User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
Portal maintenance status: (February 2019)
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Introduction
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people and to promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. The movement began in response to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. BLM and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes related to black liberation and criminal justice reform. While there are specific organizations that label themselves "Black Lives Matter", such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the overall movement is a decentralized network with no formal hierarchy. , there are about 40 chapters in the United States and Canada. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself has not been trademarked by any group.
In 2013, activists and friends Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.
The movement gained international attention during global protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An estimated 15 to 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest protest movements in the country's history. Despite being characterized by opponents as violent, the overwhelming majority of BLM demonstrations have been peaceful.
The popularity of Black Lives Matter has shifted over time, largely due to changing perceptions among white Americans. In 2020, 67% of adults in the United States expressed support for the movement, declining to 51% of U.S. adults in 2023. Support among people of color has, however, held strong, with 81% of African Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 63% of Asian Americans expressing support for Black Lives Matter as of 2023. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Image 1"Freedom" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé featuring American rapper Kendrick Lamar for her sixth studio album, Lemonade (2016). The song was written by Jonny Coffer, Beyoncé, Carla Marie Williams, Dean McIntosh and Lamar; it contains samples of "Let Me Try", written by Frank Tirado, performed by Kaleidoscope; samples of "Collection Speech/Unidentified Lining Hymn", recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959, performed by Reverend R.C. Crenshaw; and samples of "Stewball", recorded by Alan Lomax and John Lomax, Sr. in 1947, performed by Prisoner "22" at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Its production was handled by Beyoncé, Coffer and veteran hip hop record producer Just Blaze.
Upon its release, "Freedom" managed to appear on various music charts. It peaked at number 35 in the US, on the Billboard Hot 100 and 40 in the UK. The song's music video is part of a one-hour film with the same title as its parent album, originally aired on HBO. Beyoncé performed the song live as part of the set list of The Formation World Tour (2016) and at the BET Awards 2016. It received a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 2017 Grammy Awards. (Full article...) -
Image 2"Lavender (Nightfall Remix)" is a 2017 song by American rapper Snoop Dogg. It is a remixed version of the BadBadNotGood (BBNG) song "Lavender" with lyrics added which addressed the issue of police brutality in the United States. It was released with a music video which caused some controversy because of a scene depicting a mock assassination of U.S. President Donald Trump. The song was included in Snoop's 2017 album Neva Left. (Full article...)
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Image 3The bust of George Floyd is a sculpture of George Floyd (1973–2020), an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer during his arrest in Minneapolis. Initially situated in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, it is currently displayed in Union Square, Manhattan.
The sculpture sits on a marble base, with the 6-foot (1.8 m) bust being made of layers of CNC-cut okoumé plywood. It was created by artist Chris Carnabuci and unveiled by Floyd's brother Terrence, as part of the 2021 Juneteenth federal holiday, saying "My brother was the sacrifice, so I need y'all to continue to pay attention and keep my big brother's name ringing in the ears of everyone." It was moved to Manhattan on 1 October 2021 and displayed next to busts of Breonna Taylor and John Lewis. Each bust is part of the See in Justice public art exhibition. (Full article...) -
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Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in Portland, Oregon, United States, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Oregon Arts Watch contextualized the artistic works, stating that a "whitewashed pre-COVID lens" on American life, which obscured systemic racism, had been "cracked", and describing artists' response to racial violence being brought into the public eye was a "marathon, not a sprint". (Full article...) -
Image 5"Otherside of America" is a protest song by American rapper Meek Mill. The song tackles racial inequality and racism in the United States. It was released on June 5, 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests against police brutality in the United States, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. In the intro, the song contains dialogue from President Donald Trump's 2016 comments about black Americans in an effort to sway the black vote his way. (Full article...)
