government paradox - “Government is men and women providing services on a compulsory basis—pay and obey or get shot." FUNKTIONARY

According to FUNKTIONARY, THE KEY HOLDERS ENPSYCHLOPEDIA: 

government hoax - next to money, the biggest hoax of them all. "The government hoax is probably the oldest, most pervasive and stubborn of hoaxes. It's the belief in non-existent "states" and "nations" and that "government" is both legitimate and necessary. In the geographic area of the North American continent commonly referred to as the "United States," it's claimed only "government" can provide the service of protecting "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." This is nonsense if only for the reason "government" has no duty to protect anyone and their property. Another reason is: no service or product should y be provided at the barrel of a gun. It's that simple. There are no exceptions unless one believes people have no rights. If one believes people have no rights then "government" is not "necessary" to "protect" what doesn't exist. If you believe people have rights, then you don't "protect" them without their freely given consent. Also, protection is not submission to the violent unaccountable control of another nor is violent domination a legitimate method of doing business. Would you hire people who don't acknowledge you have property, to protect your property? I wouldn't." -Marc Stevens. "The ultimate ownership of all property is in the State; individual so-called "ownership" is only by virtue of Government, i.e., law, amounting to mere user; and that use must be in accordance with law and subordinate to the necessities of the State." -Senate Resolution #62, April 1933. (See: Rights, Money, Property, Idea, Allegiance, Statism, Duty, Citizens, States, Ownership, Government, Corporate State, Authority, Freedom, Voluntiered Slavery, Fascism, Totalitarianism, Notion, Courts & Slavery)

government paradox - Government is men and women providing services on a compulsory basis—pay and obey or get shot. "To be legitimate they would have to drop their guns and provide their services on a voluntary basis. However, the moment they do so, they cease to be a government. That's quite the conundrum." —Marc Stevens. (See: Statism, Nations, Slavery, Standing, Jurisdiction, State, Unalienable Rights, Freedom, Predictive Programming, Education & Citizens) [MORE]

"I Told You Don't Use a Gun!" Black Family Under the Illusion that They Control Public "Servants" Watched an Uncontrollable Texas Cop Murder Patrick Warren After Calling 911 for Mental Health Help

DR. BLYND OBSERVES, “IT'S CLAIMED ONLY "GOVERNMENT" CAN PROVIDE THE SERVICE OF PROTECTING "LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS." THIS IS NONSENSE IF ONLY FOR THE REASON "GOVERNMENT" HAS NO DUTY TO PROTECT ANYONE AND THEIR PROPERTY. ANOTHER REASON IS: NO SERVICE OR PRODUCT SHOULD Y BE PROVIDED AT THE BARREL OF A GUN. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS UNLESS ONE BELIEVES PEOPLE HAVE NO RIGHTS. IF ONE BELIEVES PEOPLE HAVE NO RIGHTS THEN "GOVERNMENT" IS NOT "NECESSARY" TO "PROTECT" WHAT DOESN'T EXIST. IF YOU BELIEVE PEOPLE HAVE RIGHTS, THEN YOU DON'T "PROTECT" THEM WITHOUT THEIR FREELY GIVEN CONSENT. ALSO, PROTECTION IS NOT SUBMISSION TO THE VIOLENT UNACCOUNTABLE CONTROL OF ANOTHER NOR IS VIOLENT DOMINATION A LEGITIMATE METHOD OF DOING BUSINESS.“ [MORE]

DECLINE GOVERNMENT “SERVICE” AT YOUR OWN RISK. From [HERE] Video released Wednesday by a civil rights attorney shows the moments before a central Texas police officer shot and killed a man whom police described as "emotionally distressed," and the immediate aftermath as a resident repeatedly says, "I told you, don't use a gun."

It began as what authorities described as a psychiatric call on Sunday that escalated when the responding officer was forced to use a Taser on a man described as emotionally distressed. The officer fired his gun after the Taser was ineffective, authorities said. Patrick Lynn Warren, 52, of Killeen later died at a hospital.

The video, which appears to have been edited, shows the Killeen police officer at the door, and then briefly entering the house before stepping back outside, and then shows the victim stepping out with his hands in the air.

The shooting occurred out of the camera's view, but the gunfire can be heard on what appears to be cell phone video. The video was released Wednesday by civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who's representing the victim's family.

"A mental health call should not be a death sentence," Merritt said.

Merritt is calling for the officer, a five year veteran of the department, to be fired and arrested. The Texas Rangers were called in to investigate.

New DOJ Execution Protocols Authorize Feds to Use Firing Squads, Electrocution or the Gas Chamber to Carry Out it’s Legalized Murders

From [HERE] As federal executions continue to be carried out the government will soon have access to more options for putting prisoners to death.

Starting Dec. 24, an amendment made to the nation’s federal execution protocols by the Department of Justice will no longer limit the method to lethal injection. Instead, the federal government will be permitted to use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.”

If a state does not permit the death penalty in the jurisdiction a defendant is convicted, the statute directs the court to designate another state whose law does “provide for the implementation of a sentence of death, and the sentence shall be implemented in the latter state in the manner prescribed by such law.”

That legally opens the door for the authorized use of firing squads, electrocution or the gas chamber at the federal penitentiary in western Vigo County where executions take place. The rule states that alternative methods may be used if lethal injection is found to be "unconstitutional or otherwise unavailable."

All states that use the death penalty allow lethal injection. It is also the primary method in all states where other methods are allowed, according to Death Penalty Information Center data.

As lethal injection drugs become difficult to obtain, some states have begun looking at alternative methods for carrying out death sentences. Alabama joined Oklahoma and Mississippi in 2018 approving the use of nitrogen gas to execute prisoners, allowing the state to asphyxiate condemned inmates in some cases.

In some states, inmates can choose the method of their execution. Florida allows inmates to specifically ask to be put to death by electrocution. In Washington state, inmates can ask to be put to death by hanging.

In Utah, prisoners sentenced before May 2004 can choose to be killed by a firing squad. The state law there also authorizes the use of a firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren't available.

The last time a firing squad entered the discussion at Terre Haute was in July before Daniel Lewis Lee became the first man executed in nearly two decades.

Lee and other plaintiffs raised concerns about the effects experienced after the drug used in lethal injection is administered. 

The injection of pentobaribital — which some scientists say causes pulmonary edema and a drowning sensation during death — violates their Eighth Amendment rights and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, they argued.

The pitched death by firing squad as an alternative they said was likely to reduce the risk of experiencing severe pain. The Bureau of Prisons rejected the appeal.

Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects for the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, could not directly speak to the mindset behind the DOJ's order.

“What I will say that Attorney General William Barr has really been aggressively pursuing executions, and part of that aggressive pursuit is this amendment,” Ndulue said. 

She added that further evidence of Barr's stance is the fact that the nation has seen federal executions return and be prioritized in a year where other countless other initiatives have been put on hold due to safety concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. [MORE]

Trump Orderlies Murder Corey Johnson. No Delay for Ritual Sacrifice as Sup Ct Refuse to Give Black Man a Stay to Present New Evidence of his Intellectual Disability Under Current Diagnostic Standards

TYRANNOW LAW [system of law held to be superior to humanity, such that whenever the two are in conflict, humanity must yield.]

