Less driving but more deaths: Spike in traffic fatalities puzzles lawmakers
by Tim Henderson, Alabama Reflector November 11, 2023 This story was originally published on Stateline. Traffic deaths are lingering near historic highs in most states despite less driving overall, prompting policymakers to consider deploying more police or installing automated monitoring such as speed cameras to curb speeding and reckless driving. People are driving fewer miles than they were in 2019, but more are dying on roadways. Traffic deaths spiked 18% from 2019 to 2022 — though miles traveled fell 3%, according to a Stateline analysis of federal records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Experts blame bad driving habits that took hold when roadways suddenly cleared out as the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. At the same time, law enforcement agencies shifted their priorities away from traffic violations, and many struggled to hire officers amid heightened scrutiny and criticism, especially after a police officer killed George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis. States and cities are trying to reduce the number of deaths caused by risky driving with a mix of more police officers and controversial technologies such as speed and red-light cameras. But many critics see those approaches as potentially troublesome since traffic tickets are a heavier financial burden on low-income drivers. And others say cameras violate people’s privacy and right to due process. “Law enforcement has really stepped back from enforcing traffic laws,” said Jonathan Adkins, CEO of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “We have to get police back out there and get support for police back. But this has to be done the right way, and it has to be done fairly. And we do want to look at technology — cameras don’t see race, they don’t see gender.” The nation’s two most populous states, California and Texas, have taken different paths. In October, California approved a speed camera pilot program, to begin next year. Texas hasn’t reconsidered its 2019 ban on local speed and red-light cameras, but state transportation officials have asked local police to step up ticketing. Police in Fort Worth ramped up enforcement in response to residents’ complaints about reckless drivers, according to press reports, writing 12,000 tickets for speeding and careless driving between November 2022 and April 2023. Traffic deaths were up 18% in California and 24% in Texas between 2019 and 2022, the latest full year available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Washington state, traffic fatalities were up 38% last year compared with 2019, reaching a 30-year high. In response, the state is considering expanding its limited-speed camera use. State officials plan a visit to Finland next month to see how that country used automated enforcement to reduce traffic deaths. “When people see a sign, ‘Speed Camera Ahead,’ they slow down,” Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said in a June interview with the Washington State Standard. Nationally, most of the change in fatal accidents has been caused by speeding, careless driving and drug or alcohol use, according to federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System data from 2019 to 2021, the latest year available from that source. Driver deaths increased the most in that time, 21%. Deaths of pedestrians and motorcyclists rose by 18%, and bicyclist deaths by 12%. Most of the increase from 2019 to 2022 has been in cities, suburbs, and small towns, with rural areas less affected, according to separate federal statistics on deaths caused by traffic accidents kept by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our driving behavior didn’t go back to normal. We have to learn to share the roads, and absent that we have to have better engineering and more enforcement out there, unfortunately. – Jonathan Adkins, CEO, Governors Highway Safety Association Vermont, which has been struggling to fill police jobs, saw the largest percentage increase of any state from 2019 to 2022, a 64% jump from 47 to 77 deaths. Other states with large percentage increases included Connecticut (54%), New Hampshire (47%), the District of Columbia (39%), and Washington state (38%). In Alabama, traffic deaths rose from 930 in 2019 to 989 in 2022, a 6% increase. Traffic accidents are the most common cause of death for people under 40 in Arkansas, Nebraska and Texas, according to a September Stateline analysis. The only states to see a decrease in traffic deaths from 2019 to 2022 were Wyoming (down 9%), Rhode Island (down 5%), North Dakota (down 3%) and Idaho (down 2%). Those four states did see increases in the first six months of 2023, however, compared with 2022. About half of Wyoming’s fatal crashes in 2022 involved speeding or failure to wear seat belts, according to a state report. Legislative efforts In California, speed camera legislation has been stymied in the past by disagreements over fines and impacts on residents with low incomes. The compromise bill, as enacted in October, will allow community service in lieu of fines for low-income drivers who are ticketed in the pilot program, and limit the placement of cameras to streets with speeding issues in a handful of cities. Adkins, the CEO of the governors’ safety group, said other states should be similarly cautious. “You have to be really careful with these camera programs. We don’t want cameras to be a ‘gotcha,’” Adkins said. “They should only be in areas that have a problem.” Another state considering more speed cameras is Pennsylvania, where a pilot program put speed cameras on one street in Philadelphia and in work zones statewide. A bill to make the program permanent and expand it within Philadelphia passed the state House and is now pending in a state Senate committee. Pennsylvania’s traffic fatalities increased 12% from 2019 to 2022, according to the Stateline analysis. In Philadelphia, speed cameras cut fatal accidents in half, saving an estimated 36 lives, and reduced speeding by 95% after they were introduced in 2020 on the 14-mile stretch of Roosevelt Boulevard, a main artery, according to city records obtained by Stateline. Cameras detected 8,305 speeders in February 2023
James O’Keefe addresses group in Huntsville
