On April 11, I posted an article about the shooting of a protester in Austin, Texas. Daniel Perry, who shot the protester because he saw an AK-47 pointed at him was found guilty of murder. The prosecution claimed that there was no actual evidence of the gun being pointed at Daniel Perry; Daniel Perry claimed that the gun was pointed at him. The video of the incident is fuzzy at best. It has recently been noted that Garret Foster, the protester who was killed, routinely carried his AK-47 in a manner that could easily be perceived as threatening. Evidently he had been advised by friends that if he was going to carry the weapon, he should carry it slung over his shoulder. Instead, Garret Foster chose to carry the weapon in a way that it could be easily fired. It has also been reported that both the shooter and the protester had made very questionable social media posts before the incident. I have to be honest, if I were carrying a weapon and I saw an AK-47 held in a way that I might be shot, I would shoot. It is going to take the wisdom of Solomon to sort this mess out.
Tag Archives: Austin Texas
Misleading Media Happens On Both Ends Of The Political Spectrum
The mainstream media does not have a monopoly on biased news. Many Americans, myself included, have reached the point where if we didn’t see it with our own eyes, we are not convinced in happened. Unfortunately, the bias can go both ways. Right now we see the political left working to undermine the Second Amendment. Unfortunately they have some serious ammunition–some deeply troubled people with guns have behaved very badly lately. However, that is no excuse to take guns away from honest, hard-working people who own them for self-defense.
Recently there was a case in Texas where Daniel Perry was found guilty of murder after Soros-backed District Attorney Jose Garza sought murder charges for an act of self defense during the 2020 George Floyd riots. The words underlined are from an article posted at The Gateway Pundit on April 10. Note that the article includes the fact that the District Attorney had a connection to George Soros and that the article states self-defense as a given.
The article reports:
This weekend the lead detective in the case, David Fugitt, filed an affidavit following the shocking verdict in the case.
According to Fugitt, District Attorney Joze Garza and his office had him remove 100 pages of exculpatory evidence in the case. The DA’s office had him shorten his presentation from 158 slides to 56 slides.
Fugitt added that this was likely criminal behavior.
On April 9, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the same murder and verdict.
Legal Insurrection reports:
This past Friday, April 7, 2023, Daniel Perry was found guilty in the 2020 murder of Garret Foster during a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.
The confrontation between the two men occurred as Perry was driving his Uber vehicle amongst a crowd of protestors in the street, and while Foster was among the protestors carrying an AK-47 on a sling. The rifle-armed Foster approached the driver’s side door of Perry’s car, Perry rolled down his window, and shot at Foster five times with a pistol, striking him with three rounds, effectively killing Foster instantly.
…From the start Perry would be arguing that he shot Foster in self-defense, and only after Foster had pointed his rifle at Perry.
And right there we have the key issue in this murder trial. Certainly, if the jury believed that Perry fired only after Foster pointed his rifle at him, there could hardly be a clearer case of self-defense. Indeed, as someone who personally carries a firearm for self-defense on a regular basis, anyone who unlawfully points a rifle at me ought to have a high expectation of getting shot in self-defense.
Social media was outraged at the conviction of Daniel Perry. However, there is more to the story:
The problem with this outrage, however, is that it presumes as an indisputable fact that Foster initiated the deadly force confrontation by pointing his rifle at Perry.
That “fact,” however, is not indisputable. Indeed, that fact was aggressively disputed by the prosecution, which argued to the jury that Foster never pointed his rifle at Perry, and so Perry’s claimed legal grounds for shooting Foster in self-defense simply doesn’t exist.
In support of this narrative of guilt the prosecution presented the testimony of multiple witnesses who told the jury that Foster never pointed his rifle at Perry. The confrontation itself was captured on poor quality video, from which screen captures were secured, and neither video nor stills ever show Foster pointing his gun at Perry.
My point is this. If we are going to argue for the Second Amendment and the idea that a man has a right to defend himself, we should be careful to check our facts. Both sides of the argument are very capable of stretching the truth to achieve a goal.
“CHOP” Comes To Austin
KXAN in Austin, Texas, posted an article yesterday (updated today) about an encampment around Austin City Hall.
The article reports:
For weeks, people experiencing homelessness have surrounded City Hall with their tents in protest of Austin voters reinstating the city’s camping ban.
Council Member Mackenzie Kelly tweeted that she was harassed as she walked out of City Hall on Monday. In the tweet, she said that she saw one man with a metal pipe and at least one knife, making her feel unsafe.
Kelly put out a call for people to contact her fellow council members about the situation.
Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon responded to her tweet, saying, “Council member Kelly, I encourage you to make a police report if you were threatened so @Austin_Police can follow up. I have officers keeping an eye at City Hall daily.”
Kelly told KXAN Monday’s incident was one of three times she’s been harassed by those camping outside City Hall. She says on Monday, police were there and witnessed what happened. However, she hasn’t filed a police report for any of the incidents.
“Honestly, I don’t want more work for the officers, and what’s going to happen? Some detective’s going to have to be assigned to the case and it’s not going to get prosecuted by the County Attorney’s office, ultimately.”
Camping isn’t allowed at City Hall or in city parks. It was illegal even before the citywide ban.
“I’ve been told by the City Manager’s office and APD that this is a protest and a free speech zone, and so, as such, they’re not moving these individuals right now,” Kelly said.
APD has given campers a move-out date of August 8th so there’s time to educate them. The department says as with other new ordinances, there must be a public education period.
“I’m frustrated, very frustrated that the city’s not moving faster to do something about the situation at City Hall, and despite my situation and things that happen to me and speaking to city staff and Chief Chacon, nothing’s been done,” Kelly said, adding that her office has heard gotten similar reports of threats outside City Hall from others. ” It’s beyond any reason at this point, to me. Common sense would say that this is a public health and safety risk, and it needs to be shut down.”
Does anyone remember?
The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), originally Free Capitol Hill, and later the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), was an occupation protest and self-declared autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr., was killed in the CHOP zone on June 20. The sort of anarchy we saw in Seattle and now see in Austin needs to be stopped with arrests and jail time for those who are breaking the law. Free speech does not include illegal camping.
The Quest To Turn Texas Blue
Texas is a red state. It votes Republican. It also has one of the fastest growing economies in the country because of the policies Republicans have put in place. However, the Democrats have decided to focus on making Texas a blue state. That is fine–America is about competition–but they are not entitled to break the law to do it.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article today about laws being broken in the quest to turn Texas blue.
The article reports:
Battleground Texas has a mission — to turn the deep-red state of Texas as blue as Austin, a monumental if not quixotic task. Like other activist groups, the progressive organization conducts voter-registration drives, attempting to get like-minded citizens to turn out in force in the next election cycle. Project Veritas did an undercover operation of Battleground Texas and found out that registering voters is just the start of those efforts. According to the video, the group’s leaders cull information from those registration forms and build their database of personal information — which is a direct violation of Texas law:
This is the video:
Project Veritas also discovered that Enroll America was also making illegal use of date obtained in registering voters.
Voting is a very important part of being an American. If we don’t protect the ballot box, we will lose our say in our government. Thank God that Project Veritas is exposing the cheating going on in preparation for the 2014 elections.
Using The Justice System As A Political Weapon
USA Today is reporting today that the criminal conviction of Tom Delay, former House majority leader, has been overturned by a Texas court.
The article reports:
The documents were released Thursday by the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin.
“The evidence was legally insufficient to sustain DeLay‘s convictions,” the documents said. The judges said they “reverse the judgments of the trial court” and acquit DeLay, once one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, of all charges.
The acquittal means DeLay cannot be retried and the money laundering case is over.