FUNKTIONARY DEFINES: THE DEATH PENALTY - LEGALIZED MURDER - THE AGENTS OF THE CORPORATE STATE WAY OF PURIFYING THE BLOOD ON ITS HANDS VIA RITUAL SACRIFICE TO THE NEW GOD ECONOMY AND THE GREATER SYSTEM.. THE DEATH PENALTY IS LOOKING FOR MORAL INTEGRITY IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES WITH ALL THE WRONG FACES.” [MORE]

From [HERE] For the second time in less than five weeks, the federal government has executed a death-row prisoner who likely was intellectually disabled, without affording him judicial review to determine his eligibility for the death penalty. Corey Johnson (pictured) was pronounced dead from lethal injection at 11:34 p.m. on January 14, 2021, the 12th federal prisoner executed in six months and the fifth in the transition period between Donald Trump's defeat in the November 2020 presidential election and the scheduled inauguration of Joseph R. Biden on January 20, 2021.

The only other time in U.S. history that as many as five transition-period executions took place was in 1884-1885 during the transition between Chester A. Arthur and the first presidency of Grover Cleveland.

In an order issued at 10:00 p.m., four hours after Johnson was scheduled to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Johnson’s emergency application for a stay of execution to permit him to present evidence that the constitution prohibited his execution because he has intellectual disability. Justices Kagan and Sotomayor dissented. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002 that the execution of people with intellectual disability violates the Eighth Amendment proscription against cruel and unusual punishments. Johnson also argued that his execution would violate a 1988 federal statute that forbids applying the federal death penalty to prisoners with intellectual disability. 

Earlier in the evening, in an 8-7 vote, the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit declined to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling refusing to grant Johnson an evidentiary hearing on his claim. In dissent, Judge James A. Wynn wrote, supplying emphasis, that “Corey Johnson is an intellectually disabled death row inmate who is scheduled to be executed later today.” Newly available evidence, he wrote “convincingly demonstrates … that he is intellectually disabled under current diagnostic standards. But no court has ever considered such evidence. If Johnson’s death sentence is carried out today, the United States will execute an intellectually disabled person, which is unconstitutional.”

On December 11, 2020, the federal government executed Alfred Bourgeois despite evidence that he may have been ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. During his earlier appeals, a federal court in Texas denied Bourgeois’ claim of intellectual disability, relying on a series of lay stereotypes that had no clinical validity and whose use the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional. When he sought to obtain judicial review of his condition based upon current clinical definitions of the disorder, another federal district court found that he had made a “strong showing” of intellectual disability and granted him permission to litigate that claim. A federal appeals court reversed, saying Bourgeois had already been provided an opportunity to litigate his claim, and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to go forward.

Michigan Gov Snyder Charged with "willful neglect of duty" (misdemeanors) After said Racist Suspect Caused, Sustained and Covered up Poisoning of the Water of Mostly Black People in Flint

The water’s chloride levels were so dangerously high that General Motors cut off the Flint River water supply to its engine plant because it would corrode the machinery. [MORE]

From [HERE] Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday with willful neglect of duty after an investigation of ruinous decisions that left Flint with lead-contaminated water and a regional outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

The charges, revealed in an online court record, are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The charges are groundbreaking: No governor or former governor in Michigan’s 184-year history had been charged with crimes related to their time in that office, according to the state archivist.

“We believe there is no evidence to support any criminal charges against Gov. Snyder,” defense attorney Brian Lennon said Wednesday night, adding that state prosecutors still hadn’t provided him with any details.

Lennon said Tuesday that a criminal case would be “outrageous.” Snyder and others were scheduled to appear in court Thursday, followed by a news conference by Attorney General Dana Nessel and prosecutors.

Besides Snyder, a Republican who was governor from 2011 through 2018, charges are expected against other people, including former officials who served as his state health director and as a senior adviser.

The alleged offense date is April 25, 2014, when a Snyder-appointed emergency manager who was running the struggling, majority Black city carried out a money-saving decision to use the Flint River for water while a regional pipeline from Lake Huron was under construction.

The corrosive water, however, was not treated properly and released lead from old plumbing into homes in one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history.

Despite desperate pleas from residents holding jugs of discolored, skunky water, the Snyder administration took no significant action until a doctor reported elevated lead levels in children about 18 months later.

“I’m sorry and I will fix it,” Snyder promised during his 2016 State of the State speech.

Authorities counted at least 90 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in Genesee County, including 12 deaths. Some experts found there was not enough chlorine in the water-treatment system to control legionella bacteria, which can trigger a severe form of pneumonia when spread through misting and cooling systems.

The disaster made Flint a national symbol of government dereliction, with residents forced to line up for bottled water and parents fearing their children had suffered permanent harm. Lead can damage the brain and nervous system and cause learning and behavior problems. The crisis was highlighted as an example of environmental injustice and racism.

More than 9,700 lead service lines at homes have been replaced. Flint’s water, which now comes from a Detroit regional agency, gets good marks, although many distrustful residents still use filters.

The criminal investigation has lasted five years under two teams of prosecutors. Todd Flood, who got misdemeanor convictions from seven people, was ousted in 2019 after the election of Nessel, a Democrat. Fadwa Hammoud subsequently dropped charges in eight pending cases and said the investigation would start over. She said the first team had failed to collect all available evidence.

Separately, the state, Flint, a hospital and an engineering firm have agreed to a $641 million settlement with residents over the water crisis, with $600 million coming from Michigan. A judge said she hopes to decide by Jan. 21 whether to grant preliminary approval. Other lawsuits, including one against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are pending.

Projection as a Way of Life: 4X as Many Cops Killed Themselves than Were Killed in 2020 [Authority Falsely Attributes its Violence to Citizens to Transform its Evil Into Positive Images]

UNDECEIVER JEREMY LOCKE EXPLAINS, “You must never underestimate the prowess or cruelty of evil people. Evil will confiscate money, destroy virtue and spill blood. Most people are not evil; most people try to create and not to destroy. However, evil people do exist and they are extremely dangerous. They are called authority.”

“Evil is the destruction of freedom.“ “The lie of tyranny is that you will maintain the freedom of life by obeying authority. The choices it offers you are a lifetime of obedience or death. Evil is the master of deceit. The objective of evil is not violence, but obedience.“

Textbooks aside, we must recognize that defensive projection is a way of life, a way of being and moving in the world. From [FTP] In 2020, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 45 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty — a decrease from the previous year. Absent from the database of fallen officers, however, are the 173 cops who ended their own watch. After rising for four consecutive years in a row, suicide among police dropped a little but is significantly higher than 2016.

As the number of officers killed in the line of duty decreased, the number of cops taking their own lives has increased. The website Blue H.E.L.P. (Honor. Educate. Lead. Prevent.) has been tracking these numbers for years in an attempt to prevent police officer suicides.

Cops are killing themselves at a rate nearly equal to 4 times the rate they are dying in the line of duty and this subject seems entirely taboo. Last year, it was nearly five times higher.