Conservative activist journalist James O’Keefe addressed a group of approximately 230 at an event hosted by Focus on America in Huntsville’s Jackson Center on Sunday. O’Keefe, until recently, was the founder and Chairman of Project Veritas – an internet investigative news outlet. He has now started his own organization. O’Keefe expressed his frustration with state governments seeking to suppress news journalism. “Why is the Governor (of Hawaii) telling me that you cannot videotape?” O’Keefe asked about a recent encounter he had while trying to film in Maui, Hawaii, which was recently devastated by the deadliest forest fire in American history. “I have sued the Governor of Hawaii in federal court this week.” “Two years ago, I filed a suit against the governor of Oregon,” O’Keefe said. In 2020, leftist activists loosely attached to Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioted in the wake of the George Floyd slaying by police and seized control of a large section of Portland, Oregon. The Governor, Kate Brown, ordered the police to flee. While the Democratic governor would do nothing to send troops to take back control of the streets, they used police powers to suppress O’Keefe and Project Veritas’s efforts to report on the situation there. “I have been sued thirty times, and I had never gone on offense,” O’Keefe said. “I looked to my general counsel and said let’s sue the bastard.” Suing was more difficult because the federal courthouse was in a section of the city controlled by the criminal insurrectionists. O’Keefe showed pictures of him and his attorney wearing bulletproof vests as they walked to the courthouse. “We got there at 9:30 while the Antifa thugs were still asleep.” “The judge initially ruled against us,” O’Keefe said. “James O’Keefe may do journalism without audio. How does that work?” O’Keefe continued, “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law (under which the Governor of Oregon could regulate who could and who could not film) and ruled it unconstitutional. Now we can report in Oregon.” In another story, a man named Liban Mohamed filmed himself in a car with hundreds of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election. “Money is the king of everything,” he said. It is illegal in that state to be in possession of more than three ballots, and he had harvested hundreds of ballots. “He filmed himself on Snapchat with hundreds of ballots in his car,” O’Keefe said. “He sent the video to 14 of his friends, and one of them turned him in to me.” O’Keefe ran the story about the illegal ballot harvesting – essentially just a video that Mr. Muhammed made of himself with the ballots. “The video received 30 million views on Twitter,” O’Keefe said. “On the same day, the New York Times released its Trump tax return story. Nobody cared about the Trump tax return.” The New York Times then did an article on O’Keefe’s story and said there was “no verifiable evidence.” “This is gaslighting,” O’Keefe said. O’Keefe said that they project what they do in their own reporting. He had the video that the man made himself. In the New York Times story on the Trump tax returns, “it was anonymous sources. They did the tax documents story with no evidence. They had no tax documents.” “Facebook used this article to ban me from Facebook because Facebook uses USA Today as their fact checkers and USA Today uses the New York Times,” O’Keefe said. O’Keefe sued the New York Times. “The New York Times attorneys wrote in their filing: ‘Neither the word “deceptive” nor the word “verifiable” has a precise meaning that is readily understood,’” O’Keefe recounted. “They fear being exposed,” O’Keefe said of people in power. He played a video of an encounter with the Mayor of Rosell Park at a school board meeting. “I was trying to give cameras to the parents,” O’Keefe said. “You don’t belong here – you’re a conservative,” the Mayor said. “You don’t have children in the school system.” On counter-questioning, the Mayor admitted that he did not have any children. O’Keefe also highlighted a report he did on the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. An undercover journalist went on a “date” with Dr. Jordon Trishton Walker, who was then the Director of Research and Development at Pfizer. During the date, he suggested they could infect monkeys with a virus, encourage mutations in the virus in a process he called ‘directed evolution,’ develop a vaccine for the mutated virus, and then release it into the population. He said Pfizer would make lots of money by having the vaccine for the virus they created in a lab. In the tape, Walker does not actually say that he and Pfizer did that, but he doesn’t say that they didn’t or would never do such a thing either, and he was pretty gleeful about the prospects of how much money they would make on it. “People are so honest when they think you are not recording,” O’Keefe said. It is amazing what people will tell you when you show interest in them.” O’Keefe then ambushed Walker with the videotape of Walker discussing the lab-directed evolution of viruses to make profits at a pizzeria in New York City. Walker became very upset. “He locks the restaurant doors, so I can’t leave,” O’Keefe said. “He is smashing the IPAD on the ground like this is the only place where this video is recorded. And these are the people making medical decisions for the people in this country.” O’Keefe’s crew was filming all of this outside from the state through the window. “We have grown up in a country where most of the advertising is paid for,” by Pfizer and the pharmaceutical companies O’Keefe said. “A week after this story, I was removed from the organization that I founded. The board gave two reasons,” O’Keefe said. “That I had cars chauffeuring me around, and they said that I once stole a pregnant lady’s sandwich.” “Pfizer scrubbed the website of the guy,” O’Keefe said of Walker. “People that knew him were removing references to him.” O’Keefe credited citizen journalists for coming forward with screenshots, photos, and evidence that
Alabama riverfront brawl videos spark a cultural moment about race, solidarity and justice
