A few comments on the death in police custody of Mr. Trye Nichols

Like millions of Americans, I’ve been watching the death in police custody of Mr. Trye Nichols with a great deal of interest. It’s the issue de jour at this moment, likely pushing the Biden classified documents scandal off the attention span of the American people. It fits a template of the media, police hate blacks, and even black cops are racist because policing is racist. And this incident, one of over 60 million interactions (e.g., traffic stops, calls for service) from    800 thousand police officers is, according to the usual suspects, the event that justifies disbanding/defunding police agencies across the nation. 

 

So I’ll give my observations and opinions based on my more than layman’s knowledge of the law, my quarter century in the profession, and my knowledge of the people running over themselves to get in front of a camera and speak on something they know little or nothing about (I would say make a fool out of themselves, but they were fools before this). With the exception of the first point, they are in no particular order of importance.

 

What those officers did was wrong, and wrong based on current law and likely policy of the Memphis Police. Using reasonable force to take a suspect into custody is legal and justified. This was well beyond reasonable force. It escalated to deadly force, for no defensible reason. At no point during the two incidents was Mr. Nichols a threat to the officers. I don’t’ recall him punching an officer, using a knife or firearm, or any other type of weapon.

 

A point I’m still not clear on. What were these officers pulling this man over for? I’ve heard multiple times for “reckless driving.” Fair enough, if he was unable to maintain a single lane, cutting people off, following too close behind other vehicles, that is definitely reasonable suspicion to initiate a traffic stop. 

 

But a traffic stop does not involve rushing the car and pulling a man out of the vehicle. It means 1, 2, 3 officers approach, one goes “contact,” i.e., he speaks with the driver, while the others “cover” the vehicle occupants. The contact officer explains why he was pulled over, gets the driver’s information, license, etc. When you have a “high risk” stop (also known as a “felony stop”), it’s for a reason (e.g., car comes back stolen, the license plate shows a felony warrant on it, etc.) Generally you use at least two officers, stop the vehicle, draw weapons on the driver and passenger (s) and order them to exit the vehicle one at a time. The suspects are secured (i.e., handcuffed, searched and held) until the vehicle is cleared, and the investigation can continue. 

 

No matter which this was, a traffic stop or high-risk, it was not done in any manner I’ve known or used in my career.

 

One question I would like answered is why these officers, when they first had Mr. Nichols down, did not use the force of three large men to grab his hands and get him into hand cuffs. Something that was preached to me since I was a rookie, get him into custody, secure him, and safely continue the investigation. 

 

A few years ago we had a nine-year-old Autistic boy running on a highway. I arrived just after the primary unit, and I told them, “Cuff him, put him in the back of your shop (police vehicle), and let’s get the hell out of here!” They looked a bit puzzled why I wanted a child cuffed, but they did and we met the medic at a gas station parking lot. And once they opened their car door, this kid ran past two cops and three firefighters. Fortunately he couldn’t get far with his hands secured behind him, and we were able to get him medically cleared and transported to the juvenile hall. The point? A cop takes someone into custody, for any reason, that cop is responsible for the safety of the person. Those cops failed that task. 

 

In the continuum of force, deadly force is reserved for when the officer has “reasonable fear for life or serious bodily injury for themselves or a third person.” One of the officers kicked Mr. Nichols in the head three times, which is, by definition, deadly force (blunt force above the neckline). Mr. Nichols did not have a pistol or knife. If he did, that would have justified the head strike. But there is no evidence Mr. Nichols was a deadly threat to anyone.

 

In my humble opinion, I don’t think the DA will make a murder charge stick in court. Indictment, sure, as the old saying goes, you can indict a ham sandwich. But looking at a summary of Tennessee’s homicide statue:

 

Second-Degree Murder: In these homicide cases, a person may have knowingly killed another individual, but did not premeditate their actions. This charge may also apply if a person is killed during the distribution of any Schedule I or II drug. Second-degree murder is a Class A felony, meaning those convicted of this crime can serve between 15 and 60 years behind bars.

 

I don’t think the DA will be able to show the officers knowingly meant to kill Mr. Nichols. I think he can make a case for manslaughter (i.e. “in a state of passion”) or criminal negligent homicide (“any action that results in a person’s death”). The DA can definitely show aggravated assault (“The individual recklessly or knowingly inflicted serious harm on another party.”). 

 

Finally, the race baiting poverty industry is fully deployed. The “reverend” Sharpton is scheduled to give a eulogy for the late Mr. Nichols, although he never knew the man’s name before earlier this month. The senior member of the Justice Brothers, the Baby Daddy himself Jesse Jackson, will likely be in the audience. The principle race baiting shyster Ben Crump is going in for the money, and hired a likely prostitute MD to conduct an autopsy which be “finished” in a few days. Finally the family has been invited to Joe Biden’s State of the Union circus as a guest of the Congressional Black Caucus.

 

Hell, as I was driving today in my shop I saw a black man on the sidewalk look at me and push his hands up in the, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” act. I was tempted to respond with the “Middle fingers up! Go f%^^ yourself!” retort but held my temper.

 

Again, my observations and opinions, worth what you paid for it. I’ve heard some rumors on the officer’s actions, but I’ll  comment on what we know now. Finally, as I’ve said with other incidents like this, everyone, “Calm down. Let the process play out. Things like this take time.” We don’t know the full story, but one thing I do know, politicians will try to push an anti-law agenda, that will only make matters worse.

This is too stupid for TV or the movies...

So it has to be real!

Ages ago, I was ordered (like the entire unit) to an Army sensitivity class. Can't recall if it was sex, race, gender identity, panning, bi-ing, or questioning status. After loosing an hour of my life which I'll never get back, I walked out with a completely disgusted look on my face. And a friend said it well, "I can summarize that hour into two words. BE PROFESSIONAL!" If you can't tell, I am no fan of the racial/sex complaint industry. Talk about a waste of manpower, money, and time. 

Well, to give a classic example, I just finished an excellent book, Concepts of Nonlethal Force: Understanding For from Shouting to Shooting, by Charles Heal. In Chapter 14, he covers canines, aka dogs or K9s, used in police operations. And Mr. Heal said it well, "You can't make this up." A city council person wanted the dog euthanized because he was, ready...racist! 

Dog cleared of profiling, back on duty

A McKees Rocks police dog accused of racial profiling in an incident that drew national attention is innocent of any wrongdoing, a borough investigation found. 

"Simply stated, there is no evidence that Dolpho (the dog) was dangerous or uncontrollable in the past," said a 13-page report by borough Solicitor John A. Bacharach...

...The report absolves Dolpho and his owner-handler, Officer Shawn Barger, of any wrongdoing in a June 7 incident when Dolpho attacked Brandon Livingston, 9. The dog bit the boy on the thigh to the point where Barger had to lie on the dog to force him to release his grip. 

The officer had been chasing a drug suspect who is white. Brandon is black. 

Livingston's mother brought the matter to the attention of Councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon, who suggested the dog attacked Livingston because he is black and should be put down because of that. 

Jones Dixon doesn't entirely agree with Bacharach's conclusion. 

"There was wrongdoing because the dog bit the child," she said. 

She called it an injustice that the dog was returned to duty Wednesday and said she will warn parents. 

The June 7 incident started when Barger saw an apparent drug deal and followed a car containing the suspect, later identified as Donald John Wilczak, the report said. Wilczak eventually jumped from the car and ran, and Barger chased him. During a struggle on a porch in 700 block of Boquet Street, the remote release device on Barger's belt apparently was activated unintentionally, and the door on the police wagon opened, the report said. As Barger radioed for assistance, the suspect got away and ran west. 

