Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Thursday said the federal government’s response to recent protests in the city is further evidence that the District needs statehood.
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The claim: Asheville, NC, police destroyed a medical station during Tuesday night's protest
After protests in Asheville, North Carolina, social media posts that show law enforcement busting water bottles went viral.
The incident Tuesday was caught on video and described by a medic volunteer.
... The protest marked the third day of demonstrations in Asheville in response to the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
What happened?
Video by the Citizen Times shows Asheville police officers in riot gear and holding shields forming a protective circle around officers stomping and stabbing water bottles. Other officers destroyed medical supplies such as bandages and saline solution.
Sean Miller, a UNC-Asheville student who is head of communication for the medical team, said the 10-12 medics present were all clearly marked as such and did not provoke police in any way.
"A few minutes after 8 o'clock, we saw a SWAT team coming at us," Miller said. "They immediately, when they approached, they said, 'We're Asheville Police Department, and you guys need to leave.' They grabbed us by the shoulders and pushed out of the alleyway where we were trying to provide medical support."
She said they had a verbal agreement with APD to be present, even after curfew.
Some of the medics had bruises and felt the effects of tear gas, but no one was seriously injured. They lost at least $700 in supplies, Miller said.
Officers didn't give them an explanation for the destruction, she said.
Glenna Grant, 33, said she witnessed the officers destroy water bottles and medical supplies. Grant said she and others set up the medical center and did not plan to protest but rather provide a safe space for anyone injured during the night.
Grant said officers "hit them with shields” and took several people to the ground.
“We had eye wash, sutures, EMTs and doctors,” Grant said. “They threw several people to the ground. We were thrown, shouted at, screamed at and treated like criminals. No one resisted.”
Jon Jones, who works with the medical team, said police struck down a peaceful operation, and "those actions are inexcusable."
"All of those officers took an oath to stand and protect the people, and there's no room for error in that," he said.
Did the city have an explanation?
In a Facebook post Wednesday, Mayor Esther Manheimer acknowledged the incident, which occurred at 8:14 p.m. in a small alley off the main public square downtown.
"I am aware of the incident involving officers destroying the medical supplies of demonstrators, including water bottles, food and other supplies," Manheimer wrote. "Council has asked for an explanation of why that occurred.
"We are a city that cares, and I want to thank all of our officers who have taken a knee and worked to protect us," Manheimer continued. "But this was a disappointing moment in an otherwise peaceful evening."
Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Police Chief David Zack issued a statement, explaining the officers were destroying potential projectiles at an unpermitted medical station. He said the medical crew received multiple warnings.
"We apologize for not being able to confiscate these supplies last night," Zack said in a news release. "Over the past three days, APD has tried to eliminate objects that can be thrown at protesters and law enforcement. Because water bottles, in particular, have been continuously used over the last three nights, officers destroyed them. Officers also searched for potentially dangerous objects, such as explosives."
He said the medical station was on private property without permission of the owner.
Organizers respond
Miller disputes the chief's account, saying she was at the station starting at 4 p.m. June 2.
"We didn't receive a single warning," she said. "They didn't warn us whatsoever."
She also said the mention of explosives was perplexing.
"There were absolutely no explosives within the medical area. None," Miller said. "No fireworks, nothing that could even be perceived as dangerous."
Miller did acknowledge that they inadvertently set up on private property June 2 without the property owner's permission. They had spoken with management of the nearby restaurants and thought that was sufficient, she said, but they "didn't have the awareness that there was a separate company that owned the entire property."
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TDS is apparently such a powerful force that it seems to be able to cause a highly respected medical journal, The Lancet, to drop its usual professionalism and publish a horribly flawed study on hydroxychloroquine. See, President Donald Trump recommended the use of HCQ if prescribed by a doctor and that apparently was enough for some medical professionals to cast caution to the wind and produce a fraudulent study that seemed designed to prove that HCQ is not only supposedly ineffective but dangerous as well. ... Fortunately this fraud has now been exposed and clinical trials on HCQ have resumed. Unfortunately, HCQ does not seem to be able to cure terminal TDS.
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“Rioter Training Camps.” That’s what one source called former NFL quarterback turned professional social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Camp.” Considering the focus of the group is teaching “liberation” to Black and Brown people in various left-leaning cities across the nation, it isn’t easy to avoid the connections to the various riots happening in such cities today following the murder of George Floyd.
