Bah-humbug
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Richard Spencer endorsed Joe Biden.
The people behind the violence in the American protests of George Floyd.
- Thread starter hanimmal
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hanimmal
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hanimmal
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/18/lions-matthew-stafford-racial-justice/#comments-wrapper
Black athletes have been standing up in the name of social justice for decades, butpublic support from their White teammates has been elusive. As the focus on police brutality and systemic racism has grown more intense in recent months, more are coming forward in calling for social justice.
Prominent athletes such as Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Bryce Harper, Kevin Love, Baker Mayfield and Kyle Korver have publicly supported kneeling during the national anthem and other protests of racial inequality. Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford became the latest to express his belief in the power of social activism in a story published Friday in the Players’ Tribune. Stafford discussed his belief that now is the time for those who play in the NFL to use the platform to take a stand, and why he and his teammates won’t stay silent.
“We can’t just stick to football,” Stafford wrote. “Not as a team. Not as an organization. And we shouldn’t as a country. These are not political problems. These are human problems. It should not be seen as a political statement to discuss this stuff.”
The No. 1 draft pick out of Georgia in 2009 recalled that shortly after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police in May, Stafford arranged to use a field in Atlanta to train with his wide receivers. The first teammate to make it to Atlanta was Danny Amendola, who is White and with whom Stafford said he spent four days working. The next week Stafford was at the same field getting ready to work out with four Black teammates. As they were stretching before one workout, a passerby said they were trespassing and told them to leave.
As they gathered their belongings, the man pulled out his cellphone and told them he was calling the police. Stafford said they were at the field for maybe 10 minutes and the man told police they were being “uncooperative” and “not leaving the property.”
The 2011 Comeback Player of the Year said the issue was crystal clear.
“I was embarrassed to have put my teammates in that situation, especially when I was told that it was cool to use the field,” Stafford wrote.
“Especially when I had been on the same field with Danny with no problems. The only difference is what we all know in our hearts. Danny and I are white. We don’t get the cops called on us in those situations. We don’t immediately get called uncooperative.”
That incident made the Lions’ decision to cancel an August practice in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wis., that much more important. Stafford, 32, said that was the proudest moment of his 12-year career.
“We had some extremely difficult conversations,” Stafford wrote. “We shared stories. We debated. We cried. We were vulnerable. We were uncomfortable. We were angry. We were everything. But we went through it all as a team.”
The next day, the Milwaukee Bucks did not participate in their playoff game, refusing to take the court and leading the NBA to suspend its postseason matchups that night and the following day. The WNBA followed suit, and multiple MLB and MLS games were also postponed that night after several teams decided not to play. The NHL went on with its postseason games that night but postponed its scheduled games for the next two days. Other NFL teams canceled practices.
Stafford wrote that some teammates described being begged by their parents to text them when they arrived at the Lions’ training facility and when they got home so they knew they were safe. He recalled defensive lineman Trey Flowers explaining that if he were to get pulled over by a police officer, he would roll his window down, put both hands on the steering wheel and ask the officer if he would like him to step out of the vehicle to be handcuffed so he wouldn’t be viewed as a threat.
“When you hear your teammates telling these stories — and getting so emotional that they’re breaking down crying — you can’t just sit there and be silent,” Stafford wrote. “These were the same guys who had supported me last offseason during the darkest months of my life, when my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This is what it means to be a part of a brotherhood. You have your brother’s back when they’re in pain. You listen to them. You try to help. I wish that we could do that as a country.”
Stafford admitted he grew up in a “bubble” in Highland Park, Tex., which is 94.3 percent White, according to census data.
“I was not exposed to a lot of diversity or different ideas growing up,” Stafford wrote. “I was not educated on these issues, and I probably said a bunch of stupid things when I was young that I regret. But a big part of life is about looking inside yourself and trying to evolve as a person.”
Black athletes have been standing up in the name of social justice for decades, butpublic support from their White teammates has been elusive. As the focus on police brutality and systemic racism has grown more intense in recent months, more are coming forward in calling for social justice.
Prominent athletes such as Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Bryce Harper, Kevin Love, Baker Mayfield and Kyle Korver have publicly supported kneeling during the national anthem and other protests of racial inequality. Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford became the latest to express his belief in the power of social activism in a story published Friday in the Players’ Tribune. Stafford discussed his belief that now is the time for those who play in the NFL to use the platform to take a stand, and why he and his teammates won’t stay silent.
“We can’t just stick to football,” Stafford wrote. “Not as a team. Not as an organization. And we shouldn’t as a country. These are not political problems. These are human problems. It should not be seen as a political statement to discuss this stuff.”
The No. 1 draft pick out of Georgia in 2009 recalled that shortly after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police in May, Stafford arranged to use a field in Atlanta to train with his wide receivers. The first teammate to make it to Atlanta was Danny Amendola, who is White and with whom Stafford said he spent four days working. The next week Stafford was at the same field getting ready to work out with four Black teammates. As they were stretching before one workout, a passerby said they were trespassing and told them to leave.
As they gathered their belongings, the man pulled out his cellphone and told them he was calling the police. Stafford said they were at the field for maybe 10 minutes and the man told police they were being “uncooperative” and “not leaving the property.”
The 2011 Comeback Player of the Year said the issue was crystal clear.
“I was embarrassed to have put my teammates in that situation, especially when I was told that it was cool to use the field,” Stafford wrote.
“Especially when I had been on the same field with Danny with no problems. The only difference is what we all know in our hearts. Danny and I are white. We don’t get the cops called on us in those situations. We don’t immediately get called uncooperative.”
That incident made the Lions’ decision to cancel an August practice in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wis., that much more important. Stafford, 32, said that was the proudest moment of his 12-year career.
“We had some extremely difficult conversations,” Stafford wrote. “We shared stories. We debated. We cried. We were vulnerable. We were uncomfortable. We were angry. We were everything. But we went through it all as a team.”
The next day, the Milwaukee Bucks did not participate in their playoff game, refusing to take the court and leading the NBA to suspend its postseason matchups that night and the following day. The WNBA followed suit, and multiple MLB and MLS games were also postponed that night after several teams decided not to play. The NHL went on with its postseason games that night but postponed its scheduled games for the next two days. Other NFL teams canceled practices.
Stafford wrote that some teammates described being begged by their parents to text them when they arrived at the Lions’ training facility and when they got home so they knew they were safe. He recalled defensive lineman Trey Flowers explaining that if he were to get pulled over by a police officer, he would roll his window down, put both hands on the steering wheel and ask the officer if he would like him to step out of the vehicle to be handcuffed so he wouldn’t be viewed as a threat.