The report said Barger saw Dolpho standing on the sidewalk next to the police Jeep, looking at Wilczak as the suspect turned onto Margaret Street. Barger yelled "pletz," the command for "down," but Dolpho ran to the top of Margaret Street. Barger turned onto Margaret and saw 10 or more children running away, screaming. One was Brandon, whom Dolpho grabbed by the thigh and pulled from the porch steps to the street, the report said. 

Barger ran toward Dolpho yelling for him to stop, but the dog did not release the boy. The report said Barger tackled Dolpho and choked him off Brandon, then lay on Dolpho until the dog calmed down. 

Carol Carlin of Frank Street told Bacharach that she saw Wilczak between her house and the one next door. That path would have taken Wilczak through or near the children on Margaret Street and within a few feet of the Livingston's porch, the report said. 

At a borough council meeting three days after Brandon was bitten, Brandon's mother and Jones Dixon charged that the dog had been trained to attack blacks. 

Ms. Dixon, just curious. How can you train a dog to attack black people (or people of color, as opposed to people of pallor) when dogs are, by nature, color blind? 

Bacharach's report said Dolpho's trainer, Kenneth J. Molen, said the dog might have become confused or overstimulated by the noise and confusion. Molen said he does not train dogs to distinguish or focus on any race and that his training regimen does not use decoys that appear African American, according to the report...

K9s can sometimes get confused, especially with multiple people in the area. One thing patrol cops are trained to not do is get in front of a K9 pursuing a suspect. If he confuses you with the bad guy...you will have a bad day, and the bad guy has a better chance of getting away. And yes, an agitated K9 is a bear to control at times. Every K9 handler I've know has scars on their arms from controlling the dog. As one friend of mine said, "Occupational hazard."    

As this incident occurred two decades ago, I have no doubt Dolpho has crossed the Rainbow Bridge by now. Hopefully this bull s%^& complaint didn't adversely affect his service to the public, and he enjoyed a long and healthy retirement, sharing this war story with his buddies. Remember, if you ain't getting complained on from time to time...you are likely not doing your job. :<)

Another clueless post from the Washington Post.

A few years back, the then mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, was presiding over a city in crisis. His police department was underfunded, crime was (and still is) rampant, murders of over 200 (in a city Of 385K), not to mention shooting, robberies, etc. So what does HIZONORDAMAER do? Spends two million dollars (from an already broke city) to remove statues of Confederate veterans. General Lee was removed from Lee’s Circle, and three years afterwards, the base of the statue is still there. But Mitch got himself a Profile in Courage award out of it. Talk about BS!

A couple of days ago, I saw this piece in the Washington Post, and I wonder if the author has a clue of what year it is. It’s not really a look at current issues, but a history lesson.

My experience at a Confederate-named Army base shows why we need to rename them all — now

As Congress pushes to rename military installations bearing the names of Confederate generals — and as President Trump insists he won’t even consider it — I think about how overdue this conversation is. I think about why it is that, more than a century and a half after the Confederacy ended, we still haven’t swept away monuments and other emblems of slavery and black oppression. I think about the unacknowledged entitlement and ignorance among white people, including me, that have contributed to this legacy of pain and humiliation.

And I think about what my own experience at one of these installations should have taught me about racism in America, but didn’t. Until now.

In the fall of 1968, at the age of 23, I was drafted into the U.S. Army in one of the last big pushes to “win” the war in Vietnam. I was a reluctant soldier, to put it mildly, but I did what I was asked to do, along with the nearly 300,000 other men who were drafted in 1968. After basic training at Fort Lewis, Wash., I was shipped off for advanced training at Fort Gordon, just outside Augusta, Ga...

...The Fort Gordon I knew was anything but. It was a relic of the two world wars and ought to have been demolished long before 1968...

...There were about 40 of us there, sleeping in metal bunk beds with thin mattresses and one Army blanket. We were all colors and ethnicities, from all parts of the country. I used to think of the Army as a great equalizer. Until now.

We were in training six days a week, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. We always looked forward to the brief time when we weren’t: the few hours every Saturday night when we could go into Augusta to drink and carouse like civilians. I was part of a tight group of a half-dozen guys who always went to town together. But one of us never did, and I hadn’t really thought about why. Until now.

His name was Max, an African American kid about 20 years old. I think he was from New Jersey. One Saturday night as our group was leaving for town, I pleaded with Max to join us. Max, as usual, was in his upper bunk reading a magazine. He stared at me for a moment, then just gently shook his head to say “no.”

For more than 51 years, I never gave much thought to why he wouldn’t go with us. Today, with what has been happening in our nation, I think I know. Max understood only too well that it wasn’t safe for a young African American man from New Jersey to be drinking and walking around downtown Augusta on a Saturday night. And it makes me wonder what Max felt while training to serve his country — and possibly die for it — surrounded by symbols glorifying men who betrayed their country to keep people like him enslaved...

Harry Anderson is a retired journalist and corporate communications executive based in Whidbey Island, Wash.

Harry, I see you and Max served your country when called, thank you both. Now, I must correct your opinion piece. It is not based in reality.

Harry, the year is now 2020. The United States stopped the draft in 1973, likely when you were out of the Army. But being a journalist, you should have noticed.

After the draft, the Army went from two-million men to 850 thousand, reorganized, and had to purge itself of two major issues. Narcotics, and racism. The former was handled mainly by urinalysis testing and zero tolerance for people who tested positive. You tested hot, you were out.

The latter was more challenging. The Army (actually all the armed forces) spent years and a fortune of money in group sessions, etc, to push as much bigotry as possible out. Harry, get ready for a shock, you can’t get rid of it all, but you can make men who must work together, sleep together, and fight together, tolerate each other. This is a slow, deliberate process. And it has succeeded. Perfect, no, but a major accomplishment.

Harry, your column has no relevance to issues today, but it is a history lesson. In case you missed it, the "racist" nation elected (twice) an incompetent black male to the highest office in the land. And libtards like you are working day and night to destroy this nation's history. I woke up this morning to see another Confederate statue removed. I wonder when the idiots who have destroyed the Confederate statues, what comes next? Washington? Jefferson? Lincoln?

God help us all.

South Park scewers Political Correctness again! :<)

You can always count on South Park to come right to the point on an overrated issue. This time, it's race bating and the victim industry. Awesome.

Again, this is why we don’t rush to judge an event.

I’ve been hosting this blog for 8 years and the post that got the most traffic was on another incident where the cop was seen to be in the wrong. I’ve learned over the years to wait this out, you have to see all the evidence in an event.


In 2016, we were introduced to the latest Youtube/BLM celebrity, Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile. When I first saw this video, my first thought was “How cold…her boyfriend is bleeding out and all she is concerned about is getting on Facebook live.” Well, after the officer was put on trial and found not guilty, the video from the officer was released. A few things I would like to point out.

1:05 Starts talking to him

1:39 Officer Yanez tells Castile, “Don’t reach for it man!”

1:40 The officer loudly tells Castile, “Don’t pull it out!”

1:42 Officer Yanez pulls his weapon

1:43 Officer Yanez fires

2:07 He calls for assistance and medics

5:00 The supervisor talks control and moves Officer Castile away.

6:11 Back-up officers pull Castile out and start chest compressions.

8:50 Ambulance arrives.

When I first watched Ms Reynolds video, I had a question of why didn’t the officer call for medical support. But I also knew this was one side of what happened, so I should hold judgement until we see the dash cam video and other evidence is presented. Now that I see this I can say Officer Yanez acted quickly and properly, asking for backup and medical assistance. The back up arrived within three minutes and relive Yanez, and conduct first aid on Castile. In less than seven minutes an ambulance.

