3 Young White Guys With a Machete Beat Up a Nonwhite Protester in Minneapolis

A group of young white men beat a non-white protester in Minneapolis as protests raged across the city, disturbing video obtained by VICE News shows.

It’s just a snapshot of some of the chaos that’s engulfed the city since Monday, when George Floyd died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. And it’s some of the most tangible evidence to support Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s assertion that groups of unsavory characters were using the tragedy of Floyd’s death to stoke unrest in the city.

Jose Ponce, 26, who took the video, was walking with Tanis Beiris, 31, whom he’d met earlier in the day, when they encountered the group of three white men, in their early twenties.

They were being destructive, according to Ponce and Beiris, who said they witnessed the men shouting obscenities at police and throwing things. They followed them from a distance, and said the men went into burned-down buildings, grabbed stuff from inside, and threw it into the streets.

“They stood out to me in a way. They seemed like they weren’t from here, they looked very suspicious to me — something didn’t feel right,” said Ponce.

Beiris went up to them and asked them where they were from. She said one of them had a metal bar (which is seen in the video) and another had a machete — and they came toward her.

Suddenly a man that neither Ponce nor Beiris knew intervened and told the men to get away from her. The man with the machete that had been threatening her “jumped on him,” Beiris said.

“They just attacked him,” Ponce added. “Stomped him. It was bad.” In the video, it shows them pulling him to the ground, and kicking him while he lies on the street. Ponce and Beiris said the victim appeared to be a person of color.

Other bystanders ran up and shouted at the attackers to get away.

After they left, “I ran up the street, and yelled for a medic,” said Ponce. “This guy was bleeding, twitching.”

Beiris said that the victim threw up twice after they got him to stand up.

Other protesters brought over a wheelbarrow, said Beiris, which they used to transport the victim to a makeshift medical center set up in the parking lot of a Native American community center a couple blocks away.

Cover: A still from the video.

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Snapshots of the George Floyd Protests in LA

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I Told Riot Cops I’m a Journalist. They Forced Me to the Ground and Pepper Sprayed Me in the Face.

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MINNEAPOLIS — The cop had his gun trained on me the moment he saw me.

At this point, I already had my hands up, press ID in hand, and was yelling “PRESS” over and over and over.

It didn’t matter. Not to him. He told me as much before forcing me to the ground near the gas pump I was taking cover behind. Then, a second later, another cop came by as I was lying there, my press card still raised above my head.

“I am press,” I said.

The officer responded by spraying me in the face with pepper spray.

Our team had come to the gas station in Minneapolis earlier in the evening to spend time with the owners of the business, which had already been ransacked twice during protests over the May 25 killing of George Floyd by the city's police. The owners were now bracing for yet another night of mayhem.

Assad and Cindy Awaijane had decided that, despite losing everything inside their store, they weren’t going to let the building burn. People from the neighborhood weren’t going to let that happen, either. As curfew approached, folding chairs were set up, coals in a grill kettle were lit, and the Awaijane family joined a host of friends from the community to camp out and keep the chaos happening just beyond their parking lot in check.

Shortly after 10 p.m., demonstrators gathered in the street in front of the Stop-N-Shop. Heavily armed cops, wearing riot gear and backed by hordes of marked SUVs, slowly advanced on the protestors in both directions and fired tear gas canisters and baton rounds at anything that moved. VICE News producer Roberto Daza took a round to the lower back, below his ribcage, while filming people attempting to throw some of the smoking cans back at police.

The skirmish lasted about 30 minutes before police were able to funnel the protesters into the surrounding neighborhoods, herding them with a convoy of military humvees. Aside from a few people in the crowd who tried to rush into the gas station parking lot, the Stop-N-Shop was spared any further destruction. Lake Street was quiet again. Only the sound of flash-bangs could be heard in the distance.

No sooner had the situation seemed to calm down than a rush of police vans doubled back, pulled up in front of the Stop-N-Shop, and started unloading at least a dozen officers who began firing at the Awaijanes and their friends who’d come to help them protect their business.

I took cover behind one of the gas station pumps. Daza and another VICE News producer, Amel Guettatfi, used the driver and passenger side doors of our rental car for cover, while our director of photography, Daniel Vergara, found cover behind a pickup truck.

As the officers advanced, guns drawn and pointed at us, our team began shouting “PRESS” to identify ourselves as members of the media. Police told us, despite being clearly identified as press, to get on the ground, and they continued to shoot foam baton rounds into the lot.

One of the cops trained his rifle on me. I raised my press card and repeatedly told him that I was press. The officer said he didn’t care, shoved me to the ground and told me to stay there. I complied and continued to hold my press card above my head. That’s when the other officer walked by and unleashed pepper spray into my face.

Meanwhile, police were also pepper-spraying inside the car we’d rented and doused the rest of our team, who was trying to take cover and comply with their orders. The Awaijanes’ son, Bobby, 23, also took a healthy dose of the chemical to the face as he was on his hands and knees, his mom said, following the officer’s instructions.

Once police had corralled our crew into our car, and the Awaijanes and their friends retreated inside the gutted store, the cops began to leave. The attack lasted less than 10 minutes but left a lasting impression on the owners. On us, too.

Cover: A Minneapolis riot cop points a weapon on me and advances, even as I'm shouting, "Press!" (Photo: Michael Anthony Adams/VICE News)

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Protesters Facing Felony Charges in New York Could Wait Days in Rikers Before Their Hearings

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In the three nights since protests erupted over the police killing of George Floyd, police have arrested 345 people in New York City.

While the overwhelming majority of those arrested were charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, several have been charged with felony assault. At least three protesters involved in the burning of a police van are facing federal charges.

The protesters charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies will have to appear in court at a later date, but those who received felony assault charges can expect to be held for days in jail. Normally, the arraignment process takes about 24 hours, but since COVID-19 has crippled New York’s court system, that process can now take as long as 40.

According to several public defenders, most people who can’t make bail will be held at Rikers until they can appear in court. That could mean indefinitely, as long as courts are paused in New York City. Rikers has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infections in the city.

And even after demonstrators appear, the odds haven’t been in their favor.

“My office worked on between 12 and 20 [preliminary] hearings, and I don’t think anyone has won,” said Liz Skeen, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in New York City. “Clients can either plead guilty or go to trial.”

The NYPD arrests a protester from a crowd that gathered in response to the killing of George Floyd. (Photo: Joe Hill/VICE News)

All procedures, like defendants conferring with legal counsel as well as actual arraignments, are held on Skype, which often leads to dropped calls and long shifts for judges and attorneys that stretch until 2 a.m.

Because the pandemic has stopped grand juries from convening, people can expect a preliminary hearing where a judge will hear from one witness, usually the arresting officer. The defense is allowed to cross-examine, but the defendant won’t be able to defend themselves.

The judge then has 45 days to hand down an indictment.

The lengthy process could also cost defendants their incomes. Some jobs, like those with licensing requirements to work with children or drive with a rideshare company, don’t let people work with a pending criminal case.

“That’s one of the saddest worst aspects of what I see,” Skeen said. “Then someone is out of work for six months because of it.”

