The Baltimore Police Department released bodycam footage on Thursday of a mental health crisis call that resulted in a police-involved shooting that left an African-American man critically wounded. The footage of the incident, which occurred July 1, clearly shows that the suspect aimed a firearm at one of the officers before he was shot, but the shooting has stirred debate on several fronts nonetheless.
Amid a growing movement to &#8220;defund the police&#8221; and install &#8220;transformative&#8221; alternatives to public safety, particularly for cases involving mental health issues, the case of Baltimore resident Ricky Walker Jr. demonstrates the complexity and danger of dealing with behavioral crises. The case also highlights the national debate over &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, as police had been called 10 days earlier over Walker&#8217;s threatening behavior involving another gun.
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Along with the release of the <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-body-cam-footage-shooting-20200709-l2r6li4hpbaorjxel6wyragmu4-story.html">body cam footage</a>, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison provided more details about the case Thursday, including information about an incident 10 days before the shooting in which Walker was &#8220;hospitalized after being found naked with a gun that he reportedly fired at vehicles,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-body-cam-footage-shooting-20200709-l2r6li4hpbaorjxel6wyragmu4-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a>.
In that earlier incident, police seized the firearm, but police said no follow-up had been conducted to see if Walker had any other weapons. Under the state&#8217;s &#8220;red flag&#8221; law, law enforcement officials can temporarily confiscate weapons from people deemed to be potential threats to themselves or others. Harrison said, however, that no follow-up had been conducted to see if Walker had any other weapons.
The 22-minute video released Thursday begins with the 911 call that prompted the police visit to Walker&#8217;s residence. In the call, Walker&#8217;s mother-in-law describes him as having a psychological episode and &#8220;hearing voices.&#8221; She says he is possibly violent and that she is unsure if he has a weapon. The responding officer explains that, along with police, he will be sending paramedics to help address the apparent mental break. She makes a point of warning that her son-in-law might &#8220;go crazy&#8221; if responders arrive with sirens wailing.
The video then provides bodycam footage of police and medics arriving at the home. Asked if Walker is &#8220;combative,&#8221; his mother-in-law says &#8220;highly.&#8221; She also informs authorities that Walker has a firearm. Since he is potentially armed, the medics remain outside while the police enter the home alone and descend to the basement where Walker and his wife are. Police ask his wife to leave the room and calmly try to get Walker to agree to treatment.
During the exchange, Walker appears to be speaking to a camera he apparently placed in the room. He tells the police he is &#8220;not trying to kill&#8221; them. &#8220;You can&#8217;t kill me,&#8221; he says early on. He also asks why police are in his house, accusing them of illegally entering despite being informed that his family called them there. &#8220;Y&#8217;all can&#8217;t kill me in real life,&#8221; he says at one point, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;m on camera.&#8221;
For most of the conversation, Walker keeps his hands above his head, but after several minutes of officers, including Officer Asa Gray, trying to talk him into speaking with &#8220;the doctors,&#8221; he suddenly reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handgun, which the video highlights by pausing and zooming in. Walker then aims his weapon at Officer Eduardo Ortiz. Ortiz and Officer Avery Torand fires multiple times.
Walker is currently hospitalized in stable condition and has been charged with first-degree assault for pointing a weapon at an officer.
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As highlighted by The Baltimore Sun, Harrison addressed the national debate about providing alternatives to police in certain situations during his comments Thursday. He said that while he agreed with &#8220;much&#8221; of those sentiments, he stressed that it is &#8220;important we put this into context with the realities of the safety of all those involved.&#8221;
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The paper also cites Behavioral Health Systems Baltimore&#8217;s Adrienne Breidenstine, who said that the Walker incident demonstrates that mental health professionals need to also be involved in such situations. “It shows mental health professionals should have been involved with the response, along with police and EMS,&#8221; said Breidensteine.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.
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Bodycam footage

Bodycam Footage Released Of Critical Shooting Of Black Man After Mental Health Crisis Call

Defund The Police

Law Enforcement

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1280661677273464834?s=20">declared</a> during a press conference yesterday that America&#8217;s &#8220;system of oppression&#8221; must be &#8220;dismantled.&#8221; She identified our political and economic systems, as well as the criminal justice system, as perpetuators of this oppression.
While listening to Omar deliver one of her trademark soliloquies about our evil and oppressive country, one wonders what exactly is this oppression she speaks of? Who is being oppressed and in what way are they being oppressed?
Omar is not the only one painting such a dystopian picture of our society. This is the message we hear all across the Left — from the protesters and riots, from Hollywood, from academia, from the media. Take this <a href="https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1280661656847220736">article</a> just published by Teen Vogue, claiming that the United States is &#8220;by every indication, more committed to death, subjugation, and grief than life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.&#8221; To prove the point, the author (who, for the record, goes by the Twitter handle @SatansJacuzzi) points to the recent but unconnected murders of two women. A vague attempt is made to link their deaths to racism. But what the esteemed Satan&#8217;s Jacuzzi neglects to mention is that both women were killed by black men.
Why didn&#8217;t the author use more useful and relevant examples of black women killed by white men? Probably because such cases are exceedingly rare. Despite America being, as the piece says, &#8220;a vast tapestry of death,&#8221; the fact is that white people rarely kill black people. The reverse is also true. As FBI statistics <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls">show</a>, the vast majority of blacks are killed by blacks, and whites by whites. Interracial murders do occur, but very rarely, and the rare black-on-white murder is twice as common as the reverse.
And yet people are marching through the streets with <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/stop-killing-us-thousands-of-protestors-take-over-south-florida-streets/2241631/">signs</a> screaming &#8220;Stop killing us.&#8221; A writer for the Atlantic is more specific, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/damage-white-onlookers-inflict/612583/">saying</a>, &#8220;I want white people to stop killing us.&#8221; We are supposed to believe that black people are being hunted and gunned down in the street by racist whites, but this epidemic of racial violence is almost entirely imaginary. It&#8217;s a fable that is being repeated over and over again, from all corners of society, until people are persuaded just by the force of sheer repetition.
Even McDonald&#8217;s is getting in on the act. The fast food chain recently tweeted a <a href="https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/1277433235111202816?s=20">video</a> of a &#8220;trans woman&#8221; pleading with the public to &#8220;stop killing us.&#8221; Once again, the plea is unnecessary. The supposed problem of anti-trans violence is a <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/04/the-left-is-lying-about-a-hatred-and-violence-epidemic-against-transgender-people/">myth</a>. Trans people are murdered — just like people of all groups are murdered, given that we are mortal beings living in a human society — but almost all of the murders are tied to domestic violence, prostitution, or drugs. Bigotry rarely has anything to do with it.
McDonald&#8217;s is not alone. A great many of the largest and richest corporations in America have adopted the far-left talking points of Black Lives Matter and done their part to spread the misinformation to the public, which is not exactly what you&#8217;d expect in a country supposedly committed to the oppression and extermination of racial minorities. Indeed, corporations are so firmly on the side of the alleged &#8220;oppressed&#8221; that Colin Kaepernick has been able to parlay his oppression into multi-million dollar partnerships with three major corporations. He now has deals in place with Disney, Nike, and Netflix. Not a bad kind of persecution, if you can find it.
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Not every allegedly oppressed person is as rich and (unduly) admired as Kaepernick. But, statistically speaking, almost everyone in this country is richer, freer, and more comfortable than almost everyone else who has lived on Earth at any point in history, anywhere on the globe. We all enjoy an unprecedented amount of freedom and luxury. Some of us more than others — we can&#8217;t all be as privileged as Colin Kaepernick — but even the most economically disadvantaged in our society still have liberties and luxuries unknown to the poor and downtrodden elsewhere on the planet and throughout history. None of this means that we should be complacent or accepting of actual injustice when it occurs, but it does make you wonder why now, of all times, and here, of all places, we should be seeing crazed mobs burning cities and calling for the dismantling of the system that has made them historically secure and comfortable in the first place.
I think the answer is that struggle is a basic human need. Humans, it turns out, must have something to struggle against, fight against, overcome. Humans need, even, to suffer — if only in manageable doses. What we cannot do is sit still, luxuriating in our comforts, and remarking on how easy we have it. We cannot be happy that way. Decadence is not quite as fun or fulfilling as we thought it would be. We need a struggle of some kind, but in modern society, there aren&#8217;t many forms of struggle immediately on offer. So we have to create one for ourselves.
There are two ways to go about this: the healthy or unhealthy way. The healthy way is to set out to do constructive and meaningful things that are difficult and require sacrifice. The most obvious and important example of this is starting a family. By starting a family, you make your life far more complicated, but in the bargain you get love, meaning, purpose, and an escape from loneliness.
And then there are the smaller undertakings, the little things people can do to purposefully make their lives a little harder than they need to be. Gardening, hunting, fishing, fixing your own plumbing, changing your own oil, making meals from scratch, etc. Modern society has provided much easier ways to obtain the practical benefits of all of these kinds of things, but we do them anyway, because it takes effort, and healthy people find value in putting in the effort. It is work largely for its own sake.
There was a time of course — the majority of human history, in fact — when people had no choice but to do everything the hard way. If you wanted something built, you had to build it. If you wanted something to eat, you had to grow it, kill it, or catch it. And we notice that in those times, there rarely were people marching through the streets over imaginary oppression. They had their struggle. They lived it every day. There was no need to create any new ones for themselves. Because every other human need was not automatically met, the human need for struggle was always met.
But what happens when someone rejects all of the fruitful and constructive outlets to satisfy this need? Then they resort to self-martyrdom and persecution complexes. For a lot of people, this means randomly ruining their relationships, creating drama where it doesn&#8217;t need to be, and convincing themselves that everyone is out to get them. They thrive on gossip, envy, and feelings of personal offense and injury. They are likely to find supposed backstabbers, cheaters, liars, and fake friends everywhere they go, because that is how they see the world; it is the struggle they have made for themselves. &#8220;Why can&#8217;t I find an honest man,&#8221; a woman of this sort will lament. The answer is that she can find an honest man, and quite easily, but she doesn&#8217;t want to. She has found meaning in her manufactured struggle, and she doesn&#8217;t want to let it go.
The protesters are in this camp, doing a version of this same thing. They fulfill their need for struggle by making up elaborate mythologies about oppression and persecution. They convince themselves that they are in a fight for their lives against the murderous racists and oppressive bigots who lurk around every corner. It&#8217;s all hallucinatory, a mirage for people whose freedom and luxury has made them thirst for struggle the way a man in the desert thirsts for water. But mirage or not, they will hang onto it and no mere fact or statistic will be allowed to interfere. They are determined to take vengeance on America, even if America never did anything to them but give them everything they could ever want or need. The irony is that if they succeed, if they actually do tear this country down, dismantle it, then the luxury and freedom and comfort will disappear, and they will finally get the authentic version of the oppression they so desperately want.
And once they have it, they will quickly decide that they don&#8217;t really want it. But then they will no longer have a choice. All they will be able to do is lie in the bed that they have made.
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Flag Burning Protest

WALSH: The Mob Is Trying To Destroy America Over Imaginary Oppression. Here’s Why.  

Black Lives Matter

Race

This week, CNN&#8217;s Don Lemon, who has spent the last few weeks bashing the supposed thoroughgoing systemic racism of the United States, hosted black actor Terry Crews. He then proceeded to browbeat Crews, who had committed the great sin of tweeting, &#8220;#ALLBLACKLIVESMATTER 9 black CHILDREN killed by violence in Chicago since June 20, 2020.&#8221;
Lemon specifically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-don-lemon-black-lives-matter-movement-is-not-about-all-black-lives-matter">objected</a> to Crews&#8217; hashtag. After Lemon humbly informed Crews that he has skin &#8220;as tough as an armadillo,&#8221; he then lectured: &#8220;The Black Lives Matter movement was started because it was talking about police brutality. &#8230; But that&#8217;s not what Black Lives Matter is about. It&#8217;s not &#8230; all-encompassing &#8230; The Black Lives Matter movement is about police brutality and injustice in that matter, not about what&#8217;s happening in black neighborhoods.&#8221;
This, of course, is largely false. The Black Lives Matter movement did indeed begin with protests about police brutality but quickly morphed into broader debates over the validity of looting and rioting, tearing down historic statues, slavery reparations and defunding the police. And Black Lives Matter, as Crews correctly pointed out, has never restricted its mandate to the question of police violence: It has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-what-we-believe-page-disrupt-the-western-prescribed-nuclear-family-dismantle-cisgender-privilege">announced</a> that its focuses also include police brutality, transgender rights, gay rights, disrupting the nuclear family and freeing Palestine, among other diverse topics.
So why is Lemon so deeply invested in preventing conversations about black lives? Why, in fact, do only some black lives matter, rather than all?
That&#8217;s not merely a question asked by conservatives or contrarians. It&#8217;s being asked all over the United States by black Americans being left to the predations of criminals, in large part thanks to the woke virtue signaling of many Black Lives Matter leaders and media allies.
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser emblazoned the enormous yellow words &#8220;BLACK LIVES MATTER&#8221; on 16th Street. Protesters quickly added &#8220;DEFUND THE POLICE.&#8221; One month later, 11-year-old Davon McNeal was shot in the head while heading to a family cookout on July 4. His grandfather, John Ayala, lamented: &#8220;We&#8217;re protesting for months, for weeks, saying, &#8216;Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.&#8217; Black lives matter it seems like, only when a police officer shoots a black person. What about all the black-on-black crime that&#8217;s happening in the community?&#8221;
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McNeal was just one of the latest victims of a wave of violence gripping America&#8217;s major cities. Last weekend, at least 89 people were shot in Chicago, leaving at least 17 dead. Shootings in Philadelphia have spiked 67%. In the first week of June, Los Angeles saw a shocking 250% increase in murders from the prior week. New York City&#8217;s shootings have skyrocketed 44% over last year&#8217;s numbers; every person shot there the week of June 29 — 101 — was from a minority community.
It turns out that the agenda of Black Lives Matter, which includes fighting against the prevalence of police — a call taken up by Democratic mayors and city councils around the United States — endangers black lives far more than the presence of police.
Yet these lives don&#8217;t particularly matter for Black Lives Matter advocates, apparently. Black lives matter when we&#8217;re talking about police brutality. But Don Lemon has no airtime each night for those who seek to talk about threats to black lives that dwarf in severity problems related to policing — and that are just as newsworthy. Indeed, the statistical case is unassailable that the daily murder of minority youths in America&#8217;s major cities is far more newsworthy than the latest cable panel discussion of &#8220;white fragility&#8221; or the &#8220;power of whiteness.&#8221;
But our current Black Lives Matter moment isn&#8217;t about Davon McNeal, even if the wages of Black Lives Matter&#8217;s recommended policies are death for those left unprotected by law enforcement. All that matters for too many in our elite institutions is the narrative that America&#8217;s systems are the greatest obstacle to black Americans. And not all lives lost are equally valuable in promoting that perverse narrative.
More from Ben Shapiro: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-anti-racism-crusade-seeks-to-eradicate-everything-we-share">‘Anti-Racism’ Crusade Seeks To Eradicate Everything We Share</a>

