Benjamin Crump's New Gig - Cleveland, Ohio

Benjamin Crump, the attorney who has gone from Trayvon Martin's family in Florida, to Michael Brown's family in Missourie, to Eric Garner's family in New York, has now landed in Cleveland, Ohio, and is representing the mother or Tamir Rice.

The mother of Rice, the the 12 year old boy who was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, in November, has called for the conviction of the officer who shot her son. Naturally, I can understand her grief and her pain. I have lost a son to tragedy myself. It's a pain you never, ever get over. But while her comments are understandable, they're not logical and people should not treat them as such.

In a case that is very different than the other three, Tamir Rice was in a local park in Cleveland brandishing what appeared to be a real firearm. The Cleveland police have released a photo of the gun that was placed into evidence. If this if the actual gun that Tamir had in his possession when the officer rolled up it's certainly understandable why he felt he had to shoot.

Someone go ahead and explain to me why anyone should suspect this to be a toy.

Reports are that whoever called the police reported someone in the park with a gun. They told the dispatcher that the gun "might be fake" but that information wasn't passed on to the responding officer. All he knew what that there was someone in the park with a gun. (Video surveillance cameras do show Tamir walking up and down the sidewalk with the gun.) When the officer arrived he confronted the boy (it is unknown how at this point) and when Tamir reached for the gun in his waistband the officer shot him. He died the next day in the hospital.

The thing that makes this case so very different from the others (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner) is that Tamir Rice had a gun (a very real looking gun) in his possession at the time he was shot. Rice's mother says that the officer should have talked to her son and he would have complied with whatever he was told. But she doesn't know that for certain - particularly since the officer says when he confronted Tamir the boy reached for the gun in his waistband. Not many officers responding to a gun call would allow the suspect to actually draw the weapon before firing.

Tamir's death was even more of a tragedy than Trayvon, Michael or Eric. He was only 12 years old. He probably had no idea he could face police action for what he was doing. But he was doing it nevertheless.

His mother's attitude is understandable. She lost her son. And he wasn't even old enough to be a criminal yet. He was a kid.

To those who are calling this a case of murder, including Tamir's mother, I say you need to understand the facts. If you're going to ignore the facts that don't fit into your narrative I can't change that. Truth is truth. But some people will refuse to believe it because of their own agenda. There is no changing the mind that is closed.

Tamir Rice's tragic death will scar his community for a while.  Florida blood sucker Attorney Benjamin Crump, who said of Darren Wilson "I don't care about his due process," now represents the family of Tamir Rice. Like Al Sharpton, he seems to show up everywhere that a black person gets killed by a white person. But since I'm pretty sure he's not licensed in four states, he most likely can only be an adviser in the cases. And he doesn't have a great track record so far - except for making disparaging remarks on television... two or three times a week.

Yes, the Tamir Rice case will be exploited by the race baiters and race haters for a while. Facts won't matter as long as a white cop killed a black kid. Hopefully truth will prevail and the officer will be OK. And before Eric Holder decides to make it a racial case...

I'm Tired Of Republican/Conservative Ignorance

I have to say I'm getting really tired of Republicans and conservatives who say that Michelle Obama is really a man. They all seem to believe it and make their statements as "fact" but have no evidence to support their claims except some video made by a guy who says that the size of Michelle's fingers and her shoulders mean she's a man. The video proves nothing except to people who want to believe what they want to believe.

Not that I should have to do it but I've researched photographs of Michelle Obama as a child and a teenager. It's pretty clear that despite the beliefs and rhetoric of hate filled people on the right, she is and always has been a female. Sorry for all of the haters but truth is truth. You remember when you said that to liberals?

I hate to be so blunt with you Obama haters but attacks on Michelle that are completely unfounded are no better than liberal attacks on Sarah Palin or Laura Bush. Your ignorance is showing. And as a conservative American patriot I'm tired of the manure you people are spreading. You are embarrassments to the conservative movement and to America in general. Educate yourselves before you post anything else, please.

I'm no Obama fan, believe me. I think he's destroying our great nation. Any of you who have read my previous posts know this. But posting lies and obvious falsehoods makes you and the rest of us look like idiots. And I, for one, do not appreciate conservatives like myself being made to look stupid by people who post ignorant, uninformed, and hateful nonsense.

Some of you may not like what I'm saying. I really don't care. If you post ignorance without doing any research on your own then you're part of the problem. And since I don't get paid for my blog posts - it matters not if I have a lot of readers. I will tell the truth regardless of people's opinions.

