THE COP REIGN OF TERROR IN AMERICA - CBC Chair Beatty: ‘Can’t Say’ the Person Bryant Was Trying to Stab Would Have Died, ‘Appalling’ that Police Always Shoot Center Mass

 

Owned: Some Guy Tried to Heckle Police About the Ohio Shooting...And Got Wrecked for It

Matt Vespa

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 @mvespa1

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Posted: Apr 24, 2021 9:45 AM

Source: Julio Rosas/Townhall

Well, as with any police action nowadays, there will be bystanders. The phones will be recording. And social media blitzes could occur, especially if it's an officer-involved shooting. It just one of the many things that make being a police officer more difficult. Yet, for one cop, he wasn’t having any of this heckler’s nonsense.

During a confrontation with police in Washington DC, some heckler tried to throw the recent Ma’Khia Bryant shooting back at the officers’ faces. 

Guy harassing the police: “Are y’all going to kill me like Ma’Khia Bryant?

Police officer: “Are you going to stab somebody like her?”pic.twitter.com/0qaj8cY5xX

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 23, 2021

“Are y’all going to kill me like Ma’Khia Bryant?,” the man can be heard saying. 

“Are you going to stab somebody like her?” replied one police officer, which left the heckler speechless. All he could say was that he caught him on camera and that it was going viral, but probably not in the way this clown thought it would go. 

In stark contrast, CBS Evening News showed the important part of the 911 call. "These grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us," the caller says.
They also slow down the video and zoom in on the knife in the attacker's hand. pic.twitter.com/izvXaUH6Ki

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 22, 2021

Bryant had a knife. The 911 call describes a scene where she was attacking and trying to stab people which prompted police to arrive. That portion about stabbing was edited out of NBC News’ report on the shooting which occurred in Columbus, Ohio minutes prior to the Derek Chauvin verdict being read on April 20. Once the bodycam footage was released a lot of liberals were eating pavement for peddling a fake narrative. This wasn’t another ‘George Floyd moment’. The officer was justified in using force. Even Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, yes you read that right, agreed, adding that news outlets who don’t mention the knife in this incident are committing journalistic malpractice. It’s made worse by celebrities, like LeBron James, who in a now-deleted tweet wrote “you’re next #accountability” with a picture capturing the office who fired on Bryant, Officer Nicholas Reardon. And then the video blew all of that apart. 

Heckler got owned because he was fed misinformation by the liberal media and celebrities, and we all know the updates and corrections hardly ever get the attention needed to correct their initial takes that were wrong because they went off half-cocked. 

Stacey Abrams: ‘No Justification’ for Killing Bryant without Trying Some ‘Intervention,’ ‘Regardless’ of What She ‘May Have Been Doing’

IAN HANCHETT

22 Apr 202112,102

0:59

On Thursday’s “CNN Tonight,” former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said that “Regardless of what Ma’Khia Bryant may have been doing, there is no justification for taking her life without attempting some form of intervention,” and that people are now having “conversations about who is murdered in the streets as a 16-year-old.”

Abrams said that people are having to “have conversations about who is murdered in the streets as a 16-year-old. Regardless of what Ma’Khia Bryant may have been doing, there is no justification for taking her life without attempting some form of intervention, and we are watching this happen again and again.”

She added that deaths at the hands of police can only change “if we change how voting happens and who gets to participate in our elections.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

CBC Chair Beatty: ‘Can’t Say’ the Person Bryant Was Trying to Stab Would Have Died, ‘Appalling’ that Police Always Shoot Center Mass

IAN HANCHETT

23 Apr 2021853

2:25

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) stated that “it’s appalling” that police officers are trained to always shoot for the center of the body, and if Ma’Khia Bryant “had a water gun, if she had a sandwich, if she had keys, if she had a cell phone, and it looks like she was going to hit or harm someone,” the police would have shot her. Beatty also argued that we don’t know whether Bryant’s intention was to kill the person she was attacking with a knife and we can’t say whether the person Bryant was attacking would have been killed.