Crime Scene

SHAPIRO: Not All Black Lives Matter To Black Lives Matter

Don Lemon

Black Lives Matter Protest

8 Ways Black Lives Matter Activists Changed The Nation’s Largest Criminal Justice System

Capitalism

Los Angeles

Marxism

A Democrat congressman from Georgia who has been targeted by members of his own party because he is an unabashed supporter of President Trump issued an op-ed on Tuesday in which he declared former Vice President Joe Biden a &#8220;full-blooded bigot.&#8221;
“Since that day in May when I announced I would support Donald Trump for president, my motives have been questioned, my integrity assailed, even my intelligence challenged. That’s okay,&#8221; wrote Georgia Rep. Vernon Jones (D) in an op-ed published by <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/07/jones-i-am-black-and-i-am-a-democrat-but-i-aint-voting-for-joe-biden-this-november/">The Daily Caller</a>. “Since that day in May when I announced I would support Donald Trump for president, my motives have been questioned, my integrity assailed, even my intelligence challenged. That’s okay. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I am also a black man, the son of a World War II veteran and a proud American.&#8221;
Jones segued to Democrats&#8217; &#8220;absurd&#8221; calls to defund the police, noting that he had formerly served as former Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County, Georgia, and thus managed “one of the largest police departments in the state.” The &#8220;Defund the Police&#8221; movement, he argued, &#8220;will only lead to more pain and suffering in our most vulnerable communities.&#8221;
&#8220;I’ve had the experience of dealing with police shootings and comforting the families of victims,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;But at the same time, I’ve also had the experience of losing two black police officers. I’ve had to comfort their families in the middle of the night and console their young children. I know firsthand when others are running away from chaos, police officers are running into the fight to protect and serve.&#8221;
Jones opined that Trump “was sickened by the death of George Floyd and fully committed to ensuring that he will not have died in vain.”
Jones went on to laud Trump’s executive order on police reform, then turned to Biden, noting that the black unemployment rate while he was vice president &#8220;averaged a horrific 12.8 percent,&#8221; while the number of black Americans fell by just 145,000 over eight years. &#8220;By comparison, more than double that number – 350,000 black Americans – were lifted out of poverty during just the first two years of the Trump administration,&#8221; Jones pointed out.
Jones then turned back the clock:
<blockquote>Even before that, where was Biden for 36 years in the United States Senate on this issue? I’ll tell you. He was too busy shouting “my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle.” That racial jungle he was referring to includes black and brown Americans like me. Right now, President Trump is being defined as a racist by the media, when in reality Joe Biden is the full-blooded bigot.
Don’t take my word for it, take then-Senator Joe Biden’s own words for it. “The truth is, every major crime bill since 1976 that’s come out of this Congress, every minor crime bill, has had the name of the Democratic senator from the State of Delaware: Joe Biden.” Now that Biden is running for president in a woke Democratic Party in 2020, he’s attempting to sweep his racist legacy under the rug. We can’t let him.
Joe Biden is directly responsible for the mass incarceration policies of the 1980s and 1990s, which decimated the black community. Biden authored the 1994 crime bill which imposed mandatory minimum sentences, disproportionately putting hundreds of thousands of young black men in prison.</blockquote>
He closed the piece by addressing the black community. Describing Biden has having &#8220;betrayed black Americans throughout his career&#8221; and Trump as having &#8220;spent his 3.5 years in office fighting to improve the lives of black Americans,&#8221; Jones stressed, &#8220;We cannot be tricked again&#8221; by politicians who &#8220;only care about black people during election years.&#8221; (<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/07/jones-i-am-black-and-i-am-a-democrat-but-i-aint-voting-for-joe-biden-this-november/">Read Jones&#8217; full op-ed here</a>.)
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Vernon Jones

Trump-Supporting Dem Congressman: ‘Joe Biden Is The Full-Blooded Bigot’

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

CNN&#8217;s Don Lemon said during an interview with actor Terry Crews on Monday that the Black Lives Matter movement was not about &#8220;all black lives matter&#8221; because the movement primarily focuses on police brutality.
The interview came in response to remarks that Crews has made on social media recently about the Black Lives Matter movement that has triggered the political Left.
&#8220;The Black Lives Matter movement was started because it was talking about police brutality,&#8221; Lemon said. &#8220;If you want an all black lives matter movement that talks about gun violence in communities, including, you know, black communities, then, start that movement with that name. But that’s not what Black Lives Matter is about. It’s not an all-encompassing [movement].&#8221;
&#8220;So if you are talking about — if someone started a movement that said cancer matters,&#8221; Lemon continued. &#8220;And then, someone comes and says why aren’t you talking about HIV? It’s not the same thing. We’re talking about cancer. So the Black Lives Matter movement is about police brutality and injustice, in that manner. Not about what’s happening in black neighborhoods.&#8221;
Crews pushed back on Lemon&#8217;s premise by noting that &#8220;when you look at the organization, police brutality is not the only thing they are talking about.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Growing increasingly indignant, Lemon tells Crews that BLM should NOT care about black-on-black crime since it&#39;s not in their mission, and tells his guest to start that organization himself. He also compared it to saying &quot;cancer matters&quot; and people asking &#39;what about HIV?&#39; <a href="https://t.co/g6xsaqKOKn">pic.twitter.com/g6xsaqKOKn</a>
&mdash; Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1280361909972328448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire editor emeritus and host of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; commented on the video from NewsBuster&#8217;s Nicholas Fondacaro by writing: &#8220;So apparently we cannot point out that black lives taken by those who are not cops matter, even though those deaths are far more common. Because it&#8217;s all about police brutality. But it&#8217;s not &#8212; the BLM rubric has come to include everything from removing statues to reparations.&#8221;
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So apparently we cannot point out that black lives taken by those who are not cops matter, even though those deaths are far more common. Because it&#39;s all about police brutality. But it&#39;s not &#8212; the BLM rubric has come to include everything from removing statues to reparations.
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1280461990528520192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>CNN HOST DON LEMON: All right, everyone, please listen to the segment because actor and activist Terry Crews is facing backlash for tweeting, &#8216;we must ensure black lives matter doesn&#8217;t morph into black lives better.&#8217; Here is how he explained it: &#8216;are all white people bad? No. Are all black people good? No. Knowing this reality- I stand on my decision to unite with good people, no matter the race, creed or ideology. Given the number of threats against this decision, I also decide to die on this hill.&#8217; Terry Crews joins me now. Terry, man, you stepped in it. You say you are willing to die on this hill. You&#8217;ve taken a lot of heat for this. Explain what you were thinking and why it&#8217;s so important that you die on this hill.
ACTOR TERRY CREWS: Well, again, I wanted to bring up the fact that you know, there are some very, very you know, militant type forces in black lives matter. And what I was issuing was a warning. You know, it’s one of those things where I have been a part of different groups, I&#8217;ve been apart of different things and you see how extremes can really get, can go far and can go wild and when you issue a warning, hey, a warning is seen as detrimental to the movement, how can you ever, ever have checks and balances? You know, in a 60s and 70s, airplanes went down all the time. And the reason they found out why they did was because the pilots could never be questioned. And when you have the leaders of the Back Lives Movement, who are now talking about, if we don’t get our demand, we are going to burn it down. Other black people who are talking about working with other whites and other races, they&#8217;re being viewed as sell-outs or called &#8216;uncle toms&#8217;. You start to understand that you are now being controlled. You&#8217;re not being treated as loved, you&#8217;re actually being controlled. Someone wants to control the narrative and I viewed it as a very, very dangerous self-righteousness that was developing that really viewed themselves as better. It was almost supremacist move where they viewed their black lives mattered a lot more than mine.
LEMON: Okay, so, let me jump in here. There’s a lot that you said. You think that Black Lives Matter is — you said it’s — you think it’s an extreme movement?
CREWS: No, this is the thing. It’s a great mantra. It’s the true mantra. Black lives do matter. But, when you’re talking about an organization, you’re talking about the leaders, you are talking about the people who are responsible for putting these things together. It&#8217;s two different things.
LEMON: Okay, I got you. I got you. I got you. Terry, you realize that, even during the civil rights movement, that Dr. King was seen as extreme. That movement was seen as extreme. To people who don’t want to make change, movements are seen as extreme. You can paint them, easily, as extreme when they are not.
CREWS: This is very true. But also, you know, when you talking about MLK, you&#8217;re talking about Nelson Mandela, and even Malcolm X. They all realized that you had to have a non-racial component to these kind of movements or there will be resentment. There will be get back. One of these people will tend to [inaudible] I don’t want to move from one oppressor to the next.
LEMON: Who’s the next oppressor? Who is the next oppressor?
CREWS: When I — when I describe this. When you look at the city of Chicago, there are nine children who’ve died by gun violence, by black-on-black gun violence, with — from June 20th, all the way to today. And you talking about, even with the Atlanta child murders, there were 28 kids who — who died in two years. You’re talking about a month and you have nine black kids. And the Black Lives Matter movement has said nothing about this kind of thing.
LEMON: What does that have to do with equality though, Terry? I don&#8217;t understand what that has to do with equality because, listen, there&#8217;s crime, there are people in those communities, those people aren&#8217;t just being nonchalant about gun violence. I lived in Chicago. There are many people who are working in those communities to try to get rid of the gun violence. The gun culture in this country is prevalent, but I don&#8217;t understand what that has to do with a movement that is for equality for black people. It&#8217;s not mutually exclusive that if you care about equality for black people that somehow you&#8217;re going to stop random violence or unfortunately kids from being shot. It just seems like apples and oranges.
CREWS: You know, it&#8217;s not that way. You know, this is the thing, black people need to hold other black people accountable. I said the same thing — this is the black America’s version of the me too movement. If anything’s going to change, we, ourselves, need to look at our own communities and look at each other. And say this thing cannot go down. This is the thing, too. There are a lot of great, great people there who are held hostage. Who are held hostage by people who, literally, are running these neighborhoods with violence. And then, claiming that black lives matter. When you look at the parents of these little kids who are mentioning, saying, hey, man, why aren’t they speaking up for me, too? When I look at this whole thing about — you know, it’s about who is controlling the narrative. It’s got to be all black lives matter. And what’s happened is that because I even challenged it, because I even questioned or — and warned people, I became &#8212;
LEMON: Terry. You’re a high-profile person. You’re writing things out there. You know you’re going to get backlash. You know people are going to respond to what you are saying on Twitter. So I don’t think you should be surprised by that. You know, I have skin as tough as an armadillo because of what I do and I think maybe you should adapt that. But here’s what I have to say. The black lives matter movement was started because it was talking about police brutality. If you want an all black lives matter movement that talks about gun violence in communities, including, you know, black communities, then, start that movement with that name. But that’s not what black lives matter is about. It’s not an all-encompassing. So if you are talking about — if someone started a movement that said cancer matters. And then, someone comes and says why aren’t you talking about HIV? It’s not the same thing. We’re talking about cancer. So the black lives matter movement is about police brutality and injustice, in that manner. Not about what’s happening in black neighborhoods. There are people who are working on that issue. And if you want to start that issue, why don’t you start it? Do you understand what I’m saying?
CREWS: But, when you look at the organization, police brutality is not the only thing they are talking about.
LEMON: I know that, but I agree with that&#8217;s not black lives matter movement is about, Terry. Black lives matter is about police brutality and about criminal justice. It’s not about what happens in communities, when it comes to crime, black-on-black crime. People who live near each other, black people, kill each other. Same as whites. 80-some percent of white people are killed by white people because of proximity. It&#8217;s the same thing with black people. It happens in every single neighborhood. But again, I’m not saying it’s not important that those kids died but it’s a different movement.
CREWS: Listen, I understand what you’re saying. I totally understand. It is about police brutality. That should never be accepted. I am not saying that that’s not it. But they are — there’s more there. And when I look, if they have more on their agenda, we need to ask them about what else is on that agenda, other than police brutality. And that’s all I’m doing. Questioning. Warning. Watching. And if that bothers you, now, that bothers me.
LEMON: I’m over. I&#8217;m over, Terry.
CREWS: We’re equal. I should be able to say something truthful.
LEMON: I got to go. I got to go. We’ll see you. Terry, thank you for coming on. I appreciate it.</blockquote>
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The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s Empowerment In Entertainment Event 2019 &#8211; Show

CNN’s Don Lemon: Black Lives Matter Movement Is Not About ‘All Black Lives Matter’

Terry Crews

CNN host Don Lemon repeatedly cut off actor Terry Crews during an interview on Monday as Crews tried to talk about the difference between saying that black lives do matter and supporting the Black Lives Matter organization, a far-left <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/make-no-mistake-blm-radical-neo-marxist-political-movement/">neo-Marxist</a> group.
Lemon pressed Crews about a recent series of statements the actor tweeted that drew scrutiny from the political left because it countered its prevailing narrative.
&#8220;I wanted to bring up the fact that, you know, there are some very, very, you know, militant type forces in Black Lives Matter,&#8221; Crews told Lemon. &#8220;And what I was issuing was a warning. You know, it’s one of those things where I have been a part of different groups, I&#8217;ve been apart of different things and you see how extremes can really get, can go far and can go wild and when you issue a warning. Hey, a warning is seen as detrimental to the movement, how can you ever, ever have checks and balances?&#8221;
&#8220;And when you have the leaders of the Back Lives Movement, who are now talking about, if we don’t get our demand, we are going to burn it down,&#8221; Crews continued. &#8220;Other black people who are talking about working with other whites and other races, they&#8217;re being viewed as sell-outs or called &#8216;Uncle Toms.&#8217; You start to understand that you are now being controlled. You&#8217;re not being treated as loved, you&#8217;re actually being controlled. Someone wants to control the narrative. And I viewed it as a very, very dangerous self-righteousness that was developing that really viewed themselves as better. It was almost supremacist move where they viewed their black lives mattered a lot more than mine.&#8221;
&#8220;Okay, so, let me jump in here,&#8221; Lemon interjected. &#8220;There’s a lot that you said. You think that black lives matter is — you said it’s — you think it’s an extreme movement?&#8221;
&#8220;No, this is the thing. It’s a great mantra. It’s the true mantra. Black lives do matter,&#8221; Crews responded. &#8220;But, when you’re talking about an organization, you’re talking about the leaders, you are talking about the people who are responsible for putting these things together. It&#8217;s two different things.&#8221;
Lemon immediately soon cut him off and then tried to paint his comments as lacking historical context to past movements.
&#8220;Okay, I got you. I got you. I got you,&#8221; Lemon said. &#8220;Terry, you realize that, even during the civil rights movement, that Dr. King was seen as extreme. That movement was seen as extreme. To people who don’t want to make change, movements are seen as extreme. You can paint them, easily, as extreme when they are not.&#8221;
&#8220;This is very true,&#8221; Crews responded. &#8220;But also, you know, when you talking about MLK, you&#8217;re talking about Nelson Mandela, and even Malcolm X. They all realized that you had to have a non-racial component to these kind of movements or there will be resentment. There will be getback. One of these people will tend to [inaudible] I don’t want to move from one oppressor to the next.&#8221;
Crews transitioned into talking about the numerous black children that have been shot in recent weeks in inner cities and asked why Black Lives Matter did not raise their voices about those black lives.
Lemon responded by saying that Black Lives Matter is about police brutality and not about blacks who were killed in shootings and other criminal acts.
&#8220;That’s not what Black Lives Matter is about,&#8221; Lemon said. &#8220;It’s not an all encompassing. &#8230; So the Black Lives Matter movement is about police brutality and injustice, in that manner, not about what’s happening in black neighborhoods. &#8221;
Crews responded by saying, &#8220;But, when you look at the organization, police brutality is not the only thing they are talking about.&#8221;
&#8220;I know that, but I agree with that&#8217;s not [what] Black Lives Matter movement is about, Terry,&#8221; Lemon responded in an apparent attempt to avoid directly addressing Crews&#8217;s comments. &#8220;Black Lives Matter is about police brutality and about criminal justice. It’s not about what happens in communities, when it comes to crime, black-on-black crime.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="Actor Terry Crews addresses backlash over Black Lives Matter tweet" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lzR8x_jlGaI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>CNN HOST DON LEMON: All right, everyone, please listen to the segment because actor and activist Terry Crews is facing backlash for tweeting, &#8216;we must ensure black lives matter doesn&#8217;t morph into black lives better.&#8217; Here is how he explained it: &#8216;are all white people bad? No. Are all black people good? No. Knowing this reality- I stand on my decision to unite with good people, no matter the race, creed or ideology. Given the number of threats against this decision, I also decide to die on this hill.&#8217; Terry Crews joins me now. Terry, man, you stepped in it. You say you are willing to die on this hill. You&#8217;ve taken a lot of heat for this. Explain what you were thinking and why it&#8217;s so important that you die on this hill.
ACTOR TERRY CREWS: Well, again, I wanted to bring up the fact that you know, there are some very, very you know, militant type forces in black lives matter. And what I was issuing was a warning. You know, it’s one of those things where I have been a part of different groups, I&#8217;ve been apart of different things and you see how extremes can really get, can go far and can go wild and when you issue a warning, hey, a warning is seen as detrimental to the movement, how can you ever, ever have checks and balances? You know, in a 60s and 70s, airplanes went down all the time. And the reason they found out why they did was because the pilots could never be questioned. And when you have the leaders of the Back Lives Movement, who are now talking about, if we don’t get our demand, we are going to burn it down. Other black people who are talking about working with other whites and other races, they&#8217;re being viewed as sell-outs or called &#8216;uncle toms&#8217;. You start to understand that you are now being controlled. You&#8217;re not being treated as loved, you&#8217;re actually being controlled. Someone wants to control the narrative and I viewed it as a very, very dangerous self-righteousness that was developing that really viewed themselves as better. It was almost supremacist move where they viewed their black lives mattered a lot more than mine.
LEMON: Okay, so, let me jump in here. There’s a lot that you said. You think that Black Lives Matter is — you said it’s — you think it’s an extreme movement?
CREWS: No, this is the thing. It’s a great mantra. It’s the true mantra. Black lives do matter. But, when you’re talking about an organization, you’re talking about the leaders, you are talking about the people who are responsible for putting these things together. It&#8217;s two different things.
LEMON: Okay, I got you. I got you. I got you. Terry, you realize that, even during the civil rights movement, that Dr. King was seen as extreme. That movement was seen as extreme. To people who don’t want to make change, movements are seen as extreme. You can paint them, easily, as extreme when they are not.
CREWS: This is very true. But also, you know, when you talking about MLK, you&#8217;re talking about Nelson Mandela, and even Malcolm X. They all realized that you had to have a non-racial component to these kind of movements or there will be resentment. There will be get back. One of these people will tend to [inaudible] I don’t want to move from one oppressor to the next.
LEMON: Who’s the next oppressor? Who is the next oppressor?
CREWS: When I — when I describe this. When you look at the city of Chicago, there are nine children who’ve died by gun violence, by black-on-black gun violence, with — from June 20th, all the way to today. And you talking about, even with the Atlanta child murders, there were 28 kids who — who died in two years. You’re talking about a month and you have nine black kids. And the Black Lives Matter movement has said nothing about this kind of thing.
LEMON: What does that have to do with equality though, Terry? I don&#8217;t understand what that has to do with equality because, listen, there&#8217;s crime, there are people in those communities, those people aren&#8217;t just being nonchalant about gun violence. I lived in Chicago. There are many people who are working in those communities to try to get rid of the gun violence. The gun culture in this country is prevalent, but I don&#8217;t understand what that has to do with a movement that is for equality for black people. It&#8217;s not mutually exclusive that if you care about equality for black people that somehow you&#8217;re going to stop random violence or unfortunately kids from being shot. It just seems like apples and oranges.
CREWS: You know, it&#8217;s not that way. You know, this is the thing, black people need to hold other black people accountable. I said the same thing — this is the black America’s version of the me too movement. If anything’s going to change, we, ourselves, need to look at our own communities and look at each other. And say this thing cannot go down. This is the thing, too. There are a lot of great, great people there who are held hostage. Who are held hostage by people who, literally, are running these neighborhoods with violence. And then, claiming that black lives matter. When you look at the parents of these little kids who are mentioning, saying, hey, man, why aren’t they speaking up for me, too? When I look at this whole thing about — you know, it’s about who is controlling the narrative. It’s got to be all black lives matter. And what’s happened is that because I even challenged it, because I even questioned or — and warned people, I became &#8212;
LEMON: Terry. You’re a high-profile person. You’re writing things out there. You know you’re going to get backlash. You know people are going to respond to what you are saying on Twitter. So I don’t think you should be surprised by that. You know, I have skin as tough as an armadillo because of what I do and I think maybe you should adapt that. But here’s what I have to say. The black lives matter movement was started because it was talking about police brutality. If you want an all black lives matter movement that talks about gun violence in communities, including, you know, black communities, then, start that movement with that name. But that’s not what black lives matter is about. It’s not an all encompassing. So if you are talking about — if someone started a movement that said cancer matters. And then, someone comes and says why aren’t you talking about HIV? It’s not the same thing. We’re talking about cancer. So the black lives matter movement is about police brutality and injustice, in that manner. Not about what’s happening in black neighborhoods. There are people who are working on that issue. And if you want to start that issue, why don’t you start it? Do you understand what I’m saying?
CREWS: But, when you look at the organization, police brutality is not the only thing they are talking about.
LEMON: I know that, but I agree with that&#8217;s not black lives matter movement is about, Terry. Black lives matter is about police brutality and about criminal justice. It’s not about what happens in communities, when it comes to crime, black-on-black crime. People who live near each other, black people, kill each other. Same as whites. 80-some percent of white people are killed by white people because of proximity. It&#8217;s the same thing with black people. It happens in every single neighborhood. But again, I’m not saying it’s not important that those kids died but it’s a different movement.
CREWS: Listen, I understand what you’re saying. I totally understand. It is about police brutality. That should never be accepted. I am not saying that that’s not it. But they are — there’s more there. And when I look, if they have more on their agenda, we need to ask them about what else is on that agenda, other than police brutality. And that’s all I’m doing. Questioning. Warning. Watching. And if that bothers you, now, that bothers me.
LEMON: I’m over. I&#8217;m over, Terry.
CREWS: We’re equal. I should be able to say something truthful.
LEMON: I got to go. I got to go. We’ll see you. Terry, thank you for coming on. I appreciate it.</blockquote>
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Terry Crews Don Lemon

WATCH: Terry Crews, CNN’s Don Lemon Battle Over Black Lives Matter’s Agenda

Over the July 4 weekend, 13 people were shot and one person was stabbed in the City of Rochester, New York, where there is a population of roughly 206,000 residents. During the violent weekend, several police officers were assaulted as they rushed to tend to a 16-year-old shooting victim.
The terror in the Democrat-controlled area comes on the heels of a budget cut to the Rochester Police Department, effective July 1.
&#8220;A busy July 4th weekend for RPD, with 13 people shot at 10 different incidents from Friday through today,&#8221; News 8 WROC reported Sunday. &#8220;Five people have been arrested thus far and there have been no fatalities reported at this time.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
UPDATE: A busy July 4th weekend for RPD, with 13 people shot at 10 different incidents from Friday through today. Five people have been arrested thus far and there have been no fatalities reported at this time. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ROC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ROC</a> <a href="https://t.co/gkE1cBj0VA">https://t.co/gkE1cBj0VA</a>
&mdash; News 8 WROC (@News_8) <a href="https://twitter.com/News_8/status/1279946730394529793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rochester area reporter Scott Barstow said officers tending to a 16-year-old shooting victim on Saturday night were met by a group of about 25 people; at least two from the group assaulted the officers on scene.
&#8220;A 16-year-old was shot at least one time on Pennsylvania Avenue,&#8221; Barstow reported. &#8220;While investigating, officers were approached by a group of around 25 people. (unrelated to the shooting) two people assaulted the officers.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A 16-year-old was shot at least one time on Pennsylvania Avenue. While investigating, officers were approached by a group of around 25 people. ( unrelated to the shooting) two people assaulted the officers. Complete press release to follow. More on <a href="https://twitter.com/SPECNewsROC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SPECNewsROC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/roc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#roc</a> <a href="https://t.co/QaX3Tw84jE">pic.twitter.com/QaX3Tw84jE</a>
&mdash; scott barstow (@barstow_scott) <a href="https://twitter.com/barstow_scott/status/1279792781624516608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
As noted by WHAM 1180, the group of 25 people was yelling at officers as they responded to the shooting, and at least four members of the group were arrested after two officers were injured.
&#8220;A 16-year-old was shot early this morning in the area of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street,&#8221; WHAM tweeted on Sunday. &#8220;Police investigating that shooting were approached by a crowd of some 25 people who began to yell and grab at the officers. Two officers were injured and 4 people arrested.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A 16-year-old was shot early this morning in the area of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street. 
Police investigating that shooting were approached by a crowd of some 25 people who began to yell and grab at the officers. Two officers were injured and 4 people arrested.
&mdash; NewsRadio WHAM 1180 (@WHAM1180) <a href="https://twitter.com/WHAM1180/status/1279788225532432385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
On June 16, the Rochester City Council voted 8-1 on to approve a budget cut to the Rochester Police Department (RPD), effective July 1, a result of police accountability protests from left-leaning city officials and local activists.
&#8220;That budget reduces funding to police, notably by halving a recruit class,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/06/15/rochester-ny-city-council-cut-rpd-budget-reduce-recruiting-class-defend-the-police/3192109001/">Democrat &amp; Chronicle</a> outlined.
The RPD budget was slashed by 3.7% under an amended spending plan which removed police resource officers from Rochester schools and cut the department&#8217;s recruit class by half, <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/public-safety/2020/06/17/rochester-police-will-see-3-7--budget-cut-in-new-city-spending-plan">Spectrum News</a> reported, last month.
&#8220;City council also committed three-quarters of a million dollars from the police budget to form a task force to reimagine policing in Rochester,&#8221; the report added.
Two days earlier, during a meeting where left-leaning members and activists proposed a 50% reduction in the police budget, City Council members took a knee for eight minutes and forty-six seconds in solidarity with the far-left anti-cop Black Lives Matter movement.
The time spent kneeling was a reference to the amount of time a Minneapolis officer had his knee on George Floyd&#8217;s neck during an arrest. Floyd later died and the officer at the center of the arrest has been charged with second-degree murder.
&#8220;During the meeting, the council said it would appeal a judge&#8217;s decision which stripped disciplinary authority from the recently-created Rochester Police Accountability Board,&#8221; <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/news/2020/06/15/rochester-city-council-seeks-to-cut-police-funding">Spectrum News</a> reported. &#8220;The police union successfully sued to get that result.&#8221;
Democratic Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren has supported Black Lives Matter protesters, blaming Rochester violence and destruction on so-called &#8220;outsiders.&#8221; The mayor, however, has said many residents do not want to see the RPD defunded, nor does she.
“So there are many residents in the city of Rochester, right?,” Mayor Warren said, according to <a href="https://www.wxxinews.org/post/warren-says-rochester-police-should-not-be-defunded">WXXI</a>. “And they all have different needs that we have to balance. I can tell you that as many people as you’ve talked to, I’ve spoken to who say don’t defund the police.&#8221;
&#8220;So our goal is that we work in partnership and that we try to uplift the entire community,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;There are many people who want the relationship between the police and the community to improve and I’ve already shown you the steps that we’ve taken since 2014 to improve them.”
“Nothing happens in a vacuum but I can tell you that by light years Rochester is ahead of the curve and we will continue to do what is necessary to make sure that our community feels safe and that our officers feel safe and that we can work in partnership to uplift our community together,” the Democrat added.
At the end of May, following radical rioting in the city, Warren seemingly shifted blame for the destruction by stating that those committing illegal acts were &#8220;outsiders.&#8221;
However, after arrest reports showed that crimes were committed by city residents, the mayor clarified to say &#8220;outsiders&#8221; meant people outside of the Black Lives Matter movement.
&#8220;Outsiders – and I do mean outsiders – not from our city, not from our community, decided to set police cars on fire,&#8221; Warren <a href="https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/05/31/rochester-ny-outsiders-unrest-anarchists-white-supremacists-george-floyd-racism-protests/5299002002/">said</a> immediately following the violence.
“These people set a trap, and our community fell in it,” she added. “And last night it was our community that destroyed our neighborhoods.”
The mayor later clarified: &#8220;I want to make clear what I meant,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I meant outsiders of the Black Lives Matter movement &#8230; The Black Lives Matter people had a peaceful protest in Martin Luther King Park, yesterday.&#8221;
Rochester police chief La&#8217;Ron Singletary said the crime was committed by &#8220;anarchists,&#8221; whom he later described as &#8220;law enforcement professional protestors.&#8221;
Local radio host Bob Lonsberry reacted to the violent weekend, commenting specifically on the officers being assaulted: &#8220;When you legitimize hating the police, you get blood on your hands.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When you legitimize hating the police, you get blood on your hands. <a href="https://t.co/CizbQA1gAW">https://t.co/CizbQA1gAW</a>
&mdash; Bob Lonsberry (@BobLonsberry) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobLonsberry/status/1279799979515817984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
A complete timeline of the crime over the July 4 weekend in Rochester can be viewed <a href="https://www.rochesterfirst.com/crime/rpd-investigating-additional-shootings/?utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow&amp;utm_medium=referral">here</a>.
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Mayor Lovely Warren

