must invade women’s bodies to prevent them from terminating pregnancies.
Barrett is apparently primed to allow that. But she’s done nothing to prevent Trump’s deranged, escalating slaughter of adult federal prisoners.
Faced with eviction from the White House, Trump is on an unhinged killing spree. Ten federal prisoners are already dead. Five or more could be killed before the inauguration of Joe Biden, who publicly opposes the death penalty.
The criminal justice community has long believed that the death penalty serves no law enforcement function, and does not deter capital crime. In fact, murder rates are historically lower in states that do not have the death penalty.
Indeed, under certain circumstances, such as a murderer’s suicidal desires, the prospect of being killed by the state can make killings more likely. Timothy McVeigh, America’s worst mass murderer, chose the death penalty over life in prison.
After 17 years in which the federal government executed no prisoners, Trump’s unprecedented killing spree serves no apparent purpose beyond his own lethal madness.
The victims have (of course) been mostly of color. A Navajo citizen’s tribe asked that he be spared. Legal experts deemed another victim too mentally impaired to be legally executed. They were ignored.
Trump killed Brandon Bernard, 40, last Thursday for a crime committed when he was 18. The prosecutor and five convicting jurors asked that Bernard, the father of two daughters, be spared. Kim Kardashian pleaded directly to Trump.
With his “conservative” attorney general William Barr managing the slaughter, Trump now plans to execute five or more federal prisoners as fast as he can – including one just five days before Biden’s inauguration.
Based on these multiple Trump killings, the “pro-life” Barrett’s actual views on the human soul become unclear. Supreme Court justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan wanted evidence wrongfully hidden during Bernard’s trial two decades ago to be examined before execution. But “pro-life” Barrett stayed silent. Had she and one more Justice intervened, Trump could not have killed Bernard.
Making abortion illegal – as overturning Roe v. Wade would allow states to do – does little to stop abortions.
It does cause the deaths of pregnant women with little money. But abortions have always been available – illegal or otherwise – to those with cash, and will continue to be if Roe v. Wade is voided, as Barrett may help happen.
In the real world, what draws down the number of unwanted pregnancies – and thus abortions – is sex education and contraception made easily available to young people. Of all the organizations that do that, by far the most effective over the past century has been Planned Parenthood.
Nothing seems to infuriate the pro-life movement more than Planned Parenthood and its cohorts successfully educating and empowering women while keeping abortion “safe and legal.”
But in fact, winning women’s legal rights and delivering access to health services and sex education do far more to drop the number of abortions than trying to ban the procedure.
So when it comes to Roe v. Wade, Justice Barrett must choose which is more important: making abortions illegal, or making sure there are fewer of them.
She might also ask how “pro-life” it is to let a vindictive psychopath randomly slaughter federal prisoners while denying women of multiple faiths the right to control their own bodies as they see fit.
Harvey Wasserman’s The People’s Spiral of US History is at www.solartopia.org. He co-convenes the Grassroots Election Protection Zoom Mondays, 5-6:30 pm Eastern via www.ElectionProtection2024.org.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
The president reads a story about a very special reindeer who holds an election in the forest to prove he is the best reindeer.
Aside from the 48-minute "Pandemic Special" episode released in September, South Park has been all but absent from our lives in 2020.
But that didn't stop creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone from making other content with their trademark brand of chaotic, often disturbing satire. Their ongoingSassy Justice web series, which launched back in October, shares lots of the classic South Park elements we love: An idiotic premise, shitty drawings, and mockery of current events.
In the latest episode, a deepfaked Trump (who appears frequently in the series) reads a re-imagining of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Over-identifying with a "very special" reindeer rejected by society, Trump misses the point that (unlike him) Rudolf was shunned for his physical difference rather than being the literal worst. Instead, he rails against the "sleepy-eyed" reindeer who calls for an election to democratically vote on which reindeer is the best rather than the "special" reindeer just declaring himself the best.
You already know how this story ends: The "sleepy-eyed" reindeer wins. But Trump is enraged on the special reindeer's behalf, claiming baseless conspiracy theories about the reindeer election being rigged.
Voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, the deepfake tech superimposes Trump's likeness onto the actor with uncannily convincing results. While the threat of deepfakes to democratic elections didn't really materialize in 2020 like some worried it would, it's still important to remain vigilant. This is a harmless use of deepfakes to satirize a bigger contributor to political disinformation. But deepfakes can still be used for more nefarious means.
Regardless, Sassy Justice is all we have to cling onto while awaiting Season 24 of South Park, which has no official release date yet.
'Under the Rug:' Sexual Misconduct Shakes FBI's Senior Ranks Jim Mustian, Associated Press Mustian writes: "An Associated Press investigation has identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years, including two new claims brought this week by women who say they were sexually assaulted by ranking agents."
n assistant FBI director retired after he was accused of drunkenly groping a female subordinate in a stairwell. Another senior FBI official left after he was found to have sexually harassed eight employees. Yet another high-ranking FBI agent retired after he was accused of blackmailing a young employee into sexual encounters.
An Associated Press investigation has identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years, including two new claims brought this week by women who say they were sexually assaulted by ranking agents.
Each of the accused FBI officials appears to have avoided discipline, the AP found, and several were quietly transferred or retired, keeping their full pensions and benefits even when probes substantiated the sexual misconduct claims against them.
Beyond that, federal law enforcement officials are afforded anonymity even after the disciplinary process runs its course, allowing them to land on their feet in the private sector or even remain in law enforcement.
“They’re sweeping it under the rug,” said a former FBI analyst who alleges in a new federal lawsuit that a supervisory special agent licked her face and groped her at a colleague’s farewell party in 2017. She ended up leaving the FBI and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“As the premier law enforcement organization that the FBI holds itself out to be, it’s very disheartening when they allow people they know are criminals to retire and pursue careers in law enforcement-related fields,” said the woman, who asked to be identified in this story only by her first name, Becky.
The AP’s count does not include the growing number of high-level FBI supervisors who have failed to report romantic relationships with subordinates in recent years — a pattern that has alarmed investigators with the Office of Inspector General and raised questions about bureau policy.
The recurring sexual misconduct has drawn the attention of Congress and advocacy groups, which have called for whistleblower protections for rank-and-file FBI employees and for an outside entity to review the bureau’s disciplinary cases.
“They need a #MeToo moment,” said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who has been critical of the treatment of women in the male-dominated FBI.
“It’s repugnant, and it underscores the fact that the FBI and many of our institutions are still good ol’-boy networks,” Speier said. “It doesn’t surprise me that, in terms of sexual assault and sexual harassment, they are still in the Dark Ages.”
In a statement, the FBI said it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment” and that claims against supervisors have resulted in them being removed from their positions while cases are investigated and adjudicated.
It added that severe cases can result in criminal charges and that the FBI’s internal disciplinary process assesses, among other factors, “the credibility of the allegations, the severity of the conduct, and the rank and position of the individuals involved.”
The AP review of court records, Office of Inspector General reports and interviews with federal law enforcement officials identified at least six allegations against senior officials, including an assistant director and special agents in charge of entire field offices, that ranged from unwanted touching and sexual advances to coercion.
None appears to have been disciplined, but another sexual misconduct allegation identified in the AP review of a rank-and-file agent resulted in him losing his security clearance.
The FBI, with more than 35,000 employees, keeps a notoriously tight lid on such allegations. The last time the Office of Inspector General did an extensive probe of sexual misconduct within the FBI, it tallied 343 “offenses” from fiscal years 2009 to 2012, including three instances of “videotaping undressed women without consent.”
The latest claims come months after a 17th woman joined a federal lawsuit alleging systemic sexual harassment at the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Virginia. That class-action case claims male FBI instructors made “sexually charged” comments about women needing to “take their birth control to control their moods,” inviting women trainees over to their homes and openly disparaging them.
In one of the new lawsuits filed Wednesday, a former FBI employee identified only as “Jane Doe” alleged a special agent in charge in 2016 retired without discipline and opened a law firm even after he “imprisoned, tortured, harassed, blackmailed, stalked and manipulated” her into having several “non-consensual sexual encounters,” including one in which he forced himself on her in a car. The AP is withholding the name and location of the accused special agent to protect the woman’s identity.
