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Image before the death of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016.

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Image before the death of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Alton_Sterling

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Protest to decomission the police officer that was related to the shooting of Philando Castile.

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Protest to decomission the police officer that was related to the shooting of Philando Castile.

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http://www.newsweek.com/nashville-cop-decommissioned-facebook-comment-related-philando-castile-478912

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Ferguson's response to the death of Michael Brown.

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Ferguson's response to the death of Michael Brown.

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https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/cities-respond-to-ferguson-decision-unified-call-black-lives-matter

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Peaceful Black Lives Matter rally in Beverly Hills, CA

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Peaceful Black Lives Matter rally in Beverly Hills, CA

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https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/08/16/alan-dershowitz-black-lives-matter-must-rescind-its-anti-israel-declaration/

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10 Hashtags
1.  #Racism
2.  #ICan'tBreathe
3.  #handsupdon'tshoot
4.  #MichaelBrown
5.  #PhilandoCastile
6.  #AltonSterling
7.  #AllLivesMatter
8.  #EndPoliceBrutality
9.  #NoJusticeNoPeace
10.  #Silence=Violence

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http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/us/black-lives-matter-evolution/

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America being forced by social media to confront racism.

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America being forced by social media to confront racism.

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How the digital age has expanded the movement across America.

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Black Lives Matter: How 3 Words Became a Movement | Mashable

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First hand media spreading word of Black Lives Matter in Minnesota.

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First hand media spreading word of Black Lives Matter in Minnesota.

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Philando Castile's death (July 6, 2016), which sparks protest.

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Philando Castile, 32, was shot Wednesday night by a police officer in suburban St. Paul, Minn., in the second fatal encounter between police and an African-American man to gain national attention this week.

Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, began streaming video live on Facebook immediately after the officer fired. In the stream she said Castile was stopped for a broken taillight, had notified the officer that he was licensed to carry a handgun and was reaching for his wallet at the officer's request when he was shot.

The graphic video, which shows Castile suffering from a wound to his chest area, his shirt bloodied as he slumps in the car, has sparked outrage and protests in Falcon Heights, Minn., not far from where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in the St. Paul Public School District. The school district said Thursday that its staff is grieving his "tragic death." President Obama, without commenting on the particulars of the case, said that such incidents are "symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system."

Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating, and Gov. Mark Dayton has asked the U.S. Justice Department to examine the case.

Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white? I don't think it would have.

Late on Thursday, the BCA released the names of the two officers involved in the traffic stop, Minnesota Public Radio reported. Both officer Jeronimo Yanez, who reportedly shot Castile, and officer Joseph Kauser had been with the St. Anthony Police Department for four years and have been placed on administrative leave.

Today, Castile's mother, Valerie, said that while her son tried to live by the law, " he was killed by the law." His death has been ruled a homicide, the BCA reported.

At a press conference Thursday, Dayton called the shooting "totally unacceptable." He said he found both the shooting and the aftermath "absolutely appalling at all levels," noting in particular that no first aid was provided to Castile, while other police officers did attend to the officer who fired the shots. Dayton also criticized the "stark treatment" of Reynolds by police.

"Justice will be served," Dayton said. "Justice must be served."

"Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white?" said Dayton. "I don't think it would have. So I'm forced to confront, and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront, that this kind of racism exists."

At the conference, a reporter asked whether the presence of online video shaped Dayton's reaction to the shooting - noting that he had been much less outspoken about the police shooting of Jamar Clark last year. Dayton didn't answer directly, but frequently referenced the video as he denounced Castile's shooting.

Immediately after Castile was shot, his girlfriend - who uses the name Lavish Reynolds online - began streaming video to Facebook from the car in which she had been riding with Castile and her 4-year-old daughter.

We'll embed the video here, with the warning that it contains images and language that viewers might find disturbing. You can also see it on Facebook. (The video was briefly removed from the site owing to what the tech giant called a "technical glitch," TechCrunch reports, but has been reinstated.)

Speaking Thursday, Reynolds said she recorded the video because she wanted the world to see the truth and was afraid police would misrepresent the situation.

"I did it so that the world knows that these police are not here to protect and serve us," she said. "They are here to assassinate us. They are here to kill us because we are black."

"Stay with me," Reynolds says at the start of the video, as her boyfriend clutches his side.

"We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back," Reynolds says, beginning to tell her story in a video that lasts for nearly 10 minutes. "The police just ... he's covered."

"They killed my boyfriend," she says as Castile sits in the car, occasionally crying out. "He's licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket. And he let the officer know that he was - he had a firearm, and he was reaching for his wallet. And the officer just shot him in his arm."

Reynolds is then interrupted by the shouts of a police officer who tells her to keep her hands where he can see them. As he speaks, he's pointing the gun inside the car.

