Michelle Obama: Black Lives Matter ‘Taking to the Streets Because They Have To’
Former first lady Michelle Obama said on Friday’s broadcast of “CBS This Morning” that people take to the street in Black Lives Matter protests because they had to.
When former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, former President Barack and Michelle Obama said in a joint statement, “true justice is about much more than a single verdict in a single trial.”
When asked about her statement, Obama said, “The goal is to let leaders lead. But in certain times, people, you know, look to us often. ‘Well, what do you think? How do you feel?’ We know that while we’re all breathing a sigh of relief over the verdict, there’s still work to be done. And so we, we can’t sort of say, ‘Great. That happened. Let’s move on.’ I know that people in the Black community don’t feel that way because many of us still live in fear as we go to the grocery store, or walking our dogs, or allowing our children to get a license.”
Anchor Gayle King said, “Aren’t your girls driving?”
Obama said, “They’re driving, but every time they get in a car by themselves, I worry about what assumption is being made by somebody who doesn’t know everything about them. The fact that they are good students and polite girls, but maybe they’re playing their music a little loud, maybe somebody sees the back in their head and makes an assumption. I, like so many parents of black kids, have to — the innocent act of getting a license puts fear in our hearts.”
She added, “So, I think we have to talk about it more, and we have to ask our fellow citizens to listen a bit more and to believe us and to know we don’t wanna be out there marching. I mean, all those Black Lives Matters kids, they’d rather not have to worry about this. They’re taking to the streets because they have to. They’re trying to have people understand that we’re real folks, and the fear that many have of so many of us is irrational, and it’s based on a history that is just — it’s sad, and it’s dark, and it’s time for us to move beyond that.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
Dad Accused of Killing Five-Year-Old Son over Cheesecake Pleads Guilty
A Wisconsin man who fatally punched his little boy over a slice of cheesecake was recently convicted of homicide.
“Travis Stackhouse, 30, had been on trial this week for first-degree reckless homicide in the June 2019 death of his son, Sir Amer Stackhouse,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday.
Following two days of testimony from state witnesses, Stackhouse pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide, child abuse, and child neglect, the outlet said.
He faces up to 37 years behind bars.
The Sentinel report continued:
According to prosecutors, Stackhouse was angry that his children were eating cheesecake he had gotten for Father’s Day earlier in the week, and later told police he’d only eaten one piece. He admitted he struck the boy’s face with the back of his hand, which Stackhouse said is heavier than normal because of metal inside from a surgery.
After he hit the boy, Stackhouse left the house and went to a bar with friends until about 2 a.m. When he got home, his girlfriend and mother of the boy called 911. Paramedics responded to the home in the 2600 block of West Ruby Avenue and tried unsuccessfully to revive the boy. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, the boy suffered a ruptured stomach, bruised kidneys, and a torn adrenal gland and died due to blunt force trauma to his abdomen.
A criminal complaint from 2019 reportedly said the child was found with bruising on his eyes, a cut on his lip, and a laceration on his sternum.
“He had three healing cuts to his back. His caretakers reported he’d fallen down the stairs, but police did not believe the injuries were consistent with an incident like that,” Fox 6 reported at the time.
A sentencing hearing is set to take place on June 29, according to CBS 58.
Horrific: D.C. Sniper Boasts of Post-Shooting Sex With Accomplice in New Doc
In I, Sniper, Lee Boyd Malvo speaks at length about the 2002 reign of terror he and partner John Allen Muhammad carried out in the Washington, D.C., area, resulting in ten deaths. Yet despite using audio clips from his phone calls as narration, Vice’s eight-part docuseries (premiering May 10) is most notable for putting its prime emphasis on the pair’s innocent victims, and the countless friends, family members and loved ones left to cope with unthinkable tragedy. To its admirable credit, it’s a true-crime affair that seeks to understand its “monsters” while simultaneously recognizing—and highlighting—the fact that such comprehension doesn’t necessitate empathy, especially when the atrocities in question are as inexcusably heinous as these.
