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Connecticut Democrats Take Lead Turn On Obama Gun Actions

Connecticut Democrats Take Lead Turn On Obama Gun Actions

By Bridget Bowman, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama had a message for congressional Democrats on the eve of his announcement that he was acting to combat gun violence: Don’t let Congress off the hook.

Three Connecticut Democrats, Sens. Christopher S. Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, and Rep. Elizabeth Esty, who represents Newtown, Conn., attended an hourlong meeting with Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday evening along with other members of the House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, where they discussed Obama’s executive actions that he would announce the following day, as well as their next moves.

“The president underscored a number of times last night that this couldn’t be the end of the conversation in 2016,” Murphy said in a Tuesday phone interview. “He wanted us to message this in a way that kept the pressure on Congress.”

On Tuesday morning, the president announced a series of executive actions that included clarifying a rule to ensure that those who sell firearms at gun shows or on the Internet must have a license and conduct background checks; investing in the mental health system, and calling for more resources for agencies that oversee background checks.

“I think to many of us these appear to be pretty modest steps,” Murphy said. “They’re important, they’re necessary, but they’re totally insufficient, and there’s little room left for the president to act on his own.”

Murphy has taken to the Senate floor numerous times to call on Congress to address gun violence. But, to keep the pressure, he acknowledged there isn’t much more he can do from inside the chamber.

“I wish I had a dozen new tricks up my sleeve but I don’t. The reality is the pressure on Congress is going to come from the outside, not the inside,” Murphy said. “We’re going to need a few cycles in which we win some elections based on the issue of candidates’ positions on guns.”

Winning elections, Murphy argued, is how to address GOP arguments that Congress tried but fell short on more comprehensive gun measures. Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., argued in a Monday statement that Congress has attempted to act on these measures, and they failed.

“(Obama’s) proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected,” Ryan said, referring to a 2013 bipartisan bill expanding background checks that was filibustered. “No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally.”

“That’s why this is just as much about winning elections,” Murphy countered.

Murphy said Congress is not likely to act on bills relating to background checks, but he pointed to lifting a ban on gun violence research, which became an issue in the year-end spending negotiations, and barring those on a terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms as potential areas for action.

Murphy also suggested there could be bipartisan support for increased funds for the agencies that oversee the background check system and gun law enforcement. Obama said he would be calling on Congress to allow for more funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives so the agency can hire 200 new agents and investigators.

“I think it’s time to call the (National Rifle Association’s) bluff. The gun lobby’s entire response to mass shootings is to enforce the laws on the books,” Murphy said. “The reality is there just aren’t enough ATF agents in order to police gun sales that are exploding in number and venue.”

If Republicans, Murphy argued, want to enforce existing laws, they should support increased resources for the agency that enforces those laws.

©2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama stands with Vice President Joe Biden (R) while delivering a statement on steps the administration is taking to reduce gun violence in the East Room of the White House in Washington January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

Ferguson: Burned Buildings, 61 Arrests In Wake Of Grand Jury Decision

Ferguson: Burned Buildings, 61 Arrests In Wake Of Grand Jury Decision

By James Queally, Cathleen Decker, Lauren Raab and Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

FERGUSON, Mo. — At least a dozen buildings were burned and 61 people arrested during a night of violence and chaos in Ferguson, Mo., that followed a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the killing of an unarmed black man, police said early Tuesday.

St. Louis County Police Department officials said those arrested could face charges of arson, burglary, possession of stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful assembly. Only nine of those taken into custody were from Ferguson, authorities said.

During an early morning news conference held while flames still rose from some cars and buildings in Ferguson, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said Monday night’s unrest exceeded what happened in the days after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

Belmar told a news briefing that he heard about 150 gunshots during the night.
“I’m disappointed in this evening. … I didn’t see a lot of peaceful protests out there tonight,” he said.

Police were pelted with rocks and batteries as soon as the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision was announced, he said. Two police cars were set afire and “melted” on West Florissant Avenue, the scene of many protests, and at least a dozen buildings were torched, he said.

As day began to break, police still had no accurate count of the damage or the losses.

