At present, no organization has more sway in the United States, not just in shaping opinion, but changing behaviors and lives, than Black Lives Matter. A recent poll found 62% of likely voters now have a &#8220;favorable&#8221; opinion of BLM. This is almost a reverse of opinion only six months ago. This collection provides a closer look at the origins, connections, goals and influence of the organization behind the movement.

black-lives-matter

The U.S. Navy released new mandated training on “eradicating extremism,” which claims that Black Lives Matter is not a political or extremist organization. 
According to a slew of declassified memos, the Department of Defense is requiring the Navy to host anti-extremist training following the Capitol riots and two incidents of internal problematic behavior. The training clarifies that the Navy “prohibits any member of the naval services from participating in any organization advocating supremacist causes, advocating illegal discrimination, or advocating the use of force or violence against the U.S. government or a state government.” 
The training is called a “stand-down” in internal memos and is required to be completed by April 6. 
The seminar tells naval officers that “offensive jokes” are considered “prohibited conduct” as well as “offensive objects or pictures.” Other obscene behaviors includes “insults or putdowns” and “name-calling.” 
In the social media portion of the training, naval officers were told they could not “retweet or like” any material that promotes discrimination based on race, color, religion sex (including gender identity), creed ethnicity, national origin, or sexual orientation.  
In the Q&amp;A portion of the training manual, commanding officers are given a list of possible questions that may arise. One question asked whether it was appropriate to discuss Black Lives Matter in the workplace. The training manual said it is appropriate because Black Lives Matter “is not politically partisan in nature.” 
<blockquote>Q: My boss is always talking about Black Lives Matter in the workspace. Isn’t that political stuff that they’re not supposed to be talking about at work? 
A: Advocating for or against a public policy issue (as here) is authorized as long as the behavior is otherwise lawful and the advocacy is not politically partisan in nature. </blockquote>
A separate Q&amp;A prompt asked whether it was okay to discuss conservative religious views on forums maintained by a church. The answer said “expressing religious views” is okay, though actively preventing “others from exercising their legal rights is not permissible.” 
The training takes approximately 90 minutes and is broken down into two increments. The first increment is 30 minutes led by a commanding officer and the second increment is a 60 minute “small group” breakout session. 
Newly appointed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin penned a memo claiming that this training is the first of many trainings aimed at eliminating “extremist ideology” from the Navy. 
“This stand-down is just the first initiative of what I believe must be a concerted effort to better educate ourselves and our people about the scope of this problem and to develop sustainable ways to eliminate the corrosive effects that extremist ideology and conduct have on the workforce,” Austin wrote. 
In a separate memo, the Defense Department re-instituted Inclusion and Diversity training. The newfound training includes a pledge for members of a new task force to “advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every Sailor in the Navy.” 
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-navy-inclusion-and-diversity-report-includes-pledge-to-advocate-for-and-acknowledge-all-intersectional-identities">reported</a>: 
<blockquote>The task force, dubbed Task Force One Navy (TF1N) was announced in June 2020, to “analyze and evaluate issues in our society and military that detract from Navy readiness, such as racism, sexism, and other structural and interpersonal biases to attain significant, sustainable [inclusion and diversity]-related reform.” 
The timing of the creation of the task force coincides with the protests and riots that broke out following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. </blockquote>
The Navy is also <a href="https://www.navy.mil/CNO-Professional-Reading-Program/Sailors/#foundational">encouraging officers to read books</a> such as Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be An Anti-Racist, Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” and “We Can’t Talk About That At Work!: How to talk about race, religion, politics, and other polarizing topics.”

U.S. Navy

Navy Debuts New ‘Eradicating Extremism’ Training: Black Lives Matter Is ‘Not Politically Partisan In Nature’

