CHI Seeks to Settle Antwon Golatte Case for $525k: After Unlawful Stop Cops Detained Black Man for No Reason @ Gun Point, Shot Him as He Fled and Lied About It to Falsely Incarcerate and Prosecute

From [HERE] More than three years after the city’s police oversight agency ruled officers were not justified when they shot Antwon Golatte during a traffic stop in 2015, the city is on the verge of settling his excessive force lawsuit.

The City Council Finance Committee is scheduled to consider a $525,00 settlement of Golatte’s case during its next meeting on Monday. 

Golatte filed a federal lawsuit against the city in February 2017, accusing the officers who shot him of using excessive force.

The officers claimed Golatte tried to run them down after he was pulled over in the 300 block of West 115th Street, but the bullet holes in his car were all in the rear, and Golatte was acquitted of aggravated assault charges.

Golatte said he was out running errands at the time when police pulled him over. He claimed the trouble began when backup arrived, and he recognized them as officers who had stopped him two days earlier, dumped his pizza on the ground, and forced him to stand barefoot in the snow while they searched his car.

“Then when I see their faces, I knew who they was. Fear came automatically,” he said at the time he filed his lawsuit in 2017.

Golatte said he called 911, angering the officers, who began swearing and pointing their guns at him. He said he remained calm until one of them smashed the driver’s side window of his car.

According to a motion filed by Golatte:

“Officers Dercola and Whigham curbed Golatte’s vehicle, though neither observed him perform a hand-to-hand narcotics transaction or do anything illegal. (Id. at ¶11). Golatte immediately handed them his license and insurance. (Id. at ¶10). Dercola was at Golatte’s window for less than 2 minutes before Matheos arrive on the scene. (Id. at ¶¶13-14). Dercola never told Golatte he was under arrest or that the was being detained. (Id. at ¶13). Gaeta could clearly see inside Golatte’s vehicle and did not see any weapons, drugs or paraphernalia. (Id. at ¶15). Matheos could make out Golatte’s facial features, where his hands were, and everything inside the vehicle. (Id. at ¶16). The officers did not suspect Golatte was drunk, high, nor did they ever state they feared for their safety.

Though Golatte’s driver’s side window was down to be able to communicate with the officers, Gaeta got on the running board of Golatte’s vehicle to “calm him down.” (Plt.’s Ex. DD 215:2-3) Gaeta tried to force Golatte’s window down (Plt.’s R. SOF ¶42) placed two hands on his driver’s side window, broke it, and glass shattered in Golatte’s face. (SOFA ¶19) Gaeta and Matheos pointed their guns at him. (Id.) Scared and fearful for his life, (Plt.’s Ex. EE 135:20-22) Golatte was left with only one option, getting to safety. After noticing there were no officers in front of him, Golatte backed up, drove forward. (SOFA ¶¶20-21). Golatte tried to drive around Harry and Jaime's Ford Explorer. (Id. at ¶26). Gaeta does not recall saying anything before he fired his weapon, but (Id. at ¶25) as Golatte left the parking spot he and Matheos shot at him as he passed. (Id. at ¶21). Dercola and Whigham both testified that as the car was coming forward, no one was directly in front of Golatte's vehicle. (Plt.’s Resp. to SOF ¶7, herein Plt.’s R. SOF, Id. at ¶45). After being shot, Golatte was rushed to Christ Hospital. At his deposition, Dr. Doherty, Golatte’s ER surgeon, testified that Golatte was shot in the left flank, the region between the lower part of the ribcage and the crest of the pelvis. (Id. at ¶24). There was not a single bullet or gunshot holes in Golatte’s front windshield. (SOFA ¶22).

The four officers provided information that was used to complete reports with the Chicago Police Department; (Id. at ¶27) provided false information that was used by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Court System; (Id. at ¶28); spoke with Detective Calassare and gave him information to testify before the Grand Jury on March 23, 2015; (Id. at ¶29) gave testimony about Golatte to the authorities at IPRA; gave testimony about Golatte to the Presiding Judge at Golatte’s his criminal; (Id. at ¶30) and gave testimony about Golatte during a hearing at the Police Review Board, (Id. at ¶30) and at their depositions. (Id.). On January 18, 2017, after trial, Golatte was acquitted on all charges against the officers. (Id. at ¶34). On July 14, 2016, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) found that Officer Gaeta and Matheos moved out the vehicle path, yet still fired their weapons, and their use of force was objectively unreasonable and a violation of policy. (Id. at ¶35). On January 18, 2018, the Police Review Board found Officer Gaeta Detective Harry Matheos guilty of violating various rules. (Id. at ¶36). Plaintiff brought Fourth Amendment claims against defendants who seized and searched him on February 5, 2015 and February 7, 2015 and used excessive force without any legal justification.” See Motion in Opposition to Summary Judgement.

Golatte said he still has bullet fragments in his body as a result of the shooting.

Three days after the shooting, the Chicago Police Department revised its use of force policy to prohibit officers from shooting at or into a moving vehicle if no other weapons are displayed.

An investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority – the predecessor agency to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability – concluded the shooting was not justified, and recommended two officers be fired.

However, the Chicago Police Board instead suspended the officers for one year without pay for firing into a moving car that posed no immediate threat, a violation of department policy. The board said the officers never had the authority to make the traffic stop and violated the department’s use of deadly force policy but members stopped short of recommending termination.

At the time of the board’s decision in 2018, Golatte’s attorney, Chris Stewart, said the suspensions were not enough.

“How do these people still have a job? They falsified police reports. Mr. Golatte spent 44 days in prison and over a year on house arrest because they lied. We had to fight in criminal court to get him fully acquitted and that’s not a big deal for the Chicago Police Board?” he said.

NJ Authorities Refuse to Explain Why Carl Dorsey was Under Arrest and Why a Video Shows a Plainclothes Cop Jump Out an Unmarked Van, Shoot Him to Death and Fail to Provide Med Assistance

From [HERE] Surveillance footage has revealed the moment a plainclothes Newark cop in an unmarked police car shot dead an unarmed black man on New Year's Day. 

Carl Dorsey III, 39, died in the early hours of January 1 after being shot by Newark Police Detective Rod Simpkins near Woodlawn Avenue and South 11th Street in Newark.

Officers, including Simpkins, had reportedly arrived on the scene after hearing gunshots fired in the area. 

Private security camera video confiscated by the police was released by New Jersey's attorney general Thursday shows Dorsey running across the street as an unmarked van appears in the frame and comes to a screeching halt. A detective Simpkins quickly exits the sliding door of the van and then he appears to intentionally run into Dorsey in order to stop or slow him down.

After the detective collides with Dorsey he turns and shoots Dorsey dead. Dorsey falls to the ground, where he is no longer visible between the cars. It is not clear how many times Simpkins discharged his weapon or how many bullets struck Dorsey.   

The officer gets to his feet and walks toward Dorsey as two more officers emerge from the car.

Four more officers then run on screen from farther back up the street passing the area of the shooting and heading down the street.

Simpkins is still standing over Dorsey on the ground.  He then walks away in the direction of the other officers. 

They all disappear off screen before someone walks back up the sidewalk and appears to bend down toward the victim. 

A group of officers also walk back and gather around where the man is lying on the ground. 

During the 1 minute 46 second footage, no one is seen administering medical assistance. 

Nevertheless, Authorities claim that at some point officers provided medical aid to Dorsey before he was transported to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead at 1:37 a.m. 

The video is the only footage so far found of the incident. There is no dashcam or bodycam footage from the incident because the police claim no video exists and New Jersey state law does not require plainclothes officers to use them.

The state Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the fatal shooting, said no weapon was recovered from Dorsey or from the immediate area. 

It has also emerged that Simpkins, an 18-year veteran of the Newark force, was named in a 2009 lawsuit claiming he and other plainclothes cops pulled over a black football coach and two children, pointed guns at them, and told them 'you have no f**king rights'

It's not clear from court documents or from the AG's report what Simpkins race is, and authorities have not released his photo. He appears to be white.

"After reviewing the video from the Jan. 1 police shooting incident, I found it to be tragic, disturbing, yet incomplete," Mayor Ras Baraka said Thursday.

"While the Attorney General's Office is conducting an ongoing investigation, we are asking the public's help to fill in some gaps," the mayor continued. [what kind of gaps? All the people involved crept out of the unmarked police van and all were employed by the City of Newark. How moronic.]

Protesters have called for Simpkins to face charges for the unarmed man's death. 

Authorities previously said two firearms were recovered at the scene and that shots had been heard in the area prior to the police-involved shooting. 

Another man - Jamar Murphy - was arrested in the area around the time of Dorsey's killing, according to court documents obtained by NJ.com. Besides the fact that both are Black the two incidents appear to have no connection but the dependent media keeps parroting said information.

The documents say Jamar Murphy was found in possession of a gun and was arrested at the scene on weapons charges. 

The criminal complaint in the Murphy case says police were patrolling Avon Avenue, about a block from Woodlawn Avenue, when they heard gunfire and headed in its direction to the area of South 11th Street and Woodland Avenue.

It says officers arrived to see 'numerous individuals gathering in the area, and saw numerous muzzle flashes'.

'As the officers arrived, all the individuals attempted to flee the area,' it says.

An officer says in the complaint that he saw Murphy with a gun and identified himself as police, but that Murphy fled and got rid of the weapon.  

But Murphy's attorney Robert DeGroot denies he was armed and says the charges are 'an attempt to create a diversion and subterfuge to cover the senseless and reckless killing of an unarmed citizen'. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey commended the Newark Police Department, which saw a 30 percent drop in the number of shooting victims citywide between 2017 and 2018. In 2019, the number of shooting victims and shooting incidents declined another 39 percent, with the number of murders reaching its lowest level in nearly six decades. [MORE]

White NY Cop Charged w/Misdemeanor Assault After he is Caught on Video Attempting to Murder a Handcuffed, Compliant Black Man by Slamming Him Face First into the Pavement for Coughing During Arrest

From [HERE] A white Hudson Valley (NY) police officer was arrested after a viral video shows a cop slamming a handcuffed, compliant Black man to the ground.

On Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, the Town of Wallkill Police Department was told about a social media post that depicted a police officer sweeping the legs from under a handcuffed suspect, officials say.

A preliminary investigation by the Town of Wallkill Police Department identified Town of Wallkill Police Officer Daniel Traum-Steinberg as the officer involved in the incident, police say.

A subsequent investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office led to the arrest of Traum-Steinberg for two counts of third-degree assault and one count of official misconduct. He was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in Town of Wallkill Court on Wednesday, February 17. [MORE]

Third degree assault is “simple assault” a misdemeanor.

§ 120.10 Assault in the first degree.

A person is guilty of assault in the first degree when:

1. With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument; or 2. With intent to disfigure another person seriously and permanently, or to destroy, amputate or disable permanently a member or organ of his body, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person; or 3. Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes serious physical injury to another person; or 4. In the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempted commission of a felony or of immediate flight therefrom, he, or another participant if there be any, causes serious physical injury to a person other than one of the participants.

Assault in the first degree is a class B felony.

§ 120.05 Assault in the second degree.

A person is guilty of assault in the second degree when:

1. With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person; or 2. With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument; or 3.[applicable only for government workers]

"Assault in the second degree is a class D felony."

§ 120.00 Assault in the third degree.

A person is guilty of assault in the third degree when:

1. With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person; or 2. He recklessly causes physical injury to another person; or 3. With criminal negligence, he causes physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument.

Assault in the third degree is a class A misdemeanor.

NY PEN Law 120.00 Assault in the third degree. (Laws of New York (2021 Edition))

Rutgers Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis [caused by White People's Mental Health Crisis. Racists Accept that which has No Basis in Reality and Infect Society w/mind virus, a malignant meme]

The Fox network’s hosts have stressed to their audiences that when Biden and others call for defeating white supremacy and domestic terrorism in light of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, they are talking about viewers like them. [MORE]

From [HERE] In recognition of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and 402 years of racism in the country, RWJBarnabas Health and the Rutgers School of Public Health join others around the nation to declare that racism is a public health crisis and that Black Lives Matter. 

In an effort to ensure a more equitable and just world for Black and brown people, the two organizations developed a call to action in the form of a pledge, which has been adopted by groups that include academia, government, business, and community‐based organizations.

Racism hurts the health of communities by depriving people of the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. It is the fundamental cause of health disparities that are inextricably tied with poverty, inadequate housing, under-resourced and thus, underperforming schools, police brutality, mass incarceration, food deserts, food swamps, unemployment or underemployment, wage disparity, stress, poor access to health care, and violence, all of which are substantial barriers to health equity, according to Perry N. Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health.

“In order to achieve health equity, eliminate health care disparities, and create more vital communities, we must identify and address racial injustices,” Halkitis said. “We must fearlessly commit to listening, confronting policies, systems, and structures that perpetuate and uphold racism, and holding conversations that lead to actionable change.”

The pledge outlines collaborative steps that organizations must take in order to move towards an anti racists and more equitable world.

“As anchor institutions within our communities, we must lead the way in addressing racial and social inequities that impact the health and well-being of our diverse communities,” said DeAnna Minus-Vincent, Senior Vice President, Chief Social Integration & Health Equity Strategist for RWJBarnabas Health.

The pledge, which was initially signed by Halkitis, Minus-Vincent and Ernani Sadural, MD, Director of Global Health at RWJBarnabas Health, will also be signed by local organizations that have also expressed a unified commitment to addressing equity and disparities in healthcare, dismantling systemic racism.

Pledge signatories will work to enlist local organizations committed to fighting social injustices including, but not limited to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Equal Justice U.S.A., New Jersey Citizen Action, and New Jersey Policy Perspective that work to eliminate inappropriate use of force in law enforcement, systemic incarceration of Black males, healthcare disparities, and economic inequalities in the Black community.

According to FUNKTIONARY :

meme - an information pattern that behaves similar to a virus that is capable of self-replication within one's neourosphere and the ideosphere of society. 2) information pattens or system of ideas (codes) that use its host to replicate itself, not necessarily to the host's personal advantage. 3) an agent of associative communicative resonance--an informational virus. Memes comprise anchors (the reason we retain it), carriers (the reason we share it), and its payload (sets of associative tuples). Anchors and carriers may be embedded within a payload or external to it, moreover, there can be four different combinations of the two variables anchor, carrier, external and embedded, e.g., embedded anchor and external carrier. Memes are the basic unit of cultural heredity. Memes are not knowledge, they are merely passive discrete shards of information. Memes have no relationship to reality. They have no vested interest in accurately reflecting reality--but we surely do. We build models of reality with memes and refer to these abstracted constructs as truth. Memes are used to construct the structure of truth and function as the content of truth simultaneously. We upgrade our software (memes) when we test our truths built upon them against reality. Those that more accurately reflect the nature of reality we're apt to label as good memes, and those that miss the mark we refer to them as bad memes. Good memes propagate and survive; bad ones perish. There is nothing that compels memes resident in our minds to accurately depict reality except for us. Since the very nature of reality is constant change, a good meme yesterday may not necessarily be good meme for today. We weed out memes in our minds for the same reasons we proactively edit and revise our truths. (See: Mind Viruses, Memon, P-Memes, Evolution, Natural Selection, Information, Asili, F-Primes, Mematics, Genes, Genome, Epigenetics, Religion, Ideology, Funktionary & Racism White Supremacy)