Beatty said, “Well, I think we have to be in a better position to say that we should be saving all lives. We can’t say that the lady in the pink would have been killed. Here’s what I believe: You see in eleven seconds, four shots and a teenager on the ground dead. I think there has to be a better way. One size can’t fit all. When I hear the police say that they are trained to go to the center of the body and to shoot, here is a situation where the police had been called. They knew they were coming into a situation with girls, a teenager and two women. We should have been in de-escalation mode. It should not be that the car pulls up, an officer gets out, and within 10 seconds. Now, there was another lady that was already on the ground and Ma’Khia had the kitchen knife in her hand. I can’t say that I know that her intentions were to kill this person. I think we should be saving all lives. … We have to learn how to de-escalate. We have to have a better practice, policy, and procedure than it is to go in and put four bullets in a child’s chest with a kitchen knife.”

She added “I don’t support a system of one size fits all. I don’t support a system that you drive up and the automatic thing is to put four bullets in the chest of a 16-year-old. I don’t support one size [fits] all. I think that it’s appalling that we can have someone say, our system is to train officers to go to the center of the body no matter what. So, if she had a water gun, if she had a sandwich, if she had keys, if she had a cell phone, and it looks like she was going to hit or harm someone, the answer is four bullets, six bullets in the back, in the chest? That’s not acceptable.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Florida Governor DeSantis signs reactionary bill criminalizing demonstrations against police violence

Alex Johnson

10 hours ago

Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday an “anti-riot” bill aimed at suppressing and criminalizing popular protests against police violence. The bill asserts the false equivalence Republicans across the US have sought to draw between peaceful anti-police violence protests and looting and property damage that has sometimes coincided with demonstrations.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Credit: Facebook)

The law was passed ahead of the verdict in the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin’s killing of Floyd triggered a wave of anti-police marches throughout the nation last summer, including in cities across Florida. The draconian legislation is the latest in a series of measures Republican state legislators nationwide have taken to repress social opposition and attack democratic rights.

In presenting the law, the so-called “Combating Public Disorder” bill, the Republican governor asserted that it was the “strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement measure in the country.” While the vast majority of demonstrations over the summer remained peaceful, DeSantis claimed that the law was needed to stop “rioters,” which in reality means cracking down even further against any opposition to police brutality under conditions where workers and youth continue to protest the uninterrupted wave of police killings.

After signing the bill, DeSantis said that the legislation would introduce new protections for police officers and put “an end to the bullying and intimidation tactics of the radical left.” It grants police districts and state officials the right to appeal if a municipality or county seeks to reduce its local police budget.

The bill also contains a slew of anti-democratic and punitive procedures aimed at emboldening the police and punishing discontent. It allows authorities to detain arrested protesters until they make their first appearance in court—preventing them from immediately posting bail.

It enlarges the penalties for any damage to property or other forms of violence during protests. The law also penalizes mass public demonstrations, characterizing them as “mob intimidation” and makes it a crime to “dox” police officials, hampering the ability of protestors to record and expose instances of violence from law enforcement officials during protests.

Protestors could now face longer prison sentences of up to 10 years for targeting public memorials or historic structures, such as the dozens of Confederate monuments, dedicated to those who fought to defend slavery during the Civil War, that were either removed or rebranded last year.

In supporting and carrying the reactionary bill into the state senate, Republican senator Danny Burgess said, “rights have limits, and violence is where the line is drawn” and the bill is “about preventing violence.”

Legislation targeting protests is only one of several other initiatives being launched by Republican state officials to erode key democratic rights. A bill introduced in recent weeks, known as S.B. 90, imposes new voting restrictions in local and federal elections. The legislation adds stringent requirements for absentee voting, expanded powers for voting observers overseeing vote counts, limits on drop off ballots and new requirements for voters requesting absentee ballots.

