The Daily 202: Ousting police chiefs does not ensure systemic reform, activists fear

Smith is among at least half a dozen police chiefs to lose their jobs amid the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd and the reckoning with systemic racism in law enforcement. Since the start of June, police chiefs have either announced they will step down or been fired in Atlanta; Nashville; Louisville; Portland, Ore.; and Prince George’s County, Md.

Here in Richmond, where 48 percent of the population is black, police are now keeping their distance as protesters occupy the traffic circle where the Lee statue towers 60 feet over the grandest residential boulevard in what was once the capital of the Confederacy.

A handful of African American civilians toting assault-style rifles patrolled the site this weekend, which is now surrounded by concrete barriers, as a pack of a dozen white counterprotesters roamed the surrounding streets with their own long guns. An off-duty airport police officer, carrying a handgun, was charged with trespassing on Saturday after he was spotted in an empty building that overlooks the crowd around the statue.

All these guns put everyone on edge, yet it also felt like a street festival inside the encampment. A few people pitched tents to camp out. Someone set up a basketball hoop. There was no one in charge, but volunteers were giving out free massages, handing out doughnuts and repairing bicycles.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has ordered the removal of the Lee statue. A local judge granted an injunction last week to block that from happening until a court challenge plays out from a descendant of the people who deeded the land to the state when the statue was installed in 1890.

As the two sides bicker over legal standing, a dozen cans of spray paint, with every color in the rainbow, have been left at the base of the statue. Scores of people passing by have been picking up the bottles, shaking them and scrawling messages on the granite. The monument has taken on the look of the western side of the Berlin Wall before it was torn down. City police officers watch this defacement from across the street and do not intervene. 

Someone has written near the bottom of the monument: “This time it’s different.” But is it? That is perhaps the most significant question of the moment.

These protests have certainly felt different than they did after previous high-profile deaths at the hands of police. All the statues on Monument Avenue have been defaced to varying degrees. Even one of African American tennis legend Arthur Ashe, installed in 1996 to counterbalance all the Confederate memorials, has been vandalized with “White Lives Matter” graffiti. Other statues in the city have been torn down. It feels inevitable that Lee – and his horse Traveller – will be gone sooner than later. Most of all, it is especially rare to see so many police chiefs lose their jobs so unceremoniously.

But Richmond community organizers emphasized during interviews over the weekend that personnel changes and monument removals are not enough to fix the underlying problems that have led to the anger in the streets. 

Chelsea Higgs Wise gave up her job as a clinical social worker to focus full time on activism after a Richmond police officer fatally shot an unarmed and naked black man during a confrontation in 2018. Black Lives Matter activists have informally renamed the square with the Lee statue for the man, Marcus-David Peters. Wise is active with the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project, which has pushed for more data from the city’s police department, as well as creating a civilian review board with independently elected members and removing officers from schools.

“Replacing one cop for another is not going to meet the demands of the city,” Wise told me. “We don’t see the authenticity, and we don’t feel it. … The monuments have always been a distraction from real reform.”

Elected leaders from coast to coast say they’re determined to show people who have been protesting that they’re serious about reform. 

In Maryland on Friday, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced a nationwide search for a new chief amid allegations of discrimination within the department. Chief Hank Stawinski resigned Thursday night at her request after the American Civil Liberties Union issued a 92-page report detailing allegedly discriminatory actions taken by police commanders, in disciplinary actions against minority officers and in ignoring certain racist acts by officers. “It is time to move in a different direction in terms of leadership,” said Alsobrooks (D).

Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned June 13 after the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks during a DUI stop in a Wendy’s parking lot. The NAACP had called on her to step down. “What has become abundantly clear over the last couple of weeks in Atlanta is that while we have a police force full of men and women who work alongside our communities with honor, respect and dignity, there has been a disconnect with what our expectations are and should be, as it relates to interactions with our officers and the communities in which they are entrusted to protect,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D).

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) fired Police Chief Steve Conrad after police fatally shot the owner of a barbecue restaurant amid protests, and it turned out that the officers had not turned on their body cameras. That came two months after Louisville police officers shot and killed another black resident, Breonna Taylor, 26, in her apartment. The officers, who burst into the home to execute a “no-knock” warrant, also did not have their body cameras on. “This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said.

Portland Police Chief Jami Resch resigned on June 8 amid criticism of her handling of protests. She was replaced by an African American lieutenant. “We must re-imagine reform and rebuild what public safety looks like,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D).

Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson announced last week that he will retire after 15 members of the city council signed a document urging Mayor John Cooper (D) to get rid of him and pursue “meaningful policy and behavioral change” in the department. Anderson was criticized after white officers fatally shot black men in 2017 and 2018, as well as for multiple delays related to the implementation of the widespread use of body cameras by officers. Cooper said a commission will review the department’s use-of-force guidelines, and he promised to conduct an exhaustive search for a new chief. “It would be super, of course, to have an African American chief in Nashville,” the mayor said, “but they need to understand that they are being picked because they are the best chief.”

The coronavirus

The White House insists Trump was joking when he said that he directed staff to slow down coronavirus testing. 

“Trump’s Saturday night remark that he asked officials to ‘slow the [coronavirus] testing down’ sparked harsh rebukes from experts and frustration from his own staffers, who say it undercuts their efforts to reassure Americans as the disease surges around the country,” Yasmeen Abutaleb, Taylor Telford and Josh Dawsey report. “The president’s comment, which came on the same day that eight states reported their highest-ever single-day case counts, drew a chorus of criticism from congressional Democrats and public health officials, who worry the president is more concerned with saving face than combating the pandemic. … Trump called testing … a ‘double-edged sword.’ … ‘When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people; you’re going to find more cases,’ Trump told his supporters. ‘So I said to my people, slow the testing down please.’ On Sunday, Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro called Trump’s comments ‘tongue-in-cheek.’ … 

“But behind the scenes, several senior administration officials involved in the coronavirus response expressed frustration with Trump’s comments, given the administration’s efforts to ramp up testing over the last few months. … In recent weeks, the president has also made a concerted effort to play down the virus and ‘move on’ to other topics … Trump likes to say the pandemic is nearly over, even as the country confirms more than 20,000 new cases daily and the death toll lurches past 118,000, calling outbreaks that arise ‘embers.’" 

Democratic senators accused the administration of slowing down the use of coronavirus testing funds. “The Department of Health and Human Services has neither spent nor detailed how it plans to spend $8 billion out of a $25 billion pot to be used for stemming the virus’s spread through diagnostic and antibody testing and contact tracing, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) charge. The funds were provided as part of the fourth pandemic relief bill passed by Congress at the end of April,” Paige Winfield Cunningham reports. “In a response, HHS said it has distributed $14 billion of the $25 billion pot of money — most of that total to states and localities, as directed in the legislative text. An agency spokeswoman noted that Congress largely didn’t provide specific directions for where the rest of the money should go. … The United States has now conducted more than 26 million coronavirus tests, equivalent to about eight percent of the nation’s population. The Trump administration has largely met testing goals [HHS Secretary Alex] Azar laid out in May, after an initial slow response that won it heavy criticism. … But the United States did lag behind other countries in ramping up testing for covid-19 … The tests are now more widely available, but are not necessarily being used by everyone who might need them.”

In the nation’s biggest states, reopening the economy has come with a spike in cases. 

“Last week, Texas, Florida, Arizona and at least seven other states reported their highest weekly infection-rate averages. But there is little sign that states are reconsidering politically popular decisions to open the economy. In parts of California, where more than 5,000 have died of the virus, people will be allowed to see movies in theaters this weekend for the first time since the stay-at-home orders began in early March,” Scott Wilson reports. “Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who extended the stay-at-home order statewide in early March, has declared that there is no turning back after more than three weeks of incremental economic opening. … The state has recorded 167,000 total infections, and it is now reporting the highest weekly average of new cases — roughly 2,785 — since the virus began.” 

More young people across the South are testing positive.

“The shifts in demographics have been recorded in parts of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states -- many of which were some of the first to reopen,” CNN reports. “While some officials have pointed to more widespread testing being done, others say the new cases stem from Americans failing to social distance. In Mississippi, where one health officer called adherence to social distancing over the past weeks ‘overwhelmingly disappointing,’ officials attributed clusters of new cases to fraternity rush parties. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said last week that people under 30 made up a majority of new coronavirus cases in several counties. He said that increase in young infected people could be related to Memorial Day parties, visits to bars or other gatherings. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that the median age was 37 for newly diagnosed coronavirus cases over the last week.”