A report commissioned by the Ruderman Family Foundation showed that officers’ highest risk of death is by suicide with most deaths in California and Texas. [MORE]

'The War On Cops' is Pure Bullshit: Data Demonstrates it's Safer than Ever to be a Cop, On-Duty Deaths in Decline the Past 5 Decades

According to FUNKTIONARY:

Projection - a highly emotional charged activity (dynamic energy) that occurs whenever an unknown aspect of yourself sees itself in somebody else. Whatever you're unaware of about yourself is always noticed in other people first. Remember that everything (i.e., known and disowned traits, unconscious) is projected. If you can't stand someone else for some seemingly known reason then you have the disliked feature or aspect in you but are unaware of its existence or presence within you. You notice it in someone else but its origin is in you. 2) "seeing" feelings, motives or attitudes in another that are really in ourselves only. 3) personified versions of one's own personality. 4) capacity for "charging" a particular area or energy system. 5) a false cause. 6) an unsettling hidden worry--deep seated in the psyche. Projections are illusions created by shadows of one's mind. Fear is often the template for its own manifestation. Projection is the vibration that we don't appreciate in someone else resonating with what we don't like in (or about) ourselves and is the source of most prejudice. "If you have hate for something there, this is yourself, though hard to bear. For you are I and I am thou. You hate in you what you despise. You hate urself and think it's me." ~Frederick S. Perls. Projection takes what is happening where you look rather than where you are. “You spot it, you got it." Ultimately projection generates a great deal of pain and confusion, since you are attempting to crucify save others not from their sins, but your own. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye." Your mind can and build a case of universal innocence as easily as it will look far personal guilt. Love is a state of being or vision for living that handles all things equally--as it. A projection into the future belies the reality of the present and relies on faith for its eventual realization. Wherever you go, there you are. (See: Perception. All, Hell, Condemnation, Semi-Projection, Self-Confrontation, prejudice, Shadow, Conscious, Archetype, Enemy, Terrorists, Collective Unconscious, Expectation, Core Beliefs, Self-Observation, "Others" & "Direct Hit")

DHS Press Release Claims the Feds Can Use Facial and Iris Recognition to Identify People Wearing a Mask Even If It Covers Most of the Face. But Facial Recognition Can be Confused by Logos and Textures

THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE. From [HERE] It is official, unless airline passengers are willing to wear motorcycle helmets or Daft Punk style masks, the Feds can use facial and Iris recognition to identify nearly everyone.

According to an S & T press release, a pilot program run by DHS proves they can use facial/Iris recognition to identify airline passengers.

"The in-person rally, held at the Maryland Test Facility (MdTF), included 10 days of human testing during which six face and/or iris acquisition systems and 13 matching algorithms were tested with help from 582 diverse test volunteers representing 60 countries."

What is DHS's so-called motivation to ID everyone?

According to their "Ongoing Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT): Face recognition accuracy with masks using pre-COVID-19 algorithms" report, their motivation to ID everyone was inspired by COVID-19.

"Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic response, the widespread requirement that people wear protective face masks in public places has driven a need to understand how cooperative face recognition technology deals with occluded faces, often with just the periocular area and above visible. An increasing number of research publications have surfaced on the topic of face recognition on people wearing masks along with face-masked research datasets."

The Feds shameless pandemic motivation to ID airline passengers wearing masks is in full-swing as is evidenced by a recent Federal News Network article.

"Another bit of work that we’ve been doing during the pandemic, obviously, is to look at – can face recognition work when somebody is wearing a protective face mask?" NIST computer scientist and biometrics expert Patrick Grother said

Taken together, these comments essentially mean DHS, TSA and the CBP were having issues ID'ing people wearing masks and needed to find a solution.

According to the NIST report it does not matter if a mask covers most of a persons face or the type[s] of masks people wear. 

"We baselined those with unmasked faces with the result that FNMR increases by factors of around 10, 25, and 36 respectively for the median algorithm."

The NIST is basically saying a face mask only adds a 10%-36% difficulty factor to IDing people.

There is some good news though. The shape and color of masks can confuse facial recognition.

The NIST report did acknowledge that they have a harder time IDing people with wider shaped masks and black masks.

"Results show that wide-width masks generally give false negative rates about a factor of two higher than do rounder type masks. Most algorithms have higher error rates in black masks than light-blue masks. The reason for observed accuracy differences between mask color is unknown but is a point for consideration by impacted developers. Mask color also affects the rate at which some algorithms fail to produce a template from an image."

The report also noted that they did not try to ID people wearing textured face masks.

"The consequences of this are that we do not capture the the increasing diversity of masks worn recently, including those with corporate logos, text, patterns, or those advertised to thwart face recognition. The possibility exists for patterned masks to induce higher facial localization errors, which is not captured in our current study. We received a suggestion that such information may serve as a soft biometric, in that a subject that always wears the same textured mask will be more identifiable."

What this means is; facial recognition AI's get confused by logos and textures. The report also admitted that if a person wears the same type of mask everywhere, officials will have a better chance of IDing them.

How can law enforcement use "soft biometrics' to ID a person?

If as person wears a 'textured' mask to a retail store to make a purchase, CCTV cameras and license plate readers or 'soft biomterics' can be used to ID them. If a person wears a 'textured' mask and is accompanied by a friend or family member not wearing a textured mask 'soft biomterics' can be used to ID their friends and family. And finally, if a person is wearing a 'textured' mask and uses a credit/debit card to purchase something, 'soft biomterics' can be used to ID them.  

DHS was so 'inspired' to ID everyone wearing masks as a result of COVID-19 that they tested close to 90 facial recognition companies to figure out which one was the best. (pages 5 & 6)

Contrary to what the Feds have been telling the public about banning Chinese and Russian biometric companies, they tested at least 16 Chinese companies and at least one Russian company to help them ID people. 

Black Man's Suit Against WIS Prison Allowed to Proceed: White Nurse Disregarded Surgeon's Prescription to Provide Narcotic-Strength Painkillers Knowing It Would Cause Pain and Needless Suffering

From [HERE] The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held on July 23, 2020 that a prisoner acting pro se persuaded it that a factual issue remained as to whether a nurse was deliberately indifferent to his pain and suffering. The court reversed a grant of summary judgment as to the nurse, but affirmed judgment for the other defendants.

Wisconsin prisoner Anthony Machicote underwent surgery to remove damaged bone, tissue and cartilage in his ankle after he suffered an injury while playing basketball at New Lisbon Correctional Institution (NLCI). The surgeon supplied Machicote with oxycodone and said he would be in “extreme pain” when it wore off. He recommended narcotic-strength painkillers every six hours.

Upon returning to NLCI, Dr. Marie Herweijer and nurse Kimberly Stecker reviewed Machicote’s discharge instructions. Herweijer prescribed Tylenol 3 every six hours. Stecker, however, allegedly forced Machicote to take the first dose ahead of schedule despite his protests that he would suffer extreme pain when the medication wore off. She merely shrugged her shoulders and said she “did not care” and that he would have to “deal with the pain.”

Sticker further refused to give the next dosage six hours later, forcing Machicote to wait nine hours. She then took action to have the dosage schedule changed because she did not want to administer it every six hours. The prescription was changed to coincide with the prison’s normal distribution schedule, which was at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., and 8 p.m. daily. Stecker also refused to take action in the face of Machicote’s protestations of burning pain and complaints by a friend who called the prison about his care.

Machicote filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court denied his requests for an attorney because he had not tried to find one on his own. It subsequently granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, finding Machicote failed to present evidence that any of the defendants were personally involved in his care.

On appeal, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the district court as to all defendants except Stecker. It pointed to her defiance of the medication order and her indifference to whether Machicote would suffer pain. It noted that deliberate indifference can be found where the delay of medication for hours causes needless suffering.