Liberal Dependent Media Pretends Trump's FAGA Mob of Thousands of White Male CEOs, Lawyers, Firemen, Lawmakers and other Professionals were Motivated by 'Economic Anxiety' Not Racism White Supremacy

By Ishmael Reed. From [HERE] As a columnist for The New York Times, Timothy Egan’s voice is influential. Here’s his explanation for the reasons that President Donald Trump’s followers are so enraged that they invaded Congress and threatened to lynch Trump’s enemies, as well as those who wouldn’t do his bidding. 

He says: "I understand the tribalism, the urge to push back against condescending libs and the suffocating ubiquity of political correctness, the sense that only Trump can save a certain way of life." 

No serious study says that these haters voted for Trump because of the reasons Egan gives. As for "suffocating political correctness," it’s actually his kind of apologetics, not least in the overwhelmingly white media, that is really "ubiquitous." 

His colleague at The Times is David Brooks. He and his Times’ colleague Sam Roberts are concerned about "white fertility rates." Appearing on Katy Tur’s MSNBC show, Brooks expressed some sympathy for the mob that, a month later, nearly succeeded in overthrowing the government, and with the complicity of law enforcement, who were among the riot members.

That should make you wonder which side would the armed forces take were there a second Civil War, the fantasy held by the white nationalists? 

This is how he explained the mob’s grievances. They’ve been left behind "economically, culturally, and socially."   

The NYT’s Thomas Friedman takes the same excuse-making line for fascist thugs, describing those in Trump’s camp "who are there precisely because they feel ignored, humiliated, and left behind."

Left behind "economically"? They’re able to afford roundtrip tickets from places like Alaska, pay for ground transportation, meals and book hotels at places like the Marriott Courtyard. If the mob were to return for the Inaugural, the Marriott prices range from $389-$800 per night.

Maybe that’s because the mob included thousands of white male professionals, among them CEOs, lawyers, firemen, state legislators, police officers, and even one Olympic swimming champion.   

Left behind "culturally"? Knowing Brooks, he’s probably talking about Hip Hop.

"Socially?" The Trump mob is gregarious. They gather by the thousands in maskless superspreading circus-like events.

Katy Tur appeared to agree with Brooks. Even though she had to be protected by the Secret Service after being targeted by Donald Trump’s scorn, this is how she tried to explain the Trump Nation to Rachel Maddow back in September 2017 (bold text is my emphasis).

MADDOW: How do you salvage civil discourse? How do you salvage the norms of political discourse in that context?

TUR: There's an argument to say we went way too far with political correctness, that people couldn't tell a joke, patriotism was mistaken for racism. And that's a lot of who supported Donald Trump. They just felt like they were being boxed in and they couldn`t be themselves anymore, any version of themselves.

We really did correct a lot and people did feel it and they were angry about it. And they felt like Donald Trump was helping them release all of that frustration.

Perhaps this was supposed to be a dispassionate analysis. But when Tur says, "There's an argument to say we went way too far with political correctness," the "we" includes her, Maddow, and other members of the liberal elite. It comes off as an apology - or appeasement.

There is a straight line between the unwillingness of mainstream journalists in the early years of the Trump era to push back, and firmly, against the false narrative that "economic anxiety" and "out-of-control political correctness" fueled the Trump vote, rather than the more banal way of saying those things: racism, and a thirst for a Leader who would restore white Christian "order." [MORE]

WE HEARD THE SAME REALITY CONCEALMENT IN 2016 AFTER TRUMP STOLE THE ELECTION WITH VOTER PURGES. See Video above from 2016. In the Spectacle we are told there are 2 distinct political parties but in reality there is only one party and a group of Neuropeons and Neuropeans who view the “alien presence” of non-whites, particularly Blacks and Latinos as the primary impediment to governing or the source of all their problems. The GOP has no actual written party platform. The presence of non-whites is racist America’s number one domestic issue.’ It centers around projecting the idea that the White populace is threatened by over­whelming alien forces, particularly Black criminals, non-white immigrants taking their jobs & culture, non-whites demanding welfare and special entitlements and non-whites threatening them abroad.’ [MORE] and See Amos Wilson. Said group of psychopathic racists perceive themselves as the permanent enemies of Black people and are Fascinated with Genocide. As believers, they are slaves to Irrationalism, worshiping things that have no factual basis in reality, such as “race.” [MORE]

According to "FUNKTIONARY, THE KEY HOLDERS ENPSYCHLOPEDIA:" 

Weitko Disease - the caucasian’s patapathetic fascination with the exploitation and control of nature and exploitation and genocide of his fellow man.

