What A Day - Activism After George Floyd's Murder

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

Today is the 1-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. His friends, family, and the community of Minneapolis will memorialize him with a gathering and a candlelight vigil. Floyd's killing by now-former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin rallied activists to demand that their local police departments reform, be defunded, or be abolished completely. We discussed these efforts with Oluchi Omeoga, a co-creator of Black Visions Collective and organizer in Minneapolis.And in headlines: Myanmar's ousted leader appears in court, EU leaders agree on sanctions against Belarus, and #AdriansKickback becomes a Gen Z mini-purge in Huntington Beach, California.Show Notes:Black Visions Collective – https://twitter.com/BlackVisionsMNFor a transcript of this show, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

It's Tuesday, May 25th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where like Andrew Yang, our favorite subway stop in New York is Times Square. And our favorite place in New York is the M&M store in Times Square. Yeah. And our favorite drink in New York is hot dog water. That is what I start every day in the Big Apple with. On today's show, the death of George Floyd one year later. Floyd was killed on May 25th, 2020, by now former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Chauvin was convicted on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter and awaits sentencing. And today, George Floyd's friends and family will gather in South Minneapolis at 1 p.m. local time for a public memorial. And then a candlelit vigil will be held later tonight at the site he was killed. But over the past year, Floyd's death became a focal point for activists around the world to demand that their own local police departments reform, be defunded, or abolished completely. Yeah, so we wanted to revisit with a local organizer in Minneapolis who we've talked to before and who has continued to work on this issue, Aluchi Omiyoga. They're a co-creator of Black Visions Collective, a Black-led grassroots organization that centers on Black, queer, and trans people in the Twin Cities. Welcome back. Yeah, great to be back. Thank you for inviting me. Yes, great to talk again. So the last time that we checked in, you made some big gains in organizing

and protesting. On a personal level, what was one of your biggest victories? I think one of my biggest victories personally was honestly getting my parents to talk about abolition. Yeah. I remember organizing in 2015 around Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. And my parents were very much so like, why are you doing this? What are you doing? All of these things. Immigrant parents. much so like why are you doing this like what are you doing all of these things you know immigrant parents yeah um but yeah this time around they kind of just expected me to like be doing work

and being out there um and like having really dope conversations about like what is life beyond policing actually look like and is that actually possible so that's probably one of my biggest accomplishments and also just navigating a lot of change in a shorter period of time. I went through a lot as far as just like call-outs from the left and the right and just like really being grounded in what are the values and what is the abolitionist vision that we're actually thinking about. And since we last talked, I mean, a lot of things have happened, but one of them was that Derek Chauvin was convicted of all the three charges that he faced,

the most serious being second-degree murder. And during that trial, Minneapolis Police Department leaders, I think, quite noticeably distanced themselves from Chauvin's actions. The sentencing is scheduled to take place next month and the trial of the other officers on the scene during Floyd's death will be starting soon as well. But how did you feel about the actual result of the Chauvin trial? I have a lot of thoughts around it. I think that it is a tool to continue to uphold the system of policing, of like saying, oh, we convicted this one person, so now the system is going to be fixed,

and like now there's a precedent that was set, right? So in that instance, I think, yes, we are making some type of progress. After cases like Mike Brown, after cases like Tamir Rice, after cases like Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, where we didn't see convictions, we didn't even see charges happening, this is progress and I'm not

going to take that from the family of George Floyd, the people of Minneapolis, but I do think that there needs to be more that's happening other than the conviction of officers. Because just convicting officers is going to perpetuate the same systems that we are in right now. So like, what more are we doing to make sure that George Floyd does not happen again? Yeah, that's a very interesting and correct point. I think, I mean, it is not a situation where we're talking about bad apples, we're talking about a

spoiled bunch. And so I think that once we get to the point where we're actually having those conversations and seeing those changes, you know, it might be easier to have a sense of where we're headed versus, you know, just sort of one at a time figuring out who's doing the wrong stuff. Exactly. I mean, keeping with George Floyd's death and all of that, you know, shortly after he died, the calls to defund or reform the police were incredibly loud. There was public support for the BLM movement. And it reached a real peak, I would say, around this time last year. Is that public sentiment still there in Minneapolis among

