June 10 Black Lives Matter protests

Thomas Lane, one of the four former officers involved in George Floyd's death, has been released from the Hennepin County Jail on bond, according to the jail website.

Some context: Earl Gray, attorney for Lane, told NBC's Today Show on June 8 that his client "was doing what he thought was right."

Lane, 37, had only been on the force for four days when he helped to restrain Floyd, according to his lawyer. Asked how his client could stand by and watch for nearly nine minutes, Gray said:

Chauvin, Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were responding to a call about a $20 counterfeit bill on May 25 when they detained Floyd, who died while in custody. 

The four officers were fired and are now facing charges in Floyd's death.  

Chauvin, 44, was charged last Wednesday with a new, more serious count of second-degree murder. 

Kueng, Thao and Lane were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has renewed her call for the removal of the 11 statues representing Confederate soldiers and officials that are on display as part of the National Statuary Hall collection in the United States Capitol. 

Pelosi made the request in a letter today to the congressional leadership of the Joint Committee on the Library.

In a tweet, Pelosi said, “The statues which fill the halls of Congress should reflect our highest ideals as Americans. Today, I am once again calling for the removal from the US Capitol of the statues representing Confederate soldiers and officials. These statues pay homage to hate, not heritage.” 

The push from Pelosi is a renewal of a call she made in 2017 when she asked then-House Speaker Paul Ryan to join Democrats in backing legislation to remove the statues from the Capitol. That failed push from Democrats came after the violence in Charlottesville.  

President Trump avoided commenting on police, protesters, and George Floyd's death during an event with pro-Trump African-American community leaders at the White House on Wednesday.

Instead, Trump said historically black colleges and universities “were treated very, very badly and I treated them very good,” and said the black community is “doing very well now.”

Trump and other participants also blasted the media in vitriolic terms.

Republican political consultant Raynard Jackson accused the media of “putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer” and “killing more black folks than any white person with a sheet over their face.”

The President didn’t respond directly, but later added, “The media is almost 100% negative. It’s incredible.”

Even when participants steered the conversation to the black community’s relationship with law enforcement, the President did not comment.

Kareem Lanier with the pro-Trump Urban Revitalization Coalition told the President that problems with police abuses run deep in the African American community.

After Lanier spoke, the President said that his comments were “well said,” and concluded the event.

Trump then took only one question from the press, but didn't respond when asked twice about why the confederacy needed to be defended.

The event was not on Trump's public schedule and was billed only as a “roundtable discussion.”

It's been more than two weeks since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, and demonstrators continue to peacefully protest across the country.

Floyd died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis, and bystander video showed a police officer kneeling on the side of his neck as officers tried to subdue him. That sparked days of massive protests in cities across the nation and a sweeping discussion about race relations, reform of policing and more.

Here's a look at the protests across the country:

New York

Boston

Rapper and actor Chris "Ludacris" Bridges spoke with CNN about the importance of educating children on racial issue as the country continues to come to terms with the death of George Floyd.

Prior to Floyd's tragic death, Ludacris had already been working on helping to eliminate racial bias with a new media platform called Kid Nation. Developed with his business partner Sandy Lal, Kid Nation aims to teach children about current events, mostly through music.

Lal and Ludacris are planning for a full launch of the platform in the fall, but moved up the release of two new songs tied to current events. They collaborated with various groups of kids, who sing the songs, while Ludacris created the lyrics and melodies.

"I'm being the change that I want to see. So by giving all the parents that are home schooling right now another opening and giving their kids something safe to look at," Ludacris said. "We felt this was an emergency to put these song out. You're right. Having these conversations is hard. That's why I'm trying to do everything I can so the next generation doesn't go through the problems and issues that we're going through."

WATCH:

NASCAR will no longer allow the Confederate flag to be displayed at events and properties, according to a statement this afternoon.

Some context: In a week where NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace wore an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt before an event and said racetracks shouldn't allow Confederate flags, the NASCAR driver will make another bold move Wednesday by racing a car with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme.

"I think by running this branding on our car, putting the hashtag out there, bringing more awareness to it, it lines up with the videos that we had put out as NASCAR," said Wallace, the first full-time African American driver in the Cup Series since 1971. "Listening and learning. Educating ourselves. So people will look up what this hashtag means. And hopefully get a better understanding."

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said police chiefs from around the country are having conversations about national reforms for police departments.

Asked if there should be federal guidelines for police departments across the board, Arradondo said this is an opportunity for major city police chiefs across this country to look at what good national policing reforms look like. "I know that those conversations are taking place now," he said. 

Citizens "should not have to feel that you will be treated differently in Minneapolis, to L.A., or to Dallas, or to New York City,"Arradondo said.

Arradondo told CNN's Sara Sidner that any plans to defund or dismantle police "have to be thoughtful, they have to be mindful, they have to be based in fact. If it's totally driven by emotion, lives could be at stake as well."

Arradondo said he has continued to do his job because: "I care about my elders. I care about the children growing up in this world having to turn on the news and seeing black men die at the hands of police."

More than 1,250 former Justice Department employees asked the agency’s internal watchdog to investigate Attorney General William Barr for his role in the forcible clearing of a peaceful protest outside the White House earlier this month ahead of staged photo-op by President Trump.

In a letter, the former officials, who served in career and politically-appointed positions under Democratic and Republican leadership, said Barr may have trampled the constitutional rights of the protesters when he ordered the move, and asked Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to review the attorney general’s involvement in the episode. 

The letter, organized by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit that has battled the Trump administration, is similar to other statements put out by the group of former officials earlier this year, including calls for Barr to resign over his controversial handling of the Roger Stone and Michael Flynn prosecutions. 

What Barr has said about the incident: During an interview Sunday, Barr again defended the actions of federal law enforcement officers, saying in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," that the protesters were moved because the Park Police wanted a larger security perimeter around the White House — not to aid the White House in staging Trump's subsequent photo opportunity with a Bible at the nearby St. John's Episcopal Church.

Barr, who has sought to distance himself from the official order to clear the protesters, also claimed on Sunday that the protesters at Lafayette Square, which had become the center of attention for the ongoing demonstrations, were violent. There is no evidence of that claim, and CNN personnel on the scene reported the protesters were peaceful.

At least seven Los Angeles police officers have been removed from field duties after using excessive force during recent protests, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

This comes amid heightened scrutiny of the actions of police officers, particularly against peaceful demonstrators in the aftermath of George Floyd's death.

LAPD has assigned 40 investigators to "look into every complaint thoroughly" and "hold every officer accountable for their actions," the department said. 

According to LAPD, complaints are currently being investigated, with 28 involving alleged uses of force.