On Tuesday, April 20, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, following nearly a year of protests and outrage, three weeks of testimony, and ten hours of jury deliberation. Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes as witnesses helplessly tried to stop him and Floyd said over and over that he couldn’t breathe, was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. 

Immediately after the verdict was announced, many politicians spoke about the verdict, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice. For being there to call out to your mom. How heartbreaking was that?” she said. “Call out to your mom, ‘I can’t breathe.’ But because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”

Pelosi was swiftly criticized for her remarks, with people like Albert Lee pointing out that thanking George Floyd for being murdered — for “sacrificing [his] life” — is a way of devaluing Black lives, and reducing Black people’s worth to their role in dismantling white supremacy, and seeing Floyd as a “pawn” rather than a person.

An hour later, seemingly in response to the criticism about her initial comments, Pelosi quote-tweeted her original comments, adding: “George Floyd should be alive today. His family’s calls for justice for his murder were heard around the world. He did not die in vain. We must make sure other families don’t suffer the same racism, violence & pain, and we must enact the George Floyd #JusticeInPolicing Act.”

Pelosi wasn’t the only politician to imply that Floyd’s murder was a means to an end, a tragic but necessary part of a journey to an equitable society. Though Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that Floyd should still be alive today and that a guilty verdict won’t change that, he opened his remarks on the verdict with this: “George Perry Floyd Jr. came to Minneapolis to better his life. But ultimately, his life will have bettered our city.”

George Floyd was murdered; it is not his job, either in life or in death, to dismantle the racist system that has long protected and encouraged people like his murderer, Derek Chauvin. But it is the job of politicians like Pelosi and Frey to hold themselves and others accountable for perpetuating those systems, rather than just thank a man whose life was not willingly sacrificed, but was viciously taken from him.

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According to now-viral video footage from Saturday, April 17, police officers in Perth Amboy, NJ reportedly arrested a Black teenager for riding his bike “against traffic” and without a license. The story broke on the same day that Derek Chauvin was convicted on three counts for the murder of George Floyd.

In the video, at least five officers are seen surrounding a teenager and reprimanding him. “I told you, you guys are supposed to have licenses. The sergeant warned you guys about your bikes,” says one officer. The sergeant, who initially stopped the group, begins pressing the teenager to get off his bicycle. After he does, his bike is confiscated and he is handcuffed and arrested. A witness, who filmed and posted the entire interaction, maintains that they were on the right side of the street, and shared footage corroborating his account.

The other bikers at the scene were not arrested but did have their bikes taken away. The name of the person arrested is not public, but the mayor’s office described the group as “young teenagers.” Christian Orozco, the witness who filmed the conflict published the video on Instagram and TikTok, elaborated in a second Instagram post. “There was a ride out hosted yesterday and we were supposed to ride through towns,” he wrote. “We was wheeling around Perth Amboy and was heading out towards Woodbridge Township until 3 cop cars started following us. We were all riding ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE STREET… There was like 2-3 persons on the wrong lane but for the most part we were all on the right lane.”

According to Orozco, six cop cars stopped to pull over and confront the teenagers. The friend who was arrested was “upset due to us getting pulled over,” and was detained for “being disrespectful.” The friend closed his account with some thoughts: “If anyone was in his shoes, we’ll definitely feel some type of way. At the end of the day, the PAPD could’ve handled this situation a lot better instead of taking our bikes and arresting someone.”

Police in New Jersey confiscate bikes from teenagers and arrest one for no reason pic.twitter.com/743D8W1IOp

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) April 20, 2021

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A post shared by • BZ • (@blazedzero)

“This is Perth Amboy, NJ,” Amol Sinha, the executive director of the ACLU New Jersey, said on Twitter. “Are the police really arresting kids over bike registrations? Does it really require this many officers to address whatever situation this is? Police CANNOT continue to be our response to EVERYTHING.”

In response to Sinha’s tweet, Middlesex Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone’s office made a statement: “The facts and circumstances of this incident are being reviewed by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office in conjunction with the Perth Amboy Police Chief Roman McKeon and other law enforcement officials from the city of Perth Amboy,” the statement read. “Every juvenile being taken into custody by law enforcement in Middlesex County is of the utmost concern to Prosecutor Ciccone and this young person is no different. What occurred before, during and after the incident depicted is under review.”

The Perth Amboy mayor’s office, which oversees the police department, responded late Tuesday evening stating that they are reviewing the incident, and emphasizing that the video was only “partially captured.”