Black Lives Matter

In recent years, the media has been in a much publicized war against misinformation. One might think it would be quite easy for them to slay that particular dragon. All they have to do is stop misinforming people. They are, after all, the primary purveyors of fake news in all its forms. Some people may be led astray by Facebook memes and random tweets that pop into their Twitter feeds, but the internet trolls who spread lies and innuendo through those avenues are mere amateurs compared to the American media. The latter group has elevated misinformation to an art form. They have perfected it. They are experts in the field. And now the world’s greatest misinformers have given themselves the task of combating misinformation. It is a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house. 
If misinformation is the media’s art form, then their narrative around police shootings is their Mona Lisa, their masterpiece. On no other issue is the general public so thoroughly deluded, misled and confused, and on no other issue has the consequence of delusion been so utterly catastrophic. Billions of dollars of damage inflicted, hundreds of buildings torched, dozens of people killed, and disastrous public policies and laws enacted — and this is just over the past nine months — thanks almost exclusively to the media’s misinformation campaign about police shootings.
A recent <a href="https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/reports/Research-Report-CUPES-007.pdf">survey</a> from Skeptic Magazine illustrates exactly how effective this campaign has been. Interviewing a sample of American adults across the political spectrum, researchers asked two questions: 1) “If you had to guess, how many unarmed Black men were killed by police in 2019?” Respondents were given options that ranged from “about ten” to “over ten thousand.” 2) “If you had to guess, in 2019 what percentage (%) of people killed by police were Black?” Here the survey group could respond with any percentage between zero and 100. 
The responses to these two questions reveal confusion — intentionally cultivated confusion — on a massive scale. Thirty percent of those identifying as &#8220;very liberal&#8221; guessed that about 100 unarmed black men had been killed by police in 2019. 38 percent of self-identified liberals guessed the same, as did 40 percent of moderates, 40 percent of conservatives, and 33 percent of &#8220;very conservative&#8221; respondents. Thirty-one percent of the very liberal group thought that the number of unarmed black men killed by police was around 1,000, as did 26 percent of liberals, 16 percent of moderates, 9 percent of conservatives, and 13 percent of very conservatives. There were sizable portions of each group that thought that 10,000 or more unarmed black men had been fatally shot by police in a single calendar year. For very liberals it was over 20 percent, liberals 11 percent, moderates 8 percent, conservatives 4 percent, and very conservatives 6 percent. 
The actual number of unarmed black men killed by police in 2019, according to the Washington Post&#8217;s database, is 13. And even 13 is likely a significant overestimation.
As I have previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-i-looked-up-every-case-of-an-unarmed-black-man-shot-by-cops-in-2019-heres-the-truth-the-media-and-blm-are-hiding">showed</a>, only six of the 13 unarmed shootings in that year were clearly unjustified. Just one was a case of apparent murder, and that officer has been charged accordingly. You could make a case for manslaughter in two or three of the other six cases. Most of those officers have been charged with crimes, too. But in eight of the 13 “unarmed” shootings, the suspects were in the process of running officers down in their cars, violently assaulting them, or otherwise presenting themselves as lethal threats. 
For example, Kevin Mason of Baltimore is categorized as an “unarmed” man shot by cops, and he was, but he also told officers that he had a gun and intended to “kill every last one of them.” Marzeus Scott was shot while unarmed, but only because he assaulted a female officer, knocked her to the ground, and forced her to use the gun after her taser was ineffective. Isaiah Lewis pounced on an officer and knocked him unconscious before getting shot. He also may have been “unarmed” but he was no less of a threat because of it. As we can see, not every “unarmed” shooting is unjustified. In fact, in 2019, most of them were clearly justified. 
Putting all of that to the side, we are left with “about ten” unarmed black men (and one woman) shot by cops in 2019. What this means is that the majority of people in every ideological category overestimated the number by at least a factor of 10. Huge numbers of liberals and moderates overestimated by factors of 100 and 1,000.
The situation isn’t much better for the second question. On average, liberals thought that between 55 and 60 percent of people killed by police in 2019 were black. Moderates thought the figure was around 45 percent. Conservatives and very conservatives thought it was between 35 and 45 percent. Again, all groups missed the mark by a wide margin. In reality, 23.4 percent of those killed by police in 2019 were black. Between 2015 and 2020, the figure averages to about 26 percent. Conservatives came the closest to the truth, but even they tacked on an imaginary 10 to 20 percent. 
You might argue that the average person isn’t spending much time researching the exact demographic details of police shootings in 2019 or any other year. It’s not surprising that they’d guess wrong in a survey of this sort. But the problem isn’t that they didn’t know the precise numbers. It’s that they couldn’t land in the ballpark, or even in the neighborhood of the ballpark. The average person may not know the exact number of Americans killed each year by lightning strikes, but if I gave them options of “around 50,” “around 5000,” and “around 50,000,” I’m guessing most people would correctly land on “around 50.” That’s because the average person has the capacity to make reasonable judgments about the threat posed by lightning strikes. We all know they happen but we also know they’re pretty rare, and there’s no way in hell that bolts from the sky are smiting 50,000 people in this county every year. The idea that police are killing 1,000 or 10,000 unarmed black people, or that half of the people killed each year by police are black, should be just as obviously bogus. The average person cannot see the absurdity for what it is because their judgment and capacity for making reasonable estimations on this issue has been obliterated after years of relentless propaganda from the media. 
This is what we are up against. For all of the skepticism rightly targeted at the media, even the skeptics can be wildly misled by that same media. No matter how much of an independent thinker, a critical thinker, you might consider yourself to be, it is difficult to keep your wits about you when surrounded by a constant fog of lies and half-truths. Ed Harris’s character in “The Truman Show” had it right: “We accept the reality of the world with which we&#8217;re presented. It’s as simple as that.” And it is indeed that simple for many of us. But it shouldn’t be. As we have learned time and again, the reality and what we are presented can often be two very different things. 
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Defund the Police Protest

WALSH: Americans Have Been Wildly Misled About Police Shootings. This Study Shows How Effective The Propaganda Has Been.

