Ferrari’s hopes hang on upgrades as Charles Leclerc podium masks woes – Sport360 News

0

Charles Leclerc spared Ferrari’s blushes by pulling the disappointing SF1000 from seventh to an unlikely second place at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend.

It was a stunning drive from the Monaco man. His pace and determination late on once again confirmed just how impressive he can be in pressure situations.

It was a champion’s drive for the man effectively anointed as the Scuderia’s best hope of winning a first world title since 2007.

However, for all the praise, the SF1000 is far from podium material.

Austria will simply be a weekend the Prancing Horse will want to forget, spending much of it battling against the Racing Points and McLarens, rather than the Mercedes and Red Bulls.

Expectations in the Ferrari camp were not high heading into the season-opener and those fears were realised when Leclerc and Vettel placed a disastrous P7 and P11 respectively in qualifying.

They were just the fifth-fastest team in qualifying and the car was nearly a full second slower than they had been around Austria last year, when Leclerc clinched pole position.

The Scuderia were Mercedes’ main challengers last season, with their prime asset being qualifying speed and engine power. They secured nine pole positions out of 21.

Now, they seem to have slipped further behind the Silver Arrow.

There is no magic formula to fix quick problems in F1 and Ferrari must use these next few races to monitor various adjustments and upgrades accurately.

Leclerc admitted the car was better through corners but had some drag. Vettel, meanwhile, said the car lacked grip and downforce down the straights.

The problem, though, is not only with the car’s aerodynamics. Team boss Mattia Binotto insisted after the race that they were losing “0.3secs in cornering and 0.7secs power-limited on the straights”.

To hone in even further, the car was nearly a full second a lap off the pace in Austria, one of the shortest laps on the calendar, and could have been worse if not for the safety cars.

The Italian marquee endured a poor pre-season testing, which prompted a rethink of the SF1000 car. Significant changes were made and were supposed to be ready for the Austria double-header.

However, the final tweaks weren’t completed in time, and Sunday’s car was effectively the same from the final days of testing in Barcelona.

Leclerc appeared to have no hope of a podium after his qualifying disaster, where he barely made it through to Q3.

However, running sixth for most of the race, he moved up to second in the closing laps as a result of retirements in front of him and two clinical overtakes on Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.

He did profit from Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty, but second place was thoroughly deserved after a combative display. He later described it as one of the best drives of his career.

Team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished 10th, after a spin while attempting an over-optimistic lunge on Sainz. He lost the rear a couples of times and said he had difficulty with the overall balance of the car.

For a man leaving Ferrari at the end of the season, and potentially retiring from the sport, it must be difficult to find motivation at present, especially in an under-performing machine.

Having seen the clear lack of pace, Ferrari are bringing forward some planned upgrades to their car following a disappointing showing in Austria.

The car changes may not be enough to reel in the near one-second deficit to Mercedes, but will help the drivers to be more competitive around the Red Bull Ring.

Key to the upgrades will be the introduction of an aerodynamic package, but that will assist more with stability and cornering rather than straight-line speed.

If straight speed does not improve, the car will be even further behind on tracks like Spa, the longest on the calendar, and where straight-line speed has a significant influence on overall lap time.

Rapid results cannot be expected straight away. However, the progress in terms of lap times could allow both Leclerc and Vettel to move up the order and showcase their talents this weekend.

Aggressive and successful development will be central, along with the task of trying to reel in a dominant Mercedes team.

Know more about Sport360 Application



Source link

Newly appointed French minister faces rape allegation

0

The Paris court of appeals ruled that a judge may reopen the investigation into a 2018 allegation that Darmanin ​raped a woman in 2009, sources told CNN.

A lawyer for Darmanin, who was appointed interior minister on Monday, said the accusation is baseless.

On Tuesday morning, about a dozen activists were gathered outside the interior ministry chanting: “Darmanin rapist, state complicit.” They were quickly removed by the police.

