Tracker

And........?

It happened to you, too?

And no one was ever charged because Blackwater 's mercenaries are not answerable to any court.

Federal Prison Officers Brought in to Patrol D.C. Streets The Justice Department has sent special operations teams from the Bureau of Prisons to support the Trump administration’s response to protests in Washington, D.C. and Florida. In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed that they had deployed Crisis Management Teams in response to the protests. The teams include Special Operations response teams, “which are highly trained tactical units capable of responding to prison disturbances, and providing assistance to other law enforcement agencies during emergencies.” Officers from the Bureau’s Disturbance Control Teams, which “specialize in crowd control scenarios,” have also been deployed. Speculation about the presence of special response teams from the agency grew online as residents and reporters noted the presence of law enforcement officials in tactical equipment placed around the city, many of whom refused to identify which agency they worked for. In one photo shared by MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, officers with shields labeled “corrections” and a shirt with an apparent Federal Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Control Team patch formed a perimeter preventing protesters from approaching the White House. Twitter users also noted officers wearing uniforms with logos for the Bureau of Prisons Special Operations Response Team station by the Washington Convention Center on K Street. “Per the request of the Attorney General, the BOP has dispatched teams to Miami, Florida, and Washington, D.C.” the Bureau said. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bureau-of-prisons-officers-brought-in-to-washington-dc-to-respond-to-george-floyd-protests (Another line crossed and America is well on its way to being a banana republic)

The best that can be hoped for is that the diehard GOP voters will be so revulsed by trump's antics that they will decide that Trump is the wrong kind of Republican- after all he was a Democrat first.

Use of Military Medical Helicopter to Target Washington D.C. Protesters to Be Investigated Earlier this week, shocking footage showed a medical helicopter hovering dangerously close to protesters in Washington, D.C. in a maneuver that aviators described as a “show of force.” On Tuesday, Major Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, announced that he’s opened an investigation into the incident. https://www.thedailybeast.com/use-of-military-medical-helicopter-to-target-washington-dc-protesters-to-be-investigated?ref=home (Trump has shown repeatedly that he would have no hesitation in ordering police or troops to open fire on protesters)

Trump Pushed Enquirer to Probe Scarborough ‘Murder’ Rumor Trump is so hellbent on smearing the MSNBC host that he had Jared push the Enquirer to publish the lies, sources told The Daily Beast. Even the tabloid rag wouldn’t sink that low. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-had-kushner-push-the-national-enquirer-to-probe-scarborough-murder-conspiracy-in-2017?ref=home

Defense Secretary Esper splits from Trump: ‘I do not support invoking the insurrection act’ In a rare move Secretary of Defense Mark Esper split from President Donald Trump on the use of the U.S. Military in American cities. Esper, in a hastily-called press conference, told reporters point blank: “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.” The Defense Secretary said active-duty U.S. troops “should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations.” He added he does not believe America is in that situation presently. https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/defense-secretary-esper-splits-from-trump-i-do-not-support-invoking-the-insurrection-act/ (Another firing coming up- not sufficiently sycophantic or willing to break the law)

I’ve been a police misconduct lawyer for 25 years. There are bad cops — but ‘good cops’ almost always protect them “The Osmonds,” a Saturday-morning cartoon from the 1970s, always ended with a sickly melody that stays permanently in my mind. “One Bad Apple” was about unrequited love (from girls, rather than cops). I knew the lyrics before I understood what “bad apple” meant, or, for that matter, police brutality. Forgive me for comparing the nation’s (and New York City’s) unrest over police brutality to a cartoon. But the metaphor “bad apple” is not only a cliché, but so logically misplaced as to make it cartoonish. The typical argument is this: Let’s remember that not all cops are bad, despite a few “bad apples.” The problem with this argument, if it is an argument, is that it absolves the NYPD, the Minneapolis PD or any other police department for legacies of misconduct. https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/ive-been-a-police-misconduct-lawyer-for-25-years-there-are-bad-cops-but-good-cops-almost-always-protect-them/

Yet more hypocrisy. This sort of thing has become so normalized in the GOP (and probably America) that it doesn't even raise an eyebrow any more.

Nah. They will simply pretend it doesn't exist. After all, they didn't get sick, so its not real.

Too many cops have this "us versus them" mentality. As one cop in the US put it," This gun isn't to protect you. Its to protect me from you."

State Trooper Caught Saying About Protesters: ‘Don’t Kill Them, Hit Them Hard’ Reuters / Lindsey Wasson A Washington state trooper has been caught on camera preparing his fellow officers to engage with protesters by saying: “Don’t kill them, hit them hard.” The trooper’s words are muffled by a gas mask, but clearly audible. The Washington Post reported the state patrol apologized for what the trooper was caught saying after the video was shared widely Tuesday night. https://www.thedailybeast.com/washington-state-trooper-caught-saying-dont-kill-them-hit-them-hard?ref=home

Architect of Sweden’s Anti-Lockdown Strategy Admits Too Many People Have Died Reuters The man responsible for Sweden’s unique anti-lockdown coronavirus strategy has admitted that too many people have died and the country should have done more to prevent the spread of the disease. Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, is the brains behind his country’s controversial approach to the outbreak. Throughout the pandemic, Swedes have been allowed to go to restaurants, hit the gym, and send their kids to school. But Tegnell told Swedish radio on Wednesday that there was “quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done” in Sweden. According to The Guardian, when Tegnell was asked whether too many people in Sweden had died, he replied: “Yes, absolutely.” The scientist added: “If we were to encounter the same disease again knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done.” Sweden’s death rate is among the world’s highest at 43 deaths per 100,000 people. https://www.thedailybeast.com/anders-tegnell-architect-of-swedens-anti-lockdown-strategy-admits-too-many-people-have-died?ref=home

Joint Chiefs Chairman Blasted as Uniformed ‘Prop’ for Trump’s ‘Fascist Political Stunt’ Gen. Mark Milley strolled with Trump through Lafayette Park after it was violently cleared of protesters. National-security vets say the chairman crossed the line. As President Trump walked through Lafayette Park shortly after police, backed by National Guardsmen, used tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protesters, there was a man in uniform accompanying him. He was not just any man and he wore not just any uniform. He was Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior-most officer in the U.S. military. He was not wearing his dress service uniform, but instead the camouflage of his combat uniform, as if to underscore that American streets where protesters are angrily demanding an end to institutional police racism are now the “battlespace” that Defense Secretary Mark Esper described. It’s nowhere near the first time that Milley and other senior officers have worn their combat uniforms in stateside settings, reflecting in part how a generation-long conflict has blurred the lines between peace and war. https://www.thedailybeast.com/joint-chiefs-chairman-army-gen-mark-milley-blasted-as-uniformed-prop-for-trumps-fascist-political-stunt

It's called poetic licence.

Barr Personally Ordered Police to Clear Protesters for Trump’s D.C. Church Photo Op: WaPo Attorney General William Barr ordered law enforcement on the ground in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square to clear the area Monday evening for President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reports. The directive resulted in police tear gassing protesters so the commander-in-chief could pose with a Bible in front of a church he does not regularly attend. The move was an unusual one for the nation’s highest-ranking legal official to make personally, speaking to the close relationship between the head of the Department of Justice and Trump. The D.C. Archbishop, Wilton Gregory, condemned the president’s photo opportunity as using the church for political points. https://www.thedailybeast.com/william-barr-personally-ordered-police-to-clear-protesters-for-donald-trumps-dc-church-photo-op-wapo?ref=home

Medical Workers Fighting COVID Say Cops Are Attacking Them ‘YOU PICKED THE WRONG TIME’ “I don’t know if it’s because they noticed my hospital ID or if it’s because they saw the blood, but they stopped, threw my phone at me, and I walked back to the hospital.” Courtesy of Rayne Valentine Twenty minutes after leaving his job at a Brooklyn hospital on Saturday night, 32-year-old Rayne Valentine was lying in the fetal position on the sidewalk. He’d been beaten and kicked by New York police officers, his hospital ID smeared with his own blood, he told The Daily Beast. Valentine, a Marine veteran who worked as a chef before the pandemic hit the restaurant industry, got a job in March at Kings County Hospital Center. He has spent the past several months moving medicine and patients around the facility, as well as piling hundreds of dead bodies—many of them COVID-19 victims—into refrigerated morgue trucks. Valentine told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that he needed a job, but, like many Americans, he also felt helpless and wanted to contribute on the front lines of the deadly pandemic. Unfortunately, his is just one of many horrifying stories of medical workers, firefighters, and paramedics who’ve been heralded as heroes—only to be tear gassed or beaten by police during the days of civil unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-medical-workers-fighting-covid-say-cops-are-attacking-them-at-george-floyd-protests?ref=home

A leading conservative writer comes out with a scathing argument for defeating Trump and his enablers: ‘The worst is yet to come’ George F. Will, who turned 79 on May 4, is among the most prominent conservative journalists in the United States — although he has been a vehement critic of Donald Trump’s presidency and even left the Republican Party because of it. And Will’s most recent Washington Post column is especially scathing: the Never Trumper stresses that voting the “crybaby in chief” out of office in November is crucial in order to reverse the country’s “downward spiral.” “Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: there is no such thing as rock bottom,” Will writes. “So, assume that the worst is yet to come. Which implicates national security: abroad, anti-Americanism sleeps lightly when it sleeps at all, and it is wide-awake as decent people judge our nation’s health by the character of those to whom power is entrusted. Watching, too, are indecent people in Beijing and Moscow.” https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/a-leading-conservative-writer-comes-out-with-a-scathing-argument-for-defeating-trump-and-his-enablers-the-worst-is-yet-to-come/

Trump voters wanted this all along — now the trolling has turned to real-world violence. Right-wingers were thrilled because Trump "triggers the liberals" — now that trigger has become literal AMANDA MARCOTTE JUNE 2, 2020 5:32PM (UTC) Eager to get home to South Philadelphia before curfew — about an hour's walk — I left Monday's Black Lives Matter protest a few minutes before the police decided to tear-gas the peaceful crowd. The videos of the incident are terrifying — people desperately trying to scramble away from the painful gas, but trapped in the cloud by a fence and a hill that only a few could scramble over. It was a repeat of what is happening in city after city — most notably in Washington, where President Trump had a peaceful crowd gassed because they were getting in the way of a photo op — as police across the nation, evidently inspired by Trump's violent and authoritarian rhetoric, have begun violently crushing nonviolent protesters. https://www.salon.com/2020/06/02/trump-voters-wanted-this-all-along--now-the-trolling-has-turned-to-real-world-violence/ (One of the best articles on the current situation that I have come across)

The potential for urban warfare will come from the politicians who will be propelled into directing the police and military by panic among the white population stoked by Fox News and such.

As a measure of his ethics and manhood, Mitt Romney refused to comment on the killing of Floyd and the ensuing protests. In my eyes, he was the only Republican who had a shred of credibility and moral authority and poof! gone in an instant.

I fear that this will come to pass if the cops who did the killing walk. If the Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Semites arm themselves, it will be all-out urban warfare.