Do the research. It will make you honest. If you wish to continue posting very obvious BS that's your prerogative, but you only make yourselves look foolish and uninformed. It's really your choice.

Some Facts About The Eric Garner Case

Politicians, TV pundits and many black Americans are talking about the Eric Garner incident in New York and complaining about the "racist cops" who "killed Eric Garner" over some loose cigarettes. But are they correct about what happened?

Store owners (mostly minorities according to reports) contacted the police about Garner selling loose cigarettes outside their stores and preventing customers from entering. It was not the first time Garner had been accused of that very thing. At the time of the incident Garner was on bail for illegally selling cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession and false impersonation.

Police responded to the scene and attempted to place Garner under arrest. Some say he should not have been arrested for such a minor crime but again, he was on bail for the same thing, having been arrested only a short time before for the same crime. How many people get out of jail and get caught committing the same crime without getting arrested again? The police had no choice in this case.

Garner refused to be arrested. He pulled away every time police attempted to gain control of his hands. It was a stupid mistake on his part. Regardless of your guilt or innocence, in this country if a police officer says you're under arrest you do not have a choice in the matter. One way or another you're going go jail. Unfortunately for Eric Garner, he chose the wrong way.

Eric Garner was six feet four inches tall and weighed 350 pounds. If you've never had the experience of using force on someone that big (as I have) you have no idea what it's like, nor do you have any idea what is involved. The officer who put his arm around Garner's neck did the best thing he could do. He got Garner from behind, got him off balance and made it easier to get him on the ground. He did not use a "chokehold" as the media and others like to say. During the struggle, Garner said "I can't breathe" 11 times. You cannot speak if someone has you in a true chokehold. A chokehold cuts off respiration as well as cutting circulation through the carotid arteries and renders the person unconscious within about 20 seconds. Garner was alive and breathing when he was placed in the ambulance.

Another fact that the media likes to leave out is that Eric Garner suffered a fatal heart attack in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He suffered from a number of health problems including heart disease, severe asthma, diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea - all of which contributed to his death. The coroner said that neck compression and chest compression (while on the ground) also contributed to his death. It was a combination of things that ultimately led to his cardiac arrest. But since he was alive when he was placed in the ambulance the police didn't kill him.

An African-American police sergeant was on the scene at the time of the attempted arrest and was in charge of the entire thing. She is visible in the video. Not once did she intervene or tell the officers they were doing anything wrong. She observed the hold that Officer Pantaleo had on Garner and did not do or say anything to correct him.

For the officer to have been charged with murder there had to have been intent. There is no evidence that the officer intended to do anything other than take Eric Garner into custody. Just like Darren Wilson didn't set out to kill Michael Brown, Officer Daniel Pantaleo didn't set out to cause the death of Eric Garner. There was no murder. And since "chokeholds" are against police department policy but not illegal in the state of New York, Pantaleo's actions did not violate the law. That's important.

The president of the New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, said: "It was clear that the officer's intention was to do nothing more than take Mr. Garner into custody as instructed, and that he used the takedown technique that he learned in the academy when Mr. Garner refused."

Eric Garner's death was a tragedy. But contrary to what is being said by many, Garner's death was not caused by illegal acts nor was it caused by racism. Even Garner's daughter told a reporter that her father's death was not caused by racism. Yet President Obama, Eric Holder, Bill De Blasio and many others continue to say it was.

Norm Pattis, a respected Connecticut civil rights attorney and author of two books, “Taking Back the Courts” and “Juries and Justice," said it best. "The death of Eric Garner is not an example of racial injustice. It’s a tragic consequence of a man who refused to take his grievance to a courtroom where it could be sorted out without violence. He paid for that mistake with his life. That does not make him a martyr."

"How Do You Spell Racism? NYPD!!"

That's what people were saying last night during the protests in New York City. Thanks to Mayor Bill De Blasio, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and even President Obama, the uninformed public in New York and other cities believe that Eric Garner was killed by racist cops.

It's so easy for some people to believe a lie rather than the truth. It happened in Ferguson, Missouri - to the point of violence and destruction. People chose to believe the main stream media, Sharpton, Holder and Obama rather than the truth and the result was complete chaos. Not that those people caused the protesters to riot, loot and burn - but they didn't discourage it in a meaningful way. In fact, their comments about the incident only fueled the rage and violence. If they had not turned the Michael Brown shooting into a racial incident (for which there is absolutely no evidence to support that view) the violence would have been far less. Many of the protesters are decrying the racism they believe caused the incidents in Ferguson and Staten Island - but neither incident shows the slightest inkling that race was the cause. That has been manufactured by those named above.