“It is the policy and practice of the FBI and its OIG to allow senior executives accused of sexual assault to quietly retire with full benefits without prosecution,” the woman’s attorney, David J. Shaffer, alleges in the lawsuit.
One such case involved Roger C. Stanton, who before his abrupt retirement served as assistant director of the Insider Threat Office, a division at Washington headquarters tasked with rooting out leakers and safeguarding national security information.
According to an Inspector General’s report concluded this year and obtained by AP through a public records request, Stanton was accused of drunkenly driving a female subordinate home following an after-work happy hour. The woman told investigators that once inside a stairwell of her apartment building, Stanton wrapped his arm around her waist and “moved his hand down onto her bottom” before she was able to get away and hustle up the stairs.
After Stanton left, he called the woman 15 times on her FBI phone and sent her what investigators described as “garbled text” complaining that he could not find his vehicle. The heavily redacted report does not say when the incident happened.
Stanton disputed the woman’s account and told investigators he “did not intend to do anything” and only placed his arm around her because of the “narrowness” of the stairs. But Stanton acknowledged he was “very embarrassed by this event” and “assistant directors should not be putting themselves in these situations.”
Stanton retired in late 2018 after the investigation determined he sexually harassed the woman and sought an improper relationship. He did not respond to requests for comment from AP.
Earlier this year, the Inspector General found that the special agent in charge of the Albany, New York, office, James N. Hendricks, sexually harassed eight subordinates at the FBI.
Hendricks also was not named in the OIG report despite its findings. He was first identified in September by the Albany Times Union. One current and one former colleague of Hendricks confirmed his role in the case to AP.
Hendricks now writes a law enforcement blog in which he touts his FBI accolades but makes no mention of the misconduct allegations. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Becky, the former analyst, told AP she once believed FBI’s “organizational values and mission aligned with how I was raised.” But she was disabused of that notion after reporting to management that Charles Dick, a supervisory special agent at the FBI Training Academy at the time, sexually assaulted her at a farewell party.
Becky told AP her assailant had threatened her at least two times before. “Once while we were waiting for the director he said, ‘I’m going to touch your ass. You know it’s going to happen.’”
“His boorish behavior was well known,” she added. “He was getting away with everything.”
In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Becky accused the former agent of wrapping his arm around her chest while posing for a photograph and “reaching under her and simulating” penetration of her “with his fingers through her jeans.”
Dick denied the charges and was acquitted in state court in Virginia by a judge who ruled it “wholly incredible” that Becky would “stand there and take it and not say anything,” according to a transcript of the proceeding. Dick retired from the FBI months before the Inspector General followed up on Becky’s internal complaint, Becky alleged in her lawsuit, adding she faced retaliation for coming forward.
“It’s much easier to suffer in isolation than it is to go public,” she told AP. “But if I don’t report it, I’m complicit in the cultural and institutionalized cover-up of this sort of behavior.”
Trump’s days as president are coming to an end, but his efforts to weaponize the census continue — and could impact our democracy for the next decade. We’re going to the Supreme Court on Nov. 30 to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Still, the fight continues. In spite of squarely losing on the citizenship question, the Trump administration tried again in July to weaponize the census. This time, it issued a memo directing the secretary of commerce to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count that determines how many congressional seats each state gets. This would be an unconstitutional and radical break with the 230-year history of the census, and could reshape the Electoral College map for years to come.
Here’s why excluding undocumented immigrants is a problem for all of us: Members of Congress don’t just represent the people who vote. They represent everyone with a stake in our communities, including over 10 million undocumented people who live in the U.S. That’s why the census has always counted everybody — citizens and noncitizens alike — since it was first conducted in 1790. Everybody counts and everybody is entitled to representation in Congress. The Constitution says so.
On top of being unconstitutional, the exclusion of undocumented people from the census apportionment count is a discriminatory attack on immigrant communities. It’s no surprise: President Trump has been virulently anti-immigrant since even before he came into office, and the census is just one of many arenas he has used to demonize and disempower immigrants. If he prevails, the exclusionary census total Trump is asking for will dilute the political power of states and areas with significant immigrant communities, especially those of color. States with large immigrant populations like California, Texas, and New Jersey would each lose a congressional seat and an Electoral College vote, while white-majority states would gain representation. An undercount would also make it easier for politicians to draw even more skewed legislative district lines for gerrymandering. To avoid these undemocratic outcomes, we must preserve the integrity of the census — by counting everybody.
