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Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, leads a gathering at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles in memory of Charleena Lyles and other police shooting victims. Michael Radcliffe/NPR hide caption

Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, leads a gathering at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles in memory of Charleena Lyles and other police shooting victims.

It's been almost four years since Patrisse Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Those three words gained national attention for demonstrations against police brutality and grew into a movement.

But progress has been slow, admits Khan-Cullors, a Los Angeles-based activist who co-founded the Black Lives Matter Network.

"The local is where the work is. If we're looking at just the national, it's pretty devastating. But if you zoom into cities, to towns, to rural areas, people are fighting back and people are winning," she says, pointing to one example in Jackson, Miss., where voters recently elected a progressive new mayor in the Deep South.

Other Black Lives Matter activists around the country, who are part of a decentralized movement, are also focusing on local activism.

"We go to locations where people generally ... don't have to think about or don't want to think about white supremacy and patriarchy and how that's affecting black people," says Mike Bento, an organizer with New York's NYC Shut It Down, a group which considers itself part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mike Bento (center), an organizer with NYC Shut It Down, leads a march in honor of a black transgender person who was recently killed in New York City. Hansi Lo Wang/NPR hide caption

Mike Bento (center), an organizer with NYC Shut It Down, leads a march in honor of a black transgender person who was recently killed in New York City.

The group started holding weekly demonstrations around New York City two years ago to honor mainly people who have died at the hands of police. On a recent Monday evening, about two dozen protesters gathered outside a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, where diners sipped wine at bistro tables on the sidewalk.

While a protester held up a sign saying "MX BOSTICK, REST IN POWER," Bento started a call-and-response describing the recent death of a black transgender person who was found unconscious on a sidewalk after being struck in the head in May. A suspect is now charged with manslaughter.

"We're here tonight because while you are dining, black trans people are dying," Bento shouted at the restaurant patrons.

Still, it's not all about protesting in the streets. Sometimes, Bento and other Black Lives Matter activists go underground and into New York's subways. They pay for people who would otherwise try to get on a train without paying, which could earn them a misdemeanor.

"This is all connected," Bento says. "This is all part of how we get a system of mass incarceration. And so we start with basic things that we can do to keep our brothers and sisters out of that system."

Other basic forms of activism include standing outside the courthouse to support people charged with low-level offenses and helping to serve dinner to homeless people.

In Washington, D.C., April Goggans, an organizer with Black Lives Matter DC, is holding meetings with other local activist groups to figure out how they can make communities facing high crime rates more self-sufficient.

Goggans says she's been following the recent police shooting of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant, black mother in Seattle, as well as the not-guilty verdicts for police officers involved in the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Sylville Smith in Wisconsin. They've all reinforced her conclusion, she says, that any type of reform will not improve police departments.

"I don't even know that I would put my effort into charging and imprisoning individual police officers because it's just not gonna happen very much and that kind of justice, it's not a deterrent for other police officers," says Goggans, who says she is focused on getting rid of the current system of policing in the long term.

Khan-Cullors says she is also taking a long view when thinking about how the Black Lives Matter movement will tackle issues black people have been living with for decades.

"We are not new to police brutality. We are not new to police violence. We are not new to people dying inside jail cells and prisons," she says. "What is new is the visibility. What is new is that they become headlines."

Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement is harder. Michael Radcliffe/NPR hide caption

Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement is harder.

She says she's always been concerned about how the movement can sustain itself when social media is inundated with photos and videos of black people killed at the hands of police and victories for the movement seem hard to come by.

With the U.S. Supreme Court reinstating part of President Donald Trump's travel ban and Congress considering substantial cuts to Medicaid, she's worried that the current political environment is becoming even more overwhelming for activists.

"If you can't fight the state, and you can't fight for the things that you need, then you take it out on each other," says Khan-Cullors, who cautions that infighting could destroy the movement.

That's why gatherings like a recent candle-light vigil at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles for Lyles and other police shooting victims are important to Khan-Cullors, who wants to keep activists energized and encourage them to work together.

Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement, that's the hard stuff.

Shaheen Ainpour contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.; Michael Radcliffe contributed from Los Angeles.

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Amid 'Devastating' Progress Nationally, Black Lives Matter Engages ... - NPR

The two ladies left from the original TLC trio, Chili and T-Boz, have had some shaky sentiments on social politics, namely the Black Lives Matter movement.

