--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, November 11th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It looks like Kyle Rittenhouse's trial is on its way to a fairly quick resolution. Rittenhouse is being tried on six charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a potential life sentence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He was 17 years old during the summer of 2020 when he traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, from out of state and killed two men and injured another. This was during the protests against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to the charges and says he was acting in self-defense.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yesterday was a big day in the trial. Rittenhouse took the stand and testified for hours. Stacey St. Clair has been covering the trial for the Chicago Tribune. She spoke with us from inside the courthouse.
--:-- Stacey St. Clair: For much of his testimony, Rittenhouse was composed. But then when it turned to the events of that night and the moments leading up to his shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse got very emotional. He started sobbing. He couldn't finish the sentences that he kept trying to complete.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I was cornered from in front of me with Mr. Zeminski. And there were... But, you know, I think the moment, the events of that night and the moments leading up to his shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse got very emotional. He started sobbing. He couldn't finish the sentences that he kept trying to complete.
--:-- Stacey St. Clair: Several of the jurors appeared to be giving him sympathetic glances as they walked out of the courtroom while he tried to get his emotions back in check.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It wasn't just emotional in the courtroom. St. Clair says it was also tense. At one point, the prosecution tried to invoke a video that was taken weeks before the killing. And in this video, Rittenhouse expressed a desire to shoot people he believed were shoplifting from a drugstore. That incident had been deemed off-limits by the judge, Judge Schroeder.
--:-- Stacey St. Clair: The judge was extremely upset about both infractions by the prosecution, so much so that the judge was screaming at the prosecutor in a way I have never heard in my 20 years of covering criminal courts.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: At one point yesterday Judge Schroeder got upset with the prosecution for asking Rittenhouse why he hadn't spoken publicly about the shootings in the months before the trial. The judge said it's Rittenhouse's right to remain silent, and for prosecutors to bring that up was a constitutional violation.
--:-- Stacey St. Clair: There's a perception among legal observers of the trial that so far things are going in favor of the defense. The trial has been actually wildly uneven for the prosecution. Many of their witnesses have provided what the defense considers strong points for their case.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: By the end of the day yesterday, the defense asked for a mistrial with prejudice. And that's a pretty significant request because if it's granted, this case would essentially be over. Rittenhouse would be free, and it would be impossible to try this case again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So far, the judge hasn't made a decision on that request. If this trial carries on as planned, we could hit closing arguments by Monday.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The children of Flint, Michigan, are the top priority in a settlement in one of the most notorious cases of lead-contaminated water. A federal judge yesterday approved a $626 million payout, mostly coming from the state of Michigan.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As the Washington Post reports, most of that money will go to people who were exposed to tainted water as children. This is one of the largest settlements in Michigan state history.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The water crisis in Flint started in 2014. That's when city officials decided to use the Flint River for the city's water supply. Problem was, the river was not properly treated. People who live in the area soon began complaining about how strange the water smelled and that it had a yellowish-brown color.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One charity that helped give out water to people in this area estimates that, as a result of mismanagement, between 6,000 and 12,000 children were exposed to lead poisoning.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Multiple state officials are facing charges related to the water crisis. Only one person has been convicted, the state's former director of disease control. She was sentenced to a year of probation, community service, and a fine of $1,200.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The judge in this case is calling it remarkable that more than half of Flint's 81,000 residents signed up for a share of this settlement. It's not clear, though, how much each person is going to get.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In police departments, loyalty runs deep. There's a name for this type of bond. It's often referred to as the blue wall of silence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That term describes an informal but powerful code of conduct that incentivizes officers who witness their colleagues committing bad or dangerous behavior to keep it to themselves.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: USA Today is out with an investigation that looks at what happens to officers who dare to break this code. Gina Barton is one of the reporters who worked on this story.
--:-- Gina Barton: In most of the cases that we examined, the officers who tried to report fellow officers for misconduct ended up losing their entire careers. People had been police officers for 20, 30 more years, and the whole thing fell apart when they tried to speak up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her reporting found these officers are often bullied and harassed. Some found dead rats or feces stuffed into their lockers. Some called for backup and never got it. Some officers say they've had drugs planted on them. And some say they've even received death threats.
--:-- Gina Barton: Barton told us what happened to one officer in Louisiana. Moses Black saw a sergeant twice kick a handcuffed man who had just been pepper sprayed and curse at him and tell him to get up. And the man had epilepsy. He hit his head on the concrete floor and started having convulsions. He later did recover.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But two other officers who witnessed the incident didn't report it. Moses Black did. Eventually, Moses was fired. His department supervisor says it was for an unrelated incident. But in a lawsuit against his former police department, Moses says he was retaliated against for reporting a superior officer to internal affairs.
--:-- Gina Barton: A judge threw out his case. Moses tried to find work with several law enforcement agencies in the state, but he had no luck. Today, he repairs AC units in sweltering attics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the most troubling things we found is not only were the whistleblowers punished and disciplined and driven out of their departments and completely ostracized from all of their friends and fellow officers, But at the same time, the officers who they accused of misconduct often not only got away with it, but also were promoted and were supported by their departments and their unions and the department leadership.
--:-- Gina Barton: Reporters contacted more than 20 police and sheriff departments. As USA Today puts it, some departments broadly acknowledge the tendency for officers to remain loyal to one another sometimes to a harmful extent. But many declined to comment or said this is an issue within their departments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Barton told us if more police departments spoke up about the blue wall of silence, it could go a long way towards changing policing in this country.
--:-- Gina Barton: One of the conclusions that our experts drew was that the blue wall of silence goes to the core of what's wrong with American policing. A lot of times you hear, 95 percent, 99 percent of officers are good people, and it's just a few bad apples that are causing the problems that have been all over the news in recent years. But really, it's not just that, and it's not just a poisonous culture in law enforcement. It is a series of actual mechanisms and rules that are enabling this bad behavior to continue. And those need to be addressed and changed.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: How many kids out there grew up dreaming of someday running your own sports team? Well, it might be time to shoot your shot. OK, now I'm mixing sports metaphors, but we're talking about baseball here. The New York Mets can't seem to find a new general manager.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal says that for two years in a row, the amazing Mets haven't been able to find a general manager. And it's not for lack of trying. When billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Cohen bought the team last year, there was this expectation that his money would attract talent. It worked for him on Wall Street, and he made it clear he wanted to use his wallet to make the Mets a championship team.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Instead, the Journal says candidates aren't even returning Cohen's calls. And one reason may be the New York media market. The theory is if you mess up on the big city stage, you could wind up ruining your career.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another hypothesis is that Cohen maybe wants too much of the action for himself. He's not shy about how he wants his team run. And he's very vocal on Twitter in a way that some other team owners aren't.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Either way, the offseason is off to a disappointing start. The Mets seriously had just one job here. And right now, anyway, efforts to find a GM have been another swing and a miss.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