The bill was approved by the Senate Rules Committee by a margin of 10-7, with only one Republican joining every Democrat in opposing it. The committee approval sets up a possible floor vote on the legislation in the coming weeks. Republicans have falsely claimed that the bill is necessary to ensure the state’s elections are secure, citing unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud during Florida’s 2020 elections.

The restriction of voting rights is being repeated in countless states throughout the country, with the Republican Party promoting the fraudulent claim first proclaimed by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen,” which was the political pretext for the mobilization of fascist forces during the January 6 insurrection aimed at overturning the victory of President Joe Biden.

According to a report released by the Brennan Center for Justice in February, Florida is among 33 states where lawmakers with dominant Republican control are pursuing legislation to massively restrict voting. The report found that around 165 of such bills had been filed up until then, compared to just 35 in February 2020. DeSantis and Florida republicans have been among the most ferocious in their campaign to alter state voting laws.

These changes include raising the threshold to alter Florida’s constitution from 60 percent of ballots to around 67 percent and lifting the donation caps for political action committees sponsoring constitutional amendments, rendering it far more difficult for petitioners to place amendment proposals up for votes.

Florida’s Democratic Party has responded to the brazen attacks on democratic rights with their

usual rhetorical posturing. Democratic Senate leader Gary Farmer called the proposals a “suppression campaign” not seen “since Jim Crow days.” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Broward County said the Republicans were making “deceitful claims” about elections and using “manufactured fears of fraud.”

Florida Democrats earlier in the year went out of their way to solidarize themselves with the Republicans in praising the relative smoothness of the state’s November 2020 elections in contrast to the contentious national presidential outcome. This was despite the Democrats encountering major electoral defeats, including losing five state House Representative seats, increasing the Republican’s control over the legislature.

The Democrats have used their platform to make criticisms of the Republican’s policies while making no serious attempt to oppose the latter’s undemocratic maneuvers, by above all refusing to mobilize popular opposition against the bills out of fear of provoking a greater social upheaval. State Democratic officials, in lockstep with their nationwide counterparts, have gone out of their way to maintain bipartisan unity with their Republican “colleagues,” by combining whimpers of opposition with utterly feckless claims that nothing can be done to stop the descent towards authoritarianism.

Biden uses “systemic racism” narrative to obscure class character of police violence

Niles Niemuth@niles_niemuth

21 April 2021

In response to the guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the Biden administration and the media have pushed the narrative that police violence is the product of “systemic racism” and “white supremacy.”

Speaking Tuesday night, shortly after the verdict was announced, Biden declared that Floyd’s death had exposed “the systemic racism that is a stain on our nation’s soul. The knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans… The pain, the exhaustion that Black and brown Americans experience every single day.” He insisted that suppressing police killings requires “acknowledging and confronting head-on systemic racism and the racial disparities” in policing and the justice system.

The officers involved in the killing of George Floyd (Credit: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

Without exception, police violence in the United States is presented in the media and political establishment as a racial conflict. The disconnect between this narrative and the reality of police violence is staggering.

According to data collected by the Washington Post, 6,222 people have been killed by police in the US since the beginning of 2015. Nearly three times more people have been killed in encounters with police in just over six years than US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan over the last two decades.

Breaking it down by those victims who have been identified by race, 2,885 are white, 1,499 are black, 1,052 are Hispanic, 104 are Asian, 87 are Native American, and 47 are classified as other. From a standpoint of percentages, 46.4 percent are white, 24 percent black, 17 percent Hispanic, 1.7 percent Asian, 1.4 percent Native American, 0.75 percent other and 8.8 percent unidentified.

Relative to the entire population, there is a disproportionality in the number of African Americans and Native Americans killed by police, while whites, Hispanics and Asians are killed at a rate lower than their share of the population. Native Americans are killed at a rate that is seven times higher than their share of the population, while for blacks it is roughly two times higher.