“When you hear your teammates telling these stories — and getting so emotional that they’re breaking down crying — you can’t just sit there and be silent,” Stafford wrote. “These were the same guys who had supported me last offseason during the darkest months of my life, when my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This is what it means to be a part of a brotherhood. You have your brother’s back when they’re in pain. You listen to them. You try to help. I wish that we could do that as a country.”
Stafford admitted he grew up in a “bubble” in Highland Park, Tex., which is 94.3 percent White, according to census data.
“I was not exposed to a lot of diversity or different ideas growing up,” Stafford wrote. “I was not educated on these issues, and I probably said a bunch of stupid things when I was young that I regret. But a big part of life is about looking inside yourself and trying to evolve as a person.”
hanimmal
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hanimmal
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8374571/Horrifying-moment-Black-Lives-Matter-protester-shot-dead-white-Nebraska.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/21/jake-gardner-suicide-james-scurlock-shooting/
Jake Gardner, a White bar owner who was indicted last week in the fatal shooting of Black protester James Scurlock during a late-night Omaha demonstration in May, died by suicide on Sunday, his attorneys said at a news conference.
Attorney Stu Dornan said that Gardner, 38, had died “at his own hand” in Oregon on the same day he was scheduled to return to Omaha to turn himself in. Gardner faced four felony charges, including manslaughter, that were handed down by a special prosecutor last week.
The indictment came months after a county attorney initially agreed with Gardner that he had shot Scurlock, 22, in self-defense and declined to prosecute the bar owner. A grand jury thought otherwise, pointing to Gardner’s own words in text and Facebook messages as probable cause for an indictment .
“The grand jury indictment was a shock to him,” Dornan said Sunday. “He was really shook up.”
A White bar owner claimed self-defense in killing a Black protester. But his own words show otherwise, prosecutors say.
About 12:20 p.m. Sunday, police in Hillsboro, Ore., responded to a call of a body found outside a medical clinic less than 20 miles west of downtown Portland, authorities said in a news release. Investigators eventually identified Gardner, saying that his death is under investigation, but “officers are not seeking any suspects and there is no danger to the community.” Gardner did not leave a note, his attorneys said.
Gardner’s death marks yet another stunning turn in the tragic case. On the night of May 30, Scurlock and some of his friends joined thousands of demonstrators flooding the streets of Omaha five days after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests.
Surveillance footage released later by Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine showed Scurlock and his friends exchanging words with Gardner, a former Marine who had written on Facebook that he planned “to pull military-style firewatch” at his bar, the Hive. During an argument, Gardner flashed a gun in his waistband, saying to Scurlock and a friend, “Keep the f--- away from me,” according to cellphone footage.
After a woman tussled Gardner to the ground, the bar owner fired what Kleine described as two “warning shots” that sent both the female protester and Scurlock’s friend running. Seconds later, Scurlock jumped on Gardner, placing him in what the bar owner later described to police as a chokehold. With Scurlock on his back, Gardner then fired over his shoulder and killed the 22-year-old.
‘What about James?’ Shooting of Black protester fuels more anger in Omaha.
Kleine decided not to prosecute Gardner, calling the shooting “senseless, but justified.” But two days later, he called a grand jury amid escalating protests. Special prosecutor Frederick D. Franklin of the U.S. attorney’s office in Omaha presented the grand jury evidence showing that Gardner had “an intent to use a firearm for purposes of killing someone,” Franklin said last week. The evidence, which came “primarily from Jake Gardner himself,” undermined self-defense claims, the special prosecutor concluded.
“Jake Gardner was threatening the use of deadly force in the absence of being threatened with a concomitant deadly force by James Scurlock or anyone who was associated with him,” Franklin said.
On Sunday, Dornan told reporters that Gardner had fled to the West Coast after receiving “numerous death threats” following Scurlock’s death. He had initially gone to Northern California but left the state because of the wildfires, his attorneys said. The Omaha World-Herald reported that Gardner was reportedly staying at an uncle’s house around Portland. Gardner was afraid of returning to Omaha and had even hired a bodyguard, worrying that someone would make good on one of the alleged death threats, attorney Tom Monaghan said.
“He was deathly afraid of coming back here because he felt he would not get a fair trial,” Dornan said.
Critics, among them Nebraska state Sen. Justin Wayne (D), the Scurlock family’s attorney, questioned why Gardner wasn’t quickly apprehended after Douglas County District Judge James Gleason approved an arrest warrant on Friday, the World-Herald reported. Dornan said Franklin was agreeable in allowing Gardner to wait out the wildfires before returning to Omaha.
At the Sunday news conference, Gardner’s attorneys maintained that the fatal shooting of Scurlock was “a clear case of self-defense.” Monaghan contended that “the lies on social media” had convicted Gardner before the grand jury charged him last week.
“Cases should be decided in the courtroom and not on social media in the context of public opinion,” Dornan said.
The attorneys remembered Gardner as a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq, telling reporters that he had suffered two traumatic brain injuries. Before the indictment was announced, Gardner told KETV that he was “more anxious now than when I was flying to Iraq.”
“Unfortunately, there are two men who have died in a terrible tragedy,” Dornan said. “It’s a terrible tragedy for the Omaha community; it’s a terrible tragedy for James Scurlock and his family; it’s a terrible tragedy for the Gardner family.”
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
The top comment: 'Looks like the WAPO just popped open a Russian operation. There is no such thing as coincidences.'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/idaho-family-portland-trump-rally/2020/09/21/246ef878-f2e5-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/idaho-family-portland-trump-rally/2020/09/21/246ef878-f2e5-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html
He is Alex Kuzmenko, a 33-year-old architect and who lives in a second-story apartment in Meridian, a bedroom community outside the majority-Democratic city of Boise. His YouTube channel featured luxury car reviews before shifting to pro-Trump memes and videos several months ago. He and members of his family — immigrants from Belarus and Ukraine — had almost no political profile before organizing one of the most consequential pro-Trump demonstrations of the summer.
The shooting of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer and a participant in the cruise rally, became a bloody bookend to an anguished summer in Portland and other communities. The alleged assailant, a self-described adherent of antifascism, or antifa, was later killed in an encounter with police.