As bystanders trained their smartphone cameras on the riverfront dock while several white boaters pummeled a Black riverboat co-captain, they couldn’t have known the footage would elicit a national conversation about racial solidarity. Yet, a week after multiple videos showing the now-infamous brawl and valiant defense of the outnumbered co-captain were shared widely on social media, it’s clear the event truly tapped into the psyche of Black America and created a broader cultural moment. Andrea Boyles, a sociology professor at Tulane University, said a long history of anti-Black racism and attacks and current events likely magnified the attack’s impact and response. “Especially at a time like now where we see an increase in anti-Black racism through legislation and otherwise, whether we’re thinking about history, the banning of Black history and curriculum and all sorts of things across the state of Florida” and elsewhere, Boyles said. “So this is why it is on the forefront of people’s minds. And folks are very much tuned in, Black people in particular.” Many see the Aug. 5 ordeal on the riverfront dock in Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city steeped in civil rights history, as a long-awaited answer to countless calls for help that went unanswered for past Black victims of violence and mob attacks. “We witnessed a white mob doing this to him,” said Michelle Browder, an artist, and social justice entrepreneur in Montgomery, describing the attack by boaters on the Black riverboat co-captain. “I call it a mob because that is what it was; it was a mob mentality,” she added. “It then became a moment because you saw Black people coming together.” After being inundated with images and stories of lethal violence against Black people, including motorists in traffic stops, church parishioners, and grocery shoppers, the video from Montgomery struck a chord because it didn’t end in the worst of outcomes for Black Americans. “For Montgomery to have this moment, we needed to see a win. We needed to see our community coming together and we needed to see justice,” Browder said. Videos of the brawl showed the participants largely divided along racial lines. Several white men punched or shoved the Black riverboat co-captain after he took a separate vessel to shore and tried to move their pontoon boat. The white boaters’ private vessel was docked in a spot designated for the city-owned Harriott II riverboat, on which more than 200 passengers were waiting to disembark. The videos then showed mostly Black people rushing to the co-captain’s defense, including a Black teenage riverboat crew member who swam to the dock. The videos also showed the ensuing brawl that included a Black man hitting a white person with a folding chair. As of Friday, Alabama police had charged four white people with misdemeanor assault. The folding chair-wielding man turned himself in Friday and was charged with disorderly conduct. Jim Kittrell, the captain of Harriott II, told The Daily Beast that he thought race might have been a factor in the initial attack on his co-captain, but the resulting melee was not a “Black and white thing.” “This was our crew upset about these idiots,” Kittrell also told WACV radio station. He later explained that several members of his crew, seen confronting the pontoon boat party after the riverboat docked, “felt they had to retaliate, which was unfortunate.” “I wish we could have stopped it from happening, but, when you see something like that, it was difficult. It was difficult for me to sit there in the wheelhouse watching him being attacked,” Kittrell told the station. Kittrell told The Associated Press by phone that the city had asked him not to talk about the brawl. Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said on Tuesday that hate crime charges were ruled out after the department consulted with the local FBI. But several observers noted the presence of a hate motivation, or lack thereof, on the part of the pontoon boat party was not why the event resonated so strongly. “All these individuals having smartphones and cameras have democratized media and information. In the past, it was a very narrow scope on what news was being reported and from what perspectives,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said. The technology, Johnson added, “opened up an opportunity for America as a whole to understand the impact of racism, the impact of violence, and the opportunity to create a narrative that’s more consistent with keeping African Americans and other communities safe.” The riverfront brawl spawned a multitude of memes, jokes, parodies, reenactments, and even T-shirts. “Lift every chair and swing,” read one shirt in a play on “ Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing,” the late-19th century hymn sometimes referred to as the Black national anthem. Another meme likened the co-captain’s toss of his hat into the air to sending the “bat signal,” a reference to the D.C. Comics character Batman. One image of the scene captured from bystander video was altered to imitate Marvel Comics’ Avengers characters assembling through magic portals on the dock to defend the Black co-captain. Many observers on social media were quick to point out the significance of the city and location where the brawl took place. Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy, and the riverfront is an area where enslaved people were once unloaded to be sold at auction. The area is a few blocks from the spot where Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying bus segregation laws. “Much of (the riverfront brawl reaction) is emblematic of the history of Montgomery,” said Timothy Welbeck, the director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University in Philadelphia. “This is the home of the bus boycott; this is the home of intense, racialized segregation and various forms of resistance today,” he said. “Even if there wasn’t an explicit mention of race, many people saw a white man assaulting a Black man as a proxy for some of the racist behavior that they’ve seen before. It brought about a sense of solidarity and unified fate, too, in this
Barry Moore votes for resolution condemning efforts to defund the police
On Thursday, Congressman Barry Moore voted in support of H.Con.Res.40, a concurrent resolution expressing support for law enforcement officers and condemning efforts to defund or dismantle local law enforcement agencies. The concurrent resolution was introduced by Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona). “Every day, thousands of men and women in blue kiss their families goodbye, knowing it could be the last time,” said Moore. “This week, I have heard the stories of several law enforcement officers who laid down their lives to protect others. These officers deserve to know we stand with them and condemn any effort to defund or dismantle police forces. I will always Back the Blue.” Rep. Buck introduced the resolution supporting local law enforcement and condemning efforts to defund the police: “Ever since the George Floyd riots of 2020, our law enforcement officers have been mercilessly attacked for simply doing their jobs and upholding the rule of law,” Buck said. “Leftist activists and progressive politicians have shamefully called for the defunding and dismantling of local police departments across the country.” “We must ‘back the blue’ now