And after seeing this, I see no issue with the officer’s actions. It’s my opinion, but to say the least I’m in doubt the sincerity of his girlfriend after her only though of after her boyfriend was wounded was to get this on live stream. And it is also the judgement of the jury. Does this make the man "innocent," no. It means, in the eyes of the law, he is not guilty.

One other point I would make about this. I carry a pistol pretty much everywhere I go. If I am pulled over, the first thing I do it put my hands out of the window and announce, "Officer, my hands are where you can see them. I am armed." I present my ID and he knows he has a "friendly." Carrying a weapon is a responsibly and you must think of things such as what to do when confronted by a law enforcement officer. I have to wonder if Mr. Castile ever thought that situation through. I would think that should be on his mine seeing he had been stopped for traffic over fifty times.

To anyone who carries a weapon, or wants to, think before you do. To all my fellow cops, be safe out there.

New Orleans goes further down the drain...

And there is the issue.

Age ago, 1984 to be exact, New Orleans hosted the World's Fair. In speaking with a close friend of mine (who owned a mechanic shop in the city), he pointed out to me how the city acquired the land for the fair in an intelligent manner. In its infinite wisdom, the city government threw out businesses that had been on those locations for generations. But the City Council was certain the World's Fair would raise new businesses that would more than replace them.

And no new businesses came. And the businesses moved to the suburbs. And the land is still empty.

As I've watched the city I've called home for ages go into another cycle of madness, I wonder if it will ever recover. I remember, what I thought were simply crazed, groups of idiots, demand that local schools named for "slave holders" (e.g. George Washington) be renamed. I never believed this would be taken serious. The school board has real issues and they need to focus on them.

I was wrong.

Now we have Take Em Down NOLA, a group of local race baiting poverty pimps convinced in a city with a crumbling infrastructure, schools that are a complete disaster, a dwindling tax base, an inability to recruit business, murders skyrocketing, what is it the city must focus on...removing Confederate statues. But not only that, but dozens of streets, Tulane University and Toruo Infirmary.

Seeing the latest outrage of the Landrieu family, their boy Mitch destroying a lot of the history of the city, I found this article in the Hayride interesting. I think the City of New Orleans needs a come to Jesus event.

“We Don’t Live There Anymore” Is The Problem In New Orleans

As I’ve watched this rolling debacle with the historical monuments unfold in New Orleans over the past two years, culminating in the unmitigated disgrace that was last night’s takedown of the P.G.T. Beauregard statue – which as Johann Batiste rightly observed this morning amounted to the bowdlerization of a monument to one of the city’s earliest civil rights leaders – something has nagged me from the recesses of my brain.

I’m coming about this controversy from the perspective of a lover of history. I majored in it in college, my bookshelves are covered in history books, I had the History Channel as a default on TV until the geniuses running the place decided to remove history from its programming, I try to take in some of the local history whenever I travel somewhere – to me, history is sacred. History is the record of civilization; it’s something truly common to us all and it doesn’t discriminate.

The story of, for example, Beauregard is a story for all of us. Here was a man of many parts, a product of his time, yes, but a man before his time as well. He was a soldier, an engineer, an entrepreneur, a reformer, a politician, a father, a husband and even a patriot – both for the Confederacy, when events pushed him into it, and for the United States before and after that time. If you’re white, these things in his life can be a source of pride in your heritage – but that cultural and historical patrimony isn’t limited to white people.

P.G.T. Beauregard spent his post-Civil War life working to better race relations and provide access to the American dream for all the people of Louisiana. He repudiated slavery (he never owned slaves) and discrimination. That he fought for the South may have been a negative on his curriculum vitae for some; we all have our crosses to bear. In his time, both black and white in Louisiana saw him as a hero, and for the right reasons.

But this is not a time when we celebrate our history, and we certainly have no appreciation for our heritage. The cultural Marxists and social justice warriors among us, the vast majority of whom have shown themselves to be a collection of frauds and imbeciles unfit to lead so much as silent prayer, have so poisoned the well that American history now bears the taint of “white supremacism,” and it is impossible to judge our ancestors by the standards of their time rather than our own.

Which as an aside, is so completely wrongheaded as to disqualify those who insist on it from any real conversation on the subject. He who sits in an air-conditioned room posting to the internet from a smart phone and who deigns to hold the 19th century to its moral failings has his own intellectual burden to bear, because it isn’t his superior intellect or ethics but rather his technological privilege which affords him such scruples. Even as a “poor” college student he lives better than the richest planter aristocrat he decries as evil, and the source of his wealth is far less of his own creation than that of the plantation owner he caricatures.

We celebrate Southern history largely because of the cautionary tale it tells us. Yes, Southern society with its slavery was unjust – and accordingly, the South suffered. It lost an entire generation of its young men in the war, it was subjected to the ignominious occupation by the U.S. Army during Reconstruction, its economy was put under the thumb of often-dishonest “carpetbaggers” from the North and it was impoverished for a century after the war until finally shedding the shackles of racism and backward thinking. But there was good in that society as well; we find it in the charm and hospitality the region is known for, the celebration of masculine spirit without which America’s military exploits would likely not have been possible from the 20th century to the present, the art and architecture, the food. There is a reason that after a long period of exodus more people are moving into the South than out of it, and the foundations of our culture which were laid by those “awful” people in the 19th century are a large part of that reason...

...But it’s clear we have a shortage of intelligent adults. We particularly have that shortage in New Orleans, and have for some time.

It has worsened in recent years, but the exodus of intelligent adults – it’s been called “white flight,” but this is a lie; the middle class and the productive class is made up of people of all races, whether they share similar politics or not – from New Orleans is half a century old. As such, the city is made up of a new class of post-Katrina carpetbaggers, college students who hail mostly from far away, a giant underclass living on poor wages and government assistance, an outsized criminal class in and out of the penal system, small pockets of put-upon middle class homeowners and a declining monied elite. Most of the people who make the New Orleans metro area work have moved out of the city limits, and most of those moved away a generation or two ago.

And it’s mostly those people who have taken up the cause of those monuments. Not because they’re “white supremacists;” that is an ugly slur thrown around by the same social justice warriors who throw around racism as a towel into the ring in admission they lack a better argument. They wish to preserve the history, and a connection to the culture they and their families were raised in.

But they don’t live in New Orleans anymore.

That feeling of powerlessness, of knowing there is nothing they can do to stop the bowdlerization of the city’s history and that of the region, carries with it pain to be sure. But that powerlessness is a choice; these people left. That’s not an indictment of them; they left for a better life in the suburbs or in another city. But the choice carries a consequence – when you leave, it’s those you leave behind who

I left for a better life in Texas and I've said multiple times, best decision I made. I miss the three F'a, Family, Friends and Food. Actually 4, Football. Perhaps Mitch et all should consider why people are leaving the region and not try and buy off race baiters for their support in the next election.

Now we come to the critical question.

The question is what to do about it. Should the productive class, the protectors of the history and tradition of the region, the put-upon and the assailed simply move on? If so, don’t be surprised when the Beauregard takedown begets the Lee takedown and the Lee takedown begets the takedown of the Andrew Jackson statue.

Perhaps this can’t be stopped. Perhaps all that can be done is to inflict one’s own set of consequences on those left in the city.

After all, the productive classes in the suburbs still contribute an enormous economic impact to the city. Maybe that should be rethought. Maybe the restaurateurs who live in Metairie should move their businesses closer to their homes. Maybe the lawyers and stockbrokers with offices in Orleans should decamp for the ‘burbs and eschew the commute.

And maybe the captains of the Mardi Gras krewes who contribute such a massive amount to the city’s economy each year ought to rethink what they’re doing. After all, those krewes were all formed by the same people who contributed to the erection of the Lee, Davis and Beauregard statues. Their heritage is bound up in the same package as those monuments Mitch Landrieu and his bowdlerizing fan club have been howling to destroy.