Defund The Police

Law Enforcement

Police

Readers Pass

“The Reunited States” is even more disingenuous than President Joe Biden’s plea for unity.
The documentary, presumably an attempt to heal a fractured nation, delivers a relentless assault on our two-party system. The film hails independent thinkers, early and often, insisting the political system is broken beyond repair.
The solution? Embracing Black Lives Matter, white privilege claims and renouncing the country’s founding principles.
Oh, and “The Reunited States” also spins for an independent candidate who got crushed not once, but twice, in major elections. That’s despite the film’s insistence the races in question were “too close to call.”
The biggest takeaway? To come together we must reshape the nation along hard-left principles. Unite or else, as today’s Democrats might say. 
If this doesn’t end up being the worst documentary of 2021, it’s clearly the most dishonest.
The story follows four different narratives, but the Leavertons are the main attraction. He’s David Leaverton, a former GOP strategist who quit politics to see how he can better help his country. He’s joined by his wife, Erin, and their three adorable kids.
The family hits the road on their massive bus (what privilege!) to visit all 50 states and learn why we’re at each other’s throats. 
We also get to know Steven Olikara, the founder of the Millennial Action Project (MAP). His group gathers young politicians from both sides of the aisle because younger is always better, or so the movie tells us. 
Olikara’s heart genuinely appears to be in the right place, but we never learn more about his work beyond stale sounds bites and kumbaya platitudes.
Susan Bro, the Virginia mom whose daughter, Heather Heyer, died during the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right Rally,” serves as the emotional heart of the film.
Least of all is Greg Orman, a platitude-spouting independent who ran two unsuccessful campaigns but otherwise is the country’s best hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Or so we’re told.
Bro’s story is heart breaking, and an early sequence where a first responder tells her about trying to help Heyer in her final minutes is a cinematic gut punch.
It’s all downhill from that powerful sequence.
“The Reunited States” aggressively ignores many of the forces pitting American against American today. Social media, where hate and misinformation run wild, gets a pass. So does the mainstream media, which gets rich off dividing us with Fake News and obfuscation.
Late night comics, who spend their monologues savaging half the nation, never get a mention. Nor do politicians who incite violence, like Rep. Maxine Waters <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rep-waters-draws-criticism-saying-trump-officials-should-be-harassed-n886311">who famously said</a>, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
“The Reunited States” ends up being a vanity project for the Leavertons, who spend so much time in front of the camera it would make Michael Moore blush. They’re so full of white guilt the movie demands an IMAX screen to capture it all.
“It’s cool to see our kids wrap their minds around injustice,” Erin Leaverton says, referring to children who look to be between 2 and 6 years of age.
The family sees “The Reunited States” as their way of atoning for their white privilege sins.
“I went on this journey trying to figure out what’s causing the problem, and I found out I’m part of the problem,” Erin Leaverton confesses. “It exposed something in myself that I didn’t wanna see, that’s deeply rooted in all of us. The belief that certain people have more value than others.” 
Speak for yourself, please.
“It has been hard for me to come to terms with the darkness that lies within side of me, that darkness judges people before I meet them,” David Leaverton says. “That’s a hard thing to face.”
The film showcases several black Americans confessing their distrust for white people. These moments are portrayed as all the more reason to embrace BLM, implying that they’re right to feel the way they do … by judging people by their skin, not the content of their character.
Bro’s journey is more complex. She’s trying to turn her daughter’s death into a moment of healing, but to do so she spouts BLM talking points.
“My kids grew up being called ‘trailer trash,’ but that isn’t what White Privilege is about,” she explains.
Huh?
We also meet the mother of a black man killed by the police, another example of the country’s inherent injustice. If you Google the story in question, the slain man had stolen stereos in his car at the time of the shooting, and an assistant prosecutor found the officer acted in self defense after the <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2020/07/dozens-remember-angelo-easy-miller-shot-and-killed-by-a-cleveland-police-officer-13-years-ago.html#:~:text=CLEVELAND%2C%20Ohio%20%2D%2D%20Dozens%20of,more%20than%2013%20years%20ago.&amp;text=He%20was%20shot%20and%20killed,Cleveland%20Police%20Patrolman%20John%20Lundy.">man tried to hit him with his car.</a>
In short, the case is far more complicated than the film suggests.
We even hear a few horrifying stories of illegal immigrants fleeing violence back home, a not so subtle way of pushing yet another progressive principle — open borders.
Not convinced? The film shows Erin Leaverton looking sorrowfully at a border fence to make sure the point lands.
Beyond the film’s inherent dishonesty, “The Reunited States” is hopelessly flat. The film ends short of the 90 minute mark but squanders much of that running time. We see fawning images of the Leavertons, generic moments tied to the MAP and fawning Orman sound bites from his immediate family.
How revealing.
Liberal pundit Van Jones and right-leaning “View” co-host Meghan McCain apparently joined the project late as executive producers, adding their combined gravitas to the documentary. Jones did far more for the country’s reconciliation by appearing in “No Safe Spaces” to defend free speech.
“The Reunited States” is so tone deaf it can’t spare a syllable for how conservatives are being de-platformed in our digital age, a problem that predates the recent wave of Big Tech censorship.
It’s possible the documentary wrapped before the creative team could adequately address the subject. Chances are if they re-shot “The Reunited States” today, they’d leave it out entirely.
It doesn’t fit the film’s narrative.
David Leaverton all but admits he’s a Democrat now. His wife shares an equally obtuse confession.
“I’ll never vote for a Republican or Democrat again. I’ll vote for a human being who I resonate with,” she says, a virtue signal that can be seen from space.
Bro even confronts David Leaverton, saying his work as a GOP strategist makes him partially responsible for her daughter’s death.
That kind of overheated rhetoric, despite coming from a grieving mom, is one more reason we’re as divided as we are. 
“The Reunited States” misses that irony by a country mile.
.