Darmanin was accused of rape and sexual harassment by Sophie Patterson ​in January 2018. She said he used his position as a member of the judicial committee in 2009 to force her into having sex with him. ​

While the case was initially dismissed in February 2018, in June of this year the Paris court of appeals ruled that the reasons for not investigating the claims were not sufficient, according to lawyers for both parties.​

The ruling means that the case will once again be in the hands of an investigating judge, who will decide whether a formal investigation should be opened.

“I am shocked. I am very surprised that a person accused by a woman of rape has been appointed Minister of the Interior,” Patterson’s lawyer, Marjolaine Vignola, told CNN on Tuesday.

“In any European democracy, there are guarantees offered to victims so that they can speak out without fear, whatever the function and whatever the social status of the people they denounce. It sends a scary signal to my client,” Vignola added.

However, Darmanin’s lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur told CNN he was completely confident the case would be dismissed again because ​of the “emptiness” of the ​allegations.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office told CNN the Elysée palace never comments on ongoing judicial matters and that Darmanin, like every citizen, benefits from the presumption of innocence.

Darmanin’s appointment follows a cabinet reshuffle under the newly appointed Prime Minister Jean Castex, a center-right politician who coordinated the country’s strategy for exiting coronavirus lockdown.

The cabinet reshuffle had been widely anticipated after Macron’s party performed poorly in recent local elections.

Source link

New Jersey and Delaware Primary Elections: What to Watch For

New Jersey and Delaware are holding primary elections on Tuesday, with a presidential primary in Delaware and multiple congressional primaries across New Jersey.

Both states are conducting their primaries largely by mail. New Jersey has mailed ballots to the state’s 2.3 million registered Democrats and 1.3 million Republicans, and ballot applications to 2.4 million unaffiliated registered voters. (Primaries in New Jersey are “closed,” meaning that a voter has to be a registered member of a party to vote.)

It is unlikely that official results in New Jersey will be known for at least a week, as mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day. As of Monday, election officials had received just under one million ballots, according to the secretary of state in New Jersey.

Here’s what to watch for:

For Democrats in New Jersey and across the country, Representative Jeff Van Drew’s switch to the Republican Party in December, after the impeachment vote against President Trump, was nothing short of a betrayal. Potential opponents began quickly jockeying to take on Mr. Van Drew in what will be one of November’s most watched congressional races.

But the primary battle in South Jersey has turned toxic, fracturing the state’s Democratic establishment along lines both familiar and foreign to those who closely follow the political machinations of Trenton.

Backing Amy Kennedy, a mental health advocate and former teacher who is part of the Kennedy political diaspora, is Gov. Philip D. Murphy, along with progressive activists and labor unions who often side with him.

With Mr. Murphy supporting Ms. Kennedy, it is unsurprising to Trenton insiders that her opponent, Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor at Montclair State University, has the backing of two fellow Democrats who are often at odds with the governor: Stephen M. Sweeney, the State Senate president; and George E. Norcross, the South Jersey power broker.

But Ms. Callahan also has the support of Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, the popular junior senator who is up for re-election. He is “bracketing” Ms. Harrison on the ballot, meaning they both will be listed in the same column.

The race has been marked less by the racial justice movement that has shaped recent races in other states and more by local issues, namely infrastructure and economic needs along the Jersey Shore, health care reform and marijuana legalization.

Whether in New York or Kentucky, voters seemed primed to welcome new, diverse candidates after a month of protests over the May 25 killing of George Floyd after an encounter with the police in Minneapolis. In New Jersey, two progressive challengers have mounted aggressive campaigns against two moderate Democrats in the northern part of the state.

Arati S. Kreibich, a 45-year-old neuroscientist, is challenging Representative Josh Gottheimer, one of the few Democrats in the country who flipped a congressional seat in the 2016 election. Ms. Kreibich has received the endorsement of national progressive leaders like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has been sending text messages to his presidential campaign lists in support of Ms. Kreibich.

But Mr. Gottheimer, who is also one of the most prolific fund-raisers in the Democratic caucus, has turned back similar challenges before.

