Only days before a grand jury released its decision on whether there would be a trial for the August shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, the FBI arrested two men who were allegedly looking to buy supplies to make a pipe bomb.
Sources say the men planned to kill St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, and also planned to bomb the famed Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreports the men bought what they believed to be a pipe bomb from undercover police but could not afford more bombs “until one suspect’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was replenished.”
The two men were arrested on November 21 and accused of attempting to purchase explosives that they planned to use during the Ferguson protests. They were also brought up on gun charges.
But this week, we are learning a bit more about what these men were allegedly planning to do with the explosives.
Sources close to the ongoing investigation have revealed that the men, Brandon Orlando “Muhammad” Baldwin, age unreported, and Olajuwon Ali Davis, 22, were nabbed in an undercover gun sting. The pair were initially arrested after misrepresenting who the firearms were being purchased for, authorities say. Sources also say that the pair intended to kill the St. Louis prosecutor as well as Ferguson’s police chief and also wanted to place their pipe bombs on the upper deck of the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Both pleaded not guilty at their Tuesday hearing. The two also waived their rights to a bail hearing and are being held pending further proceedings.
Olajuwon Ali Davis was a recent speaker at a meeting of the New Black Panther Party held at the Greater St. Mark Family Church in Ferguson in October and has been identified as the Panthers’ “minister of law.”
Authorities would make no further on-the-record statements about the case.
UPDATE: The New York Times has posted a correction to the story: “An earlier version of this post included a photograph that contained information that should not have been made public. The image has been removed.”
However, the “information that should not have been made public,” in the Times’ view, is not the name of the street where Officer Wilson’s home is located. The story still contains that information. The Times has merely removed the photo of Wilson’s marriage license from the article.
Breitbart News will not link the story or give out the specific information, but the New York Times had no qualms whatsoever about publishing almost all the information needed for Officer Darren Wilson’s enemies to track him and his wife down at home:
Officer Wilson and [his wife] own a home together on XXXXXXX Lane in XXXXXXXXXX, Mo., a St. Louis suburb about a half-hour drive from Ferguson.
But printing his street name in the nation’s most influential newspaper on the day the grand jury is expected to hand up a decision on the indictment could reignite interest in — and awareness of — the location, and some critics worry that it could result in protesters descending on his home. Slate even went a step further than the Times, publishing an article featuring a photo of the modest, red-brick house on Monday.
A number of Twitter users — some of whom have identified themselves as planning to protest the grand jury decision — have tweeted the location of Wilson’s home as they gear up for rallies. The house number was not printed in the Times, but the street in the St. Louis suburb of Crestwood where it sits is only about two blocks long, and the house number can be easily located via online sources using only the street name and Wilson’s name.
The FBI arrested two alleged New Black Panther members on Thursday on outstanding warrants, they’re “accused of purchasing explosives they apparently planned to use during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, a law enforcement source told CBS News.”
The FBI arrested two men earlier this week on firearms charges as part of increased law enforcement presence in Ferguson, Missouri, ahead of a grand jury decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
Court documents show Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Davis face charges of making false written statements in connection with a firearms purchase and aiding and abetting. FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu told CBS News the suspects were arrested on outstanding warrants.
A law enforcement source said the two men allegedly purchased explosive material during an FBI undercover operation to possibly use during Ferguson protests.
Court documents show Baldwin and Davis were arrested and charged with the illegal purchase of two Hi-Point .45 ACP pistols.
Within days, a grand jury investigating the Aug. 9 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown is expected to decide whether white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson should face criminal charges.
The FBI said Friday it has deployed about 100 agents to the St. Louis area ahead of the decision, in case demonstrators take to the streets as they did after Brown’s death.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said Friday that police, government leaders and protesters have met in recent weeks to discuss so-called “rules of engagement” if protests arise.
Brown’s family, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have urged the community to remain calm, no matter what the grand jury decides.
Tensions rising ahead of anticipated grand jury decision in Missouri this week
Revealed that President Obama met with activists and encouraged them to continue their peaceful protests
Protesters are gathering in support of Michael Brown in and around St. Louis as they nervously await what many believe will be an inevitable no-indictment vote in the coming days by a grand jury for the officer who shot him.
Demonstrators held a ‘die-in’Sunday to mark 100 days since the unarmed Ferguson, Missouri teen was killed. They also convened to, among other things, prepare for the imminent court decisionby issuing ‘rules of engagement’ for police there for crowd control, the New York Times reports.
Many of the high-profile protesters met with President Obama and discussed the matter November 5, including Reverend Al Sharpton. It was a meeting the Gateway Pundit notes was not included on the president’s daily schedule.
Sharpton told the Times that Obama urged the group to ‘stay on course.’
Preparing for the inevitable: A demonstrator marches through the streets during a protest marking the 100th day since the shooting death of Michael Brown in St. Louis, Missouri on November 16
Making a statement: A demonstrator holds a sign that reads, End White Supremacy, as he lays on the ground during a protest over the death of Michael Brown on November 16, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri
Chilling: Snow falls on a memorial on the 100th day since the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. A crowd of a couple hundred demonstrators took to the streets of St. Louis on Sunday
‘[Mr. Obama] was concerned about Ferguson staying on course in terms of pursuing what it was that he knew we were advocating. He said he hopes that we’re doing all we can to keep peace.‘
A crowd of a couple hundred demonstrators, angry about the fatal August shooting took to the streets of St. Louis on Sunday, briefly blocking a major intersection in protest.
Dozens of people lay down in the street outside of a downtown theater hosting a film festival, pretending to have been shot by other demonstrators playing the role of police officers in an action intended to evoke the memory of 18-year-old Brown, who died 100 days ago in front of his home in the suburb of Ferguson.
On course: Rev. Al Sharpton revealed the President secretly met with Ferguson protestors
Marchers went on to briefly block a major intersection near Washington University and the event ended without any of the violence that was seen in Ferguson following Brown’s shooting death by police officer Darren Wilson.
‘This is a mature movement. It is a different movement that it was in August. Then it just had anger, justifiable anger,’ said DeRay McKesson, a 29-year-old protest leader, as wet snow fell on the city. ‘Now we are organized. We are strategizing. And we are going to bring our message to the power structure.’
A grand jury, sitting in the county seat of Clayton, Missouri, is currently deliberating whether to bring criminal charges against Wilson. Many residents and officials in the region fear another wave of rioting similar to the one in August that led to the burning out of multiple businesses if the grand jury decides not to charge Wilson.
‘We are bracing for that possibility. That is what many people are expecting. The entire community is going to be upset,’if Wilson is not indicted, said Jose Chavez, 46, a leader of the local Latinos en Axion group.
There have been conflicting witness accounts of the shooting, with some saying that Brown had his hands up in surrender while others have described it as a struggle between Brown and Wilson.
Ferguson and its surroundings have been fairly quiet the last few days as both police and protesters plan their response to the grand jury’s report.
‘We’ve decided not to wait for that decision. We’ve decided to get started,’said Rockit Ali, a 22-year-old organizer of Sunday’s demonstration, who marched in a Spider-Man mask.
While Sunday’s event had been planned as a nonviolent action, Ali said that violence could not be ruled out if the grand jury finds Wilson without fault.
Ferguson shopkeepers make preparations for expected riots
Preparation: Demonstrators lay on the ground in a mock death protest of the shooting of Brown. The area around St. Louis, Missouri, is preparing for the grand jury decision in the shooting death of Brown
Inevitable? A grand jury, sitting in the county seat of Clayton, Missouri, is currently deliberating whether to bring criminal charges against Wilson. Many residents and officials in the region fear another wave of rioting
Conflict: There have been conflicting witness accounts of the shooting, with some saying that Brown had his hands up in surrender while others have described it as a struggle between Brown and Wilson
Protests: Ferguson had been fairly quiet as both police and protestors planned their response to the grand jury’s report
What will happen? People watch as demonstrators march through the streets as people await a grand jury decision
While Sunday’s event had been planned as a nonviolent action, 22-year-old organizer Rockit Ali said that violence could not be ruled out if the grand jury finds Wilson without fault
‘Rioting and looting are the tools of those without a voice. The rioting and looting, while I didn’t participate in it, was necessary. Without it we would not be standing here today,’ Ali said. ‘There is no revolution without violence.’
From Boston to Los Angeles, police departments are bracing for large demonstrations when the grand jury decides.
The St. Louis County grand jury, which has been meeting since August 20, is expected to decide this month whether Officer Darren Wilson is charged with a crime for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown after ordering him and a friend to stop walking in the street on August 9.
For some cities, a decision in the racially charged case will, inevitably, reignite long-simmering debates over local police relations with minority communities.
‘It’s definitely on our radar,’said Lt. Michael McCarthy, police spokesman in Boston, where police leaders met privately Wednesday to discuss preparations. ‘Common sense tells you the timeline is getting close. We’re just trying to prepare in case something does step off, so we are ready to go with it.’
In Los Angeles, rocked by riots in 1992 after the acquittal of police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, police officials say they’ve been in touch with their counterparts in Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis-area law enforcement held a news conference this week on their own preparations.
RESIDENTS OF TOWN NEAR FERGUSON WARNED: BE READY
A St. Louis County town that neighbors Ferguson, Missouri, is warning residents to prepare for potential unrest that may follow the grand jury announcement in the Michael Brown case.
Berkeley officials passed out flyers this week urging its 9,000 residents to be prepared just as they would in the event of a major storm, with plenty of food, water and medicine on hand in case they’re unable to leave home for several days.
The flyer says Lambert Airport will be protected by the National Guard, but airport spokesman Jeff Lea says that’s wrong. Lea says the airport will continue to be protected by its own security force.
Brown was killed Aug. 9 by Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson. A grand jury is expected to decide this month whether to charge Wilson.
A suburban St. Louis school district says schools will get early notice once the Ferguson grand jury reaches a decision.
A letter on the Hazelwood School District’s site from Superintendent Grayling Tobias says the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office will alert districts 24 hours before the media if the decision is on a weekend.
If it’s a weekday, Tobias says districts will learn three hours before media, so students can be sent home before potential protests. District spokesman Jack Wang says districts won’t be told what the decision is.
The grand jury is expected to decide this month whether to charge white Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who was black and unarmed.
A prosecutor’s office spokesman didn’t return messages seeking comment.
Indict America: Protesters made some startling statements as they awaited the grand jury decision
‘Naturally, we always pay attention,’ said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a police spokesman. ‘We saw what happened when there were protests over there and how oftentimes protests spill from one part of the country to another.’
In Las Vegas, police joined pastors and other community leaders this week to call for restraint at a rally tentatively planned northwest of the casino strip when a decision comes.
In Boston, a group called Black Lives Matter, which has chapters in other major cities, is organizing a rally in front of the police district office in the Roxbury neighborhood the day after an indictment decision.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, police are expecting demonstrations after having dealt with a string of angry protests following a March police shooting of a homeless camper and more than 40 police shootings since 2010.
Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said he anticipated his city will see demonstrations, regardless of what the grand jury returns.
But big-city police departments stressed they’re well-equipped to handle crowds. Many saw large but mostly peaceful demonstrations following the 2013 not-guilty verdict in the slaying of Florida teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman. In New York, hundreds of protesters marched from Union Square north to Times Square, where a sit-in caused gridlock.
The New York Police Department, the largest in the nation, is ‘trained to move swiftly and handle events as they come up,’ spokesman Stephen Davis said.
In Boston, McCarthy said the city’s 2,200 sworn police officers have dealt with the range of public actions, from sports fans spontaneously streaming into the streets following championship victories to protest movements like Occupy.
‘The good thing is that our relationships here with the community are much better than they are around the world,’he said. ‘People look to us as a model. Boston is not Ferguson.’
Cities nationwide are preparing for what may come in the wake of the imminent grand jury decision
Cruising by: Any day now the same violence that erupted in Ferguson in in August could return, some fear
I have had the following message on my heart and mind for multiple years. I desire to be able to communicate the utter urgency of this message to the Body of Christ in America. I pray daily for our brother and sisters in Christ around the world who are living in unspeakable torment and persecution. I am troubled knowing that such persecution is building in America, and knowing the Church is NOT prepared. Please take to heart what you are about to read, and then get prepared.
Jewish parents living in a hostile land will prepare their children from a very young age for the unfriendly treatment they are likely to endure. Our Christian brothers and sisters in places like Mosul and Egypt will do the same, but here in America we have never known nor often have we taught the cost of discipleship.
Our children simply aren’t prepared for the treatment that the world will afford the true disciple of Christ. Youth group is busy about pizza, scavenger hunts, and running around a circle and diving for a bean bag. Hardly a Spartan’s training for a future soldier of Christ. Upstairs, “adult” church is hardly better — pastors blowing sunshine in the thirsty ears of self-absorbed, illiterate Christians, anxious to learn the latest incantation that will bring God out of his genie bottle.
“I gave as an offering my all to Him who had won me and saved me. My property, my fame, my health, my very words… In considering all these things,”wrote Gregory of Nazianzus, “I preferred Christ. And the words of God were made sweet as honeycombs to me, and I cried after knowledge and lifted up my voice for wisdom. There was moreover the moderation of anger, the curbing of the tongue, the restraint of the eyes, the discipline of the belly, and the trampling under foot of the glory which clings to the earth.”
What a marked difference between the sentiment of Gregory and the “Eat the cookie, buy the shoes,” “Every day is a Friday,” and “Your best life now,” freeology of the modern church. One is occupied with a Savior and magnificent grace, the other with what Schaeffer called, “Personal Peace and Affluency.”
Soothsayers con sheeple into believing a new gospel: that Christ died to set you free from obesity, complacency, mediocrity, and insolvency. That indeed “Jesus Saves,” — saves you from loneliness, alienation, beer bellies, and remaining “broke, broke.” That which the Apostle called dung and less than loss in order to win Christ is now proffered by tele-charlatans who with feigned words make merchandise of us.
Modern Churchianity proclaims, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and dine,” reducing Bonhoeffer’s maxim on discipleship into nothing more than a Pampered Chef invitation. Is this the major contributing factor in the Barna research that has found 7 out of 10 evangelical children forsaking the faith after their first semester of college?
So, what do we tell our children to prepare them for the way?
As a Pastor I’m often asked, especially by young people, how to discern the will of God for their lives. Here’s part of my answer: God’s will is for you to be hated among men, to be seen as vile, a reproach, to be lied about, to be abused in every conceivable manner socially, emotionally, financially, and possibly even physically. And then God’s will for you is to not return the hatred, the lies, and the vitriol, but to lead with his heart, to offer an open hand, and if you must – to be willing to part with your head.
Does that fit into your Jesus-as-a-fortune-cookie relationship? Did you learn that in Sunday school or AWANA?
How do we prepare our children for the way and raise the next generation of faith heroes? Tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Let them ponder the words of the Apostles and those of Christ. Don’t avoid what was forewarned to be the world’s reaction to Godly men. And at the same time instill in them that we have this glorious privilege of bringing pleasure to God through it all.
George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State, was famous for inviting Ambassadors who had just been appointed into his office before they deployed to their assignment and saying, “Show me where your country is on that globe?” Most would find it an insulting exercise in geography and roll their eyes. Only when the globe stopped and their index finger landed on Japan, Zaire, or Brazil did they find out it was actually a lesson in Duty, Honor, Country.
To their utter amazement, Shultz would frown, announce that their answer was wrong, and spin the globe until his index finger rested on these United States.
No, young man, this is your country,” and then he would exhort them to never forget that a U.S. Ambassador is the eyes, the ears, the hands, the feet, the very voice of our nation on foreign soil. While you may be an Ambassador to Japan, Zaire, or Brazil, you represent the United States of America. Never forget it!
We are Heaven’s ambassadors on loan to planet earth. We have a higher priority but that shouldn’t lead to less involvement or less interest in our natural citizenship. On the contrary, the Grace of God and the privilege to serve the King of Kings where we are is the highest service imaginable. But let us not take lightly how the world will react.
Do you think the American Ambassador to Germany, Japan, and Italy was showered with admiration and affection just prior to the break out of hostilities? No, the faithful Christian will be treated as Leonidas treated the Persian Ambassadors, after all, “This is Sparta!”
