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On Sunday, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in the small Minneapolis town of Brooklyn Center, over air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror, according to what Wright told his mother, Katie Wright, on the phone before perishing at the scene of the shooting.
"All he did was have air fresheners in the car, and they told him to get out of the car," Wright told The Star Tribune on Sunday. "During the call, she said she heard scuffling and then someone saying 'Daunte, don't run' before the phone call ended. When she called back, her son's girlfriend answered and said Daunte had been shot," The Tribune further reported.
<p>But police following the incident had a different story as to what occurred on the scene. "Police said they tried to take the driver into custody after learning during a traffic stop that he had an outstanding warrant. The man got back into his vehicle, and an officer shot him, police said. They said the man drove several blocks before striking another vehicle," <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. </p><p>Following the shooting of Wright on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets where they protested Wright's killing at a Minneapolis police officer's hands, with some demonstrators clashing with police. </p><p>During a Monday afternoon press conference, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon spoke to the incident that left Wright dead and showed the graphic police body camera footage captured on the scene. "As I watch this video and listen to the officer's commands, it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet," the police chief declared. "This appears to me, from what I viewed, and the officer's reaction in distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright." After Gannon's brief remarks, the lights were turned off, and the heart-wrenching body camera footage was played.</p><p><em>(Warning: The video below contains graphic content.) <br/></em></p><p><br/><em></em></p><p><br/></p>
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<span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="33552ff1a02201c08a8863a5a3666473" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" type="lazy-iframe" scrolling="no" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YwiG57gSYkk?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Body Camera Footage Shows Minnesota Police Shooting Of Daunte Wright | MSNBC</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwiG57gSYkk&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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<p><br/></p><p>One officer can be seen in the video handcuffing Wright before another officer yells "taser" numerous times before taking out a handgun and shooting Wright. "Oh sh*t, I just shot him," declared after shooting Wright, after the white car rolls away with a fatally shot victim. Gannon added at the Monday presser that the killing was "an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright."</p><p>The shooting comes as Minneapolis grapples with Derek Chauvin's trial after the police officer killed George Floyd in May of 2020. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on Monday afternoon, stated: "We can stop pretending that this is just the natural order of the universe and things happen this way."</p><p>The governor added, "There's proven remedies that can be put into place. But that will never happen if we don't at least hold hearings on these things. If we don't at least get ourselves into an uncomfortable position and do what this democracy is supposed to do and debate the hard things."</p>
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Exclusive: Huntington Beach neo-Nazi who punched Asian man has a history of racist violence
April 13, 2021
Two men who were involved in a 2005 hate crime were among the dozen people arrested at a "White Lives Matter" rally held at the Huntington Beach Pier in southern California on Sunday.
A much larger group of counter-protesters gathered in Huntington Beach in response to the rally, which was organized on the social media app Telegram. Far-right activists showed up alone or in small groups over the course of the afternoon, and were almost immediately surrounded by counter-protesters.
<p>During one altercation, <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/violence-white-lives-matter-rally/">a man with a swastika tattoo on his arm can be seen in video posted by various live-streamers attempting to walk away from the counter-protesters</a>. One of the counter-protesters, who is Asian, can be heard in the video calmly saying, "If you're strong enough to stand for your beliefs, then speak to me." After the two men bumped chests, the man with the swastika tattoo shoved the other man and punched him in the face, next to a police car and surrounded by a scrum of live-streamers.</p><p>The police have identified the assailant as Andrew Nilsen, a 38-year-old resident of Huntington Beach who is charged with fighting in public. Triet Tran, the man who was punched, was also charged with fighting in public. It is unclear why Tran, a 36-year-old resident of Santa Ana, was charged.</p><p>Although insistent that Nilsen explain his far-right beliefs, video from at least two sources shows no instance of Tran putting his hands on Nilsen. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1381384433597509637" target="_blank">video</a> published on Twitter by television producer and news live-streamer Andrew Kimmel, Tran can be seen prior to the altercation walking backwards with his hands clasped behind his back as Nilsen advances towards him.</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Police just declared an unlawful assembly in Huntington Beach <a href="https://t.co/mVX9Fu2kmk">pic.twitter.com/mVX9Fu2kmk</a><br/>— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1381364509881683970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><p>"Nazis ended in World War II, so why are we doing this?" Tran asks. Then the video shows Tran stopping and Nilsen walking into him, causing the two men to bump chests. Nilsen can be seen placing his hands on Tran's shoulder and shoving him.</p><p>"You're fucking pushing up against me, motherfucker," Nilsen says.</p><p>"I didn't touch you," Tran protests. "I want to understand…"</p><p>"Get the fuck out of my face motherfucker," Nilsen says again, shoving past Tran. "I'm walking down the pier."</p><p>And again, Tran says: "I want to understand why you hate me so much."</p><p>By that time, Nilsen had moved past Tran, but he turned and punched the other man in the face.