Dem-Controlled Rochester Explodes: 13 Shot, 1 Stabbed; Cops Assaulted While Tending To 16-Year-Old Shot In Face

Rochester

Violence

Tragedy has struck again in Seattle after a man plowed his car into two protesters who were part of group calling itself the Black Femme March that was blocking a freeway as part of the ongoing social justice protests in the area. One of the protesters, Summer Taylor, a white 24-year-old veterinary clinic worker, has died. The man driving the car, identified as Dawit Kelete, a black 27-year-old former Washington State University student, has been arrested. Washington State Patrol has since announced that they will no longer allow protests on the interstate and will arrest anyone who attempts to stage one.
The tragic incident was caught on video, which shows the vehicle driving at a high speed into the crowd of protesters and sending Taylor and the other protester, Diaz Love, a 32-year-old from Portland, flying into the air. Police say their initial investigation indicates that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
According to authorities, the tragic incident occurred on Interstate 5 at around 1:40 a.m. on Saturday morning. As reported by <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/protester-dies-struck-speeding-car-black-lives-matter/story?id=71617592&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn">ABC News</a>, surveillance footage shows a white 2013 Jaguar driving at a high speed down the protester-blocked freeway, which the driver had reportedly entered by going the wrong way on an exit ramp. The vehicle swerves around cars blocking the lanes and plows directly into two protesters, sending them flying into the air, both landing violently on the pavement.
Kelete reportedly continued to drive for about a mile before another vehicle, driven by a protester, forced him to pull over. According to court documents, officers described Kelete as &#8220;reserved and sullen when he was arrested,&#8221; <a href="https://abc7.com/dawit-kelete-seattle-protesters-hit-by-car-summer-taylor-diaz-love/6299313/">ABC 7 </a>reports. He also reportedly asked if the two protesters were okay.
&#8220;Very candidly, we don&#8217;t know, at this point in the investigation, what the motive was, what the reasoning was,&#8221; said Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead at a news conference hours later, as reported by ABC. According to the preliminary investigation, the driver does not appear to have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, police said.
ABC7 reports that Kelete is listed in public records as having attended Washington State University between 2011 and 2017, majoring in business and commerce. <a href="https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/dawit-kelete/">Heavy</a> notes that the jail booking described Kelete as &#8220;black,&#8221; having worked for DoorDash in 2015-2016, and &#8220;lists his language skills as including Tigrinya,&#8221; a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) announced details of the ultimately fatal incident Saturday morning on Twitter.
&#8220;Early this morning two women were hit by a car and very seriously injured while peacefully protesting. Many others were almost hit and witnessed this horrific event. Our city stands beside their friends, families and loved ones in praying for these women and all who were there,&#8221; Durkan <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorJenny/status/1279452751382974464">announced</a> early Saturday. &#8220;No one should risk their life for demanding better from our city, state and country,&#8221; added Durkan, who has repeatedly defended the protests, even when things turned violent in the area of the city she allowed to be occupied for weeks. &#8220;Washington State Patrol is leading the investigation and they have assured us they are quickly and thoroughly investigating the incident. I have offered any city resources needed.&#8221;
On Sunday, Durkan responded to the tragic news that Taylor had died of her injuries. &#8220;My thoughts are with Summer Taylor, and their family and loved ones,&#8221; the mayor tweeted. &#8220;It is a life tragically lost far too soon, but their legacy will be the real change they marched for.&#8221;
Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (CA) also took to Twitter to lament Taylor&#8217;s death. &#8220;Absolutely heartbreaking. Summer Taylor was only 24-years-old, peacefully protesting for Black Lives Matter when they were struck by a car,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Thinking of their family during this difficult time and everyone in the movement today.&#8221;
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Absolutely heartbreaking. Summer Taylor was only 24-years-old, peacefully protesting for Black Lives Matter when they were struck by a car. Thinking of their family during this difficult time and everyone in the movement today. <a href="https://t.co/i7hqkjSSMH">pic.twitter.com/i7hqkjSSMH</a>
&mdash; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1279759914261504000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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After the tragic incident, Washington State Patrol announced that they will no longer be allowing protesters to enter I-5 and will be arresting anyone who tries to walk on the interstate. &#8220;For the safety of all citizens including protesters and motorists, pedestrians walking on the freeway will be arrested,&#8221; the department tweeted late Saturday.
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The <a href="https://twitter.com/wastatepatrol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wastatepatrol</a> will not be allowing protesters to enter I-5. For the safety of all citizens including protesters and motorists, pedestrians walking on the freeway will be arrested. <a href="https://twitter.com/wspd2pio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wspd2pio</a>
&mdash; WA State Patrol (@wastatepatrol) <a href="https://twitter.com/wastatepatrol/status/1279605784821694466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Seattle I-5 Protest

Protester Fatally Struck By Car After ‘Black Femme March’ Blocks Freeway; Driver Arrested, Identified

Social Justice

On Independence Day, 26-year-old Toledo police officer Anthony Dia was tragically killed in the line of duty after responding to a disturbance regarding a drunk man outside of a Home Depot store.
Dia was reportedly shot in the chest by the man, who later killed himself just after midnight and was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
&#8220;Witnesses told police the man shot the officer with a handgun and then went into a wooded area,&#8221; a <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/07/05/anthony-dia-killed/">Pittsburgh CBS affiliate</a> reported. &#8220;At some point, officers heard a single gunshot coming from the woods, [Police Chief George Kral] said. The gunman, only described as a 57-year-old white male, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head around 3:15 a.m.&#8221;
Officer Dia, a Lebanese-American and practicing Muslim, leaves behind a wife and two young sons.
According to <a href="https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/toledo-officer-anthony-dia-funeral-memorial-services/512-4ea3d223-4fef-4b0f-a9d2-acbc1d5329bf">WTOL11</a>, the young cop was the 31st officer in Toledo to be killed in the line of duty.
&#8220;Until my dying day, I will never forget the sight of officer Dia wheeled out of the hospital on a gurney, his body wrapped on an American flag, flanked by about 30 Toledo officers, saluting and weeping,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/toledo-officer-anthony-dia-funeral-memorial-services/512-4ea3d223-4fef-4b0f-a9d2-acbc1d5329bf">said</a> Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.
&#8220;I never thought that I would ever have to say this but my big brother got shot in the line of duty tonight,&#8221; a sibling of Dia&#8217;s posted online. &#8220;We never used to tell each other we loved each other but I love you dude and I’ll miss you and I’ll hold these boys so tight for you.&#8221;
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I never thought that I would ever have to say this but my big brother got shot in the line of duty tonight. We never used to tell each other we loved each other but I love you dude and I’ll miss you and I’ll hold these boys so tight for you <a href="https://t.co/1hfOtco3WA">pic.twitter.com/1hfOtco3WA</a>
&mdash; lou (@loubeanz) <a href="https://twitter.com/loubeanz/status/1279341664780328961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In another message, responding to nasty messages online, the sibling posted: &#8220;I don’t give f*** what you think about police officers. [M]y brother didn’t deserve to die.&#8221;
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i don’t give fuck what you think about police officers. my brother didn’t deserve to die.
&mdash; lou (@loubeanz) <a href="https://twitter.com/loubeanz/status/1279588416510926848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In another tweet, the sibling wrote, &#8220;I know I shouldn’t be reading the replies to these but just to clarify: my brothers death has nothing to do with BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement. He was killed by a white man and my brother only ever wanted to bring everyone together and to have peace.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I know I shouldn’t be reading the replies to these but just to clarify: my brothers death has nothing to do with BLM movement. He was killed by a white man and my brother only ever wanted to bring everyone together and to have peace
&mdash; lou (@loubeanz) <a href="https://twitter.com/loubeanz/status/1279900970919616513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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News station <a href="https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/toledo-officer-anthony-dia-funeral-memorial-services/512-4ea3d223-4fef-4b0f-a9d2-acbc1d5329bf">WTOL11</a> confirmed a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/tpd-officer-anthony-dia-support-amp-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GoFundMe</a> campaign for the Dia family, started by a friend of the officer. As of Monday morning, the campaign has reached over $160,000, well beyond the initial goal of $50,000.
On Sunday, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced an official flag-lowering order to honor the life and service of Officer Dia. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here is the official flag-lowering order to honor the life and service of <a href="https://twitter.com/ToledoPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ToledoPolice</a> Officer Anthony Dia. <a href="https://t.co/QCWvhMUS4Z">pic.twitter.com/QCWvhMUS4Z</a>
&mdash; Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovMikeDeWine/status/1279791343917764608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Nothing says freedom and <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/America?src=hashtag_click" data-focusable="true">#America</a> like a Lebanese-American Muslim police officer sacrificing his life on the <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FourthofJuly?src=hashtag_click" data-focusable="true">#FourthofJuly</a>, because he chose to serve and protect. <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnthonyDia?src=hashtag_click" data-focusable="true">#AnthonyDia</a> <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ToledoPolice?src=hashtag_click" data-focusable="true">#ToledoPolice</a>,&#8221; posted news reporter Ariyl Onstott. 
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Nothing says freedom and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/America?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#America</a> like a Lebanese-American Muslim police officer sacrificing his life on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FourthofJuly?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FourthofJuly</a>, because he chose to serve and protect. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnthonyDia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AnthonyDia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ToledoPolice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ToledoPolice</a> <a href="https://t.co/aB0AMXmYWc">pic.twitter.com/aB0AMXmYWc</a>
&mdash; ARIYL ONSTOTT (@ariylonstott) <a href="https://twitter.com/ariylonstott/status/1279890955219451904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;As the sun sets on this Fourth of July, please take a moment to reflect on the life and sacrifice of Officer Anthony Dia,&#8221; Toledo Police announced Saturday. &#8220;He leaves behind his wife, two young boys, and a loving family. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. End of Watch: July 4, 2020.&#8221;
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As the sun sets on this Fourth of July, please take a moment to reflect on the life and sacrifice of Officer Anthony Dia. He leaves behind his wife, two young boys, and a loving family. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. End of Watch: July 4, 2020. <a href="https://t.co/HFb2OEuHpr">pic.twitter.com/HFb2OEuHpr</a>
&mdash; Toledo Police (@ToledoPolice) <a href="https://twitter.com/ToledoPolice/status/1279573974834429952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Commenting on the outpouring of support, the department posted, &#8220;The family of Officer Dia &amp; members of the Toledo Police Department continue to be overwhelmed by the support of the community &amp; nation. These are just a couple photos taken at events in Toledo. Thank you to each &amp; every person who has shown their support for Officer Dia.&#8221;
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The family of Officer Dia &amp; members of the Toledo Police Department continue to be overwhelmed by the support of the community &amp; nation. These are just a couple photos taken at events in Toledo. Thank you to each &amp; every person who has shown their support for Officer Dia <a href="https://t.co/p14MMcRDbw">pic.twitter.com/p14MMcRDbw</a>
&mdash; Toledo Police (@ToledoPolice) <a href="https://twitter.com/ToledoPolice/status/1279895319434706945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Back The Blue

Lebanese-American Officer, 26, Killed In Line Of Duty July 4; Sibling Gives Impassioned Defense Of Police: ‘My Brother Didn’t Deserve To Die’

In response to protests and riots that left sections of the city in flames, the progressive leadership of Minneapolis has taken steps to defund the police department and replace it with a &#8220;transformative new model for cultivating safety&#8221; in the city. But some influential voices from the black community in the city are pushing back hard on how the city council is driving forward with their &#8220;absurd&#8221; and &#8220;egregious&#8221;  dismantlement plan.
On June 12, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-city-council-unanimously-passes-resolution-to-replace-police-department-with-community-led-public-safety-system">community-led public safety system</a>&#8221; that will involve &#8220;healers, elders, youth, artists, and organizers,&#8221; who will &#8220;lead deep community engagement on race and public safety&#8221; and will offer &#8220;transformative justice in partnerships informed by the needs of every block in our city.&#8221;
Last Friday, the city council voted unanimously in approval of an amendment that would eliminate the city&#8217;s charter requirement to fund a police department, replacing it with their new &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-city-council-oks-charter-amendment-to-cut-police-some-of-them-now-get-private-security-after-threats">Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention</a>,&#8221; which would be managed by the council and headed up by a &#8220;non-law enforcement experience in community safety services, including but not limited to public health and/or restorative justice approaches.&#8221; The council also voted to remove the minimum number of officers required for their &#8220;transformative new model for cultivating safety.&#8221; The moves will allow the issue to be put to voters in November.
But, as reported by the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/some-minneapolis-black-leaders-speak-out-against-city-council-s-moves-to-defund-police/571594012/?refresh=true">Star Tribune</a>, several leaders in the black community are incensed by how the Democrat-controlled city council has proceeded with its &#8220;defund the police&#8221; plan (h/t <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2020/07/02/black-leaders-minneapolis-city-council-dismantling-police-egregious-grotesque-absurd-crazy-ridiculous-maybe-racist/">Ed Morrissey</a>).
&#8220;Egregious, grotesque, absurd, crazy, ridiculous. These are a handful of the words that some local African American leaders are using to rebuke the Minneapolis City Council’s moves toward dismantling the Police Department, even as they demand an overhaul of law enforcement,&#8221; the Tribune reported Thursday. &#8220;While the movement to defund the police has been driven by Black activists, others say that city politicians rushed the process and failed to include a police chief who has the backing of many Black residents.&#8221;
One of the black leaders, the former president of the NAACP Minneapolis, accused the city council of showing &#8220;a complete disregard for the voices and perspectives of many members of the African American community.&#8221;
&#8220;We have not been consulted as the city makes its decisions, even though our community is the one most heavily impacted by both police violence and community violence,&#8221; said former NAACP leader Nekima Levy Armstrong, as reported by the Tribune. Armstrong went on to accuse the council of &#8220;seizing upon the national spotlight to look as if they’re making a difference.&#8221;
Pastor Brian Herron leveled a similar accusation, saying the council was simply &#8220;pandering,&#8221; according to the Tribune.
Of particular concern is the city council&#8217;s mandate that a person with &#8220;non-law enforcement experience&#8221; must head up its new public safety department, as the current chief of police is African American.
“Why now, when you have an African American chief who is highly regarded and trusted in the Black community?” Urban League Twin Cities CEO Steven Belton asked. “This strikes me as being passive-aggressive Minnesota Nice on steroids. This is a hit on Chief Arradondo.”
Council Member Jeremiah Ellison defended the council&#8217;s actions and appeared to try to downplay the significance of the black leaders voicing complaints, saying, “The Black community is not a monolith, and just because there’s someone that might have a high profile doesn’t meant that they necessarily speak on behalf of the Black community of Minneapolis.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/de-blasio-calls-nyc-city-hall-protests-vile-but-wont-break-up-autonomous-zone">De Blasio Calls NYC City Hall Protests ‘Vile’ But Won’t Break Up ‘Autonomous Zone’</a>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Nekima Levy Armstrong

‘Absurd, Crazy, Ridiculous’: Black Leaders Slam Minneapolis City Council’s Plan To Defund The Police

Minneapolis

During a contentious back-and-forth at a Wednesday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany shut down an ABC reporter in what McEnany suggested was his attempt to conflate the sentiment that &#8220;black lives matter&#8221; with the radical anti-police activist group &#8220;Black Lives Matter,&#8221; which has called for the national <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-led-drive-to-defund-the-police-also-targets-capitalism">defunding of police officers</a> and the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/">disruption of the nuclear family</a>.
ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McEnany over President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent tweets relating the far-left organization and their anti-cop chants as a &#8220;symbol of hate.&#8221;
&#8220;NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the [NYC Mayor de Blasio] is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue,&#8221; Trump posted via Twitter. &#8220;This will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York &amp; vividly remember the [&#8230;] horrible BLM chant, &#8216;Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon.'&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates &amp; disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street,&#8221; the president added. &#8220;Spend this money fighting crime instead!&#8221;
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&#8230;.horrible BLM chant, “Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon”. Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates &amp; disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278324681477689349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Why is the president calling Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate?&#8221; Karl asked.
&#8220;Well, what the president was noting, is that, that symbol, when you look at some of the things Black Lives Matter has chanted, like &#8216;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pigs-in-a-blanket-chant-at-minnesota-fair-riles-police/">pigs in a blanket, fry &#8217;em like bacon</a>,&#8217; that&#8217;s not an acceptable thing to paint on our streets,&#8221; responded the press secretary.
&#8220;So, look, he agrees that all black lives matter, including that of David Dorn and Patrick Underwood, two officers whose lives were tragically taken amid these riots,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;All black lives do matter, he agrees with that sentiment, but what he doesn&#8217;t agree with is an organization that chants &#8216;pigs in a blanket, fry &#8217;em like bacon&#8217; about our police officers, our valiant heroes who out on the streets protecting us each and every day.&#8221;
Protests across the country have rallied around the &#8220;phrase&#8221; &#8220;black lives matter,&#8221; Karl contended. &#8220;And the president is here calling it a symbol of hate?&#8221;
&#8220;He&#8217;s talking about the organization,&#8221; McEnany responded. &#8220;I would note to you that the Greater New York BLM president has said, &#8216;If this country doesn’t give us what we want then we will burn down the system and &#8230; I could be speaking literally.'&#8221;
Last week, Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter for Greater New York, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-leader-if-this-country-doesnt-give-us-what-we-want-then-we-will-burn-down-the-system">told</a> Fox News host Martha MacCallum: “If this country doesn’t give us what we want then we will burn down the system and replace it. All right. And I could be speaking figuratively, I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation. Like let’s be very real and observe the history of the 1960s. When black people were rioting we have their highest growth and wealth and property ownership.”
&#8220;He&#8217;s not talking about the organization in his tweet, he&#8217;s talking about the words,&#8221; Karl claimed.
&#8220;What&#8217;s the name of the organization, again?&#8221; McEnany responded.
&#8220;Black Lives Matter,&#8221; the ABC reporter answered.
&#8220;There ya go, you just answered my question,&#8221; the press secretary said before moving on to another reporter.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonkarl</a>: &quot;Americans of all races have protested in all 50 states around that phrase, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a> and the president is here calling it a symbol of hate?&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a>: &quot;He is talking about the organization&#8230;&quot;
Full video here: <a href="https://t.co/M0FzJX0qC0">https://t.co/M0FzJX0qC0</a> <a href="https://t.co/ooZIgOFGxs">pic.twitter.com/ooZIgOFGxs</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1278432968634220544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-led-drive-to-defund-the-police-also-targets-capitalism">Black Lives Matter-Led Drive To ‘Defund The Police’ Also Targets Capitalism</a>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany

WATCH: Press Secretary Shuts Down Reporter Outraged Over Trump’s BLM ‘Symbol Of Hate’ Comment

Kayleigh McEnany

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had uncharacteristically strong words for protesters &#8220;occupying&#8221; City Hall, vandalizing city buildings and public statues, and taunting NYPD officers, but the mayor refused to say whether he would double down on efforts to remove the &#8220;autonomous zone&#8221; growing around the city&#8217;s government buildings.
After a video of protesters taunting police officers went viral Wednesday, de Blasio assailed the demonstrators for &#8220;vile, nasty&#8221; comments and accused the protesters of “degrading their own movement,&#8221; according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/01/de-blasio-rips-protesters-for-degrading-own-movement-with-vandalism/">New York Post</a>.
&#8220;A protester who says vile, nasty things to a police officer is degrading their own movement,” de Blasio said.
“A protester who writes nasty, violent phrases on a public building is degrading their own movement — especially a public building named after our first African American mayor,&#8221; he continued, referring to graffiti scrawled across a building named after David Dinkins. “I mean, get it together, people. If you want to protest for change, do it in a peaceful, respectful manner.&#8221;
The Post reports that protesters have been scrawling graffiti across a series of &#8220;autonomous zones&#8221; that have cropped up around city buildings as part of a larger movement to &#8220;occupy&#8221; NYC until the mayor agrees to defund the New York Police Department.
&#8220;Vandals have scrawled anti-cop graffiti on several city buildings — including 31 Chambers St., which houses Manhattan Surrogate’s Court and other city agencies, and 1 Centre St., a massive, 40-foot structure also known as the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building,&#8221; the Post reported. &#8220;Anti-cop vitriol, including &#8216;f*** 12&#8217; and &#8216;ACAB,&#8217; short for &#8216;All cops are bastards,&#8217; was spray-painted in black at 1 Centre around a plaque bearing Dinkins’ name.&#8221;
On Wednesday, police in riot gear tried to break up the protest surrounding City Hall, according to the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-occupy-city-hall-nypd-clash-20200701-wxq7mxffqrgt5mqxodvqpqrgka-story.html">New York Daily News</a>, but after tearing down homemade barricades, which demonstrators had sourced from nearby construction sites, and arrested three people, the cops backed down. NYPD officials later said they were not instructed to dismantle the protest entirely, but rather to prevent it from expanding beyond its current borders and retrieve construction items stolen from city projects.
&#8220;Protesters were also fortifying their position by putting rebar into the barricades the cops had put in place, making them harder to move, had painted over surveillance cameras that were installed in the area years ago and had begun tacking signs onto trees within the park,&#8221; the official told the NYDN.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has yet to order the NYPD to take any further action, chastizing the protesters but not breaking up the protest &#8212; a strategy employed by Seattle&#8217;s Mayor Jenny Durkan, who called that city&#8217;s &#8220;Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,&#8221; or CHOP, a &#8220;block party&#8221; and a &#8220;summer of love,&#8221; before being forced to dismantle the tent city after two black teenagers were killed inside the &#8220;autonomous zone.&#8221;
In Seattle, the city government did refuse to make major cuts to the city&#8217;s police department, at least, in part, giving a reason to the ongoing demonstration. In New York City, however, mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged &#8212; and will pursue &#8212; a billion-dollar cut to the NYPD budget.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

City Hall Protesters New York

De Blasio Calls NYC City Hall Protests ‘Vile’ But Won’t Break Up ‘Autonomous Zone’

Bill de Blasio

New York City

New York Police Department (NYPD)

