April, 13 2021, 12:00am EDT
Daunte Wright's Death Again Shows Need to Address Failures of Policing
Responding to the April 11 fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by a police officer in Minnesota, Kristina Roth, Senior Advocate for Criminal Justice Programs at Amnesty International USA, said:
"The Amnesty movement is saddened that yet another Black father, son and partner was taken from his family as a result of the actions of police.
WASHINGTON
Responding to the April 11 fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by a police officer in Minnesota, Kristina Roth, Senior Advocate for Criminal Justice Programs at Amnesty International USA, said:
"The Amnesty movement is saddened that yet another Black father, son and partner was taken from his family as a result of the actions of police.
"Daunte Wright was reportedly pulled over on the pretextual grounds of having expired registration and having an air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror, neither warranting what escalated into a fatal encounter. Last year Black and Latino Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario suffered a violent traffic stop in Windsor, Virginia. Officers claimed to have not seen his paper license plate on his new car in the rear window. These incidents speak to a common denominator and remind us of systemic failures of policing, resulting in disparate enforcement on people of color, particularly Black people. Plain and simple, armed law enforcement should be taken out of the equation of traffic enforcement.
"Surviving an interaction with law enforcement shouldn't depend on where you live or the color of your skin. International standards are clear that in addition to rights to equal protection of law, security, and life, we have a right to be free from discrimination when interacting with law enforcement. Officers responsible for excessive force, whatever the result, must be held accountable.
"The local community in Brooklyn Center and the Minneapolis region are understandably frustrated and enraged by these recurring incidents of police violence and have taken to the streets demanding accountability for the death of Daunte Wright. Law enforcement must protect and facilitate protesters' rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and ensure that any decision to disperse a crowd is made as a last resort, when lesser means would be insufficient. Officials must ensure that any measures used to disperse a crowd are necessary, proportional and lawful. They must also take into account the impact on the surrounding residential community, for instance when deciding to use chemical irritants.
"Protests against police violence should not be met with more police violence, as we saw for months following the death of George Floyd last summer."
Background
Amnesty International USA has been calling for police accountability for the use of deadly force. As protesters took to the streets last summer following the death of George Floyd, AIUSA spoke out against the excessive force used by law enforcement. Amnesty International documented 125 separate examples of police violence against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia between May 26 and June 5, 2020.
In 2015, Amnesty International USA released a report on the use of deadly force by law enforcement and raised serious human rights concerns with regards to the right to life, the right to security of the person, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to equal protection of the law. This report highlights the need for a nationwide review and reform of existing laws, policies, training and practices on police use of lethal force, as well as a thorough review and reform of oversight and accountability mechanisms.
This statement is available online at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/daunte-wrights-death-again-shows-need-to-address-failures-of-policing
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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'A Crime With No Immunity': Trump Solicits Buyers for Corrupt Crypto Dinner
"Trump's ongoing meme grift squats at the crest of his mountain of conflicts, corruptions, and debasements of the presidency," said one watchdog.
May 06, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump used his social media accounts on Monday to promote a scheduled private dinner for the top holders of the $TRUMP meme coin, effectively soliciting purchases of the crypto token that now accounts for a substantial portion of his net worth.
On both X and TruthSocial, Trump posted a promotional image for the May 22 "gala dinner," which will be held at his private golf club in Virginia. Only the top 220 investors in $TRUMP will get a seat at the dinner; the top 25 holders are promised a "VIP White House tour."
The meme coin's website displays a leaderboard with the usernames of the top holders, one of whom appears to be Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun. Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission paused a fraud case against Sun after he purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of tokens from World Liberty Financial—the Trump family's crypto venture.
The Trump family's net worth has reportedly grown by $2.9 billion over just the past six months thanks to crypto-related investments, and creators of the president's meme coin have raked in hundreds of millions from trading fees as people rush to purchase access to Trump. Late last month, a shipping logistics firm announced that it planned to purchase $20 million worth of $TRUMP coins as it seeks tariff relief.