</p><p>"He is in a direction to leave my bubble, and yet he still comes toward me," Tran told Raw Story. "You've seen the situation from different angles. Right on top of that, the words I was saying — my words — weren't meant to incite an altercation, so I'm surprised they decided to press charges."</p><p>Later, before being taken into custody, Nilsen told reporters: "White culture to me means putting up your hands and fucking fighting."</p><p>Nilsen could not be reached for this story.</p><p>Tran said he asked the police to charge Nilsen with assault, and was surprised to learn from Raw Story that his assailant was charged with the lesser charge of fighting in public.</p><p>Tran said he decided to go to counter-protest the White Lives Matter protest because of <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/asian-american/">the climate of rising violence against Asian people in the United States.</a></p><p>"Just the amount of racism that's happening across the nation, with anti-Asian violence," he said, "to allow another source of hatred to continue, it's intolerable."</p><p>When he saw the swastika tattoo on Nilsen's arm, Tran said he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to try to speak with him.</p><p>"But I always believe in approaching the situation in a peaceful and calm manner," Tran said. "That's how I think things should be approached. There's too much violence already. It's pointless to yell. I want the question answered."</p><p>To compound the injury of being assaulted and criminally charged, Tran said he's also getting pushback on social media for not fighting back.</p><p>"I am getting a lot of heat for appearing to be a wussy and not standing up for my people," he said. "That kind of hurts a little bit, you know."</p><p>Nilsen was previously charged in 2005, along with two other men, with assault and making criminal threats, with enhancements for targeting the victim because of his race, according to a report by the <a href="http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20050504ci#.YHTdiRNKgWp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>. The news agency reported that the then-22-year-old Nilsen, along with 23-year-old Lucas Eli Labarre and 20-year-old Andrew William Gray, assaulted a young, Black man who was trying to play basketball in a public park in Chino Hills, a small city just outside of Orange County.</p><p>Labarre, now 39, was also charged during the unrest in Huntington Beach on Sunday. He faces two charges: pedestrian in roadway and resisting or delaying an officer.</p><p>During the 2005 incident, Nilsen, Labarre and Gray reportedly taunted the young, Black man with racial slurs and attacked him as he was getting a ball from his car. Gray was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon for trying to hit the victim with a car, and Labarre and Nilsen chased him on foot. According to the report, police found white supremacist materials in Gray's vehicle.</p><p>Gray is currently serving a 25-year sentence at Calpatria State Prison for first-degree murder stemming from beating a Latinx man to death with a two-by-four in Corona, in Riverside County, in 2009.</p><p>Andrew Gray and his brother, Colin, were drinking and decided they wanted to find some Latinx people to fight, according to a 2014 California Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914f705add7b04934992f80" target="_blank">opinion</a>. Another man, Timothy Keiper, drove the brothers around Corona. "Keiper pumped up Andrew and Colin with the plan of finding something to do, someone to hang out with, or a fight," according to the Court of Appeals opinion. "They discussed a fight and a target in the car. As they drove, they looked for Hispanics and gang bangers. Specifically, Andrew was looking for 'dirty Mexicans,' while Colin was looking for perverts and rapist."</p><p>They found two men, Raul Flores and Armando Ruvulcaba, in a dark alley. Keiper repeatedly kicked Flores in the head, according to the court, and then Andrew Gray struck him with the two by four, putting him in a coma that took his life two days later. According to the court, Gray told a cellmate "that Flores was a no-good wetback and deserved to die."</p><p>Although the "White Lives Matter" rally was organized by anonymous group of neo-Nazis on Telegram, fliers circulated by the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to promote the rally ratcheted up tension. Grand Dragon William Hagen <a href="https://twitter.com/amylounsbury/status/1381429332170579971" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">appeared</a> at the rally on Sunday dressed inconspicuously in a T-shirt that said, "I stand for the flag, and kneel for the cross." Hagen is the California leader of the Loyal White Knights, which is based in North Carolina.</p><p>Hagen recently completed a state prison sentence for a 2015 incident in which he assaulted a homeless man outside a bar in Orange. In 2016, Hagen was stabbed by counter-protesters during a KKK rally in Anaheim. Brian Levin, who researches extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, <a href="https://twitter.com/proflevin/status/1381417968085557248" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stood Hagen's prone body</a> and protected him from further injury at that rally.</p><p>The "White Lives Matter" rally on Sunday also attracted a small group of neo-Nazis, including one with the wolfsangel — a symbol favored by the ultranationalist Azov Battalion in Ukraine — tattooed on the back of his head. While counter-protesters were pursuing them, <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1381424168000872450" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">video</a> published by Andrew Kimmel records one of them hurling anti-Latinx and homophobic slurs at them.</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">An altercation started (didn't capture the beginning) and the white nationalist then got grabbed by police who then ran him into the police station on 5th St. Unclear if he was charged/released. <a href="https://t.co/CU2mvxguTe">pic.twitter.com/CU2mvxguTe</a><br/>— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1381416401970196482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>
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Trump CDC chief joins 'Big Ass Fans' -- which promotes controversial Covid-killing technology
April 13, 2021
Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has joined Big Ass Fans, lending his scientific credibility to a company division that says its ion-generating technology kills the coronavirus. The company charges $9,450 for a fan with technology that academic air quality experts question.
