This Sunday marks two years since 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before turning his gun on himself. For the loved ones of gun violence victims across America, the anniversary of the tragedy serves as a grim reminder of how little has changed since then. On Thursday evening, dozens of family members grieving the loss of relatives who died in shootings, along with advocates for stricter gun laws, gathered at Roosevelt University in Chicago for a vigil memorializing both the Sandy Hook victims and victims of gun violence in their own city. The Cook County medical examiner’s office has reported 406 homicides, many of them due to shootings, in Chicago this year. Speaking before the …

This Sunday marks two years since 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before turning his gun on himself. For the loved ones of gun violence victims across America, the anniversary of the tragedy serves as a grim reminder of how little has changed since then.

On Thursday evening, dozens of family members grieving the loss of relatives who died in shootings, along with advocates for stricter gun laws, gathered at Roosevelt University in Chicago for a vigil memorializing both the Sandy Hook victims and victims of gun violence in their own city. The Cook County medical examiner’s office has reported 406 homicides, many of them due to shootings, in Chicago this year.

Speaking before the packed room, Beti Guevara, who teaches science classes at the Barreto Boys & Girls Club in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, said she keeps five bullet casings she found on the sidewalk one day while walking around her community as a daily reminder of the importance of her work.

When she asks students in her classes to raise their hands if they know somebody who has been shot, she said, on most days all the hands go up.

“These are babies, but they’ve lost their fathers, their mothers, their sisters and their brothers,” Guevara told The Huffington Post. “When somebody gets killed through gun violence, there’s a ripple effect and that ripple effect is on the family — but they don’t report on the news about it afterwards. After they bury the child, then where’s everybody?”

Guevara can personally attest to this “ripple effect” — her brother was gunned down when she was 12 years old, and she saw firsthand the effect his death had on her parents. She says she wishes that more protests, like the ones that have taken place in response to the grand jury decisions about Michael Brown’s and Eric Garner’s deaths, would focus specifically on gun violence.

“We’re going down the streets of Chicago with our rage and we’re blocking traffic,” Guevara said. “And yet we lost so many babies last week, and nobody is getting outraged and nobody’s stopping traffic.”

Rafael Burgos came to the vigil to remember his 18-year-old daughter, Alexandra, who was shot and killed in October. She was picking up her brother from a friend’s home, and died instantly when bullets came through the window of the house.

Alexandra was “a good girl, never in any trouble never in any gangs of any kind,” Rafael told HuffPost. “She was a good, loving young lady. She was a very positive role model for many people.” The teenager was attending college and wanted to become a social worker some day.

“It just feels like an emptiness,” Rafael said, describing life without his daughter. “Every day you wake up and it feels like there is a part of you missing, because there is. And it’s like you walk and you function and you want to participate in life and it’s like you feel like a shadow.”

Rafael added that the shooting also particularly impacted his younger son, who witnessed the tragedy.

“My son struggles every day. He tries to go through the motions but he’s hurting, we’re all hurting,” Rafael said. “He’s trying to be strong for us.”

Sharon Gardner, a mother of six, came to the vigil in honor of her brother, who she said served in the military in Operation Desert Storm. He was fatally shot in 1994, only six months after he returned to Chicago.

“I just feel so cheated, so cheated,” Gardner told HuffPost. “He survived all that war and turmoil overseas — then he wasn’t here with us more than six months in his hometown.”

Gardner said she fears for her children, especially her 15-year-old son.

“I pay life insurance [for him] before I pay my rent now,” she said.

Participants in the vigil walked two blocks to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park and released 26 white balloons into the air in memory of the 26 people who died in the Sandy Hook shooting, along with an additional balloon that represented victims of gun violence in Chicago.

At Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral on Thursday, hundreds of mourners and activists took part in a two-hour vigil, including Gilles and Joyce Rousseau, whose daughter Lauren was a Sandy Hook teacher. The attendees used the service as an opportunity to recommit themselves to ending what speakers called “the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.” Despite the vigil’s hallowed location beneath the sweeping stone arches of the cathedral nave, the event felt less like a memorial service and more like a very polite rally aimed at calling supporters to action.

In his remarks, the Right Rev. Gary R. Hall, dean of the National Cathedral, described an epic battle between “the gun lobby,” exemplified by the National Rifle Association, and what he called “the cross lobby,” the hundreds of congregations across the country taking “faithful action to prevent gun violence.”

