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ST. PAUL, Minn. The Latest on social media speculation after St. Paul man hanged himself. (all times local):

8:10 p.m.

Black Lives Matter Minneapolis has apologized on its Facebook page after sharing photos of a man who officials say hanged himself in a city park.

The post had sparked social media speculation that the man in the photo was black and that his hands were tied behind his back. Michael Bringle was white.

On the group's page Tuesday night, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis says it retracted its earlier statements after "more information came out & Mr.Bringle's family came forward." The group says "it became clear that this was an unfortunate incident caused by mental illness."

St. Paul police say a passerby discovered the 50-year-old Bringle hanging from a tree early Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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7:45 p.m.

Police and relatives of a Minnesota man who officials say hanged himself in a city park want the public to stop sharing photos of his death that have sparked social media speculation that he was the victim of a hate crime.

St. Paul police say a passerby discovered 50-year-old Michael Bringle hanging from a tree early Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports a Facebook post that featured a photo of Bringle included speculation that the man was black and that his hands were tied behind his back. Bringle was white.

The post has been shared thousands of times.

The Ramsey County medical examiner says there's no evidence the death was anything other than a suicide. St. Paul Police Sgt. Mike Ernster called the post disgusting.

Bringle's sister, Kelly Brown-Rozowski, said at a press conference that her brother should be remembered as a kind person and the rumors only compounded their tragedy.

See original here:
The Latest: Black Lives Matter Minneapolis issues apology ...

Kenny Easleys NFL career was so short that it was easy to overlook, and for years, the Pro Football Hall of Fame did just that to the 1980s second-most dominant safety.

No one will be overlooking his speech now that hes in, though.

From the video:

Please allow me this opportunity and this moment for a very serious message for which I feel very strongly about. Black livesdo matter, and all lives matter, too.

The clip might send a mixed message, given the hashtag movements evoked. The Seattle Seahawks legend continued on well past that clip, though. Via Pro Football Talk:

But the carnage affecting young black men today from random violence to police shootings across this nation has to stop. Weve got to stand up as a country, as black Americans and fight the good fight to protect our youth and our American constitutional right not to die while driving or walking the streets black in America. It has to stop, and we can do it, and the lessons we learn in sports can help.

Thats a powerful message to send during a Hall of Fame speech. This was Easleys moment of long-awaited recognition, and he chose to shine the spotlight on a greater issue. He also ended the debate and admitted Ronnie Lott was better than him.

Colin Kaepernicks name did not come up, but Easley would be welcome in the Seahawks current locker room, where multiple players have stood up for their former rival quarterback.

Excerpt from:
Kenny Easley's Hall of Fame speech: 'Black lives do matter, and all lives matter, too' - For The Win

On July 22, Rashan Charles, a 20-year-old Black man, died in a hospital in east London after being chased into a shop and confronted by a police officer, who attempted to remove an unnamed object from his mouth. A video subsequently emerged online allegedly showing the confrontation, in which the police officer tried to restrain Mr. Charles. While the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an immediate inquiry into the death (as required for all deaths in police custody), this did little to quell the anger that was building in the local community. It was just a month earlier that Edson Da Costa, another young Black man, died in hospital, several days after being detained by police, after swallowing a number of packages.

While many took to social media to protest, others took to the streets in Hackney in east London, at one point blocking off sections and damaging buildings, while police officers were subjected to abuse and violence. During a peaceful rally last Saturday, at which demonstrators carried Black Lives Matter and Justice for Rash placards, Charless family appealed for calm, though they warned they would continue to push for answers. We want the officers involved in these cases suspended rather than simply being used as witnesses so we can have a transparent process of justice, said the pressure group Stand Up To Racism. So high were tensions last week that Cindy Butts, an IPCC commissioner, met with young people from the local area to talk about Rashans death and other issues.

Police treatment of young Black men has been a difficult and sensitive issue in Britain despite the existence of an independent regulator to monitor the conduct of the police. The death of Mark Duggan, who said he had been in possession of a handgun and was shot and killed by police in August 2011, had triggered protests that turned into riots, leading then-Prime Minister David Cameron to recall Parliament for an emergency session. While a court ruled subsequently that Duggans shooting had not been unlawful, many in the community continue to believe it was an instance of miscarriage of justice.

No convictions yet

According to a report published by the Institute of Race Relations in 2015, 509 people from Black, minority, refugee or migrant communities died in suspicious circumstances between 1991 and 2014. These were the cases in which police, prison authorities or immigration offices were implicated. Though some had been deemed unlawful, not a single person has been convicted for their part in these deaths. A large proportion of these deaths have involved undue force and many more a culpable lack of care... Despite critical narrative verdicts warning of dangerous procedures and the proliferation of guidelines, lessons are not being learnt. People die in similar ways year on year, the report concluded.

