The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALMONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 N A

Struggle for Racial JusticeFallout in the U.S.

Four police officers in San Jose,
Calif., have been placed on admin-
istrative leave after an anony-
mous blog post accused retired
and current officers of posting
racist and anti-Muslim comments
in a private Facebook group.
“While I have no control over
what former employees post on-
line, I can voice my outrage after
hearing about these comments
made online,” the police chief, Ed-
die Garcia, said in a statement.
“Any current employee involved
with bigoted activity online will
promptly be investigated and held
accountable to the fullest extent in
my power. We have no place for
this.”
A spokeswoman for the San
Jose Police Department said on
Sunday that the police were con-
ducting an “administrative inves-
tigation” after a Medium blog post
chronicled various inflammatory
posts by retired and current San
Jose police officers. The post de-
tailed discussions in the private
Facebook group “10–7ODSJ.”
In response to a Facebook post
about a Los Angeles Muslim wom-
an’s hijab being pulled off by an of-
ficer, one user said to “repurpose”
hijabs as nooses. Another post
called the Black Lives Matter
movement “racist,” saying it was
part of an “anti-American narra-
tive.” A comment on the post
reads “black lives don’t really
matter.”
Chief Garcia said officers who
engaged in misconduct online
have in the past been fired. “I have
previously responded with disci-
pline up to termination after an in-
vestigation into off-duty online ac-

tivity that runs counter to our

standards of conduct,” he said.

A department spokeswoman

declined to disclose specific de-

tails about the four officers placed

on leave, including their ranks and

whether they were on paid or un-

paid leave.

The mayor of San Jose, Sam

Liccardo, demanded an investiga-

tion and called for the termination

of officers who post “racist, anti-

Muslim or menacing comments.”

In a statement, Mr. Liccardo noted

that an officer was previously

fired for tweets some also labeled

racist, however, the officer was re-

instated after an arbitrator found

his comments did not justify ter-

mination.

“As I articulated in my police re-

form proposal this week, I will

push for changes to a disciplinary

process that allows unaccount-

able arbitrators to reverse termi-

nation decisions of the chief,” Mr.

Liccardo said, citing a list of pro-

posals to reform the Police De-

partment. “I will further push for

independent investigation of all

racially discriminatory conduct.”

Police activity online, particu-

larly on social media, has drawn

scrutiny and backlash.

The Plain View Project, a data-

base tracking inflammatory posts

from the police across eight U.S.

departments, found about one in

five current officers have engaged

in Facebook activity involving bi-

ased comments and racist, Islam-

ophobic and misogynistic lan-

guage.

On Friday, a police officer in

Hoover, Ala., was fired after post-

ing a photo on Facebook that de-

picted an armed black protester in

“the cross hairs of a rifle scope,”

AL.com reported.

Paul Kelly, the president of the

San Jose Police Officers’ Associa-

tion, said he was “saddened” by

the accusations and that the union

would not offer any support or fi-

nancial help to those the depart-

ment finds to have participated in

the misconduct under investiga-

tion.

“The news that I read today

about members of our union and

former members of our union par-

ticipating in an online ring of hate

makes me sick,” Mr. Kelly said in a

statement. “I say this to anyone

that participated: The San Jose

Police Officers’ Association will

provide you no shelter, no protec-

tion. We will not represent you, be-

cause you do not represent us and

you do not represent our commu-

nity.”

Racist Posts

On Facebook

Land Officers

In Trouble

A protester in front of San Jose police officers last month. Racist

posts on a private Facebook page have spurred an investigation.

BEN MARGOT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

An investigation after

an article chronicled

inflammatory posts.

