Protests Continue For Adam Toledo’s Police Killing In Chicago & Global News


Each Wednesday, we recap the most important headlines from our global community to keep you up to speed on world news. 

Protests Continue For Adam Toledo’s Police Killing In Chicago

Demonstrators took to the streets again in Chicago, demanding justice for 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot and killed by Chicago police. Thousands walked through the city’s Little Village neighborhood.

The fatal shooting of Adam Toledo was captured on newly released body camera footage and surveillance video.

This comes after, as the co-founder of Mapping Police Violence, data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe tweeted, based on his organization’s work analyzing the patterns of police shootings, since 2013 the “Chicago police department has killed more people under the age of 18 than any other local law enforcement agency in America.”

Recent data from the Justice Department shows that 83 percent of incidents in which police used force against minors involved Black children and 14 percent involved Latino children before the shooting of Adam Toledo.

Latino community leaders and attorneys are asking the Department of Justice to investigate the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by a Chicago police officer.

The groups, who held a press conference, also urged that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speed up court-supervised changes to policing in Chicago, end foot pursuits by officers, and invest federal Covid relief dollars to help young people in the neighborhood where Adam Toledo lived and died.

Activists are calling for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown to resign following the police shooting.

Derek Chauvin Has Been Convicted of Murdering George Floyd

After less than a day of deliberation, jurors in Minnesota have found Derek Chauvin guilty of murder. The former Minneapolis police officer, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd repeatedly gasped “I can’t breathe,” could spend more than 40 years in prison, a punishment rarely seen in police-brutality cases. Chauvin was charged with three counts — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter — and was found guilty of all three.

Since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officers in May, tens of millions of Americans have taken to the streets all across the country to protest police brutality, systemic racism, and white supremacy. Many people are demanding the end of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity allows police officers, while in the line of duty, to do pretty much anything to anybody, without fear of punishment.

Here’s how you can join the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity.

Gunman Killed 8 People at an Indianapolis Fedex Facility

Eight people were shot dead and several others were injured in a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.

The gunman, 19-year-old Brandon Hole — who FedEx says was an employee at the facility from August to October 2020 — was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Four victims were found outside and four were inside, police said. They ranged in age from 19 to 74. Five surviving victims suffered injuries consistent with gunshot wounds and two others had minor injuries.

FedEx workers said most of the employees in the warehouse Hole attacked were Sikh.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 Sikhs call Indiana home, according to the Sikh Coalition. Many Sikh families with agricultural backgrounds immigrated from India to the Midwest because of its auto and trucking industries, said Amrith Kaur, the coalition’s legal director.

Aasees Kaur, a representative of the Sikh Coalition, said the deadly assault in Indianapolis underscores the bigotry that Sikhs have faced and the need for more-robust efforts to track hate crimes, which are underreported and difficult to prosecute.

South Korean Students Shave Heads in Protest Over Japan’s Nuclear Waste Water Plan

More than 30 South Korean college students shaved their heads in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest Japan’s decision to release water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Japan’s government said last week it will release more than 1 million tonnes of treated water from the Fukushima site in stages starting in about two years.

Police periodically dispersed crowds, who chanted and held placards, but did not stop the event from taking place, though there is an anti-pandemic ban on gatherings larger than 10 people.

The protesters who were shaved were draped in protective sheets emblazoned with messages condemning the Japanese plan and calling for it to be ditched.

Oklahoma Lawmakers Pass Bill Granting Immunity to Motorists Who Kill Protesters

On a party-line vote, the Republican lawmakers in the Oklahoma House passed a bill that grants civil and criminal immunity for drivers who unintentionally injure or kill protesters while “fleeing from a riot.”

The bill came under fire from legislative Democrats who said the Republican majority was looking to lash out at protesters instead of taking steps to address systemic racism and police misconduct that have spurred widespread Black Lives Matter protests.

House Bill 1674 from Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, is just one of a handful of GOP-sponsored bills in the Oklahoma Legislature this year designed to crack down on protests.

Teenage Girl Is Fatally Shot by Police in Columbus, Ohio

A teenage girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who the police say threatened two girls with a knife was fatally shot by an officer in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before a jury reached a guilty verdict in the murder trial of the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in last year’s killing of George Floyd.

At a news conference, the Columbus Division of Police released body camera footage from the officer, who officials said had been responding to a 911 call about an attempted stabbing around 4:45 p.m. in the southeastern part of the city.

Officials said the video showed the teenager lunging at two other females with a knife as the officer arrived at the driveway of a residence. The officer then fired several times — four shots could be heard in the video — at the girl. She collapsed to the ground next to a car that had been parked in the driveway, where the body camera footage showed a knife on the ground.

Columbus has been gripped by tension over police shootings since early December, when Casey Goodson Jr., 23, was shot to death at the entrance of his home by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy assigned to a fugitive task force.

Members of the task force had been in the area looking for someone in an operation that had nothing to do with Mr. Goodson.

Two weeks later, Andre Hill, 47, was shot four times by a Columbus police officer who was responding to a call about a suspicious vehicle. When officers arrived to investigate, they encountered Mr. Hill, and one of the officers, Adam Coy, aChicago 19-year veteran, opened fire within seconds. Mr. Coy, who was fired after the shooting, was charged with felony murder in the case.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent inquiry, which local officials said is standard whenever an officer shoots someone.

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