But the prospect of jail time or losing their jobs doesn’t appear to be dissuading protesters, who told VICE News they’re willing to take the risk.

“Obviously, no one wants to be arrested, but it is something that we prepare for,” said Michael W., 30, who demonstrated against police in the south Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush, where hundreds of police and protesters clashed late into the night. He asked VICE News not to use his last name.

“We let relatives know that [arrest is] a possibility. We give them our savings account in case we need bail money, things like that. That’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make,” Michael said. “At this point, what else can we do? If it means getting beat by the cops, if it means going to jail for some time and getting a record, that’s unfortunate. But that’s a risk we’re willing to take.”

A protester and several NYPD officers break into a short altercation in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo: Joe Hill/VICE News)

Carolina Castenada, 24, was prepared for the possibility of being arrested: She’d used Sharpie to write down the number of the National Lawyers’ Guild on her arm, as well as the numbers of friends she could call for bail money. At least one representative from the National Lawyers’ Guild also wandered through the Flatbush crowd, wearing a lanyard with the number to report incidents and arrests.

“It’s more important for me to be here, then [worry about being] arrested,” she told VICE News. “I’m not ashamed to say that the reason I got arrested is because I was standing up for my brothers and sisters of color. I will, to my dying day, defend my choice to be here. I’m a little scared but I know it’s more important for me to be standing here right now.”

“This is worth it, this is a fight against racism,” Castenada added. “I want my children to live in a world where there is less of it. If I have to pay a price, then I will.”

The NYPD arrests a protester from a crowd that gathered in response to the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was suffocated by police in Minneapolis. (Photo: Joe Hill/VICE News)

Several people were taken into police custody throughout Saturday night in Flatbush, a majority black neighborhood that has one of the highest rates of coronavirus hospitalization in the city. HuffPost reporter Chris Mathias was one of the individuals arrested while covering the protests. His press badge was clearly visible as officers led him away.

Some locals like Anthony Beckford, a candidate for city council, blamed the escalating violence with police on people who’ve joined the protests from outside the neighborhood. Cops would periodically charge into the crowd of protesters and drag individuals off into a van, waiting a block away from the main confrontation.

“These were not our white allies, these were white co-opters from wherever else,” said Beckford, who also leads the Brooklyn Sector of CopWatch Patrol Unit, an activist organization that aims to protect people of color from discriminatory policing. “They came and damaged one of the vans out here, who gets picked up and who gets beaten for that? Our people.”

Protesters and NYPD officers stand off during a march in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo: Joe Hill/VICE News)

“The difference is, the people that’s from our community are going to get arrested and stay in. The people from other communities are going to get out,” said Monique Chandler-Waterman, who works for New York state assemblyman N. Nick Perry. She said she’s lived in the Flatbush area her entire life and didn’t recognize many of the people clashing with police. “There's a big disparity about what color you are in this system.”

Chandler-Waterman said she’s deeply worried that taking people into police custody is going to make local COVID-19 rates skyrocket.

“They should be able to go home, because they didn’t commit a crime, in my opinion,” she said of nonviolent demonstrators. “That’s not somebody who needs to go through and spend the night in jail, in my opinion, because the increased risk of people being in jail and gathering — you don’t want that. You shouldn’t add to the system, at this point.”

Even the protests themselves are a danger, she added. Many of the police officers at Flatbush weren’t wearing masks.

“I’m concerned that there’s gonna be a big spike after this. You cannot talk about reopening when we had a thousand people out here and we were not six feet apart.”

Cover: An NYPD vehicle is shown in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, where protesters gathered in the streets on on Saturday, May 30, 2020, to demand justice for George Floyd. (Photo: Joe Hill/VICE News)

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NYC Mayor Blames Protesters for Cops Who Drove SUVs Through a Crowd of People

Hours after two NYPD SUVs were caught on camera plowing through protesters in Brooklyn, scattering bodies and sending one protester flying through the air, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Saturday he wished those officers had taken “a different approach.”

“I’m not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation,” de Blasio said at a press conference late Saturday. “The NYPD, all day long, has been working hard. It’s been a very, very difficult day for our officers. Some of them have been put into very dangerous situations, and that’s not appropriate.”

In a pair of videos taken at the scene, one SUV-sized NYPD car can be seen pulling up to a steadily gathering crowd of protesters, who place a makeshift barricade in front of the vehicle.

As demonstrators throw what appear to be a few plastic bottles and a traffic cone at the car, a second NYPD SUV pulls up alongside the first. That second car keeps driving forward, straight into the crowd — and then the first car does the same.

The cars push protesters back several feet, throwing some to the ground. People started to scream.

An unnamed law enforcement source told CBS News that the police weren’t trying to “ram” the protesters but to “go forward and escape.” In the videos, protesters are not behind the cop cars as they accelerate forward — so they could have backed up instead.

“It’s inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers. That’s wrong on its face,” de Blasio said. “If a police officer is in that situation, they have to get out of that situation. The video was upsetting, and I wish the officers hadn’t done that, but I also understood that they didn’t start that situation.”

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Queens Democrat, condemned both the video and de Blasio’s comments on Twitter.

“Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds is wrong,” she said. “Running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalized. No matter who does it, no matter why.”

In the six days since video emerged of the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, dozens of cities across the United States have erupted in civil unrest. Saturday marked the third night of protests in New York City, and several incidents of the NYPD endangering protesters have emerged since Friday.

The NYPD did not respond to a VICE News request for comment about the video.

Across Manhattan and Brooklyn on Saturday, thousands marched, hoisted signs, and cried out Floyd’s name. Cops and protesters confronted each other late into the night, with demonstrators shouting slogans like, “No justice, no peace,” “Say his name: George Floyd,” and, “Say her name: Breonna Taylor.” (Louisville, Kentucky, police shot Taylor to death in her home in mid-March.)

In south Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, police and protesters clashed for hours. Demonstrators threw glass bottles, while police in riot gear periodically charged into the crowd to make arrests and drag people off into a waiting van. Helicopters hovered over the scene; at one point in the afternoon, a helicopter flew so low and so close to the protesters that the wind became overwhelming. Still, the protesters stayed, their hands in the air.

After sunset, a dumpster and a police car were set on fire. A cloud of peppery mace seemed to hang in the air permanently, and milk was splattered all over the pavement as people tried to wash out their irritated eyes. The entire block reeked of burning metal.

Cover: Aerial still of video that shows NYPD police SUVs driving into a crowd of protesters. (Photo: Twitter)

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SpaceX's Historic Crewed ISS Launch Takes Flight

Elon Musk's SpaceX made history on Saturday with the launch of its first spaceflight carrying astronauts, which is also the first crewed launch from U.S. soil in nine years and marks the beginning of an era of private sector spaceflight.

This long-anticipated launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, but mission leads opted to scrub it fewer than 20 minutes before the rocket was set to blast off. Following a tense day of dark clouds and even a tornado warning near the Cape Canaveral launchpad, the weather conditions were deemed an unacceptable threat to the safety of the mission and its astronauts.

Though clouds threatened to postpone the launch again on Saturday, the weather fortunately cleared in time for the backup time-slot for the launch. At 3:22 PM EDT on Saturday, May 30, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, carrying two astronauts in a Crew Dragon capsule, who are now on their way to the International Space Station. This launchpad is the same historic site where the Apollo astronauts took off on NASA’s Saturn V rocket some 50 years ago.

The Apollo crews made history by performing the first crewed Moon landings, and now Hurley and Behnken have become the first astronauts ever to travel to space in a commercial vessel, heralding a new age of private sector spaceflight. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s flight features a key innovation: the reusable booster of the Falcon 9 rocket is able to return to Earth and land on a drone ship.

The pair will spend a day traveling to the ISS and testing out some of the manual controls on the Crew Dragon. They are set to arrive and dock at the station on Sunday, and will join the ISS crew that is currently onboard.

The plan after that is somewhat hazy, as NASA hasn’t yet decided how long Hurley and Behnken will stay at the station. It may be only a few weeks, and it will not exceed more than four months, as that is the maximum amount of time the Crew Dragon can stay docked to the station without risking degradation of its solar panels, according to The Verge

Once the Crew Dragon does return to Earth, whenever that may be, it will brave atmospheric reentry and then splash down off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean. This will mark the first time that NASA astronauts have landed in the ocean since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a joint American-Soviet mission, in 1975. NASA’s Space Shuttle was designed to perform runway landings, while the Russian Soyuz capsule that NASA has relied on since 2011 deploys parachutes to slow the craft for touch down in Kazakhstan.

Today is the beginning of a momentous journey for Hurley, Behnken, and the broader NASA and SpaceX communities. But this trip is only the first of many: As NASA’s commercial partners continue to develop their launch systems, it will become increasingly common to see astronauts blasting off from Florida’s Space Coast on private spacecraft.

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READ: Here's Mike Flynn's Declassified Conversation With Russia's Ambassador

WASHINGTON — They were the phone calls that helped launch Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

Now, they’re being weaponized as part of a fabricated, hyped-up scandal dubbed “Obamagate.”

Back in December 2016, after President Trump was elected but before he took office, the incoming National Security Advisor Mike Flynn spoke on the phone with Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak.

The Obama Administration had just slapped sanctions on Russia for interfering in the election, ejecting 35 suspected Russian intelligence officers from the U.S. and closing Russian compounds in Maryland and New York. But Flynn told the Russians to play it cool, and not to escalate tensions, according to a transcript released Friday.

Flynn told Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak not to respond to the sanctions in a way that might force Trump to escalate even further, setting off a series of tit-for-tat retaliations.

“Let’s keep this at even-kill level,” Flynn said, according to the document. “Then when we come in, we will have a better conversation [about] where we are going to go regarding our relationship.”

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about these conversations when investigators asked him about them later. Flynn admitted in court that he’d falsely told the FBI that he didn’t discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

That conviction was seen as an early win for the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia led by former special counsel Robert Mueller. Flynn’s secret conversation with Kislyak was seen by many observers as an attempt to undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to punish Russia for interfering in the election on Trump’s behalf.

But in January, Flynn told the court that his earlier admission was made under pressure from prosecutors, that he never meant to deliberately lie, and that he should never have entered a guilty plea. Now, he insists that he doesn’t even remember what he spoke about with Kislyak anyway.

Since then, Trump and his supporters have insisted Flynn was wrongfully targeted in an attempt to bring Trump down, as part of an ill-defined domestic spying scandal that Trump has branded “Obamagate.”

Trump’s Department of Justice has moved to drop the case against Flynn, although the judge hasn’t yet agreed and former DOJ officials say it looks like the department is attempting to shield a Trump crony.

On Friday, the Trump administration released the transcript of Flynn’s calls, which Trump now insists were perfectly justified.

Here’s what Flynn told the Russian diplomat:

Cover: Former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn leaves after the delay in his sentencing hearing at US District Court in Washington, DC, December 18, 2018. (Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot:’ Brooklyn Erupts In Violence During a Second Night of Protests

A second night of protest across New York City was punctuated by brawls and skirmishes between angry demonstrators and police across lower Manhattan and south Brooklyn.

As many as 200 people were arrested, and both police and protesters were injured. At one point, police attempted to commandeer a New York City bus to transport arrested protesters but the operator refused to drive it.

Demonstrators were furious over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, even though the alleged killer had been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter earlier in the day.

At times tensions erupted as people threw bottles, set off fireworks, vandalized police vehicles — even set a van on fire — while the NYPD used mace and attacked demonstrators with clubs and drove cars at the crowds to disperse them.

The demonstrators' frustration with law enforcement was palpable. In a city that was the epicenter of the coronavirus, many said while they were scared of getting sick but they felt they had to show up because they were too angry, fed-up, and afraid for their future.

“This country doesn’t value black lives, of course I’m scared,” said Issac Ortega, 21. “But, you know what? We can’t wait for justice any longer.”

People gather in front of Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York for Justice for Floyd protest organized by the group Freedom Arts Movement. (Photo: Cassandra GIraldo/VICE News)

The day started quietly: in Union Square, where Thursday nights protests ended in 72 arrests, nearly forty officers and 10 police vans gathered — only six protesters showed up.

Larger crowd met at Foley Square, and groups broke off into rolling protests that moved towards police precincts — they screamed anti-police slogans, a visceral expression of their frustration. As demonstrators tried to walk in the streets, officers surrounded and tackled one man before arresting him and several others.

In a city that spent months as the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus, police tried to keep protesters to sidewalks, which forced bodies together and made social distancing impossible.

“We’re worried about a lot of other things right now,” said one officer, who wouldn’t give his name. “We’re just trying to keep them on the sidewalk.”

Demonstrators gathered at the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn at six pm for a memorial for Floyd, many carried bouquets of flowers in his honor. The crowd grew quickly from a handful to estimated 3,000, filling the square and lining the intersecting streets.

Police not only beat some protesters but used mace on those they said were acting out, but some including an Brooklyn assemblywoman said they were sprayed unprovoked.

Fireworks were set off in the crowd to cheers, while dozens of cops lined up in front of an empty bus and warned people to disperse or be arrested.

Protesters chanted, “hands up, don’t shoot” and insisted on their right to assemble.

Police began rushing out barricades, asking protestors to leave the sidewalk surrounding Barclay’s center, and pushing protesters onto Flatbush Avenue where they began arresting people who didn’t move fast enough. Some plainclothes officers who physically moved protesters by grabbing them by the limbs had no masks, gloves, or PPE.

On the other side of the square, one man said, “let’s take the street.” He walked in front of a stopped car and laid down on the street, as it started to rain.

A large group peeled away from Barclays and started marching through the streets toward Fort Greene Park, weaving through cars and shouting, “Fuck the Police.”

They were cheered by people in their cars, standing on their stoops and hanging out of windows calling out support.

Police arrest protesters and attempt to hold them on a New York City bus. (Photo: Cassandra Giraldo/VICE News)

While small groups marched as far as the Bedford-Stuyvesant 19th precinct building, most of the night’s violence was downtown.

By Fort Greene, one woman was thrown on the pavement by a police officer, an abandoned police van was set on fire, and a few blocks away a line of law enforcement rushed a crowd.

Confrontations went on into the early morning.

Cover: Dwayne Manigault and his daughter Amora, 10, attend the vigil in front of Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York for the Justice for Floyd protest organized by the group Freedom Arts Movement. (Photo: Cassandra GIraldo/VICE News)

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A Notorious Trailer Park Mogul Once Roasted by John Oliver Just Got Owned By His Tenants

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For years, the residents of a low-income, majority-Latino trailer park in Austin, Texas say they’ve struggled under the thumb of two prominent investors known for snapping up cheap communities like theirs nationwide and raising the rents.

But that all ended Friday when the North Lamar Mobile Home Park tenants closed a $6.26 million deal to claw their park back.

Their deal ends a saga that included a lawsuit, protests, petitions, and pleas to financiers, which first began in 2015 when trailer park moguls Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds purchased their 68-lot community. Meanwhile, Rolfe’s attitudes toward mobile home investing were relentlessly mocked on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight in 2019, with Oliver calling Rolfe “completely shameless.”

The solution, Oliver said, was for people to “band together and buy their own park.”

And that’s what the North Lamar tenants decided to do.

“It’s like victory in a long battle,” Roberto Sanchez, the 47-year-old president of the park’s tenant group, the Asociación de Residentes de North Lamar, said in a Spanish-language interview translated by tenant organizer Gabriela Garcia, whom the community worked with throughout their fight.

“It was about renter’s rights, they thought they could just walk all over low-income people, and they were going to get to do whatever they wanted,” Sanchez added.

Sanchez and his neighbors will now convert the park into a cooperative — a growing model for the mobile home communities nationwide looking to fend off private equity interest. And, now that they’re in control, the North Lamar residents say they’ll keep their park affordable, too.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to know all the work we put in is going to finally result in us owning the community.”

Soon after buying the property, the new owners threatened rent and utility increases of worth hundreds of dollars a month for some households — and evictions if tenants didn’t oblige. The residents sued instead, successfully stalling those price hikes and ensuring any increases were more gradual. But the residents of the North Lamar park still lived for years with higher costs and subpar park management, they said.

READ: Landlords Can't Evict Their Tenants. So They're Shutting Off Their Utilities Instead.

Many tenants now pay almost double what their housing costs were in 2015, according to a letter the park wrote to the city of Austin this year. Before the park was purchased, many paid $390 a month, including utilities.

“They’ll have so much more control over their own destinies, and if they’re not able to pay rent, as a community, they can talk about what to do,” said Shoshana Krieger, the project director at BASTA. “As of Friday, there’s a much larger buffer between each of those households and homelessness.”

For his part, Rolfe told VICE News he’d long offered to sell the park and congratulates the tenants on taking back control of their property. Rent increases were necessary in prior years, he said, because the park was charging far below market value when he came in, and needed serious repairs.

“The park was on the cutting edge of being torn down,” he said.

The tenants just needed to come up with the right offer, working with the national mobile home cooperative group ROC USA, which helped finance Friday’s deal, along with the city of Austin, which contributed a $2.5 million bond. Local city council member Gregorio Casar told VICE News the investment was worth it considering “it’s a community where for decades working class and poor people have thrived near the center of our city.”

In the past several years, private investors big and small have swarmed under-priced trailer parks, particularly in gentrifying communities with glistening real estate prospects. The playbook for those buyers usually includes raising rents, cutting costs, and raking in steady returns from a housing sector that’s been called “recession-proof.”

Rolfe and Reynolds, who purchased the North Lamar Park, also run an organization called Mobile Home University, which teaches would-be investors the ins and outs of their business, which has so far made them the fifth-largest mobile home park owner in the U.S. at 280 communities across 32 states, according to their website. When they brought their boot camp to Austin in 2017, the North Lamar tenants showed up and protested.

Trailer parks are typically chock-full of tenants who’ll stay there for years since there’s nowhere better to land, especially in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. They often own their homes and rent only the land beneath them.

READ: This Tenant Says His Property Manager Stalked His Coronavirus Stimulus Check Online for Rent

If the “lot rent” increases, they’ll likely grin and bear it. Moving a mobile home to another park regularly costs thousands of dollars, because the homes are, well, not all that mobile. This makes revenue pretty consistent for mobile home park investors. Housing advocates and progressive legislators including Sen. Elizabeth Warren have said that reason alone, though, makes jacking up the rents on mobile home tenants predatory.

“I’m the first to admit that mobile home lot rents are insanely low and can only go up,” Rolfe said in a 2019 interview with BiggerPockets, a real estate investing site, responding to a question about the fairness of the John Oliver segment that tore his business apart. (Rolfe told BiggerPockets that the segment earned him death threats; he did not find it fair.)

But Rolfe has long noted that by investing in mobile home parks and keeping them standing in the first place, he and other investors are helping to preserve the nation’s slim affordable housing stock.

The North Lamar tenants plan to increase their rent only slightly now that they own the park — from $585 to $630 — but they say that they’re spending any extra cash on bettering their community with improved roads, repairs, trash collection, and lights.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to know all the work we put in is going to finally result in us owning the community,” Jennifer Salazar, a 27-year-old resident of the park and secretary for its tenants organization, said.

Cover: Residents of the North Lamar Mobile Home Park tenants closed a $6.26 million deal to buy their park back from investors. (Photo: Asociacion de Residentes North Lamar's Facebook page.)

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The Supreme Court Might Be About to Make It Nearly Impossible to Stop Anti-Abortion Laws

The Supreme Court is expecting to rule in the coming weeks on the biggest abortion case of the Trump era.

Technically, the case asks whether Louisiana doctors must possess admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, a requirement that would force all but one clinic in the state to close. But Louisiana has also raised the stakes very, very high for the rest of the nation: If the Supreme Court sides with Louisiana, abortion providers may completely lose the right to sue on their patients’ behalf.

If the justices rule that only pregnant people can sue over abortion restrictions, challenging laws that limit access to abortion will become next to impossible. Few people who are scrambling to end a pregnancy are also willing to launch a lawsuit that could last for years, take up countless hours of their time, and potentially expose the fact that they’d gotten an abortion — which is, after all, deeply stigmatized — to the world.

Such a Supreme Court ruling could also potentially wipe out dozens of abortion cases currently making their way through the federal courts.

READ: Abortion clinic protests are still happening in the pandemic.

“It would be extremely difficult in the future to bring cases,” said Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “It is no accident, no surprise, that the folks who are asking for this are people who want to make it more difficult for people to challenge laws, even laws that are admittedly unconstitutional.”

She added, “They’re trying to shut the doors not only to the clinics, but also to the courthouse.”

Lawyers for Louisiana insist that its requirement that abortion providers obtain admitting privileges aims to ensure that women are healthy and safe. And they’re extending that argument to challenge clinics’ ability to sue on behalf of women at all.

The Supreme Court has long recognized abortion providers’ right to sue over restrictions because they’re “intimately involved” with a patient’s decision about whether to get an abortion. Because the Louisiana clinic wants to overturn the admitting privileges rule, the state says that its relationship with patients isn’t intimate — it’s exploitative.

The abortion clinic’s “interest — and that of other Louisiana abortion providers — is to reduce their present and future compliance obligations while providing as many abortions as possible,” lawyers for Louisiana wrote in a brief.

In the four decades since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, most major abortion lawsuits have been brought by providers, not patients. In fact, Ronald Reagan was president the last time the Supreme Court decided a case brought by a woman suing over her own right to have an abortion.

READ: Oklahoma abortion providers are now at risk of being sued for the ‘wrongful death’ of a fetus.

The ACLU, for example, is currently working on more than 20 challenges to state abortion-level restrictions. None were filed on behalf of an individual patient. (They are not defending the clinic in the June Medical Services v. Russo case.)

“It is not just a matter of showing up one day, saying, ‘Oh I disagree with this, I want to file a challenge.’ It is very tedious work, it is very long,” said Kathaleen Pittman, administrator of Hope abortion clinic in Shreveport, which sued over the Louisiana restriction. The clinic is also involved in three other lawsuits, two in federal court. “We’re looking at a commitment of possibly years for that woman when all she wants to do is take care of her family.”

“Typical families do not have that kind of time to spend,” she continued. “They need to be able to concentrate on getting the care they need.”

If a woman does have the resources to sue, she’d likely be able to get a court order that’d temporarily block the law and let her get an abortion. But she’s still signing up to let a court publicly peer into every corner of her life.

While a woman could try to maintain anonymity by assuming a fake name, Amy Hagstrom Miller, who runs a national group of abortion clinics known as Whole Woman’s Health, pointed out that the identity of “Jane Roe,” of Roe v. Wade fame, is no secret today. (Though Norma McCorvey, the woman behind Roe, outed herself shortly after the case was decided, the lawyers behind the case knew they could never guarantee her anonymity.)

“Even when you go through a deposition or you go through a trial, all the people in the room, all the court reporters, all the people are hearing your story. It’s an invasion of that patient’s privacy,” Hagstrom Miller said. “The exposure that that patient is gonna go through, to the stigma that surrounds abortion in this country, is remarkable.”

Because the justices could rule very broadly or narrowly, it’s hard to determine how, exactly, their decision could reshape the lawsuits currently working their way through the courts. If the justices decide that providers can’t sue on their patients’ behalf in federal court, clinics would potentially need to scramble to find patients who’ll join their lawsuits. They’d need to do it fast, or their lawsuits could be dismissed altogether. That would be, to put it mildly, devastating for everybody who wants to challenge abortion restrictions.

Whole Woman’s Health is currently involved in five abortion lawsuits. Three have come to a standstill as both sides wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling in June Medical Services.

The coronavirus pandemic has also already provided a glimpse at what could happen in a post -Roe v. Wade United States — and why providers are so pivotal in abortion litigation. In 11 states, including Louisiana, public officials tried to cite the pandemic as a reason to temporarily ban abortions. Abortions essentially ground to a halt in a handful of states. Clinics were forced to cancel hundreds of appointments, and countless women travelled out of state for the procedure.

But after abortion providers sued, courts blocked the bans in nine of those states.

“If it were the case that medical providers, who are really on the frontlines of this issue, couldn’t go to court or were hamstrung in their ability to go to court, very likely the states would have been able to essentially ban abortion much longer into the pandemic,” said TJ Tu, senior counsel for U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Hagstrom Miller is confident that abortion providers will be able to find a way to move forward and keep challenging lawsuits, regardless of the outcome of June Medical Services. After all, they’re accustomed to obstacles. But she’s less sure about just how much all this will hurt clinics and the patients they’re trying to serve.

“What are we saying women in this country deserve? What are we saying rights actually mean?” she asked. “You might have the legal right to something on paper. But the path you have to follow to access it is not only absurd, it’s cruel.”

Cover: Abortion rights and anti-abortion demonstrators rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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Here’s What You Need to Know About Last Night’s Violent George Floyd Protests

On Monday, George Floyd died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 48 seconds. By Wednesday, Minneapolis was on burning. On Friday night, the entire country was on fire.

Demonstrations against police brutality took place in more than 20 cities across the U.S. with most erupting into violence on Friday night, as tens of thousands of protesters clashed with riot police, state troopers, and the National Guard.

Hundreds of people were arrested; buildings and vehicles were damaged, looted, and set on fire; dozens of people were injured; cars drove through crowds of protests in several cities, and one 19-year-old man was shot dead in Detroit.

The protests continued Friday despite the authorities finally arresting former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and charging him with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. A criminal complaint released Friday said other officers stood by and did nothing as Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost three minutes after he was unresponsive.

Lawmakers across the country responded to the riots by calling in back-up.

Demonstrators kneel before police Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who deployed 500 National Guard troops on Thursday, called in 1,000 more as violence continued to spread in Minneapolis. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp followed suit, declaring a state of emergency in the early hours of Saturday to activate the National Guard and help quell protests in Atlanta.

In DC, where protesters gathered outside the White House to shout curses at President Donald Trump, the National Guard was put on standby.

In a move that could incite further anger among protesters, AP reported that the Pentagon on Friday took the almost unprecedented step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on alert to deploy to Minneapolis.

The last time such a measure was used was in the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King trial.

What happened in Minneapolis?

Despite Mayor Jacob Frey putting a city-wide curfew being in place, and lawmakers and activists calling for people to stay at home, Minneapolis descended into violent chaos for a fourth straight night.

Thousands of protesters defied the 8 p.m. curfew to once again clash with police, set buildings on fire and loot businesses across the city.

After the 3rd Precinct police headquarters was attacked and set on fire on Thursday night, protesters moved to the 5th Precinct headquarters on Friday, setting fire to buildings around the station and throwing projectiles at police defending the building.

Minneapolis Fire Department crews battled blazes into Saturday morning but said it would only attended fires once they had been secured by police and National Guard troops.

There were also multiple reports of shots being fired across the city and police confirmed they had fired shots at a car driving into a group of officers on Friday evening, but no one was injured in the incident.

One of those who defied the curfew was Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison who said he did so because he didn’t understand the plan that the mayor and other officials had put in place.

He spent the evening helping put out fires that broke out across the city, according to his Twitter feed.

Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington told a news conference that there were more than 2,500 police officers deployed in Minneapolis on Friday night, but despite such a major presence, it appeared to have very little effect according to reports from people on the streets in Minneapolis.

In an early morning press conference on Saturday, Frey and Walz both pleaded once again with protesters to go home,

“The absolute chaos — this is not grieving, and this is not making a statement [about an injustice] that we fully acknowledge needs to be fixed — this is dangerous,” Walz said. “You need to go home.”

Walz also highlighted the fact that outsiders were coming into Minneapolis to incite further chaos and hindering the police’s ability to counter the protests.

“The terrifying thing is that this resembles more a military operation now as you observe ringleaders moving from place to place,” he said. On Friday, VICE News reported that far-right extremists are showing up, with guns, to the protests while others are inciting violence from their computers, hoping to spark a “race war.”

What’s happening across the country

There were protests in more than two dozen cities across the country on Friday night. Here are some of the most notable incidents:

Detroit: A 19-year-old man is dead after shots were fired into crowds in Detroit protesting police brutality, police say. The shots were fired by an unknown suspect in a gray Dodge Durango, with the victim later dying in hospital. Police didn’t say if the victim was part of the protests. Earlier a man was arrested for trying to run over an officer.

San Jose: Video footage shared by multiple people on social media shows a Dodge Durango driver through a crowd of protesters before turning around and driving back into the crown. When the vehicle is attacked, it reverses and drives over at least one protester before driving off. At least two people were injured in the incident, but their condition is unknown.

Bakersfield: 90 minutes after hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Bakersfield, a driver sped through the crowded streets outside the police headquarters as protesters jumped out of the way. But the car circled back and drove through the crowd again, injuring one woman.

Washington, DC: At the White House, several thousand protesters tried to push through barriers set up by the secret service. Some threw bottles and other objects at officers in riot gear, who responded with pepper spray. The incident forced the secret service to put the White House into lockdown for an hour on Friday evening. The protesters eventually moved on to the Trump International Hotel.

New York: An NYPD van being set on fire in Fort Greene Park and hundreds of protesters trying to surround the 88th precinct in Clinton Hill before being rebuffed by a massive police mobilization. One man was arrested for allegedly punched an NYPD sergeant in the head with brass knuckles.

Portland: Having begun peacefully, the protest in Portland descended into a riot when protesters broke into the Multnomah County Justice Center, which houses the downtown jail and police precinct, smashing windows and setting it on fire. Police in riot gear responded with tear gas, pepper balls, and stun grenades.

Atlanta: Rioters damaged the headquarters of CNN and set a police car on fire, as protests turned violent in the city. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms pleaded with the protesters: “If you care about this city, then go home.”

Houston: More than 200 people were arrested as protesters clashed with police. Officials said that four officers sustained minor injuries during the protests and eight police vehicles were damaged.

Cover: Protesters face off with police outside the White House in Washington, DC, early on May 30, 2020 during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white policeman knelt on his neck for several minutes. (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)

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Is It Safe to Leave Hand Sanitizer in a Hot Car?

Pandemic-specific concerns continue to arise as we tick off the weeks of quarantine (remember the collective chemistry lesson about mixing bleach, a few months ago?). With temperatures on the rise, the latest fear is that alcohol-based hand sanitizers will spontaneously explode in parked cars.

The recent flurry of concern was sparked (heh) by a few widely shared videos on Facebook and Twitter, showing cars catching fire, with captions warning of the unknown hazards of Purell. A warning post from a Wisconsin fire department (since deleted) further stoked general fear. Leaving a car safely parked and returning to it aflame is understandably terrifying, but a quick investigation of the source material and a consultation of existing science puts any such concerns to rest.

The quick and simple answer is: Alcohol-based hand sanitizer will almost certainly not burst aflame in a parked car. Agence France-Presse (AFP) Fact Check traced at least one of the shared car clips to a video first uploaded to YouTube in September 2015, which shows a car fire in Saudi Arabia that, as shown in the video, was clearly not started by abandoned hand sanitizer. Poynter also fact-checked the videos, and found most are years-old, and simply the latest coronavirus-related hoax.

Responding to fears of cars exploding, the National Fire Protection Association explained in a Facebook video that temperatures in a parked car would have to reach over 700 degrees to set hand sanitizer on fire without a direct ignition. A flame from a lighter or a blowtorch, or whatever you use to light your cigarettes, would hit 700 degrees, potentially igniting a fire. But a car sitting in direct sunlight is unlikely to ever reach such a temperature. So…. Don’t hold a flame to your Purell, is the key takeaway here.

For what it’s worth, parked cars do reach dangerously high temperatures, particularly if the things left inside of it are people, animals, flowers prone to wilting, prescription medications, and/or sunscreen. According to information compiled by heatkills.org, the internal temperature of a parked car on even a mild, 70-degree day, can reach upwards of 113 degrees after only an hour. A 2005 study by researchers at Stanford University found that cars heat up an average of 40 degrees per hour, with most of the temperature increase occurring within the first hour, even if the windows are partially opened. This video from General Motors gives a nice visual element to all of this:

Maybe you’re naturally inquisitive and are now thinking, Hmm, so with an average 40-degree temperature increase per hour, would my parked car not hit the 700-plus degrees necessary to ignite an alcohol-based sanitizer in… like 15 hours? Once again, the answer is: Almost certainly not. The hottest ever recorded internal car temp seems to be around 170 degrees, nowhere near the 700-degree mark. The key factor in cars heating up is sun, not outside temperature, the Stanford study notes. Just like the sun warms greenhouses in the winter—a phenomenon literally called the greenhouse effect—by heating up air trapped within a glass building, it heats up the air trapped within a parked car. But when the sun goes down, as it does each night without failure, the temperature in the car gradually decreases. It would still be uncomfortable and even deadly for a person or animal, but not near enough to spontaneously ignite your hand sanitizer. Stay washing your hands, and HAGS.

Follow Hannah Smothers on Twitter.

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NYC Bus Drivers Union Refuses to Transport Protesters for the NYPD

Workers for New York City’s MTA are refusing to transport people arrested during protests against police brutality in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A video of a bus driver refusing to transport people arrested during protests in front of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center went viral Friday night.

In the video, a crowd cheers a bus driver who appears to be refusing to sit behind the wheel: “the NYPD is using a bus to transfer arrested protesters at the Barclays Center,” @berniebromanny, who shared the video, tweeted. “However, the bus driver refused to drive it.” The video was viewed more than a million times in just over an hour.

Motherboard has confirmed that this is the official position of the union that represents MTA bus drivers.

“None of our bus ops should be used for that. We didn't do it during Zucotti Park/Occupy Wall St. went to court against this,” JP Patafio, vice president of Transit Workers Union Local 100, which represents the city’s bus drivers, told Motherboard when asked if the union would transport people who were arrested.

“I told MTA our ops wont be used to drive cops around,” he added. "It is in solidarity" with Minneapolis' bus drivers.

In 2011, the union sued to prevent the New York Police Department from commandeering buses and forcing city drivers to transport arrested Occupy Wall Street protesters for the cops.

In recent days, bus drivers in Minneapolis have similarly refused to transport arrested protesters for the cops, and unionized workers across the city have shown solidarity with protesters who are demonstrating against the police killing of George Floyd and police brutality more broadly.

Aaron Gordon contributed reporting.

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Bail Funds Are Being Flooded With Donations for George Floyd Protestors

Community bail funds are being flooded with thousands of donations, as organizers across the country struggle to keep demonstrators out of jails after three nights of protests and riots reacting to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The spontaneous street protests are happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated incarcerated populations who face living conditions where the virus spreads easily. Since the uprisings began, there have been widespread reports of mass-arrests in Minneapolis, Denver, Columbus, New York City, Louisville, and other cities across the US where thousands of people are protesting a series of recent police killings of black citizens, including Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery.

For activists on the ground, keeping protesters out of jail has become a matter of life and death. In response, local bail funds have received an outpouring of support on social media. On Twitter and Instagram, hundreds of people have begun matching each other’s donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit which provides cash bail for those who are sent to jail for pretrial detention and can’t afford it—including immigrants and asylum seekers being held in ICE detention facilities.

“We were totally surprised and grateful and overwhelmed by all of the support,” Tonja Honsey, the Fund’s executive director, told Motherboard.

While Honsey didn’t know the exact amounts that have been donated, she said the bail fund has received “thousands” of individual donations in the past 48 hours, despite never officially posting a call for contributions.

“This police force has a long history of abusing and oppressing and murdering people in the community and no justice coming from it,” said Honsey, a survivor of incarceration who serves as an advisor on Minnesota’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission. “We’re just trying to be there and focus on the fact that this is because a man lost his life.”

While those arrested during the demonstrations are still waiting to be charged, The Freedom Fund is anticipating a serious crackdown after protesters occupied and burned down the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct, where the officer who killed Floyd was stationed. The officer, Derek Chauvin, who was captured on video crushing Floyd’s neck with his knee over the course of seven minutes, has a long history of violent arrests and has been the subject of at least a dozen official complaints.

Chauvin has since been charged with third degree murder.

With the US now the epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic, prisons and detention facilities have become dangerous hotspots for the virus. Across the country, activists, doctors, and public officials have called on state governors to release incarcerated populations at these facilities, where cramped and unsanitary conditions allow the disease to easily spread.

Organizers are hoping their bail funds will save lives by releasing protesters from jail as quickly as possible. Honsey says that since the pandemic began, the Minnesota Freedom Fund was able to help reduce the incarcerated population of one Minnesota county by half. Since the protests began, bail funds have seen donations jump in several other cities where protests have occurred, including Louisville, KY and Columbus, OH. The Minnesota Freedom Fund is now directing people to give to other grassroots organizations working on the ground during the protests, including the Black Visions Collective and Reclaim The Block.

“Our primary goal is to abolish the cash bail system. It doesn’t make communities safer to extract money from people who don’t already have it,” said Honsey. "What we’re really pushing for is true systematic change.”

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SpaceX's Experimental Starship Prototype Just Exploded In a Test

A prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship exploded into a fireball during an engine test on Friday at the company’s launch facilities in Boca Raton, Texas.

The blast comes only a day before SpaceX is poised to make history with its first-ever launch of astronauts to the International Space Station, which is currently scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, this test vehicle, known as Starship SN4, is a completely different spacecraft from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which will be carrying astronauts to the ISS this weekend.

The Starship accident has no direct bearing on the historic “Launch America” event, scheduled for this weekend, weather permitting. The Crew Dragon has been heavily tested and vetted for years, and robotic uncrewed versions of it have visited the station nearly 20 times.

The SN4, in contrast, is the latest prototype of SpaceX’s ambitious and highly experimental Starship concept. The final version of Starship, as envisioned by the company, is a massive reusable spacecraft that could ultimately transport 100 passengers to Earth orbit, or to more distant destinations such as the Moon and Mars. SpaceX is a long way from turning its Starship dreams into a reality, and the SN4 test vehicle was designed to test out only a few of the basic technologies needed for the mission.

As the name implies, SN4 was the fourth prototype in a series of test vehicles that have been rolled out at the Texas facility for testing, and it is not the first to explode. The cause of the SN4’s detonation is currently unclear, but it occurred during a static firing of SpaceX’s Raptor engine.

The FAA had cleared SpaceX to conduct low-altitude test flights of the Raptor-powered SN4 on Thursday, but it doesn’t look like that poor burned crisp of a prototype will ever take to the air now.

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Trump Just Ended the U.S. Relationship With WHO — and Didn’t Take Any Questions About It

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The United States is severing its relationship with the World Health Organization as the globe battles the coronavirus pandemic — because of China.

“China has total control over the World Health Organization,” President Donald Trump announced in a White House Rose Garden speech Friday. “We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act. Because they have refused to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will today be terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.”

Trump has repeatedly sought to redirect criticism of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 100,000 people in the United States, toward China and the World Health Organization. In April, he halted funding to the World Health Organization “until its mismanagement, cover-ups, and failures can be investigated,” according to a White House release.

The United States contributes more than $400 million to the World Health Organization, which is helping governments around the globe deal with the pandemic and scramble to find treatments. That’s more money than any other country.

“The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump said. “China’s cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost over 100,000 American lives and over 1 million lives worldwide.”

Research suggests that the majority of coronavirus cases in New York, one of the earliest epicenters of the pandemic, came to the United States from Europe, not China.

As soon as his speech concluded, Trump strode back into the White House without taking any questions. He didn’t address the police killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes — even though Trump had spent the morning feuding with Twitter over it. Twitter didn’t allow users to share or like one of Trump’s tweets, in which he claimed “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Cover: President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, May 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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How to Protest Safely During a Pandemic

We’ve witnessed some truly hideous shit during the course of this pandemic: police brutality, economic collapse, callous disregard for our most vulnerable populations, terrible behavior from politicians and lies from megacorporations whose profits are only increasing. There is a lot to be angry about, and a lot worth protesting.

Until this week, the highest-profile demonstrations happening in the United States amid the pandemic were anti-lockdown protests demanding that businesses like gyms and tanning salons reopen. Populated mostly by conservatives who full-on deny the threat of COVID-19, desperate to return to “normal,” their demands have been heavily covered and their views have slotted neatly into the ongoing Culture War narrative. Other protests, such as drive-by demands to free prisoners, online climate and COVID-19 awareness activism carried out by college students, or a small handful of demonstrators opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline, have been able to comply with social distancing guidelines, according to the ACLU.

But in the wake of the deaths of Tony McDade, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, people across the country have begun taking to the streets to protest police brutality and call for the abolishment of law enforcement agencies. Of course, being in close proximity to other people right now comes with COVID-19 risks… But we have arrived at a point where it is apparent that many of us are also immediately, existentially threatened by violence at the hands of the state. And people in the privileged position of not experiencing law enforcement as a direct threat have a moral obligation to support others who don’t have that same privilege.

Here’s how to do that in a way that minimizes the risks involved, both to ourselves and the people we fight alongside.

Follow protest precautions and best practices from non-pandemic times

The advice that circulates whenever demonstrations spring up is all still applicable now—the threat of avoiding COVID-19 exists alongside modern privacy and safety concerns. Use apps like Signal or Whatsapp to communicate with organizers. Turn off your cell phone’s location data (or get a burner phone and leave your regular device at home). Bring an ID, cash, and note cards with “In Case of Emergency” contacts. Read more about protecting your digital privacy while protesting here, and more about what to bring to a peaceful protest and why here.