And most of those krewe members don’t live in New Orleans anymore, either.

There are lots of parade routes in Metairie and Kenner, and lots of them in St. Tammany Parish. Those routes might not have the tradition of a St. Charles Avenue or Canal Boulevard, but they also don’t have the risk of paradegoers being shot...

And these judgments can now be made, because of this corrosive, stupid modern mentality which is taking down the monuments. If the culture which gave us Beauregard is to be scrubbed, then the fruits of that culture shouldn’t be enjoyed – and those wonderful Mardi Gras parades are some of those fruits. Let the good follow the bad out of the city, and let Bacchus and Endymion and the others roll down Veterans Boulevard or Metairie Road for a time.

Yes, last producer turn out the lights on New Orleans. In my life I've seen the population of New Orleans drop fro 905K to an estimated 386K. Also, the population in the 60s was a much greater population of producers, not takers. NOLA was a vibrant city with a future. Now it's rotting from inside.

Mitch Landrieu has achieved his goal, he's bought off the black militant groups in NOLA and will have their support in his next election, be it the senate or governor. He'a also destroyed a great hunk of his city's heritage for his own political ambitions. By the way Mitch, maybe you should have watched the last election. You have enraged a large population of the state to vote against you. Hate to tell you, but you will never win a statewide election.

And this has only just begun. It's not just the four statues they want gone, but from the Take 'Em Down NOLA website, their next targets:

Street names: Palmer Avenue, Calhoun Street, General Taylor Street, Claiborne Avenue, Galvez Street, and over a dozen other major streets.

School names: Tulane University, Henry W. Allen Elementary...

Hospital names: Touro Infirmary, Tulane Medical Center

Monuments: In addition to the four already removed, they want: Rev. Abram Joseph Ryan at Jefferson Davis Parkway, Confederate Brig. Gen. Albert Pike monument at Tulane Avenue and Jefferson Davis Parkway, Henry Clay at Lafayette Square, World War 1 Memorial arch, Andrew Jackson monument in Jackson Square (one of New Orleans' greatest symbols.

And don't worry, they won't stop there.

I've had arguments with friends over these monuments and they don't want "monuments to slave owners" in the city. For some reason they have so issue with a monument to other controversial figures from history, such as Che Guevara. Also, where does it also stop. Will we rename the name of our nation's capital and one state (George Washington), numerous military posts (Fort Benning GA, Barksdale AFB LA, Fort Lee VA), will we remove the Washington and Jefferson Monuments from the capital? Give them time, these race baiter want to.

I've had people, friend and family say, "I'm done with New Orleans..." and "I'll never spend another dime there...." Dead on, it is a city that lives on tourist dollars. I don't know if I'll go that far, I do want to see the World War II Museum again, but I will never attend a convention there, I will never buy dinner there (the Deanne's in Bucktown was always better) and I'll never rent a hotel there.

NOLA, congrats, you have made your pact with the devil Don't worry, the next time the levee's break, those Southerners who came to your aid will said, "Bless your heart. Let it flood."

UPDATE: I hate it when I think of the perfect quote after I publish, but this was the perfect title for this post.

NEW ORLEANS. IT'S NOT THE HEAT. IT'S THE STUPIDITY!

Another reason for cops to say to B Hussein Obama on his way out, "good riddance!"

I got unfriended on Facebook in the days after the election by a fellow cop. In fairness, he wasn't a real "friend" but more a business associate. And he is a very big Obama supporter. Now a point I made to him was Mrs. Bill Clinton specifically rejected the invitation to speak at the Fraternal Order of Police convention. Trump addressed them and was endorsed by the largest police organization in the country.

It's been well known Obama and his administration are at best indifferent to law and order issues and at worse (most of the time) hostility to law enforcement and encouraging of rioters. Well on his way out, the Obama regime is giving cops another "FU."

Obama Appoints Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Attorney to 6-Year Civil Rights Post

In a move that has already sparked a backlash among law enforcement groups, President Barack Obama on Thursday appointed Debo Adegbile, a former attorney for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to a six-year post on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The eight-member commission consists of four members appointed by the president and four appointed by Congress. Unfortunately, the six-year appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation.

Via The Washington Times:

Mr. Adegbile worked at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when he represented Abu-Jamal in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence for the notorious 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal’s sentence was reduced to life in prison.

The case prompted the Senate to reject Mr. Adegbile’s nomination in 2014 when Mr. Obama appointed him to lead the Justice Department’s office on civil rights. Some Democrats joined Republicans in voting down the selection at that time.

According to PJ Media's J. Christian Adams, "while [Adegbile was] overseeing the NAACP LDF, the organization offered legal representation to Mumia Abu-Jamal, the murderer of Philadelphia police officer Danny Faulkner." At the time, Adams called Obama's "ultra radical pick" to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division an "in-your-face nomination..."

The FBI Agents Association, National Fraternal Order of Police, Major County Sheriff’s Association, National Association of Police Organizations, National Sheriff’s Association, and the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association all came out in fierce opposition to the nomination of Adegbile in 2014.

Adegbile was rejected on a 52-47 vote in the Senate, which Obama called a “travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks against a good and qualified public servant...”

Hopefully this agency gets cut out completely by the Trump administration. Another group of oxygen thieves who need to be removed from the federal payroll.

Diversity....for diversity's sake.

In the last few years of my time in the Army, I was really was getting sick of being told I'm a racist, misogynist, etc because I was a white heterosexual Christian male. I've never endured a "sensitivity training" class where prejudices of blacks against whites was covered. You would think this was a racket...na, couldn't be that, could it.

From from the New York Times, an opinion piece (at least they called it than, not "news" on the front page) on how our veterans can bring "Much-Needed Sensitivity Training" to policing.

Military Vets Can Bring Much-Needed Sensitivity Training to Police Departments

Police departments across the country should draw heavily from military veterans to fill their ranks. Many already do this, but they should take it a step further and adapt the United States Army’s sensitivity training program, which soldiers take before deployment. This program includes mock engagements with communities, as well as religious and cultural classes.

The cultural and demographic divide between local law enforcement and the communities they police can be enormous. When there is a cultural gap as wide as the one in cities like Ferguson and the north side of Baton Rouge, inadequate training, military grade equipment and cell phone and body camera technology can turn neighborhoods into tinderboxes

Ideally, our police departments should focus on improving diversity within the force, but cultural training would also be good. Actively recruiting from the military could help on both fronts....

Yes, police forces do recruit from the services. They are already trained in many functions similar to law enforcement, have knowledge of weapons use and maintenance, are used to working in a team and thinking that's oriented to accomplishing a mission. And they are used to dealing with people different then themselves plus usually more mature than college students their age. And that had nothing to do with the diversity/multicultural horse manure that infected the bureaucracy beginning in the early 1990s.

I'm sorry Mr. Perkins, the issue in Ferguson or Baton Rouge was not "inadequate training, military grade equipment and cell phone and body camera technology can turn neighborhoods into tinderboxes." Ferguson was based on a bold faced lie, "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!," where a thug who had just robbed a store owner was walking down the street, attempted to take a cop's gun, and was justifiable shot by the officer. The tinderbox was created and lit by the usual race baiting poverty pimps like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, B Hussein Obama and Eric Holder with his "Just-Us" Department, etc. In Baton Rouge, a convicted felon named Alton Sterling illegally carrying a firearm and selling bootlegged DVDs resisted detention, arrest, assaulted two officers and was reaching for a gun before he was shot. But that won't stop the usual suspect in trying to burn down a city, and in the case of Baton Rouge, murder three cops.

Perhaps Mr. Perkins, you're onto something. There are people who need sensitivity training, but it's not the cops. It the population in these ghettos. They need to know cops are sensitive to being threatened by people as we are trying to do our jobs, that they should be sensitive to the fact if you hide the criminals in the houses, they will only hurt themselves. Case in point, who was helped most by aggressive policing in New York back in the early 90s? Black and other minorities. They are the ones who live their those neighborhoods and need to help us catch the robbers, murderers, gang members. Unfortunately, too may people living in these ghettos will scream "Laws!" to help thugs they don't even know just because the police are after them.

Winning hearts and minds is part of the solution, but much like the alcoholic, the first thing is for the person to admit there is a problem. Until the people who live in these areas say they need to stop living like they are, and wanting to raise their kids for a better life, nothing will change.  And with a race baiting poverty pimp in the White House (and likely will continue in the near future), I don't see anything changing.

A message to the NFL...

After that crap Beyonce pulled in the Super Bowl, I suggested cops preform a silent protest. Simply refuse to work at any concert she was at. I've never had the opportune to say "screw you" to Mrs. Carter, but I'll just say other officers are doing this.

After after this idiot Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers is starting to scream "racism and oppression" as his career is being cut short by his poor performance, this meme shows what the NFL should remember:

Remember NFL, you're life depends on people buying your product. And they won't be in the mode to give you taxpayer funded coliseums as you let these overpaid idiots go off like spoiled children.

The YouTube Effect on cops...

I can personally attest to the fact cops are close to paranoid about being videotaped on the street. Before you get off the scene the ugly side of law enforcement, such as having to take suspect down hard, is shown as "police oppression". The fact he was resisting, refused to pull his hands, was about to flee is not part of the initial upload and the race baiters don't like to see full stories.

Now we have another conference of geniuses to discuss the problem of law enforcement. Selected parts with commentary.

‘YouTube effect’ has left police officers under siege, law enforcement leaders say

Chiefs of some of the nation’s biggest police departments say officers in American cities have pulled back and have stopped policing as aggressively as they used to, fearing that they could be the next person in a uniform featured on a career-ending viral video.

That was the unifying — and controversial — theory reached Wednesday at a private meeting of more than 100 of the nation’s top law enforcement officers and politicians.

With homicide rates soaring inexplicably this year in dozens of U.S. cities, the group convened by new U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch concluded with a brief news conference promising a robust response to the reversal of decades of falling violent crime rates.

But for hours preceding that, mayors, police chiefs, U.S. attorneys and even FBI Director James Comey privately vented in a Washington ballroom that they don’t really understand the alarming spike in murders and applause filled the room when mayors said police officers’ sinking morale could be a factor...

You think. Back in my Army days we were discussing what morale means to a soldier and a unit and a classmate behind me knocked it out of the park. "Sir, a man's morale determines if he stands and fights or if he runs." Same with police on the street. If we have one politician after another basically accusing police of assault, murder and malfeasance in officer do you think the cop will stick his neck out? He's got a career, family, pension and future to protect. The politicians can always get another appointment somewhere.

"...Could the root cause be drugs? Guns? Gangs? Perhaps a little of each, said Chuck Wexler, a former top officer in Boston and head of the Police Executive Research Forum.

Wexler tried to sum up the day-long discussion for Lynch, who arrived near the end. But there was another problem, he told her, one that hits closer to home for the nation’s top cop.

“Perhaps the most difficult to calibrate, but the most significant,” he said, “is this notion of a reduction in proactive policing.”

Police chiefs and elected leaders from Baltimore, Chicago, New York and St. Louis were more blunt:

“We have allowed our police department to get fetal and it is having a direct consequence,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told Lynch. “They have pulled back from the ability to interdict … they don’t want to be a news story themselves, they don’t want their career ended early, and it’s having an impact.”

You don't say Rahm. You're an absolute genius.

There is no evidence of a broad retraction of police engagement with the public in major cities, and no participant in Wednesday’s summit presented a single example of lackluster policing that somehow contributed to a violent crime.

Rather, chiefs and elected officials spoke broadly of a changed atmosphere in major city police departments over the past year amid high-profile police-involved shootings and in-custody deaths that led to riots in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore.

Chiefs said patrol officers still do their jobs, clocking in and policing their beats. But fewer take extra steps such as confronting a group loitering on a sidewalk late at night that might glean intelligence or lead to arrests, for fear that any altercations that ensued would be uploaded to the Internet.

New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton called it the “YouTube effect” that has emerged for officers post-Ferguson and, in New York, after the death of Eric Garner last year after he was put in a chokehold by an officer making an arrest.

I notice two things here. One, the cities where the issue is really coming up are all in the North. All run by big city Democratic machines. And all run by politicians who look, to a large degree, as the cops as the enemy. And two, tying into this, I didn't see one quote from the country's biggest mayor, Bill de Blasio. You know, the man who implied his black son has more to fear from the cops than the crooks. And who has openly courted New York's greatest race baiting poverty pimp, Al Sharpton. Maybe he was there and the paper didn't write anything on HIZONORDAMAER, but I doubt it.

If cops believe they are the targets of federal law enforcement for doing their jobs (See Ferguson, Baltimore and New York) they will recede and just do the minimum needed to preform their duties. Effective law enforcement requires cops on the street taking initiative. You punish initiative like many departments are doing now, the criminals will fill the void.

I've always wondered where we get social activist from

Funny, it seems "community organizers" or "social activists" are all minorities. In the case of of this dude he's black, in the case of B Hussein Obama he's half black. But again, let's listen to the activist.

'Maybe We Differ On What True Means': Activist Confronts CNN Host For Assuming Cops Tell The Truth

Social activist Deray McKessan criticized the media over the weekend for the way they had handled a white biker shootout in Texas with "nuance," but black rioters in Baltimore who did not kill anyone were not "humanized" in the same way.

In an interview on Sunday, McKessan explained to CNN host Brian Stelter than he had quit his job as a school administrator after Michael Brown was killed.

"The reason that I quit was that I want to figure out how to use my skills and talent to fight in this space because you just can't kill people," he said. "All the work that I did in education was important, but kids have to be alive to learn."

Really. You mean the "witnesses" who lied through their teeth and made up the big lie of "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!", leading to riots all over the country, millions of dollars of damage and injuries, all based on a complete falsehood. Are you ready to go after Dorian Johnson, the punk who helped Brown rob that store? I think we know the answer. Also, just curious, how are you making more money as a "social activist" than as a school bureaucrat? We all know you're there to make money.

McKessan slammed the media for what he called "a constant pathologizing of black bodies," which gave the impression that "when black people assemble, it's always criminal."

"What you saw in St. Louis, the police were literally attacking protesters, and that wasn't always the narrative that was put out by the mainstream media," he noted. "What you saw in Baltimore sometimes, you saw people sort of focusing on the property damage and not actually people actually focusing on what caused the unrest in the first place."

Pathologizing, a form of the word pathologize, "regard or treat (someone or something) as psychologically abnormal or unhealthy." Hate to tell you but black bodies are normal in Da Hood, it's just it doesn't get much coverage unless a white man (or white-Hispanic man) does the shooting. Need a say more, in Chicago over this three day week, 12 killed, 43 wounded. Or in Baltimore, where the mayor and that other idiot attorney are working to put the cops in jail, 28 people were shot, 9 of them killed. Some of the similarities, all were black, in these cases, unlike Mikey Brown, all the people around there who "didn't see anything" because when it comes to black on black, snitches get stitches. Remember Deray, black lives matter.

"So when I see broadcasts, news articles that present the police narrative as true," McKessan added before being interrupted.

