What A Day - Charges For Daunte Wright's Killer

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

A CDC committee voted yesterday to keep the pause going on the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, at least until it meets again. Temporarily stopping use of the vaccine makes sense, but the move also has immediate impacts on the underserved populations that had been relying on the vaccine for protection.Now-former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter will be charged with second-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing Daunte Wright. We discuss the history of what happened when officers have been charged after claiming they mistook a gun for a taser.And in headlines: Denmark is denying residency permits to Syrian refugees, Disney theme park employees can be tatted, and Coinbase makes its IPO.Follow What A Day on Instagram at instagram.com/whatadayFor a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

It's Thursday, April 15th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where we are cautioning all ghosts and angels against investing with Bernie Madoff. But we don't need angel investors or demon investors. We need no one messing with this guy. On today's show, the officer who shot Dante Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota is charged. Plus, we'll have some headlines. But first, the latest where a pause is still on. At this time, ACIP would not provide any wish to vote or put any motions on the table to vote for a change in the current recommendation. So that's Amanda Cohn, a member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP as she called it.

That committee met yesterday and voted to keep the pause going on the J&J vaccine distribution until they meet again in hopes that there will be more substantial data to make a good recommendation. Yeah, I hope there will be too. And that meeting can happen as soon as next week. But Akilah, how did yesterday's meeting go? What all was said here? Okay, so I'm going to set the scene. It was a very long meeting, like long, like the Snyder Cut. I'm not sure if you followed it, but we heard from a variety of medical experts and community members regarding the risk associated with the J&J shot and several schools of thought about how pausing could affect supply. Here's a clip of Dr. Sarah Long, professor of pediatrics at the Drexel University College of Medicine. She's a member of that CDC committee, and she advocated for waiting a little while to get a clearer picture of the side effects of the one and done shot? I would think we are ready to make an interim decision to continue a pause for at least a month until we see what else comes out about

the current men. We now, in the most recent weeks, are immunizing younger and younger individuals. And we might be able to make some risk-related, more definitive potential use of the vaccine again in a month. And Dr. Long's stance was seconded by another committee member, Dr. Helen Talbott, an associate professor of medicine from Vanderbilt. Dr. Talbott expressed concern about age and underreporting of side effects. So, you know, on the show, we talked about how the six people with severe blood clotting reactions are aged 18 to 48. But she said it's possible it's affecting people over 52, but we just don't know it yet. And that's because other deadly cases of this rare side effect might be overlooked or just chalked up to being a stroke, which are more common in that age group.

Right. A lot of interesting questions there. So we also mentioned that these vaccines had been relied on by high-risk individuals who were unhoused or homebound and could not otherwise get a vaccine. What was the latest on that? All right. So everything is being considered. You know, I cannot stress enough that they took a lot of time to weigh the decision to pause the use of the vaccine. But specifically to this point, committee member Dr. Camille Cotton, an infectious diseases expert in Massachusetts, flagged that. Putting this vaccine on pause for those of us that are frontline health care workers has really been devastating. I agree in general that we don't have enough time, we don't have enough data to make a decision at this time. But we were planning on using this vaccine in the state of Massachusetts for people who are homebound and otherwise not able to get a vaccine. We were planning on using it for our vulnerable inpatient population, often with many comorbidities and at high risk for disease,

but who haven't been able to get vaccinated otherwise. And then it certainly was going to be used in what may be otherwise underserved populations or populations that aren't able to get mRNA vaccines. So I definitely want us to be cautious and very careful with our decision making. Yeah, and I think all of that is a good point and proof that my Kentucky math is not so bad. So the immediate effect of stopping the use of the vaccine absolutely does mean that people who are planning to get it are now going to have to wait since these major inequities in access exist.

But especially in a global sense, these medical professionals caution that there were countries hanging in the balance while this decision is being made. One said that the rest of the world is waiting to see if the U.S. declares the J&J vaccine safe before using it too. So while they understand the weight of the potential side effects, time really is of the essence. Yeah, and let's stay on that topic of what it actually means for the rest of the world. So

South Africa, for example, was relying on Johnson & Johnson after it scrapped its deal with AstraZeneca. It was the only vaccine in the country. So what are they going to do in the meantime? So they've halted use to be safe, but their backup plan seems to be waiting until May when the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine becomes available to them. And another blow to AstraZeneca, Denmark announced yesterday that it's going to halt usage of their vaccine altogether, which again means they'll be relying on one of the other approved vaccines. It's the first European country to say they're officially done with it. So it's not a great time to have the one-shot version be out of commission. We'll keep you posted on all the vaccine drama as it unfolds. But now let's turn to policing in America with some news about the officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright on Sunday in Brooklyn