The killings turned the cruise rally into a spectacle of American disorder. The episode elevated a tactic — proclaiming a political ideology with a parade of people revving their engines and openly displaying guns — that could add fuel to an increasingly bitter presidential contest.
As intelligence officials warn of foreign efforts to inflame divisions ahead of the Nov. 3 election, the work of Alex Kuzmenko and his relatives, who organized the activities using online accounts that did not reveal their full names, shows how little-known individuals with no recorded history of political engagement can seize an outsize role in the campaign.
With little more than a Facebook log-in, private citizens have been able to tap into an existing appetite for protest and partisan faceoff. As with the teenage gunman in Kenosha, Wis., or the black-clad protesters in Portland, street-level confrontations have become defining moments in the era of viral politics, at times eclipsing the official activities of Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
Kuzmenko, who declined to comment at length for this story, has said publicly that it was not his intention for cruise participants to confront protesters directly, or for the caravan to end in violence. The goal, his family members said in interviews, was simply to show support for the president.
But coverage of the caravan took on a life of its own, becoming fodder for conspiracy and propaganda outlets. The Epoch Times, a pro-Trump publication sympathetic to the Falun Gong spiritual movement critical of the Chinese government, featured Kuzmenko, referring to him by his alternate name, in its live coverage of the event on social media.
Cin Alfonso, co-founder of the Idaho Liberty Dogs, a pro-Trump group that has sent armed civilians to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, had not heard of Kuzmenko before his cruise rallies this summer. “Alex just popped up one day,” Alfonso said.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said that the campaign has had “no contact” with Kuzmenko and that it did not provide any Trump merchandise for the cruise rallies.
Kuzmenko and his family said they organized the Portland rally because of their enthusiastic support for Trump as well as concern about months of unrest there. “Nobody’s paying us to do any of this,” said one brother, Nikolay Kuzmenko. Another brother, Dennis Kuzmenko, said, “We wanted it to be organic.” Oleg Volkov, a Portland-based associate of the family who recorded video from the scene of the caravan, said he was “not affiliated with any groups or anything like that,” declining to comment further.
In an interview outside her blue farmhouse in Nampa, Idaho, Lyubov Kuzmenko and her son, Dennis, traced their embrace of Trump to the family’s difficulties living under the Soviet system. They said the family suffered religious persecution because of their evangelical Christian beliefs and that relatives who stayed in Belarus have had little opportunity to prosper.
“Communism. That’s what we got away from,” said Dennis, 24, who owns a local heating and cooling company. “Trump is all about religious freedom and letting people serve their own God. And we’re behind that.”
The family first settled in Portland and then relocated to Meridian in 2006, the 24-year-old and his mother said. They chose to settle in Idaho’s Treasure Valley because of the nature and family atmosphere, Lyubov Kuzmenko said. She and her relatives make up about half the congregation at the Fountain of Life Church, a local evangelical congregation that is led by a relative and holds services in Russian.
Alex Kuzmenko is listed as the director of a real estate company that advertises the opportunity to “Sell Your House For Fast Cash.” He and his wife, Lily, have run a wedding photography business. Several family members are listed as officers of freight shipping and trucking businesses, according to corporate records.
Kuzmenko publicly distanced himself from a subsequent Portland caravan, writing on Facebook: “Given all the circumstances and investigations going on, we would like to be VERY CLEAR that the Labor Day Portland Rally is NOT organized by us. Such events take time to organize and everything that is organized rapidly is simply NOT SAFE.”
He added, “Based on our law enforcement contacts, they highly discourage any rally from happening so soon after the first one.”
Kuzmenko has already tired of political activism, his family insists. “He wants out,” Dennis Kuzmenko said of his brother’s organizing efforts. “He wants someone else to take over.”
“We call all patriots and God-loving Americans to stop waiting for a change, but be the change in your country by praying and voting, in person, this November,” Kuzmenko said, reading from notes into a megaphone at the rally.
In the weeks leading up to the Portland cruise, he and his relatives also posted repeatedly about opportunities to purchase flags and other gear for the event. American flags and Trump flags went for $5 to $15, while the price for “thin blue line” flags was $10, according to screenshots of their various advertising announcements on social media. Kuzmenko’s sister-in-law, who goes by Julie on Facebook, offered “CUSTOM MADE” hitch mounts, capable of holding up to three flags, at $60 apiece.
The caravan route was apparently intended to avoid downtown Portland, the site of months of nightly and often violent clashes between law enforcement and protesters. But some participants drove there anyway, firing pepper spray and paintball guns.
“The shooting was not part of the event. It was not part of the cruise rally,” Kuzmenko said in a video, accusing antifa of funneling people downtown.
In a three-hour video of the early phase of the cruise rally, uploaded to Kuzmenko’s YouTube channel, a woman who appears to be holding the camera says at one point, “We’re going to head over to downtown Portland.”
At another point, the woman behind the camera — who switches seamlessly between English and Ukrainian — seeks to stage Internet-ready enthusiasm, asking a rallygoer standing before a crowd to begin a chant: “Can you walk up and down the line, like, ‘USA?’ ”
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/6fdf17a7549acdf81ee06374f692b766
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Facebook can’t be trusted to enforce its ban on violent rhetoric in the run-up to the November elections, as is evident by its refusal to remove a group’s call to arms to protect businesses in Kenosha last month before a night of unrest in which two protesters were shot and killed, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed by the partner of one of the slain men, two protesters and a journalist warns that militias will continue to use Facebook to incite violence if President Donald Trump loses the Nov. 3 election but refuses to leave office. The suit seeks a court order that would force the social media giant to remove posts calling for violence as well as posts by militia groups and hate groups.
It also seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiffs, who say they were traumatized by their interactions with the armed men who turned up at the protests over the Aug. 23 shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer. The officer shot Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Cellphone video of the shooting sparked several nights of protests and unrest, leading the governor to call in the National Guard.
“Facebook’s inaction led to the death of two protesters, in addition to the harm suffered by Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit states. “The enabling and empowering of militias to conspire with its platform and tools allows white supremacist groups to recruit, organize, and thrive, while Facebook continues to profit from their activities, and those who fight for social justice continue to die.”
Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old police admirer from nearby Antioch, Illinois, has been charged with gunning down protesters Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and wounding a third man, Gage Grosskreutz, on the night of Aug. 25.
According to the lawsuit, a militia group calling itself the Kenosha Guard put out a call on its Facebook page for armed people to guard property in the city, which sits along Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago. Among those who took up the call was Rittenhouse, according to the suit.