Next, a jury could find that Stecker had the medication schedule changed simply because she did not want to administer it every six hours. Finally, Stecker’s failure to persist in treatment that was ineffective without consulting a doctor could be found as ignoring Machicote’s serious medical condition.

While these issues individually may or may not be enough to avoid summary judgment, combined they require the case be decided by a jury. As such, the grant of judgment to Stecker was reversed, but judgment for the three doctors and health services director was affirmed. See: Machicote v. Roethlisberger, 969 F.3d 822 (7th Cir. 2020).

Report Reveals Trump's Federal Executions were Arbitrary: Authorities Misstated Key Facts, Private Executioners Paid in Cash to Murder IQ Disabled, Carried Out w/Untested Drug Causing Torture Pain

Fed Executions Done to Complement Trump Efforts to Cage Migrant Kid and Use of Force Against BLM Demonstrators. From [HERE] The federal government’s historically aberrant execution spree has been fraught with irregularities and “has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical,” according to an investigative report by the non-profit news organization, ProPublica. 

In a December 23, 2020 news story by reporter Isaac Arnsdorf, based upon an analysis of court records, ProPublica details a pattern of government secrecy, deceit, and misconduct during the course of conducting more executions in five months than were carried out in any of the last twelve presidencies. The report portrays an administration more interested in performing executions than in following the rule of law, shining a spotlight on a litany of questionable actions by officials in the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in purchasing execution drugs, selecting cases for execution, and expediting the executions of death-row prisoners.

Arsdorf summarizes the administration’s conduct in one stunning paragraph: “Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night. They left one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers worked to remove a court order. They executed a second prisoner while an appeal was still pending, leaving the court to then dismiss the appeal as ‘moot’ because the man was already dead. They bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that failed a quality test. They hired private executioners and paid them in cash.”

Citing its own review of government records, as well as a January 2020 deposition by Associate Deputy Attorney General Brad Weinsheimer, ProPublica describes the process by which the government sought to obtain lethal-injection drugs. Because American pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for use in executions, the BOP initially intended to buy powdered pentobarbital from a “foreign FDA-registered facility,” but later purchased it from a domestic bulk manufacturer. The BOP also considered using the opioid fentanyl for the executions, going as far as finding a supplier, but backed away from the idea when then-BOP Director Mark S. Inch warned “there may be negative publicity associated with using a drug to which so many Americans are addicted.” 

The government has kept secret the supplier of its execution drugs and the identities of the laboratories that tested them, fearing that the companies would not participate in the execution process if subjected to public scrutiny. A Reuters report in July found that “[i]n some cases, even the companies involved in testing the deadly pentobarbital said they didn’t know its intended purpose. Among them is DynaLabs in downtown St. Louis, a laboratory that years ago decided against doing quality tests on execution drugs because of the controversy surrounding capital punishment.” 

Federal authorities have similarly refused to disclose the identity or even the profession of private contractors who performed the executions, and it paid them in cash to reduce the paper trail surrounding their involvement. “If we didn’t pay them in cash,” a BOP lawyer said in a deposition, “they probably wouldn’t participate.” 

The ProPublica report also documents a number of false claims made by the DOJ to the courts and to the public in connection with its execution efforts. DOJ claimed that the BOP had consulted multiple medical professionals in developing its execution protocol, when it actually had consulted just one professor of chemistry and pharmacology — who was neither a physician nor a care provider — and one retired anesthesiologist. 

The DOJ also provided the public with inaccurate and misleading reasons for its selection of cases for execution. While the DOJ claimed that the first five prisoners scheduled for execution were “convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly,” in fact Daniel Lee refused to kill a child. Undisputed evidence showed that Lee’s more culpable co-defendant, whom the trial prosecutor and trial judge described as the “ringleader,” had killed an 8-year-old girl after Lee refused to kill the child. In announcing the executions, Attorney General Bill Barr asserted that the government weas doing so because “we owe it to the victims and their families.” However, the DOJ had known for years that the family of the victims strenuously opposed Lee’s execution and ignored their request that he be granted clemency. Indeed, according to Weinsheimer’s deposition, the DOJ did not consult any victims’ families before deciding which executions to pursue.

Despite concerns from BOP officials about the rushed pace of executions — the first three were scheduled in a five-day period — federal authorities never provided any explanation for their execution timeline. The compressed execution schedule contributed to the chaotic legal proceedings that took place in the days and hours leading up to the restart of federal executions in July 2020. The ProPublica report explains how the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court handed down middle-of-the-night rulings that allowed executions to proceed without resolution of important legal issues. 

BOP and DOJ officials rushed to immediately execute Lee, issuing a notice of same-day execution after Lee’s execution warrant expired at midnight without serving that notice upon Lee’s counsel. Executioners left Lee strapped to a gurney for four hours while DOJ attorneys worked to lift one remaining legal obstacle to his execution. Wesley Purkey’s execution the next day had similar irregularities: the Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution around 2 a.m., two hours after the execution warrant had expired, and the DOJ notified Purkey’s lawyers of its intent to immediately proceed with the execution, even as they sought an emergency stay on the grounds that Purkey’s Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia rendered him incapable of understanding his sentence. Purkey was executed with an appeal still pending, leaving the federal appeals court to dismiss his case as moot because Purkey was already dead.

The DOJ provided no explanation for it selected the cases it scheduled for executions carried out in November and December. One prisoner, Brandon Bernard, was just 18 at the time of the crime, and was known not to have killed the victims. He was the youngest offender to be executed in nearly sixty years. His case garnered significant public attention and calls for clemency from the prosecutor and five jurors who convicted him. Another, Alfred Bourgeois, presented evidence of intellectual disability that had been rejected by a Texas federal district court using criteria for evaluating his condition that had no clinical basis and were later declared unconstitutional. Even after another district court ruled that Bourgeois’ claim would likely prove his ineligibility for execution if evaluated under accepted medical criteria, federal prosecutors successfully persuaded appellate courts to let the execution go forward.

After the ProPublica report was published, yet another federal court found that federal authorities had also deliberately disregarded COVID-19 health and safety guidance, likely contributing to an explosion of coronavirus infections at the Terre Haute Correctional Complex where the executions took place. More than a dozen people involved in the federal execution process have contracted COVID-19, and the outbreak at the federal prison also infected Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs, who are scheduled for execution the week of January 11, 2021. In a lawsuit filed by other prisoners in the Terre Haute facility, a federal judge found that BOP officials had “deliberately chosen not to implement CDC guidance regarding contact tracing and testing.”

Video Shows a CPD Cop Hit a Black Woman w/SUV Cruiser, Causing Her Head to Strike the Pavement. Cops Ignored Her and Left Her Pinned Under a Wheel for 9 Min while Trying to Conceal It From the Public

HIT AND STAY AND IGNORE AND CONCEAL From [HERE] and [HERE] A community activist on Tuesday released a dramatic video the city had fought to keep private that shows a Chicago police SUV striking and critically injuring a Black woman in the South Shore neighborhood in 2019.

The body camera video shows a police SUV pull forward from a parked position into Martina Standley after she touched a searchlight affixed to the vehicle.

The officer who was behind the wheel exits the vehicle and walks over to Standley’s motionless body and says, “Girl, ain’t nobody hit you like that.” [cop-artists perform for the camera

A pool of blood forms under Standley’s head as she regains some consciousness.