“The incident stems from multiples calls to the police department for a large group of bicyclists riding on various streets through the city in unsafe and reckless manners causing motorists to stop or swerve away from the group, as was demonstrated on the videos,” a statement sent to Refinery29 from Mayor Helmin J. Caba’s office reads. “Police officers made independent observations of the group of young teenagers and it was decided that police would attempt to make contact with the bicyclists to inform them of roadway safety and their conduct.”

However, what is not clear from officials’ statements is whether or not the conduct of the officers while dealing with several Black teenagers will be investigated.

After the bikes were allegedly returned and the unnamed teenager was released, another video taken at the police station shows the sergeant talking to the witness. “You know that we told you guys to stay on the sidewalk,” she says. He responds that he didn’t hear her. “Technically, if I wanted to be an asshole, is your bike registered with us?” she continues. “I don’t have to give it back to you. You have the receipt to prove that that bike is your bike?”

Here’s the explanation from a Perth Amboy police officer: pic.twitter.com/8T48DMEgoA

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 20, 2021

New Jersey has no legislation in place mandating that bicycles are licensed. The teenagers say in the video that they were biking in from Edison, which actually mandates that bikers shouldn’t bike on the sidewalk — and also has no rules about licensing bikes, either. Perth Amboy, however, mandates that all owners must attach a license tag, which costs $0.50 a year, to their bicycles. Anyone who fails to do this could be imprisoned for up to 10 days. 

The video raises obvious questions about why this rule exists, and how it is enforced. “I broke this law last summer when I stopped in Perth Amboy’s waterfront ice cream shop on my ride back from New Brunswick,” wrote Twitter user @BriHedden. “1. Biking laws shouldn’t change from one town to the next. 2. Cops apparently only apply this law to people that are Black.” Other residents of Perth Amboy also wrote that they had never heard of this rule, or heard of police enforcing it. 

What’s more, at the heels of Chauvin’s conviction, it’s alarming that officials are still unwilling to take accountability. While the prosecutor’s office and mayor both plan to investigate the situation further, the police officer who confronted and arrested a teenager for riding his bike is still working and is being protected by the state in every way possible.

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Derek Chauvin Found Guilty In George Floyd Murder

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On Tuesday, April 20, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin was declared guilty on charges of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and third-degree murder. The former officer will be sentenced eight weeks following the verdict and faces up to 40 years of jail time.

This outcome comes after three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses and experts. Both prosecutors and Chauvin’s attorney shared their closing statements on Monday. The jury deliberated for four hour hours before adjourning in the evening and reconnecting Tuesday morning. The deliberation took a total of 10 hours.

Earlier today, President Joe Biden weighed in on his hopes for the outcome of the trial, although he chose his words carefully. “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict, which is — I think it’s overwhelming, in my view,” he told reporters, according to the New York Times. “I wouldn’t say that unless the — the jury was sequestered now and not hearing me say that.” He added that he had spoken to Floyd’s family, and was praying for them and for the “right” verdict.

Immediately following the guilty verdict, Ben Crump, the attorney representing Floyd’s family, tweeted: “GUILTY! Painfully earned justice has finally arrived for George Floyd’s family. This verdict is a turning point in history and sends a clear message on the need for accountability of law enforcement. Justice for Black America is justice for all of America!”

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Many horrified bystanders, who shared eyewitness accounts at the trial, stated that they called for Chauvin to move and even dialed 911, to no avail. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, claimed that Floyd died of a drug overdose and underlying health conditions. Nelson also said that Chauvin did “exactly what he had been trained to do.” Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman, the longest-serving officer in the Minneapolis Police Department, disagreed, calling Chauvin’s actions “totally unnecessary” and stating that Floyd did not pose a threat.

Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests and outrage over America’s long and deadly history of police violence, particularly against Black and brown Americans. Just since Chauvin’s trial began, at least 64 more people — over half of them Black and Latino — were killed by police officers in America. Just recently, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was killed just 11 miles from the site of Floyd’s death.

According to the organization Mapping Police Violence, 28% of all people killed by U.S. police officers were Black, even though Black Americans only make up 13% of the population. And there’s rarely any accountability: Between the years of 2013 and 2020, less than 2% of police killings ended with officers facing charges. Of the officers charged, only around 25% are actually convicted.

“This case is exactly what you thought when you saw it first, when you saw that video. It’s what you felt in your gut. It’s what you know now in your heart,” prosecutor Steven Schleicher told the jury during his closing statement. “This wasn’t policing. This was murder.”

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Publishing giant Simon & Schuster is facing criticism and outrage after it was reported that one of the company’s distribution clients is publishing a book by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers who shot Breonna Taylor during a March 2020 raid in Louisville, KY. The book, titled The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy, is set for publication this fall. But following backlash, Simon & Schuster announced that it would not be involved in the book’s distribution.

