Today in Finland, two Christians will stand trial for publicly stating the theological and scientific truth that men and women are different. Finnish Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola stand accused of “hate crimes” for affirming basic Christian theology and natural reality concerning the sexual differences between men and women. One of the three charges against Rasanen includes a count against her for tweeting a picture of a Bible verse in challenging the state church of Finland’s decision to sponsor an LGBT parade. Another charge attempts to criminalize her participation in a 2019 public debate.
If the court finds them guilty, Rasanen and Pohjola could face fines or up to two years in prison. It would also set the precedent of making quoting the Bible a criminal offense in Western countries.
In November, human rights lawyer Paul Coleman told The Federalist that these cases in Finland are a “canary in the coalmine” for freedom of speech in the Western world. Coleman works for Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is assisting the two Finns’ lawyers. “Part of the scary thing about what’s happening in Finland is that it could happen anywhere else,” Coleman said Jan. 23 on the British show GBNews. Many countries have similar hate speech laws, including states and cities in the United States.
While accused of hate crimes, Rasanen and Pohjola emphatically affirm their love for all people as beautifully created in God’s image and deeply loved by a God who sent his own Son to die an excruciating death to atone for every sin, including all sexual sins. Their aim is not hate but love, they say, another core teaching of Christianity, which also commands its adherents to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Both are also charged for a booklet Rasanen wrote and Pohjola published in 2004. Pohjola told The Federalist in an exclusive in-person interview in November 2021 that he asked Rasanen to write the booklet because she was qualified, as a medical doctor and the wife of a pastor. That booklet affirms the classic understanding of sex as reserved solely for marriage, and marriage as comprising one man committed to one woman for life. In spring 2019, the two were suddenly served with criminal charges for writing and publishing this booklet decades ago, well before Finland passed its hate crimes laws on behalf of powerful special interests who dispute the differences between the sexes and their role in procreation. Rasanen and Pohjola have been summoned several times by Finnish police to be interrogated separately for hours about intricate details of their theology.
In their interrogations, the police demanded that Rasanen and Pohjola recant their beliefs. Both refused. Both have also noted the contrast between their country’s claim to be a free and modern democracy that allows for full and open debate and the way they have been treated, as thought criminals.
“If I’m convicted, I think that the worst consequence would not be the fine against me, or even the prison sentence, it would be the censorship,” Rasanen said in a statement ahead of her trial. “I will continue to stand for what I believe and what I have written. And I will speak and write about these things, because they are a matter of conviction, not only an opinion. I trust that we still live in a democracy, and we have our constitution and international agreements that guarantee our freedom of speech and religion,”
Christians all over the world are praying for Pojhola and Rasanen, including corporately in their churches. On Jan. 23, free speech supporters rallied in front of the Finnish embassy in Oslo, Norway, to show support for Rasanen and Pohjola. Several of the protesters filling the street carried signs that said “Finland: Freedom of speech?”
Several members of the U.S. Congress led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a public letter that the Finnish government’s prosecutions of these Christians for their religious beliefs “raise serious questions regarding the extent of Finland’s commitment to protect religious freedom for its citizens.” Roy’s office is closely watching the trial, as are many other U.S. and international human rights organizations.
Pohjola was recently elected the bishop of the Lutheran non-state church in Finland. He was kicked out of the state church approximately a decade ago for upholding Christian teachings on the differences between the sexes. The small non-state church in Finland is growing, while the large state church is shrinking.
The Federalist is monitoring the trial today and will be covering its outcome.
Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. Her bestselling ebook is “Classic Books for Young Children.” Sign up here to get early access to her next book, “How To Control The Internet So It Doesn’t Control You.” Mrs. Pullmann identifies as native American and gender natural. She is also the author of “The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids,” from Encounter Books. In 2013-14 she won a Robert Novak journalism fellowship for in-depth reporting on Common Core national education mandates. Joy is a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs.
Photo Image courtesy International Lutheran Council
Meet the man who appears to be the first in the post-Soviet Union West to be brought up on criminal charges for publishing long-held Christian beliefs. Juhana Pohjola wouldn’t be cast to play his own part if Hollywood made a movie about a bishop put on trial for his faith. The Finnish pastor has inherited a place in the church of Martin Luther, but it appears none of Luther’s pugnacity or vitriol. In person, Pohjola, 49, is forthright but unassuming, and gentle. Stereotypically, the Finn is thin and tall. He often pauses while speaking to carefully consider his next words. He listens attentively to others with far less impressive resumes.
