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Junior Achievement unveils the 2023 class of ‘18 Under Eighteen’ See Pages A4-5
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 114 No. 5 Two Sections
FEBRUARY 1-7, 2023
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PITTSBURGH RALLIES FOR TYRE NICHOLS B-PEP demands that what happened in Memphis never happens in the future in Pittsburgh by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
The video of Tyre Nichols being beaten by Memphis police officers, then receiving no care from EMTs, leading to his eventual death, was so bad that officials decided to wait until Friday night, Jan. 27, to release it. Officials wanted all the people in Memphis and elsewhere who were working “traditional” hours of 9 to 5 to be able to get home safely, fearing that the country would be turned upside down by rioters and protesters. Except...that didn’t happen. Sure, there were protests and rallies around the country for Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man seen in the video being apprehended and then beaten like he was not human, by police officers of his same race, on that fateful Jan. 7 evening. But they lacked the destruction that came following the unwatchable death of George Floyd, captured by a teenager in Minneapolis in May 2020. If you’re Chief Ikhana, a Black woman from Pittsburgh, you’ve been through this before. A
number of her friends were killed by police in the Pittsburgh area, including Bernard Rogers, who was 26 years old in 2002 when he was shot by a Pittsburgh Housing Authority officer in Bedford Dwellings, Hill District. In reports from the Tribune-Review, Rogers’ sister, Vaughnette, was quoted as saying that “regardless of what they said, they (the police) killed him. You killed him even if you said it was an accident.” Authority Police said Bernard Rogers was the target of a drug investigation, and, according to the Tribune-Review report, they said Rogers tried to grab an officer’s gun after he pushed an officer and knocked down another. “If you’re selling drugs, then that makes you eligible for public execution I presume,” voiced Chief Ikhana in disgust. Chief Ikhana was among the few dozen who marched from Brighton Road and Western Avenue on the North Side, to the Zone One Police Station a few blocks up the road, Jan. 30. It was the second SEE NICHOLS A6
CHIEF IKHANA marches along Brighton Road, on the North Side, Jan. 30. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
Common Pleas Judge denies DA’s request to detain Dawson by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Whether it was right or wrong for Pittsburgh activist Nicky Jo Dawson to allegedly post on social media hours after an area police officer was shot and killed, that “a pig died tonight, they want us to cry over it; they will use this to exterminate us and call it ‘looking for a suspect,’” a judge ruled that it wasn’t something that she should be detained for. On Friday, Jan. 27, Common Pleas Judge Kelly E. Bigley denied the request from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office to detain Dawson. Apparently, DA Stephen A. Zappala Jr. felt that Dawson’s alleged online comments were enough to be considered a probation violation. Dawson had been on probation after pleading guilty to one count of arson in 2019. His office wanted to have a Gagnon II hearing
scheduled, where the DA’s office would try to prove to a judge that Dawson violated probation. Legal experts had already mentioned on the record to various Pittsburgh media outlets that it would be a stretch for a judge in a Gagnon II hearing to rule in the DA’s favor, especially when no physical harm to any person or property came from Dawson’s comments made on Jan. 2. But the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge, Bigley, put an end to it even before a hearing. “While the social media posts attributed to the defendant (Dawson) are shocking, abhorrent, and appalling, neither the Commonwealth’s Motion or Brief address the issue of the defendant’s 1st Amendment rights or whether making such posts actually violated a condition of the defenSEE DAWSON A7
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ACTIVIST NICKY JO DAWSON blares a blowhorn in the direction of Pittsburgh police officers during a protest at the Allegheny County Courthouse, July 27, 2018. (Photo by J.L. Martello)