By ALLYSON WALLER

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi
lawmakers voted on Sunday to
bring down, once and for all, the
state flag dominated by the Con-
federate battle emblem that has
flown for 126 years, adding a punc-
tuation point to years of efforts to
take down relics of the Confedera-
cy across the South.
The flag, the only state banner
left in the country with the overt
Confederate symbol, served for
many as an inescapable sign of
Mississippi’s racial scars and of
the consequences of that history
in defining perceptions of the
state.
Still embraced by many white
Mississippians as a proud display
of Old South heritage, the flag in-
creasingly has come to evoke seg-
regation, racial violence and a war
that had a central aim of preserv-
ing slavery.
In Mississippi, the state with
the nation’s highest percentage of
African-Americans, that has long
been the understanding of black
residents. It’s now the view of
many white Mississippians as
well. For others, the drag on the
state’s perception by outsiders
and the continuing friction within
were battles too costly to keep
waging.
The vote in the Mississippi
House was 91 in favor of removal
and 23 opposed. The vote in the
Senate was 37-14. The measure
now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, a
Republican, who has said he will
sign it.
Mississippi began grappling
with the flag once again this
spring as a result of the death of
George Floyd in the custody of the
Minneapolis police, which rapidly
evolved into a sprawling expres-
sion of fury and exasperation over
the countless manifestations of
the nation’s tangled racial history.
“This was a long time coming,”
Nsombi Lambright-Haines said
after applause broke out in the
Capitol and a crowd huddled in-
side tossed aside coronavirus pre-
cautions for a brief second and
embraced one other.
“I’m glad to see this happen in
my lifetime, in my son’s lifetime —
in my grandmother’s lifetime,”
added Ms. Lambright-Haines, an
N.A.A.C.P. volunteer who has
been involved in efforts to take
down the flag for two decades.
(Her grandmother is 96.)
Amid a movement that has
brought down monuments of Con-
federates, colonizers and conquis-
tadors and stripped the names of
segregationists from buildings
and programs, pressure soon ze-
roed in on the flag.
Lawmakers were confronted by
a cascade of calls from inside and
outside Mississippi as opposition
coalesced across racial, religious,
partisan and cultural divides.
Football and basketball coaches

paraded through the Capitol urg-

ing a change. A varied assortment

that included country music stars,

the state’s black and white Baptist

conventions, civil rights organiza-

tions and associations of bankers,

manufacturers and librarians also

indicated their opposition.

“People’s hearts have

changed,” Philip Gunn, the Re-

publican House speaker who was

one of the strongest proponents of

bringing the measure to a vote in

the Legislature, told reporters on

Sunday. “We are better today than

we were yesterday, and because

we are better, we are stronger.”

The legislation sent to Mr.

Reeves proposes abolishing the

old flag and creating a commis-

sion that would design a new one.

The new banner would be forbid-

den from having the Confederate

battle emblem and must include

the phrase “In God we trust.” The

commission would be charged

with arriving at a design by Sep-

tember for it to be put up for a vote

on the November ballot.

The legislation would mandate

the “prompt, dignified and re-

spectful” removal within 15 days

of the bill going into effect.

Mr. Reeves, a Republican, said

on Saturday that he would sign a

bill, which represented the latest

evolution in his thinking. He ini-

tially said that any decision to

change the flag ought to be made

directly by voters.

“The argument over the 1894

flag has become as divisive as the

flag itself,” Mr. Reeves said in a

statement, “and it’s time to end it.”

The legislation cleared a signifi-

cant procedural hurdle on Satur-

day as a supermajority in both the

House of Representatives and

Senate voted to move ahead.

Many lawmakers said remov-

ing the flag had an air of inevitabil-

ity, as Mississippi increasingly

looked like a conspicuous holdout

as activists pushed to minimize

and contextualize the remnants of

the Confederacy that have long

been on prominent display.

The argument for changing the

flag was a moral one for some. Yet

the calls for a change resonated

more widely because of economic

concerns raised by business lead-

ers and moderate Republicans.

They contended that Mississippi,

as one of the poorest states, could

not afford to have barriers turning

away outside investment.