Neuropeans - (Neurotic Europeans) - neurotic, ignorant, narcissistic and self-deluded white supremacist Caucasians operating at the mythic and rational levels of consciousness only. 2) Fascists. (See Weitko Disease, White Supremacy and Yurungu.)

Neuropeons - neurotic, stupid and self deluded poor white trash. 2) skin heads 3) Nazis, neo-Nazis and Theo-nazis (See KKK, WOTAN, Weitko Disease, Fasxism, Racism White Supremacy, Stupidity, Ku Klux Klan & Yurungu).  

Dependent Media - Establishment (dependent) media is both unwilling and incapable of reporting events truthfully, accurately or without extreme bias. News coverage is just that - covering up (masking) and distorting the events and those wielding power behind the events (those reported and deliberately unreported). News coverage has simply become “disinfotaiment” with the sole purpose of perception and knowledge containment as well as reality concealment. You report in the interests of those who are paying you to do so. (see MEDIA, NBC & NEWS).

Racism White Supremacy - psychopathic degeneracy. 2) "The local and global power system and dynamic, structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined, which consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labour, law, politics, religion, sex and war); for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet earth—a planet upon which the vast majority of people are classified as non-white (Black, Brown, Red and Yellow) by white skinned people, and all of the nonwhite people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people." -Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, MD. Hate and oppression can never reign. Only love is supreme.

Racism - White Degeneracy wrongly cast as Supremacy. Racism—a psycho-socio-economic reality based on a pseudo-scientific biological myth—is a power group dynamic, i.e., a defined group cooperatively via legacy institutions exerting structured and enforced institutionalized and systemic injustice, oppression and power over another group. Racism is not individualistic, but institutional, cultural, economic, political, linguistic, self-perpetuating and systematic. Racism is economic discrimination by one group over and against another for the purposes of subjugation and/or maintaining the imbalance of power through cooperative control, misinformation, indoctrination, genocide and oppression. Racism is the socioeconomic and cultural bequest of colonialism, neo-colonialism and the vestiges of the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Afrikans and their descendants. Racism has its bio-physiological origins in the immune response of primitive life-forms to foreign matter and has its geo-psychological roots in the response of primitive humans encountering more intelligent ones based on the meme of scarcity and the fear of genetic annihilation through genetic assimilation. "Racism destroys men—and women—as much by what it denies them as by what it metes out to them." -Isaiah Thomas. "It is pathological for Blacks to keep attempting moral suasion on a people who have no ethics or morality where race is a variable." -Bobby Wright. [MORE]

Contrary to Predictions, a New Brookings Institution Report says Africa Has Fared Better than Most of the World in Fighting COVID-19. Will Yurugu Richcraft and Socialist Distancing Cause a Reversal?

From [HERE] This week, the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings released its annual Foresight Africa report, a detailed look at the top priorities for the continent and recommendations for African and global stakeholders to create and support a strong, sustainable, and successful Africa. These charts come from the new report, but are only a few of the many items that illustrate key challenges and opportunities for the continent. Click images to enlarge.

In his chapter on building a new public health infrastructure for Africa, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, notes that Africa has experienced fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19 relative to richer parts of the world due in part to quick containment actions and coordination among governments. “However,” he says, “if we only look at SARS-CoV-2-related morbidity and mortality, we miss a large part of the pandemic’s impact and of the underlying vulnerabilities it exposes.”

In their chapter on preserving gains in human development in Africa through and after the pandemic, Jakkie Cilliers (program head, African Futures & Innovation, Institute for Security Studies) and Stellah Kwasi (researcher, African Futures & Innovation, Institute for Security Studies) write that despite the apparently low direct mortality impact of COVID-19 in Africa, “many more Africans will likely suffer due to the impacts that follow reductions in health and other government expenditure,” and that a decade of development progress could be lost, especially on reducing extreme poverty. Nevertheless, Cilliers and Kwasi point to a number of factors that with the right policies and implementation could help Africa “leapfrog” in areas like education, health care, and economic inclusion and productivity.

In his chapter on how COVID-19 can bring the public and private sectors together in Africa, Edem Adzogenu, chairman of the Executive Committee of AfroChampions Initiative, observes that micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) provide 80% of youth employment on the continent, but are facing severe challenges during the pandemic. One in five of these businesses is going bankrupt, 40 million people are falling into extreme poverty, and foreign direct investment is declining. “For African economies to survive these shocks,” Adzogenu argues, “policymakers and private sector actors must work more closely together than ever before,” including working together to smoothly implement the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Africa's long wait for the Covid-19 vaccine. Hoarding by wealthy nations, funding shortfalls, regulations and cold chain requirements have slowed the process of rolling out the vaccines. "The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure and the price will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the poorest countries," warned WHO head Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus yesterday. [MORE] Isn’t WHO yurugu’s partner in genthanasiastic and genocidal efforts?