As of Friday, though, the book will still be published by Post Hill Press, a Tennessee-based publishing house that specializes in Christian and conservative books. In an initial response, Simon & Schuster said that it has no editorial control over the books published by clients like Post Hill Press. Hours later, the company released a second statement: “Like much of the American public, earlier today Simon & Schuster learned of plans by distribution client Post Hill Press to publish a book by Jonathan Mattingly. We have subsequently decided not to be involved in the distribution of this book.”

Kelsey Merritt, a spokesperson for Post Hill Press, told The New York Times that the publisher stands by its decision to uplift Mattingly’s voice. “In the case of Sergeant Mattingly, the mainstream media narrative has been entirely one-sided related to this story and we feel that he deserves to have his account of the tragic events heard publicly, as well,” Merritt said.

All of this isn’t exactly out of character for the massive publishing house, or for its distribution client. Post Hill Press has published many questionable titles, including Trump and Reagan: Defenders of America, Grow Up and Vote for Trump: Why 2020 Is Your Last Chance to Become an Adult, and Elizabeth Warren: How Her Presidency Would Destroy the Middle Class and the American Dream. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who currently stands accused of sex trafficking underage girls, also published his book through Post Hill Press.

Simon & Schuster has previously faced similar criticism for taking on authors including Sen. Josh Hawley, who promoted Trump’s baseless theories about election fraud, and right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. (Both were dropped before publication.) And, earlier this month, former Vice President Mike Pence signed on to publish two books through Simon & Schuster. And although the company has chosen to distance itself from the Mattingly title, it hasn’t yet severed its distribution deal with Post Hill Press — which means it is not only choosing to amplify the voice of one of Taylor’s killers, but attempting to profit off of her murder. (Refinery29 has reached out to Simon & Schuster for comment.)

Mattingly was one of seven officers who broke into Taylor’s home, and he fired at least one of the shots that killed her. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker — who was inside the apartment and believed this was a home intrusion — shot at Mattingly’s leg during the raid. Two of the three officers who opened fire during the attack were dismissed from the Louisville Police Department, but none were directly charged for their role in her murder. (Brett Hankison, who also shot into a neighboring apartment, was charged with wanton endangerment.) Mattingly later sued Walker for “emotional distress.”

Of all the officers involved in Taylor’s murder, Mattingly has been the most vocal. He gave an interview in October, in which he told Taylor’s mother that “no one should have to go through” what she did, but failed to apologize, and asserted that her death was “not a race thing.” And then, there was his meandering, six-paragraph email sent to around 1,000 officers in September 2020. 

“You DO NOT DESERVE to be in this position. The position that allows thugs to get in your face and yell, curse and degrade you,” Mattingly wrote, according to a screenshot first obtained by Vice correspondent Roberto Aram Ferdman. “Regardless of the outcome today or Wednesday, I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night. It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized.” 

Mattingly later claimed that he wasn’t discussing Taylor’s death when referred to doing the “moral and ethical thing,” but to his job overall. Although he was reprimanded by the Louisville Police Chief for the email, he still remains employed.

This speaks to the most disturbing part of the controversy: Post Hill Press believes that Mattingly deserves to share “his side of the story,” as if his side isn’t that he’s currently alive, employed, and cleared of all charges. And in the wake of other police shootings just this week, the decision to give a platform to Mattingly only reminds us that the police continue to move on from, and even profit off of, the deaths that happen at their hands. Because the side of the story we should be hearing is Breonna Taylor’s — however, she was killed while sleeping in her home at 26 years old. She’ll never be able to tell it.

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Kyle Rittenhouse, an 18-year-old who killed two people and injured a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer, has since raised at least $586,940 through the Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, revealed a recent data breach. However, according to their associated email addresses, several of Rittenhouse’s anonymous donors were police officers and public officials. The breach’s findings were shared by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets and published in The Guardian on Friday.

One anonymous $25 donation came with a disturbing note: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong. Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.” The email address associated with the donation indicates that it came from Sgt. William Kelly, the executive officer of internal affairs for the police department in Norfolk, Virginia.

In August, Rittenhouse killed two anti-racist protestors at a demonstration for Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times by a Kenosha officer. Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who left Blake paralyzed, was another beneficiary noted in the data breach: The Guardian reported that around 32 Kenosha police officers donated a total of over $5,000 to a fundraiser in his name. Sheskey returned from administrative leave on March 31; the Kenosha Police Department said in an April 13 statement that he was found to have “acted within the law and was consistent with training.”

According to The Guardian, three other notable exchanges reportedly came from a paramedic in Utah; a city employee in Huntsville, Alabama; and an engineer working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a government-owned national security facility. All three of the donations were linked to email addresses from public officials.