The financial threat had been

underscored by recent announce-

ments by the National Collegiate

Athletic Association and the

Southeastern Conference that

Mississippi would be precluded

from hosting championship

events until the flag was changed.

“I don’t know how long I want to

sit around and watch Mississippi

get kicked around because of a

piece of cloth we have hanging

over our capitol,” W. Briggs Hop-

son III, a Republican state sena-

tor, told his colleagues before the

vote.

The groundswell effort to

change the flag belied the extent

of the division that still exists over

the banner and how to interpret

the legacy it symbolizes. Various

polls show that, even as the num-

ber of people supporting a change

has increased, nearly half of the

state was resistant to the idea.

“Whether we like it or not, the

Confederate emblem on our state

flag is viewed by many as a sym-

bol of hate — there’s no getting

around that fact,” Jason White, a

Republican state representative,

said on the floor of the House on

Saturday.

Many remain attached to the

flag because they see it as an en-

during recognition of the blood

shed by their ancestors who

fought for Mississippi and their

pride in the state’s history.

Resistance to the vote has sur-

faced already: The Mississippi Di-

vision of the Sons of Confederate

Veterans, in a post on its Facebook

page, suggested rallying voters to

impede any efforts to replace the

flag. “We need to come up with

ways to make this as hard on them

as possible and make them regret

it,” the post said.

One person replied, “I have a

flag and it’s not changing.”

Chris McDaniel, a Republican

state senator who has been one of

the most ardent critics of the legis-

lation, argued that changing the

flag represented a dangerous

precedent for erasing history.

“To insist that somehow the

slippery slope is illogical is to ig-

nore the tide of history,” he said on

the Senate floor on Sunday. “Ev-

erywhere we look people are seek-

ing these changes and they can-

not, will not, be appeased.”

During the discussion in the

Legislature, much of the dissent

about changing the flag was fo-

cused less on an outright defense

of it and more about voicing sup-

port of a referendum.

Chris Brown, a Republican

state representative, said he had

heard from many constituents

who supported removing the flag

but who also wanted to use a state-

wide vote to send a message about

Mississippi.

“They want to show the world

that they’re moving on,” Mr.

Brown said.

It would be a sharp contrast

from the last time the flag was

opened to a statewide ballot, in

2001, when voters overwhelm-

ingly decided to keep the flag.

The effort was revived five

years ago after a white suprema-

cist killed nine African-American

worshipers in a Charleston, S.C.,

church, prompting the removal of

monuments to the Confederacy

across the region as well as battle

flags on statehouse grounds in

Alabama and South Carolina.

(Several other Southern states

have flags that are regarded as ob-

liquely referencing Confederate

iconography, including Alabama

and Florida.)

Many cities moved on their own

to take down the flag and all eight

of the state’s public universities

lowered it on their campuses.

Before they voted on Sunday,

lawmakers described wrestling

with competing emotions about

the flag’s meaning and spoke pas-

sionately about a desire to unify

Mississippi. “That’s what we’ve

all prayed for,” said Jerry R.

Turner, a Republican representa-

tive.

At least one had teared up after

the vote as he acknowledged the

symbolic power of lowering the

flag.

“This has taught us a lesson,”

Robert L. Johnson III, the House

Democratic leader, told reporters,

noting the legislation had biparti-

san support that bridged racial

and geographic lines. “We’re one

Mississippi moving forward.”

The galleries in the House and

Senate held sparse crowds be-

cause of coronavirus precautions,

but the people who were there and

waiting in the Capitol corridors

erupted into applause as soon as

the Senate tally was announced.

Arekia Bennett, a 27-year-old

Mississippi native, was over-

whelmed with emotions.

“Mississippi had some charac-

ter decisions to make, and today,

we did,” said Ms. Bennett, the ex-

ecutive director of Mississippi

Votes, a voting rights organiza-

tion.

