In New Jersey police violently tackled a Black teenager during a mall fight with a white man. A video of the incident that sparked outrage online, prompting the state's governor to condemn appeared to be "racially disparate treatment."

In the wake of the controversy over this incident, Governor Phil Murphy said there's more work to be done on policing in New Jersey.

Publicly condemning the police action Phil Murphy said “It is quite apparently racially disparate treatment.”

"Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I'm deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video," he tweeted on Tuesday.

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Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I’m deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video. We’re committed to increasing trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. <a href="https://t.co/ck9yCXMmL0">https://t.co/ck9yCXMmL0</a>
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovMurphy/status/1493773174328098826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Various media houses posted the video earlier this week. It showed a fistfight breaking out between two teenagers at a shopping mall in Bridgewater, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City.&nbsp;

Ten seconds into the video, two police officers arrive and forcefully separate the teens.

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One police officer violently throws the Black teenager to the ground, while the young white man is merely made to sit on a sofa.

In the video, we see the female police officer kneeling on the back of the young Black man as he lies flat on his stomach, while a male police officer handcuffs him.

"They basically tackle me to the ground and then the one -- the male officer put his knee in my back and then he starts putting me in cuffs," the Black teen, who gave his name as Kye, told ABC.

"And then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too and started helping putting cuffs on me."

Video does not show what became of the young white man who was not arrested, nor does it show the rest of the arrest of the Black teenager.

An internal investigation has been promised by police in Bridgewater Township, who acknowledged on Facebook that the video had "made members of our community upset".

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A spokesperson for the New Jersey attorney general said their office is assisting the local prosecutor's office with its investigation.

"The attorney general's office is committed to ensuring thorough, fair, and independent investigations of police use-of-force incidents and police conduct," said the spokesperson.

The "Implicit bias" in the Bridgewater video was also condemned by Steffie Bartley, Northeast Regional Director for the Anti-Racist National Action Network.&nbsp;

"Why was the young Black man on the ground with handcuffs while the young white man was sitting on the couch as if he were overseeing?" he said in a statement.

Watch |&nbsp;Gravitas: US cops manhandle black teen but let off white teen

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-us-cops-manhandle-black-teen-but-let-off-white-teen-454150/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The issue of racism in the law enforcement is a lightning rod in the United States, with young Black men being disproportionately impacted by police violence.

Almost two years ago in 2020, video footage showing the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police sparked protests all over the country.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

In New Jersey police violently tackled a Black teenager during a mall fight with a white man. A video of the incident that sparked outrage online, prompting the state's governor to condemn appeared to be "racially disparate treatment.

In New Jersey police violently tackled a Black teenager during a mall fight with a white man. A video of the incident that sparked outrage online, prompting the state's governor to condemn appeared to be "racially disparate treatment." In the wake of the controversy over this incident, Governor Phil Murphy said there's more work to be done on policing in New Jersey. Publicly condemning the police action Phil Murphy said “It is quite apparently racially disparate treatment.” "Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I'm deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video," he tweeted on Tuesday. Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I’m deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video. We’re committed to increasing trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. https://t.co/ck9yCXMmL0 — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) February 16, 2022 × Various media houses posted the video earlier this week. It showed a fistfight breaking out between two teenagers at a shopping mall in Bridgewater, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Ten seconds into the video, two police officers arrive and forcefully separate the teens. Also read | 'You just look dumb': Elon Musk compares Trudeau to Hitler, later deletes the tweet. Here's what he said One police officer violently throws the Black teenager to the ground, while the young white man is merely made to sit on a sofa. In the video, we see the female police officer kneeling on the back of the young Black man as he lies flat on his stomach, while a male police officer handcuffs him. "They basically tackle me to the ground and then the one -- the male officer put his knee in my back and then he starts putting me in cuffs," the Black teen, who gave his name as Kye, told ABC. "And then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too and started helping putting cuffs on me." Video does not show what became of the young white man who was not arrested, nor does it show the rest of the arrest of the Black teenager. An internal investigation has been promised by police in Bridgewater Township, who acknowledged on Facebook that the video had "made members of our community upset". Also read | Latest legal blow to Donald Trump, US judge orders him to testify in fraud probe A spokesperson for the New Jersey attorney general said their office is assisting the local prosecutor's office with its investigation. "The attorney general's office is committed to ensuring thorough, fair, and independent investigations of police use-of-force incidents and police conduct," said the spokesperson. The "Implicit bias" in the Bridgewater video was also condemned by Steffie Bartley, Northeast Regional Director for the Anti-Racist National Action Network. "Why was the young Black man on the ground with handcuffs while the young white man was sitting on the couch as if he were overseeing?" he said in a statement. Watch | Gravitas: US cops manhandle black teen but let off white teen The issue of racism in the law enforcement is a lightning rod in the United States, with young Black men being disproportionately impacted by police violence. Almost two years ago in 2020, video footage showing the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police sparked protests all over the country. (With inputs from agencies)

'Racially disparate treatment': New Jersey governor condemns police for racist behaviour towards a teen

Sebastian Vettel said Formula One drivers had not been consulted about the sport’s plans to do away with the pre-race slot for taking the knee, and suggested the decision may have been taken for business reasons.

Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali told Sky Sports earlier this week that the sport would no longer set time aside for drivers to take the knee ahead of races, as it looks to introduce more concrete actions to combat racism.

The drivers typically used the pre-race moment, introduced in 2020, to support causes of their choice or Formula One’s broader "We Race As One" diversity, inclusion and sustainability platform.

"The issues that we are tackling are not going to be gone within two years,” said four-times champion Vettel ahead of the launch of his new 2022 Aston Martin challenger.

“Therefore I was a bit surprised. Probably it was getting a bit too strong and too individual for the business side of it.”

Domenicali said the "We Race As One" platform would continue with a video that preceded drivers taking the knee still being broadcast and branding for the initiative visible at race tracks.&nbsp;

Vettel, who like seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is a staunch advocate for social justice, racial equality and environmental sustainability, was among those to kneel.

He hoped drivers would still find a way to display their support for the issues they cared about.

“I hope that as drivers we find a way to get together and find a slot for still expressing topics that are important to us,” said the 34-year-old.&nbsp;

“Probably not all the drivers care but I think there are some that really do care.”

Sebastian Vettel said Formula One drivers had not been consulted about the sport’s plans to do away with the pre-race slot for taking the knee, and suggested the decision may have been taken for business reasons.

Sebastian Vettel said Formula One drivers had not been consulted about the sport’s plans to do away with the pre-race slot for taking the knee, and suggested the decision may have been taken for business reasons. Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali told Sky Sports earlier this week that the sport would no longer set time aside for drivers to take the knee ahead of races, as it looks to introduce more concrete actions to combat racism. The drivers typically used the pre-race moment, introduced in 2020, to support causes of their choice or Formula One’s broader "We Race As One" diversity, inclusion and sustainability platform. "The issues that we are tackling are not going to be gone within two years,” said four-times champion Vettel ahead of the launch of his new 2022 Aston Martin challenger. “Therefore I was a bit surprised. Probably it was getting a bit too strong and too individual for the business side of it.” Domenicali said the "We Race As One" platform would continue with a video that preceded drivers taking the knee still being broadcast and branding for the initiative visible at race tracks. Vettel, who like seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is a staunch advocate for social justice, racial equality and environmental sustainability, was among those to kneel. He hoped drivers would still find a way to display their support for the issues they cared about. “I hope that as drivers we find a way to get together and find a slot for still expressing topics that are important to us,” said the 34-year-old. “Probably not all the drivers care but I think there are some that really do care.”

Sebastian Vettel surprised by F1 decision to discontinue 'taking the knee'

When lawyers were preparing to defend against a lawsuit over a death in police custody in Fresno, California, they knew whom to call.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Gary Vilke has established himself as a leading expert witness by repeatedly asserting that police techniques such as facedown restraints, stun gun shocks and some neck holds did not kill people.

Officers in Fresno had handcuffed 41-year-old Joseph Perez and, holding him facedown on the ground, put a spinal board from an ambulance on his back as he cried out for help. One officer sat on the board as they strapped him to it. The county medical examiner ruled his death, in May 2017, a homicide by asphyxiation.

Vilke, who was hired by the ambulance provider, charged $500 an hour and provided a different determination. He wrote in a report filed with the court last July that Perez had died from methamphetamine use, heart disease and the exertion of his struggle against the restraints.

Vilke, an emergency medicine doctor in San Diego, is an integral part of a small but influential cadre of scientists, lawyers, physicians and other police experts whose research and testimony is almost always used to absolve officers of blame for deaths, according to a review of hundreds of research papers and more than 25,000 pages of court documents, as well as interviews with nearly three dozen people with knowledge of the deaths or the research.

Their views infuriate many prosecutors, plaintiff lawyers, medical experts and relatives of the dead, who accuse them of slanting science, ignoring inconvenient facts and dangerously emboldening police officers to act aggressively.

The experts also intersect with law-enforcement-friendly companies that train police officers, write police policies and lend authority to studies rebutting concerns about police use of force.

Together they form what often amounts to a cottage industry of exoneration. The dozen or so individuals and companies have collected millions of dollars over the past decade, much of it in fees that are largely underwritten by taxpayers.

Many of the experts also have ties to Axon, maker of the Taser: A lawyer for the company, for example, was an early sponsor of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, a commercial undertaking that is among the police-friendly entities.

The New York Times identified over 100 instances of in-custody deaths or life-threatening injuries from the past 15 years in which experts in the network were hired to defend the police. The cases were nearly all lawsuits. About two-thirds of the cases were settled out of court; of the 28 decided by judges or juries, 16 had outcomes favoring the police. (Some cases are pending.)

Beyond the courtroom, the individuals and businesses have offered instruction to thousands of police officers and medical examiners, whose cause-of-death rulings often help determine legal culpability. Lexipol, a Texas-based business whose webinars and publications have included experts from the network, boasts that it helped write policy manuals for 6,300 police departments, sometimes suggesting standards for officers’ conduct that reduce legal liability. A company spokesperson said it did not rely on the researchers in making its policies.

Some researchers and doctors in this ecosystem who responded to questions from the Times said they did not assist law enforcement but provided unbiased results of scientific research and opinions based on the facts of each case. Several pointed to research demonstrating that police struggles overall have an exceedingly low risk of death. They also highlighted health issues that could cause deaths in such circumstances, including drug use, obesity, psychological disturbances and genetic mutations that may predispose people to heart problems.

“Sensationalism, without offering scientifically demonstrated better control techniques, adds no benefit, and merely exacerbates the existing tensions between law enforcement and the society at large,” said Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineer who has backed the idea of an “arrest-related death syndrome” as an explanation of the deaths.

Others in the network, including Vilke, said it was wrong to characterize their work as favoring the police, and suggested the Times’ analysis misrepresented it. “I would disagree,” Vilke said when the Times shared its findings with him. Another of the experts, Dr. Steven Karch, sent papers suggesting Black males and people exerting themselves were generally more likely to have sudden cardiac death.

Lawyers for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was ultimately convicted in last year’s murder of George Floyd, also drew upon the same network of researchers and experts. In particular, they turned to the defense of prone restraint, a technique in which officers subdue subjects facedown, as happened to Floyd. The work of Kroll, who has a doctorate in electrical engineering but no medical degree, was cited by the Chauvin defense as proof that putting body weight on someone facedown does not cause asphyxia.

According to court documents, Perez had recently taken methamphetamines when police saw him behaving erratically. They handcuffed and tried to calm him, at one point putting a towel under him to keep him from injuring his face.

After an ambulance arrived, they placed a backboard on top of him and an officer sat on it. In a deposition, the officer said he had been trained that doing so posed no danger of asphyxia. A captain from the department said in the case that the training had relied on an article by Kroll.

“The problem is that when officers get sued in these cases,” said Neil Gehlawat, the lawyer for Perez’s family, the cadre of researchers insist that “‘no one can die this way,’ and then officers start to believe it.”

Shaping the science

The physicians, scientists and researchers who come to the defense of law enforcement officers often cite experiments conducted on volunteers. They shock them with Tasers, douse them with pepper-spray or restrain them facedown on the ground.

Their published findings are usually the same: that there is no evidence that the actions have enough of an effect to cause death.

A Times analysis of more than 230 scientific papers in the National Library of Medicine database published since the 1980s showed those conclusions to be significantly different from those published by others, including studies about restraints, body position and excited delirium.

Nearly three-quarters of the studies that included at least one author in the network supported the idea that restraint techniques were safe or that the deaths of people who had been restrained were caused by health problems. Only about a quarter of the studies that did not involve anyone from the network backed that conclusion. More commonly, the other studies said some restraint techniques increased the risk of death, if only by a small amount.

Vilke’s first report on police restraint was funded by a $33,900 grant from San Diego County during a lawsuit over the 1994 death of Daniel Price. A woman reported seeing odd behavior from Price, 37, who had taken methamphetamines; officers restrained him facedown, his hands and feet tied together.

As part of their research, Vilke and others hogtied healthy volunteers. They observed that measurements of their lung functions decreased by up to 23%, which they concluded was not clinically significant because similar levels of diminished lung capacity could still be considered normal. The judge in the Price case cited the research when he dismissed the lawsuit.

The study and others have been challenged by some scholars and physicians because they are based on controlled conditions that are unlike real life, said Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University who studies patterns of deaths in law enforcement custody.

“There’s a fundamental problem in terms of study design,” he said. “They’re not using people with more severe mental and physical disabilities. They’re not doing it with people who have taken drugs. When they’re testing Tasers, they aren’t using them as many times as you might see in some deaths.”