Dr. Melina Abdullah, who leads the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, has often been described by the media as a professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State L.A. But don’t make the mistake of marginalizing her as a mere academic. Her street-cred is hardcore, and her familial and ideological roots trace back through generations of Marxist organizers, reaching back a hundred years to the Communist Party of the German Reich.
A founding member of what would become the Black Lives Matter Global Network, Abdullah has grown the L.A. branch to 500 members since its inception almost seven years ago. While many subscribed to a misconception that BLM had lost its relevance in recent years, local chapter leaders had moved on to another stage of an organizing strategy that was less visible than traditional publicity stunts like blocking traffic. By the time video of George Floyd’s tragic death sparked nationwide protests and outrage, mechanisms were already in place to advance BLM-inspired movements like defunding police departments into the mainstream.
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This uprising is about more than <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GeorgeFloyd</a>. He was the spark. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a>
&mdash; #BlackLivesMatter-LA (@BLMLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BLMLA/status/1266922907462062081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Abdullah, 47, believes law enforcement agencies exist to maintain America’s capitalist social order, which in turn is the root cause of police misconduct against black people. She says racially biased policing and capitalism are connected structures of oppression that must be dismantled.
“White capitalism requires racist, violent policing to protect it,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-launches-6th-annual-black-xmas-campaign-to-divest-from-white-capitalism">wrote</a> Abdullah. “In order to eliminate police violence, and the killings of our people at their hands, we must also target the economic systems that built it and rely on it.”
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The sys of Wt supremacist heteronorm patriarchal capitalism is extremely fragile. Their pwr is false &amp; easily toppled when the ppl rise up.
&mdash; Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) <a href="https://twitter.com/DocMellyMel/status/631504135582433280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Abdullah, who uses her ex-husband’s last name, was raised in a family that has been organizing against capitalism for at least 100 years.
For most of her life, she was known as <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/21/local/me-55154">Melina Reimann</a>. As The Daily Wire exclusively reported in 2017, her paternal grandfather was a world-famous Marxist economist named <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/obituaries/guenter-reimann-economic-publisher-is-dead-at-100.html?_r=0">Günter Reimann</a>. He joined Germany’s Communist Party around 1920 and was part of the resistance to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
When he died in 2005, an obituary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/mar/01/guardianobituaries.germany">explained</a>, “Reimann’s understanding of capitalism derived from the position of desiring its overthrow.”
Long before Reimann advised governments, central banks, and CEOs from all over the globe, he was a 17-year-old rebel writing for Rosa Luxemburg’s Die Rote Fahne, which translates to The Red Flag. It was a communist newspaper <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/obituaries/guenter-reimann-economic-publisher-is-dead-at-100.html?_r=0">described</a> by the New York Times as “a party organ.”
The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/mar/01/guardianobituaries.germany">reported</a> at the time of Reimann’s death:
<blockquote>…he worked underground with German social democrats and communist resistance fighters, fully aware that this might prove a terminal decision. Indeed, by 1934 the Gestapo was closing in. Nazi officials raided his house and arrested his student guest, Hu Lan-Xi, who would go on to become the Red Army’s first female general.</blockquote>
Reimann soon left Berlin and went into exile. By 1938, he was living in New York City with political refugee status, then acquired U.S. citizenship in 1944. Two years later, his son, John, was born.
John Reimann, who is white, would relocate to Oakland, California, during the turbulent 1960s, where Melina was born in 1972. Abdullah’s mother, who is black, was an elementary school teacher and volunteered at a breakfast program run by the Black Panther Party. Abdullah told <a href="https://thelandmag.com/the-people-v-melina-abdullah/">TheLAnd Magazine</a> that she was raised mostly by her mother, and her oldest friends and mentors are former Black Panthers.
Abdullah’s father, John Reimann, is a self-proclaimed <a href="https://www.laweekly.com/these-savvy-women-have-made-black-lives-matter-the-most-crucial-left-wing-movement-today/">Trotskyist</a> – a philosophy that advocates global socialism through continuing revolution. He worked for the Carpenters Union in the Bay Area, retired, and was part of Occupy Oakland at its beginning stages.
In 2012, he <a href="https://archive.iww.org/PDF/history/library/Reimann/Politics%20of%20Occupy%20Oakland.pdf">wrote</a> “The Politics of Occupy Oakland – A Marxist Viewpoint,” predicting:
<blockquote>Occupy Oakland and the Occupy movement in general is the warning of a far wider movement yet to come. As with Occupy, that wider movement will ultimately rise or fall, it will live or die, based on bold, defiant action and clear ideas. First and foremost must be opposition to capitalism itself.</blockquote>
The following year, the Black Lives Matter movement was born after a neighborhood watch volunteer was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on July 13, 2013.
Since then, Abdullah has consistently spoken out against capitalism while building the L.A. chapter, often encouraging supporters to “disrupt white capitalism” at BLM demonstrations organized around officer-involved shootings and alleged police misconduct.
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Capitalism makes us&#8230;working class folks&#8230;believe that we are in competition with one another because viewing each other as adversaries allows capitalism to thrive. We topple capitalist oppression when we work in cooperation. Solidarity.
&mdash; Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) <a href="https://twitter.com/DocMellyMel/status/1033376619778400256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Under her leadership, BLM-LA has <a href="https://www.blmla.org/who-we-are#ourteam">established</a> an action team to guide protests. A policy team engages in local and statewide initiatives “that disrupt practices of state violence.” An education team targets public schools, and a communications team that works with professional media consultants to shape news narratives and amplify BLM’s signal to a wider audience. Abdullah has also forged alliances with several other activist groups, the ACLU, SEIU, the largest teachers union in town, and woke celebrities.
Abdullah has involved her two teenaged daughters in her organizing efforts in L.A. public schools, continuing the family legacy of community organizing going back four generations. The sisters co-founded the BLM Youth Vanguard in 2015, which consists of children and adolescents ages 6 to 18. The student-activist group has focused on abolishing cops from the nation’s second-largest public education system, which has its own police department. Time Magazine <a href="http://time.com/5463721/most-influential-teens-2018/">honored</a> one of Abdullah&#8217;s daughters, then 15, as one of the nation’s most influential teens in 2018.
Abdullah isn&#8217;t just a hardcore Marxist ideologically, her tactics follow the radical Marxist playbook. And sometimes, as her rivals in the black L.A. organizing scene <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-l-a-activist-demands-blm-leader-step-down-after-cheap-publicity-stunt-at-d-a-s-home">say</a>, those tactics cross the line into public acts of intimidation.
Case in point, BLM-LA has constantly bird-dogged the top law enforcement official in the region, L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who is up for reelection in November. Abdullah and other demonstrators showed up at her home earlier this year, banged on a drum, and rang her doorbell around 5:30 am.
The incident culminated with Lacey’s husband pointing a handgun out the couple’s front door. He then threatened to shoot Abdullah and ordered the trespassers to leave his property. BLM-LA’s communications team ensured <a href="https://twitter.com/Jasmyne/status/1234477040365031424">partial video</a> of the encounter went viral.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a> This morning Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s husband pulled a gun out on Black Lives Matter activists who protested his wife in front of their house. <a href="https://twitter.com/BLMLA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BLMLA</a> <a href="https://t.co/wnCFMMvaWV">pic.twitter.com/wnCFMMvaWV</a>
&mdash; Jasmyne Cannick (@Jasmyne) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jasmyne/status/1234477040365031424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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“Are you going to shoot me?” Abdullah can be heard asking.
“I will shoot you,” David Lacey responded. “Get off of my porch.”
The California attorney general’s office is currently <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-29/california-attorney-general-reviewing-gun-incident-jackie-lacey-husband">investigating</a> the case to determine whether Mr. Lacey committed a crime.
Abdullah and other Black Lives Matter members have also made uninvited visits to the homes of an LAPD commissioner, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and organized several protests outside Mayor Eric Garcetti’s house.
While demonstrating against a police shooting in 2016, Abdullah appeared to taunt Garcetti from his front yard. She posted a video to Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLDH6m9jCov/?utm_source=ig_embed">saying</a>, “You don’t get to kill our kids and think your kid gets to sleep in peace…we’re bringing the hood to you.” Garcetti’s daughter, Maya, was four years old at the time.
Last summer, the L.A. City Attorney’s Office <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/los-angeles-drops-all-criminal-charges-against-jeffrey-cawood">dismissed</a> eight criminal charges against Abdullah that stemmed from her disruptive antics at LAPD Commission meetings, including alleged battery on a cop. She could have faced more than a year in jail if convicted. Prosecutors had agreed to drop all charges if Abdullah adhered to behavioral guidelines for six months. Her pro-bono legal team is headlined by Carl E. Douglas, best known as a member of O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” of defense attorneys and a 12-year protégé of the late Johnnie Cochran.
After the charges were officially dismissed, Abdullah’s counsel <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-11/black-lives-matter-leader-sues-city-ex-police-chief-beck">filed</a> a federal lawsuit accusing the city attorney’s office of malicious prosecution and the LAPD of wrongful arrest.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-and-teachers-union-work-as-partners-to-end-repressive-policing-in-schools">Black Lives Matter And Teachers Union Work As Partners To End ‘Repressive’ Policing In Schools</a>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Melina Abdullah

Black Lives Matter Leader’s Campaign To Cancel Capitalism Shaped By Marxist Upbringing

Communism

On the same day that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) posted a series of warnings to residents about maintaining mandated social distancing measures, including wearing face masks and avoiding gatherings with &#8220;anybody except for those you live with,&#8221; the Los Angeles Police Department posted a photograph of thousands gathered in the city for a social justice protest.
On Wednesday, Garcetti, whose profile photo on Twitter is now a picture of him wearing a black face mask, posted a series of reminders and warnings ahead of the July Fourth weekend.
&#8220;COVID-19 has taken control, and we need to take control back. That’s what we did in March, April and May, when we sacrificed, stayed safer at home and saved lives — we need that same commitment to flatten the curve now,&#8221; the Democratic mayor wrote in one of several COVID-19 themed posts (below). &#8220;We were the first major city to require face coverings, and we must continue to wear them,&#8221; he added in another tweet. &#8220;Gathering with anybody except for those you live with may spread this virus. And that’s why more businesses and places where people gather indoors are closing or must operate differently.&#8221;
&#8220;This 4th of July weekend, please wear face coverings and avoid gatherings,&#8221; he wrote in a post pinned to the top of his page. &#8220;This is a critical time in our fight against COVID-19. Beaches, piers, and beach bike paths in the City and County of L.A. will be closed from Friday, July 3 to Monday, July 6.&#8221;
&#8220;We will begin posting the COVID threat level at <a class="r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-1ny4l3l r-1ddef8g r-qvutc0 css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406" dir="ltr" title="http://Coronavirus.LACity.org/ThreatLevel" role="link" href="https://t.co/8biEGuYjcA?amp=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-focusable="true" data-nguardprocessed="true">http://Coronavirus.LACity.org/ThreatLevel</a> using the colors red, orange, yellow, and green. Today we’re at orange — the risk of infection remains high and you should stay at home as often as you can and only leave for essential activities,&#8221; Garcetti warned residents in another post. Prior to that post, Garcetti noted that the risk level had become high enough that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had &#8220;announced that indoor dining at restaurants is no longer allowed in our county.&#8221;
On the same day Garcetti was ordering residents to stay home, LAPD posted a photo and subsequent traffic advisory that one local reporter noted has resulted in blowback for officials.
&#8220;LAPD is monitoring a peaceful protest between City Hall and the Hall of Justice,&#8221; Commanding Officer Rick Stabile tweeted Wednesday along with an image of thousands gathered for the protest. &#8220;Please adhere to social distancing protocols,&#8221; Stabile added.
&#8220;TRAFFIC ADVISORY: There is a protest in the area of Temple and Spring Street in Downtown LA,&#8221; LAPD HQ posted regarding the massive protest Wednesday evening. &#8220;Please avoid the area, if possible, as there are street closures and heavier traffic than usual.&#8221;
&#8220;LAPD just posted this photo of people protesting tonight,&#8221; wrote KTLA&#8217;s Christina Pascucci, as noted by <a href="https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/07/02/thousands-gather-to-protest-in-los-angeles-as-the-state-bans-large-gatherings-for-july-4th-celebrations/">Twitchy</a>. &#8220;People are messaging me, asking how this is allowed, with no social distancing, when hours ago Governor [Newsom] said we shouldn’t even see our family for a July 4th gathering this weekend, unless we live with them.&#8221;
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TRAFFIC ADVISORY: There is a protest in the area of Temple and Spring Street in Downtown LA. Please avoid the area, if possible, as there are street closures and heavier traffic than usual. <a href="https://t.co/8WPyfCPmHJ">https://t.co/8WPyfCPmHJ</a>
&mdash; LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ/status/1278487969343565824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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LAPD just posted this photo of people protesting tonight. People are messaging me, asking how this is allowed, with no social distancing, when hours ago Governor <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GavinNewsom</a> said we shouldn’t even see our family for a July 4th gathering this weekend, unless we live with them. <a href="https://t.co/ONq78nCok7">pic.twitter.com/ONq78nCok7</a>
&mdash; Christina Pascucci (@ChristinaKTLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristinaKTLA/status/1278499560239755264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Ahead of his series of warnings about maintaining mandated social distancing measures on Wednesday, Garcetti also pledged the city&#8217;s support for the focus of the protests: social justice and radical police reform.
&#8220;We cannot let this moment come and go without positive change in our cities and our country,&#8221; he tweeted Wednesday. &#8220;We must reform policing and further invest in wealth building and health building in the Black community.&#8221;
Some of Garcetti&#8217;s Wednesday posts below:
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We cannot let this moment come and go without positive change in our cities and our country. We must reform policing and further invest in wealth building and health building in the Black community. <a href="https://t.co/7UerFRTAgt">https://t.co/7UerFRTAgt</a>
&mdash; MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1278436850731028487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Join me live for the latest steps we’re taking to protect Angelenos from the COVID-19 crisis and how you should stay safe this holiday weekend. <a href="https://t.co/b6k9Qvg25R">https://t.co/b6k9Qvg25R</a>
&mdash; MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1278482296136335360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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We were the first major city to require face coverings, and we must continue to wear them. Gathering with anybody except for those you live with may spread this virus. And that’s why more businesses and places where people gather indoors are closing or must operate differently.
&mdash; MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1278486568546648064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We will begin posting the COVID threat level at <a href="https://t.co/8biEGuYjcA">https://t.co/8biEGuYjcA</a> using the colors red, orange, yellow, and green. Today we’re at orange — the risk of infection remains high and you should stay at home as often as you can and only leave for essential activities. <a href="https://t.co/ACACMFGKaj">pic.twitter.com/ACACMFGKaj</a>
&mdash; MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1278515878540140546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Eric Garcetti

SEE IT: Same Day L.A. Mayor Says ‘Avoid Gatherings’ For July 4th, LAPD Posts Photo Of Thousands Gathered For Protest