She noted how, after years of

pushing, the balance suddenly

had shifted in the favor of those

wanting to retire the flag to his-

tory. “This is progress,” she said,

“that no one thought we could

make.”

Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Retire State Flag Rooted in the Confederacy

By RICK ROJAS

Applause broke out in the Mississippi Senate galleries, above, after the bill to retire the state flag

overcame a hurdle on Saturday. On the floor of the chamber, right, two state senators, Nicole Boyd,

at left, and Sarita Simmons, embraced. The bill calls for the removal of the flags within 15 days.

ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BARBARA GAUNTT/THE CLARION-LEDGER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

A groundswell effort

to remove a symbol,

and a debate on what

has yet to change.

A fatal shooting in Louisville on

Saturday night added a grim note

to weeks of protests against police

violence and particularly against

the killing there in March of Bre-

onna Taylor, an African-American

emergency room technician shot

to death by police in her home.

The shooting victim was identi-

fied as Tyler Gerth, 27, of Lou-

isville. Mr. Gerth was a photogra-

pher who had frequented the pro-

tests and documented them with

his camera for weeks, the Lou-

isville Courier Journal reported.

The accused shooter was identi-

fied in an arrest citation as Steven

Lopez. He has been charged with

murder and first-degree wanton

endangerment, according to the

citation.

He had been a participant in the

protests and had repeatedly been

asked to leave by other protesters

“due to his disruptive behavior,”

officials said at a news conference

on Sunday. Mr. Lopez is in police

custody at a hospital.

Chief Robert Schroeder said Mr.

Lopez had been arrested “a couple

of times” in the past several

weeks.

Mayor Greg Fischer of Lou-

isville said that Mr. Lopez had

shot no one else on Saturday aside

from Mr. Gerth. Mr. Lopez was

wounded in the leg by gunfire

from bystanders at the park who

were defending themselves, ac-

cording to his arrest citation.

Videos posted online showed a

man standing on the edge of Jef-

ferson Square Park firing more

than a dozen shots that sent pro-

testers scrambling for shelter

among tents and park benches.

The police cleared the park to in-

vestigate the shooting, and pro-

testers will no longer be allowed to

camp or set up tents at Jefferson

Square Park, said Amy Hess, chief

of public services.

“We just felt the situation that

culminated with last night’s shoot-

ing has become too dangerous to

allow this type of activity to con-

tinue any longer,” Ms. Hess said.

It has been the city’s policy

since before the protests began to

prohibit camping in the park, but

Ms. Hess said that policy had been

intentionally overlooked in order

to allow protesters to “come to-

gether to demand change.”

But when violence broke out in

the camp, the tents made it espe-

cially difficult for law enforcement

to discern what was happening,

she said.

“It’s a safety issue at this point,”

Ms. Hess said.

Louisville has been a center of

the protests against police vio-

lence following the killing of

George Floyd in Minneapolis last

month.

Mr. Floyd’s death renewed fo-

cus on Ms. Taylor, 26, who was

shot and killed by Louisville police

officers who were serving a

search warrant at her apartment.

The police were executing a “no-

knock” warrant, which allows

them to enter without identifying

themselves.

During the encounter, Mr.

Walker fired his gun, hitting an of-

ficer in the leg, and the police

opened fire, hitting Ms. Taylor at

least eight times. The warrant

was issued as part of a drug inves-

tigation but no drugs were found

in the apartment.

The Louisville police have dis-

missed one of the officers who

opened fire, Brett Hankison, say-

ing he violated their policy on the

use of deadly force by “wantonly

and blindly” firing 10 shots in Ms.

Taylor’s apartment. The Lou-

isville City Council has also voted

to ban no-knock warrants, a meas-

ure known as “Breonna’s Law.”

One Dies After Man Opens Fire at Protest

By AUSTIN RAMZY

and LUCY TOMPKINS

Praying at Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Ky., where a man was fatally shot on Saturday.

DYLAN LOVAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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