Speaking to a few dozen young Christian boys and girls who had just graduated the eighth grade, I assigned each child a descriptive from a list of Bible verses that describe discipleship. I shared with them the warnings from Jesus and his Apostles that describe what the faithful would go through, how they’d be perceived, and what they would suffer; and then I asked them to remember the one word that I had assigned to them. At the end of the lesson, I asked them to stand and shout their particular word or phrase.
It sounded like this:
Accused!
Mocked!
Forsaken!
Mournful!
Weak!
Foolish!
Troubled!
Weeping!
Full of Sorrow!
Perplexed!
Base!
A Spectacle!
Reviled!
Defamed!
A Reproach!
Separated!
Despised!
Hungry!
Thirsty!
Naked!
Destitute!
Cast Down!
Cast Out!
Filth!
Off-scouring!
Suffering Evil!
Hated!
Afflicted!
Persecuted!
Imprisoned!
Tormented!
Beaten!
Scourged!
Tortured!
Marked for Death!
Condemned!
Stoned!
Sawn Asunder!
Beheaded!
Killed!
Til this very day, some of them tell me that they still remember their word. The truth is, as you see it play out around the globe, the faithful disciple will fulfill many of those words. Remember, God’s Honor Roll and Satan’s Radar are the same list. You won’t be on one without being on the other.
As Benjamin Franklin said, As to the abuses I meet with, I number them among my honors. One cannot behave so as to obtain the esteem of the wise and the good without drawing on oneself at the same time the envy and malice of the foolish and wicked, and the latter is testimony of the former. The best men have always had their share of this treatment, and the more of it in proportion to their different and greater degree of merit. A man, therefore, has some reason to be ashamed of himself when he meets with none of it.
In a mostly black neighborhood in Milwaukee, a black gang targeted a white household in a drive-by shooting and ended up murdering a white 5-year-old girl named Laylah Petersen who was sitting on her grandpa’s lap. And of course, because of the racial circumstances being black-on-white, the national media largely ignored it. In fact, in the local media reporting of the incident, they claimed that the little girl was shot by a “stray bullet.” Uh-huh.
Two black males in Milwaukee walked up to the home of a white family, in a majority black neighborhood, and unleashed a hail of gunfire. A five-year-old white girl was murdered while sitting on her grandfather’s lap.
Milwaukee police say there is no question the shooters were deliberating trying to kill people inside the house. At least a dozen bullets were fired directly into the house. There may have been a third person driving a getaway car.
The house was located in a census tract that is 77% black and 14% white.
The Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee channel 6 have actually been trying to downplay the murder. They are falsely reporting that it was “a stray bullet.” That directly contradicts all the evidence found by police.
You can see all the shell casings left behind outside the house they targeted. So, these guys waltzed up to the house, started shooting, and then one of their buddies came to pick them up and speed away.
Yet, the local media don’t acknowledge that this had anything to do with race. They don’t even mention it. This was one of the few white families in a mostly black neighborhood. Why else would a black gang target a white family?
And they say it was only a stray bullet, as if it was some kind of accident.
It doesn’t matter whether the gang knew that the little girl was there in the house or not. They targeted the household, and they shot into the house. Anyone who ended up dying as a result would be victims of first-degree murder, because that was the gang’s intent.
FERGUSON, Mo. (CBS St. Louis/AP) – Ferguson is “getting prepared for war” if a grand jury doesn’t indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson told CBS News he has been meeting with students, gang members and ministers about what might happen following the grand jury decision that is expected to come down this month.
“There’s a lot of fear. A lot of people are afraid of what could happen,”Johnson explained. “In the end, this is gonna be the community we have to live in.”
Ronardo Ward, 33, is one of those hoping to maintain peace in Ferguson if Wilson isn’t indicted.
“We are getting prepared for war,”Ward told CBS News. “And that’s just crazy.”
Michael Johnson, 42, believes many young people will rail against the “system.”
“There’s gonna be a lot of angry young people that’s pretty much not gonna listen to the system anymore,”Michael Johnson said. “Why should they?”
Protests have been going on for months following Brown’s death in August.
“The destruction here symbolizes this community, and how fragile and crumbled things are here,”Johnson told CBS News.
Despite the potential violence, Johnson doesn’t believe Ferguson is ready to explode if Wilson is not indicted.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as people want to make it out to be, but I think there’s some tough times ahead,”Johnson stated.
Activistsasked last Wednesday for advance notice before prosecutors announce whether Wilson will face charges in the shooting death of Brown, saying they can help prevent widespread violence if they have 48 hours to prepare for protests.
Members of the Don’t Shoot Coalition said at a news conference that they want to “de-escalate violence without de-escalating action” once a grand jury decides whether to indict Wilson, who is white, for the Aug. 9 shooting of Brown, who was black.
The coalition represents more than 50 organizations including union workers, clergy, anti-war activists and black empowerment groups. Its members are leaders of the protests that erupted across the region after Brown’s death and have continued in the three months since.
“Everyone around the United States and much of the world is looking at St. Louis,” said Michael McPhearson, executive director of Veterans for Peace. “There’s much anticipation as to what happens next.”
Demonstrators on Wednesday criticized the use of tear gas, riot equipment and armored vehicles by county and local police in the early days of the protests. The heavy initial response led Gov. Jay Nixon to summon the National Guard and temporarily put the Missouri Highway Patrol in charge of Ferguson crowd control.
Ed Magee, a spokesman for St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch, who is overseeing the grand jury investigation, met with McPhearson and attorney Denise Lieberman earlier Wednesday and said the coalition’s request for 48 hours’ notice of a grand jury decision is “being considered.”
The grand jury was expected to hear evidence in Brown’s case until mid-November, but McCulloch said Tuesday night that its work could continue for several more weeks. Brown, 18, was unarmed when Wilson encountered him walking in the street with a friend. A scuffle ensued and Brown was shot multiple times. Witness accounts of what happened varied, with some saying they saw Brown raise his hands as if in surrender.
“After the verdict, no matter what it is, people are going to pour into the street — either in celebration or in rage,” said Montague Simmons, chairman of the Organization for Black Struggle. “It’s in the best interest of the public, the police and elected officials who control the actions of the police to work together to protect the rights of people to engage in civil disobedience and expression of their First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly.”
Organizers have created 19 “rules of engagement” they want police to follow, including calls to treat protesters as “citizens and not enemy combatants.”
County police Chief Jon Belmar earlier this week reiterated that police do not intend to impede peaceful dissent but said he wouldn’t take anything off the table when asked about the use of tear gas and other tactics.
“I have a responsibility…to make sure that everybody walks out of this on the other end,” he said.
Darlena Cunha makes breakfast for her then-5-year-old twin daughters Dulce, right, and Natalina. (Carla Hotvedt)
I’m a diehard, bleeding-heart liberal. And it’s ruining my parenting.
My intentions are good. I want my two daughters, 6, to think critically, to fight for fairness and justice whenever they can. I want them to value equality above all else. But sometimes, I also need them to do what I say. This contradiction is hard to explain.
Take a recent incident, involving some candy. I’d given each girl the same number of gumballs. But one of my daughters lost some. She then implored me for extra. “Now I have less and that’s not fair,”she moaned.
“But they’re my candy! It’s not my fault we lost some of hers!” the other one replied.
My solution — to put all the gumballs together in one bowl and split them equally — was unacceptable to both. All afternoon, they threw tantrums, slammed doors, or tried to slyly outwit me, crumbling when I didn’t fall for it.
“How about we keep our own gumballs and I get an extra other kind of candy that she doesn’t get?” said one.
“Why am I being punished for her missing candy?” asked the other.
Three hours later, the result was the same as it would’ve been had I taken a sterner approach from the get-go: We did what I said. But what should have taken five minutes took three hours, and everyone was in a bad mood.
I remember being a little kid. While my mother was amazing, I never felt like I had a say. What she said went, end of story. I spent my childhood bemoaning how unfair it all was (like, I know, every little kid ever). I had to overcome many obstacles to learn that my voice was important.
But I’ve gone too far in the other direction.
Three is probably a bit too young for the pay-gap speech, but there I was, explaining why I turned down a low-paying position at a local business. It’s a big world out there, and I want my girls to know what they’re worth. But since they’re so little, their whole world is our home, and their needs. The poor and disadvantaged? In their world, it’s them, when they don’t get their way.
I’ve given them power they don’t know what to do with. So minor decisions that should be left to the parent (like, say, wearing tights without holes in them) become ruthless, time-consuming battles that add unnecessary dissonance to their lives.
I thought my parenting approach would lead to strong, confident girls who are able to assess situations and logically thwart unequal systems. And it probably will, someday. But right now? They’re 6. The lessons I’ve taught them have led to two very dissatisfied girls who don’t know if their mother is their friend, their adversary or their keeper.
One poignant instance illustrates this perfectly. My daughter wanted me to buy her candy but had not behaved well enough to warrant an extra treat.
“Mom,”my daughter said, “people without money need help, and people with money need to help them.”
“Yes, that’s right,” I said.
“Well, I don’t have money, and you do, so you need to help me and buy this.”
A perfectly well-reasoned, thought-out argument.
When the answer was still no, she tantrumed and screamed, and I had to drag her out of the store. She did what I’d taught her; she still didn’t get what she wanted. I didn’t get what I wanted. Everyone was unhappy.
I’m not about to swing around and go authoritarian. I am who I am.
Instead, I’m changing my communication style. What I had thought was explanation they deserved is actually confusing baggage they cannot parse. I’m refocusing, trying to teach the girls about priorities, about why it’s more important to go to school than color in the mornings.
It’s not without a fight, but it’s a reprogramming well worth it. If I could do it again, I’d wait to start on the grand-scale ideology until the girls were 10 or so, when they could more easily grasp the concepts as outside of themselves, and differentiate their present lives from their future lives.
But for now, I’ve taught the wrong message — that life should be fair and there is no other acceptable option. I did it before the girls had the capacity to understand the meaning of fair. Fair became “what I want right now because I want it.”
I should have stuck to the well-worn, well-tested “life isn’t fair, and I call the shots” route when my girls were babies and toddlers.
Because what isn’t fair is asking children to think and behave like adults before they have the mental ability to do so.
Liberalism ruined my parenting, but I’m slowly getting it back.
The Ferguson protest movement held a meeting tonight at St. Mark Family Church on Glen Owen Drive.
The protesters took time out from their meeting to beat a college student.
Then they chased him down the street screaming. Finally the man was rescued at the local Walgreens.
From the Justice for Mike Brown Facebook page:
Radical Hamas supporter Bassem Masri defended the attack.
UPDATE: Live-streamer Chris Schaefer posted a video from his hospital bed in the emergency room. Schaefer said he got hit “pretty badly” in his head, hands, and sides. He’s asking for donations to pay for his CAT Scan.
FERGUSON, Mo. — Walk down West Florissant Avenue, and the scars of the summer are still there. The door and display window of a beauty supply store remain covered with plywood; a glued-up poster, “Beauty Town Is Back,” is the one hopeful sign of the life inside. A cellphone store, too, still has the plywood up from when riots and confrontations with the police shook this neighborhood. And the Family of Faith Baptist Church uses its billboard to proclaim, “Join us as we pray for peace.”
But few are expecting peace as this St. Louis suburb prepares for a grand jury decision, expected in the next few weeks, on whether to indict the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in August, inciting months of protests and putting Ferguson at the center of a national debate over the police and race.
Here, where heavily fortified police officers faced the demonstrators and the nights sometimes turned violent, even those shopkeepers who put in new windows are boarding up again.
“I hate this,” said Dan McMullen, the president of Solo Insurance Services, as he sat behind his desk on Thursday. During the course of a 20-minute conversation, his phone did not ring; no customers walked through the door. “Business is terrible,” he lamented. “The customers don’t want to come here anymore. We all know the grand jury is going to come back in the next couple of weeks, and everyone knows there won’t be an indictment. This time around will be a lot more violent.”
What Happened in Ferguson?
Why did the police shoot an unarmed black teenager in a St. Louis suburb, and what has unfolded since then? Here’s what you need to know about the situation in Missouri.
Mr. McMullen, a former police officer who is white, opened his desk drawer to show the loaded revolver that he keeps there.
“I don’t anticipate having to use it,” he said, but added that he was prepared to do so if necessary to defend his business.
All around this small suburb, people are bracing for the grand jury’s decision, with the wide expectation that the officer, Darren Wilson, will not face serious charges for shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown six times.
Government officials have said that forensics tests showed Mr. Brown’s blood on Officer Wilson’s gun, giving credence to the officer’s account that at one point he was pinned in his vehicle and engaged in a struggle over his gun with Mr. Brown. He told investigators that he had feared for his life, and police officers are typically given wide latitude to defend themselves if they feel their safety is threatened.
Nor are civil rights charges expected. Federal officials have said that while their investigation is continuing, the evidence so far does not support such a case against Officer Wilson.
But people protesting police tactics, who have continued to hold marches here since the shooting on Aug. 9, say they envision larger, angrier demonstrations should Officer Wilson not be charged. Fearing renewed unrest, the police in the region have bought new riot gear, called meetings with nearby departments and held special training seminars.
School leaders are reviewing emergency contingency plans and urging officials to announce the grand jury finding outside of school hours — perhaps on a Sunday, so that children returning home are not caught in a melee.
The headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department. Credit Whitney Curtis for The New York Times
On Friday, President Obama spoke by phone with Gov. Jay Nixon to get an update on the situation. Earlier in the day, he was briefed by the Justice Department on efforts to assist state and local governments as needed.
Behind the scenes, government officials at various levels have been struggling with how to orchestrate and blunt the effects of the grand jury announcement. Investigators in Missouri want the Justice Department to announce the results of its civil rights investigation at the same time, according to several people briefed on the case, who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential conversations. Yet Justice Department officials, who have promised that their investigation will be independent, do not want to coordinate announcements.
Other government officials have been privately discussing whether they can pressure the Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, to step down, or somehow substitute the St. Louis County police for the local force. The county prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch, has said that if the grand jury does not indict Officer Wilson, he will take the unusual step of releasing the evidence for public scrutiny if a judge approves.
Mr. Brown’s parents are preparing to call on the people of Ferguson not to react violently to the grand jury’s decision, even though they have little faith in the prosecutor, according to their lawyer, Benjamin L. Crump. “We want people to pray that the system will work, but the family doesn’t have much confidence at all,” Mr. Crump said. Nor, he added, are they confident that the local police will deal properly even with peacefulprotesters.
Regardless of what the grand jury decides, Mr. Crump said the Browns would dedicate themselves to pressuring the federal government and states to pass “Michael Brown laws”that would require officers to wear video cameras.
“The real change they want is for people to use their frustration and turn it into legislation,”he said. “If you get the Mike Brown law passed, nobody will have to deal with something like this and the insult to injury afterwards.”
Some protest groups have said that they are urging demonstrators to be peaceful. The Don’t Shoot Coalition, which formed in the aftermath of the shooting, is pressing local officials for coordination in advance of the grand jury’s return so that members can adequately prepare for the announcement. The coalition, which represents about 50 groups, said this week that it was promoting “a peaceful response” from demonstrators.
The group also asked the police to do their part. Michael T. McPhearson, a co-chairman, said in a statement that the police should provide protesters “adequate space.” The police should also shun the use of tear gas and armored vehicles, the group said, and allow protesters to retreat to predetermined “sanctuary safe spaces.”
Elected officials have tried to soothe nerves in recent days, even as some police departments have bought more pepper-spray balls, flexible handcuffs and batons, and, in the case of at least one department, decided to delay repairing police vehicles until any unrest is over. Anxious business owners filled part of a banquet hall here the other night, brimming with worries.
At the meeting, billed as a “disaster preparedness seminar,”they peppered city officials with questions: If Officer Wilson faces no charges, will Ferguson be able to manage the ensuing protests? Should they be stocking up on fire extinguishers, in case someone tries to burn down their stores? Should they arm themselves? Yon Kim, a clerk at a beauty supply store, later described the growing tension. “I know it’s not going to be smooth,”she said. “The customers are already scared. And if something happens, we don’t know if insurance is going to cover it.”
