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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 28
After deadly shootings,
Obama says police
must root out bias
By Josh Lederman
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama called on Ameri
can law enforcement to root out bias in its ranks and said all Ameri
cans should be troubled by frequent police shootings of blacks and
Hispanics, insisting that fatal incidents in Minnesota and Louisiana
are not isolated.
Adding his voice to a growing public outcry, Obama said the
shootings were symptoms of a “broader set of racial disparities” in
the justice system that aren’t being fixed quickly enough.
He ticked through a list of statistics he said showed concerns about
bias are real: African-Americans being shot by police or arrested at
more than twice the rate of white Americans.
“When incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our fellow
citizenry that feels as if it’s because of the color of their skin, they are
not being treated the same,” Obama said. “And that hurts. And that
should trouble all of us.”
Durham
Committee
Statement on
Violence
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Omar Beasley, chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs
of Black People (DCABP), says members of the organization are
“incensed” by the ongoing violence taking place around the country.
That violence includes police shootings and killings of African-
Americans in situations such as those last week in Louisiana and
Minnesota that prompted nationwide protests, the killing of five
police officers and wounding of seven other officers and individuals
during a protest in Dallas, and the ongoing violence in African-
American and other communities across the country, he said.
“This has got to stop”, said Beasley. “We are tired of the bloodshed
that is taking the lives of so many people, including young African-
American men dying at the hands of each other as well as police
officers, and police officers and others being killed in senseless
attempts at revenge.”
Beasley went on to say that “While the anger, grief and heartache
over the events last week remain, we must continue to press for
solutions to serious issues rather than turn on each other with fault
finding and accusations that do nothing to solve the problems.”
The DCABP established a public safety committee chaired by
Clarence Birkhead, a former police chief, several months ago to work
on these kinds of problems, Beasley noted. Although the committee
has not taken a position on the matter yet, part of the problem is the
easy availability of assault rifles and other firearms in urban areas.
“While the debate over gun control and gun rights continues, I see no
reason that civilians need to own assault rifles,” he said.
Nationwide and in Durham, Beasley stated, police and other law
enforcement officials need to modify and improve training, procedures
and the way officers often view and interact with African-American
citizens. “We are encouraged that we have a new police chief in
Durham who seems to have the background, skills and willingness to
make some of the needed changes in policing in Durham,” Beasley
said, adding that DCABP members will be watching to see not only
what she says but what she does as she assumes leadership of the
Durham Police Department.
He also said that nationwide and in Durham police need to adopt
“sensible use-of-force policies, and institute de-escalation techniques
and anger management training for all law enforcement officers.” He
further advocated greater diversity in the ranks of law enforcement
officials, having more officers live in the jurisdictions where they
work, and having officers “recommit themselves to the core values of
protecting and serving our communities.” Finally, he added, the state
legislature should enact “sunshine laws” that require public access to
police body-cam videos.
African-American citizens in particular, he said, need to stand
together to stop the plague of violence within African-American
communities.
Obama’s diagnosis of the problem reflected a growing sense of
frustration and willingness to speak out publicly about police killings
despite the risk of making law enforcement officers feel under attack.
The president spoke in a hastily arranged appearance at a hotel in
Warsaw just after arriving in Poland for a NATO summit. He largely
echoed comments he made earlier in the day in a Facebook post as
the two deaths were increasingly capturing the country’s attention.
In Louisiana, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was fatally shot Tuesday
as he tussled with two white officers outside a convenience store in a
predominantly black neighborhood. The shooting was caught on tape
and went viral online.
The next day in Minnesota, 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot
to death during a traffic stop. His girlfriend posted video of the af
termath live on Facebook, saying he had been shot “for no apparent
reason” while reaching for his wallet, as an officer had asked.
Though the White House has sought to avoid commenting on spe
cific cases before all facts are known, in this case Obama weighed
in while both shootings are still being investigated, including a civil
rights probe by the U.S. Justice Department into the Louisiana inci
dent.
Similar statements about other shootings have stoked tensions
with law enforcement, including with FBI Director James Comey,
who has suggested the intense public focus on police officers’ con
duct, fueled by caught-on-camera moments, may be inhibiting of
ficers as they try to protect their communities.
Aiming to pre-empt that concern, Obama said that speaking out
about the issue is not an attack on police. He emphasized that he and
(Continued On Page 6
“I know my son ... we know
black people have been killed ...
I always told them, whatever you
do when you get stopped by po
lice, comply, comply, comply.”
Police did not release any
details about the officer who
fired except to say he had been
placed on paid administrative
leave. Reynolds described him
as Asian.
It was the second fatal police
shooting this week, coming only
days after a black 37-year-old
man was killed by officers in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton
Sterling’s death was caught on
video.
On Wednesday, the Justice
Department launched a civil
rights investigation into Ster
ling’s shooting, which took place
after he scuffled with two white
police officers outside a conve
nience store.
Castile’s cousin, Antonio
Johnson, told the Star Tribune
that because Castile was a black
man driving in a largely middle-
class suburb, he “was immedi
ately criminally profiled and he
lost his life over it.”
The site of the shooting in
Falcon Heights is close to the
Minnesota State Fairgrounds and
not far from a clutch of fields as
sociated with the University of
Minnesota’s agricultural cam
pus.
Late Wednesday, protesters
moved to the governor’s man
sion in nearby St. Paul, where
around 200 people chanted and
demanded action from Dayton,
a Democrat. About 50 protesters
stayed through the night.
The video posted Wednesday
night on Facebook Live shows
the woman in a car next to a
bloodied man slumped in a seat.
A clearly distraught person who
appears to be a police officer
stands at the car’s window, tell
ing the woman to keep her hands
where they are and intermittently
swearing.
The interim police chief in
nearby St. Anthony, Jon Mangs-
eth, said he was aware of the
Facebook video but did not com
ment on it.
Presisdent Barack Obama and Preisdnential nominee Hillary Clinton wave to the crowd in Charlotte July 5.
Photo by AP photo by Susan Walsh.
Video shows gruesome aftermath
of Minnesota police shooting
By Steve Karnowski and
Kyle Potter
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn.
(AP) _ A woman who watched
as a police officer fatally shot
her boyfriend during a traffic
stop broadcast the gruesome af
termath of the slaying live on
Facebook, telling a worldwide
audience that her companion had
been shot “for no apparent rea
son” while reaching for his wal
let as the officer had demanded.
Within hours, the Minnesota
governor was pressing for the
Justice Department to open its
second investigation of the week
into the death of a black man at
the hands of police.
The latest shooting happened
late Wednesday in the St. Paul
suburb of Falcon Heights.
In the video, Diamond Reyn
olds describes being pulled over
for a “busted tail light” and says
her boyfriend had told the officer
he was carrying a gun for which
he was licensed.
As word of the shooting
spread, relatives of the man
joined scores of people who
gathered at the scene and out
side the hospital where he died.
They identified him as Philando
Castile of St. Paul, a well-liked
32-year-old cafeteria supervisor
at a Montessori school.
Reynolds said Thursday that
he was killed even though he
complied with the officer’s in
structions. She told reporters that
Castile did “nothing but what the
police officer asked of us, which
was to put your hands in the air
and get your license and registra
tion.” ’
In addition to seeking help
from the Justice Department,
Gov. Mark Dayton said the Min
nesota Bureau of Criminal Ap
prehension had opened its own
investigation.
Speaking to CNN, Castile’s
mother said that she suspected
she would never learn the whole
truth about her son’s death.
“I think he was just black in
the wrong place,” Valerie Cas
tile said early Thursday, adding
that she had underlined to her
children that they must do what
authorities tell them to do to sur
vive.
The state Bureau of Crimi
nal Apprehension did not return
multiple requests for comment
Thursday from The Associated
Press.
Facebook Live is a form of
internet broadcasting that can
be initiated in seconds from the
Facebook app. In a few taps, us
ers can send live video straight
from their smartphones to friends
or to a wider audience.
On the video, the officer tells
her to keep her hands up and
says: “I told him not to reach for
it. I told him to get his hand out.”
“You shot four bullets into
him, sir. He was just getting his
license and registration, sir,” the
woman responds.
The video goes on to show
the woman exiting the car and
being handcuffed. A young girl
can be seen and is heard saying
at on e point, “I’m scared, Mom
my.”
The woman describes being
put in the back seat of the police
car and says, “The police just
shot my boyfriend for no appar
ent reason.”
It was unclear whether other
footage exists. Kim Brazil, the
St. Anthony Police Department’s
office manager, confirmed that
their squad cars are equipped
with dashboard cameras but said
officers do not have body cam
eras.
A handgun was recovered
from the scene, police said.
Castile had worked for the St.
Paul school district since he was
19. A principal described him
as “a warm person and a gentle
spirit” who loved his job and
never missed work.
(Continued On Page 6)
Black gun owners
worried about treatment
after shooting
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) _ One man told an officer during a Min
nesota traffic stop that he was a licensed gun owner, and that he was
reaching for his wallet, a witness said. The other was on the ground
with police officers on top of him in Louisiana when someone shout
ed "He has a gun!”
Police in each circumstance thought the black man carrying a gun
was dangerous and immediately shot him dead. Activists say black
gun owners are often treated differently than white gun owners to a
sometimes fatal degree.
The perception of an armed black person has not changed much
since the days of slave rebellions, said the Rev. Kenn Blanchard, a
former firearms instructor who runs BlackManWithAGun.com.
"If you have a firearm or you scare the wrong people, you’re go
ing to get shot. You’re going to get killed. The perception of the scary
black man still exists. The threat of the slave going rogue, it’s still
there. The bad gangbanger,” Blanchard said.
A sniper opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas, July
7, killing five officers and injuring six others during protests over two
recent fatal police shootings of black men, according to police.
The gunfire broke while hundreds of people were gathered to pro
test fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
suburban St. Paul, Minnesota.
Police wrongly identified a black gun owner among the protest
ers as a suspect. The Dallas Police Department put out a photo on its
Twitter account late July 7 of a man wearing a camouflage shirt and
holding a rifle with the message: "This is one of our suspects. Please
help us find him!” The tweet remained on the account early July 8.
(Continued On Page 6)