the people? Do you feel that energy from the politicians and even a little bit from the police themselves? Like, how would you sort of characterize it? Yeah, I do think that there's a wave to social movements as like we see right now. for example right now palestine is very very very up and foremost in the in the conversations and we know that this conversation within palestine has been happening for at least 70 years right but there's ebbs and flows to people's participation and also quite literally people lose interest in things very quickly yeah um so i do think that there's a very strong fight and voice in Minneapolis to change the system of policing.

And I also think that people are scared, right? North Minneapolis is facing a lot of violence, a lot of gun violence, right? There was just a six-year-old that was killed in North Minneapolis. And I think that when we get scared, we go back to what we know. And people are saying,

oh, well, the gun violence is because of people calling for defunding the police. That's actually not true. Police don't prevent these crimes from happening. Police have never prevented these crimes from happening. But what we actually have to talk about is what are the reasons why this is happening? Why don't we have gun control? Why don't we have systems in which folks can actually express harm in ways that are not violent towards others? So when as we're talking about it, I know that the sentiment

that the right wants to put in or the pro police wants to put in is that the rise in crime is happening because of the call to defund police. Yeah, but they haven't been defunded. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's like, I mean, it it's weird what would they do with that money yeah exactly so it's like we just have to make sure that like we are moving past fear because change is going to be uncomfortable transformation is always uncomfortable people don't lose 100 pounds by just sitting down and doing nothing right like to change anything is going to require work and it's going to require work that is not going to be comfortable so how are we able to like sit in the comfortability to actually create a vision that like all of us are actually safe? That's right.

I mean, that's just going to take time. But to answer your question, I do think that the voice to change our public safety system is still as loud as it was. It's really confusing because it's happening in such an interesting time as well. Yeah. Yeah. And on the reform front to more than 30 states and many more local governments have passed some sort of

quote unquote police reform over the past year. But when it comes to actual defunding, as we were talking about, a Bloomberg News report from January found that if you sum up all the budget changes, American cities slightly increased what they gave to police. So what positives and negatives have you seen come out of attempts to defund or actually reform the police on various local levels? When I think about defunding, the most impressive things that I've seen is like changing functionality, right? So like, it's good, those are going to be really slow, too. It's like, how do you actually take functions that the police are doing and just completely get rid of it right um so in minneapolis mental health responders are actually getting an invest in their funding as well so like non-threatening non-life-threatening like medical

issues those are actually going to go um to non-police staff wonderful so like the functionality piece taking functionalities from the police is like one of the most impressive ways that i've seen to like actually take functionality and then also take investment in the police of how do we actually think of alternatives. There's another 911 task force that's happening in Minneapolis around what is an alternative to 911 so that we just don't have to call the police for everything. And that's going to definitely decrease the amount that people are relying on the police as well. And then like beyond the local level, it seems like what is going on in D.C. is a totally different story, maybe as it always is.

You know, like Congress has struggled to get consensus on the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. It's not expected to pass by today, as President Biden had hoped. But yet, you know, lawmakers of all stripes have used George Floyd's name in various different ways for a number of different causes. What do you make of that? Yeah, I mean, national politics always follows local politics. I don't expect anything amazing to ever come out of D.C. until it comes out of like places like Atlanta or Greensboro or Charlotte or Durham or Minneapolis.

