This is how the New York Times saw it seventeen years ago.
Dallas Police Chief Speaks To The Press.
Amber Guyger, the Dallas Police officer who shot Botham Shem Jean in his own apartment, now claims Jean failed to follow her commands when she illegally entered his apartment prompting her to fire twice hitting him once in the torso killing him.
Guyger first claimed that she entered the apartment using her key, she now claims that the door to Botham Shem Jean’s apartment was ajar and so she entered believing it was her apartment.
She said the apartment was in darkness and she was only able to see the figure of Jean when she unholstered her weapon and ordered him to show his hands before firing twice.
However, a neighbor of Jean’s has challenged Amber Guyger’s story that mister Jean’s apartment door was slightly ajar.
She reportedly told police she heard Amber Guyger yelling for Botham Shem John to open the door upon which she opened fire killing him in the process.
Even To A Casuual Observer This Story Is B******t
Amber Guyger a 30-year-old white female Dallas Police officer, a five year veteran of the department who shot and wounded a Hispanic man in May of 2017, shot and killed a man in his own home on Thursday, September 6th.
Media reports indicate she was in full duty dress at the time but was off duty.
Dead is 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, a St Lucian native and a 2016 graduate of a private Christian school Harding University, in Arkansas. He stayed in the United States to do an internship with a Dallas location of PricewaterhouseCoopers, NBC. News reported.
The story surrounding the shooting has been confusing at best. Some media houses have reported that Guyer had returned home to the apartment complex [after a full shift]where both her and Botham Shem Jean are tenants and mistook his apartment for hers, opened his door and upon seeing him she opened fire killing him, believing he was an intruder.
I am unsure what the inference of her working a[full shift] is supposed to convey? Is it that once a police officer has completed a full shift he or she is fully allowed to illegally enter someone else’s home and murder them?
Also, the media has co-opted the narrative that she entered his apartment, which we have learned is on another floor and entered his apartment believing it to be hers, this could only(a) come from her or (b) could only be speculative at best.
The absurdity of presumption(a) is too preposterous to be taken seriously. if she had a key or fob for her apartment how could she have entered another person’s apartment with her key/fob?
If the narrative being pushed is to be believed, and if she tried opening his door and he went to the door to see who was trying to enter his apartment wouldn’t she have seen that she made a mistake once she saw the interior of the apartment?
If she could not (a)differentiate what floor she was on, and if she could not (b) differentiate that the apartment she was trying to breach was not her own what was her state of mind?
Was the mention of her having done a full shift and being in full duty dress designed to place her in a policing role?
If she was not inebriated or under the influence of other mind-altering substances how could she have made such an egregious sequence of mistakes resulting in the loss of this precious life?
Why was she not arrested promptly as any other person who goes to someone’s home and murdered them would be?
Members of Jean’s family questioned Guyger’s explanation for the shooting and claimed that the fact she had remained free days after the shooting showed she was receiving favorable treatment. “If it was a white man, would it have been different?” Jean’s mother Allison asked Friday. “Would she have reacted differently?”
Of course, she has been receiving favorable treatment. The shocking fact in all of this is that the Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall who is a black woman has argued that in the interest of transparency her department has turned over the investigations to the Texas Rangers.
Hall said police drew a blood sample from the officer to test for drugs and alcohol. She didn’t say why the officer entered the wrong apartment [as the story does]nor what happened once she and Jean came face-to-face.
Ya, the Texas Rangers are going to be judicious in doing an end-to-end investigation involving a white female cop who kills a black man.
As chief Hall speaks out of the side of her face I believe the decision to move the investigations out of the Dallas Area was made for her and not by her.
On Sunday, September 9th Amber Guyger was formally charged with manslaughter as a result of the killing of Botham Shem Jean and bonded out of jail immediately in the sum of $300,000
“Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment,” Jean’s mother told NBC News. “He’s a bachelor. Things are different inside.”
She did not realize that the apartment was not hers because the story is totally made up in my estimation. none of it makes sense.
The decedent mother has already talked about forgiveness.
Black mother, how can you talk about forgiveness when there has been no confession of guilt, no contrition, no request for forgiveness, the pre-requisites for forgiveness?
Maybe no one knows exactly what happened except for two people and one of them is lying on a slab in a mortuary.
If there is a shred of truth to the story that the police officer went to Botham Shem Jean’s apartment by accident and ended up killing him, that truth is probably known only to her.
Why then was she not treated like any other person by her colleagues? And if there is one iota of credibility to the idea that she thought he was an intruder why was her first option deadly force?
There is much more to this story than the Dallas Police chief and Department is letting on. This is a case in which the decedent is a college graduate with impeccable character, he was in his house so they cannot smear him as a criminal worthy of execution, deserving of what he got.
So it seems that the fix is in to make her an object of pity. That may not be all, it appears they do not want her to face trial in Dallas where she may receive a jury which includes black folks.
It is reprehensible that the family of this young man will have to bury him under these circumstances, particularly when we all know that had he been white he would absolutely be alive today.
The Other Side Of School Safety: Students Are Getting Tasered And Beaten By Police
In the wake of the deadly Parkland shooting, more armed police officers are being stationed in schools. But what happens when they’re the ones perpetrating violence?
By Rebecca Klein
Jalijah Jones, 16, poses for a portrait at his home in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on July 22, 2018. In December 2017, Jones was Tasered at school by a police officer while already being restrained by four school security guards following an altercation with another student. At the time, Jones was 15 years old and weighed about 120 pounds. The other student walked away.
Jalijah Jones, then a freshman at Kalamazoo Central High School in Michigan, remembers the punch of thousands of volts hitting his slight frame. At 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds, he was small for his age.
He remembers four school security guards officers pushing him up against a hallway wall before a school police officer arrived and Tasered him. He remembers a feeling of intense cold as if his high school hallway had just turned into a walk-in freezer. He remembers falling to the ground, his muscles betraying his mind’s desire to stand.
Then he remembers nothing.
Jones, who loves to run track and play football, had never been in a physical fight at school before. It was just a teenage drama. He owed another kid a small amount of money. Angry words were thrown back and forth, then a push and a shove and some swinging. But no one had been hurt until a school police officer Tasered the teen.
Jones, who says he blacked out after falling to the ground from the shock of the stun, remembers being cuffed a few seconds later, and the school cops dragging him through the hallways and out of school. His body shook furiously as he was loaded into a police car, before being escorted to the hospital in an ambulance. He was charged with resisting arrest ― a charge that he is still fighting many months after the December 2017 incident.
No One Tracks Police Brutality In Schools
The police officer who stunned Jones is one of over 80,000 currently stationed in public schools around the country, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, covering the 2015 – 16 school year. In 1997, only 10 percent of public schools had police officers, but in 2016, 42 percent did.
The number has risen sharply in the past few years and will continue to grow. Amid the recent spate of deadly school shootings, there has been an increase in federal money funding school police officer positions. This is true at the state level as well: New legislation in places like Florida has devoted millions of dollars to install more armed police officers in hallways. More armed guards lined the hallways as kids returned to school this year.
There is understandable logic to having more police in schools. After all, they have been credited with stopping several school shootings in recent months. But civil rights activists say there’s another negative side to this police presence, once which puts students like Jones – young and impulsive, acting on frivolous teenage passions – in danger of police brutality and criminal charges.
Over the past few years, there have been several high profile instances of police brutality in schools. Still, there are no official data sources tracking how often students are subject to intense physical punishments at the hands of law enforcement. So HuffPost is dedicated to creating its own count.
In August 2016, HuffPost compiled a minimum count of how often Tasers or stun guns were used by school police officers on children by tracking local news stories via Google Alerts and Nexis searches. We have created a new list that builds on and expands the 2016 number. For the past several months, HuffPost has been tracking how often students in schools are Tasered or shot with a stun gun, pepper sprayed or intensely physically punished. We found:
- Since September 2011, students have been Tasered or shot with a stun gun by school-based police officers at least 120 times;
- Since January 2016, students have been pepper sprayed by school-based police officers at least 32 times;
- Since January 2016, students have been body slammed, tackled or choked by school-based police officers at least 15 times.
These numbers represent a minimum. Not every incident is reported in the local news. And there is no agency that systemically tracks these numbers.
The students who were Tasered or shot with a stun gun, pepper sprayed or body slammed in these instances received these punishments for a variety of reasons. Some were caught fighting with other students or were being physically aggressive with teachers. Some had weapons of their own. But in some cases, the reasons for punishment were more mundane. One student 16-year-old student in Kansas was Tasered after displaying “defiance” toward officers. Another student in Texas, a 7‑year-old with special needs, was Tasered after an allegedly difficult to control outburst in class. A Taser and pepper spray was used in Florida to break up a fight between an 11-year-old and 13-year-old girl, which ended in the two girls getting arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The police officers who get stationed in schools often have no training to work specifically with children, meaning they might apply to young children the same tactics they use on the street. This could put children in harm’s way, and also funnel them into the criminal justice system at a young age for school misbehaviors. The roles these police officers play ― and the level of power they possess ― vary on a school district by district basis, based on individual agreements between local police department and school leaders.
In the case of Kalamazoo Central High School, where Jones goes to school, there is no policy governing when it is appropriate for a school police officer to use Tasers on students, according to Kalamazoo Public Schools spokesman Alex Lee. Officers are not supposed to get involved with matters of discipline, only with matters of the law. Officers might decide to use a Taser “when other forms of control haven’t worked,” but there’s no specific rule, said Township of Kalamazoo Police Chief Bryan Ergang.
The Consequences Of ‘School Safety’
Over 30 percent of police officers in schools carry stun guns or chemical spray, per government data, but there is no agency formally tracking how often, and on whom, these weapons are used. The lack of transparency troubles experts who have studied school discipline.
Dr. Douglas Zipes, a cardiologist and distinguished professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine has written about the potential dangers of Tasering victims in the chest. His research has focused on how these devices can cause cardiac arrest by revving up the heart rate to an unsustainable level. Zipes worries about the impact these devices could have on young children.
“It would be my opinion that tasing an 11- or 12-year-old in the chest is more dangerous for potentially causing cardiac arrest than tasing a 17- or 18-year-old who has a more developed chest to protect the heart,” Zipes said.
Instructions for the weapon warn that use on a “low body-mass index person or on a small child could increase the risk of death or serious injury.” It also warns of the potential for cardiac arrest in children.
Indeed, Taser use can be fatal. A 2017 Reuters investigation found 150 autopsies that referenced Tasers as a cause or contributing factor to death.
But representatives for Axon, the company that manufactures Tasers, emphasize that their weapon is effective and safe when used properly.
“It’s critical for law enforcement to have clear policies and procedures, continual training, good reporting and supervisory oversight for patrol and especially for school resource officers,” said Axon spokesman Steve Tuttle over email. “TASER CEWs [Conducted Electrical Weapon] are the most used and most studied less lethal tool on an officer’s belt.”
It’s Not Just Physical Pain
Beyond physical danger, civil rights advocates also point to the emotional trauma these incidents can cause ― and say they can strain tensions between communities of color and police officers. They point out that black children like Jones are particularly vulnerable to police officers. Studies show that police officers overestimate the ages of kids of color and are less likely to see them as innocent children. Data also shows that students of color are disproportionately punished more harshly than their white counterparts.
Even with the threat of school shootings ― which, despite the headlines, are still extremely rare and actually not more common now than in the 1990s according to new research ― police officers may actually be making many students feel less safe in schools, say civil rights advocates.
“The research and lived experiences of communities of color show there’s little to no evidence police make schools safer, but there’s an increasing number of incidents in which students, particularly students of color, are targeted by law enforcement and are referred to law enforcement or arrested for minor infractions,” said Monique Dixon, deputy policy director for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Indeed, previous research analyzed by HuffPost shows students in schools with police officers are more likely to get a criminal record, even for non-violent misbehaviors like vandalism.
Dixon and her organization believe that police shouldn’t get stationed in schools at all. Instead, resources should be redirected toward counseling, social services and restorative justice practices, she said.
But defenders of the practice say that they’ve become a necessary force to prevent armed intruders and other sources of school crime, although evidence doesn’t necessarily back this up. A recent poll also shows that a vast majority of parents favor the idea of having armed police officers in schools.
Research has not addressed whether or not school police decrease the likelihood of school shootings, and conclusions are mixed on whether they generally reduce school violence, according to a 2013 report from the Congressional Research Service.
Proponents of school police also say that these officers can play an important role in building trust between the community and law enforcement. But advocates like Dixon have seen the opposite.
It is critical that these deputies are trained to work with children, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. But this training can be expensive and is not required in many places.
When measuring the success of individual officers, Canady’s organization looks at factors like his or her ability to educate students on law-related subjects and stay out of matters of school discipline.
“SROs have to be carefully selected and especially trained to work in a school environment,” Canady said. “It’s not for everyone.”
Crime And Un-punishment
The officer who Tasered Jones still serves as a school resource officer, according to Lee, the district spokesman. While the district has publicly criticized the officer’s use of the Taser and brought its concerns to the police department, the officer’s supervisors disagree, saying that he acted appropriately in this case. Indeed, the officer had previously received specific training to work with children in schools, according to police chief Ergang
The department’s former police chief told a local news outlet at the time that Jones had been ignoring the security officer’s verbal commands and had tried to fight back when the police officer and other adults tried to restrain him. The situation had become dangerous for the student and for surrounding students and faculty, the police chief said. The current police chief, Ergang, echoed this version of events to HuffPost.
But Jones’ mother, Tillana Jones, still doesn’t understand why so much force was needed on such a small boy. She saw video footage of the even and agrees that her son should have stopped resisting security guards and calmed down. But she also thinks the guards should have been given a chance to handle the situation before the police used violent force on her son. It was especially upsetting to see her son’s limp body being dragged through the hallway by the metal of the handcuffs.
“I don’t understand why this is the practice of a school to tase children like they’re animals ― cows pretty much,” she said. “Next they will be shooting them.”
A Teen’s Struggle
None of this adult back-and-forth means much to Jones, who is just trying to restore a sense of normalcy after his last school year was turned upside down. He spent about 12 hours in the hospital following the incident, and was suspended from school for two days. He is still working to fight charges of resisting arrest as a result of that December fight.
But the emotional impact of that day remains. Jones said he keeps to himself more, that he “need[s] time away from everybody.” He is also now in counseling, working to deal with some of his feelings of anger and confusion.
“I never thought I would be the person to get tased,” Jones said. “I don’t give my teachers a hard time, I work hard in my opinion.”
His mom, who is 38 and works as a resident advocate at a nursing home, is also still working through some of her feelings from the incident. She feels like she didn’t adequately prepare her black son for the consequences of dealing with police. He’s not a criminal, has always done well in school and it was a conversation she didn’t think was necessary, she said. It racks her with guilt.
“I feel guilty to the fact of not being able to protect him from it … putting him in that position, sending him to a school where they Tase,” said Tillana Jones. “I beat myself up about it a billion times to figure out ways, and I’m sure my son has too.”
She’s also seen a difference in her son’s attitude.
In the months following the fight, the teenager suddenly has an “I don’t care attitude.”
“He lost a little bit of himself,” Tillana Jones said of her son, a school track star who wants to work in athletics or entertainment when he grows up.
Neither she nor her son ever imagined he would be Tasered at school ― a place they saw as a safe haven from the high-crime neighborhood where they live.
But that doesn’t mean she thinks schools should stop employing police officers. She thinks they’re a necessary part of preventing school shootings. She just believes there should be checks in place to make sure their power is limited.
“I just need them to know they’re dealing with children. They’re not in a correctional facility,” she said.
Burning Nike Shoes? Burn Your Ford Cars Too, Make Sure You Are In Them Though, Just Do It
What kind of human being enjoys his life yet is determined that others should be as miserable and downtrodden as possible and is cool with that?
What am I talking about? Glad you asked.
I have thought a lot about race relations across the globe and primarily in the United States, I have always thought how better the world would be without this artificial problem created out of ignorance and perpetuated by human beings on others.
Which brings me to to the issue of NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and some of his colleagues kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games.
I don’t want to delve too deeply into the whole question of whether they have every right as Americans to do as they please as is their God-given and Constitutional right to protest.
I won’t spend time talking about the whole issue of bringing the military into football games and pretending that somehow NFL games are the holy grail of patriotism where the military should be worshiped.
Last time I looked, every last man and woman who goes overseas to fight in the military does so of their own volition and for their own reasons.
There are no constitutional built-ins which prevent any American from protesting during the playing of the national anthem. In fact, every American is guaranteed the right to protest, Those rights are enshrined in the first amendment to the constitution, so why are some people pretending that they are guardians of patriotism?
What gives white people the right to determine what and where others they oppress may protest. When they say “they are disrespecting our flag and anthem”, who made them masters, who gave them ownership rights not endued onto others?
Does the country belong to the protesting athletes as much as it belongs to them, many of whom came and saw black people here?
Since the players have the right under the constitution to protest as they please, I will not spend my time writing about ignorant moronic people’s retarded views.
And so Nike’s decision to use Colin Kaepernick as the face of its latest advertising campaign has met with backlash from the usual ignorant backwater mongrels.
You know them, the same ones who believe the world was created for and with them in mind as rulers over everyone else.
Some took to burning their Nike shoes, cutting the Nike logo out of socks and sportswear as a sign of protest against Nike.
Yea these are the descendants of book burners, these idiots would do well with picking one up and learning to read.
I’m sure Nike expected this nonsense response, after all, they are used to these bottom feeding idiots.
But now Ford motor company has thrown their support behind the kneeling athletes. Oh shit, let me see how many ford cars are going to be burned.
I recall the story told of a very rich man who went to a church and he was giving a talk to the congregation about how great God was.
He told how he got his first dollar as a little boy. He explained that he was prepared to invest it, but then some missionaries turned up at his doorsteps.
Torn between investing his dollar and sowing into God’s work, he chose to do the latter.
As he told the story of how God blessed his life from then on, a little old lady sitting in the front pew chimed in ” do it again”, “do it again”.
Unsure of what the old lady was referring to, the speaker asked, “do what”?
She stood up and said, “you said you did it before and he blessed you, give everything you have and he will bless you again, so do it again”.
That was the end of that talk… it’s easy to give a dollar and brag about it but not so easy to give millions in faithful obedience.
You idealistic bigshots burned your Nike garments and shoes, now show your patriotism and burn your prized Ford trucks and cars.
You bastions of patriotism, you defenders of the sacred ideals, you who believe that the rights of minorities should be subjected to your whims and dictates, those of you who think you have the right to decide the rights of others, burn your Ford cars now.
Since you believe that people protesting race soldiers killing innocent unarmed people is unpatriotic, go ahead and burn your Ford F‑150’s now.
Either burn them or shut the fuck up you, inbred morons!
Better yet, make sure you are in them before you set them ablaze. The world will be a better place if you just do it.
Black Cops Tell National Police Organization: Nah, Bruh. We Support Kaepernick
One day after a national organization representing police groups across America called for its members to boycott Nike for its support of Colin Kaepernick, a group of black police officers responded by telling the apparel company that they will keep copping the new Nikes.
On Tuesday, the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), a collection of police unions and groups from across the United States, released a newsletter telling its members across the country to boycott Nike, according to Fox Carolina. The collection of uniformed snowflakes then sent a letter to Nike’s President and CEO whining about the company’s decision to use Kaepernick as the face of its campaign celebrating 30 years of “Just Do It.”
While the letter was white with a substance that was either dried salt from white tears or powdered doughnut residue, The Root has managed to obtain a copy:
Dear Chairman Parker,
On behalf of the more than 241,000 law enforcement officers represented by our Association across the country, I write to you to condemn in the strongest possible terms your selection of Colin Kaepernick for Nike’s “Just Do It” ad campaign. Mr. Kaepernick is known, not as a successful athlete, but as a shallow dilettante seeking to gain notoriety by disrespecting the flag for which so many Americans have fought and died.
The inclusion of Mr. Kaepernick in Nike’s “Just Do It” ad campaign also perpetuates the falsehood that police are racist and aiming to use force against African Americans and persons of color. In reality, officers across the nation risk their lives not only protecting the athletes featured in Nike’s various campaigns, but also serve aspiring athletes across the country who use the Nike brand, through the thousands of Police Athletic Leagues, Boys and Girls Clubs and Big Brother/Big Sister programs where our officers donate their time and energy. They deserve to have the respect and full support of corporate citizens like Nike.
Adding to the insult is the image of Mr. Kaepernick from the campaign featuring the quote “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” The fact that Mr. Kaepernick is no longer a starting NFL player does not equate to him being someone who has “sacrificed everything”. To truly understand what it means to “believe in something” and “sacrifice everything”, you should look to Arlington National Cemetery, or to the National LawEnforcement Officers’ Memorial in Washington, D.C., or to the trauma unit of a military hospital. The brave men and women of every race and color buried there, memorialized there, healing there, believed in this nation and our flag and exemplify the true meaning of“sacrifice”.
Sincerely,
Michael McHale
After the letter was made public, the National Black Police Association made clear that they should not be included in the 241,000 police officers on whose “behalf” the NAPO claimed to speak, the Intercept reports.
Basically, the letter, which can be read here, says: “Nah bruh. That’s just the white dudes.”
“It is with great dismay that we were made aware of a letter that you received from the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) regarding the use of Colin Kaepernick in your ‘Just Do It’ advertising campaign,” the letter begins. “The National Black Police Asociation (NBPA) is not in agreement on this matter and we strongly condemn the call for police officers and their families to boycott Nike and its products.”
The letter stated:
Your inclusion of Mr. Kaepernick in your ads seems appropriate to us. We live in a country where the 1st Amendment is a right of the people. Mr. Kaepernick chose to exercise his right where his passion was — on the football field. NAPO believes that Mr. Kaepernick’s choice to openly protest issues surrounding police brutality, racism and social injustice in this country makes him anti-police. On the contrary, the NBPA believes that Mr. Kaepernick’s stance is in direct alignment with what law enforcement stands for — the protection of a people, their human rights, their dignity, their safety, and their rights as American citizens.
OK, I must admit that I did a small, slightly Diddy-ish Holy Ghost shout after reading that paragraph.
The organization noted, “For NAPO to presuppose that Mr. Kaepernick has not made sacrifices because he did not die on a battlefield, shows you just how out of touch NAPO is with the African American community,” adding that: “If they had asked the NBPA, we would have told them they were out of line.”
“We will likely be buying and wearing a lot of Nikes in the near future,” the letter concludes.
Although this letter gave me great joy, I must admit that I don’t understand it.
If the black police officers aren’t offended by Kaepernick’s protest and seem to understand that protesting police brutality doesn’t mean he is protesting all police, then why are the white cops so mad? If some veterans can understand that the protest has nothing to do with the troops, the flag or the anthem, then why are some white people burning their socks?
Ooooh … I get it now. It’s just the racist ones!
They’re protesting because they hate black people.
And some people might counter that argument with the fact that the NAPO is not racist. They might say those police officers boycotting Nike and white people burning their Air Force 45s have nothing to do with racism. They might even ask how I could misconstrue the reason for their boycott and accuse them of disrespect and hate when they have publicly stated the reason for their protest.
“Exactly,” said Colin Kaepernick.
Exactly.
Democratic Party Seemingly Oblivious To It’s Supporters Needs
There is a strange dichotomy happening in the Democratic Party about the course the party should take in it’s response to Donald Trump’s presidency and the shocking intransigence of Republicans in the face of the assault on the nation’s Institutions and norms. On the one hand, there is the tried and failed strategy which says: do not say or do anything which will garner any backlash, regardless of what Republicans do we should maintain the greatest degree of decorum and normalcy.
That strategy has not worked, yet the establishment wing of the party is hell-bent on continuing on that path from which the majority of it’s younger voters have long veered.
The strategy which I have personally labeled the Republican-lite strategy has been disastrous for the party on several fronts.
The party has absorbed monumental losses in Governor’s races over the life of this approach, even in deep blue states like New York, New Jersy, Connecticut, Massachutes and others. (It is important to consider that there are hardly ever any statewide officeholders in Red states)
Additionally, Senate and House seats, as well as offices all the way to dog-catcher have been swallowed up in Republican Tsunami-like avalanche of wins.….…and gerrymandering.
Equally as consequential is the alacrity with which the Democratic party has chosen to jettison it’s most articulate leaders at the slightest opportunity. Just ask Former Senator Al Franken how that feels.
The Republican party has in the highest office the most despicable person probably ever to hold that office and yet the Democratic party seemingly is mindlessly focused on being nice.
Noted Presidential Historian and Author, Jon Meecham noted that the aberration which is the Trump Presidency is a backlash to the Obama presidency. Yet Meecham argues that twenty years from today Americans will live in Barack Obama’s America rather than in Donald Trump’s America.
Meecham believes that what is happening is the last gasp of the Strom Thurmond, Richard Nixon, Pat Buchanan vision of America.
I hope Meecham is right, yet I hardly believe that.….that can ever become a reality if the Democratic Party continue to fail so miserably even at the most basic of its responsibilities.
It is an open secret that millions of Bernie Sanders supporters did not turn up to vote for Secretary Hillary Clinton. As consequential as that has been and will continue to be for America it is important to understand the circumstances which allowed for a 74-year-old previously unknown Socialist Vermont US Senator to split the Democratic vote.
As I tried to articulate on previous occasions, rather than see the answers in the problem the Democratic party continues to double down on the very same Republican-lite approaches.
Party elites brushed aside the earthshattering win of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th District over Joseph Crowley the establishment longtime candidate, labeling it as a sign of not here the party is going but a sign of where the Bronx is going.
The several other wins in which the Democrat who prevailed in their respective primaries did not fit the traditional clean-cut white guy mold has done little to awaken the Democratic party to the reality that maybe.….. just maybe, grassroots Democratic voters want clear lines of demarcation between the two political parties.
The rise of Stacy Abrams in Georgia, Ben Jealous in Maryland and Andrew Gillium in Florida and finally yesterday, the win by African-American City Council member Ayanna Pressley In Boston Massachutes, are also clear signs that Democratic voters are not content with the status quo.
Pressly’s defeat of ten term Democratic US representative Michael Capuano all but guaranteed herself a seat in the US House of Representatives, there is no Republican vying for that seat.
This is momentous on several levels not the least of which is that Ayanna Pressley will become the very first African-American woman to represent her state in the US Congress.
I hope for the sake of the United States and indeed the World that there will be a blue wave come November 6th. There are literally tens of millions of people feeling the same way, waiting for that day to exhale.
But what if when the votes are counted Republicans still control the House and Senate, still control the Governor’s mansions they did and even picked up a few?
And oh, please don’t forget that Donald Trump will still be President.
Then what?
Does anyone believe that a Democratic Party led by Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi is going to save the Republic? Charles Schumer’s only interest is that Donald Trump is sticking it to the Palestinians and being the water boy of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Look, it comes as no surprise to me that Schumer the leader in the Senate, is merely a patsy, a shadow of former Democratic leaders like Harry Reid or even Tom Daschle.
Schumer is no more ideologically bound to the principles of Democratic orthodoxy that Joeseph Leiberman was. Leiberman the Democratic Senator from Conneciticut was the Vice Presidential running mate of Former Clinton Vice President Al Gore who was seeking his first term as president in 2,000.
No sooner had Gore lost the electionLeibermen began to hedge his bets and sided with the George Bush White House.
By the time Barack Obama emerged as the Presidential candidate for the Democratic party against the now deceased Senator John McCain of Arizona in 2008, Joe Leiberman had all but left the Democratic Party and had changed his party affiliation to Independent. A total betrayal to the Democratic voters of the state of Connecticut who had elected him more than once.
It came as no surprise that Leiberman who had been a lifelong Democrat prior, would not support the first African-American to have a real shot at the presidency, a mere eight years after he himself was on a Democratic ticket for vice president of the United States.
The fact of the matter is that for the likes of Leiberman and Schumer total fealty to the state of Israel in a presidential candidate and ultimately a President of the United States trumps everything else, including giving the leadership required to Democratic voters they positioned themselves to lead.
In an age when Republicans have turned into Right-wing fascists, Democrats continue to act Republican-lite, Progressives are crying out for leadership. There is presently no leader in the Democratic party with clout except Barack Obama. He will not be running for any elected office ever again.
If establishment Democrats continue to make the same mistakes of tippy-toeing around what’s happening, unable to harness the power of the resistance, Donald Trump and his far-right party led by the renegades in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate will continue to pack the courts and change the face of America into the white ethnostate they so desperately dream of.
Mike Beckles is a former Jamaican police corporal, business owner, avid researcher, and blogger. He is also a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com. You may subscribe to his blogs free of charge.
PNP’s Green Bike Brouhaha, Nonsensical And Hypocritical
Life in Jamaica should never be as complicated and un-necessarily antagonistic as it is in her large and powerful neighbor to the north. Politics and the insatiable desire to occupy the halls of power has turned our beloved little Island Paradise into a raging inferno of fuss and chaos which is totally uncalled for.
Take for instance the recent brouhaha about the lime green bikes and accouterments recently brought in for the police. The Opposition People’s National Party has sought to make political hay out of the color claiming that the choice of color for the bikes is tantamount to politicizing the police department. This not only applies to the motor bikes, but also the electric bikes as well, especially the ones from electric bike for sale UK
This car is sporting red streaks and lettering which could be construed to be political if we are intent on nit-picking, taking into account that the standard colors have been traditionally blue.
A closer look will also reveal another truth, the officer in the car is also wearing a lime or neon-green vest, there was no outcry about this either. This was under PNP leadership.
Australian Metropolitan Police
I have no idea what was in the mind of the Governing authority when the decision was made to chose that color which just coincidentally is the color associated with the ruling JLP, albeit a different shade.
My question to the Opposition PNP, however, is, whether they would have been offended if the color was orange or red, the party’s colors of choice?
Tasmanian Police
Have we become so politically polarized that rather than work on the real pressing issues we would rather quibble over nothing?
Are we so polarized that we would actually stoop so low to make the decision to color the bikes green based on politics?
Police in London
Here’s the thing, the idea that politicizing the force should not be tolerated, (by either political party) is a valid argument to make. I am just not sure when was it that the PNP had this epiphany?
I don’t want to belabor the point, but the Opposition PNP has been in power for a very long time, the JLP is now the Governing party.
Being in opposition does not mean opposing everything, least of all, making silly arguments which only serve to embarrass the party.
(Hi Fitz Jackson)
There are many ways in which the opposition party can be the watchdog the nation deserves until the nation is ready again to entrust it with state power. At the moment that time is not yet here. Acting like a desperate psychotic brat on every issue is not a good look and it does precious little to endear the party to the electorate which is getting more and more sophisticated.
A good idea may be to retool and gather fresh perspectives to see how best the party can serve the nation in the 21st century.
One way of doing that could be shedding the party colors, and encourage the other party to do the same, a move which would have rendered this whole issue moot.
We all remember the politicizing of everything over the past 20 years, literally everything painted Orange. Come on PNP do better.
Remember this shameful episode in April of 2012
We could also continue to point to the desecration of our flag by the hyper-partisans who lacked decency and honor in the image above. The nation does not need a reminder of just how crass the PNP can be. So in the interest of our little nation let us stop with the tribal politics and this incessant rapacious attempt all aimed at making a power grab.
Whose Job Was It To Take The Microphone From Pastor Jasper Williams?
Allowing the microphone to long-winded sister Agatha during testimony on Sunday morning church service, and having to gently prod it from her hands is always a risky endeavor.
In the interest of time and common sense, the pastor has to make the decision to cut sister Agatha’s microphone or physically take it from her trembling hands.
But who takes the microphone from the hands of the Pastor in the interest of time, or more importantly in the interest of common sense?
Who makes the decision to say “take his microphone”, when the Pastor clearly drunk from having the limelight decides to make a spectacle and a fool of himself?
We are told that the Late Queen of soul Aretha Franklin asked the Reverend Jasper Williams a Georgia Pastor to eulogize her. Reverend Williams took the opportunity to delve into some critical areas of black life without laying out context or adding both sides of the arguments which would have insulated him from the backlash he is receiving. By doing so he left out exculpatory facts which go to the defense of the African-American community which is constantly being maligned.
This does not mean that Reverend Williams’ comments should be ignored, nevertheless speaking without the important principle of balance does give rise to the possibility of being tuned out or a negative backlash which drowns out the intended message.
Pastor Williams spoke to a few issues to which I will attempt to add some perspective.
(1) Quote: There was a time when we as a race had a thriving economy.
There never was a time when African-Americans as a race had a thriving economy, there have been pockets of economic progress in small places like Rosewood Florida, Tulsa Oklahoma and a few other places where Black entrepreneurial spirit had produced some measure of economic success and pride, but that was never allowed to be built out or translated across the broader spectrum of black America.
(2) Quote:” We got what we fought for, we got what we marched for, but with the birth of integration there also came the loss of not only the loss of the black community’s economy we also lost our souls. Where is your soul black man?
As I look in your house there are no fathers.”
Pastor Williams’ broad sweeping generalized statements makes the assumptions that there was a thriving black economy across America which is not supported by any historical data. As I pointed out earlier there were pockets of black economic activity much of which was destroyed by white mob violence and through the implementation of other more subversive measures. However, this was in no way true of the wider African-American population.
The idea that there are no black fathers in black homes sound like a right-wing talking point rather than the statements of a cautious learned man of God.
(3) Quote: Seventy percent of our households are led by our precious, proud, fine black women, but as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing black women cannot do,.…… a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man.
Pastor, there are several reasons why households are becoming far different from what obtained decades ago, not the least of which is the definition of what constitutes a family nowadays.
As the roles of women change in society and women are more and more represented in the workforce, so too has the perception of what constitutes a family changed over time.
The concept of single-parent households is not a phenomenon solely in the black community, it transcends all ethnic groups, single-parent households led by women are on the rise.
Is there a disproportionate representation of single mother run households in the black community? The answer is a resounding yes.
We cannot speak to the 70% of black women who are having children out of wedlock or the high incidents of women-run households in the black community without addressing the ravaging effects of the prison industrial complex, mass criminalization and incarceration of young black males, or the other societal roadblocks affecting the black community across America.
More importantly, when we speak about black women in the negative we must endeavor to acknowledge that In America despite the challenges, Black women in the 2009 – 2010 academic year, received a higher percentage of degrees within their race/ethnic group than did women in any other major group. So, for example, of all the MA degrees awarded to Black students, Black women got 71% of them. In comparison, White women only got 62% of all White MA degrees. (source. https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/no-black-women-are-not-the-most-educated-group-in-the-us/)
I am not too far away from Pastor Williams on this issue of “cannot raise black men”, but I do not agree when he says “cannot.”
I say should not. This is a subject on which I opine regularly, there are myriad issues in this question which requires some clarification.
On the one hand, we must first come to a consensus on whether the question of what constitutes “Man” remains the traditional interpretation. Is he still the dragon-slayer, protector, provider, strong disciplinarian, a fence around the family? Or have that characterization migrated to the more docile feminist male who is more deferential to his woman, and is in many cases reduced to the caricature of a useless idiot with an ATM card?
There is no question that when two good and decent people come together and raise their children the right way those children have a better shot at life. Study after study has alluded to that, personally, I did not need a study to validate what God had already created and sanctified.
As such, it follows therefore that when the father is missing from the home the task of the mother becomes exponentially more difficult because she cannot teach what she has never known. She was not a father.
This is true in the reverse, a mother is the better parent to teach her daughter how to be a woman, regardless of how great a dad may be.
I need to reiterate that in every case one good parent is far better than two bad ones, so to the skeptics who are quick to gravitate to “well what about two bad parents or one bad parent of a two-parent household”? To you, I say in every situation, I am talking about situations in which people act as God intended us to.
There is also the question of a mother’s love and tenderness, (which I cannot speak to, (I was not raised by my mother). It is true that far too many women are unable to figure out that showering kids with goodies and allowing them to do as they please is not love, but is better viewed as an abdication of responsibility, a form of child neglect.
I raised my boys to understand that sometimes no is the right answer(RIP) [Kodi Beckles], you understood that concept very well.
I raised my children to understand that when I told them “no,” it was out of love, not out of a desire to be mean or punitive.
I demonstrated to them that I have never seen a sign anywhere which says please do as you please.
Saying “no,” where appropriate, is exactly the right thing to do, something many black women are yet to learn or understand.
Society is littered with rules, no parking, no speeding, no entry, no standing, no backing up, no overtaking, no loitering, no vending, no this, no that. Saying no to your children where it is needed is preparing them for society.
Failing to prepare them for society is doing them a grave disservice, the consequences of which we see play out in far too many circumstances where had they followed simple instructions the result would have been different.
No, ma’am, he is not your baby, he is grown.
No, my man, your mother’s house is not yours and it certainly isn’t a crib. Grow up!
Quote: “If you chose to ask me today, do black lives matter?
Let me answer like this no, black lives do not matter, black lives will not matter black lives ought not to matter, black lives should not matter, black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves”.
Lets first acknowledge that we do not know whether the great Queen of Soul, our dearly beloved sister Aretha Franklyn had seen this sermon and okayed it before her passing.
Let us also acknowledge that she may have know exactly the kind of sermon that the Reverend Jasper Williams would preach and that may have informed her decision to choose him to deliver her eulogy.
The late Great Senator John McCain had enough time and conviction to speak to us in death, his choices of former Presidents, Obama and Bush spoke volumes.
Two men of opposing parties, two men who defeated him in his quest for the Presidency to eulogize him sent a powerful message of bi-partisanship.
John McCain decried what he called the lack of regular order. Regular order means doing things the right way, observing the rules of the game with due care and deference. Choosing Bush and Obama to speak at his funeral service embodies that ideal.
In as much as the loss of every life is regrettable, and in as much as the incidents of black and black crime is evident, particularly in inner-city communities, it is short-sighted to ignore the socio-economic conditions which create these maladies.
Each ethnic group in America experiences same race violence than violence perpetrated on them by other races.
This is not an excuse for violent behavior but again to simply pull out black on black violence and trumpet it while ignoring the causes is self-serving.
Saying Black live matter and dealing with black on black crime are not mutually exclusive issues. Generally when blacks kill they are arrested and made to pay the price. That is what the Police is there for.
When the police kill black people without just cause and people protest those killings, they are justified in arguing that black lives do matter. Anyone who finds that offensive is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Again, Pastor Jasper Williams seems to have either borrowed his talking points from FOX, or he has simply co-opted them without doing the necessary research before incorporating them into his sermon.
There are right and wrong ways to go about speaking to our community. Do not talk down to our people because you get a megaphone. Let us remember the way Bill Cosby talked down to the community, he was not the first, he certainly will not be the last.
In the case of the goodly Pastor Jasper Williams, whose job was it to take his microphone? Make your words soft and sweet Pastor Williams, you may have to eat them. You knew you were on the biggest stage of your life and you chose to say what you did. You made a conscious decision to be divisive and disparaging at a time when healing and coming together was required and for that, you were a total failure, sir. It was not about you but you made it so!
Fame and power do not change a man, they simply illuminate who he really is, said a really wise man.
Anderson “I’m Learning On The Job”
A few days ago I wrote a short article in which I spoke to assertions made by the Gleaner’s Editorial page critique of the Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson,s silence since he took office, over five months ago.
Many readers were aghast, some angry that I dared to argue that Anderson was silent largely because he was learning on the job.
My comments weren’t exactly pejorative, they were simply stating indisputable facts.
Anderson, [regardless of how sharp he is], cannot speak to issues which he knows nothing about.
Those are facts, so everytime Jamaican authorities convince you that they are about to place a square peg in a round hole and you are all gleeful because you are told by the media elites that no one else can do the job, be prepared to lose some of your lives waiting for results.
Faux- Shock At Antony Anderson’s Silence: He’s Learning On The Job, Hello…
Though no fan of outsiders running the force by any stretch, I have zero ability to impact political decisions anywhere in the world, least of all in Jamaica.
I have to live with their choices like everyone else, but since hope is not a strategy those of us with a voice must raise them where necessary to congratulate their successes but certainly to speak out when they fall short of their mandates.
I loved the JCF because of the nobility of its mission nevertheless, I was moved to exit rather quickly because of what I saw during my brief stay.
Not only was the leadership bereft of ideas and expertise, those who aspired to replace those in leadership largely subscribed to the very same brand of leadership. A leadership which was defined by cronyism, nepotism, slavish political ideology, news carrying and a general culture of incompetence and dysfunction.
In the jockeying for attention amidst that chaos, there was precious little time left for criminal intelligence continuity.
The foregone though not comprehensive in speaking to the ills of the leadership, gives a bird’s eye view of what obtains, as well as the way that dysfunction created a rank and file which was forced to jockey for attention as well, in many cases acting against their own long-term self-interest.
As a consequence, many of the members of the rank and file who spent their working lives in the department without reaching the gazetted ranks still struggle unfortunately to understand how the force is and has been less than efficient on all fronts, including the way they were treated during their service.
Whether this is a result of a lack of education and or exposure I will leave that judgment call to others, sufficing to say that far too many are stuck in the narrow confines of the force even years after they were liberated.
ANDERSON SPEAKS THE TRUTH, WILL MY CRITICS TAKE IT FROM HIM?
I don’t know Antony Anderson but It seems to me that unlike some of his supporters that there is one positive thing to be said about him, he speaks the truth.
Speaking at a Gleaner’s Editor’s forum on Thursday Anderson speaking to the very same silence perception said the following.
“So I have been in for five months, and the first thing you have to do when coming into the job is to pay attention to the most pressing concerns in the public space, which at the time, was the rate of murders. We were trending downwards, but we were still above last year,”
Anderson went on, “As someone who came to the JCF from the outside, I did not know everything about the organization even though I spent a career close to it.
There’s still a lot to learn when you come in, and, obviously, you want to see how much talent there is, where it is, and why it is that the public feel the way they do about the JCF. I had to understand that and what concerns the police officers internally also.”
Understanding what concerns the police officers should not be an afterthought, it ought to be job one. It’s interesting that he had to articulate that, even though he was close to the force he did not know anything about it’s operations.
A lesson for those who believe that a mechanical engineer is qualified to perform brain surgery.
Yes, learning on the job consumes time, valuable time which cost lives and massive hurt for innocent people.
Anderson is benefitting from the declaration of the state of emergency which saw large contingents of police and soldiers being dropped into parts of Saint James and St Catherine.
This though really important, is unsustainable. Those with a little memory will recall just how serious crimes took a precipitous drop after the security forces show of force in Tivoli Gardens.
This is no different, and so the idea that he is strategizing , bringing himself and the Agency up to speed, will only hold as long as the state of emergency is in place.
The deference and support he is receiving are remarkable though it is not infinite.
Drop the Mic.
Alleged Rapist /child Killer Gets His…(graphic Image)
Reports are that this man( blue arrow) raped and killed a 14-year-old girl and burned her body somewhere in the Denham Town or Arnett Graden’s area of Saint Andrew.
Unconfirmed reports are that some residents of the area rendered their own brand of justice and the result was certainly not what this alleged accused expected.
This medium certainly does not support this kind of justice, the chances of the wrong person getting caught up in the madness are all too real and the consequences far too dire.
however, if he is guilty of the crimes alleged against him and with the prevailing system of justice being meted out at all levels of the Jamaican justice system these images are going to continue into the future.
This story has been updated since posting (Area of killing still unconfirmed fully)
Police Blotters
ST ANN, Jamaica — A woman and a young boy were chopped to death in the community of Linton Park in Watt Town, St Ann last evening, while another child has been hospitalized with injuries sustained during the incident.
According to reports, 32-year-old Alecia Francis was walking along the roadway with 12-year-old Teco Jackson and the other child about 10:30 pm when they were attacked by a man, who chopped them several times.
The police said they were summoned by residents who were alerted by cries of help.
The three were taken to hospital where Francis and Teco were pronounced dead and the other child admitted in stable condition.
Investigations are ongoing.
Faux- Shock At Antony Anderson’s Silence: He’s Learning On The Job, Hello…
Before we delve into what is or isn’t working let’s give thanks to Almighty God and to the hard-working unappreciated men and women of the JCF and the JDF for the 18% reduction in homicides this year against last year’s numbers.
Last year the police reported that 1617 Jamaicans were murdered over the course of the year. If the present trend holds it means that a calculated 291 fewer Jamaicans will be killed this year. That is reason to celebrate!
ATTRIBUTION
In the same way that 1617 people were slaughtered last year it is reasonable to conclude that there are readily identifiable reasons which thus far this year has caused fewer people to lose their lives.
The state of emergency in parts of St. James and St. Catherine has seen a dramatic reduction in crime, not just homicides but other major crimes as well.
Though commendable, it is important to recognize that the benefits derived from the state of emergency declared and enforced in those areas is not a sustainable strategy for the long run.
The Jamaican daily, (Jamaica-gleaner.com) Editorialized that fact arguing that “limits are placed on citizens’ rights and that their communities are under watch by large numbers of police and soldiers”.
Ahh yeah, that is generally what a state of emergency is.
I have no quarrel with the idea of the unsustainability of the emergency powers given to the security forces. But of course, the Editors of that daily newspaper cannot make a sensible statement without acting like a cow which gives a pail of milk and then turns around and kicks it over.
Pomposity, grandiosity and pure [bull-shit-tery] always take over with these folks.
“States of public emergency, with their impingement of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms, were not intended to be long-term policing tools in democratic societies, but short-term responses to security threats. In that regard, we question the sustainability of the existing ones. Further, with less than five percent of the well over 2,000 people detained in St James not charged for any crime, it is moot whether it is the state of emergency per se or the heightened presence of the security forces, that is responsible for the decline in killings”.
It is always the obnoxious nature of these editorials which gets me upset. Of course, we all agree that states of emergencies are not long-term, not sustainable but for God’s sake why are you talking about “long-term policing tools in democratic societies, but short-term responses to security threats”.
Should the Government not do something about the bloodshed? The state of emergency declared in St James and St Catherine are exactly short-term responses to the threats residents faced.
Would the editorial board of the Gleaner be more comfortable with 18% more Jamaicans killed in order to maintain a façade of a democratic society?
I suggest that the Gleaner editors take a first aid class where they will learn the procedures and protocols of treating a casualty. If there is bleeding stop the bleeding where possible, make the casualty comfortable, reassure the casualty, get the casualty to a hospital.
The Government has stopped some of the bleedings in some of the more violent communities, (hence the drop in homicides). Talk to some of the people in those areas, based on their past experiences and they are ecstatic that the security forces are visible in their communities.
Look, I am not one who believes that the show of force in high-risk communities is a sustainable policing strategy. Nevertheless, I believe that over the span of a year the idea of 291 fewer dead Jamaicans is not such a bad idea.
As I have stated in previous articles, there is no way that the elites, including those at the Gleaner and the fake upper crust of the society, would give a police officer who came up through the ranks the leverage and deference given Antony Anderson.
Anderson spent his life in the military, a military which has never seen a war of any kind, yet he attained the rank of major general without any battle experience.
Nevertheless, the idea that he was qualified to be commissioner of police for Jamaica based on his bona fides, impressive though they are, was as laughable as the prospect of a reality TV star becoming a competent President of the United States.
The Gleaner’s shock that Antony Anderson is deathly silent on any strategic crime policy (outside of the implementation of the state of emergency) is really laughable if they weren’t so pathetic. They were all clamoring for him to be named commissioner of police because of course, he has a certain skill-set.
He cannot formulate strategies in areas in which he has no expertise. Being commissioner of police requires policing and legal know-how. No, the fact that one has a certain skillset does not give that person expertise in all disciplines.
Anderson is learning on the job and as such, the nation will have to be satisfied with what it gets. In the meantime, we pray for the police officers and soldiers who are putting their bodies between the anarchists and the public.
We pray for the innocent people who are denied credible and professional service based on our country’s stubborn insistence on pretending it is a developed country.
Thanks to those who continue to do the heavy lifting against the counterproductive unveiling of murals honoring criminals.
Thank you for your service, even though many absolutely do not deserve it.
John McCain Requests Former Rivals, Barack Obama, George W. Bush To Eulogize Him At Funeral
Back when President Barack Obama had black hair (L) with Sen. John McCain (R‑AZ) during a meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators and members of Congress in the State Dining Room at the White House June 25, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Obama hosted the bipartisan group of Senate and House members to begin a dialogue on immigration with the hope of starting the debate later this year.Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)
I’m of the contention that we should generally be judged or even rated as humans by the best — and not worst — thing we’ve ever done. So I have no problems with the recently deceased Senator from Arizona, John McCain, a flawed, fallible white man from America, being assessed honestly.
But frankly, I’m having the biggest kiki over McCain giving President Petty Bonespurs a great big fat finger from the grave.
In life, McCain notoriously left his sick bed to help cast the death knell for the repeal of Obamacare; he also chose not to pander to his racist base when some questioned Obama’s allegiance to America. In this writer’s mind, that levels out his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, and voting against making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday in his first term in Congress. In general, and despite his political party, McCain has, for the most part, acted with decency and integrity, attributes all but ghost from today’s Capitol Hill.
In that vein, CBS News reports that McCain requested that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at his funeral. McCain died on Saturday at age 81.
Former President Obama, who defeated the six-term Senator in 2008 presidential race, issued a statement shortly after McCain’s death saying that he and his former rival shared “ a fidelity to something higher.” Obama continues:
We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible – and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.
Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John’s best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt. Michelle and I send our most heartfelt condolences to Cindy and their family.”
George W. Bush, who defeated McCain for the GOP nomination in 2000, issued a statement also, hailing McCain as “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”
Former president Jimmy Carter said: “John McCain was a man of honor, a true patriot in the best sense of the word. Americans will be forever grateful for his heroic military service and for his steadfast integrity as a member of the United States Senate. Rosalynn and I extend our sincere condolences to Senator McCain’s family and to the people of Arizona whom he represented so forthrightly for so many years.”
The New York Times reports that McCain’s body will lie in state in both the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix and Capitol Rotunda in DC, receive a full dress service at the Washington National Cathedral and will be buried at Annapolis.
Donald Trump, McCain’s sometimes bitter rival, was not invited to McCain’s funeral, according to reports. Under previously announced plans, Vice President Mike Pence will attend instead.
In having at least two — and probably all living — presidents besides the sitting one, at his funeral, McCain remains “the maverick.”
https://www.theroot.com/john-mccain-requests-former-rivals-barack-obama-georg-1828610386
Road Ends For Another Murderer(graphic Images Viewer Discretion Is Advised)
Another of the nation’s most wanted criminals, 28-year-old, Donovan ‘Tim’ Roach, was cut down by police bullets when the house in which he was staying was surrounded by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. According to the police, at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, a police team, acting on intelligence, went to a house in Hermitage, Bethel Town in the Parish of Westmoreland.
On the approach of the lawmen, Roach responded by laying down fire, forcing the lawmen to take cover and return fire. The police breached the premises and terminated Roach.
A 23-year-old female, who was in the home was taken into custody.” A 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which was loaded with five 9mm bullets several spent shells and an empty magazine was reportedly recovered at the scene.
The Parish of Westmoreland has been grappling with an inordinate amount of high profile criminals including the infamous Ratty Peterkin who was killed in a shootout with members of the security forces earlier this year.
As the Police face these demons and struggle to remove them from among decent law-abiding Jamaicans, the anti-Jamaican criminal rights lobbies, including Jamaicans for Justice and others are engaged in creating murals to commemorate the deaths of criminals killed in shootouts with police.
Jamaicans have a decision to make, they must determine whether they want to fall for the baloney theses lobbies are selling or are they willing to stand up for our country.
Stark and graphic image.…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Buford City Schools Superintendent Geye Hamby Resigns Amid Lawsuit Claiming Racial Discrimination
Buford City Schools Superintendent Geye Hamby submitted his resignation Friday — just days after audio surfaced of what is believed to be him going on a racist rant.
Hamby, who has held the position of superintendent since 2006, was recently sued by former paraprofessional educator Mary Ingram for alleged race discrimination and retaliation after she was fired “without any justification,” the lawsuit says.
“Please accept this letter as my resignation as Superintendent of Buford City Schools,” Hamby wrote in a letter addressed to the Board of Education and obtained by the Daily Post. “My sincere apologies for any actions that may have created adversity for this community and the Buford School District.”
Included in the lawsuit is a web link to two audio recordings, in which a man said to be Hamby makes derogatory comments about black construction workers, referring to them by the n‑word and saying that he would “kill these (expletive).”
Hamby was placed on administrative leave by the school board on Wednesday and later resigned, attorney Gregory Jay confirmed to the Daily Post. Story first appeared here(https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/buford-city-schools-superintendent-geye-hamby-resigns-amid-lawsuit-claiming/article_f89ea28a-1615 – 5bdc-88c1-c8b787c26227.html)
Sixty Year-old White Man Pees On 5‑year-old Black Child
Old Jamaican proverb “Duppy know who fi friten” .
Dear Lord, I need a paper bag to breathe into.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1032718001609404417
All The Kings Horses And All The Kings Men
What’s really shocking is the cultlike loyalty which permeates the followers of Donald Trump. Just imagine this, the personal lawyer of the president of the United States pleaded guilty to committing eight (8) felonies and named (the very same president as an unindicted co-conspirator).
Truth isn’t truth, crimes are no longer crimes and now well .… even if I did it cannot be a crime because I am not subject to the laws.
The president’s campaign chairman was convicted on eight (8) felonies on the very same day that his lawyer pleaded guilty. We are now learning that he would have been convicted on all 18 counts as charged, but for one female Trump supporting juror who would not let the evidence get in the way of partisan orthodoxy.
On the very same day Duncan Hunter Republican Congressman from California, the second member of the Congress to endorse Trump was indicted on charges that he and his wife, Margaret, routinely — and illegally — used campaign funds to pay personal bills …
Chris Collins.…
All of that happened in one day .….. it does not include the fact that the first member of the Congress to endorse Donald Trump, Chris Collins of western New York was indicted on Insider Trading Charges.
But the foregone does not even begin to tell the full story so here goes.
- Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI, cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigations and awaiting sentencing.
- Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, and Manafort protégé, on one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of making false statements to FBI agents.
- George Papadopoulos, a low-level Trump foreign policy adviser, for making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.
- Alex van der Zwaan, who worked with Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort while he practiced law at a large international firm, admitted to lying and failing to turn over emails to Mueller’s team in February, sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $30,000 fine did his time and is reported to be already out of the country.
Amidst all of this and without even one scintilla of accountability about the torrent of criminal indictments and guilty pleas Donald Trump did what he has done every single time he feels the walls closing in on him.
No, I am not talking about just appealing to the wretched white racists’ crowd which blindly support him, he tweeted an old right-wing trope about white South African farmers been killed and their lands taken from them.
I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews
There are so many things to be said about the expropriation of land, not the least of which is that it was not a problem when the murderous Booer Voortrekkers stole the land, But the very rare instance of righting a wrong as is being considered a‑la fair market price as a remedial action, is a vicious alt right trope.
This is where Donald Trump wants to direct his attention at the exact time that he was named in a federal felony plea deal as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Whether we like or believe Amorosa Manigualt-Newman is not really important. She spent well over a decade with and around Donald Trump, as a consequence, when she said he wants to start a race war her comments cannot simply be brushed aside.
South Africa has a lot of crime, yet whites in South Africa are less likely to become victims of crime largely on the basis of their wealthier status in the society.
If Donald Trump needed to dip his beak into world affairs the least he could have done is read a few pages of a book instead of watching Orwellian talking points of FOX misinformation otherwise knowns as state TV.
One of the enduring virtues of black people is that we generally are quick to forgive and forget, a virtue not found in other races to the extent it exists in us.
What he should have tweeted about this (shithole country)[sic] is the Magnanimity of the black people of South Africa(those who managed to survive), who did not kill and abuse the white minority who for decades upon decades made their lives a living hell.
Instead of trying to gin up racial animosity across the world Donald Trump should seriously worry about how to stay out of prison when Muller is finished with his investigation.