The War on Police

There have been three incidents in recent months that has triggered a war with police in this country. But other factors have figured into it than just those three incidents.

Michael Brown was the first well known incident. He’s the 18 year old that was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown doesn’t seem to have had a criminal record. However, on that day, he was caught on video stealing cigarellos and pushing a clerk into a display rack. Then he was shot dead after fighting for an officers gun while the officer was in his car and then fled. He turned and charged back at the officer who then opened fire and killed Brown in the street.

A grand jury was convened and heard the case and concluded no charges should be brought against Officer Wilson. The people of Ferguson then started burning down their own town and opportunists took advantage of the melee and looted businesses.

In New York, Eric Garner resisted arrest. He was being arrested for selling individual cigarettes without a tax stamp. Garner, unlike Brown, had an arrest record dating back to 1980 for various crimes such as assault, grand larceny and selling cigarettes. Again, a grand jury was convened and again concluded no charges should be brought.

In Cleveland, Ohio, a twelve year old boy was brandishing a gun, pointing it at people walking by in a park. The police were called and when they pulled up the boy reached for the gun. It did not have the red cap on it to indicate that It was a toy and it looked real enough to the officer who then fired. They boy died later.

In the past two days, there have been three policeman killed. Two in New York and one in Florida. In California, a billboard honoring four policeman who were killed four years ago was vandalized.

Several things have gone into and not created the problem but fueled the flames of the problem

The Media:

Do they ever get anything right? They spend all of their time giving their opinions of the news but never seem to get around to reporting it. On CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the night the Grand Jury evidence was released in Missouri, they learned that Michael Brown had grabbed for the officers gun and was shot in the car. Cooper said “I didn’t know that’. Other news outlets had been reporting it from leaks they’d received but somehow CNN just seemed to miss out on it and were giving opinions mostly leaning towards Hands up don’t shoot . The New York Times had already published the officers address putting the officer and his family at risk.

Al Sharpton:

He inserts himself into every situation where there is a white and a black, but I can’t remember an event where he has been on the right side yet. From Tawana Brawley to these latest incidents. He fuels the fire towards riots rather than away. After the two officers were killed the other day in New York, he wrote a piece for the New York Daily News. He talks about the two officers being killed and says that he spoke to the Brown family and the Garner Family and they said they didn’t want this. They wanted non violent protests. He mentions in writing the Garners and the Brown families but never once in his writing does he name the two officers. Well Mr. Sharpton. I’m going to help you out. The two officers names are Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. They were ambushed. They didn’t have even a fighting chance. Brown and Garner at least got the chance to fight back even though they seem to be guilty of committing crimes. Ramos and Liu were just sitting in their car.

Another officer was killed in Florida. If early reports are correct, he was shot and then run over. His name is Charles Kondeck. In California a billboard honoring four officers slain 4 years ago was vandalized. The four honored officers were Mark Dunakin, Daniel Sakai, Ervin Romans, and John Hege. Mr. Sharpton, before you start talking about these men maybe you should learn their names.

It’s disappointing that there has to be a separation between blacks and whites, but one of the first things that could be done to try to ease conflict is to stop listening to Al Sharpton.

The St. Louis Rams and others sports figures

Four or five of the players on the Rams came out of the tunnel with their hands up as a symbol for Michael Brown. A symbol based on something that was apparently not true. According to witnesses, Brown did not put his hands up and did not say "don't shoot". 

Perhaps the Rams ought to concentrate on football when they are on the field. 

President Obama:

Obama seems to be wrong each time he opens his mouth. Presidents should not insert themselves into local situations. He should know better than to even offer any thoughts on it until after the system has run its’ course. He was supposedly a law professor at one time. I would think he would know this.

Obama inserted himself into a situation at Cambridge within the first months of his presidency, saying the Cambridge police acted “stupidly”. A black professor was breaking into his own home and the police stopped him asking for ID. The professor wasn’t cooperative.