"But it is oftentimes true," Stelter insisted.

"Is it true?" McKessan asked. "I don't know if it was true with Mike Brown. Maybe we differ on what true means."

"You're talking about anecdotes as opposed to statistics," Stelter replied. "Are you saying the majority of statement by police officers in the U.S. are not true, public statements, press releases."

"What I'm saying is that the police are killing people, and they're saying that it's justified in every case in a way that it just isn't," McKessan pointed out. "When I think about Walter Scott, the police gave an account that was untrue. And we would not have known unless there was a video. And there are many other cases..."

No Deray, it's simply if it was true or not. In the case of Brown, the "witnesses" lied through their teeth. The forensic evidence back up what the officer said, that Brown reached for his gun, there was a round fired near Mikey's hand (power residue), Brown's hand were not up because if they were, the entry wounds would be on the bottom of his arms. There were on the top. But I guess this is how the "truth" is subjective to you.

Read the rest if you want to lower your IQ level, but remember, "Black lives Matter"

Time has past for Time

Another police shooting, white cop, black suspect, another riot, Jesse Jackson et al at in the hood to make a statement and some money, B Hussein Obama sticks his nose and ears into something to stir the situation up. He calls the governor, saying "...I assume that you and your team will be exercising due restraint...", implying he wants the terror to go on. And the riotings goes on And America's newsmagazine (They actually used to call themselves that) is showing why it's practically digital only now.

From the cover this week, we see a rioter in Baltimore, running from a police line.

The Roots of Baltimore’s Riot

The city’s eruption follows decades of systemic failure

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was in church when she heard that Freddie Gray was dead. She says she knew “immediately” that this was something more than the depressingly common passing of another young man in a troubled old city. Black men dying at the hands of police had become “a slow-rolling crisis” in America, as President Obama would put it nine days after Gray’s death. And Freddie Gray was a black man who entered a police van handcuffed and conscious on April 12 and came out less than an hour later comatose, with his spinal cord nearly severed.

And the fact more whites are killed by cops, the fact a black male is more likely to die at the hands of a black thug is not a crisis. But that kind of crisis won't give you opportunity.

The what, the how and the why of Gray’s fatal encounter with Baltimore police remained a mystery more than two weeks after the event. But the mayor could hear that slow-rolling train pulling into her town. And when rioting broke out after Gray’s funeral on April 27–a night of arson, looting and brick throwing that led the mayor to declare a 10 p.m. citywide curfew as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan called out the National Guard–it became clear the train was pulling a lot of baggage cars behind it...

After she told the police to stand down and telling the police and the world "...we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”

...While the city’s population may have stabilized at about 600,000–from a peak of nearly 1 million–Baltimore’s poorest areas are stagnant. There are roughly 16,000 vacant homes throughout the city, many of them in Sandtown-Winchester, where a quarter of the houses sit empty. According to a 2011 report by the Baltimore city health department, the neighborhood is long on liquor stores (double the city average) but short on jobs (the unemployment rate is also double the city average). One in 4 juveniles was arrested at least once from 2005 to 2009. “It’s one of the most disinvested neighborhoods in our city,” says Lawrence Brown, a community activist and professor of health policy at Morgan State University. And Baltimore, for all these reasons, has become America’s latest poster city for racial and economic discontent.

And who has run this city for the last 60 years? Oh yea, Democrats.

...A “Slow-Rolling Crisis”

For Nine uncomfortable months we have wrestled in new ways with our centuries-old conversation about race. The roots of these days of rage, whether in Ferguson or North Charleston or Baltimore, reach down through decades of compounded failures. Each flash point is different; so was each community’s response. But there is something universal about them all. As Obama noted, during remarks in the Rose Garden that ranged from determined to despairing, “I think we, as a country, have to do some soul-searching. This is not new. It’s been going on for decades. And without making any excuses for criminal activities that take place in these communities,” he continued, in Baltimore and elsewhere “you have impoverished communities that have been stripped away of opportunity, where children are born into abject poverty.” The parents, “often, because of substance-abuse problems or incarceration or lack of education themselves, can’t do right by their kids.”

The President was frustrated that attention to this tangle of problems is so sporadic, with satellite trucks and blue-ribbon panels dispatched only “when a CVS burns … when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped.” But Baltimore is as good a place as any to learn just how complicated and change-resistant these problems can be...

Well B Hussein trillions of dollars have been poured into the inner cites since the War on Poverty was started and for this we have what? Just what you said,..."impoverished communities...stripped away of opportunity, where children are born into abject poverty.... parents..often, because of substance-abuse problems or incarceration or lack of education themselves, can’t do right by their kids..." But you are avoiding the obvious as usual for political points. Where are the parents? To use the vernacual of the hood, where are the "Baby's Daddies"? Well they have been replaced by the federal government. Even during the 60s most black families had two parent households and the fathers were expected to support their children. Now we have told generations of young black women (and now Hispanic women and increasingly white women) that Uncle Sugar will pay your bills and raise your kids. And sperm doners, you can just impreginate one woman after another and not have to worry about it. We got the mom and kids. Leads to desstruction of the black family to a degree the KKK or Margeret Sanger could not dream of, but it accomplishes the goal. It gives Democrats a impoverished population depandant on substidies to draw votes from. Doubt that, may I quote Lyndon B Johnson, the worst president this country has ever had:

“I’ll have those ni%%ers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” —LBJ to two governors on Air Force One -

“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.”—LBJ

But I guess the facts will not fit the template there Time.

...Baltimore’s troubles persist despite the rise of a generation of black leaders and a highly diverse corps of public employees. The mayor, the schools’ CEO and the police chief are all African Americans, and 48% of the police force is black. Indeed, Baltimore has always produced strong black figures, from the religious leader Mary Elizabeth Lange to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (who once lived in the neighborhood where Freddie Gray died).

But it turns out that diversity at the top and integration of the middle class are challenges of a different order than the crisis of the left behind. Those African American police officers are not likely to live in Baltimore’s most troubled neighborhoods, and when Mayor Rawlings-Blake initially characterized the rioters in her city, she chose a word–thugs–that seemed to distance her from the deeper problem.

OK, what does Marshall have to do with this incident. The Baltimore he left was a functioning city, not a segregated area with dying industy (except for government), useless schools and corrupt government.

This isn’t to say that race has no part in the toxic tangle. Joseph Capista, a lecturer at Towson University who helped organize demonstrations outside Gray’s wake on Sunday, says he has lived in several neighborhoods around Baltimore. Policing in more-affluent white neighborhoods, he says, is almost always more respectful than in poorer black ones. “We live in an antebellum society in terms of racial justice,” he says...

Maybe Mr Capista it has to do with the minority dominated areas are crime ridden Third World communiites where the cops are much more likey to be attacked, injured or killed. Also in the white upper class areas most of the residents can get throgh a conversation without using profanity or threatening officers and the residents comes from stable households. Forgive me, the issues of the inner city minority communites have nothing to do with federal funding but with people making very poor decisions with their lives. You want to get out of poverty, the numbers show what to do. Finish high school, don't have children when you're a teenager and delay children until you are married.

So if you want to know why the major media is dying, look at this article and she why it is so unmatched from reality. In an article from today Time is discussing a major issue, homophobia in America's high school locker rooms. Yo Mr Iditor, no one cares about this except for the morons who go to parties with.

The country is on the verge of bankruptcy, our economy is dead, our entitlements are out of control and need to reformed, the Iranians are about to be armed with nuclear weapons with the support of the current administration you have screeched for since 2008, our enemies don’t respect or fear us, our allies don’t trust us, the Democrat’s leading candidate has committed crimes with destroying official documents and is taking money from foreign governments for influence and you think a football player calling another player a fag is a national issue. No wonder you’re worthless and when your other former newsweekly Newsweek was sold for a buck it was overpriced. I wonder if you will be a penny purchase when it’s over.