This is especially unnerving in the wake of several recent police shootings involving Black and brown men, who were shot and killed by police, and whose ages range from 13-20. Rittenhouse, meanwhile, has been treated by police not only with ease but now praise and support.

Rittenhouse’s $2 million bond was paid by conservative fundraisers last fall; his trial will take place in November 2021. He’s been lauded by many Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — as an American patriot and an ally of the Blue Lives Matter movement. According to footage from the night of the protest, an officer thanked Rittenhouse’s armed group and gave him water moments before the shooting took place.  

Jennifer Carlson, PhD, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona, interviewed 79 police chiefs in three states to investigate the disparity in the way they view armed civilians — and, to no one’s surprise, it comes down to race. “Police chiefs articulated a position of gun populism based on a presumption of racial respectability,” wrote Carlson, according to Vox. “‘Good guys with guns’ were marked off as responsible in ways that reflected white, middle-class respectability.” 

We see this hypocrisy time and time again. Take Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, who was killed by an officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota last week. John Cardillo, a right-wing commentator and former NYPD officer, posted a side-by-side photo of Wright with his 1-year-old child and Wright holding a gun. “The media’s Daunte Wright as opposed to the real Daunte [sic] Right,” Cardillo wrote. (Cardillo has shared photos of his own gun collection on numerous occasions; he’s even holding one in his profile picture.)

the media’s #kylerittenhouse as opposed to the real kyle rittenhouse https://t.co/M28UalH4yD pic.twitter.com/tjCwBeBH1b

— Cole Oliva (@lifeispainrn) April 15, 2021

Or take Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latinx child who had his hands up when he was fatally shot by a Chicago, Illinois officer. Fox News described Toledo as a “13-year-old man”; the same outlet called Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of his shooting, “a little boy.” Ever since he was thanked by an officer for patrolling the streets with a gun, Rittenhouse has been given leeway, excuses, and even financial assistance from the same people meant to protect us — the same people who kill Black men (and boys) even if they just perceive an unfounded threat.

So, when a police officer donates money to Rittenhouse, telling him that “every rank and file police officer” supports him, one thing is clear: police are the problem.

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On Thursday, Rep. Maxine Waters got to do something many of us can only dream of doing: she told Rep. Jim Jordan to shut his mouth. During a subcommittee meeting about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout, Jordan got into a testy back-and-forth with leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci — which quickly turned into a face mask meltdown that continued well after his time expired. “You need to respect the chair and shut your mouth,” Waters said.

The exchange started when Jordan, who has clashed with Fauci before, began pressing him on when Americans can get their “First Amendment liberties” back. “You say now is not the time to pull back on masking, physical distancing, and avoiding congregate settings. When is the time?” he asked.

Fauci said that measures like wearing a face mask are not about liberty or freedom: They’re public health measures to prevent Americans from illness and death. “You don’t think Americans’ liberties have been threatened in the past year, Dr. Fauci? They’ve been assaulted,” Jordan interrupted, as if face masks pose more of a threat than a virus that has killed 564,000 Americans and counting. 

Fauci grew more and more visibly frustrated as Jordan continued to cut him off. “You’re making this a personal thing, and it isn’t,” Fauci said. When Jordan interrupted him again, he responded, “Can I answer the question, please? My recommendations are not a personal recommendation. It’s based on the CDC guidance.” You can probably guess what happened next.

Eventually, Rep. James Clyburn, the subcommittee chair, told Jordan that he was out of his allotted time. In an attempt to deescalate the situation, Clyburn told Jordan that he will get some of his liberties back when 90% of Congress is vaccinated. “But you’re not a doctor, Mr. Clyburn. He is,” Jordan said. “What is the number?” Clyburn began banging his gavel, and it was at this point that Waters stepped in. Behold the glorious comeback for yourself:

“You need to respect the chair, and shut your mouth!” — Maxine Waters to Jim Jordan pic.twitter.com/Zq216xX1Yi

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 15, 2021

I really wish CNN hadn’t shown that entire Gym Jordan rant. I wish they’d only shown the part where Maxine Waters tells him to shut his mouth.

— Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) April 15, 2021

Auntie Maxine has spoken.

People like Jim Jordan are exhausting. They don’t actually want an answer, they want a show. https://t.co/lsjBRed3Tv

— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) April 15, 2021

Maxine Waters deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for telling Jim Jordan to shut his mouth.

— Jody Larose 🌊 (@Netmeetme) April 15, 2021

Jordan has made his disdain for Fauci known. Over the summer, he pushed Fauci to denounce the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me, as a public health official, to opine on who should get arrested or not,” Fauci said. “You could ask me as much as you want, and I’m not going to answer it.”

