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JULY
July 7
The BBC reported live that on July 7, as hundreds of people in Louisiana continued protesting over the police killing of African American man Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, police in Minnesota stopped a car with a broken rear light and found a gun inside. As African American man Philando Castile was reaching for his driving license, police suspected he was reaching for the gun and shot him. Castile's girlfriend live-streamed the incident, which showed he looked painful after being shot and his right chest was covered in blood. About 200 people protested and requested a federal investigation into the shooting. U.S. President Barack Obama said these shootings were not isolated incidents, but "symptomatic of the broader challenges within our criminal justice system." The man's mother said that her son was just "black in the wrong place" and that there was "a silent war against African-American people." Data show that U.S. police shot 1,152 people in 2015 and 30 percent of the victims are African Americans. 97 percent of the deaths were not followed by any charges against police officers.
July 8
The Washington Post website reported, a total of 509 citizens in the United States had been killed by police since 2016 and 123 of those shot were African Americans, a relatively high percentage given that they only accounts for about 13 percent of the population. Of the 509 killed so far this year, at least 124 were thought to be suffering from mental illnesses. In at least 22 cases, police officers mistook toy guns for real ones.
July 10
The Chicago Tribune website reported, women tend to earn less than mean during their working years and they are more likely to live in poverty during retirement. The National Institute on Retirement Security reports, women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older. Women aged 75 to 79 are three times more likely to be impoverished than men of the same age group. According to the Census Bureau, over a 40-year career, the pay gap between men and women adds up to an average of 430,480 U.S. dollars. For minorities and women of color, the number is much higher.
July 14
The USA Today website reported, police killings of African Americans Alton Sterling and Philando Castile had prompted public outrage after videos of the incidents went viral. On the night of July 7, a gunman named Micah Johnson shot five white police officers in downtown Dallas and injured nine others. The man said he did so to protest against police brutality. In a New York Times/CBS News survey, 69 percent of poll respondents said race relations are generally bad, 31 percentage points higher than a year earlier. The Times noted, it was the most discord since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles during the Rodney King case.
On the same day, the New York Post reported, an investigation found Tennessee State Representative Jeremy Durham had used his position to sexually harass at least 22 female interns, lobbyists, staff and political workers.
July 20
The Guardian website reported that U.S. air strikes on a Syrian village have killed at least 73 civilians, including 35 children and 20 women. The rest of the dead bodies were charred or had been reduced to shreds.
July 26
According to the Daily Mail website, the Major Cities Chiefs Association released their mid-year report for 2016, which shows that violent crime overall in major cities was up by two percent in the first half of 2016 compared with the same period of 2015. Among that, homicide cases have seen particularly dramatic increases, with 307 more cases reported than the same period of the previous year, a rise of up to 15 percent. Chicago reported 316 homicide cases, up by 48 percent.
July 27
According to the Washington Post website, Dalvin Hollins, an unarmed 19-year-old black man, was shot by police on a street in Tempe, Arizona. Hollins' family told police he had been struggling with mental illness.
AUGUST
Aug. 7
Data released by the U.S. Public Religious Research Institute show, a chasm separates black and white Americans' attitudes toward the police: 64 percent of African Americans and 17 percent of white Americans say that police mistreatment is a major problem in their community. 65 percent of whites say recent killings of African American men by police are isolated incidents, while only 15 percent of black Americans say the same. Eighty-one percent of black Americans and 34 percent of whites say recent police killings of African American men are part of a broader pattern of how police treat African Americans in the country.
Aug. 10
The New York Times website reported, Baltimore's zero-tolerance policing approach had spread from New York to many departments big and small. It encouraged police officers to make large numbers of stops, searches and arrests for minor, highly discretionary offenses. The approach led to a breakdown in police-community relations in Baltimore and prompted a frenzy of unconstitutional policing aimed at African Americans that was more about racking up statistics than reducing violent crime. Data from police departments around the country show, officers using the zero-tolerance strategy focused their arrests on African-American men in poor neighborhoods, while ignoring the same offenses in wealthier white neighborhoods. For example, from 2008 to 2011, New York police officers issued eight citations for riding bicycles on sidewalks in Park Slope, a predominantly white Brooklyn neighborhood, but 2,050 in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant, which is primarily African-American and Latino. In June 2015, an American Civil Liberties Union report showed, African Americans and native Americans were nearly nine times more likely than whites to be arrested on minor offenses.
Aug. 14
The San Diego Union-Tribune website reported, women who worked for San Diego County' s five supervisors were paid 62 cents for every dollar earned by the men who worked alongside them, which amounts, on average, to a difference of 37,380 U.S. dollars in pre-tax pay per year. In cases where two people have similar job descriptions, women, on average, earn less than men. In the case of legislative analysts, women with this job earn, on average, 21,400 U.S. dollars less than men.
Aug. 15
The Washington Post website reported, Jovany Martinez, a 29-year-old Hispanic man armed with a metal pole, was shot by police in Falls Church, Virginia.
Aug. 16
According to the Guardian website, report released by the U.S. National Women's Law Center (NWLC) showed, Latino women earn as little as 54 cents for every dollar white men make. Black and Latino women will lose more than 877,000 and one million dollars respectively over a 40-year career compared to their white male counterparts. The report also shows, even black women with a high level of education still experience a wage gap. Emily Martin, vice president of NWLC, said, "If we don't act now to ensure equal pay, for many women of color, the cost of the lifetime wage gap will surpass a million dollars." There are six states, including the District of Columbia, where the lifetime wage gap has already surpassed one million U.S. dollars: 1,595,200 for the District of Columbia; 1,231,600 for New Jersey; 1,140,400 for Connecticut; 1,134,880 for Louisiana; 1,046,960 for California; 1,022,440 for Massachusetts.
On the same day, the Washington Post website reported, Marcos Antonio Gastelum, an unarmed 25-year-old Hispanic man, was shot by police in Tucson, Arizona.
Aug. 17
The Washington Post website reported, Omer Ismail Ali, a 27-year-old black man armed with a piece of wood, was shot by police in a gas station in Kelso, Washington.
Aug. 25
According to the International Business Times website, the public schools of Richmond, Virginia, have allegedly discriminated against black and disabled students for a long time. On August 24, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed an indictment to the U.S. Department of Education, alleging that the Richmond public schools practiced inconsistent punishment regarding student code of conduct between black and disabled students and their peers (black or disabled students received more punishments like suspension and expulsion). An analysis of 2014-15 school year data from the Virginia Department of Education show, black and disabled students in Richmond were suspended almost 13 times the rate of white students without disabilities.
Aug. 30
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, a 10-year-old girl named Victoria Martens was murdered in Albuquerque, the largest city of New Mexico. A week later, police said they had found the dismembered body of Martens in her mother's apartment. The girl's mother, the mother's boyfriend and his cousin face charges of child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. Local law enforcement and school district officials said drug abuse and poverty are at the root of much of the violence that children might face at home.