“Armed and ready. Shoot to kill tonight,” a respondent commented on the post. “Ditto!” replied another.
The plaintiffs, citing a Buzzfeed story, argue that Facebook received more than 400 complaints about the post but that the company’s content moderators conducted several reviews and decided the post didn’t violate Facebook’s anti-violence policies. The Kenosha Guard removed its post the day after the shootings and Facebook took down the militia group’s entire page later that day, Buzzfeed reported.
The plaintiffs include Hannah Gittings, who describes herself as Huber’s life partner. She said she watched Huber die and suffered threats and insults from members of the Kenosha Guard and the Boogaloo Bois, an anti-government extremist group. Some of them pointed their guns at her, the lawsuit alleges.
Another plaintiff, Christopher McNeal, is Black and was confronted, commanded, assaulted and harassed by militia, according to the lawsuit. A third plaintiff, a Black woman named Carmen Palmer, says she traveled to the protest with her children and that militia members threatened her, sprayed her with pepper spray and slashed her group’s tires. The fourth plaintiff is Nathan Peet, a freelance journalist who says he tried to help Rosenbaum after he was shot but that his efforts were hampered by militia who “corralled” protesters following the shooting.
“The planning and preparation exhibited in this (Kenosha Guard) post led to Plaintiffs and other protesters being terrorized, assaulted, harassed, and placed in so much fear when facing the business end of military grade assault rifles that they determined it was too dangerous to continue to protest,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also alleges that Facebook allowed a post to remain on its site for weeks calling on people to join the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a white nationalist drove his car into her group.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for allowing the Kenosha Guard’s post, calling it an “operational mistake,” the lawsuit said.
The company issued a statement Wednesday saying it removed Rittenhouse’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and that it had no evidence suggesting he followed the Kenosha Guard page or was invited to the event posting.
The company added that it “took action against organizations and content related to Kenosha,” including removing the Kenosha Guard page and content that praises or supports the shootings or Rittenhouse. And Facebook said it continues to remove content that violates its policies against posts or pages that advocate for violence during protests.
Rittenhouse faces two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide, among other charges. His attorneys have arguedthat he was only trying to protect an auto shop from looting and opened fire in self-defense after Rosenbaum tried to take his gun, Huber hit him in the head with a skateboard and Grosskreutz tried to take his gun.
The three officers who were at the scene when Blake was shot were placed on paid administrative leave while the state Department of Justice oversees an investigation into whether any of them should face charges.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Facebook can’t be trusted to enforce its ban on violent rhetoric in the run-up to the November elections, as is evident by its refusal to remove a group’s call to arms to protect businesses in Kenosha last month before a night of unrest in which two protesters were shot and killed, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed by the partner of one of the slain men, two protesters and a journalist warns that militias will continue to use Facebook to incite violence if President Donald Trump loses the Nov. 3 election but refuses to leave office. The suit seeks a court order that would force the social media giant to remove posts calling for violence as well as posts by militia groups and hate groups.
It also seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiffs, who say they were traumatized by their interactions with the armed men who turned up at the protests over the Aug. 23 shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer. The officer shot Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Cellphone video of the shooting sparked several nights of protests and unrest, leading the governor to call in the National Guard.
“Facebook’s inaction led to the death of two protesters, in addition to the harm suffered by Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit states. “The enabling and empowering of militias to conspire with its platform and tools allows white supremacist groups to recruit, organize, and thrive, while Facebook continues to profit from their activities, and those who fight for social justice continue to die.”
Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old police admirer from nearby Antioch, Illinois, has been charged with gunning down protesters Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and wounding a third man, Gage Grosskreutz, on the night of Aug. 25.
According to the lawsuit, a militia group calling itself the Kenosha Guard put out a call on its Facebook page for armed people to guard property in the city, which sits along Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago. Among those who took up the call was Rittenhouse, according to the suit.
“Armed and ready. Shoot to kill tonight,” a respondent commented on the post. “Ditto!” replied another.
The plaintiffs, citing a Buzzfeed story, argue that Facebook received more than 400 complaints about the post but that the company’s content moderators conducted several reviews and decided the post didn’t violate Facebook’s anti-violence policies. The Kenosha Guard removed its post the day after the shootings and Facebook took down the militia group’s entire page later that day, Buzzfeed reported.
The plaintiffs include Hannah Gittings, who describes herself as Huber’s life partner. She said she watched Huber die and suffered threats and insults from members of the Kenosha Guard and the Boogaloo Bois, an anti-government extremist group. Some of them pointed their guns at her, the lawsuit alleges.
Another plaintiff, Christopher McNeal, is Black and was confronted, commanded, assaulted and harassed by militia, according to the lawsuit. A third plaintiff, a Black woman named Carmen Palmer, says she traveled to the protest with her children and that militia members threatened her, sprayed her with pepper spray and slashed her group’s tires. The fourth plaintiff is Nathan Peet, a freelance journalist who says he tried to help Rosenbaum after he was shot but that his efforts were hampered by militia who “corralled” protesters following the shooting.
“The planning and preparation exhibited in this (Kenosha Guard) post led to Plaintiffs and other protesters being terrorized, assaulted, harassed, and placed in so much fear when facing the business end of military grade assault rifles that they determined it was too dangerous to continue to protest,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also alleges that Facebook allowed a post to remain on its site for weeks calling on people to join the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a white nationalist drove his car into her group.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for allowing the Kenosha Guard’s post, calling it an “operational mistake,” the lawsuit said.
The company issued a statement Wednesday saying it removed Rittenhouse’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and that it had no evidence suggesting he followed the Kenosha Guard page or was invited to the event posting.
The company added that it “took action against organizations and content related to Kenosha,” including removing the Kenosha Guard page and content that praises or supports the shootings or Rittenhouse. And Facebook said it continues to remove content that violates its policies against posts or pages that advocate for violence during protests.
Rittenhouse faces two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide, among other charges. His attorneys have arguedthat he was only trying to protect an auto shop from looting and opened fire in self-defense after Rosenbaum tried to take his gun, Huber hit him in the head with a skateboard and Grosskreutz tried to take his gun.
The three officers who were at the scene when Blake was shot were placed on paid administrative leave while the state Department of Justice oversees an investigation into whether any of them should face charges.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/riots-shootings-wisconsin-archive-kenosha-76104678645cc0e1f717f5d93ff427f7
The way lawyers for Kyle Rittenhouse tell it, he wasn’t just a scared teenager acting in self-defense when he shot to death two Kenosha, Wisconsin, protesters. He was a courageous defender of liberty, a patriot exercising his right to bear arms amid rioting in the streets.
