Baltimore, Maryland - A local protest began Saturday, April 18th, over the Sunday, April 12th arrest of 25 year-old Freddie Gray, for possession of a knife. The protests began outside the Western district police station, in Baltimore.
The following day, Freddie Gray was killed, while in police custody, on Sunday, April 19th. It was the day after the protests began. For the next 2 weeks, the protests intensified and became violent. Eventually, the Maryland National Guard would take the streets of Baltimore.
There were hundreds of injuries, arrests, fires, and some businesses were looted. The city of Baltimore imposed a curfew and some parts of Baltimore were effectively shutdown during this period.
6 employees of the Baltimore Police Department were arrested. 3 were tried and found not guilty. Charges were dropped against the other 3.
No one was held criminally responsible for the murder of Freddie Gray, while in the custody of the police of the City of Baltimore.
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Charleston, South Carolina - Just before 9:00 p.m., a 21 year-old Dylann Roof murdered nine (9) Black Americans. The massacre took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. 5 survived.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015, at about 8:00 p.m., Roof came to the church. Inside, there were fourteen (14) people. They started a bible study. Senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney ran the bible study.
Once Roof entered the church, he asked for Pinckney. Roof sat next to Pinckney. Once the bible study ended, prayer began. As people prayed, Roof stood, and began shooting people to death. Roof said, 'Y'all want something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about.'
Roof reloaded his gun 5 times. Each victim was shot at least 5 times. He fired 70 shots. Roof shouted racial slurs at his victims, as he shot them.
All of the survivors were female. 2 survived playing dead. 2 survived, in another room, that Roof never saw. 1 survived because Roof wanted her to tell others.
On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted on all charges. This included 9 counts of murder.
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New York, New York - New York Magazine published a cover with dozens of women who accused Bill Cosby. The women had no evidence, no one to back up their stories, but had bad things to say about Bill Cosby.
This cover story was an attempt to attack the most prominent and successful Black American entertainer in the country. Movements such as TimesUp, and MeToo sought to present Cosby as the Black American rapist. This was similiar to Jack Johnson, 100 years earlier. It drew parallels to Michael Jackson, 10 years earlier.
The constant media pressure got Cosby convicted of a crime, against a white woman. The crime never existed. Cosby was in prison for almost three (3) years. Finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court cleared him of all charges.
When the hysteria over Bill Cosby began, he was near 80, almost blind, and had not been in the public spotlight for years. Some speculate this was all a distraction from white killers of unarmed Black Americans.
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of 18 of 36 counts of rape. Also included were sexual battery, stalking, and forcible, oral sodomy. Holtzclaw was an active worker of the Oklahoma City Police Department went he committed the crimes.
13 women testified against Holtzclaw. All of them were Black American women.
Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 years in prison, in Oklahoma. Holtzclaw was 28 years of age, at the time.
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