So I guess I'm not surprised about the lack of urgency that our national lawmakers have. That's pretty much all I have to say about it. I think that like national politics really, it is slower and it takes more time and more resources, yet it's actually like less impactful too, which is why I think that we need to have a very deep investment into local politics. And through that, then having a big impact through state politics, and then that'll also bleed into national politics as well. For sure. Yeah. And as an organizer, you know, what are some of your plans to keep momentum going in Minneapolis on police reform, specifically on

defunding? No matter how far out we are from George Floyd's death, this is obviously something that still affects us. So where are you at with that? Yeah. So one tactic that we're using is a tactic that's been employed in the global South and the U.S. South called the People's Movement Assemblies. So People's Movement Assemblies are just a way of getting folks together to talk about what are some issues that we're having in community on a very hyper-local level, and what are the solutions towards those so they have deep grassroots organizing pieces, they have deep political alignment and political education. And we're actually doing those, Black Visions is doing those this year

to talk about what does public safety look like on a Minneapolis level, and then what do we actually see and how are those different, and how do we get to a point where we're creating the vision that we're coming up together as a community um so i think like for me i always say that the job of an organizer is to make people dream of a world that does not exist yet so it's really science fiction work so like how are we continuing to instill the vision the hope the promise of a better world for people because once people realize that what we have is not what it is they they're going to try to build a new world that is actually possible. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Absolutely. And, you know, finally here, we obviously know that, you know, killing of black people by police has continued to happen, will continue to happen. So for listeners out there who want to keep pressure going on their own local law enforcement agencies, what is your advice to them on sort of staying strong through the politics and the pushback of all of this? Yeah, I think grassroots organizations are very key, very important. So who are the people that are doing the work in your area

on a local level? Because there is, in Oakland, in Chicago, in LA, there are people that are doing local defund work and local abolitionist work. So who are are people that are doing local defund work and local abolitionist work. So who are those folks that are doing that work in the areas that you live in and investing in that? Invest on a local level where you are, because that's going to make a difference, especially as we're talking about other cities and other cities are coming together thinking about what they're doing. So like, yeah, just investing on a local level is what I would recommend for anyone.

Follow Black-led organizations that are doing really dope work follow um organizations that are bipoc so black indigenous people of color that are doing really amazing work if you have a specific like movement or target area for example like decriminalizing sex work there's like sex workers organizing projects all over the country if you're doing labor organizing there are labor organizations that you can follow. And all of that intersects into policing because if we spent

less money on policing, we could spend more money on other things like paying people a livable wage. If you're looking at renter's rights or houselessness issues,

that also intersects with policing as well when we think about the criminalization of houseless people. So just understanding and knowing that everything intersects

and if you are interested in something, that intersects with policing in a very, very real way. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense and is great perspective. So thank you so much, Aluchi, for joining us again. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for having me. Appreciate y'all. And if you want to check out more of what they're working on,

we can link to it in our show notes. And that is the latest for now. It's Tuesday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we are addressing some of the most explosive paparazzi snaps in recent history, which seem to show Taika Waititi, Rita Ora, and Tessa Thompson in an elusive three-way celebrity makeout outside of Waititi's house. To parse out the relationships here, Ora and Waititi are dating, news to me, and Thompson is one of the stars of Thor Love and Thunder, which Waititi is directing. Of course, most of us normal people can only dream of being this liberated.

We're angry at the photographers for their invasion of privacy and criminal vibe killing, but we're also pathologically unable to discuss what is happening here. So Giddy, what's your reaction? I have many. What I would note, in addition to what has been said here, is that in some of the images, there appear to be at least two other people that are sort of in close proximity to this throuple, if you will. Yeah, who are they? Who are they? Why are they there?

If this is an intimate moment of sorts, what is their relationship to everybody else who is there? Right. sorts what is their relationship to everybody else who is there right um if this is a bit and you know the wool has been pulled over our eyes and we are just uh giving tons of free promo to thor love and thunder and i guess rita aura's music if it exists currently i mean yeah dude you're not wrong like who is her agent she keeps going. And I've never heard a single song. I do not. I'm not familiar with the discography. Yeah.

I would like some investigative journalism on, on those individuals as well. But yeah. What about you? I just thought it was a really sexy series of images. Good for them. You know, for them,

the pandemic is very much over. They're just out here sharing spit in public. So, you know, maybe that is the hope for the future that we've been looking for. Yeah, this is actually a vaccination campaign in disguise. If you get vaccinated, you can kiss multiple people in one setting. It's beautiful. And just like that, we've checked our temps.