“A 17-year-old citizen is being sacrificed by politicians, but it’s not Kyle Rittenhouse they are after. Their end game is to strip away the constitutional right of all citizens to defend our communities,” says the voice-over at the end of a video released this week by a group tied to Rittenhouse’s legal team.
“Kyle Rittenhouse will go down in American history alongside that brave unknown patriot ... who fired ‘The Shot Heard Round the World,”’ lead attorney John Pierce wrote this month in a tweet he later deleted. “A Second American Revolution against Tyranny has begun.”
But such dramatic rhetoric that has helped raise nearly $2 million for Rittenhouse’s defense may not work with a jury considering charges that could put the teen in prison for life. Legal experts say there could be big risks in turning a fairly straightforward self-defense case into a fight for freedom that mirrors the law-and-order reelection theme President Donald Trump has struck amid a wave of protests over racial injustice.
“They’re playing to his most negative characteristics and stereotypes, what his critics want to perceive him as — a crazy militia member out to cause harm and start a revolution,” said Robert Barnes, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney.
Rittenhouse’s high-profile defense and fund-raising teams, led by Los Angeles-based Pierce and Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, respectively, refused to speak to The Associated Press about their strategy ahead of the teen’s next court appearance Friday, a hearing in Illinois on whether to return him to Wisconsin.
But in a TV appearance and a blizzard of social media posts, they doubled down on the hero theme, describing Kenosha as a “war zone” and the young shooter as an “American patriot” and a “shining symbol of the American fighting spirit.”
“This is the sacred ground in Kenosha where a 17-year old child became a Minuteman and said ‘Not on My Watch,’” Pierce tweeted above a photo of the city where rioters burned and looted just days before.
Eric Creizman, a former partner at Pierce’s firm, said the heated language in the tweets is not surprising because of his former boss’ tendency toward hyperbole, though he wonders if it will backfire.
“The question really should focus on whether this guy is guilty of what they’re charging him with,” he said, “instead of making it into a political issue.”
One politically charged tactic critics have attacked as a longshot is Pierce’s promise to fight a charge of underage firearm possession, a misdemeanor, by arguing U.S. law allows for an “unorganized militia.” Rittenhouse wielded a semi-automatic rifle.
Some experts have even questioned whether the teenager’s team of four attorneys will hold back from making a plea bargain out of fear of disrupting the patriotic narrative and disappointing donors.
There is a temptation to shape court arguments to “keep the money flowing while the battle is ongoing,” said Richard Cayo, a Milwaukee attorney who helps other lawyers in ethics cases. “It puts lawyers at risk of trying to serve two masters.”
Both Pierce and Wood have ties to Trump’s orbit and his brand of GOP politics, though it’s not clear if that played any role in their involvement in Rittenhouse’s case and how it is being handled. For his part, Trump has made statements appearing to support Rittenhouse’s claim of self-defense, saying the young man “probably would have been killed.”
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani hired Pierce’s firm late last year when he was reportedly under investigation for possibly breaking lobbying laws for his work in Ukraine for the president, as did Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, former Trump advisers caught up in the Russia investigation.
Wood, a defamation lawyer who represented falsely accused security guard Richard Jewell in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, is also a lawyer for Sean Hannity, the Fox News host with close ties to Trump.
And Wood made headlines recently representing Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teen in the “Make America Great Again” hat, in his lawsuits against news organizations over their coverage of his faceoff with an American Indian protester in Washington last year.
Both attorneys moved quickly after Rittenhouse was arrested in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, two days after the Aug. 25 shootings that came amid raucous protests in Kenosha over the police shooting that paralyzed a Black man, Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse, who is white, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of two white protesters and attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third.
Pierce flew to Illinois to meet Rittenhouse and his family that same day, according to his tweets, which included appeals for donations to the #FightBack Foundation that was started with Wood a few weeks earlier to fund lawsuits aimed at the “lies” of the “radical left.”
In Pierce’s telling on a Fox News appearance and an 11-minute #FightBack Foundation documentary, the real Rittenhouse is not the wild-eyed vigilante critics have painted him. He is instead portrayed as a model citizen who had just gotten off his shift as lifeguard and was cleaning graffiti from a vandalized high school before he received word from a business owner seeking help to protect what was left of his property after rioters had burned two of his other buildings.
According to prosecutors, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after the protester threw a plastic bag at the teenager, missing him.
But to Pierce, the situation was far more dire. Rosenbaum was the head of a “mob that had become enraged” at the sight of Rittenhouse trying to put out a fire set by arsonists and decided to chase after him, “relentlessly hunting him as prey.” Rittenhouse, in Pierce’s telling, fired only after Rosenbaum began to “assault him from behind” and attempted to take his rifle away.
“I just killed somebody,” Rittenhouse says into his cellphone, according to the complaint filed by prosecutors, as he starts running and several people give chase. “Beat him up!” one person in the crowd says. Another yells, “Get him! Get that dude!”
What happened next, as Pierce put it in a statement, were a series of clear signs captured on cellphone video that Rittenhouse was in possible mortal danger.
A man strikes Rittenhouse as he runs down the street from a mob. Rittenhouse falls to the ground and another protester kicks him. Back on his feet and a bit farther down the street, he is struck by a skateboard. He shoots, killing the man with the skateboard, Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding a third person holding a handgun, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he wouldn’t be surprised if the patriotic language that has wooed online donors were eventually be abandoned for the most obvious defense, that “Rittenhouse was a confused kid who got in over his head.”
Still, Turley said, those who give the most tend to gravitate to the extremes of the political spectrum.
“There is danger that social media campaigns can alter your narrative,” he said.
The way lawyers for Kyle Rittenhouse tell it, he wasn’t just a scared teenager acting in self-defense when he shot to death two Kenosha, Wisconsin, protesters. He was a courageous defender of liberty, a patriot exercising his right to bear arms amid rioting in the streets.
“A 17-year-old citizen is being sacrificed by politicians, but it’s not Kyle Rittenhouse they are after. Their end game is to strip away the constitutional right of all citizens to defend our communities,” says the voice-over at the end of a video released this week by a group tied to Rittenhouse’s legal team.
“Kyle Rittenhouse will go down in American history alongside that brave unknown patriot ... who fired ‘The Shot Heard Round the World,”’ lead attorney John Pierce wrote this month in a tweet he later deleted. “A Second American Revolution against Tyranny has begun.”