And Representative Albio Sires, who has been in Congress since 2007, is facing a stiff challenge from a 32-year-old lawyer, Hector Oseguera, who has been a fixture at recent Black Lives Matter rallies and protests. Mr. Sires, who has long enjoyed the support of the powerful northern New Jersey political machine, has been campaigning more aggressively over the past few weeks.

Before the impeachment vote, David Richter, considered a rising star within the Republican Party, was seen as the front-runner to take on Mr. Van Drew, who at that time was a freshman Democrat in a swing district.

But once Mr. Van Drew defected and earned the endorsement of Mr. Trump, Mr. Richter looked elsewhere.

One district north, in fact. He faces Kate Gibbs in a Republican primary in New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, which was flipped by a Democrat in 2018 when Andy Kim upset the incumbent, Tom MacArthur, in what had long been a Republican stronghold.

New Jersey’s first run through an expanded vote-by-mail election — held in May for multiple municipal races — was rocky at best. Ten percent of ballots were rejected over issues with signatures not matching, according to a study by the online news service NJ Spotlight.

The state attorney general also charged four men with election fraud stemming from the municipal elections in Paterson, the third-largest city in the state. There, county officials rejected nearly 20 percent of the ballots.

A district court in New Jersey ruled last month that voters whose ballots were rejected because of issues with a signature must be notified and given the opportunity to address the problem.

A design flaw in the July ballots also caused the United States Postal Service scanners to mark completed absentee ballots mailed back to election offices as “return to sender.” State officials said they were unsure of how many ballots were affected.

Since the state proactively mailed ballots and ballot applications, New Jersey is allowing only provisional voting at in-person locations. Though election officials don’t expect there to be many long lines like those seen in states like Georgia, provisional ballots do take longer to fill out, which may lead to some longer waits across the state.

Source link

Commitment to racial equality requires consistent effort

0

KANSAS CITY — The issues of racial equality, social justice, stereotypes and implicit bias have become top-of-mind following the death of George Floyd and the protests that swept the nation and continue to this day. The events have prompted many companies to review past and present business initiatives in support of protestors and the communities they represent. Several initiatives represent statements of solidarity, but enduring progress will only be achieved if these actions are followed by ongoing and substantive change.

Food and beverage companies attracted considerable attention by announcing the resets or the discontinuation of brands that perpetuate racial stereotypes. PepsiCo, Inc., for example, is ending its Aunt Jemima brand due to its origins in racist imagery. The 130-year-old brand and imagery originally were based on the minstrel show song “Old Aunt Jemima.” The brand was sold to Quaker Oats in 1926 and became part of the PepsiCo portfolio in 2001. A new brand name will be announced during the fourth quarter of this year.

“As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers’ expectations,” Kristin Kroepfl, the company’s vice president and chief marketing officer, said to explain the move. “We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype.”

Conagra Brands, Inc., Mars, Inc. and B&G Foods, Inc. also took steps to eliminate racially insensitive imagery from packaging for such brands as Mrs. Butterworth’s, Uncle Ben’s and Cream of Wheat.

Other companies have taken a different approach. The Coca-Cola Co., The Hershey Co., Starbucks Corp. and Unilever have paused advertisements on social media platforms that don’t do enough to prevent racist and violent content. The boycott comes in response to calls by civil rights organizations to end hate speech online.

All this activity was prompted by the groundswell of support for communities that have endured a history of racial inequality and social injustice. Those seeking to drive change should not substitute in-the-moment action for the consistent effort needed to make real progress.

During a June 25 conference call to discuss McCormick & Co.’s second-quarter results, an investment analyst asked Lawrence E. Kurzius, chairman, president and chief executive officer, about the role McCormick and the food system can play in addressing the issues of racial injustice. In his answer, Mr. Kurzius referred to the company’s foundational principal of respect for the individual, outlined its efforts to ensure diversity throughout the organization, discussed the public stands management has taken in support of groups like Black Lives Matter, and added that “beyond speaking, it’s important to have action.”