“The gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby,” Hall told the attendees. “In the end, we will prevail in this struggle because love and justice always finally win over fear and hate. Let us commit ourselves, today, to stand where God calls us to stand: with and for those who suffer and die from the illegal and immoral use of firearms.”

While the date of the event and the green memorial ribbons given to guests were both reminders of Sandy Hook, attendees drew resolve and spirit from more recent events as well, like the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin and the recent fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Speakers and attendees alike said they viewed all the victims as pieces of the same problem: senseless deaths by guns.

The sentiment was similar on Friday in the Riverdale area of the Bronx, where members and staff of the Sisters of Charity bowed their heads in remembrance not only of those killed at Sandy Hook, but of all victims of gun violence across the world.

Members of the Sisters of Charity in the Bronx dedicate a moment of silence to victims of gun violence.

“Hold all those lives hurt and lost through violence in your heart — both those who have inflicted violence and those who have endured it,” said Sister Karen Gray. “Perhaps you know someone whose life was lost to gun violence. Gently hold their presence in your imagination.”

After a brief pause, the sisters read aloud the names of people in their community who had been lost to gun violence. Sister Barbara Ann Ford, a Bronx native who was shot to death in 2001 in Guatemala after spending two decades doing relief work in the country, was one name. Archbishop Oscar Romero was another.

Gray read aloud statistics about background checks for buying guns in the United States. Forty-nine percent fewer suicides with a gun in states where a background check is required for all handgun sales. Thirty-eight percent fewer women killed with a gun by an intimate partner. Thirty-nine percent fewer police officers murdered with a handgun that was not their own. And so on.

“God of life, every act of violence in our world, in our communities, between myself and others, destroys a part of your creation,” Gray said to close the service. “Stir in my heart a renewed sense of reverence for all life. Give me the vision to recognize your spirit in every human being, however they behave towards me. Make possible the impossible by cultivating in me the fertile seed of healing love. May I play my part in breaking the cycle of violence by realizing that peace begins with me.”

At a church in the quiet suburb of Oak Park, Michigan, a group of 40 people assembled on Thursday to discuss the problem of gun violence in the nation and particularly in their state, whether in nearby Detroit or in a small town.

Linda Brundage, the Michigan chapter leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, spoke at length about gun control and the need for stronger background check laws.

“Stop being the silent majority,” she told attendees gathered at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish. “We must find our voices to change the gun culture in the United States.”

The group held candles in a circle as they recited name after name, memorializing loved ones lost to gun violence.

Cassandra Davis of Redford, Michigan, spoke to the crowd about her son Jeremiah, who was shot to death in November of last year by a 15-year-old. Jeremiah was 11.

“I didn’t even allow my son to play with a gun,” Davis said. “He never owned own a toy gun.”

According to news reports, the teen who shot Jeremiah was playing with a gun that is believed to have been found at his grandmother’s house. The two boys were at Jeremiah’s father’s home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, and Jeremiah’s father and the 15-year-old’s mother were both in the house when the shooting took place. The teen, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Davis said Thursday’s gathering was the first time she had been able to talk about her son at length in public. But she has become close with some of the women at Moms Demand Action and may continue to tell her story, in part to push for gun control laws to be strengthened and for gun safety to become a stronger priority, particularly in families with children.

“I protected my son as much as I could — as a mom, as a parent,” she said. “He couldn’t ride his bike from one corner to the other [without me] standing there watching him. I didn’t let him go around the block. He’s like, ‘Mom, why can’t I go around the block and so-and-so did?’ Because I said so. I’m protecting you, it’s my job. I said, ‘Well, when you get to be 12 years old you can go around the block.’ He didn’t make it.”

Darrell and Katherine Lotharp brought their daughter, Starletta, to Thursday’s gathering. Starletta was eight months pregnant in the spring of 2002 when her partner, Michael Brown Sr., was shot and killed by a neighbor.

“Unfortunately this neighbor was a convicted felon that had just got out of prison,” Darrell Lotharp said. “So what does he do? Get into an argument with a citizen, and he goes and pulls the gun out and shoots him. For nothing. They arrest him within 24 hours and he’s right back in jail. It disrupted a whole family, over nothing, and that’s sad. There’s no rhyme or reason for it.”