Obama inserted himself into the Trayvon Martin case saying if he had a son, he’d look just like Trayvon. This was before the facts were out showing that Martin was actually the attacker.

Now he doesn’t like the grand jury results in Missouri and inserts himself into that. It wasn’t surprising that as he begins commenting on it, on a split screen they show the rioters starting up their activities by trying to turn over a police car.

A good president….even a bad president, would say something like, “we  have to trust in our judicial system” before the results are out, and when they come out, even if he disagrees with the result, he should be saying “our system has spoken and if one side feels it was wrong, there is an appeals process for people to follow.”

But for a President to undermine the system that he’s supposedly the head of shows at the very least unprofessionalism and much closer to incompetence and bias.

New York Mayor DeBlasio

Like President Obama, the mayors job was to back his police force and back the justice system. He’s just made enemies of the very people that he’s got in charge to serve and protect the citizenry.

New York Gun Laws:

Just one comment here. Guns are outlawed in the city of New York. So how did the shooter get close to the two officers to shoot them? Could it possibly be that criminals don’t respect the laws? Apparently, they don’t have any respect for the laws nor for human life.

There are many more things than just those listed above that fed into this. Parents that don’t take care of the children that they bear. Schools that fail these kids way too often. Human life is not given any worth by some. Those that think the world owes them everything and they have no responsibility for their actions. This is not just a black problem. This is a problem in the human race.

Not all police are innocent and not all of them are guilty. Not all blacks are innocent and not all of them are guilty. But once they break out in a physical confrontation where lives are at stake, who’s right and wrong won’t matter until the bodies are figured out. At that point, it’s too late to say “sorry” because one or more are dead.

If you want to see your children stay out of jail, teach them to not break the law. If you want to stay out of jail, don’t break the law. There is a place for grievances to be heard, but it’s not on a street corner.

If you don’t trust the police, why on earth would you give them reason to distrust you by bringing attention to yourself with your actions or your attitude? Trust is not freely given. It’s earned and once earned can be lost. If you want to keep the trust you’ve earned don’t give reason for it to be removed.

There was somebody, I don’t remember who it was now, that said in Eric Garners case, he was driven to this because of the high taxes on cigarettes in New York. Maybe he was, but he still broke the law. I understand an underground market being created by the ridiculous taxes put on various items, but if you’re actively doing something about it by selling them when it’s illegal, accept your punishment. It’s odd too that the Mayor of New York would have his police on the lookout for someone selling a cigarette. That would seem to me to be more of an incidental discovery rather than a smoke cop being assigned. But it’s still breaking the law.

In each case there was an apparent breaking of the law. Cigarettes being sold illegally, cigarellos being stolen from a store along with an assault and a kid pointing what looked like a real gun at an armed policeman.

Now we are left with a war on the police. That will only make it more difficult to weed out the bad ones and let the good ones continue to do the fine job that most do.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett

Anti- Government Democrats?

In recent weeks, we’ve seen the Democrats attack the Police, and even the judicial system, and now our intelligence agencies and Military. With Democrats undermining government agencies, one can only wonder how long before they become the new anti government group. If Janet Napolitano was still the secretary of Homeland Security, would she open investigations into Democrats as domestic terrorists?

This started with the Michael Brown death when he was shot and killed by a police officer. The prosecutor sent the investigation to the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury found no reason to indict the officer. Without rehashing the entire episode again, what it boils down to is that Democrats from President Obama, to Eric Holder the Attorney General, along with Obama’s latest advisor, Al Sharpton chose to side with Michael Brown despite not having seen all of the evidence.

Grand Juries don’t operate under the same rules as a court room. First, the accused is not permitted to have an attorney in the grand jury room with him. Second, there is no legal wrangling about technicalities as there is in a civil or district court. Grand Juries look at evidence presented and decide if there is a probable cause a crime was committed. It’s easier to get an indictment than it is to get guilty conviction in a trial court. So there must have been very strong evidence in the officers favor for them to not indict.

Yesterday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) California and Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released their CIA report on torture. The investigation was 500 pages and cost nearly $50 million dollars and they didn’t interview one person from the CIA.

The activities that the investigation was looking into was waterboarding and other techniques to get prisoners to talk. By all accounts, except for the report, information was gathered and did save lives and prevent attacks.

The program was stopped nearly ten years ago, although President Obama claims it was discontinued when he became President. But then he takes credit for anything that happens that’s good until it turns bad, then claims he knew nothing about it.

So this report served no purpose save one. It puts our CIA operatives as well as our military at risk. Days before the report was released, our embassies and marines were put on high alert for possible attacks due to this report coming out. The President, the Congress and even Senator Dianne Feinstein knew that this biased partisan report was going to put our men and women serving in the field to protect Americans at home as well as abroad and released it anyway.

The reason for Senator Feinsteins vigor in getting this report out appears to be because the CIA was caught spying on her office a few years ago. To punish them for their activity, she is putting our heroes lives at risk. If she’s going to play a tit for tat game, my question is how many of her staff members or anyone else that entered her offices at the time of the alleged spying on her offices, died? The answer is NONE. So her little vengeance game will be won by her at the expense of a marine, or a CIA operative. A marine who may have killed or captured the next terrorist to fly a plane into a building here. A CIA operative who may discover that the terrorists have a biological weapon that will now not be prevented because that operative died in the name of the Feinsteins revenge.

This begs the question. Just what did Senator Feinstein have going on in her office that would justify the killing of a marine or a CIA agent spying for the United States of America?

Thankfully, we have the finest marines in the world and the best spies in the world. They at least have a chance because they are the best. Unfortunately, their margin of error just shrunk because a United States Senator got a hornet up her skirt and is bent on revenge against her own country.

We can only hope that she never gets the chance to be faced by the parent or the spouse of a dead US Soldier because of her actions. Maybe the cost of losing an election this badly is that the Democrats are turning anti-government. More likely they'll become more pro socialist. 

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett

Consequences of Lies?

The man in the picture above is a Democrat. He died a few weeks ago in October. I would love to tell you the story behind this, and many of you may have already heard it, but I would rather that you heard his story from his wife. It's a little better than six minutes long. Please take the time to watch it before reading on. Following is the url. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0da4PjaS90A&feature=player_detailpage

If you watched the video, you now know that the man in the picture above is Alvin Wiederspahn. He is a former state legislator in Wyoming. His wife is Cynthia Lummis, a Republican Representative in the House of Representatives. I didn't know of either of them until today. She questioned Jonathan Gruber and Marilyn Tavenner in the committee hearing today. 

Gruber and Tavenner spent most of the time dodging, hemming and hawing to the Republican questions and dealing with softball questions from the Democrats in the committee. Some of the Democrats took their shots at Gruber as well, but were still fairly mild with him. 

The Democrats first commenter was Representative Elijah Cummings (D) Maryland, ranking member of the committee. He did tell Gruber he was disrespectful of the American people but his most pointed comments were how Grubers comments gave the Republicans a gift wrapped up with a bow on it to try to tear apart the Affordable Care Act. 

The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare was supposed to HELP the American people be insured. At least ostensibly. The true reason for Obamacare is control of the American people. Make everyone equal and stick it to the insurance companies and the rich. Not to mention create a legacy for some Democrats (By the way, when the new congress takes over in January, half the Senators that voted for Obamacare will not be Senators any longer).

As we all know Obamacare is not a bi-partisan piece of legislation. It was rammed through and passed the House using the reconciliation process. If they didn't do that, the bill would die when returned to the Senate. Not one Republican voted for it and according to polls 65% of the American people were against the take over of health care by the government. 

To get the bill through and to get the American people behind the bill, a series of lies needed to be told. "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." Lie. "If you like your existing plan, you can keep your existing plan." Lie. 

In recent weeks, we've learned that Gruber was one of the architects of the bill and there are seven videos out there where he talks about fooling the people, the stupidity of the American voter and tax the insurance companies so the American people can feel like they aren't paying when in effect the cost is passed on to the people. Even admitting in some that lies had to be told about whether it was a tax or not. 

He had been to the White House and met with Obama. He'd met with Speaker Pelosi. Health and Human Services Secretary has not admitted meeting him directly, and nothing has turned up yet saying they had met, but both Obama and Pelosi were caught in lies about knowing him. 

These Democrats, and remember, not even one Republican voted for this, felt they had to lie to get this passed. They didn't care about insuring the uninsured. There were supposedly 48 million Americans without health care.  

Remember the problems they had with the websites last year. When all was said and done they were proud that they had 7 million people sign up. What's 41 million Americans without health insurance. We got 7 million. 

Now the lies are coming home to roost. It is possible that in June the Supreme Court will dismantle Obamacare. But what about Congresswoman Lummis' husband? He's already lost his life after the back and forth of whether or not Obamacare covered him. 

Ms. Lummis said she isn't saying that Obamacare was responsible for her husbands death, but is she right? He died of a massive heart attack in his sleep. He'd been having chest pains. But didn't have a test his doctor recommended because he was told he didn't have Obamacare. 

Stress can cause strains on the heart. Could the strain be enough to cause a heart attack? We'll never know in Wiederspahn's case. But his is not the only story to come out with problems of coverage since Obamacare was implemented last year. 

Thankfully, it doesn't appear it reached the panel, also known as the "death panel". If it did, could he have been punished for daring to be a Democrat married to a Republican? 

How many others signed up for Obamacare as Wiederspahn and his wife, a representative in the House did, but don't have the platform to talk about it as Cynthia Lummis does by virtue of her position as a politician? 

When lies have the possibilities of creating problems in others lives, and possibly even ending them, you have to wonder why the government is hiring and paying millions of dollars out to a man that advises others and is advised by politicians to lie. Is their ego to make a name for themselves more important than the lives of those they are supposed to represent? 

If this was the only story that reflects badly on the government running health care, it could be seen as an aberration and given the benefit of the doubt. But just a few months ago, we heard how the Veterans Administration was allowing American Veterans that fought for this country, to die for lack of getting to the doctor to have treatment for ailments that they have due to their service to this nation. 

This President and his minions have lied about the health care plan. They've lied about the immigration executive order, they've lied about Benghazi, about the IRS, about fast and furious. These are just the lies we know about at this point. What will we find out next? 

This reminds me of what former President Ronald Reagan said were the most dangerous words in the English language. "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." 

You're welcome to comment. 

Brett

Gruber Correct: American Health Care Voter is Stupid

Now there’s a headline that if in a major publication could create a stir. It is true, however. In 2009 when President Barack Obama took office he immediately created conflict in politics by signing the stimulus package. That event led to the formation of the Tea Party. That was February 2009. Obama had been in office barely a month and already the Republicans were making progress for the next election. Not because of them but because of Obama, the House and the Senate, all controlled by Democrats.

Following the election, the Democrats held the majority of both Houses of Congress. With the Independents, like Bernie Sanders from Vermont,  and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut they were just one seat away from having the 60 votes needed to block filibusters.

Along came Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania. He saw that he was going to lose the primary in his home state so he changed parties and became a Democrat. He became the 60^th vote that would get Obama’s health care legislation through.

Then, Senator Ted Kennedy, Democrat from Massachusetts who had been suffering from brain cancer, died dropping the Democrats down to 59. This made them one short of the cloture vote.

 A temporary replacement (Paul Kirk) was appointed The Democrats now had their 60 votes again. They voted and the law passed 60-39. A special election was to be held for the seat vacated by the death of Senator Kennedy. Scott Brown ran as the Republican in a heavily liberal state. He ran as the 41^st vote against the affordable care act, also known as Obamacare. The amazing thing is that he won the race. Obamacare was dead….almost.

There was one way it could still go through. The House, who had been working on their own bill need only pass the Senate bill that had passed after abandoning their own version. If it went to a markup, the Senate would have to have a vote on it and with Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts, they wouldn’t have the filibuster proof majority and the health care plan would be dead. The House, which only needs a simple majority, which they had, voted on the bill and it passed. 220-215. Again, not one Republican voted for the bill.  

Here is where Gruber is correct. The American people did not vote on Obamacare. The people don’t get to vote on individual pieces of legislation. They only vote for the Representatives in each house to represent them. It is the members of the House and Senate that vote on legislation.

Not one Republican voted for Obamacare to become law. Each and every vote for the law was cast by a Democrat. Each and every Republican voted No on the bill. So you see, Jonathan Gruber is correct. They only needed to fool the voters for the bill, which were all Democrats.  

Do you need an example of the stupidity? How about the then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D) from California who said, “We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It".

Now there are two very liberal Democrat who are showing buyers remorse on the Obamacare plan. Senator Chuck Schumer (D) of New York and outgoing Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. If only they hadn’t been stupid when they voted for it.

The American voters are the smart ones. Since Obamacare, liberal Democrats have been losing seats in both Houses. The stupid voters that Gruber ended up describing was every Democrat representative and Senator that voted for the bill. 280 of them. They are after all the only ones that did. Although, there was one more, but he didn't vote on it, he signed it. 

The hearings should be extremely interesting over the next couple of days. It would be fun to see the Republicans jumping all over the Mr. Gruber for calling Democrat elected officials stupid.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett

Common Sense: Ferguson Burns

In August a police officer shot and killed an 18 year old man. What made this national news is that the police officer is white and the 18 year old man is black and a witness, a friend and companion of the 18 year old man, claimed that his friend raised his hands and said don’t shoot after being shot in the back.

There are three things that set off the riots in August in Ferguson Missouri. The officer was white. The man was black. The report was that the black man was shot by the white officer In the back. Of those three things, one of them was not true. The 18 year old man was not shot in the back! His companion, lied!

The day after the incident, the 18 year old man’s family came out. Michael Brown’s mother said he was a good boy and that he was to start college in the coming weeks. Pictures were shown on national television of a teenage boy. However, that teenage boy, an 18 year old man, was 6’5 and weighed just under 300 lbs.

Over the next three months, the officer said nothing publicly. Al Sharpton, who was not there, said plenty. Jesse Jackson, who was not there said plenty. Both charged for their time. Jackson took the opportunity to raise money from the protestors and the rioters. Sharpton wanted to charge the Michael Brown family for his services.

A rallying cry was created. “Hands up; Don’t shoot!”

A few days following the shooting a video emerged from a store. It showed Michael Brown stealing some cigarello’s from the store. It also showed that when the clerk tried to approach him at the door, that Brown said something to him and pushed him back into a rack of what looks like various types of potato chips and then walks out the door.

The evidence showed that the officer was telling the truth, the friend of Michael Brown, Dorian Johnson, was lying.

The lie is what became the narrative in most of the news programs. Riots erupted in Ferguson.

The prosecutor, rather than saying that there was no cause for charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, decided to turn it over to the Grand Jury. Witnesses were called and at least six of the witnesses told the same story as Officer Wilson. While the other witnesses didn’t tell the same story as each other and in some cases, such as with Dorian Johnson, the stories changed. One of those witnesses finally admitted he wasn't even there and was only repeating what he'd heard on the news.  Officer Wilson was not indicted. One of the things discovered in the grand jury was that Brown’s hands never went up and he didn’t say “Don’t shoot”.

Once the grand jury came out with their non-indictment, the riots started again. Police cars were set on fire. Businesses were burned to the ground.

The above is pretty much already known by everyone. So where is the racism?

Our justice system is not perfect. But it is the best in the world. Through police work, testimony and forensic evidence just about every detail about the incident is known. Nobody can tell us what Michael Brown was thinking when he decided to attack officer Wilson in his car. That may be the only thing we'll never know. 

But we know from the forensic evidence and from the video in the store that Michael Brown was not the innocent boy that was portrayed. He robbed the store. He was walking in the middle of the street. The officer did tell him and Johnson not to walk in the middle of the street.

Wilson was not found guilty of any wrongdoing because he’s white and Brown was black. He was not indicted because he did his job correctly. He was not indicted because Brown robbed the store. Because Brown fought for Wilsons gun. Because he charged at Wilson and not with his hands up.

So why were they rioting? Is it because a black man was killed? He died because of his own actions. So how is the officer guilty? How does that justify people burning their neighborhood? How does that justify people stealing from stores in their neighborhood after breaking in? How does that justify burning down businesses in their own neighborhood?

Do you need to buy some meat for the week? You’ll have to find a way to the next neighborhood to do your business because you burned out the meat market! Do you need to get your hair done? I guess you’ll have to find another place to set an appointment because you burned down your salon in your neighborhood.

If someone is breaking into your house and you call 911, will you complain when the dispatcher says, “we’ll have an officer out as soon as possible. It may take a few minutes longer because he has to ride his ten speed since four police cars were burned up in the riots.”

Will you complain that someone is shooting up  your neighborhood with a gun stolen from one of the police cars that burned up?

We’ve all heard the talk about black on black crime. We’ve all heard the talk about how there is a disproportionate number of blacks in prison.

It’s time for people to start taking responsibility for their own actions. If you want less people in jail, get them to quit committing the bulk of the crimes. If you want less people dead, tell your kids to quit shooting their friends and neighbors.

It is a lot more difficult for a black child to live beyond his twenties than it is for a white child. 90% of the black people that are dying prematurely are dying at the hands of other black people. Not at the hands of white people. Not at the hands of white police officers.

One of the first things you might want to consider is that we’re all Americans. Not African American. Not European American. We are AMERICANS! You divide yourself into other groups, black or white and it’s no wonder we have differences based on skin color.

Get your kids home and in bed at a reasonable hour. It worked for my parents. It worked for my children when they were with me. Get your kids in school every day and demand that the teachers teach and if the teachers don’t teach, get new teachers. If your kid refuses to learn, punish him or her, not society.

The civil war was over in 1865. Slavery lost, freedom won. After 149 years, blaming slavery isn’t going to work. Rosa Parks fought for a bus seat in 1955. Freedom won. The civil rights act was passed in 1964. It’s been 50 years. Freedom won. If you’re going to keep whining about how you’re not given anything after 50 years of having equal rights that ship has sailed. It’s time to start joining your rightful place in American society and quit whining that someone else is holding you back and then setting your town on fire.

You have never been a slave.  Your parents have never been a slave. There’s very few, if any, who’s grandparents were slaves.

If you want to stay out of jail, stop breaking the law. If you want your children to stay out of jail, teach them to obey the law. Start looking at other human beings as viable people and have respect for human life. Maybe less will die violent deaths. If your kid acts up, punish them and no that doesn’t mean abuse them. It means teach them right from wrong. Take away their I-pods, their cell phones, and maybe even ground them for a week. 

Stop following people blindly. When President Obama says something stupid, start realizing he’s the President, not a savior, nor a civil rights leader. When Al Sharpton starts ranting and raving in front of large crowds, he’s not a motivational speaker. He’s inciting a riot. Motivational speakers tell you that you can improve yourself by believing in yourself and working towards goals. Rioters advocate violence.

Michael Brown would be alive today if he would have raised his hands and said “don’t shoot”. The St. Louis Rams players have it wrong. The Congressional Black Caucus had it wrong. But then, had he just obeyed the law by not walking in the middle of the street, by not robbing a store, and by not charging a police officer with his 6’5 inch, 298 lb body.

Michael Brown’s step father was caught on video at the riots screaming “Burn this b**** down”. Someone should have stood up to him and said, “NO!” Had common sense been employed, Ferguson might not have burned and Michael Brown might still be alive, and the New York Times wouldn't have published Darren Wilson's home address. 

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett