Pat Davis, one of Albuquerque’s most liberal city councilors who has made police reform part of his agenda, is facing calls to resign over his 2004 shooting of a Black man as a Metropolitan Washington, D.C., police officer.
The left-leaning ProgressNow New Mexico — an advocacy group Davis founded in 2011 — demanded Thursday that he step down from his council seat and his various other positions on committees and task forces.  
In a statement, the group said Davis’ shooting of the man was “troubling” and it criticized “tough on crime” promises he made during his unsuccessful 2009 campaign for Bernalillo County sheriff.
“ProgressNow New Mexico finds it imperative to continue calling out racism when we see it and holding perpetrators accountable for their actions,” said Alissa Barnes, executive director of the group. “No matter who that person is.”
Davis, who is white, served as executive director of the group but left in 2017.
He dismissed calls to resign from his city posts and said the man he shot later pleaded guilty to firearms charges.  
The demand for Davis to resign came amid nationwide anti-racism and police brutality protests that are pressuring cities to reform their police departments and change how officers treat Black residents.  
The call also followed a blog post by former Albuquerque Chief Public Safety Officer Pete Dinelli that detailed a 2006 federal lawsuit filed by the African American man that Davis shot. According to the lawsuit, Davis violated the constitutional rights of Moses Bell when he shot him as Bell sat in a car.
A federal judge later dismissed the lawsuit.
Davis said he shot Bell during a traffic stop after he spotted a gun in the driver’s hand and lunged into the car to grab it. Bell drove off as Davis shot him twice in the shoulder.
Davis said voters in two elections have sent him to the city council and that he has spoken honestly about the problematic training and culture of policing he encountered.
“At a time when we are at the precipice of long-overdue changes in policing and racial justice, I regret that we are being distracted by relitigating my past which is not only well documented but is core to my personal story and the reasons why I have dedicated my life to positive social change,” Davis said in a statement.
As a councilor, Davis successfully pushed legislation that decriminalized marijuana in Albuquerque and opened formerly secret police internal affairs investigations to civilian oversight. 
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The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was “being suspicious.”Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain’s death. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.“Elijah McClain should be alive today, and we owe it to his family to take this step and elevate the pursuit of justice in his name to a statewide concern,” Polis said in a statement.He said he had spoken with McClain’s mother and was moved by her description of her son as a “responsible and curious child … who could inspire the darkest soul.”Police in Aurora responded to a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms as he walked down a street on August 24. Police body-camera video shows an officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain and saying, “Stop right there. Stop. Stop. … I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.”Police say McClain refused to stop walking and fought back when officers confronted him and tried to take him into custody.In the video, the officer turns McClain around and repeats, “Stop tensing up.” As McClain tries to escape the officer’s grip, the officer says, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation.”As other officers join to restrain McClain, he begs them to let go and says, “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”One of the officers put him in a chokehold that cuts off blood to the brain, something that has been banned in several places in the wake of Floyd’s death May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police and the global protests that followed.In the video, McClain tells officers: “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” Those words have appeared on scores of social media posts demanding justice for McClain.He was on the ground for 15 minutes as several officers and paramedics stood by. Paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine to calm him down, and he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. McClain was declared brain dead August 27 and was taken off life support three days later.A forensic pathologist could not determine what exactly led to his death but said physical exertion during the confrontation likely contributed.McClain’s younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post shortly after his death that her brother was walking to a corner store to get tea for a cousin and often wore masks when he was outside because he had a blood condition that caused him to get cold easily.In the video, Elijah McClain sobs as he repeatedly tells officers, “I’m just different.” Samara McClain said her brother was a massage therapist who planned to go to college.The Police Department put the three officers on leave, but they returned to the force when District Attorney Dave Young said there was insufficient evidence to support charging them.“Ultimately, while I may share the vast public opinion that Elijah McClain’s death could have been avoided, it is not my role to file criminal charges based on opinion, but rather, on the evidence revealed from the investigation and applicable Colorado law,” Young said shortly before Polis ordered the investigation reopened.Aurora police said interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson won’t comment to avoid interfering with the investigation.Mari Newman, the McClain family’s attorney, said she was pleased with the governor’s decision.“Clearly, Aurora has no intention of taking responsibility for murdering an innocent young man,” she said. “Its entire effort is to defend its brutality at all costs, and to lie to the public it is supposed to serve. It is time for a responsible adult to step in.”Colorado’s attorney general said in a statement that the investigation will be thorough and “worthy of public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.” 
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U.S. lawmakers tackled ambitious police reform legislation with mixed results this week. A measure passed in the Democratic-majority U.S. House has no chance of getting through the Republican-majority U.S. Senate, where lawmakers failed to reach a compromise on their proposal. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on what happens next in lawmakers’ efforts to address a controversial topic in an election year.
Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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A new policy ordering U.S. public schools to share emergency COVID-19 relief funds with private schools regardless of their wealth will take effect immediately, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said, despite opposition from many public education supporters.  “The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers and families impacted by coronavirus,” DeVos said. “There is nothing in the law Congress passed that would allow districts to discriminate against children and teachers based on private school attendance and employment.” FILE – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room, March 27, 2020, in Washington.DeVos said she expects most of the emergency funds to go toward building cleaning, equipment to protect the health of students and teachers, and virtual classroom training for teachers. She said the department will discourage what she calls “financially secure private schools” from seeking such help.  “Most private schools serving low- and middle-income communities are under great financial strain due to COVID-19 because they are typically dependent on tuition from families and donations from their communities. … More than 100 private schools have already announced they will not be able to reopen following the pandemic, and hundreds more are facing a similar fate,” DeVos said. Under the new rule, private schools would be eligible for the aid based on their total enrollment.  But some U.S. public school officials say it should instead be based on the number of low-income students in private schools – the same policy in other federal rules for aiding schools passed by Congress. Under the DeVos plan, the money allocated for private schools would be at a higher rate than what federal law usually requires. “The Department should be providing clear leadership and guidance to help students, parents, and school districts cope with the impact of the pandemic. Instead, it has issued another confusing directive that will undermine efforts to maintain access to education during this pandemic. I urge the Secretary to withdraw this rule and follow the law that Congress enacted,” Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia said Thursday.  DeVos, who is known as a champion of private schools, said all kinds of schools hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak deserve relief. 
 
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A New York City judge on Thursday dismissed a claim by Donald Trump’s brother that sought to halt the publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece, saying the court lacked jurisdiction in the case.  Surrogates Court Judge Peter Kelly said the claims were not appropriate for his court, where disputes over estate matters are settled.  The motion filed earlier this week sought an injunction to prevent Mary Trump and the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, from releasing it, as scheduled, in July. Mary Trump is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s elder brother, who died in 1981. An online description of her book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” says it reveals “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse.” Robert Trump’s lawyers filed court papers arguing that Mary Trump and others had signed a settlement agreement that would prohibit her from writing the book. The settlement decades ago included a confidentially clause explicitly saying they would not “publish any account concerning the litigation or their relationship,” unless they all agreed.  The agreement related to the will of Donald Trump’s father, New York real estate developer Fred Trump. Mary Trump’s attorney, Ted Boutrous Jr., said the court was correct in its decision.  “We hope this decision will end the matter. Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas, and neither this court nor any other has authority to violate the Constitution by imposing a prior restraint on core political speech,” he said in a statement.  The White House did not have an immediate comment Thursday. A spokesman for Simon & Schuster said in a statement that the publishing house was “delighted” with the decision.  
 
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