Trial Lawyers for the Win

Have you heard the one about people who told the truth about bigot Charlie Kirk winning lawsuits against the employers who fired them?

Well, you have now.

Big props to Drew Pittock and BrieAnna J. Frank of USA Today for sussing out something I’d been curious about for months. You may recall that, in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, and in the teeth of gale-force wing-nut keening, some people posted some of Kirk’s own words as a kind of corrective. Some other people posted admittedly tasteless reactions as well. Fearing the vengeance of the cult, major institutions, including government agencies and universities, fired these social-media miscreants. Many of those people turned around and sued the institutions in question. And, with discussion of reparation payments all the rage these days, it’s fit that we point out that some of the victims of cowardice and mob rule are cashing out in a big way.

Settlements totaling more than $1.5 million have been reached so far with people who lost their jobs over social media posts that were critical of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination.

The free-speech cases in Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana highlight a growing debate surrounding the First Amendment, political discourse and social media. It’s “not surprising to see this flurry of settlements,” Aaron Terr, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s director of public advocacy, told USA Today. “I think the size and frequency of these settlements shows that violating the First Amendment is expensive.” ... USA Today reported a little more than two weeks after Kirk was killed, at least 50 people had lost their jobs in the education sector alone. A Reuters investigation also found that 600 people were fired across the private sector for posts they shared about Kirk.

Vice President J Divan Vance, who has demonstrated the democratic soul of an ambitious Stasi recruit, led the mob. He told people to inform on their colleagues who did not memorialize the deceased at a proper volume. Now that everything’s calmed down, the bill is coming due for what happened to people like a Tennessee cop named Larry Bushart.

Mess with the bull, you get the horns.

My Thoughts and Prayers for That Innocent Brown Recluse Spider

It appears that spree-killer Kyle Rittenhouse has been hospitalized following a bite from the highly venomous arachnid.

I can only imagine the agony of the spider when it encountered that much evil, bigotry and bile in its mouth. 

Just When You Thought That the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Was Irrelevant

A gunman broke through some of the security at the WHC dinner, and Trump was rushed off site. (No deaths reported)

We need to return to the days when the threat to the President was biting sarcasm from Stephen Colbert, Michelle Wolfe, and Craig Ferguson. 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

It appears that a man rammed his explosives laden vehicle into Michigan synagogue.

Thankfully, the explosives did not detonate.

He was subsequently shot dead by security personnel.  He was the only fatality.

A man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and drove through a hallway on Thursday died during the incident, officials said.

There were no other serious casualties at the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a suburb in Oakland county, and the FBI said it was treating the matter as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. It was not immediately clear how the driver died, but officials said security staff engaged the suspect and at least one fired shots.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, on Thursday evening. A DHS spokesperson said Ghazali was born in Lebanon, entered the US in 2011 as a spouse of a US citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016.

DHS named the suspect shortly after Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit office, said in an evening press conference that it was too soon to identify him or specify a motive for the attack. Runyan told reporters the temple remained an active crime scene and the FBI would not be sharing further information about the driver “as our goal is to protect the integrity of this investigation”.

One security guard was injured by the suspect’s vehicle and taken to the hospital, and 30 officers were treated for smoke inhalation, said Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff.

Police responded to the temple, which is home to a pre-school and family center, just after noon. The temple is about 25 miles north-west of downtown Detroit.

The driver’s vehicle caught fire in the hallway, making it difficult for investigators to immediately determine how the suspect died, Bouchard said. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the large complex, local TV aerial footage showed. CNN reported that first responders found what appeared to be explosives in the suspect’s vehicle.

Has the NRA Tried to Make Hay Out of This Yet?

As you know, there was a mass school shooting in Canada, a country which has what could be described as sane gun laws.

I am waiting for the ammosexual lobby to exploit the tragedy to argue against gun regulations.

They will argue that it happens in Canada, gun control does not work.

Truth be told, if one looks at the numbers, this is the first mass shooting in Canada this year, and the 8th since January 2025. 