Coronavirus

COVID-19

CNN&#8217;s Chris Cuomo attacked Mark McCloskey, the man who recently defended his home with a rifle from a large mob of angry demonstrators in St. Louis, during an interview on Tuesday night and was taken aback when McCloskey fired back with a zinger.
“It’s just a horrible picture of what’s going on in America right now, so to me it’s not about what’s right and what’s wrong just in a court of law,&#8221; Cuomo said. &#8220;It’s about what we want, right and wrong, about how we treat each other and that’s why the president retweeted this tweet, Mr. Watkins. You know it and Mr. McCloskey, you know it.&#8221;
&#8220;He retweeted it because he liked the image of white resistance to this movement, and I’m not saying that was fair to you, but we know that’s why he did it because that’s why he deleted it,&#8221; Cuomo continued. &#8220;I wanted you to speak for yourself.&#8221;
Cuomo was apparently talking about a video from ABC News that showed the incident on Sunday night where angry demonstrators illegally trespassed onto his private property, and McCloskey met them with a rifle and told them to leave the property.
McCloskey fired back, &#8220;I’m glad you’re a mind reader because no one else thinks you are.&#8221;
McCloskey&#8217;s statement seemed to throw Cuomo off-balance as he then tried to explain what he was trying to say.
NewsBusters&#8217; Managing Editor Curtis Houck highlighted one of the clips from the interview on Twitter, writing: &#8220;Chris Cuomo ends with back-handed swipes at Mark McCloskey as an image of whiteness and opposition to Black Lives Matter, so McCloskey fires back with some [fire].&#8221;
WATCH:
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Chris Cuomo ends with back-handed swipes at Mark McCloskey as an image of whiteness and opposition to Black Lives Matter, so McCloskey fires back with some 🔥🔥🔥🔥 : &quot;I&#39;m glad you&#39;re a mind reader because no one else thinks you are.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ewowmBeSFg">pic.twitter.com/ewowmBeSFg</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1278144458731720708?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Cuomo continued to ask McCloskey loaded questions throughout the interview, including, &#8220;How do you feel about becoming the face of political resistance to the Black Lives Matter movement?&#8221;
&#8220;First of all, that&#8217;s a completely ridiculous statement,&#8221; McCloskey responded. &#8220;I am not the face of anything opposing the Black Lives Matters movement. I was a person scared for my life, who was protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood.&#8221;
&#8220;I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate,&#8221; McCloskey said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t care what color they were. I didn&#8217;t care what their motivation was. I was frightened. I was assaulted, and I was in imminent fear they would run me over, kill me, burn my house. And you have to listen to context in St. Louis where in June 2nd of this year, I watched the city burn, I watched the 7-11 get smashed in, looted, and burned for 40 minutes on live television with nobody showing up to do anything. And I realized at that time, we&#8217;re on our own.&#8221;
&#8220;When bad things happen, they unpredictably turn real bad, real fast,&#8221; McCloskey concluded. &#8220;That same night, retired St. Louis police captain David Doran was murdered. These things get very bad very quickly. When those people came through the gate, when it was a mob, I didn&#8217;t take the time to see their birth certificates or anything else, I was defending my — my house, my life, my wife and what I spent 32 years building there.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Predictably, Chris Cuomo doesn&#39;t like when people come up to him with his family, but if you&#39;re someone like Mark McCloskey, he doesn&#39;t care about your safety. Instead, he lectures McCloskey as the one who was in the wrong, not the mob. 
Thankfully, McCloskey kicked his ass. <a href="https://t.co/2XjNnD0AOX">pic.twitter.com/2XjNnD0AOX</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1278142013171433474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Cuomo McCloskey

CNN’s Cuomo Takes ‘Back-Handed Swipes’ At Man Who Protected Home With Rifle. Homeowner Shuts Him Down.

Chris Cuomo

Seattle law enforcement officials launched an effort early Wednesday morning to retake the Capital Hill neighborhood that fringe activists occupied for weeks. The law enforcement action comes after multiple people were shot and two teenagers killed.
&#8220;Due to ongoing violence and public safety issues in the East Precinct/Cal Anderson Park area. Mayor Jenny Durkan has issued an executive order to vacate the area,&#8221; the Seattle Police Department said in a statement Wednesday morning. &#8220;Seattle police will be in the area this morning enforcing the Mayor’s order.&#8221;
&#8220;Since demonstrations at the East Precinct area began on June 8th, two teenagers have been killed and three people have been seriously wounded in late-night shootings,&#8221; the department added. &#8220;Police have also documented robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes.&#8221;
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Since demonstrations at the East Precinct area began on June 8th, two teenagers have been killed and three people have been seriously wounded in late-night shootings. Police have also documented robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes.
&mdash; Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeattlePD/status/1278297815433637888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Journalist Andy Ngo, who covers extremists on the political Left, wrote: &#8220;Tons of trash and junk remain on the streets of CHAZ. Despite promises to hold the territory by any means necessary, protesters didn’t put up much resistance this morning. CHAZ was retaken by police in a matter of minutes.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Tons of trash and junk remain on the streets of CHAZ. Despite promises to hold the territory by any means necessary, protesters didn’t put up much resistance this morning. CHAZ was retaken by police in a matter of minutes.
&mdash; Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1278305868597964800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The fringe activists had taken over the area after protests and riots broke out across the country in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.
President Donald Trump had suggested that the streets needed to be dominated by law enforcement officials and that the mayhem needed to be ended quickly.
&#8220;How long do you think Seattle in those few blocks looks like this?&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Chris Cuomo asked Seattle Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan last month.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; Durkan responded. &#8220;We could have the Summer of Love.&#8221;
President Donald Trump responded to Durkan&#8217;s remarks by writing on Twitter: &#8220;Seattle Mayor says, about the anarchists takeover of her city, &#8216;it is a Summer of Love&#8217;. These Liberal Dems don’t have a clue. The terrorists burn and pillage our cities, and they think it is just wonderful, even the death. Must end this Seattle takeover now!&#8221;
&#8220;Seattle is fine,&#8221; Durkan responded. &#8220;Don’t be so afraid of democracy.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Seattle is fine. Don’t be so afraid of democracy. <a href="https://t.co/o26PkJnYhA">https://t.co/o26PkJnYhA</a>
&mdash; Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorJenny/status/1271575306587889665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Durkan has since changed her tune after demonstrators showed up at her home earlier this week.
The mayor’s office <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/seattle-mayor-defended-activists-in-chop-zone-as-having-summer-of-love-then-they-came-to-her-house">responded</a> by releasing the following statement at the start of the week:
<blockquote>Seattle has a long tradition of peaceful protest and advocacy for progressive change, and Mayor Durkan strongly supports those rights. Mayor Durkan will continue to listen to leaders in Seattle’s Black community. She is working hard to translate the calls for change into real, tangible systemic changes to policing and all the other systems needed for strong and healthy communities. She has prioritized these as Mayor, with investments in housing, education, youth opportunity, and economic equity. She proposes investing an additional $100 million into the Black community.
Mayor Durkan and her family are in the state program to keep their address confidential because of the death threats mostly related to her work as Seattle’s U.S. Attorney under President Obama. Instead of working to make true change, Councilmember Sawant continues to choose political stunts. Tonight she did so without regard for the safety of the Mayor and her family. The Mayor was not even home — she was working at City Hall. Seattle can and should peacefully demonstrate but should not put families and children at risk.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Police in Riot Gear During WTO Protests

Seattle Police Retaking Capitol Hill Neighborhood Occupied By Leftist Activists For Weeks

Antifa

Jenny Durkan

Seattle

Seattle Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan previously defended the left-wing activists who camped out in a so-called &#8220;autonomous zone&#8221; for a couple of weeks, saying that they were having a &#8220;summer of love.&#8221; Durkan&#8217;s rhetoric about the activists, including a councilwoman who&#8217;s helping lead them, changed dramatically after they showed up to her home to &#8220;protest.&#8221;
Durkan had announced last week that Seattle was going to begin dismantling the &#8220;CHOP&#8221; zone after multiple acts of violence broke out in the police-free area, including multiple shootings.
After Durkan announced that the area would be getting closed down, far-left Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant reportedly led a protest at Durkan&#8217;s home, the address of which is confidential due to security concerns.
The mayor&#8217;s office initially responded by releasing the following statement at the start of the week:
<blockquote>Seattle has a long tradition of peaceful protest and advocacy for progressive change, and Mayor Durkan strongly supports those rights. Mayor Durkan will continue to listen to leaders in Seattle&#8217;s Black community. She is working hard to translate the calls for change into real, tangible systemic changes to policing and all the other systems needed for strong and healthy communities. She has prioritized these as Mayor, with investments in housing, education, youth opportunity, and economic equity. She proposes investing an additional $100 million into the Black community.
Mayor Durkan and her family are in the state program to keep their address confidential because of the death threats mostly related to her work as Seattle&#8217;s U.S. Attorney under President Obama. Instead of working to make true change, Councilmember Sawant continues to choose political stunts. Tonight she did so without regard for the safety of the Mayor and her family. The Mayor was not even home — she was working at City Hall. Seattle can and should peacefully demonstrate but should not put families and children at risk.</blockquote>
On Tuesday night, Durkan&#8217;s office released a <a href="https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/after-defundspd-speech-in-front-of-her-home-durkan-calls-for-city-council-to-investigate-expel-sawant/">letter</a> she sent to Seattle City Council President M. Lorena González in which she called for an investigation into Sawant and suggested that Sawant needed to be expelled from the city council. Durkan called for an investigation into the following incidents:
<ul>
<li>Relinquishing authority of her office and disregarding City employment and hiring rules. In Councilmember Sawant’s case the media has uncovered documents suggesting that she may have effectively delegated decisions regarding hiring and termination of City employees to an outside political organization. According to the documents, the National Executive Committee and the Seattle Executive Committee of the Socialist Alternative party had authority over staffing decisions for the City Council office. At least one employee was allegedly fired as the result of a decision of the Executive Committee of this political organization, and that employee protested that the firing was the result of political retaliation.</li>
<li>Using her official office and equipment to promote and raise money for a ballot initiative (or other electioneering), and for failing to comply with public disclosure of all funds raised and spent in those activities including a website registered to her husband and promoted by Councilmember Sawant. While the SEEC (and possibly the PDC) continues to investigate, I believe it is imperative that Council conduct its own inquiry. This is important for public confidence and because it could also impact Council’s work on proposed related revenue ordinances pending before Council, as one is explicitly tied to the proposed ballot initiative. The public has a right to know that public resources of the Council are not being used in violation of campaign and ethics laws.</li>
<li>Using her official position, gave access to City facilities to admit hundreds of individuals at night into City Hall when it was closed to the public because of COVID-19 and failing to follow the City’s COVID-19 precautions for the visitors. Her actions put the safety of individuals and City workers at risk, and it led to janitorial staff making complaints about the incident because of safety concerns.</li>
<li>Using her official position and possibly staff to encourage attendants at a rally she led on June 28, 2020 to illegally “occupy” City property, the East Precinct, at a time the City has been trying to de-escalate the situation and ask individuals to depart because of violence in the area. Days earlier, members of the Black community had asked that this facility be restored as an active police facility, particularly in light of the fact it was created at the request of the Black community by actions of former Councilmember Sam Smith to serve the Central District. We have had a series of devastating gun violence around this location, including early yesterday morning on Capitol Hill.</li>
<li>Using her official position to lead a march to my home, despite the fact that it was publicly known I was not there, and she and organizers knew that my address was protected under the state confidentiality program because of threats against me due largely to my work as U.S. Attorney. All of us have joined hundreds of demonstrations across the City, but Councilmember Sawant and her followers chose to do so with reckless disregard of the safety of my family and children. In addition, during or after Councilmember Sawant’s speech at that rally, her followers vandalized my home by spray-painting obscenities.</li>
</ul>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

New Army Field Hospital Deployed At CenturyLink Field Event Center In Seattle

Seattle Mayor Defended Activists In ‘CHOP’ Zone As Having ‘Summer Of Love’; Then They Came To Her House

Along with endorsing players putting social justice messages on the backs of their jerseys, the NBA is working with the players union to paint &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; on both sides of the courts in Walt Disney World arenas, where the league will play when it resumes its coronavirus-paused season in late-July. Despite the league&#8217;s efforts to incorporate social justice themed protests into its games, some players are still planning on opting out of playing in order to focus on activism.
The NBA&#8217;s Disney courts decision follows players &#8220;insist[ing] that the fight for racial equality and social justice be a central part of the NBA&#8217;s return to play and the WNBA&#8217;s new season,&#8221; as well as several players stating they plan to stay off the court when play resumes &#8220;to focus on social justice issues,&#8221; <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29384944/nba-plans-paint-black-lives-matter-courts-orlando">ESPN</a> reports.
&#8220;The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are planning to paint &#8216;Black Lives Matter&#8217; on the court inside both sidelines in all three arenas the league will use at the Walt Disney World Resort when it resumes the 2019-20 season late next month in Orlando, Florida,&#8221; ESPN reported this week, citing league sources.
Sources told the network that the WNBA is also considering painting the slogan on the sides of courts at the IMG Academy in Florida, where the WNBA&#8217;s season will resume. Along with the reference to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-led-drive-to-defund-the-police-also-targets-capitalism">far-left organization</a> behind recent protests and riots, the WNBA is considering including the phrase &#8220;Say Her Name,&#8221; a reference to Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by police in March, on the backs of their jerseys.
NBA players have also been given the greenlight to include social justice-themed statements on the backs of their jerseys, a move first reported following a conference call with the press on Friday that including union leaders from both leagues. The leagues, they said, were in discussions with the union to allow players to put their own messages on their jerseys in order to &#8220;call attention to racial equality, social justice and police brutality,&#8221; ESPN reported.
<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-sides-of-courts-at-disney-per-report/">CBS Sports</a>&#8216; Sam Quinn praised that decision as &#8220;powerful,&#8221; but argued that it &#8220;puts the onus on players.&#8221; The decision by the league to paint the politically charged slogan on its sidelines makes clear that the league stands fully behind the players&#8217; activist message. &#8220;The league itself needed to send a message of solidarity, and is doing so with its latest decision,&#8221; Quinn writes.
Multiple players have announced that they plan to sit out the Disney games, some citing coronavirus fears, but others specifically stating that they are sitting out so they can focus their attention on social justice activism.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-launches-new-media-empire-with-100m-investment-intends-to-move-the-culture">LeBron Launches New Media Empire With $100M Investment, Intends To ‘Move The Culture’</a>
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NBA Experience

NBA To Paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ On Sides Of Disney Courts, Allow Players To Put Social Justice Messages On Jerseys

