Civil Rights & Social Justice
Video Shows Michigan Cop Shooting Black Man Patrick Lyoya In Back Of The Head While He Was Face Down
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty On April 4, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya, a Black man from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was fatally shot in the back of the head by a police officer who had him face-down on the ground following a traffic stop that reportedly ended in a brief foot chase and a struggle over a police taser, the Associated Press reports. On Wednesday, four videos, including footage taken by the passenger in Lyoya’s car, were released to the public despite the objection of the prosecutor who will decide if the officer will be charged. “I view it as a tragedy… It was a progression of sadness for me,” said Eric Winstrom, who became Gand Rapids’ new police chief in March after serving for years as a high-ranking Chicago police ...
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves Designates April As Confederate Heritage Month, Says Systemic Racism Isn’t Real
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Pool / Getty How does one claim that systemic racism doesn’t exist while also dedicating a full month to the celebration of a thing that only existed because white people wanted to keep Black people in chains? Well, we can pose that very question to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R). For three decades, Mississippi Republicans have been celebrating the Confederacy in the month of April. According to the Mississippi Free Press, Reeves, for the third year in a row, declared that April is Confederate Heritage Month. “April is the month when, in 1861, the American Civil War began between the Confederate and Union armies, reportedly the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil,” he stated in this year’s proclamation. The proclamation—which is the...
Chris Wallace Doesn’t Think Young Civil Rights Era White People Were Racist, Nikole Hannah-Jones Sets Him Straight
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: OLIVIER DOULIERY / Getty Booooy, CNN+ host Chris Wallace should’ve just stayed his a** at Fox News because he just doesn’t fit the brand when it comes to non-conservative platforms where “not all white people” arguments just don’t fly. Recently, Wallace sat down with historian and creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones and really tried to whitesplain to this scholar of African American studies that during and even before the civil rights era, it was only really old white people who were racist. Now, obviously, this isn’t even a debate worth having. We’ve seen the iconic photos of school-aged white people verbally and physically attacking Black students like Ruby Bridges who integrated into their schools. The white people pouring liquid over the h...
Op On Op Crime?: Phony DHS Agents Busted By FBI in D.C.
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: NurPhoto / Getty Two men in Washington D.C. were taken into custody by federal authorities for impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents and claiming to investigate the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol among other charges. According to reports, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, were arrested and taken into custody by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents inside their luxury apartment in a neighborhood in Southeast Washington D.C. on Wednesday (April 6th). Federal prosecutors assigned to the case state that the two posed as agents with the Department of Homeland Security as well as members of a special task force that is conducting investigations into gangs and violence related to the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Taherz...
Gabrielle Union Calls Out Disney & Other Corporations For Silence Amid Florida “Don’t Say Gay” Bill
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Gabrielle Union stars in Disney’s remake of Cheaper by the Dozen, which is set to premiere on Disney + next week. But Union’s union with Disney did not stop her from calling out the entertainment giant for its complete failure to read the room in its response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which made headlines last week. First, let’s start with what Disney CEO Bob Chapek said regarding Florida’s bill. “I want to be crystal clear: I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities,” Chapek said in a memo sent. “And, we are committed to creating a more inclusive company ― and world. I understand that the very need to reiterate that commitment means w...
“Stand Your Ground” Laws Have Spread Over Most Of The Country After Killing Of Trayvon Martin
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images / Getty Before the killing of Trayvon Martin by neighborhood stalk-negroes-man George Zimmerman, most people had never even heard of “stand your ground” laws. Yet, they had been on the books in Florida for nearly seven years at the time Trayvon was killed for minding his own business while being Black. Now, if you think that since that tragic day in 2012—when a Black teen was killed senselessly by the monster-slash-craven coward who got away with it—America grew a conscience, realized the harm these laws have the potential to create and decided a sweeping policy change was in order, then you just don’t know America. Related Stories STL laws didn’t decrease after Trayvon’s death, they increased to the point wh...