By comparison, there have been 37 mass shootings in the United States this year, and 462 since January 2025.

God Bless America. 

 

Another Right Wing Terrorist Attack

Some mook sprayed Representative Ilhan Omar with an unknown substance at her town hall last night. 

It is now believed to be apple cider vinegar.  I am surprised.  I would thought that he would have used Brawndo. (It's got what plants crave)

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified substance by a man with a syringe on Tuesday as she gave her first in-person town hall of the year in Minneapolis, during which she called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished “for good” and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, to resign.

Omar had only been speaking for a few minutes when a man in the audience got up and began to shout while spraying her with the liquid. People at the meeting said the liquid had an acidic smell.

Omar walked toward the man after the alleged assault, but he was then swiftly tackled to the ground by a security guard. People inside the north Minneapolis community center gasped as the scene unfolded.

Some, such as the Minneapolis council member LaTrisha Vetaw, pleaded with Omar to end the town hall early to get examined, due to concerns for her safety because of the unidentified liquid. Omar refused to stop. “Ten minutes, I beg you … please don’t let them have the show,” she told the security team.

After the alleged attacker was subdued, there was applause from the room as he was escorted out. “Here is the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand, is that we are Minnesota strong,” the congresswoman said.

“I learned at a young age that you don’t give in to threats.”

Pretty epic response from Omar. 

BTW, the guy's social media postings show him to be a major MAGAt. 

State Sponsored Terrorism

 

ICE murdered someone else in Minneapolis, 39 year old ICU nurse Alex Pretti. 

There are multiple videos out there, but I will not be posting them here.  I am writing opinions, and not news, and as such, I don't want to post this sort of media.- 

He was attempting to help someone up who had been knocked to the ground by ICE agents.

He was then tackled, and his (legally carried and never removed from his holster) gun was removed, and while on the ground he was shot 10 times.

Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

Not allowing medical aid to arrive seems to be a theme for these thugs.

DHS and the Trump administration have stated that the mere fact that he was carrying a weapon, even if it never left its holster, justified his killing.  Various ammosexual groups have taken profound exception to these statements.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has joined other gun lobbying and advocacy groups that are typically aligned with Donald Trump in calling for the Republican president’s administration to conduct a “full investigation” into the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was shot dead by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Pretti was reportedly legally permitted to carry a gun and is a citizen of the US, where it is a constitutional right to bear arms. Widely circulated video of his shooting death does not depict him ever holding a gun. It does show an officer reaching to Pretti’s lower back and stepping away with what appeared to be a pistol – and Pretti being subsequently shot to death.

The NRA waded into the national dialogue over Pretti’s killing after Bill Essayli – who was appointed by Trump to temporarily serve as a US attorney in California in 2025 – posted on social media: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

In response, the NRA posted: “This sentiment … is dangerous and wrong. Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

Gun Owners of America, a non-profit lobbying organization, also criticized that claim from Essayli – who is now an acting first assistant US attorney for California’s central federal district court.

“Federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm,” the group posted. It added that the US constitution’s second amendment “protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting – a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”

California governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded to the NRA’s criticism of Essayli, saying on social media, “Wow. Even the NRA thinks Trump’s [justice department] stooge in California has gone too far for claiming federal agents were ‘legally justified’ to kill Alex Pretti.”

Newsom’s press office added: “Your position is truly horrible when even the NRA calls you out.”

Not only is the White House lying about what is going on, but Attorney General Pam Bondi is saying that she will pull ICE out of Minnesota if the state turns over their voter rolls in their entirety, so that the Trump administration can use this data to suppress votes from areas that they think will go Democratic Party.

Just hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state.

In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D) Saturday, Bondi blamed state and local leaders for the unrest ignited by the Trump administration’s expansive immigration enforcement operations. She claimed that Walz could “restore the rule of law” by complying with a list of demands, including giving the Department of Justice (DOJ) the state’s voter registration records.

“Allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” Bondi said in the letter, which was first obtained by Fox News.