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The group has a new benefactor in the form of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The social media mogul has spent the last few years jumping on every far-left cause he can find with a distinct emphasis on promoting the most progressive and oftentimes radical groups behind which to throw his significant financial footprint.
Meanwhile, the group’s founder, Kaepernick, has advanced his agenda beyond kneeling at football games or making a mockery of our flag on his Nike shoe lines. Now, he’s focused on revolution akin to the populist communist ideologies of Antifa.
From their website:
“Our mission is to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”
But the focus is still on revolution. This is not an organization trying to build bridges between races. It spreads misinformation as rapidly as it spreads hatred, taking advantage of the latest conspiracy theories to promote their “us versus America” ideology. For example, before the riots began their main campaigns were to paint the coronavirus as a racial attack against minorities.
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A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck near Ridgecrest Wednesday evening and was felt across Southern California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The temblor hit at about 6:32 p.m. about 14 miles east of Ridgecrest, which has seen thousands of quakes since two large ones around July 4 last year, USGS reported.
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Wednesday’s quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 but was upgraded to 5.5.
The incident triggered a ShakeAlert as far as Los Angeles, warning people to drop and seek safety.
“As if things couldn’t get worse,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was delivering a briefing on coronavirus and racial unrest in the city when the ground began to quiver.
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Iran has released U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who had been detained for nearly two years, his family confirmed Thursday.
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“I have a message for ANTIFA terrorists,” Marjorie Taylor Green says while holding a semi-automatic rifle in an 18-second video on her Congressional campaign Twitter page.
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The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday voted to authorize subpoenas to the FBI and other agencies for records and testimony from Obama-era officials related to the bureau’s original Russia investigation and the Justice Department inspector general’s review of that probe.
The committee voted 8-6 to give Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the authority to send subpoenas as part of the panel’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and the process of “unmasking.”
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The committee authorized subpoenas to the FBI for the production of all records related to the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation—the bureau’s internal code name for the Russia probe, which began in July 2016.
The subpoenas would cover all records made available to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz for his review of the Russia probe and alleged misconduct surrounding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant approvals to surveil members of the Trump campaign.
The committee also authorized subpoenas to the State Department for the production of records related to meetings or communications between State Department officials or employees with ex-British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who compiled the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier which served as much of the basis for the FISA warrant applications to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The subpoenas would cover documents from June 2016 through January 2017.
The committee also authorized subpoenas to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the production of all records related to the process of “unmasking” U.S. persons or entities affiliated “formally or informally” with the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team or the Trump administration from June 2015 through January 2017.
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The far-left extremist group called Antifa teaches vicious tactics such as eye gouging and is structured “almost like a company” in order to incite violence and “destroy” enemies while remaining anonymous, according to the latest undercover video from Project Veritas.
Antifa -- the movement that stands for "antifascist" – has been in the news this week as violent protests erupted around the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody. President Trump has suggested the group should be considered a terrorist organization, and Project Veritas published what is billed as “a video exposing the violent nature of the controversial group” in light of the recent events.
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“I’ve been undercover with Rose City Antifa… depending on the setting, if I were to be caught or found out in a setting where I am present with them, it could escalate to violence against me,” a Project Veritas undercover journalist, who says he is no longer embedded in Antifa, said to open the tape
The video then shows alleged undercover video of an Antifa member identified as Nicholas Cifuni telling others, “Don’t be that f------g guy with the goddamn spike brass knuckles getting photos taking of you. Police are going to be like ‘perfect we can prosecute these f-------s look how violent they are’ and not that we aren’t but we need to f------g hide that s—t.”
The undercover journalist said he is “about halfway” through the prospecting process that it takes to become a member of the violent group. It is unclear when the Antifa meeting that was secretly recorded occurred, but it appears to have taken place before recent protests related to Floyd’s death.
Wearing a black mask to protect his identity, the undercover journalist explained the steps Antifa allegedly takes to secretly meet with prospective members
“The whole goal of this is to get out there and do dangerous things as safely as possible,” a member is heard telling the group.
“Practice things like an eye gouge, it takes very little pressure to injure someone’s eyes,” the man identified as Cifuni said. “Consider, like, destroying your enemy, not, like, delivering a really awesome right hand, right eye, left eye blow, you know? It’s not boxing, it’s not kickboxing, it’s, like, destroying your enemy”
The undercover journalist said Antifa encourages members to dress in “Black Block,” which he says is a way of dressing that helps conceal the identity of members.
