Fury as Black man, hooded by cops, dies
BIDEN IS MAKING THE NOVEMBER 3 ELECTION A TRIAL OF TRUMP’S HANDLING OF THE PANDEMIC, SAYING THE REOPENING OF SCHOOLS IS A ‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden on Thursday headed to Kenosha, the epicentre of anti-racism protests, as it emerged that another Black man had died following police action in which he was pinned to the ground and a hood was placed over his head.
The Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump for the November 3 election met the family of Joe Blake, the Black man shot by a white policeman in the Wisconsin city that reignited protests across US cities.
Trump is targeting such cities, most of them run by Democrats. He ordered a review of federal funding for cities that can be designated “anarchist jurisdictions”, including Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; New York City, New York; and Washington, DC.
“Anarchy has recently beset some of our states and cities,” Trump said in the order. “For the past few months, several state and local governments have contributed to the violence and destruction in their jurisdictions by failing to enforce the law, disempowering and significantly de-funding their police departments, and refusing to accept offers.”
In a speech ahead of his Kenosha trip, Biden said, “We’ve got to heal. We’ve got to put things together and bring people together. So my purpose in going will be to do just that: be a positive influence on what’s going on, talk about what needs to be done and try to see if there’s a beginning of a mechanism to bring the folks together.”
New York state’s attorney general is investigating the death in March of Daniel Prude, a Black man with mental issues, after footage emerged this week of him being hooded by policemen and forced face down on a street.
The death became public after his family held a press conference on Wednesday. Prude, 41, died a week after being detained. An autopsy called the death a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint”.
Facebook said on Thursday it would stop accepting new political ads in the week before the US election day, part of moves billed as its final plan for reducing the risk of misinformation and election interference.
Trump is facing a backlash for urging voters in North Carolina to vote by mail and then try to vote again in person to test the mail-in ballot system.
His attorney general William Barr said state and local officials are “playing with fire” if they rely on sending out tens of thousands of mail-in ballots. He said the polls could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing Trump’s argument.