Author: Jobrny

We need a political revolution that will restore government to We The People.

Mary Hart Flashes Racist Hand-Sign at Trump July 4th Rally

Say it ain’t so:

Former Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart is receiving backlash after some believed she flashed a ‘white power’ sign at President Trump’s Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore.

Hart, 69, a former Miss South Dakota winner, made an appearance in her home state on Friday to host the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration as Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived on Air Force One.

But Hart’s speculated use of a white power hand gesture left some audience members shocked and social media users outraged.

For context I included the whole Hart presentation (which is about 11 minutes). The hand gesture can be seen at the 42 second mark. Judge for yourself if she does make the white supremacy hand sign:

What’s more frightening is when it’s done by cops:

The NYPD Isn’t Giving Critical Bodycam Footage to Officials Investigating Alleged Abuse

Photo credit: An NYPD officer demonstrating a body camera in April 2017. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

What is the purpose of bodycams if they are not turned over to the public? They should be required to do so. This is farce. We know cameras are important in holding cops accountable:

Like many cities, New York City began equipping its police officers with body-worn cameras a few years ago. The footage is often invaluable evidence for the civilian agency charged with investigating complaints about NYPD abuses.

But first, the agency’s investigators need to get the footage. And increasingly, the NYPD is not turning it over.

In May, New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board requested body-worn camera footage for 212 cases involving possible misconduct but received only 33 responses, according to a recent internal memo.

The NYPD’s responsiveness has “steadily gotten worse,” stated the memo, which was obtained by ProPublica. The memo warned that “the situation is untenable.”

Colorado police officers fired after photos mocking death of Black man surface

Aurora Police Department officers Erica Marrero, Jaron Jones and Kyle Dittrich reenact a chokehold near a memorial to Elijah McClain, in Aurora, Colorado, U.S. October 2019. Picture taken October 2019. Aurora Police Department/Handout via REUTERS.

We have a long way to go:

Three Colorado police officers were fired and a fourth resigned after they shared photographs they took of themselves re-enacting a chokehold officers used to subdue a Black man who later died, authorities said on Friday.

Vanessa Wilson, interim chief of police in the Denver suburb of Aurora, called the officers’ actions surrounding the death of Elijah McClain, who was unarmed, “reprehensible.”

“I am disgusted to my core,” Wilson said at a news conference announcing the firings.

The officers who were terminated were named as Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. The fourth officer, Jaron Jones, resigned on Tuesday.

One photo depicts Dittrich and Jones recreating a carotid neck hold, while a grinning Marrero stands nearby. The pictures, which were released on Friday by authorities, were taken near the site where the fatal struggle took place.

Police Violated Human Rights of George Floyd Protesters 125 Times: Amnesty International

Police advance on demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd, on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

And the numbers keep growing. This is essentially a war. The government is still essentially allowing it to happen. Unless you want to believe that the police have taken over the government:

Police across the U.S. violated the human rights of peaceful protesters, journalists and bystanders more than 100 times during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, according to analysis by Amnesty International.

The organization has documented 125 separate instances of police violence against people in 40 states as well as Washington, D.C. between May 26 and June 5—a period in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to protest police brutality and racism following Floyd’s death after a white Minneapolis officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International launched an interactive map marking incidents of unlawful use of force, which included beatings, misuse of tear gas and pepper spray and the firing of less-lethal projectiles such as rubber bullets. The abuses were committed by officers from state and local police departments, federal agencies and the National Guard, according to Amnesty International.

Newsweek.com

Miami Police Officer Arrested after Video shows him with knee on Black Woman’s Neck, Tasing her

Why did it take so long for him to be arrested? The video. No video, no arrest:

The arrest of Safiya Satchell might have gone down as another anonymous case — were it not for the bystander video that showed a Miami Gardens police officer reach into her SUV, drag her out, press his knee on her neck and stun her twice with a Taser.

This video, as have similar clips of police brutality across the country, is jarring and on Thursday spurred state authorities to arrest now-fired Officer Jordy Yanes Martel on charges of battery.

