State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad A. Arafat has voiced concerns over the actions of police during peaceful demonstrations at various US universities, describing the use of force as “disproportionate” and “inappropriate.” These protests, primarily led by students and faculty members, were organised to support Palestinian rights. “The rallies are mostly being conducted peacefully; there hasn't been any violence, arson, or killing of cops, children, or women, unlike what the BNP-Jamaat arsonists did in Bangladesh,” Arafat stated in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The protests have taken place across numerous prestigious US college campuses, with participants advocating for the freedom of the Palestinian people. Arafat emphasised the peaceful nature of these demonstrations, highlighting the absence of violence and arson, which are often associated with protests elsewhere. Columbia University students vow to continue anti-war protest amid standoff with administrators. “It’s only some students and professors who are protesting against what they believe is wrong. There was no sign of violence or arson,” Arafat reiterated. Despite the peaceful conduct of the protesters, the response by law enforcement has been notably aggressive, according to Arafat. The number of police forces seen to contain the people shows no respect for protests by civilians, he observed. Reflecting on how such situations are handled in Bangladesh, Arafat speculated on the reaction of the US administration to similar circumstances. “I wonder what the US administration would do in the face of BNP-Jamaat violence and arson in the name of the so-called protest that they displayed a few months ago to impede the election and obstruct the democratic process in Bangladesh,” the state minister said. Bangladesh always stands by people of Palestine: Environment Minister Arafat condemned violence, stating, “I strongly believe that there is no place for violence in democracy.” He also shared a distressing account of a university professor who, despite her academic credentials from the University of California, Berkeley, was mistreated by police. “Unlike the BNP-Jamaat terrorists in Bangladesh, she did not seem like an extremist, getting herself indulging in violence or arson,” he explained. The professor was reportedly verbally abused and violently arrested. Arafat concluded by affirming the fundamental democratic rights to assembly and protest, which he argued should be respected universally: “The right to assembly and the right to protest need to be respected in all democracies.” Israel-Hamas war protesters and police clash on Texas campus, Columbia University begins suspensions

Five Connecticut police officers were charged Monday with cruelly neglecting a Black man after he was partially paralyzed in the back of a police van, despite his repeated and desperate pleas for help. Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard at an intersection to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into a metal partition in the van. “I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash. As Cox pleaded for help, some of the officers at the detention center mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to dialogue captured by surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital. “I think I cracked my neck,” Cox said after the van arrived at the detention center. “You didn't crack it, no, you drank too much ... Sit up,” said Sgt. Betsy Segui, one of the five officers charged. Cox was later found to have a fractured neck and was paralyzed. Read more: Columbus police officer fatally shoots girl swinging knife The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty, both misdemeanors. The others charged were Officer Oscar Diaz, Officer Ronald Pressley, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier and Officer Luis Rivera. All have been on administrative leave since last summer. Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers. Though each officer faces the same charges, some seemed to take Cox's pleas more seriously than others. Diaz, who drove the transport van, pulled over after Cox complained of his injury, spoke to him and requested that an ambulance meet them at the detention center. However, Diaz did not render medical attention to Cox as he lay face down on the floor. The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks Monday. Each was processed, posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police. New Haven's police chief, speaking to reporters Monday along with the city's mayor, said it was important for the department to be transparent and accountable. “You can make mistakes, but you can’t treat people poorly, period. You cannot treat people the way Mr. Cox was treated,” said Police Chief Karl Jacobson. The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van. Read more: Seven US police shot in deadly stand-off An attorney for Cox's family, Ben Crump, said Monday that the New Haven officers need to be held accountable. “It is important — when you see that video of how they treated Randy Cox and the actions and inactions that led to him being paralyzed from his chest down — that those police officers should be held to the full extent of the law,” Crump said. Cox was arrested June 19 after police said they found him in possession of a handgun at a block party. The charges against him were later dropped. Cox’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and the five officers in September. The lawsuit alleges negligence, exceeding the speed limit and failure to have proper restraints in the police van. Four of the officers filed motions last week claiming qualified immunity from the lawsuit, arguing that their actions in the case did not violate any “clearly established” legal standard. New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call for an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical aid.