Let's take a look at some inconvenient facts.

Fact number 1: Eric Garner was not "killed by racist cops." Eric Garner had been arrested more than once for selling cigarettes on the street. He was out of jail on bail after being arrested for that very crime. (The strict cigarette laws were put in place by Mayor De Blasio.) A local store owner notified police that Garner was in front of his store selling cigarettes again. Police approached Garner and he got belligerent. He refused to be arrested. Each time the police attempted to secure his hands he pulled away. Officer Pantaleo grabbed Garner (who was about 6'4" and weighed about 350 pounds) around the neck and he and other officers took him down. Besides his size, Garner had numerous medical problems including heart disease and high blood pressure.

A video posted by MSNBC indicates that Garner was breathing when paramedics arrived. A paramedic checked his pulse and the officers put Garner on a gurney. There was no indication from the paramedic that Garner was dead at that time and the people reporting on it, although their comments are derogatory of the police and EMS, say that Garner was alive and had a heart attack on the way to the hospital. So much for him being killed by racist cops.

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-eric-garner-tape-you-might-not-have-seen-367458371838

Fact number 2: While protesters in the streets of New York chant about the racist NYPD, they are completely misguided. In 2012, the New York Police Department was comprised of 41% white officers, with black Americans accounting for 28%, Hispanics comprising 24%, and Asians 6%.  (Blacks currently make up about 26% of the population of the city, Hispanics about 28% and Asians 12%.) In that same year in June, 51% of the 607 graduates from the police academy were minorities.

No police department is going to exactly match their city's demographics as far as staffing goes. The truth is that New York City has one of the most diverse police forces in the nation. The people who are calling the NYPD racist are completely uninformed. But that's nothing new in the mob mentality. The people protesting the shooting of Michael Brown completely ignore the facts of the case, from their rants about blacks being hunted down by police to their ridiculous chant of "Hands up - don't shoot." If Michael Brown had put his hands up and surrendered he'd be alive today. The same goes for Eric Garner. He did not wan to go back to jail so he refused to be arrested. His choice led to his death.

Some people in this country have become so blinded by the idea that racism prevails over everything, driven by lying politicians and the main stream media, that they simply ignore the truth. This point is made obvious by the people protesting the Michael Brown shooting and the Eric Garner incident, as well as the shooting of 12 year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland last week. Rice was brandishing a toy gun that looked like an authentic 9mm pistol and he attempted to pull it out when confronted by the police officer. Although some media outlets ignore those facts, the officer had no reason to believe the gun wasn't real and he shot Rice, who later died.

I feel sorry for Tamir Rice and for his family. His death was a terrible tragedy - but it was brought on by his actions. People in the park where he was called the police and reported a person with a gun. Apparently they told the dispatcher that the gun might be a toy but that information was not relayed to the police officer.

It's facts like these that are ignored both by the main stream media and by people whose agenda demands that they ignore the truth. The headline on the liberal media outlet was "12 Year Old Black Boy With Toy Gun Shot By White Cop." Some of them never mentioned the fact that the gun looked authentic and that the orange barrel extension (that denotes it to be a toy) had been removed so there was no way to tell it wasn't real. And they made sure they put the skin colors of both people in the headline because racism sells air time and newspapers.

There is plenty of money and power to be gained by pushing a racist agenda. Just ask Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. They've made good livings doing just that.

Liberal Politicians Ignore Facts - Throw Police Under The Bus

Yesterday afternoon I listened to New York Mayor Bill De Blasio's public comments following the decision of the Staten Island grand jury not to indict the "chokehold" officer in the case of Eric Garner's death. Without making a direct statement, Mayor De Blasio said that the cause of Eric Garner's death was racist police officers.

The medical examiner in the case said the official cause of death was "neck compression from the chokehold, along with “the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police”. Contributing factors included bronchial asthma, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and hypertensive cardiovascular disease." He ruled the death a homicide.

There are varying definitions of homicide. If you Google the word you will get the definition of "the deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another; murder." Merriam Webster defines homicide as "a killing of one human being by another." The legal definition of the word seems to agree with the Merriam Webster definition. Cornell University's legal department defines it as "...when one human being causes the death of another. Not all homicide is murder, as some killings are manslaughter, and some are lawful, such as when justified by an affirmative defense, like insanity or self-defense."

I have to say I personally would hesitate to call insanity "an affirmative defense."