Maxine Waters

New Leftist Documentary ‘The Reunited States’ Ignores Divisiveness On The Left To Promote BLM And Condemn White Privilege

Documentaries

White Privilege

Across the country, schools, businesses, and governments have implemented training and classes that promote the idea that all white people are racist and must atone for their racism, even if they haven’t said or done anything racist.
In Nevada, Gabrielle Clark didn’t want her son, William, to attend a mandatory class at his charter school that promoted “hostility toward whites as a race,” The College Fix’s Greg Piper <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/family-sues-school-that-wont-let-student-out-of-class-promoting-anti-white-racism/">reported</a>. Gabrielle previously threatened to file a lawsuit against the school for forcing him to take the class, and this week she made good on that threat.
The school forced her son to “make professions about his racial, sexual, gender and religious identities in verbal class exercises and in graded, written homework assignments,” Gabrielle asserted in her <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/489011066/Schoolhouserights-org-Nevada-Complaint#from_embed">federal lawsuit</a>, which was filed Tuesday.
William, who is a senior at Democracy Prep and biracial, had his statements “subject to the scrutiny, interrogation and derogatory labeling of students, teachers and school administrators,” the lawsuit states. William is still being coerced to “accept and affirm politicized and discriminatory principles and statements that he cannot in conscience affirm.”
Gabrielle’s lawsuit states that William was “repeatedly threatened… with material harm including a failing grade and non-graduation if he failed to comply with their requirements.” William rejected the demands of the course and was denied “reasonable accommodation.”
Gabrielle is black and William’s only living guardian. His white father passed away.
Gabrielle included a screenshot of a meme that was included in the mandatory class, which claimed “reverse racism doesn’t exist.”
As the Fix reported, Gabrielle’s lawsuit includes “nearly 150 pages of exhibits documenting the curriculum in the graduation requirement ‘Sociology of Change,’ which allegedly promotes intersectionality and critical race theory.”
“Officials also falsely promised students that their mandatory identity divulsions would be kept private, when in reality their graded assignments would ‘immediately became visible to all DPAC teachers and administrators’ and administrators would sometimes covertly ‘tune in’ to the virtual sessions,” the Fix added.
Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist, highlighted the lawsuit on his Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1341793673629945856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1341793673629945856%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecollegefix.com%2Ffamily-sues-school-that-wont-let-student-out-of-class-promoting-anti-white-racism%2F">account</a> Wednesday, including images of some of the class material included in the lawsuit. Some of the materials allegedly presented to students included information about “internalized” oppression, which was defined as people “within the groups who suffer the most from the mistreatment” and who “internalize the ideology of inferiority.” Other materials discussed “internalized privilege,” defined as “an unearned sense of entitlement among the members of the privileged group, and can be expressed as a denial of the existence of oppression and as paternalism.”
The class materials also include a list of “institutional examples” that simply state that a woman making less than a man at the same job is “institutionalized sexism,” when it could be the result of different educations, hours worked, time in the position, and many other factors that have nothing to do with sex.

