Tag: Crime & Punishment

Closing Thought–17May21

I have made my thoughts known on what the penalty should be for anyone one that entered the Capitol by force….that being jail time and a huge fine…not one or the other…. both.

More than 450 people have been charged with federal crimes since supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden as president.

I have written about the ‘deals’ that will be offered to most of the people arrested…..

Insurrection Good News/Bad News

Over four months later, only two rioters have pleaded guilty in court.

The first of the insurrectionists has been charged…..

Capitol insurrection guilty pleas

Name Accepted charges Notes
Jared Adams Entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building  
Jon Schaffer Obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon Guitarist for the heavy metal band, Iced Earth

https://www.insider.com/capitol-rioters-who-pleaded-guilty-updated-list-2021-5

I have offered my opinion on what should be done with these people awaiting trial…..can you say Gitmo?

Plus I want to see the trial of the leaders on TV and make a big deal out of their treachery as they did with the Chicago 7…..

In case you are unaware of the trial……https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-chicago-seven-go-on-trial

Treat these societal slugs as the parasite they truly are……

I will be watching this situation and posting on the slugs and their punishment.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Baby Dies

Some sad news for the weekend.

Here on the Coast we have had a horrific high speed chase that ends with driver shot and killed as well as a baby he had in the vehicle.

The chase started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a double murder and the suspected perp went on the lame with a 4 month old baby…..along I-10 that ended in Harrison county Mississippi.

East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputies responded around 11:30 a.m. to 911 hang-up call from the 2000 block of Richmond Street in Baker. Smith’s ex-girlfriend lives at the address.

When deputies got to the home, they found the shooting victims, identified by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office as Christin Parker, 32, and her nephew, Brandon Parker, 26.

Smith left the home in a blue Nissan Altima and had the 4-month-old baby with him.

The top priority for Louisiana authorities was to locate the child unharmed, so they immediately released details of the incident to the public.

Biloxi police are handling the investigation into Smith’s death because the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Gulfport Police Department and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office took part in the chase.

The baby has died from wounds sustained in the “shoot out”…..

After a baby was killed in an alleged shootout with police on the interstate Monday, many in South Mississippi have questions about police protocol and policies related to use of force.

Law enforcement chased a double-homicide suspect, Eric Derrell Smith, after he was spotted on the interstate in Mississippi. Smith’s 4-month-old baby boy was in the blue Nissan Altima with him.

After officers deployed spike strips, Smith kept driving at a speed as low as 10 miles per hour. Then, when Smith’s car got stuck in the interstate median, officers fired a barrage of bullets into the vehicle.

 
The story goes that there were 20-35 shots fired into the car…..the perp was killed and the baby did as well from a gunshot wound…
A coroner’s report says a 4-month-old died from a gunshot wound after his father was killed by police, though officials won’t say how the baby was shot. 
 
The autopsy report released Wednesday did not say where on his body the child was shot. It’s still unclear who fired the bullet.
 
This was the use of deadly force and a hostage situation….and yet many shots were fired into the car with apparently no concern for the safety of the baby.
 
The article above has the rules for the use of deadly force from the local law enforcement…..all responded (read the rules for yourself)….that with the exception from the county where I reside, Harrison,….they rejected the request for clarification.
 
Why was that?
 
Do they not have a set of rules or do they fear scrutiny?
 
Just another incident of “shoot first and cover ass later”…..
 
This is a tragedy that could have turned out better for the baby.
 
Now these troopers have to live with the fact that their trigger finger killed an incident by-stander.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

End Qualified Immunity!

We have new legislation on police reform and part of that bill wants to end ‘qualified immunity’….but is this situation really?

Qualified immunity is a type of legal immunity. “Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably.”

Specifically, qualified immunity protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff‘s rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right. When determining whether or not a right was “clearly established,” courts consider whether a hypothetical reasonable official would have known that the defendant’s conduct violated the plaintiff’s rights. Courts conducting this analysis apply the law that was in force at the time of the alleged violation, not the law in effect when the court considers the case.

Qualified immunity only applies to suits against government officials as individuals, not suits against the government for damages caused by the officials’ actions. Although qualified immunity frequently appears in cases involving police officers, it also applies to most other executive branch officials. While judges, prosecutors, legislators, and some other government officials do not receive qualified immunity, most are protected by other immunity doctrines.

in short this statue protects these offenders from being held accountable for their actions.

Here are a few examples of this situation….