“They do not hesitate to either push back or incite some kind of violence. In our classes and in our meetings, before we do any sort of demonstration or Black Block, we talk about weapons detail and what we carry and what we should have,” the undercover journalist said.
Project Veritas Founder and CEO James O’Keefe added a disclaimer that his group does not condone violence.
“It is a sad time in our nation’s history with Antifa activists hijacking #blacklivesmatter protests in cities across the country, attacking the police and engaging in violence,” O’Keefe wrote. “In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized & driven by anarchic left extremist groups — far-left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics.”
Earlier this week, independent journalist Andy Ngo told Fox News that “left-wing media, liberal media, establishment media, legacy media, has many sympathies” with Antifa’s goal
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Minneapolis Public Schools is ending its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department following George Floyd's death.
The Minneapolis Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to terminate the district's contract with MPD, which provided school resource officers at school buildings.
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"George Floyd died on the street slowly and deliberately strangled and our children watched," Jenny Arenson, vice chair of the board said during the virtual meeting on Tuesday.
"Minneapolis police, individual officers and the city have work to do. And until they demonstrate they have done that work, we need to separate our relationship."
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died last week in Minneapolis after then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. After video of the incident surfaced, protests erupted across the nation, with people demanding justice for Floyd and an end to police brutality. All four officers involved were fired and eventually charged.
The decision comes after the University of Minnesota announced it would "no longer contract with the Minneapolis Police Department for additional law enforcement support" and it will not use the police department for "specialized services are needed for university events."
The Minneapolis School Board is "preparing a plan that will support the safety of MPS students & staff in the coming school year" by August 18, Ed Graff, superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, said in a tweet.
Despite the contract's termination, the police department will continue to "work in cooperation with the Minneapolis Public Schools regarding safety and security issues," MPD Deputy Chief Erick Fors said in a statement to CNN.
"The relationships that were built were impactful not only for the students and staff, but for the officers who had a calling to work with our youth through mentorship and engagement," Fors added.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is also considering severing its ties with the police department.
In its agenda for Wednesday's meeting, the board wrote, "Recent actions by the Minneapolis Department in the Minneapolis Police Department in the alleged murder of George Floyd while in police custody have severely undermined community trust in, and sense of safety around, Minneapolis Police."
"This severe undermining of trust and safety by Minneapolis Police does not support the Mission of the MRPB and has no place in our parks," the board added.
The Park Board will also vote on a resolution that calls to redesign the uniform of park police officers so that it different from the design of city police.
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A host of police agencies moved to shut down highway ramps into the Chicago area's wealthy northern suburbs on Sunday, a report notes.
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The District of Columbia National Guard has asked for an investigation into the use of a helicopter in the city to disperse crowds protesting the killing of George Floyd, officials told The Hill.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) retweeted a video posted on the social media of a woman asking why her business destroyed if black lives matter.
“The problem that bothers me,” the woman said as she stood outside of a business in which she said she shares ownership. “You said black lives matter. Why don’t you choke me? I’m black. Look what you did to my store. Look what you did to my store.”
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“We’ve been here all night cleaning up,” the woman said. “All night cleaning.”
“You lied,” the woman said. “You wanted to loot a store. You needed money. Get a job, like I do. Stop stealing. It’s the neighborhood.”
“We’re trying to build it up, and you tearing it down,” the woman said in the video.
“@JoeBiden Why is your staff raising $$ for the people who burned her store?” Cruz tweeted.
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It was yet another night of rioting and looting. Granted, in some areas, the chaos was not nearly as bad as the previous night. Fox News’ Kevin Corke reported that while last night’s law enforcement response was not perfect, it wasn’t nearly as anarchic. That’s probably because every law enforcement agency and their mother were out to ensure the curfew was enforced. For Democrats out there struggling to figure out how to control their cities, a big police presence pretty much ensures law and order is re-established. Just saying. Yet, as the rioting intensified over the past couple of days, especially in Minneapolis, there was this ridiculous talking point that right-wing extremists, specifically white nationalist groups, were creating the chaos. That’s not true.
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The reason why the nation is engulfed in flames right now is due to the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. He was arrested for using a fake $20 bill at a local store. Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes, which resulted in his death. It was a nonviolent crime. Floyd was unarmed. And now Chauvin has been fired and facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. The three other officers with him were also fired. All of this is captured on video, with Floyd crying out that he couldn’t breathe.