Stay safe. Hopefully you get to make out with Taika Waititi too. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was at a court hearing yesterday in her first in-person appearance since her arrest at the start of the military coup. Suu Kyi and members of her Democratic Party were arrested after they won a landslide election in February. She now faces a range of charges, the most serious being the violation of a colonial era official secrets law. Suu Kyi's lawyer said she wants protesters in Myanmar to know that she still stands by them.

At this point, 800 protesters and bystanders in the country have been killed by the military since February. Also yesterday, local authorities arrested an American journalist working for a Burmese publication while he was getting ready to leave the country. Danny Fenster was detained at the Yangon airport for reasons undisclosed. The U.S. State Department said that they are currently monitoring the country. Danny Fenster was detained at the Yangon airport for reasons undisclosed. The U.S. State Department said that they are currently monitoring the situation. Several big updates to the story on Belarus intercepting a Ryanair flight to detain an opposition journalist. Belarusian state media released a very unsettling video of detained journalist Roman Protasevich yesterday, in which he says he has, quote, no health problems and

confesses to charges of organizing the anti-government protests in Minsk last year. Protasevich appeared on tape with visible marks on his forehead and was fidgeting nervously with his hands, leading many supporters to think he made the video under duress. EU leaders agreed on sanctions against Belarus, including an all-out ban on the use of the entire bloc's airspace until Protasevich is released. The CEO of Ryanair accused Belarus of state-sponsored piracy. Protasevich is a notable critic of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' longtime authoritarian president. Scary stuff.

The past few weeks have seen announcements for post-vax concerts, festivals, and sports, but there hasn't been much to get excited about for diehard fans of corporate trade shows. That might change after World of Concrete kicks off in two weeks in Las Vegas. Let's go. Marking the first in-person trade show in America since the pandemic started. Trade shows are a major industry in Las Vegas, bringing in about $11 billion annually. If things go well with World of Concrete, which serves concrete and masonry industries and usually draws between 50 and 60,000 people, duh,, it will be good news for tourism facing Vegas businesses, which will be able to look confidently into the future and see massive crowds of people in khakis wearing lanyards. Some casinos in the city are now back up and running at 100% capacity after focused

efforts to vaccinate workers. Larry Flint's Hustler Casino made headlines for organizing a vaccine clinic at a strip club, officially putting the bodies in antibodies. I am canceled and I will see myself out of this podcast. Goodbye.

It's been a good run. Oh, wow. Well, you know, what a great reason to get canceled. So, Gen Z has finally gone insane with power

and no one is safe. They turned a 17-year-old's birthday party into a three-day mini-purge last weekend, which has led to almost 200 arrests in Huntington Beach, California. The event was called Adrian's Kickback, and it was supposed to draw a reasonable crowd of friends from school. Then a TikTok invitation to the party went viral, leading to almost 280 million impressions on the Adrian's

Kickback hashtag and drawing a buzzing swarm of teens to the queen bee that we now know as Adrian. At least 2,500 people showed up in Huntington Beach on Saturday night, leading police to declare the crowd an unlawful assembly. The crackdown only led to escalation, with some partiers smashing squad car windshields and throwing bottles at officers. Adrian had already moved the official site of the party to a venue in Los Angeles, so he wasn't even in Huntington Beach. Of course, it's an earth-shaking flex not to show up to your own pre-apocalyptic birthday riot. It is, but my promise is at the WOD kickback, I will be there.

Yeah, I'll be there. I will be in attendance. Those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. This week on America Dissected, host Abdul El-Sayed is joined by Professor Ibram Kendi to discuss the presence of systemic racism in the American healthcare system and what steps it will take to root it out. Listen to new episodes of America Dissected every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, visit the lovely Times Square subway stop, and tell your listen to podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, visit the lovely Times Square subway stop, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just invites to Adrian's past, present, and future kickbacks like me, what today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And we'll see you at World of Concrete. Yeah, we love it there. Everything is concrete. It is. We love building. We love concrete. Yeah. We just love there. Everything is concrete. It is. We love building. We love concrete.

We just love construction. It's great. And our executive producers are Leo Duran, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.