Additionally, be prepared for law enforcement to deploy “crowd control tactics” like pepper bullets and tear gas (because they’ve already done so in Denver, according to local news reports).If you or anyone around you is hit with pepper spray or pepper bullets, flushing the affected areas with milk or water and keeping them exposed to fresh air is the fastest route to relief, according to ABC News. Popular Science reports—in a guide to getting tear gassed that’s absolutely worth reading in full—that wearing eye makeup or contacts could increase irritation resulting from tear gas (because tear gas is made up of particulate matter, not gas, contacts or makeup could trap those particles in your eyes!). It might be a good idea to skip those if you’re heading out.

Pack a couple of water bottles, in case you or anyone else needs a quick face wash. PopSci also recommends concocting a water and baking soda solution (three teaspoons of powder for every 8.5 ounces of liquid), used by protestors in Hong Kong, to help neutralize tear gas’s effects.

Assess your personal COVID-19 risk, and the risk of those you live with

It’s hard to resist the urge to be with each other right now. While the desire to protest state-sanctioned violence alongside other members of your community is different from, say, wanting to meet up with someone from Tinder—more urgent, outward-facing, and community-oriented—we still have to take stock of our personal risk when deciding whether or not to join in-person action.

Ask yourself: How old am I? How old are the people I live with and around? Do I, or any of the people I’m in regular contact with, have comorbidities that could increase the severity of a COVID-19 infection? What is the infection rate in my state, city, or community? Is it increasing, or decreasing? How widespread is testing, and how many of those tests come back positive?

It’s worth noting that most COVID-19 transmission takes place indoors, among households. That’s why experts are recommending our social lives resume outside before we start congregating in restaurants, gyms, and nightclubs again. The same principle applies to protesting: Outside, in fresh air, is going to be safer than any demonstration indoors (like the one in which a bunch of guys brought guns into Michigan’s capitol last month).

So, if you’re not participating in action remotely, plan to demonstrate outdoors instead. Still, it’s important to remember that the coronavirus risk outside is not zero, and it will increase if you are, say, arrested and held by police.

Only you can decide if the risk is worth it—if the threat of violence from law enforcement and the state as a whole is bigger than the threat of COVID-19 right now. It’s a deeply personal decision, with no truly “correct” answer, and it is a disgrace that we have to make it right now. (It could also be worth weighing the risk of demonstrating against other, more frivolous risks you’ve been taking, particularly if you’re a white person, and asking yourself, Why those and not this?)

But if the answer to any of these questions puts you or your loved ones particularly at-risk, it may be worth participating in other ways, like taking virtual action, calling local politicians, or donating to bail funds or other local organizations working to defund law enforcement.

Comply with COVID-19 safety measures as much as possible

Under normal circumstances, face coverings at protests are controversial and sometimes straight-up illegal. But now, organizers have told protestors to wear PPE, especially face masks, for in-person action. If you’re able, consider using something medical grade; a surgical mask, for instance, is better at stopping the transmission of COVID-19 particles than a bandana. And be sure to wear the mask properly: it should fit snugly over the mouth, nose, and chin, secure enough that you don’t have to tug on it or pull it down for any reason. Check out this Google Doc on protest sanitization protocol, which was adapted from material developed by U.K.-based transfeminist community aid organization QueerCare, for even more thorough instructions.

When you’re protesting outside, maintain social distancing as much as possible. Of course, distancing may be a forgone prospect; how close protestors get to each other is determined by a whole slew of factors, from crowd size to street width, but it’s still worth trying to maintain as much space between yourself and strangers as possible, and to avoid touching other people, or sharing food, beverages, sign-making materials, or anything else unless it’s an absolute emergency.

Pack some hand sanitizer, and remember to cough or sneeze into your elbow. Yelling or even talking loudly can cause people to expel more respiratory droplets, so try to put extra distance between yourself and anyone who is chanting, especially if they are unmasked. Participate from your car or from your window, if that option is available.

We’re all eager to return to our social lives as they were pre-pandemic, even as it becomes clear that that may not be possible for a long time. It makes sense, then, that people would also feel called to return to their social responsibilities, one of which is standing up in the face of oppression and state-sanctioned violence. It is always brave to protest injustice, because it always involves putting oneself in harm’s way to affect change; it’s even braver to do so now that the risk is so tangible.

Follow Katie Way on Twitter.

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Lawyers for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor Want the UN to Look Into Their Cases

Benjamin Crump and S. Lee Merritt, the renowned attorneys representing the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, want the United Nations Human Rights Commission to investigate this string of deaths that have sparked nationwide outrage.

In a Zoom press conference organized by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Friday, Merritt told reporters that in addition to asking local and congressional leaders to investigate the three incidents in Georgia, Louisville, and Minneapolis, they’re calling on the United Nations to look into the three recent high-profile deaths of black Americans. Arbery was killed by a white civilian as he jogged in a suburban Georgia neighborhood, and Taylor and Floyd died at the hands of police officers.

“We will be asking for the United Nations Human Rights Commission to consider hearing the cases of Ahmaud Arbery, of Breonna Taylor, of George Floyd as well,” Merritt said.

“This pandemic has been highlighted now by these three horrific cases,” Crump added. “It draws with laser focus the danger of being black in America [and] the fact that it is open season on our children and our loved ones by the people who are supposed to protect and serve us.”

• The George Floyd protests just went national
• New video of George Floyd's arrest show 3 officers holding him down
• Twitter just censored a Trump tweet glorifying violence against Minneapolis 'thugs'

The U.N. has a history of calling out the U.S. over issues of racial justice.

In 2014, a panel for the world’s governing body openly questioned the fairness of the U.S. justice system just days after a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

In 2015, the U.N.’s Human Rights Council published a blistering review of the nation’s record on human rights. The report cited rights violations at Guantanamo Bay, the continued use of the death penalty, and most notably at the time, repeated incidents of police brutality and misconduct.

At the time, James Cadogan, a senior counselor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, told the U.N. that the report had given the nation’s leaders renewed purpose in fixing the systematic issues plaguing the country.

“The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Walter Scott in South Carolina have renewed a longstanding and critical national debate about the evenhanded administration of justice: These events challenge us to do better and to work harder for progress – through both dialogue and action,” he said at the time.

The U.N. has long kept an eye on abuses in the justice system. The organization has held the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS) annually since 2016, police leaders and senior officers around the world gather at the U.N. Headquarters to discuss their civic duties to the public, improving ways to prevent crime, and sustaining peace in their communities. This year’s summit, which was set to take place next month, was just postponed indefinitely because of COVID-19 concerns.

Even if the U.N. doesn’t take part in the case, Crump and Merritt said they are prepared to work with partners within the black community to take matters into their own hands.

“We will be asking for economic boycotts and sanctions in these communities where these atrocities continue to occur,” Merritt said. “We will be demanding from both our local leaders and our corporate investors and backers to take time to launch a measured and direct campaign in these communities where injustice persists.”

Cover: In this Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, photo, Lee Merritt calls for a higher charge hours after Temple Police Officer Carmen DeCruz was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting on Dec. 2 of 28-year-old Michael Dean. (Joel Valley/The Temple Daily Telegram via AP)

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