The Latest: Police reform group organized by U.S. mayors
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— Baltimore police commissioner to lead reform group organized by U.S. mayors
— English city hauls toppled slave trader statue out of harbor.
— Jefferson Davis statue torn down in Richmond.
— Museums interested in preserving artifacts from protests in nation's capital.
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BALTIMORE — The police commissioner in Maryland’s largest city has been appointed to a police reform work group created by an organization of U.S. mayors.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison will be one of three law enforcement leaders on the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Police Reform and Racial Justice Working Group, the organization announced this week.
The task force’s assembly follows two weeks of nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd.
The group includes the mayors of Chicago, Cincinnati and Tampa, Florida, as well as police chiefs from Phoenix and Columbia, South Carolina. It will develop reforms that could be adopted by police departments nationwide to address police violence and patterns of racial discrimination, according to the Conference of Mayors’ statement.
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LONDON — A statue of a 17th-century slave trader that was toppled by anti-racism protesters in Bristol, England, has been fished out of the harbor by city authorities.
Bristol City Council says the bronze statue of Edward Colston was recovered early Thursday morning to avoid drawing a crowd. The council says it has been taken to a “secure location” and will end up in a museum.
Colston built a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic and left most of his money to charity. His name adorns streets and buildings in Bristol, which was once the U.K.’s biggest port for slave ships.
After years...