Disney

Fox News host Tucker Carlson unloaded on Republican Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) on Monday night after Braun introduced a bill that would limit the circumstances in which law enforcement officials could avoid being held personally liable in lawsuits.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-carlson-mike-braun-qualified-immunity-reform">reported</a>, &#8220;Under the bill, which Braun introduced last week, officers could only claim immunity from legal action if the conduct in question had previously been authorized or required by federal or state law or regulation, or if a court had ruled the conduct was lawful and Constitutional.&#8221;
Carlson unloaded on Braun for his recent support of the far-left activist group Black Lives Matter and for his recent remarks about the shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, who was killed after he resisted arrest and fired a taser at a law enforcement officer.
&#8220;Black Lives Matter has of course called for the murder of police officers,&#8221; said Carlson. &#8220;Why do you support it and are there any other race-specific revolutionary movements that you support? &#8230; Have you read their web site? Are you in favor of abolishing the nuclear family? What do you support, exactly, in Black Lives Matter?&#8221;
&#8220;Not at all,&#8221; said Braun. &#8220;I support anybody that does have a grievance to be able to air it and that is it. That doesn’t mean all lives don’t matter, it just means that if you think a certain sector of society has a grievance, it ought to be through transparency and a willingness to debate it and get it out there.&#8221;
Carlson then pressed Braun on his comments about Brooks. &#8220;We just showed tape of you, Senator, saying that we need to make it easier to sue the police because of the egregious incidents like the death of Rayshard Brooks. You said you wanted to speak about specifics. Do you believe that he was killed unjustly? Do you believe Officer Rolfe deserves the death penalty, which he now faces? What did you mean by that?&#8221;
&#8220;I believe you ought to have the ability just like when anyone civil rights would be violated that you’ve got access to due process to have your case heard,&#8221; Braun responded.
&#8220;He’s been charged, they have the right to sue him under qualified immunity, as you know since you&#8217;re writing the change to the law. So that’s irrelevant,&#8221; said the host. &#8220;I’m asking about the case, you cited it. Do you believe the officer now facing the death penalty deserves to face the death penalty? And if you don’t, tell us what he should have done.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that will be determined by the courts,&#8221; said Braun, later saying, &#8220;you don’t shoot somebody in the back.&#8221;
When they addressed Braun&#8217;s police reform bill, Carlson asked, &#8220;So what law enforcement groups are endorsing your bill?&#8221;
&#8220;They&#8217;re not endorsing it, but they said it was a good place to work from,&#8221; said the senator.
&#8220;If you care what they think, why don’t you write something they’ll endorse?&#8221; said Carlson, adding later: &#8220;The country&#8217;s burning, not because cops are burning it down, but because the mob is. But you think the morally culpable party is the police, so you’re making it easier for left-wing groups to see them? Am I missing something?&#8221;
During the interview, Carlson also pressed Braun for not doing more to help those who are the backbone of the Republican Party: business owners.
&#8220;Are you making it easier for business owners to sue the mob for burning their businesses down?&#8221; Carlson said. &#8220;I haven’t noticed that bill coming out of the Senate.&#8221;
Video and transcript below:
<iframe title="Tucker clashes with GOP Senator over police reform in contentious interview" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-pfa0WQFm9A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
<blockquote>FOX NEWS HOST TUCKER CARLSON: As you’ve seen in excruciating detail, no institution in American life has come under more ferocious attacks than local police departments. In Minneapolis, police being abolished entirely. In Los Angeles and New York, their funding is being slashed dramatically. In cities across the country, monuments to the police are being vandalized or ripped down. In the city of Atlanta, officer Garrett Rolfe faces the death penalty for shooting a man called Rayshard Brooks after he stole his taser and fired at him. So what are Republican officeholders doing in the face of this unprecedented attack on our laws and on public safety itself? Well, not a lot. Few have stepped up to defend the police from totally bogus accusations of &#8216;systemic racism,&#8217; some are repeating that slur. One Republican has gone farther than that. As we told you last week, Senator Mike Braun of Indiana has introducted legislation to make it easier for left-wing activists to sue police officers. We must do this, Senator Braun explained in part because Rayshard Brooks’ death was egregious.
[START VIDEO]
SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): I wanted to put a template out there that protects law enforcement from frivolous lawsuits but holds the egregious departments and individuals accountable in these instances of a George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, or Breonna Taylor.
[END VIDEO]
CARLSON: In case you suspect we somehow selectively edited that clip, here&#8217;s Republican Senator Braun going all the way in endorsing Black Lives Matter.
[START VIDEO]
REPORTER: Do you support the black lives matter movement?
BRAUN: I support that movement because it is addressing an inequity that has not been solved from a grassroots level.
[END VIDEO]
CARLSON: After a segment on Thursday, Senator Braun asked to come on this show to detail his position and of course we&#8217;re happy to have him, thank you so much for coming on. Before I ask you about qualified immunity and your attempts to water it down, I was very surprised by that endorsement that you gave on camera of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter has of course called for the murder of police officers. Why do you support it and are there any other race-specific revolutionary movements that you support?
BRAUN: So, Tucker, thanks for having me on in the first place, I know when you came out, and I like it when somebody does challenge especially something like this, when you’re talking about changing something that’s been around for a while and I come from mainstreet. Your viewers are my supporters and I&#8217;ve got one of the most conservative voting records.
CARLSON: I don&#8217;t know about that.
BRAUN: No, that’s true. You’d have to check with them just like I checked with the Indiana State Police, Indiana Sheriffs Association, Fraternal Order of Police spent over an hour with them last week to make sure I wasn’t off-base and here’s where I come from&#8211;
CARLSON: I&#8217;m sorry, i’m confused, really quick. You&#8217;re off base in your support of Black Lives Matter? Your endorsement that you just gave? Have you read their web site? Are you in favor of abolishing the nuclear family? What do you support, exactly, in Black Lives Matter?
BRAUN: Not at all. I support anybody that does have a grievance to be able to air it and that is it. That doesn’t mean all lives don’t matter, it just means that if you think a certain sector of society has a grievance, it ought to be through transparency and a willingness to debate it and get it out there. I&#8217;m going to always go on the merits of the particular case and going back to what I learned last week, first of all, law enforcement in Indiana thought I was talking about eliminating it or drastically modifying it. This was to define that sweet spot to where they said they are being unduly stigmatized because of these events because in some cases, their own aren’t held accountable, and when they knew that, they basically said we need to be in the discussion. Look how we got with Obamacare when we refused to discuss it 10 years ago.
CARLSON: I’m sorry, we just showed tape of you Senator saying that we need to make it easier to sue the police because of the egregious incidents like the death of Rayshard Brooks. You said you wanted to speak about specifics. Do you believe that he was killed unjustly? Do you believe Officer Rolfe deserves the death penalty, which he now faces? What did you mean by that?
BRAUN: I believe you ought to have the ability just like when anyone civil rights would be violated that you’ve got access to due process to have your case heard.
CARLSON: They do have that right, qualified immunity has nothing to do with that case. He’s been charged, they have the right to sue him under qualified immunity as you know since you&#8217;re writing the change to the law. So that’s irrelevant. I’m asking about the case, you cited it. Do you believe the officer now facing the death penalty deserves to face the death penalty? And if you don’t, tell us what he should have done.
BRAUN: I think that will be determined by the courts.
CARLSON: You cited it. What do you think of it? You’re the one who called it egregious, so why don’t you tell us what officer Rolfe should have done when this man fired a taser at him. What do you think?
BRAUN: I think that you should have had the judgment in a traffic stop like that, you don’t shoot somebody in the back, so, if we keep doing that&#8211;
CARLSON: Hold on. I want you to explain. I think it’s fair. You are an office holder. I don’t normally press people like this but it’s not fair for you to filibuster without answering the question which is very simple. The officer facing the death penalty had a guy fire a weapon at him, what should he have done then?
BRAUN: Probably not have killed the guy.
CARLSON: What should he have done? You&#8217;re not saying its egregious. Let him go?
BRAUN: Do you think he was going to get away? They were going to find him.
CARLSON: You tell me. You’re the one judging the officer, so maybe you could explain why you’re judging him.
BRAUN: Tucker, that’ll all come out in the court process and all I’m saying, let me finish this, if we don’t get better at it for all of us on mainstreet, Democrats are going to spin it, Chuck Schumer has already decided he can make hay of this in the election and we will end up on the short side of it again.
CARLSON: Who controls the senate? Does Chuck Schumer control it? I thought republicans controlled the senate? so you’re taking your cues from chuck schumer? You&#8217;re saying Chuck Schumer might criticize me and therefore i have to pass a law that makes it easier to sue police?
BRAUN: Tucker, you know you have to have 60 votes in the senate to get anything done.
CARLSON: They&#8217;re about to change that when they take over.
BRAUN: You can check my record, I stand on it and even law enforcement in Indiana thinks in some of these cases, it is giving them a bad name and bad apples, there ought to be due process therefore the victims.
CARLSON: So what law enforcement groups are endorsing your bill?
BRAUN: They&#8217;re not endorsing it but they said it was a good place to work from.
CARLSON: Well, why aren’t they endorsing it then? You’ve cited them twice as supporters of this idea but they’re not endorsing your bill so they don’t actually support it, so why are you bringing them up as evidence that it’s a good idea?
BRAUN: They think it’s a better idea to be in the discussion then to be outside of it.
CARLSON: If you care what they think, why don’t you write something they’ll endorse?
BRAUN: That doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t get there. That’s not going to be done today. The Democrats now think they can win with it in the election, and that’s why we need to be engaged now in a way that would have kept it on the table.
CARLSON: So you need to write a bill that law enforcement won&#8217;t endorse? The country&#8217;s burning, not because cops are burning it down but because the mob is, but you think the morally culpable party is the police so you’re making it easier for left-wing groups to see them? Am I missing something?
BRAUN: You are missing it, but you&#8217;re trying to put words in my mouth.
CARLSON: I’m not.
BRAUN: I don’t justify any of the looting, any of the rioting, and if you don’t address the underlying issue, you think it’s going to fix itself on its own? You think it&#8217;s going to get better?
CARLSON: You think the underlying issue is Rayshard Brooks being shot? So, you’re telling me that what’s happening now is the result of police behavior, it&#8217;s the fault of the police? That’s what you’re saying?
BRAUN: No, I’m saying what they are getting by with on the other side is trying to generalize on the specific and they will get away with it if we decide to do nothing. That’s just a general disagreement and approach.
CARLSON: Are you making it easier for business owners to sue the mob for burning their businesses down? I haven’t noticed that bill coming out of the senate.
BRAUN: If we are not in the discussion, we are going to be on the sidelines like we are on so many issues as conservatives because we failed to engage and they run circles around us in the end run.
CARLSON: You think you’re going to keep the senate in the fall on this platform?
BRAUN: I think we are going to keep the Senate if we at least are willing to engage in issues that are important to the American public and that we don’t always stand on the sidelines until it’s too late. It’s more about when you get involved in the issues.
CARLSON: I don’t think the public supports you at all on this.
BRAUN: I think law enforcement knows they need to have a better system than what they’ve got now because it is stigmatizing them.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

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Defund The Police

Bodycam Footage Released Of Critical Shooting Of Black Man After Mental Health Crisis Call

WALSH: The Mob Is Trying To Destroy America Over Imaginary Oppression. Here’s Why.

SHAPIRO: Not All Black Lives Matter To Black Lives Matter

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SEE IT: Same Day L.A. Mayor Says ‘Avoid Gatherings’ For July 4th, LAPD Posts Photo Of Thousands Gathered For Protest

CNN’s Cuomo Takes ‘Back-Handed Swipes’ At Man Who Protected Home With Rifle. Homeowner Shuts Him Down.

Seattle Police Retaking Capitol Hill Neighborhood Occupied By Leftist Activists For Weeks

Seattle Mayor Defended Activists In ‘CHOP’ Zone As Having ‘Summer Of Love’; Then They Came To Her House

NBA To Paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ On Sides Of Disney Courts, Allow Players To Put Social Justice Messages On Jerseys

WATCH: Tucker Carlson Unloads On Republican Senator Mike Braun Over Police Reform Bill

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Defund The Police

Bodycam Footage Released Of Critical Shooting Of Black Man After Mental Health Crisis Call

WALSH: The Mob Is Trying To Destroy America Over Imaginary Oppression. Here’s Why.

SHAPIRO: Not All Black Lives Matter To Black Lives Matter

8 Ways Black Lives Matter Activists Changed The Nation’s Largest Criminal Justice System

Trump-Supporting Dem Congressman: ‘Joe Biden Is The Full-Blooded Bigot’

CNN’s Don Lemon: Black Lives Matter Movement Is Not About ‘All Black Lives Matter’

WATCH: Terry Crews, CNN’s Don Lemon Battle Over Black Lives Matter’s Agenda

Dem-Controlled Rochester Explodes: 13 Shot, 1 Stabbed; Cops Assaulted While Tending To 16-Year-Old Shot In Face

Protester Fatally Struck By Car After ‘Black Femme March’ Blocks Freeway; Driver Arrested, Identified

Lebanese-American Officer, 26, Killed In Line Of Duty July 4; Sibling Gives Impassioned Defense Of Police: ‘My Brother Didn’t Deserve To Die’

‘Absurd, Crazy, Ridiculous’: Black Leaders Slam Minneapolis City Council’s Plan To Defund The Police

WATCH: Press Secretary Shuts Down Reporter Outraged Over Trump’s BLM ‘Symbol Of Hate’ Comment

De Blasio Calls NYC City Hall Protests ‘Vile’ But Won’t Break Up ‘Autonomous Zone’

Black Lives Matter Leader’s Campaign To Cancel Capitalism Shaped By Marxist Upbringing

SEE IT: Same Day L.A. Mayor Says ‘Avoid Gatherings’ For July 4th, LAPD Posts Photo Of Thousands Gathered For Protest

CNN’s Cuomo Takes ‘Back-Handed Swipes’ At Man Who Protected Home With Rifle. Homeowner Shuts Him Down.

Seattle Police Retaking Capitol Hill Neighborhood Occupied By Leftist Activists For Weeks

Seattle Mayor Defended Activists In ‘CHOP’ Zone As Having ‘Summer Of Love’; Then They Came To Her House

NBA To Paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ On Sides Of Disney Courts, Allow Players To Put Social Justice Messages On Jerseys

WATCH: Tucker Carlson Unloads On Republican Senator Mike Braun Over Police Reform Bill

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