Bullying

School Wouldn’t Let Her Son Opt Out Of Class That Promotes Anti-White Teaching. Now She’s Suing.

Anti-Racism

Education

Lawsuit

Nevada

Racism

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, many Democratic politicians and left-wing activists began demanding that elected officials “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/defund-the-police">Defund the Police</a>.” Many of the cities that followed through with such proposals are today witnessing sharp increases in violent crime.
Portland
Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland spearheaded an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6940324-Mayor-Wheeler-Police-Reform-Action-Plan-June-9.html">effort</a> in June to “increase police accountability and reinvest in black and brown communities.” He proposed over $7 million in shifts from the police bureau, which included dissolving the city’s Gun Violence Reduction Team in favor of seeking ways to “fundamentally re-shape” shooting prevention.
Portland — where rioters recently established the “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-mayor-evicts-new-red-house-autonomous-zone-by-force">Red House Autonomous Zone</a>” — almost immediately witnessed a jump in shootings. Though year-to-date shootings had <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/article/766735">risen</a> 10.8% by May, the months of June, July, August, and September witnessed 96.8%, 186.1%, 195.1%, and 243.8% hikes respectively.
New York City
The nation’s largest city <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2020/06/30/1999/">announced</a> $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD’s spending in late June. The city slashed two of the NYPD’s four training classes, reducing officer headcount by nearly 1,200. 
In addition to shifting money toward summer camps, food security, and social services, the city tossed $1.8 million toward LGBTQ curriculum at its Department of Education, $20.2 million toward “culture and the arts,” and $11.9 million toward libraries.
In <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/pr0706/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-june-2020">June</a> — the month before the city’s announcement — the number of citywide shooting incidents had increased by 130% since the previous year. However, in <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p0803a/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-july-2020">July</a> and <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/pr0902/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-august-2020">August</a>, shootings started rising sharply, reaching 177% and 166% year-over-year increases respectively. 
<a href="https://www.insider.com/murder-shooting-count-up-high-unchartered-waters-new-york-2020-10">According</a> to Christopher Herrmann, a former Crime Analyst Supervisor with the NYPD, “we normally see a 30% increase in shootings in the summer. This year it was a 150%, 180% increase. It was just out of control.”
Austin
Austin’s city council voted unanimously to slash its police department budget by $150 million — 34% of its $434 million budget — in August of 2020. The <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1F95cQrX9RUwjM4Ryfuu2FD5Q5jDlVSWKVvTY-KfdGW4/htmlview?usp=sharing&amp;pru=AAABdAiTMlo*7UnzcEy-0gCM7JqypCYwyA">plan</a> immediately reinvested $21 million into mental health response, supportive housing, and victim services. It also threw $100,000 toward “abortion services.”
Shortly after, Austin watched its murder rate start to climb in comparison to previous years. In September, murders increased by 40% compared to the same point in 2019. In <a href="http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/111220_CMR_October_EXTERNAL.pdf">October</a>, the increase <a href="https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/101520_CMR_September_%20EXTERNAL.pdf">jumped</a> to 54%. Though it may be too early to tell if the trends will sustain themselves, Austin also saw increased rates of burglary, aggravated assault, and statutory rape, among other crimes.
Seattle
In August, Seattle’s city council <a href="https://komonews.com/news/local/defunding-seattle-police-city-council-poised-to-cut-departments-budget-today">voted</a> to slash its police budget by 14% for the remainder of 2020. The measure effectively served to eliminate 100 officers, prompting police chief Carmen Best to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-seattle-police-chief-resigning-after-democrat-city-council-votes-to-cut-police-budget">resign</a>. Only one of Seattle’s eight council members voted against the proposal, stating that the cuts did not go far enough. 
Seattle — the former home of the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chaz">CHAZ</a>) — nevertheless maintained its spike in violent crime since last year. In 2019, the months of August, September, and October witnessed 1,207 violent crimes. In 2020, the figure rose to 1,315 — a 9% increase.
Los Angeles
In June, the nation’s second-largest metropolitan area approved a $150 million cut to its police department for the next fiscal year. Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris applauded the decision, stating that the mentality of putting more police officers on the streets to increase safety is “<a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/sen-kamala-harris-speaks-police-reform-71148188">just wrong</a>.”
As compared to last year, shootings in Los Angeles are up by 34.1%, murder is up by nearly 30%, and aggravated assault is up by 8.3%, according to the LAPD’s most recent crime <a href="http://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf">statistics</a>.
Benjamin Zeisloft is Editor-in-Chief of the UPenn Statesmen and a Senior Correspondent for Campus Reform.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protests in Baltimore After Funeral Held For Baltimore Man Who Died While In Police Custody

