When Judges Get It Right

On Tuesday, BizPacReview posted an article about a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The article reports:

A federal appeals court ruled 3-0 Tuesday that the Washington D.C. “selectively” used a defacement statute to arrest pro-life activists for chalking a message on the sidewalk while permitting Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors to mark property without consequences.

During the summer of 2020, at the same time thousands of BLM protestors were taking to the streets of Washington, D.C. and covering public spaces with paint and chalk, two pro-life activists were arrested for chalking the words “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter”on a public sidewalk. The Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America, who organized the pro-life protest and filed the lawsuit over the arrests, “plausibly alleged” that the statute’s enforcement was viewpoint discrimination, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found.

“The First Amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of viewpoint irrespective of the government’s motive,” Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the opinion for the court. “We hold the Foundation has plausibly alleged the District discriminated on the basis of viewpoint in the selective enforcement of its defacement ordinance.”

“The District all but abandoned enforcement of the defacement ordinance during the Black Lives Matter protests, creating a de facto categorical exemption for individuals who marked ‘Black Lives Matter’ messages on public and private property,” the ruling states.

Seems like some of the January 6th protesters should seek equal treatment with the rioters of the summer of 2020.

The War Against Americans

On Wednesday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness detailing how the political left has escalated the war on everyday Americans. The article cites numerous examples.

The article notes:

Special-counsel John Durham just issued his final report on wrongdoing within the FBI, CIA, and the Department of Justice. 

The summary confirms that our premier investigatory and intelligence agencies interfered in the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. 

Directors and high-ranking FBI officials lied under oath. They misled Congress. They altered court documents and deceived federal judges. 

…The FBI contracted Twitter to suppress news stories. It kept the Hunter Biden laptop under wraps, even as former intelligence officials flat out lied it was likely “Russian disinformation.” That was a blatant effort to aid the 2020 Biden campaign.

The IRS just conceded whistleblowers were correct and the agency fired its entire multiyear audit team responsible for investigating Hunter Biden’s purported tax irregularities. 

The agency claimed it was ordered to do so by the Department of Justice, headed by Biden’s appointee Merrick Garland.

California is facing a crushing $32 billion deficit. Yet it flirts with an $800 billion-dollar “reparations” payout to the state’s black residents. 

…Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis—all outside Florida—have the highest black murder rates in the nation. 

Florida in contrast, with a black population of 3.3 million, has the second largest number of black businesses in the nation. The chairman of the NAACP’s board of directors is himself a Florida resident! 

Black Lives Matter has just announced it lost millions of dollars in investments and ran up huge deficits. 

The culprit was its former corrupt leadership. 

The article also notes:

In almost every American city and town, biological males, with enormous advantages in size and musculoskeletal mass, routinely win women’s sporting competitions. 

They are systematically destroying decades of progress that sought to ensure parity between men and women’s sports. 

Corporate America has joined this cultural revolution hysteria. Companies are apparently now hellbent on destroying their brands, profits, and net worth.

Under pressure from the LGBTQ activists, the Los Angeles Dodgers reinvited the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” to celebrate Pride night at Dodger Stadium. 

Catholics and Christians had objected to the invitation because the group’s notoriety hinges on its sexualized and often pornographic mockery of Catholic ritual, the Holy Trinity, and Christian faith. 

The supposedly courageous group would never dare extend its street-theater blasphemy to other religious groups such as Muslims or Hindus. 

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. As Americans, we have been asleep, and we are paying a price for it. No one involved in the government interference in the past two presidential elections is sitting in jail. Meanwhile, people who simply walked through the Capitol on January 6th have not yet had their day in court. We are losing our nation.

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.

The Value Of School Resource Officers

The ‘Defund the Police” move was generally supported by a number of liberal mayors in America. That hasn’t worked out well for them, and now the Democrats are trying to convince Americans that “Defund the Police” was a Republican idea. Good luck with that. However, there was also an idea floating around that removing police from schools would decrease the possibility of violence in those schools. That was done in some schools in order to placate the Black Lives Matter movement. That makes about as much sense as taking all of the cashiers out of stores and letting the customers check themselves out without any oversight or supervision. At any rate, the results are in.