So even if the coroner's conclusion was correct legally, was the cause of death of Eric Garner murder? The grand jury didn't think so. I've seen the video. At some point during his struggle with police Mr. Garner began saying "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." He said it eleven times. I spent 22 years working in federal prisons and participated in countless use of force situations. Over the years I heard several inmates make that same statement when a use of force team was holding them down on the floor during a struggle in which the inmate resisted being restrained. One thing I learned during those incidents is that when a man says he can't breathe - he's breathing. If you can't breathe you can't talk.

The media is throwing around the word "chokehold." A chokehold, if executed properly, compresses not only the trachea but the carotid arteries, causing unconsciousness within about 15 - 20 seconds. That did not happen to Mr. Garner. The officer who put his arm around Garner's neck to bring him down did so for 20 - 30 seconds, until Garner was prone on the ground, then released his neck hold and held Garner's head on the ground - a technique that greatly reduces a suspects ability to resist. Other officers were on top of Garner attempting to apply handcuffs when Garner stopped breathing. The point is that Garner was still breathing when the officer released his hold on Garner's neck.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio made a statement yesterday afternoon concerning the verdict and basically through police nationwide under the bus. His remarks, without coming right out and stating it plainly, indicated that he believes police are systematically killing black Americans just because they are black. He talked about the centuries old problem the US has with racism - as if there is some evidence that Eric Garner was attacked by police because he was black. He mentioned 12 year old Tamir Rice, the boy killed by police in Cleveland, as have other liberal idiots, but he and the others always fail to mention that the kid was in possession of a very realistic pellet gun that looked exactly like a real 9mm pistol.

It seems liberal politicians nationwide have simply written off law enforcement officers as racist murderers of black people. Even though the evidence in the Michael Brown case, the Rice case and the Garner case showed the police did nothing wrong or illegal, these politicians are condemning the police for their actions, some calling for prosecution of police before any facts are known just because the dead suspect is black. Some even going as far as raising their hands on the floor of the House of Representatives the other day. It's quite shameful.

President Obama has promised to focus on the problem of "racist cops" following the grand jury decision in the Ferguson case. He has yet to say once that Michael Brown had any responsibility whatsoever in the incident that cost him his life.  And of course, Eric Holder has vowed not only to try to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson in Missouri and Daniel Pantaleo in New York. Holder, against all of the evidence, has decided these two police officers violated the civil rights of the suspects even though they have been cleared of wrongdoing by the grand jury. Not to worry though - he promised the same thing against George Zimmerman. But he couldn't find any evidence despite his nationwide campaign.

Interestingly, during the peaceful protests last night some of the protesters were chanting "Hands up - don't shoot," as if Eric Garner had been shot by police. The attorney for the Garner family said that when he watched the video he didn't see Eric Garner resisting arrest - he was Garner put his hands up in surrender. Did I watch the same video as the lawyer and the protesters? Is there another one I haven't seen yet?

Or do some people simply ignore the facts in order to push their own agenda? I think we all know the answer to that question.

We Now Have Elected Racism In Washington

This is my third post today and I do it only because I'm angry! I just read an article that makes my blood boil and I have to get it out.

Remember years ago when George Wallace was running for President? Remember when David Duke was running for President? Remember how the nation rejected them and denounced them because they were very open and outspoken racists?

How times have changed. It seems we now knowingly elect outspoken racists to political office.

The article I read was about members of the Congressional Black Caucus raising their hands in the "Hands up - Don't shoot" mantra of the Ferguson protesters - last evening on the House floor. Their demonstration was said to have been "a rallying cry of people all across America who are fed up with police violence,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said as he took the floor. “In community, after community, after community, fed up with police violence in Ferguson, in Brooklyn, in Cleveland, in Oakland, in cities and counties and rural communities all across America.”

He added that "people are fed up with injustice, a broken criminal justice system and continuing to see young, unarmed African-American men killed as a result of a gunshot fired by a law enforcement officer.”

Their actions completely disregard the findings of the grand jury in Ferguson last week - that Michael Brown attacked Officer Darren Wilson and Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown in self-defense. I would say maybe they are ignorant about the facts of the case but I don't believe that for a minute. No, their ignorance is self-imposed. They choose to ignore facts because facts don't always fit into their agenda. They also choose to ignore the facts of black genocide in our inner-cities because those facts are too inconvenient for their racially driven campaign.

It's interesting that Jeffries mentioned Cleveland, where a 12 year old black boy was shot by a police officer just last week. That 12 year old boy wasn't unarmed. He was carrying a pellet pistol that was an exact replica of a real 9mm pistol. It even had the orange ring (which identified it as a toy) removed. The gun looked real and the boy was flashing it around, which is why the police were called in the first place. When the officer arrived and confronted the boy the child turned and reached for the pistol in his belt. That's when the officer fired at him. He might have been an innocent 12 year old kid playing with a toy gun but to a police officer, and to the people that called 911 about him, he was an armed suspect.

