MAY
May 8
The BBC website reported that in April 2016, three men from the ethnic minority groups, Mario Woods, Alex Nieto and Amilcar Lopez, were shot dead by police in San Francisco. Some members of the public accused police chief Greg Suhr of heading a racist force and staged hunger strike calling for Suhr to be sacked from his job. There are more than 1,000 fatal shootings by police in the United States each year, and those killed are disproportionately African-American.
May 11
A research by the Pew Research Center showed that in 2016 the American middle class were shrinking in metropolitan areas across the country. From 2000 to 2014, the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas. The decrease in the middle-class share was 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas, compared with a 4-point drop nationally.
May 12
A report by the Pew Research Center showed that a widening wealth gap resulted that fewer people remained in the middle class. "The shrinking of the American middle class is a pervasive phenomenon. It has increased the polarization in incomes," said Rakesh Kochhar, lead author of the report. The report found that in nearly one quarter of metro areas, middle-class adults no longer made up a majority. Even many of the cities with substantial middle-class populations were under stress.
May 14
The Washington Post website reported that the number of homicides increased in the first months of 2016 in more than two dozen major U.S. cities, going up in places that also saw spiking violence in 2015. Then White House press secretary Josh Earnest said some cities were experiencing a troubling surge in violent crime.
May 17
The Guardian website reported that an analysis by the AFL-CIO union found that chief executive officers of the top 500 companies took home 12.4 million U.S. dollars on average in 2015, about 340 times the average worker' s wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average production worker, who does not hold a supervisory role, earned about 36,900 U.S. dollars a year in 2015. Adjusted for inflation, the wage had remained stagnant for about 50 years.
May 19
The Washington Post website reported that Jeremias Cruz, an unarmed 30-year-old Hispanic man, was shot by police in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the same day, the website reported that Jessica Nelson-Williams, an unarmed 29-year-old black woman, was shot by police in San Francisco, California.
May 21
The Guardian website reported that on May 20, the largest gang attack occurred in Chicago and lasted two days. Three people were killed and 11 were wounded. Among the dead was a city employee caught in crossfire after she left a Starbucks near the Chicago police headquarters. Gun violence killed more than 200 people in Chicago in 2016. There were more than 700 homicides.
May 22
The Christian Science Monitor website reported that on May 21, the United States launched a drone strike against the leader of the Afghan Taliban in a remote border area inside Pakistan. U.S. officials said the strike was authorized by the President and included multiple drones. On May 22, Pakistan said the United States did not inform the Pakistan government beforehand and accused the United States of violating its sovereignty.
On the same day, the Washington Post website reported that Michael Eugene Wilson Jr., an unarmed 27-year-old black man, was shot by police in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
On the same day, the website reported that Vernell Bing, an unarmed 22-year-old black man, was shot by police on a street in Jacksonville, Florida.
May 25
The Washington Post website reported that Doll Pierre-Louis, a 24-year-old black man driving a vehicle, was shot by police in Miami Gardens, Florida.
