Omar Jimenez | |
|---|---|
 Omar Jimenez in 2024. | |
| Born | November 27, 1993 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University (BSJ) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | CNN |
| Website | omarjimenez |
Omar Fernando Jimenez (born November 27, 1993) [1] is an American journalist and correspondent working for CNN.
Jimenez was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and raised in Kennesaw, Georgia. [2] He is Afro-Latino; [3] his mother, Jayne Morgan, is a cardiologist and African American, [4] and his father, Omar Jimenez Jr., is a neurosurgeon and native of Colombia. [5] Jimenez has two brothers. [6] When he was in sixth grade, his parents divorced, and he lived with his mother. [4]
Jimenez attended Kennesaw Mountain High School. [7] While playing high school basketball, Jimenez fractured his back and was unable to play for eight months. [4] He attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he majored in broadcast journalism. [8] He played on the men's varsity basketball team from 2011 to 2013 at Northwestern after a successful walk-on tryout. [2] [5] [9] With other journalism and law students, Jimenez worked with the Chicago Innocence Project to investigate wrongful convictions. [10]
Jimenez began his career in journalism as an intern in the Chicago bureau of NBC News [2] For almost four years, Jimenez worked on-air as a multimedia journalist at WGEM-TV in Quincy, Illinois. [10] He was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland. [2] [7] Jimenez worked at WBAL from July 2015 to June 2017. [11]
Jimenez has worked at CNN since August 7, 2017, [10] first at CNN Newsource in Washington, D.C. He has reported for over 900 CNN affiliate news stations nationwide covering breaking news. [7] He is now based in Chicago as a CNN correspondent. [12]
Early on the morning of May 29, 2020, Jimenez and his three-person news crew were arrested by a group of Minnesota State Patrol officers while reporting live on protests in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [13] According to Jimenez, he was arrested despite agreeing to move where directed, and despite he and his team's media credentials being visible and valid. [14] [15]
As he reported live on CNN's New Day program with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman, Jimenez was approached by two officers who ordered the team to move. He immediately agreed, asking where they should move to, but officers walked away. Minutes later, as Jimenez continued to report, he, along with producer Bill Kirkos, camera operator Leonel Mendez, and a security guard were approached by a group of officers who surrounded and arrested them as they continued to ask where the state police wanted them to move. They were detained on-scene, then at a local precinct station, before being released about an hour and a half later. [16] CNN President Jeff Zucker called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz directly to insist on the crew's release. [17] During their conversation, Walz apologized to Zucker for the incident, calling it "unacceptable." [18]
During the riots after the Jacob Blake shooting by police, Jimenez reported on the situation from Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was on camera with a burning building behind him and a gas mask around his neck while the CNN chyron said that what was happening were "Fiery But Mostly Peaceful" protests, though Jimenez never actually described the scene that way in his report. This image was widely circulated on social media and CNN was heavily criticized. [19]
At Northwestern, he won various national and regional student awards for reporting, including the National Mark of Excellence Award for student television reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists and a Bronze award from the National College Emmys in the newscast category. [2]
While working at WBAL-TV, Jimenez received an individual Emmy nomination for general assignment reporting. [12]
Jimenez began playing music in high school. He enjoys rap and hip-hop, and has released music on SoundCloud under the name OJ Tropicana. His debut EP, Reporting Live, was released in 2017. He worked with producer Daiz and musician Drew Tildon. His artistry is influenced by Childish Gambino. [20] In 2013, he appeared on a "Battle of the Instant Rappers" segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . [21]
The 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008. The first day of the Republican Party's convention fell on Labor Day, the last day of the popular Minnesota State Fair, though because of Hurricane Gustav, this day was mostly a call for action to help victims and formal, required activities; most of the politicking and partying did not start until Tuesday, the second scheduled day.
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesota, after the Saint Paul Police Department that formed in 1854. A short-lived Board of Police Commissioners existed from 1887 to 1890.
Unicorn Riot is a decentralized, nonprofit, left-wing media collective that originated online in 2015. The group is known for reporting on far-right organizations and sources of racial and economic injustice in the US. The non-hierarchical media organization operates in the US cities of Boston, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia as well as in South Africa. They produce live streams of political rallies and protests and are funded by viewer donation and grants.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that he made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before Floyd was handcuffed. A fourth police officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from intervening.
