Category Archives: BIPOC

BIPOC, Health and Lifestyle, Local

Washington medical resources stretching thin as COVID cases explode

Washington state continues to add to grim milestones in the battle against COVID, with 762 patients now in hospital, a state record. Despite only 1,440 new cases logged on November 21, 2020, the weekend typically produces lower numbers with delays in reporting and testing. The number is an improvement from the record-breaking 3,327 new cases identified on November 16.

Late last week, at Swedish First Hill, they admitted ten new COVID patients in five hours. In Kirkland, Evergreen Hospital, once ground zero in the United States for COVID, has held steady with 25 patients hospitalized through the week. UW Medicine has seen an expanding number of patients, including several on ECMO, a last line of defense where an infected person’s lungs have essentially failed.

In Auburn, MultiCare Auburn Medical Center is suffering a COVID outbreak on the fourth-floor unit that has sickened over two-dozen. A patient died on November 10, and another died on November 16. In October, Harborview Medical Center experienced an outbreak resulting in one patient death. Providence Hospital in Everett also reported an outbreak on November 11 but did not provide specific information on the number of infections.

In eastern Washington, the situation isn’t much better. Deaconess and Valley Hospitals, Sacred Heart and Holy Family Hospitals, and Pullman Regional Hospital did not comment on how many patients were under their care. All spokespersons made similar statements around expanding patient load but available capacity. In the Idaho panhandle, Kootenai Health reported 54 patients in their care on Thursday, up from 46, with 10 requiring critical care.

In southwest Washington, Clark County reports 75% ICU utilization as of mid-week, while overall COVID patient numbers are low. Legacy Salmon Creek and PeaceHealth Southwest have a combined 56 patients in the hospital.

As wait times for COVID tests in the Puget Sound region expanded to hours, doctors started advising people not to test unless they are displaying symptoms. A lack of available tests and lab capacity continues to plague the nation, and UW Medicine reports their testing systems are overwhelmed. Last week, the University of Washington started canceling booked tests due to a lack of capacity and resources.

In western Washington, UW Medicine and Swedish are reporting they are deferring surgeries to provide capacity for a growing caseload of COVID patients. In eastern Washington, Deaconess and Valley Hospitals are under similar conditions, and Pullman Regional Hospital implemented their surge plan.

The regional healthcare system is also straining due to a shortage of PPE, therapeutic drugs, and staffing shortages. Officials report the question isn’t hospital beds, but the staff to support critically ill patients, who can require three to four full-time caregivers to keep them stabilized. Additionally, states such as Idaho send their sickest patients to Seattle and Portland, Oregon, for advanced treatment.

By the numbers, COVID in Washington state continues to be brutal on the BIPOC community. Hispanic communities have seen the worst numbers, representing 36% of cases and 27% of hospitalizations while representing 13% of the total state population. In south King County, the Black and persons of color communities report over a 300% increase in detected infections over the more white communities north of Seattle.

There are some silver linings. The mortality rate in Washington is drifting downward, now at 1.9%. By age group, 83% of cases discovered are now people 59 and younger. The younger age groups tend to have lower mortality.

Detected cases are a leading indicator of hospitalizations and deaths. Peak hospitalization will likely come in the next two weeks if the number of new cases can stabilize and start to drop. Peak deaths would follow two to four weeks after peak hospitalizations.

BIPOC, Local, National

Thousands face end of unemployment benefits on December 26

Update: An edit was made to reflect that the SBA estimates one-third of all small businesses will fail by June of 2021.

With growing signs that the economic recovering is stalling out and a fresh set of COVID-based lockdowns across the United States, federal benefits will end on December 26 with no extension in sight. The Federal CARES Act provided additional unemployment benefits in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC). For thousands of Washingtonians depending on these lifelines, the looming deadline is a body blow.

PUA provides for an additional 13 weeks of unemployment compensation above and beyond state benefits. PEUC provides unemployment compensation for gig workers, the self-employed, and others who rely upon 1099 pay. Recipients of PEUC typically would not be eligible for traditional unemployment compensation, with millions of Americans dependent on the “gig economy” for work.