Mr. Kurzius’ last point echoes powerfully. Once the news cycle moves on, will the initiatives and investment be there to make real, continuous progress toward racial equality and social justice? Sadly, progress in the past most often has been limited in the wake of tragedy, whether it was George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice or others. A sign of progress will be when racial equality and social justice consistently are issues of concern without tragedy driving a news cycle. 

Source link

Karl Rove scolds Trump for recent tweets: ‘I don’t see that those advance his cause at all’

Although Rove assessed that Trump delivered a “remarkable speech” at Mount Rushmore that “talked about American values and American heroes,” he criticized the president for following up his scripted weekend appearances with two controversial social media posts Monday.

In those tweets, Trump blasted NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its races and demanded an apology from the sport’s top Black driver, Bubba Wallace. He also reprimanded the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians for announcing they would review potential name changes for their sports franchises after years of pressure from Native American groups.

“The question is, did what the president tweeted on Monday advance the cause that he laid out on Saturday? And I think the answer is an unambiguous no. It did not,” Rove told Fox News. “The president has a limited number of days between now and the election. And when he tweets, it’s a powerful message. And the question is, does that message continue to advance the narrative that he and those around him decided that he would lay out on [Friday] at Mount Rushmore? And the answer is no, it didn’t.”

Rove also weighed in on Monday’s White House news briefing, where press secretary Kayleigh McEnany admonished reporters for not asking about a spate of gun violence across the country over the holiday weekend. Rove suggested Trump’s tweets had distracted from media coverage of the shootings.

“I saw the press secretary yesterday say to the White House press corps, ‘Why aren’t you asking about all of the violence that was in our American cities over the weekend?’” he said, adding: “That was a good question. But the answer is because the president didn’t tweet about that. He tweeted about Bubba Wallace and the Confederate flag and NASCAR. And I don’t see that those advance his cause at all.”

Rove has not hesitated to acknowledge Trump’s diminished political standing, conceding two weeks ago on Fox News that “the president is behind” former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the White House roughly four months from Election Day.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published last Wednesday, Rove wrote the Trump campaign “must admit that a reset is needed,” and he implored Trump again last Friday to articulate an agenda for a potential second term. “No president gets reelected by saying, ‘I’ve done a good job,” Rove told Fox News.

Virtually all public polling shows Trump trailing Biden by substantial margins nationally, with the presumptive Democratic nominee bolstering his leads in the same swing states Trump captured in 2016 to win office. Only 38 percent of Americans currently approve of the job Trump is doing as president, according to a Gallup poll published Monday.



Source link

US presidential campaign ads run on Youtube content from Russia media, white supremacists

0

Campaign ads for both U.S. presidential candidates have appeared before extremist and fringe-group content on YouTube | Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Political ads from Donald Trump and Joe Biden were displayed before videos from Ruptly and channels linked to the Identitarian movement.

Presidential campaign ads for both Donald Trump and Joe Biden ran on Youtube channels controlled by Russian state-backed media and white supremacists, according to a report published Tuesday.

The findings — from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit group — showed that Trump and Biden ads were displayed alongside videos from Ruptly, a Berlin-based media outlet controlled by the Kremlin, as well as on Youtube channels connected to the so-called Identitarian movement, a transatlantic group of white supremacists.

The ads allowed the Russian media outlet and white supremacist groups to pocket money from both campaigns as part of a Youtube program that allows content creators to earn money from ads running on their channels. It was impossible to verify how many Trump and Biden ads had run on these channels — Ruptly, for instance, has 1.3 million Youtube subscribers — or how much they had spent on those paid-for messages.

Neither campaign actively chose to have their ads run against Russian-backed or white supremacist content.

Instead, Youtube’s algorithms placed the campaigns’ political ads before videos from the Russian media outlet and white supremacist groups based on algorithms that automatically determine where such paid-for content should be shown, based on the demographics of Youtube views that individual advertisers want to target online.