“What I’ve seen tonight is probably much worse than the worst night we had in August,” Belmar said. “There’s not a lot left” on a section of West Florissant ravaged by arson and looting.

But there was no loss of life, he said, and no serious injuries among police or protesters have been reported. “The good news is that we have not fired a shot,” Belmar said of law enforcement.

Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson lauded law enforcement’s restraint. “The officers did a great job tonight,” he told reporters. “They showed great character.”

Like Belmar, Johnson said the night’s violence dismayed him: “Our community has got to take some responsibility for what happened tonight. … We talk about peaceful protests, and that did not happen tonight.”

Belmar confirmed that an officer in University City, another St. Louis suburb, had been wounded by gunfire Monday night, but he said that “as far as I know, that is totally unrelated to events here in Ferguson.”

St. Louis County police said the officer was hit in the arm and would be OK.

Belmar said he looked forward to getting more National Guard troops in the community, as Gov. Jay Nixon ordered earlier in the evening, but he defended police preparedness.

“I don’t think we were underprepared,” he said, adding, “I don’t think we can prevent folks who are really intent on destroying a community.”

“I didn’t foresee an evening like this,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you.”

(Queally reported from Ferguson, Pearce from St. Louis and Decker and Raab from Los Angeles. Staff writer Connie Stewart contributed to this report.)

TNS Photo/Armando Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

Darren Wilson, Recalling Shooting, Said Michael Brown Looked Like A ‘Demon’

Darren Wilson, Recalling Shooting, Said Michael Brown Looked Like A ‘Demon’

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

It started with a simple request — “will you just walk on the sidewalk?” Forty-five seconds later, Michael Brown lay sprawled on the street, shot dead by a police officer who had never before fired his gun in the line of duty.

And as he drove away from the 18-year-old’s body, heading to the Ferguson police station to wash Brown’s blood from his hands and surrender his gun, all Officer Darren Wilson could think was, “I’m just kind of in shock of what just happened. I really didn’t believe it.”

Those were the words he shared with a grand jury. And late Monday, Wilson’s explanation of that deadly day in early August became public for the first time, in a small part of an enormous trove of documents released by St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch.

Thousands of pages of police interviews, autopsy reports, and secret testimony — including Wilson’s — were made public after McCulloch announced the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson in Brown’s death.

Until late Monday, Wilson’s voice had remained silent, and the general story line went largely unchallenged: White police officer shoots unarmed young black man trying to surrender on a summer day in a St. Louis suburb.

But on Monday, Wilson’s terror and panic were plain to see in 90 pages of his testimony before the grand jury on Sept. 16 and an 18-page interview with detectives that was recorded Aug. 10, the day after Brown’s death.

Wilson was leaving an earlier call, having assisted the mother of a sick infant, when he saw Brown and another young man walking down the middle of the street, forcing traffic to slow and swerve around them. The police officer told the grand jury that he drove up, stopped his car, and asked, “What’s wrong with the sidewalk?”

In Wilson’s account, it was all downhill from there. Brown swore at the officer, and the two men walked away. So Wilson called for backup, threw his police-issued Chevy Tahoe into reverse and cut the young men off.

As he opened the door, he testified, Brown slammed it shut on Wilson’s leg. The officer told Brown to get back and opened the door again.

“He then grabs my door again and shuts my door,” Wilson told the grand jury. “At that time is when I saw him coming into my vehicle…. I was hit right here in the side of the face with a fist.”

The two men scuffled, Wilson said, and when he struggled to gain some control over the situation “and not be trapped in my car anymore,” he grabbed Brown’s arm. “The only way I can describe it is I felt like a 5-year-old holding on to Hulk Hogan.”

Brown, he said, looked like a “demon.”

When Wilson drew his gun from inside his car and told Brown to get back or he would shoot, the officer said, “he immediately grabs my gun and says, ‘You are too much of a [coward] to shoot me.'”

Wilson said he pulled his gun because “I felt that another one of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse.” Brown was bigger than the 6-foot-4 officer, and stronger, too. “I’d already taken two to the face, and I didn’t think I would, the third one could be fatal if he hit me right.”