When their studies appeared in peer-reviewed publications, the network of experts acknowledged that their work had limitations. But when discussing the research in court, or during trainings and elsewhere, some of them used more expansive language, did not mention conflicting work, or said they had fully refuted scholars who disagreed.

A network forms

Dr. Charles Wetli, a former Miami medical examiner who died last year, was among the first to publish research that launched what has become an industry of sorts defending police officers. He wrote in the 1980s about men who had taken cocaine and died, many while being subdued by the police. He attributed the deaths to a condition he called excited delirium, when someone becomes aggressive from a mental illness or psychoactive drugs.

Later, in 1994, two former law enforcement officers, Michael A. Brave and John G. Peters Jr., described in a paper what they called custody death syndrome. The condition, they wrote, had “no apparent detectable anatomical cause” but could be associated with excited delirium or other vague diagnoses.

In describing the death of a hypothetical suspect, they focused on potential liability: “You immediately cringe at the thought of the critical scrutiny you will soon be facing by the media, by council officials and by special interest groups,” they wrote.

The two men later became affiliated with both the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths and Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, another group that provides legal resources for officers. Brave also became a lawyer for Taser.

In an interview, Peters said he founded the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths in 2005 because so many deaths were being blamed on Tasers, which he characterized as one of many misguided criticisms of police conduct. The institute conducts research and training that often rebuts the criticism and is one of several commercial forums that draw like-minded researchers about law enforcement behavior.

Taser provided some early funding to the institute in exchange for training programs, Peters said, and one of its initial sponsors was Brave, who joined Taser’s legal department around the same time.

The business of supporting law enforcement can be lucrative. Not all of the researchers testify frequently in court, but when they do, experts associated with the network typically earn $500 to $1,000 an hour for testimony and depositions.

The Times found that, with rare exceptions, when members of this network weigh in on a case in court, they side with the police.

And assessing the effectiveness of the opinions exonerating the police is difficult because most cases settle or are decided without explanation.

But several cases reviewed by the Times suggest that the research has had far-reaching effects — influencing investigator decisions in death inquests and giving officers assurance that their methods are safe. Some of the experts’ legal statements and educational materials they have prepared for police called safety warnings by Taser and other law enforcement groups outdated or needlessly conservative.

In a deposition in April, the sheriff in Riverside County, California, cited studies backed by the law-enforcement-leaning experts to explain why his deputies held people facedown after handcuffing them. The sheriff, Chad Bianco, described the position as “the absolute safest place for any subject.”

Two years ago, deputies working for Bianco found Kevin Niedzialek, 34, bleeding from a head wound and behaving strangely after taking methamphetamines. They shocked him twice with a Taser, and held him facedown.

When they rolled him onto his back, Niedzialek was unresponsive. He died the next day.

When lawyers were preparing to defend against a lawsuit over a death in police custody in Fresno, California, they knew whom to call. Over the past two decades, Dr.

When lawyers were preparing to defend against a lawsuit over a death in police custody in Fresno, California, they knew whom to call. Over the past two decades, Dr. Gary Vilke has established himself as a leading expert witness by repeatedly asserting that police techniques such as facedown restraints, stun gun shocks and some neck holds did not kill people. Officers in Fresno had handcuffed 41-year-old Joseph Perez and, holding him facedown on the ground, put a spinal board from an ambulance on his back as he cried out for help. One officer sat on the board as they strapped him to it. The county medical examiner ruled his death, in May 2017, a homicide by asphyxiation. Vilke, who was hired by the ambulance provider, charged $500 an hour and provided a different determination. He wrote in a report filed with the court last July that Perez had died from methamphetamine use, heart disease and the exertion of his struggle against the restraints. Vilke, an emergency medicine doctor in San Diego, is an integral part of a small but influential cadre of scientists, lawyers, physicians and other police experts whose research and testimony is almost always used to absolve officers of blame for deaths, according to a review of hundreds of research papers and more than 25,000 pages of court documents, as well as interviews with nearly three dozen people with knowledge of the deaths or the research. Their views infuriate many prosecutors, plaintiff lawyers, medical experts and relatives of the dead, who accuse them of slanting science, ignoring inconvenient facts and dangerously emboldening police officers to act aggressively. The experts also intersect with law-enforcement-friendly companies that train police officers, write police policies and lend authority to studies rebutting concerns about police use of force. Together they form what often amounts to a cottage industry of exoneration. The dozen or so individuals and companies have collected millions of dollars over the past decade, much of it in fees that are largely underwritten by taxpayers. Many of the experts also have ties to Axon, maker of the Taser: A lawyer for the company, for example, was an early sponsor of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, a commercial undertaking that is among the police-friendly entities. The New York Times identified over 100 instances of in-custody deaths or life-threatening injuries from the past 15 years in which experts in the network were hired to defend the police. The cases were nearly all lawsuits. About two-thirds of the cases were settled out of court; of the 28 decided by judges or juries, 16 had outcomes favoring the police. (Some cases are pending.) Beyond the courtroom, the individuals and businesses have offered instruction to thousands of police officers and medical examiners, whose cause-of-death rulings often help determine legal culpability. Lexipol, a Texas-based business whose webinars and publications have included experts from the network, boasts that it helped write policy manuals for 6,300 police departments, sometimes suggesting standards for officers’ conduct that reduce legal liability. A company spokesperson said it did not rely on the researchers in making its policies. Some researchers and doctors in this ecosystem who responded to questions from the Times said they did not assist law enforcement but provided unbiased results of scientific research and opinions based on the facts of each case. Several pointed to research demonstrating that police struggles overall have an exceedingly low risk of death. They also highlighted health issues that could cause deaths in such circumstances, including drug use, obesity, psychological disturbances and genetic mutations that may predispose people to heart problems. “Sensationalism, without offering scientifically demonstrated better control techniques, adds no benefit, and merely exacerbates the existing tensions between law enforcement and the society at large,” said Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineer who has backed the idea of an “arrest-related death syndrome” as an explanation of the deaths. Others in the network, including Vilke, said it was wrong to characterize their work as favoring the police, and suggested the Times’ analysis misrepresented it. “I would disagree,” Vilke said when the Times shared its findings with him. Another of the experts, Dr. Steven Karch, sent papers suggesting Black males and people exerting themselves were generally more likely to have sudden cardiac death. Lawyers for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was ultimately convicted in last year’s murder of George Floyd, also drew upon the same network of researchers and experts. In particular, they turned to the defense of prone restraint, a technique in which officers subdue subjects facedown, as happened to Floyd. The work of Kroll, who has a doctorate in electrical engineering but no medical degree, was cited by the Chauvin defense as proof that putting body weight on someone facedown does not cause asphyxia. According to court documents, Perez had recently taken methamphetamines when police saw him behaving erratically. They handcuffed and tried to calm him, at one point putting a towel under him to keep him from injuring his face. After an ambulance arrived, they placed a backboard on top of him and an officer sat on it. In a deposition, the officer said he had been trained that doing so posed no danger of asphyxia. A captain from the department said in the case that the training had relied on an article by Kroll. “The problem is that when officers get sued in these cases,” said Neil Gehlawat, the lawyer for Perez’s family, the cadre of researchers insist that “‘no one can die this way,’ and then officers start to believe it.” Shaping the science The physicians, scientists and researchers who come to the defense of law enforcement officers often cite experiments conducted on volunteers. They shock them with Tasers, douse them with pepper-spray or restrain them facedown on the ground. Their published findings are usually the same: that there is no evidence that the actions have enough of an effect to cause death. A Times analysis of more than 230 scientific papers in the National Library of Medicine database published since the 1980s showed those conclusions to be significantly different from those published by others, including studies about restraints, body position and excited delirium. Nearly three-quarters of the studies that included at least one author in the network supported the idea that restraint techniques were safe or that the deaths of people who had been restrained were caused by health problems. Only about a quarter of the studies that did not involve anyone from the network backed that conclusion. More commonly, the other studies said some restraint techniques increased the risk of death, if only by a small amount. Vilke’s first report on police restraint was funded by a $33,900 grant from San Diego County during a lawsuit over the 1994 death of Daniel Price. A woman reported seeing odd behavior from Price, 37, who had taken methamphetamines; officers restrained him facedown, his hands and feet tied together. As part of their research, Vilke and others hogtied healthy volunteers. They observed that measurements of their lung functions decreased by up to 23%, which they concluded was not clinically significant because similar levels of diminished lung capacity could still be considered normal. The judge in the Price case cited the research when he dismissed the lawsuit. The study and others have been challenged by some scholars and physicians because they are based on controlled conditions that are unlike real life, said Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University who studies patterns of deaths in law enforcement custody. “There’s a fundamental problem in terms of study design,” he said. “They’re not using people with more severe mental and physical disabilities. They’re not doing it with people who have taken drugs. When they’re testing Tasers, they aren’t using them as many times as you might see in some deaths.” When their studies appeared in peer-reviewed publications, the network of experts acknowledged that their work had limitations. But when discussing the research in court, or during trainings and elsewhere, some of them used more expansive language, did not mention conflicting work, or said they had fully refuted scholars who disagreed. A network forms Dr. Charles Wetli, a former Miami medical examiner who died last year, was among the first to publish research that launched what has become an industry of sorts defending police officers. He wrote in the 1980s about men who had taken cocaine and died, many while being subdued by the police. He attributed the deaths to a condition he called excited delirium, when someone becomes aggressive from a mental illness or psychoactive drugs. Later, in 1994, two former law enforcement officers, Michael A. Brave and John G. Peters Jr., described in a paper what they called custody death syndrome. The condition, they wrote, had “no apparent detectable anatomical cause” but could be associated with excited delirium or other vague diagnoses. In describing the death of a hypothetical suspect, they focused on potential liability: “You immediately cringe at the thought of the critical scrutiny you will soon be facing by the media, by council officials and by special interest groups,” they wrote. The two men later became affiliated with both the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths and Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, another group that provides legal resources for officers. Brave also became a lawyer for Taser. In an interview, Peters said he founded the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths in 2005 because so many deaths were being blamed on Tasers, which he characterized as one of many misguided criticisms of police conduct. The institute conducts research and training that often rebuts the criticism and is one of several commercial forums that draw like-minded researchers about law enforcement behavior. Taser provided some early funding to the institute in exchange for training programs, Peters said, and one of its initial sponsors was Brave, who joined Taser’s legal department around the same time. The business of supporting law enforcement can be lucrative. Not all of the researchers testify frequently in court, but when they do, experts associated with the network typically earn $500 to $1,000 an hour for testimony and depositions. The Times found that, with rare exceptions, when members of this network weigh in on a case in court, they side with the police. And assessing the effectiveness of the opinions exonerating the police is difficult because most cases settle or are decided without explanation. But several cases reviewed by the Times suggest that the research has had far-reaching effects — influencing investigator decisions in death inquests and giving officers assurance that their methods are safe. Some of the experts’ legal statements and educational materials they have prepared for police called safety warnings by Taser and other law enforcement groups outdated or needlessly conservative. In a deposition in April, the sheriff in Riverside County, California, cited studies backed by the law-enforcement-leaning experts to explain why his deputies held people facedown after handcuffing them. The sheriff, Chad Bianco, described the position as “the absolute safest place for any subject.” Two years ago, deputies working for Bianco found Kevin Niedzialek, 34, bleeding from a head wound and behaving strangely after taking methamphetamines. They shocked him twice with a Taser, and held him facedown. When they rolled him onto his back, Niedzialek was unresponsive. He died the next day.

Why the police believe they’re not to blame for deaths in custody

For the second time this year, a jury in Minneapolis has ruled against a former police officer for killing a Black man.

Like the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the verdict Thursday against Kimberly Potter on two counts of manslaughter for the shooting death of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop represented an unusual decision to send a police officer to prison.

And yet, despite the two high-profile convictions in Minneapolis, a review of the data a year and a half after America’s summer of protest shows that accountability for officers who kill remains elusive and that the sheer numbers of people killed in encounters with police have remained steady at an alarming level.

The murder of Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner drew millions to the streets in protest and set off a national reassessment on race that touched almost every aspect of American life, from corporate boardrooms to sports nicknames. But on the core issues that set off the social unrest in the first place — police violence and accountability — very little has changed.

Since Floyd’s death in May of last year, 1,646 people have been killed by the police, or about three people per day on average, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit that tracks people killed by police. Although murder or manslaughter charges against officers have increased this year, criminal charges, much less convictions, remain exceptionally rare.

That underscores both the benefit of the doubt usually accorded law officers who are often making life-or-death decisions in a split second and the way the law and the power of police unions often protect officers, say activists and legal experts.

The convictions of both Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who was captured on an excruciating bystander video pinning Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes as he gasped for air, and Potter strike some experts as tantalizing glimpses of a legal system in flux. Potter’s case in particular reflected the kind of split-second decision — she mistakenly used her gun instead of her Taser after Wright tried to flee an arrest — that jurors usually excuse even when something goes horribly wrong.

Chris Uggen, a sociology and law professor at the University of Minnesota, said that even though the number of people killed by police remained prevalent, high-profile cases could still send a message to the police.

“The probability of punishment is not zero,” he said. “So it moves the needle to some degree, and it can certainly affect the behaviors of police officers.”

But many experts are reluctant to read too much into a few isolated cases carried out in the glare of media scrutiny.

“Criminal trials are not designed to be instruments of change,” said Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a former prosecutor. “Criminal trials are about bringing individual wrongdoers to justice. So while there have been high-profile prosecutions of police officers for killing Black people, that doesn’t in and of itself lead to the kind of systemic reform that might reduce police violence.”