Congressional leaders, the White House, and the Federal Reserve have been bickering over a new COVID stimulus package since the summer with no progress. The White House has favored a $2.4 trillion package, including small business and individual relief, which the House has supported. The Senate prefers a far smaller package of $500 billion, which provides almost no individual relief and corporate protections that are a non-starter for the House.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell issued a very rare rebuke to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who ordered the Fed to wind down CARES Act programs and return all unspent funds to Treasury. Chairman Powell indicated that the economy is still fragile, and ending these programs prematurely as COVID surges could extend the ongoing recession. Despite the public dust-up, the Fed agreed to wind down these programs over the weekend in a letter to Mnuchin.

The unemployment rate has dropped to 6.9% in October. However, the U3 unemployment figure doesn’t include people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. The broader U6 unemployment figure consists of those who have used up unemployment compensation, given up looking for work, or, most critically, are underemployed. The U6 for October was 12.1%, down from a high of 18% earlier in the year.

White House and GOP leaders are distracted, attacking the national election results with baseless fraud claims, indicating they have no interest in focusing on economic security. The Small Business Association estimates one-third of all small businesses will fail by June of 2021. So far, in 2020, 40% of all black-owned small businesses have collapsed.

Also looming in early 2021 is the end of eviction, foreclosure, and energy bill deferments. Over 12 million American households are $5,000 or more behind on rent or mortgage payments.

BIPOC, Breaking News, Local

Seattle City Council votes to fund police hiring in 2021

After six months of protests, a council vote, a mayoral veto, and a veto override, The Seattle City Council reversed course again, voting to fund police hiring in 2021. The Seattle Police Department in October reported they had 1,203 uniformed officers. If fully funded, the hiring plan for 2021 could grow the police force to more than 1,300 officers.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Teresa Mosqueda, Alex Pedersen, Lorena Gonzalez, Dan Strauss, Andrew Lewis, and Debora Juarez voted to hire more officers in 2021. The council’s reversal shatters six months of conversations and promised action to the BIPOC community, seeking sweeping changes to the Seattle Police Department. Although cuts to the police budget for 2021 remain, the consent decree coupled with an onerous contract with the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild has made cuts in logical places a near impossibility.

Compared to other west coast cities, only Oakland and San Francisco have larger per-capita police forces and budgets. In San Francisco, the cities approach to crime, drug addiction, and homelessness is mostly considered a failure. In Seattle, backers of the police frequently comment on how they don’t want the city to become San Francisco, yet are often the biggest proponents of a San Francisco approach to policing.

City leaders in Seattle continue to form advisory committees, hire Street Czars, and commit to studies without action. The continued issues of “legal redlining,” underfunded schools in BIPOC communities, and a non-approach to drug addiction and homelessness have gone unaddressed for decades. Despite the police budget growing 50% in the last ten years to the third-highest per-capita on the west coast, there has been no appreciable movement on crime rates. Some crimes, including assault and sex crimes, have increased over the last ten years – with assaults growing dramatically.

Other cities in the United States have been able to make more progress with less disruption and protests. Austin cut their police budget by over 30%, Minneapolis voted to abolish their police force and create a new one from the ground up, and Denver passed a series of reforms. Protests for Black Lives Matter and police reform began on May 26, 2020, in Seattle, peaking in mid-June while the world watched CHAZ/CHOP on Capitol Hill.

BIPOC, Health and Lifestyle, National

State officials and tribal leaders take different COVID paths in South Dakota

On November 17, South Dakota earned the distinction of being the only state left without some form of a mask mandate for their citizens. Kristi Noem (R), state governor, has refused to implement any COVID-based restrictions. Many believe the staunch Trump ally has aspirations to run for President in 2024 or 2028.

In South Dakota, the seven-day moving average positivity rate for COVID-19 is 57.5%. Anything over 5% is problematic, and over 20% is considered a public health crisis. Only Wyoming has a higher rate of 62.9%. Of the top ten states in the country for positive results, only one, Pennsylvania, voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Jodi Doering, a Sioux Falls emergency room nurse, wrote in a Twitter thread that has gone viral that patients deny they are infected with COVID-19 to their dying breath. “I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really [sic] think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s [sic] no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.”

https://twitter.com/JodiDoering/status/1327771329555292162

According to Forbes, in May of 2020, the rural state of South Dakota had 159 ICU beds to support the state. Governor Noem claimed that capacity had been expanded to 607 beds but later admitted that it included pediatric and NICU beds. ICU utilization in South Dakota is up to 87%, with staffing a major issue. A COVID patient in ICU typically requires a team of 3 or 4 caregivers to keep them stabilized.