The people who follow and support the "Hands up - Don't shoot" mantra are blindly and intentionally following something that never happened. Mike Brown's hands were not up. He was not executed. He was shot while trying to assault a police officer and do great bodily harm. Those who make him a martyr or a hero are misleading themselves and others. And it's sickening that it's being done by our political officials.

"I Can Do What I Want But Future Presidents Cannot"

Remember the 24 times since 2010 that President Obama said he is not a king, he is not an emperor, and he doesn't have the authority as President to halt deportations? Remember how he said that over and over, in many different ways and in many different forums? Remember how just two weeks ago he did it anyway?

In what passes as a fairly good interview by George Stephanopoulos two weeks ago President Obama basically denied he ever said he couldn't halt deportations. Stephanopoulos reminded the President of what he said before: "I'm out of administrative flexibility," and the President's response was "Well, that’s not true, if you look George, I often times was asked: ‘Can you just halt deportations?’ And I said, ‘No I can’t do that.’

In a fairly unusual move for Stephanopoulos, he challenged President Obama.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, but I have it right here–

OBAMA: Go ahead–

STEPHANOPOULOS: On a Google Hangout, you were asked specifically, “‘What can you do to prevent families from being broken apart’ and you said, ‘I’m not an emperor, I am out of administrative flexibility.’”

A stammering Obama responded: I–I–George, what is absolutely true is that we couldn’t solve the entire problem and still can’t solve the entire problem. But what we can do is to prioritize felons, criminals, recent arrivals, folks who are coming right at the border, and acknowledge that if somebody’s been here for over five years, they may have an American child or a legal permanent resident child, it doesn’t make sense for us to prioritize them when we know that we need more resources-

Surprisingly, Stephanopoulos pressed on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But do you have the right to make that decision on your own?

OBAMA: Absolutely. If you look, every president – Democrat and Republican – over decades has done the same thing as I mentioned in my remarks today. George H. W. Bush, about 40% of the undocumented persons, at the time, were provided a similar kind of relief as a consequence of executive action.

Stephanopoulos still wasn't finished.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know the response of both Reagan – but in that case, there were bipartisan bills passed, they were acting after the bills were passed, not because Congress did not act.

OBAMA: Well George, I’m not sure that argues in favor. If Congress acted specifically and left something out and then a President goes ahead right afterwards and does more than Congress agreed to, it’s actually not different. It’s similar. The fact is is that we exercise prosecutorial discretion all the time. And, you know, the primary response that I have to Speaker Boehner and others is go ahead and pass legislation. They don’t need me to act. In fact, I encourage them to act but in the meantime what we’ve got to make sure of is, number one that our borders are secure and what I’m doing is going to allow us to put more resources there, number two it’s going to allow us to focus on the people that we really want out. Number three, what it allows us to do is to say to folks who have been here for a while, register, we’re gonna submit — you’re going to submit to a criminal background check and you’re going to pay taxes. Why we would prefer a system in which they’re in the shadows, potentially taking advantage of living here but not contributing makes no sense.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you respond to the argument, a future president comes in, wants lower taxes. Doesn’t happen. Congress won’t do it – he says I’m not going to prosecute those who don’t pay capital gains tax.

OBAMA: Well, the truth of the matter is, George, that the reason that we have to do prosecutorial discretion in immigration is that we know we are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time. The vast majority of folks understand that they need to pay taxes, and when we conduct an audit, for example, we are selecting those folks who are most likely to be cheating. We’re not going after millions and millions of people who everybody knows are here and were taking advantage of low wages as they’re mowing lawns or cleaning out bedpans, and looking the other way – but then you got politicians suddenly going out there saying, suggesting somehow that we should be deporting all of them. Everybody knows, including Republicans, that we’re not going to deport 11 million people.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don’t think it’d be legitimate for a future president to make that argument?

OBAMA: With respect to taxes? Absolutely not.

President Obama told George Stephanopoulos and the world that he has prosecutorial discretion to do what he wants when he wants to but future Presidents do not. Obama and the Democrats are digging a hole they'll have problems getting out of one day. Remember when Harry Reid implemented the nuclear option in the Senate? I wonder how he'll like it when the Republicans take over in January and use it against him and the President?

One definition of tyranny is "arbitrary use of power or control." It seems President Obama has now met the definition of tyranny. Can impeachment be far behind?

You can read the entire transcript of the interview here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/11/full-interview-transcript-president-obama-on-this-week/