Philip M. Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who tracks police criminal charges and convictions, said Potter was the first female police officer convicted of a murder or manslaughter charge in an on-duty shooting since 2005. He said he believed that the number of deaths from excessive police force was higher than what was recorded and reflected in news coverage.

“Many police officers exhibit a fear of Black people,” he said. “Until we can address that, it is very difficult to bring about meaningful reforms.”

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said accountability also needed to be aimed at prosecutors who gave officers “carte blanche” for a century until the recent show of public outrage. Change is not likely to come soon, she said.

“In these individual cases, justice won in the end,” she said. “But there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said the rarity of criminal charges against officers does not indicate a lack of accountability, but simply reflects that the vast majority of police shootings are lawful — with many occurring under dangerous circumstances in which officers have to make quick, life-or-death decisions.

There has been no finding of fault against officers in many of the other recent high-profile cases of people killed in encounters with the police.

Less than three weeks after the murder of Floyd, an officer in Atlanta fatally shot a Black man named Rayshard Brooks, who was fleeing a Wendy’s parking lot after taking a Taser from the officer’s partner and firing it at him. The killing in Atlanta, like that of Floyd’s, was captured on bystander video and drew protesters, adding to the demands for justice and accountability over the number of African Americans killed by police.

And about two months before Floyd’s murder, Breonna Taylor was killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment during a botched police raid that targeted an ex-boyfriend for alleged drug crimes. Her name, too, became familiar to millions of Americans.

Yet the officers involved in the Taylor case have largely been cleared, even as federal authorities continue to investigate. And in Atlanta, Brooks’ case stalled this summer as it was passed to a third prosecutor, who is starting the investigation all over again. The officer who shot Brooks has been charged with murder, but there is no timeline for a trial.

“We are taking a fresh look at it and starting from day one,” said Pete Skandalakis, the special prosecutor in Georgia who took over the case. He added that he could not predict when the case would see a courtroom.

That has left Brooks’ family wondering if they will ever see justice.

“I think we’re all just lost right now,” said L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer who represents the Brooks family. “We don’t know what to think or what’s going on.”

According to data kept by Stinson and a research team at Bowling Green, 21 officers this year have been charged with murder or manslaughter for an on-duty shooting — although five of the officers charged are for the same encounter: the killing in November 2020 of a 15-year-old boy who was a suspect in an armed robbery.

While this is an increase from the 16 officers charged in 2020 and the highest number since Stinson began compiling the data since 2005, it remains small next to the roughly 1,100 people killed by police annually. (Just as the pace of killings since Floyd’s death has remained largely unchanged, racial disparities have also stayed the same. Black people are still 2 1/2 to 3 times as likely as white people to be killed by a police officer, according to Mapping Police Violence.)

While Chauvin’s trial was underway in the spring, Wright’s death at the hands of Potter in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, set off new rounds of protests in the Twin Cities. And in the rest of the U.S., the number of new cases of people killed in encounters with police continued apace, some of them piercing the national consciousness and adding to the names protesters shouted in the streets.

Among them were Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino boy who was killed by a Chicago police officer after running down a dark alleyway with a gun. And in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before the jury reached a decision in the Chauvin trial, a 16-year-old Black girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was shot to death by an officer as she swung a knife at a young woman.

A state agency investigated Ma’Khia’s death and in July turned its findings over to local prosecutors in Franklin County. At the time, the state attorney general said he expected it to take prosecutors “several weeks” to make a charging decision, but a spokesperson for G. Gary Tyack, the county’s top prosecutor, said the case was still under review five months later.

More recently, at a high school football game in a suburb of Pennsylvania this fall, police officers opened fire amid a crowd after they heard gunshots, killing an 8-year-old Black girl named Fanta Bility.

All of these cases remain under investigation, and no charges have been filed against the officers involved.

One of the reasons for Chauvin’s conviction was that the circumstances of the case differed so starkly from so many other cases in which officers were cleared by prosecutors or juries: There was no split-second decision made in an environment in which Chauvin could argue that his life, or those of other officers, was in danger.

In the trial of Potter, which played out in the same courtroom where Chauvin was tried, her defense attorneys said Potter acted reasonably in using force because she feared for the life of a fellow officer, a scenario more emblematic of a typical police killing case.

This time, that argument did not work.

For the second time this year, a jury in Minneapolis has ruled against a former police officer for killing a Black man. Like the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the verdict Thursday against Kimberly Potter on two counts of manslaughter for the shooting death of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop represented an unusual decision to send a police officer to prison.

For the second time this year, a jury in Minneapolis has ruled against a former police officer for killing a Black man. Like the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the verdict Thursday against Kimberly Potter on two counts of manslaughter for the shooting death of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop represented an unusual decision to send a police officer to prison. And yet, despite the two high-profile convictions in Minneapolis, a review of the data a year and a half after America’s summer of protest shows that accountability for officers who kill remains elusive and that the sheer numbers of people killed in encounters with police have remained steady at an alarming level. The murder of Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner drew millions to the streets in protest and set off a national reassessment on race that touched almost every aspect of American life, from corporate boardrooms to sports nicknames. But on the core issues that set off the social unrest in the first place — police violence and accountability — very little has changed. Since Floyd’s death in May of last year, 1,646 people have been killed by the police, or about three people per day on average, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit that tracks people killed by police. Although murder or manslaughter charges against officers have increased this year, criminal charges, much less convictions, remain exceptionally rare. That underscores both the benefit of the doubt usually accorded law officers who are often making life-or-death decisions in a split second and the way the law and the power of police unions often protect officers, say activists and legal experts. The convictions of both Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who was captured on an excruciating bystander video pinning Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes as he gasped for air, and Potter strike some experts as tantalizing glimpses of a legal system in flux. Potter’s case in particular reflected the kind of split-second decision — she mistakenly used her gun instead of her Taser after Wright tried to flee an arrest — that jurors usually excuse even when something goes horribly wrong. Chris Uggen, a sociology and law professor at the University of Minnesota, said that even though the number of people killed by police remained prevalent, high-profile cases could still send a message to the police. “The probability of punishment is not zero,” he said. “So it moves the needle to some degree, and it can certainly affect the behaviors of police officers.” But many experts are reluctant to read too much into a few isolated cases carried out in the glare of media scrutiny. “Criminal trials are not designed to be instruments of change,” said Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a former prosecutor. “Criminal trials are about bringing individual wrongdoers to justice. So while there have been high-profile prosecutions of police officers for killing Black people, that doesn’t in and of itself lead to the kind of systemic reform that might reduce police violence.” Philip M. Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who tracks police criminal charges and convictions, said Potter was the first female police officer convicted of a murder or manslaughter charge in an on-duty shooting since 2005. He said he believed that the number of deaths from excessive police force was higher than what was recorded and reflected in news coverage. “Many police officers exhibit a fear of Black people,” he said. “Until we can address that, it is very difficult to bring about meaningful reforms.” Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said accountability also needed to be aimed at prosecutors who gave officers “carte blanche” for a century until the recent show of public outrage. Change is not likely to come soon, she said. “In these individual cases, justice won in the end,” she said. “But there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.” Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said the rarity of criminal charges against officers does not indicate a lack of accountability, but simply reflects that the vast majority of police shootings are lawful — with many occurring under dangerous circumstances in which officers have to make quick, life-or-death decisions. There has been no finding of fault against officers in many of the other recent high-profile cases of people killed in encounters with the police. Less than three weeks after the murder of Floyd, an officer in Atlanta fatally shot a Black man named Rayshard Brooks, who was fleeing a Wendy’s parking lot after taking a Taser from the officer’s partner and firing it at him. The killing in Atlanta, like that of Floyd’s, was captured on bystander video and drew protesters, adding to the demands for justice and accountability over the number of African Americans killed by police. And about two months before Floyd’s murder, Breonna Taylor was killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment during a botched police raid that targeted an ex-boyfriend for alleged drug crimes. Her name, too, became familiar to millions of Americans. Yet the officers involved in the Taylor case have largely been cleared, even as federal authorities continue to investigate. And in Atlanta, Brooks’ case stalled this summer as it was passed to a third prosecutor, who is starting the investigation all over again. The officer who shot Brooks has been charged with murder, but there is no timeline for a trial. “We are taking a fresh look at it and starting from day one,” said Pete Skandalakis, the special prosecutor in Georgia who took over the case. He added that he could not predict when the case would see a courtroom. That has left Brooks’ family wondering if they will ever see justice. “I think we’re all just lost right now,” said L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer who represents the Brooks family. “We don’t know what to think or what’s going on.” According to data kept by Stinson and a research team at Bowling Green, 21 officers this year have been charged with murder or manslaughter for an on-duty shooting — although five of the officers charged are for the same encounter: the killing in November 2020 of a 15-year-old boy who was a suspect in an armed robbery. While this is an increase from the 16 officers charged in 2020 and the highest number since Stinson began compiling the data since 2005, it remains small next to the roughly 1,100 people killed by police annually. (Just as the pace of killings since Floyd’s death has remained largely unchanged, racial disparities have also stayed the same. Black people are still 2 1/2 to 3 times as likely as white people to be killed by a police officer, according to Mapping Police Violence.) While Chauvin’s trial was underway in the spring, Wright’s death at the hands of Potter in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, set off new rounds of protests in the Twin Cities. And in the rest of the U.S., the number of new cases of people killed in encounters with police continued apace, some of them piercing the national consciousness and adding to the names protesters shouted in the streets. Among them were Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino boy who was killed by a Chicago police officer after running down a dark alleyway with a gun. And in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before the jury reached a decision in the Chauvin trial, a 16-year-old Black girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was shot to death by an officer as she swung a knife at a young woman. A state agency investigated Ma’Khia’s death and in July turned its findings over to local prosecutors in Franklin County. At the time, the state attorney general said he expected it to take prosecutors “several weeks” to make a charging decision, but a spokesperson for G. Gary Tyack, the county’s top prosecutor, said the case was still under review five months later. More recently, at a high school football game in a suburb of Pennsylvania this fall, police officers opened fire amid a crowd after they heard gunshots, killing an 8-year-old Black girl named Fanta Bility. All of these cases remain under investigation, and no charges have been filed against the officers involved. One of the reasons for Chauvin’s conviction was that the circumstances of the case differed so starkly from so many other cases in which officers were cleared by prosecutors or juries: There was no split-second decision made in an environment in which Chauvin could argue that his life, or those of other officers, was in danger. In the trial of Potter, which played out in the same courtroom where Chauvin was tried, her defense attorneys said Potter acted reasonably in using force because she feared for the life of a fellow officer, a scenario more emblematic of a typical police killing case. This time, that argument did not work.

Despite uproar over Floyd’s death, the number of fatal encounters with police hasn’t changed

130 years ago, the US government buried a time capsule in the base of a sculpture of a Confederate general. On Wednesday, the time capsule revealed its secrets and gave rise to another mystery.

Last week, a shoebox-sized container was found near a granite pedestal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

Richmond, which served as the capital of the South during the bloody 1861-65 conflict, pulled down Lee's statue in September, joining a growing number of monuments to the pro-slavery Confederacy being demolished. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/memorial-commemorating-victims-of-tiananmen-square-massacre-removed-from-hong-kong-varsity-439169" hreflang="en">Memorial commemorating victims of Tiananmen Square massacre removed from Hong Kong varsity</a>

A newspaper article from 1887 reported that a time capsule was hidden in the massive stone base of the bronze statue. The time capsule contained items from the Civil War such as buttons, bullets, Confederate currency, maps, a Bible, as well as a picture of Abraham Lincoln's coffin.

In contrast, the time capsule opened Wednesday at the Department of Historical Resources in Richmond contained only three water-logged books, a photograph in a damp cloth envelope, and an unknown coin.

Among the books was the 1875 American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, which acted as a guide for astronomers, surveyors, and navigators.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/researchers-discover-worlds-oldest-family-tree-by-analysing-dna-from-5700-years-old-tomb-439172" hreflang="en">Researchers discover world's oldest family tree, by analysing DNA from 5,700 years old tomb</a>

There was also a book published in 1889, two years after the time capsule mentioned in the 1887 newspaper article was thought to have been buried, raising questions about its whereabouts and even if it ever existed.

The book titled "The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion" was written by C.P.E. Burgwyn, who listed himself on the title page as a consultant engineer with the Lee Monument Association.

Watch |&nbsp;Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee removed

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/statue-of-confederate-general-robert-e-lee-removed-411843/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a white Minnesota police officer, Lee's statue became the focus of protests for racial justice in Richmond last year.

Confederate South seceded from the United States during the Civil War and fought to maintain slavery that was abolished in the rest of the nation.

(With inputs from agencies)

130 years ago, the US government buried a time capsule in the base of a sculpture of a Confederate general. On Wednesday, the time capsule revealed its secrets and gave rise to another mystery.