In more than two decades as a pastor, Pohjola has ministered to congregations as small as 30. He has spent his life building a network of faithful churches across Finland, many of which started with a few people gathered for prayer, Bible study, hymn-singing—and communion, if they can get a pastor. In an in-person interview with The Federalist, Pohjola urged fellow Christian leaders to be willing to seek out “one lost sheep” instead of crowds and acclaim.
This is the man who appears to be the first in the post-Soviet Union West to be brought up on criminal charges for preaching the Christian message as it has been established for thousands of years. Also charged in the case that goes to trial on January 24 is Pohjola’s fellow Lutheran and a Finnish member of Parliament, Paivi Rasanen. Rasanen’s alleged crimes in a country that claims to guarantee freedom of speech and religion include tweeting a picture of a Bible verse. Potential penalties if they are convicted include fines and up to two years in prison.
Finnish Authorities: The Bible Is Hate Speech
Rasanen and Pohjola are being charged with “hate speech” for respectively writing and publishing a 24-page 2004 booklet that explains basic Christian theology about sex and marriage, which reserves sex exclusively for within marriage, which can only consist of one man and one woman, for life. The Finnish prosecutor claims centuries-old Christian teachings about sex “incite hatred” and violate legal preferences for government-privileged identity groups.
Writer Rod Dreher pointed out the witch hunt nature of this prosecution: “Räsänen wrote that pamphlet seven years before LGBT was added to the national hate-speech law as a protected class. She was investigated once before for the pamphlet, and cleared — but now she’s going to undergo another interrogation.”
Rasanen and Pohjola both have adamantly affirmed“the divinely given dignity, value, and human rights of all, including all who identify with the LGBTQ community.” Christian theology teaches that all human beings are precious, as all are made in God’s image and offered eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In advance of the trial, Rasanen and Pohjola have been interrogated by police for hours about their theology. Pohjola told me in the interrogation police treated Christian beliefs as thought crimes. In a statement, Rasanen noted that the police publicly admitted their interpretation of Finland’s law would make publishing the Bible a hate crime.
“It is impossible for me to think that the classical Christian views and the doctrine of the majority of denominations would become illegal. The question here is about the core of Christian faith; how a person gets saved into unity with God and into everlasting life though the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus. Therefore, it is crucial to also talk about the nature of sin,” Rasanen told Dreher. “As we are living in a democratic country, we must be able to disagree and express our disagreement. We have to be able to cope with speech that we feel insults our feelings. Many questions are so debatable and contradictory that we have to have the possibility of discussing. Otherwise, the development is towards a totalitarian system, with only one correct view.”
Major International Implications
Humans rights lawyer Paul Coleman, who spoke to The Federalist from his Alliance Defending Freedom International office in Vienna, Austria, says Pohjola and Rasanen’s cases are a “canary in the coalmine” for freedom of speech across the West. ADF International is providing legal support for Pohjola and Rasanen’s cases.
“Although all European countries have these hate speech laws, and these hate speech laws are increasingly being used against citizens for things that they say, this is the first time we’ve really seen Christians face criminal prosecution for explaining their biblical views,” Coleman said. “…It’s unprecedented. We’ve not seen attacks on free speech on this level in Europe, and that’s why they are extremely important cases, not just for the people of Finland and Paivi Rasanen and the bishop themselves, but for all of Europe. If this is upheld in one jurisdiction, we will no doubt see it in other jurisdictions as well.”
Such “hate speech” laws exist in every European country and Western countries such as Canada and Australia, and descend from Soviet influence. Coleman called them “sleeper laws,” saying that in other countries “they could be used any time just like they are in Finland. People need to mobilize against these laws and overturn them.”
Legally privileging certain sexual behavior has thus broken western countries’ promises of equality before the law for all citizens, as well as enabling government discrimination against citizens who exercise their free speech and religious liberty, as in the Baronnelle Stutzman and Jack Phillips cases in the United States.
“Establishing standards of identity” also lets government meddle in theological controversies that are none of its business, said the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shaw, who directs church relations for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and has known Pohjola for decades. Pohjola’s church is an international partner of the LCMS.
From a natural law and historic Western perspective, “the government isn’t supposed to get into people’s brains and tell them what’s right and wrong to believe and say,” Shaw noted in a phone interview. “That’s not their realm. Their realm is in externals, things like protect people in their bodies, go to war when necessary, and punish criminals… This is really what’s at stake [in the Pohjola case]. Government has lost its moorings and doesn’t know its purpose.”
From Part-Time Pastor to Bishop
After theological study in Finland and the United States, Pohjola’s first congregation in Helsinki started with about 30 members, he says. It was only able to support him part-time at first. He remembered his wife accompanying the congregation’s hymn-singing on a piano while their firstborn daughter, a baby at the time, laid on a blanket on the floor nearby.
Finland’s state church began openly disobeying Christian theology concerning sex differences amid the global sexual revolution of the 1960s. So, Christians alienated by the state church’s embrace of anti-Christian cultural demands sought faithful pastors like Pohjola, who are known as “confessional” for adhering to historic Christian confessions. The resulting growth of his tiny congregation gradually led to establishing a seminary, then dozens of mission churches, which grew as the theologically unfaithful state church shrank. In 2013, 25 of these new confessional congregations formed the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Finland. Today, that diocese oversees 45 congregations and missions and is training 64 pastors.
That growth has been accompanied by suffering, including persecution first from Pohjola’s own church.
First Persecuted By His Own Church
In 2009, Pohjola was awarded the theological journal Gottesdienst’s Sabre of Boldness Award, which is granted “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity on behalf of the Holy Church of Christ, while engaged in the confession of His Pure Gospel in the face of hostile forces, and at the greatest personal risk.” The award honored Pohjola, with other faithful Finnish pastors, for standing firm as Finland’s state church sought civil charges against them for refusing to disobey the Bible’s commands that only men be sent to lead spiritual warfare as pastors.
Like Luther before him, Pohjola was expelled by his own church body in 2014 for adhering to God’s word on this matter. The notice of his discharge declared Pohjola was “obviously unfit to be a pastor.” At the time, he responded with grief but also by saying that he must obey God rather than men, lamenting: “Instead of the Church being purged with God’s Word, she is being purged from God’s Word.”
In the interview last week, Pohjola said being defrocked from “his baptismal church” grieves him to this day. On his mother’s side, Pohjola said, his family includes Lutheran pastors in that church going back to the 17th century Reformation. But he could not disobey God’s commands to retain his social status or employment.
Division or Unity? Yes
Pohjola’s separation from Finland’s state church also had the consequence of uniting him and his flock with other confessional Christians across the globe. The International Lutheran Council is a global network of theologically unified churches, and like the confessional churches in Finland, that network is growing.
Mathew Block, the ILC’s communications manager, noted that the heightened contradictions between increasingly unnatural pagan practices and historic Christian teachings are causing a global “confessional realignment.” It’s forcing people to make a real decision about where they stand rather than allowing them to inhabit the increasingly nonexistent, indecisive middle. This is affecting churches all over the world. While it means divisions in some areas, it also is leading to unity in others. For example, despite other important theological differences, all the world’s largest Christian bodies agree with the doctrines for which the Finnish government is persecuting Pohjola. That allows them to speak in chorus to government leaders.
Already many dozens of top religious leaders across the world have formally raised their concerns with Rasanen and Pohjola’s prosecution to the Finnish government and the United Nations. Several U.S. members of Congress have also asked U.S. agencies to take action against Finland for these human rights abuses.
“I encourage Roman Catholic ecclesiastical leaders and all those who care for souls to speak up and join hands and lock arms with us as we talk about the absolute necessity of our historic Christian values of one man, one woman, marriage, and the freedom to be able to believe it, to say it, to publish books about it, and find practical ways through hospitality, education, and other social engagement to make society strong that way,” Shaw said. “All churches—one could even say all religions but in particular the Roman Catholic faith—this reflects their historic commitments as well.”
The Shepherd Faces Wolf Attacks for the Sheep
In August 2021, the international Lutheran church recognized Pohjola’s steadfast leadership amid persecution by supporting his election to bishop of Finland’s confessional diocese. The ILC hosted Pohjola’s November 2021 speaking tour in the United States, and is raising funds across the world to raise awareness of his case.