Then, in December, Jordan took issue with Fauci’s suggestion that Americans listen to the CDC and avoid traveling. “Dr. Fauci says Americans should ‘avoid travel’ over the holidays. What will he cancel next?” Jordan tweeted in December.

If only social media had a “shut your mouth” button, right?

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For months, Ivanka Trump has stayed pretty quiet online. Maybe she’s about to attempt a rebrand, or maybe she’s trying to lay low after calling the January 6 insurrectionists “American patriots” on Twitter. Or, maybe, she’s just standing in solidarity with her dad, who’s still banned from all social media. In any case, Ivanka broke her silence on Wednesday with some photos of herself getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Naturally, her supporters had thoughts — and conspiracy theories — on this.

In her post, Ivanka captioned a photo of herself wearing a white T-shirt while a nurse injects the vaccine into her arm, “Today, I got the shot!!! I hope that you do too! Thank you Nurse Torres!!!” That’s when conspiracy theorists, particularly from QAnon, entered the chat. “Ivanka posted she got the ‘shot,’ not the COVID-19 vaccine. Did she actually get the shot? If she did, was it a B-12 shot. A flu shot? Hcq [Hydroxychloroquine]? Was she involved with [her husband Jared] Kushner? Is that really even her?” QAnon influencer GhostEzra wrote on Telegram, according to Newsweek. The same person previously alleged that the vaccine was somehow related to or code for “the Great Awakening,” during which QAnon followers believe former President Donald Trump would carry out mass arrests and save America from a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. 

“Did she get the COVID vaccine/gene therapy, or is this another type of shot like Vitamin B-12, Flu shot etc?? It’s not very specific. There seems to be no way to tell for sure,” wrote another user, QAnon John, before echoing the question evidently on everyone’s mind: “Is that even REALLY her?!”

To summarize, conspiracy theorists seem to believe that the photo of Ivanka was doctored or staged, the injection was just saline, or even that the former first daughter was replaced by a body double. Several have suggested that she intentionally used the word “shot” instead of “COVID vaccine” to mislead the public. Nearly 30,000 people have commented on her photo, with many Trump supporters expressing their disappointment, shock, and disbelief.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump)

The outrage is bizarre, given Ivanka isn’t even the first member of her family to receive or promote the vaccine. Donald and Melania Trump were both vaccinated in January, and although he declined to receive the shots in front of cameras, Trump did tell his supporters that the vaccine is safe. “I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” he told Fox News. “But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works.”

But QAnon supporters have continued well after the election to peddle unfounded concerns about the COVID vaccine. Another popular QAnon theory is that Bill Gates and other elites are attempting to use the vaccine to microchip Americans. Because some of Trump’s supporters are also eager to thank and credit him for the vaccine, it’s difficult to follow the logic here.

“Since QAnon is essentially a choose-your-own-adventure, followers are cherry-picking false vaccine narratives as they wish, resulting in multiple interpretations of and explanations for President Trump’s support of the vaccine,” Cindy Otis of Alethea Group, a disinformation investigations and remediation firm, told Yahoo! News. “Some claim that his comments around the vaccine are actually code for other ‘plans’ coming to fruition.”

Ivanka has not yet responded to the backlash, which has now put her at the center of a conspiracy theory — once again. And rather than take responsibility for the QAnon believers, who have only entered mainstream consciousness because her family perpetuated their beliefs, she’s choosing to stay silent. This might just be yet another sign that the whole Trump family should stay logged out.

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These days, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been pretty busy getting suspended from Twitter and pushing to award officers who “fight back against Black Lives Matter terror” days after a 20-year-old Black man was shot and killed by the police. However, Greene clearly has some extra time on her hands, because she wants to debate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Green New Deal.

“Since you sponsored the Green New Deal and have a degree in Economics, I’m sure you are more than qualified,” Greene tweeted, unprompted, on Wednesday. “A debate between AOC and I on the Green New Deal economic policy would be informative for the American People. They deserve to hear the two sides with pros and cons.” She then laid out some proposed rules: Each congresswoman would choose one moderator, then “negotiate” and select a news network to host the debate.

Ocasio-Cortez did not yet respond, but Greene continued to tag her in even more tweets: “People are excited about our debate about the Green New Deal economic policy! People are saying they would pay money to see it,” she wrote. “We could debate pay per view style? And the money raised could be split between us for our choosing of where it goes. What do you think?”

Green New Deal Economic Debate#MTGvsAOC

Let’s do it for the People!