Darrell and Katherine Lotharp with their daughter, Starletta, whose partner was shot to death when she was eight months pregnant.

Starletta gave birth four days after the funeral.

“He never saw his daughter. Things like that, that hurts,” her father continued. “If he didn’t have a weapon, I don’t think it would have happened. But he had easy access to a gun. What’s a felon doing with a gun?”

Meanwhile, Davis told attendees there are still countless things she can’t bring herself to do in her son’s absence: Go in his room. Watch University of Michigan football games. Eat pizza or macaroni and cheese. Walk at a favorite park. Watch the news.

“I still can’t get over it. I wake up every morning saying I can’t believe my baby’s gone,” she said. “I kept my son in a good neighborhood, a good school district. It doesn’t matter where you’re at — people have guns everywhere.”

Christina Wilkie reported from Washington, D.C., Christopher Mathias reported from New York, Joseph Erbentraut reported from Chicago and Kate Abbey-Lambertz reported from Detroit.

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Sandy Hook Anniversary Vigils Shine Light On A Nation Plagued By Gun Violence

WASHINGTON — Tyrone Lawson’s pictures are still on the wall of his home in Chicago. His clothes are there, too. Every now and then, his mother, Pamela Wright, will take out an old gray T-shirt to remind herself of his smell. She still sees his friends. And she even stays true to their dinner traditions: a pizza picnic every Wednesday. As time passes since that night her son was shot dead outside a college gymnasium, Pamela holds on more tightly to the routines they shared. “I’ve moved on but I haven’t moved much,” she says. “And I don’t think I want to.” This Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the shooting of 20 students and six educators at the Sandy Hook elementary …

WASHINGTON — Tyrone Lawson’s pictures are still on the wall of his home in Chicago. His clothes are there, too. Every now and then, his mother, Pamela Wright, will take out an old gray T-shirt to remind herself of his smell. She still sees his friends. And she even stays true to their dinner traditions: a pizza picnic every Wednesday. As time passes since that night her son was shot dead outside a college gymnasium, Pamela holds on more tightly to the routines they shared.

“I’ve moved on but I haven’t moved much,” she says. “And I don’t think I want to.”

This Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the shooting of 20 students and six educators at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. For much of the country, the grisly milestone will be marked with remembrances, moments of silence and calls for action. For Pamela Wright, it will mean that and more. She is part of the universe of individuals who have lost loved ones in the 94 school shootings that have taken place since Newtown — a number that went up to 95 during the time it took to publish this piece.

“You don’t think anything like that will happen to you,” Pamela says. “You don’t put yourself in that situation until it occurs. Now I look at Sandy Hook, those parents had to be insane. Literally, I mean, to even wake themselves up.”

Pamela is 54 years old. Tyrone was her only child. His birth was carefully planned. She hadn’t wanted to get pregnant until she was 35, to give herself time to work and, perhaps, become more mature. From the moment Tyrone was born, though, he would remain unrelentingly wonderful to her. Every year, the two of them would take trips with their extended family to a camping site in nearby Indiana where they’d fish and swim and walk outdoors. They learned how to hook worms and would walk to the lakefront to find seashells, which they’d use to carve pieces of wood. Each year they’d mark a new piece with the date of their visit.

When he entered his senior year of high school, Tyrone, an honors student, had lofty ambitions. He wanted to work at ComEd or maybe even become a Navy SEAL — a career option that racked his mother’s nerves.

“I didn’t want him to get killed in the war they were having,” Pamela explained. “I always tried to talk to him, like: ‘Are you really sure?’ I always had that fear. It didn’t matter.”

She pauses to reflect on how misplaced, in retrospect, those thoughts now seem.

“I never would have thought he would have gone to a basketball game and never came home to me,” she says.

Pamela says she has no guilt about what happened the night of January 16, 2013, though one gets the sense when talking to her that this is an ongoing internal battle she wages. What haunts her instead is that no internal triggers went off. No warning signs, no subconscious moment of dread. Instead, it was all quite normal. Tyrone, who was 17 at the time, texted her that afternoon, asking if he could go to the high school basketball game between Morgan Park and Simeon at Chicago State University that evening. She said no at first. It was a school night. But Pamela’s own mother prevailed on her to let Tyrone enjoy the fleeting moments of his senior year.