After the devastating shock of hip-hop icon Prodigys death and the cause of his fatality, however, T-Boz is shaking a finger at the movement for what she believes is a cold shoulder to other issues affecting the Black community.

Spoken via Twitter, T-Boz sent her condolences to Prodigys family and discussed raising awareness for the disease that claimed the Mobb Deep legends life: sickle-cell anemia. Among other groups she believes should be collaborating with her to stand at the forefront of issues like sickle-cell anemia, such as Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA), she argued that BLM also has a stake in the problem, too.

I hate it takes the death of a celebrity to bring even more notice to something I talk about almost in every interview for 25 years, she tweeted. #BLM THIS disease is PREDOMINATELY an African-American disease so black lives have mattered over more than just one topic or issue.

As a socially-activating movement that advocates against systemic racism, health-institutionalized included, Black Lives Matter has long stood on the grounds of providing social, financial, political and racial equity and justice among the Black community in America.

We need to support one another over all compassion for people as human beings, not objects and lab rats, but help to find a cure, she said. SAVE OURSELVES.

See all of T-Bozs thoughts on the matter in the tweets below.

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TLC's T-Boz is Calling Out the Black Lives Matter Movement - BET

A bill passed unanimously last month by the New Jersey Assembly that would require schools to teach young people how to properly interact with police and avert confrontations mirrors The Talk that many African Americans say they often have with their children, according to a sponsor of the legislation.

But the effort is drawing resistance from Black Lives Matter.

The group and other critics fear that the bill, approved during a time of high-profile police-involved shootings and the failed prosecutions of many of the officers involved, would do little more than create a scapegoat for police brutality.

Look, Im just trying to save lives, said Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D., Essex), co-sponsor, of the motivation behind Assembly bill A-1114, which passed in a 76-0 vote on June 22.

Alexis Miller, lead organizer for the Paterson, N.J., chapter of Black Lives Matter, said the groupis wary of the bills concept. Black Lives Matter is calling for a no vote when the legislation reaches the Senate.

Camden County Police officers grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and gave away T-shirts and stickers in South Camden on Saturday, July 1, 2017. The event was part of outreach efforts by the police department to build bonds with the community. Nazheem Williams, 11, proudly tries on one of the officers hats.

She said the bill ultimately places the onus of police interactions squarely on citizens while allowing police to continue to evade accountability. Black Lives Matter is urging its supporters to sign a petition against the legislation and to call their state senators to discourage them from approving it.

This bill is clearly designed to create a scapegoat for police brutality, and that scapegoat is New Jerseys children, Miller said. It does nothing to address the laws already in place that protect the immense power of police departments. Students children are expected to master the idea of respectability politics in order to protect themselves from officers.

Oliver, who is African American, said The Talk has long been a private conversation that many black parents have had with their children, especially as the children become old enough to begin driving and may have their first interactions with police in traffic stops.

A lot of times kids want to know if they get stopped if they have the right to call their parents, Oliver said. Can the police search their car? Do they have to get out of the car? They have questions like these with the backdrop of being black and interacting with police. There may be a lot of fear instilled in them, a lot of potential panic.

Bringing that discussion into the schools and out into the open may ultimately better prepare children of all races and ethnicities for such encounters, she said.

This is not a bill to teach kids to be subservient to police but to empower children, and ultimately adults, about their rights and their role in interacting with law enforcement, Oliver said. I think young people need to have their consciousness raised about these issues.

Akin Olla, organizer of the Tubman-Hampton Collective, based in New Brunswick, said the bill continues to allow police to evade accountability and is not a means of stemming police brutality.

Olla was among about 75 people who protested against the bill at the Statehouse on Friday.

We want the public to really look at this bill and see it for what it is, Olla said. If it does nothing beyond a civics lesson [about making] the streets safer for everyone, its pointless.

Not until activists criticized the bill as previously written was a new component added that would require that students also be taught about their rights when interacting with officers.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it worked with Oliver and other legislators to recast the original version of the bill, introduced in 2016, that would have required only that children be taught about the role and responsibilities of law enforcement in providing public safety and an individuals responsibilities to comply with a directive from police. The new version would require that students be taught about the officers responsibility and proper behavior, their own rights as citizens, and how to file a complaint, if necessary.

The bill has come a long way in its current form from where it was, said Portia Allen-Kyle, a lawyer for the ACLUs New Jersey office in Newark. As it stands now, we feel that there is an opportunity here to really empower students and educate them about their rights.

Allen-Kyle said the agency will keep close tabs on how the curriculum is developed by a specially appointed committee if the bill is signed into law.

The vote in the Assembly came a week after Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter inthe July 2016 fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop after the motorist informed the police officer he possessed an open-carry permit for a gun he was carrying. The shooting, which occurred within seven seconds of Castiles having informed the policeman about the gun, was captured on cellphone video by the victims girlfriend, who was in the car with her 4-year-old daughter.

According to the Washington Post, 963 people were killed by police in the United States in 2016, down from 991 in 2015. On Saturday, in a mid-year report, the Post said there were 492 police-involved killings in the first six months of this year.

Of those killed in 2016, 169 were unarmed civilians, six were under age 18, and 36 of them were between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the ACLU.

There were also 135 police officers killed in the line of duty last year, the moston-the-job officer fatalities in five years, according to an analysis by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Law enforcement officials and legislators across the country are looking into ways to work with communities to try to stem the tide of bloodshed.

Texas recently enacted a measure to require high school students, as part of their drivers education classes, to learn how to conduct themselves during a traffic stop. Illinois and Virginia have passed legislation mandating that drivers ed courses for all ages include that information. Mississippi, North Carolina, and Rhode Island are considering similar laws.

Oliver said the number of police-involved shootings has created mistrust of police in communities across the nation, and her bill, which must also pass in the Senate and be signed by the governor to become law, is meant to help rebuild trust in police while simultaneously empowering the communities they serve.

Oliver said currentprograms that visit schools and encourage police and youth interaction sponsored by organizations such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, and Jack and Jill of America, a service group formed during the Great Depression to strengthen African American children have helped, but are not enough.

Patrick Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemens Benevolent Association said his organization supports the Oliver legislation and calls it a good policy that can benefit everyone.

There is no training no learning about something that cant be a benefit to everyone involved, Colligan said. I think something like this provides everyone with the opportunity to look at, and perhaps understand, the situation from an entirely different perspective.

To restore balance in schools, teacher code of ethics needed Jun 21 - 12:15 PM

A lesson in black liberation for Philly students May 30 - 5:53 PM

Published: July 3, 2017 5:54 AM EDT

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Black Lives balks as NJ lawmaker wants to legislate 'The Talk' - Philly.com

Toronto Sun

Black Lives Matter-Toronto protesters take over Montreal jazz festival stage Toronto Sun A group of Black Lives Matters protesters took over a stage at the Montreal International Jazz Festival Sunday afternoon, chanting Jazz is Black. The protest comes after last week's killing of Pierre Coriolan, a Haitian man, by Montreal police ... Black Lives Matter protest demands change after fatal Montreal police shootingCBC.ca Black Lives Matter protesters take over stage at Montreal International Jazz FestivalMontreal Gazette Black Lives Matter protest police shooting, take over Jazz Fest stageCTV News Huffington Post Canada -Globalnews.ca -Macleans.ca all 13 news articles »

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Black Lives Matter-Toronto protesters take over Montreal jazz festival stage - Toronto Sun

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) is now an active part of a national debate about the actions of police officers that lead to the deaths of unarmed black men.

In the early hours of June 29, IMPD officers Michal Dinnson and Carlton Howard pulled over 45-year-old Aaron Bailey at the intersection of Burdsal Parkway and East Riverside Drive. At some point during the stop, Bailey drove away initiating a short pursuit with the officers. The chase ended a mile away when Bailey crashed his car near 23rd and Aqueduct Streets.

According to police, As Dinnson and Howard approached Baileys vehicle, they saw Bailey reach for something in the console of car. Thats when they fired.

Thirty minutes later, Bailey was dead and Dinnson and Howard were on administrative leave where they will remain until the investigation into the incident concludes.

So what part of this scenario puts the story in the middle of the national conversation?

Authorities found no weapons of any kind in Baileys car.

Aaron Bailey was a Black man. Dinnson is Caucasian and Howard is biracial.

By Thursday afternoon, IMPD Chief Brian Roach held a press conference that was broadcast on Twitter via Periscope. Roach acknowledged the pain of loss that was currently being felt by Baileys family, the officers involved and the community as a whole.

I probably screwed up by not having a prepared statement for you, but I wanted to come out here and at least share the feeling and the emotion of [the department], said Roach. This is a problem and an issue that not only affects this police department, your chief of police [and] your mayor, but the community as a whole.