130 years ago, the US government buried a time capsule in the base of a sculpture of a Confederate general. On Wednesday, the time capsule revealed its secrets and gave rise to another mystery. Last week, a shoebox-sized container was found near a granite pedestal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Richmond, which served as the capital of the South during the bloody 1861-65 conflict, pulled down Lee's statue in September, joining a growing number of monuments to the pro-slavery Confederacy being demolished. Also read | Memorial commemorating victims of Tiananmen Square massacre removed from Hong Kong varsity A newspaper article from 1887 reported that a time capsule was hidden in the massive stone base of the bronze statue. The time capsule contained items from the Civil War such as buttons, bullets, Confederate currency, maps, a Bible, as well as a picture of Abraham Lincoln's coffin. In contrast, the time capsule opened Wednesday at the Department of Historical Resources in Richmond contained only three water-logged books, a photograph in a damp cloth envelope, and an unknown coin. Among the books was the 1875 American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, which acted as a guide for astronomers, surveyors, and navigators. Also read | Researchers discover world's oldest family tree, by analysing DNA from 5,700 years old tomb There was also a book published in 1889, two years after the time capsule mentioned in the 1887 newspaper article was thought to have been buried, raising questions about its whereabouts and even if it ever existed. The book titled "The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion" was written by C.P.E. Burgwyn, who listed himself on the title page as a consultant engineer with the Lee Monument Association. Watch | Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee removed In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a white Minnesota police officer, Lee's statue became the focus of protests for racial justice in Richmond last year. Confederate South seceded from the United States during the Civil War and fought to maintain slavery that was abolished in the rest of the nation. (With inputs from agencies)

1875 almanac, other books found in a time capsule in US' Richmond

Following complaints of alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, California is gearing up to investigate Google’s treatment of female Black employees.<o:p></o:p>

Experts at the California department of fair employment and housing (DFEH) have recently interviewed several Black women who have worked, or are working, at Google. These women were questioned about their experiences in the tech company, and if they have faced any form of harassment and/or discrimination.

<o:p>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/now-people-can-send-and-receive-messages-from-their-face-through-smart-glasses-437367">Now, people can send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses</a></o:p>

Analysts and attorneys of DFEH have not only interviewed the people who had filed a complaint against Google, but also several Black female employees who have been associated with the tech giant but had not filed a complaint. These women were also asked about their experiences to make sure the accounts of different match.<o:p></o:p>

These interviews happened almost a month ago, sources revealed to Reuters on condition of anonymity. <o:p></o:p>

Meanwhile, Google is trying to paint its image by stating that the tech giant is focused on "building sustainable equity" for all of its Black employees. "Our goal is to ensure that every employee experiences Google as an inclusive workplace," it said. "We'll continue to focus on this important work and thoroughly investigate any concerns, to make sure our workplace is representative and equitable."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/report-google-to-cut-pay-and-eventually-fire-unvaccinated-employees-437139">WATCH |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/report-google-to-cut-pay-and-eventually-fire-unvaccinated-employees-437139/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

While Black men have been complaining about casual racism and intended discrimination for years now, as more and more Black women join workplaces and start speaking against such mistreatment, the experts are now looking at fixing these societal issues.<o:p></o:p>

Black women have been complaining that they were not being taken seriously in the Google workspace and were being ignored from some of the major projects.

<o:p></o:p>

​​​​​​​(With inputs from agencies)

Following complaints of alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, California is gearing up to investigate Google’s treatment of female Black employees.

Following complaints of alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, California is gearing up to investigate Google’s treatment of female Black employees. Experts at the California department of fair employment and housing (DFEH) have recently interviewed several Black women who have worked, or are working, at Google. These women were questioned about their experiences in the tech company, and if they have faced any form of harassment and/or discrimination. Also read | Now, people can send and receive messages from their face through smart glasses Analysts and attorneys of DFEH have not only interviewed the people who had filed a complaint against Google, but also several Black female employees who have been associated with the tech giant but had not filed a complaint. These women were also asked about their experiences to make sure the accounts of different match. These interviews happened almost a month ago, sources revealed to Reuters on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, Google is trying to paint its image by stating that the tech giant is focused on "building sustainable equity" for all of its Black employees. "Our goal is to ensure that every employee experiences Google as an inclusive workplace," it said. "We'll continue to focus on this important work and thoroughly investigate any concerns, to make sure our workplace is representative and equitable." WATCH | While Black men have been complaining about casual racism and intended discrimination for years now, as more and more Black women join workplaces and start speaking against such mistreatment, the experts are now looking at fixing these societal issues. Black women have been complaining that they were not being taken seriously in the Google workspace and were being ignored from some of the major projects. (With inputs from agencies)

California to investigate Google for treatment of Black female workers

In his first admission of criminal wrongdoing in the case, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, admitted violating the African-American man's civil rights.

Chauvin, 45, pleaded guilty in US District Court to federal charges of using excessive force. He held his knee to Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes on May 25, 2020.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-spite-of-the-anger-over-george-floyds-murder-minneapolis-votes-against-scrapping-police-department-426472">In spite of the anger over George Floyd's murder, Minneapolis votes against scrapping police department</a>

Chauvin admitted in a plea agreement with the Justice Department that "his willful use of unreasonable force resulted in Mr Floyd's bodily injury and death" and that he "knew that what he was doing was wrong."

"The defendant also knew there was no legal justification to continue his use of force because he was aware that Mr. Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse," it said.

Also read |&nbsp;​​​​​​​<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ex-cop-convicted-of-george-floyds-murder-files-appeal-415631">Ex-cop convicted of George Floyd's murder files appeal</a>

A bystander's cellphone video of Floyd's death set off months of protests against police abuse of African-Americans throughout the country.

In another case, Chauvin admitted to violating the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old boy. Chauvin held the handcuffed boy face down on the ground and struck him multiple times on the head with a flashlight in that 2017 incident.

Also read |&nbsp;​​​​​​​<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/daunte-wright-trial-prosecutor-says-cop-betrayed-her-badge-defence-blames-the-slain-victim-435308">Daunte Wright trial: Prosecutor says cop 'betrayed her badge', defence blames the slain victim</a>

"While recognizing that nothing can repair the harm caused by such acts, the Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those who violate the Constitution, and to safeguarding the civil rights of all Americans," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

During a Minnesota state trial, Chauvin was convicted of the murder of Floyd, receiving a sentence of 22 and a half years in prison.

Watch |&nbsp;Gravitas US Edition | Black Lives Matter Movement: A WION Ground Report

Under the plea agreement, he will face a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in prison on the federal charges, which will run concurrently with or beyond the sentence in the state murder case.

That guarantees the former Minneapolis police officer will spend years behind bars, regardless of what happens with the appeal, he has filed on the state murder charge.

(With inputs from agencies)

In his first admission of criminal wrongdoing in the case, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, admitted violating the African-American man's civil rights.

In his first admission of criminal wrongdoing in the case, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, admitted violating the African-American man's civil rights. Chauvin, 45, pleaded guilty in US District Court to federal charges of using excessive force. He held his knee to Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes on May 25, 2020. Also read | In spite of the anger over George Floyd's murder, Minneapolis votes against scrapping police department Chauvin admitted in a plea agreement with the Justice Department that "his willful use of unreasonable force resulted in Mr Floyd's bodily injury and death" and that he "knew that what he was doing was wrong." "The defendant also knew there was no legal justification to continue his use of force because he was aware that Mr. Floyd not only stopped resisting, but also stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and lost consciousness and a pulse," it said. Also read | Ex-cop convicted of George Floyd's murder files appeal A bystander's cellphone video of Floyd's death set off months of protests against police abuse of African-Americans throughout the country. In another case, Chauvin admitted to violating the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old boy. Chauvin held the handcuffed boy face down on the ground and struck him multiple times on the head with a flashlight in that 2017 incident. Also read | Daunte Wright trial: Prosecutor says cop 'betrayed her badge', defence blames the slain victim "While recognizing that nothing can repair the harm caused by such acts, the Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those who violate the Constitution, and to safeguarding the civil rights of all Americans," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. During a Minnesota state trial, Chauvin was convicted of the murder of Floyd, receiving a sentence of 22 and a half years in prison. Watch | Gravitas US Edition | Black Lives Matter Movement: A WION Ground Report Under the plea agreement, he will face a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in prison on the federal charges, which will run concurrently with or beyond the sentence in the state murder case. That guarantees the former Minneapolis police officer will spend years behind bars, regardless of what happens with the appeal, he has filed on the state murder charge. (With inputs from agencies)

White officer's 'first admission of guilt': Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd's civil rights

The Friday before Thanksgiving, as millions of people around the country started packing up cars and prepared to board flights to reunite with their families, about 20 guests gathered inside a quiet gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for a moment of collective mourning.

Toward the back of the room were two large wooden altars, with steps adorned with offerings meant to honor the lives of Black girls: satin hair bonnets, nail polish, a baby doll, children’s books. A video of a 16-year-old girl doing her bouncy hair on TikTok played on a loop. Candles, teddy bears and bouquets of flowers were placed throughout the display.

Together that evening were friends, family and supporters of Breonna Taylor, Latasha Harlins, Marcie Gerald, Lyniah Bell, Rekia Boyd and Ma’Khia Bryant (the star of that looping TikTok video, who was fatally shot by police in Columbus, Ohio, in April). Over the past several years, their names had become rallying cries in their communities — some far beyond — after their lives were cut short by violence.

“The Black Girlhood Altar,” a temporary monument that had traveled through various neighborhoods in Chicago before landing at the MCA as part of an exhibition of work by artist Andrea Bowers, was meant to honor them and the countless other Black women and girls whose deaths preceded the national reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Most of their lives had never been memorialized on such a grand scale.

“It’s taking trauma and reclaiming it for yourself and honoring the people in it,” said Scheherazade Tillet, a founder of A Long Walk Home, the national organization that sponsored the creation of the temporary monument. “The horror is in the trauma, and the beauty is in the spirit of the person.”

The altar was assembled by artists Leah Gipson and Robert Narciso, Black girls from the Chicago community, and Tillet. (Her sister and co-founder, Salamishah Tillet, is a contributing critic for The New York Times.)

In recent years, there has been a global push to remove statues and monuments of racist historical figures. At the same time, some artists have been galvanized to honor people from marginalized groups, including Kehinde Wiley, through his “Rumors of War” series, and a recent public art exhibition in New York City showcasing bronze busts of African American figures.

Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, an art historian and professor at Harvard University, said the commissioning of these statues as historical monuments are taken down signals “an expansion in the American narrative.”

“These new monuments signify that we’ve underestimated how rights and representation in U.S. democracy are tied to the work of visual representation,” Lewis wrote in an email, “which includes the signaling power of monuments in the public sphere.”

“We are in the midst of a profound reckoning about the true marriage of race, rights and visual representation for the broader work of justice,” she added.

In the gallery that chilly November night, the significance of a monument to the lives of Black girls was not lost on the guests. Juniyah Palmer, Taylor’s sister, did a lap around the room, then stepped outside to take a moment to herself. Evelyn Hightower lingered on the image of Lyniah Bell, her daughter, hanging from one of seven pendants on an adjacent wall dedicated to seven victims.

Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, said he felt moved by the display. “Just everybody’s vibe and mutual pain about all these different situations,” he said through a face mask with “Breonna Taylor” printed across the front. “You can definitely tell people really care all over the world.”

The evening before, the group had gathered for a private, family-style dinner at Taste 222, a restaurant in Chicago’s Fulton River District, along with youth members from A Long Walk Home, known as the Girl/Friends. Chandeliers and dimly lit candles illuminated the room as people took their seats at two long tables.

“I think this dinner is about love,” Tillet said. “These are the people to remember. These are the people we need to care for and to immerse them with these young people who are the legacy. Who have been marching for them.”

After opening remarks, a first course of kale salad with cranberries and sunflower seeds was served. There were notes of levity in what might have otherwise been a solemn gathering, as guests became acquainted with the space and the menu.

“I like salad with good ranch,” Walker said with a smile.

“You don’t even like kale,” Palmer retorted.

The evening had been billed as a night of connection and healing for the survivors, but for the most part they sat in pods, holding their unique, unspeakable losses close.

Elizabeth Gerald, whose 15-year-old daughter, Marcie, died by suicide in 2015 after being abducted and sexually assaulted, said that when she first started meeting with other mothers years ago in Chicago who could relate to her tragedy, she was taken aback by the divisions felt between survivors whose loved ones lacked name recognition and those whose stories had become the subjects of national news and protests.

“High-profile is like Trayvon and Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor is considered high-profile because of the media,” Gerald said. “But the low-profile are like the mothers who lose to police shootings that nobody knows about.”

“I think a lot of times it’s jealousy because they’re feeling like, ‘Well, what about me?’ ” Gerald continued. “It feels really good to be able to have something more small, intimate. Just us and the families helping each other, being there for each other.”

After dessert, the hosts took a moment to explain the history of the altar and its intention. Gift bags were handed to families, and each group was presented with custom beaded bracelets and lockets dedicated to their loved ones.

“Aw, it’s Breonna,” said an emotional Walker as he opened the locket to find a picture of his girlfriend. “This is really nice.”

At the end of the night, a microphone was passed around the room so that each attendee could share a wish for Black women. Their words echoed through the room like a benediction: “Protection.” “Freedom.” “Justice.” “Joy.”

The Friday before Thanksgiving, as millions of people around the country started packing up cars and prepared to board flights to reunite with their families, about 20 guests gathered inside a quiet gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for a moment of collective mourning.