They deserve to know the pro’s and con’s and the policy from both side explained through debate.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) April 14, 2021

Many people immediately began mocking Greene’s proposal. “When you aren’t on any committees you can propose stunts like this,” responded California Rep. Eric Swalwell. Ocasio-Cortez serves on the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and three subcommittees within the two. Meanwhile, Congress voted to remove Greene from her two assigned committees after discovering her past statements and social media posts in support of dangerous, disproven conspiracy theories, including QAnon.

As others mentioned, her challenge feels like a desperate grab for… attention? Money? In the words of comedian Amber Ruffin, Greene is really challenging Ocasio-Cortez “to use her popularity to help her get attention.” 

In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez first introduced the Green New Deal, a comprehensive resolution that lays out a roadmap for addressing climate change and reforming the economy. Greene is a longtime skeptic of both the framework and global warming itself. “Maybe, perhaps, we live on a ball that rotates around the sun, that flies through the universe, and maybe our climate just changes,” she said at a March 28 town hall. “And I don’t think a whole lot of spending is gonna do anything about it.”

As intriguing as it would be to watch Ocasio-Cortez go head-to-head with Greene, this is not something she has to, should, or will do. This week, Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer launched a COVID-19 funeral assistance program and hotline to help low-income people apply for financial reimbursements. She has over 12 million followers on Twitter. She doesn’t need the fame or the exposure — and frankly, she really doesn’t need to spend her time convincing QAnon conspiracy theorists like Greene that climate change is real.

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As of Wednesday, the U.S. Senate is set to advance the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bipartisan effort to address and fight hate crimes against Asian Americans. The legislation would designate an official from the Department of Justice to expedite reviews of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and help local law enforcement respond to these incidents, as well as establish an online database. Several Republicans, including Sens. John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Grassley, agreed to support the bill after some amendments.

Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono and New York Rep. Grace Meng, both Democrats, first introduced the legislation after last month’s shooting in Atlanta, which left eight people dead, disproportionately harming Asian-American women. The act would also issue guidance on reducing “racially discriminatory language” related to the coronavirus.

“Before this pandemic started, I urged everyone — including elected officials — to not blame Asian Americans for the virus,” Meng said. “My words were not heeded. The former president and his Congressional Republican enablers trafficked racist, bigoted terms to describe COVID-19. In doing so, their language stoked people’s fears and created an atmosphere of intolerance and violence, which persists even today.”

The legislation — which raises awareness about the horrific, targeted crimes against the Asian American community and addresses the very real connection between these recent incidents and former President Donald Trump’s harmful language — is a step in the right direction, and suggests that leaders on both sides of the aisle care about mitigating anti-Asian racism.

However, activists warn that the bill could have adverse effects, especially since it centers law enforcement. “It has been proven time and time again that police response to violence in marginalized communities and police ‘intervention’ in marginalized communities is not an effective mode of ‘curbing the violence’ that is occurring in that community,” Wu, a sex worker and core organizer with grassroots collective Red Canary Song, previously told Refinery29. “And in actuality, the police force is the one that is instigating a lot of the violence that they claim to be curbing.”

After Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire at three Atlanta spas, police departments across America ramped up patrolling in predominantly Asian neighborhoods. But these efforts disregard the police’s history of ignoring, abetting, and perpetrating violence. In 2014, for instance, 84-year-old Kang Wong was attacked by members of the New York Police Department after jaywalking. In 2017, 38-year-old massage parlor worker Yang Song fell four stories and died while running from law enforcement in Flushing, Queens.

In Georgia, we saw a clear connection between police and anti-Asian racism: After Captain Jay Baker, a spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, infamously said that Long had just “had a bad day,” The Daily Beast discovered that Baker himself had previously promoted anti-Asian apparel on Facebook. 

Further, the hate crime bill doesn’t necessarily account for the difference between misdemeanors, felonies, and discrimination — all of which must be addressed, but aren’t the same. “Measures against hate crimes have been used to increase the power of the carceral system, responding to violence through more violence, including harsher sentencing, mandatory minimums, and the death penalty,” the Asian American Feminist Collective wrote in September, after the NYPD announced an Asian Hate Crime Task Force. The AAFC argued that the task force was really an “operation to get more cops in Asian communities” under the guise of ending racist violence.

We also know that, whenever law enforcement is involved, some perpetrators will likely face worse consequences than others. Black Americans, specifically, are three times more likely to be killed by the police than white Americans, even though they’re also more likely to be unarmed. And according to The New York Times, the only person in New York City who has been persecuted for an anti-Asian hate crime this year was also Asian. (He was a Taiwanese man accused of writing anti-Chinese graffiti.)