These 5 Cities “Defunded” The Police… Now Violent Crime Rates Are Soaring

Portland

Violent Crime

During a time when multiple cop shows and even sit-coms are adopting Black Lives Matter sloganeering, CBS&#8217; &#8220;Blue Bloods&#8221; bucked that trend by choosing to side with the police for once.
According to<a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/lindsay-kornick/2020/12/05/wow-blue-bloods-says-no-anti-police-blm-rhetoric"> Newsbusters</a>, the show&#8217;s December 4 episode &#8220;Triumph Over Trauma&#8221; went as far to reject the charge of &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; in the NYPD.
&#8220;The December 4 season premiere &#8216;Triumph Over Trauma&#8217; sees Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) arguing with City Council Speaker Regina Thomas (Whoopi Goldberg) over &#8216;systemic racism and oppression&#8217; in the police,&#8221; reported the outlet. &#8220;Rather than roll over and take it like <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2020/11/11/cbss-swat-goes-blm-its-cops-yall-ones-killing-us">every other</a> <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2020/11/11/cbss-swat-goes-blm-its-cops-yall-ones-killing-us">network show</a>, Frank stands up for his officers and shows no fear in telling the Speaker to stop disparaging the police.&#8221;
As the episode unfolds, Frank and Regina continually spar over the merits of police in the city while he routinely rejects the charge that his officers are overwhelmingly racist or that bad cops go undisciplined. As the episode closes, Frank even considers resigning from his position until Deputy Commissioner Garrett Moore (Gregory Jbara) extolls him for having the courage to “speak the unpopular or inconvenient truth.&#8221;
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, shows have been under pressure to push more content promoting the messaging of Black Lives Matter, especially cop shows. Last month, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-ice-t-says-law-order-svu-will-hit-karens-racial-profiling-police-brutality">rapper Ice-T</a> told TMZ that “Law &amp; Order: SVU” will tackle police brutality and racial profiling.
“In the season finale, I killed a black man. So now you’ve got Fin, going through the mental dilemma, like can he be a police officer in these times. And the last thing he ever wanted to do was to be a cop that shot a black man and killed him in front of his family. So, you’ll see my character go through that and question whether he can continue to be a police officer,” he said.
Simultaneously, the character of Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, will be dealing with internal questions of her own racial bias.
“You’re gonna see Mariska deal with the challenge of, ‘Is she racist?’” he said. “We have this ‘Karen’ situation where we pick up this black guy, but did we profile him? Was implicit bias involved? Why didn’t we question the white lady?”
 In an op-ed for The Washington Post earlier this year, Alyssa Rosenberg argued that such shows should be canceled entirely.
“There’s no question that it would be costly for networks and studios to walk away from the police genre entirely,” Rosenberg wrote. “Canceling Dick Wolf’s ‘Chicago’ franchise of shows would wipe out an entire night of NBC’s prime-time programming; dropping ‘Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit’ and a planned spinoff would cut even further into the lineup.”
Rosenberg went on to argue how Hollywood and police departments have been collaborating on projects throughout the years, leading the industry to show police only in a positive light.
“For a century, Hollywood <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/24/how-police-censorship-shaped-hollywood/">has been collaborating</a> with police departments, telling stories that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/26/in-pop-culture-there-are-no-bad-police-shootings/">whitewash police shootings</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/27/the-drug-wars-most-enthusiastic-recruit-hollywood/">valorizing an action-hero style of policing</a> over the harder, less dramatic work of building relationships with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/25/how-pop-cultures-cops-turned-on-their-communities/">the communities cops are meant to serve and protect</a>,” she writes. “There’s a reason for that beyond a reactionary streak hiding below the industry’s surface liberalism.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-post-op-ed-cancel-all-cop-shows">Washington Post Op-Ed: Cancel All Cop Shows</a>