Spearheaded by director Ursula Macfarlane, I, Sniper’s calling card is those phone conversations with Malvo from Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, where he’s currently serving multiple life sentences. In them, the killer recounts, in exacting and chilling detail, both the sniper attacks he perpetrated as a 17-year-old, and the troubled upbringing in Jamaica that led him into the welcoming arms of Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran with a surplus of rage and a desire to unleash it on his homeland. Abandoned by his dad, abused by his mom, and eventually left to fend for himself, Malvo found in Muhammad a father figure who promised to love him as he did his own biological offspring. From the outset, though, theirs was a bond built on exploitation, with Muhammad becoming not only Malvo’s surrogate parent, but also his lover—as well as his mentor, pouring all of his long-simmering hate and resentment into the impressionable, desperate-for-acceptance teen.
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Muhammad’s gripes were many—he despised the military, white people, and just about every American institutional structure. However, he reserved his greatest enmity for second ex-wife Mildred, who dared to take back her kids after Muhammad had kidnapped them. The loss of his (abducted) brood seems to have been the proverbial match that lit Muhammad’s homicidal spark, and he soon began molding Malvo into his instrument of destruction. Friends and relatives suspected that something was up with their relationship, but no one foresaw what was to come: the cold-blooded murder of Keenya Cook, the niece of Mildred’s friend in Tacoma, Washington, followed by violent robberies, shootings and slayings in Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. All of those initial acts were merely a test run for Malvo and Muhammad’s grand scheme in Washington, D.C., the epicenter of American power, and thus Muhammad’s venue of choice to strike fear into the heart of the republic by proving that everyone was vulnerable—even children.
What transpired was a 22-day nightmare in which 13 individuals (white and Black, young and old, well-off and working-class) were shot, 10 of them fatally, in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Because Malvo and Muhammad’s intention was to terrorize in increasingly escalating fashion, each victim was chosen at random at gas stations, on street corners, and in parking lots that afforded the killers ideal vantage points and easy escape routes. They committed these crimes in a customized 1990 blue Chevy Caprice, with Malvo lying in the trunk and firing through the rear keyhole. It was a stealthy plot, and the two benefited from the fact that an early eyewitness said they’d seen a white box truck near the scene—thereby sending police, for the better part of the next three weeks, on a wild goose chase for the wrong vehicle. With no other ballistics-related leads, law enforcement was stymied, which proved to Malvo that Muhammad was right: no one could stop them from exacting their revenge.
The question, of course, is revenge against what? I, Sniper connects the dots of Malvo and Muhammad’s troubled pasts and despicable 2002 presents, but no convincing argument is made that Muhammad—the mastermind behind this madness—had suffered losses that weren’t of his own making. Be it his unhinged military tenure, his marital craziness, or his transformation of Malvo into an assassin, Muhammad comes across as a man righteously angry over things that were his own fault. As for Malvo, his cold, clinical recitation of his murderous conduct (and claims of remorse) neuters any sorrow one might feel for his adolescent travails. His present-day compunction is far too little, too late, just as the case he makes for his own victimhood vis-Ã -vis Muhammad sounds like an accurate and yet insufficient explanation. He knew that gunning down men, women and children was dreadfully wrong, and yet in order to maintain Muhammad’s affection, he actively, and enthusiastically, chose to do it—and even got a thrilling kick from it, as he explains that post-shooting sex with Muhammad was exceptionally exciting.
Malvo and Muhammad’s rampage of “retribution and punishment” was unforgivable; as Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose says, “There’s just no excuse for their behavior. None whatsoever.” To hammer home that point, I, Sniper consistently juxtaposes Malvo’s recollections with prolonged, heartrending interviews with the wives, brothers, aunts and friends of the duo’s victims, as well as some of those who survived their encounters. Those accounts turn out to be vital, providing an up-close-and-personal view of the anguish and trauma that Malvo and Muhammad brought about, and the lingering scars left by this ordeal. They’re the human face of this awful tale, stricken with grief, regret, guilt and fury over senseless crimes that robbed them of loved ones who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Comprised of news reports, crime scene footage, 911 calls, Malvo-penned illustrations, maps and chats with patrolmen, detectives, reporters and doctors, I, Sniper is comprehensive enough to earn the description “definitive.” Yet more than its insight into the mind of its young subject—and, by extension, Muhammad, who was executed in 2009 by lethal injection—what separates it from much of the true-crime pack is its dogged refusal to forget the real, incalculable horror at the center of its story. Malvo is frequently heard but never seen, while the countenances of his and Muhammad’s victims (and those close to them) remain front-and-center throughout. That directorial decision is critical and commendable, allowing the series to pay fitting tribute to the individuals who deserve to be remembered, while keeping its central villain largely faceless, in the dark and out of sight, where he chose to live and kill with his murderous mentor, and where he’ll now remain for the remainder of his days.