But such dramatic rhetoric that has helped raise nearly $2 million for Rittenhouse’s defense may not work with a jury considering charges that could put the teen in prison for life. Legal experts say there could be big risks in turning a fairly straightforward self-defense case into a fight for freedom that mirrors the law-and-order reelection theme President Donald Trump has struck amid a wave of protests over racial injustice.
“They’re playing to his most negative characteristics and stereotypes, what his critics want to perceive him as — a crazy militia member out to cause harm and start a revolution,” said Robert Barnes, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney.
Rittenhouse’s high-profile defense and fund-raising teams, led by Los Angeles-based Pierce and Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, respectively, refused to speak to The Associated Press about their strategy ahead of the teen’s next court appearance Friday, a hearing in Illinois on whether to return him to Wisconsin.
But in a TV appearance and a blizzard of social media posts, they doubled down on the hero theme, describing Kenosha as a “war zone” and the young shooter as an “American patriot” and a “shining symbol of the American fighting spirit.”
“This is the sacred ground in Kenosha where a 17-year old child became a Minuteman and said ‘Not on My Watch,’” Pierce tweeted above a photo of the city where rioters burned and looted just days before.
Eric Creizman, a former partner at Pierce’s firm, said the heated language in the tweets is not surprising because of his former boss’ tendency toward hyperbole, though he wonders if it will backfire.
“The question really should focus on whether this guy is guilty of what they’re charging him with,” he said, “instead of making it into a political issue.”
One politically charged tactic critics have attacked as a longshot is Pierce’s promise to fight a charge of underage firearm possession, a misdemeanor, by arguing U.S. law allows for an “unorganized militia.” Rittenhouse wielded a semi-automatic rifle.
Some experts have even questioned whether the teenager’s team of four attorneys will hold back from making a plea bargain out of fear of disrupting the patriotic narrative and disappointing donors.
There is a temptation to shape court arguments to “keep the money flowing while the battle is ongoing,” said Richard Cayo, a Milwaukee attorney who helps other lawyers in ethics cases. “It puts lawyers at risk of trying to serve two masters.”
Both Pierce and Wood have ties to Trump’s orbit and his brand of GOP politics, though it’s not clear if that played any role in their involvement in Rittenhouse’s case and how it is being handled. For his part, Trump has made statements appearing to support Rittenhouse’s claim of self-defense, saying the young man “probably would have been killed.”
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani hired Pierce’s firm late last year when he was reportedly under investigation for possibly breaking lobbying laws for his work in Ukraine for the president, as did Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, former Trump advisers caught up in the Russia investigation.
Wood, a defamation lawyer who represented falsely accused security guard Richard Jewell in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, is also a lawyer for Sean Hannity, the Fox News host with close ties to Trump.
And Wood made headlines recently representing Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teen in the “Make America Great Again” hat, in his lawsuits against news organizations over their coverage of his faceoff with an American Indian protester in Washington last year.
Both attorneys moved quickly after Rittenhouse was arrested in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, two days after the Aug. 25 shootings that came amid raucous protests in Kenosha over the police shooting that paralyzed a Black man, Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse, who is white, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of two white protesters and attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third.
Pierce flew to Illinois to meet Rittenhouse and his family that same day, according to his tweets, which included appeals for donations to the #FightBack Foundation that was started with Wood a few weeks earlier to fund lawsuits aimed at the “lies” of the “radical left.”
In Pierce’s telling on a Fox News appearance and an 11-minute #FightBack Foundation documentary, the real Rittenhouse is not the wild-eyed vigilante critics have painted him. He is instead portrayed as a model citizen who had just gotten off his shift as lifeguard and was cleaning graffiti from a vandalized high school before he received word from a business owner seeking help to protect what was left of his property after rioters had burned two of his other buildings.
According to prosecutors, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after the protester threw a plastic bag at the teenager, missing him.
But to Pierce, the situation was far more dire. Rosenbaum was the head of a “mob that had become enraged” at the sight of Rittenhouse trying to put out a fire set by arsonists and decided to chase after him, “relentlessly hunting him as prey.” Rittenhouse, in Pierce’s telling, fired only after Rosenbaum began to “assault him from behind” and attempted to take his rifle away.
“I just killed somebody,” Rittenhouse says into his cellphone, according to the complaint filed by prosecutors, as he starts running and several people give chase. “Beat him up!” one person in the crowd says. Another yells, “Get him! Get that dude!”
What happened next, as Pierce put it in a statement, were a series of clear signs captured on cellphone video that Rittenhouse was in possible mortal danger.
A man strikes Rittenhouse as he runs down the street from a mob. Rittenhouse falls to the ground and another protester kicks him. Back on his feet and a bit farther down the street, he is struck by a skateboard. He shoots, killing the man with the skateboard, Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding a third person holding a handgun, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he wouldn’t be surprised if the patriotic language that has wooed online donors were eventually be abandoned for the most obvious defense, that “Rittenhouse was a confused kid who got in over his head.”
Still, Turley said, those who give the most tend to gravitate to the extremes of the political spectrum.
“There is danger that social media campaigns can alter your narrative,” he said.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
From the AP article below Sipe is identified in court papers as a homeless ex-Marine who has schizophrenia.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/portland-protests-prosecutors-decline-attempted-murder-charge-against-molotov-cocktail-suspect.html
I found his name in another article from Oregon a couple years back where (I'm guessing it is him) he witnesses a man getting ran over repeatedly:
"Several people witnessed the ordeal, including Joseph Sipe.
Sipe told FOX 12 he is acquainted with both Meyer and Shwartz
Sipe said he was hanging out with Shwartz outside the 7-Eleven, when Meyer pulled up in his truck, looking for a fight and blood.
“He’s like, ‘I’ve already tried to kill you one time, and I’m going to do it again – and this time, I’m going to make it final,’” Sipe said of Meyer. “He hit (him) pulling in, he pulled out here, wiped around, came over 82nd from Otty and shot back at the entrance over there revving up his engine real hard and full-throttled it, and just smashed him –(I saw Shwartz) rolling up under the car."
“I was trying to save him, even if it meant hurting myself,” Sipe added. “The dude comes backing up to re-run over him and he hits me in the knee and I’m like, okay, I’m going to back up because this dude evidently looks like he’s trying to murder this man right here.”