Blue Bloods

CBS’ ‘Blue Bloods’ Rejects BLM Anti-Police Rhetoric

Hollywood

On November 20, The New York Times published an article titled “Justice Dept. Executes Man for 1994 Kidnapping and Murder,” detailing the execution of Orlando Hall. Later that day, CNN commentator Keith Boykin attempted to apply a racial motivation to Hall’s execution, noting “Hall was a black man convicted by an all-white jury.” He also compared the number of federal executions under the Trump and Obama administrations, presumably implying that the Trump administration have expressed their “obvious” racism through federal execution policy.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Orlando Hall was executed last night. Hall was a Black man convicted by an all-white jury. He is the eighth person executed this year by the Trump administration.
There were no federal executions under Pres. Obama, and Biden plans to end them as well.<a href="https://t.co/hXbrEr3gVL">https://t.co/hXbrEr3gVL</a> <a href="https://t.co/k1vPrH8ymj">pic.twitter.com/k1vPrH8ymj</a>
&mdash; Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1329801672525275139?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While Boykin focused on presenting Hall’s execution as proof of racism, he failed to provide any evidence that the “all-white” jury was driven by a skin-based desire to sentence —or even kill — Hall. He also declined to provide any information regarding Hall’s case. As <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-who-kidnapped-raped-buried-texas-teen-alive-executed-n1248333">reported</a> by NBC News, Hall and his accomplices kidnapped 16-year old Lisa Rene in 1994, and then proceeded to rape her over the course of several days, beat her over the head with a shovel, douse her in gasoline, and bury her alive. “A coroner determined that Rene was still alive when she was buried and died of asphyxiation in the grave, where she was found eight days later.” 
After significant criticism, Boykin attempted to walk back his implications, <a href="https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1329864337670987781">saying</a> “My previous tweet expressed no opinion on the facts of this case, but for the record, I remain opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances — no matter the crime, the victim or the perpetrator. Period.”
To clarify, it is perfectly valid to oppose the death penalty “under all circumstances.” But is this what Boykin was attempting to do? If he does indeed believe that the death penalty is unjust “no matter the crime, the victim or the perpetrator,” why did he present Hall as a “black man convicted by an all-white jury?” Why did he mention the race of the accused, while declining to mention his crimes or the race of his victim? After all, 16 year-old Lisa Rene was also black.
Boykin’s logic is indicative of a modern pattern of “innocence based on race,” which attributes or implies innocence based on unsubstantiated assumptions of racism. In many ways, this is a reversal of the decades — if not centuries — of abhorrent racism which attributed guilt based on race. In fact, such “guilt by race” is now assigned to those who used to be — disgustingly — protected by racism of the past. However, while it is important that we acknowledge the undeniable racism of the past, such reversals in an attempt to address these moral crimes are themselves deeply racist.
This is not the first time such arguments have been presented. It was assumed by both Democratic politicians and many in the legacy media, for example, that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sex-assault-charge-against-jacob-blake-dropped-in-plea-deal-feminists-silent">Jacob Blake</a> was inherently innocent when he was shot by police in August. The fact that police “had been attempting to arrest Blake for allegedly breaking into the home of a woman he knew and then sexually assaulting her” was irrelevant, as was the claim by officers that “Blake resisted arrest and was holding a knife when he was shot.” Because of Jacob Blake’s race, he was viewed as a hero of the “Black Lives Matter movement,” with both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris holding <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/joe-biden-kamala-harris-jacob-blake-family/index.html">meetings</a> with Blake’s family. <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-told-jacob-blake-130728218.html">According</a> to Ben Crump, Harris even “told Jacob that she was also proud of him.” Blake’s accuser, who is also black, received no such contact nor praise.
In addition, Kyle Rittenhouse was assumed by many to be guilty solely because of his skin color and presumed political affiliation. Despite video evidence that suggests Rittenhouse acted entirely in self defense, countless members of the Left maligned him as a white supremacist. Joe Biden featured him in a campaign ad while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned his release from jail after posting $2 million in bail as the “protection of white supremacy.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Does anyone believe Rittenhouse would be released if he were Muslim &amp; did the same thing in a diff context? For people who say “systemic racism doesn’t exist,” this is what it looks like: protection of white supremacy baked deep into our carceral systems.
Law and disorder.
&mdash; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1330227510358007810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The only evidence Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty of both murder and harboring white supremacist views? His skin.
A fundamental principle of conservatism is that people are individuals, and that the classification of one’s character by immutable characteristics such as skin color or gender is morally absurd. Through this lens, it is clear that the “innocence by race” assigned to black people and “guilt by race” assigned to white people in modern times is just as repugnant as the appalling legacy of “innocence by race” assigned to white people and “guilt by race” assigned to black people in the past.
If justice is truly the goal, as so many who promote this modern form of racism claim, then the skin color of the alleged victim and perpetrator cannot be the defining factor. As long as we value race over facts, evidence, or context, then we are ensuring that racism remains alive and well. All that has changed is the set of individuals who stand to “benefit” or “suffer” as a result.
Ian Haworth is host of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPxdVsNp7k&amp;list=PLhi-aq-5DfuTQRVv1IOVMnA735vEYO0f5">The Ian Haworth Show</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E05t2L69Sks&amp;list=PLhi-aq-5DfuRHu5r0IV5qr4h2rBAV9oBd">The Truth in 60 Seconds</a>. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth">@ighaworth</a>.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Kenosha Riots

The Racism Of ‘Guilt By Skin Color’ Never Ended. It Was Just Reversed.