They met up at home before he left. After eating, Pamela drove him to the game and gave him money for the ticket. They said their goodbyes and she told him to be careful.

“I wonder if there was something that was telling me that I shouldn’t let him go and I just didn’t read it,” she says.

What killed Tyrone, in the end, was misfortune. The basketball game had been contentious, though not remarkably so. But as the two teams shook hands after the game ended, an argument broke out. Players were separated and sent back to their lockers. The tension spilled out into the stands and, from there, into the parking lot. As Tyrone ran away from the scene, two men shot him twice in the back. Someone tried to get him to keep moving. But he couldn’t get up.

It was 9:20 p.m. Thirty-one minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

What does it feel like to be told that your child has died?

Pamela still isn’t sure. In that moment after she received calls from a relative and from Tyrone’s friends, she felt like a vast cone was being placed over her life. She could see the chaos surrounding her. But inside, she couldn’t yet feel, hear or comprehend it.

“You don’t have a mind,” she says. “There is nothing going through you. … It is indescribable. Sometimes I wish I could describe how your whole life has been eliminated. If you look at your children, they are like 99 percent of your life. And for someone to just kill your child is … it’s … unbelievable. It really is.”

Pamela refused to look at Tyrone’s body at the hospital, thinking that it would, quite literally, kill her. Gregory Young, her then-fiance and now her husband, identified the body instead. It was only later, at the coroner’s office, that Pamela got her first glimpse.

The shooting made headlines, in large part because Simeon was (and remains) a basketball powerhouse, featuring the nation’s top high school player at the time, Jabari Parker. But even just one month after Sandy Hook, the public — and certainly the city of Chicago — was already growing desensitized to such violence. When Tyrone was shot, there had already been four school shootings since Newtown, two of which had resulted in deaths.

Early on, Pamela coped by pretending her son wasn’t dead. She’d tell people that he had gone away to the Navy and would be back soon. “That was my way of dealing with what had happened,” she says. “He was going to come back and I’ll see him then.”

Had she had another child, Pamela figures, it might have been easier. She’d never replace Tyrone, but she’d shift her focus elsewhere. Instead, she filled the void by reaching out beyond her family. She went into therapy, started keeping a journal and talked to other mothers who had lost children to gun violence.

“It’s not hard to find them in Chicago,” Pamela notes.

More recently, she’s dipped her toes into the world of activism. Last week, she and Young boarded a plane and flew to Washington, D.C., for a press conference marking the two-year anniversary of Newtown. Standing in front of a crowd of 30 or so in Senate Room 115 inside the Capitol Building, Pamela nervously chewed gum and listened to the procession of speakers. As Everytown for Gun Safety, the group hosting the event, played a new video of a school shooting drill, she turned away and wiped tears from her eyes.

When it came time for her to speak, Pamela took a deep breath, pushed her hair out of her face, and approached the microphone.

“Some media outlets don’t count what happened to my son as a school shooting,” she told the crowd, referencing the disputes over the methodology Everytown uses to count post-Sandy Hook shootings. “They whittle down their lists by removing anything resembling so-called gang violence, not to mention accidental shootings or suicide. But Americans know that any time a gun is fired on school grounds, fear strikes an entire community.”

After the speech was done, Pamela was relieved. She sat back in a chair and looked around the room.

In less than two years, life has brought Pamela horrible and inconceivable twists and turns — but not closure, at least not yet. The men who killed Tyrone are both in jail. Pamela is still left wondering about the moment they killed her son.

“The only thing I would like to know is, did my baby die fast, did he know I loved him, and did he feel pain?” she says. “I can’t answer those. I know he loved me, but did he have a chance to think about that I loved him?”

Watch an interview Pamela Wright gave to the Chicago Tribune shortly after her son Tyrone was killed:

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Pamela Wright’s Son Was Shot Dead A Month After Newtown. This Is Her Story.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two women have pleaded guilty in connection with a series of attacks on African-Americans in Mississippi that included running over and killing a man. The Clarion-Ledger reports (http://on.thec-l.com/1xegWpe) that Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal hate crime law. Richards also pleaded guilty to concealing from investigators information about James Craig Anderson’s killing. Both women are 21. Anderson’s death outside a Jackson hotel in 2011 sparked a broader investigation into reports that young white men and women were driving from mostly white Rankin County into majority-black Jackson to assault African-Americans. Six …

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two women have pleaded guilty in connection with a series of attacks on African-Americans in Mississippi that included running over and killing a man.

The Clarion-Ledger reports (http://on.thec-l.com/1xegWpe) that Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal hate crime law. Richards also pleaded guilty to concealing from investigators information about James Craig Anderson’s killing. Both women are 21.

Anderson’s death outside a Jackson hotel in 2011 sparked a broader investigation into reports that young white men and women were driving from mostly white Rankin County into majority-black Jackson to assault African-Americans.

Six others also have pleaded guilty.

Richards’ statement said she encouraged one of those defendants to hit Anderson with his truck, then lied to investigators about it.

___

Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

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2 Mississippi Women Plead Guilty To Hate Crimes

As tens of thousands of people rallied in the nation’s capitol and demonstrated through the streets of New York on Saturday, protesters in other cities across the nation also held events of their own to denounce racial injustice. Chants of “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breathe” were heard in cities from Boston to San Diego as protesters spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling. While the march in Washington had the largest turnout, with an estimate of more than 50,000 protesters, cities including New York, Chicago, Oakland and San Antonio each had significant participation from protesters who took to the streets in solidarity. In Los Angeles, on the corner of Hollywood and Highland, 50 protesters circled four intersections, disrupting traffic and chanting “no…

As tens of thousands of people rallied in the nation’s capitol and demonstrated through the streets of New York on Saturday, protesters in other cities across the nation also held events of their own to denounce racial injustice.

Chants of “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breathe” were heard in cities from Boston to San Diego as protesters spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling.

While the march in Washington had the largest turnout, with an estimate of more than 50,000 protesters, cities including New York, Chicago, Oakland and San Antonio each had significant participation from protesters who took to the streets in solidarity.

In Los Angeles, on the corner of Hollywood and Highland, 50 protesters circled four intersections, disrupting traffic and chanting “no justice no peace, no racist police.”

It has been a bigger group than appeared last week, according to 28-year-old Sharlene, a recent transplant from New York.

“Everyone has a stake in this — everyone should be out here,” she told The Huffington Post. She talked about her brother, “the best kid you could imagine,” who has been stopped and frisked seven times by local police.

Nearby, hundreds marched from Berkeley to Oakland while more than a thousand rallied outside the Oakland courthouse. Meanwhile, in Boston, state police arrested 23 protesters Saturday afternoon, charging each of them with disorderly conduct.

Crowds across the nation consisted of people of all ages and demographics, reflecting a diversity praised by many.

“At previous protests for other similar causes, it’s been only black faces,” Los Angeles resident Aiesha Spires, 27, told The Huffington Post. “I appreciate the diversity and I appreciate that [the white allies] are taking cues from us and not taking over.”

Consensus among several protesters in Los Angeles was that awareness of racial injustice and accountability of police brutality were the salient needs.

That sentiment was shared among the tens of thousands of others who expressed the same concerns throughout the country — and as portrayed in images from protests across America. Take a look at some of them below:

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‘Everyone Has A Stake In This’: Tens Of Thousands Mobilize Across America To Protest Police Killings

In the months since unarmed teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, this past August, an ever-growing movement spotlighting police brutality and the structural racism in American society has taken the country by storm. On Saturday, thousands of people marched through New York City to honor the lives of Brown, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice and the other unarmed people of color who lost their lives at the hands of police officers. The Huffington Post spoke with dozens of protesters, who ran the gamut of ages, races and demographics, to find out why they decided to speak out and what…

In the months since unarmed teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, this past August, an ever-growing movement spotlighting police brutality and the structural racism in American society has taken the country by storm.

On Saturday, thousands of people marched through New York City to honor the lives of Brown, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice and the other unarmed people of color who lost their lives at the hands of police officers. The Huffington Post spoke with dozens of protesters, who ran the gamut of ages, races and demographics, to find out why they decided to speak out and what they hoped would change in their communities.

Below, demonstrators share their thoughts on why #BlackLivesMatter:

Jason Dincauze, 32, New York City-based writer

“I’m here because … it’s an epidemic that we need to address. I think the NYPD police union needs to go away. They represent murderers.”

Famous Andre, 47, Queens-based radio host

“I’m here because racism is alive and well in America. We don’t have a policing problem here. If what was happening in the black community was happening in the white community, we would have a policing problem. But it’s not. I would like the white people in America to understand that this cannot continue.”

Arlene Edwards, 25, Pennsylvania-based lab analyst

“Being an African-American woman, I feel the issue is deeper than racism. It’s about injustice. Sometimes not doing something is part of the problem. I would like to see those in power held accountable.”

Ellen Raider, 74, retired and living in Brooklyn

“I’m out here because of the injustice of the criminal justice system and the racism in our society that has to be talked about. I want to see the grand jury system eliminated. It should go straight to trial.”

Adisa Terry, 9, Brooklyn resident

“I’m here because of the unfairness of so many of these incidents. I’d like to see an end to racism and better policing.”

Savvy Jaye, 19, New York University student

“I’m here because I’m pissed off about the Eric Garner and Michael Brown decisions and the kid who got shot carrying a toy gun. It’s bullshit. It shouldn’t be just a few people out here. It should be everyone, pissed off.”

Kahdeem Cohens, 19, Princeton University student

“I want to be part of the history that’s happening today. Change like ending racism won’t happen soon, but hopefully we can work towards actual equality under the law.”

Darlene Livingston, 72, retired and living in Staten Island

“I’m here because police are over policing. My neighbor put in a phony call about a burglary and 10 police showed up. There was never a report. I would like to see cops stop shooting to kill and stop killing blacks and special needs people.”

Samantha Gonzalez, 22, Manhattan-based office manager

“This is an issue that people sweep under the rug and it can’t be ignored anymore. Ending systemic racism would be nice. Obviously that’s a long process, but what can absolutely happen is getting indictments.”

Joseph, 59, Queens-based software developer

“I’m here because of the killings of our American citizens. I would like to see independent prosecutors handle all killings.”

Originally posted here: 

These Powerful Signs Illustrate The True Diversity Of The #BlackLivesMatter Movement

What will sports fans see next: Usain Bolt vs. Adrian Peterson or Adrian Peterson vs. the Green Bay Packers? The suspended Minnesota Vikings running back revealed to ESPN that he has considered retirement while battling the NFL for reinstatement. Peterson, the 2012 NFL MVP, was suspended without pay for at least the remainder of the 2014 season on Nov. 18 for violations of the league’s Personal Conduct Policy after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault for using a wooden switch to discipline his 4-year-old son. With support from the NFLPA, Peterson appealed that suspension, which indicated he could not be considered for reinstatement until April 2015. After the denial of his appeal by NFL-appointed arbiter Harold Henderson on Friday, Peterson told ESPN that …

What will sports fans see next: Usain Bolt vs. Adrian Peterson or Adrian Peterson vs. the Green Bay Packers?

The suspended Minnesota Vikings running back revealed to ESPN that he has considered retirement while battling the NFL for reinstatement. Peterson, the 2012 NFL MVP, was suspended without pay for at least the remainder of the 2014 season on Nov. 18 for violations of the league’s Personal Conduct Policy after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault for using a wooden switch to discipline his 4-year-old son.

With support from the NFLPA, Peterson appealed that suspension, which indicated he could not be considered for reinstatement until April 2015. After the denial of his appeal by NFL-appointed arbiter Harold Henderson on Friday, Peterson told ESPN that he had considered real estate and a bid for the 2016 Olympics in the 200-meter and 400-meter events as fallback options.

“I’ve considered retiring from the NFL,” Peterson told ESPN. “I still made $8 million dollars this year. I’ve thought about getting back into the real estate [business in Texas] I’m already in. That’s something I’ve been interested in, something I’m involved in. I’ve thought about getting back into that. I’ve thought about going after the Olympics — you only live once. It might be time for me to pursue that, as well. I love playing football, don’t get me wrong, but this situation is deeper than that. For me, it’s like, ‘Why should I continue to be a part of an organization or a business that handles players the way they do? Making money off the field anyway, why not continue to pursue that (Olympic) dream and pursue other dreams and hang up the cleats?'”

Peterson has been an elite NFL player since being drafted out of Oklahoma in 2007, but lining up alongside world-class sprinters would be a very different challenge for the 29-year-old.