"I told him not to reach for it!" the officer yells, as he seems to take deep breaths. "I told him to get his hands up."

"You told him to get his ID, sir - his driver's license," a remarkably composed Reynolds answers.

She then looks at her boyfriend and says, "Oh, my God, please don't tell me he's dead. Please don't tell me my boyfriend just went like that."

The officer then tells her to keep her hands where he can see them.

"Please don't tell me this, Lord, please, Jesus, don't tell me that he's gone," Reynolds says. She later adds, "Please, Officer, don't tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir."

Minnesota Public Radio has this profile of victim Philando Castile:

More than a minute into the video, other police officers order Reynolds out of the car. She complies - asking about her daughter as she does so (the video shows that the girl is being held in the arms of an officer).

A police officer then orders Reynolds to get on her knees, where we hear the sound of handcuffs being placed on her. Her phone is tossed onto the ground, but continues to record. The recording then captures the sound of an officer - seemingly the one who shot Castile - periodically yelling an obscenity.

Reynolds' phone is then returned to her as she sits in the back seat of the police car with her daughter. Toward the end of the video, Reynolds becomes more emotional, screaming, "I can't believe they did this."

As Reynolds cries, her daughter tells her, "It's OK, Mommy. It's OK, I'm right here with you."

Castile was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, family members tell the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Pastor Danny Givens, who says he was "like a relative" to Castile, spoke to NPR's Ari Shapiro on Thursday about his friend.

"There were so many amazing qualities and facets about this young man that it's hard to believe this happened," Givens said. "I mean, he was just the kind of man - he had eyes that just spoke life to you. You know, when he saw you, he saw you. And you felt seen by him."

Minnesota Public Radio has more details on the traffic stop and subsequent protests:

"The traffic stop came at about 9 p.m. in the area of Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street in Falcon Heights, near the Minnesota State Fair grounds.

"As news of the shooting spread, some 200 protesters gathered at one point near the site while authorities pursued the investigation, searching for evidence in and around the car."

By 2 a.m., MPR reports, police had removed the car from the scene.

Police issued a brief statement last night, with St. Anthony Sgt. Jon Mangseth, who's the interim chief, saying Reynolds and her daughter were not injured, and that they had been "transported to another police department agency."

He added, "There is no other threat to the public at this time."

Mangseth provided few details about the stop, other than to say that the primary officer who pulled the car over and a backup officer were both from St. Anthony.

He added that Minnesota's BCA - the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension - had been called in to investigate "so we can learn what happened."

Mangseth also said, "It's not something that occurs in this area often."

As MPR reports, "The Falcon Heights shooting comes just weeks after federal authorities declined to pursue charges against two Minneapolis officers in the Nov. 15 police shooting death of Jamar Clark. Hennepin County prosecutors also declined to press criminal charges against those officers."

The fatal police encounter in Minnesota also comes close on the heels of a police shooting in Baton Rouge, La., earlier this week. In that incident, bystanders recorded video as Alton Sterling, 37, was pinned to the ground by two officers before being shot to death.

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Minnesota Gov. Calls Traffic Stop Shooting 'Absolutely Appalling At All Levels'

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Philando Castile, 32, was shot Wednesday night by a police officer in suburban St. Paul, Minn., in the second fatal encounter between police and an African-American man to gain national attention this week. Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, began streaming video live on Facebook immediately after the officer fired.

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The Value of Citizen Journalism continuing the power of the Black Lives Matter movement

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The Value of Citizen Journalism continuing the power of the Black Lives Matter movement

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Alton Sterling's death (July 5, 2016) resounds the effect of the movement.

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The U.S. Justice Department will lead a civil rights investigation into the death of a black man shot multiple times by police during a confrontation at a Louisiana convenience store.

Graphic cellphone video, recorded by a witness and by the store's owner, appears to show Alton Sterling, 37, being tackled and shot as two cops pin him to the ground before he is killed. Authorities said he was armed.

His death sparked protests against police brutality in Baton Rouge, and family members and the local NAACP branch called for an independent outside review of the police department.
Photos: Protesters Speak Out After Baton Rouge Police Shooting
"I have full confidence that this matter will be investigated thoroughly, impartially and professionally," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a news conference Wednesday.

Edwards, a Democrat, said the investigation into the use of unreasonable or excessive force will be assisted by the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI in the state.

The Justice Department confirmed opening the case, but it declined to comment further.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said he would stand down as the federal investigation looks at whether any laws were broken.

Edwards said he has "very serious" concerns after watching the cellphone video, which he said was "disturbing, to say the least."

Officials identified the officers Wednesday as Blane Salamoni, a four-year department veteran, and Howie Lake II, a three-year veteran, both of them white.

Officials wouldn't detail the "altercation" between the officers and Sterling or whether a Taser was used, but they said police body cameras, dashcam video and any other video from the scene would be part of the investigation.