“There’s going to be protests,”Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff, an assistant Ferguson police chief, told the business owners, while urging them to be careful how they respond. “Once you pull that trigger,”he warned, “you cannot pull that bullet back.”
Among the other bits of less-than-reassuring guidance for business owners: Empty your trash often, fire officials said, so it is not set aflame during protests. And Mayor James Knowles III suggested that people steer clear of the area in the evening if protests break out. “By 8, 9 o’clock, nothing good is going to happen out on the streets,” Mr. Knowles said. “When the gremlins come out, you’re just going to get caught in the crossfire.”
Stuffed animals, flowers and other items form a memorial to Mr. Brown. Credit Scott Olson/Getty Images
And the protests go on. Nearly every night, demonstrators gather in front of Police Headquarters on South Florissant Road, chanting and confronting police officers with expletive-laden cries and promises to shut the streets down.
On Wednesday evening, an unusually large crowd of more than 100 protesters was there, many with garish Guy Fawkes masks of white faces. The police, wearing riot gear and armed with plastic handcuffs, warned the protesters that if they continued to block the road, they would be arrested. The group defied the police, marching down the middle of the street and leaving a traffic jam behind them. Some pounded on cars whose drivers were trying to maneuver through. One driver, a white-haired older woman, turned onto South Florissant, saw the protesters and did a hasty U-turn to avoid being trapped by the crowd.
At times, officers appeared to struggle to remain calm in the face of insults. “You’re three-fifths of a person,”one woman taunted a black police officer, who turned his back and walked in the opposite direction.
The leaders of at least three police departments — the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Police Department — have held regular meetings as part of an effort at unified preparation. “We’re focused on the preservation of life and property,” Jon Belmar, the chief of the county police, said in an interview. His department spent $37,741 in October on helmets, shields, batons and shin guards.
A central goal, some law enforcement officials said, is to ensure that peaceful demonstrators are able to voice their views while also preventing violence.
The St. Louis Police Department has spent $325,000 on new equipment, including riot gear; sent 350 officers to training sessions on how to manage civil disobedience; and met with police chiefs from other communities around the nation that have dealt with unrest. Still under consideration are canceled days off for officers and 12-hour shifts. “We’ll be prepared to respond,”said D. Samuel Dotson III, the chief in St. Louis.
Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, the Missouri State Highway Patrol official who became the public face of law enforcement here after early clashes, said he had spoken to school groups and church panels about long-term changes needed in Ferguson. Still, the grand jury’s looming decision comes up regularly.
“I tell them that we’re going to make it through whatever happens,”Captain Johnson said in an interview. “I also tell them that it is my belief that whatever happens is not going to be as bad as we believe it’s going to be. I also tell them that I believe we’ll be better for it. But I tell them that I look at each day for each day.”
A growing trend reported by many campus pro-life groups is the tendency for young pro-choicers to endorse post-birth abortions, sometimes even as late as five years old:
Asked about the incident at Ohio State, at which a woman responded to a pro-life display by defending infanticide, a pro-abortion activism group at the campus stated its views were similar to those of the woman in the clip.
“As for post-birth abortion, I would imagine that my colleagues would think the ‘post-birth’ part was largely irrelevant, as we believe very strongly in abortion on demand, without apology, and it’s plain and simple that we should look to the woman’s morals and not shove our opinions where they, frankly, don’t belong,” Devin Deitsch, leader of VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at Ohio State University, said in an email to The College Fix.
Maybe Devin and his colleagues don’t understand what the post-birth part of post-birth abortions means? Or have morals declined to such a degree that they just don’t care? Hard to say. You could just call post-birth abortions by their other name, murder, but that really opens up the issue of why any abortions would be okay.
And apparently, this attitude toward post-birth abortions is not isolated to college students. An article in Slate mentions rising support for “after-birth abortions,”and no, they don’t mean the abortion of a placenta. According to the two idiots who came up with the term, any child who could have been aborted before birth should be allowed to be aborted after birth.
But seriously, that is the logical conclusion of abortion logic. The location of a human in a womb means that human shouldn’t be killed? What difference does that really make? And the only reason why killing your babies and toddlers isn’t allowed is basically just because “it’s too late for that now”? Why anyone doesn’t recognize this as absurd is beyond me.
So pro-choicers really have two choices if they want to be consistent. Either they admit post-birth abortion is murder and therefore abortion itself should be rejected. Or they admit post-birth abortion is murder and go on to state that murder is therefore acceptable in certain cases. The latter is what they are already doing really, but it would be nice if they would just be honest about it.
Under the guise of “zero tolerance”, gun hating private community Lakes of the Four Seasons (LOFS) has fired a seasonal landscaping employee of 21 years because he was a gun owner. And no, I don’t mean that he was carrying a gun while working, nor did he have a gun in his car on LOFS property.
Nino Ferlaino had worked for LOFS for 21 years before this summer when, in conversation amongst coworkers, he acknowledged that he believed in the 2nd Amendment and kept a gun at home.
Two days following this conversation, on July 2nd, Ferlaino’s supervisor, Doug Weiss, approached him and asked him if he carried a gun. Ferlaino admitted that he owned a gun but never carried it while working.
Let me interject something. While in Ferlaino’s mind he was just having a pleasant break time conversation among coworkers, someone in that group heard “gun owner” and went bat-poo crazy and no doubt started telling everyone that Ferlaino was carrying machine guns and weeds weren’t the only thing he was looking to whack. Such is the demented mindset of hoplophobes, that they wet their pants at the mere notion of someone owner a gun.
So, due to this hoplophobia, Weiss informed Ferlaino that he had met with the property owners association’s board of directors July 1 and that Ferlaino’s conversation with his co-workers violated the company’s “no tolerance policy.”As such, he was fired effective immediately.
There is SO much wrong with this cluster flop. Like, how exactly is the simple fact of being a gun owner a violation of any policy? After 21 years Mr. Ferlaino doesn’t get a warning or a reprimand but rather summarily fired? Also, Ferlaino doesn’t get a chance to answer any of this before being fired? I mean, even when Weiss spoke to him on July 2nd the decision was all ready made on July 1st.
Thanks to the forward thinking of the State of Indiana, not only is the LOFS actions immoral and unethical but they are also ILLEGAL.
It is that last part that has brought on the lawsuit by Ferlaino against the Property Owners Association. According to Ferlaino’s attorney, Marissa McDermott:
The association violated Indiana’s “take your gun to work law,” which was amended in 2011, because it required Ferlaino to divulge information about owing a gun and fired him because he’s a gun owner.
Also, even if Ferlaino had brought his gun to work and left it secured in his car, the law forbids employers from punishing employees who exercise that option.
Not only is Ferlaino is seeking actual and punitive damages, attorney fees etc. he’s also asking a judge to order the property owners association to refrain from engaging in similar practices with regard to other employees.
Though I’ve no doubt that a hit to the pocket books of these bigoted wannabee thought police members of the LOFS Property Owner’s Association will be an added reminder not to oppress those who choose to exercise their rights when it has nothing to do with work.
I wish Ferlaino luck in his lawsuit and hope he is compensated accordingly.
Those who serve faithfully in the pro-life movement rarely get the opportunity to look up from day-to-day work and see the big picture.
For many, the March for Life every January is their one chance to rub shoulders with like-minded advocates. One other annual event stands out for its variety of high-caliber, pro-life leaders and interactive breakout sessions: the Values Voter Summit sponsored by Family Research Council Action.
Popularly referred to as #VVS14 — a top-trending Twitter topic nationally during the event — Values Voter Summit features conservative luminaries who garnered significant media attention in discussing America’s most pressing issues leading up to the mid-term elections: Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Bobby Jindal, talk show host Mark Levin, Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Rand Paul, Alan Robertson (of Duck Dynasty fame) and many others.
While most touched on life issues, five leaders elevated current contentions over abortion policy and the value of every life as a primary thrust of their remarks:
Young woman wearing Life Tape, in a video by Lt. Gov. Dewhurst recapping Texas’ fight for life
1. Star Parker: “Abortion May Be Legal Today, But It’s Not Lawful in God’s Eyes”
President of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), Star Parker brought an impassioned plea for Congress to investigate abortion-center horrors like Kermit Gosnell‘s clinic — and enact penalties in the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act signed into law over a decade ago.
“We’ve been concerned for years about minority women that have been targeted by the abortion lobby,”Parker said. “While black women of childbearing age represent only 7% of the American population, they represent 35% of all abortions.”This important advocacy effort by the National Black Pro-Life Coalition is poised to make a great impact starting with the next Congress in January.
2. Young Mother Tells Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst: ”We Have Our Son Today Because of You”
“We had a group of people who took over the Senate chambers and kept our Senate from doing business,”Pastor Steve Riggle said in a new video premiered at Values Voter Summit. “We decided we would all show up so we could save some lives.”The video also features a young woman in red Life Tape, a strategy that originated with Bound4LIFE in 2004 and now widely adopted by pro-life groups.
3. Ryan Bomberger, African-American Pro-Life Leader: “For Exercising a Civil Right, I’m Being Sued by a Civil Rights Group”
“Any time anybody wants to silence you,”began Ryan Bomberger, chief creative officer of The Radiance Foundation. “You know they’re up to no good.”He proceeded to tell (to the degree he legally can) of how his 2013 op-ed on the NAACP, which engages in parody — a hallmark of American social commentary since Mark Twain and even before. Yet a pro-lifer’s parody was too much; the massive membership group sued him.
“The writers of the Constitution were considered extreme too,”he noted. “Silence is never an option.” After a Virginia judge placed a gag order on Bomberger and ordered him to “deliver up for destruction” any prior use of his NAACP parody, The Radiance Foundation recently appealed the case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
It’s clear what drives Ryan Bomberger in his creative work, as he weeps over America’s “56 million lives obliterated in the name of ‘reproductive freedom.’” A leader in promoting adoption and foster care, he left attendees with a strong appeal: “Never be silenced.”
4. Brigitte Gabriel: “I Know My Freedom is Built Upon Your Shoulders and Your Sacrifice”
With the rise of the Islamic State internationally — and, tragically, even in America — many #VVS14 speakers addressed this emerging threat. None were more enlightening than Brigitte Gabriel, who comes at the issue of defeating terrorism from a unique perspective.
As Founder and President of Act for America, the nation’s largest grassroots organization devoted to national security, Gabriel knows the facts. And as an immigrant to America from Lebanon, which she fled due to Islam’s increasing influence, her words carry a true depth of life experience.
Addressing veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, Gabriel’s final remarks reveal surprising connections between the sacrifice of military families and standing up for the value of every life.“As an immigrant who came to this country, thank you for building a nation where I can come and be all that I can be,” she concluded. “You are my heroes.”
5. Rep. Marlin Stutzman: “Let This Generation Be the One to Stop Abortion in America”
A small-town Indiana farmer voted into office in 2010, Rep. Marlin Stutzman has proven to be one of the rarest of Congressmen: stating upfront his unequivocal support for defending life, even in an election year. One powerful story unearths the roots of his strongly pro-life perspective… and from the first line, you could hear a pin drop.
“There was a young lady, 17 years old, who all of a sudden found herself in an unexpected pregnancy,”Stutzman began. First told in the Washington Times, his account reveals how intensely personal the issue of life is — and how vital to discuss it in human terms.
As elections quickly approach, join us in lifting up our nation’s leaders. Pray for all Americans to vote with wisdom, demanding honesty and uprightness from those serving in public office.
LifeNews Note: Josh M. Shepherd has served in communications/marketing roles for the past 10 years at Focus on the Family and The Heritage Foundation. Reprinted with permission from Bound4LIFE.
A man in Texas who is thought to be infected with Ebola may be taken into custody against his will. Is this the beginning of medical martial law, or is this a common sense practice to prevent the spread of a deadly disease?
Thus far, due to medical privacy laws, the man is unnamed.
Texas wants a second patient “reasonably suspected of being infected” with Ebola put into protective custody in Dallas.
Dr. David L. Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, filed a motion for a temporary order of protective custody Monday in Dallas County Court. The unidentified patient, sued as “M.W.L.,” is “reasonably suspected of being infected with a communicable disease (Ebola) that presents an immediate threat to public health,” the 4-page motion states.
“Further, movant has determined that proposed patient is a threat to himself or others if not immediately restrained. Further, sources charged with monitoring the proposed patient M.W.L. have observed the proposed patient failing or refusing to follow the written order of the Texas Department of State Health Services by leaving the premises of a medical facility contrary to medical directives, without permission and surreptitiously.”
Lakey claims that the proposed patient “meets the criteria authorized by the court” to issue such an order. “The sworn representations of the applicant, who is a credible person, state that the proposed patient is reasonably suspected of being infected with the communicable disease, Ebola, that presents a threat to public health; has failed or refused to follow the written or verbal orders of the Commissioner; and presents a substantial risk of harm to himself or others if no immediately restrained,” according to the motion, filed Monday at 2 p.m.
Lakey wants the patient kept under constant guard at Parkland Hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas or any other appropriate facility. (source)
So here’s the conundrum.
I’m all about liberty. I’m a hardcore libertarian who believes that the state should not have authority over my day-to-day activities.
But…
Do we really want people with a gruesome, deadly, infectious disease running around willy-nilly; touching things; potentially vomiting, coughing, sneezing, and bleeding out of assorted orifices; and contaminating sundry doorknobs, public transit, and gathering places? I’m not saying that this M.W.L. fellow has any intention of deliberately making people sick, but still. Is this actually a horrible thing?
I know the headlines are going to be all over the place, calling this “medical martial law”. It’s inevitable, because we are all very protective our our personal liberties.
But…how is it that some of the people who are the most up in arms about illegal immigrants being potential sources of disease, and about US Customs’ complete disregard of health protocols at international airports are the same people who are screaming about this being unacceptable?
You can’t have it both ways.
The Ebola situation in the US has been handled HORRIBLY thus far. As my friends at Truthstream Media said, it’s like a badly written horror film. You just want to grab those in charge and shake some sense into them. “No! Don’t go into that dark forest to investigate the noise. RUN!!!!”
Is it really unreasonable to insist that those exposed to Ebola remain at home? Personally, I can’t understand why someone who might be ill with Ebola would want to risk contributing to the start of a horrible pandemic, but for those who don’t take personal responsibility for that sort of thing, is it really a bad thing for them to chill out at home until they’re clear?
Here’s where the slippery slope part comes in.
I don’t want to be forcibly vaccinated.
I don’t want to be thrown into a FEMA camp with a bunch of sick people because I’m suspected of being sick.
I don’t want to be medicated against my will.
This may make me none-too-popular, but I just can’t think it’s okay for those who are showing symptoms of Ebola to be allowed to wander around the city. We expect officials to perform medical checks and quarantine people at the border. We expect hospitals to immediately admit people who could be ill and we chastise them for doing stupid stuff …you know, like sending away Thomas Duncan. Keeping people who are potentially ill and contagious isolated IS NOT a bad thing. Forcing them to undergo medical treatment or exposing them to other sick people IS a bad thing.
How about this? How about if someone has even been in those countries, they have to wait 21 days before coming here in a preventative quarantine? I’m certainly not for martial law or taking away anyone’s rights, but at this point if they show up here with Ebola, the CDC will quarantine them and take away their rights anyway, as we are now seeing with Duncan’s family members in Dallas who are on a 21-day control order that forces them to stay inside and make themselves available for any and all medical tests public health officials deem necessary on demand, or they will face criminal charges. So, either way, rights are not being upheld. Might as well not put a bunch of other people in mortal danger while we are already on the slip ‘n slide straight to global pandemic land.
So how can we also criticize them for isolating someone who might potentially spread the disease to thousands? I’m not advocating forcible medical treatment, but I don’t think it’s wrong to quarantine a person showing all of the signs of a deadly illness. This is not “medical martial law”. It’s common sense. Who can honestly say it’s okay for people to go around spreading a horrific bloody plague? When people refuse to act like responsible human beings and put others in harm’s way, it ceases to become an issue of personal liberty and turns into an issue of potential criminal negligence.
But I also would not leave my house if I was ill with what “might” be Ebola. I would take the responsibility of isolating myself so that I didn’t make others sick. Or alternatively, I’d cover up and go to the hospital in order to be isolated. Heck, if I even think it’s in my city, I’ll lock down preventatively.