more than ever. Crime is surging across our cities in virtually every major statistic,” said Rep. Biggs. “These heroes are the only ones putting themselves in harm’s way to uphold our rule of law and ensure public safety. These courageous men and women volunteer to keep our communities safer every day. At the very least, they deserve our gratitude and respect. It’s unconscionable to see pro-crime Democrats attempt to restrict, and in many cases, abolish our law enforcement agencies. That’s something you see in authoritarian regimes—not in the United States—and always results in communities being less safe. I cannot overstate my appreciation for our nation’s law enforcement, and will continue to exercise every tool I have to ‘back the blue.” “This resolution is a long-overdue recognition of the men and women in blue who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way and keep our communities safe,” said Buck. The resolution was passed to coincide with the annual observance of National Police Week. On Friday, Rep. Moore voted in support of H.R. 2494, the POLICE Act. This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and would make assaulting a law enforcement officer a deportable offense. “There have been five million illegal encounters at our southern border and thousands of pounds of deadly fentanyl flowing across since Biden became President, so there’s no doubt that law enforcement officers all over the country are being forced to deal with the ramifications of our open southern border,” said Moore. “The POLICE Act holds migrants accountable for violent actions and gives our courageous officers the protection they deserve.” “As the border crisis rages on unchecked and assaults against law enforcement officers continue to rise, this legislation sends a crystal clear message that any non-citizen who commits acts of violence against police should be subject to deportation,” said Rep. Garbarino. “The POLICE Act codifies what under current law remains legally ambiguous by providing clear guidelines for what qualifies a migrant for removal under these circumstances. It is about improving officer safety and making it easier to remove migrants who have demonstrated flagrant criminal violence while on U.S. soil. I applaud my colleagues in the House for approving this common-sense measure, and I urge the Senate to take up the POLICE Act without delay to show our men and women in law enforcement that we have their backs as they continue to battle the criminal element currently taking advantage of our unsecured southern border.” The measures now go on to the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate for their consideration. Barry Moore is in his second term representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Ron Desantis speaks to Alabama Republicans
Florida Governor Ron Desantis was in Hoover on Thursday to address the Alabama Republican Party. Over 1,400 attended the GOP’s winter dinner fundraiser to hear the likely presidential candidate denounce the “woke” movement. Desantis was welcomed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who introduced DeSantis, as well as other top state elected leaders. Attorney General Steve Marshall, Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth, Secretary of State Wes Allen, State Auditor Andrew Sorrell, Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate, Chief Justice Tom Parker, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, and many more were on hand at the Finley Center to welcome DeSantis to Alabama. “Tonight, I was proud to welcome @GovRonDeSantis to our Sweet Home Alabama!” Gov. Ivey said on Twitter. “I was honored to welcome “America’s Governor” @GovRonDeSantis to Alabama and lead the ALGOP dinner in the Pledge of Allegiance,” Lieutenant Gov. Ainsworth said on Twitter. Gov. DeSantis’s speech was heavy on social conservatism. DeSantis spoke about his feud with Disney, his opposition to books that preach alternate sexual lifestyles to children even in elementary school being in school libraries, his opposition to the COVID-19 economic shutdowns mask mandates, his anti-riot measures in Florida following the George Floyd riots, his shipping illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard, his opposition to the transgender agenda, and the migration of people from blue states like New York, Michigan, and California to red states like Florida. DeSantis said that Hispanics in Florida support his efforts to reduce illegal immigration to Florida. He also compared and contrasted his state of Florida with the state of New York. They have similar populations, but New York has twice the state budget. “What do they get for all that money?” DeSantis said. “We have no state income tax. Alabama should try that,” DeSantis said. While Florida has no income tax, their property taxes are far higher than Alabama’s, and as anyone who has driven around Florida knows, there are toll roads and toll collections all over the state outside of the federal interstate system, which are very rare in Alabama. Florida residents, on average, have a 9.1% state and local tax burden (#11 in the country), while Alabama residents pay 9.8% (#20 in the country.) Tennessee has the lowest tax burden in the southeast at 7.6% (#3 in the country). DeSantis spoke about his hurricane response and how fast his team built back a bridge to connect the residents of an island to the mainland. Desantis said that if he was President, his team could get the border wall built quickly and at reduced cost. DeSantis has not yet announced his presidential campaign. At this point, the only announced presidential candidates are former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. DeSantis and President Joe Biden are, at this point, presumed to be presidential candidates. DeSantis’s speech was the speech of a governor, touting his accomplishments as a governor. The most pressing issues facing the next President are Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, balancing the federal budget without crashing the economy, the possibility of war with China, the high likelihood of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, the prospect of that triggering a war in the Middle East, as well as energy policy and its perceived connection to climate change. Desantis will have to discuss these larger issues in a presidential campaign. The Alabama Republican presidential primary is scheduled for March 5, 2024. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Joe Biden set to give his State of the Union address tonight