“Our mission has been that, if the shepherd sees that one sheep is missing, he knows,” Pohjola said of the churches he oversees. He noted that many people coming to faithful Finnish churches are seeking love and connection from a church family as the secular world becomes increasingly isolated and family-less, in no small part because of pagan sexual behavior and beliefs.
“People don’t go to church for social capital now. This is a serious life and they want to be serious with God. So, churches have to build communities that stand on solid Lutheran, biblical doctrine,” Pohjola says.
While he may not share Luther’s temperament, Pohjola’s response to his own persecution by church and civil authorities does mirror Luther’s simplicity four centuries ago: “Here I stand. I can do no other.” He adds a pastoral message to Christians watching governments turn on them today.
“We have to learn from the past, Christians who have suffered under persecution, and be prepared,” Pohjola said. “But it’s not something to be worried about, because Christ remains faithful to His church and wherever he is leading us, He will come with us. He will provide everything that is needed for the future of His Christians and His church.”
A girl sits in a van next to an anti-Donald Trump poster during a demonstration against the US president in Brussels on May 24, 2017. US President Donald Trump is on a two-day visit to Belgium, to attend a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit on May 25. / AFP … BRUNO FAHY/AFP/Getty
First, a little background…
As of March of 2019, Breitbart News documented332 separate, media-approved political hate crimes committed against Trump supporters. This list includes physical assaults, vandalism, and the open encouragement of violence against individuals and groups based only on their personal beliefs. Sadly, through its deafening silence and indifference, the corporate media not only give consent to commit acts of political violence against those of us on the right, as we have seen on countless occasions — especially at the far-left CNN — the media regularly encourage and openly call for violence against Trump and his supporters. And now the violence is once again exploding…
With the Russia Collusion Hoax exposed, President Trump forever acquitted of a frame-job impeachment, a Democrat presidential field filled with hapless, white, decrepit millionaires and billionaires; the president piling up a list of solid accomplishments and his re-election looking more likely by the day, the impotent rage of the media is increasing, and this is obviously spilling over into the public at large, which is why we have seen at least seven hate crimes against Trump supporters in just over a week.
February 9, 2020: Man Arrested for Driving Car Through GOP Voter Registration Booth
Witnesses told JSO that a man in his 20s driving an older brown Chevy van pulled up to the tent before driving through, running over their tables and chairs. Volunteers for the Republican Party were registering people to vote.
No volunteers were hurt, according to JSO. Witnesses said the driver of the van, stopped the vehicle, got out of the van and took a video while making obscene gestures before he left.
The vandalism occurred around 2:37 a.m. Saturday. Surveillance video picked up a vehicle parking in the lot outside the building. A man walked out of the vehicle with a can of spray paint in his hands, went over to the front of the building and spray-painted the words “Still Traitors” in yellow and gold paint on the stucco front of the headquarters.
February 10, 2020: California GOP Headquarters Vandalized for Sixth Time in Two Years
The latest act of vandalism at the Humboldt County Republican headquarters in Eureka is the sixth of its kind in just two years, though the damage this time may be far more costly than prior incidents, the party’s local chair said Monday.
“This was above and beyond anything that’s happened before,” said John Schutt. “Windows were broken and the suspect had thrown rocks, too. He poured liquid on merchandise .. a lot of stuff was destroyed that way.”
February 12, 2020: UC Santa Cruz College Republican Display Destroyed and Vandalized
A 14-year-old high school student wearing a “Make America Hat Again” hat was struck and called a “fascist” while leaving a New Hampshire polling place Tuesday night with the father of his friend, authorities said.
Windham Police Capt. Bryan Smith confirmed the details of the incident to Pluralist and said an investigation was underway but would not comment further.
February 13, 2020: Man Threatens to Cut Throats of Arizona State Students for Trump Event
According to reports, the former cop, Daniel Sprague, was celebrating his 50th birthday at The Stage bar on Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee, and donned a red “Make Fifty Great Again” hat given to him by his wife.
Sprague told WSMV that people came up to him and were “just loving the little word play on the hat and taking pictures and wishing me happy birthday.” However, Sprague claims one woman approached him and ultimately punched him in the face, grabbing his hat and shouting, “How dare you.”