Wayne Ho, president of the Chinese-American Planning Council, a social services agency, told the Times that many of his Asian colleagues have faced verbal harassment since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, but opted against reporting these incidents to the police. They worried, Ho explained, that “the perpetrators, who were often people of color, could be mistreated.”

But make no mistake: There are plenty of ways our government can take measures to combat anti-Asian violence and racism. Russell Jeung, chair of the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, told Insider that community outreach and anti-racism education should take priority over increased police presence. The AAFC has pushed for multilingual resources and institutional support for street vendors, nail salon workers, and other vulnerable members of the Asian American community. 

The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act shows us that the Senate is finally starting to get serious about trying to dismantle the racism embedded in America and the anti-Asian violence exacerbated by the pandemic. But nothing will change in a substantial or positive way when police are the driving force behind the change. We need community-based solutions, education, and support for Asian Americans. And, most importantly, we need to listen to the people who are most impacted by the violence we’ve seen.

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In a delayed but important win for reproductive rights, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that Americans can now receive abortion pills via mail for the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA’s acting commissioner, Janet Woodcock, MD, wrote that the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research found no “increases in serious safety concerns” for individuals taking mifepristone, one of two pills needed for a medication abortion, from their own home.

This decision comes after a near-year-long battle spanning the FDA and the Supreme Court. Last May, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s previous restrictions on abortion pills: The organization wrote that forcing patients to travel to hospitals, clinics, or other medical centers in order to pick up mifepristone poses life-threatening risks and unnecessary exposure to COVID-19. 

But Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000 and has proven to be safe and effective. And, according to a 2017 study in Obstetrics & Gynecology, there was essentially no significant difference in adverse effects between people who received the pill in person and people who received it through telemedicine. Anti-abortion activists argue that the pill should be taken with medical oversight, ignoring the fact that the FDA already allows people to take mifepristone from home — they just have to pick it up in person. Ultimately, there’s no scientific or medical reason that mifepristone shouldn’t be as readily available as any other prescription.

“The FDA requires patients to travel to a hospital, clinic, or medical office to pick up the mifepristone,” wrote the ACLU, on behalf of medical experts from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “Because of this restriction, patients who have already been evaluated by a clinician (using telehealth or at a prior in-person visit) cannot fill their mifepristone prescription by mail.”

A federal district court ruled in favor of the ACLU in July 2020, but in January — at the request of the Trump administration — the Supreme Court essentially reversed the decision. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that reinstating the FDA’s in-person requirements “imposes an unnecessary, irrational, and unjustifiable undue burden” on people exercising their right to an abortion during a dangerous public health crisis.

The pandemic has only exacerbated a long-existing problem. Abortion access in America has become more and more limited, with certain states requiring parental consent or mandated counseling, barring private insurance plans from covering abortion, and implementing gestational limits. But access — in the most literal sense — is still one of the biggest barriers patients face. According to a 2019 study from the Guttmacher Institute, nearly one out of five patients travel over 50 miles to receive an abortion, usually because there are no nearby clinics. In 25 states, individuals have to wait around 24 hours between a pre-procedure counseling session and the procedure itself, which forces many to take two separate trips.

These restrictions harm people in rural areas and people unable to travel, sometimes out of state, to get a safe procedure. In the wake of the pandemic, these restrictions also impact people living in the places hardest hit by COVID, and those in newly precarious financial situations. And, as noted by Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, people of color are also disproportionately impacted.

“Black and Brown people are more likely to have preexisting health conditions that increase the likelihood of severe illness and death from COVID-19,” Simpson wrote in a statement. “It is unconscionable that the FDA is subjecting women of color, who are disproportionately represented among patients seeking abortion and miscarriage care, to life-threatening viral risks as a condition of obtaining these urgent reproductive health services.”

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, praised the FDA under the Biden administration for making this decision. “Trump allowed most prescriptions to go through the mail during the pandemic, even highly addictive ones, but kept the medication rule in place. Not for science, for punishment,” Hogue wrote on Twitter. “Biden’s FDA lifting this rule will have material impact, ease stress and create more access for those who need abortion. It’s a big deal.”

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After receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, many people feel relief — and many also experience some temporary side effects, including nausea, muscle pain, and headaches. Doctors agree that, unless they last longer than a few days, none of these reactions are cause for concern. But now, people are worrying about a new, previously unreported side effect: heavier, early, or otherwise irregular menstrual periods.

In February, Kate Clancy, PhD, asked her Twitter followers whether any menstruators had noticed anything odd after receiving the vaccine. “A colleague told me she has heard from others that their periods were heavy post-vax,” she wrote. “I’m a week and a half out from dose 1 of Moderna, got my period maybe a day or so early, and am gushing like I’m in my 20s again.”