President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress tonight, where he will lay out his agenda for the upcoming year. President Biden’s speech will begin at 8:00 p.m. CST and will be streamed online and on multiple major networks on TV and radio. Biden and his top aides spent the weekend in Camp David preparing the address to Congress and the nation. The State of the Union address comes following a stellar January jobs report on Friday, growing tensions with China following the shooting down of a Chinese balloon in American air space, and amidst a war between Russia and Ukraine where the Ukrainians are being supported by the U.S. and our western allies. While the Democrats picked up seats in the Senate during last November’s midterms, the Republicans now control the U.S. House of Representatives, and Republican Kevin McCarthy has replaced Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House. President Biden is faced with a standoff with McCarthy and the Republicans over raising the debt ceiling. Republicans have said they would like to decrease federal spending to limit inflation as a condition for raising the debt ceiling. He has said that he is not willing to negotiate with House Republicans on spending to get the needed debt ceiling increase. The Treasury Department in January implemented “extraordinary measures” to prevent the U.S. from a government default on the debt. The U.S. has until June before the government can’t pay its bills. The U.S. national debt is in excess of $31.5 trillion and growing. President Biden is expected to press Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The Civil Rights community is pushing the administration hard on policing reform. Biden may also urge Congress to pass a new assault weapons ban. Congresswoman Terri Sewell will be accompanied by survivors of the recent tornado touchdown in Selma. “The Curry’s of Selma will be my special guest at the State of the Union representing the survivors of the Jan 12th tornadoes that ripped through Selma and Dallas Co.,” said Rep. Sewell on social media. “Their beautiful home destroyed! But they were unharmed! God is Good!” Biden has not yet announced his decision on whether or not he will run for a second term as president in the 2024 election. Biden is not expected to make that announcement in his address, but political observers will watch the speech closely, looking for any clues to his intentions. A Republican response will follow President Biden’s address. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders will present the GOP response to the Biden address. “I am grateful for this opportunity to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats,” Gov. Sanders said. “We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.” To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama’s capital removes Confederate names from 2 schools
Two high schools in Alabama’s capital, a hub of the civil rights movement, will no longer bear the names of Confederate leaders. The Montgomery County Board of Education on Thursday voted for new names for Jefferson Davis High School and Robert E. Lee High School, news outlets reported. Lee will become Dr. Percy Julian High School. Davis will become JAG High School, representing three figures of the civil rights movement: Judge Frank Johnson, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and the Rev. Robert Graetz. The schools opened in the 1950s and 1960s as all or mostly white but now serve student populations that are more than 85% African American. “Our job is to make our spaces comfortable for our kids. Bottom line is we’re going to make decisions based on what our kids’ needs may be, not necessarily on sentiment around whatever nostalgia may exist,” Superintendent Melvin Brown said, as reported by WSFA-TV. Julian was a chemist and teacher who was born in Montgomery. Johnson was a federal judge whose rulings helped end segregation and enforce voting rights. Abernathy was a pastor and leader in the civil rights movement. Graetz was the only white pastor who openly supported the Montgomery bus boycott and became the target of scorn and bombings for doing so. The new school names were given two years after education officials vowed to strip the Confederate namesakes. A debate over the school names began amid protests over racial inequality following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Someone ripped down a statue of Lee outside his namesake school during the demonstrations. Like many other Confederate-named schools, Lee — named for the Confederate Army general — opened as an all-white school in 1955 as the South was actively fighting integration. Davis, named for the Confederate president, opened in 1968. But white flight after integration orders and shifting demographics meant the schools became heavily African American. The Montgomery City Council last year voted to rename Jeff Davis Avenue for attorney Fred D. Gray. Gray grew up on the street during the Jim Crow era and went on to represent clients, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. After the street name change, the Alabama attorney general’s office told city officials to pay a $25,000 fine or face a lawsuit for violating a state law protecting Confederate monuments and other longstanding memorials. The city paid the fine in order to remove the Confederate reference. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Court upholds judges’ removal for racist, sexist comments
The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld a decision removing a probate judge from office who was accused of racist and sexually inappropriate behavior that included showing an explicit video to an employee and making inappropriate comments after George Floyd’s murder by a police officer. The justices last week unanimously upheld the 2021 decision by the Court of the Judiciary — a disciplinary panel that hears complaints against judges — to remove Randy Jinks as Talladega County probate judge. “The record indicates that Judge Jinks made multiple racist and racially insensitive comments, engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, engaged in inappropriate acts of anger and use of profanity,” justices wrote. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary, the panel tasked with hearing ethics complaints against judges, last year ruled that Jinks failed to uphold the integrity and independence of the court system. The initial complaint against Jinks included that he made derogatory comments about women and African Americans, including references to Floyd, whose death sparked nationwide protests. The panel ruled that there was clear and convincing evidence that Jinks had displayed inappropriate behavior that included showing an explicit video to an employee; asking an attorney if he knew of an acronym involving a racial slur; asking a Black employee if he was selling drugs after he purchased a new car, and other inappropriate comments. Jinks denied most of the claims and blamed workers for misinterpreting jokes. He appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court ruled there was evidence to support his removal from office. “Those acts were not isolated but occurred on a number of occasions while Judge Jinks was in the probate office acting in his capacity as the probate judge. Those acts were numerous enough to establish a pattern of objectionable behavior on the part of Judge Jinks,” the court wrote. Amanda Hardy, an attorney representing Jinks, issued a statement saying they respect the decision but “believe the judgment was inconsistent with the evidence adduced at trial.” “The system has been abused by a few individuals, and the Judicial Inquiry Commission’s prosecution and the Court of the Judiciary’s charging decisions now allows for great risks for all judges of all races and political parties in this state,” Hardy wrote in an email. Her statement added: “These governmental agencies have substantial power to discriminate based on the content or viewpoint of speech by suppressing disfavored speech or disliked speakers.” Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Despite push, states slow to make Juneteenth a paid holiday
Recognition of Juneteenth, the effective end of slavery in the U.S., gained traction after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. But after an initial burst of action, the movement to have it recognized as an official holiday in the states has largely stalled. Although almost every state recognizes Juneteenth in some fashion, many have been slow to do more than issue a proclamation or resolution, even as some continue to commemorate the Confederacy. Lawmakers in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and other states failed to advance proposals this year that would have closed state offices and given most of their public employees paid time off for the June 19 holiday. That trend infuriates Black leaders and community organizers who view making Juneteenth a paid holiday the bare minimum state officials can do to help honor an often overlooked and ignored piece of American history. “Juneteenth marks the date of major significance in American history. It represents the ways in which freedom for Black people have been delayed,” said Democratic Rep. Anthony Nolan, who is Black, while arguing in favor of making Juneteenth a paid holiday in Connecticut on the House floor. “And if we delay this, it’s a smack in the face to Black folks.” Juneteenth commemorates when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, two months after the Confederacy had surrendered in the Civil War and about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Southern states. Last year, Congress and President Joe Biden moved swiftly to make Juneteenth a national holiday. It was the first time the federal government had designated a new national holiday since approving Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Yet the move didn’t result in an automatic adoption from most states. In Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey issued another proclamation marking Juneteenth a state holiday earlier this week after state lawmakers refused to take action on a bill during their legislative session even after she voiced strong support for making it a permanent holiday back in 2021. The state closes down for Confederate Memorial Days in April. Similarly, Wyoming’s Republican Gov. Mark Gordon issued a statement last June saying he would work with lawmakers to make it a state holiday, but no legislation was filed during the 2022 session. In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee quietly tucked enough funding — roughly $700,000 — to make Juneteenth a state-paid holiday in his initial spending plan for the upcoming year. Despite the bill gaining traction in the state Senate, GOP legislative leaders maintained there wasn’t enough support for the idea even as Tennessee law currently designates special observances for Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate Decoration Day, and Nathan Bedford Forrest Day. “I asked many people in my district over the last few days, well over 100 people, if they knew what Juneteenth was, and only two of them knew,” said Republican Sen. Joey Hensley, who is white and voted against the proposal. “I just think we’re putting the cart before the horse making a holiday that people don’t know about.” In South Carolina, instead of working to approve Juneteenth as a holiday, Senate lawmakers unanimously advanced a bill that would allow state employees to choose any day they want to take off instead of the Confederate Memorial Day, currently enshrined as a paid holiday in state law. However, the House sent the bill to a committee, where it died without a hearing when the Legislature adjourned for the session. At the same time, many of these Republican-led areas have advanced bills limiting what can be taught about systematic racism in classrooms while also spiking proposals aimed at expanding voting rights and police reform. This year, nearly 20 states are expected to close state offices and give most of their public employees time off. At least six states officially adopted the holiday over the past few months, including Connecticut, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington. A bill introduced in California passed the Assembly and moved to the Senate this month, and individual cities such as Los Angeles have already signed proclamations making Juneteenth official. “Becoming a state holiday will not merely give employees a day off; it will also give residents a day to think about the future that we want, while remembering the inequities of the past,” said Democratic Del. Andrea Harrison, who sponsored the Juneteenth legislation in Maryland this year. “It will help us to reflect how far we’ve come as a nation, how much more we need to do as humankind.” Attempts to give Juneteenth the same deference as Memorial Day or July Fourth didn’t begin to gain traction until 2020 when protests sparked a nationwide push to address race after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the deaths of other Black people by police officers. “George Floyd protests against police brutality brought awareness to Juneteenth because there were people of all