D.C. restaurants and gyms will open their doors today. 

“After three months off, D.C. residents, apparently, are ready to hit the gym. The 6 a.m. slots at all five Vida Fitness locations are completely booked for Monday, said founder David von Storch, whose facilities are among the businesses that will reopen then as the District joins the rest of the region in the second phase of its coronavirus recovery plan,” Rachel Chason and Ian Shapira report. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) "said Friday that the city met benchmarks it set for entering the second phase, including a decline in community spread of the novel coronavirus. She is asking residents to continue practicing social distancing and wearing masks. The D.C. Health Department reported 36 new confirmed cases of the virus Sunday and two deaths — a 62-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman — bringing the total number of infections and deaths to 10,020 and 533, respectively.”

Quote of the day

“We just had 20,000-some people die in this city, and already the crowds are lining back up outside restaurants and jamming into bars," said Anthony Almojera, a New York City paramedic. “This virus is still out there. We respond to 911 calls for covid every day. I’ve been on the scene at more than 200 of these deaths — trying to revive people, consoling their families — but you can’t even be bothered to stay six feet apart and wear a mask, because why? You’re a tough guy? It makes you look weak? You’d rather ignore the whole thing and pretend you’re invincible?” (Eli Saslow)

New York City hired 3,000 workers for contact tracing. They’re off to a slow start. 

“The first statistics from the program, which began on June 1, indicate that tracers are often unable to locate infected people or gather information from them,” the Times reports. “Only 35 percent of the 5,347 city residents who tested positive or were presumed positive for the coronavirus in the program’s first two weeks gave information about close contacts to tracers, the city said in releasing the first statistics. The number ticked up slightly, to 42 percent, during the third week, Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said on Sunday.”

• Gunfire erupted overnight Saturday on a Minneapolis street lined with newly reopened bars and restaurants, leaving one person dead and 11 injured. No arrests have been made, though police said they’re pursuing leads. (Brittany Shammas) 
• About 150 seasonal employees hired to work at a salmon cannery in Alaska are being forced to quarantine without pay at a hotel in Los Angeles after three of them tested positive for the virus. Most of the workers are from Mexico and Southern California, and they have filed a lawsuit against North Pacific Seafoods. (Los Angeles Times)
• Several mysterious deaths in late 2019 and early 2020 have left California families wondering whether their loved ones died from early cases of the virus that went undetected by public health officials. The L.A. Times reports that authorities are slowly reexamining deaths of unexplained respiratory failure or a strange inflammatory condition that may be linked to the virus in children.
• Health and maternity experts say the virus is placing high stress on new, expecting moms, raising risks for mental health issues, including postpartum depression. (David Leffler)

The virus tore through Latin America’s largest market, leaving dozens dead. 

“The tomato aisle at Mexico City’s famed Central de Abasto market offers a glimpse into why the virus has hit the country so hard. It scythed its way through the sprawling complex, picking off workers made vulnerable by the problems of poverty: chronic illnesses, distrust of government, a need to keep earning money. While there are no official data, vendors can name dozens of people in the vegetable aisles alone who lost their lives — green-bean sellers, chili vendors, potato men — in one of the most brutal outbreaks in the city,” Mary Beth Sheridan reports. “‘Here we didn’t believe’ the coronavirus was a threat, said 57-year-old Anastasio Ramón Alonso, a longtime tomato vendor. ‘But when people began to die and die and die, we lost our incredulity.’ Officials have reported more than 20,000 coronavirus deaths in Mexico, undoubtedly an undercount. The virus appears to have entered the country with the upper class — people returning from business trips in Italy and skiing holidays in Colorado. But it spread quickly to low-income workers, who have been hit particularly hard.”

• Poaching is on the rise in Asia and Africa, as communities seek food and income during lockdowns. (Katie Shepherd)

The Trump presidency

Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to run the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, defended big banks for years. 

