Channeling the same ideology of Al Sharpton, and ending his term as the nation’s top LEO, AG Holder gives an extensive interview to Politico outlining his desire to lower the standard of proof to bring federal civil rights charges.

Eric Holder was discussing the Trayvon Martin shooting incident as he gave his ideological assesment that it should be easier to target non-blacks, vis-à-vis George Zimmerman, who defend themselves against black attackers.

Previously Holder argued for, and gained, the removal of school discipline for black violations of school behavioral policy – using the controversial legal auspices of “disparate impact“. Apparently Holder wants to apply the same ideological approach toward what he defines as civil rights violations.

Politico […] “I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop — make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disinterested,” he said. “I think that if we make those adjustments, we will have that capacity.”

(more…)

WASHINGTON STATE – Police who shot and killed a man accused of hurling rocks at officers in southeastern Washington are drawing criticism from as far away as Mexico.
The death Tuesday of orchard worker Antonio Zambrano-Montes is the fourth fatal police shooting since last summer in Pasco, an agricultural city of 68,000 people about 215 miles southeast of Seattle. It has sparked protests after witnesses said he was running away when he was shot in a busy intersection.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department on Thursday condemned the shooting of the man raised in that country. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he was monitoring the situation.
[…]  Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel, whose office was conducting an autopsy on Zambrano-Montes, said he was considering convening an inquest jury to look into the death. (more…)

[…]  State Attorney Phil Archer later released a statement saying that: “the subsequent recantation by the victim of her initial statement along with new documents provided by the victim and her attorney precludes my office from proceeding further.” (link)

ABC NEWS  “George Zimmerman Assault Case Dropped; Ex-Girlfriend Recants”
CNN NEWS  “Aggravated assault case against George Zimmerman dropped”.
New York Daily News “The Notorious George Zimmerman won’t face charges in Florida assault case after ex-girlfriend recants”
WASHINGTON TIMES  “George Zimmerman’s assault charges dropped as victim recants”
ORLANDO SENTINEL  “George Zimmerman won’t be charged in wine-bottle assault case”.
CBS NEWS  “George Zimmerman assault case dropped; ex-girlfriend recants”
LA TIMES  “George Zimmerman won’t be prosecuted in aggravated-assault case”
 

Charles Blow is a racial antagonist, it’s what he does – it’s all he does. He wrote at length about how angry he was because his son was detained by a Yale Campus Police Officer – #BlackLivesMatter and #FTP in full swing. However, what he didn’t say was that the Campus officer was black, and/or that the Campus police Chief is also black.
Guess that doesn’t support his narrative….
(VIA WASHINGTON EXAMINER) On Saturday, Blow wrote on Twitter that he was “fuming” over a call he received from his son, a third-year student at Yale. He wrote that his son was “accosted” and held up at gunpoint by a Yale policeman because he fit the description of a suspect. Blow’s son, Tahj Blow, is an ecology and evolutionary biology major, according to the Yale Daily News.
In follow-up tweets related to the incident, Blow said, “This is exactly why I have no patience for people trying to convince me that the fear these young black men feel isn’t real.” He also tweeted the phrases “I can’t breathe” and “Black lives matter,” both of which are associated with two unarmed black men killed by white police officers in separate incidents in Missouri and New York. (more…)

This is one of those stories when we really wish we had been wrong in our 2013, 2014 research.  [Previously outlined HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE]

Over a year ago we brought you the story of Mr. Filippidis and his family, a Florida Driver who was pulled over by law enforcement in Maryland.  The traffic stop would have been typical except for the fact the responding officer demanded, at random, Mr. Filippidis’s firearm.
Mr. Filippidis did not have his legally owned -CCW permitted- hand gun, it was home in Florida.  Nor did Mr. Filippidis ever say he had a firearm – yet the officer was insistent Mr. Filippidis owned one, handcuffed Mr. Filippidis, and strip searched his vehicle on the side of the road.
Numerous Maryland state police arrived to assist in the search.  They found nothing, because Mr. F was telling the truth.   After two hours Mr. Filippidis and his family were allowed to continue their travels, but the entire process was unnerving.
Which prompted Mr. Filippidis to ask “how did a Maryland officer know I was a gun owner”?  Which led to a severely awkward litany of obfuscations and explanations from Maryland that did not make sense. (more…)

Police have a tough job. However, like all professions there are good police officers and bad police officers. Unfortunately, when you encounter a bad police officer the disparity of power over your liberty is beyond that found in any other person-to-person engagement.  Therefore a higher standard of conduct is both expected and required.
Between the terms “legally justifiable” and “reasonable under the circumstances” there is a razor thin dividing line where police officers can, at times, walk tenuously on either side – depending on their own dispositions. This recent shooting is one such example.
Depending on your own individual perspectives and experiences you can view this video as “justifiable” and/or “excessive”, and perhaps even both.
Warning on GRAPHIC CONTENT:

Muskogee, OK – Police on Friday released body-camera video of a fatal officer-involved shooting outside a wedding. (more…)

“He shouldn’t have gotten out of the car”, a phrase heard consistently in both the Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown shootings. In essence the argument being both citizen George Zimmerman and officer Darren Wilson held responsibility for the outcome because they exited their vehicle.
We have discussed this viewpoint as the “Safari Principle“, however now the Ferguson/Saint Louis police department is considering the argument -under the auspices of “tactical retreat”- as a standard policy.
SAINT LOUIS – Like many officers involved in deadly force encounters, Darren Wilson said his training took over when he shot Michael Brown in Ferguson.
But what if Wilson had been trained differently?
The national upheaval from Brown’s death, and some others since, has put enormous pressure on law enforcement to find ways to control people’s behavior while using less violence. One possibility — simple but repugnant to some officers — is to teach police to back away from certain difficult situations until help can arrive.
The concept is known as “tactical retreat” or sometimes “tactical withdrawal” or “tactical restraint.”
“We add the word, ‘tactical’ and not just ‘retreating’ or ‘giving up’ because that’s what makes it palatable for police officers,” explained Seth Stoughton, a criminal law professor at the University of South Carolina. The former Florida officer is a nationally prominent advocate for applying the softer approach. (more…)

This was a no-brainer for anyone who followed the case. As early as August 18th, just a week after the Mike Brown shooting (pictured below), both Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama knew there was no foundation for any charges against officer Wilson. They allowed the fiasco to continue for election benefits.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is taking the final steps toward closing the politically charged investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., and clearing the white police officer involved of civil rights charges.

Federal prosecutors have begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, law enforcement officials said.
That would close the case in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. An investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support the charges against the officer, the officials said. (read more)

(Washington Times) There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.
Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.

(more…)

FTP and BLM protestors wearing adult diapers chained themselves to large concrete filled oil drums near Boston blocking traffic and also blocking emergency responders.

BOSTON — Activists protesting what they call “police and state violence against black people” chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels and blocked a busy Boston-area highway at the height of the Thursday morning commute.

State police shut down northbound Interstate 93 south of the city, and I-93 south, in Medford, north of the city, at about 7:30 a.m., inconveniencing thousands of drivers and causing miles-long backups. The southbound lanes were reopened at about 8 a.m. and the northbound lanes at about 10 a.m. after police and firefighters used power saws to cut protesters out of the barrels to which they were attached while lying in the roadway. (more…)