But in western South Dakota, there is a different story on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Earlier this year, tribal officials implemented roadblocks into the reservation, including on state highways. At the checkpoints, tribal officials prevented leisure travel and non-essential visitation. In May, Governor Noem threatened to sue the tribe in court (along with tribal leaders of the Pineridge Indian Reservation). In June, she made good on the threat, with federal officials refusing to intervene. Tribal land is considered sovereign.

Tribal leaders decided to lockdown the reservation because they believed the federal government would provide ineffective assistance, and they lacked medical resources to deal with widespread COVID transmission. Additionally, they had long prepared for supply chain disruptions due to the centuries-long history of dealing with the federal government.

Their actions appear to be paying dividends, but the efforts are showing cracks. While South Dakota has a positivity rate of 57.5%, the Cheyenne River Reservation rate is 17.9%. The percentage indicates significant under testing but is well below the catastrophic rate of infection ravaging South Dakota.

In Indigenous culture, the respect and care of the elderly is a core value. Tribal members have set up support networks to assist families who have to quarantine and care for sick relatives. The tribe supports each other by providing meal and supply deliveries, adequate fuel for heating, and check-ins multiple times a day. Creating a system and safety net to help families dealing with infection can further isolate the sick and asymptomatic carriers.

With neighboring North Dakota issuing a mask mandate and Iowa taking further steps to curb infections, governor Noem is under increasing pressure to do something to curb the infection rates in her rural state.

BIPOC, National

Milwaukee activist Frank Nitty arrested on sexual assault charge

Frank Sensabaugh, a Milwaukee activist and central figure in the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, was arrested yesterday on a sexual assault warrant by Milwaukee police. In a series of live stream videos posted on November 16, 2020, Nitty stated, “Police knocked on my door and said I sexually assaulted this young lady.” The videos show that Nitty was taken into custody without incident and was cooperative with the police.

According to Nitty’s videos, he took in a woman who had marched with him to Washington D.C. who was unhomed. The woman was using a rental car, rented in his name. When the car was supposed to be returned, the woman and the rental car were missing. After three days, the rental agency indicated to Nitty they would take further action. Nitty says he sent texts to the woman that he would have to go to the police if the car was not returned. Nitty denies the allegations of sexual assault calling them, “bullshit,” saying that phone calls and text messages will exonerate him.

Nitty became a central BLM figure this summer when he, and a group of supporters, marched from Milwaukee to Washington D.C. The walk was documented on social media and in the news. He was arrested in Indiana, shot at in Pennsylvania, and suffered multiple racially motivated incidents during his journey.

Nitty and his group arrived in Washington D.C. for the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s, I Had a Dream speech. While there, he was embroiled in another controversy over statements he made that some deemed homophobic.

Although the woman has been identified by other sources, Malcontent News has a policy of not publishing the name of individuals who make claims of or are victims of sexual assault.

BIPOC, National

COVID-19 devastates the BIPOC community

Sprawling across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, the 173,000 member Navajo Nation suffers from “Dikos Ntsaaígíí-19” – COVID-19. Over seven-percent of the Navajo have tested positive for COVID-19, with 591 deaths. If the Navajo Nation was an independent country, the mortality rate of 4.7% would be third-worst globally, behind Iran and Mexico.

Tribal officials called the outbreak out of control this week. In this sprawling desert region, where one-third of the population has no access to running water, officials declared a 56-hour curfew in an attempt to curb case growth. The curfew is on top of an existing daily curfew from 9 PM to 5 AM.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been working with the Navajo and Pueblo Nations since April. In neighboring New Mexico, almost 50% of all COVID-19 deaths are Indigenous peoples who make up 10% of the state population. Reservations across the United States have reported a complete lack of support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal government, and state officials. In Washington state a request for PPE from the federal government resulted in the shipment of body bags.