Here’s a list from USA Today of outrageous examples where qualified immunity has recently shielded reckless government officials from accountability: 

  • Officers who stole $225,000.
  • A cop who shot a 10-year-old while trying to shoot a nonthreatening family dog.
  • Prison officials who locked an inmate in a sewage-flooded cell for days.
  • SWAT team members who fired gas grenades into an innocent woman’s empty home.
  • Medical board officials who rifled through a doctor’s client files without a warrant.
  • County officials who held a 14-year-old in pretrial solitary confinement for over a month.
  • A cop who body-slammed a 5-foot-tall woman for walking away from him.
  • Police who picked up a mentally infirmed man, drove him to the county line and dropped him off at dusk along the highway, where he was later struck and killed by a motorist.

If an individual, a civilian, committed any of these offenses then the rule of law applies…..but not when the individual wears a uniform.

But not to fear these offenders will still be shielded from accountability for the bill will not be sent out of Congress for the president’s signature……

A compromise to the portion of the bill on “immunity” has been offered by GOP senator Tim Scott……“Scott, who has served as the Republican leader on police reform talks, is suggesting that the doctrine be pulled back for law enforcement and that liability shift from individual cops to the departments that employ them.”

This proposal still does not punish the individual just shifts it to his/her employer….the individual still walks on the offenses they commit.

This is unacceptable!

If I am personally responsible for my actions then the individual cop should as well….this will do little to correct the culture of violence by the police.

I can see the Dems caving to this proposal so that bi-partisanship can be claimed….and once again the Dems will illustrate that they have no spine.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember Gitmo?

NO?

It is a US prison on the island nation of Cuba.

Right now it is solely used as punishment for those accused of being “terrorists”.

Some are calling for the prison to close…..

The Guantánamo conundrum never seems to end.

Twelve years ago, I had other expectations. I envisioned a writing project that I had no doubt would be part of my future: an account of Guantánamo’s last 100 days. I expected to narrate in reverse, the episodes in a book I had just published, The Least Worst Place: Guantánamo’s First 100 Days, about—well, the title makes it all too obvious—the initial days at that grim offshore prison. They began on January 11, 2002, as the first hooded prisoners of the American war on terror were ushered off a plane at that American military base on the island of Cuba.

Needless to say, I never did write that book. Sadly enough, in the intervening years, there were few signs on the horizon of an imminent closing of that U.S. military prison. Weeks before my book was published in February 2009, President Barack Obama did, in fact, promise to close Guantánamo by the end of his first year in the White House. That hope began to unravel with remarkable speed. By the end of his presidency, his administration had, in fact, managed to release 197 of the prisoners held there without charges—many, including Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the subject of the film The Mauritanian, had also been tortured—but 41 remained, including the five men accused but not yet tried for plotting the 9/11 attacks. Forty remain there to this very day.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/04/will-americas-forever-offshore-prison-ever-be-closed

I say NO…..the prison should remain open and the convicted of the 06 January insurrection should be given the maximum and fine and prison time and be sent to Gitmo.

Since these cowards are traitors and terrorists what better place than Gitmo for them to serve their time and think about the treason they committed.

Since our domestic prison system is overcrowded the use Gitmo the prison infrastructure is already available.

Let Gitmo serve the purpose that we have come to know and hate.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Spotlight On Giuliani

I have never thought Rudy was all that even in the shadow of the Towers on 9/11….and my dislike only grew…..through his failed presidential fiasco and through the Trump years where to me he sounded like a babbling moron I always thought he was.

Now the DOJ has raided Rudy’s office on his dealings with Ukraine…apparently something may be a bit hinkey with his dealings…..

Federal investigators from the office Rudy Giuliani used to lead searched the former New York City mayor’s Manhattan apartment and Park Avenue office early Wednesday, sources tell numerous outlets. Insiders tell the New York Times that Giuliani’s electronic devices were seized in connection with an investigation of his dealings in Ukraine. Sources tell the Times and AP that the United States Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which Giuliani led from 1983 to 1989, pushed for a search warrant last year but the Justice Department under former President Trump refused to sign off on it. The AP reports that in doing so now, prosecutors are indicating they have probable cause that Giuliani committed a federal crime; that does not mean he will be charged. The Times calls it “an extraordinary move for prosecutors to take against a lawyer, let alone a lawyer for a former president.”

Giuliani lawyer Roberto Costello confirmed the searches to the Times, calling them unnecessary and “legal thuggery.” Giuliani has not been charged and he has denied wrongdoing, CNN reports. He hasn’t commented on the Wednesday search yet, but he has previously described the investigation as “pure political persecution.” The Times reports that investigators have been focusing on whether Giuliani illegally lobbied for the administration on behalf of Ukrainian oligarchs. Giuliani has longstanding connections in Ukraine and worked on behalf of Trump to try to dig up damaging information on President Biden and his son, Hunter. Two Soviet-born men who aided Giuliani’s investigation were arrested in the US in 2019 on campaign finance charges. Politico reports that investigators suspect Giuliani was paid for his efforts to persuade Trump to oust US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Sorry but all I have is …”could not happen to a more deserving slug”….he went form “America’s Mayor” to “America’s Court Jester”…the Fool On The Hill”.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

I’ve About Had Enough!

It seems that the American people have lots to say about the killings in routine traffic stops….lots to say…..but that is as far as it goes….talk and as the old saying goes ‘talk is cheap’.

This last trial as it was waiting a verdict another young black man was killed not 10 miles away from the courthouse….the verdict will change nothing….do you comprehend the term ‘NOTHING’?

All the words typed by me and others and all the words uttered by so-called pundit and experts means NOTHING….again does that word mean anything to you?

For example while I was typing this draft….

Body camera footage and 911 audio released late Friday appeared to show that an unidentified Virginia deputy mistook a cordless house phone held by a Black man for a gun before the deputy shot him repeatedly, per the AP. Family members said Isaiah Brown, 32, was in intensive care with 10 bullet wounds following the shooting outside a home in Spotsylvania County early Wednesday, WRC-TV reported. The body camera video shows the deputy arriving at the scene and yelling at Brown to show his hands. The deputy then yells, “drop the gun,” multiple times and appears to say over his radio, “he’s got a gun to his head.” The deputy then yells, “stop walking towards me, stop walking towards me” and “stop, stop” before firing at least seven shots.

The deputy had earlier given Brown a ride home after his car broke down. At some point later, 911 was called. Isaiah Brown is heard on the call saying his brother won’t let him into his mother’s room in the house. Brown then says, “alright, give me the gun” to which his brother is heard in the background saying, “no.” The dispatcher asks what’s going on, and Brown replied “I’m about to kill my brother.” The dispatcher says “don’t kill your brother,” and asks Brown multiple times if he’s armed. He says no. The deputy arrived shortly after and can be heard yelling at Brown on the 911 audio. After the shots are fired, the deputy is heard rendering aid to Brown and instructing the brother to get a first aid kit out of his patrol vehicle. It’s unclear whether the deputy knew Brown told the dispatcher he wasn’t armed. The deputy has been placed on administrative leave.

Nothing will change because the culture remains.

The police culture needs to change….not reformed…..reformed does nothing to prevent these types of killings from occurring……

Lots of ink has been given to the verdict and what it means.

It means that a murderer was convicted not an indictment of the police…..the police is the problem and no one wants to tackle the necessity for a cultural change.

Right now the story in the media is the verdict and the aftermath….but that will soon wane as the story line gets pushed off the front page so to speak.

But why is this festering cancer of police killings allowed to continue?

This article was written while the Chauvin trial was in process…..

Police officers have long disputed that they treat people of color differently based on race despite available historical, statistical and anecdotal evidence showing the opposite, as my colleague Perry Bacon Jr. reported last year. While we don’t have a ton of data on the political views of police officers, a 2016 survey from the Pew Research Center of 8,000 police officers nationwide found that 67 percent believed the deaths of Black people during police encounters were isolated incidents, compared with only 31 percent who saw it as signs of a broader problem. This was the exact opposite of how the general public felt: Thirty-nine percent of U.S. adults said they thought the killings were isolated incidents versus 60 percent who felt it was indicative of a broader problem. And Black Americans were even more likely than white Americans to say police killings were a sign of a broader problem, 79 percent to 54 percent. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found last year that nearly half of Black Americans — 48 percent — have very little to no confidence at all that local police treat Black and white people the same; just 12 percent of white Americans had the same view. 

The pressure on local lawmakers to enact lasting change is fleeting, depending on the news cycle and current events. Even at the height of calls for police reform, getting bills turned into laws takes time, said Rashawn Ray, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who studies police-civilian relation. Ray told me there was an uptick in calls for police-related reforms at both the local, state and federal levels after Floyd’s death since the Black Lives Matter movement became mainstream. “[Black Lives Matter] wasn’t a global movement in 2014,” he said, referring to the year Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. “People have become more aware of what’s happening. … The movement for Black lives and the attention to mistreatment by police has led to this moment.”

How Views On Black Lives Matter Have Changed — And Why That Makes Police Reform So Hard

Even if a federal law is passed (not going to happen in this Congress) there still leaves all the states and their states rights BS that need to change as well.

Will it?

Not in my lifetime.

If the people are not willing to force change….then maybe the best thing to do is STFU!

More reading for this subject…..

Is It Police Reform….Or Defund….Or Abolition?

Police Reform?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

From The ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files

We all know of the insurrection on 06 January 2021 and the search by law enforcement for some of the over-weight in-bred cowards that participated……they have even asked the public for their help identifying some of the culprits.

Well another coward has been identified this time on a dating site….

When a man on a dating app boasted about storming the Capitol, the woman he messaged told him, “We are not a match,” prosecutors say. She then got him a date with the FBI. According to court papers, upstate New York resident Robert Chapman chatted to the woman on the Bumble app a week after the Jan. 6 riot, saying, “I did storm the capitol. I made it all the way to Statuary Hall.” The woman shared the messages with law enforcement the same day and investigators found more evidence on social media, the Washington Post reports. Chapman was arrested Thursday and charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted government property, per NBC 4.

Investigators say they identified Chapman from police body camera footage after the tip from the Bumble user. Prosecutors say law enforcement also received tips about Chapman’s posts on social media, where he didn’t exactly cover his tracks—his Facebook profile picture was a selfie taken inside the Capitol, and another selfie was shared on a friend’s page, according to court documents. “My Dear friend and Brostar Robert made it in the Capitol building at the protest yesterday,” she wrote. “Wooo Hooooooooo!!!!” Authorities say Chapman was released on his own recognizance after a telehearing in federal court Thursday. The Post notes that soon after Chapman was reported, dating apps started banning users who shared images from the riot.

This macho little slug will get what he deserves.

I told you these lumps of crap were stupid….this guy proves my assertion.

Another fine example of how the rioters are swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool.

Another prime example of….’can’t fix stupid’…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Stop Showing Those Videos

I am writing this in opposition to an op-ed…..

Allissa Richardson writing for Vox stating that we need to stop showing the videos of killings of black/brown people by the police……

Allissa Richardson once thought videos showing police brutality would bring justice. Proving to everyone what people of color encounter with police would bring change. Richardson has changed her mind, she writes in an essay on Vox, after repeatedly seeing George Floyd die on television. The practice invites a victim’s last moments to be broken down by the public and a jury, then preserved online for viewing anytime, often without the family’s consent. Now she wonders why it ever seemed necessary to document the killings. “Why were Black and brown people forced to pre-litigate their own murder trials in this way?” she writes. “Why was it necessary to form a counternarrative to the old stereotype of Black and brown folks’ criminality? Why did we ever need to produce a parallel storyline to an official police report?”

The practice only reinforces white supremacy, Richardson writes, reminding everyone of the protections police officers are afforded and the fate of people of color who object to this social order. She calls for suspending the airing of the videos online and on TV unless the family agrees they can be shown. That could prompt journalists to look into the systemic issues leading to the deaths instead of the exact second when a 13-year-old about to be killed dropped a gun. If we believe people of color, we can eliminate the “need to play this game of video empathy before justice,” says Richardson, who teaches journalism at USC. “We have enough proof,” she writes. “We have enough pain. What we don’t have is reform.” You can read the full piece here.

As I stated in the beginning…..I disagree with the premise…..

I do not think that the outcome would have been the same without the video.

I will agree that the MSM does have a tendency to beat the viewer about the head with them…..and until there is more accountability for the violence and death committed by the police the videos are needed.

I would love your thoughts.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

The post is for all those that live under a rock.

The jury is in and the fate of Officer Chauvin is in!

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin learned his fate as a tense nation watched Tuesday. The jury found Chauvin guilty on all three counts he was charged with in the May 25 death of George Floyd—second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The most serious charge, second-degree murder, carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, NBC reports. The judge ordered Chauvin remanded to custody until a sentencing hearing in approximately eight weeks. The 45-year-old’s bail was immediately revoked and he was taken away in handcuffs, reports the AP.

Outside the heavily guarded court building in Minneapolis, there were cheers and chants of “All three counts” from the crowd as the verdicts were read, the New York Times reports. CNN reports that jurors deliberated for four hours after closing arguments were delivered Monday and resumed deliberations at 9am ET today. The court was notified Tuesday afternoon that they had reached a verdict.

Reactions of relief…..

Derek Chauvin showed little emotion as the three guilty verdicts against him in the death of George Floyd were read out Tuesday, but there was jubilation outside the Minneapolis court building. The AP reports that there were cheers among hundreds of people gathered in a nearby park and people flooded downtown streets, some waving banners as drivers honked their horns. Philonise Floyd, one of Floyd’s brothers, was in the courtroom and hugged prosecutor Jerry Blackwell, the Star Tribune reports. More:

  • “Painfully earned justice.” “Painfully earned justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family and the community here in Minneapolis, but today’s verdict goes far beyond this city and has significant implications for the country and even the world. Justice for Black America is justice for all of America,” Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said in a prepared statement after Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter. Crump said the verdict is “a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every city and every state.”
  • AG praises community members. CNN reports that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praised the “simple yet profound acts of courage” of those who recorded Chauvin putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. “What happened on that street was wrong,” Ellison said. “We owe them our gratitude for fulfilling their civic duty and for their courage in telling the truth.”
  • “One important step.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were among numerous leaders who welcomed the verdict but said much work remains to be done, the Washington Post reports. The verdict “won’t change the fact that George Floyd’s family has been rendered incomplete,” Walz said, but it “marks an important step in our pursuit of racial justice in Minneapolis—one important step on a much longer journey.”
  • Floyd’s girlfriend: “Thank God for this moment.” George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, called the decision a “moment to celebrate” before the fight for racial justice resumes, the Guardian reports. “Floyd was one man,” she said. “George Floyd is a movement.”
  • Police federation speaks out. “There are no winners in this case, and we respect the jury’s decision,” the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said in a statement after the former officer was found guilty, per the Star Tribune. “We need the political pandering to stop and the race-baiting of elected officials to stop.”

Even Pres. Biden has stepped up with a speech…..

The verdict against Derek Chauvin “can be a moment of significant change,” President Biden said in a White House speech Tuesday, hours after a jury found the former Minneapolis police officer guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. The Black man’s death “was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see” systemic racism and “the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans,” Biden said, per CNN. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and first lady Jill Biden called Floyd’s family moments after the verdict, reports the AP. “Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there is some justice,” he said in video of the call tweeted by attorney Ben Crump. “We’re all so relieved.”

Biden and Harris both urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, Politico reports. Biden described the decision in the Chauvin case as “much too rare” and said “it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors”—including bystander video of the killing and police willing to testify against a former officer—”for the judicial system to deliver a just, just basic accountability.” Chauvin will be sentenced at a hearing in around eight weeks. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison on the most serious charge and federal charges are still possible, the Washington Post reports. In a statement Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the jury had “fulfilled its civic duty” after the trial on state charges. He said the federal civil rights investigation is “ongoing.”

So said them all!

Yes it is good news….but sadly this will probably change nothing.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

From The ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files

Once again there is stupid and then there is really stupid.

Law enforcement has been identifying and arresting perps of the insurrection on 06 January…..and they have even asked the public for their help….and then idiots do the job for the FBI……

And this moron is one of those stupid in-bred morons…..

 
Garret Miller didn’t speak to the law enforcement officers who arrested him on charges he stormed the US Capitol in January, but the T-shirt he was wearing at his Dallas home that day sent a clear and possibly incriminating message. Miller’s shirt had a photograph of former President Donald Trump, and it said “Take America Back” and “I Was There, Washington DC, January 6, 2021,” federal prosecutors noted in a court filing Monday. Prosecutors are urging a judge to keep Miller jailed while he awaits trial on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot in the nation’s capital, the AP reports. He was arrested on Jan. 20 and indicted by a DC grand jury on Feb. 12 on 12 counts, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.

Miller’s attorney is seeking his client’s release from custody, saying he has expressed regret for his actions. Like many of the more than 300 people facing federal charges in connection with the siege, Miller thoroughly documented and commented on his actions that day in a flurry of social media posts. After Miller posted a selfie showing himself inside the Capitol building, another Facebook user wrote, “bro you got in?! Nice!” Miller replied, “just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol,” prosecutors said. Miller joined the mob that breached the Capitol building and later threatened to kill Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a Capitol police officer, authorities said. Miller remains jailed in Oklahoma City. His transport to Washington is on hold because he broke his collarbone while playing soccer in the recreation yard at a Dallas jail.

Another fine example of “can’t fix stupid”.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”