The Minneapolis police chief testified Monday that now-fired Officer Derek Chauvin violated departmental policy — and went against “our principles and the values that we have” — in pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck and keeping him down after Floyd had stopped resisting and was in distress. Continuing to kneel on Floyd’s neck once he was handcuffed behind his back and lying on his stomach was “in no way, shape or form” part of department policy or training, “and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values,” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said on Day Six of Chauvin’s murder trial. Also Read: How Floyd's 'spark of life' played out at trial Arradondo, the city’s first Black chief, fired Chauvin and three other officers the day after Floyd’s death last May, and in June called it “murder.” While police have long been accused of closing ranks to protect fellow members of the force charged with wrongdoing — the “blue wall of silence,” as it’s known — some of the most experienced officers in the Minneapolis department have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd. As jurors watched in rapt attention and scribbled notes, Arradondo testified not only that Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, should have let Floyd up sooner, but that the pressure on Floyd’s neck did not appear to be light to moderate, as called for under the department’s neck-restraint policy; that Chauvin failed in his duty to render first aid before the ambulance arrived; and that he violated policy requiring officers to de-escalate tense situations with no or minimal force if they can. “That action is not de-escalation,” the police chief said. “And when we talk about the framework of our sanctity of life and when we talk about our principles and the values that we have, that action goes contrary to what we are talking about.” Also Read: Diverse jury so far for ex-cop's trial in Floyd's death Arradondo’s testimony came after the emergency room doctor who pronounced Floyd dead said he theorized at the time that Floyd’s heart most likely stopped because of a lack of oxygen. Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, who was a senior resident on duty that night at Hennepin County Medical Center and tried to resuscitate Floyd, took the stand as prosecutors sought to establish that it was Chauvin’s knee on the Black man’s neck that killed him. Langenfeld said Floyd’s heart had stopped by the time he arrived at the hospital. The doctor said that he was not told of any efforts at the scene by bystanders or police to resuscitate Floyd but that paramedics told him they had tried for about 30 minutes and that he tried for another 30 minutes. Under questioning by prosecutors, Langenfeld said that based on the information he had, it was “more likely than the other possibilities” that Floyd’s cardiac arrest — the stopping of his heart — was caused by asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen. Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. The white officer is accused of pressing his knee into the 46-year-old man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, outside a corner market where Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes. Floyd’s treatment by police was captured on widely seen bystander video that sparked protests around the U.S. that descended into violence in some cases. The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions caused his death. Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, asked Langenfeld whether some drugs can cause hypoxia, or insufficient oxygen. The doctor acknowledged that fentanyl and methamphetamine, both of which were found in Floyd’s body, can do so. The county medical examiner’s office ultimately classified Floyd’s death a homicide — a death caused by someone else. The report said Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” A summary report listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use under “other significant conditions” but not under “cause of death.” Prosecutor Steve Schleicher noted that while some people may become more dangerous under the influence of drugs or alcohol, some may actually be “more vulnerable.” Arradondo agreed and acknowledged that this must also be taken into consideration when officers decide to use force. Before he was pinned to the ground, a frantic Floyd struggled with police who were trying to put him in a squad car, saying he was claustrophobic. Arradondo said officers are trained in basic first aid, including chest compressions, and department policy requires them to request medical assistance and provide necessary aid as soon as possible before paramedics arrive. “We absolutely have a duty to render that,” he said. Officers kept restraining Floyd — with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, another kneeling on Floyd’s back and a third holding his feet — until the ambulance got there, even after he became unresponsive, according to testimony and video footage. The officers also rebuffed offers of help from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter who wanted to administer aid or tell officers how to do it. Langenfeld testified that for people who go into cardiac arrest, there is an approximately 10% to 15% decrease in survival for every minute that CPR is not administered. Nelson noted on cross-examination that department policies direct officers to do what is reasonable in a given situation. He asked whether officers need to take the actions of a crowd into account, and Arradondo agreed. Nelson has suggested that onlookers — many of whom were shouting at Chauvin — might have affected officers’ response. Nelson also questioned whether Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck, playing a few seconds of bystander video side-by-side with footage from an officer’s body camera that Arradondo agreed appeared to show Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s shoulder blade. But prosecutors quickly got Arradondo to note that the clip played by Nelson depicted only the few seconds before Floyd was moved onto a stretcher. Minneapolis police Inspector Katie Blackwell, commander of the training division at the time of Floyd’s death, also took the stand Monday. She said Chauvin, whom she’s known for about 20 years, received annual training in defensive tactics and use of force, and would have been trained to use one or two arms — not his knee — in a neck restraint. “I don’t know what kind of improvised position that is,” she said, after being shown a photo of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck. She said Chauvin also was a field-training officer, receiving additional training so he would know what prospective officers were learning in the academy. The city moved soon after Floyd’s death to ban police chokeholds and neck restraints. Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey also made several policy changes, including expanded reporting of use-of-force incidents and attempts to de-escalate situations.