Baton Rouge police said earlier in a statement that uniformed officers responded to a call after midnight Tuesday involving a black male in a red shirt who was selling CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart. Police said the caller claimed Sterling was acting threatening with a gun.

The officers "made contact" with the 5-foot-11 Sterling in the parking lot, and an altercation ensued, police said.

"Sterling was shot during the altercation and died at the scene," the statement said.

It wasn't clear whether both officers shot Sterling or which one fired the fatal shot. They have been placed on administrative leave, "per standard procedure," police added.

Sterling died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William Clark said. He wouldn't immediately confirm reports that Sterling was shot seven times.

The national president of the NAACP, Cornell Brooks, called the video hard to watch - but "far harder" to ignore.

"Get on the ground, get on the ground" is heard before two officers confront a man in a red T-shirt. One officer tackles the man, throwing him on the hood of the car and onto the ground. The second officer climbs on and helps hold him down.

One officer appears to shout a warning: "He's got a gun! Gun!"

As a convicted felon, Sterling wouldn't be permitted to have a gun. But those who knew him said he kept one to protect himself from robbers.

A Sterling family attorney, state Rep. Edmond Jordan, said that whether Sterling had a firearm was irrelevant, because, at the moment he was pinned, the video didn't appear to show him wielding a weapon or pulling one out.
Related: Baton Rouge Store Owner Says His Video Shows Cops 'Murdered' Alton Sterling
Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of Sterling's 15-year-old son, said officers handled the incident "unjustly" and told reporters Wednesday that they killed a man who was "simply trying to earn a living and take care of his children."

"I, for one, will not rest or ... allow him to be swept in the dirt," McMillon said as her son sobbed behind her.

Sterling had recently been living in a transitional living center, according to The Advocate newspaper.

Abdullah Muflahi, owner of the Triple S Food Mart, provided his own video of the incident to NBC News. He called Sterling a friend who was easygoing and generous, and he accused the officers of having "murdered" Sterling.

State Rep. Ted James also called the shooting a "murder," saying in a statement that it "has made me question what it really means to be land of the free and home of the brave."

At Wednesday's news conference, officials said there was body camera video from the officers, but Baton Rouge Police Lt. Jonny Dunnam said it "may not be as good as we hoped for."

During the altercation, the body cameras became dislodged from the officers, but they remained activated, he added.

Mike McClanahan, president of the Baton Rouge chapter of the NAACP, said the officers should be arrested and that both Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. and Mayor Kip Holden need to step down.

"This is a new day," McClanahan said. "We will not have anybody who allows this type of action to take place."

Both Holden and Dabadie said they wouldn't resign.

"Like you, I am demanding answers," Dabadie said.

At a vigil for Sterling on Wednesday night, Sterling's aunt, Sandra Sterling, called for peace.

"I'm mad. I'm so mad," she said. "But I'm not angry enough to hurt nobody. I'm not angry enough to go out in the street."

Ministers and other community activists echoed Sterling's plea and handed out voter registration forms.

"I want thank the community for acting accordingly, because this could have been worse," said the Rev. Keon Preston, a chaplain with the nonprofit Stop the Violence, who has seen two of his own relatives shot and killed in the last five years.

But remaining calm doesn't mean people should remain silent, Preston said.

"We will not be silent," he said to cheers and a chorus of "amens." "We will continue to speak up, and our voices will be heard."

Muflahi, the store's owner, also appeared briefly at the vigil.

"We stand for Alton," said Muflahi, who was loudly cheered. "He would be so happy to see all this. Wish he was alive."

Another speaker, LaMont Cole, who represents the neighborhood on the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council, called the officers "cowards" and declared that "they murdered this young man."

"It's time out for being politically correct," Cole said. But he also urged the community to protest peacefully.

"The investigation is in the hands of the Justice Department," Cole said, and "we will continue to demand that we get results, that we get them expediently."

"But I urge you - I beg you - to remain peaceful," he said.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter, Bernice King, was among those adding her voice.

"May his name and his brutal last breath shake up and transform systems," she wrote on Twitter.

Activists and celebrities also posted about their outrage.

How many more times must this happen for us to matter? How many more must we lose?
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER. #AltonSterling
- Zendaya (@Zendaya) July 6, 2016

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'Deeply Troubling' Fatal Police Shooting Captured on Video

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The U.S. Justice Department will lead a civil rights investigation into the death of a black man shot multiple times by police during a confrontation at a Louisiana convenience store. Graphic cellphone video, recorded by a witness and by the store's owner, appears to show Alton Sterling, 37, being tackled and shot as two cops pin him to the ground before he is killed.

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How trustworthy are citizen journalists on this event?