Dr. Clancy’s replies were inundated with similar stories. Some said they started spotting unexpectedly; several mentioned that they were experiencing period symptoms, including cramping and bleeding, for the first time since getting IUDs or going through menopause. And similar conversations are happening elsewhere on the internet, too: There are numerous threads on Reddit tracking the relationship between menstruation and the vaccines. After her tweet gained traction, Dr. Clancy began collecting information for a scientific research study devoted to the vaccine’s impact on periods.

As of now, there’s no scientific evidence of a direct connection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been tracking side effects through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), at least 32 people reported changes to their periods — but this isn’t a huge reason to worry, since around 56,000 people were included in the report. 

However, there are a few possible reasons for the pattern documented on Twitter and Reddit. Heather Bartos, MD, a Texas OB-GYN, says that any change in stress level (even if that change is just pure, straight-up relief) can impact your period. She’s observed these changes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and since people have started to get vaccinated. “Just the stress of the pandemic, people have come in with menstrual irregularities, not having periods,” Dr. Bartos tells Refinery29. “I always say, a one-off or a two-off period is not a concern. But when it gets to be a three, four, five, they’re all different, that’s a little more concerning.”

Dr. Bartos adds that it isn’t unusual for people with IUDs to notice unusual bleeding when they get a cold or other flus and infections. And if you’re experiencing side effects from the vaccine, particularly a fever, you might notice a more painful period. These symptoms, rather than the vaccine itself, could affect your cycle — and research has shown that, due to estrogen levels, people who menstruate are more likely to experience a stronger immune response and more powerful side effects.

“If you’re having a fever, everything’s going to kind of ache. When I get a fever, the joints that are more prone to arthritis will hurt more. The areas that are prone to weakness will just ache more,” Dr. Bartos says. “So if you have a history of endometriosis or adenomyosis, or these kinds of things where it’s just not normal tissue and it gets crampy anyway, it’s likely to get worse if there’s a fever.” 

Periods and menstrual pain are far too often medically overlooked and written off — just look at how long it takes for someone to be diagnosed with endometriosis — so any possible connection between menstruation and the COVID vaccine is worth investigating. Dr. Bartos notes that the vaccine is still new, and there’s still a lot for epidemiologists to study.

But right now, there’s tons of evidence supporting the fact that even the worst of the vaccine’s side effects are temporary and harmless. “People think that the side effects of vaccines are harmful, and they get worried when they look at it and read into it, but it’s actually a good thing,” Abisola Olulade, MD, a San Diego-based physician, tells Refinery29. “It tells us that your immune system is working, and it’s responding in the way that we want it to.”

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When Joe Biden was inaugurated, he became the president with the most comprehensive gun control plan and background in U.S. history. On Thursday, he unveiled his first action against gun violence: tighter restrictions on homemade “ghost guns” that allow gun owners to sidestep actions including background checks. “This is not a partisan issue among the American people. This is a view by the American people as an American issue,” Biden said in his remarks. “And I’m willing to work with anyone to get these done. And it’s long past time that we act.”

But, what exactly are “ghost guns”? The term describes firearms that owners can make themselves using parts, kits, and instruction manuals. Sometimes, these kits include guns that are basically whole: According to Everytown for Gun Safety, unfinished frames and receivers are often marketed as “80%” finished, and according to a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) special agent, they’re as easy to build as IKEA furniture.

What’s especially dangerous is that, because these kits and parts aren’t legally classified as guns, buyers aren’t obligated to undergo a background check. And because these aren’t sold as guns, they aren’t engraved or stamped with a serial number. This means that they’re completely untraceable, hence the “ghost” part of their name.

Biden wants “to see these kits treated as firearms” under the Gun Control Act, and will direct the Department of Justice to take action within 30 days. He didn’t outline exactly how this action will work but said that he wants manufacturers to add serial numbers to kits and run background checks on buyers.

In 2019, the ATF reported that around 30% of guns recovered in California didn’t have serial numbers. More than 2,500 ghost guns were linked to criminal cases from 2010 to 2020. “This is not just something for enthusiasts. This has become something for people that are actual practitioners of violence,” Graham Barlowe, an ATF agent, told The Trace.

Biden also outlined some of his other priorities, including enacting a nationwide “red flag” law. Under this legislation, a gun owner’s family can petition a court to have their firearms removed if they believe the owner poses a threat to people’s lives, or to their own. “We know red flag laws can have a significant effect in protecting women from domestic violence. And we know red flag laws can stop mass shooters before they can act out their violent plans,” he said. Studies have shown that these laws also help prevent deaths by suicide.

Finally, Biden also pushed Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, close the “Charleston” loophole, and pass new background check laws. “This is just a start,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

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