Center, Minnesota. What have we learned? So the Washington County District Attorney who is prosecuting this case said that now former officer Kim Potter will be charged with second degree manslaughter. This is also one of the charges that Derek Chauvin is facing, but he, of course, has others as well. And so in Minnesota, second degree manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years or a $20,000 fine or both. Those are quite different ors, but I digress. And Potter, by the

way, posted the hundred thousand dollar bail to be released from jail yesterday morning. As for who might pay for her defense and a possible fine, well, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association has hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for these exact kinds of cases. What do you know? It's paying for Chauvin's defense and will most likely foot the bill for Potter's. And one note, even though Daunte Wright's killing happened in Hennepin County, nearby Washington County is doing the investigation. That's part of an agreement to have neighboring prosecutors investigate police shootings to avoid conflicts of interest. Yeah, and some more details about Kim Potter have come out. And despite making a rookie mistake and allegedly confusing her gun for a teaser, she's anything but a rookie. That's right. She had reportedly worked for the department for

26 years and actually was training two younger officers when they stopped Wright's car. What's more is that she served as the police union's president and had represented other officers involved in deadly shootings. Yeah, well, if she is the person training people, they probably should get rid of their police force because yikes. Well, we know that police officers very rarely face consequences for killing people on the job. And we've seen it countless times with white officers and unarmed black people. But how rare are charges for this kind of thing where an officer claims they mistook a gun for a taser? Yeah, I mean, as we know, there is just an insane latitude given to police. Most of their

shootings are ultimately deemed justified. And then if you do actually get to the point where you're in a courtroom, convictions are a whole other thing. But on this mistaken weapon front, specifically, there's an interesting New York Times story that dug into how often there are charges. They looked at about 15 cases of this over the past 20 years and found that only five officers were indicted. And of those, only three were found guilty. And they included two cases in which people were killed. That is outrageous.

But how did the officers in those three ultimately get convicted? Yeah, so one of the recent examples happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2015. A White Reserve volunteer with the county sheriff's office thought that he had drawn a taser, but he drew a gun and he shot and killed a black man named Eric Harris. The deputy in that case went to jail. And so that officer was also charged with second degree manslaughter. In that case, he was found guilty. That charge is often brought into these cases because all prosecutors have to show is that the officer demonstrated, quote, culpable negligence. And then sometimes there are also civil suits. And when you go that route, you have to get around another protection that exists for police. That is right. Qualified immunity. That happened in 2005 in Minnesota,

where the federal court permitted a case against an officer who used a gun instead of a taser. And the victim in that instance was paid $900,000 in a settlement. Yeah, we're never going to stop beating the drum of ending qualified immunity. It is absolutely just despicable. And we're also going to be following this as well as the Chauvin trial that could move into closing arguments next week. But what is immediately next here in finding justice for Daunte Wright? Well, so Potter is set to make her first court appearance today. And if he didn't have enough on his plate already, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott reportedly wants the state's Attorney General Keith Ellison to handle the case.

The AG's office, of course, is overseeing the prosecution of Chauvin. More on all of that soon, but that is the latest for now. It's Thursday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we're talking about the latest in celebrity entrepreneurship. The actor who portrayed Steve Urkel in Family Matters, the legend Jaleel White White is launching a cannabis brand. His product line is called It's Purple, and it comprises variations of a strain called Purple Urkel. Guys, this is how you leverage an iconic character.

The line will launch in California next week. Hallelujah. And it got us thinking about the possibilities of other 90s sitcom character slash vanity weed brand crossovers. So Gideon, what are we doing today? Well, Akilah, I'm going to read you some options of possible strains that we could develop before reaching out to the investors of ours. And you let me know what jumps out.

Okay. First up, hits from the Bing. Okay. I'm assuming since we're talking about 90s, it's not like Bing versus Google, but more like Chandler from Friends. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And Bing being like bong. Yeah, there it is.

Okay, yeah, I love that. Elaine in the membrane. Okay, that was great. I would smoke a lot of Elaine in the membrane. As, you know, a major Julia Louis- dreyfus fan um you know we gotta we gotta stand and i love it it works on a lot of levels uh this is this is a little bit similar insane in the niles crane okay you all are really testing me on my like white sitcom knowledge like i'm way better but i know that this is fraser right i believe it is

fraser's a big black hole in my head so okay well i you know i didn't follow the tears spinoffs but i will say that uh yeah it sounds good i imagine this one has like a monocle and like it's dad doesn't respect it very much that's right you know know, I see this one. Um, but yeah. And lastly, Al the Bundy on the left-hand side. Oh, okay. Like that's the Dutchie. We get it. We get it. We're here for it. I love it. Al Bundy, a real hero of the, like, you know, have a hot wife and be disappointed by life club. Um, I love it. Married with children. A lot of people are in that predicament and I think that the pandemic has made it stressful. So I hope that all the parents and, you know, uh, wifey's and husbands out there can get a