Deputies said despite his injuries, Shwartz was able to talk to investigators about what happened from his hospital bed.
“He had a big old gash here on his lip, his whole side of his head split -- it was bleeding pretty bad -- his leg, you could tell was obviously broke,” Sipe said."
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-oregon-racial-injustice-louisville-kentucky-a06bce0496b0913abcfd3c54d1aaf916
"Those arrested included a 23-year-old man who was charged Thursday with riot and unlawful possession of a destructive device. A probable cause affidavit filed Thursday in court says a police officer saw Joseph Robert Sipe light the firebomb’s wick and throw it.
Sipe later said he had tossed the lighted device behind the police line as it advanced, according to the affidavit.
Sipe is identified in court papers as a homeless ex-Marine who has schizophrenia. His public defender, Grant Hartley, didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
Two other individuals were charged Thursday with squirting accelerant on barricaded doors at the police headquarters, throwing a firebomb that didn’t explode and throwing rocks at windows. The prosecutor said in a news release that an unidentified person dropped a backpack of rocks in the middle of the protest and people started throwing them.
The protesters Wednesday joined demonstrators around the U.S. who were enraged that a grand jury didn’t indict officers in the shooting of Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death in her Louisville home by officers conducting a drug investigation.
Police said protesters hurled three firebombs — also known as Molotov cocktails — at officers and threw rocks that shattered windows at a law enforcement precinct station. One officer was hit in the foot by one of the firebombs and a fire department medic put out the flames. "
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/25/breonna-taylor-protest-scott-arrest/
As the only Black female representative in the Kentucky Capitol, state Rep. Attica Scott (D) took action after the death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police raiding her home in March. In August, Scott proposed Breonna’s Law, a bill that would end no-knock warrants statewide. And when a grand jury decided not to indict the officers in Taylor’s death, Scott joined hundreds of protesters in the streets of Louisville.
On Thursday night, Louisville police arrested Scott along with a handful of other protesters near First Unitarian Church and the Louisville Free Public Library, which had allegedly been set on fire, according to a police report reviewed by WAVE. The state representative received a felony charge of first-degree rioting and two misdemeanors for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. The paper reported Scott was released from jail Friday morning.
Louisville police arrested at least 24 people Thursday night, the department said in a Facebook post. In a news conference on Thursday, interim police chief Robert Schroeder said authorities arrested 127 people on Wednesday night.
The protests began on Wednesday after the three officers involved in the Taylor’s fatal shooting were not indicted in her death. A grand jury in Jefferson County, Ky., instead indicted Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police detective who was fired in June, with three charges of wanton endangerment in the first degree. The verdict meant the former detective endangered the lives of Taylor’s neighbors by firing the rounds.
The verdict came as a blow to activists and protesters, who have spent months demanding that the officers who fired on Taylor be charged in her death.
Scott has been among the loudest political voices in Kentucky calling for police accountability. In an interview with NPR this week, she said that justice “is hardly ever served when it’s police officers murdering Black people.”
“Our call to action is to continue to make sure that the city of Louisville understands that we will not go away, that we will continue to demand the defunding of police and the dismantling of this police department because it’s corrupt from the inside out, from the bottom to the top,” Scott added. “And it cannot continue to function in the way that it does.”
Scott, who has been a state representative since 2017, pre-filed a bill to end no-knock search warrants on Aug. 16. “Breonna’s Law,” which would force police to knock and verbally announce themselves, also requires a judge to approve the use of violent entry when issuing the warrant. Additionally, officers would have to activate their body cameras when serving the warrant.
“Five minutes before you serve that warrant, and five minutes after, those body cameras better be on,” Scott said when announcing the bill in August.
Scott also included a provision that police must be screened for drug and alcohol following a deadly incident or after firing their gun while on duty.
“Frankly, I’m surprised this is not already standard operating procedure,” Scott said in a news release announcing the bill.
It is unclear if, or when, the Kentucky House will vote on “Breonna’s Law.”
Two months before Scott brought the legislation to the state level, Louisville city council unanimously voted to ban no-knock warrants.
“The bill that I have filed, Breonna’s Law for Kentucky, has to pass,” Scott said to NPR. “It has to pass so that what happened in the case of Breonna Taylor does not happen again — that we have to get policy change because this system will not change unless the policies reflect what the people are demanding.”
farmingfisherman
Well-Known Member
Scary shit..
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/breonna-taylor-race-and-ethnicity-shootings-police-law-and-order-d1050fda1457cbf120723a9c78904913
(note: I think that Michael Moore, like many in his demographic got radicalized while online too, and is spreading propaganda too much to trust as a source now. Also that his best work was Bowling for Columbine and prior, Roger and Me especially)
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/a-brief-history-of-pro-gun-rallies-at-sites-of-mass-shooting-628181/
I just hope that people can understand how easy it is to find some homeless person to use as a scape goat for these potential domestic terrorists to give the goons a 'reason' to retaliate.
Is it just me or has Trump/Right wing rallies taken the place of the NRA trolling of victims of gun violence of the past?
(note: I think that Michael Moore, like many in his demographic got radicalized while online too, and is spreading propaganda too much to trust as a source now. Also that his best work was Bowling for Columbine and prior, Roger and Me especially)
I just hope that people can understand how easy it is to find some homeless person to use as a scape goat for these potential domestic terrorists to give the goons a 'reason' to retaliate.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Police arrested three people at a right-wing rally Saturday afternoon in Portland, Oregon, and authorities say they’re also investigating an assault after one person who was documenting the event was pushed to the ground and kicked in the face.
Several hundred people, dozens of them wearing militarized body armor, had gathered — far fewer than the 10,000 organizers had expected to show to support President Donald Trump and his “law and order” reelection campaign as tensions boil over nationwide following the decision not to charge officers in Louisville, Kentucky, for killing Breonna Taylor.
The event began at noon and was largely dispersed by 3 p.m. The Oregon Department of Transportation shut down the interstate highway for a brief time to help control the crowd and flow of traffic.
“The purpose of this closure was to clear some people out of the area who wanted to leave and to keep competing groups separate,” said Chris Liedle, a spokesman with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, in updates posted on Twitter as the city braced for the threat of violence at multiple rallies in the area.
The people arrested include a man suspected of driving under the influence and a woman for an outstanding arrest warrant, Liedle said.
Dozens began to show up two hours before the rally, some packed into the beds of pickup trucks. Many were wearing some sort of militarized body armor, including helmets and protective vests. Many flew American flags or black flags bearing the logo of the Three Percenters, another far-right group and some wore Make America Great Again hats.