“Clayton is the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a longtime corporate lawyer with deep connections to Wall Street. But he has no experience as a federal prosecutor,” Renae Merle reports. “After three years at the SEC, Clayton was widely expected to step down this year and return to New York where he had spent decades as a top corporate lawyer. Instead, Clayton has been thrust into a battle over leadership of the Southern District of New York. U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr announced Friday night that Trump intends to nominate Clayton to replace Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who has overseen a number of investigations involving the president and his political campaign. But a few hours later, Berman said he was not resigning, and Saturday morning showed up to work. The battle for control of the office escalated Saturday when Barr said Trump had fired Berman. … [Clayton played golf with Trump recently in New Jersey, per the Times.]

"Clayton is facing an uphill battle to win Senate confirmation. [Schumer] has already called on Clayton to drop out. … Schumer also called on the Justice Department’s inspector general as well as its office of professional responsibility to investigate why Trump and Barr dismissed Berman. Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that he would not move forward on confirmation hearings for Clayton unless the appointment is supported by New York’s two U.S. senators, Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).”

Barr’s hamhanded power play this weekend was at odds with his reputation as a calculating political operator, writes Aaron Blake. “Barr seems to have gotten what he desired: Berman out. But the outcome was hardly what Barr sought. And the series of events leads to all kinds of questions about precisely what Barr was aiming for. First, because Berman didn’t voluntarily step aside and forced Trump to fire him, Barr can’t install the people he wanted. So while Barr said Friday night that he was installing another U.S. attorney, Craig Carpenito, as the acting head of SDNY, it now automatically falls to Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss. Second, it’s not clear when Barr will even be able to eventually replace Strauss. … And third, Barr apparently wouldn’t have gotten Clayton anyway, because of Graham’s comments. Graham, remarkably, said the Trump administration hadn’t even consulted him on the move, which would seem to be a matter of course. … But beyond the outcome, there is how all this went down. Barr has now made something that already looked problematic reek — yet again — of the politicization of the Justice Department.”

Colleagues expect Strauss to safeguard the office’s independence. Strauss’s appointment “brought an immediate and collective sigh of relief, said Samidh Guha, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the office, ‘as we know continuity will be ensured and none of the office’s work will be compromised,’” Shayna Jacobs reports. “Strauss, according to colleagues in the legal community, has never sought the spotlight but possesses the experience and acumen to guide the office through such an extraordinarily chaotic moment while upholding its long-standing tradition of independence in important public corruption matters. Berman, in his statement Saturday agreeing not to prolong the fight with Barr, made clear his belief that the office of more than 200 attorneys could be ‘in no better hands’ than those of his handpicked deputy.”

This leadership debacle is playing out as several politically sensitive investigations are under way. The Manhattan office had been investigating Rudy Giuliani’s political and business activities, as well as the work of some of his associates, for example, the Wall Street Journal notes.  

Remember, Berman was a Trump appointee. Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who got fired by Trump in the opening weeks of the administration to make way for Berman, argues in an op-ed for the Times that Barr, not his successor, should have lost his job this weekend.

“Something stinks,” writes James Comey, the former FBI director and deputy attorney general who once also served as U.S. attorney for the SDNY, in an op-ed for our newspaper. “The country is well-served by the independent spirit and reputation of the Southern District of New York. It has long been the place where hard cases could be done in a way Americans trusted. … Maybe that’s why [Barr] moved to knock off Berman … And maybe that’s why Berman, in the finest traditions of the office, stood up.” 

Former national security adviser John Bolton recounts in his new memoir that Trump privately floated the idea of intervening in an SDNY prosecution of a state-owned Turkish bank at the request of Turkey’s president. “It did feel like obstruction of justice to me,” Bolton told ABC News in an interview that aired on Sunday. “What [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan wanted was basically a settlement that would take the pressure off Halkbank. And the president said to Erdogan at one point, ‘Look, those prosecutors in New York are Obama people. Wait ‘till I get my people in and then we'll take care of this.’ And I thought to myself – and I'm a Department of Justice alumnus myself – ‘I've never heard any president say anything like that. Ever.’”

Fiona Hill says foreign leaders often tried to take advantage of the distrust between Trump and his advisers during her tenure as a top official on the National Security Council. From the New Yorker: "In a May, 2017, meeting with Erdoğan, whom Trump privately referred to as ‘the Sultan,’ Trump made it clear that he disagreed with his military advisers, and didn’t want to provide support to the Kurds. After Erdoğan called him on Thanksgiving Day, presumably hoping to catch him alone on the golf course, Trump joked about having spoken to the President of Turkey on ‘Turkey Day.’ Hill said, ‘He just wants to go in and shoot the breeze with these guys, because he thinks he’s got great chemistry with them.’”