This story also ran on The Daily Beast. It can be republished for free.
<p>As strategic health and safety adviser, he follows Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House coronavirus response coordinator, into the booming air purifying industry. Last month, she signed on with ActivePure, a company that also makes a pitch about virus-destroying technology, but markets some devices that run afoul of California indoor air quality rules, according to <a href="https://khn.org/news/article/former-trump-adviser-deborah-birx-joins-air-cleaning-industry-amid-land-grab-for-billions-in-federal-covid-relief/">a KHN investigation</a>.</p><p>The two bring name recognition to companies selling products that <a href="https://www.activepure.com/">are advertised</a> to <a href="https://www.bigassfans.com/fans/powerfoil-d/">make it safer</a> for people to gather maskless inside schools, offices, gyms and stores. The companies market <a href="https://www.activepure.com/">99.9%</a> <a href="https://www.bigassfans.com/fans/powerfoil-d/">coronavirus kill rates</a>.</p><p>Academic indoor air quality experts who criticize certain claims about covid-killing technology say the industry-funded studies often focus on results of tests run in a space ranging in size from a shoebox to a cabinet that do not reflect the conditions in a large room. Studies backed by the industry rarely make it clear whether the touted “virus-killing" ions or molecules are doing the work, experts say, or if improvements come from a fan or filter on a device.</p><p>“There's no other way to say it — it's completely unproven whether these devices would work in a real-world setting," Timothy Bertram said of devices that claim to attack molecules in midair. He is a chemistry professor who studies aerosol particles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.</p><p>Redfield, who led the CDC during the Trump administration's pandemic response, did not respond to requests for comment before publication. “Proper ventilation has a major role to play in mitigating transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens," Redfield said in a Big Ass Fans <a href="https://cleanairsystem.com/">news release</a>. “Big Ass Fans is a leader in designing airflow systems and making places where we live, work, and play, safer."</p><p>Academic air quality experts, though, say high-profile physician sign-ons amount to celebrity endorsements.</p><p>“I'd much rather see good data transparently released than listen to Deborah Birx talk about how good this technology is when I know she isn't an expert on air disinfection," said William Bahnfleth, an architectural engineering professor at Penn State who studies indoor air quality and leads the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Epidemic Task Force.</p><p>Bertram said he studied the performance of various ion- and hydroxyl-releasing devices in classrooms and found that some emitted ozone, a gas associated with the onset or worsening of asthma. Others created other new small particles. When it came to improving ventilation, none performed as well as a HEPA filter, he said, which together with a MERV-13 filter in a heating system and increased outside ventilation is the standard recommendation. Bertram did not say which specific devices he reviewed, but said that will be detailed in a forthcoming study.</p><p>Big Ass Fans is entering the coronavirus air purifying market with brand recognition based on its uncontroversial air-moving mega-fans. Its Clean Air System fans are already used in schools and by companies such as Toyota, Tiffany & Co. and Orangetheory Fitness.</p><p>Some Clean Air System fans <a href="https://www.cleanairsystem.com/">use </a><a href="https://www.cleanairsystem.com/">UVC</a> light, widely considered an effective air cleaning technology. Other fans use bipolar ionization, a technique that the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/can-air-cleaning-devices-use-bipolar-ionization-including-portable-air-cleaners-and-duct#:~:text=Bipolar%20ionization%20(also%20called%20needlepoint,positively%20and%20negatively%20charged%20particles.&text=See%20EPA%20Air%20Cleaners%20and,the%20Home%20for%20more%20information.">Environmental Protection Agency</a> warns is “an emerging technology, and little research is available that evaluates it outside of lab conditions," adding that evidence of its effectiveness is less documented than the evidence for far more established choices like air filtration.</p><p>Big Ass Fans spokesperson Alex Risen stressed in an interview that its technology is just one layer of protection against the coronavirus. The company, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, <a href="https://cleanairsystem.com/">says its technology</a> “pairs scientifically proven air purifying technologies with powerful airflow solutions. This results in a system that kills 99.99% of pathogens to keep your people protected and your business booming."</p><p>The company charges about $500 to $1,500 more for fans with Clean Air System technology.</p><p>In the pandemic, federal funding to buy such devices for schools has exploded, with roughly $193 billion available so far. Congressional Democrats are pushing for $100 billion more. With community pressure to reopen classrooms, school officials have begun to invest heavily in air cleaning technology, though some experts worry risks are not being considered.</p><p>The EPA has warned about bipolar ionization's ability to generate ozone and other potentially harmful byproducts indoors. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036013232100158X#bib7">study</a> by top indoor air quality experts in the Building and Environment journal found that another company's bipolar ionization technology created other byproducts, including <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/toluene.pdf">toluene</a>, which can have developmental effects after long-term inhalation exposure.</p><p>Risen, the Big Ass Fans spokesperson, stressed that its ionization technology does not emit ozone or other byproducts and is not “putting bad things into your lungs." He said the products do not emit hydrogen peroxide. ActivePure, the air cleaning company Birx has signed on with, makes air cleaners that emit <a href="https://khn.org/news/article/former-trump-adviser-deborah-birx-joins-air-cleaning-industry-amid-land-grab-for-billions-in-federal-covid-relief/">gaseous hydrogen peroxide</a>, which it claims can seek out and destroy viruses, mold and bacteria, <a href="https://www.activepure.com/">according to the KHN investigation.</a></p><p>“We know that we're not producing any negative products," Risen said. “We know that at the concentrations that you're at, you're not getting negative effects."</p><p>Joe Urso, ActivePure Technologies CEO, said the “FDA has cleared a number of devices that emit hydrogen peroxide into the ambient air at a safe level for people to breathe, including our ActivePure Medical Guardian."</p><p>Bahnfleth said Big Ass Fans had made more of a good faith effort with its studies than others in the market. But he added that, without measuring potential gaseous byproducts, the research was not complete.</p><p>“They still do nothing to address potential adverse impacts of chemical byproduct exposure," said Brent Stephens, an indoor air quality expert who reviewed Big Ass Fans Clean Air System's reports and leads the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department at the Illinois Institute of Technology.</p><p>Stephens added that the controlled testing spaces — without people or furniture or other products that would be in a classroom or office — did not reflect real-world circumstances. And he worried about the “really high" ion counts, saying he would not recommend them for occupied spaces.</p><p>Bahnfleth echoed Stephens' concerns, pointing to a study that showed adverse health effects such as increased oxidative stress levels — which are linked to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/oxidative-stress">cancer and other neurological diseases</a> — for those exposed to a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32757287/">high number of negative ions</a>. Experts said more research is needed, as bipolar ionization, like that used by Big Ass Fans, produces both positive and negative ions.</p><p>Risen defended the safety of ions in an interview, noting they occur naturally.</p><p>It's hard to tell if the fan moving the air or the bipolar ionization is having an impact on the virus in the studies provided by Big Ass Fans, said Delphine Farmer, a Colorado State University associate professor who specializes in atmospheric and indoor chemistry. Also, she said, without real-world testing, it's unclear what sort of reaction this product could have when exposed to classroom fumes from paint, glue or markers.</p><p>“Anything that actually destroys a virus is potentially doing other chemistry as well," she said.</p><p>Another Clean Air System study claimed <a href="https://www.bigassfans.com/docs/clean-air/innovative-bioanalysis-big-ass-fans-ion-uvc-testing.pdf">a </a><a href="https://www.bigassfans.com/docs/clean-air/innovative-bioanalysis-big-ass-fans-ion-uvc-testing.pdf">99.999</a><a href="https://www.bigassfans.com/docs/clean-air/innovative-bioanalysis-big-ass-fans-ion-uvc-testing.pdf">% reduction</a> of the virus that causes covid from the air.</p><p>“When they give you 99.999%, that's a red flag to any scientist. We don't know anything to that degree," Bertram said. “That's just nuts."</p><p><a href="https://khn.org/about-us">KHN</a> (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us/">KFF</a> (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.</p><h3>USE OUR CONTENT</h3><p>This story can be republished for free (<a href="https://khn.org/news/article/redfield-joins-big-ass-fans-which-promotes-controversial-covid-killing-technology/view/republish/">details</a>).</p><p><a href="https://khn.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KHN's free Morning Briefing.</p>
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