The U.S. Capitol Police are struggling. One officer was killed and another injured when a driver slammed into a barricade Friday afternoon. The attack comes after officers were overrun and injured when a violent mob of Trump supporters overran the Capitol on Jan. 6, breaking through insufficient barriers and pushing their way to within steps of lawmakers. One officer died and another killed himself. Also Read: Man rams car into 2 Capitol police; 1 officer, driver killed Scores of officers are considering early retirement, top leaders have resigned and those in office face increasing criticism. Security concerns over the events of the past four months may alter not only how the department operates, but whether the historically public grounds can remain open. The head of the Capitol Police union said officers are “reeling” following the death on Friday of Officer Billy Evans, who was on the force for 18 years. He was struck at a Capitol entrance by a man who, according to investigators, suffered from delusions and suicidal thoughts. Evans’ death comes after Officer Brian Sicknick, who was among hundreds of officers trying to fight off rioters without the necessary equipment or planning, died after the Jan. 6 riot. Officer Howard Liebengood died by suicide shortly afterward. Hundreds of officers are considering retirement or finding jobs elsewhere, union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement. “They continue to work even as we rapidly approach a crisis in morale and force numbers,” he said, noting that officers are dealing with “massive amounts of forced overtime.” Dozens of officers were injured on Jan. 6 and others have been held out of work during an internal investigation into the department’s response, including the officer who shot a 35-year-old woman as she and others were massing at a barricaded doorway. That’s further depleted a force that has more than 200 vacant positions, roughly 10% of its authorized force level. Also Read: Capitol attack reflects US extremist evolution over decades In the months since the insurrection, many officers have routinely worked 12-hour days or longer to protect the building during Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration and impeachment proceedings against Trump. “This rips the scab off and continues to provide a level of uncertainty and worry about the workplace and what’s happening there,” said Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who chairs a subcommittee overseeing Capitol Police funding. “And I think this is very personal for so many of us who have come to really love and respect the Capitol Police even more than we already had, because of what they did on Jan. 6, and then immediately turning it around to make sure that the inauguration was safe.” Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman received a vote of no confidence from the union in February, reflecting widespread distrust among the rank and file. Pittman was assistant chief in charge of intelligence during the riot and has admitted she did not see an FBI assessment the day before warning of “war” at the Capitol. Steven Sund, who resigned in January as the agency’s chief amid scrutiny over whether the police force was adequately prepared for the riot, told The Associated Press that officers he had spoken to were “on edge.” The grief and crises that have engulfed the Capitol Police are also part of broader social forces that have tested the country, Sund said. “There’s the impact of the pandemic on the American psyche,” Sund said. “There’s a lot of stuff in social media and a lot of action in reference to the actions of law enforcement. Law enforcement have been attacked in cities around the country. So there’s just a lot of things gearing up that make 2020, 2021 a little unique.” The Capitol Police are not a typical law enforcement agency. The roughly 2,000 officers are responsible solely for protecting Congress — its members, visitors and facilities, an area of about 16 acres. The department dates back to the early 1800s, after President John Quincy Adams asked that a police force be established to help protect the building following incidents there. Now they have an operating budget of $460 million. The driver in Friday’s incident, 25-year-old Noah Green, was shot by officers shortly after emerging from the vehicle wielding a knife, authorities said. Green died later at a hospital. There is no known connection between the insurrection and Green, who described himself in online posts as being under government thought control and being watched. New concrete barriers are in place around the checkpoint where Evans and a colleague were standing guard north of the Capitol. But the attack underscores that the Capitol will always be a target, said retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who chaired a task force that made several security recommendations following the insurrection. “It is the most important building in America, because it’s the seat of our democracy,” Honoré told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “If that building and the people in it don’t function, we no longer have democracy. And whatever price we have to pay to protect it, we need to do it.” The task force called for a renewed push to fill the 233 open positions on the force and for Congress to fund 350 new jobs and new fencing systems and other infrastructure. The task force also wants Congress to give the Capitol Police chief new authority to seek National Guard support in a crisis. Sund has alleged that leaders on the three-member Capitol Police Board delayed his calls for Guard help on Jan. 6, which former members of the board have denied. Papathanasiou, the union chairman, said he supported Honoré‘s recommendations and had met with him and his team Thursday, the day before Evans’ death. “As I explained to him, these improvements are critical, but our first priority has to be retaining our existing officers,” Papathanasiou said. “There are immediate steps Congress can take to address this.” Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Virginia Democrat, has been in touch with Liebengood’s family since his death. She called for a program to encourage “peer-to-peer” discussions between officers about the trauma they had incurred separate from mental health professionals called in to meet with officers. “I just want to make sure we’re taking care of the Capitol Police officers, because that’s the one constant in all of this,” she said. “Whatever we do, the first order of business is not some physical structure, it’s making sure we’re taking care of the officers.”

Protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with officers in riot gear after Kenosha police shot and wounded a Black man, apparently in the back, while responding to a call about a domestic dispute.