races learning about its significance for the first time following a public push to self-educate and learn more about Black history, culture and injustices,” said Tremaine Jasper, a resident and business owner in Phoenix who has attended Juneteenth celebrations across Arizona with his family. Some cities in Arizona, including Phoenix, have declared Juneteenth an official holiday, paying city employees and closing municipal buildings. However, lawmakers are not currently considering statewide recognition. “There are so many other important issues that we need to tackle — education, political issues, reparations — before we prioritize making Juneteenth a statewide holiday,” Jasper said, noting that those looking to celebrate know where to go. Jasper, who was born and raised in Arizona, said it is going to be an “uphill battle” to get the state to recognize Juneteenth because there is not a large enough Black population outside of its largest cities to make the push. Arizona was also slow in recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day, not doing so until 1992. It was one of the last states to officially recognize the civil rights leader. Republished with the permission of The
Suit claims city trying to limit Confederate statue protests
An organization that has staged dozens of protests against a Confederate monument in north Alabama filed suit, contending the city of Florence is trying to limit the demonstrations in violation of free-speech guarantees. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Project Say Something and its founder, Camille Bennett, claims the city and Police Chief Ron Tyler are trying to clamp down on the protests by telling the group when, where, and how it can demonstrate against the monument, located at the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Bennett said the organization, a nonprofit she founded about eight years ago, has tried to work with the city, the TimesDaily reported. “Alabama has a long history of confronting racial injustice through peaceful demonstration, and it is imperative that we not lose that ability to speak truth to power when the situation demands it,” Bennett said in a statement. The city has not responded to the federal lawsuit in court, and city officials declined to comment. The courthouse monument was dedicated in 1903 when Confederate descendants were erecting memorials all over the South to honor rebel veterans and perpetuate the “lost cause” mythology that portrayed the Civil War as being about something other than slavery. Project Say Something began almost daily protests against the monument in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While the group held as many as 175 demonstrations in 2020, it cut back the following year because the city used its noise and parade permit ordinances to discourage them, the lawsuit said. The chief relocated the demonstrations to a “protest zone” away from the courthouse to shrink the potential audience, it claimed, and he threatened to issue citations. After the city requested $360 a day for police protection during demonstrations, the group began hiring private security and has spent about $4,100 so far, according to the complaint. The group held “silent” protests in response to noise complaints after counter-protesters began gathering and yelling racial epithets at demonstrators, it said. David Gespass, co-chairman of the Alabama chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which was among the organizations assisting with the lawsuit, said it was not up to the city or Tyler to tell people “where and how to protest.” “The First Amendment holds that everywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Canada to Mexico is a protest zone,” Gaspass said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Major issues to be decided in session’s final days
Alabama lawmakers return to Montgomery on Tuesday with a number of large issues to be decided in the closing days of the legislative session. Legislators expect to conclude the session next week. Here’s a look at some of the proposals that could be decided in the session’s final days. TEACHER PAY RAISES Lawmakers are expected to give final approval to the largest pay raise in a generation for teachers with nine or more years experience. The Senate approved the raises as part of next year’s education trust fund budget. The House of Representatives must decide whether to accept Senate changes, but House leaders have expressed support for the raises. The raise would be based on the teacher’s experience. A teacher with a bachelor’s degree and 20 years of experience would see their minimum salary rise from $51,810 to $57,214. School systems in Alabama and across the country have reported concerns about teacher shortages, particularly as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated a wave of retirements. That has led states to look at pay increases and other measures to try to recruit and retain educators. READING PROMOTION REQUIREMENT The House of Representatives on Tuesday will debate a proposal to postpone a high-stakes requirement to hold back third-graders who don’t read on grade level. The requirement of the 2019 Alabama Literacy Act is now scheduled to start this spring but would be pushed back until the 2023-2024 school year under the proposal. Many lawmakers expressed concern after the pandemic interrupted classrooms for two years. There is broad support for a delay, although lawmakers have disagreed on how long that delay should be. To move on to fourth grade, students would have to make above a “cut score” on standardized testing or demonstrate mastery of reading standards through a reading portfolio. State officials earlier this year said 23% of students scored below the set cutoff score on the latest assessment. DIVISIVE CONCEPTS The bill by Republican Rep. Ed Oliver of Dadeville would prohibit a list of “divisive concepts” from being taught in schools and in diversity training for state entities. The banned concepts would include that the United States is “inherently racist or sexist” and that anyone should be asked to accept “a sense of guilt” or a need to work harder because of their race or gender. The Alabama House of Representatives approved the bill after an emotional night of debate. The House-passed bill is awaiting committee action in the Alabama Senate. The list in the bill is similar to a now-repealed executive order that former President Donald Trump issued regarding training for federal employees. Similar language has since popped up in bills in more than a dozen states. TRANS TREATMENT BAN The Alabama Senate