Minneapolis saw some of the worst riots. Our own Julio Rosas was there covering the chaos. A police headquarters was overrun and torched by rioters, looting was pervasive, and vandalism widespread. Gov. Tim Walz doled out that talking point, that may be the rioting was caused by white supremacist groups. Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety couldn’t back that up. Also, it was simply not true. A former British Army counterintelligence officer who now specializes in crowd management said based on his reports, the far right is not there. He did warn that those who are creating havoc are “hard-core” guys (via USA Today):
The real hard-core guys, this is their job: They’re involved in this struggle," said Adam Leggat, a former British Army counterterrorism officer who now works as a security consultant specializing in crowd management for the Densus Group. "They need protests on the street to give them cover to move in.”
[…]
"There are detractors. There are white supremacists. There are anarchists," Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Saturday afternoon.
However, a civil arrest list provided by the public information officer of the St. Paul Police Department shows 12 of the 18 people arrested from Thursday through 6 a.m. Saturday were from Minnesota. Five of them are from St. Paul, three are from Woodbury (part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area), two are from Minneapolis, one is from Mankato and one is from St. Louis Park. Four are from out of state and two did not have cities of residence listed.
[…]
Leggat, the security consultant, said intelligence reports from his colleagues indicate most of the hard-core protesters in Minneapolis are far-left or anarchists, and that far-right groups have not yet made a significant appearance. He said looting is typically done by locals – usually people with no criminal record who just get caught up in the moment.
And now, in New York City, it appears anarchists are the ones creating the mayhem. Not even the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is biased as anything, couldn't find evidence of white supremacists (via NYT) [emphasis mine]:
In New York City, a senior police official said anarchists had planned to start mayhem in the city even before the protests started, using encrypted communication to raise bail money and to recruit medics. During the demonstrations, they maintained supply routes to distribute gasoline, rocks and bottles, and also dispatched scouts to find areas devoid of police officers, said John Miller, the deputy commissioner in charge of the Police Department’s counter-terrorism and intelligence efforts.
“They prepared to commit property damage and directed people who were following them that this should be done selectively and only in wealthier areas or at high-end stores run by corporate entities,” he said in a telephone briefing with reporters. Such activity was still under investigation, Mr. Miller said, but many participants, he said, were from outside New York. “They instructed group leaders to tell the people following them that this was not meant to be orderly activity,” he said.
[...]
Far-right adherents generated an avalanche of posts on social media in recent days suggesting the unrest was a sign that the collapse of the American system they have long-awaited was at hand. These groups, known as “accelerationists,” attempt to promote any circumstances that might speed that goal.
[...]
Last month they were pushing the idea that the coronavirus pandemic and the demonstrations against shutting down public life might be their moment to incite discord.
The groups are not monolithic. There are factions that express solidarity with some in the African-American community in their animosity toward the police, a position dating to violent showdowns in the 1990s between white supremacists and law enforcement in places like Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Others, however, believe that sparking a race war would ultimately bring about the establishment of a pure white ethnic state in at least part of the current United States.
Signs of any organized effort or even participation in the violence were relatively rare. “I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot,” said Howard Graves, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups.
Yeah, these aren’t right-wing groups, anarchists are also not white supremacists. The media has a herculean task of making Democrats look good in an election year. Well, you can’t do that when all Democrat-led areas are on fire because their leadership is weak and allowed portions of their cities to be surrendered to the mob for destruction.
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David Dorn was murdered by looters.
A memorial fund raising money for the family of a retired St. Louis police captain who was murdered by looters during Monday’s race riots has raised $50,000 as of Monday night, just hours after it was created by Jack Posobiec.
Dorn, who retired from the St. Louis Police Department in 2007, was found dead around 2:30AM on Tuesday morning. Surveillance camera footage revealed that he had been shot and killed by a looter as he was defending Lee’s Pawn and Jewelry.
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His wife, Ann Marie Dorn, who still works for the police department, stated that David was a friend of the pawn shop’s owner and would secure the premises when the burglar’s alarm went off at the property. Dorn was 77 years old.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday announced 24 hours of “largely peaceful” demonstrations in Florida and “no significant law enforcement or civilian injuries or deaths” following his decision to deploy the state’s National Guard to help maintain peace and restore law and order.
DeSantis reported “no significant civilian or law enforcement injuries and no widespread property damage” as part of a greater statement, thanking local officials, the Florida National Guard, and the Florida Highway Patrol for all of their work in calming civil unrest.
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“Additionally, FDLE has not received reports of widespread property damage, commercial or residential,” DeSantis’s press release read:
He said in part:
I appreciate all the hard work being done by our local officials, the Florida National Guard, the Florida Highway Patrol and our law enforcement to help ensure the safety of residents and visitors, as well as those who are engaging in peaceful First Amendment activity.
“Over the past 24 hours, demonstrations have remained largely peaceful thanks to these collaborative efforts,” DeSantis continued. “We will remain vigilant and stand ready in the event something changes.”
“Florida will not tolerate rioting, looting, or violence. We encourage all residents and visitors to continue abiding by local curfews and directives and thank everyone for their cooperation,” he concluded.
The Florida governor and Trump ally activated the state’s National Guard over the weekend as violent protests erupted in the Tampa Bay area, resulting in the destruction of property and burglary of dozens of businesses:
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) admitted to MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday that authorities might not have used tear gas, after all, as the media and former Vice President Joe Biden had claimed earlier in the week.
“Maybe they didn’t have tear gas, I don’t know,” Pelosi said, describing the clearing of Lafayette Park on Monday.
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On Monday afternoon, law enforcement cleared protesters — some of whom were violent — from the park, in front of the White House, shortly before President Donald Trump walked through the park to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
As Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist documented, the mainstream media ran with the story that Trump had used tear gas to clear the park for a “photo-op” in front of the church.
Biden made the same claim in a speech on Tuesday:
When peaceful protestors dispersed in order for a president, a president from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House, using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo-op at one of the most historic churches in the country or at least in Washington, DC, we can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle.
However, the “tear gas” claim was untrue.
The U.S. Park Police issued a statement Tuesday denying that it had used tear gas in clearing the park:
At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.
…
As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers’ weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park.
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Mail-in votes in a local Baltimore, Maryland, election were discarded and not counted due to a ballot error, officials say.
On Tuesday evening, voters went to the polls in Baltimore city elections — including the race in City Council District 1 where incumbent Democrat Zeke Cohen faced a challenge from Democrat Paris Bienert.
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The race, though, ended in disarray when a ballot error caused mail-in votes to be thrown out and not counted, according to the Baltimore Sun:
… the State Board of Elections said Maryland’s mail vendor SeaChange failed to correct an error in the ballot title for the council contest. State officials found the error while proofing ballots during the printing process, and requested SeaChange make the change. [Emphasis added]
“While the error was corrected in the official voting database, the error was not corrected on a portion of the ballots that were mailed to voters in District 1,” the state Board of Elections said. “Due to this inconsistency, vote by mail ballot styles for District 1 could not be counted properly.” [Emphasis added]
Both Democrat candidates complained about the election error and suggested the state needed to be more transparent about what exactly occurred that led to the mail-in votes going uncounted.
The error impacted the results of the City Council District 1 race and a Baltimore Circuit Court Judge race, state officials told the Baltimore Sun.
Other states have dealt with severe election errors in their quest to expand mail-in voting. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, state officials admitted that duplicate ballots had been mailed out to registered voters ahead of their election.
Likewise, in elections across Wisconsin, at least 30,000 mail-in votes were counted after election day and thousands of mail-in votes were thrown out due to postmark issues, missing voter signatures, and missing witness signatures.
Federal data obtained by Breitbart News has revealed about 28.4 million mail-in ballots sent to individuals on state voter rolls have gone missing since the 2012 election.
Recent data has not shown a compelling public health justification for mail-in voting. In Wisconsin’s recent election, only 52 of more than 400,000 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus after participating either as voters or poll workers, and none of those cases were fatal.
Out of the 413,000 participants, that equals an infection rate below two-hundredths of one percent.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday became the latest Democrat lawmaker to attended a protest against the death of George Floyd, walking through a demonstration outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Flanked by members of her staff and security guards, a masked Pelosi made her way through a crowd of protesters on the Capitol’s east front.
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Earlier Wednesday, Pelosi told MSNBC that she worried nationwide protests could lead to a resurgence in the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.
“I am indeed concerned about that, because it is true that wearing a mask and social distancing are very important to stopping the spread,” the speaker told Morning Joe.
“And as people go out there, I hope that they know that they’re taking a risk, as well as bringing home – but there’s been some good social distancing among some of the crowds and on TV, they all look like they are very close together,” she added. “I think some of them are probably practicing social distancing. Let us hope so.”