GRAPHIC VIDEO: Two Asian Women Attacked with Cinder Block in Baltimore
Two Asian women in their 60s were hit in
the head repeatedly with a cinder block in a
Baltimore liquor store early Tuesday, marking
yet another recent crime against Asians in this
country.
Police arrested Daryl Doles, 50, and charged him with two counts of aggravated assault, NBC News reported.
Authorities did not specify whether police were investigating the situation as a hate crime or not.
The attack took place shortly after midnight at a Baltimore liquor store when the two women, who are store employees, were closing the store for the night. It was at that point when a man allegedly broke into the store and began attacking the women.
A video of the attack showed the man allegedly wrestling one liquor store employee to the floor and banging the cinder block against her head.
The man later fled the store but was arrested shortly after leaving the scene of the crime, police said.
Both women were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. One of the women wound up with 25 stitches to her head, a relative told NBC News.
This attack against Asians is the latest in a string of anti-Asian attacks taking place across the country.
In New York City on Sunday, for example, a suspect allegedly attacked two Asian women using a hammer.
A Baltimore man was arrested after he repeatedly struck two Asian women, ages 66 & 67, in the head w/a cinder block. The brutal attack follows a string of random violent assaults on Asian Americans by black people in the past 2
weeks. #StopAsianHate https://t.co/nbVuZybNEg pic.twitter.com/rlB0fN8XiK
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) May 6, 2021
Violence against Asians spikes in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California has witnessed a surge in anti-Asian violence over the last year.
According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, San Francisco saw the second largest increase in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes, following New York City. Assaults have more than doubled, increasing by 140 percent between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.
There have been several high-profile attacks just since March.
On Tuesday, two elderly Asian women were stabbed at a bus stop in downtown San Francisco. The women, aged 63 and 84, both remained hospitalized as of Wednesday but are expected to survive.
Police have arrested suspect Patrick Thompson, a 54-year-old African American man, who was arrested in 2017 for a stabbing at a homeless shelter.
The Friday before this stabbing, Bruce, 36, an Asian American, was brutally assaulted while walking his one year old with a stroller in San Francisco. He was repeatedly punched from behind and knocked down to the ground outside of a market.
In April, 53-year-old Chiling Lee was stabbed five times on his way home from his work in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. He sustained a punctured lung and broken rib in the assault and robbery.
In the Richmond District of San Francisco, also in April, a woman only identified as Ms. Lee, was held at gunpoint. She had been followed back to her home by two suspects who, in surveillance video, forced her to the ground and robbed her before speeding off.
In March, Derek Tam, a street vendor, was working outside the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco when a man grabbed his cell phone. Tam asked for his phone back, afterwards the man punched him in the face and told him to “go back to his country.”
Also in March, Danny Yu Chang, 59, was struck from behind and beaten unconscious in the city’s financial district. His face was fractured, and his eyelids swollen shut from the attack. The same alleged assailant, Jorge Devis-Milton, 32, also stabbed another man, 64, that same day, knocking him to the ground and sending him to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that between January and March there were at least 16 violent crimes against people of Asian descent in the city.
In another incident in neighboring Oakland in March, a 75-year-old Asian man was assaulted and robbed, leaving him brain dead. The attack happened near Lake Merritt in the morning, and the two suspected assailants, Elbert Britton and Teaunte Bailey, are in custody.
These attacks are just some of the latest incidents of rising violence against Asian Americans. An analysis of 16 jurisdictions by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino found, overall, a 164 percent increase in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes when comparing the first quarters of 2020 and 2021.
Though each individual incident has its own reason and story, many involving robbery, the general, nationwide increase in violence against Asian Americans is indisputable.
While the Biden administration and its pseudo-left allies have sought to portray this rise in violence as being the product of deep-seated racism in the American population, the surge is the product of the criminally negligent response of the ruling class to the pandemic and its attempt to blame China for the virus, as part of a broader economic and military campaign against the country.
The United States government, including both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, is involved in an unprecedented buildup of military forces against China. Earlier this year the US military asked Congress to double its budget in the Pacific, including establishing a new network of precision strike missiles around China.