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William Freivogel, professor of public policy at SIU-Carbondale, recently labeled the widespread use of social media following the death of Michael Brown as "America's Arab Spring."

The international parallels are clear: a swell of 'citizen journalists' live-tweeting, streaming, and blogging protests and confrontations; Internet-based organization and galvanization of grassroots movements; and the use of social media as an alternative source of news.

But how did grassroots coverage of Ferguson compare to traditional media coverage from local, regional, and national outlets? What did the news and social media get wrong? And why does it matter?

Overall, Freivogel said, all types of media-local news, national news, social media-did some things very well and some things poorly.

The sheer volume of coverage drew attention to a serious and longstanding problem in St. Louis and beyond, Freivogel noted. That attention in some cases prompted action, such as the establishment of the Ferguson Commission, some municipal court reform, and on a national scale, the much-touted President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

The Department of Justice's report on the Ferguson police department and court system, Freivogel said, was an especially critical consequence of the national attention paid to the St. Louis region. "I read the whole report as I reported on it for St. Louis Public Radio and it almost turned my stomach. I felt sick at the end of the day, reading about all the examples of racist and unconstitutional police practices that were occurring in Ferguson and, I think, are probably occurring in thousands of police departments around the country that just have not been under the same kind of microscope as Ferguson was."

Massive coverage, however, came with its own problems, and one of the most unfortunate consequences was the rapid spread and perpetuation of false reports. The words that became a movement-Michael Brown's alleged cry that his hands were up and "don't shoot"-is a myth, Freivogel said. "That was pretty much demolished by the testimony before the grand jury and by the justice department report last March."

Similarly false, he said, were quick-catching reports that Brown's death had been caused by a different police officer from a different department, or that former Officer Darren Wilson's eye socket had been broken by Brown, which also went against physical and forensic evidence.

Many of these rumors began, and were spread, on Twitter; and the almost constant influx of material had news organizations scrambling to separate fact from fiction.

"There are many ways for falsehoods to be spread very quickly, and I've maintained that it's not only the duty of the modern journalist to put out truth, as best as they know it, but...also to try to correct falsehood when they see it," said Kelsey Proud, St. Louis Public Radio's digital innovation editor. "And I think in the past year, perhaps there wasn't enough of correcting the falsehoods; and as always, there was a lot of pressure to be first, rather than right."

Proud admitted that it was a tough balance to strike. "The onus was on us to determine which sources we could trust in whole, and then to pass along that information to the best of our ability. It's dicey. We knew that."

Especially because another problem presented by such extensive coverage was misrepresentation of Ferguson-and St. Louis-itself.

"It was very frustrating for us to see journalists sort of come in with almost no research, and had done very little homework on the region, confusing things as basic as the fact that there's a St. Louis City and a St. Louis County," Proud said.

That kind of carelessness was something local journalists could not have gotten away with. "We know that we have to stay here and we will be held accountable by members of the community, because we're part of the community."

All told, however, Ferguson's real impact was to cement social media as a vital tool for American journalism and social movements alike.

In the height of the protest movements last fall, Proud said, "We tried to be very clear that we were hearing what they said. We tried to be blatant in thanking them for their trust, and we promised them that we would share what we knew, when we knew it, and we would share how we knew it."

"It was difficult to separate the wheat and the chaff," she continued, "but it was important to me, and it still remains important to me, to make sure that we're representing a variety of perspectives in the community, not just those of people in traditional power structures."

That emphasis on representation may be one of the most beneficial aspects of citizen journalism. While social media made fact-checking and discernment more difficult, it also forced news organizations into transparency, and to accepting community feedback and participation.

"The one good thing about social media is that it's an incredible democratizing force on media," Freivogel said. "Yes, it's unedited, and yes, it's full of false statements, conspiracy theories, and rumors. It's also full of new information and different perspectives that maybe no journalist was coming up with."

St. Louis on the Air discusses issues and concerns facing the St. Louis area. The show is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and hosted by veteran journalist Don Marsh. Follow us on Twitter: @STLonAir.

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Citizen journalists, social media made Ferguson 'America's Arab Spring'

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William Freivogel, professor of public policy at SIU-Carbondale, recently labeled the widespread use of social media following the death of Michael Brown as "America's Arab Spring." The international parallels are clear: a swell of 'citizen journalists' live-tweeting, streaming, and blogging protests and confrontations; Internet-based organization and galvanization of grassroots movements; and the use of social media as an alternative source of news.

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Media Bias for BlackLivesMatters Movement

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Media Bias for BlackLivesMatters Movement

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How the media has been skewing rallies and the people in them

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Cop For Black Lives Matter In Hopes of Going Viral

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Cal Thomas on Black Lives Matter: Media not reporting facts

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Bias Bash: Cal Thomas on how the mainstream media is failing to ask questions and report certain facts in order to promote the Black Lives Matter movement