On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about the impact of removing police in three particular schools.

The schools are Denver Public Schools—Colorado, Alexandria City Public Schools—Virginia, and Montgomery County Public Schools—Maryland.

The article notes what happened in each of the three schools:

Denver Public Schools—Colorado

Two years after a high school in Denver, Colorado, removed all law enforcement officers from school grounds based on the belief that arresting “Black and Brown students for minor school infractions” perpetuates the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a black gunman, who was an expelled student, shot two school administrators Wednesday. Sadly, it’s a disturbing yet predictable trend we’re seeing in schools across America that have rid themselves of on-campus police to appease Black Lives Matter activists.

Alexandria City Public Schools—Virginia

In the summer of 2021, the Alexandria City Council voted to end the decades-old SRO program at Alexandria City Public Schools and reallocate police funding towards “mental health resources.” By the fall of that year, the city council reversed course, approving the temporary reinstatement of police in school hallways. “Our students are sending us warning shots, literal warning shots,” Alexandria City High School’s principal Peter Balas said at the council meeting. “My staff, the students—we’re not okay.”

Before the reversal, the 2021 academic year was marred by a wave of violent incidents, including the triggering of an ACHS lockdown when a student was found in possession of a handgun, an all-out brawl inside the ACHS cafeteria, which was captured on cellphone camera, just two days after school started, and a fight inside George Washington Middle School. The recording of the GWMS melee was posted by a since-deleted Instagram account, “gwmsfights2022,” dedicated to posting student fights.

Montgomery County Public Schools—Maryland

According to data presented at an MCPS Board of Education meeting in February 2022, the district has seen an increase in cases of students bringing weapons to school compared to the 2019 and 2020 school years. An MCPS spokesperson also observed the district has seen an uptick in physical violence since students have restarted in-person learning, WUSA9 reported.

At the time, ABC7 News documented 102 sex assaults, 87 assaults, 82 school threats, 76 controlled substance incidents, 57 weapon-related incidents, 57 conflicts, 35 mental health incidents, 28 property crimes, and 4 robberies since August 2021.

Please follow the link above for further details. Ninety-nine percent of police are honest, hardworking people who care about their communities. Taking School Resource Officers out of the schools jeopardizes the safety of the students.

What Are We Teaching Our Children:

On Saturday, The Daily Caller posted an article about some of the curriculum being used in our schools to celebrate Black History Month.

The article reports:

  • Several of the nation’s schools are preparing to celebrate “Black Lives Matter at School” week which features curriculums on “restorative justice” and “globalism.” 
  • With lesson plans, reading, documentaries and activities, students learn about activism and “structural racism.” 
  • “Any education leader interested in building awareness on the history and struggles of the African American community should seek meaningful policy solutions rather than virtue-signaling,” Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, a group that focused on combating racial discrimination, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Teaching children that they are victims does not do anything to encourage learning or to help them deal with the world they see around them. Teaching them that because their ancestors were treated horribly they are entitled to money they did not earn does not help anyone. It divides people along racial lines and prevents the country from unifying to solve problems. Could a unified America actually solve problems? Is a unified America a threat to the deep state?

The article notes:

Milwaukee Public Schools is hosting events in honor of “Black Lives Matter at School” week including “BLM Family Night” where families can participate in “cultural experiences” at the Black Holocaust Museum, according to the school website. Shoreline Public Schools in Washington plans to celebrate the week in order to help students “understand inequities based on race” and to “affirm that the lives of people of color matter,” the school district website showed.

BLM at School raised more than $103,000 for its national week of action as of Friday, according to its website. Several teachers unions have backed the week-long event in the country’s schools including the National Education Association, Chicago Teachers Union and the Virginia Education Association.

The article concludes:

“Giving the BLM brand legitimacy in public schools is handing ideologies, radicals and groomers a license to harm our next generation,” Wu told the DCNF. “Any education leader interested in building awareness on the history and struggles of the African American community should seek meaningful policy solutions rather than virtue-signaling.”

BLM at School, San Diego Unified School District, Howard County Schools, Milwaukee Public Schools and Shoreline Public Schools did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

If I thought the children were actually learning the reading, writing and mathematics skills they need, I might be somewhat less bothered by this. My question to teachers is, “Why are you wasting time of this garbage when your students can’t read or do math?”