The letter adds the state’s unwillingness to share voting data to a litany of grievances the Trump administration has leveled against Minnesota, which range from the local Democratic leaders’ rejection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions to a longstanding welfare fraud scandal.

Bondi’s other demands included sharing Minnesota’s data on Medicaid and supplementary food assistance with the federal government, ending “sanctuary policies” and supporting and collaborating with ICE. This would allow the government to investigate fraud and curb “crime and violence” in the state, the attorney general claimed.

In sum, Bondi’s letter represents a major assault on Minnesota’s sovereignty, demanding that it forfeit its ability to make and enforce its own laws and maintain its voter rolls without oversight from the executive branch, which does not have authority over elections. 

This is blackmail, pure and simple.

Meanwhile, in an update to the Renee Good murder, at least 10 lawyers for the DoJ, 6 in Minnesota and 4 in Washington, DC, resigned over the government's refusal to investigate the shooting, as did the an FBI supervisor in Minneapolis.

Finally, and this may be the most important bit, is that extensive files on ICE incidents and personnel have been leaked.

Sensitive details of around 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees—including almost 2,000 agents working in frontline enforcement—have allegedly been released by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower following last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.

The Jan. 7 killing of the mother by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked nationwide protests and worldwide outrage, including among some DHS employees.

The alleged leak to ICE List, a self-styled “accountability initiative,” is believed to be the largest ever breach of DHS staff data. It appears to include names, work emails, telephone numbers, roles, and some resumé data, including previous jobs of federal immigration staff. 

I have not found a full downloadable version of this database.   ICE List is a Wikipedia style database, so the entire 

If any of my reader(s) know how to download the full database, do so, and post in the comments how to do so.

Headline of the Day

Americans Aren’t Traumatized Enough by Gun Violence

—The Fair Observer online journal, stating the obvious.

If Americans had been sufficiently traumatized by gun violence, they would have done something about it.

QED. 

Bodies Do Not Lie

But ICE agents do.

Case in point, (It's not Renee Nicole Good) is Geraldo Lunas Campos, where what ICE claimed as suicide was definitively ruled homicide by the local medical examiner.

This is not law enforcement. This is not immigration enforcement.  This is terrorism. 

A Cuban immigrant’s death in an El Paso detention center this month was ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the county medical examiner’s office.

The detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, became unresponsive while he was physically restrained by law enforcement on Jan. 3 at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility called Camp East Montana, the report said. Emergency medical workers tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The autopsy listed the cause of death as “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” The report also described injuries Mr. Lunas Campos had sustained to his head and neck, including burst blood vessels in the front and side of the neck, as well as on his eyelids.

………

Mr. Lunas Campos’s death has brought renewed scrutiny to the detention center this month after The Washington Post reported the episode last week. His family has asserted that he was killed by the facility’s guards, citing a witness who said he saw guards choking Mr. Lunas Campos to death. The family is preparing a wrongful-death lawsuit, according to their lawyer, Will Horowitz.

“He was being abused and beaten and choked to death,” Jeanette Pagan Lopez, the mother of two of Mr. Lunas Campos’s children, told The New York Times last week. On Wednesday, Ms. Pagan Lopez said she had not yet seen the autopsy report.

Federal officials have offered a different account of how Mr. Lunas Campos died. In a Jan. 9 news release, they said he died on Jan. 3 after experiencing medical distress, but after the Washington Post article published, they described his death as a suicide.

 

Minneapolis

Over the past few months, I have seen way too many murders. (The joys of the internet, huh?)

I know a murder when I see one, and the execution of poet Renee Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross is a murder.

This is a part of a pattern if ICE agents unloading on random people in cars.

The Feds have already effectively turfed out Minnesota law enforcement, so I expect a full court press coverup during the investigation.

The only (small) bit of hope here is the recent Supreme Court case in Barnes v. Felix, where the court said that the totality of the encounter, and not just the moment that the shots are fired, must be evaluated, so a police officer can (theoretically, at least) no longer recklessly put himself in jeopardy to justify killing someone.