President Donald Trump ramped up the drive to war against China with the most significant trade war since the early 20th century. Trump repeatedly stoked anti-Asian xenophobia, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic on China, calling it the “Chinavirus” and “Kung Flu.”
In February, the World Socialist Web Site published an article debunking the efforts of the Washington Post to peddle its disproven conspiracy theories that COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. The article was censored by Facebook for over a month until last week.
The Biden administration, far from deescalating tensions between the United States and China, has doubled down on the US’s commitment to war preparations. In addition to expanding the Pacific military budget, he has vowed to outcompete China economically and militarily, describing President Xi Jinping as a “thug” who must be “pushed back.” Efforts to brand China’s actions against the Muslim Uyghur minority in western Xinjian as genocide are part of these preparations.
The cumulative effects of these bellicose actions and preparations for war, both ideologically and militarily, express themselves in the rise of anti-Asian hate violence.
Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told the South China Morning Post, “The fact that both Republican and Democrat administrations have framed the relationship as strategic competition and highlighted numerous threats that China has posed, it’s not surprising that more and more Americans—who are reading and hearing about this on a daily basis—are more and more concerned, and have an unfavourable view of China.”
According to a Pew Research poll conducted in February, 9 out of 10 Americans see China as a “competitor or an enemy,” up from 46 percent two years ago.
Asian American Father Walking With 1-Year-Old Son in Stroller Repeatedly Punched in SF
An Asian American father was waiting to cross the street with his 1-year-old child when a man approached and hit him from behind in San Francisco on Friday.
What happened: Bruce, 36, was outside of Gus’s Community Market by the intersection of 4th and Channel streets around 2 p.m. in Mission Bay when he was punched from behind and knocked to the ground.
In a surveillance video, the male suspect, identified as Sidney Hammond, can be seen pummeling Bruce more than a dozen times as the stroller carrying his child rolled away.
Hammond continued to try to hit Bruce as police officers patrolling the area arrested him.
Bruce told ABC7’s Dion Lim his “sense of security was shattered.”
Authorities reported the child was unhurt and Bruce was treated for “non-life-threatening injuries.”
More details: Hammond faces charges of "assault, false imprisonment and child endangerment," reported CBS SF.
The 26-year-old was arrested one month prior at the same location for a separate assault and theft after allegedly stealing from Gus’s Community Market, shoving a man onto the MUNI train tracks and hurt someone’s knee, Lim shared on Twitter.
Authorities said the attack appeared to be "random and likely not motivated by anti-Asian racism,” reported Newsweek.
The incident being racially motivated did cross Bruce’s mind, especially with the rise of anti-Asian violence over the past year and how random his attack was, he told Lim.
SF Mayor Announces $3.75 Million Redirected from Law Enforcement to Black Businesses
The mayor of San Francisco announced Wednesday that $3.75 million will be taken from the city’s police and sheriff’s office budget to go to help black organizations.
Mayor London Breed issued a statement about the Dream Keeper Initiative that will fund “nonprofits that serve the black community.”
“Across this country, and in our city, we’ve seen how the black community’s economic growth and prosperity has historically been disrupted and marginalized,” Breed said in the statement. “We have invested our resources in a way that lifts up and supports African American small business owners, entrepreneurs, and the entire community.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the development:
As part of the initiative, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development awarded funds to 17 black-serving community organizations to provide services for African American businesses, entrepreneurs, and their communities in San Francisco.
Organizations awarded the funds include the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce, San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, and the Children’s Council of San Francisco.
The funds will be used to provide economic relief from the pandemic; help start, stabilize, or grow existing Black businesses by offering consultations and legal guidance; and support African American cultural preservation events. Funds will also be used to establish community hubs that stimulate cultural and business development and provide education and resources in historically African American neighborhoods such as Bayview-Hunters Point, Fillmore/Western Addition, Potrero Hill, and Visitacion Valley.
“This funding represents an investment in the community and addressing the wealth and opportunity gaps created by years of biased policies and approaches,” Sheryl Davis, executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, said in a statement.
“There is tremendous talent and potential that has been stifled by our biased policies and strategies,” Davis said.
Neither the report nor the statements explained what portion of law enforcement’s budget would be affected by the cuts.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com
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