The Friday before Thanksgiving, as millions of people around the country started packing up cars and prepared to board flights to reunite with their families, about 20 guests gathered inside a quiet gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for a moment of collective mourning. Toward the back of the room were two large wooden altars, with steps adorned with offerings meant to honor the lives of Black girls: satin hair bonnets, nail polish, a baby doll, children’s books. A video of a 16-year-old girl doing her bouncy hair on TikTok played on a loop. Candles, teddy bears and bouquets of flowers were placed throughout the display. Together that evening were friends, family and supporters of Breonna Taylor, Latasha Harlins, Marcie Gerald, Lyniah Bell, Rekia Boyd and Ma’Khia Bryant (the star of that looping TikTok video, who was fatally shot by police in Columbus, Ohio, in April). Over the past several years, their names had become rallying cries in their communities — some far beyond — after their lives were cut short by violence. “The Black Girlhood Altar,” a temporary monument that had traveled through various neighborhoods in Chicago before landing at the MCA as part of an exhibition of work by artist Andrea Bowers, was meant to honor them and the countless other Black women and girls whose deaths preceded the national reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Most of their lives had never been memorialized on such a grand scale. “It’s taking trauma and reclaiming it for yourself and honoring the people in it,” said Scheherazade Tillet, a founder of A Long Walk Home, the national organization that sponsored the creation of the temporary monument. “The horror is in the trauma, and the beauty is in the spirit of the person.” The altar was assembled by artists Leah Gipson and Robert Narciso, Black girls from the Chicago community, and Tillet. (Her sister and co-founder, Salamishah Tillet, is a contributing critic for The New York Times.) In recent years, there has been a global push to remove statues and monuments of racist historical figures. At the same time, some artists have been galvanized to honor people from marginalized groups, including Kehinde Wiley, through his “Rumors of War” series, and a recent public art exhibition in New York City showcasing bronze busts of African American figures. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, an art historian and professor at Harvard University, said the commissioning of these statues as historical monuments are taken down signals “an expansion in the American narrative.” “These new monuments signify that we’ve underestimated how rights and representation in U.S. democracy are tied to the work of visual representation,” Lewis wrote in an email, “which includes the signaling power of monuments in the public sphere.” “We are in the midst of a profound reckoning about the true marriage of race, rights and visual representation for the broader work of justice,” she added. In the gallery that chilly November night, the significance of a monument to the lives of Black girls was not lost on the guests. Juniyah Palmer, Taylor’s sister, did a lap around the room, then stepped outside to take a moment to herself. Evelyn Hightower lingered on the image of Lyniah Bell, her daughter, hanging from one of seven pendants on an adjacent wall dedicated to seven victims. Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, said he felt moved by the display. “Just everybody’s vibe and mutual pain about all these different situations,” he said through a face mask with “Breonna Taylor” printed across the front. “You can definitely tell people really care all over the world.” The evening before, the group had gathered for a private, family-style dinner at Taste 222, a restaurant in Chicago’s Fulton River District, along with youth members from A Long Walk Home, known as the Girl/Friends. Chandeliers and dimly lit candles illuminated the room as people took their seats at two long tables. “I think this dinner is about love,” Tillet said. “These are the people to remember. These are the people we need to care for and to immerse them with these young people who are the legacy. Who have been marching for them.” After opening remarks, a first course of kale salad with cranberries and sunflower seeds was served. There were notes of levity in what might have otherwise been a solemn gathering, as guests became acquainted with the space and the menu. “I like salad with good ranch,” Walker said with a smile. “You don’t even like kale,” Palmer retorted. The evening had been billed as a night of connection and healing for the survivors, but for the most part they sat in pods, holding their unique, unspeakable losses close. Elizabeth Gerald, whose 15-year-old daughter, Marcie, died by suicide in 2015 after being abducted and sexually assaulted, said that when she first started meeting with other mothers years ago in Chicago who could relate to her tragedy, she was taken aback by the divisions felt between survivors whose loved ones lacked name recognition and those whose stories had become the subjects of national news and protests. “High-profile is like Trayvon and Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor is considered high-profile because of the media,” Gerald said. “But the low-profile are like the mothers who lose to police shootings that nobody knows about.” “I think a lot of times it’s jealousy because they’re feeling like, ‘Well, what about me?’ ” Gerald continued. “It feels really good to be able to have something more small, intimate. Just us and the families helping each other, being there for each other.” After dessert, the hosts took a moment to explain the history of the altar and its intention. Gift bags were handed to families, and each group was presented with custom beaded bracelets and lockets dedicated to their loved ones. “Aw, it’s Breonna,” said an emotional Walker as he opened the locket to find a picture of his girlfriend. “This is really nice.” At the end of the night, a microphone was passed around the room so that each attendee could share a wish for Black women. Their words echoed through the room like a benediction: “Protection.” “Freedom.” “Justice.” “Joy.”

A monument to the lives of Black women and girls

The defence attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial is facing backlash after he objected to the presence of black pastors.

Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, was shot with a shotgun by three white men that resulted in his death.

Attorney Kevin Gough had said ''If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now, that's fine. But then that's it.''

''We don't want any more black pastors coming in here, Jesse Jackson, whoever, was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim's family, trying to influence a jury in this case,'' he added.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ahmaud-arbery-slain-black-mans-family-angry-that-jury-in-murder-trial-is-nearly-all-white-426874">Also read |&nbsp;Ahmaud Arbery: Slain Black man's family angry that jury in murder trial is nearly all-White</a>

It happened after leading civil rights leader, the Rev. Al Sharpton, was seen seated with the victim's family earlier in the court proceedings.

In making his objection on Thursday, Gough told Judge Timothy Walmsley "we want to keep politics out of this case," and suggested that the presence of figures like Sharpton or Jackson "could be consciously or unconsciously an attempt to pressure or influence the jury".

When Arbery's family asked for the removal of Gough from the case, he said ''My apologies to anyone who might've been inadvertently offended.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/prosecutors-play-video-footage-of-ahmaud-arberys-murder-in-court-427269">Also read |&nbsp;Prosecutors play video footage of Ahmaud Arbery's murder in court</a>

Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son Travis, 35, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, are facing murder and other charges for the February 2020 shooting of&nbsp;Ahmaud Arbery. They face life in prison if convicted of murder.

The three defendants contend they mistook Arbery for a burglar in their Georgia neighborhood of Satilla Shores and invoked a since-repealed state law that allows ordinary citizens to make arrests.

A graphic video of the shooting of the unarmed Arbery went viral on social media and added fuel to last year's protests against racial injustice sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

(With inputs from agencies)

The defence attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial is facing backlash after he objected to the presence of black pastors. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, was shot with a shotgun by three white men that resulted in his death.

The defence attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial is facing backlash after he objected to the presence of black pastors. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, was shot with a shotgun by three white men that resulted in his death. Attorney Kevin Gough had said ''If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now, that's fine. But then that's it.'' ''We don't want any more black pastors coming in here, Jesse Jackson, whoever, was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim's family, trying to influence a jury in this case,'' he added. Also read | Ahmaud Arbery: Slain Black man's family angry that jury in murder trial is nearly all-White It happened after leading civil rights leader, the Rev. Al Sharpton, was seen seated with the victim's family earlier in the court proceedings. In making his objection on Thursday, Gough told Judge Timothy Walmsley "we want to keep politics out of this case," and suggested that the presence of figures like Sharpton or Jackson "could be consciously or unconsciously an attempt to pressure or influence the jury". When Arbery's family asked for the removal of Gough from the case, he said ''My apologies to anyone who might've been inadvertently offended.'' Also read | Prosecutors play video footage of Ahmaud Arbery's murder in court Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son Travis, 35, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, are facing murder and other charges for the February 2020 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. They face life in prison if convicted of murder. The three defendants contend they mistook Arbery for a burglar in their Georgia neighborhood of Satilla Shores and invoked a since-repealed state law that allows ordinary citizens to make arrests. A graphic video of the shooting of the unarmed Arbery went viral on social media and added fuel to last year's protests against racial injustice sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (With inputs from agencies)

Ahmaud Arbery murder trial: Defence attorney faces backlash on comments about black pastors

Judge Bruce Schroeder made an offensive joke about Asian food during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial for homicide.

Schroeder had said, ''I hope the Asian food isn't coming... isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor.''

His strange remark was deemed inappropriate and faced backlash for being&nbsp;anti-Asian.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/kyle-rittenhouse-breakdown-during-the-trial-428633/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC said, ''It harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro-aggressions as well as actual physical violence.''

After facing backlash, Schroeder defended himself, saying he was ''referring to the supply chain backlogs caused by congestion problems in California ports.''

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/man-shot-by-kyle-rittenhouse-calls-him-an-active-shooter-calls-use-of-gun-self-defence-427985">Also read |&nbsp;Man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse calls him an 'active shooter,' calls use of gun 'self-defence'</a>

Earlier, he had&nbsp;sent the jury out of the courtroom after prosecutor Thomas Binger began questioning Kyle&nbsp;Rittenhouse's decision to remain silent after&nbsp;shooting last year.

Over 9,000 anti-Asian incidents reported in the US since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite months of political and social action, the number of anti-Asian incidents documented in the United States so far this year is poised to surpass last year, as per a report by Stop AAPI Hate, a nationwide coalition that became the authority on gathering statistics on racially motivated assaults.

Kyle Rittenhouse is an American teenager who is charged with killing two people during racial justice protests last year.

In dramatic and risky testimony in his own defence, Rittenhouse tried to portray himself as wanting to help others during the protests last year in the city of Kenosha and opened fire only in self-defense after being attacked and ambushed.&nbsp;

Prosecutors have described Rittenhouse as a vigilante who killed two protesters. But he struggled in front of a jury to explain why he carried an AR-15-style assault rifle to the protests.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/jacob-blake-sues-police-officer-who-shot-him-373496">Also read |&nbsp;Jacob Blake sues police officer who shot him</a>

The case has drawn national attention because it arose from the nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year.

The protests and rioting in Kenosha erupted when a white policeman shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, several times in his car during an arrest, leaving him paralysed.

In right-wing and pro-gun circles, including former president Donald Trump and his followers, Rittenhouse is a painted as a hero figure.&nbsp;

The case is the most high-profile civilian US&nbsp;self-defence trial since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Florida in 2013.

(With inputs from agencies)

&nbsp;

Judge Bruce Schroeder made an offensive joke about Asian food during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial for homicide. Schroeder had said, ''I hope the Asian food isn't coming.

Judge Bruce Schroeder made an offensive joke about Asian food during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial for homicide. Schroeder had said, ''I hope the Asian food isn't coming... isn't on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor.'' His strange remark was deemed inappropriate and faced backlash for being anti-Asian. John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC said, ''It harms our community and puts us in the crosshairs of micro-aggressions as well as actual physical violence.'' After facing backlash, Schroeder defended himself, saying he was ''referring to the supply chain backlogs caused by congestion problems in California ports.'' Also read | Man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse calls him an 'active shooter,' calls use of gun 'self-defence' Earlier, he had sent the jury out of the courtroom after prosecutor Thomas Binger began questioning Kyle Rittenhouse's decision to remain silent after shooting last year. Over 9,000 anti-Asian incidents reported in the US since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite months of political and social action, the number of anti-Asian incidents documented in the United States so far this year is poised to surpass last year, as per a report by Stop AAPI Hate, a nationwide coalition that became the authority on gathering statistics on racially motivated assaults. Kyle Rittenhouse is an American teenager who is charged with killing two people during racial justice protests last year. In dramatic and risky testimony in his own defence, Rittenhouse tried to portray himself as wanting to help others during the protests last year in the city of Kenosha and opened fire only in self-defense after being attacked and ambushed. Prosecutors have described Rittenhouse as a vigilante who killed two protesters. But he struggled in front of a jury to explain why he carried an AR-15-style assault rifle to the protests. Also read | Jacob Blake sues police officer who shot him The case has drawn national attention because it arose from the nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year. The protests and rioting in Kenosha erupted when a white policeman shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, several times in his car during an arrest, leaving him paralysed. In right-wing and pro-gun circles, including former president Donald Trump and his followers, Rittenhouse is a painted as a hero figure. The case is the most high-profile civilian US self-defence trial since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Florida in 2013. (With inputs from agencies)

Kyle Rittenhouse case: Judge makes offensive anti-Asian joke during homicide trial

The man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse has said that he used his gun against him as 'self-defence'.

He believed the US teenager was an "active shooter" and was trying to disarm Rittenhouse at the time because he thought otherwise he would die.

Rittenhouse, the American teen who shot three people during anti-police protests last year, claimed he had been attacked "like an animal."&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/jacob-blake-sues-police-officer-who-shot-him-373496">Also read |&nbsp;Jacob Blake sues police officer who shot him</a>

Mark Richards, representing the then-17-year-old who killed two men and wounded a third with his assault rifle at the August 25, 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, depicted Rittenhouse as under mortal threat from demonstrators.

Gaige Grosskreutz, a former paramedic who was armed with a pistol that night, said he followed Rittenhouse because he had heard gunshots and saw protesters chasing him. He thought he might need to provide medical aid.

"I thought that the defendant was an active shooter," Grosskreutz told the jury.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/county-reaches-10-million-settlement-in-jailed-black-mans-death-387475">Also read |&nbsp;County reaches $10 million settlement in jailed Black man’s death</a>

His critics say he represents armed vigilantes on the right who police allegedly permitted, if not encouraged, to take the law into their own hands against protestors.

But in right-wing and pro-gun circles, and among supporters of former president Donald Trump, Rittenhouse is a hero figure.

Last week, multiple witnesses provided testimony that seemed to support the teen's claim of self-defense, especially in the case of Rosenbaum.

Protesters "violently attacked him," former President Trump said during a pre-election visit to Kenosha in September. "He probably would have been killed."

After his arrest, Rittenhouse was freed on bail of $2 million, raised by supporters across the country, including from Trump's own circle.

Rittenhouse is charged with five felony counts, including first-degree homicide and attempted homicide, and a misdemeanor, illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

(With inputs from agencies)

The man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse has said that he used his gun against him as 'self-defence'. He believed the US teenager was an "active shooter" and was trying to disarm Rittenhouse at the time because he thought otherwise he would die.