Derek Michael Chauvin is a former police officer who murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, calling out "I can't breathe", during an arrest made with three other officers. Chauvin was dismissed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on May 26 and arrested on May 29. The murder set off a series of protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and across the rest of the United States, later spreading around the world.
The George Floyd protests were a series of demonstrations against police brutality and riots that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, by city police during an arrest. They spread nationally and internationally. Veteran officer Derek Chauvin was recorded as kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds; Floyd complained of not being able to breathe, but three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested. In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.
Local protests over the murder of George Floyd, sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or Minneapolis uprising, began on May 26, 2020, and within a few days had inspired a global protest movement against police brutality and racial inequality. The initial events were a reaction to a video filmed the day before and circulated widely in the media of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd struggled to breathe, begged for help, lost consciousness, and died. Public outrage over the content of the video gave way to widespread civil disorder in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and other cities in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over the five-day period of May 26 to 30 after Floyd's murder.
Local protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area quickly spread nationwide in more than 2,000 cities and towns, as well as over 60 countries internationally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Minneapolis, destruction of property began on May 26, 2020, with the protests involving vandalism and arson. Demonstrations in many other cities also descended into riots and widespread looting. There was police brutality against protesters and journalists. Property damage estimates resulting from arson, vandalism and looting ranged from $1 to $2 billion, eclipsing the highest inflation adjusted totals for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States, initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States, such as in the form of police violence and other forms of violence. Since then, numerous other incidents of police brutality have drawn continued attention and unrest in various parts of the country.
The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.
As a reaction to the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, racial justice activists and some residents of the Powderhorn community in Minneapolis staged an occupation protest at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue with a blockade of the streetway lasting over a year. The intersection is where Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, murdered George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man. Activists erected barricades to block vehicular traffic and transformed the intersection and surrounding structures with amenities, social services, and public art depicting Floyd and other racial justice themes. The community called the unofficial memorial and protest zone at the intersection "George Floyd Square". The controversial street occupation in 2020 and 2021 was described as an "autonomous zone" and a "no-go" place for police, but local officials disputed the extent of such characterizations.
State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin was an American criminal case in the District Court of Minnesota in 2021. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was tried and convicted for the murder of George Floyd, which occurred during an arrest on May 25, 2020, and led to global protests over racial injustice and police brutality. A 12-member jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. It was the first conviction of a white police officer in Minnesota for the murder of a black person.
Protests and civil disorder occurred in reaction to the killing of Daunte Wright on April 11, 2021. Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, United States. Protests that first began in Brooklyn Center spread to other locations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and then to other cities in the United States. Several nights of civil disorder in Brooklyn Center and adjacent cities resulted in sporadic looting and damage to a few hundred properties, including four businesses that were set on fire.
The aftermath of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul describes the result of civil disorder between May 26 and June 7, 2020, in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Protests began as a response to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man on May 25, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as three other officers assisted during an arrest. The incident was captured on a bystander's video and it drew public outrage as video quickly circulated in the news media by the following day.
Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old black American man, in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3, 2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force, and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.
Civil unrest began in the Uptown district of the U.S. city of Minneapolis on June 3, 2021, as a reaction to news reports that law enforcement officers had killed a wanted suspect during an arrest. The law enforcement killing occurred atop a parking ramp near West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. Police fired several rounds, killing the person at the scene. In an initial statement about the encounter, the U.S. Marshals Service alleged that a person failed to comply with arresting officers and produced a gun. Crowds gathered on West Lake Street near the parking ramp soon afterwards as few details were known about the incident or the deceased person, who was later identified as Winston Boogie Smith, a 32-year-old black American man.
The George Floyd protests in Atlanta were a series of protests occurring in Atlanta, the capital and largest city of Georgia, United States. The protests were part of the George Floyd protests and, more broadly, the 2020–2021 United States racial unrest, which began shortly after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. On May 26, protesting occurred in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area and, over the next several weeks, protests spread to cities throughout the United States and then internationally.
Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.