"Those responsible for upholding the law, from federal prosecutors to members of Congress, can only ignore this at the expense of their own personal legacies."
The watchdog group Public Citizen said Monday that Trump's promotion of the private dinner for investors in his meme coin "is a crime with no immunity."
"Federal criminal law (18 U.S.C. § 201; 5 C.F.R. § 2635) forbids the president from soliciting gifts; as this is not a presidential act, he does not enjoy immunity from prosecution," the group noted, alluding to the U.S. Supreme Court's sweeping immunity decision last year.
Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen's financial policy advocate, said in a statement that "Trump's ongoing meme grift squats at the crest of his mountain of conflicts, corruptions, and debasements of the presidency."
"Those responsible for upholding the law, from federal prosecutors to members of Congress, can only ignore this at the expense of their own personal legacies," said Naylor, who co-authored a Monday letter imploring the Justice Department and Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to "intervene and end these gift solicitations."
The dinner giveaway is so brazenly corrupt that it's raising eyebrows even among some of Trump's Republican allies in the Senate.
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This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates...
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ended a week of speculation on Monday by announcing that she will not seek the ranking member position on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The New York Democrat, who last year ran for ranking member and lost to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), told reporters, "It's actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary, so I believe I'll be staying put at Energy and Commerce."
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Politico's Nicholas Wu noted last week that if Ocasio-Cortez declined to run for the committee post, "a number of young, ambitious members could mount bids, including Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ro Khanna of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, and Robert Garcia of California."
Connolly, now 75, sought the House leadership role despite an esophageal cancer diagnosis he disclosed in November. Last Monday, he said in a letter to constituents that "I want to begin by thanking you for your good wishes and compassion as I continue to tackle my diagnosis. Your outpouring of love and support has given me strength in my fights—both against cancer and in our collective defense of democracy."
"When I announced my diagnosis six months ago, I promised transparency," Connolly continued. "After grueling treatments, we've learned that the cancer, while initially beaten back, has now returned. I'll do everything possible to continue to represent you and thank you for your grace."
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One critic said the Salvadoran president "wants to silence" the acclaimed digital news site El Faro "because they're shattering the myths of the Bukele administration."
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An internationally acclaimed digital news outlet in El Salvador said Monday that the administration of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is preparing to arrest a number of its journalists following the publication of an interview with two former gang leaders who shed new light on a power-sharing agreement with the U.S.-backed leader and self-described "world's coolest dictator."
"A reliable source in El Salvador told El Faro that the Bukele-controlled Attorney General's Office is preparing at least seven arrest warrants for members of El Faro," the outlet reported. "The source reached out following the publication of an interview with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs."
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While the pact between Bukele and gang leaders is well-known in El Salvador, El Faro—which has long been a thorn in the president's side—was the first media outlet to air video of gangsters acknowledging the agreement.
As El Faro reported:
At the heart of the threat of arrests is irony: El Faro was only able to interview the two Revolucionarios because they escaped El Salvador with the complicity of Bukele.
One, who goes by "Liro Man," recounts that he was taken to Guatemala, through a blind spot in the Salvadoran border, by Bukele gang negotiator Carlos Marroquín; the other, Carlos Cartagena, or "Charli," was arrested on a warrant in April 2022, early in the state of exception, but quickly released after the police received a call at the station and backed off.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Salvadorans were being rounded up without due process, on charges of belonging to gangs.
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"We've wanted to talk about this for a long time, for the simple reason that the government beats their chests and says, 'We're anti-gang, we don't want this scourge,'" Liro Man told El Faro. "But they forgot that they made a deal with us, and you were the first to get this out."
In an ironic twist, the Trump administration deported gang members from the U.S. to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center prison who faced federal indictments that could have resulted in their testifying in court about the pact with Bukele.
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