“She came banging on the window like ‘Boom boom boom.’ I thought I was in reverse. I tried to turn the wheel. It wasn’t nothing like no running from nobody or nothing like that,” the officer tells another officer. The video does not show her banging on a window. The video shows nothing was in front of his vehicle, which was parked or standing in the street, so it makes no sense that he would be trying to go in reverse anyway, which he didn’t do.

The police vehicle remains on Standley’s leg for over 4 minutes before the officer asks a sergeant if he should move the vehicle. She was pinned under the vehicle for at least 9 minutes.

During the nine minutes a group of at least 10 cops who had responded to the scene, milled around and paced back and forth as they attempted to conceal the incident from the public. The indifferent cops ignored her as she laid motionless in the street with blood steaming from her head.

The encounter happened about 6 p.m. Nov. 13, 2019, in the 2000 block of East 71st Street.According to the lawsuit, Martina Standley, 32, had “attempted to communicate” with officers inside a police SUV when the officer behind the wheel accelerated from a parked position and turned into her, causing Standley’s head to strike the ground.

“One witness described the noise of the skull slamming into the ground as being as loud as a gunshot,” according to family attorney Andrew M. Stroth. After the impact, Standley remained motionless, bleeding from the head, with her leg pinned under the SUV, according to the suit.

The unnamed officer at wheel “committed willful and wanton conduct exhibiting an actual or deliberate intent to harm, or through a course of action which showed an utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of another,” according to the suit. The officer also violated a police order that provides guidelines for how officers are to respond to people who need mental health treatment, the suit states.

Standley is bipolar, Stroth said. “These CPD officers used the power of the badge, a blatant disregard to our community and the power and force of a 4,700 pound sport utility vehicle to strike and injure unarmed, 5-foot-4 Martina Standley,” Stroth said.

Her leg was crushed and she suffered traumatic brain injury.

Community activist William Calloway filed a Freedom of Information request for the video days after the incident. Police denied the request, citing an ongoing investigation. Calloway then filed a lawsuit seeking its release and won.

“I want justice and transparency,” Calloway said Tuesday, noting the city has a history of not releasing videos that shine an unfavorable light on the police.

Release of the video comes just weeks after the release of another video showing police handcuffing a naked Anjanette Young during a mistaken raid on the social worker’s home.

After the 2019 incident, a police spokesperson said it was unclear what Standley and the officers were talking about in the moments before she was struck, but Standley was not considered a suspect in a criminal matter. Standley can’t remember the exchange.

Stroth said regardless of what was said, Standley was unarmed and did nothing to provoke such a response.

“I think the cop realized that he made a significant mistake and that he can be held responsible,” Stroth said Tuesday.

In a lawsuit filed days after the incident, Stroth claimed the officer at the wheel “committed willful and wanton conduct exhibiting an actual or deliberate intent to harm, or through a course of action which showed an utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of another.”

Stroth said the city gave him a copy of the video 10 months after the incident as part of the discovery process for the pending lawsuit. There was no protective order placed by the court on the video, Stroth said, meaning he could have released it publicly.

Asked why he didn’t release the video, Stroth said he was focused on litigation. [wha?]

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is still investigating the incident “to determine if officers were engaged in misconduct and/or other administrative violations including inattentive to duties,” spokesman Ephraim M. Eaddy said.

Eaddy said COPA determined the video wasn’t covered by the agency’s 60-day release policy because the officers weren’t involved in a police action or a use of force.

The officers involved remain on full-duty status while the investigation continues, a police spokesperson said Tuesday.

Memphis Police Say a Cop Kidnapped a Black Man From His Home and Drove him to Another Location Where He Shot and Killed him. Authorities Fired, Arrested and Charged the Black Cop in Just 2 Days

From [HERE] A Memphis Police Department officer is accused of using a squad car to carry out an on-duty kidnapping and killing. 

The police department released a statement on Twitter Sunday morning about the incident, and said that Patric Ferguson, the police officer, had kidnapped 30-year-old victim Robert Howard from a home in Frayser, forced him into a squad car, and drove him to another location where he shot and killed him.

The statement says the victim knew the police officer.

The statement also says a second man, 28-year-old Joshua Rogers, helped Ferguson move the victim’s body after he was killed.

The victim's girlfriend reported him missing about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.  He was last seen about 5 p.m. the previous day on Mark Twain Street, which is near Overton Crossing in Frayser.

Officers were told the girlfriend used a cellphone app to track her boyfriend's cell phone and found it near Lamar Avenue and Shelby Drive, but did not find the victim, the statement says. The police department's missing persons and homicide bureaus began working on the case, and discovered the police officer's role, the statement says.

"After a review of the evidence in this case, it was found that Ferguson, acting on his own accord, armed himself with his personal handgun, encountered the victim outside the residence, and forced the victim in the rear of a squad car. Ferguson then drove to the area of Frayser Boulevard and Denver Street, where he shot and killed Mr. Howard."

The home and the site of the shooting are less than half a mile apart.

The motive for the homicide wasn't immediately clear.

It was not clear from the statement where Howard's body was later moved to, or exactly what was done to it. 

However, an arrest affidavit offers more details. It says the investigation and the statements of the victim's girlfriend led officers to identify Ferguson as a suspect.

"Ferguson's search history in his cell phone revealed multiple incriminating Internet searches related to cleaning up crime scenes and how to destroy DNA evidence," the affidavit says. 

"Evidence was obtained showing Ferguson purchased cinder blocks, chains and padlocks at a hardware store which investigators later found were used by Ferguson to hide evidence."

"Additionally, surveillance video was obtained by investigators which captured the shooting of the victim while Ferguson was on-duty."

The arrest affidavit says Ferguson gave up his Miranda rights to remain silent and told investigators that he went to the victim's home, encountered him outside, and forced him into the back of the vehicle.

"Ferguson then drove to a nearby location where he shot the victim while in the back of the patrol car," the affidavit says. "Ferguson then drove to a nearby location where deposited the victim before later coming back to move the body." He also confessed to recruiting a friend to help move the body.

The affidavit says Rogers likewise gave up his Miranda rights and admitted to helping Ferguson move the body "from the first location to Rogers' residence." 

"Rogers stated he and Ferguson then wrapped the victim's body before taking him to another location." (That location isn't included in the affidavit.) 

"Rogers stated he then took his vehicle used to transport the victim and sold it at a scrap yard."

Ferguson had worked for MPD since October 2018 and was assigned to Tillman Station, the statement says.

He faces charges including first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and fabricating and tampering with evidence. 

Rogers faces charges including accessory after the fact, abuse of a course and fabricating and tampering with evidence. Both men have court hearings Monday.

Video of President Trash and Mannequin Trump Along w/Blight House Orderlies and his Bignorant Son Listening to Disco at a Pre-Insurrection Party on 1/6/21

Obstacle Illusion: Unbeknownst to FAGA Believers Unable to Disbelieve Master Trump They Remain Trapped in Their Same Shitty Lives as their Revolution was a Fear Based Projection, Accomplishing Nothing

IN PHOTO THE BURGER KING BOY CLAD IN FURS IS Aaron Mostofsky, son of Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Mostofsky, a prominent member of the Orthodox Jewish community who was elected to the bench last year on the Democratic ballot line. Mostofsky, 34, told the New York Post in an interview last week that he was motivated to storm the halls of Congress with others because of his belief that Trump was swindled out of a presidential electoral victory by ballot fraud. [MORE] ALL BELIEFS ARE A MOTHERFUCKER.