The man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse has said that he used his gun against him as 'self-defence'. He believed the US teenager was an "active shooter" and was trying to disarm Rittenhouse at the time because he thought otherwise he would die. Rittenhouse, the American teen who shot three people during anti-police protests last year, claimed he had been attacked "like an animal." Also read | Jacob Blake sues police officer who shot him Mark Richards, representing the then-17-year-old who killed two men and wounded a third with his assault rifle at the August 25, 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, depicted Rittenhouse as under mortal threat from demonstrators. Gaige Grosskreutz, a former paramedic who was armed with a pistol that night, said he followed Rittenhouse because he had heard gunshots and saw protesters chasing him. He thought he might need to provide medical aid. "I thought that the defendant was an active shooter," Grosskreutz told the jury. Also read | County reaches $10 million settlement in jailed Black man’s death His critics say he represents armed vigilantes on the right who police allegedly permitted, if not encouraged, to take the law into their own hands against protestors. But in right-wing and pro-gun circles, and among supporters of former president Donald Trump, Rittenhouse is a hero figure. Last week, multiple witnesses provided testimony that seemed to support the teen's claim of self-defense, especially in the case of Rosenbaum. Protesters "violently attacked him," former President Trump said during a pre-election visit to Kenosha in September. "He probably would have been killed." After his arrest, Rittenhouse was freed on bail of $2 million, raised by supporters across the country, including from Trump's own circle. Rittenhouse is charged with five felony counts, including first-degree homicide and attempted homicide, and a misdemeanor, illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. (With inputs from agencies)

Man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse calls him an 'active shooter,' calls use of gun 'self-defence'

First witness in the Ahmaud Arbery&nbsp;murder was called to testify. Glynn County Police Officer William Duggan claimed that he was close to the crime scene so he responded to the situation immediately after completing an off-duty job.<o:p></o:p>

Duggan testified that when he reached the crime scene, he spotted a few other people around the Black male who was on the ground. He later identified those 'other people' as the defendants.<o:p></o:p>

He also added that when he saw Arbery lying on the ground, he felt that Arbery was already dead and there was nothing he could do for the victim.

<o:p>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ahmaud-arbery-slain-black-mans-family-angry-that-jury-in-murder-trial-is-nearly-all-white-426874">Ahmaud Arbery: Slain Black man's family angry that jury in murder trial is nearly all-White</a></o:p>

During the opening remarks of the prosecutor Linda Dunikoski, the court also saw video submitted by the police officer who was first to reach the scene of crime. Dunikoski had argued that the defendants had chased Arbery and fatally shot him without having any evidence that he was doing anything illegal.<o:p></o:p>

"In this case, all three of these defendants did everything they did based on assumptions," she said. "Not on facts, not on evidence -- on assumptions. And they made decisions in their driveways based on those assumptions that took a young man's life. And that is why we are here."

<o:p>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-a-year-of-ahmaud-arberys-killing-his-mother-files-lawsuit-365773">After a year of Ahmaud Arbery's killing, his mother files lawsuit</a></o:p>

However, the defendants, Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., have claimed that they were chasing Arbery to make a citizen’s arrest. The defendants said they had suspected that Arbery had stolen something from a house which was under construction nearby. Their lawyers also argued that Travis McMichael shot Arbery only as an act of self-defense.<o:p></o:p>

The shocking murder dates back to February 23, 2020. In an area near Brunswick, Georgia, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was out for his daily jog when he was attacked and shot dead by three White men. It is believed that the murder was a result of racism.<o:p></o:p>

First witness in the Ahmaud Arbery murder was called to testify. Glynn County Police Officer William Duggan claimed that he was close to the crime scene so he responded to the situation immediately after completing an off-duty job.

First witness in the Ahmaud Arbery murder was called to testify. Glynn County Police Officer William Duggan claimed that he was close to the crime scene so he responded to the situation immediately after completing an off-duty job. Duggan testified that when he reached the crime scene, he spotted a few other people around the Black male who was on the ground. He later identified those 'other people' as the defendants. He also added that when he saw Arbery lying on the ground, he felt that Arbery was already dead and there was nothing he could do for the victim. Also read | Ahmaud Arbery: Slain Black man's family angry that jury in murder trial is nearly all-White During the opening remarks of the prosecutor Linda Dunikoski, the court also saw video submitted by the police officer who was first to reach the scene of crime. Dunikoski had argued that the defendants had chased Arbery and fatally shot him without having any evidence that he was doing anything illegal. "In this case, all three of these defendants did everything they did based on assumptions," she said. "Not on facts, not on evidence -- on assumptions. And they made decisions in their driveways based on those assumptions that took a young man's life. And that is why we are here." Also read | After a year of Ahmaud Arbery's killing, his mother files lawsuit However, the defendants, Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., have claimed that they were chasing Arbery to make a citizen’s arrest. The defendants said they had suspected that Arbery had stolen something from a house which was under construction nearby. Their lawyers also argued that Travis McMichael shot Arbery only as an act of self-defense. The shocking murder dates back to February 23, 2020. In an area near Brunswick, Georgia, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was out for his daily jog when he was attacked and shot dead by three White men. It is believed that the murder was a result of racism.

Prosecutors play video footage of Ahmaud Arbery's murder in court

Ahmaud Arbery's family has expressed outrage over the selection of an almost all-White jury in his murder trial.

Arbery, an African American, was killed during a confrontation with Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbour William Bryan.

''It is outrageous that Black jurors were intentionally excluded to create such an imbalanced jury,'' said the family attorney Benjamin Crump.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/3-white-men-accused-in-killing-of-black-us-jogger-deny-hate-charges-384457">Also read |&nbsp;3 white men accused in killing of Black US jogger deny hate charges</a>

The jury in the high-profile case includes 11 White people and one Black person. It is due to be sworn in and hear opening statements on Friday.

''There appears to be intentional discrimination,'' said Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley.

He nevertheless accepted the "race-neutral" reasons offered by the defence lawyers of the three men accused of murder.

Interestingly, about 25 per cent of the population of Glynn County, where the trial is taking place is black. It has a total population of 85,000.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/first-challenge-in-george-floyd-murder-trial-finding-an-impartial-jury-368801">Also read |&nbsp;First challenge in George Floyd murder trial: Finding an impartial jury</a>

Previously, a small amount of THC, a psychoactive compound in marijuana, was found in Arbery's blood.

However, a Georgia judge ruled that Arbery's mental health records are not admissible as evidence.

A graphic video of the shooting of the unarmed Arbery went viral on social media and added fuel to last year's protests against racial injustice sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The three men contend they mistook the jogger for a burglar active in their coastal neighborhood of Satilla Shores and invoked a Georgia law allowing ordinary citizens to make arrests.

Before Arbery's killing, the law had been largely unchanged since it was codified in 1863 when Georgia was part of the slaveholding Southern Confederacy during the US Civil War.

Arbery became one of the symbols of countrywide "Black Lives Matter" protests against racial injustice and police violence.

(With inputs from agencies) 
&nbsp;

Ahmaud Arbery's family has expressed outrage over the selection of an almost all-White jury in his murder trial. Arbery, an African American, was killed during a confrontation with Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbour William Bryan.

Ahmaud Arbery's family has expressed outrage over the selection of an almost all-White jury in his murder trial. Arbery, an African American, was killed during a confrontation with Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbour William Bryan. ''It is outrageous that Black jurors were intentionally excluded to create such an imbalanced jury,'' said the family attorney Benjamin Crump. Also read | 3 white men accused in killing of Black US jogger deny hate charges The jury in the high-profile case includes 11 White people and one Black person. It is due to be sworn in and hear opening statements on Friday. ''There appears to be intentional discrimination,'' said Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley. He nevertheless accepted the "race-neutral" reasons offered by the defence lawyers of the three men accused of murder. Interestingly, about 25 per cent of the population of Glynn County, where the trial is taking place is black. It has a total population of 85,000. Also read | First challenge in George Floyd murder trial: Finding an impartial jury Previously, a small amount of THC, a psychoactive compound in marijuana, was found in Arbery's blood. However, a Georgia judge ruled that Arbery's mental health records are not admissible as evidence. A graphic video of the shooting of the unarmed Arbery went viral on social media and added fuel to last year's protests against racial injustice sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The three men contend they mistook the jogger for a burglar active in their coastal neighborhood of Satilla Shores and invoked a Georgia law allowing ordinary citizens to make arrests. Before Arbery's killing, the law had been largely unchanged since it was codified in 1863 when Georgia was part of the slaveholding Southern Confederacy during the US Civil War. Arbery became one of the symbols of countrywide "Black Lives Matter" protests against racial injustice and police violence. (With inputs from agencies)

Ahmaud Arbery: Slain Black man's family angry that jury in murder trial is nearly all-White

18 months after African American George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis sparked protests for racial justice around the world, Minneapolis voters have chosen not to replace their police force with a new department that would have taken a holistic approach to crime.

The official election results show that over 56 per cent of Minneapolis residents voted against changing the city charter to create the new department, which would have provided "public safety functions through a comprehensive public health approach."

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/a-school-mural-was-supposed-to-celebrate-black-lives-instead-it-was-destroyed-425605">A school mural was supposed to celebrate Black Lives. Instead, it was destroyed.</a>

The murder of Floyd a 46-year-old black man by a white police officer in May 2020 had triggered protests in Minneapolis and other US cities, with people calling for an end to police brutality and "defund the police."

Residents were angry about a policing system they considered irredeemably flawed and the ballot initiative arose out of that anger.&nbsp;

However, even those who supported scrapping the Minneapolis police department rejected this. In place of disbanding all armed officers, they recommended rethinking how and when police are used.

The failure of the amendment goes a long way to prove that even in liberal cities where scepticism of the police is strong, many Americans are unwilling to do away with the police.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ex-cop-convicted-of-george-floyds-murder-files-appeal-415631">Ex-cop convicted of George Floyd's murder files appeal</a>

Leili Fatehi, campaign manager for All of Mpls, which campaigned against dissolving the police department, said voters gave a clear mandate for continuing to work on reforms within the structure of the agency.

According to her, neither side of the ballot measure is happy with the status quo of policing in the city, but they disagree on how best to make changes.

Fatehi said that they hoped to see Minneapolis residents work together to hold the next mayor and City Council accountable so they would roll up their sleeves and get to work.

If the Minneapolis ballot measure had passed, the city council and the mayor would have been responsible for determining the functions of the Department of Public Safety. Additionally, social workers and mental health experts would have been more prominent in the department.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/is-a-new-covid-pandemic-emerging-or-is-it-an-endemic-now-experts-answer-426439" hreflang="en">Is a new&nbsp;Covid&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;emerging or is it an endemic now? Experts answer</a>

The new department could have included "licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety," according to the ballot measure.

In the months since Floyd's murder, several large cities, including Minneapolis, have invested more money in mental health programs, and have experimented with social workers being dispatched instead of armed police officers.

Responding to a national call to defund, some departments had curtailed minor traffic stops and arrests, and some had cut police budgets. However, since then, in response to rising gun violence and shifting politics, some have restored funding.

But, it is worth noting that no large city went as far as getting rid of its police force and replacing it with something new.

(With inputs from agencies)

18 months after African American George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis sparked protests for racial justice around the world, Minneapolis voters have chosen not to replace their police force with a new department that would have taken a holistic approach to crime.

18 months after African American George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis sparked protests for racial justice around the world, Minneapolis voters have chosen not to replace their police force with a new department that would have taken a holistic approach to crime. The official election results show that over 56 per cent of Minneapolis residents voted against changing the city charter to create the new department, which would have provided "public safety functions through a comprehensive public health approach." Also read | A school mural was supposed to celebrate Black Lives. Instead, it was destroyed. The murder of Floyd a 46-year-old black man by a white police officer in May 2020 had triggered protests in Minneapolis and other US cities, with people calling for an end to police brutality and "defund the police." Residents were angry about a policing system they considered irredeemably flawed and the ballot initiative arose out of that anger. However, even those who supported scrapping the Minneapolis police department rejected this. In place of disbanding all armed officers, they recommended rethinking how and when police are used. The failure of the amendment goes a long way to prove that even in liberal cities where scepticism of the police is strong, many Americans are unwilling to do away with the police. Also read | Ex-cop convicted of George Floyd's murder files appeal Leili Fatehi, campaign manager for All of Mpls, which campaigned against dissolving the police department, said voters gave a clear mandate for continuing to work on reforms within the structure of the agency. According to her, neither side of the ballot measure is happy with the status quo of policing in the city, but they disagree on how best to make changes. Fatehi said that they hoped to see Minneapolis residents work together to hold the next mayor and City Council accountable so they would roll up their sleeves and get to work. If the Minneapolis ballot measure had passed, the city council and the mayor would have been responsible for determining the functions of the Department of Public Safety. Additionally, social workers and mental health experts would have been more prominent in the department. Also read | Is a new Covid pandemic emerging or is it an endemic now? Experts answer The new department could have included "licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety," according to the ballot measure. In the months since Floyd's murder, several large cities, including Minneapolis, have invested more money in mental health programs, and have experimented with social workers being dispatched instead of armed police officers. Responding to a national call to defund, some departments had curtailed minor traffic stops and arrests, and some had cut police budgets. However, since then, in response to rising gun violence and shifting politics, some have restored funding. But, it is worth noting that no large city went as far as getting rid of its police force and replacing it with something new. (With inputs from agencies)

In spite of the anger over George Floyd's murder, Minneapolis votes against scrapping police department

South Africa wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock returned to the team's playing XI and took a knee ahead of the Proteas clash against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 2021 on Saturday (October 30). De Kock had earlier pulled out of South Africa's previous game against West Indies, in protest after Cricket South Africa (CSA) had directed all players to take a knee.