From the very beginning of the census fight, Trump has been trying to send the message that undocumented people do not count. That’s not only wrong, it’s unlawful and unconstitutional. Undocumented people are part of the fabric of our communities. They count.
This case is not about particular individuals or groups, it’s about whether all of our communities are represented. We all have a stake in our communities, and we all lose when we’re not counted accurately. We won’t let Trump get away with this last-ditch effort to weaponize the census. We defeated him in the Supreme Court last year, and we are confident that we will do it again this month.
Members of the right-wing Proud Boys group march in support of President Trump on Saturday in Washington. (photo: Evelyn Hockstein/AP)
Multiple People Stabbed After Thousands Gather for Pro-Trump Demonstrations in Washington Emily Davies, Rachel Weiner, Clarence Williams, Marissa J. Lang and Jessica Contrera, The Washington Post Excerpt: "Thousands of maskless rallygoers who refuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Washington into a falsehood-filled spectacle Saturday, two days before the electoral college will make the president's loss official."
In smaller numbers than their gathering last month, they roamed from the Capitol to the Mall and back again, seeking inspiration from speakers who railed against the Supreme Court, Fox News and President-elect Joe Biden. The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One.
But at night, the scene became violent. At least four people were stabbed near Harry’s Bar at 11th and F streets NW, a gathering point for the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism.
The victims were hospitalized and suffered possibly life-threatening injuries, D.C. fire spokesman Doug Buchanan said. It was not immediately clear with which groups the attackers or the injured might have been affiliated.
The violence escalated after an evening of faceoffs with counterprotesters that took place near Harry’s, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Franklin Square, and other spots around downtown.
At first, officers in riot gear successfully kept the two sides apart, even as the groups splintered and roamed. In helmets and bulletproof vests, Proud Boys marched through downtown in militarylike rows, shouting “move out” and “1776!” They became increasingly angry as they wove through streets and alleys, only to find police continuously blocking their course with lines of bikes.
“Both sides of the aisle hate you now. Congratulations,” a Proud Boy shouted at the officers.
But before long, the agitators determined to find trouble were successful — and posturing quickly turned into punching, kicking and wrestling.
Again and again, officers swarmed, pulling the instigators apart, firing chemical irritants and forming lines between the sides. At Harry’s Bar, an ambulance arrived, but the extent of injuries was unknown.
Each time a fight was de-escalated, another soon began in a different part of town.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham made a brief appearance in the chaos, telling protesters: “We’re doing the best we can.”
In an interview, Newsham said police units were deployed across downtown to keep the groups apart. He said smaller segments of people who splintered from larger gatherings seemed “intent on conflict.”
D.C. police said that as of 9 p.m., 23 people were arrested Saturday, including 10 who were charged with misdemeanor assaults, six with assaulting police officers and four with rioting. Police said one person had an illegal Taser.
Two officers were hospitalized with moderate injuries suffered during clashes at 16th and K streets NW, police said. In all, police said eight people — including the four stabbing victims and the two officers — were injured.
The scuffles seemed poised to continue late into the night, as the black-and-yellow-clad Proud Boys knocked back beers, whiskey and White Claws. Some stole a Black Lives Matter banner, paraded it down M Street NW, then stomped on it.
The group received recognition from Trump himself at a presidential debate in September, when he told them to “stand back and stand by.”
As the Proud Boys appeared at rallies earlier in the day Saturday, Trump cheered on all of the supporters who showed up to falsely claim that the election was stolen from him, tweeting “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”
The majority-White crowd ranged from gray-haired men and women in red hats to children in wagons, one of whom chanted “100 more years!”
As the nation watches Biden’s transition, rising coronavirus cases and vaccine development, Trump’s attempts to maintain power have also been playing out. To his most dedicated supporters, the president’s megaphone is as loud as ever. He has continued to falsely claim the election was stolen from him, prompting his faithful to return to the nation’s capital.’’
Flynn appeared on the steps of the Supreme Court to encourage them to maintain hope, despite the justices’ dismissal Friday night of Trump’s long-shot bid to overturn election results.
“Don’t get bent out of shape,” Flynn said. “There are still avenues … We’re fighting with faith, and we’re fighting with courage.”
After Flynn finished speaking, he was chased by shouting admirers who cheered: “We love you, general!” Bodyguards tried to keep the fans at bay as Flynn kept smiling.
The speakers painted a picture of a country in a battle between good and evil, in which God himself would ultimately ensure Trump remained in power. Sebastian Gorka, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump, said that when he heard the Supreme Court had dismissed an election case from Texas on Friday night, he told himself to “stop, take a deep breath, count to 10, read the Bible and pray.”
“We, thanks to our lord and savior, have already won,” Gorka claimed.
A priest featured on a Jumbotron prayed to “place thyself at the head of this army of thy children.”
Ruth Hillary, 58, a pastor from California, listened while holding up her “Stop the Steal” sign. She said she will continue to protest as long as the president and vice president believe she should.
“If President Trump accepts it and Vice President Pence accepts it, then we will accept it,” she said. “But right now, this is a Godly protest.”
Jones, the Infowars host known for his denial of the Sandy Hook massacre, alternated between speaking about God and the future president: “Joe Biden is a globalist, and Joe Biden will be removed one way or another,” he said from a stage on the Mall.
Trump backer and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell argued that “Fox [News] was in on it,” while podcaster David Harris Jr. riled the crowd by suggesting that if there were a civil war, “we’re the ones with all the guns,” he said.
All day, the masses nodded along to falsehoods, prayed for the country and cheered beside one another without masks.
D.C. police did not enforce mask rules or issue fines to those who ignored social distancing guidelines, even as the region faces an unprecedented spike in coronavirus cases. Dozens of D.C. police officers have tested positive in the weeks since the last pro-Trump rally in November. As of Friday, 94 remained in quarantine. Police have declined to draw a direct link between demonstrations and the spike in infections among officers.
On Saturday, local activists were frustrated with police tactics aimed at maintaining peace. For part of the evening, officers formed intermittent blockades at the perimeter of Black Lives Matter Plaza, essentially penning in counterprotesters while Trump supporters were free to roam.
“They can move around however they please,” said Constance Young, 37. “We’re not the ones not wearing masks and spreading covid.”
D.C. residents have expressed concern that the influx of maskless protesters puts the entire city at risk, especially workers in restaurants and hotels. Activists flooded the inboxes of city officials, asking them to shut down businesses that allow people to congregate without masks. They called hotels to ask that they refuse to host those planning to attend Saturday’s rallies, with little success.
Protesters still came in from around the country, with family, friends and flags in tow.
David Dumiter, 33, and his niece Monica Stanciu drove eight hours from Dearborn, Mich., to be at the Washington Monument on Saturday.
Dumiter, an airplane mechanic who said he has been unemployed since the pandemic decimated air travel, said he knew the Supreme Court had blocked any legal path to reverse the results of the election. That didn’t change his mind about showing up Saturday. The president was still pushing, so he would, too.
“We’re not going to cave in,” Dumiter said.
That sentiment seemed to fuel the pro-Trump groups that stretched their demonstrations late into the night, even after every fight was broken up by police and multiple arrests were made.
At Harry’s, a half-dozen Proud Boys marched through the streets, chanting, “all lives matter!” They were cheered on by other members of the group who joined them at 11th and E streets NW, flashing the three-fingered white-supremacist salute.
Moments later, the crowd turned and converged on a corner, shoving and jostling as the chant rose to a fever pitch. Men pushed each other as they tried to film what was happening in the center of the chaos.
More than 100 D.C. police officers swarmed the street. Police with canisters of chemical spray rushed into the fray, pushing people aside and separating the crowd. Two people lying on the sidewalk were transferred into ambulances.
But an hour later, more than 150 demonstrators were still there, chanting and drinking in the rain. The president was refusing to concede the election, and they were refusing to go home.
Hundreds March in Ohio Capital Over Police Shooting of Casey Christopher Goodson Rich McKay, Reuters McKay writes: "Hundreds of protesters rallied on Friday evening in downtown Columbus, Ohio, demanding justice and transparency from investigations into the killing last week of a young Black man shot by a sheriff's deputy outside his home."
The crowd, shown in footage broadcast by local news outlets and on social media, marched downtown toward the Ohio statehouse chanting, “No justice, no peace, no racist police.”
Some participants in the march, followed closely by police officers on foot and in patrol cars, spilled into the streets, blocking traffic, but the gathering appeared peaceful and there were no reports of arrests.
The protest unfolded a week to the day after Casey Christopher Goodson, 23, was shot to death by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy assigned to a group of U.S. marshals searching for a fugitive in the Northland neighborhood where Goodson lived.
According to authorities, the officer said he had seen Goodson carrying a gun and opened fire on him when Goodson ignored the deputy’s order to drop the weapon.
Goodson’s family said he had been returning from a local sandwich shop and was shot in the back as he was about to enter his home. They said he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
A coroner’s report said Goodson was shot multiple times in the torso.
“I’m calling for justice and that’s all I’m calling for,” Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, said in a news conference Thursday. “My son was a peaceful man and I want his legacy to continue in peace.”
Lawyers for the deputy, identified as Jason Meade, said Goodson had pointed a gun at him before the shooting, CBS News and other media reported.
The shooting is the latest in a spate of killings of African Americans by police in the United States that have triggered a wave of protests over racial injustice and brutality by law enforcement.
The Columbus Division of Police is investigating the shooting, along with the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tom Quinlan, chief of police in Columbus, has promised an “independent, meticulous unbiased investigation.”
Another protest was planned for downtown Columbus on Saturday at noon, according to the Columbus Dispatch and other local media.
The Government Science secondary school in Kankara district, in the northwestern state of Katsina, Nigeria, after the attack. (photo: Abdullahi Inuwa/Reuters)
Nigeria: Hundreds of Pupils Feared Missing After Bandit Attack on School Reuters Excerpt: "Bandits armed with assault rifles attacked a secondary school in Nigeria's north-western Katsina state late on Friday, police said, and two local people told Reuters hundreds of students were missing."
About 400 pupils thought missing or kidnapped after gunmen stormed secondary school in Kankara
The gunmen stormed the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district at about 9.40pm, and police at the scene returned fire, allowing some students to run for safety, police spokesman Gambo Isah said in a statement.
Police said they were working with the army and air force to determine how many pupils were missing or kidnapped, and to find them. One officer was shot and wounded in the exchange of fire with the gang, they said.
There were chaotic scenes at the school on Saturday as desperate parents and security personnel gathered to search for about half of the school’s 800 students who were still missing, one parent and a school employee told Reuters.
Katsina, the home state of Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, is plagued by violent bandits who regularly attack local people and kidnap for ransom. Attacks by Islamist militants are common in north-eastern parts of the country.
Violence and insecurity across Nigeria have enraged citizens, particularly after scores of farmers were killed – some beheaded – by Islamist militants in the north-eastern Borno state late last month.
Buhari, who arrived on Friday for a week in his home village some 200km (125 miles) from Kankara, was scheduled to brief the national assembly on the security situation last week, but cancelled the appearance without official explanation.
The Stagg Tree, considered the fifth-largest tree in the world, was saved this year, perhaps by sprinklers. (photo: Max Whittaker/NYT)
They're Among the World's Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them. John Branch, The New York Times Branch writes: "The giant sequoia. The Joshua tree. The coast redwood. They are the three plant species in California with national parks set aside in their name, for their honor and protection. Scientists already feared for their future. Then came 2020."
alifornia’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees.California’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees.
In a relative instant, countless ancient redwoods, hundreds of giant sequoias and more than one million Joshua trees perished.In a relative instant, countless ancient redwoods, hundreds of giant sequoias and more than one million Joshua trees perished.
The blackened wreckage sends a clear message. These trees are in the fight of their lives.The blackened wreckage sends a clear message. These trees are in the fight of their lives.
n assistant FBI director retired after he was accused of drunkenly groping a female subordinate in a stairwell. Another senior FBI official left after he was found to have sexually harassed eight employees. Yet another high-ranking FBI agent retired after he was accused of blackmailing a young employee into sexual encounters.
alifornia’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees.California’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees.