Book ‘Em: Three Ex-Cops Convicted of Violating George Floyd’s Rights
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KEREM YUCEL / Getty Further accountability was served in a Minneapolis courtroom as the three former officers who were present at the time that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd were convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights. On Thursday (February 24th), the jury found that ex-officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane were guilty of violating George Floyd’s rights when they failed to intervene as Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while he was on the ground for over three minutes on May 25th, 2020, ultimately killing him. The jury also determined that the three were deliberately indifferent to the suffering Floyd endured and neglected his medical needs. Thao and Kueng were also found guilty on an additional charge of failing to st...
Book ‘Em: Three Ex-Cops Convicted of Violating George Floyd’s Rights
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KEREM YUCEL / Getty Further accountability was served in a Minneapolis courtroom as the three former officers who were present at the time that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd were convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights. On Thursday (February 24th), the jury found that ex-officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane were guilty of violating George Floyd’s rights when they failed to intervene as Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while he was on the ground for over three minutes on May 25th, 2020, ultimately killing him. The jury also determined that the three were deliberately indifferent to the suffering Floyd endured and neglected his medical needs. Thao and Kueng were also found guilty on an additional charge of failing to st...
Black Man Amir Locke Shot And Killed In Raid By Minneapolis Police
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kent Nishimura / Getty The case of Amir Locke, a Black man shot and killed by Minneapolis police in a dawn raid, is rapidly gaining national attention as another example of reckless behavior by law enforcement in a city still dealing with the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Locke, a twenty-two-year-old Black man, was asleep on the couch in an apartment in the Balero Flats building downtown on Wednesday morning (February 2nd) in Minneapolis. According to a statement released by the department, police entered the apartment at 6:48 A.M. acting on a search warrant on three apartments in the building. In a follow-up press conference held later that day, interim police chief Amelia Huffman asserted that the officers “loudly and repeatedly announced ‘po...
Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother Says Her ‘Anxiety Is Over The Roof’ After Federal Prosecutors Reach Plea Deal With The McMichaels
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Pool / Getty There’s a reason so many Black people hate America: Even when we get justice we know how quickly it can turn to justice-lite at best and injustice at worst (and as usual). Ahmaud Arbery‘s murderers were convicted and sentenced to life in state prison, and all was right with the world. But because America is always going to America, Gregory and Travis McMichael were able to cut a backdoor plea deal with federal prosecutors and the Department of Justice that would ensure at least two out of the three Arbery lynchers would serve any federal sentence imposed on them concurrently with their state sentences, which they would likely spend in federal prison as opposed to state prison. According to CNN, attorney S. Lee Merritt spoke out agai...
Michigan Police Officers Sued Over Targeting Black Athletes In A Coverup
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Matthew Hatcher / Getty The police department in a small town in Michigan is facing heavy scrutiny after a lawsuit levied against it by a former high school student, charging that officers were racist in targeting Black athletes while covering up a hazing scandal. According to reports, the lawsuit was brought against the Warren, Michigan police department by Cleveland Harville, a former student at Warren De Lasalle High School. Harville was one of seven Black male students at the all-boys Catholic high school who were charged with misdemeanors related to a hazing scandal in 2020. The accusations claimed that these students who were athletes were holding down younger athletes on the locker room floor and forcibly prodding their bare buttocks and legs with ...
What The Fuss: Stevie Wonder Slams Senators Hesitant On Voting Rights
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: JIM WATSON / Getty Beloved musical icon Stevie Wonder had some choice words for those in the Senate who are still unmoved about securing voting rights for all on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and shared them in a striking video message. As many – including lawmakers- took to social media to share their thoughts of inspiration and hope on the holiday celebrating the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday (January 17th), others including the King family were out protesting and calling on some of those same lawmakers in the federal government to secure voting rights on a national level. Stevie Wonder added his highly significant voice to theirs with a special message that was delivered via YouTube in the later hours of the day. Seated at his piano with his e...
