The Guardian’s Ijeoma Oluo wrote about the events of the night (you need to click through to see the photo described below): A line of police officers stand in the dark on a Charlotte, North Carolina, highway. They look like an occupying force with their helmets and face shields and various weaponry strapped all over their armored clothing. A large … Read More
He Did Everything Right But Got Shot Anyway
Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist who was trying to help an autistic patient who had wandered away from a group home, did everything right when confronted by cops with guns drawn. New video shows moments before @NorthMiamiPD shot unarmed man with hands in air: https://t.co/YbXRNBaDVR @BrianEntin https://t.co/UKHHIYd00z — WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 20, 2016 Frankly, I say he should … Read More
He Who Lives By The Sword?
You don’t want to slander the dead, but if this is true, then I suppose it wouldn’t be a slander. What am I talking about? An awkward but somewhat convincing article that Lorne Ahrens, one of the five Dallas cops killed last week by Micah Xavier Johnson, was a white supremacist. Let’s be clear. Murder is murder. Even if Ahrens was a … Read More
More and More, It Looks Like The Dallas Cop Killer Was A Nut
Dallas police now believe that Micah Johnson, who shot and killed 5 Dallas police following a Black Lives Matter march, was actually planning some sort of mass attack, but advanced his plans to take advantage of the BLM march. His house was full of bomb making equipment, far too much to have put together in recent days. He had received … Read More
Two Deadly Police Shootings In Two Days
Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was standing in the parking lot selling CDs as he had for years when two white cops arrived on Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning he was dead and protesters were in the city’s streets. Calls erupted from Congress and the NAACP for an independent investigation into the shooting, which the Justice Department announced within … Read More
What The Tamir Rice Incident Reveals About Open Carry Gun Laws
So much yes from Charles Pierce in Esquire: There certainly is no point in emphasizing the damn irony that Ohio is an “open carry” state so, even if the cops assumed Rice was 18, and they also assumed his gun was real, they had no cause even to stop him, let alone open fire. Listen to the spiel that Wayne … Read More
Police-Related Racial Homicide in Winston-Salem?
On December 9th, Winston-Salem resident Travis Page died after being handcuffed by four Winston-Salem police officers. After being handcuffed. It’s a story all too familiar — a young black man dies — not in a shootout with police — but while under police custody. It is irrelevant what Travis Page did or was accused of doing. Unless he was attacking police … Read More
The Murder Of Laquan McDonald
It was murder. Plain and simple. But let’s start with the account from the police union, as described to the Chicago Tribune in October 2014: “He’s got a 100-yard stare. He’s staring blankly,” [Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat] Camden said of the teen. “[He] walked up to a car and stabbed the tire of the car and kept walking.” Officers remained … Read More
For The Black Lives Matter Files
I suspect stories like this fly under the radar an awful lot, and nobody even knows about it: A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, on the same day that one of the city’s officers fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old, has been found dead in jail after spending almost four months behind bars without bail for … Read More
Terrible Live Shooting On TV This Morning
Troubling video (not bloody, but shocking) Unbelievable shooting on live TV in the Roanoke area this morning. Prayers to my friends at WDBJ7. pic.twitter.com/q8ob9mI8VL — Jacob Wycoff (@4cast4you) August 26, 2015 Both the reporter and the cameraman are dead. During an interview on CNN, General Manager Jeffrey Marks confirmed that today was Parker’s last day with the station. Marks also … Read More
Does BLM Want To Change Minds Or Change The Law?
Last week I gave a full-throated defense of myself and others who had taken issue with the tactics of Black Lives Matter. This came in the wake of a Seattle political event involving Bernie Sanders, where two BLM activists took the stage as Sanders started speaking, and effectively hijacked the agenda (as well as hijacking Sanders). Sander never got to … Read More
Even The Gun Nuts Don’t Want A Piece Of This
A few days ago, I mentioned the presence of armed white people — the Oath Keepers — present on the streets of Ferguson during the racial tensions. They were there, they said, the protect a reporter from the ultra-right wing website, InfoWars. Except now we learn that Infowars denies knowing these guys or what they’re doing. Maybe that’s true, maybe … Read More
Pissing On Your Best Friend
Earlier this week, I got in — not one but two — debates with good progressive friends about the wisdom of the BLM movement shutting down Bernie Sanders speaking at a Social Security and Medicaid event last Saturday in Seattle. It’s a lot of ground to cover, but I read something by Hamilton Nolan (whoever he is) at Gawker that … Read More
Has Ferguson Gotten Better?
One year after the arrest and killing of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man, Ferguson seems to be in deeper trouble than ever. Several investigations, including one by the DOJ, found that the police officer did not act improperly in the shooting of Michael Brown. BUT the DOJ found that the police department was ethically un-diverse (compared to the … Read More
Bernie Sanders, #BlackLivesMatter, and The Difference Between Activism and Flaming
A Tough Weekend For Black Lives Matter, says the headline of an article in today’s Atlantic. And why? Two things: (1) an officer-involved shooting of a black youth by cops in Ferguson, Missouri at the end of a day of otherwise peaceful protests, and (2) a demonstration at a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle on Saturday. The first one was … Read More