Wilson ultimately got out of the car, and Brown began to run away. Then he stopped. And turned. And began to run back toward the officer. He made a fist with his left hand and reached under his shirt with his right. Wilson testified that he kept telling him to get on the ground. Brown didn’t.

“I shoot a series of shots,” Wilson said. “I don’t know how many I shot, I just know I shot it.”

Later, in front of the grand jury, Wilson was asked whether he had ever had to use excessive force in the line of duty before Aug. 9.

“I’ve never used my weapon before,” he replied.

TNS Photo/Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times

School District Was Discussing Mental-Health Funding On Day Of Shooting

School District Was Discussing Mental-Health Funding On Day Of Shooting

By Leah Todd, The Seattle Times

On the day that a 15-year-old boy at Marysville-Pilchuck High School near Seattle shot five friends before turning the gun on himself, Marysville School Superintendent Becky Berg was in Olympia, Wash., discussing a grant that would boost mental-health services in her district.

The $10 million award, which Marysville will share with two other school districts, is part of a federal initiative spurred by the massacre of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and several other high-profile shootings involving emotionally disturbed young men.

In light of the tragedy that unfolded Oct. 24 in Marysville, state leaders say they will speed up efforts to put the money to use, hopefully placing mental-health professionals in the district’s schools as early as next spring, and training teachers in mental-health first aid.

Planning will start even sooner.

“We’ll be up there soon,” said Dixie Grunenfelder, prevention and intervention program supervisor for the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

While it’s not clear what motivated Jaylen Fryberg to open fire on his classmates, killing three and wounding two others, or whether mental-health services could have helped him, many believe schools would benefit from having more trained staff on campus.

“Folks don’t just need mental-health services when they turn 18,” said Berg.”They need those all their lives.”

The state’s application for the federal grant paints Marysville as a community that’s close to the state norm for mental-health issues. About as many teenagers experience suicidal thoughts in Snohomish County, where Marysville-Pilchuck High School is located, as anywhere else in the state.

Roughly one in 15 high-school students there_the same percentage as in other counties statewide_reported carrying a weapon to school in the past 30 days. Bullying also happens at about the same rate as elsewhere.

The state says it chose Marysville and the other two school districts for the federal grant as much for their ability to implement mental-health services as their needs.

“We knew there was a commitment there from the district as well as community side to say, ‘We’re really ready to take on some of these issues,'” Grunenfelder said of Marysville.

Berg said she hopes the grant will help her schools address mental-health needs early.

The money, which will arrive as an extra $1.95 million per year across the three districts for the next five years, is part of Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education).

Whether any mental-health workers will be assigned to Marysville-Pilchuck High School has not been decided.

The first step is a required needs assessment in the Marysville community, Grunenfelder said.

At present, Marysville School District doesn’t have any specific training for teachers or other staff on juvenile mental health, said Berg. Teachers talk generally about child psychology and mandatory reporting of child abuse, she said, but not mental-health issues specifically.

Jerry Jenkins, superintendent of the Northwest Educational Service District, which supports Marysville and about 30 other districts, says school counselors and psychologists usually know the signs of mental-health problems, but not enough teachers and other school staff do, even though they often are in a better position to notice them. It’s not just a problem in Marysville, he said.

Another challenge is making sure people who need help know where help is available, said Joe Valentine, executive director of the North Sound Mental Health Administration, which oversees the public mental-health services in five North Sound counties, including Snohomish. Valentine’s group has held town-hall meetings on children’s mental health in the region, including Marysville.

In teenagers, signs of mental illness are sometimes hard to catch, Valentine said. And often, people come to Valentine’s group once the mental illness has become severe. Ideally, it should be caught much sooner, he said.

Teachers and families can keep an eye on changes in behavior, like eating and sleeping habits. And when someone talks about hurting themselves, he said, that should be taken seriously as a cry for help.

But sometimes, things happen that no one could have predicted, he said.

Could the services from the $10 million federal grant, if put in place sooner, prevented what happened in Marysville?

Jenkins, of the Northwest Educational Service District, said he can’t speculate.

“What I can say, [is] there would be community resources identified and training provided, so that if a parent or a student had a concern about somebody they would know where to go to access services,” he said.”Now, would that have made a difference? I don’t know.”

AFP Photo/David Ryder

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