“We will be demanding answers from Google on how our ads were played alongside this content and how we can be assured that it will never happen again” — Bill Russo, a spokesman for Joe Biden

The revelations come as advertisers question how they spend money on social media, with more than 400 companies, including Unilever, Coca-Cola and Ford, joining a boycott of Facebook because of the company’s handling of hate speech and misinformation. Google, which owns Youtube, has similarly faced a backlash after companies’ ads were shown alongside terrorist videos from ISIS.

“I was surprised to find this because of all of the attention around Youtube’s advertising,” Wendy Via, chief executive of Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told POLITICO. “Given all the attention focused on presidential campaigns, if they aren’t going to be protected from running ads against this type of content, how are other advertisers going to be treated?”

“This is unacceptable,” said Bill Russo, a Biden spokesman, in a statement to POLITICO. “We will be demanding answers from Google on how our ads were played alongside this content and how we can be assured that it will never happen again.”

Representatives from the Trump campaign and from Youtube were not immediately available for comment.

On Ruptly’s Youtube channel, Google runs a disclaimer that highlights the Russian government controls the media outlet.

But before a video entitled “Austria: ‘We should send them back,’” a Trump ad asking people to rate the president’s actions, including a link to an online survey, was displayed, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Similarly, a Biden paid-for message ran alongside a Ruptly video called “Italy: Generazione Identitaria hosts second ‘sports day in defense of homeland.'” Both videos have been viewed less than 4,500 times.

The same two campaign ads were also displayed before a white supremacist video linked to France’s “Generation Identitaire,” a domestic far-right movement started in 2012 that has called for the removal of non-white French citizens from the country. The Youtube video, from late 2013, has been watched almost 80,000 times.

Heidi Beirich, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism’s chief strategy officer, said that several U.S and European security agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security and Europol, had flagged the white supremacist movement as potentially fomenting extremism and violence.

She added that Youtube must do more to flag such content and stop these channels from making money through online advertising.

“All these agencies say [the Identitarian movement] influences people to commit acts of terrorism,” she said. “There’s no reason Youtube is not acting.”



Source by [author_name]

Atlanta Mayor Tests Positive, Sees ‘Perfect Storm Of Distress In America’

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, shown here in 2019, says one of her children has also tested positive for the coronavirus.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, shown here in 2019, says one of her children has also tested positive for the coronavirus.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has tested positive for the coronavirus but said Tuesday that her only possible symptom is a headache.

The diagnosis comes at an intense time for the city, which is reeling from the police killing of Rayshard Brooks and a spike in violence over the Fourth of July weekend.

Bottoms announced her positive test on Twitter on Monday. “This is the same headache that I have during stressful times and allergy season,” she told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday.

The mayor said doctors told her she had a “low positive” test, meaning that she was either at the beginning or near the end of her infection. One of her children has also tested positive, she added.

On Tuesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency, moving up to 1,000 National Guard troops to Atlanta following a burst of violence that left four people dead, including an 8-year-old girl, as Georgia Public Broadcasting reported. The Georgia State Patrol headquarters was also ransacked recently, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bottoms said that she disagreed with Kemp’s order and said that she thought the governor’s reopening plan for the state was too aggressive.

When asked about the surge in violence in Atlanta, Bottoms pointed to concerns surrounding police brutality and the increasing spread of the coronavirus.

“It’s this perfect storm of distress in America,” Bottoms said in the Good Morning America interview. “People are obviously anxious and even angry about COVID-19. … I think that the rhetoric that comes out of the White House doesn’t help it at all, it doesn’t give people much hope. I think that it’s all converging together, and we’re seeing it happen and spill out onto the streets in Atlanta.”



Source link

Sen. Chuck Grassley Will Miss GOP Convention for First Time in 40 Years Over Coronavirus Concerns

0

Sen. Chuck Grassley will not attend the Republican National Convention for the first time in his 40-year Senate career due to concerns about the coronavirus.

“I’m not going to go, and I’m not going to go because of the virus situation,” the Iowa senator said on a conference call Monday with Iowa reporters.