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Image 6The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 was a policing reform bill drafted by Democrats in the United States Congress. The legislation was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on February 24, 2021. The legislation aims to combat police misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in policing.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on a mostly party-line vote of 220–212, but not the evenly divided but Democratic controlled Senate amid opposition from Republicans. Negotiations between Republican and Democratic senators on a reform bill collapsed in September 2021. (Full article...) -
Image 7Christopher Kapessa (6 January 2006 – 1 July 2019) was a Welsh boy who died at the age of 13 in the River Cynon on 1 July 2019. He was pushed from a height of 2.5 metres into the water and declared dead on the same day.
According to Kapessa's family and their representatives, the police investigation into the incident lasted around two days, the event declared "an accident" within 24 hours. A fortnight later, the anti-racist charity The Monitoring Group submitted a complaint to South Wales Police on behalf of Kapessa's mother Alina Joseph, alleging racial discrimination in the police response. In February 2020, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reported that there was "sufficient evidence" but not "public interest" for a manslaughter case against a child suspected to have pushed Kapessa into the river. A 2024 inquest found that it was a "dangerous prank" that caused Kapessa's death, but that the child who pushed him did not intend to kill him. The coroner found no evidence that the death was caused by racism. (Full article...) -
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Ijeoma Oluo (/iˈdʒoʊmə oʊˈluːoʊ/; born 1980) is an American writer. She is the author of So You Want to Talk About Race and has written for The Guardian, Jezebel, The Stranger, Medium, and The Establishment, where she was also an editor-at-large.
Born in Denton, Texas, and based in Seattle, Washington, in 2015, Oluo was named one of the most influential people in Seattle, and in 2018, she was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle. Her writing covers racism, misogynoir, intersectionality, online harassment, the Black Lives Matter movement, economics, parenting, feminism, and social justice. (Full article...) -
Image 9On June 4, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in New York state, police officers from the Buffalo Police Department pushed 75-year-old Martin Gugino during a confrontation in Buffalo's Niagara Square, causing him to fall to the ground which left him bleeding from the ear. Gugino was seriously injured, sustaining a brain injury, and was still unable to walk nearly two weeks later. He was hospitalized for nearly four weeks.
Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault in connection with the incident; they pleaded not guilty. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer condemned police conduct in the incident. President Donald Trump spread false and unfounded conspiracy theories about Gugino in his response to the incident on Twitter. On February 11, 2021, Erie County district attorney John Flynn announced that a grand jury had dismissed the charges against the officers. (Full article...) -
Image 10The Ending Qualified Immunity Act is a proposed United States Act of Congress introduced in 2020 by Justin Amash (L-Michigan) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) to end qualified immunity in the United States. Qualified immunity shields police officers and other government officials from being held personally liable for discretionary actions performed within their official capacity (even if those actions violate the civil rights of those affected) unless their actions violate "clearly established" federal law, a precedent requiring both that those actions violate written law and that there be a judicial precedent establishing that such actions are unlawful.
The bill was re-introduced in the 117th Congress by Rep. Pressley in the House of Representatives and by Sen. Edward Markey in the Senate. (Full article...) -
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Marissa Johnson (born 1990/1991) is an activist who attained notoriety when she interrupted U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at an August 2015 rally in Seattle. Her activism has been associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. She is a founder of a Seattle-based justice group called Outside Agitators 206, which was disbanded when she became a cofounder of the Seattle chapter of Black Lives Matter around September 2015. (Full article...) -
Image 12Our Lady, Mother of Ferguson and All Those Killed by Gun Violence, simply known as Our Lady of Ferguson, is an icon of the Madonna and Child. The icon, which depicts the Virgin Mary as a Black Madonna, was created in 2015 by Mark Doox (formerly Mark Dukes), an iconographer, and was commissioned by the Rev. Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones, an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in Manhattan. The icon, created after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has been referenced as a symbol against gun violence, particularly towards members of the African-American community in the United States. (Full article...)
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Image 13The killing of Ramarley Graham took place in the borough of the Bronx in New York City on February 2, 2012. Richard Haste, a New York Police Department officer, shot Graham in the bathroom of the latter's apartment. The 18-year-old Graham was in possession of marijuana when Officer Haste tried to stop him on the street. Graham fled to his grandmother’s house, and went into the bathroom to flush the marijuana. Officer Haste forced his way into the building, kicked down the front door and then broke down the bathroom where he shot Ramarley Graham to death. Haste could be seen on surveillance cameras smiling and laughing with the responding officers and detectives—the same men who would later testify they had told Haste that Graham had a gun. Haste claimed to believe Graham had been reaching for a gun in his waistband, but no weapon was recovered.
Haste was charged with manslaughter, but the charge was dropped. On the day the judge dismissed the charges, rows of NYPD officer lined the courthouse steps and applauded Haste as he exited. The blue salute took place right in front of Ramarley Graham's family. The city of New York settled a civil suit, paying the family $3.9 million in 2015 although the NYPD Firearms Discharge Review Board found the shooting to be within department guidelines. In 2017, an internal NYPD investigation explored whether Haste used "poor tactics" leading up to the shooting. The investigation led to a determination of fault on the part of Haste. He ultimately resigned from the NYPD rather than face separation of employment. (Full article...) -
Image 14On November 23, 2012, Jordan Davis, a black 17-year-old high-school student, was murdered at a Gate Petroleum gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, by Michael David Dunn, a white 45-year-old software developer, following an argument over loud music played by Davis and his three friends, in what was believed to be a racially motivated shooting.
Dunn was convicted on three counts of attempted second-degree murder for firing at three other teenagers who were with Davis and one count of firing into an occupied vehicle. The jury could not reach a verdict on whether to convict Dunn for the murder of Davis at the first trial. In a second trial, Dunn was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Davis and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 105 years in prison. (Full article...) -
Image 15In law enforcement in the United States, a gypsy cop, also known as a wandering police officer, is a police officer who frequently transfers between police departments, having a record of misconduct or unsuitable job performance. The term is slang, referencing the stereotypical nomadic lifestyle of Gypsies. (Full article...)
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Image 16Jeremy "Bam Bam" McDole was a 28-year-old African American paraplegic who was shot and killed by police in Wilmington, Delaware on September 23, 2015, at 3:00 pm. McDole was in a wheelchair at the time of the shooting. Police responded to a call about a man with a gun. The 911 caller later recanted her statements and has, to date, faced no penalties for the false statements made, which resulted in McDole's death. Camera footage from a bystander showed officers ordering McDole to drop his weapon and raise his hands, with McDole being shot after shuffling his hands near his waist area, but with a gun never being seen and evidence photos of the reported weapon only appearing 6 years after his murder. The Delaware state department cleared the officers of wrongdoing, but concluded that one of the involved officers had shown "extraordinarily poor" police work. A 2020 review by the Delaware Attorney General's Office came to the same conclusion. Both decided against filing any charges. The McDole family sued the city of Wilmington, and in January 2017, a settlement of $1.5 million was reached by the city. (Full article...)
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Image 17On September 14, 2013, Jonathan Ferrell (born October 11, 1988), a 24-year-old former college football player for the Florida A&M University Rattlers was involved in a car crash. When police arrived, he ran towards them and was shot by police officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter, but the jury deadlocked and he was not retried. Police dashcam footage of the incident was released to the public. (Full article...)
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Image 18Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging is a 2018 book by the journalist Afua Hirsch. The book is part-memoir and discusses black history, culture and politics in the context of Britain, Senegal and Ghana. It received mixed critical reception. (Full article...)
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Image 19On March 6, 2023, 28-year-old Irvo Otieno died after he was restrained by Henrico County sheriff's deputies and hospital employees at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, near Petersburg. He was arrested on March 3 for a suspected breaking and entering, and was taken to the hospital three days later after he was found naked in his cell. A total of ten people, seven deputies and three hospital employees, were charged with second-degree murder in connection with Otieno's death. (Full article...)
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Image 20On January 13, 2019, George Robinson, a 62-year-old Black man, died two days after a violent arrest by three Black police officers in Jackson, Mississippi. According to a grand jury indictment, the officers pulled Robinson out of a car, threw him headfirst into the pavement, and struck and kicked him multiple times in the head and chest. Robinson was treated at the scene but within hours lost consciousness and later died at a hospital. The state coroner ruled the death a homicide.
After an internal Jackson Police Department investigation cleared the officers of wrongdoing, one of the officers continued working for the Jackson Police Department, and the other two were hired by a police department in a nearby town. Following the George Floyd protests a year later, as well as a lengthy grand jury review, all three officers were indicted for second-degree murder on August 5, 2020. (Full article...) -
Image 21The blue wall of silence, also blue code and blue shield, are terms used to denote the informal code of silence among police officers in the United States not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes, especially as related to police brutality in the United States. If questioned about an incident of alleged misconduct involving another officer (e.g., during the course of an official inquiry), while following the code, the officer being questioned would perjure themselves by feigning ignorance of another officer's wrongdoing. (Full article...)
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Image 22
Linda Sarsour (born 1980) is an American political activist. She was co-chair of the 2017 Women's March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women's March. She is also a former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She and her Women's March co-chairs were profiled in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2017.
A Muslim of Palestinian descent, Sarsour first gained attention for protesting police surveillance of American Muslims, later becoming involved in other civil rights issues such as police brutality, feminism, immigration policy, and mass incarceration. She has also organized Black Lives Matter demonstrations and was the lead plaintiff in a suit challenging the legality of the Trump travel ban. (Full article...) -
Image 23
On April 30, 2014, Dontre Hamilton was shot and killed by police officer Christopher Manney, at Red Arrow Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. No charges were brought, but Manney was fired from the force. As a result of the shooting and subsequent protests, Milwaukee police officers were equipped with body cameras. (Full article...) -
Image 24On December 22, 2020, 47-year-old Andre Hill was shot and killed by Officer Adam Coy of the Columbus Division of Police in Columbus, Ohio. Coy had been called to the neighborhood in response to a non-emergency call from a neighbor who reportedly witnessed someone sit in an SUV and turn the car on and off. Hill was leaving a friend's house when Coy confronted and shot him. Hill was unarmed, and was holding a smartphone. Coy was fired from the Columbus Police less than a week later.
The shooting was the second killing by police in Columbus in December 2020, following the shooting of Casey Goodson on December 4 by a Franklin County Sheriff's deputy. (Full article...) -
Image 25On July 26, 2018, Daniel Edward Hambrick, a 25 year old African-American was shot and killed by officer Andrew Delke of the Nashville, Tennessee police department.
Hambrick was shot as he was running away from Delke after allegedly pointing a gun at the officer. Delke was searching for a white Chevrolet Impala which he had attempted to pull over earlier that day. He saw a white car which he thought was the Impala, so he pulled alongside it. It was at this time that Hambrick began to run away while carrying a handgun. Delke then pursued Hambrick and gave him commands to drop the weapon. Hambrick refused to drop the weapon, Delke then fired four times with three of the shots striking Hembrick. He was hit in the back of the head, back, and left torso. Hambrick died shortly after the shooting. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that Arkansas legislator Denise Jones Ennett took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of the Arkansas State Capitol?
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Selected images
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Image 2Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 8George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 9Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 10One-year commemoration of the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson unrest at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, August 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 11Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 12Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 13Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 14Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 15Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 17Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 18Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 19Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 22"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 23The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Subject to increasing controversy since the 1990s, when his prior reputation as a philanthropist came under scrutiny due to a growing awareness of his slave trading, in June 2020 the statue was toppled, defaced and pushed into Bristol Harbour. (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 24Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 25A Black Lives Matter die-in over rail tracks, protesting alleged police brutality in Saint Paul, Minnesota (September 20, 2015) (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 27An activist holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign outside the Minneapolis Police Fourth Precinct building following the officer-involved killing of Jamar Clark on November 15, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 28Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 29"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31A Black Lives Matter protest of police brutality in the rotunda of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 34A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
In the news
- 16 May 2024 – Murder of Garrett Foster
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a man at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. (The New York Times)
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