De Kock later issued a statement explaining his side and stating that he is 'not a racist'. He apologised for his actions and promised to take a knee with the rest of his teammates while also making himself available for the remaining matches in T20 World Cup 2021.

As promised, De Kock was seen taking a knee with his South Africa teammates ahead of the Sri Lanka game in Sharjah on Saturday. The cricketers are taking a knee during the T20 World Cup to extend their support toward the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and take a stand against racism of any form.

ICC shared a video of De Kock taking a knee on social media with the message - "United against racism".

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De Kock had said 'it was his personal opinion' after resfusing to take a knee and pulling out of the game against West Indies. However, on Saturday, he took off his cap and took a knee to express his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/t20-world-cup-sa-star-quinton-de-kock-apologises-for-blm-row-pledges-to-take-the-knee-424674">Quinton de Kock apologises for BLM row, pledges to take the knee</a>

De Kock replaced&nbsp;Heinrich Klaasen in the playing XI while the remaining South Africa line-up remained unchanged from their win against Wets Indies. Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma said the players were feeling much better ahead of the game against Sri Lanka then they were a few days ago.

"The team is feeling much better than we were a couple of days ago," Bavuma said after winning the toss against Sri Lanka.

"We obviously had some time to get away with the thing that's been happening. Quinton is in a much better state. As a team we are good, we're ready for the game today," he added.

&nbsp;

South Africa wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock returned to the team's playing XI and took a knee ahead of the Proteas clash against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 2021 on Saturday (October 30).

South Africa wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock returned to the team's playing XI and took a knee ahead of the Proteas clash against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 2021 on Saturday (October 30). De Kock had earlier pulled out of South Africa's previous game against West Indies, in protest after Cricket South Africa (CSA) had directed all players to take a knee. De Kock later issued a statement explaining his side and stating that he is 'not a racist'. He apologised for his actions and promised to take a knee with the rest of his teammates while also making himself available for the remaining matches in T20 World Cup 2021. As promised, De Kock was seen taking a knee with his South Africa teammates ahead of the Sri Lanka game in Sharjah on Saturday. The cricketers are taking a knee during the T20 World Cup to extend their support toward the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and take a stand against racism of any form. ICC shared a video of De Kock taking a knee on social media with the message - "United against racism". View this post on Instagram A post shared by ICC (@icc) × De Kock had said 'it was his personal opinion' after resfusing to take a knee and pulling out of the game against West Indies. However, on Saturday, he took off his cap and took a knee to express his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Also Read: Quinton de Kock apologises for BLM row, pledges to take the knee De Kock replaced Heinrich Klaasen in the playing XI while the remaining South Africa line-up remained unchanged from their win against Wets Indies. Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma said the players were feeling much better ahead of the game against Sri Lanka then they were a few days ago. "The team is feeling much better than we were a couple of days ago," Bavuma said after winning the toss against Sri Lanka. "We obviously had some time to get away with the thing that's been happening. Quinton is in a much better state. As a team we are good, we're ready for the game today," he added.

WATCH: United against racism! Quinton de Kock joins SA teammates in taking a knee ahead of Sri Lanka clash

Quinton de Kock issues apology: Here's what we know so far since QDK refused to take the knee

Former Zimbabwean cricketer and now a popular commentator, Pommie Mbangwa has criticised the South African wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock for refusing to take a knee during a T20 World Cup match against West Indies on Tuesday (October 26).&nbsp;

De Kock defied the team's order that was meant for all the players to join the anti-racism gesture in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. However, the batter refused to do it and sat out. Previously also, de Kock had declined to take a knee calling it "own personal opinion".

WATCH | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/watch-imad-wasims-special-message-for-new-zealand-cricket-team-as-he-mentions-the-cancelled-tour-424548">Imad Wasim's 'special message' for New Zealand cricket team as he mentions the cancelled tour</a>

Pommoe Mbangwa said, "Excuse me for being political, but I cannot shed my skin. I hope that the discussion at the very least is about how to be united about something that everybody agrees on… also in the hope that there is an agreement,” Mbangwa said on-air while doing his commentary duties for the official broadcaster.

The Cricket South Africa (CSA) instructed the team to adopt "a consistent and united stance against racism". However, later released a statement saying, "Cricket South Africa has noted the personal decision by South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock not to take the knee ahead of Tuesday's game against the West Indies."

IN PICS |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/mentor-ms-dhoni-and-billion-cheers-jersey-why-indias-t20-world-cup-2021-campaign-will-be-remembered-forever-422991">Mentor MS Dhoni and Billion Cheers Jersey: Why India's T20 World Cup 2021 campaign will be remembered forever</a>

The statement added, "The Board will await a further report from team management before deciding on the next steps. All players are expected to follow this directive (to take the knee) for the remaining games of the World Cup."

Former Zimbabwean cricketer and now a popular commentator, Pommie Mbangwa has criticised the South African wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock for refusing to take a knee during a T20 World Cup match against West Indies on Tuesday (October 26).

Former Zimbabwean cricketer and now a popular commentator, Pommie Mbangwa has criticised the South African wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock for refusing to take a knee during a T20 World Cup match against West Indies on Tuesday (October 26). De Kock defied the team's order that was meant for all the players to join the anti-racism gesture in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. However, the batter refused to do it and sat out. Previously also, de Kock had declined to take a knee calling it "own personal opinion". WATCH | Imad Wasim's 'special message' for New Zealand cricket team as he mentions the cancelled tour Pommoe Mbangwa said, "Excuse me for being political, but I cannot shed my skin. I hope that the discussion at the very least is about how to be united about something that everybody agrees on… also in the hope that there is an agreement,” Mbangwa said on-air while doing his commentary duties for the official broadcaster. The Cricket South Africa (CSA) instructed the team to adopt "a consistent and united stance against racism". However, later released a statement saying, "Cricket South Africa has noted the personal decision by South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock not to take the knee ahead of Tuesday's game against the West Indies." IN PICS | Mentor MS Dhoni and Billion Cheers Jersey: Why India's T20 World Cup 2021 campaign will be remembered forever The statement added, "The Board will await a further report from team management before deciding on the next steps. All players are expected to follow this directive (to take the knee) for the remaining games of the World Cup."

Zimbabwe's Pommie Mbangwa criticises Quinton de Kock for refusing to take knee, says 'I cannot shed my skin'

South Africa batter Quinton de Kock withdrew from the T20 World Cup match after being dismissed for refusing to take the knee for Black Lives Matter (BLM). Should boards be forcing gestures on players?

South Africa wicket keeper de Kock withdraws from T20 World Cup after refusing to take knee

Quinton de Kock made heads turn when he opted out of South Africa's T20 World Cup 2021 clash versus West Indies, on Tuesday afternoon (October 26) at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai. While the players took a united stance by taking a knee in the fight against racism in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, De Kock's absence shocked the cricketing fraternity.

While Temba Bavuma-led Proteas went onto defeat the defending champions West Indies with ease, despite no De Kock in the line-up, the wicketkeeper-batsman's absence made heads turn and hogged the headlines. The swashbuckling left-hander has finally released a statement on his absence and apologised for not taking a knee.&nbsp;

Recently, David Wiese -- a former South African international who is now representing Namibia in Pool B of T20 WC -- reacted to QDK's BLM row. During a virtual press conference ahead of the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10 League, Wiese shared his thoughts on QDK's BLM row and told while responding to www.wionnews.com, "Look, I think Quinky has made a press release today. He has given his reasons. You got to respect that as a player regarding what he feels about it. I think he has put everything to bed and everyone knows why he&nbsp;did what he did. For me the most important thing is that whatever you decide, you need to decide as a team. Stand in unity behind racism. Whether it is feeling strongly about taking a knee or&nbsp;like the Pakistan team stood and held their hand on their badge. What you are doing to show your support to anti-racism, you just have to do it as a team, in a unified front. That's how I see things."

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/t20-world-cup-sa-star-quinton-de-kock-apologises-for-blm-row-pledges-to-take-the-knee-424674">T20 World Cup: SA star Quinton de Kock apologises for BLM row, pledges to take the knee</a>

In a release, QDK shared his take and said, "I would like to start by saying sorry to my teammates, and the fans back home.&nbsp; I never ever wanted to make this a Quinton issue. I understand the importance of standing against racism, and I also understand the responsibility of us as players to set an example.

<section itemprop="articleBody">
"If me taking a knee helps to educate others, and makes the lives of others better, I am more than happy to do so. I did not, in any way, mean to disrespect anyone by not playing against West Indies, especially the West Indian team themselves. Maybe some people don't understand that we were just hit with this on Tuesday morning, on the way to a game.
</section>

<section itemprop="articleBody">
"I am deeply sorry for all the hurt, confusion and anger that I have caused. I was quiet on this very important issue until now. But I feel I have to explain myself a little bit. For those who don't know, I come from a mixed race family. My half-sisters are Coloured and my step mom is Black. For me, Black lives have mattered since I was born. Not just because there was an international movement.
</section>

<section itemprop="articleBody">
"The rights and equality of all people is more important than any individual. I was raised to understand that we all have rights, and they are important. I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told.
</section>

<section itemprop="articleBody">
"Since our chat with the board last night, which was very emotional, I think we all have a better understanding of their intentions as well. I wish this had happened sooner, because what happened on match day could have been avoided."
</section>

Quinton de Kock made heads turn when he opted out of South Africa's T20 World Cup 2021 clash versus West Indies, on Tuesday afternoon (October 26) at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.

Quinton de Kock made heads turn when he opted out of South Africa's T20 World Cup 2021 clash versus West Indies, on Tuesday afternoon (October 26) at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai. While the players took a united stance by taking a knee in the fight against racism in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, De Kock's absence shocked the cricketing fraternity. While Temba Bavuma-led Proteas went onto defeat the defending champions West Indies with ease, despite no De Kock in the line-up, the wicketkeeper-batsman's absence made heads turn and hogged the headlines. The swashbuckling left-hander has finally released a statement on his absence and apologised for not taking a knee. Recently, David Wiese -- a former South African international who is now representing Namibia in Pool B of T20 WC -- reacted to QDK's BLM row. During a virtual press conference ahead of the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10 League, Wiese shared his thoughts on QDK's BLM row and told while responding to www.wionnews.com, "Look, I think Quinky has made a press release today. He has given his reasons. You got to respect that as a player regarding what he feels about it. I think he has put everything to bed and everyone knows why he did what he did. For me the most important thing is that whatever you decide, you need to decide as a team. Stand in unity behind racism. Whether it is feeling strongly about taking a knee or like the Pakistan team stood and held their hand on their badge. What you are doing to show your support to anti-racism, you just have to do it as a team, in a unified front. That's how I see things." ALSO READ | T20 World Cup: SA star Quinton de Kock apologises for BLM row, pledges to take the knee In a release, QDK shared his take and said, "I would like to start by saying sorry to my teammates, and the fans back home. I never ever wanted to make this a Quinton issue. I understand the importance of standing against racism, and I also understand the responsibility of us as players to set an example. "If me taking a knee helps to educate others, and makes the lives of others better, I am more than happy to do so. I did not, in any way, mean to disrespect anyone by not playing against West Indies, especially the West Indian team themselves. Maybe some people don't understand that we were just hit with this on Tuesday morning, on the way to a game. "I am deeply sorry for all the hurt, confusion and anger that I have caused. I was quiet on this very important issue until now. But I feel I have to explain myself a little bit. For those who don't know, I come from a mixed race family. My half-sisters are Coloured and my step mom is Black. For me, Black lives have mattered since I was born. Not just because there was an international movement. "The rights and equality of all people is more important than any individual. I was raised to understand that we all have rights, and they are important. I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told. "Since our chat with the board last night, which was very emotional, I think we all have a better understanding of their intentions as well. I wish this had happened sooner, because what happened on match day could have been avoided."

Stand in unity behind racism: Former South Africa star on Quinton de Kock's knee snub

South African players were 'surprised and taken back' as a team after wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock's refusal to take a knee and withdraw from his side's clash against West Indies in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 on Tuesday (October 26). De Kock cited personal reasons to pull out from the game after Cricket South Africa (CSA) released a directive asking the players to take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

Bavuma admitted post his side's 8-wicket win against West Indies that the players don't know exactly why De Kock decided to not take a knee to express his support for the anti-racism campaign and pull out of the match. The Proteas captain, however, said he and his teammates will respect the wicket-keeper batter's decision and expect him to stand by it.

"As a team, we are surprised and taken aback by the news. Quinton is a big player for the team, not just with the bat, but from a senior point of view, so not having this at my disposal, as a captain, is obviously something I wasn't looking forward to," Bavuma said after South Africa thrashed West Indies by 8 wickets.

"In saying that, Quinton is an adult. He is a man in his own shoes. We respect his decision, we respect his convictions, and I know he will be standing behind the decision he has taken," he added.

In the absence of De Kock, Henrich Klassen played as a wicket-keeper for the Proteas and did well behind the stumps to help them bounce back after their defeat in the opening clash against Australia. The Proteas didn't miss the presence of De Kock as they bagged a comfortable victory after chasing down the target of 144 runs with ten balls to spare.