In South Dakota, where governor Kirsti Noem, R, has refused to have a mask mandate and permitted events such as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Cheyenne River Sioux, and Oglala Sioux tribes established COVID-19 checkpoints to enter their reservations. Governor Noem sued in federal court to remove the checkpoints, but the courts supported tribal autonomy, and the checkpoints have persisted. Tribal leaders in South Dakota stated they had established the checkpoints to protect tribal members due to a lack of medical resources and PPE.

Inequality isn’t limited to Indigenous peoples. The respected medical journal The Lancet published a study on July 14, 2020, comparing the Bronx Montefiore Health System’s mortality rate before and after COVID-19. The study included over 505,000 patients in the system and concluded that the mortality rate of Blacks due to COVID was higher. Factors such as age and comorbidities could not explain the higher rate in the population.

Closer to home in Washington state, six percent of all COVID deaths are Black while making up four percent of the people. For Hispanics, the numbers are far worse, with 38% of state fatalities coming from the ethnic group, which makes up 13% of the population. COVID tore through Yakima County earlier this year, where state farmers fought against guidelines to protect farmworkers from the disease. County leaders took a strong anti-mask position, and the county sheriff refused to enforce regulations. When it was time for the early summer harvest in the agricultural county, officials had to fly patients to Seattle, Portland, and Spokane to relieve overloaded hospitals.

APM Research Labs has been compiling mortality statistics based on race for COVID since March, and it paints a grim picture. Only Asian Americans have a lower mortality rate for Coronavirus. For Black Americans, the mortality rate is double for whites. Despite the higher infection and mortality rates, the Kaiser Family Foundation concluded that minorities as a group were less likely to be tested for COVID-19, be sicker when tested, and require more treatment due to the delay in identifying patients. The study also stated about Black households, “they are more likely to be working in low-income jobs that cannot be done from home, to be living in larger households in densely populated areas, and to utilize public or shared modes of transportation.“

With the United States setting national and world records for the most positive tests in a day three days last week, the disparity is only getting worse. The IHME estimates that as many as 400,000 Americans could be dead from COVID by February 1, 2021, without drastic steps taken to lower infection rates. Back in Navajo County, Dikos Ntsaaígíí-19 may have impacted the national election. According to the Navajo Times, members of the nation voted in record numbers in Arizona, with 97% of the tribe voting for Joe Biden.

BIPOC, LGBTQIA, Local

Hundreds celebrate president-elect Biden on Capitol Hill

With a stiff breeze blowing on a mostly cloudy afternoon, hundreds gathered at 10th and East Pine, celebrating the presumptive election win of Joe Biden. Revelers danced in the street while popping open champagne bottles, waving Biden-Harris signs and Black Lives Matter and pride flag.

https://malcontentment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/5mnthsAgo.mp4
five months ago spd was shooting rubber bullets and teargas at protesters, now there is a celebration.

Cars headed westbound on East Pine and stretched as far as the eye could see past the East Precinct, honking horns and waving at the crowd. Music played from a small sound system until a COVID-friendly mobile DJ arrived. About 30 minutes later, the Marshall Law Band came riding a trailer pulled by an SUV. As the sun broke through the clouds in the late afternoon, the band played a long set of music to a jubilant crowd.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”5″ gal_title=”Capitol Hill Biden Celebration”]

Not everyone was pleased with the events unfolding this afternoon. Several familiar faces from the CHOP/CHAZ era, which protesters considered police informants, glowered and harassed some people. A group of protesters in black bloc arrived and burned an American flag outside of the Black Lives Matter mural. These incidents were small and didn’t gain much attention from the people celebrating.

Joe Biden won the 2020 national election with 290 electoral votes currently assigned to him. The states of North Carolina remains a tossup, Alaska is not deep enough in their vote count to declare a winner, and Georgia is having an automatic recount.

BIPOC, Breaking News, Local

Seattle police meet Every Day March protesters in riot gear at Mayor Durkan’s home

The Seattle Police Department’s Community Response Group were waiting outside Mayor Jenny Durkan’s home in the Windermere neighborhood of Seattle on Saturday when protesters from the Everyday March arrived.

The police, dressed in riot gear and armed with “less lethal” weapons — along with other munitions — immediately gave a dispersal order to the peaceful demonstrators, witnesses said.