“Peterson is delusional if he thinks he has any chance of being a track and field Olympian,” wrote Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk on Saturday. “Yes, Peterson is very fast by the standards of a normal human being, and even by the standards of an NFL player. No, Peterson is nowhere near as fast as an Olympic sprinter. If Peterson is serious about trying to qualify for the Olympics, he’d have a better chance at a more specialized sport like the bobsled.”

In a statement issued shortly after Peterson’s appeal was denied, the NFLPA indicated that the fight over Peterson’s suspension was not over:

The NFLPA expected this outcome, given the hearing officer’s relationship and financial ties to the NFL. The decision itself ignores the facts, the evidence and the collective bargaining agreement. This decision also represents the NFL’s repeated failure to adhere to due process and confirms its inconsistent treatment of players. Our union is considering immediate legal remedies.

Citing an unnamed person with direct knowledge of the situation, the Associated Press reported that Peterson will continue his fight to return to football by filing a complaint against the NFL in federal court as early as Monday.

Peterson participated in the Vikings’ opening game of the 2014 season before being indicted in the child injury case on Sept. 12. The Vikings then placed him on the Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission list on Sept. 17, barring him from team activities until his legal proceedings were resolved.

Originally posted here:  

Adrian Peterson Considered Abandoning NFL For Olympics

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Three cardboard cutouts of black people were found hanging by nooses Saturday on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. When are you going to address what we woke up to @Cal? #Berkeley #MillionsMarch pic.twitter.com/JONaYK9hhv December 13, 2014 School spokeswoman Amy Hamaoui said police are trying to determine who hanged the effigies that were found at two prominent campus locations Saturday morning. The spokeswoman said the effigies appear to be connected to a noon-time demonstration nearby planned to coincide with a national protest against police brutality dubbed “#blacklivesmatters.” The effigies appear to be life…

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Three cardboard cutouts of black people were found hanging by nooses Saturday on the Berkeley campus of the University of California.

When are you going to address what we woke up to @Cal? #Berkeley #MillionsMarch pic.twitter.com/JONaYK9hhv

— Lucy Lewis (@randell1992) December 13, 2014

School spokeswoman Amy Hamaoui said police are trying to determine who hanged the effigies that were found at two prominent campus locations Saturday morning. The spokeswoman said the effigies appear to be connected to a noon-time demonstration nearby planned to coincide with a national protest against police brutality dubbed “#blacklivesmatters.” The effigies appear to be life-size photos of lynching victims. Two depicted men and third was a photograph of a female victim.

The effigies had names of lynching victims and the dates of their death. At least one effigy had “I Can’t Breathe” printed on the front. Hamaoui said it’s unclear who hanged the effigies.

“We are unsure of the intent,” Hamaoui said.

Two of the effigies were removed by police and a student took down the third.

Organizers of the Berkeley protest were mystified as well.

“We just hope it’s someone who wanted to bring attention to the issue,” said Spencer Pritchard, 21, a UC Berkeley student and an organizer of the demonstration. Pritchard said about 200 protesters demonstrated in Berkeley with the goal to “disrupt business as usual to show that black lives matter.”

Pritchard said many of the Berkeley protests plan on attending a demonstration against police brutality starting in Oakland at 2 p.m. PST. A similar demonstration is scheduled at the same time in San Francisco and elsewhere in the country.

Original article:  

Effigies Of Blacks Found Hanging By Nooses At UC Berkeley

Thousands of protesters streamed out of New York City’s Washington Square Park on Saturday to protest the killings of unarmed black people by police officers, as part of the “Millions March NYC.” The crowd wound its way up Fifth Avenue, chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” A large labor union contingent was present, including members of the Communications Workers of America wearing red shirts and AFL-CIO supporters waving blue signs. Protesters held up 8 panels depicting Eric Garner’s eyes, created by the artist JR. “The eyes were chosen as the most important part of the face,” said artist assistant Tony Herbas, 31, of Bushwick. In contrast …

Thousands of protesters streamed out of New York City’s Washington Square Park on Saturday to protest the killings of unarmed black people by police officers, as part of the “Millions March NYC.“

The crowd wound its way up Fifth Avenue, chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” A large labor union contingent was present, including members of the Communications Workers of America wearing red shirts and AFL-CIO supporters waving blue signs.

Protesters held up 8 panels depicting Eric Garner’s eyes, created by the artist JR. “The eyes were chosen as the most important part of the face,” said artist assistant Tony Herbas, 31, of Bushwick.

In contrast to other marches in recent days, this large, orderly demonstration took place during the day. A number of families with children took part, and demonstrators followed a pre-planned route.

At times, the march blurred surreally with Santacon — the sloshy daytime celebration of Christmas (and drinking) that New Yorkers hate on every year.

The march was scheduled to make its way uptown to Herald Square, then loop back down Broadway, culminating at One Police Plaza.

Saturday’s day of action came in response to two separate grand jury decisions not to indict police officers for killing unarmed black men. On Nov. 24, a St. Louis County grand jury voted not to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Less than two weeks later, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who killed Eric Garner by putting him in a chokehold.

Brown’s death on Aug. 9 triggered months of protest in Ferguson against police killings — protests that have since spread nationwide.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Thousands March On NYPD Headquarters To Protest Police Killings

A prosecutor released hundreds of pages of additional documents Saturday from the investigation into the police shooting of Michael Brown, including an interview transcript of a friend who initially asserted that he had seen Brown get shot in the back. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said the newly released records were inadvertently excluded from the thousands of pages of other documents made public Nov. 24, when a grand jury decided not to charge Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing Brown. The freshly publicized documents include a transcript of an interview of Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson conducted by the FBI and county police just four days after the Aug. 9 confrontation in which the …

A prosecutor released hundreds of pages of additional documents Saturday from the investigation into the police shooting of Michael Brown, including an interview transcript of a friend who initially asserted that he had seen Brown get shot in the back.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said the newly released records were inadvertently excluded from the thousands of pages of other documents made public Nov. 24, when a grand jury decided not to charge Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing Brown.

The freshly publicized documents include a transcript of an interview of Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson conducted by the FBI and county police just four days after the Aug. 9 confrontation in which the white officer shot the black 18-year-old. Previously released forensic evidence showed that Brown was not shot in the back but was struck by bullets in the head, chest and arm.

Johnson’s account to investigators was generally similar to his later grand jury testimony, in which he portrayed Wilson as the aggressor during a struggle that began at the officer’s vehicle and led to a brief chase before Brown’s fatal shooting.

In both his original interview and his Sept. 10 grand jury testimony, which was previously released, Johnson said that Wilson reached out of his vehicle window toward Brown’s throat or shirt. During the ensuring struggle, Johnson said he never saw Brown touch Wilson’s gun.

Wilson told grand jurors that Brown grabbed ahold of his weapon and twisted it toward the officer’s leg. The officer eventually fired his gun from inside the vehicle. Forensic evidence showed that Brown’s hand was shot at close range. Brown and Johnson then ran.

In his August interview, Johnson initially was adamant that he had seen Johnson get shot in the back while running.

“It definitely struck him in his back,” Johnson said, later adding: “It caused him to stop.”

Asked by a detective how he knew Brown had been shot in the back, Johnson replied: “If it would’ve missed him, or if he wouldn’t have felt it, I believe he would’ve kept runnin.”

Under further questioning, Johnson later acknowledged that he didn’t see a bullet hit Brown’s back, but he remained adamant that Brown’s back was toward Wilson when he fired a shot.

By almost all witness accounts, Brown turned at some point to face the officer.

Johnson described Brown’s hands as being raised, one higher than the other. Wilson told grand jurors that one of Brown’s hands was clenched in a fist and the other at his waist as Brown began charging back at Wilson.

As with the previously released grand jury documents, the witness transcripts released Saturday varied in their accounts of Brown’s hands. One witness said Brown’s “hands kinda went up.” Another said Brown’s hands were up briefly but he then ran toward Wilson. Another said Brown threw up his hands and said something that sounded like, “Don’t kill me.”

Among the documents released Saturday was a witness list, with all of the names of the witnesses whited out. It shows that 62 people testified before the grand jury between Aug. 20 and Nov. 21, including some who appeared multiple times. Some of the people interviewed by federal authorities did not testify before the grand jury.

McCulloch apologized in a written statement for any confusion that may have occurred by failing to initially release all of the interview transcripts. He said he believes he has now released all of the grand jury evidence, except for photos of Brown’s body and anything that could lead to witnesses being identified.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporters Shawn Chen in Kansas City, Missouri; Jeff McMurray in Chicago; and Greg Moore in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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More Ferguson Documents Released By St. Louis County Prosecutor