He was also charged with official misconduct for filing two reports containing false details about his interaction outside a strip club with Satchell, 33, on Jan. 14. He had arrested her on charges of battery on a cop and resisting with violence — charges that have since been dismissed.

Police unions blamed for rise in fatal shootings even as crime plummeted

In particular, the politicians are to blame because they a beholden to the police unions and their campaign cash:

Police unions have emerged as the leading opponent of reform efforts as lawmakers respond to weeks of protests over the police killings of Black people across the country.

Despite years of demonstrations against police violence, data shows that law enforcement agencies killed more people last year than they did five years ago. Black people are killed at a far higher rate than white people.

The rise comes even as violent crime has plummeted across the country for decades. Despite the falling crime numbers, America’s policing budget has nearly tripled over the last 45 years.

Looking at the historical data, researcher Lyman Stone, a former federal economist who now serves as a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, found that police killings mostly fell between the 1960s and the 2000s but have been at high levels ever since.

“The pace of increase has been especially dramatic since 2002,” Stone wrote. “This calculation shows the frequency of police killings has risen by much more than criminal or terrorist violence, which suggests that rising police violence is probably not a response to rising criminal violence.”

Salon.com

Trump is Desperate to Find Someone to Blame

The blamer-in-chief is back to scapegoating immigrants. He is now talking about keeping all immigrants out. Although it’s something Trump probably just thought it up during the middle of the night. Apparently blaming WHO is not really going very far. Nor is blaming the Governors. Trump’s organizing protests (by way of Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos) in swing states is an obvious ploy. It’s also going to kill a whole bunch of people unnecessarily. But none of it will work. He can no longer run away from taking responsibility for what he did. His failure to prepare the country has led to the highest number deaths in the World, by far.

Trump admin awards N95 contract far above normal price to bankrupt company with no employees: report

Another Trump White House scandal that will probably be swept under the rug:

The Trump administration awarded an N95 mask procurement contract worth eight times the usual price to a bankrupt company with no employees which has never even manufactured the respirator masks, according to a new report.

The company, Panthera, claims to provide tactical training and “mission support” for the Department of Defense and other government agencies. However, it has no experience with manufacturing or medical equipment, The Washington Post reported this week. Panthera’s parent company filed for bankruptcy in the fall, and it has not employed anyone since May 2018.

Trump sons’ romantic partners reportedly receive $180,000 a year from reelection campaign.

At least they don’t bother to deny it. The Trump mafia knows they can get away with just about any crime. No one to hold accountable:

The wife of one of Donald Trump’s sons and the girlfriend of another one are each receiving $180,000 a year from the president’s reelection campaign. But that money isn’t being handed out in the open. They’re each getting paid through the company run by Trump’s campaign manager in order to avoid the public disclosure that couldn’t be avoided if they were getting the money directly, reports HuffPost.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, and Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, are each receiving $15,000 a month, two GOP sources tell HuffPost. Campaign manager Bradley Parscale is cutting the checks through his private company rather than the campaign itself. Parscale didn’t deny anything when HuffPost asked him about it. “I can pay them however I want to pay them,” Parscale said.

Army Decides a Coronavirus Pandemic Is a Good Time to Give GOP Donors $569 Million to ‘Build the Wall’

This scandal will be also forgotten or ignored because the media/press can’t do more than one thing:

In the middle of a pandemic that has killed 27,000 Americans and counting, the Army this week gave a politically connected Montana firm half a billion dollars—not to manufacture ventilators or protective gear to fight the novel coronavirus, but to build 17 miles of President Trump’s southern border wall.

On Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it awarded BFBC, an affiliate of Barnard Construction, $569 million in contract modifications for building “17.17 miles” of the wall in two California locations, El Centro and San Diego. That works out to over $33 million per mile—steeply above the $20 million-per-mile average that the Trump administration is already doling out for the wall. Construction is supposed to be completed by the end of June 2021.