When a rodeo clown in Nowheresville, Nowhere, puts on an Obama mask, the media destroy his reputation and career.
When some guy makes a video mocking CNN, the Hate Network destroys his life by threatening to doxx him.
When the media want certain behavior to stop, they launch jihads.
But when Trump supporters, including children, are physically assaulted, the media shrug, and that shrug is a wink, a nod of approval, a way of saying, Carry on, we’re on your side. You heroes have nothing to fear from us.
The corporate media are a danger to every law-abiding American citizen, and their embrace of violence against us, their encouragement of that violence, will only get worse as the 2020 race heats up.
And never forget that as the media encourage this violence against us, they also seek to disarm us.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
Caution; according to the latest reports, wearing a Red MAGA hat can be hazardous to your health, and you are more likely to be falsely accused of racism and hate crimes.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been seen all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, and even the great El Rushbo. Also Recently noticed and re-posted by President Trump.
The massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston by an evil psycho is a hideous thing. The case is especially sickening because the victims were chosen specifically because of their race. Thank God it’s extremely rare for whites to target black people for attack.
And yet the public is being told by The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC and Salon that the Charleston massacre is one small example of white racists rampaging through the country. It’s like saying we have an epidemic of men flying gyrocopters onto Capitol Hill. Yes, there’s that one time, but I notice you keep citing the same case.
In The Washington Post, for example, columnist Lonnae O’Neal blamed the Charleston attack on “white supremacy,” claiming that “racial sickness is all around us.” (I guess the one upside of the horror in South Carolina is that we can FINALLY have a national conversation about race.)
The media’s WHITES ARE TERRORIZING BLACKS campaign reflects reality as accurately as the media’s other campaign, WHITE MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE RAPING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!
In a country of more than 300 million people, everything will happen eventually. That doesn’t make it a trend. Go up to any ordinary, sentient person and ask: Which race assaults the other race more?
Remember the “knockout game” — or as its devotees called it, “polar bear hunting”? Black teenagers would go looking for white people to knock unconscious with a single punch, videotape the attacks and post them online. The knockout game was a real trend — which the media denied was a trend.
Just last month, we saw videos of white reporters from the Daily Caller being mugged by black men in Baltimore.
Ask around. You might be surprised at how many whites you know have been physically attacked by a black person at least once in their lives.
Ordinary people keep hearing that we are in the middle of an epidemic of white-on-black violence and think, Surely the media wouldn’t be making this up, so I must be misinformed.
According to a preposterously, laughably, ridiculously bogus report on “hate crimes” produced by Eric Holder’s Justice Department, blacks are far more likely to be victims of hate crimes than whites are. It would be like a government report asserting that most rapes are committed by elderly white women. Holder’s DOJ got to the desired outcome by:
(1) Defining “hate crime” only as those in which the perp uses a racial epithet. (Because that’s what people fear most: I don’t mind getting the crap kicked out of me — as long as no one calls me a “cracker”!)
(2) Defining Hispanic perpetrators as “white.” (Yes, according to our federal government, Hispanics are “Hispanic” when they are victims of crimes, but “white” when they are the perpetrators.)
(3) Defining less than 0.1 percent of all violent crimes as “hate crimes.” (According to the FBI’s detailed crime victimization report, there were about 1.2 million violent crimes in 2012, but Holder’s Justice Department characterized less than 1,000 of those as “hate crimes.”)
The FBI’s crime victimization surveys tell a very different story, one more in line with a normal person’s life experience. In 2008, the most recent year for which such data seems to have been collected, FBI surveys show that, out of 520,161 interracial violent crimes, blacks committed 429,444 of them against whites, while whites committed 90,717 of them against blacks.
In other words, blacks commit more than 80 percent of all interracial violent crime.
Going for the element of surprise, columnist Brit Bennett recently complained in The New York Times that “white violence is unspoken and unacknowledged” by the media. Yes, I barely heard a thing about such alleged white-on-black crimes as: Tawana Brawley (hoax), the Duke lacrosse gang rape (hoax), Trayvon Martin (self-defense), Ferguson (hoax) and Eric Garner (justified police arrest). Other than the wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage for months on end, there was barely a peep out of the media about these cases. The media will pounce on any suspicion of a white-on-black crime, spend a year being hysterical about it, and, if it turns out to be a false alarm, refuse to apologize, before quickly moving on to the next hoax.