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The Black Lives Matter movement, which is painfully impotent before Black America, has led a year of national acrimony over the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Grey. The opportunity for blacks to be brutally honest with ourselves about the corrosive culture of crime and death in our own communities has been hijacked by a horde of sniveling, self-absorbed egotists.
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Here are five truths being covered up or flat-out ignored by #BlackLivesMatter.
Truth 1. Planned Parenthood is profiting from the genocide of black babies.
One would think that the exposure of a taxpayer-funded black genocide would have been the focus of furor from Black America’s new civil rights reformers.
Yet, while Cornell West and his Black Lives Matter disciples were busy getting themselves arrested for “justice,” a thousand black babies were being aborted with the help of America’s foremost provider, Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood officials were caught—several times—on camera revealing how easy it is to abort babies—many of them black—allegedly chopping up their organs and selling their body parts to the highest bidder. And yet, there were no national marches from Black Lives Matter.
At least 79% of Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills are within walking distance of black or Hispanic neighborhoods.
In New York City in 2009, 47%, or 40,798, of the city’s 87,273 abortions, were performed on black women.
Nearly half of the black pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion in 2009 and, yet, Times Square was not filled with Black Lives Matter protesters demanding the shuttering of Planned Parenthood’s doors.
Do those black lives not matter?
Truth 2. There exists a lopsided self-inflicted violence in Black America, and #BlackLivesMatter doesn’t address it.
Where was this embarrassing bunch of celebrity protesters in 2011 when we learned that black males 15-34 were 10 times more likely to die of murder than their white counterparts?
According to FBI data, 4,906 black people killed other blacks in 2010 and 2011. That is more than the total number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq over the last decade. More black Americans killed other blacks in two years than were lynched from 1882 to 1968, according to the Tuskegee Institute.
It seems that some black lives don’t matter. And it’s our own fault.
Of course black people are not unique to intra-racial murder. But a subculture of wanton disregard for human life has consigned so many black neighborhoods to a sort of ceaseless state of despair.
“You’re blaming the victims, Jerome,” some say.
The problem with that opinion is that it’s a copout. Black people, from the pulpit to the Historic Publications, often avoid turning the spotlight on ourselves. Meanwhile, caskets are filled with the bodies of America’s future. The culture of death thrives in inner cities; millions remain mired in misery.
Where there are instances—and there are many—of undeniably bad judgment on the part of police that result in death, we should pursue the facts and punish the guilty.
Truth 3. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray are not martyrs.
On the day he died, Michael Brown was a burglary suspect. After a fistfight and a failed attempt to disarm Officer Darren Wilson, Michael Brown was shot dead before he could continue his attack. That he had his “hands up” in surrender is a pernicious lie.
Had Michael Brown not resisted arrest and simply complied with Officer Wilson, he’d still be alive today.
Repeat offender Freddie Gray was suspected of selling hard drugs when he was apprehended by Baltimore police. Gray died from a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody. He had a penchant for running from the police and a “history,” according to the Baltimore Sun, “of participating in ‘crash-for-cash’ schemes—injuring himself in law enforcement settings to collect settlements.”
Eric Garner was committing the “crime” of selling un-taxed cigarettes when he was apprehended by a half-dozen cops. Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by an arresting officer.
Ultimately, a Staten Island grand jury concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to bring a criminal indictment against the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner. Reasonable people can debate whether or not the officer’s actions were excessive; however, it’s also worth noting that the medical examiner’s report said that Garner’s bad health, including obesity, contributed to his death.
Truth 4. There is no national conspiracy of police officers to hunt black people.
The common denominator that connects the deaths of these three men is the fact that they all resisted arrest. None of them deserved death. But they all made terrible decisions that led to their demise.
None of the officers that killed these men woke up wanting to murder a black man. That’s a hard truth. Unfortunately the anti-police Black Lives Matter-led protests that resulted in the rioting. looting, and burning of businesses is desperately uninterested in the truth.
Even Eric Garner’s daughter “doubts” that her father’s death was motivated by race. Garner’s mother said she would “agree.”
Truth 5. We need to be honest with ourselves and face facts.
Our nation’s newspapers feature, with haunting predictably, headline after headline detailing the carnage that has consumed dozens of communities where black men kill each other with terrifying regularity. And there are no national rallies, no mass media coverage, and no presidential eulogies to call attention to the madness.
So let’s keep it real: Many of black America’s wounds are self-inflicted. So let’s broaden the parameters of our discussion about the issues vexing black Americans and press pause on all the political grandstanding and phony posturing about whose lives matter.
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