Tag: Hate Crimes

“No Foul Play Suspected”

Those terms come from the ME office when a death is investigated.

Then there is the report from my home state of Mississippi….

On Oct. 2, a frantic Rasheem Carter called his mother and told her “three truckloads of white men” were chasing him. She told him to call the police, and when she didn’t hear from him again, she reported him missing. A month later, his body was found in a wooded area near Taylorsville, Mississippi, where he’d been working. It had been dismembered, with his head and other body parts severed, the Washington Post reports. The local sheriff initially said there was “no reason” to suspect foul play—but now, months later and after outcry from Carter’s family, he’s changing his tune. More from the coverage:

What happened: Carter was working in Taylorsville, about 100 miles away from his home in Fayette, Mississippi, on a short-term contracting job as he saved money to reopen his restaurant, which shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic. His mother says he fled the job in October after some sort of disagreement with at least one co-worker, NBC News reports. She says he mentioned multiple people from the job as possibly threatening him. The sheriff confirms there were “a couple of verbal altercations” between Carter and at least one colleague, but hasn’t revealed what they were about.

  • Not himself: Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston says everyone at that job has been interviewed. “They said [Carter’s] whole demeanor had changed. They weren’t sure what was going on,” he says. “They just said he kept to himself more. He usually joked around, and in the last week or so they weren’t able to do that.” The colleagues mentioned as possible threats were confirmed to have been at another job site almost 100 miles away when Carter was last seen alive.
  • Timeline: Carter did go to the police station after his last conversation with his mom, but Houston said last year that Carter did not report that he was in any sort of danger, and simply appeared to be in need of a ride back to his hotel. Carter was last spotted in the woods around 4:30pm on Oct. 2 in footage from a private landowner’s game camera, apparently alone.
  • Police theory: Houston says that “there’s no indication that someone killed him. The evidence we do have does coincide with what animals would do to a body.”
  • Family disagrees: But Carter’s family isn’t buying the idea that an animal is responsible for dismembering Carter. “There is nothing natural about this. What we have is a Mississippi lynching,” family attorney Benjamin Crump says, per the BBC. “This was a nefarious act. This was an evil act.” Carter’s mom says he was lucid when they spoke, not under the influence of any intoxicants, and that he had no history of mental health issues.
  • Sheriff’s current stance: On Tuesday, the day after a family press conference with Crump, Houston clarified that he has not ruled out the possibility Carter was murdered. “Nothing is being swept under the rug. There’s nothing to hide,” he said, adding that the investigation is ongoing and search warrants are in process.

This is not the only time this announcement was made over a death….

Just a little homespun news for my readers….get to know Mississippi.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Looters” Not “Victims”

Yesterday the news was a buzz from something a federal judge instructed a jury in the thug Rittenhouse’s trial…..

Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial starts Monday, and you won’t hear the two men he fatally shot during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, referred to as “victims.” The judge in the case has a standard policy barring people from being called “victims” until an actual conviction, USA Today reports, and he said that using the term in this case would be “loaded,” per the Washington Post. However, when prosecutors asked that defense attorneys be prohibited from referring to the two men as “looters, rioters, arsonists or any other pejorative term,” the judge declined to make such an order.

“Let the evidence show what it shows,” was all he said. Prosecutors argued the terms should not be used unless there’s specific evidence Joseph Rosenbaum or Anthony Huber engaged in those activities. Rittenhouse, who was 17 when the shootings took place last year, has pleaded not guilty to homicide in both of their deaths as well as not guilty to attempted homicide of Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot and wounded. His lawyers are expected to argue he acted in self-defense amid protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Columnist Will Bunch runs down the judge’s controversial history in a Twitter thread (that ultimately calls for his removal) here.

Seriously?

The dead will be put on trial to save the life of a murderer?

This sounds a lot like one of those ‘activist judges’ that conserv are so worried about…..

This should be sound grounds for an appeal to overturn the ruling…..

Does anybody ever heard of judge Hoffman?  Think Chicago 7 trial and the total bigotry of a presiding judge.

Let’s be honest….this is a judge wanting to effect the outcome of the trial….time for this slug to go!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Asian Hate

A new day dawning?

By now we all are well aware of the hatred and the violence committed against the Asia-American community….a growing problem since the emergence of the Covid-19 virus and it being blamed on the Chinese.

The Congress has promised to do something….most time this is an idle promise but not so this time around….the Senate did something…well all but one that is….

The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday intended to counter violence against Asian Americans, which has increased during the pandemic. Majority Leader Charles Schumer said passage sends a message to Asian Americans that the government is listening and reassures them that “hate crimes will not be tolerated.” The bill passed 94-1, with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri the only senator opposed; it goes to the House now. Hawley previously complained the bill was “hugely over broad,” per the Hill. One university study found hate crimes against Asian Americans rose 149% last year in 16 cities. Republicans’ objections had included calling the legislation unnecessary because of existing hate crime laws. Democrats agreed to allow votes on three GOP amendments, all of which were rejected, and the bill passed.

Advocacy groups praised the legislation, including the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, though it also called for approaches outside of law enforcement, per Politico. The legislation would require a Justice Department official to review hate crimes tied to the coronavirus and help strengthen local hate crime reporting. The Biden administration has announced its own initiative at the Justice Department and devoted $50 million to helping Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. The legislative effort was led by Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, one of two Asian-American senators. The other, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, talked about her elderly mother being harassed while trying to buy grapes. “This bill will allow me to go home to my mom and say we did something,” she said.

A very rare bit of bi-partisanship that will probably go no further than this one bill.

Do not hold your breath that this will be the dawn of a new day in the US Congress….because you will turn blue and die.

Will this curtail the violence directed toward our Asia-American community….sorry but I am not too optimistic.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–02Mar20

Who was Emmet Till?

He was a black teenager tortured and lynched in Mississippi in 1955……and finally the US government has voted to make lynching a hate crime after 65 years and 200 attempts to make it a hate crime…..

Sixty-five years after 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi, the House has approved legislation designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law, the AP reports. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, introduced by Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, comes 120 years after Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation and after dozens of similar efforts were defeated. The measure was approved 410 to 4 on Wednesday. The Senate unanimously passed virtually identical legislation last year, although that bill wasn’t named for Till. President Trump is expected to sign the bill, which designates lynching as a federal hate crime punishable by up to life in prison, a fine, or both. One of the four who voted no, Republican Ted Yoho, tells CNN he did so because the bill represents “overreach” by the federal government, interfering with state’s rights.

The other “no” votes came from Republicans Louie Gohmert and Thomas Massie and independent Justin Amash. Rush, a Democrat whose Chicago district includes Till’s former home, said the bill will belatedly achieve justice for Till and more than 4,000 other lynching victims, most of them African Americans. Till, who was black, was brutally tortured and killed in 1955 after a white woman accused him of grabbing her and whistling at her in a Mississippi grocery store. The killing shocked the country and stoked the civil rights movement. Congress has failed to pass anti-lynching legislation nearly 200 times, starting with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep. George Henry White, the only black member of Congress at the time. “This justice is long overdue,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, who along with Cory Booker and Tim Scott co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

All I can say it is about goddamn time!

This news in conjunction with the news that Minnesota voted down the law that allowed slavery as a punishment.

My take on the news…..https://lobotero.com/2020/02/24/closing-thought-24feb20/

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–28May19

We hear more these days about the rise of hate groups and hate incidents of attack…..but just how bad is it?

US counties where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally saw a 226% increase in reported hate crimes over similar counties that did not hold a rally, political scientists at the University of North Texas said in an analysis published in The Washington Post.

According to a study done by University of North Texas professors Regina Branton and Valerie Martinez-Ebers, and PhD candidate Ayal Feinberg, the scientists found that Trump’s statements during the 2016 campaign “may encourage hate crimes” in the respective counties.

The study measured the correlation between counties that hosted a 2016 campaign rally and the crime rates in the months that followed. The scientists used the Anti-Defamation League’s map that measures acts of violence and compared the counties that hosted a rally with others that had similar characteristics, including minority population, location, and active hate groups.

Branton, Martinez-Ebers, and Feinberg noted that their study “cannot be certain” that the marked increase was solely attributed to Trump’s rhetoric. But they also shut down the suggestion that the reported hate crimes were fake.

“In fact, this charge is frequently used as a political tool to dismiss concerns about hate crimes,” the analysis said. “Research shows it is far more likely that hate crime statistics are considerably lower because of underreporting.”

(businessinsider.com)

No matter which way you want to cut the info…the fact is that hate crimes are on the rise…blame who you like….but that does not change the facts.(you know those silly things that most people want to ignore in pursuit of political correctness).

This Is Why I Dislike The GOP

To me the GOP and the people under the banner are total hypocrites more so than the religious d/bags of the “Religious Right”.

Why do I say this?

A couple of weeks back the GOP came out hard and full throated about the comments Rep, Ilhan Omar made about AIPAC….calling her a racist and demanded she resign……unlike some in the GOP she apologized (I was against her doing so for she spoke truth to power and need not apologize for the truth)

GOP has many members that make racist, yes racist, comments and seldom apologize mental midgets like Iowa’s Steven King (the d/bag not the author) and he seems to be proud of his hateful self……

Firebrand congressman Steve King has no plans to give up his job, despite a recent rebuke from his own peers. The GOP representative from Iowa said Thursday that he plans to run for a 10th term next year, reports the Des Moines Register. “I have nothing to apologize for,” said King. Earlier this year, King added to his history of controversial statements by telling the New York Times: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?”

King reiterated Thursday that he misspoke, or was perhaps misquoted, and said he does not in any way support white nationalism. Still, the original comments earned a rare rebuke from Republican and Democratic members of Congress alike, along with a punishment: King was stripped of all committee assignments, per Politico. King shrugged off the latter on Thursday: “If there’s ever going to be a time not to have committee assignments, this time with Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the House is the time,” he said. One potential problem for him down the road: King already faces three primary challengers.

King is a old white racist and should be called out for what he is…..the GOP will not do that and as long as they allow this type of hate to stay in their party they will always bear the brunt of all criticism…..

Then there is another reason why I cannot see the use of the GOP……their members cannot see what poor people go through….no more evident than something the idiot Grassley said…..

As for Grassley, the irascible Republican penned an op-ed with House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX), that attempted to explain to angry voters that smaller refunds are the direct result of not overpaying.

“The size of your tax refund has nothing to do with your overall tax bill,” the two wrote in USA Today on Wednesday. “It merely reflects what you overpaid the IRS in your paychecks last year.”

According to Politico, Grassley was less conciliatory when previously asked about taxpayer discontent.

“Isn’t it kind of stupid to look at a refund, what your refund is?” he blurted. “That doesn’t tell you what taxes you pay.”

Clueless!

You can read more about GOP efforts to get past voter anger here.

I cannot support anyone that is a member of this party…the party of Trump and the party of HATE…..a clueless pack of old angry white guys…..clueless being the operative word.

 

 

Closing Thought–20Dec18

Finally!

After 200 tries the Congress finally has made lynching a federal crime…..and about damn time!

After around 200 failed attempts over at least 100 years, a bill to make lynching a federal crime has finally passed the Senate. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced in July, passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday, the Hill reports. It was sponsored by Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Tim Scott—three of the 10 African-American senators in US history. The bill defines lynching as “willfully, acting as part of any collection of people, assembled for the purpose and with the intention of . . . [causing] death to any person” and makes it a hate crime punishable by up to life in prison, the Washington Post reports. The bill also criminalizes attempts to lynch and conspiracy to lynch.

The NAACP says at least 3,446 black people were among more than 4,700 people lynched between 1882 and 1968, mostly in the South. “This has been a long arc, a painful history, and a shameful history in this body,” Booker, said on the Senate floor. “At the height of lynchings across this country affecting thousands of people, this body did not act to make that a federal crime.” Harris described lynching as “a dark and despicable aspect of our nation’s history.” It’s not clear whether the House will pass the bill and send it to President Trump before the Christmas holiday, the AP reports. (Last year, a Mississippi lawmaker called for lynchings as Confederate statues came down.)

“The wheels of government move slowly”….not a more accurate statement has ever been uttered.

Again!  About damn time!

Does The FBI Have Their Man?

Final Thought–26Oct18

Clapper, both Clintons, Obama, Biden, DiNero, Booker, Holder, Waters, CNN, Soros and Wasserman-Shultz….(a who’s who of the Democrats)….all these people were targeted by some unknown bomber…..and every one of these people, these public figures have been singled out by Pres. Trump for an angry insulting Tweet…..so he, Trump and his idiot gang around him wants the country to believe that these are just coincidences.

That is Bullsh*t!

And if you are waiting for the GOP to step forward then you have a long wait…..these gutless wonders will allow the Bullshit to continue…..

But not to worry…..the FBI has their man (we hope)…..

But after bitching about the bombs were putting the GOP off the headlines…..yep our president is worried about his election….then he praises the FBI for the arrest now that his election stuff can return to the forefront…..

President Trump on Friday praised the quick arrest of a suspect in the mail bomb case and promised that “swift and certain justice” would follow. “These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country,” Trump said. Speaking soon after authorities announced the arrest of Florida man accused of mailing explosive devices to prominent Democrats, Trump declared that “we must never allow political violence to take root in America,” reports NBC News. “We cannot let it happen. I am committed to do everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now.” Americans, he said, “must unify.”