"With (Henrich) Klassen coming in it was an opportunity for him and at the end of the day it was another day of cricket for us to play for our country and we had to make sure we live up to that," Bavuma said.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/terrible-harsha-bhogle-slams-waqar-younis-for-calling-rizwans-on-field-namaz-in-front-of-hindus-special-424230">Terrible! Harsha Bhogle slams Waqar Younis for calling Rizwan's on-field namaz in front of Hindus 'special'</a>

&nbsp;

Batting first, West Indies rode on opener Evin Lewis's 56 off 35 balls to post 143/8 on the board in 20 overs as the middle-order crumbled under pressure and failed to deliver in Dubai.&nbsp;

In reply, South Africa got off to a stuttering start losing captain Bavuma cheaply on 2 off just three deliveries before Reeza Hendricks (39) combined with Rassie van der Dussen (43) to post a 57-run stand for the second wicket and set up the run-chase.

Van der Dussen remained unbeaten on 43 and combined with Aiden Markram (unbeaten 51) to add an 83-run stand for the third wicket and take the team over the line. West Indies, on the other hand, suffered back-to-back defeats in their first two games in the Super 12 as the defending champions look set for an early exit from the tournament.

&nbsp;

South African players were 'surprised and taken back' as a team after wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock's refusal to take a knee and withdraw from his side's clash against West Indies in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 on Tuesday (October 26).

South African players were 'surprised and taken back' as a team after wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock's refusal to take a knee and withdraw from his side's clash against West Indies in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 on Tuesday (October 26). De Kock cited personal reasons to pull out from the game after Cricket South Africa (CSA) released a directive asking the players to take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Bavuma admitted post his side's 8-wicket win against West Indies that the players don't know exactly why De Kock decided to not take a knee to express his support for the anti-racism campaign and pull out of the match. The Proteas captain, however, said he and his teammates will respect the wicket-keeper batter's decision and expect him to stand by it. "As a team, we are surprised and taken aback by the news. Quinton is a big player for the team, not just with the bat, but from a senior point of view, so not having this at my disposal, as a captain, is obviously something I wasn't looking forward to," Bavuma said after South Africa thrashed West Indies by 8 wickets. "In saying that, Quinton is an adult. He is a man in his own shoes. We respect his decision, we respect his convictions, and I know he will be standing behind the decision he has taken," he added. In the absence of De Kock, Henrich Klassen played as a wicket-keeper for the Proteas and did well behind the stumps to help them bounce back after their defeat in the opening clash against Australia. The Proteas didn't miss the presence of De Kock as they bagged a comfortable victory after chasing down the target of 144 runs with ten balls to spare. "With (Henrich) Klassen coming in it was an opportunity for him and at the end of the day it was another day of cricket for us to play for our country and we had to make sure we live up to that," Bavuma said. Also Read: Terrible! Harsha Bhogle slams Waqar Younis for calling Rizwan's on-field namaz in front of Hindus 'special' Batting first, West Indies rode on opener Evin Lewis's 56 off 35 balls to post 143/8 on the board in 20 overs as the middle-order crumbled under pressure and failed to deliver in Dubai. In reply, South Africa got off to a stuttering start losing captain Bavuma cheaply on 2 off just three deliveries before Reeza Hendricks (39) combined with Rassie van der Dussen (43) to post a 57-run stand for the second wicket and set up the run-chase. Van der Dussen remained unbeaten on 43 and combined with Aiden Markram (unbeaten 51) to add an 83-run stand for the third wicket and take the team over the line. West Indies, on the other hand, suffered back-to-back defeats in their first two games in the Super 12 as the defending champions look set for an early exit from the tournament.

It took South Africa back as a team: Temba Bavuma on Quinton de Kock's withdrawl from West Indies clash

Cricket South Africa on Tuesday ordered its players to take the knee before their remaining T20 World Cup matches in support of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and took note of Quinton De Kock's withdrawal from the game against the West Indies due to "personal reasons".

In a shocking move, wicketkeeper-batter de Kock made himself unavailable for selection in South Africa's Group 1 Super 12 stage match against the West Indies in Dubai on Tuesday, his decision coming after the CSA's diktat. 
The board said it will await a report from the management before deciding on the next move.

"Cricket South Africa (CSA) has noted the personal decision by South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock not to "take the knee" ahead of Tuesday's game against the West Indies," the CSA said in a statement.

De Kock has expressed his reluctance to make the gesture in the past as well saying, "It's everyone's decision; no-one's forced to do anything, not in life. That's the way I see things." The country's cricket board, meanwhile, asked the players to follow the diktat.

"All players had been required, in line with a directive of the CSA Board on Monday evening, to "take the knee" in a united and consistent stance against racism.

"This is also the global gesture against racism that has been adopted by sportspeople across sporting codes because they recognise the power of sport to bring people together."

The CSA move is aimed at driving home the point that the board is serious about tackling racism and all forms of discrimination in the game.

"After considering all relevant issues, including the freedom of choice of players, the Board had made it clear it was imperative for the team to be seen taking a stand against racism, especially given SA's history.

"The Board's view was that while diversity can and should find expression in many facets of daily lives, this did not apply when it came to taking a stand against racism.

"The Board will await a further report from team management before deciding on the next steps. All players are expected to follow this directive for the remaining games of the World Cup."

The cricket fraternity too reacted to de Kock's sudden decision to pull out of the vital game for his team. 
Before the start of the match, Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik tweeted, "Quinton de Kock not playing because of his stand on BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement," with an image of de Kock refusing to take the knee. 
Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson said there must be some "internal issues".

"Huge shock. There must be something going on internally," Watson said on Star Sports. Former West Indies captain Brian Lara said de Kock's absence will give advantage to West Indies.

"It's going to be big advantage West Indies now that de Kock is not playing," Lara said. Earlier in the day, the CSA had stated that "concerns were raised that that the different postures taken by team members in support of the BLM initiative created an unintended perception of disparity or lack of support for the initiative."

"Taking the knee is the global gesture against racism adopted by sports persons across the globe." The South African cricketers have been seemingly split on the issue and before their T20 World Cup opener against Australia, players were seen standing, kneeling or raising a fist.

Pacer Anrich Nortje and wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen stood with their hands behind their backs even as their teammates used different ways to express their support to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement. The Indian cricket team had also taken the knee ahead of its tournament-opener against Pakistan on Sunday. The CSA pledged its support to BLM movement.

"Race should not be manipulated to amplify our weaknesses. Diversity can and should find expression in many facets of our daily lives, but not when it comes to taking a stand against racism," CSA Board chairperson Lawson Naidoo said in the statement.

"South Africans were recently joined by people across the world in celebrating the 90th birthday of our revered Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"What better tribute from the Proteas to an icon of the struggle for freedom in South Africa than to demonstrate we are working to fulfil his vision of a united South Africa."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan offered support to de Kock.

"Surely it's down to the individual to decide whether he or she wants to be involved in any movement? A Cricket board should request players to do it but if that individual decides they don't want too (sic) it should not stop them playing the game of Cricket."

Cricket South Africa on Tuesday ordered its players to take the knee before their remaining T20 World Cup matches in support of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and took note of Quinton De Kock's withdrawal from the game against the West Indies due to "personal reasons".

Cricket South Africa on Tuesday ordered its players to take the knee before their remaining T20 World Cup matches in support of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and took note of Quinton De Kock's withdrawal from the game against the West Indies due to "personal reasons". In a shocking move, wicketkeeper-batter de Kock made himself unavailable for selection in South Africa's Group 1 Super 12 stage match against the West Indies in Dubai on Tuesday, his decision coming after the CSA's diktat. The board said it will await a report from the management before deciding on the next move. "Cricket South Africa (CSA) has noted the personal decision by South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock not to "take the knee" ahead of Tuesday's game against the West Indies," the CSA said in a statement. De Kock has expressed his reluctance to make the gesture in the past as well saying, "It's everyone's decision; no-one's forced to do anything, not in life. That's the way I see things." The country's cricket board, meanwhile, asked the players to follow the diktat. "All players had been required, in line with a directive of the CSA Board on Monday evening, to "take the knee" in a united and consistent stance against racism. "This is also the global gesture against racism that has been adopted by sportspeople across sporting codes because they recognise the power of sport to bring people together." The CSA move is aimed at driving home the point that the board is serious about tackling racism and all forms of discrimination in the game. "After considering all relevant issues, including the freedom of choice of players, the Board had made it clear it was imperative for the team to be seen taking a stand against racism, especially given SA's history. "The Board's view was that while diversity can and should find expression in many facets of daily lives, this did not apply when it came to taking a stand against racism. "The Board will await a further report from team management before deciding on the next steps. All players are expected to follow this directive for the remaining games of the World Cup." The cricket fraternity too reacted to de Kock's sudden decision to pull out of the vital game for his team. Before the start of the match, Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik tweeted, "Quinton de Kock not playing because of his stand on BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement," with an image of de Kock refusing to take the knee. Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson said there must be some "internal issues". "Huge shock. There must be something going on internally," Watson said on Star Sports. Former West Indies captain Brian Lara said de Kock's absence will give advantage to West Indies. "It's going to be big advantage West Indies now that de Kock is not playing," Lara said. Earlier in the day, the CSA had stated that "concerns were raised that that the different postures taken by team members in support of the BLM initiative created an unintended perception of disparity or lack of support for the initiative." "Taking the knee is the global gesture against racism adopted by sports persons across the globe." The South African cricketers have been seemingly split on the issue and before their T20 World Cup opener against Australia, players were seen standing, kneeling or raising a fist. Pacer Anrich Nortje and wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen stood with their hands behind their backs even as their teammates used different ways to express their support to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement. The Indian cricket team had also taken the knee ahead of its tournament-opener against Pakistan on Sunday. The CSA pledged its support to BLM movement. "Race should not be manipulated to amplify our weaknesses. Diversity can and should find expression in many facets of our daily lives, but not when it comes to taking a stand against racism," CSA Board chairperson Lawson Naidoo said in the statement. "South Africans were recently joined by people across the world in celebrating the 90th birthday of our revered Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "What better tribute from the Proteas to an icon of the struggle for freedom in South Africa than to demonstrate we are working to fulfil his vision of a united South Africa." Former England captain Michael Vaughan offered support to de Kock. "Surely it's down to the individual to decide whether he or she wants to be involved in any movement? A Cricket board should request players to do it but if that individual decides they don't want too (sic) it should not stop them playing the game of Cricket."

CSA orders South Africa players to take knee at T20 WC after Quinton de Kock pulls out of Windies clash

In what can be termed as a ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement effect, two earliest portraits of men of African descent in the history of European art are being exhibited together. &nbsp;&nbsp;

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This is the only known European solo portrait of a black African dating from the 15th/16th century. He was probably a soldier, as his gloves suggest he was accustomed to sword fighting. His name is possibly Christophle le More, a guard of Charles V, but this is not certain. ⚔️ <a href="https://t.co/3QBDoyjidZ">pic.twitter.com/3QBDoyjidZ</a>
— Rijksmuseum (@rijksmuseum) <a href="https://twitter.com/rijksmuseum/status/1442837289814700036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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This has happened for the first time in the 500-year-old history, the Rijksmuseum’s curators have said. &nbsp;

Watch:&nbsp;

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Over 100 portraits by Renaissance artists are being showcased by the museum in Amsterdam from Tuesday. &nbsp;

The Remember Me exhibition is running until January 16. It features works made between 1470 and 1570. It also examines the reasons that lie behind portraiture, an art form that flourished in the 1500s.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/wandering-turtle-on-runway-causes-delay-at-tokyo-airport-416558" hreflang="en">Wandering turtle on runway causes delay at Tokyo airport</a>

In it, Albrecht Dürer’s 1508 sketch, which was discovered in the German painter’s workshop at the time of his death, and Jan Jansz Mostaert’s portrait, which dates back to 1525, are being also displayed. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/smoking-weed-your-phone-can-detect-if-youre-high-on-marijuana-416556" hreflang="en">Smoking weed? Your phone can detect if you’re high on marijuana</a>

On asking why it wasn’t done before, Friso Lammertse, curator of 17th century Dutch paintings at the Rijksmuseum, suggested, a relative lack of interest about the pieces seems to have been the reason of their exclusion from such exhibitions.

“Things have changed only really recently, with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Lammertse said. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In what can be termed as a ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement effect, two earliest portraits of men of African descent in the history of European art are being exhibited together.

In what can be termed as a ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement effect, two earliest portraits of men of African descent in the history of European art are being exhibited together. This is the only known European solo portrait of a black African dating from the 15th/16th century. He was probably a soldier, as his gloves suggest he was accustomed to sword fighting. His name is possibly Christophle le More, a guard of Charles V, but this is not certain. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/3QBDoyjidZ — Rijksmuseum (@rijksmuseum) September 28, 2021 × This has happened for the first time in the 500-year-old history, the Rijksmuseum’s curators have said. Watch: × Over 100 portraits by Renaissance artists are being showcased by the museum in Amsterdam from Tuesday. The Remember Me exhibition is running until January 16. It features works made between 1470 and 1570. It also examines the reasons that lie behind portraiture, an art form that flourished in the 1500s. Also Read: Wandering turtle on runway causes delay at Tokyo airport In it, Albrecht Dürer’s 1508 sketch, which was discovered in the German painter’s workshop at the time of his death, and Jan Jansz Mostaert’s portrait, which dates back to 1525, are being also displayed. Also Read: Smoking weed? Your phone can detect if you’re high on marijuana On asking why it wasn’t done before, Friso Lammertse, curator of 17th century Dutch paintings at the Rijksmuseum, suggested, a relative lack of interest about the pieces seems to have been the reason of their exclusion from such exhibitions. “Things have changed only really recently, with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Lammertse said. (With inputs from agencies)