little toke. I'm happy for them. I love that. I think my favorite one, it's gotta be Elaine and the membrane. We love it. We love Elaine, you know, the commercial for it. I don't think there's commercials for weed, but there's a commercial for it. I like it to be dancing, right? Yeah, I love it. These are so ridiculous. But just like that, we have checked our tips. Stay safe. Remember the 90s fondly with your, you know, local legal weed, and we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. reviewing the permits of refugees last year after Danish authorities claimed that parts of Syria have improved significantly. And that went against analysis from the EU and the United Nations,

which described most areas in Syria as not stable enough for people to return. The move is being seen as the latest attempt by Denmark to tighten up its border and to target migrants and minorities within them. I don't like ugly. Employees at Disneyland and Disney World are finally allowed to show off their ink. Disney announced yesterday that its amusement park workers are now free to express themselves with jewelry, nails, gender neutral hairstyles and tattoos that are deemed appropriate. That means your Captain Hook lower back piece is OK as long as he is not shown piloting his ship while wasted. It's very important that he be sober as he's attacking children. This is a huge deal for Disney, which has always been extremely strict about its employees' appearances. The

Disney look is a real thing, y'all. Look it up. The park literally did not allow facial hair until 2012. In my mind, that's why Jafar is always so pissed off. I mean, you know, one of several reasons. He keeps getting swerved. But the decision came after a 16-month focus group of employees suggested the company add inclusion to its core values. That also led the park to remove racist portrayals in rides like Splash Mountain and the Jungle Cruise. Finally, Disneyland in California is set to reopen at the end of this month. Yeah, so let your freak flag fly, employees. As long as it's a tattoo. Yeah, your tattoo flag

of Captain Hook is what I mean by that. Okay, turns out there is money in tech because the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase went public yesterday and ended the day at about $330 a share. That brings the company's total valuation to $85.7 billion

and makes founder and CEO Brian Armstrong's stake worth $13 billion. Congrats, I guess, Brian. Another big winner was the rapper Nas, who backed Coinbase early and saw his investment grow to over $100 million yesterday. Congratulations, Nas. For investors, Coinbase offers a way into the world of crypto that might have less volatility than the coins themselves.

Not everyone has the ice in their veins that lets them casually gain or lose $50,000 in a day because Elon Musk tweeted a Bitcoin meme that was confusing. Speaking of Bitcoin, its price soared yesterday, thanks in part to the Coinbase IPO. Bitcoin reached its record high of $64,000 and Dogecoin surged to 14 cents, up about 2,400% since the start of the year. Dogecoin started as a joke. There's only one person who is laughing now, though, and it is me. It is so I can mask my frustration at being left out. Yeah, Dogecoin's going to the moon. Dogecoin is off the leash. Okay, so checking back in with the man who's defending sex traffickers against the cancel culture, future former Congressman Matt Gaetz. CNN published a report yesterday based on interviews with two women who say they attended

house parties with Gaetz and witnessed drug use and payment for sex. The news came on the heels of reports that Gaetz's political ally, Joel Greenberg, was cooperating with the Justice Department and will likely strike a plea deal. Greenberg is a former tax commissioner in Florida who is facing 33 federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. And according to the Daily Beast, he made more than 150 Venmo payments to dozens of young women and received several suspicious payments from Gates. This all looks very incriminating for Gates, but we can assume he'll find a way to blame it on the FBI or maybe his dad. Last week, Gates hired two New York lawyers to his defense team, including one who represents the Trump organization. Only the worst for truly the worst guy.

I'm interested in the investigators of this case being like, we looked everywhere and then we just went to Venmo and it was all there. Exactly. I just looked up Matt Gates on Venmo and I found that he is literally putting the descriptions quite clearly with the payments. He is not a smart man, but those are the headlines.

Well, one last thing before we go, in case you missed it in the pod save, the people episode called Tell the Truth. the truth, co-host Kaya Henderson tells the story of Soul City, a black utopia that broke ground in North Carolina in 1973, but came crashing down when the state senator decided to step in and destroy it. Check out this must-listen episode in the Pod Save the People feed wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, shave Jafar, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Elon Musk's memes for financial advice like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And drive safe, Captain Hook. Rufio's just out there trying not to get hit. So just be careful. Yeah. I mean, you can't swerve around Pan.

You know, he's just going to fly around you anyway. Yeah. And if you crash that alligator, absolutely will be biting that ass. So keep that in mind. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein,

and our executive producers are Leo Duran, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.