This case has been a sham from the beginning. Tom Delay was a very successful House majority leader, and the Democrats worked very hard to remove him from office. It is wonderful to see that justice has finally been served.
The Culture War is As Relevant As The Political Debate
On Friday, David Limbaugh posted an article at Townhall.com regarding the current state of the culture war. One major aspect of the culture war is limiting the free speech of those people and organizations that do not agree with the current politically correct values. Put simply, that means that Christian values are okay in the church, but not in the marketplace.
A group of students from Students for Life of America (SLA) were evicted from the Town Lake branch of the YMCA of Austin, Texas. The assistant branch director of the YMCA had agreed to let the students use the showers at the facility for the week of the “Students #Stand4Life Bus Tour.” Pro-choice members of the Y pressured the assistant branch director to end the agreement.
The article reports:
That’s right; certain members of the club complained that it would be “too political” to allow pro-lifers in the showers, so they pressured management to exclude the group. Too political? What?
Note that it wasn’t that the pro-lifers were carrying placards into the showers or proselytizing recalcitrant pro-aborts while toweling off. It was the mere presence of pro-lifers, even if they were minding their own business, that the pro-abort bullies found intolerable.
The SLA didn’t even have to say anything–they just needed to be guilty of existing.
The article further reports:
Brendan O’Morchoe, national director of field operations for SFLA, said: “We had absolutely no problems on Monday night when we used their facilities. The YMCA management was respectful, but some angry pro-abortion activists were being very aggressive with YMCA staff members, and the staff said they felt threatened. Unfortunately, the anger and rage from the pro-abortion protesters has created a toxic environment, even outside the Capitol building. It’s really a shame that the YMCA was bullied by these people. It just goes to show how pro-aborts operate every day.”
Freedom of speech means that everyone’s rights are protected. When any one group of people is excluded from the marketplace of ideas, we all lose. This is a trend that needs to be stopped now–otherwise bullying in the field of ideas will become a way of life, and those who do not agree with the current political correctness will lose their right to speak.
The Pro-Abortion Movement Gives New Meaning To The Term Grassroots
The picture below is from an article by Ed Morrissey posted at Hot Air. The ad appeared in Craigslist in Austin, Texas.
Mr. Morrissey stated in his article that he posted the picture in case the website took it down. The bottom line is simple–you can make money be being an advocate for abortion. Somehow that just doesn’t seem to belong in the concept of ‘grassroots.’
The article at Hot Air states:
The special session got announced by Gov. Rick Perry on the 26th; this ad went up three days later, and just two days before a swarm of “volunteers” arrived at the capitol building today. Pro-choice Texas employees get paid roughly minimum wage to “stand,” I mean start, assuming that the $1300 per month is for full-time work. The position ranges to nearly $12.70 for standing around and yelling slogans like, “Hey hey, ho ho, fully-formed human life’s got to go,” and so on.
The article reminds us that 62 percent of Texans support the bill that the special session will be taking up. I guess that is why the organizations that oppose the bill are having to pay people to show up to protest the bill.
Is This Something You Want Your Tax Dollars Supporting ?
This is a YouTube video filmed by a group called Live Action:
The video shows a Planned Parenthood Worker in Austin, Texas, encouraging a woman to have an abortion because the women is pregnant with a girl and wants to have a boy. The story is also posted at Breitbart.com.
Breitbart reports:
The video is first in a new series titled “Gendercide: Sex-Selection in America,” exposing the practice of sex-selective abortion in the United States and how Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry facilitate the selective elimination of baby girls in the womb.
As the mother of three daughters, this hits home for me. My daughters have all been unbelievable blessings in my life (as have their children). I would not trade any of them for a son. I can understand the emphasis on having sons in some countries where women do not have the opportunities for success that women in America have, but that is not an excuse for murder in any country, much less in America. If Planned Parenthood is aiding women in killing their babies because the children are the wrong sex, it is time to stop using taxpayer money to fund planned parenthood.