The SPD also stopped and cited every vehicle that was part of the “car brigade,” according to an EDM organizer. The vehicles were there to keep protesters on foot safe from road traffic.

A small group of officers was still on-site when we arrived on the scene.

Today represents the 155th day of continuous protest in Seattle.

This is a breaking news story.

BIPOC, National

Trump Makes proclamation on “National Day of Remembrance for Americans Killed by Illegal Aliens”

The White House released more election red meat for a segment of his base who find racist language appealing. The “Proclamation on National Day of Remembrance for Americans Killed by Illegal Aliens” released Friday is full of loaded race-baiting and misleading language.

“Our Nation solemnly stands alongside the mothers and fathers who are no longer able to see their children grow up and have families of their own and for the sons and daughters who have lost a parent or loved one at the hands of someone who never should have been inside our country in the first place.”

Donald Trump – President of the United States

Viewed as a slap in the face by the Mexican community November 1 is also Dia De Los Muertos holiday and the day picked by the Trump Administration to recognize National Day of Remembrance for Americans Killed by Illegal Aliens.

Dia De Los Muertos, literally translated to The Day of the Dead, blends pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Aztec rituals, with European pagan and the Catholic Church All Souls Day. The celebration honors deceased family members. Celebrants believe the border between the spirit world and the real world dissolve one day a year. The souls of the dead return to be among the living to feast, drink, play music, and dance with those they loved. To honor their presence, family members treat the souls as cherished guests leaving favorite foods at their gravesites and gifts and offerings on an ofrenda, or offering.

This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration has picked a date to coincide with significant events in the Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) communities. Early this year, Trump initially picked June 19, also known as Juneteenth, for his Tulsa, Oaklahoma rally. That rally turned into a superspreader event for COVID-19. The proclamation is also riddled with falsehoods and exaggerated facts. The statement there is 400 miles of new fence along the Mexico border is factually accurate, but almost all of that is a replacement fence that was budgeted before Trump took office.

Trump did his photo opportunity at Saint John’s Episcopal Church on June 1, the same day Black Wall Street was burned and hundreds killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. The administration initially picked June 19, also known as Juneteenth, as the date for a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event was moved after pressure from the GOP and Oklahoma officials.

The declaration has echoes of fascist regimes such as Nazi Germany, where Adolph Hitler made similar proclamations against Jews and would publish the list of Jewish crimes in state-owned newspapers.

David Obelcz contributed to this story.

BIPOC, Local, National

BLM protesters march after shooting of Kevin Peterson Jr.

Black Lives Matter protesters, mostly dressed in black bloc, held a vigil at Cowen Park in Seattle on Friday for Kevin Peterson Junior. Peterson Jr. was shot and killed by three Clark County sheriffs deputies in Hazel Dell, Washington, on Thursday, October 29. Hazel Dell is located about 12 miles north of Portland, Oregon.

Protesters gather in response to the Kevin Peteson, Jr. police shooting in Hazel Dell, Washington.

On Thursday night, Clark County Sheriff deputies pursued Kevin Peterson, Jr. as part of an alleged drug investigation. Initially, Clark County Sheriff’s office stated that Peterson Jr. had a gun, had fired at deputies. Later on Friday, officials walked back the statement.

“Soon after the foot chase began, the man produced a handgun, and the officers backed off. A short time later, the subject encountered three Clark County deputies who all discharged their pistols. During the crime scene investigation, a Glock model 23, 40 caliber pistol was found near the deceased by independent crime scene investigators.”

Battle Ground Police Chief Mike Fort

Olivia Selto, Peterson Jr’s. girlfriend, reported she was on a video call at the time of the pursuit and witnessed Peterson Jr. get shot. She said that deputies did not check his condition as the call remained connected, and then terminated the call on the phone.

Initially, the Camas Police Department took on the investigation, but I-940 does not allow for neighboring police departments to investigate police shootings. The Battleground, Washington Police Department is acting as the public liaison for the investigation.

Back in Seattle, a group of approximately 50 people marched through the streets of the University District calling on bystanders to “get into the streets.” The march received a positive response from observers and gained several participants along Greek Row near the University of Washington. The Seattle Police Department reported that windows were broken at a Starbucks, and several arrests were made.

David Obelcz contributed to this story.