Cops Fired for Killing, Reputation Killer
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Vol. 9, No. 122
Death by Cop: Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after the death of an unarmed black man who pleaded that he could not breathe while one cop pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck. The incident was videotaped by at least one bystander as others criticized what the officers were doing.
Mayor Jacob Frey said of the firings. “We’ve stated our values and ultimately we need to live by them.”
The video shows one white officer keeping his knee on the neck of George Floyd even after his body relaxes and he appears to be unconscious.
The FBI and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are opening investigations into the death. Floyd’s family has hired a lawyer.
Floyd died Monday after officers were called to a “forgery in progress.” They said he appeared to be under the influence and “physically resisted” officers. Floyd was not resisting during the time his arrest was being recorded.
The Pandemic: Coronavirus cases are still rising in Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Nevada, North Dakota, and North Carolina, where President Trump is demanding a full-attendance Republican Convention. They are falling in the hotspots of New York and New Jersey.
This morning, the death rate is slowing, but 98,929 Americans have died of the virus.
Reputation Murder: Twitter has begun to put fact-check links on President Trump’s tweets. But the website has declined to take down tweets written by the President of the United States spreading the conspiracy theory that an intern who died in the office of then Representative Joe Scarborough was murdered.
Lori Klausutis’s was 28 in 2001 when she was found dead in Scarborough’s office. An autopsy found that she fainted because of an undiagnosed heart issue, hit her head, and died of injuries. Yet Trump has speculated that she may have been having an affair with Scarborough and was murdered.
Lori’s husband Timothy wrote to Twitter that, “These conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.”
Trump is not backing down. He tweeted yesterday that, “The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus.” Yes, and without factual support.
Klausutis wrote, “These conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.” He said, “An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet.”
Trump complained last night about the Twitter fact balancing in regard to election fraud; “@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.”
Savvy Investing: The Justice Department is dropping investigations into stock trades made by three senators shortly before the coronavirus economic shutdown. The three are Senators Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia; James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma; and Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. All three sold bundles of stock in late January.
The investigations appear to continue into the trades made in February by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Eviction Notice: The NY Times reports that the country may see a wave of evictions as the result of the pandemic. Possibly millions of the 38 million unemployed are not able to pay their rent and mortgages. Despite stay at home orders, eviction notices are beginning to be served.
The Bulletin Board: Antibody tests to determine whether someone has already had the coronavirus may be wrong half the time, the Centers for Disease Control says. — The first same-sex weddings in Costa Rica have taken place after the country changed its marriage laws. The very first were two women. — The National Hockey League has made a plan for a return to the ice that would include a 24-team playoff bracket with the finals in the fall … just in time for hockey season.
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