Hand up! Don't shoot! A liberal confesses to his believing a lie

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting of "Gentle Giant" Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, the usual suspects had already planned to use it as another example of institutional racism, police oppression, etc., and the slogan "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" was born. In the days after the shooting one of my family members was convinced Wilson simply got out of his SUV and shot this young man in the middle of the street for no apparent reason, especially since we had "witnesses". As any cop knows about a shooting of a hood rat by another hood rat in front of a 100 people, "Nobody saw anything!" but now people were coming forward. Why? Fifteen minutes of fame like Rachel Jeantel who cannot read the letter she had supposedly written after B Hussein Obama's other son was shot.

I recommended to this family member to wait for the investigation to complete. I specifically noted that many a witness on TV revises their statement when they are put under oath and these punks also know they can be prosecuted if they perjure themselves. And forensic evidence takes months to get back. Not to mention if you look at three simple factors, “Means, motive and opportunity” it didn’t add up. What we were supposed to believe is Officer Wilson, for no apparent reason (there is no evidence Wilson and Brown even met before the shooting) in broad daylight, in front of over 100 people, just drove up and shot the man. Means, yes, Wilson has a gun. Motive? What for, robbing a store? I don’t think so. Opportunity? I think in the middle of a public street is not a private place for a murder.

Well we all know that the story about "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" wasn't based on a lie, it was a bold faced lie. Now it's rare enough for a leftist columnist to admit he was wrong, but that's what Mr. Capehart (more or less) does in this column. Of course he slanders the Ferguson PD with his supporting documentation a report by the Eric Holder Justice Department. Mr. Capehard, maybe you should take them with a grain of salt. They were some of the people trying (successfully) to start a riot there. But let's see what he admits to.

‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie

By Jonathan Capehart

The late evening of Aug. 9, 2014, I couldn’t sleep. I was due to substitute-anchor MSNBC’s “UP with Steve Kornacki” and should have been asleep. But after looking at my Twitter feed and reading the rage under #Ferguson, I felt compelled to type a reaction to the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. Tying the shooting to the inane whine of certain politicians about a “war on whites,” I decried the next morning the death of yet another unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer.

In those early hours and early days, there was more unknown than known. But this month, the Justice Department released two must-read investigations connected to the killing of Brown that filled in blanks, corrected the record and brought sunlight to dark places by revealing ugly practices that institutionalized racism and hardship. They have also forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown....

...Through exhaustive interviews with witnesses, cross-checking their statements with previous statements to authorities and the media, ballistics, DNA evidence and results from three autopsies, the Justice Department was able to present a credible and troubling picture of what happened on Canfield Drive. More credible than the grand jury decision to not indict Wilson. The transcript of his grand jury testimony read like so much hand-holding by the prosecution.

What DOJ found made me ill. Wilson knew about the theft of the cigarillos from the convenience store and had a description of the suspects. Brown fought with the officer and tried to take his gun. And the popular hands-up storyline, which isn’t corroborated by ballistic and DNA evidence and multiple witness statements, was perpetuated by Witness 101. In fact, just about everything said to the media by Witness 101, whom we all know as Dorian Johnson, the friend with Brown that day, was not supported by the evidence and other witness statements.

Fight in the SUV

Page 6: Wilson and other witnesses stated that Brown then reached into the SUV through the open driver’s window and punched and grabbed Wilson. This is corroborated by bruising on Wilson’s jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown’s DNA on Wilson’s collar, shirt, and pants, and Wilson’s DNA on Brown’s palm. While there are other individuals who stated that Wilson reached out of the SUV and grabbed Brown by the neck, prosecutors could not credit their accounts because they were inconsistent with physical and forensic evidence, as detailed throughout this report.

Struggle over the gun

Page 6: Brown then grabbed the weapon and struggled with Wilson to gain control of it. Wilson fired, striking Brown in the hand. Autopsy results and bullet trajectory, skin from Brown’s palm on the outside of the SUV door as well as Brown’s DNA on the inside of the driver’s door corroborate Wilson’s account that during the struggle, Brown used his right hand to grab and attempt to control Wilson’s gun. According to three autopsies, Brown sustained a close range gunshot wound to the fleshy portion of his right hand at the base of his right thumb. Soot from the muzzle of the gun found embedded in the tissue of this wound coupled with indicia of thermal change from the heat of the muzzle indicate that Brown’s hand was within inches of the muzzle of Wilson’s gun when it was fired. The location of the recovered bullet in the side panel of the driver’s door, just above Wilson’s lap, also corroborates Wilson’s account of the struggle over the gun and when the gun was fired, as do witness accounts that Wilson fired at least one shot from inside the SUV.

Hands up

Page 8: Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible [or] otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media. Prosecutors did not rely on those accounts when making a prosecutive decision.

While credible witnesses gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson – i.e., balling them, holding them out, or pulling up his pants up – and varying accounts of how he was moving – i.e., “charging,” moving in “slow motion,” or “running” – they all establish that Brown was moving toward Wilson when Wilson shot him. Although some witnesses state that Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, these same witnesses describe Brown then dropping his hands and “charging” at Wilson.

The DOJ report notes on page 44 that Johnson “made multiple statements to the media immediately following the incident that spawned the popular narrative that Wilson shot Brown execution-style as he held up his hands in surrender.” In one of those interviews, Johnson told MSNBC that Brown was shot in the back by Wilson. It was then that Johnson said Brown stopped, turned around with his hands up and said, “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!” And, like that, “hands up, don’t shoot” became the mantra of a movement. But it was wrong, built on a lie.

I've deleted the portions about how the Ferguson PD is nothing but the KKK in blue but again, I must give Mr. Capehart credit for admitting he was wrong in jumping to conclusions like he did. Now we must look into something I didn't cut out.

...Now that black lives matter to everyone, it is imperative that we continue marching for and giving voice to those killed in racially charged incidents at the hands of police and others. But we must never allow ourselves to march under the banner of a false narrative on behalf of someone who would otherwise offend our sense of right and wrong. And when we discover that we have, we must acknowledge it, admit our error and keep on marching. That’s what I’ve done here.

Mr. Capehart, this wasn't an error on the part of the people really pushing this. The race baiting poverty pimps (B Hussein Obama, Holder, Jackson, Sharpton, etc) knew what they were doing, stroked the racist angle in the successful attempt to start a riot. How many people lost their businesses, were injured, etc because of these punks in power? Did "black lives matter" to them? The answer is no. But for some reason you believed them, with no reason to. Why? Maybe you should look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself some ugly answers.

No Jobs, No Peace!

The man says "Give us the jobs..." and things will be getter. Just listen to this pillar of his community telling us what will happen if the storeowners do not come back.



Hell to pay. Who is going to pay this hell? The store owners who had their lives and livelihoods destroyed have already paid hell and them some. What have you paid young man? Were you one of the rent a mob protesters who helped himself to a few dozen pairs of Air Jordan's?

Hate to tell you something kid, no one will invest their money, time and effort into a rathole where they get stolen from daily, robbed regularly and have the potential to lose everything to the work of race baiters who come into the town and destroy it. So you have made your bed, lay in it.

Now I got this from Legal Insurrection and it covers a lot of ground on what had become of Ferguson in the last weeks.

Look up irony in the dictionary, and by all rights you should find a footnote pointing to this news story from CBS re: Ferguson MO: “Ferguson residents frustrated over lack of opportunity.”