Trump is unhappy with how his Tulsa rally turned out. His campaign manager is on the receiving end of his ire.  

“The crowd did not fill the 19,000-seat BOK Center, with swaths of upper-level seating empty, and plans for a presidential speech in an outdoor overflow area were abruptly canceled as few attendees filled the space. There were just under 6,200 people in the arena, the Tulsa Fire Marshal’s Office said,” Felicia Sonmez, Josh Dawsey and Taylor Telford report. “Trump complained to aides about the crowd just before he went on stage, and [manager Brad] Parscale was spotted sitting alone in the back of the arena. … [Trump] continued to fume aboard Air Force One on the way back to Washington and on Sunday … and he argued that potential attendees were further scared away by his campaign’s public confirmation that six members of the advance team tested positive for the novel coronavirus … Several advisers blamed Parscale for setting up such high expectations for the rally, and some Republicans mused about the campaign manager’s future. Said one Republican with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking: ‘We won’t really know how safe Brad is until we see how long this goes on for in the news cycle.’”

The president leaned into racial grievances. “He referred to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus as the ‘kung flu.’ He called racial justice demonstrators ‘thugs.’ He attacked efforts to take down Confederate statues as an assault on ‘our heritage.’ And in an ominous hypothetical, he described a ‘very tough hombre’ breaking into a young woman’s home while her husband is away,” Jose Del Real reports. “Trump demonstrated the extent to which the final four months of the 2020 election will build on the darker themes of a previous campaign notable for its attacks on Hispanic immigrants and Muslims. … He attacked several Democratic women of color, in one instance accusing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of ‘telling us how to run our country.’" The congresswoman is a U.S. citizen.

• Trump is expected to extend limits on foreign workers through the end of the year. He’s planning on including most guest workers who come to the U.S. for temporary or seasonal work in an executive order that’s currently blocking most people from receiving a permanent residency visa. The order will stop skilled workers in specialty occupations, executives and seasonal workers from entering the country. Agricultural workers and students will not be included. (Politico)
• “It’s tempting to say it was a crowd that didn’t look anything like America because it appeared to be so lacking in diversity — so overwhelmingly white. But, in fact, the crowd looked precisely like America does in more than a few suburbs, counties and hollers. In churches and offices. In the president’s inner circle,” writes Robin Givhan. “Such a homogenous throng might be jarring to some. For others, it’s completely normal and right. For the president, it was like coming home.”
• “The narrative that TikTokers and K-poppers were the sole reason the rally was poorly attended drew its fair share of skeptics, who pointed out that the reality is probably much more complicated,” Travis Andrews reports. While the prank may have partly inflated the number of attendees expected by the campaign, the campaign also deserves blame for misjudging the number of people willing to risk their health to attend a rally during the pandemic. 
• Trump said his niece Mary is “not allowed” to write a tell-all book about him because of a non-disclosure agreement. The language, Trump boasted to Axios, is “very powerful": “It covers everything,” he said. He also said that he's second-guessing his relationship with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and said he’s open to meeting with dictator Nicolás Maduro.

For Joe Biden (and Democrats), confidence comes with a chaser: Fear.

“Biden’s campaign, and his Democratic Party, are feeling an emotion they have not sensed in quite some time, and one that prompts more than a little fear: confidence,” Matt Viser reports. “But for Democrats, the very idea that they are doing well provokes an underlying skittishness. They worry about voting during the coronavirus crisis, amid restrictions that could make it harder to cast ballots. Some fear a coming misinformation campaign and say the party risks underestimating Trump’s ability to turn the country against their nominee. They also worry their party still does not fully understand what led voters to Trump in the first place, and they are terrified that overconfidence, like some of them enjoyed four years ago, will lead to complacency.” 

