Police attacked protesters in Philadelphia and Washington DC while Trump threatened to unleash the military on demonstrators against systematic inequality.
Tonight, in the With Spandex WWE Raw open discussion thread:
Several weeks ago, Rey Mysterio was the victim of a gruesome attack by Seth Rollins, which left the masked marvel with a critical eye injury. Apparently, the effects of that injury may be forcing Mysterio to hang up his boots, as there will be a retirement ceremony for him tonight on Raw.
However, the ceremony is being hosted by the man who put him out of action. Just what does The Monday Night Messiah have in store for Mysterio, and what motives could he have for hosting this ceremony? (via WWE.com)
Rey Mysterio’s retirement ceremony will be hosted by the guy who tried to put his eye out with the ring steps and has been carrying around a mask to yell at for two weeks, so you know it’s legit. Also, Charlotte Flair faces the Raw Women’s Champion a week after not winning a match to get a shot at the Raw Women’s Champion.
As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and give them a thumbs up and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Raw column. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!
A Louisville man and local BBQ chef, owner of Yaya’s BBQ, was killed after police officers and the Kentucky National Guard “returned fire” on a gathering of people outside of Western Louisville’s Dino’s Food Mart early Monday morning. The victim has since been identified by family members as David McAtee, a well-loved chef, and owner of a roving barbecue joint that often serviced the community near the Dino’s Food Mart.
According to Buzzfeed News, who spoke with Louisville Metro Council President and longtime friend David James, McAtee, 53, spent much of his free time invested in local events, donating time and food towards the community and often fed police officers for free.
“He loved people. He loved to cook and he cooked for anybody,” says James, “He was just a really good person who used to give free food to people in the neighborhood and to police officers.”
A black man, David McAtee was murdered by LMPD & National Guard officers. He was shot and killed just after midnight. David owned a barbecue shop. He was known to feed police officers for FREE. HIS BODY IS STILL IN THE STREET!!! I am SO fucking outraged. RETWEET – know his name! pic.twitter.com/mzTTKFy2hw
— Kenidra4Humanity ~ BLACK LIVES MATTER ~ (@KenidraRWoods_) June 1, 2020
#DavidMcAtee was murdered by Louisville police last night outside of his own business. His body was left on the street for over 12 hours. He was a 10 min drive and 40 min walk from where the protests were taking place. pic.twitter.com/Fakm8HRWWx
— bayou baby (@imyagirleva) June 1, 2020
According to Louisville police chief Steve Conrad — who has since been fired — local officers and members of the Kentucky National Guard were dispatched to the Dino’s Food Mart on 26th street and Broadway at 12:15 am early Monday morning in an effort to clear a crowd from the parking lot (the city had a 6pm curfew in place). Conrad claimed that while clearing the lot, officers and soldiers were fired upon and promptly returned fire at the crowd. The city is not disputing that McAtee was unarmed.
Eater reports that early Monday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear had called for the release of body camera footage from the incident by Monday evening and ordered the Kansas State Police to investigate the shooting. Later in the day, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced that police did not have their body cameras turned on, which promptly led to police chief Steve Conrad’s firing.
Conrad — who will receive his full pension according to Fischer — faced criticism just two months ago after Louisville police in plain clothes falsely entered the home of Breonna Taylor in the middle of the night and discharged a spray of bullets that fatally wounded her after boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired his own gun at one of the officers, thinking they were intruders. Mother Jones reports that under Kentucky’s Stand Your Ground Law, Walker was within his rights as a legally registered gun owner to use deadly force on an intruder in his home. Walker has since been charged with attempted murder. Neither Taylor nor Walker had a criminal record for drugs or violence.
Outrage continued to boil over in Louisville and across social media as McAtee’s body was left in the streets until 10:45 am on Monday morning, 12 hours after his death.
McAtee’s mother, Odessa Riley, told the Courier-Journal, “He left a great legend behind. He was a good person. Everybody around him would say that,” she said. “My son didn’t hurt nobody. He didn’t do nothing to nobody.”
This story is developing. A GoFundMe for McAtee’s family can be found here, started by well-known activist/ writer/ podcast host Adia Osman.
This is David McAtee, he’s the owner of Yaya’s BBQ in Louisville. Last night police killed him after claiming that someone shot at them while they were controlling a crowd of protestors. They fired back into the crowd. McAtee was unarmed. His body laid in the street for 12 hrs. pic.twitter.com/adb4INov1J
— Simar (@sahluwal) June 1, 2020
Since the death of George Floyd last week, protests have popped up daily across the nation and around the world. These protests have been for the large part peaceful, though some have turned violent. In some parts of America, heavily-armored police have gotten aggressive, to say the least, with protesters, and have made untold arrests every day. CNN’s Don Lemon chastised Hollywood for not saying much at all about the protests. Surely, he would be proud of a statement from Riverdale star Cole Sprouse, who revealed he’d been arrested on Sunday.