There is no doubt that racism is a factor in many police killings, but it is not the racism of the entire society. It is racism in a particular segment of society, the police and military forces. The ruling class cultivates within its apparatus of repression all manner of fascistic and reactionary conceptions.

However, once the socioeconomic background of where the victims were killed—typically areas with low median household income and high rates of poverty—is factored in, most of the disparity is accounted for by economic factors.

Given the data about police killings, the exclusive focus on black victims is not only a distortion of reality, but it also vastly underestimates the scale of police brutality in the United States. Explaining this social phenomenon through a single factor, racism, leaves out a majority of the victims. The media’s presentation implies that police killings of whites and others are legitimate.

The state and mainstream media, most explicitly in the New York Times 1619 Project, have invested an enormous amount in promoting a racialist narrative of American society, that the United States is divided between “white America” and “black America.” What accounts for the effort to interpret all American history and contemporary politics through the prism of race and reinterpret all social problems as racial issues?

The alternative to a racial analysis of American society is a class analysis. By blaming “systemic racism” and “white supremacy,” the reality of capitalism and class oppression disappears. The issue of social inequality is no longer about the rich against the poor, but white against black.

The responsibility of capitalism—a specific political and socioeconomic system that dictates the life outcomes for billions around the world—for this level of police violence is dissolved. In its place, a psychological attribute, race hatred, is attached to an entire segment of the population. Chauvin is presented as nothing other than a particularly naked expression of a universal hatred of black people by white people. Such a perspective precludes any form of collective action between black and white, driving a massive wedge through the working class and dissolving class antagonisms into race hatred.

Biden’s remarks also whitewash the crime committed by Chauvin in order to cover for the police, by transforming it into a crime of the nation, resting in its “very soul.” The nation, however, did not kneel on Floyd’s neck; it was Chauvin who killed him. And he had accomplices. The three other police officers who helped him kill Floyd, were white, African American, and Asian American. All were acting, not in accordance with the color of their skin but in their capacity as the uniformed and armed defenders of the state and private property.

Those who appeal to “systemic racism” as the cause of police brutality cannot explain why the largest share of those killed by the police every year are white. Nor can they explain why police continue to kill three people per day on average, despite all the protests and promises of reform.

During Chauvin’s trial, which began on March 29, there were at least 56 police killings across the US. Among the victims who have been identified by race, nine were white, nine were black, seven were Hispanic and one was Pacific Islander. On the day of the verdict, 15-year-old Ma’Kiah Bryant was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. There were also fatal police shootings in Detroit, Michigan, Lakewood, Colorado and Worcester, Massachusetts.

Under conditions of immense social inequality, accelerated by the pandemic, the primary concern of the Democratic Party is to block the emergence of a united class movement against the capitalist system. While the fascistic Trump responded to the mass multiracial protests against police violence sparked by Floyd’s killing with a ferocious law-and-order campaign, deploying federal Border Patrol agents to suppress protests, the Democrats have their own approach.

No less ruthless than the Republicans, the Democrats mobilize the National Guard to patrol the streets and back up police crackdowns while deploying racial politics in order to divide workers against each other. They seek to obscure the class character of the opposition to police violence and undermine a class movement against police violence. To this end, tens of millions of dollars have been poured into the Black Lives Matter movement and associated organizations to promote the idea that policing is an issue of whites against blacks.

Chauvin’s trial refutes this racial narrative. A mixed-race jury quickly came to the decision that he was guilty of murder. Witnesses, black and white, testified to their horror over witnessing the cold-blooded killing. As the verdict was read, a multiracial crowd gathered outside the courthouse erupted in celebration.

As a social phenomenon, police violence does not emerge from “white supremacy” or “systemic racism”; it is fundamentally rooted in the capitalist order, which police departments were created to defend. Only a working-class movement, united across all racial, ethnic and national divisions, fighting to overturn capitalism and establish workers democratic control of society, can put an end to the reign of terror by the police.