Little-known Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker’s push for racial justice has caused many Democrats to rethink their challenger to McConnell. While the national party has rallied behind retired Marine Corps fighter pilot Amy McGrath, more heads are turning toward 35-year-old Booker, who has seized the moment of national reflection and upended the Kentucky Democratic primary. Booker, who is African American, marched with protesters in more than a display of solidarity: He marched for his four cousins who’ve been killed, and for Breonna Taylor, who he said was a family friend. The endorsements came swiftly. First from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Then both of the states’ major newspapers. This week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who a year ago had tweeted, “Go Amy!”, publicly endorsed Booker. (Colby Itkowitz)

Rep. Eliot Engel, a longtime New York Democratic congressman, is trying to avoid an AOC-style upset. Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal who has never run for office, has turned Tuesday’s Democratic primary into a battle over who cares more about the north Bronx and the southern swath of Westchester County. Engel’s defeat would reveal the limits of the party’s establishment – he has so far received the endorsements of Hillary Clinton, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top congressional Democrats. (David Weigel)

Divided America

A Minnesota jail faces a damning discrimination complaint. 

“Eight minority correctional officers at a Minnesota county jail say they were segregated from the area where Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death, was being held, and only white officers were allowed to guard or communicate with him,” Holly Bailey reports. “One corrections officer, who described herself as a mixed-race woman, also suggested that Chauvin, who was filmed with his knee on Floyd’s throat, had been given special treatment at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in St. Paul. In a statement, she recalled watching security footage of a white female lieutenant, who was granted ‘special access’ to Chauvin’s cell on May 30, sit on Chauvin’s bed and allow him to use her cellphone — a major policy violation. … As the jail prepared for Chauvin’s arrival, a supervisor pulled all officers of color from their regular duties, according to the complaints, and asked them to report to the third floor of the facility, away from the fifth floor, where Chauvin would be transported and held in a secluded cell. All were replaced by white officers, the complaints say.”

Young Asians and Latinos are pushing their parents to acknowledge racism amid protests.

“Many Latinos arrive in the United States with their own anti-black beliefs rooted in the histories of white European colonialism and slavery in their native countries, said Jasmine Haywood, a program officer at the Lumina Foundation who has researched anti-black racism among Latinos. As they try to assimilate, they often adopt anti-black attitudes ‘that come from the white majority,’ Haywood said. These include stereotypes that black people are violent and lazy,” Sydney Trent reports. “Yet young Latinos, Asians and members of black immigrant groups are more likely to share classrooms, neighborhoods and friendships with descendants of American slaves. And they have been influenced by the hip-hop music that has given voice to the black experience … By comparison, many older Asian Americans do not grasp ‘the language of privilege,’ said Kim Tran, a diversity consultant who is researching the growing solidarity that young Asian Americans feel with the Black Lives Matter movement. … Many older Asian Americans, in particular, subscribe to the ‘model minority myth’ pushed by white American culture, she said. The myth, Tran said, was first applied to Japanese Americans as they tried to assimilate back into American culture after their internment during World War II and then spread to include other Asian groups." 

• On Father’s Day, families gathered in D.C. to celebrate black fatherhood and challenge stereotypes. “Black lives matter! Black dads matter! My dad matters!” the crowd chanted. The group numbered perhaps 200 or more. (Michelle Boorstein and Nick Anderson) 
• A statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man that has presided over the entrance to New York’s American Museum of Natural History is coming down. (NYT)
• NASCAR said a noose was found in the stall of Bubba Wallace’s team. Wallace, the only full-time African American driver in the circuit’s elite series, called it a “despicable act of racism and hatred.” (Des Bieler and Cindy Boren)
• A plane flew a Confederate flag over Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway to protest NASCAR's new ban on the symbol. (Bieler)

Social media speed read

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram urged readers to wear masks as new infections keep surging in Texas:

The estate of singer Tom Petty asked Trump to stop using his songs at rallies: 

We're all indelibly shaped by our fathers, or lack thereof. Many politicians paid tribute:

Videos of the day

After a judge declined to block the release of John Bolton's book, ABC News aired a Sunday night special on Trump's former national security adviser. He called the president “naive and dangerous." Here are other highlights from Martha Raddatz's interview:

Sheila Buck, an art teacher, showed up to the rally wearing an “I can’t breathe" T-shirt and holding a ticket. When she stepped into the outdoor waiting area, kneeling down to pray, officers asked her to leave. When she refused, they arrested her at the request of the Trump campaign. She told Ziva Branstetter that she plans to bring a lawsuit against the city and police department for what she says were violations of her First and Fourth amendment rights and against the Trump campaign for false arrest and personal injury:

John Oliver talked about why the virus has spread so rapidly in prisons: