Category: Police / Law Enforcement / ICE

2 commissioners removed from office after perjury charges

https://apnews.com/article/arrests-florida-ron-desantis-22c716a4ec47ac6fc5ad09611d8d1470

This combo of booking photos released by the Sumter County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office shows Oren Miller, left, and Gary Search, two Sumter County commissioners who were suspended from office on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, several weeks after being arrested and charged with lying during an investigation of possible Sunshine Law violations. (Sumter County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
This combo of booking photos released by the Sumter County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office shows Oren Miller, left, and Gary Search, two Sumter County commissioners who were suspended from office on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, several weeks after being arrested and charged with lying during an investigation of possible Sunshine Law violations. (Sumter County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Two county commissioners in central Florida were suspended from office Thursday, several weeks after being arrested and charged with lying during an investigation of possible Sunshine Law violations.

Gov. Ron DeSantis issued two executive orders to remove Sumter County commissioners Oren Miller and Gary Search from their elected offices until their criminal cases are resolved, in accordance with state law. Miller and Search were arrested Dec. 15 and charged with perjury.

DeSantis, Miller and Search are all Republicans. Miller and Search are both residents of The Villages, a massive retirement community.

Florida’s Sunshine Law requires public access for any gathering of two or more members of the same government board to discuss a matter that could foreseeably come before that board for action. The Fifth Circuit State Attorney’s Office initially received three complaints last year that Miller and Search were communicating through Miller’s wife.

Phone records showed Miller and Search contacted each other directly over 40 times between November 2020, when they were both elected, and July 2021, prosecutors said. Miller told investigators the calls stopped in January or February after they realized the communication might be an issue, and Search told investigators he had no contact with Miller outside public meetings, according to court documents. The phone records showed that nearly half of the calls between the two men were made after January 2021.

Arrest affidavits didn’t say what Miller and Search were discussing, but many of the calls were made just before or just after scheduled county commission meetings, prosecutors said.

Defense attorneys for Miller and Search didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Fire at Planned Parenthood Knoxville ruled arson; reward offered

https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/fire-at-planned-parenthood-knoxville-ruled-arson/

Investigators with the Knoxville Fire Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), have determined that the fire at the Planned Parenthood in Knoxville was purposely set. The KFD says the individual or individuals who started the fire have not been identified yet.

On Friday, investigators offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the successful prosecution of the person or persons responsible for the suspected arson.

Investigative authorities believe the Planned Parenthood fire was intentionally set. If you have any info related to the fire, call 1-800-762-3017 or email KFDArson@knoxvilletn.gov

The fire took place on Dec. 31 at around 6:39 a.m. and while no injures were reported the fire did completely destroy the building. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation due to the political nature of the building.

“KFD’s firefighters worked tirelessly last Friday to extinguish this fire, and our fire investigators, with assistance from ATF, TBI, and Knox County fire investigators, have worked meticulously over the last week and will continue to investigate this fire,” said Fire Chief Stan Sharp.

At this time, KFD is asking anyone with information about the fire to call 1-800-762-3017 or email KFDArson@knoxvilletn.gov. There is a reward of up to $10,000.00 for information that would lead to the prosecution of anyone involved in any criminal activity related to this fire. All calls are confidential.

THE COPS AT THE CAPITOL

The Cops at the Capitol

Law enforcement officers from around the country attended and supported last week’s rally in support of President Trump that sparked a riot.

 

As of today, at least 26 sworn members of U.S. law enforcement agencies from at least 11 states have been identified by law enforcement agencies and local reporting as attendees of the Jan. 6 rally in support of President Trump that sparked a riot at the U.S. Capitol. [Update, Jan. 25, 10:00 a.m., Eastern time: One more law enforcement officials has been reported as having attended the rally, bringing the total to 39 individuals from 17 states.] Beyond that tally, several former law enforcement agents attended the rally, and still more current law enforcement officials are under investigation for making statements in support of the rally.

A review of police attendance and support appears below and is also available in this spreadsheet,* which will be updated as more information becomes available. These specific law enforcement agents have not been tied to white supremacist movements.

And yet, it would be inaccurate to say that white supremacists have merely “infiltrated” law enforcement, a word used in a recent hearing on white supremacy and policing in the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee. American policing is rooted in white supremacy: many contemporary police departments originated as patrols dedicated to terrorizing and capturing enslaved people. Other antecedents of modern policing extend farther back in history to the ”oversight” of Native peoples. The main function of policing is to protect the interests of the ruling classes, and in the context of a society built on racial capitalism, that means the crosshairs of police officers focus on non-white communities. With this history in mind, the fact that police flocked from all over the country to attend the Trump rally merely shows how white supremacy is embedded in the very function of policing itself.

David Ellis, the police chief in Troy, New Hampshire, attended the rally, but told a New York Magazine reporter that while he condemned the assault on the Capitol, “there’s a lot of Trump supporters that are awesome people, like me.”

The Bexar County sheriff’s office in Texas is investigating Lieutenant Roxanne Mathai’s attendance. She posted a photo of rioters on the Capitol’s balcony after they’d made it past the police, writing as the caption, “and we are going in… in the crowd at the stairs… not inside the capitol like the others. Not catching a case lol.” Mathai typically has 70 to 80 employees under her command.

The Zelienople Borough Police Department (near Pittsburgh) is investigating Officer Thomas Goldie’s attendance. One photo shows him wearing a hat that appeared to say, “Trump MAGA 2020 f— your feelings.”

Sheriff Chris West of Canadian County, Oklahoma, attended the Trump rally. West denied breaking any laws, but two posts from a deleted Facebook account that appeared to belong to West read, “I’m okay with using whatever means necessary to preserve America and save FREEDOM & LIBERTY… I want several in Congress… in prison, or worse.”

The New York Times reported that a man named Jeff told a reporter that he was an off-duty police officer in York County, Pennsylvania. “There’s a lot of people here willing to take orders,” he said. “If the orders are given, the people will rise up.” The York Dispatch is working to confirm this report with local police departments.

The Seattle Police Department has placed two officers who attended the rally on administrative leave.

The Franklin County sheriff’s office in Kentucky reassigned detective Jeff Farmer after he attended the rally. Farmer has denied participating in the riot or in any violence. Local public defenders wrote a letter to Sheriff Chris Quire alleging that Farmer has made multiple social media posts expressing “disbelief in systemic racism and unconscious bias,” that he “resigned from the Versailles Police Department ‘in exchange for no further pursuit of criminal charges against him,’” and further that he “has been involved in many cases which reflect targeting and racial profiling.” Farmer was named Deputy of the Year in 2019.

Sergeant T.J. Robertson and Officer Jacob Fracker of Rocky Mount, Virginia, have been placed on administrative leave after photos emerged of them inside the Capitol. “There was no fighting with police officers,” Robertson said in reference to the Capitol police on Jan. 6. “The door was wide open and police officers were actually handing bottles of water out to people that came in.” In a Facebook post, however, Robertson wrote: “CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business … The right IN ONE DAY took the f——— U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us.”

Philadelphia police detective Jennifer Gugger has been reassigned pending an investigation into her attendance. Until last week, she served in the department’s Recruit Background Investigations Unit, and the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “until recently, [her] Facebook profile photo was a reference to the QAnon conspiracy movement.”

The police force for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, in Philadelphia, is also investigating seven officers who reportedly attended the Trump rally.

The New York Police Department said one police officer who attended is under investigation.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department, in Maryland, has suspended an officer with pay who reportedly attended.

The Charles County sheriff’s department, also in Maryland, is investigating the attendance of a corrections officer, who is presumably employed by the sheriff.

One Kentucky state trooper has been reassigned as the agency investigates his attendance.

Arkansas State Police told the Arkansas Times that two troopers requested leave time to attend the Trump rally.

According to Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, two Capitol police officers were suspended and at least 10 others are being investigated regarding their behavior during the Trump riot. One of the two suspended officers wore a MAGA hat and “started directing people around the building”; the other posed for a selfie with a member of the mob. A House aide told CNN that “as many as 17 officers” with the Capitol police department are under investigation.

Several former law enforcement officers also attended the rally.

Jurell Snyder, who was a police officer in Oakland, California, gave an interview to CBS affiliate KPIX explaining his participation and his support of the rioters. “What do you think is worse,” he asked KPIX’s Joe Vazquez, “storming the Capitol with a flag or committing treason against your country?” During his tenure as a police officer, Snyder killed one person in 2007 and another in 2013. Several current Oakland police officers expressed support for Snyder’s radical views on Facebook, and the department is investigating its members’ potential support for radical far-right movements.

Butch Conway, former sheriff of Gwinnett County, Georgia, attended the Trump rally but denied participating in any illegal activity.

The watchdog group Documented reported that the Rule of Law Defense Fund—the 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorney Generals Association—issued robocalls encouraging supporters to attend the Trump rally. Many officers who did not attend the rally expressed their support in statements or social media posts.

Notably, John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, made several comments to NPR affiliate WBEZ echoing Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.  “They’re individuals,” he said. “They get to do what they want. Again, they were voicing frustration. They’re entitled to voice their frustration.”

In Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb denied Trump’s responsibility for the violent white supremacist attack. At an event outside the state Capitol on Jan. 6, Lamb said, “I don’t know how loud we have to get before they have to listen to us and know we will no longer tolerate them stripping our freedoms away.”

One Secret Service officer is under investigation for making a Facebook post in support of the rally. “Good morning patriots! Yesterday started out beautiful and as usual Antifa soured the mood and attacked police and an Air Force veteran was murdered,” the post read. “It’s OFFENSE time finally!!” There is no evidence that anti-fascist activists were involved in the riot.

In Kansas, a lieutenant with the Sedgwick County sheriff’s office voiced his support on Facebook. “If you are a police officer in Washington, D.C., or a federal officer working in the Capitol, remember that the people in these rallies are on your side,” Jason Gill wrote. “Remember your oath before your orders.”

Sheriff Dallas Baldwin of Franklin County, Ohio, fired a civilian public information officer for writing a Facebook post that criticized Capitol police for failing to stop the Trump riot from breaching the building. “If this was a BLM protest, we’d be seeing tanks and mass casualties,” the PIO wrote. “White privilege at its worst.”

A complete list of law enforcement statements in support of the rally is available on this spreadsheet.

*Editor’s note: The author independently compiled the data herein and created the spreadsheet.

 

N.Y. Prisons Punished 1,600 Based on Faulty Drug Tests, Report Finds

Because of faulty results in drug testing at state prisons, including Attica, prisoners were placed in solitary confinement, a report found.
Credit…Steve Russell/Toronto Star, via Getty Images

By Karen Zraick

New York’s prison system unjustly penalized more than 1,600 incarcerated people based on faulty drug tests, putting them in solitary confinement, delaying their parole hearings and denying them family visits, the New York State inspector general said in a damning report released on Tuesday.

The arbitrary penalties were meted out across the state over an eight-month period in 2019, while the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision relied on improperly administered drug tests made by the company Microgenics, the report found. The tests led to “rampant false positive” results for buprenorphine, an opioid used to treat addiction, as well as synthetic cannabinoids.

“This stands as a heartbreaking example of how the absence of transparency can undermine due process and basic human rights,” Lucy Lang, the inspector general, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The department started using the tests in January 2019, the report found. The manufacturer’s directions specified that a positive result should be confirmed with a second, more sensitive test, but officials neglected to do so as a matter of policy. Instead, they simply carried out the same test a second time to confirm the results.

 

The rate of positive tests immediately spiked, but the department failed to address widespread concerns among prisoners, their families and advocates that many of the results were false positives, the report found.

The report cited several examples of the grave consequences the tests had for prisoners. One woman at Albion Correctional Facility, near Rochester, N.Y., who had never tested positive for drug use during her two years in jail, suddenly tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids.

As punishment, she was confined to her cell for 40 days and placed in solitary confinement for 45 days. She lost her prison job and privileges like recreation time, receipt of packages and phone use for months. She was also denied visits with her three children.

The report also accused Microgenics representatives of presenting false or misleading information to prison officials. A review of internal company documents revealed that even ingesting over-the-counter antacids and the sweetener Stevia could potentially lead to false positives, but the company failed to disclose those possibilities, the report said.

The report faulted department officials for deciding to forgo the second test and found that a sales representative from Microgenics had exerted undue influence over the process.

 

It also found that the contract with the company most likely violated procurement guidelines and that the department “did not perform due diligence when contracting with Microgenics for its drug testing systems, failing to understand that such tests were merely preliminary screening tests.”

During the eight-month period, more than 1,600 prisoners were punished over drug tests statewide, including 140 who were subjected to solitary confinement, leading to complaints across the state, Ms. Lang said.

 
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Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, an advocacy group, brought the concerns of four incarcerated people who said they had been disciplined based on false positives to the department in June 2019. Later that summer, the department sent six positive test samples from other prisoners to another company for retesting, and five came back negative.

The department then brought its findings to the office of the inspector general. It later moved to expunge more than 2,500 disciplinary records that were based on the faulty drug tests.

Karen L. Murtagh, the executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, said the impact of the penalties was difficult to overstate.

“The psychological and physical damage caused by solitary confinement, the loss of family visitation, the lack of proper programming, lost work-release and educational opportunities, all of which help combat recidivism, adds to the ledger for which we as a society need to take account,” she said.

Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that seeks to dismantle the prison industry, said the report illustrated the problems inherent in allowing private companies to profit from incarceration. She called for further review of prison contracts.

 

In a statement on Tuesday, the department noted that its staff had cooperated with the inspector general’s investigation and adopted all its recommendations, which included ending solitary confinement in response to drug tests and improving drug-test training and data collection.

Microgenics is a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based company. In a statement on Tuesday, Ron O’Brien, a spokesman for the company, said the instructions clearly state that the drug tests are only preliminary and that a more specific, alternative chemical method must be used to obtain a confirmed result.

“We have complete confidence in our product and, when it is used as directed, have no reason to believe there is any issue with its accuracy,” Mr. O’Brien said.

He added that the company had conducted its own investigation and did not believe that any Microgenics representatives provided “any intentionally false or misleading testimony” at disciplinary hearings, as alleged in the report.

The drug tests have spurred several lawsuits, including a federal class-action suit filed by Prisoners’ Legal Services and the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel in 2019. The following year, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, filed suit on behalf of the Department of Corrections against Microgenics in Albany, alleging breach of contract. The lawsuit is pending.

The department now uses a preliminary drug screening test known as the Premier Biotech Bio-Cup, and positive results are confirmed using a second method.

Ms. Lang, who was appointed inspector general in the fall, said that more than half the complaints her office receives involve the prison system.

“We are directing resources toward addressing those complaints as proactively as possible,” she said.

 

Karen Zraick is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. @karenzraick

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Every legislator should know what the people struggling to live go through and be reminded of it frequently

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Scottie’s world today

advice when neededif you don't fail, good

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🙌🙌 #raiseminimumwage

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Well, you know, some bathroom graffiti offers insight.

#taxcorporations

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hear saw and spoke evil

Political cartoon

Matt Wuerker Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Nick Anderson Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

We would like that lawn sign as well

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The major draw of the Republican Party is never having to defend horrible behavior.

Complete hypocrisy? Cronyism? Corruption? Treason? Sexual assault? Obvious bad faith?

Not one problem.

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The Flying McCoys Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

ViewsAmerica Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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People who watch FOX think it’s a news channel and do not care that it is an entertainment channel with opinions, not journalism.

That is their research. Opinions are their facts.

infecting our country since 1492

The Knight Life Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

https://twitter.com/freedaaron/status/1479563539547402240?s=20

Joel Pett Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Tim Campbell Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

dork tennis player and partner

https://64.media.tumblr.com/6321991c1919d10a3b4aaa2ebcfd859f/0e6ce43ea87295a8-0c/s500x750/06189b08dfe20a84d5b395f2cc5d83eae9f799c4.jpg

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Conservatives want to break public schools and disrespect teachers, 75% of which are women. This is all on brand for their misanthropic fascist policies. They want corporate charter schools to take taxpayer dollars to make crony shareholders rich.

Pay teachers. Fund education. Protect schools.

Strange Brew Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Lola Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Most of the anti-trans you don’t look like a woman is based not on any science but on personal preferences of what individual people think is attractive or not attractive to them.   I have posted pictures that are easy to find of trans people who you wouldn’t even think are trans because they look like what people have traditionally accepted as that gender.   That is why letting young people use puberty blockers is so very important, other wise people are left with an adult body that is not representative what they are.   Puberty blockers are not harmful, widely used for many conditions, and complete reversible.   

ViewsEurope Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

ViewsAsia Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Henry Payne Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Henry Payne loves to make fun of anything having to do with public safety.   The cartoonist  openly shows contempt for: Public schools, people who attend public schools, teachers, and learning.   With cases rising, everyone is home sick anyway. Might as well remote learn. Can only hope all the kids have the means to connect to the remote learning websites.  Scottie

is this a conspiracy … or possibly the truth?  How deep does thee greed go?  Scottie

Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

So incorrect, it is an out right lie that the misleading right wing media gets away with because they know their followers don’t check. How many Americans could find Kazakhstan on a map? I’m putting the over/under at 2%. 

  NEWS FLASH – The government of Kazakhstan has not “resigned!!” As a matter of fact, Kazak police and armed forces have been joined by Vladdy’s troops with orders to shoot – without warning!! As usual BADwyn gets his “facts” WRONG!!!   I’m thinking Al is upset that Trump didn’t have Russia invade the USA to keep Trump in power.  

Prices are determined on supply and demand….

U.S. gas price, December 2012: $3.310 / gallon.

U.S. gas price, December 2021: $3.307 / gallon.

Gas prices declined long term during Obama’s second term, but trended upward under Trump, who intervened in the market to protect his supporters (Texas and Russian oil companies). This trend was reinforced by the Biden economic recovery. Apparently Goodwin would prefer to throw 15-20 million Americans out of work than return to the normal gas prices of a decade ago. Because, you know, Biden must be blamed.   Scottie

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And now some for fun

that was a no brianer

Zack Hill for Jan 08, 2022

Peanuts Begins Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Moderately Confused Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Family Tree Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Wizard of Id Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

The Middletons Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Brevity Comic Strip for January 08, 2022

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: The wealthy rake in ever higher profits while claiming giving a few cents more to workers is destroying the country. Don’t believe the lies

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Scottie’s world today

Oh don't I wish

more diplomatic

Don’t I wish.   How I feel after going back and forth on right wing media.   Scottie

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Inequality is at an all time high

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Rich people have every advantage given to them. If not given, they just avoid the rules.

This is no way to judge others who don’t have all those advantages and shameless greed.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/2ed299cca970068648cec9ba3ef752f5/571f0a86f0e6c322-85/s500x750/78c9dfbcd0522560ab3d0128fd0edff94d21d976.jpg

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Wanting your tax dollars to pay for your needs and the needs of your community is normal.

Don’t let the rich and spoiled fool you into thinking this is greedy. Their opinions are shit.

Drew Sheneman Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

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Non Sequitur Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Jeff Stahler Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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Avoiding subpoenas? Pardoning war criminals? Pushing the Big Lie? Legislating from the bench? Siding with cop killers when it suits your narrative?

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The mob literally stabbed cops with Trump flags. Tried to murder Pence.

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The Big Lie was made by morons for morons.

No surprise conservatives could not stop said morons from completely taking over the GOP.

future of republican party axe

Lisa Benson Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

posttexasstressdisorder: “lulz ”

Phil Hands Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

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This is where we are. Republicans give no respect, so they deserve no respect.

Just goes to show ‘law and order’ and BlueLivesMatter was always bad faith. A con

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walls closing in on tRump

Rob Rogers Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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Being a decent American should not be partisan, but it is.

I did that

how do you find the gop

Nick Anderson Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

demcracy oveer the barrel of falls

same shit but different country

tea party of lincoln

Stop the steal hear us now

Above what really happened.

fbi making maga do it

Above how the Republican cult of riot praises sees what happened.  

Robert Ariail Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

baby insurectionbetter be a playgirlgot red hat a gift

antifa class of 1945

orginal antifa

now a member of antifa

marge greene suspended twitter

look out the window and see reality

your religion restraining order

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Funny story.    Mr. I am so important I don’t have to follow the vaccine rules above was given an OK by the event organizers to attend with out being vaccinated which was required by all other participants.   How ever when he got to Australia the country said nope.   No vaccine you quarantine as they have a strict vaccine to enter policy.   They wouldn’t bend it for Mr. thinks he is more important than the rules.   Last I knew he had been ordered to leave, but this morning I read he is bitching about the conditions at his quarantine quarters.   Still I like the comeuppance.     Scottie

ViewsEurope Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

ViewsBusiness Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

Tom the Dancing Bug Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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The unvaccinated would rather stay on the Titanic. Why would they ever hurt the ego of the ship? Why would they get in a lifeboat if they don’t know where it was made? [Even though they had been using lifeboats their entire life]

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Conservatives with Covid trying to eliminate preventative Covid policy

The Knight Life Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Walt Handelsman Comic Strip for January 06, 2022

Lalo Alcaraz Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Such woke, which is a right wing word for being sensible, to not use state resources to ruin the lives of the poor and POC.   Things that are crimes because of history and tradition like cannabis criminal laws used to arrest and destroy the lives of mostly black people.   The DA’s are simply not prosecuting the breaking of laws on the books for what is legal in more and more places.  Think of the laws still on the books in many right wing states like anti-sodomy laws that even though they could apply to both opposite gender sex and same gender sex was used to target gay people.   Those laws are still on the books despite being unenforceable so DA’s wouldn’t prosecute anyone for breaking them.   This is what the right is so angry about and trying to use to get their cut members enraged.  Scottie 

This is what the right wing is so enraged over.   I wonder if it is because less black people will be put in jail for things white people are mostly not arrested for?    Racism?   Scottie  

Yes because inflation and Covid are just a problem in the US.   Really the pandemic is just in the US.   The right wing seems unable to understand the US is not the entire world, that the US is just another country among many.    In case these people don’t get it, Biden doesn’t control the entire world and even in the US he is not a dictator, like tRump tried to be.   Scottie

Michael Ramirez Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

So, I guess it’s not okay for teachers to want to work in a situation where they’re unlikely to bring Covid-19 home to their families?   Teachers are people also and they have the same needs as everyone else, despite the constant attempts to belittle them.   Far too many people including those in government do not see teachers as educators but as child sitters so workers can park their kids with them so they can work to make profit for the businesses and wealthy.  Scottie

Al Goodwyn Editorial Cartoons Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

I have resisted posting this one because the right is so over the top trying to insult this woman.    I think she is correct, they are sexually obsessed with her.   Yes she has criticized DeathSantis for the Covid polices in Florida.   And yes she was in Florida not wearing a mask.   Oh my gods and dogs, right?   Wrong.   She was out side eating and drinking, something that it is accepted that you would have your mask off.   Get real people.   Even inside she couldn’t eat or drink through the mask.   The right is so scared of her, she is really smart and she is a women.   That threatens them.   Scottie

Steve Kelley Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

I saw a meme today pointing out that kids have been displaced… during a war… in the winter… and had to move to a foreign nation… with a new language to learn… and missed two YEARS of any kind of school at all.   And come out just fine.  

However, it’s not impossible to learn remotely. It’s done all over the world in places where it’s impractical to have school (the Australian Outback, for instance). Stanford University runs a very well respected online high school. Many working people take online classes for college degrees. It’s a question of training, expectations and attitude.  Maybe we need to rethink what school is for.  Scottie

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And now some for fun

Frazz Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Free Range Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

The Flying McCoys Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Working It Out Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Cornered Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

The Buckets Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

The Duplex Comic Strip for January 07, 2022

Viral Social Media Story of Attempted Child Luring Turns Out To Be Nothing

Viral Social Media Story of Attempted Child Luring Turns Out To Be Nothing

“You could hear they were trying not to laugh.”

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(Peter Titmuss | Dreamstime.com)

“Child luring incident!” read the warning that appeared last Friday on several Teaneck, New Jersey, social media pages.

“A man in a car pulled up and tried to get a child in around 11 am on 12/31/21,” it said. “You can clearly hear the child say, ‘I do not accept rides from strangers,’ and ‘no’ several times before walking away. Then the driver laughed and said, ‘I will follow you then’. Teaneck police have already been informed and are looking for any information on identifying the child, so please reach out to Teaneck police asap with any information.”

The post was accompanied by footage from a Ring camera, the popular security cameras watching over much of suburban America. It showed a boy walking down a quiet street when a car slows down and someone talks to him.

If you listen very closely—more closely than you would have to listen to hear a worm breathe—perhaps you can make out the boy defying the driver. (“Clearly hear the child” seems to overstate it.) Then someone in the car adds, “We have candy!”

“I said, ‘Don’t put it on the site! I bet you a dollar it’s nothing,'” recalls Keith Kaplan, a Teaneck town councilman who runs the Teaneck Today website in an unofficial capacity. But another one of the site’s administrators, his friend, Deputy Mayor Mark J. Schwartz, pressed publish—and the news went viral.

“Then it was on, like, 10 different Facebook groups within ten minutes,” says Kaplan.

The police got right on it.

But it took a few days for Debra Passner to notice it—and gasp.

“Oh my God, oh my God!” she recalls telling her husband. “Because there was a video of our car and our son!”

The Passners had been at a family celebration with their 14-year-old, who wanted to leave early (as 14-year-olds often do). He started walking home, with his parents’ blessing. Later, when they were driving home themselves, they saw him on the street and slowed down to offer him a ride.

“My son, being a wiseass, says, ‘I don’t take rides from strangers,'” Debra Passner recalls. So she leaned over and called out, “Don’t you like candy? We have candy!”

When their son shook his head, his father said, “Okay, then I’ll follow you.” But moments later, they drove on.

Once the Passners saw this online, they immediately called the police. “You could hear they were trying not to laugh,” says Debra Passner. The Passners also posted under the video that this was their child, and no one should worry.

The police paid a visit, were satisfied with the Passners’ story, and issued a press release stating: “Detectives identified the child and the suspects in the vehicle and determined that the child and the individuals in the vehicle were family members and no attempted luring had occurred.”

This got shared online as well. “But then of course there’s all the better-safe-than-sorry comments,” says Kaplan, who recalled two similar times his town erupted in fear, only to learn nothing nefarious was going on.

Once was when some men in a van spoke to a child. They were out of town painters who couldn’t find an address. Another time a woman gave a child a note. Kaplan can’t recall the details, but it too was nothing.

Why was he so sure that this incident would turn out to be something mundane?

“Because experience tells me it’s not the best use of people’s time to go up and down streets with people standing on them if you want to find children to abduct,” he says. “If it were, I would likely have offloaded one or two of mine.”

Ron DeSantis staffers compare Jacksonville protesters to U.S. Capitol rioters

Ron DeSantis staffers compare Jacksonville protesters to U.S. Capitol rioters

The Governor’s Press Secretary says trespassing ‘is exactly what some of the protesters were charged with.’

Two members of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ staff on Wednesday compared a Jacksonville protester — who made a nonviolent stand refusing to leave a press conference — with the rioters last year who battered their way into the U.S. Capitol killing one police officer and injuring scores of others.

Police arrested activist Ben Frazier, 72, before DeSantis’ press conference Tuesday in Jacksonville after he and other protesters refused instruction to leave before the Governor arrived. Frazier and the others had said they wanted to confront the Governor about his positions on critical race theory and other topics.

The arrest — Frazier was led away in handcuffs in front of gathered journalists, saying, “Why am I being handcuffed?” — led some Democrats, notably Rep. Angie Nixon, and House Democratic Leader-Designate Ramon Alexander of Tallahassee, to criticize DeSantis for standing by as police arrested a political critic.

The Florida Democratic Party also put out a statement calling Frazier a “civil rights leader, activist, and journalist who was arrested for exercising his First Amendment rights.”

Chairman Manny A. Diaz said, “In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, constitutional rights only seem to be respected for people who agree with the Governor and his political agenda.”

 

When asked about the incident after his remarks, DeSantis said he had “no idea what happened.”

After Nixon’s and Alexander’s comments (but before Diaz’s,) DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw and another member of DeSantis’ communications team, Kyle Lamb, responded on Twitter, ridiculing Democrats for sticking up for a trespasser.

They drew parallels between the Jacksonville incident, with Frazier, and the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, in which protesters smashed windows and doors, stormed the U.S. Capitol, fought with police, killing one and injuring 140 others, vandalized and stole property, caused lawmakers to flee for their lives, laid siege for hours, and endeavored to stop Congress from certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had been duly elected President.

“It’s almost the anniversary of J6, and Democrats in my replies are insisting that government buildings should always be open to any member of the public who wants to confront an elected official, and nobody should be arrested for trespassing in a government building! Wow!” Pushaw tweeted.

“I’m eager to see these folks admit all the J6 protestors should have been allowed in the Capitol for the electoral college discussion,” Lamb tweeted.

 

Pushaw later elaborated, telling Florida Politics, “Mr. Frazier and his defenders claim that citizens are always allowed to protest elected officials ‘in a public building.’ The U.S. Capitol is a public building as well, and participants in the January 6 protests have been arrested for trespassing, which refutes the widespread liberal argument that protesters at press conferences in state buildings have the right to disrupt and impede government officials.”

When asked by Florida Politics if it was her understanding that the Jan. 6 incident was about people trespassing in a public building, Pushaw replied, “That is exactly what some of the protesters were charged with, so it’s apparently the understanding of judges in that jurisdiction.”

Interesting resource “Insurrectionist Index”. If you scroll down to the map and hover over your state it will show you how many came from your state

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January 6 Commemorative – THE LAWLESS AND THE CAPITOL – Marcus Bales & Don Caron