STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 07-09-20
WAKE COUNTY BECOMES FIRST IN THE STATE TO RECOGNIZE JUNETEENTH
[RALEIGH] North Carolina’s capitol county is now the first in the state to recognize the African-American holiday, Juneteenth, as an official paid count holiday. “Wake County has just declared racism as a public health crisis and acknowledge our shared duty to address it, said Wake Commissioner Jessica Holmes after the commission vote last Monday. June 19th is officially the day in 1865 that marks the end of slavery when blacks in Texas finally got word of the Emancipation Proclamation by Pres. Lincoln two years earlier.
GOV. COOPER VETOES DEATH RECORDS LAW
[RALEIGH] Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed controversial Senate Bill 168 Monday after protesters expressed concern that it would shield death investigation records from the public. Death records normally become public record after being handled by the Office of State Medical Examiner. However the law, which had been passed unanimously by the Legislature two weeks ago, would have kept details from public view, especially in fatal police shootings.
REOPENNC PROTESTERS WANT GOV. COOPER IMPEACHED
[RALEIGH] Gov. Roy Cooper has so overstepped his legal bounds during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, that he has violated everyone’s state and federal constitutional rights, and thus should be removed from office by impeachment, says ReOpenNC. Group leader Ashley Smith says Cooper has no authority to close businesses or order people to wear masks, and should be removed.
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STATE’S BLACK COVID-19
CASES, DEATHS CLIMBING
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As of Monday, July 6th, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services, North Carolina logged 74,529 cases of COVID-19 statewide, 24% of which were Black (or African-American); and 1,398 deaths, 33% Black.
The total cases logged Monday were 1546 more than were counted the day before. 982 COVID-19 hospitalizations, the highest until then , had also been recorded.
Also on Monday, more than 1 million tests for coronavirus had been completed across the state, with approximately, with 9% coming back positive.
In key counties like New Hanover - 1,138 cases, 17% Black, 7 death, 0% Black; Guilford - 3,149 cases, 39% Black, with 37% of the 117 deaths there were Blacks; Bumcombe - 693 cases, 8% which are Black, and of 29 deaths, 0% Black; Mecklenburg - 13,111, 29% are Black, and of the 154 recorded deaths, 31% are Black.
With Mecklenburg County registering among the highest number of cases per county across the state, Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12) issued a report early Tuesday of this week on her office’s constituent service during the coronavirus pandemic. As of July 6th, Adam’s office responded, by letter, to 10,363 constituent questions and comments; five pieces of legislation in the Congress on COVID-19 issues by Rep. Adams; 15 Congressional letters requesting support from either Democratic House leadership, Pres. Trump or support from colleagues regarding COVID-19 related issues; and 19 in-district events (town halls) dealing with various aspects of the pandemic.
The result was $212 million in federal funding awarded to Adam’s 12th Congressional District for coronavirus relief efforts.
After suing the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention for the information, the New York Times last week published statistics documenting “Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, according to the new data, which provides detailed characteristics of 640,000 infections detected in nearly 1,000 U.S. counties. And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people, the data shows.”
The Times report continued, “Experts point to circumstances that have made Black and Latino people more likely than white people to be exposed to the virus: Many of them have front-line jobs that keep them from working at home; rely on public transportation; or live in cramped apartments or multigenerational homes.”
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STRONG REACTION TO
NO CHARGES AGAINST 3
RACIST OFFICERS WHO
THREATENED RACE WAR
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Being fired from their jobs as veteran Wilmington police officers isn’t enough, say community leaders, especially after the racist three were caught on tape talking about starting a “civil war,” “slaughtering f*****g n****s,” and wiping blacks “…off the f*****g map.”
Former “…officers James Gilmore and Kevin Piner, and Corporal Jesse Moore…should not be allowed to work as police officers anywhere in the United States,” demanded Sonya Patrick of Black Lives Matter Wilmington in a statement issued last week. “Moreover, a message must be sent to all police officers who disparage their commander and threaten to murder citizens, and to start an insurrection, must be arrested and indicted.”
However, while agreeing that referring to Black Lives Matter demonstrators, a black suspect, black police officers and even a black magistrate judge as n-words were certainly serious offenses warranting termination, they are not criminal offenses, said New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David.
In a letter to Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams last week, David said instead, he would be calling for a federal investigation into the white former officers “hate-filled speech” because they broke no state laws.
“Words alone – spoken in private, not intended by the speaker to be heard by the person whom the speaker is victimizing, and not part of a plan that the speaker and others have agreed upon – cannot constitute a crime for which someone can be arrested or prosecuted. This is not a close legal call,” D.A. David wrote.
On June 4th, Piner, Gilmore and Moore were heard on a patrol car recording speaking with racist disdain about African-Americans, and fired subsequently on June 24th by Chief Williams. The firings made national news, adding to the current discourse about negative policing in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.
Sonya Patrick of BLM Wilmington expressed disappointment that D.A. David would not charge the officers, even though she was pleased that David made sure the racist three could not be called as witnesses in any of their previous cases within his jurisdiction. In fact, David dismissed 70 cases the officers were involved with, mostly misdemeanors.
On Monday, the Wilmington NC Clergy Truth and Reconciliation Mission filed a complaint against the former officers with the Community Relations Service of the Southeast Regional Office of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, regarding “Threats of Assault and Violent War on People because of their Race, National Origin and Color by Three Wilmington PD officers and other unknown co-conspirators.”
“We, the Wilmington NC Clergy Truth and Reconciliation Mission, make these Allegations, based on information and good faith belief, to expose secret political societies within the region’s law enforcement community who aim to terrorize with criminal threats of war and mass murder of Wilmington’s people because of our race, color, national origin and religious faith, and dismantle them forever from our state,” stated a summary of the complaint.
At press time, Chief Williams was waiting for a judge to release the tapes so that the public can hear for themselves what the former officers actually said.
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