The Charleston church shooting is the first case in a very long time in which blacks really were targeted by a white person because of their race (and had the misfortune of being in a gun-free zone). Even Bennett had to reach back to stories her grandmother told her about the Ku Klux Klan (100 percent Democratic) to come up with a previous example of whites terrorizing blacks.
The Charleston attack was a hideous, sickening crime. But that’s why we should thank our lucky stars that it was so unusual. White-on-black violence is freakishly rare everywhere in America, except liberal imaginations.
Under the banner of what is dishonestly called a gay pride or gay “rights” flag, hate, fascism, and intolerance has festered for years, specifically against Christians and conservatives. Under the auspices of a “rights and equality” symbol, Leftists have been on a rampage to take way the rights of others through bullying, lies, and online terrorism. The list of misdeeds and victims resulting from an increasingly emboldened Big Gay Hate Machinecontinues to grow.
and Christianity is regularly smeared as hate speech.
If individuals wish to fly this symbol of hate, oppression and bigotry on their own property, that is their choice in a free country. It is unconscionable, however, that this symbol of intolerance is allowed to fly above government-owned buildings. The symbol of bigots who seek to strip others of their First Amendment right to practice their religion has no place on government grounds.
P.S. I’m also in favor of removing the Rebel Flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol. Equivalence is not the issue here. Hate and intolerance is.
Al Sharpton has been leading the desire for vigilante justice in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death, still under investigation, of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson. The Obama regime has seemingly taken sides in the matter with Eric Holder relating to the community about his personal experiences as a black man while stating that they stand with the people of Ferguson. There have even been threats that if no charges are brought against Wilson, regardless of the evidence, that there will be more violence and more riots.
Now, it looks like we potentially have our first case of a vengeance based hate crime by individuals who targeted a white guy in the name of justice for Michael Brown.
Former U.S. Marine Ralph Weems, a 32 year old white male, was left withlife-threatening injuries after being followed by a mob of 20 black black men then beaten. Prior to the attack, Weems, who is a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, entered the Waffle House in West Point, Mississippi. His friend, David Knighten, said that someone waved him over and told him the restaurant was not safe for whites because the black people inside were angry over the death of Michael Brown.
When Knighten entered, he witnessed a heated argument with people in the restaurant. The two left the premises after police arrived due to another argument around 1 am. Prior to heading home, they stopped at a Huddle House restaurant and that is where the vicious beating took place.
Twenty black men hadfollowedKnighten and Weems from the Waffle House. While the police say surveillance cameras indicate there were fewer than that, it doesn’t change the fact that these two men were beaten for the sole crime of being white.
Knighten said that he heard racial slurs coming from the mob. The Blaze reports that the AP has since removed those comments, but it was done so without any explanation.
Knighten was apparently inside the restaurant because he said Weems was on the ground being kicked by multiple attackers. The crowd then turned on Knighten who was left with broken facial bones, a cut over his left eye and a blood clot in his right eye. It was a full hour before police arrived at the scene following a 911 call at 2 am. By then the vicious mob of attackers were gone.
Weems has been placed in a medically induced coma due to the severity of his injuries after undergoing brain surgery.
Given the circumstances surrounding this attack, one would think that it would be labeled a hate crime. After all, a group of upwards of 20 black men singled out two white men for no reason other than the fact that they were angry about the Michael Brown shooting and were going to seek justice any way the could. Weems and Knighten just so happen to be the ‘wrong color’ in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But, police have already said they do not believe this was a hate crime. Police Chief Tim Brinkley said that he will leave that for a jury to decide, but thus far hate crime charges have not been brought up.
One suspect, Courtez McMilliam, 32, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The rest of the violent mob is still at large.
Will there be justice for Knighten and Weems? Weems fought for our country in not one, but two wars. He is hanging on to dear life due to an event that may have occurred due to the vigilante justice and desire to make someone pay brought on by the hate-filled rhetoric espoused and encouraged by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Eric Holder, and Barack Obama.
