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On Saturday, April 9, Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), welcomed Corey Wise and Dr. Yusef Salaam to NANs Harlem House of Justice to address the community in the wake of the arrest of former President Donald Trump.

Its not lost on those of us who were there in 1989 that Donald Trump will likely walk into the same courthouse where the Exonerated 5 were falsely convicted for a crime they did not commit, Sharpton said. Lets not forget that it was Donald Trump who took out full-page ads calling for these five Black and brown young men to get the death penalty. This is the same man whos now calling for violence when he has to go through the criminal justice system. The same man will have to stand up in a courtroom and see firsthand what the criminal justice system is like. All I can say is, what goes around comes around.

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Mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson and civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton attended a rally in West Garfield Park to boost voter turnout in the April 4 citywide runoff election.

Sharpton stopped just short of endorsing Johnson, but he did tell the hundreds gathered at New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church to note which candidate joined them at the rally.

Let the record show who showed up, Sharpton said to loud cheers from the crowd.

Organizers called the event nonpartisan and said both Johnson and his opponent, Paul Vallas, had been invited to attend. However, several attendees were holding signs reading Brandon Johnson 4 Mayor.

The Reverend Marshall Hatch, pastor of the church, has endorsed Johnson.

The rally was sparked by low voter turnout in last months primary election, particularly among those in the Black community, said organizers Leaders Network Chicago.

Speakers urged voters to cast their ballot by April 4 to honor the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on that date in 1968.

I am so deeply humbled and very much honored to be part of a long tradition of those who have come before us, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson said. The event was billed as nonpartisan, and Paul Vallas did not attend.

Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times

We are going to on April 4 show that Dr. King didnt die for nothing, Sharpton said. You killed the dreamer, but you didnt kill the dream. Its time for us on April 4 to show that we are the children of those that shed blood to give us the right to vote.

Sharpton said voting is important because we are in a country that you have people that are literally storming the U.S. Capitol, that are literally saying we need to cancel Social Security, that are literally saying that police can do whatever they want and shouldnt be held accountable.

Sharpton said voters had an opportunity to resurrect Chicago in this election and make history again like they did when Harold Washington was elected mayor in 1983.

The question is not what candidate are you for, its what do you stand for? And whether or not what you stand for is whats right, and what you stand for will be a light for this nation, Sharpton said. I wanted to come by and challenge Chicago, have you forgotten who you are? If you can do it in 83 what can you do in 2023?

Johnson told the crowd: I am so deeply humbled and very much honored to be part of a long tradition of those who have come before us. ... The city of Chicago is prepared and ready to be an example for the rest of the world.

Supporters of Paul Vallas demonstrate across the street from New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, where Brandon Johnson and the Rev. Al Sharpton attended a get-out-the-vote rally.

Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times

During the rally, a handful of demonstrators holding pro-Vallas signs gathered on the sidewalk across the street from the church. They accused Johnson of spreading false information about Vallas to hurt his standing in the Black community.

Johnson addressed those accusations in his speech at the rally. Theyve made it about race. When you have someone like my opponent that doesnt believe that Black children can handle Black history, he made it about race, Johnson said.

Early voting in the April 4 election is underway.

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Rev. Al Sharpton joins Brandon Johnson at get-out-the-vote rally in West Garfield Park - Chicago Sun-Times

Rev. Al Sharpton to speak at funeral of Virginia man pinned down by deputies

This undated photo provided by Ben Crump Law shows Irvo Otieno. Video from a state mental hospital shows Otieno, who was handcuffed and shackled, being pinned to the ground by deputies who are now facing second-degree murder charges in his death, according to Otieno's relatives and their legal team, who viewed the footage Thursday, March 16, 2023. (Courtesy of Ben Crump Law via AP)

The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at the funeral of a 28-year-old Black man who died after he was pinned to the floor by seven sheriff's deputies and several others while he was being admitted to a mental hospital in Virginia.

Sharpton's National Action Network, a civil rights organization, announced plans for the funeral of Irvo Otieno on Wednesday at the First Baptist Church in Chesterfield, Virginia, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Richmond.

SEE ALSO: 16-year-old's death was murder, Lynchburg police search warrants suggest

Video released publicly last week shows sheriff's deputies and hospital employees attempting to restrain a handcuffed and shackled Otieno for about 20 minutes after hes led into a room at Central State Hospital, where he was going to be admitted March 6. For much of that time, Otieno is on the floor being held down by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to reach 10 people.

Seven deputies and three hospital workers have been charged with second-degree murder in Otienos death. Otieno's family has said he was brutally mistreated, both at the state hospital and while in a county jail for several days before that.

SEE ALSO:Woman wanted for distributing meth and racketeering charges in Nelson County

Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill has said Otieno was smothered to death. An autopsy is still pending.

Attorneys for the defendants have said their clients were trying to restrain Otieno. During bond hearings and in statements, several defense attorneys have sought to distinguish their clients from the mass of bodies involved in holding Otieno to the floor for more than 10 minutes.

The National Action Network said civil rights attorney Ben Crump one of the Otieno family's attorneys will issue a national call for justice at Otieno's funeral.

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Rev. Al Sharpton to speak at funeral of Virginia man pinned down by deputies - WSET

The mayor of a small Southwest Virginia town was indicted on federal charges after authorities accused him of overseeing the discharge of sewage and other pollutants into a local river.Roanoke Times

Lawmakers still negotiating the state budget say theyre putting talks on hold until they can get a better read on whether the American economy is heading for a recession.VPM

A Roanoke man wrongfully convicted of child sex abuse will receive more than $50,000 from the state after spending more than a year in jail. The accuser, the son of the mans former girlfriend, has said he lied about the alleged abuse.Roanoke Times

The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver a eulogy at Wednesdays funeral for Irvo Otieno, the Henrico County man who died in law enforcement custody at a state-run psychiatric hospital earlier this month.WRIC

A wildfire burning in eastern North Carolina brought a smoky smell to parts of Northern Virginia and D.C.DCist

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US-POLITICS-HISTORY-BIDEN

U.S. President Joe Biden, joined by Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL), Reverend Al Sharpton, and fellow activists, pray after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 5, 2023, to mark the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Credit - Mandel NganAFP/Getty Images

The 2023 Summit for Democracy, beginning on March 28, is a genuine personal commitment from President Biden. And rightly sofor democracy is under assault around the world. Only 20% of the worlds population live in countries that non-profit group Freedom House judge to be fully free. But the great danger is not just that democracy is under attack, but that the rule of law and systems of accountability are being eroded in all areas of life.

Impunity, in other words, is the rising global instinct of choice. The notion that rules are for suckers is on the march, and everyone is paying the pricefrom civilians in conflict zones to future generations staring down the long-term effects of the climate crisis. As I wrote during the first Summit for Democracy in 2021, framing the defense of democracy within the wider battle for accountability would sharpen the Summits agenda, and build greater buy-in from many of the Global South countries for whom the framing of democracy versus autocracy has not been convincing.

The recently released Atlas of Impunity, published by the Eurasia Group and the Chicago Council for Global Affairs, highlights how widespread impunity has become. The Atlas, which is based on more than 65 independent, credible global data sources, scores 197 countries and territories across five areas of impunity: abuse of human rights, unaccountable governance, conflict and violence, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. Each of these sites of impunity reflect the concentration and abuse of power.

By using impunity rather than democracy as the prism through which to understand global challenges, the Atlas captures the multidimensional nature of global challenges. This approach also highlights the work required from all countries, whether they are democracies or not. The great powers, especially the United States, are a case in point: the U.S. ranks 118th out of 163 countries in the Atlas, putting the U.S. closer to countries in the Global South like Argentina or South Africa than to countries like Germany or Japan. Although most residents in the U.S. enjoy full civil liberties and low levels of mass conflict or violence, the U.S. has a higher level of impunity than many of its high-income peers due to middling scores on discrimination, inequality, and democratic access. The countrys arms exports are an even bigger negative factor.

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An impunity framing also acknowledges that while accountability is essential to democracy, a democratic system of government alone is insufficient to guarantee an accountable society. It should be a strong point of emphasis in the Summit for Democracy that democratic countries like the U.S., India, Israel, and Malaysia all perform more poorly on human rights indicators than on governance measures. Similarly, while many liberal democracies like Canada perform well on most indicators of impunity, its poor performance on environmental degradation highlights the spaces impunity continues to thrive even within otherwise accountable societies.

As the Atlas of Impunity highlights, impunity is the driving force behind many of the worlds greatest shared challenges. But the Biden administration will miss an important opportunity to achieve its goal of uniting countries around a common global agenda if it fails to link its defense of democracy with promotion of the rule of law. As the international reaction to the war in Ukraine has shown, critical swing voters in the international system have not been swayed by arguments from the West about the vital need to defend Ukraine.

Two-thirds of the worlds population live in countries that are officially neutral or supportive of Russia, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, and these countries do not fit into a convenient axis of autocracy. They include South Africa, India, Indonesia, and Brazil to name four democratic countries, as well as plenty of the undemocratic world, and many in between. Instead, the Biden administration should use the Summit for Democracy to situate the defense of democracy within the wider global battle for accountability, which would widen the coalition and speak more directly to the concerns of these swing voters.

With this impunity framework in hand, here are three things the Summit for Democracy could do to launch a global accountability agenda and fight back against rising impunity around the world:

First, attendees at the summit should commit to holding their own governments and militaries accountable for abuses. The U.S. Department of Defense has taken an important step in this direction through the recently released Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, which puts protection of civilians at the core of military missions, creates conditionality for U.S. security partners and establishes better pathways for accountability when civilians are killed.

Second, participants should pledge to support accountability mechanisms in the international system. The measures here range from the technocraticlike support for the now defunct Group of Eminent Experts investigating the war in Yemento the more political, including support for the International Criminal Court. Then there are even more ambitious proposals, like the idea of France and Mexico to suspend the U.N. Security Council veto in cases of mass atrocities.

Finally, acts of impunity will not be deterred through acts of accountability alone. That will require systems and cultures of accountability to counter systems and cultures of impunity. Summit participants build countervailing power against impunity by partnering with private sector and civil society groups to develop a global counterculture of accountability, starting with transparency over state and non-state actors violating the global rule of law.

The Summit for Democracy is an important and rare moment to bring a large swath of the world together to unite for a common global agenda. It is critical not to misuse this moment or leave behind potential coalition partners. By using the fight against impunity as its rallying cry, the Biden administration can build a truly global coalition, establish a clear agenda not only on democratic governance but on a range of shared challenges, and start the fight back against impunity in a world overrun by it.

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How Biden Can Fight Abuses of Power to Save Democracy - Yahoo News