According to FUNKTIONARY

Richcraft – the sorcery of greed—the use of violence, laws, deception, theft, secret oaths, and oppression to snatch and hoard resources from and gain power over the vast majority of people’s lives through the widespread use of this vicious concoction of nefarious, lethal, legal, and demonstrably devious power. (See: COP, Gangbanking, Privilege, Aristocracy, Corporations, Usury, Power, Oppression, Violence, Greed, Deception, GIMME!, Political Money, Cultural Induction, GEO-Dollars, Control, The Pathocracy & Poor)

Socialist distancing – the ever-expanding and increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots until the Socialist (i.e., monopoly capitalist) Welfare State becomes the Farewell State—farewell to your rights, your family, friends and even your life through Plandemics (Coronavirus), $camdemics (Corporate State turned Surveillance and Nanny State), 5G bio-weaponized eugenics, starvation, vaccinations, civil unrest, genocide and other nefarious LWO (Last World Order) activities that will greatly reduce the world’s population by 2030. Before Social Distancing, we were experiencing the effects of “Socialist Distancing”...the ever-widening separation between the “haves” (holders) and the “have-nots” (held-back) due to “monopoly capitalism” (centralization of credit in the hands of the State) which by wide academic recognition is the core attribute of communism / socialism, in fact, it is the 5th plank of the Communist Manifesto. The litmus test to any political system is what is used as “money” and who controls (monopolizes) its “issuance.” Labels just don’t cut it. Think deeper...learn to access the underlying reality behind the truth veneer you’ve been conditioned to hold or have been told. (See: Plandemic, $camdemics, Vaccines, Coronavirus, “Monopoly Capitalism,” Exchange, Economics, Matrix Capitalism, Political Money, GEO-Dollars, The Farewell State, Trapitalism, Cultural Induction & COVERT-19)

To Keep Publicly Owned Discipline Records Secret the NYPD Union Told the Court, “This is a Dangerous Time for Police Officers." Yet Data Demonstrates that It has Never Been Safer to be a Cop

Study Reveals THAT 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. [MORE]

From [HERE] Former New York City Police Department officers and firefighters who say Mayor Bill de Blasio put them in harm’s way by unsealing discipline records advanced their claims to the Second Circuit on Tuesday. 

In June of last year, the state repealed a rule that limited public access, except by court order, to the personnel performance records of police officers, firefighters and correction officers. 

Within weeks, this led to the publishing of thousands of NYPD disciplinary records, organized by ProPublica in an online repository. The records revealed that roughly 4,000 NYPD officers from a force of 36,000 members had at least one substantiated complaint against them. 

Though the police and fire unions pressed for ProPublica’s database to be reined in, a federal judge left them disappointed. 

“I don’t have the ability to reach backwards in time,” U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said in July. 

Failla later denied the police unions’ request for an injunction that would block the further release of disciplinary records, though she did make an exception, granting an injunction for technical infractions where the officer is found not guilty. 

In their appellate brief, the unions said records were ordered unsealed without “meaningful pre-disclosure review of the risks of irreparable harm to officers’ safety, privacy, and professional reputation.”

Anthony Coles, an attorney at DLA Piper representing the unions, told the panel of judges Tuesday that police officers received “chilling threats” made to officers at the time the records release was first announced.

U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier faulted the unions, however, for failing to get specific in support of their claim that the repeal of the records-sealing law in the New York Constitution created irrevocable harm. 

“As I understand it, there’s nothing in the record that indicates that the unions were able to come up with anything,” Lohier said. 

That’s “significantly wrong,” Coles replied. “No one wants to exaggerate the risk, your honor. But you have to accept it.” 

Coles also said Failla usurped the role of the police and fire unions’ arbitrator, designated by a collective bargaining agreement. Attorneys for the city said that records released by NYPD do not overlap with claims that would be otherwise put to an arbitrator, and that Failla carefully deferred to the arbitrator for questions regarding CBA protection.

The records Failla agreed to allow expunged pertain to Schedule A, which involves technical infractions like an officer forgetting his memo book. City lawyers noted that they don’t believe there is any merit to that exception, but that fighting it would have caused unnecessary delay. 

Mayor de Blasio released new disciplinary guidelines just last week outlining penalties for Schedule A transgressions, as well as Schedules B and C. The lowest tier includes penalties for smoking where prohibited or losing an ID card; the middle tier includes unauthorized use of an official vehicle and failing to reveal an officer’s name and shield number upon request. 

In Schedule C, the most serious infractions include accidental firearm discharge, failure to comply with direction, and violating social media policies. 

Speaking on behalf of the Communities United for Police Reform, attorney Tiffany R. Wright cited reports that the newly released rubric is already being mishandled. “Serious infractions are being funneled through Schedule A,” Wright said, and the NYPD is being “undermined by their own discipline matrix.” 

“Nobody here is downplaying or taking for granted the threats that officers face,” Wright continued. But, she pointed out, Judge Failla considered the potential for safety risks, as did legislators who repealed the rule keeping disciplinary records hidden. 

“That is key,” Wright said: Unions have to show that the relief they are requesting “would stop the harm that is likely to happen.” If it’s not clear that harm would be linked to allowing records released, “then it is not clear that the injunction will stop it.” 

Wright also spoke about the public’s interest in accessing police records, amid the growing outcry over perceived excessive force where widely circulated videos show officers killing unarmed civilians including Eric Garner in New York City and George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

“The list goes on and on,” Wright said. 

Negative information about people killed by police has been allowed to circulate “in the public square,” she continued, while disciplinary records have not been public, making for a “one-sided, unfair” conversation. 

Before the panel of judges adjourned arguments and reserved judgment, Coles pled once more for the protection of officers’ files, noting that they had been sealed for 40 years — since well before the recent spike in national attention to police brutality, which peaked in summer 2020. 

“This is a dangerous time for police officers,” Coles said, noting that allowing the trial to proceed in Manhattan federal court causes the city “minimal hardship.” 

Tuesday’s oral arguments followed days after New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a federal complaint over brutal tactics used by police officers during protests beginning in May of last year. 

Violence by police officers is “not new,” the complaint states. Rather, these tactics “are the latest manifestation of the NYPD’s unconstitutional policing practices.” 

James said the NYPD has failed to adequately train officers on constitutional policing during protests, including enforcement against those protesting the police department’s own practices. 

Coles did not respond to a request for comment. Wright did reply, but was not available to speak for this article.

ACLU Report Finds Baltimore Cops are Still Using Illegal Practices [b/c Cops Still Have Uncontrollable, Irresponsible Authority to Take Life and Interfere w/Citizens Rights in Their Sole Discretion]

From [HERE]  A new report [pdf] is questioning the progress being made, as the Baltimore Police Department struggles to reform. The report, released by the ACLU on Tuesday, studied 13,000 complaints filed against officers since 2015, the year Baltimore cops murdered Freddie Gray, a Black man under arrest for no reason. The summary of findings states:

“From 2015 through 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland,

» There were misconduct complaints filed against 1,826 individual Baltimore Police officers.

» Ten percent of complaints were for false arrest or imprisonment.

» 86 officers had complaints related to domestic violence.

» There were 40 complaints of criminal association.

» Only eight percent of external complaints, including resident complaints, were sustained.

» Officers remained on the force after sustained complaints of domestic violence, criminal sexual offenses, DUI, DWI, hit-and-run, and theft.

» Police officers used force twice as often in the majority Black Southwestern District, as in the majority white Northern District.

» Less than 10% of force was used in self-defense or to make an arrest.

» Most arrest charges after a use of force incident were low-level, non-violent charges.

» More than 400 individual officers would have triggered a Phase 1 intervention under current BPD policy.

» With a stronger warning system, BPD may have prevented up to 20.4% of complaints.

» Recent legislative proposals by Annapolis lawmakers to reform the Public Information Act would allow public disclosure of between two and seven percent of all complaints in Baltimore City, which is not nearly enough.”

The department is under a federal consent decree to reform. Researchers, however, say many of the same illegal tactics that sent several officers to prison two years ago are still being deployed.

The report states:

“Families across Maryland continue to mourn the senseless police killings of Freddie Gray and Tyrone West in Baltimore City; Christopher Brown, Korryn Gaines, and Emanuel Oates in Baltimore County; Anton Black in Caroline County; Robert White in Montgomery County; William Green, Gary Hopkins Jr., and Leonard Shand in Prince George’s County; and many others across the state.

Meanwhile, police departments, police unions, state’s attorneys, and too many legislators are content to keep in place the culture of secrecy around officer misconduct that shields officers from accountability for wrongdoing. Although a few officers will undoubtedly continue to be arrested and charged with criminal behavior, countless others will escape responsibility, and be known as a danger only to those in the neighborhoods they patrol.

HEARD YOU TWICE THE 1ST TIME. If you can hear Freddie Gray screaming then you are probably not a racist. Witnesses said the arresting cops, who were white, "folded him" and had "their knees in his back." Despite video evidence of the Gray arrest showing that he was struggling to walk and that his legs appear to be limp, racist suspect media and authoritarians just don't see it and focused instead on speculative injury that occurred out of sight, later in a police van. Gray's screams however are unavoidable to those who have ears to hear. Racists, living in their own play world, believe he broke his spine voluntarily.

The ACLU report rationalizes: “Police officers are often asked to make split-second decisions, but they must do so in deference to Constitutional rights and the preservation of human life, and uphold the dignity and humanity of Black people. It is precisely because of the extraordinary power officers have – to lawfully kill and deprive us of our liberty – that they must be held accountable when they abuse their authority in the line of duty.”

AUTHORITY IS ABUSE. Advocates believe cops should have authority to forcibly control us & take our lives so long as they “do the right thing” with their powers. Said proposals are necessarily stuck in the statist paradigm and never will release us from this free range prison. If “advocates such as the ACLU or BLM got everything they wanted the granfalloon of “authority,” the right to rule over others, which “is the most dangerous, destructive superstition that has ever existed” and the main source of our problem, would remain intact.