As the AP notes, the president’s remarks came after he tweeted a complaint about how the media’s focus on the incidents were distracting from what he sees as a Republican upswing ahead of the midterms. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows — news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!”

What a petty pathetic little man.

Just Another Shooting…..

I have waited a couple of days before I wrote about the latest gun violence…..I wanted to see how the nation dealt with it……apparently it is no big deal…….it is sad to see how this has been handled….

Another school shooting is in the news, this time in western Kentucky. Two 15-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were fatally shot Tuesday morning at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky. Twelve others were injured by gunfire, and another five were otherwise injured in the chaos that ensued, says Gov. Matt Bevin. The alleged shooter is in custody and has been identified only as a 15-year-old classmate of the victims. More details on what is and isn’t known:

  • The shooting: Police say the shooter entered the school just before 8am and opened fire with a handgun. First responders got to the school in about nine minutes, and a deputy arrested the suspect. “He was apprehended non-violently at the scene,” says Lt. Michael Webb of the State Police, per NBC News. “There is no way to tell how far it would have gone.” A school law enforcement or resource officer was at the school when the shooting occurred, per Kentucky.com.
  • The motive: Police have not speculated on one. The suspect, who is expected to be charged with murder and attempted murder, was pictured being led away in handcuffs.
  • The victims: Few details were being released, but most of the victims were believed to be students. The deceased girl was dead at the scene, and the boy died at a hospital. Authorities have not identified them. At least two of those injured had gunshot wounds to the head, reports the Lexington Herald Leader.
  • The scene: The shooting erupted in a school common area, just before the start of classes. “I tried to run, but I fell,” says 16-year-old Lexie Waymon. “I heard someone hit the ground. It was so close to me. I just heard it and then I just, everything was black for a good minute. Like, I could not see anything. I just froze and did not know what to do. Then I got up and I ran.”
  • The escape: “They was running and crying and screaming,” Mitchell Garland, who provided shelter to dozens of students at his nearby business, tells the AP. “They was just kids running down the highway. They were trying to get out of there.”
  • Training: Students at the school, located about 120 miles northwest of Nashville, Tenn., recently underwent training on what to do in the event of an “active shooter,” says State Police chief Rick Sanders. They “did exactly as they were trained,” he said, per Kentucky.com.

Second in 2 days: The shooting follows another at a high school in the town of Italy, Texas, on Monday. Police there say a 16-year-old boy shot a 15-year-old girl in the school cafeteria. She is recovering in the hospital, and the suspect has been charged as a juvenile with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reports NBC 5. One group counts nearly 300 school shootings since 2013.

It made the news but that was all there was…..a single day of varying reports about the shooting.

I guess it is no big deal any longer….I mean we have had 1500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook……and 2 this month alone.  Apparently these shootings have reached the point that it is just a routine event in our society.

Closing Thought–04Dec17

A few weeks ago the Right Wing media was all outraged by the senseless attack on some ICE agents on the border….it was so damn important that it lead Fearless Fosdick to Tweet out his outrage at this savage attack by those damn “illegals”….this went on for a couple of days until something else popped up to grab the Right wing’s attention….like a shiny set of keys.

I want to know if they are so dedicated to the “truth” how they will handle this news…..

A Texas sheriff who was among the first people to reach two badly injured US Border Patrol agents said he thinks they were hurt in an accident, not an attack, the AP reports. The injured agents were found Nov. 18 next to Interstate 10 near Van Horn, which is about 30 miles from the border with Mexico. Agent Rogelio Martinez succumbed to traumatic head injuries and broken bones. His partner, who has not been identified, was seriously injured and hospitalized for several days. The agent has no memory of what happened that night. Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo said he thinks a tractor-trailer may have accidentally sideswiped the pair, the Dallas Morning News reported. I-10 is a heavily traveled route for truck drivers and accidents regularly occur, Carrillo said.

“From the beginning we were radioed to assist in the incident as an injury, not an assault,” Carrillo said. “If this was an assault, believe me, as sheriff, I’d be the first one out there emphasizing safety in our community and with our deputies.” It’s not clear why Martinez and his partner were along the highway and US Customs and Border Protection only said in a statement that they “were responding to activity.” A Border Patrol union, the National Border Patrol Council, has said the pair was attacked and struck with a rock or rocks. President Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also have said the two were attacked. Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. in the FBI’s El Paso office said last week that investigators were treating the incident as a “potential assault,” but they could not rule out other scenarios.

Don’t bother looking for they will ignore this news and just keep push their brand of hate and vile….as always…..they got their hate out of the original story….so no need to report on the rest of the story if it craps on their hate filled rants.