I know opinions will vary greatly on this. So…weigh in. Should a person showing the signs of Ebola be allowed to go on their merry way, potentially infecting others? Should they be required to stay home under mandatory quarantine? Where do we draw the line?
In a frightening description of what might be in store for the Western world, TPNN’s Tim Constantine noted that just as the world had never considered a jetliner being used as a missile prior to 9/11, the world is not considering the possibility that the Ebola Virus can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
Constantine notes that a man has already been infected with the Ebola Virus and that officials are already trying to contain the threat by corralling the many people with whom the infected traveler came into contact.
Describing the way 9/11 changed the way we assessed threats, Constantine questioned,
“What if someone took the Ebola Virus and used it in an equally shocking manner? What if those who would do harm to the United States intentionallyinfect young men committed to the Islamic State and then send them across our porous border to come into contact with as many people as they possibly can?”
It’s a terrifying thought.
What do you think?
Could terrorists exploit our porous borders to introduce Ebola into the U.S.?
Atheists have a new target in their sights and it’s country music star Carrie Underwood, who recently released a new song expressing her Christian faith and values.In the song, titled “Something in the Water,” Underwood discusses baptism and being “washed in the blood,” both of which are key symbols in the Christian religion. Lyrics throughout the song paint a picture of someone coming to the desperate realization they are hopelessly lost without God and need Him for salvation.
According to TheBlaze, Underwood has always been an outspoken defender of singing about religious themes and has a message for all the liberals and atheists who are whining and complaining about the lyrical content of her new hit, saying, “Country music is different. You have that Bible Belt-ness about it. I’m not the first person to sing about God, Jesus, faith or any of that, and I won’t be the last. And it won’t be the last for me, either. If you don’t like it, change the channel.”
I have shared the following video with you in the recent past. It has resurfaced and needs to be repeated so we can see what is coming to America if we don’t stop the movement NOW. We have this advantage of seeing what has happened in France, is also happening in England, and will happen here, IF, we don’t do something about it right now.
“If you are looking for evidence of our destructive decline in American Society, this report will be added to the top of the pile. Depravity is not a strong enough word to use. I am very confident that Jackson and Sharpton won’t be showing up in the defense of this woman.”
Three scumbag reprobaterappers from southern Georgia reportedly committed unspeakably evil crimes against a female just because she beat the three in freestyle rap battle, according to media reports.
The three degenerate Columbus, Ga. men — Ketorie Glover, 23, Joey Betrail Garron, 28, and Robert Carl Johnson, 23 — decided to avenge their humiliation for losing to a female by deciding to kidnap her, gang rape her, sodomize her, shoot her and set the victim on fire and leave her for dead.
At a house party in Columbus, Ga., about a two-hour drive south of Atlanta, the trio of so-called male rappers met their match in a 36-year-old black female lyricist. During the freestyle battle, she out performed them all. After the third one was defeated by this cocky female rapper, the three men decided to get revenge.
One of the men reportedly pulled out a gun and forced her into a car, according to the Ledger-Enquirer, and then drove to a vacant lot on Farr Road. All three villainous men then took turns gang raping the woman. After they had finished sodomizing her, they doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. To make a heinous crime even worse, one of the men shot her burning body three times and left her to die.
Her smoldering woman was discovered and rushed to a local hospital, barely alive. Reports state that she has finally come out of her coma but remains in critical condition.
All three men were eventually tracked down and arrested and are facing multiple felony charges including aggravated assault, rape, kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy, hijacking a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
As if that wasn’t enough, Glover is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
FBI officials are investigating a beheading at an Oklahoma food distribution center after co-workers said the suspect tried to convert them to Islam after his recent conversion.
The alleged suspect, Alton Nolen, 30, was recently fired from Vaughan Foods in Moore prior to Thursday’s attack. Moore Police Department Sgt. Jeremy Lewis told KFOR that Nolen drove to the front of the business and struck a vehicle before walking inside. He then attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, stabbing her several times before severing her head. He also stabbed another woman, 43-year-old Traci Johnson, at the plant.
Lewis said Mark Vaughan, the company’s chief operating officer and a reserve county deputy, shot Nolen as he was stabbing Johnson, who remains hospitalized in stable condition Friday.
“He’s a hero in this situation,”Lewis told the station. “It could have gotten a lot worse.”
Nolen was apparently attacking employees at random, authorities said. The motive for the attack is unclear, but FBI officials confirmed to Fox News that they were assisting the Moore Police Department in investigating Nolen’s background and whether his recent conversion to Islam was somehow linked to the crime.
The police department issued a statement saying, “After conducting interviews with Nolen’s co-workers, information was obtained that he recently started trying to convert several employees to the Muslim religion. Due to the manner of death and the initial statements of co-workers and other initial information, the Moore Police Department requested the assistance of the FBI in conducting a background investigation on Nolan.”
Nolen, according to state corrections records, was convicted in January 2011 of multiple felony drug offenses, assault and battery on a police officer and escape from detention. He was released from prison in March 2013.
Saad Mohammad, a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, told NewsOK.com that leaders of the society’s mosque are taking security precautions to protect Muslims who gather there from any potential retaliatory violence.
Mohammad said anti-Muslim sentiments local residents may have could be heightened due to the beheadings and violence overseas by Islamic State militants.
“They have this ISIS thing on their minds and now this guy has brought it to America,”Mohammad told the website.
Lewis said he does not yet know what charges will be filed against Nolen, adding that police are waiting until he’s conscious to arrest him. Authorities said he had no prior connection to either woman.
Moore Police Department officials have released 911 calls from the incident, OKCFox.com reports. During the recording, a caller tells an operator that a person is attacking someone in the building. Several gunshots can be heard in the background at the end of the call.
A Vaughan spokeswoman said the company was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the attack.
We live in a hyper-sexualized society where so-called experts think it wiser to push sex on younger and younger children. The abortion industry doesn’t mind at all, because Planned Parenthood can prey on young impressionable teens and pre-teens by telling them that early sex is perfectly fine and can exploit them to sell them abortions when the young girls become pregnant.
With that in mind, here’s the latest from Las Vegas, where apparently there are not enough clients for the legal prostitutes so they need to convince children at a young age to become interested in sex.
As one report indicates, the public school system is considering teaching 5-year-olds about masturbation. Because America’s schoolchildren are doing so well in reading and science compared to their international peers:
School districts across America continue to push the sex education boundaries, seeking to teach controversial subjects to students at younger and younger ages.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the Clark County School District – the 5th largest district in America – is seeking parental input on an idea to “expose students to a lot more a lot earlier.”
School children of that age range would also be taught that “touching and rubbing one’s genitals to feel good is called masturbation.”
School officials began airing the curriculum at “closed-door” meetings of parents that were invitation only.
That didn’t sit well with the ones that weren’t invited and they showed up at the school board meeting to eviscerate the idea.
“You want to teach my 5-year-old how to masturbate?” said parent Julie Butler, according to the paper.
“We certainly should not be teaching five-year-olds that masturbation and pleasuring one’s body is good and that a 12-year-old should know about the very details of anal and oral sex,” another parent said, reports KTNV.
According to Fox 5, parent Ronald Withaeger said to school board members, “‘Masturbation should be done in a private place.’ That’s kindergarten through third grade. You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no need to know that at that age.”
A high school student told the board, “I think I went through about 20 pages and I couldn’t continue with it because some of the stuff was just too disturbing to me at the age that I am and I’m 17-years-old.”
Tim Tebow refuses to let his NFL dream die — telling TMZ Sports he’s back in L.A. to continue his training … whether he’s on a team or not. The 26-year-old hasn’t played a single down since 2012 … during a failed experiment with the New York Jets. Over the past year, we’ve seen him working out all over Los Angeles … mostly focusing on his throwing motion. Over the past year, we’ve seen him working out all over Los Angeles … mostly focusing on his throwing motion. And last night, while heading into Boa Steakhouse — Tebow made it seem like he’s still determined to make his NFL return … even if the odds are stacked against him.
Roger Goodell’s NFL is coming apart at the seams. America’s most popular league has been deteriorating for years under Goodell thanks to his ridiculous rule changes, obsession with London, his force feeding of horrendous Thursday Night games, and his erratic way of dealing with players behaving badly. That’s just the short list. Goodell is squeezing the love out of our game and his grip is as tight as one of his creepy hugs on Draft Night.
The recent domestic abuse charges against several players have finally put Goodell’s bumbling tenure as commish under the microscope. Horrific allegations have surfaced regarding multiple players. They are superstars, mid-level guys, and reserves. Their common thread is the mistreatment of others. Others being small children and women. Not unlike many of the victims of these thugs, the NFL has a black eye. Kind of makes you yearn for the days of Tim Tebow.
The former Broncos and Jets signal caller is still waiting for the phone to ring. The Florida Gators legend is doing a sensational job hosting on the SEC Network, but it’s no secret that the southpaw wants to be playing the game he loves, not talking about it. Sadly, after being mishandled grossly in New York, Tebow has not had another regular-season opportunity with an NFL club.
Arguably one of the greatest college players ever, Tebow also owns a winning record as an NFL starter. His dramatic comeback wins include a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers when he was with the Broncos. All of that is irrelevant in today’s NFL, though. Tebow is blackballed because of his love of Jesus Christ, as Michael Silver reported. Criminals get multiple chances to return. Women beaters, child abusers, perverts, drunk drivers, and even a ruthless dog killer currently don NFL jerseys each Sunday. Even someone convicted of manslaughter got to come back. While that seems to be OK with the NFL, Tebow is seen as a distraction.
The all-out blitz against Tebow and his character has been hard to watch. Players and media alike have been relentless. They’ve bashed Tebow for being a Christian. That’s about as sick as the behavior of those players making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
While we’ve heard cockamamie defenses of Adrian Peterson’s “discipline” of his children and theories that Ray Rice’s wife “provoked” the running back, Tebow was ripped for simply loving the Lord.
ESPN’s Merril Hoge, a habitual Tebow basher, called Tebow “phony as a three-dollar bill.” That’s only one example on a laundry list of jealous, visceral remarks from the washed-up, boring broadcaster Hoge.
Writers have pleaded with Tebow to dial back his love for his Savior. Columnist Joel Mathis wrote, “most of us have learned to live with boundaries – to avoid thrusting our religion into arenas where it is unexpected or unwelcome. If you make a big sale at work, for example, you’re unlikely to bend on knee in front of co-workers and customers to start giving thanks to God.” Wouldn’t that be awful.
Far-left former NFL underachiever Jake Plummer had even harsher criticism of Tebow. “I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates,” said the former quarterback.
Jealous much?
An even less accomplished quarterback than Plummer also piled on. Brady Quinn was a teammate of Tebow’s in Denver and didn’t like being behind Tebow on the depth chart. So like Plummer, he took his shots. In a GQ magazine interview, Quinn contended Tebow was awarded playing time for non-football reasons. “I felt like the fans had a lot to do with that,” said Quinn. “Just ’cause they were chanting his name. There was a big calling for him. No, I didn’t have any billboards. That would have been nice.”
Quinn belittled Tebow’s string of last-minute comebacks that propelled the Broncos into the playoffs, chalking them up to luck. He even went as far as to question Tebow’s character. “If you look at it as a whole, there’s a lot of things that just don’t seem very humble to me,” Quinn said. “When I get that opportunity, I’ll continue to lead not necessarily by trying to get in front of the camera and praying but by praying with my teammates, you know?”
No, we don’t know.
Sounds like sour grapes from a guy who got passed over for playing time. To question Tebow’s motives when it comes to his faith is simply off base. Even those who don’t like Tebow as a signal caller can’t question his selflessness. If they do, their credibility is gone.
When he’s not covering college ball, Tebow continues to quietly lift the spirits of those who need it most. Through his incredible foundation, Tebow meets with sick children each and every week. Often no one hears about it. He does it because it’s the right thing to do. The NFL employs men who beat their own toddlers to a pulp. In the meantime,Tebow is going out of his way to bring some joy to children he’s never met before.
While the Plummers and Quinns of the world certainly come across as envious whiners, at least they put their names to their comments. Multiple players with the Jets and Broncos took shots at Tebow anonymously. That’s pure cowardice. One unnamed Jets said Tebow was “terrible.” Tebow’s response? Nothing but good will and prayers. Tebow keeps smiling. He’s living not for the NFL or praise from players and reporters. He’s living for God.
While still with the Eagles, DeSean Jackson told TMZ that he would pick his two-year-old son over Tebow. Why even make a comment like this? It’s hateful. Even if you don’t appreciate Tebow’s quarterbacking, are these barbs necessary? Tebow would never act so low. As far as Jackson’s two-year old… whether he picks him over Tebow or not, one thing’s for sure. He could leave his son with Tebow without worry. The same can’t be said about some others. Tebow visits young children in hospitals. Some current NFLers put them there.
The lamestream media and certain players have had a weird obsession with Tebow. While with the Jets Tebow played less than ten plays per game, yet he was slammed on shows like “Good Morning America” for his lack of production. Talking head Josh Elliott, who is now at NBC, used mocking religious imagery and snarkily told viewers that Tebow was “once hailed as a savior” before his “fall from grace.” Tebow has never been hailed as a savior. Tebow worships the Savior. He was misused by Rex Ryan and company. He never fell from anything. His purpose and passion is as strong as ever.
And while guys like Terrell Suggs make wisecracks saying Tebow needed “God to bail him out,” Tebow takes the high road. God has bailed him out. Tebow is on the road to salvation. He’d also be on the road to the NFL if a team would only see what’s right in front of them.
Tim Tebow is a gamer. He’s a winner. He brings passion and toughness to an offense. His running game is formidable in a league that is adopting more read-option schemes. And though certain players are judged on wins and losses but with Tebow it’s “mechanics” or “arm angle” even if his way works. Perhaps it’s his Christianity they’re really against.
Not every football man is anti-Tebow. Some are silent on the issue of his chances for an NFL comeback. That may be even more off putting than those who wrongly assess Tebow’s talent.
Few in the game have been outspoken supporters of Tebow. Those who have, however, have something in common. They are proven winners. Urban Meyer, Mike Ditka, and Jon Gruden have all expressed support for Tebow. All three are mystified as to why he isn’t in the league. All three have won championships. These winners know another winner when they see one. Tebow is blackballed.
Perhaps others should take a cue from Meyer, Ditka, and Gruden. It’s bad enough to have secular non-believers go after Tebow but when men of faith don’t defend him it’s inexcusable. Kurt Warner, a Christian, once told the Washington Post that Tebow should “put down the boldness in regards to the words and keep living the way you’re living.”
Really, Kurt? Mark 16:15 tells us “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’” I would assume those creatures would include Rams, Cardinals, Broncos and the like.
Even Chris Kluwe knows something is off about Tebow not being on a roster. The left-wing former Vikings punter and gay rights activist hits it on the head. Speaking on the Olbermann show, Kluwe said, “as much as we are polar opposites on the things we stand for, Tebow is the exact same way. There are backup quarterbacks in the NFL right now that Tebow is certainly better than–he could fill a role with a team. But because he brings this other stuff with him, just like I bring my other stuff with me, teams look at it like, ‘We don’t want it. We don’t want players speaking out. We don’t want players doing anything other than football.'”
Right now the NFL has players doing other stuff. They’re beating kids and women. But Tebow was a distraction? All that praying was too hard to deal with but those preying on the weak are worthy rehabilitation projects in the view of the NFL.
Just look at Tebow’s former division. Chase Daniel, Aaron Murray, Brock Osweiler, Matt McGloin, and Kellen Clemens are all quarterbacks on active rosters. Tebow is better than all of these reserves. Heck, he’s better than some NFL starters. But of the dozens of quarterbacks in the NFL you don’t need a long list to prove Tebow should be there. You just need one name: Charlie Whitehurst. Case closed.
Tim Tebow ‘s time in the NFL was short. Many remember it not for the thrills he provided on the field but for those who didn’t like his joyful expression of love toward Christ. That’s unfortunate. Tebow is a good man who played hard each and every snap. He is intelligent and skilled. He should be on a roster now.