He said moving the convention was probably the right thing to do since North Carolina officials didn’t feel it was safe to have a large gathering.

“If you want to have a convention, and I think we should have a convention, I think you should do whatever you can to make it as safe as possible, so that would be with face masks and social distancing,” Grassley said.

The convention is now scheduled to begin Aug. 24 in Jacksonville, Florida, where officials began requiring face masks in public a week ago. Florida has seen its positive test rate lately reach more than 18%. The state has been hit especially hard, along with other Sunbelt states such as Arizona, California and Texas.

Grassley, 86, said he plans to continue his tour of all of Iowa’s counties, visiting 29 counties during the current two-week break. He and his staff will wear masks but he doesn’t plan on requiring it for Iowans who come to see him.

“There’s no way a United States senator can force anybody in Iowa to wear a mask,” he said. “It’s going to be up to the individuals and I would say that there’s generally a rule that if you’re 6 feet apart, you don’t have to wear a mask but I think doing both makes common sense and I’m going to encourage people to do both.”

Contact us at editors@time.com.

Source link

Park Slope, Brooklyn, Gets a Beer Garden Built Into a Garage

Daniel Boulud has long offered outdoor seating at several of his restaurants. Now, in compliance with the virus-control regulations, he has added it to his flagship, Daniel on the Upper East Side, for the first time. There are socially distant seats for about 35 diners along East 65th Street, most of them under the generous canopy. The menu is the same as his home-delivery menu at Daniel Boulud Kitchen, a service that began shortly after the lockdown rules went into effect. The outdoor tables are served from 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, no reservations.

60 East 65th Street, danielnyc.com.

An outdoor restaurant modeled on an Austrian-style heurigen has been added to the Schaller & Weber portfolio. Jeremy Schaller has socially distant seating for 20 in an open-air area behind his Schaller’s Stube Sausage Bar. Charcuterie, cheeses, a speck sandwich, a Reuben pastrami sandwich, sorbets, beers and Austrian wines are on the menu. (Thursday)

1652 Second Avenue (85th Street), 646-726-4355, blumenyc.com.

Lucky are the restaurants on open-air rooftops. They’re ready for business, social distancing and all. This is a new one in the financial district from Michele Iuliano, the chef, and his wife, Anisa. It’s a third-floor gardenlike terrace with 4,500 square feet of space above the couple’s Gnoccheria Wall Street restaurant. In addition to the outdoor seating, there are tables for two in greenhouse enclosures. The menu features seafood in assorted panini, and also pizza, fried calamari and gnocchi. The entrance is on Bridge Street. (Wednesday)

100 Broad Street (Bridge Street), 212-422-4102, ampianyc.com.

Jungsik, the elegant TriBeCa Korean restaurant, will branch out next year with a second restaurant at 151 West 30th Street. Called Jungsik Gomtang, it will serve beef broth with brisket and offal over rice or noodles. In the meantime, this pop-up will offer a sampling of the new place’s menu for pickup or delivery. Also available is the menu from Jungsik at Home, newly opened for takeout and delivery with a $45 tea and pastry box, $65 for a secret (chef’s choice) box and $75 for a celebration assortment of dishes. (Thursday)

2 Harrison Street (Hudson Street), 212-219-0900, jungsik.com.

There’s a new alternative to the sprawling indoor DeKalb Market Hall in Downtown Brooklyn: an outdoor market where a dozen of the hall’s food vendors are now stationed, Monday to Friday, through Oct. 7. And there’s more to come. Among the temptations are offerings from Katz’s Delicatessen, Jiangbing’s Chinese street food, Kotti Donor’s kebabs, Pierogi Boys dumplings and Likkle More Jerk for Caribbean jerk chicken. As part of the project, there’s Craft & Carry’s Beer Garden, with suds from local brewers and seats at socially distant tables, which are also open to people getting food from the market.

445 Albee Square West (Gold Street), Downtown Brooklyn, 929-359-6555, dekalbmarkethall.com.

Source link

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declares emergency, calls up National Guard troops after 8-year-old killed

CLOSE

Police say 8-year-old Secoriea Turner was shot while in a car with her mom and an adult friend near the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed.

Wochit

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Monday and authorized the deployment of up to 1,000 National Guard troops in the wake of violence in Atlanta over the weekend that left more than 30 people wounded and five dead, including an 8-year-old girl.

“Peaceful protests were hijacked by criminals with a dangerous, destructive agenda,” Kemp said in a statement. “Now, innocent Georgians are being targeted, shot, and left for dead. This lawlessness must be stopped and order restored in our capital city.”

He added that “the measure will allow troops to protect state property and dispatch state law enforcement officers to patrol our streets.”

Among the locations where the Georgia Guard will provide added protection are the Georgia State Capitol, the Georgia Department of Public Safety Headquarters and the Governor’s Mansion.

“Enough with the tough talk,” Kemp said. “We must protect the lives and livelihoods of all Georgians.”

The order went into effect immediately and is justified by “unlawful assemblage, violence, overt threats of violence, disruption of the peace and tranquility of this state and danger existing to persons and property.” It is set to expire July 13.

On Saturday night, police said two people opened fire on a car, killing Secoriea Turner, an eight-year-old Black girl. A reward of up to $10,000 has been offered for information that leads to the arrest of those involved.

More on Secoriea Turner: 8-year-old was fatally shot in Atlanta near Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks was killed,

“You can’t blame this on a police officer,” Atlanta May Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday in an emotional press conference. “You can’t say this is about criminal justice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with an 8-year-old baby in the car for what?”

“Enough is enough,” Bottoms continued. “If you want people to take us seriously and you don’t want us to lose this movement, we can’t lose each other.”

The incident took place near the Wendy’s fast-food restaurant that was the site of the death of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man who was shot twice by a white police officer as he tried to flee after being stopped when he was found sleeping in his car June 12.

More on Rayshard Brooks: Judge grants bond to ex-Atlanta cop charged with murder

Brooks’ death has sparked widespread protests in Atlanta and across the country and came just weeks after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died Memorial Day in Minneapolis when a white former police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was in custody.

Atlanta police responded late Sunday to investigate another shooting that took place steps from where Turner was killed, leaving one person dead and two injured.

The spate of violence in Atlanta coincided with the holiday weekend celebrating the Fourth of July. On Sunday night, Kemp posted a message to his verified Twitter account denouncing the violence.

This recent trend of lawlessness is outrageous & unacceptable,” Kemp wrote. “Georgians, including those in uniform, need to be protected from crime & violence. While we stand ready to assist local leaders in restoring peace & maintaining order, we won’t hesitate to take action without them.”

Police said Turner was in the car with her mother and another adult, when the driver of the car tried to drive past illegally-placed barricades to enter a parking lot. The car was “confronted by a group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance,” interim police chief Rodney Bryant said Sunday in a press conference.

Someone from that group opened fire on the car, striking it multiple times and killing Turner, police said. Turner was taken to Atlanta Medical Center where she died from her injuries.

Kemp also said that a 53-year-old man was fatally shot near the Wendy’s over the weekend.

“At that location, city officials have failed to quell ongoing violence with armed individuals threatening citizens, shooting at passersby, blocking streets, destroying local businesses, and defying orders to disperse,” the executive order said.

Kemp also cited vandalism at the Georgia Department of Public Safety headquarters early Sunday, saying several dozen people “armed with rocks, spray paint, and fireworks” broke windows and tried to set fire to the building.

A spokesman for Bottoms didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the governor’s authorization of Guard troops.

In Washington, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany lamented at Monday’s news briefing that she was not asked by reporters about weekend killings in Atlanta and other major U.S. cities. McEnany said she was asked “probably 12 questions about the Confederate flag” and was dismayed that she did not get one about the weekend shootings. She also said comments by Secoriea’s father “broke my heart.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/07/georgia-gov-brian-kemp-national-guard-secoriea-turner/5389011002/



Source link