Roach broke down how the investigation into the shooting would proceed. Two investigations will run concurrently. Police detectives will investigate this shooting just as they investigate any other homicide, regardless of who is involved. Roach stressed that the fact that officers in his department were involved would not influence the course of the investigation or its outcome.

If youve listened to me over the last six months then you know that the number that we discuss are total homicide numbers and not necessarily just the criminal homicide numbers, said Roach. Because we believe that every one of those deaths is important. This death is no different and will be treated like any other homicide investigation.

Roach said that while he has questions just like many in the community have questions about the incident, it will be important to let the investigation run its course if we are ever to have any answers. He said that he expects a grand jury will probably be called at some point to determine if anything criminal did in fact occur. But he also reminded the press and the public that like any other citizen under investigation in America, Dinnson and Howard have constitutional rights.

Roach described an administrative investigation, where administrators will look at the policies and practices that may or may not have contributed to this incident. He also explained that any issues that may come from the administrative investigation cannot be used against the officers in the criminal investigation.

Ultimately, Roach said that he understands that keeping the community informed and aware of the progress of the investigation is important and that conversations will need to happen.

My expectation is that all of us can have an open and clear discussion as we move forward, to the extent that we can, within the parameters of the process, said Roach.

Despite the police chiefs efforts to be transparent about the process and calm the community, the Indianapolis Congregation Action Network, known as IndyCAN, and LIVE FREE responded to the words of law enforcement with their own social media outcry and outreach. In a Facebook Live stream, people called on Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry to file criminal charges against the officers immediately. Calling for accountability and justice for the loss of Baileys life, the groups challenged Roachs portrayal of the narrative and echoed the cries that have been shouted in communities all across the nation people of color are under attack by law enforcement in America.

IndyCAN and LIVE FREE broadcast their press conference via Facebook Live calling for immediate charges against the officers responsible for shooting Aaron Bailey.

The sentiment carried through to Friday, when dozens of people gathered at City Market during afternoon drive time in the rain to protest the shooting and call for justice.

The Greater Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP recognized the need for an investigation before prosecution, but challenged the objectivity of IMPD in that investigation. President Chrystal Ratcliffe called for more accountability in the investigation process.

"Use of excessive force by law enforcement officers can no longer be tolerated in our communities. The lack of accountability erodes trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve which impedes the ability to solve crime," said Ratcliffe in a statement released to the press. "The NAACP is committed to a proactive approach to police shootings and all other forms of police brutality. Our solution to this egregious problem is accountability.

Specifically, the NAACP would like to see a civilian review board be created with subpoena power; a U.S. Department of Justice review of IMPDs pattern and practice along with a full criminal investigation; and for Congress to enact legislation that mandates standards and training in the use of force for all law enforcement officers in the country.

Ratcliffe notes that Indianapolis is not unique in this issue.

"It is a human and civil rights issue. When there are no systems for accountability, safety is affected and anyone can be a victim, she said. Let Indianapolis be the last time people lose their lives and families are terrorized by a police force without accountability. Law enforcement accountability means safer communities for us all."

The issue of training has been a reoccurring theme over the last few years regarding law enforcement and lethal force. And according to IMPD Sgt. Kendale Adams law enforcement training varies between the states.

The reality is that there is no set standard for each and every law enforcement to follow, says Adams. In other words, every law enforcement may do if differently and with 18,000 law enforcements agencies representing 850,000 law enforcement officers you are certain to get differences.

Indiana has nearly 500 law enforcement agencies with a tiered system of required training. The majority of those agencies require the full 15- week Basic Recruit Academy training with continuing education throughout an officers career. However some smaller agencies like town marshalls and constables or agencies that are considered law enforcement but with limited powers, like the attorney generals Medicaid fraud unit or the secretary of states securities enforcement division, only require three weeks or eight weeks of academy training.

The questions of training, protocol and many others will be a part of the IMPD investigations that Roach discussed last week. However only time will tell the results. Adams, who is also African American, says as a law enforcement officer he knows that every encounter and every situation is different. As a citizen, Adams says he understands how encounters with police are unnerving and uncomfortable. But when it happens, he reminds says staying calm and compliant is the best way to avoid any type of problem.

Stay calm and compliance is the most referred to standard when dealing with the police, says Adams. Im nervous when Im stopped by the police and even as [a] police officer and supervisor, Im compliant as that is likely to decrease the [approaching] officers fear.

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The shooting death of Aaron Bailey puts Indy in Black Lives Matter spotlight - NUVO