Misleading People To Cause Division

As long as America is divided, we are not paying a lot of attention to what is happening in Washington. Therefore, it is to the advantage of some people to keep up divided. I am going to report on one instance of how this is done.

On Saturday, The Western Journal posted an article about the death of Keenan Anderson, 31. Keenan Anderson is the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who cited this case as the latest example of police brutality against blacks. Well, there are a few problems with her claim.

The article reports:

After Anderson’s death, Cullors posted his photograph to Instagram with the following message: “This is my cousin Keenan Anderson. He was killed by LAPD in Venice on January 3rd, 2023. My cousin was an educator and worked with high school aged children. He was an English teacher. LAPD has killed three people this year. One of them is my family member. Keenan deserves to be alive right now, his child deserves to be raised by his father. Keenan we will fight for you and for all of our loved ones impacted by state violence. I love you. JusticeForKeenan#BlackLivesMatter.”

However, the video from the body cameras of the police involved tell a very difference story:

The officer asked Anderson to sit down and he complied “for several minutes,” Muniz said. After backup arrived, Anderson got up and ran into the street. The officers ordered him to stop and “to get on the ground.”

“As the police tried to take Anderson into custody, he became increasingly agitated, uncooperative and resisted the officers,” she said.

An officer shouts “Get out of the street” to Anderson, who shouts back that, “Somebody’s trying to kill me, sir.”

Contrary to Cullors’ claims, the video shows the officer being extremely patient with Anderson.

Anderson tells him, “They’re trying to put stuff in my car.”

“Who’s trying to put stuff in your car?” the officer asks.

A message on the video said that seven minutes later, Anderson tried to run away again. The officer continued to be patient, even kind, to Anderson.

Please follow the link above the read the entire story. I don’t care what color you are, if you run from the police or refuse to cooperate, bad things happen. Read your news carefully, things are not always what they appear to be.

 

Fighting For Their Constitutional Rights

On Saturday, BizPacReview reported that a Missouri judge has ruled that Mark and Patricia McCloskey won’t receive their guns or fines back following their pardon for exercising their Second Amendment rights, brandishing weapons as BLM rioters invaded their property in 2020. This is an interesting case. There are conflicting stories about how the protesters got into their neighborhood through a locked gate. There are also reports of the protesters threatening the McCloskeys. I am confident that if the McCloskeys had not shown the protesters their guns, the McCloskeys might have been the victims–not the people on trial. It should also be noted that BLM’s record of protest does not include a lot of peaceful protests.

The article reports:

Gov. Mike Parson (R) pardoned the two attorneys last year who had pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and second-degree harassment, both misdemeanors. They were charged after waving guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who had entered their private road in front of their home in June 2020.

Mark McCloskey filed a lawsuit in 2021 contending that he and his wife were entitled to the Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber they were forced to relinquish after their plea deal and the roughly $2,750 they were ordered to pay, according to Fox News. He argued that the governor’s pardon nullified all judgments and orders in the case.

Moriarty ruled that the pardon had “no bearing whatsoever on any of the terms of the negotiated plea agreement.”

“Plaintiff and his wife are required to follow through with their end of the bargain,” she wrote in her ruling.

The article notes:

No shots were fired and no one was hurt during the encounter. Callahan later determined the protesters were peaceful.

The McCloskeys certainly did not see it that way and there was no way they could know the protesters weren’t armed that were marching to the home of then-St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house to call for her resignation. The prosecutor’s argument appeared specious to many.

During the 2021 sentencing hearing for the attorneys, Judge David Mason asked Mark McCloskey if he acknowledged that his actions put people at risk of personal injury. He responded, “I sure did your honor.”

On the courthouse steps after the hearing, McCloskey, who was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate at the time, said he’d do it again if faced with similar circumstances according to the Associated Press.

Again, considering the track record of BLM, I am not sure I would have assumed the protesters were peaceful. This is simply another attack on gun ownership and the right to defend yourself by a judge who does not understand (or acknowledge) the rights of Americans protected by the U.S. Constitution.