has approved a measure by Republican Sen. Shay Shelnutt of Trussville to make it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for doctors to give transgender minors puberty-blockers, hormones, or surgeries to help affirm their gender identity. Proponents of the bill said the decisions on the medications should wait until a person is an adult. Opponents say lawmakers are inserting themselves into decisions that belong with families and their doctors. The Senate-passed bill, along with similar legislation by Republican Rep. Wes Allen of Troy, is pending in the Alabama House of Representatives. The U.S. Department of Justice last week sent a letter to state attorneys general warning that laws and policies that prevent individuals from receiving gender-affirming medical care might be an infringement on a person’s constitutional rights. REDEFINING RIOT The Alabama House of Representatives approved a bill that would create a new crime of assault of a first-responder and change the definition of a riot in state law. The bill defines a riot as “the assemblage of five or more persons engaging in conduct which creates an immediate danger of and/or results in damage to property or injury to persons.” The legislation is pending in the Senate committee. Rep. Allen Treadaway, a retired Birmingham assistant police chief, proposed the bill after a protest turned violent in Birmingham in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis. Opposed lawmakers say the definition of a riot is subjective, and an officer could make arrests based on his or her presumptions about the people involved. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Joe Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime
Presidents typically say a few words before they turn legislation into law. But Joe Biden flipped the script Tuesday when it came time to put his signature on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. He signed the bill at a desk in the White House Rose Garden. Then he spoke. “All right. It’s law,” said the president, who was surrounded by Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, and top Justice Department officials. He was also joined by a descendant of Ida B. Wells, a Black journalist who reported on lynchings, and Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till. Biden said it’s “a little unusual to do the bill signing, not say anything and then speak. But that’s how we set it up.” He thanked the audience of civil rights leaders, Congressional Black Caucus members, and other guests who kept pushing for the law for “never giving up, never ever giving up.” Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago. Until March of this year, it had failed to pass such legislation nearly 200 times, beginning with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep. George Henry White, the only Black member of Congress at the time. Harris was a prime sponsor of the bill when she was in the Senate. The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is named for the Black teenager whose killing in Mississippi in the summer of 1955 became a galvanizing moment in the civil rights era. His grieving mother insisted on an open casket to show everyone how her son had been brutalized. “It’s a long time coming,” said Parker, who was onstage with Biden when the president signed the bill. Parker, two years older than Till, was with his cousin at their relatives’ home in Mississippi and witnessed Till’s kidnapping. In his remarks, Biden acknowledged the struggle to get a law on the books and spoke about how lynchings were used to terrorize and intimidate Blacks in the United States. More than 4,400 Blacks died by lynching between 1877 and 1950, mostly in the South, he said. “Lynching was pure terror, to enforce the lie that not everyone, not everyone belongs in America, not everyone is created equal,” he said. Biden, who has many Black men and women in key positions throughout his administration, stressed that forms of racial terror continue in the United States, demonstrating the need for an anti-lynching statute. “Racial hate isn’t an old problem — it’s a persistent problem,” Biden said. “Hate never goes away. It only hides.” The new law makes it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime leads to death or serious bodily injury, according to the bill’s champion, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. The law lays out a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and fines. The House approved the bill 422-3 on March 7, with eight members not voting, after it cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. Rush had introduced a bill in January 2019, but it stalled in the Senate after the House passed by a vote of 410-4. The NAACP began lobbying for anti-lynching legislation in the 1920s. A federal hate crime law was passed and signed into law in the 1990s, decades after the civil rights movement. “Today we are gathered to do unfinished business,” Harris said, “to acknowledge the horror and this part of our history, to state unequivocally that lynching is and has always been a hate crime, and to make clear that the federal government may now prosecute these crimes as such.” “Lynching is not a relic of the past,” she added. “Racial acts of terror still occur in our nation, and when they do, we must all have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators to account.” Till, 14, had traveled from his Chicago home to visit relatives in Mississippi in 1955 when it was alleged that he whistled at a white woman. He was kidnapped, beaten, and shot in the head. A large metal fan was tied to his neck with barbed wire, and his body was thrown into a river. His mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open casket at the funeral to show the brutality he had suffered. Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were accused but acquitted by an all-white-male jury. Bryant and Milam later told a reporter that they kidnapped and killed Till. During a video interview after the bill signing, Parker credited current events for helping the anti-lynching bill move through Congress and to Biden’s desk. Parker specifically mentioned the police killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, which sparked months of protests in the United States and other countries after videotape of the officer’s actions circulated. He drew a connection between Floyd and Till, saying, “That’s what caused Rosa Parks to not give her seat up, and that sparked the civil rights movement because she thought about Emmett Till.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