The Proud Boys, a group that has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, described it as a free speech event to support Trump and the police, restore law and order and condemn anti-fascists, “domestic terrorism” and “violent gangs of rioting felons” in the streets. Local and state elected officials forcefully condemned the event and rushed to shore up law enforcement ranks as left-wing groups organized several rallies to oppose the Proud Boys’ message.
TJ Detweiler, who works in construction and plumbing, said at the rally that he wanted to end domestic terrorism in the U.S.
“I would like to see people stop the looting and rioting and enjoy the country for what rights we have,” Detweiler said.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Friday said she was sending state troopers to help the Portland police and was creating a unified command structure among city, regional and state law enforcement — a tactic that essentially circumvents a city ban on the use of tear gas as a crowd-control measure. The state police said a “massive influx” of troopers would be in Portland by Saturday morning.
“This is a critical moment. We have seen what happens when armed vigilantes take matters into their own hands. We’ve seen it in Charlottesville, we’ve seen it in Kenosha and, unfortunately, we have seen it in Portland,” she said, referencing deaths in Virginia, Wisconsin and Oregon during clashes between those on the right and left of the political spectrum.
“The Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer groups have come time and time again looking for a fight, and the results are always tragic,” said Brown, a Democrat. “Let me be perfectly clear, we will not tolerate any type of violence this weekend.”
The Proud Boys are self-described “Western chauvinists” and they have held multiple events in Portland since Trump’s election alongside other right-wing groups such as Patriot Prayer that often end in violent clashes with left-wing counter-demonstrators.
Last month, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a Trump supporter and Patriot Prayer follower, was shot and killed after some vehicles in a pro-Trump car caravan diverted into downtown Portland and crossed paths with left-wing activists. The suspect in the shooting, a self-described anti-fascist, was killed the following week by law enforcement as they tried to arrest him in Washington state.
The Proud Boys mentioned Danielson in their permit application, as well as Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Some attending Saturday’s rally carried signs that said “Free Kyle Now.” The permit application had estimated 10,000 people would attend.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys have said he was acting in self-defense. The Proud Boys raised the specter of a vigilante response to the actions of a “mob” in a permit application filed with the city this week.
“Portland leadership is unwilling to stop the violence,” the Proud Boys wrote in the application. “They have been blinded by their hatred of our President and will not allow outside help stopping the violence.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the city and its police force did not need or want help from “paramilitaries or vigilante groups.”
Police have canceled all scheduled days off for officers Saturday and will primarily be focused on keeping dueling groups of protesters separated.
Deputy Chief Chris Davis acknowledged that Oregon is an open-carry state for firearms. But he reminded those attending the rally and counter-demonstrations that under Portland law, it’s illegal to carry a loaded firearm in public without an Oregon concealed handgun permit. Officers will patrol for weapons and check for permits as needed, he said.
“We ask that you come peacefully and engage in your free speech peacefully,” Police Chief Chuck Lovell said. “It’s OK for us to disagree about things. But at the end of the day, doing so peacefully, letting people exercise their rights safely is very important. So that’s my ask the folks who are attending.”
The rally comes as Portland approaches its fifth month of almost nightly protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
Demonstrators want the city to take millions from the police budget and reallocate it to support the Black community. Some also are angry with the mayor — who is also the police commissioner — for allowing police to use tear gas until recently and for what they call overly aggressive police tactics. Wheeler has also refused to cede control of the police bureau to a Black city councilwoman with a decades-long resume of activism around police reform.
Mix in a whole lot of telling people how 'the libs' feel about what they do and don't forget about Dear Leader. People should not listen to other people telling them what to feel about 'them'.
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An organizer of a Southern California demonstration against racism was in jail Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder after authorities say she drove through a crowd and struck two counterprotesters.
Tatiana Turner, 40, was arrested Saturday in Yorba Linda after speeding from a parking lot when her car was surrounded by shouting counterprotesters who had been ordered by police to leave the area.
Anthony Bryson, who helped Turner plan the event for the Urban Organizers Coalition, said an angry mob had surrounded Turner and wouldn’t let her leave the lot.
“People had broken her windshield,” Bryson told The Associated Press. “She was trying to leave. She was in fear for her life.”
About 150 people in Turner’s group had been protesting police brutality and systemic racism at the Yorba Linda library about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles when a group of counterprotesters, began to grow on the other side of Imperial Highway.
The two groups initially stayed apart, as authorities requested, but the counterprotesters then crossed the six-lane highway and confronted the racial justice group.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department declared an unlawful assembly and told the groups, estimated at 250 people total, to leave after fights were reported and some people were said to be carrying weapons. One person pepper-sprayed another protester and one man was arrested for disobeying the order to leave, police said.
Video of the incident shows loud protesters, some waving American flags and a Trump 2020 banner, around Turner’s white car as she accelerates away. Her rear window shatters as she drives away and dozens of people give chase.
A man, who had both legs broken, and a woman with moderate injuries were hospitalized, authorities said.
Turner is being held on $1 million bail and expected to appear in court Tuesday, according to a county website. It was not immediately known if she had a lawyer.
The city of Yorba Linda does not require a permit to demonstrate for crowds smaller than 500 people and neither had a permit, sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun said. Bryson said the group had been in discussions with police and the Yorba Linda mayor in advance.
The protest came three days after an Orange County deputy in San Clemente shot and killed a Black homeless man. The sheriff released a video that he said showed the man grabbing for the officer’s weapon.
The collision was one of several around the nation involving protesters, including one that happened Thursday in Los Angeles.
A woman protesting police brutality was struck by a pickup truck during a march in Hollywood and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Los Angeles police said Friday the preliminary investigation found that the driver was attempting to maneuver through the crowd when protesters began beating the vehicle with sticks.
The driver stopped several blocks away and cooperated with officers. He was released pending the outcome of the investigation.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Attachments
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
You really should stop listening to the lies propagandists are sending your way if you are not another in the long line of propagandist trolls spamming this website.
Black Lives Matter founders, two of three are Marxists.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Who gives a shit about the people who coined the name that this movement took on.
We now have information that the Russian military have been pushing bullshit 'branding' on these movements since at least 2014.
It doesn't change what these movements are about, nor that they are vastly peaceful protests with some domestic terrorists triggereed by whatever online propaganda cult they fell into thanks to Trump's allowing the Russian military to continue spamming us unchecked.