It happened in Santa Monica, which saw a large protest on Sunday. Sprouse was there, “standing in solidarity” with the protesters, but in his post he was quick to point out he didn’t want to make this about him, writing that “before the voracious horde of media sensationalism decides to somehow turn it about me, there’s a clear need to speak about the circumstances: Black Lives Matter.” Still, here’s what happened to him:
I was detained when standing in solidarity, as were many of the final vanguard within Santa Monica. We were given the option to leave, and were informed that if we did not retreat, we would be arrested. When many did turn to leave, we found another line of police officers blocking our route, at which point, they started zip tying us.
Sprouse used his platform to encourage others to get out and protest. “This is, and will be, a time about standing ground near others as a situation escalates, providing educated support, demonstrating and doing the right thing,” he wrote. “This is precisely the time to contemplate what it means to stand as an ally. I hope others in my position do as well.”
The actor also took umbrage with the way the media has been presenting the protests, that “by nature” they were “only going to show the most sensational, which only proves a long standing racist agenda.”
Sprouse’s full post can be read below:
A group of peaceful protesters, myself included, were arrested yesterday in Santa Monica. So before the voracious horde of media sensationalism decides to somehow turn it about me, there’s a clear need to speak about the circumstances: Black Lives Matter. Peace, riots, looting, are an absolutely legitimate form of protest. the media is by nature only going to show the most sensational, which only proves a long standing racist agenda. I was detained when standing in solidarity, as were many of the final vanguard within Santa Monica. We were given the option to leave, and were informed that if we did not retreat, we would be arrested. When many did turn to leave, we found another line of police officers blocking our route, at which point, they started zip tying us. It needs to be stated that as a straight white man, and a public figure, the institutional consequences of my detainment are nothing in comparison to others within the movement. This is ABSOLUTELY not a narrative about me, and I hope the media doesn’t make it such. This is, and will be, a time about standing ground near others as a situation escalates, providing educated support, demonstrating and doing the right thing. This is precisely the time to contemplate what it means to stand as an ally. I hope others in my position do as well. I noticed that there are cameras that roll within the police cruisers during the entirety of our detainment, hope it helps. I’ll speak no more on the subject, as I’m (1) not well versed enough to do so, (2) not the subject of the movement, and (3) uninterested in drawing attention away from the leaders of the #BLM movement. I will be, again, posting the link in my story to a comprehensive document for donations and support.
NBC reporter Shomari Stone shared powerful footage on taken at a protest in Lafayette Park near the White House on Sunday. In the video, a young black man jumps over a barricade and as law enforcement in riot gear approach, a young while girl hops over the barrier to stand between him and the police.
A person on Twitter named Monte who claims to be the young black man in the footage says the police threatened to hurt him if he didn’t return to the other side of the barricade.
The incident is a beautiful display of solidarity, but it also shows the ugly side of privilege in American society.
The video went viral on Reddit where one user summed it up perfectly: “What’s worse? That she instinctively knew she had to step in to protect him, or that we all instinctively know it too?”
Thousands upon thousands of protesters took to the streets over the weekend to rally for racial justice and protest police brutality. And despite the images and video clips of destruction that inevitably make the front page, the vast majority of these demonstrations were peaceful the vast majority of the time.
This is the main story—but it’s not the story many Americans are seeing.
We humans have a tendency to rubberneck at tragedy and tune in our attention to violence, and the media caters to those instincts. In some cases, there’s a good reason for shining a light on violence—like when brutality and coverup of brutality is an issue in a legal system that is supposed to protect and serve the people. But choosing to place the spotlight on a minority of people causing destruction when most are peacefully demonstrating merely reinforces the stereotypes that help race-based police brutality to go unchecked. In addition, rioting may be a true expression of rage and pain (“the language of the unheard,” per Dr. King), but it also may be greedy opportunists taking advantage and outside forces purposefully sowing violence, chaos and confusion.
It’s a part of the story, but not the main story.
The story of the week is that people across the nation announced that they were fed up with watching black people die and protested racial injustice in beautiful and powerful ways. Here are some images that illustrate that story:
First of all, SO much dancing.
Protesters using their bodies as shields to protect other protesters, businesses, and on some cases, police.
And group acts of powerful solidarity.
And there’s just something about hearing people in London chant “Black Lives Matter” with a British accent that warms the heart.
Reports show that some of these peaceful protesters were met with tear gas and rubber bullets anyway. That’s another story as well. While we can’t distill anything that’s happening into a single, simplistic narrative, we should at least strive to make the main story the main story. When the majority of people in cities across the nation (and now around the world) are organizing and carrying out massive, peaceful, powerful protests to push the country toward justice, that’s the main story. Well done, most of America.