If history is repeated in charges brought up in this case, it is unlikely that hate crime charges will be brought against the savages who brutally attacked Knighten and Weems.Eric Holder, the attorney general who publicly identifies as a progressive activist, said before Congress in 2009 that the hate crime statute cannot be applied in relation to crimes of black people against white people.
To Holder, who was arrested while a student at Columbia University for his participation in the armed takeover of an ROTC office, it is not possible for a black person to commit a hate based crime against a white person. Only whites can commit hate crimes if they attack a black person. In fact, it doesn’t even necessarily have to be a proven fact. As we can see in Ferguson, that allegation is being made against Officer Darren Wilson with no proof thus far and before an investigation is complete.
We have witnessed the selective application of the hate crime statute recently in this country. For months, there were countless news stories of young blacks attacking white people in the ‘Knockout Game.’ The elderly were attacked. Pregnant women were attacked. In each of these instances, the victims were white and the perpetrators were black. No hate crime charges were leveled.
Where we saw hate crime charges be leveled was in the rare case of one white male who participated in the Knockout game and attacked a black man. The white man was charged with a hate crime.
Are we to believe that we live in a post-racial society when there is selective application of the law based upon the color of ones’ skin? Black thugs have gotten away with countless acts of criminality in targeting white people without being charged with a hate crime which would come with even harsher penalties.
But, again, we have progressive, race baiting activists in both the White House and the Attorney General’s office.
As former Marine Ralph Weems lies in a hospital bed fighting for his life, there is no media coverage. There is no statement by Obama. There is no outrage by Sharpton. There is no comment from Holder that he stands with Weems.
You likely haven’t heard the story of two black teens who killed 88-year old WWII veteran Delbert Belton. Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening, later succumbing to his injuries the following morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Two of Obama’s sons have stolen one of America’s Greatest Generation…fitting in the time of Obamanation. I suspect Obama is planning a medal ceremony for the two youths, given they have followed Obama’s racism script to a T. After all, black teens killing whites has become America’s fastest growing sport.
By Alexandra Ward; http://http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/wwii-vet-death-race/2013/08/23/id/521952?s=al&promo_code=14A1A-1
One teenage boy has been arrested and another is still being sought by police for the murder of 88-year-old Delbert “Shorty” Belton, a World War II vet who was beaten to death Wednesday night outside his favorite hangout: the Eagles Lodge in Spokane, Wash.
The teenage suspect has been charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree murder, according to CNN.
He was picked up around 10 p.m. Thursday, reports The Los Angeles Times. Images of two black suspects, taken by surveillance cameras mounted at local businesses, were released by Spokane police after Belton was found inside his car, unconscious and with severe head injuries, the Times said. Belton died Thursday morning from the beating.
The Eagles Lodge is a popular bar where Belton often played pool.
“It does appear random,” Spokane police Lt. Mark Griffiths told reporters. “It appears he was assaulted in the parking lot and there was no indication that he would have known these people prior to the assault.”
The Los Angeles Times reports the teen who was has been arrested has a lengthy record, including a conviction in 2012 for fourth-degree assault, obstructing a police officer and misdemeanor rioting, according to juvenile court officials.
Belton was a Purple Heart recipient who survived the Battle of Okinawa after taking a shot in the leg, CNN quoted friends as saying. He retired after working at an aluminum company for more than 30 years.
A candlelight vigil will be held at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Eagles Ice-A-Rena in Spokane, adjacent to the Eagle’s Lodge where Belton, who was white, was killed.
Friends and family are stunned by the apparently meaningless slaying.
Belton’s death has added fuel to the already raging racial fire that started with last week’s thrill killing of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane, who was studying at East Central University in Oklahoma.
Lane, 22, was reportedly murdered last week by three teens — two of whom were African American — because they were “bored” and “just wanted to see someone die,” according to police.
Conservative pundits said the media responses were hypocritical.
“What if the victim here [Lane] had a chance to see future attackers? And what if he crossed the street or went down a different block to get away from them?” radio host Steve Malzberg asked on “The Steve Malzberg Show” earlier this week. “You know what you could accuse him of? You could accuse him of profiling. … Oh, but that would’ve been racist. … That would have been terrible, and racial profiling’s against the law and that makes him a bigot and he would be making an assumption that these kids were trouble.”
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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
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
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Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
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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
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
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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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
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
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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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