What I want to see is Officer Ross put on trial and made to share a cell with Derek Chauvin.

What I expect to see is him getting a promotion, and possibly a medal for freedom from Epstein's partner in crime. 

What Happened in Australia

In Sidney Australia today (or maybe yesterday, because of the whole international date line thing) 2 gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a Chabad Hanukah event on the beach,  killing at least 16.

Of note, there was a hero there, Ahmed al Ahmed a fruit stand vendor who tackled and wrestled a gun away from one of the gunmen.

It's important to note here that Ahmed is a Muslim and an immigrant from the Middle East to Australia, and he snuck up to the gunman unarmed and tackled him.

There are additional links if you want to go further, see here, here, here, and here.

Note that anything you read online is likely to contain misinformation, so double check everything, particularly AI slop. 

It appears that Elon Musk's Grok has set a new low in misinformation and bigotry, which should surprise no one.

If you are inclined to excuse this act because of Gaza, go fuck yourself.

You Need to Read This

I just read this essay on the shooting of the two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, and you should do.

The thesis is that the shooting was not about terrorism, nor was it about immigration.

Rather it was about a kid who was recruited by the CIA into a death squad, and that this came over to the United States with him.

………

The shooter was a 29-year-old Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal. He worked for us. For a decade. He was part of what the CIA calls a “Zero Unit”—paramilitary forces trained and backed by American intelligence. Human rights groups have another name for these units: death squads.

According to the New York Times, a childhood friend of Lakanwal’s said he “suffered from mental health issues and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused.” His family told investigators he has PTSD from the fighting he did on our behalf.

We trained him to kill. We pointed him at targets. We made him part of a unit known for brutality. And then when the war ended and the Taliban took over, we brought him here—and apparently did nothing to address what we’d done to his mind. 

………

Lakanwal served in a death squad. American veterans were sent to Iraq to kick down doors, raid homes, and kill people’s families. They were sent to Afghanistan to call in drone strikes on wedding parties. They served at checkpoints where the rules of engagement meant shooting first and asking questions never. We ask human beings to do inhuman things, and then we act surprised when they can’t just switch it off.

The evidence is overwhelming: what we make people do in these wars destroys them. And destroyed people do violence. Doesn’t matter if they were born in Kandahar or Kentucky—the damage is the same. 

Not Good

The fact that I see the report of national guardsmen being shot in Washington, DC and my primary concern is that Trump will use this for his Reichstag moment.

Two West Virginia national guardsmen shot near the White House remained in critical condition on Wednesday in an attack that rattled the country’s capital.

The incident comes amid a controversial deployment of troops to Washington DC ordered by the Trump administration. FBI director Kash Patel, Washington mayor Muriel Bowser and other officials confirmed in a press conference that both the guardsmen were in the hospital and described the shooting as “targeted”.

Officials have identified a suspect, who is currently in custody, as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the United States in September 2021 under a Biden-era policy allowing Afghans to enter the country after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

We seem to be spiraling into chaos. 

The Final Word on Charlie Kirk

I can abhor the violence that took your life but I do not have to honor the life you chose to live.
byu/TommyFoolery inPublicFreakout

I've got nothing to add here, except for the fact that I wish that I possessed ⅓ the eloquence of Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley. 

This is amazing. 

Murder by Shitpost ⃰

So, after calling for people to be good to each other,the Utah Governor went on Meet the Press and said, no, the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk was really a leftist trans activist after all, even though it's patently clear from his online presence that he was a white supremacist antisemitic homophobic Groyper. (Nick Fuentes even more openly bigoted right wing followers)

I guess someone took him aside and explained what would happen to Spencer Cox's political career if he did not toe the party line.

I think, however, that the core impetus behind the shooting is that of the shitpost, as  

“It was a shitpost.”

This is very insightful analysis. pic.twitter.com/nEzdDwWUXX

— Annalea 🪷🐝🥑🍁🌻🍌 (@citizengatsby) September 13, 2025

^*It does not count as the s-word, because much like, "Enshittification," it is a single word, and requires all four letters for the neologism.

Your Murdered Right Wing Pundit Update

Well, we have a subject in custody, and he is a white male right wing Mormon. {IIRC, according to LDS theology, that makes him a Christian, but I ain't wading into that theological debate.)

He was convinced to  turn himself in by his dad after who he confessed to.

On to the hypocrisy, first we have US Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA 3) who wants to ban anyone mocking Kirk's death from social media.  In addition to the obvious, that banning someone from social media is more a reward than it is a punishment, there is the fact that he mocked the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband.

Stay classy, my friends. 

And then, we have Nancy Mace (R-SC 1) whose venomous hate insincerity is always quotable.  

First, she condemned the trans community for the shooting, using the T-Word, and when it was revealed that the shooter was a cis het right wing Christian,  she suggested that people should pray for him to "Find Jesus Christ". (BTW, in somewhat unrelated news Mace completely lost her sh%$ on the floor of the house when another Representative described boob jobs as gender affirming care.)

The distinguished gentlewoman from South Carolina is little more than a life support system for a pair of breast implants.  

Also, remember the school shooting in Colorado on the same day?  Also a right-wing white supremacist 

Just in case you were wondering.  (I wasn't wondering.)

Minnesota Massacre and Something About Me That You May Not Know

I like firearms a lot.

You may also notice that I frequently advocate for very restrictive gun laws.

These things are not opposed to each other.

While I have not shot a firearm since I was around 9 years old, (.22 short single shot rifles) at summer camp, and I have little desire to own a firearm. (Except possibly to build one from a chunk of metal)

I find them technically fascinating, much in the same way that I find historical tools fascinating.

So I spend a lot of time on GunTube, where things like Forgotten Weapons go through the technical and historical developments leading to a firearm.  (Highly recommended, very little, if any, discussion of gun control laws except as they directly pertain to the development of a specific weapon ⃰)

At the other end of the spectrum is GunLawTube, where ammosexual dweebs rant about how everyone is trying to take their guns away, even though they have won this battle for at least a generation.

And somewhere in the middle are the entertaining assholes, who throw in a sh%$ load of right wing politics, but cover the operation and ergonomics of weapons. 

Toward the extreme end of this is right wing asshole Brandon Harerra (aka "The AK Guy"), who I find amusing enough and interesting enough that I deal with the asshole baggage that he brings. 

Basically, I find about ⅔ of his stuff both entertaining and instructive, and the remaining ⅓ I can identify in about 15 seconds, so I watch. (Actually mostly listen.  I tend to listen to YouTube in my car using the audio controls to skip sh%$ that I put on watch later that I don't want to hear)

Such is the way of Gonzo social media channels.

This is a long way to get to the mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, where Robin Westman, a former student at the school, allegedly opened fire during a children's mass.

Normally, this is where I would rant about how nothing is going to happen, and nothing ever happens to atrocities like this.

What I am going to write about instead is the fact that the shooter left a manifesto endorsing Brandon Harerra for President.

Considering the fact that Harerra is on his 2nd run for Congress, he definitely has political aspirations, or at least he did before this.

Needless to say, Mr. Harerra is unamused by this development. 

He released a YouTube (below) where he (IMHO honestly) says that he is completely freaked out by this, spews some anti-trans bigotry, and literally ends the video with thoughts and prayers. 

Needless to say, I am amused by this development.

In a perfect world, Brandon would learn something about empathy and civic responsibility, but this ain't a perfect world. 

^*The one case of where he discussed this was a large capacity pistol that used a stripper clip and fixed internal magazine to get around removable magazine limits.

I Do Not Recall South Park Being This Good During the Clinton Impeachment

I don't watch South Park often, my wife objects strongly, and many of her knives are quite dull, but I did catch a few episodes when it first came out.

I do not recall Parker and Stone doing anything at all about the Clinton impeachment, even though that centered around a blow job. 

It seemed to me to be a news event well suited to their talents.

Almost as well suited as Kristi Noem's shooting of her family's puppy: 

@couriernewsroom

South Park shows Kristi Noem killing multiple dogs in their most recent episode. Noem’s face also appears to start drooping, which is only fixed with layers of makeup.

♬ original sound - COURIER

@southparklover00

South Park season 27 episode 2 end credits

♬ original sound - Cartman’s#1fan

Sweet!

The New York Shooting Gets Weirder and Gets a Bit Surreal

It appears that the shooter was targeting the National Football League over some grievance about the disgraceful actions of the league regarding chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is odd, since the gunman never played in the NFL

He got into the wrong elevator, and ended up on the wrong floor, and started shooting.

The gunman who killed four people and himself at a Midtown Manhattan tower on Monday was targeting the National Football League’s office, but ended up on the floor of another company by mistake, according to two senior law enforcement officers.

Instead of going to the NFL’s fifth-story office at 345 Park Avenue, he picked the elevator bank that took him to building owner Rudin Management’s office on the 33rd floor, the officers said. That’s where the body of the shooter, believed to be Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old who last resided in Las Vegas, was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Here comes the surreal bit, one of the victims was the chief executive of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Wesley LePatner, who has been instrumental in hiking rents around the nation. (I mean her personally, not just Blackstone in general)

This appears to be the f%$#ing universe going Luigi Mangione on a corrupt business executive:

Four people have been killed at 345 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan after a gunman entered the tower, which houses private equity manager Blackstone, as well as the NFL, real estate firm Rudin Management and KPMG, among others.

Among those killed by a lone gunman who was reportedly targeting the NFL, was Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, 43, who was recently named chief executive of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT).

………

LePatner joined Blackstone in 2014, having previously worked at Goldman Sachs. She was global head of its core plus real estate business and CEO of BREIT, the firm’s $53bn non-traded real estate investment trust. She was appointed to the role in August of last year, ahead of the retirement of Frank Cohen, who she replaced in the position at the start of 2025.

I have on a number of occasions said semi-humerously that if you are going to engage in a workplace shooting, start with upper management.

It appears that the universe has listened. 

A few more of these, and we might start to see meaningful gun control legislation.

Some Good News

Remember how I wrote that the Trump DoJ was requesting that former Memphis police officer get only one day in prison for killing Breonna Taylor and then lying about it?

The judge called bullsh%$ on the Trump Administration's attempt to declare hunting season on Black people and sentenced Brett Hankison to 3 years in prison.

Not long enough, but better than what the corrupt prosecutors were asking for: 

A federal judge in Kentucky on Monday sentenced a former Louisville police officer involved in the fatal raid of Breonna Taylor’s home to nearly three years in prison, in a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, which had requested he serve only one day behind bars.

In November, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted the former officer, Brett Hankison, of one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force in discharging several shots through her window during a botched drug raid in 2020. Even though none of the 10 shots he fired hit Ms. Taylor, Mr. Hankison, who is white, was the only officer to be charged for his actions during the botched operation.

………

Last week, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the judge in the case, Rebecca Grady Jennings, to sentence Mr. Hankison to a single day in prison — essentially the brief time he had served when he was charged — and three years of supervised release.

The request was intended to send the message that the department planned to abandon its longstanding efforts to address racial disparities in policing — and to reorient the civil rights division to pursue President Trump’s culture war agenda at the expense of its founding mission of confronting race-based discrimination.

That's an awfully mealy mouthed way of saying, "Show cops that they can kill black people with impunity.

………

The warrant to raid Ms. Taylor’s apartment was based on shoddy surveillance. Three officers were charged by federal prosecutors with knowingly including false information in an affidavit to get a judge to approve the raid. One of them, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022. The case against the two other officers, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, is still open.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Hankison did not have legal justification to use deadly force when he fired through a window and sliding glass door covered by blinds during the raid, ultimately hitting a neighboring apartment.

He could not see anything, but because he was a pants-wetting coward, he fired 10 shots blindly through a window. 

The United States police are a disgrace, and this is by design.