Acknowledging the need for scrutiny of deaths or serious incidents that took place while a victim was in police custody, the government commissioned an independent review in 2015, though it is yet to be published. INQUEST, a charity that works on cases relating to death in custody, noted in a report earlier this year that a disproportionate number of those who die in or following police custody are from Black and minority ethnic communities. INQUEST is concerned that institutional racism has been a contributory factor.

While authorities may be working hard to show that they are doing their best to tackle the issue, mistrust is unlikely to go away any time soon. This week, the video of an Asia-British man being hit by a baton by a police officer went viral, triggering an investigation into the excessive use of force.

(Vidya Ram works for The Hindu and is based in London)

Original post:
Black lives matter, says Britain as well - The Hindu

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - The Mesa County Sheriff's Office said there was at least one report of a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyer in an Orchard Mesa neighborhood near the end of July. The flyer specifically targeted the organization Black Lives Matter.

The letter said that Black Lives Matter was "killing white people and police officers in the name of justice," and lists reasons to join the KKK.

Local Black Lives Matter representatives said they hope citizens take notice of the letter, and that it sparks a dialogue about racial tensions in Mesa County. "Honestly, the flyer is going to do nothing and go nowhere. But for the off chance that it does - who's going to stand up, who's going to take notice, who's going to challenge it, and what are the ramifications for even challenging it," said Jon Williams, the co-founder of the local Black Lives Matter chapter.

Williams also said that the local Black Lives Matter chapter is here to help educate the community about racial hardships.

See the original post here:
KKK Flyers Target Black Lives Matter - WesternSlopeNow

In response to complaints about this advert, the ASA said it considered that 100,000 was a large, round number that readers would typically associate with estimates. Photograph: Both Lives Matter/PA

Its a fairly large number, 100,000, but nice and round. Easy to compute. Most of us could even divide it by 10, at a push. Apparently it is this convenient roundedness that led the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week to dismiss complaints about recent claims on a billboard that Northern Irelands abortion laws have saved 100,000 lives. In its statement, the ASA said: We considered that 100,000 was a large, round number that readers would typically associate with estimates and was therefore unproblematic.

Funded by a campaign called Both Lives Matter, the billboard prompted 14 complaints, but the ASA decided that its assertion was not misleading despite the campaign admitting that it is not possible to calculate an exact figure, although its estimate is both credible and conservative.

It is not just the advertisement that is misleading and offensive, but also the very name of the campaign behind the billboard.

Describing itself as pro-women and pro-life, Both Lives Matter is a recent addition to the Northern Ireland anti-choice landscape, where abortion is permitted only if a womans life is at risk or there is a very serious risk to her mental or physical health. Fatal foetal abnormalities and pregnancies resulting from sexual crime such as rape or incest are not included.

And yet, somehow, in all its talk of both lives mattering during a crisis pregnancy, the campaign fails ever to mention the pregnant woman. What is happening to that persons life their body, their dreams, their finances, their mental health is, for a campaign seemingly more intent on oppressing women than liberating them, nothing more than a word association game meant to draw a provocative parallel with a real struggle for civil rights.

Playing on Black Lives Matter is not just cynical, its offensive. A campaign started by three black women Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi to highlight the gross injustice and racial dimensions of police brutality in the US, it owes much of its strength not only to the mothers of the men and women killed by police, but to women of colour writ large, who bear the brunt of Americas institutionalised racism and sexism. The concept of reproductive rights and reproductive justice, which goes far beyond the simple right to choose whether or not to continue with a pregnancy, is integral to Black Lives Matter, because it also means the right to parent your child in a safe environment without fear something consistently denied to black families by police and institutional injustice.

Defined by the Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities, reproductive justice as a concept was developed by women of colour who saw many of their communities challenged not just by an absence of accessible abortion, but by poverty, racism and discrimination.

It is often poor women of colour whose access to reproductive healthcare is most affected by anti-abortion laws in states such as Texas, where the recent HB2 law increased the distance to the nearest abortion clinic by more than 100 miles in some places. This can be an insurmountable burden for women with low incomes, often women of colour, and is a pattern being repeated across America.

Concepts such as reproductive justice and campaigns such as Black Lives Matter are a response to oppression and domination. There are parallels to be drawn with abortion access in Northern Ireland, but it is not the one that anti-abortion protesters attempt to make. Rather, it is an understanding of how human rights might be used to liberate communities, rather than excuse and justify their oppression.

The hijacking of such a powerful concept by the Both Lives Matter campaign is a cynical attempt to spin the language of human rights into froth to hide their true agenda the subjugation of women. An appropriation of intersecting oppressions, Both Lives Matter neither cares about womens lives, nor shares an affinity with Black Lives Matter beyond using a powerful rallying cry for human rights as a cover to maintain the marginalisation of women in Northern Ireland.

It is perhaps beyond the remit of the ASA to name this for what it is. But it is not beyond ours.

Elizabeth Nelson is an activist with the Belfast Feminist Network

Read more from the original source:
This anti-abortion hijacking of Black Lives Matter is cynical and ... - The Guardian