So while Roger Goodell and the NFL must now deal with the disturbing accusations against Adrian Peterson, Jonathan Dwyer and others and the fallout from Ray Rice’s haymaker to his then-fiancee’s skull, we can remember a time not too long ago when the big “distraction” was a hard-working winner named Tebow, who just happens to love Jesus Christ. Tebow could take a page from those George W. Bush bumper stickers and billboards. He should ask the NFL, “Miss me yet?” They certainly should.
A group called the Satanic Temple is to start distributing information about their practices and beliefs to school children in Florida.
Last month the authorities decided that they would permit the distribution of religious materials in Florida schools, and the Satanic Temple claim to be a religion so they can legally give out the pamphlets to kids.
The information will include advising the kids of their legal right to practice satanism, the philosophy of satanism and the way the Satanic Temple works.
Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves explains: “We think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to youth.”
“I am quite certain that all of the children in these Florida schools are already aware of the Christian religion and its Bible, and this might be the first exposure these children have to the actual practice of Satanism. We think many students will be very curious to see what we offer,” Greaves added. (source)
Are the decision makers in Florida completely insane? Satanic worship has been linked to many deaths over the years, and it will continue to be a causative factor in many future deaths, possibly more than would have otherwise occurred if the Satanic Temple continues on its path of blurring the lines of good and evil in our children’s minds.
To name but a few of the cases where satanism has been a motive for killing:
Still with me? This is just a few examples of homicides where Satanism has been implicated as the whole reason, or a part of the reason that the killing took place. In many cases the killers themselves have admitted their links to Satanism, and they didn’t do it as part of an “I’m insane” defense strategy either.
In a state where a child is expelled from school because she criticized the school on Facebook, and where 86% of disabled children cannot be accommodated in charter schools you would have thought they had bigger problems to solve than making sure Satanists get their fair share of publicity.
Florida, the state where a child is excluded from school because he takes a toy gun in his bag and another is kicked out because a science experiment went awry, and then she is faced with felony charges over the incident.
You may think that Satan is some guy with horns, a pointed tail, filed down teeth and one of those jazzy black beards, but that’s just man’s version of Satan. When he’s around, it’s a little more subtle than that.
The Bible says Satan is the great deceiver and if that’s the case, my guess is he doesn’t have any desire to reveal himself directly to you, because if he did – the whole concept of temptation would be a whole lot easier to reject.
When you’re about to take that extra drink before you go home, if a scary red dude with the pitch fork showed up wielding a waitresses tray, a big smile and a long island ice tea – you’d probably call a cab and get the H.E. Double-hockey-sticks out of there.
Same with television, movies or any other number of mediums where Satan, dressed up in popular culture shows up to fool you into thinking everything is fine. It’s not. He’s there, laughing at his deception.
I’m not trying to pick on anyone or call them evil or Satanic, but let’s be honest: Why are you watching The Kardashians? Am I saying they are bad people? No, but does whatever network putting that out, deal in the marketing of idle hands? Yes.
Step back and take a look around you: Are there a bunch of devils running around stabbing people in the ass and throwing fire at them? That would be too easy to identify and involve far less controversy.
Already people are getting mad at me for bringing up The Kardashians, believe me – but I’m trying to make a point here: Kim Kardashian is simply a beautiful girl, who no one can figure out what she does and why everyone is interested in her… Okay, there’s that, but you know what I’m saying.
Why would you sit and watch her and her family while everything around us swirls down the toilet? The devil is laughing, my friends and that’s because you can’t see him and what he’s doing all around us. It’s everywhere.
In the past few weeks, I’ve watched the NFL strain, wiggle, lie and twist themselves into legal pretzelstrying to keep various players on the field, despite them engaging in violence against their wives, girlfriends and even their children. All these millionaires would rather win a game, blame the victims and go home to sleep on beds of money – rather than identifying what to me is obvious:
We’re going to watch the NFL en masse and the devil is right there – teaching everyone how punching a woman’s lights out or beating a four-year-old bloody with a tree branch is perfectly okay, as long as we win on Sunday. It’s bad, and it’s – as Dana Carvey used to say – SATAN?
Again, I’m not trying to pick on individuals or call them names, but when society doesn’t recognize these things as an accumulation of sick, sad and evil– we’re on the road to destruction. It’s a greatdeceptionand we are falling for it.
There was a story on JoeForAmerica this week about video games which involved the opportunity to sexually assault young girls – physically – as part of the “fun.” It’s bad enough when the best-selling games are just a matter of how many people you can slaughter in the most creative ways, but now this?
I’m no prude, but have you been to a junior high school lately? Half the little girls (that’s right – 12, 13-years-old is a little girl) dress like hookers. They’re wearing hooker uniforms and it’s embarrassing. I’m a man and no man can pretend he doesn’t see a woman with her breasts hanging out and her pants down past her hip bones.
I don’t want to see young girls in a sexual light, but they’ve been taught this is the way to get attention.
You going to tell me those girls did not learn all this from TV, movies and other pop culture mediums which seek to sexualize children? It’s been going on for the past 25 years and now we’re watching the results. It’s not a red guy with a pointy beard and a trident but he’s there. Laughing.
These folks responsible for perpetuating it wouldn’t let their own kids engage in the behavior they foist on the rest of us – but they’ll take the
By WhatDidYouSay.org
money and that’s Satan in line at the bank. Laughing.
Smart phones and online connectivity have made it possible for kids and adults to disconnect from the world and live in a virtual one – which has a different set of rules: You can engage in idol gossip, phony and empty relationships, operate anonymously and interact with far less responsibility than in the past.
I’m not blaming the machines or technology. I’m blaming evil. Evil that fools you into believing you have 1,874 Friends, evil that says it’s okay to flirt with the guy in Indiana who showers you with compliments, or the evil that tempts your daughter to email a naked photo of herself to some boy she’s enamored with.
It’s reflected in our leadership as well. When was the last time a politician was actually penalized for lying? It’s a way of lifefor them to deceive and wiggle out of what they said or did. Lying is part and parcel of how our President operates and the evil runs downhill, folks.
Until we recognize the devil – out of uniform – we’re rolling downhill.
Supporters of Michael Brown in Ferguson are still calling for action against Officer Darren Wilson before a full investigation is even completed. On Tuesday, they held a rally in front of the Ferguson Police Department during which they found themselves confronted with facts in the case that many want to simply ignore.
TheGateway Punditbroke the exclusive story from reporter Adam Sharpe. Leading the rally was Brown family attorney Anthony Gray. The transcript of their exchange is below the video. (article continues below)
From the video:
Brown attorney: You cannot look the other way when the culprit is someone in your own police department or your own back yard. Any questions?
Reporter Adam Sharp: Is it true that Officer Wilson suffered facial fractures?
Attorney: That’s nothing that I’ve heard. I haven’t seen anything on it.
Reporter Sharp: There are numerous reports saying this…. Are you saying there were no facial injuries on Officer Wilson? Mr. Gray, you’re the attorney, do you know?
Attorney Anthony Gray: I tell you what. This is the way I’d answer that. Look at the video, moments after the shooting. You tell me if that’s somebody walking around, looking at Mike Brown Jr.’s body, if that person looked like he had any sort of facial injuries.
Reporter Sharp: So you’re saying there were no facial injuries to the officer?
Gray: I’ll tell you the video speaks louder than what I can tell you right now, sir. All you have to do is look at the tape. (applause) He’s standing there not one time does he touch his face.
So, facts don’t matter to this attorney. The hospital visit and diagnosis following the alleged physical altercation prior to the shooting, which is reported to have left Wilson with severe injuries, do not matter. According to Gray, the officer wasn’t holding his face. Therefore, he discounts any serious injuries.
Does anyone know what law school this guy attended?
Did you hear about the cop shooting?No, I’m not referring to the one in Ferguson, Missouri. Of course you heard about that. I’m referring to the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Ofc. Daryl Pierson of the Rochester, NY Police Department at approximately 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3. Pierson, an Afghanistan vet and father of two, was the first RPD officer killed on the job since 1959.
You should be forgiven if you didn’t know about it. After all, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the New York Times didn’t give the event 24-7 wall-to-wall saturation coverage.Just like the shooting in Ferguson, there was a racial disparity between the cop and the suspect. Unlike Ferguson, however, the decedent was white, and the perpetrator, allegedly one Thomas Johnson III, is black. News reports indicate that the alleged shooter has an extensive criminal history in two states and was paroled for a second time (after violating the terms of his first parole) less than one month before the shooting.
There were no reports of angry RPD officers looting, rioting, or committing arson in black neighborhoods. There were no reports of mobs of RPD officers standing in front of black citizens with their hands in the air shouting, “Police, don’t shoot!” There are no known videos of Ofc. Pierson robbing material for blunts from a convenience store prior to his death.
The Department of Justice did not dispatch 40 FBI agents to Rochester to investigate the alleged shooter’s background. Neither Al Sharpton nor Jesse Jackson has arrived in Rochester yet. Attorney General Eric Holder has not personally flown into Rochester to meet the victim’s family and announce a Department of Justice investigation into the incident. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not come to Rochester to publicly demand a “vigorous prosecution” of the suspect. New York State Police have not been dispatched to quell the nonexistent cop riots. The New York State National Guard has not been called out to quell the nonexistent riots, either.
President Obama has yet to comment on the incident, but any day now he might hold a press conference and tell the White House Press corps that if he had a son, his son would look like Thomas Johnson.
And any day now, pigs will sprout wings and fly.
Slain Rochester Police Officer Mourned, Remembered As Outstanding Officer
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Police Department has identified the officer shot and killed in the line of duty Wednesday night as Daryl Pierson.
Thomas Johnson III, 38, was arraigned Thursday evening on eight counts, including aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, three counts of assault, and three weapons counts, according to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.
Police and emergency crews rushed to the area of Hudson Avenue and Warsaw Street shortly before 9:30 p.m., where according to Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli, Johnson shot Pierson following a foot pursuit. Ciminelli said Pierson was fatally wounded and never had a chance to fire his weapon.
At a news conference Thursday, Ciminelli said Pierson leaves behind a wife and two children, ages 4 and 3-months-old. Pierson was 32 years old.
Pierson was hired by the Rochester Police Department in 2006 and assigned to the tactical unit. He received numerous departmental awards, including the Officer of the Month in Sept. 2010, and was also a member of the U.S. Army National Guard.
“Words cannot express the sadness and grief we all feel at the loss of our brother, Officer Daryl Pierson,” Ciminelli said. “Daryl made the ultimate sacrifice, by courageously giving his life protecting the city of Rochester. During this difficult time, I know the Rochester community will join together with us to honor our fallen comrade and to support his family.”
Ciminelli said Pierson’s partner, Officer Michael DiPaola, returned fire and shot Johnson, who is in the hospital and in custody. DiPaola was turning the car around while Pierson gave chase.
Police said that Johnson had an outstanding parole warrant.
According to the Department of Corrections, Johnson is a prison parolee who was released Aug. 11. The Salvation Army stated Johnson spent the first week of his release at its facility near the Liberty Pole downtown, but stopped showing up around Aug. 15.
“To the people who want to disrupt this city, it’s unrealistic for any of us to believe we can stop you from making a tragic decision, to pull the trigger. However, I promise you, that if you decide to pull that trigger, you will be held accountable. This administration will not sit by and idly watch you wreak havoc on our city,” said Mayor Lovely Warren, D-Rochester.
An innocent bystander, Jamal Boller, was also wounded, but was released Thursday afternoon from the hospital.
Apparently seething with authoritarian hubris, President Obama is seeking to wave his magic “pen and a phone” once more to undo legislatively-passed laws and set the stage for allowing Hawaii to secede as a state.
For decades, the State of Hawaii has vied for the right to return to being a sovereign kingdom. The chain of islands has a fascinating and rich history as a kingdom, but was adopted as a state in 1959. Multiple attempts by Hawaiian lawmakers to return Hawaii to a kingdom have failed and in recent years, Former Senator Daniel Inouye and Senator Daniel Akaka, Democrats senators from Hawaii, have pushed the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act– an act that would restore Hawaii to a kingdom run by ethnically native Hawaiians.
As one might expect, Congress has routinely defeated this legislation. A 2007 DOJ statement to the Senate highlighted the absurdity of the proposed law and noted,
“Moreover, S. 310 effectively seeks to undo the political bargain through which Hawaii secured its admission into the Union in 1959. On November 7, 1950, all citizens of the Hawaiian Territory – including native Hawaiians – voted to seek admission to the United States. See, e.g., Pub. L. No. 86-3, 73 Stat. 4. By a decisive 2-1 margin, native Hawaiians themselves voted for statehood, thus voluntarily and democratically relinquishing any residual sovereignty to the United States.”
Obama, who grew up in Hawaii (amongst many other places), appears sympathetic to this plight and his Department of the Interior has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to overrulethe will of Congress.
What the notice proposes is enacting a “government-to-government relationship between the United State and the Native Hawaiian community,”allowing the government of Hawaii to run as a kingdom dominated by a racial hierarchy, with native Hawaiians being in charge.
Obama’s crusade, however, is fraught with legal complications. Aside from the obvious fact that such decisions are not the domain of the president, but rather the legislative body, Obama’s actions would likely violate 15th Amendment protections as well as establish a precedent that states can secede in the pursuit of instituting a government centered on racial hierarchy- an obvious violation of innumerable tenets of our government and society.
“The Secretary of the Interior is considering whether to propose an administrative rule that would facilitate the reestablishment of a government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian community.”
The document claims that the goal is “to more effectively implement the special political and trust relationship that Congress has established between that [Hawaiian] community and the United States.”
What this does is essentially create a two-tier system based on race in Hawaii. It will afford separate taxes and law enforcement to one race and another set of policies will govern another race.
Since then, the Department of the Interior has endured a barrage of push-back from legislators and other assorted bureaucrats who have maintained that not only is this a terrible idea, but one that is inherently unconstitutional. Under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the authority to recognize tribes.
In fact, Obama’s head of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department, Assistant Secretary Kevin K. Washburn, testified before a House subcommittee that this administration did not “have the authority to recognize Native Hawaiians.”Washburn claimed that “we would need legislation to be able to proceed down that road.”
Still, despite having no Constitutional authority, the Obama administration is continuing to push the policy change that could have far-reaching effects.It is unclear if even the Congress has the authority to allow such policies; it is, however, certain that the executive branch possesses no such powers.
While it is far from certain that Hawaii will be granted the right to secede, what such policy shifts are aimed at is creating a wider divide between races and unapologetically implementing a racial hierarchy with native Hawaiians at the top.
At a time when the most divisive president in historypretends to be interested in equality and egalitarian beliefs, it’s nauseating to see his administration stoke the flames of racial prejudice and seek to codify racial supremacy in law.
The American Sociological Association, the leading professional organization for American sociologists, is now granting its members much greater leeway in how to define their gender identities.
Previously, the ASA’s membership surveys only allowed three choices of gender: “male,” “female,” and “prefer not to answer.”
Now, as reportedat Inside Higher Ed, members will have no fewer than seven options for their gender choice, with the added ability to select “all that apply.” The added options include “transgender male/transgender man,” “transgender female/transgender woman,” “genderqueer/gender non-conforming,” or another “preferred identity” of their choice not explicitly named.
“Genderqueer”is defined by the Gender Equity Resource Center at the University of California-Berkeley as “A person whose gender identity is neither man nor woman, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders.”
The new gender choices are the end product of over a year of debate on how to expand the sociological community’s gender options. In the second half of 2013, the organization planned to add categories for transgender individuals as well as an “Other” option. However, some members objected that being designated as an “other” marginalized them. Some advocated for the gender category being free-form, with members filling out a blank space however they desired.
The new gender options will not immediately come into effect, but are expected to be in place by the 2016 ASA membership year.
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Community members are coming out in full support of Darren Wilson, the police officer at the center of the media frenzy over his actions August 9 that resulted in the death of Michael Brown.
Online fundraisers for Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson surpassed the amount of money raised for Michael Brown’s family as the officer’s supporters gathered at an afternoon rally Saturday.
Supporters of Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., came to Barney’s Sports Pub in south St. Louis.
“Many of us have received death threats toward ourselves and our families,” said one speaker, wearing sunglasses, paint beneath her eyes and a baseball cap. “We will not hide. We will no longer live in fear … If you support Darren Wilson, make your voices heard.”
She refused to give the media her name, saying “You want my name? I am Darren Wilson. We are Darren Wilson.
The media has shown a strong bias against Wilson supporters, the speaker said, drawing loud applause from the crowd.
Another rally is planned for Sunday.
A crowd-funding page created for Wilson raised $235,010 from 5,902 people before organizers stopped accepting donations Friday after surpassing their goal of $100,000 in four days. The group then opened a new fundraising page, which already has more than $104,000.
“This story has NOT been vetted. Please take what you are ready with the proverbial “grain-of-salt”.
Dorian Johnson
Missouri rock-oriented radio station KFNS-FM, 100.7 “The Viper,” released a news item Tuesday evening that, if true, will destroy the case against Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Brown.
Under the banner headline, “”JUSTIFIED!,” the station reported on itsFacebook page:
***BREAKING NEWS*** Remember, you saw it and heard it here first. We have heard (from a VERY connected national media source) that Ferguson officer Darren Wilson will be cleared in the shooting of Michael Brown. The key: Dorian Johnson has now admitted that Michael Brown attacked Officer Wilson and attempted to take his gun. OFFICER WILSON WILL NOT BE CHARGED! This is scary. When this news is made official, we all have reason to be concerned about the reaction.
Johnson’s prior testimony that Wilson shot Brown in the back while running away from the officer was cast in doubt after autopsy reports indicated he was shot in the front.
Since the Ferguson, Mo., shooting, that area has become the scene of nightly looting, vandalism and racially-charged demonstrations. The vast majority of the demonstrators have called for the officer’s arrest.
In a video address released Tuesday, even Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has called for Wilson’s “vigorous prosecution.”
Readers should be cautioned that the radio station’s breaking news item has so far been uncorroborated.
August 18, 2014 at 11:30 PM, updated August 18, 2014 at 11:32 PM
People walk through the streets after a standoff with police Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, during a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. Brown’s shooting has sparked more than a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter says that Ferguson, Missouri, police confirm that more than a dozen witnesses to the shooting of teenager Michael Brown have backed up the account of the incident offered by the officer who killed the teenager.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Christine Byers tweeted Monday that police told her that an account of the shooting by a woman named “Josie” who called into a syndicated radio program last Friday matches the account given by Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown.
“Josie” claimed to be a friend of Wilson’s and said that Wilson was protecting himself as Brown “bum-rushed” him, punching him and trying to get his weapon.
“Michael and his friend turn around. And Michael taunts him… And then all the sudden he just started bumrushing him. He just started coming at him full speed. And, so he just started shooting. And, he just kept coming. And, so he really thinks he was on something,” the caller (“Josie”) said. “The final shot was in the forehead, and then he fell about two or three feet in front of the officer.”
A suburban St. Louis police chief on Friday identified the officer whose fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager ignited days of heated protests, and released documents alleging the teen was killed after a robbery in which he was suspected of stealing a $48.99 box of cigars.
Ferguson, Mo., Police Chief Thomas Jackson said the robbery took place just before noon on Saturday at a convenience store roughly 10 minutes before a police officer identified as Darren Wilson fired the bullet that killed Michael Brown. Police say that the shot was fired after a struggle touched off by Wilson’s confronting Brown. Jackson said Wilson is a six-year veteran with no disciplinary action on his record.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, authorities said the police officer who shot Brown did not know he was a robbery suspect at the time.
The news conference came after nearly a week of sometimes-violent protests and calls by many, including President Obama, for local law enforcement to be more transparent about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Police previously said they withheld Wilson’s identity because of the potential for threats on the officer and his family. The officer has been on administrative leave since the shooting.
Police released still images and were planning to release video from the robbery, at a QuikTrip store in Ferguson. Jackson said Wilson, along with other officers, were called to the area after a 911 call reporting a “strong-arm robbery” at a nearby convenience store. He didn’t immediately release details about the alleged robbery, saying more information would be released later.
Police provided few other details about the police officer at the morning news conference and did not take any questions. Jackson said Swisher Sweets cigars were stolen in the robbery.
According to the police reports, Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson were suspected of taking a box of cigars from a store in Ferguson that morning.
“I am incensed,” Laura Keys, 50,told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.“I can’t believe this is the tactic they are using, bringing up a robbery to make the victim look like he was thepersonwho created this whole mess.”
Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street.They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer’s weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car before the struggle spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times, according to police.
But a much different story has been told by Johnson, who says he was walking down the street with Brown when he was shot. He has said the officer ordered them out of the street, then grabbed his friend’s neck and tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing. He says Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times.
The attorney representing Brown’s family, Benjamin Crump, said Brown’s parents are “incensed” by what he calls “the old game of smoke and mirrors.” He says the family was blind-sided by Friday’s announcement.
Crump says “it’s bad enough they assassinated him, and now they’re trying to assassinate his character.”
Tensions in Ferguson boiled over after a candlelight vigil Sunday night, as looters smashed and burned businesses in the neighborhood, where police have repeatedly fired tear gas and smoke bombs.
But on Thursday, county police in riot gear and armored tanks gave way tostate troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of peaceful protesters.The dramatic shift came after Gov. Jay Nixon assigned oversight of the protests to the state Highway Patrol, stripping that authority from the St. Louis County Police Department.
“All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas,”Pedro Smith, who has participated in the nightly protests, said Thursday. “This is totally different. Now we’re being treated with respect.”
The more tolerant response came asPresident Obama spoke publiclyfor the first time about Saturday’s fatal shooting — and the subsequent violence that shocked the nation and threatened to tear apart Ferguson, a town of 21,000 that is nearly 70 percent black and patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.
Nixon’s promise to ease the deep racial tensions was swiftly put to the test as demonstrators gathered again Thursday evening. But the latest protests had a light, almost jubilant atmosphere among the racially mixed crowd, more akin to a parade or block party.
The streets were filled with music, free food and even laughter. When darkness fell — the point at which previous protests have grown tense — no uniformed officers were in sight outside the burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that had become a flashpoint for standoffs between police and protesters.
Nixon appointed Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black, to lead the police effort. Johnson, who grew up near Ferguson and commands a region that includes St. Louis County, marched alongside protesters Thursday, joined by other high-ranking brass from the Highway Patrol as well as the county department. The marchers also had a police escort.
“We’re here to serve and protect,” Johnson said. “We’re not here to instill fear.”
Fox News’ Mike Tobin, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report
While scores of businesses in Ferguson were being looted by out of control rioters Sunday night, a couple of them went the evening without incident.
If you’re wondering why, then check out the following picture for the answer. Nobody is robbing St. Louis Ink Tattoo Studio anytime soon. Or County Guns, for that matter.
The two north county businesses share a storefront in a Florissant strip mall less than ten minute drive from the epicenter of last night’s riots in Ferguson. After hearing of the roving bands of looters, Mike Gutierrez knew he had to protect his tattoo shop. He brought a posse with him, including Adam Weinstein, owner of County Guns, who was acutely worried about criminals getting their hands on his merchandise.
“We didn’t want them coming in here and then running around with a bunch of free guns,” Weinstein told Daily RFT when we arrive at the store around 12:30 a.m. this morning. Weinstein was outfitted with an assault rifle, pistol and tactical vest. Gutierrez cradled his own rifle in his hands.
Pictured: Mike Gutierrez (left) and Adam Weinstein (third from left) brought guns to guard their store during the riots in Ferguson last night.
It turns out that when violent looters come face to face with people prepared to kill to defend their property, the looters tend to choose a ‘safer’ target.
(AFP) Ebola’s spread to the United States is “inevitable” due to the nature of global airline travel, but any outbreak is not likely to be large, US health authorities said Thursday. Already one man with dual US-Liberian citizenship has died from Ebola, after becoming sick on a plane from Monrovia to Lagos and exposing as many as seven other people in Nigeria. More cases of Ebola moving across borders via air travel are expected, as West Africa faces the largest outbreak of the hemorrhagic virus in history, said Tom Frieden, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus spreads by close contact with bodily fluids and has killed 932 people and infected more than 1,700 since March in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia. “It is certainly possible that we could have ill people in the US who develop Ebola after having been exposed elsewhere,” Frieden told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. “We are all connected and inevitably there will be travelers, American citizens and others who go from these three countries — or from Lagos if it doesn’t get it under control — and are here with symptoms,” he said. “But we are confident that there will not be a large Ebola outbreak in the US.” There is no treatment or vaccine for Ebola, but it can be contained if patients are swiftly isolated and adequate protective measures are used, he said. Healthcare workers treating Ebola patients should wear goggles, face masks, gloves and protective gowns, according to CDC guidelines. Equipment lacking – However, Ken Isaacs, vice president of program and government relations at the Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse warned that the world is woefully ill-equipped to handle the spread of Ebola. “It is clear that the disease is uncontained and it is out of control in West Africa,”he told the hearing. “The international response to the disease has been a failure.” Samaritan’s Purse arranged the medical evacuation of US doctor Kent Brantly and days later, missionary Nancy Writebol, from Monrovia to a sophisticated Atlanta hospital. Both fell ill with Ebola while treating patients in the Liberian capital, and their health is now improving. “One of the things that I recognized during the evacuation of our staff is that there is only one airplane in the world with one chamber to carry a level-four pathogenic disease victim,”Isaacs said. He also said personal protective gear is hard to find in Liberia, and warned of the particular danger of kissing the corpse farewell during funeral rites. “In the hours after death with Ebola, that is when the body is most infectious because the body is loaded with the virus,”he said. “Everybody that touches the corpse is another infection.” Traveler cases – Ebola can cause fever, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding. It has been fatal in about 55 percent of cases during this outbreak. Last month, Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian finance ministry employee who was also a naturalized American citizen, brought the virus to Lagos. Sawyer had traveled to Nigeria from Liberia via Togo’s capital Lome, and was visibly sick upon arrival at the international airport in Lagos on July 20. He died in quarantine on July 25. As many as seven people who had close contact with Sawyer have fallen ill with Ebola, Nigeria’s Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said. One of them, a nurse, died on Tuesday. Frieden said helping West African nations screen passengers who are departing airports could help contain the virus. A Saudi Arabian man who had recently traveled to Sierra Leone and showed Ebola-like symptoms died Wednesday of a heart attack, but authorities in Riyadh did not reveal the results of Ebola tests that were done on the man. Ebola first emerged in 1976, and has killed more than 1,500 people since then. Within weeks, the death toll from this outbreak alone is expected to surpass that number.
Remember the Benham brothers? They were the Christian identical twin brothers set to host a new program called Flip It Forward, the show HGTV cancelled because the hosts of the program are pro-life.
After HGTV cancelled the Benham Brothers’ show “Flip it Forward” for their religious beliefs, the houses set to be renovated on the show could have been left in the lurch. In a press release on Tuesday, the Benham Brothers announced they renovated the homes anyway.
“The people most affected by HGTV’s decision to cancel the show were the families that stepped out in faith to flip a house for the show,” David Benham said.
Jason Benham concurred, describing the brothers’ work as more than just TV material.
“These are great family homes that were professionally renovated, and we want to do all we can to help find buyers for these owners who trusted us to teach them the art of house flipping,” Jason said.
Abortion creates a culture where babies are considered disposable, and here is proof of that.
Detectives say mother Nicole “Nikki” Kelly told them she killed her own baby boy because she had “reached her breaking point.” Now she is in police custody, charged with the second-degree murder of her 11-month-old son, according to affiliates WPIX.
Kiam Felix, Jr., was pronounced dead Sunday afternoon after Kelly, 22, brought him into the emergency room with the boy’s father, who does not live with them.
Kelly and her baby boy rented a room from another woman, who also has a two year-old boy and described little Kiam as a happy boy.
Police tell reporters that Kelly wrapped Kiam in a bedsheet so tightly that he couldn’t breathe and then left him alone in his bed for half an hour while she took a shower. But what she did next is particularly gruesome, according to the woman who rented Kelly the room:
She said that she’d seen Kelly on Sunday afternoon with the body of her lifeless baby, just before the baby’s father had come over to take him and Kelly to the hospital. The baby was dressed in a completely white outfit — vest, collared shirt, necktie, pants and socks, identical to the wallpaper photos on Kelly’s Facebook page.
Below that photo banner, Kelly had posted, in part, after her son’s death, “Missing my baby boy so much wish there was some way I could bring him back to life I feel horrible knowing he passed away. Am [sic] his Mother. I was supposed to protect him.”
After she was taken into custody, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office, she told investigators, “I reached my breaking point, I didn’t want him anymore.”
Two ironies are worth mentioning. It was Kelly’s 22nd birthday on Monday, the same day she was arrested for causing the death the day before. Also, she is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Elmhurst Hospital, the same facility to which she’d brought her son.
She is currently expected to make a first appearance before a judge on the murder charge on Wednesday. If she is found guilty, she faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Share this on Facebook and Twitter with every person you know. If they don’t like it and won’t obey it, tell them to leave and move all their crap to Suckistan and screw up some other country. From Mike Rowe:
“THE S.W.E.A.T. PLEDGE” (Skill & Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo)
1. I believe that I have won the greatest lottery of all time. I am alive. I walk the Earth. I live in America. Above all things, I am grateful.
2. I believe that I am entitledto life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nothing more. I also understand that “happiness” and the “pursuit of happiness” are not the same thing.
3. I believe there is no such thing as a “bad job.” I believe that all jobs are opportunities, and it’s up to me to make the best of them.
4. I do not “follow my passion.” I bring it with me. I believe that any job can be done with passion and enthusiasm.
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5. I deplore debt, and do all I can to avoid it. I would rather live in a tent and eat beans than borrow money to pay for a lifestyle I can’t afford.
6. I believe that my safety is my responsibility. I understand that being in “compliance” does not necessarily mean I’m out of danger.
7. I believe the best way to distinguish myself at work is to show up early, stay late, and cheerfully volunteer for every crappy task there is.
8. I believe the most annoying sounds in the world are whining and complaining. I will never make them. If I am unhappy in my work, I will either find a new job, or find a way to be happy.
9. I believe that my education is my responsibility, and absolutely critical to my success. I am resolved to learn as much as I can from whatever source is available to me. I will never stop learning, and understand that library cards are free.
10. I believe that I am a product of my choices – not my circumstances. I will never blame anyone for my shortcomings or the challenges I face. And I will never accept the credit for something I didn’t do.
11. I understand the world is not fair, and I’m OK with that. I do not resent the success of others.
12. I believe that all people are created equal. I also believe that all people make choices. Some choose to be lazy. Some choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.
WEBSTER, Texas — A Webster man says his apartment complex manager told him his American flag was a “threat to the Muslim community,” and that he has to take it down. But he’s not giving up without a fight.
Stepping onto Duy Tran’s balcony in Webster, one thing is clear: “It means a lot to me,” he said.
He’s talking about his American flag that he proudly put up when he moved in just a few days ago. But then an apartment manager at the Lodge on El Dorado told him he had to take it down.
“What really stunned me is that she said it’s a threat towards the Muslim community,” said Tran. “I’m not a threat toward anybody.”
We tried to ask a manager if that’s exactly what was said, but she just handed us a statement, refused to answer any questions, and called an officer to escort us off the property, before we could press any further:
“While the Lodge on El Dorado admires our resident’s patriotism, we must enforce our property rules and guidelines. Such guidelines
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maintain the aesthetics of our apartment community and provide for the safety of all residents. The apartment community already proudly displays our country’s flag in a safe and appropriate manner at the entrances to our community.”
But we saw other patriotic symbols hanging from other balconies in the complex, and Tran doesn’t plan to budge.
“I’m gonna leave my flag there, as an American, until she shows me proof that I don’t have the right to leave my flag there,”said Tran.
To Tran it’s about so much more than stars and stripes.
“I have friends that died for this country,”he said.
So he says this fight is the least he can do.
We have not heard of any residents complaining about any flags at the complex, or any of the patriotic items we saw. In fact, we spoke to several neighbors who say they want Tran’s flag to stay
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark
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registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans.”
The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five Native Americans. It was the second time such a case was filed.
“This victory was a long time coming and reflects the hard work of many attorneys at our firm,” said lead attorney Jesse Witten, of Drinker Biddle & Reath.
Federal trademark law does not permit registration of trademarks that “may disparage” individuals or groups or “bring them into contempt or disrepute.” The ruling pertains to six different trademarks associated with the team, each containing the word “Redskin.”
“We are extraordinarily gratified to have prevailed in this case,” Alfred Putnam Jr., the chairman of Drinker Biddle & Reath, said. “The dedication and professionalism of our attorneys and the determination of our clients have resulted in a milestone victory that will serve as an historic precedent.”
“Why are we wasting our time with this mess? Why all the whining about logos and team names? Why do all these people think they have the right to express their hurt feelings and can force corporations to spend millions of dollars rebranding a professional sports team? Being offended is a choice, not a right NOT to be offended. This is a choice of five people who want their fifteen minutes of fame and see what they can realize out of their effort, along with some greedy attorneys with nothing else to do. How pathetic our society has become. GET OVER IT!” JB
Police in Cleveland, Ohio are investigating what they suspect may be a hate crime after a 13 year-old girl attacked a 10 year-old.
The teenage attacker is black; the 10 year-old is white.
A YouTube video shows the camera was rolling before the attack, suggesting that it might have been planned. The attacker is seen looking back at the camera before springing towards the 10 year-old, who was riding by on a scooter.
A narrator behind the camera is then heard calling for an end to the beating, saying “Alright,” and then the name of the attacking girl.
“The little girl next door taunts my daughters too,”said a neighbor of the 13 year-old attacker. “She tells them she doesn’t like them because they’re white.”
“Nobody was waiting,”a woman at the attacker’s home told 19 Action News. “I don’t have to talk to you. It’ll all come out in court.”
Below is a statement from Jon Meis, the Seattle Pacific University student who stopped a campus shooter on June 5th in an act of heroism that no doubt saved many, many lives.
He acted without regard to his own life in order to save his fellow man. It does not surprise me that Jon Meis is a man of God and Country.
Bet he’s a Tea Party guy. Where’s the pre-judging mainstream media when you need them?
Where’s the reports of his voter registration guys and gals at the NY Times?
Hey MSNBC – how about his religious affiliation and views on traditional marriage? Where’s the conclusion-jumping? Has Obama called him?
Read this, then get back to me:
Statement from Jon Meis:
To my brothers and sisters at Seattle Pacific University, and my brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the nation and the world,
Words cannot come close to expressing the tragedy that occurred this past week on our campus. Like everyone else, I would hear of these horrible events on the news, but go home knowing that it could never happen to us. On Thursday, my life changed. I was thrown into a life and death situation, and through God’s grace I was able to stop the attacker and walk away unharmed. As I try to return to a normal life in the aftermath of this horrible event, I pray above all things for strength for the victims and their families. While my experience left me in physical shock, I know that many people are dealing with much greater grief than I have experienced, and in honesty I probably would not be able to handle myself right now if I had personally known the victims.
I know that I am being hailed as a hero, and as many people have suggested I find this hard to accept. I am indeed a quiet and private individual; while I have imagined what it would be like to save a life I never believed I would be put in such a situation. It touches me truly and deeply to read online that parents are telling their children about me and telling them that real heroes do exist.
However, what I find most difficult about this situation is the devastating reality that a hero cannot come without tragedy. In the midst of this attention, we cannot ignore that a life was taken from us, ruthlessly and without justification or cause. Others were badly injured, and many more will carry this event with them the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, I would encourage that hate be met with love. When I came face to face with the attacker, God gave me the eyes to see that he was not a faceless monster, but a very sad and troubled young man. While I cannot at this time find it within me to forgive his crime, I truly desire that he will find the grace of God and the forgiveness of our community.
I would like to truly thank the responders who secured the building and the medical staff who looked after myself and those who were injured. After being in this situation myself, it is even harder to imagine what it would be like to have a job where one’s life is willingly put on the line every day. To our police, emergency responders, and armed forces, you have my greatest respect.
I am overwhelmed with the incredible generosity that has been showered upon me. It has been deeply touching to read the comments online and realize that my actions have had such a strikingly widespread effect. Moving forward, I am strongly requesting that any future donations be given to the victims through Seattle Pacific University.
I am grateful for the prayers and support coming from our home city and afar. In these next few days, weeks, and months, please continue to pray for everyone in the Seattle Pacific community. We serve a truly awesome God and I firmly believe that it is through Him alone that we will find the strength to heal from this tragedy.
Jon Meis Student, Seattle Pacific University
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By the way – Jon is requesting privacy and doesn’t want to speak to the media, but I wouldn’t worry Jon, outside of Fox News and Glenn Beck and me – you just jumped off everybody’s radar screen with that whole “God” thing you did there.
Pretty good strategy for anybody that doesn’t want to be bothered by Rachel Maddow when you think of it.
My guess is the line of quality, family-oriented, honest, considerate, conservative and loving friends & family are lined up around the block.
And if Jon has a girlfriend, I’d lock that guy in, honey.
by Carole Novielli | Tuscaloosa, AL | LifeNews.com | 5/30/14 10:03 AM
A video posted on Youtube shows an abortion clinic nurse appearing to attack attack a pro-lifer.
The abortion nurse is upset because the pro-lifer accused her of telling patients that their abortion won’t hurt….
The pro-lifer who posted the vid identified asPaul Lakeexplains, “I learned that the # 1 question women ask in abortion clinics when considering abortion is; Does it hurt? Some clinics have certain people who do certain jobs and answer certain questions women ask. When the nurse at our local abortion clinic arrived to work Tuesday morning I asked her, “Are you the nurse that tells the women that it don’t hurt?” She didn’t answer. So I said to her that “whoever is telling them that it doesn’t hurt is lying to them”. She went into the clinic. 10 minutes later the same nurse walked up to me and this is what happened..”
“I don’t need you out here telling me nothing bout I’m a nurse and I’m telling these people it don’t hurt. I don’t tell them that, so I’m not a liar…and I’m not a liar and your not going to stand there and tell me that I’m a liar…because I’m not a liar. I serve a God that sees everything and know everything and if you was any kind of big Christian you wouldn’t be sit’n your tail out here doing what your doing.”
At that point the pro-lifer says, ” I want to help you.”
And the abortion nurse replies, “You aren’t helping me and you’re right there your wearing that cross – you don’t need to be wearing it…”
The pro-lifers says, ” I’ll get you another job…”
As the conversation continues a second abortion worker joins in threatening the pro-lifer, “You need to watch what you’re doing because we know every single thing that you do. If you wipe your f***ing a** we know. So, you need to quit stalking me – you need to quit stalking Dr. Payne…we know everything about you just like you’re trying to find out about me that you’ll never know.“
She then asks the pro-lifer, “Can you tell me where I go to church, that’s what I want to know?”
They then get into a debate on whether abortion kills a baby and both nurses who claimed to go to church say abortion is a women’s choice.
According to abortiondocs.com aDr. Louis Thomas Payne works there and the nurses mentioned a doctor Payne.
A stateinspection conducted in January of 2013 at the WEST ALABAMA WOMEN’S CENTER, INC revealed that:
Based on review of the center’s policies, observations and interview, it was determined the center did not follow their own standards of practice for:
1. Hand Washing
2. Glove usage
3. Cleaning of supplies
4. Safe use of sharps containers
During the tour on 1/10/13 at 10:30 AM in Exam Room # 2 the surveyor noted a sharps container more than 2/3 full with needles on the floor beside the sharps container. The soap dispenser by the sink in Exam Room 2 did not work so the surveyor was unable wash her hands with soap and water.
An interview was conducted with Employee Identifier # 1, Director on 1/10/13 at 10:45 AM who verified the sharps container was more than 2/3 full and the needles were on the floor.
A tour was conducted in Medication Storage Closet on 1/10/13 at 11:00 AM. The surveyor observed the following unlabeled:
1 – 10 cc (cubic centimeter) syringe with liquid and a needle
2- 3 cc syringes with liquid and a needle
3- 1 unit syringes with liquid and a needle
An interview with EI # 1 and EI # 2, Medical Director was conducted on 1/10/13 at 11:05 AM and both stated it was used for Lidocaine.On 1/10/13 at 2:40 PM the surveyor observed EI # 2 perform a procedure in Exam Room # 2. EI #2 was observed giving an injection intravenously in the right antecubital without the use of gloves.
EI # 2 was also observed by the surveyor during the above procedure use non sterile gloves to examine Patient Identifier (PI) # 1 and then change to sterile gloves without hand hygiene.
EI # 3, the nurse assisting with the procedure also changed gloves during the above procedure without hand hygiene.
PI # 1 was transferred to the Recovery Room on 1/10/13 at 2:51 PM. PI # 1 was seated in a recliner and feet propped up. EI # 4, Registered Nurse, then administered Rhogam to PI # 1 right shoulder without the use of gloves.
PI # 1 was discharged on 1/10/13 at 3:21 PM. EI # 4 did not clean the back and feet area of the recliner.
A tour was conducted on 1/11/13 at 9:10 AM, to exam Room # 2. The surveyor was unable to obtain soap from the soap dispenser. EI # 1 tried to obtain soap and was unable.
But this was not the only time…. theAlabama Department of Healthwhich regulates abortion clinics in the state, shows that the West Alabama Women’s Center abortion clinic has been written up on several occasions:
So to recap – abortion does hurt and if you point that out as a pro-lifer you could be attacked by a nurse who claims she serves God and slices while working at an abortion clinic with several health deficiencies…..just who is on the side of woman again?
LifeNews Note: Carole Novielli is the author of the blogSaynsumthn, where this article originally appeared.
“19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:19-21; NIV
“The foundation for why people think, and act the way they do is answered by Jesus in John 3:19-21. People who chose to give their lives to Jesus have come into the light. All others have chosen to stay in darkness. In darkness they feel secure and untouchable. They feel they are hidden and their ideologies, theologies and sociologies are covered by the darkness. When light shows up, everything they are, everything they believe, everything they stand for, everything they defend, all their “ologies” and all their stances are exposed for what they really are. Thses women used God’s Name in Vain by claiming to be followers of our Lord and Risen Savior, Jesus the Christ. Their stance, based on what they really believe and who they are really associated with is exposed. That is why they were so angry.’
“As Christians we are taught not to judge (meaning to condemn someone to eternal death). We are called to be fruit inspectors (Matt 12:33-37; NIV). Love is the key and according to Jesus, as recorded in John 13, we prove we are His followers by how we love one another. So, keep in mind why they act the way they do, refuse to be offended, refuse to contend with them and love them. Take their verbal abuse. Pray for them to come to the light, and don’t stain yourself by being drawn into their desire for confrontation.” JB
Regardless of what you may think, I care about the victims and their families. That is why I fight for the 2nd Amendment. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Such was the case with Elliot Rodger.
If you think for one second that guns are the problem then you are being misled and are now part of the problem. This was my objection to the father of one of the victim’s blaming gun owners for his son’s death.
There is absolute right and wrong, there is good and evil, unfortunately society tries to redefine right and wrong as it gets in their way.
What happened this past weekend was a tragedy, and the powers that be will USE this tragedy to try and control us a little more. What about the American soldier that died defending our rights? Is there death any less tragic? Let me say this again – they died defending our rights. Why would we allow the politicians to make a mockery of their sacrifice to a take away our rights?
Think about it…
For you on the left, your tolerance is overwhelming.
What follows are just a very tiny portion of comments at my website, Tweets directed at my account, received emails and entries posted on my Facebook page. Although these are *Not Safe For Work* – I cannot print half of the ones I receive due to their extreme nature, in sexual content, profanity and outright violence.
I’m used to the revulsion and racist, vile, almost inhuman hatred which liberal’s spew forth on a daily basis – but I thought you might be interested in just a taste of what we’re really dealing with here. People who stand up in public and say conservatives are bad people? I’d like you to know they are not dealing straight with you. Ever.
** THOSE SENSITIVE TO GRAPHIC PROFANE, SEXUAL, OR VIOLENT SPEECH DO NOT CONTINUE**
Fuck you asshole . I hope your daughter gets raped by a dick so big it splits her in two the shot. As for your boy kill him slowly one shot at a time limb by limb Fuck you and your chicken ass rights only pussies need guns so that means you are a pussy. In fact I’ll pay to fly you to California so I can fuck you up. I bet you won’t even answer this if you do you will hide behind your guns. You see asshole I’m no pussy I don’t need a gun to fuck you up got it. Again I can only hope that one day I read about your kids being fucked up and beg to die but only slowly. Oh by the way motherfucker I am a plumber too. You don’t know how to use a set of irons . I would enjoy destroying your credibility concerning the plumbing trade what’s a figure 5 fitting, what’s a durum system probably have to look it up so you do look as stupid as you really are go fuck yourself and fuck your family . If your mom is still alive maybe she will get shot Dad, Grandparents, sisters, brothers, anyone of your low life family. Hey, there your rights; right motherfucker. you piece of shit . In retrospect may be you are a plumber because are a piece of shit. And I am also a vet what about you. Do you have your DD214 I sure do want to se it.
I hope you get heckled and heckled along with the kids, wifie yo mama, which by the way should have aborted your ass it old her to. She has some nasty pussy but an inbred like you probably already knows that
I hope someday you are on on the bad end of a mass shooting. If our paths ever cross I am going to stick my 45 up your penis whole and pull the trigger. You complete piece of horse crap.
You dumb piece of shit. How DARE you pretend to know what it’s like to lose a child? After your idiotic and ignorant comments about “your dead kids don’t blah blah blah my constitutional rights” (seriously, you don’t even deserve to be quoted, so I won’t), people are honestly questioning your sanity, you sanctimonious prick. You aren’t morally superior though – you are morally vacant. You are a liar and a fraud and a sad excuse for a human being. You spread hate and you are pro-violence and you are what is wrong with humanity. Fuck. You.
I will pray every night that the day comes when you have to go to the morgue to identify your murdered child or grandchild. I would never harm another human being, except in self defense, but I will donate to the defense fund of anyone who makes you suffer.
May one of your own children, if your limp dick was capable of helping to conceive, receive the same fate as those “dead children” who don’t trump your rights, you BASTARD! And get your balls shot at too while you’re at it. You deserve it and without a 911 call.
You, a poor excuse for a plumber, need to be shot in the balls and left to live!
So there you go – the tolerant left and their love for humanity. There are literally thousands more everyday… sad to think these people are even out there. Now do you think you should have the right to protect your family? I sure do.
Keep in mind that these are the same folks criticizing me for insensitive remarks! – JTP
Growing National Problem from the Growing National Police State Developed by the Leftist/Marxist/Socialist, President Obama and his Whitehouse.
On Mother’s Day Tommy Yancy, father of two, was pulled over for not having a front license plate. What transpired beyond that point is not totally clear, but his injuries resulted in his death later that day. Yancy, 32, was a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been almost zero information or media coverage of the incident. A local publication, Imperial Valley Press, offers only a sidenote about his family raising money for his memorial and this:
The 32-year-old Yancy died following an altercation with law enforcement during a traffic stop May 11 in Imperial. The circumstances around the death and the traffic stop are still under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.
A source that wants to remain anonymous has come forward with a video and “WeAreChange” posted it to YouTube on Sunday.
The quality of the video leaves a lot to be desired, but a lot of information is provided in the “About Section” of the video:
Tommy Yancy, 32, father of two, was savagely beaten to death by five law enforcement officers during a routine traffic stop near the city of Imperial last Sunday, on Mother’s Day. Yancy, a veteran who suffered from PTSD, served in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 259th Field Service Unit following the 9/11 attacks.
Yancy was stopped on his way to the store after a highway patrol officer spotted a missing front license plate on his vehicle. He was subsequently pulled from his car and attacked by a police K-9 unit, hit by a taser, and attacked by five officers until he succumbed to the beating and died. A witnessed, who filmed the incident, can be heard screaming on the recording: “How long before you guys call an ambulance? Call an ambulance!” According to the source of the video, who asked not to be named, his family has not been permitted to see his body, nor have they been given a cause of death.
A close friend of Yancy described him as “shy, and a comedian” and told me, he was an “excellent dad, who kept in contact with his army buddies every week.” He also enjoyed basketball and loved hip-hop music. His sister-in-law, Jaqueline Hernandez, described him to me as “a very loving guy, loved his kids to death… they were his everything. Very funny down to earth guy, and loved by all.”
Officers claim Yancy swung at an officer and attacked the K-9, however, near the end of the video, posted to YouTube on May 12 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqvX…), police are seen attempting to revive Yancy while a witness states, “All of this for one guy who wasn’t even resisting arrest,” the officer is said to have received no serious injuries.
Deputies with the Imperial County sheriff’s department were involved in another shooting last month, which took place on April 18. A teenager, Adrian Parra, was killed by multiple gunshot wounds. An honor roll student from Coachella Valley High School, Parra was described by loved ones as “a good person with great goals in mind.” The Sheriff’s department has refused to reveal whether or not the shooting was captured by one of their patrol car’s dashboard cameras. Two officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave, but have since returned to their duties.
The witness claims that Yancy did not resist. The police involved, whether it be Imperial County, the California Highway Patrol, or both, will surely offer another story line. We cannot assume that this entire account is factual. Maybe he did resist.
A local realtor fed up with the city’s potholes decided to take matters into his own hands.
As the City-County Council readied for a vote on whether or not to approve $8 million in emergency funding to repave and repair the city’s crumbling streets, Kurt Flock launched a campaign to get the potholes on his street fixed.
Like the rest of us, Flock is fed up – especially with the large potholes he’s seen on Mass. Ave.
“I’ve been very frustrated,” he said.
“Worst case, you throw out your suspension, get a flat or lose a hubcap. It’s happening all over the city,” he said.
Flock has gone online to report the worst ones with mixed luck.
“The potholes in front of my house are filled with something that doesn’t want to stay there,” he said.
The realtor decided to take things into his own hands.
“There wasn’t a lot of thought behind it. There was a pothole and a plant and I thought this might be fun,” he said.
“Volunteers are pitching in to fill the $16 million funding gap in Indy’s lame pothole repair program,” he wrote.
Here’s what follows: Flock potting a plant in that huge Mass. Ave. pothole.
“I was clearly having fun, but this is a serious issue,” he said.
Down the street atop the 25th floor, the mayor’s office wasn’t laughing – especially with this ending.
“They thought people might be confused that the city would actually be running an adopt a pothole program and requested I take that reference down from the video,” said Flock.
When he paused, he was told he might be hearing from a city attorney.
“I’m not going to take it down. If they put me in jail for civil disobedience, hopefully something good happens,” he laughed.
I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90 per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly Hispanics but there are a few whites.
I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. Television news intentionally leaves out unflattering facts about the accused, and sometimes omits names that are obviously black. All this rocked my liberal, tolerant beliefs, but it took me years to set aside my illusions and accept the reality of what I see every day. I have now served thousands of blacks and their families, protecting their rights and defending them in court. What follow are my observations.
Although blacks are only a small percentage of our community, the courthouse is filled with them: the halls and gallery benches are overflowing with black defendants, families, and crime victims. Most whites with business in court arrive quietly, dress appropriately, and keep their heads down. They get in and get out–if they can–as fast as they can. For blacks, the courthouse is like a carnival. They all seem to know each other: hundreds and hundreds each day, gossiping, laughing loudly, waving, and crowding the halls.
When I am appointed to represent a client I introduce myself and explain that I am his lawyer. I explain the court process and my role in it, and I ask the client some basic questions about himself. At this stage, I can tell with great accuracy how people will react. Hispanics are extremely polite and deferential. An Hispanic will never call me by my first name and will answer my questions directly and with appropriate respect for my position. Whites are similarly respectful.
A black man will never call me Mr. Smith; I am always “Mike.” It is not unusual for a 19-year-old black to refer to me as “dog.” A black may mumble complaints about everything I say, and roll his eyes when I politely interrupt so I can continue with my explanation. Also, everything I say to blacks must be at about the third-grade level. If I slip and use adult language, they get angry because they think I am flaunting my superiority.
At the early stages of a case, I explain the process to my clients. I often do not yet have the information in the police reports. Blacks are unable to understand that I do not yet have answers to all of their questions, but that I will by a certain date. They live in the here and the now and are unable to wait for anything. Usually, by the second meeting with the client I have most of the police reports and understand their case.
Unlike people of other races, blacks never see their lawyer as someone who is there to help them. I am a part of the system against which they are waging war. They often explode with anger at me and are quick to blame me for anything that goes wrong in their case.
Black men often try to trip me up and challenge my knowledge of the law or the facts of the case. I appreciate sincere questions about the elements of the offense or the sentencing guidelines, but blacks ask questions to test me. Unfortunately, they are almost always wrong in their reading, or understanding, of the law, and this can cause friction. I may repeatedly explain the law, and provide copies of the statute showing, for example, why my client must serve six years if convicted, but he continues to believe that a hand-written note from his “cellie” is controlling law.
The risks of trial
The Constitution allows a defendant to make three crucial decisions in his case. He decides whether to plea guilty or not guilty. He decides whether to have a bench trial or a jury trial. He decides whether he will testify or whether he will remain silent. A client who insists on testifying is almost always making a terrible mistake, but I cannot stop him.
Most blacks are unable to speak English well. They cannot conjugate verbs. They have a poor grasp of verb tenses. They have a limited vocabulary. They cannot speak without swearing. They often become hostile on the stand. Many, when they testify, show a complete lack of empathy and are unable to conceal a morality based on the satisfaction of immediate, base needs. This is a disaster, especially in a jury trial. Most jurors are white, and are appalled by the demeanor of uneducated, criminal blacks.
Prosecutors are delighted when a black defendant takes the stand. It is like shooting fish in a barrel. However, the defense usually gets to cross-examine the black victim, who is likely to make just as bad an impression on the stand as the defendant. This is an invaluable gift to the defense, because jurors may not convict a defendant—even if they think he is guilty—if they dislike the victim even more than they dislike the defendant.
Most criminal cases do not go to trial. Often the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and the chances of conviction are high. The defendant is better off with a plea bargain: pleading guilty to a lesser charge and getting a lighter sentence.
The decision to plea to a lesser charge turns on the strength of the evidence. When blacks ask the ultimate question—”Will we win at trial?”—I tell them I cannot know, but I then describe the strengths and weaknesses of our case. The weaknesses are usually obvious: There are five eyewitnesses against you. Or, you made a confession to both the detective and your grandmother. They found you in possession of a pink cell phone with a case that has rhinestones spelling the name of the victim of the robbery. There is a video of the murderer wearing the same shirt you were wearing when you were arrested, which has the words “In Da Houz” on the back, not to mention you have the same “RIP Pookie 7/4/12” tattoo on your neck as the man in the video. Etc.
If you tell a black man that the evidence is very harmful to his case, he will blame you. “You ain’t workin’ fo’ me.” “It like you workin’ with da State.” Every public defender hears this. The more you try to explain the evidence to a black man, the angrier he gets. It is my firm belief many black are unable to discuss the evidence against them rationally because they cannot view things from the perspective of others. They simply cannot understand how the facts in the case will appear to a jury.
This inability to see things from someone else’s perspective helps explain why there are so many black criminals. They do not understand the pain they are inflicting on others. One of my robbery clients is a good example. He and two co-defendants walked into a small store run by two young women. All three men were wearing masks. They drew handguns and ordered the women into a back room. One man beat a girl with his gun. The second man stood over the second girl while the third man emptied the cash register. All of this was on video.
My client was the one who beat the girl. When he asked me, “What are our chances at trial?” I said, “Not so good.” He immediately got angry, raised his voice, and accused me of working with the prosecution. I asked him how he thought a jury would react to the video. “They don’t care,” he said. I told him the jury would probably feel deeply sympathetic towards these two women and would be angry at him because of how he treated them. I asked him whether he felt bad for the women he had beaten and terrorized. He told me what I suspected—what too many blacks say about the suffering of others: “What do I care? She ain’t me. She ain’t kin. Don’t even know her.”
No fathers
As a public defender, I have learned many things about people. One is that defendants do not have fathers. If a black even knows the name of his father, he knows of him only as a shadowy person with whom he has absolutely no ties. When a client is sentenced, I often beg for mercy on the grounds that the defendant did not have a father and never had a chance in life. I have often tracked down the man’s father–in jail–and have brought him to the sentencing hearing to testify that he never knew his son and never lifted a finger to help him. Often, this is the first time my client has ever met his father. These meetings are utterly unemotional.
Many black defendants don’t even have mothers who care about them. Many are raised by grandmothers after the state removes the children from an incompetent teenaged mother. Many of these mothers and grandmothers are mentally unstable, and are completely disconnected from the realities they face in court and in life. A 47-year-old grandmother will deny that her grandson has gang ties even though his forehead is tattooed with a gang sign or slogan. When I point this out in as kind and understanding way as I can, she screams at me. When black women start screaming, they invoke the name of Jesus and shout swear words in the same breath.
Black women have great faith in God, but they have a twisted understanding of His role. They do not pray for strength or courage. They pray for results: the satisfaction of immediate needs. One of my clients was a black woman who prayed in a circle with her accomplices for God’s protection from the police before they would set out to commit a robbery.
The mothers and grandmothers pray in the hallways–not for justice, but for acquittal. When I explain that the evidence that their beloved child murdered the shop keeper is overwhelming, and that he should accept the very fair plea bargain I have negotiated, they will tell me that he is going to trial and will “ride with the Lord.” They tell me they speak to God every day and He assures them that the young man will be acquitted.
The mothers and grandmothers do not seem to be able to imagine and understand the consequences of going to trial and losing. Some–and this is a shocking reality it took me a long time to grasp–don’t really care what happens to the client, but want to make it look as though they care. This means pounding their chests in righteous indignation, and insisting on going to trial despite terrible evidence. They refuse to listen to the one person–me–who has the knowledge to make the best recommendation. These people soon lose interest in the case, and stop showing up after about the third or fourth court date. It is then easier for me to convince the client to act in his own best interests and accept a plea agreement.
Part of the problem is that underclass black women begin having babies at age 15. They continue to have babies, with different black men, until they have had five or six. These women do not go to school. They do not work. They are not ashamed to live on public money. They plan their entire lives around the expectation that they will always get free money and never have to work. I do not see this among whites, Hispanics, or any other people.
The black men who become my clients also do not work. They get social security disability payments for a mental defect or for a vague and invisible physical ailment. They do not pay for anything: not for housing (Grandma lives on welfare and he lives with her), not for food (Grandma and the baby-momma share with him), and not for child support. When I learn that my 19-year-old defendant does not work or go to school, I ask, “What do you do all day?” He smiles. “You know, just chill.” These men live in a culture with no expectations, no demands, and no shame.
If you tell a black to dress properly for trial, and don’t give specific instructions, he will arrive in wildly inappropriate clothes. I represented a woman who was on trial for drugs; she wore a baseball cap with a marijuana leaf embroidered on it. I represented a man who wore a shirt that read “rules are for suckers” to his probation hearing. Our office provides suits, shirts, ties, and dresses for clients to wear for jury trials. Often, it takes a whole team of lawyers to persuade a black to wear a shirt and tie instead of gang colors.
From time to time the media report that although blacks are 12 percent of the population they are 40 percent of the prison population. This is supposed to be an outrage that results from unfair treatment by the criminal justice system. What the media only hint at is another staggering reality: recidivism. Black men are arrested and convicted over and over. It is typical for a black man to have five felony convictions before the age of 30. This kind of record is rare among whites and Hispanics, and probably even rarer among Asians.
At one time our office was looking for a motto that defined our philosophy. Someone joked that it should be: “Doesn’t everyone deserve an eleventh chance?”
I am a liberal. I believe that those of us who are able to produce abundance have a moral duty to provide basic food, shelter, and medical care for those who cannot care for themselves. I believe we have this duty even to those who can care for themselves but don’t. This world view requires compassion and a willingness to act on it.
My experience has taught me that we live in a nation in which a jury is more likely to convict a black defendant who has committed a crime against a white. Even the dullest of blacks know this. There would be a lot more black-on-white crime if this were not the case.
However, my experience has also taught me that blacks are different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.
I do not know the solution to this problem. I do know that it is wrong to deceive the public. Whatever solutions we seek should be based on the truth rather than what we would prefer was the truth. As for myself, I will continue do my duty to protect the rights of all who need me
When the mainstream media universally hailed Michael Sam for being the first openly gay player to be drafted for his courage, football fans and observers immediately noted on Twitter how Sam was praised as much as Tim Tebow was criticized for openly embracing his Christian faith.People are so happy for Michael Sam and were so hateful to Tim Tebow. I wonder why?
SEE NEWS REPORT WITH RAMS BELOW:
People are so happy for Michael Sam and were so hateful to Tim Tebow. I wonder why
Marina Baer responds to the Gilford School Board shortly after her father William Baer was arrested for violating the so-called “2-minute speaking rule.” Her dad had been arrested for speaking out for more than two minutes about the explicit reading content that was sent home to his daughter’s from school.
Students in a California school district will not be allowed to wear American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, due to concerns that such displays of patriotism would inflame racial tensions by offending Mexican studentsontheirholiday.
Let me get this straight. American born children, cannot express patriotism during an “IN-YOUR-FACE” celebration of a holiday in a foreign country, where these students, who many are here illegally, are from? In addition to that, you’re telling me that it is far more important NOT to offend the Mexican students, but it is okay to offend native born Americans? REALLY?????? JB
The district’s policy concerned many free speech advocates, but was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“They silenced a symbol of patriotism and freedom in America,” said Georgine Scott-Codiga, president of the Gillroy-Morgan Hill Patriots, in a statement to KCBS.
The trouble dates back to Cinco de Mayo in 2010, when the school forced four students to remove their American flag T-shirts. Administrators worried that fighting would break out between white and Latino students if the shirts were noticed, and so the four offending students were sent home.
The Ninth Circuit, however, ruled in February that the school was legally permitted to abridge white students’ free speech rights in service of Latino students’ feelings.(Anyone out there surprised at all that that decision came out of the “United Socialist State of California’s” Ninth circuit court? JB)
The Tea Party protest is focused on the free speech issue, said Scott-Codiga. See the local news report of this tragedy below.
Police will being standing by in case things get out of hand
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
NEWSMAX
News, Opinion, Interviews, Research and discussion
Opinion
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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Political
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
NEWSMAX
News, Opinion, Interviews, Research and discussion
Spiritual
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Bible Gateway
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Warner Todd Huston 26 Nov 2014
Tim Tebow — I’m Still Training For The NFL!!!
I’m not trying to pick on anyone or call them evil or Satanic, but let’s be honest: Why are you watching The Kardashians? Am I saying they are bad people? No, but does whatever network putting that out, deal in the marketing of idle hands? Yes.
old bloody with a tree branch is perfectly okay, as long as we win on Sunday. It’s bad, and it’s – as Dana Carvey used to say – SATAN?
I’m no prude, but have you been to a junior high school lately? Half the little girls (that’s right – 12, 13-years-old is a little girl) dress like hookers. They’re wearing hooker uniforms and it’s embarrassing. I’m a man and no man can pretend he doesn’t see a woman with her breasts hanging out and her pants down past her hip bones.
Did you hear about the cop shooting?No, I’m not referring to the one in Ferguson, Missouri. Of course you heard about that. I’m referring to the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Ofc. Daryl Pierson of the Rochester, NY Police Department at approximately 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3. Pierson, an Afghanistan vet and father of two, was the first RPD officer killed on the job since 1959.
Police in Cleveland, Ohio are investigating what they suspect may be a hate crime after a 13 year-old girl attacked a 10 year-old.
By the way – Jon is requesting privacy and doesn’t want to speak to the media, but I wouldn’t worry Jon, outside of Fox News and Glenn Beck and me – you just jumped off everybody’s radar screen with that whole “God” thing you did there.
Sugar? No thanks, I’m sweet enough..
Regardless of what you may think, I care about the victims and their families. That is why I fight for the 2nd Amendment. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Such was the case with Elliot Rodger.
What Did You Say? 
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