According to FUNKTIONARY:

fear – an obstacle illusion. 2) amputated processing thinking in the presence of the unknown, the incomprehensible, or the unsolvable; in volitional forms—the attempt to escape a perceived threat to structural integrity; the flight half of flight/fright survival behavior. 3) the recognition and acknowledgment of powers and forces superior to those of your own. 4) a withholding of love from ourselves, and often from another. 5) obsession without embracing. 6) the denial that you are one with each other and with your universe (Interbeing). 7) that which governs (rules) the majority in socialist Corporate State, in the U.S.S.A, and in the former USSR. 8) the memory of pain. 9) a state of disquiet, of powerlessness and apprehension. 10) the tax which conscience pays to guilt. 11) the urge to protect and project. 12) reaction to ignorance. 13) inverted faith. 14) negative future expectations of one’s positive expectation (outcome) going unmet. Fear is the lack of overstanding and desire of control coupled with feelings of inadequacy, uncertainty and ill preparedness. While fear is the mother of hatred, control is the mother of fear. Fear also coalesces in minds as a perpetual cloud of gloom. The only potentially constructive aspect of fear is the fear of fear itself— which can be transformative. It has the potential to force us to abandon all illusions of security and begin revising our truths to renew the fruits of our experience. Nothing beneficial or real can grow out of fear— you have to grow-up and outgrow fear itself. (See: Control, Anxiety, Scarcity, Other, Fright, Responsibility, Processing Thinking, Self-Image, Group Entity, Overstanding, Subconscious, Weiteko Disease, Dreams, Nightmare, Hatred, Fear Clouds, Solar Plexus, Subconscious Mind, Attitude, Unknown, Unknowable, Suicide, Faith, Trust, Existence, Letting Go, Bubble, Substitute Life, One Love & Thought)

disbelief- a natural effect or a subconscious effect, of having a functioning critical mental faculty. The critical mental faculty : the ability to discern truth from among falsehood and lies, reality from truth, substance over symbol, realities over granfalloca danger in the apparent midst of "peace," inherent spirituality over Corporate religion, inherent rights over adherent rights, etc 2) a mental state where reasoning has not been transcended. 3) when our perceptions of what actually exists misrepresents (do not agree or align with) what actually exists. Disbelief is the faculty that causes a rabbit for instance to refuse to cross a meadow to get a drink. Although the meadow looks peaceful and safe, it can't believe it actually is safe; it may be under surveillance by a hawk or a hunter. Disbelief is when something we believe should exist does not agree with our perceptions of what actually exists. Disbelief can be shocking but awe-full (full of awe) and, is the key to the door of disillusionment which is the threshold of enlightenment—the porch of paradise. (See: 'Taranoid," Granfalloons, Belief Systems, Reification, Atheism, Agnosticism, Theology, Knowingness, Convictions, Core Beliefs, Predictive Programming, Psychological Reversal, Belief & Faith)

belief-based truth - a description or perception of reality, (the content of which comprises what we call "truth"), that one desires or hopes to be true, despite external scientific, natural, or reproducible proof-based truth to the contrary. People all-too-often compromise their integrity and/or intelligence by devising truth which disallows any proof by design, as part and parcel of its ruse to allure its believers)—and even the truth that carries proof cannot be proven against the undeniable uncertainty of Reality. You fall prey to (or fall for) the illusions of proof if you ignore the pure subjectivity of reality. Illusions of scientific proof follow illusions of limits, and illusions of religious proof follow illusions of truth. Science makes truth out of proof, while belief-based religions make proof out of truth. (See: Infinity, Proof, Revelatory Truth, Absolute Truth & Belief System)

dogma – spiritual mace; a reality-repellant—a fixed-form ossification of a belief system or concretized thought-system. 2) a catechism of closed (self-referential) theological rhetorical ethic that cannot change you—or you it. 3) the building of a door with a limitation built by and for a prospective adherent which he/she cannot go beyond. 4) reconstituted institutionalized belief. 5) inhibited, ingrown and arrested spirituality. 6) dead tenets of dead religion on which most are (were) razed (authentic self rent asunder) to believe unquestionably. The objective of dogma is to bind the mind to error. Religious dogma is worship by rote. Dogma, though not a four-letter word, is a four-legged creature, itself being the second leg of a vicious cycle of truth, dogma, hatred and violence. Dogma is an integral and activating aspect of the mind- prism-prison constructed out of 3-D translucent ecclesiastical bullscript. This perverse prism down through the ages has reflected the lies, diffracted the reality, displaced the structure of truth with the content of truth and thereby created the color spectrum of consciousness that you now occupy and peregrinate under. Truth (conscience; physical effects; outer seasons) is another name for a destructive competitive local personal static mythic God, whereas reality (consciousness; immaterial causes, inner reasons) is another name for a non-competitive dynamic cooperating unfolding pattern or non-local, universal creative Principle (Divine Law) that modifies matter (and our interpretations and impressions of it) based on the morphing nature of Life—the underlying or foremost principle being unceasing or incessant change. If you mind truth (deify it), dogma is your yield. If you mine truth (edit it), nuggets of reality (insights) are your gain. Dogma is the bug (fatal flaw) and true believers are the replicating viruses that propagate and distort the internal model of the nature of reality directly experienced within nondual consciousness. People perceive reality’s forms as direct threats on (and to) their truths because they are merely living (in truth at the mythic or rational level of consciousness) and not Alive (living God in reality) at the higher states, levels or realms of Christ Consciousness. Nondual Consciousness unfolds itself as the highest realization that a divine being can experience appearing-as-process in the space-time continuum. Dogma is an enemy occupation camp holed up in the most fertile regions of your subconscious mind. “Doctrines can only be created in darkness; in the light, there can be no beliefs.” ~ OSHO. Dogma becomes believed secondhand or underhandedly—reality becomes known candidly first hand (when you cease handing over paradoxes and subjective truth for another’s contradictions of objective or absolute truth)—and this you must overstand (so your credulity doesn’t get too far out-of-hand). Dogma is always hypostasized. Reverse the spell-curse of dogma, invert the prism, unlock the prison, and come correct for a change. (See: God, Beliefs, Proselytizing, Dancing Dogmas, Religious Virus, Priestcraft, Words, Belief Systems & Absolute Truth)

Belief- the psychological calm of imagined certitude safely beyond de-stabilizing doubt and troublesome reality-entanglement. 2) a construction of approximate truths, absolute truths, mass truths and primary myths, based on genetic predisposition, and environmental and socio-psychological conditioning. 3) the institutionalization of the unknowable, i.e., a conviction that is not necessarily based upon any empirical, direct-mind or experiential knowledge. 4) a non-physical surviving thought-form. 5) any conclusion based on a fundamental assumption; the evidence of things not seen, no longer actively sought. 6) an intellectual
rationalization surrounded by (based on) "'proofs," reasons and arguments. 7) that which springs out of cultural ideology. 8) the greatest fiction. 9) a trick of the mind to repress doubt. 10) a mental doubt-suppression tactic. A suppressed doubt is neither faith nor even trust. 11) repressed doubt. 12) an explicit or implicit assent to dogmatic propositions (with or without overgrown religious foliage) on someone else's authority. 13) reverential blindness that thwarts fresh perception and intuitive apperception. 14) a prejudice without any experience to support it. 15) a peculiar blend of fatiloquent assertion on one hand and adamant
denial on the other. 16) a manic flirtation with the terminally unprovable. 17) certainty based in the unknown. 18) having another "see" it for you while seeing him see it (for you)—in effect being for another. 19) a conclusion without the verification of direct experience—make-believe made real. 20) the inability or unwillingness to master the requisite logic or reason to counterbalance (or overcome) the willingness to be misled. 21) the abnegation of internal authenticity for outside authority. 22) ego-consoling faith. 23) acceptance of a statement, tenet or creed with available verification and substantive evidence to its contrary. The word belief in English comes from the Anglo-Saxon root 'leif, which means, "to wish." Belief is the inability to formulate the necessary suspicion that there is something seriously missing. Sin means missing the mark—and belief is the mark that's missed in the very act of merely believing. Belief is the blind spot of what's not. It's beautiful—you can't see what's not really there. When people believe something, their beliefs take form and appear real to them. Belief, even in the most arrant nonsense, often finds the greatest audience with the highest credulity. When you utter the creed, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth..." you are really saying, "I fervently wish that there exists God the Father Almighty." With belief, you have to believe only in lies; you don't have to believe in truth. Remember, you cover a lie; you discover truth. A belief is an unwarranted, unchallenged or cherished assumption that is elevated to the status of a conclusion or absolute truth without examination and verification through observation, direct or authentic experience, critical thought and contemplation. [MORE]

De Blasio Wants Answers After a White NYPD Cop Used His Uncontrollable, Absolute Authority to Forcibly Control Citizens To Kneel on a Handcuffed Black Man's Neck Despite New Law Banning Neck Kneeling

WILL WE EVER FIND THE RIGHT PERSONS TO RULE OVER US? From [HERE] Mayor de Blasio is demanding “immediate answers” from the NYPD after video showed an officer in Queens apparently kneeling on a Black man’s neck during a reckless driving arrest. 

“After George Floyd was murdered, we passed a law to ban chokeholds and kneeling directly on people’s necks,” de Blasio tweeted Thursday afternoon.

“I’ve seen the video from a recent arrest and I’m deeply disturbed. A full investigation is underway and I demand immediate answers from the NYPD.”

The tweet took NYPD brass by surprise, one high-ranking police source told the Daily News.

The NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s office have said the incident is under investigation. Police body camera footage is part of that review.

The video shows the Saturday arrest of ATV rider Sircarlyle Arnold, 34, who told The News that he didn’t resist arrest, and was determined not to be another George Floyd, who died on May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis cop kneeled on his neck for several minutes.

The video appears to show the officer kneeling on Arnold’s neck for at least several seconds, though it is not clear how much force was applied. As the arrest played out, witnesses yelled for the cop to ease up.

A new city law bans police from using a chokehold or otherwise blocking someone’s airway. In response to the new law, the NYPD issued a training video, and urged officers to step in if a fellow cop is using such force.

Witnesses Say a Newark Cop Shot a Black Man w/‘His Hands Up as He was Backing Away,' Murdering Him. The AG Claims there is No Body/Dash Cam Video but Private Video exists and was Confiscated by Police

THE TEDDY BEAR CODE. WHEN WILL THE NEXT GUNNING DOWN BY COPS TAKE PLACE? SHOULD WE POST UP TEDDY BEARS & CANDLES IN ADVANCE IN CORPORATE POLICE STATE OF RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY? [MORE]

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Black man was killed by a police officer in New Jersey on New Year’s Day under questionable circumstances as officials provide vague reports surrounding the early morning shooting.

Carl Dorsey III was shot in Newark — this much we know. But why exactly Newark Police Department Detective Rod Simpkins shot the 39-year-old has yet to be answered despite multiple press releases from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating the shooting.

According to the Newark AntiViolence Coalition, multiple witnesses claim that Dorsey was complying with the police at the time he was shot. Dorsey “had his hands up and was backing away from the officer when he was shot,” a press release from the Newark AntiViolence Coalition said in an email sent to NewsOne.

There was also no indication of whether Dorsey was armed or what type of threat he posed, if any, to justify Simpkins shooting him.

No police body or dash camera footage exists in the fatal shooting of Carl Dorsey III by a Newark detective in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, the state Attorney General’s Office told NJ Advance Media on Friday.

But, there is non-police video footage of the shooting, the office said. That video is being investigated and is not yet being released, authorities said. Most police officers in Newark wear body cameras.

Any recordings authorities have in the Dorsey shooting will be released to the public if requested after the initial phase of the investigation is substantially complete, which is typically within 20 days, the attorney general’s office said.

The Newark AntiViolence Coalition held a vigil and rally on Wednesday at the intersection where Dorsey was killed.

Citing eyewitnesses, a member of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense told vigil and rally attendees that Dorsey was unarmed when he was shot, NJ.com reported.

“He didn’t even stand a chance,” Sharif Amenhotep said.

Court documents obtained by NJ Advance Media reveal some detail about the circumstances around the shooting. A group that was gathered near an intersection where Dorsey, 39, had been shot attempted to flee once police arrived, the records show.

The criminal complaint for a man who was arrested during the same incident made no mention of Dorsey’s shooting, so the exact events surrounding the shooting and Dorsey’s conduct during the incident, remain unclear.

Detective Rod Simpkins, who has been a member of the Newark Police Department for 18 years, fatally shot Dorsey, of South Orange, on Jan. 1, authorities have said. The state Attorney General’s office is handling the investigation but has released few details about what happened.

At least one person, Jamar Murphy, was arrested around 12:15 a.m. near Woodlawn Avenue and South 11th Street where Dorsey was shot, arrest records show. Murphy, 39, of Irvington, faces weapons charges and one count of preventing a law enforcement officer from effectuating an arrest.

Officers were patrolling along Avon Avenue, about one block over from Woodlawn Avenue, when police said they heard gunfire nearby, the complaint against Murphy said.

“The officers then traveled to the area of South 11th Street and Woodland Avenue, Newark, and observed numerous individuals gathering in the area, and saw numerous muzzle flashes,” the criminal complaint said. “As the officers arrived, all the individuals attempted to flee the area.”

A detective that was not Simpkins said he saw a gun on Murphy and identified himself as a law enforcement officer, the complaint said. Murphy then ran away and got rid of the firearm, court records said.

The detective chased Murphy and apprehended him, the court document said. The firearm, a Diamondback DB9, 9mm semi-automatic pistol, was found where police saw Murphy discard it and 9mm shell casings were found at the scene, the complaint said.

The court documents have similarities to what Mayor Ras Baraka released about the shooting hours after the attorney general’s office put out a statement on New Year’s Day confirming the incident.

“Just a few minutes into the New Year, some of our plainclothes Newark police officers arrived at a scene where shots were being fired and an officer fired one round fatally striking someone,” Baraka said at the time. “...Two firearms were also recovered and at least one arrest was made.”

James Stewart, president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 12, previously told NJ Advance Media that officers ran into a “running gunfight between multiple people.”

It’s unclear where the second firearm was recovered, or if Simpkins was in plainclothes.

Simpkins was once the subject of a 2009 lawsuit that was filed by a Newark coach and the parents of two children. The suit was included in the ACLU of New Jersey’s petition to the U.S. Department of Justice that called for an investigation into the Newark Police Department, which eventually led to the city’s current consent decree.

Simpkins and at least four other plainclothes officers were accused of pulling over a Pop Warner football coach in June 2008 while he was driving with a 13-year-old and 15-year-old from the team. The officers allegedly approached them with guns drawn, pulled them out of the car, and told them “you have no f------ rights...we’re the cops, we do whatever we f------ want,” the suit claimed.

Police only found football equipment in the car, the suit said.

The ACLU helped represent the plaintiffs in the case. The lawsuit was eventually settled for an undisclosed amount. [MORE]

States Sue the US Comptroller to Void the “True Lender Rule," a Regulation that Encourages Prey-Day Loans and Prevents States From Enforcing State Laws Against Usurious Lending

From [HERE] Several states filed suit Tuesday against the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), seeking to void the “True Lender Rule” that would deprive states of the ability to enforce state laws against exploitative interest rates. In the complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the states alleged that the rule would encourage predatory lending.

The National Bank Act permits national banks, licensed and regulated by the OCC, to charge loan interest at the maximum rate permitted by their “home” state. Only national banks were granted the ability to preempt state usury laws because of the extent of federal oversight and supervision, which permitted them to lend money at rates higher than usually permitted under state law.

Non-bank groups have tried to partner with national banks to take advantage of their privileges and offer very high rate loans. Courts have concluded in the past that in those relationships, the national bank was not the loan “true lender,” and the usury caps applied. However, under the new OCC rule, which became effective on December 29, the non-bank entities can escape the usury caps as long as the national bank either initially funds the loan or is named as the lender on loan documents.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit on Tuesday, seeking to stop the implementation of the new rule. In addition to New York, the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina and the District of Columbia are also part of the lawsuit. The attorneys general argued in the complaint that the rule conflicts with the National Bank Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as exceeds the OCC’s statutory authority and violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

They have requested that the court find the rule to be unlawful and set it aside.

Key Trump Ally Honduran President Hernández is Implicated in Drug Trade Exporting Tons of Cocaine to the U.S.

From [HERE] New York federal prosecutors made new allegations that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a key Trump administration ally in efforts to stop illegal migrants, received millions of dollars from drug traffickers to help export tons of cocaine to the U.S.

The allegations against Mr. Hernández came in a filing made Friday night in the Southern District of New York in the case of Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, an alleged Honduran drug trafficker who is in prison in New York, and is alleged to have run a lab that produced hundreds of tons of cocaine a month.

In the most explosive allegation in the filing, it said the president, 52 years old, boasted to Mr. Fuentes Ramirez that “he wanted to shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”

The claims underscore the difficult challenge posed by Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, to the incoming Biden administration. President-elect Joe Bidenhas promised a new emphasis on economic development, ending corruption and promoting the rule of law as a way of attacking the deep-rooted causes that push migrants from Central American countries to journey to the U.S.

“It will be a crucial test for the Biden administration,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. “It’s a government and a president who are very suspect of being involved in drug trafficking.”

The allegations aren’t the first against the president, whose brother Juan Antonio Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking in 2019. During that trial, testimony also implicated the president in protecting drug traffickers in exchange for bribes.

The Number of Arrests is Down but the Number of Charges is Up: The Role of Prosecutors [95% White] in the Mass Incarceration of Mostly Non-White People in the System of Racism White Supremacy

according to the ABA only 5% of all attorneys are Black. Said number has remained steady from 2009 - 2019. The legal profession is nearly all white: specifically, it is 85% white, 5% Black, 5% Latino, 2% Asian American and 1% Native American. [MORE] and [MORE] in fact 95% of all prosecutors are white. [MORE]

From [PLN] Mass incarceration has long been recognized as a serious and abiding problem in the American social landscape. Historically, mass incarceration has been attributed to a combination of the war on drugs, politically driven harsh sentencing, and the growth of a prison industrial complex. Recently, however, as arrest rates fall and more judges have recognized that draconian sentencing standards are not sustainable, the persistence of mass incarceration as a phenomenon has led analysts to consider the role of prosecutors in the perpetuation of mass incarceration.

Prosecutors are by far the most obscure variable in the criminal justice equation. They enjoy enormous discretion in their decision making, and much of what they do occurs in private meetings. Past efforts to study and quantify the role of prosecutors in the justice process have shed only limited light on how they make decisions, but a recent study published by the Southern California Law Reviewoffers important insight into the decisions prosecutors routinely make and how those decisions could have an outsized impact on incarceration rates.

The study was carried out by Shima Baradaran Baughman at the University of Utah College of Law and Megan S. Wright at Pennsylvania State University. Five-hundred and forty-one prosecutors from jurisdictions around the nation were asked to view a hypothetical police report and then decide whether to charge a crime, what and how many charges to file, and what punishment range they would seek.

The police report describes a man in a subway station brandishing a knife. He is intoxicated, asking people for money, and complaining that his girlfriend left him. At one point, he grabs a passing woman by the arm. The police arrive soon after and arrest him. He has no previous criminal record.

The vignette was designed to allow prosecutors maximum discretion on whether to charge a crime, and if they chose to charge, what charges to file. Most previous studies had estimated that prosecutors decline to charge in nearly half of all arrests, but in the study, 97 percent chose to charge at least one crime, with 16 percent of prosecutors opting to charge a felony and over three-quarters opting for charges that were a misdemeanor only (or could be either a felony or a misdemeanor). Most of the prosecutors in the survey chose to charge multiple counts, and about 27 percent of prosecutors recommended confinement.

The harsh response of prosecutors was not what the researchers expected, nor did it match the estimates previous studies had put forth. The reluctance of prosecutors to decline to charge, along with their willingness to charge felonies in such a marginal case, could help explain a statistical phenomenon that has garnered growing attention among criminal justice experts in recent years.

Over the last 15 years, arrest rates and overall prosecution numbers have fallen steadily as crime rates have declined across the United States. A deeper look at the numbers, however, reveals that even though overall prosecution numbers are down, the rate at which they choose to charge has risen. Overall, from 2006 to 2018, the number of arrests in the United States per year drops from 14.4 million to 10.3 million, a decrease of 28.3 percent. Over the same period, the number of criminal filings by prosecutors fell only 21.3 percent. In other words, the number of criminal charges per arrest went up, from 1.51 filings per arrest in 2006 to 1.73 filings in 2013, before plateauing in 2018.

This data matches what was discovered in the study. Not only were prosecutors ready to charge, but many were prepared to charge multiple crimes for a single incident.

It is difficult to estimate the aggregate effect of these decisions on the problem of mass incarceration.

What the authors of the study do believe is clear is that without addressing the role of prosecutors, efforts to stem arrest rates or change sentencing guidelines will only nibble at the edges of this intractable problem.

Attempts to standardize prosecutorial procedures may not be the answer. The study makes clear that attempts to standardize federal sentencing guidelines led to longer average sentences. It also must be considered that the discretion afforded prosecutors is often essential for their job.

What the study proposes is a three-step process to help prosecutors get on board with efforts to move away from mass incarceration. The first step is educating prosecutors on the downstream effects of their decisions, both in fiscal and social terms. The second phase would be gathering more information about how prosecutors make choices and what the consequences of those choices are. Lastly, the data collected from the operations of prosecutors’ offices can be used to create baselines for individual prosecutors to use as guideposts in their day-to-day decisions. The study’s authors hope that the more prosecutors understand the consequences of their decisions, the more likely they will be to make decisions that lessen the burden of mass incarceration.