JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is violating the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment by permanently stripping voting rights from people convicted of some felonies, a federal appeals court panel ruled in a split decision Friday.
Two judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ordered the Mississippi secretary of state to stop enforcing a provision in the state constitution that disenfranchises people convicted of specific crimes, including murder, forgery and bigamy.
If the ruling stands, tens of thousands of people could regain voting rights, possibly in time for the Nov. 7 general election for governor and other statewide offices.
Mississippi Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch expects to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the panel’s 2-1 ruling, her spokesperson, Debbee Hancock, said Friday.
The 5th Circuit is one of the most conservative appeals courts in the U.S., and in 2022 it declined to overturn Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement provisions. The 2022 ruling came in a separate lawsuit that argued the lifetime disenfranchisement was designed to keep Black people out of power. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not consider that case, allowing the ruling to stand.
The two lawsuits use different arguments.
The suit that the Supreme Court declined to hear was based on arguments about equal protection. Plaintiffs said that the Jim Crow-era authors of the Mississippi Constitution stripped voting rights for crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit, including forgery, larceny and bigamy.
The lawsuit that the appeals court panel ruled on Friday is based on arguments that Mississippi is imposing cruel and unusual punishment with a lifetime ban on voting after some felony convictions.
“Mississippi stands as an outlier among its sister states, bucking a clear and consistent trend in our Nation against permanent disenfranchisement,” wrote Judges Carolyn Dineen King and James L. Dennis.
Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of 10 specific felonies — including bribery, theft and arson — lose the right to vote. The state’s previous attorney general, a Democrat, expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny and carjacking.
To have their voting rights restored, people convicted of any of the crimes must get a pardon from the governor or persuade lawmakers to pass individual bills just for them with two-thirds approval. Lawmakers in recent years have passed few of those bills, and they passed none this year.
In the ruling Friday, the two judges in favor of restoring voting rights — King and Dennis — were nominated by Democratic presidents and the one who disagreed — Judge Edith H. Jones — was nominated by a Republican president.
In her dissent, Jones wrote that when the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause does not bar states from permanently disenfranchising felons, justices said people should seek change through state legislatures.
“Today, the court turns that advice on its head,” Jones wrote. “No need to change the law through a laborious political process. The court will do it for you, so long as you rely on the Due Process Clause, rather than the Equal Protection Clause.”
A coalition of disparate groups supports reinstating voting rights to felons, including the libertarian Cato Institute, the American Probation and Parole Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi branch of the NAACP.
Southern Poverty Law Center attorneys were among those representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit that the appeals court panel ruled on Friday. Ahmed Soussi, a staff attorney for the center, said removing voting rights for life “disproportionately impacted Black Mississippians.”
“We applaud the court for reversing this cruel and harmful practice and restoring the right to vote to tens of thousands of people who have completed their sentences,” Soussi said Friday.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
In a visit to local small businesses in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Aug. 4, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled plans to provide grants to non-profit and community-based organizations as part of the $125 million Capital Readiness Program (CRP).
The program seeks to bolster historically underserved entrepreneurs’ access to capital, aligning with one of the critical pillars of what the White House has dubbed the Bidenomics economic plan.
The CRP, funded through the American Rescue Plan, represents the largest-ever direct federal investment in small business incubators and accelerators.
Run by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), the program expanded and was made permanent by the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
It counts as the most significant project in the 50-year history of the MBDA.
During the announcement at Sycamore & Oak in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast, D.C., Harris revealed 43 organizations selected as winners of the CRP awards.
These organizations, comprising non-profits, community-based entities, private sector firms, and institutions of higher education, will form partnerships to assist underserved entrepreneurs seeking resources, tools, and support to start or expand businesses in high-growth, high-wage industries like healthcare, climate-resilient technology, infrastructure, and more.
According to recent reports, the United States has experienced a record number of new business applications, totaling 12.6 million under the Biden-Harris Administration.
“This surge demonstrates the confidence entrepreneurs have in the efficacy of Bidenomics,” a senior White House official stated on Friday.
The awardees include the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which will use the $3 million grant to enhance business accelerator and incubator programs for underserved entrepreneurs in Arizona, Nevada, and California.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bridgeway Capital will receive $2 million to support at least 340 minority-owned and rural entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, scaling up business education programs for revenue-generating growth opportunities.
The Urban League of Greater Atlanta will utilize $3 million to provide incubator and accelerator services to historically underserved entrepreneurs in high-growth industries.
The Northern Great Lakes Initiative in Michigan will receive $3 million to streamline support for entrepreneurs, focusing on West Michigan, from conceptualizing an idea to business incubation and capital for growth.
The Biden-Harris Administration also announced the first approvals of awards for up to $58 million to 12 states as part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Technical Assistance Grant Program.
The SSBCI TA Grant Program, totaling approximately $200 million, aims to give small businesses access to historic support included in the American Rescue Plan, with an unprecedented nearly $10 billion from the Treasury Department.
“Investing in small businesses is at the core of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s strategy to grow the economy from the bottom up,” a senior White House official said.
The White House noted that recent announcements through the Capital Readiness Program and the SSBCI TA Grant Program demonstrate the administration’s commitment to ensuring all communities benefit from the ongoing small business boom.
These initiatives supplement additional actions taken under Bidenomics, such as delivering historic support to minority-supporting community financial institutions, making programs that boost lending to underserved communities permanent, expanding lending licenses, forming the Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC), and streamlining and simplifying small business lending.
Officials said the administration is leveraging federal spending to support small businesses and level the playing field for innovative small businesses.
That includes using federal contracting dollars to support small and disadvantaged businesses, ensuring CHIPS Act funding supports small businesses, creating contracting opportunities in clean energy and energy efficiency, and cutting energy costs for small businesses.
“Through these comprehensive efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration seeks to create a thriving environment for small businesses, support underserved entrepreneurs, and foster economic growth from the ground up,” the White House official stated.
By TRISHA AHMED, Associated Press/Report for America
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Racial justice groups and relatives of a Black man shot and killed this week by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper demanded Wednesday that the governor fire three officers who were involved in stopping the man on a Minneapolis freeway.
The groups and relatives of 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II made the demands at a news conference outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, two days after Cobb was killed during a traffic stop.
Troopers had pulled over Cobb for a traffic stop early Monday on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. Body and dash cam video from the state patrol shows the taillights were out on the Ford Fusion Cobb was driving.
According to the head of the Minnesota State Patrol, after stopping the car the troopers tried to take Cobb into custody for allegedly violating a restraining order before fatally shooting him as he began driving away.
Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, The Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and Cobb’s relatives gathered at the government center to demand that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz fire the state troopers who were involved in Cobb’s death and that Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charge the officers in the case and issue a warrant for their arrests.
“The circumstances simply did not require the use of deadly force. Those officers acted recklessly and they must be held accountable,” Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network, said in the statement.
Cobb’s mother, Nyra Fields-Miller, described the pain she has endured after her son’s death.
“I’m exhausted. My heart is heavy every day for the last three days. Waking up, I have migraines. And I’m hurt,” Fields-Miller said. “I would like those officers to man up.”
The governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press about the family’s demand that Walz fire the troopers.
But Walz said earlier Wednesday on X, the social platform formerly called Twitter, that he had offered his condolences to Cobb’s mother and “assured her that a swift, thorough investigation has already begun and that we will do everything we can to get to the bottom of what happened.”
On Monday, the troopers who checked Cobb’s license found what Patrol Chief Col. Matt Langer called a “pick up and hold” on Cobb, meaning the nearby Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office suspected he committed a felony violation of a protection order and wanted to question him.
Langer said troopers checked to make sure Ramsey County deputies still wanted Cobb in custody, then tried to get him to leave the car.
When troopers opened his doors and attempted to pull him out, Cobb began driving with two troopers still hanging out the sides of the car, body and dash camera footage shows. A trooper then shot him as he drove away.
The Hennepin County coroner ruled Cobb’s death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating. Three troopers have been placed on administrative leave, per State Patrol policy.
Moriarty said in a statement Tuesday that her “heart goes out to Mr. Cobb’s family.” She noted previous deaths caused by police.
“I also know this community continues to navigate the trauma and grief that results from police violence and the tragic loss of our community members at the hands of law enforcement, no matter the circumstances,” she said. “And I know that our community wants answers. We will work as swiftly as possible to provide them.”
In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police sparked a global protest movement and a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing.
Waiting for season two of “Wednesday” to hit Netflix? Thanks to an ongoing strike between writers, actors, and TV and film execs, it could be a while before you’re able to catch up on the latest Addams Family adventures. In fact, production has been halted indefinitely on many fan favorites, including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Emily in Paris,” and “Stranger Things.”
The WGA called a strike of its over 11,000 members in May after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers rejected the WGA’s proposals.
For every one Shonda Rhimes, there are 9,000 writers in my guild who are struggling.
TONY PURYEAR
In July, the writers were joined on the picket lines by the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists after AMPTP refused to bargain in good faith with the actors’ demands, which overlapped with those of the writers in several key areas.
“For every one Shonda Rhimes, there are 9,000 writers in my guild who are struggling. It’s a working-class job. There’s a reason we have a union — because we need it to defend our rights, to fight for us, to get us healthcare and pensions,” says Tony Puryear, a 32-year veteran Writers Guild of America member.
Indeed, the strikes reflect growing labor demands for a bigger share of profits from streaming platforms that have disrupted Hollywood’s traditional business models. With streaming viewership surging, writers and actors are seeking deals that boost residual pay for projects on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services.
The current labor dispute is also the first time writers and actors have joined forces to strike since 1960 — and they don’t plan on stopping until their demands are met.
“Power never gives you anything because you ask nice,” Puryear says.
He’s written everything from the screenplay for the $242.3 million grossing Arnold Schwarzenegger action film “Eraser” to Netflix’s hit show, “Queen Of The South,” and says Hollywood studios need to see “that you can’t make a TV show or movie without writers, and you can’t make them without actors.”
The Impact on Black Actors and Writers
The outcome of this strike could have far-reaching implications, especially for Black actors and writers.
From Taraji P. Henson receiving only $40,000 for her Oscar-nominated role as Queenie in the $300 million-grossing “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” to “Abbott Elementary” writer Brittani Nichols tweeting that she’d see no additional compensation after her episode earned record views, Black writers and actors have historically been — and continue to be — at a disadvantage in the TV and film industry.
Diane Ademu-John has served as a writer and producer for a slew of hit shows, including “Empire,” “The Originals,” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor” — and she’s the writer and executive producer for the upcoming series “Dune: The Sisterhood.”
“When I first started, I was the only person who looked like me in most of the writer’s rooms that I was in,” Ademu-John says.”
While some things have opened the door for [diversity], it’s also now kind of choking those very people that it has let in the door.
DIANE ADEMU-JOHN, WRITER AND PRODUCER
In the past, writer’s rooms would typically have 10 to 15 people. “All of the seasoned veterans were kind of old white guys, and then all of the up-and-coming people were young white guys,” she says.
Ademu-John overcame numerous barriers as a Black woman in Hollywood, but now she fears other Black writers and actors won’t get the same chance.
“It’s now become a job where you literally have to have a bank account that can support you through very lean times and very small paychecks and signing contracts that have you making what you’d normally make in a month in six months,” she says. “While some things have opened the door for [diversity], it’s also now kind of choking those very people that it has let in the door.”
What’s keeping Black people out? The decline in residuals — due to the shift to streaming — is a major issue.
Smaller Residual Checks
The days of renting a DVD are long gone and movie theaters are still recovering from dwindling audiences brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services have taken over the world of TV and film. However, with streaming, residuals for actors and writers stay the same regardless of a show’s viewership.
“Box office figures come in every day, and everybody knows. On streaming, it’s a mystery,” Puryear explains.
WGA and SAG-AFTRA members say their residuals should match the success of the streaming shows and movies they contribute to. Currently, streaming companies won’t reveal numbers on how well a movie or show is performing to the actors and writers who helped bring it to life.
“We asked them to open up their books and show us — they flat out refused. We asked them for a different residual structure — they flat-out refused. We asked them to pay us more money on streaming deals, and they gave us a really [low] offer,” Puryear says.
Since the strike began, writers and actors have been sharing photos of their residual checks across social media. In the often unstable world of Hollywood, many actors and writers rely on money from residual checks to help them make ends meet in between being hired for new projects. Some of the residual checks shown on social media are for less than $1.
What kind of value do you put on people? To me, that’s what the strike is about.
MARCUS FOLMAR, ACTOR
“We are literally people with like five jobs needed to pay the bills,” Ademu-John says. “We are not all living in mansions, and you can take a picture of my room. This is not a mansion, and I’ve been at it for 25 years on the biggest shows on the planet. I’m not hurting, and I can hold out for a long time, but I can’t hold out forever.”
Actor Marcus Folmar, a 30-year SAG-AFTRA member who has appeared in popular shows like “Frasier” and “Criminal Minds”, says he still has to work extra jobs.
“My residual income accounts for about 50% of my income,” Folmar says. “I coach actors as well.”
Show Us the Money
Hit shows and movies often make millions of dollars, so where is all the money? Writers and actors say it’s sitting in the pockets of CEOs.
According to reporting by LAist, in 2022, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made $32.1 million, and Netflix’s co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos were paid $51.1 million and $50.3 million, respectively. In comparison, it takes $26,000 a year in earnings on SAG-AFTRA jobs to qualify for health insurance, and 87% of members don’t qualify in any given year. Additionally, over the past five years, when accounting for inflation, screenwriter pay declined by 14%.
While studio bosses are making enough to buy yachts, the vast majority of WGA and SAG-AFTRA cannot even afford to go to the doctor. Folmar believes the pursuit of profit should not make the AMPTP devalue human life.
“What kind of value do you put on people? To me, that’s what the strike is about. In this society, the bottom line can’t always be dollars and cents,” Folmar says.
AI Could Push Black Writers Out of Hollywood
The insurgence of artificial intelligence could mean checks to actors and writers could get even smaller in the near future. Experts predict that 300 million jobs could be lost or degraded by AI in the coming years.
With AI, TV and film execs now have the capability to quickly develop original scripts without the help of human writers and to generate performances by actors without the actor even having to physically be there.
“If we allow it, the first draft will be written by AI for free,” Puryear says. “The studio will have it for free. Then they’ll call me up, and they’ll say, ‘Tony, can you come in for a couple of days and make this ‘Blacker’ because we don’t know about the street language.’ Now, suddenly, me — a union writer for 30 years with a pension plan and everything else — suddenly now I’m a gig worker. Suddenly now, they only need me to come in for a day to ‘Blackify’ this script.”
Just know all of that entertainment value started in the brain of a writer, and it’s that person who is just trying to live.
DIANE ADEMU-JOHN, WRITER AND PRODUCER
The studios have declined AI safeguards sought by unions, raising concerns among writers like Puryear that Black creatives will be disproportionately displaced as writer rooms shrink.
“Black writers are last hired and first fired,” Puryear says. “Black writers have a harder time getting in because we don’t have the old boys network. Writer’s rooms are getting smaller, terms of employment are getting shorter. If they’re only going to hire four to five people, they’re not even going to include that diversity hire.”
Actors and Writers Need Your Support
To create a more equitable industry, actors and writers say they need community support. Folks are invited to join their movement by pledging solidarity with SAG-AFTRA and signing the WGA’s letter of support for the guild’s contract negotiation. People can also donate to The Snacklist, which is delivering food, drinks, and other necessities to strikers in the Los Angeles area.
People also need to speak up and say “that we value human talent, that we see that it’s unfair for these corporations to profit more than the people who are doing the work, the artists,” Folmar says.
For now, WGA and SAG-AFTRA members aren’t asking fans to boycott their favorite shows and movies.
“If you have nothing to do with the television and entertainment industry, it’s OK to keep watching and enjoying. Keep watching Netflix,” Ademu-John says. But just know all of that entertainment value started in the brain of a writer, and it’s that person who is just trying to live.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the “Tennessee Three,” reclaimed their legislative seats Thursday after they were expelled for involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor.
The young Black lawmakers were reinstated by local officials after being booted from the GOP-dominated Statehouse, but only on an interim basis. They advanced Thursday through a special election to fully reclaim their positions. Both faced opponents in districts that heavily favor Democrats and easily defeated them according to unofficial results from the Tennessee’s Secretary of State’s office.
Jones, who lives in Nashville, was up against Republican candidate Laura Nelson. Meanwhile, Pearson, from Memphis, faced independent candidate Jeff Johnston.
“I think if we keep running this race, there will be victory after victory after victory,” Pearson said to supporters on Thursday. He stressed that his victory was largely possible due to Black women and the organizing work they had done to make him and other politicians successful.
Thursday’s election came as lawmakers are preparing to return to Nashville later this month for a special session to address possibly changing the state’s gun control laws. While Jones and Pearson’s reelection to their old posts won’t make a significant dent to the Republican supermajority inside the Legislature, they are expected to push back heavily against some of their GOP colleagues’ policies.
Jones and Pearson were elected to the Statehouse last year. Both lawmakers flew relatively under the radar, even as they criticized their Republican colleagues’ policies. It wasn’t until this spring that their political careers received a boost when they joined fellow Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson in a protest for more gun control on the House floor.
The demonstration took place just days after a fatal shooting in Nashville at a private Christian school where a shooter killed three children and three adults. As thousands of protesters flooded the Capitol building to demand that the Republican supermajority enact some sort of restrictions on firearms, the three lawmakers approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn, and joined the protesters’ chants and cries for action.
Republican lawmakers quickly declared that their actions violated House rules and moved to expel their three colleagues — an extraordinary move that’s been taken only a handful of times since the Civil War.
The move briefly left about 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts in Nashville and Memphis with no representation in the Tennessee House.
Ultimately, Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided expulsion while Pearson and Jones were booted by the predominantly white GOP caucus.
House Republican leaders have repeatedly denied that race was a factor in the expulsion hearings. Democrats have disagreed, with Johnson countering that the only reason that she wasn’t expelled was due to her being white.
The expulsions drew national support for the newly dubbed “Tennessee Three,” especially for Pearson and Jones’ campaign fundraising. The two raised more than $2 million combined through about 70,400 campaign donations from across the country. The amount is well beyond the norm for Tennessee’s Republican legislative leaders and virtually unheard of for two freshman Democrats in a superminority.
Meanwhile, more than 15 Republican lawmakers had funneled cash to fund campaign efforts of Jones’ Republican opponent, Nelson. Nelson has raised more than $34,000 for the race. Pearson’s opponent, Johnston, raised less than $400 for the contest.
Thursday’s election will also influence two other legislative seats.
In Nashville, community organizer Aftyn Behn and former Metro Councilmember Anthony Davis were vying to advance to the general election for a House seat in a district in the city’s northeastern region that opened after Democratic Rep. Bill Beck died in June.
Meanwhile in eastern Tennessee, Republican Timothy Hill faced Democrat Lori Love in a general election for Republican-leaning District 3. The seat was left empty when former Republican Rep. Scotty Campbell resigned following a finding that he had violated the Legislature’s workplace discrimination and harassment policy.
Hill served in the state House from 2012 until 2020 and rose to the position of majority whip. He later left his seat to run for an open U.S. House seat in 2020, but lost in a crowded primary to current Republican U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — On the last of his many visits to Jim Brown’s home in Los Angeles, Ray Lewis recalled the legendary running back being as powerful as ever.
As a feeble Brown, in the final months of his life, slowly approached the Hall of Fame linebacker, Lewis braced himself.
“He said, ‘If I put this walker down, I still don’t think you can stop me,'” Lewis said.
No one stopped Jim Brown.
With dozens of fellow Hall of Famers dressed in their signature gold jackets in attendance, Brown’s extraordinary life — on and off the field — was celebrated Thursday during a moving tribute for a man NBC broadcaster and event emcee Mike Tirico perfectly described as “one of a kind, unique, complex and different from anyone you ever met.”
Brown, who died in May at the age of 87, was remembered for not only being one of America’s greatest all-around athletes and one of the top players in NFL history, but a visionary for social change, his work with gang members in Los Angeles and an ability to unite people from different backgrounds.
The touching 90-minute event drew a varied crowd featuring a Who’s Who of football royalty with Emmitt Smith, “Mean” Joe Greene, Ronnie Lott, Barry Sanders mingling with Commissioner Roger Goodell, comedian Dave Chapelle and rapper Flava Flav.
Following a video highlighting Brown’s many accomplishments during nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns — eight-time All-Pro, three-time MVP and 12,312 yards rushing — along with his work during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was the first of six speakers.
“He transcended football,” Haslam said. “Jim got into the entertainment business as an actor, and then Jim was into social justice before there was social justice.”
Rudolph “Rockhead” Johnson, a former California gang leader who spent much of his early life in prison, followed Haslam and expressed his deep love for Brown.
“He is the reason why I am in front of you and alive,” Johnson told the audience, which included hundreds of fans who waited in long lines to pay their final respects to Brown, who retired after the 1964 season.
Johnson recalled that after meeting Brown, he was invited to the star’s home and went there carrying a .357 magnum handgun. He also explained that Brown talked him out of seeking revenge after his 15-year-old daughter was murdered — on his birthday.
“And for the first time in my life, I fought my bad negative feelings and I went against my own neighborhood,” Johnson said. “I started crying in front of a man, and I’ve never done that before in my life. That’s how much he meant to me.
“Because of him and what he stood for and what he helped me understand about myself, it allowed me to be a man today, a responsible father and hardworking citizen in our society. But Jim Brown was every bit of a man. He was a man among men.”
Bob Arum told two remarkable stories about Brown.
The 91-year-old sports entertainment maven was practicing law in New York, when Brown was the one who convinced him in 1965 to become a boxing promoter. The founder and CEO of Top Rank, Arum also recalled how it was Brown who organized the famed “Cleveland Summit,” when Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) and other prominent Black athletes met to promote economic empowerment.
Following Arum, singer Johnny Gill did a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” with his final words bringing many in the auditorium to their feet.
John Wooten, one of Brown’s former teammates, also asked the crowd to stand, raise their hands and pledge what was at the core of his dear late friend’s message to others.
“Human dignity,” the 86-year-old Wooten said as the crowd repeated his words. “Respect everybody.”
Wooten then asked Lewis, who spent countless hours learning from Brown and referred to him as “Papa” to stand.
“This is the man that Jim chose to be the next leader of the athletes,” Wooten said, pointing toward Lewis. “He told me, ‘This is our guy.’”
The 48-year-old Lewis, who retired in 2012 after 17 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, delivered his remarks about Brown with the fiery passion of a Sunday preacher.
Lewis recently lost his son, Ray Lewis III, to an accidental drug overdose at the age of 28, and said if he had one wish it would be to ask God for one more conversation with his son and Brown.
In closing, Lewis offered advice while asking a favor from his mentor.
“A lot of fathers truly believe it’s what you can give your children that will make you happy,” he said. “It’s not what you can give your kids, it’s what you can leave your kids. You leave your kids hope, faith, love, promise.
“Jim Brown,” Lewis said, pausing and looking skyward. “Jim Brown. A lot of people trying to figure out ways to go to the moon. Papa, if you don’t do nothing else, whisper to my son and let him know. I will see you both real soon.”
By MICHAEL GOLDBERG, Associated Press/Report for America
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The roughly 90-minute period of terror preceding the shooting began late on Jan. 24 after a white neighbor called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home.
McAlpin tipped off Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies who called themselves “The Goon Squad,” a moniker they adopted because of their willingness to use excessive force.
“Are y’all available for a mission?” Dedmon asked. They were.
A little more than six months after the racist attack on Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker, six former officers pleaded guilty on Thursday.
The officers included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The Mississippi attorney general’s office announced Thursday it had filed state charges against the men including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Federal court records detail how they burst into a home without a warrant, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker, assaulted them with a sex toy and beat Parker with wood and a metal sword. They poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces and then forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess.
Then one of them put a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and fired.
As Jenkins lay bleeding, they didn’t render medical aid. They knew the mission had gone too far and devised a hasty cover-up scheme that included a fictitious narcotics bust, a planted gun and drugs, stolen surveillance footage and threats.
The deputies were under the watch of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who called it the worst episode of police brutality he has seen in his career.
Law enforcement misconduct in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny, largely focused on how Black people are treated by the police. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms and a reassessment of American race relations. The January beating death of Tyre Nichols by five Black members of a special police squad in Memphis, Tennessee, led to a probe of similar units nationwide.
In Rankin County, the brutality visited upon Jenkins and Parker was not a botched police operation, but an assembly of rogue officers “who tortured them all under the authority of a badge, which they disgraced,” U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said.
The county is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city. A towering granite-and-marble monument topped by a Confederate soldier stands across the street from the Rankin County sheriff’s office.
The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.
Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the trauma “is magnified because the misconduct was fueled by racial bias and hatred.” She mentioned another dark chapter in Mississippi law enforcement: the 1964 kidnapping and killing of three civil rights workers.
The violent police misconduct is a reminder “there is still much to be done,” Clarke said.
After Dedmon summoned “The Goon Squad,” the officers crept around the ranch-style home to avoid a surveillance camera. They kicked down the carport door and burst inside without a warrant.
Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a BB gun he also found, and forced into Parker’s mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whose weapons were more powerful.
Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a “mock execution” by firing without a bullet, but the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated Jenkins’ tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck.
As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to conduct a staged drug bust over the phone and Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs.
Middleton offered to plant an unregistered firearm, but Elward said he would use the BB gun. Dedmon volunteered to plant methamphetamine he had received from an informant. Jenkins was charged with a felony as a result, but the charges were later dropped.
Opdyke put one of Elward’s shell casings in a water bottle and threw it into tall grass nearby. Hartfield removed the hard drive from the home’s surveillance system and later tossed it in a creek.
Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.
They kept quiet for months as pressure mounted from a Justice Department civil rights probe. An investigation by The Associated Press also linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.
One of the officers came forward in June, Bailey said.
Bailey on Thursday said he was lied to and first learned everything that happened to Jenkins and Parker when he read unsealed court documents. Some of the deputies, including McAlpin and Elward, had worked under Bailey for years and been sued several times for alleged misconduct.
The sheriff promised to implement a new body camera policy and said he was open to more federal oversight. He also called the officers “criminals,” echoing federal prosecutors.
“Now, they’ll be treated as the criminals they are,” U.S. Attorney LaMarca said.
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, SAM MEDNICK and CARA ANNA, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten days into a coup in Niger, life has become more challenging for U.S. forces at a counterterrorism base in a region of West Africa known as the world’s epicenter of terrorism.
Flights in and out of the country have been curtailed as coup leaders require Americans to seek permission for each flight. Fuel shortages mean the U.S. commander must sign off whenever an aircraft is refueled.
And yet, as several European countries evacuate Niger, the Biden administration is showing itself intent on staying. It sees Niger as the United States’ last, best counterterrorism outpost — and until the coup, a promising democracy — in an unstable region south of the Sahara Desert.
Abandoning it risks not only a surge in jihadist groups, but even greater influence by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.
In an opinion piece published late Thursday in The Washington Post, democratically elected President Mohammed Bazoum urged the U.S. and others to help Niger restore its constitutional order. He warned that otherwise the “entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group” and Islamic extremists would take advantage of Niger’s instability.
“They will ramp up their efforts to target our youths with hateful anti-Western indoctrination, turning them against the very partners who are helping us build a more hopeful future,” the president wrote.
While some European governments shut embassies and evacuated their citizens on military flights this week, as scattered anti-Western protests broke out following the coup, U.S. diplomats sent home nonessential staff and some family this week but stayed on.
“The U.S. Embassy is open. We intend for it to remain open,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.
President Joe Biden called late this week for the Nigerien presidential guards who are holding Bazoum to release him and immediately restore Niger’s “hard-earned democracy.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who praised Niger as a “model of resilience, a model of democracy, and a model of cooperation” when he visited in March, has been calling Niger’s captive president almost daily, affirming U.S. support for his safety and return to power.
As the military overthrow stretches into its second week, U.S. officials refuse to formally call it a coup, saying they retain hope of a return to civilian government. Junta leaders announced late Thursday that they were severing Niger’s military partnerships with France, the country’s colonial ruler, but they have said nothing about doing the same regarding the hundreds of millions of dollars of training and support from the United States, signaling they may have hope of working with Washington. The U.S. says it suspended military cooperation since the first days of Bazoum’s detention.
The firm U.S. stance in Niger is in contrast to its response to other recent international crises and armed takeovers. That includes in nearby Sudan, when fighting erupted between two rival generals in April. Then, American diplomats and security forces were among the first foreigners to shut down operations in Sudan and fly out.
The 2021 U.S. retreat from Afghanistan, itself an important territory for U.S. counterterrorism operations, signaled an administration willing to cut deep in paring its security obligations to focus attention on a main challenge, from China.
U.S. officials declined to say Thursday how far they would go to restore Niger’s government, including whether they would support any use of force by a regional security bloc known as ECOWAS.
“Right now, we’re focused on diplomacy,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, saying diplomacy “should still be the first tool of choice.”
Both France and the United States have threatened to cut off millions of dollars in aid unless the new junta steps down.
But the usual U.S. response of sanctions and isolation when military figures seize power in West Africa is riskier now given the avidity of the jihadists and Kremlin-allied forces.
John Lechner, a West Africa analyst and author on the Wagner Group, sensed more analysts proposing some in-between solution, such as the U.S. retaining security ties in exchange for mere promises of a transition back toward democracy.
U.S. personnel, including members of the 409th Air Expeditionary Group, remain at U.S. counterterror outposts in Niger. That includes Air Base 201 in Agadez, a city of more than 100,000 people on the southern edge of the Sahara, and Air Base 101 in Niamey, Niger’s capital.
Americans have made Niger their main regional outposts for wide-ranging patrols by armed drones and other counterterror operations against Islamic extremist movements that over the years have seized territory, massacred civilians and battled foreign armies.
Air Base 201 operates in a sandstorm-whipped, remote area of Niger that serves as a gateway to the Sahara Desert for migrants and traders. In sandstorms, U.S. military personnel wear goggles and face masks as the gritty sky turns red or black.
In heat that can reach well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), U.S. military personnel in their free time have built classrooms for local schools, created weekly English-language discussion groups, helped villagers find a lost 2-year-old girl in a nighttime desert search, challenged a local soccer team to a match, offered residents “American snacks” for International Women’s Day and delivered pencils, prayer mats, soap and other aid to communities in what one sergeant described as “the unforgiving environment of Africa.”
A civilian aviation notice this week warned that refueling was being limited at Agadez since the coup, with every single gassing up requiring approval from the 409th’s commander.
Niger’s junta closed the country’s airspace on July 27. Since then, the U.S. government has negotiated access for flights on a case-by-case basis, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly said on the condition of anonymity.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said most U.S. forces in Niger are staying inside their military bases and are not conducting training exercises as they normally would.
Americans have invested years and hundreds of millions of dollars in training Nigerien forces.
In 2018, fighters loyal to the Islamic State group ambushed and killed four American service members, four Nigeriens and an interpreter.
West Africa recorded over 1,800 extremist attacks in the first six months of this year, which killed nearly 4,600 people, according to ECOWAS.
The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram operates in neighboring Nigeria and Chad. Along Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin pose greater threats.
“Affiliates, franchises and branches of IS and AQ are probably most robust in that part of the world, outside of Afghanistan. So, you know, there’s a lot at stake,” said Colin Clarke, research director at The Soufan Group security and intelligence consultancy.
If the coup in Niger sticks, it will alter what has been U.S. security forces’ best partnership in the region and create momentum for those forces to reduce their presence. Especially after any U.S. military drawdown, domestic turmoil from the coup could draw Niger’s troops away from the country’s borders, allowing jihadist groups to make further inroads into Niger.
Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries already are a force in neighboring Mali and the nearby Central African Republic, supporting and protecting anti-Western governments. Wagner forces usually take a share of countries’ mineral resources in return. In Niger, the country’s notable resource is high-grade uranium ore.
Wagner forces are notoriously bad at fighting Islamic extremists, with scorched-earth tactics that only draw civilians to the jihadists’ side, Clarke said.
And when Wagner is done extracting gold and other resources from a country, “they’re out, right? And the situation is then fourfold worse, and who’s there to clean it up?” he said.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers have pleaded guilty to charges that they beat and tortured two Black men.
The guilty pleas come after federal charges were filed against the former law enforcement officers, who “called themselves ‘The Goon Squad’ because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it,” according to a federal charging document.
The charges included conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice, according to online federal court records.
Federal prosecutors revealed the charges on Thursday, August 3, during a federal court appearance by the former officers.
The incident occurred on January 24, when police brutalized Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker during an unwarranted home invasion.
In February, The Justice Department launched a civil rights probe in response to the allegations made by Jenkins and Parker.
In June, the two men filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County, seeking $400 million in damages for their harrowing ordeal.
According to court documents, five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer barged into their home.
Once inside, the officers physically assaulted and tormented them using a sex object and Tasers for approximately 90 minutes.
The situation escalated further when one deputy allegedly placed a firearm in Jenkins’ mouth and fired.
The officers referred to the Black men as “boy,” n-ggers,” and “monkeys,” and slapped and attempted to sodomize them with a sex toy, the charging documents stated.
Further, the officers handcuffed the men and poured milk and syrup on them and forced them to ingest alcohol.
They also poured cooking grease over the victims’ heads, before ordering them to strip naked and shower to wash away the evidence.
The officers accused Jenkins and Parker of “taking advantage of the white woman” who owned the property where they lived.
Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Department employees Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, and Daniel Opdyke, along with former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, who was off duty at the time of the raid, each face approximately a dozen federal charges related to the incident.
Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced on June 27 that all five deputies involved had either been fired or resigned.
Hartfield was also terminated.
An Associated Press report linking the deputies involved in the home raid to at least four previous violent encounters with Black men since 2019, resulting in two fatalities and one individual sustaining lasting injuries, triggered the investigation.
DOJ officials said the charges against the former officers represent a significant step towards justice for Jenkins, Parker, and other victims who may have suffered at the hands of those meant to protect and serve.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Former President Donald Trump, as expected, was arraigned on Thursday, Aug. 3, at the historic E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
The ex-president, whom a civil jury in New York found guilty of sexual assault, is facing serious felony charges related to his allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The charging document, a 45-page record, accuses Trump and six others of conspiring to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden following Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The indictment alleges that Trump deliberately spread false allegations of widespread voter fraud to create a climate of distrust and anger and undermine public trust in the election process.
Upon his arrival at the courthouse, the twice-impeached and three-times-indicted former president was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service and processed before Chief Federal District Judge John Sirica.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The ex-president’s case is far from the only notable process at the famous courthouse.
It has hosted the Watergate trials and the Iran-Contra affair, where officials from Ronald Reagan’s administration were found guilty of secretly and illegally selling missiles and other arms to free some Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon.
Funds from the arms deal also supported the armed conflict in Nicaragua.
Recently, and perhaps more notable for Trump, hundreds of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, have been brought to justice inside the Prettyman Federal Courthouse.
Despite the gravity of the charges, Trump didn’t refrain from continuing his efforts to rally his base.
The Trump campaign posted a picture of the former president inside a courtroom with the caption, “In reality, they’re not after me; they’re after you,” implying that his prosecution is an attack on his supporters.
Trump traveled by private plane from New Jersey to the courthouse near that sits near the U.S. Capitol.
His travel attracted massive media attention while the U.S. Secret Service was forced to put increased security measures in place.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who in June brought a case against Trump in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents, was present during the arraignment.
Attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche joined Trump during the proceedings.
“It is a crime to try to influence a juror,” Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya warned Trump, and admonished him not to violate his release conditions.
“You may be held pending trial in this case,” she asserted, before asking him, “Do you understand these warnings and consequences, sir?”
Trump simply nodded yes.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
With the white sheets removed, the hoods now off, and the dog whistles as overt as they were during Jim Crow and the struggle for civil rights in the mid-20th century, a conservative group that spearheaded the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action now has set its sights on Black women.
Edward Blum, a conservative activist, founded the American Alliance for Equal Rights nonprofit, which has filed a lawsuit against Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based venture capital fund.
The lawsuit alleges that Fearless Fund “is engaging in unlawful racial discrimination by restricting eligibility for its grant competition to only Black women entrepreneurs.”
The legal action cited the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and was filed in federal Court in Atlanta.
Fearless Fund, established in 2019 by prominent Black women, including Cosby Show actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, entrepreneur Arian Simone, and corporate executive Ayana Parsons, aims to support and empower Black women who own small businesses.
Notable investors in the fund include Bank of America, Costco Wholesale, General Mills, Mastercard, and JPMorgan Chase.
The lawsuit reportedly marks Blum’s first legal challenge since his organization’s victory in the Supreme Court in June.
The Court rejected affirmative action in collegiate admissions, ruling against race-conscious student admissions policies used by institutions like Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
Blum’s group had argued that such policies unfairly discriminated against white and Asian American applicants.
Blum’s lawsuit focuses on Fearless Fund’s “Fearless Strivers Grant Contest,” which provides $20,000 in grants, digital tools, and mentorship opportunities to Black women business owners.
The American Alliance for Equal Rights claims that white and Asian American members of their organization have been excluded from the grant program solely based on race.
Fearless Fund has yet to respond to the allegations.
In an interview with Reuters, Blum stated that the lawsuit is just the beginning of his efforts to challenge race-based policies used by private corporations through the American Alliance for Equal Rights.
He said he aims to build upon the success of the cases against Harvard and UNC, filed by his organization, Students for Fair Admissions, which led to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June.
“The common theme of these organizations is to challenge in the courts the use of racial classifications and preferences in our nation’s policies,” Blum said, as reported by Reuters.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Keeping in lockstep with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing crusade against Blacks and other minorities, Walt Disney World’s governing district has abolished its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and related initiatives.
The district, now under the control of DeSantis appointees, also eliminated jobs associated with those duties.
The decision includes past initiatives that aimed to achieve racial and gender parity through contract awards.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District announced the elimination of these programs in a statement, citing the belief that such initiatives were “illegal and simply un-American.”
“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” declared the district’s new administrator, Glenton Gilzean, an African American conservative supporter of DeSantis.
“As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences,” he insisted.
DeSantis has been at the forefront of curtailing diversity programs in higher education and other institutions.
Last spring, he signed a law prohibiting public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity initiatives.
Additionally, he championed Florida’s “Stop WOKE” law, which restricts businesses, colleges, and K–12 schools from providing training on certain racial concepts.
A federal judge previously blocked the enforcement of that law, deeming it “positively dystopian.”
DeSantis recently ignited more race-baiting controversy when his state education board banned books that taught American history, including the inhumanity of slavery.
The governor incredulously claimed that African American slaves benefited from being enslaved.
He later doubled down on those remarks.
Meanwhile, the district, formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District, played a crucial role in Disney’s decision to establish a theme park resort in the 1960s.
Disney could oversee zoning, fire protection, utilities, and infrastructure services on its extensive property by having a separate government entity.
For over five decades, the district was under the control of Disney supporters until DeSantis appointed new supervisors earlier this year following a contentious dispute between the company and the governor.
The conflict was sparked when Disney publicly opposed a state law that banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.
DeSantis responded to Disney’s opposition by taking over the district through legislation and appointing a new board of supervisors to oversee the municipal services of the theme parks and hotels.
In response, Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the governor violated the company’s free speech rights through retaliatory action.
The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have also filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate previous agreements between Disney and the last board oversight members who were Disney supporters.
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