The story notes that the previous night was sufficiently quiet–”just eight arrests”–and that the National Guard is pulling out (meaning, productive people are being released to go back to their day jobs.)

The irony arose when the reporter spoke to local Ferguson residents. The common theme among those interviewed was outrage that local businesses–you know, the ones that had been relentlessly looted and vandalized by local residents–had not hurried to rebuild and offer jobs to local residents. Huh. Who knew that robbing and burning local businesses might prove a disincentive to them investing and hiring in the community!

Anybody remember this guy?

The reporter also notes that unemployment in Ferguson among black men 20 to 24 years of age is 46%. Forty. Six. Percent. Presumably that figure is pre-riots. Might it have doubled in the interval?

In any case, the fault is clearly that of the looted/burned businesses. As one local young man puts it, if they don’t come back and rebuild these businesses, “there’s going to be hell to pay.”

They are particularly upset that they now have to drive miles out of the way to access the products and services that used to be provided locally . . . by the businesses looted and burned down by local residents. Oops.

In further irony, the very fact that the looted businesses are not providing jobs to the local community is justification for the businesses being looted. Or something.

And finally we get to the former gang member turned some kind of community organizer or bridge builder or whatever, who lays it right on the line: “No jobs = no peace.”

–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

Here is the video of the man saying "give us the jobs".


Question, what stopped them from going to get them? Why didn't they get off their ass, get with a lawn service and prove they will be there day in and day out, work early and late if need be, give a full day's labor for a full day's wage? Nothing stopped them from that. Except themselves.

One of the great tragedies is the destruction of the black family caused by the nightmare of the Great Society. The KKK could do nothing compared to Lyndon Johnson's dream. Three generations ago a young black man from the hood knew he had to go out and make his way in society. If anything, he had to prove more than others. But after the 1960s and one generation after another being raised in public housing, generating one child after another and leaving them to their mothers or grandparents and welfare, the destruction is pretty much complete. How we recover from this I don't know, but it won't happen instantly.

Pal, you have an idea but don't go on TV demanding others give them jobs. Get off your ass and teach these young men to go and get them. Or is the real work too much for you, especially seeing you won't be on TV anymore. It's not flashy, just critical.

Phil Robinson, GLAAD and Freedom of Speech

Unless you have been in the Louisiana swamp for the last week you have heard of the Phil Robinson comments in CG. Well, like most of the media, most of the comments have not shown Phil's actually comments. So here they are:

...Out here in these woods, without any cameras around, Phil is free to say what he wants. Maybe a little too free. He’s got lots of thoughts on modern immorality, and there’s no stopping them from rushing out. Like this one:

“It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

Perhaps we’ll be needing that seat belt after all....


...“Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong,” he says. “Sin becomes fine.”

What, in your mind, is sinful?

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”...

...“I didn’t dredge anything back up. I just put it behind me.”

As far as Phil is concerned, he was literally born again. Old Phil—the guy with the booze and the pills—died a long time ago, and New Phil sees no need to apologize for him: “We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

If I read this right, he doesn't approve of what was known as an "alternative lifestyle" in times past, but he is not calling for discrimination, assault or hatred of gays. On the contrary, he says "We just love 'em..." Not exactly like a like a street thug preacher trying to insight a riot after a 17 year old lies about cops raping her. But let's continue.

On growing up in pre-civil-rights-era Louisiana

“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. We're going across the field.... They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

Part of this made up (and yes, it's made up) crisis is Phil Robinson saying racist things. I don't see anything against blacks in this quote (if you can find something I missed in the article, please point it out). He isn't calling Obama or Jessee Jackson or Al Sharpton racial epithets, but giving his viewpoint of a "white trash" kid in Louisiana in the 50s.

Now something that hasn't been part of the discussion:

Does it ever wear you down?

“Oh yeah.”

Willie has just come back from Washington, D.C., where he accepted an award at the Angels in Adoption Gala. (He and his wife, Korie, adopted a biracial child named Will and are dedicated advocates of the practice.)...

Here is a man who dominates his family, no one questions that. And if he was a bigot like the usual suspects are saying, would he allow a mixed race child in his family? I wonder. Not really.


Now how is the article wrapped up:

...“So you and your woman: Are y’all Bible people?”

Not really, I’m sorry to say.

“If you simply put your faith in Jesus coming down in flesh, through a human being, God becoming flesh living on the earth, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, being buried, and being raised from the dead—yours and mine and everybody else’s problems will be solved. And the next time we see you, we will say: ‘You are now a brother. Our brother.’ So then we look at you totally different then. See what I’m saying?”

I think so?

We hop back in the ATV and plow toward the sunset, back to the Robertson home. There will be no family dinner tonight. No cameras in the house. No rowdy squirrel-hunting stories from back in the day. There will be only the realest version of Phil Robertson, hosting a private Bible study with a woman who, according to him, “has been on cocaine for years and is making her decision to repent. I’m going to point her in the right direction.”

It’s the direction he would like to point everyone: back to the woods. Back to the pioneer spirit. Back to God. “Why don’t we go back to the old days?” he asked me at one point. But now, I’m afraid, I must get out of the ATV and go back to where I belong, back to the godless part of America that Phil is determined to save.

Sounds like a man living what he is preaching. He wants to fundamentally transform this country, to borrow a phrase. Wish we would have a few more people doing that.

Now from, oh, an "objective" source, Yahoo news.

‘Duck Dynasty’ Fallout: GLAAD Reeling From Biggest Backlash in Years, Says Rep

In the fallout over Wednesday’s suspension of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson by A&E for anti-gay and racist remarks, GLAAD is experiencing record levels of backlash.

“In the five-and-a-half years I’ve worked at GLAAD, I’ve never received so many violently angry phone calls and social media posts attacking GLAAD for us speaking out against these comments,” the media watchdog organization’s vice president of communications Rich Ferraro told TheWrap.

He said those reactions range from those who simply believe as Robertson believes to those who feel that GLAAD and A&E’s actions limit the reality star’s free speech.

“I don’t think this is about the first amendment,” Ferraro said. “I feel it’s more about the America we live in today. That is one where Americans, gay and straight, are able to speak out when people in the public eye make anti-gay and racist remarks.”

Robertson’s supporters have started petitions, called for boycotts and include Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. Currently, more than 70,000 people have signed the online petition asking A&E to drop the suspension.

“It just means we still have a lot of work to do,” Ferraro said.

GLAAD spoke with A$E representatives on Wednesday morning to discuss why people would be offended by the comments and calls to action. ”They took this very seriously, as soon as the news broke,” Ferraro said.

After the meeting, GLAAD issued its statement on Robertson’s comments. A&E initially released a statement from Robertson in which he said he would “never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me.” But the network declined to comment itself until Wednesday night, when it announced the suspension, which GLAAD applauded.

“We believe the next step is to use this as an opportunity for Phil to sit down with gay families in Louisiana and learn about their lives and the values they share,” the spokesman said.

The organization is also currently researching companies who use Robertson as a spokesperson.

“Silence is agreement in this case,” he said. “With such egregious anti-gay and racist comments, those companies that choose to be affiliated with this family need to speak out.”...

If there is any intolerance here, I think it's the gay organizations quoted here, not regular gay or black people. Yahoo (like AP, the NY Times, et all) instantly present these groups as the spokespeople of all America. And they are not. Jessee Jackson is a spokesman for one man, himself. But that won't stop GLAAD or OFA from trying to stir stuff up. They need to make some money off the race baiting racket.

Phil, stick by your guns, so to speak. Nice to see a man who says what he believes and doesn't care if the offends someone. If you offend by his speech, the solution is more speech. You don't have a right to not be offended. If you are offended by that, go do something Dick Cheney told Pat Leahy to do.