Jacob Blake

Kyle Rittenhouse

The city of Washington, D.C. will be brought to court for alleged First Amendment violations.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) <a href="https://www.studentsforlife.org/2020/11/18/lawsuit-filed-after-unjust-arrest-of-pro-lifers-in-washington-d-c/">filed</a> a lawsuit this week on behalf of Students for Life of America (SFLA) and the Frederick Douglass Foundation after pro-life students were arrested for legally writing their message on the streets of the District of Columbia in August.
While a whole plaza is named and <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2020/10/dc-council-votes-to-make-black-lives-matter-plaza-permanent/">permanently painted</a> with “Black Lives Matter” (BLM), pro-life students were barred from writing “Black Preborn Lives Matter” in chalk outside of a Planned Parenthood building, despite the fact that they&#8217;d received a permit to do so from the city.
The students’ chalk message,“Black Preborn Lives Matter,” served to address the fact that unborn children of minority mothers have a higher likelihood of being aborted, according to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-483/72192/20181115123021558_37089%20pdf%20Mannix.pdf">this</a> Supreme Court amicus curiae brief.
According to SFLA, the group had obtained a permit from the city to peacefully protest with the use of temporary paint on sidewalks, but police said otherwise, warning that they&#8217;d be arrested for the use of temporary paint, despite the fact that pro-BLM protesters had been allowed to use paint for their &#8220;Defund The Police&#8221; <a href="http://npr.org/local/305/2020/06/08/872234932/activists-painted-defund-the-police-next-to-the-new-black-lives-matter-mural">message</a>.
In an attempt to comply with police, the pro-life activists instead used chalk, as it was far easier to remove, but the authorities still wouldn&#8217;t allow it.
As video shows, after refusing the orders of police to stop, two individuals clad in &#8220;Black Preborn Lives Matter&#8221; shirts were handcuffed and led away by D.C. Police.
“Two students were arrested trying to express in chalk what they were not allowed to say in paint,&#8221; <a href="https://www.studentsforlife.org/2020/11/18/lawsuit-filed-after-unjust-arrest-of-pro-lifers-in-washington-d-c/">said</a> Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. &#8220;That kind of viewpoint discrimination cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged.”
In a letter sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser before the incident, Hawkins noted:
<blockquote>Your original decision to paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the street is government speech. However, your decision to allow protestors to paint ‘Defund the Police’ opened the streets up as a public forum. You are not permitted to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint in making determinations relating to public assemblies in public fora.</blockquote>
Viewpoint discrimination is the unconstitutional practice of a government prohibiting certain speech and expression on the basis of the message it promulgates. 
Such discrimination has been defined by the Supreme Court on multiple occasions in tandem with interpreting the extent of First Amendment rights.
In the opinion of the Court Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (1972), Justice Thurgood Marshall <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/408/92.html">wrote</a> “the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
Years later, the unconstitutionality of viewpoint discrimination was solidified in Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995). 
Justice Anthony Kennedy <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/515/819">delivered</a> the opinion of the court, stating, “When the government targets not subject matter but particular views taken by speakers on a subject, the violation of the First Amendment is all the more blatant.&#8221;
Justice Kennedy further noted viewpoint discrimination as an “egregious form of content discrimination.”
“Because of the city’s actions, Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America weren’t able to participate in the public square as other groups have,” <a href="https://www.studentsforlife.org/2020/11/18/lawsuit-filed-after-unjust-arrest-of-pro-lifers-in-washington-d-c/">said</a> Legal Counsel Elissa Graves of ADF, the group heading up the lawsuit. “The government can’t discriminate against certain viewpoints by allowing some voices to be heard while silencing others.”

SFLA YouTube

Pro-Life Students Arrested For “Black Preborn Lives Matter” Chalking… Now They’re Suing The City

Pro-Life Movement

BLM, The Organization Behind A Movement

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BLM, The Organization Behind A Movement

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CBS’ ‘Blue Bloods’ Rejects BLM Anti-Police Rhetoric

The Racism Of ‘Guilt By Skin Color’ Never Ended. It Was Just Reversed.

Pro-Life Students Arrested For “Black Preborn Lives Matter” Chalking… Now They’re Suing The City