A now-fired British police officer and former prison guard faces imprisonment for sending “grossly offensive” memes about George Floyd on WhatsApp.
Floyd, who died after U.S. police officer Derek Chauvin — since convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter — kneeled on his neck during an arrest in Minneapolis, was included among ten memes alleged to be “grossly offensive” which were shared by ex-constable James Watts in a group chat.
Sending such messages is a crime under the Communications Act 2003 in the United Kingdom, where the right to freedom of expression is guaranteed only under the very loose parameters laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights and is largely notional.
Article 10 of this convention states that people have the “freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers” — but that the exercise of this right “may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity, or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Prosecutor Richard Purchase told Birmingham Magistrates’ Court that “[f]our of [the memes shared by the accused officer] explicitly referred to George Floyd and the ongoing [Black Lives Matter] protests, and to some extent, mocked his death,” claiming that the remaining six appeared to be “more general racist memes.”
An Express and Star court report was vague about the actual content of the messages, noting only that one of them featured “a white dog wearing Ku Klux Klan clothing” and that others “featured images of a kneeling mat and a monkey” and “mocked a line in the movie Jaws.”
Watts pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network, but co-accused Joann Jinks, still of West Mercia Police, pleaded not guilty to the same offences. She faces trial in August.
Watts, for his part, now awaits his sentencing in June, with Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram making it clear he is not ruling out prison time due to what he described as “aggravating features in this case” and the fact that “[t]he court has to bear in mind the considerable reputational damage there can be by this sort of offending, when one is dealing with police officers.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think we’re headed towards recession?
LLOYD BLANKFEIN: We’re certainly heading — it’s a very, very high risk factor. There’s a path, a narrow path, but I think the Fed has very powerful tools. It’s hard to finely tune them and hard to see the effects of them quickly enough to alter it. But I think they are responding well. It’s definitely a risk. If I was running a big company I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I would prepared for it. But it’s not baked in the cake.
The White House claimed President Joe Biden’s administration made the baby formula shortage crisis a top priority as early as February, even though the president claimed ignorance of the problem on Thursday.
“This is something he is focusing on very acutely and again I said 24/7 we’ve been working on this since we have learned about this back in February,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during the daily briefing about Biden, calling the issue “one of the presidents top priorities.”
Biden bristled when asked by reporters on Friday if he could have acted sooner to fix the crisis.
“If we had been better mind readers, I guess we could’ve, but we moved as the problem became apparent to us,” Biden said.
The president did not even personally mention the crisis until Friday, despite weeks of reports highlighting the problem.
“I’ll answer the baby formula question because, all of a sudden, it’s on the front page of every newspaper,” Biden grumbled on Friday.
He announced the launch of a new government website to help parents locate baby formula in stores, but it was beset by extremely long hold times and unhelpful information.
Jean-Pierre alluded to a comment from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Bacerra claiming the Biden administration had been working on the issue since February and even as early as last year in 2021.
CNN: “You are satisfied with the government’s response throughout [the baby formula shortage]?”
HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra: “FDA has kept me apprised of this from LAST YEAR. We have been moving as quickly as we can” pic.twitter.com/5WRZa5chYg
“You’ve heard us talk about this, you’ve heard colleagues talking about what we have done since February,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been working on this 24/7.”
Jean-Pierre refused to offer a timeline for when supplies of baby formula would return to normal.
“What I can say is there are a lot of dates floating around out there,” she said.
President Joe Biden struggled Monday with the correct pronunciation of the name of Aaron Salter Jr., a heroic ex-cop and security guard who died Saturday confronting the Buffalo mass shooting suspect.
“We pay tribute to all law enforcement officers and their families who understand what it takes, what’s at risk, to save and protect all of us,” Biden said. “That includes paying tribute to the Buffalo police officer Aaron Salder — Slater, excuse me — who gave his life trying to save others.”
Biden spoke about Salter during a Public Safety Officer Medals of Valor ceremony at the White House for law enforcement and public safety officials.
Salter was a Buffalo police officer for 30 years before retiring in 2022 and taking a security job at the Tops Friendly Market where the shooting took place.
Salter hit the alleged shooter with at least one round from his pistol, but it was blocked by the alleged shooter’s bulletproof armor. Salter was later shot and killed during the attack.
“You’re the heart and soul and very spine of this country and communities,” Biden continued, praising the public safety officials in the room.
During the ceremony, Biden also botched the name of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat congressman from New York.
“Excuse me. You can call me ‘Bidden,’” Biden joked, mispronouncing his own name. “We’ve known each other so long and I still stumbled. I apologize.”