Authority, the right to rule over other people and citizens’ moral and legal obligation to obey, is not a force but a farce, literally not real or “make believe.” If a “public servant," such as a police officer, is uncontrollable, unaccountable, can’t be hired or fired by you, has irresponsible power over you and provides a compulsory “service” then he is actually your Master not your servant.

Allegedly governmental power comes from the people. That is, citizens delegate their individual power to the government for it to act on our behalf. However, it goes without saying that people cannot delegate powers or rights that they do not personally possess. So if people have delegated their powers to representative lawmakers who in turn empower police officers to act on our behalf, then how did police acquire the right to commit acts of unprovoked violence on people? Asked differently, if you don’t have the right to initiate violence against another person then how can you delegate or authorize police officers to do so? How did police officers acquire such super-human powers?

Undeceiver Larken Rose observes,

“Despite all of the complex rituals and convoluted rationalizations, all modern belief in “government” rests on the notion that mere mortals can, through certain political procedures, bestow upon some people various rights which none of the people possessed to begin with. The inherent lunacy of such a notion should be obvious. There is no ritual or document through which any group of people can delegate to someone else a right which no one in the group possesses.‘ [MORE]

FUNKTIONARY explains that “The real threat to "authority" is the masses overcoming info-gaps and verigaps through self-knowledge and the proliferation of symbols of opposition, not crime or destruction of property.”

Authority is a “cartoon” or an “image of law” because “people cannot delegate rights they do not have, which makes it impossible for anyone to acquire the right to rule (”authority”). People cannot alter morality, which makes the “laws” of “government” devoid of any inherent “authority.” Ergo, “authority”-the right to rule-cannot logically exist. FUNKTIONARY further explains, “There is no freedom in the presence of so-called authority, i.e. outside of one's Self and Self-Nature.)

Reformers miss the point and their efforts will always be ”Chasing Justice” (the title of ACLU report) and be on a never-ending search to find the right persons to be cops and given awesome, uncontrollable power over citizens to take life and interfere with citizens rights based upon the their sole discretion. Said sleepwalking efforts only seek better relations with their masters and never consider that maybe there should be no masters and no slaves at all in the first place.

After Emotional Orgy [election+riot] Restrictions Normalize in the Free Range Prison's Capitol as Sleepwalkers Buy Champagne Off the Shelves and the Homeless Resume the Search for the Grate Outdoors

Inauguration Day 2021 in the Nation’s Capitol. Photo courtesy of undeceiver Vincent Brown

According to FUNKTIONARY:

Realitarian - one who acknowledges reality over truth, substance over form, subjective truth over objective truth, natural over artificial, clarity over fuzziness and see abidance of presence in expanded awareness. 2) one who subscribes to the applied radical transformative Realigion of Reality-Cracking. 3) one who rigorously hacks his or her own brain (wetware) for bugs and viruses in the indoctrination program codes (memons) acquired and running throughout one's mortal consciousness in this earthuman life. (See: Suddenlightenment, Psylence, Poetic Vision, Consciousness, Slavespeak & Realigion)

homeless - the informationally disenfranchised and in many cases also the psychologically disengaged. The streets may belong to the people, but they make less than ideal places to live. In the cold the homeless look for the “grate” outdoors.

sleepwalkers - those who live by conventional mind, conventional thoughts, and conventional mythologies. "If you are sleepwalking only one who is awake and moving through the same street can lead you home. A person who is dreaming about a sleepwalking person can help neither himself nor the person being dreamed about." -Vernon Turner. (See: Somnambulists, Sheople, Obedience, Authority, Indoctrination, Conditioning, Hohm, Master, Mastar, Guru & Predictive Programming)

Voting Hoax - "Help Slave America." "We would do well to remember that voting is often a way not of consenting to something, but only of expressing a preference. If the state gives a group of condemned prisoners the choice of being executed by firing squad or by lethal injection, and all of them vote for firing squad, we cannot conclude from this that the prisoners thereby consent to being executed by firing squad. They do, of course, choose this option; they approve of it, but only in the sense that they prefer it to the other option. They consent to neither option, despising both. Voting for a candidate in a democratic election sometimes has a depressingly similar structure. The state offers you a choice among candidates (or perhaps it is "the people" who make the offer), and you choose one, hoping to make the best of a bad situation. You thereby express a preference, approve of that candidate (over the others), but consent to the authority of no one." -A. John Simmons. (See: Taxtortion, Freedom Technology, Ph.F. Degree, NOW, The Matrix, MEDIA, Elections & University of Chocolate City)

DC 2021. All photos courtesy of undeceiver Vincent Brown

Video Catches a White PA Cop Sitting On a Black Man's Chest Crushing His Arm while Another Holds His Legs Down. A 3rd Cop Tries to Start a Fight w/a Couple who Challenged Their Authority to Torture

[MORE]

Who Benefits from the Play Pretend Theater of Enforcing Imaginary rights? Video Shows White Tenn Cop Detain Black Woman @ Walgreens for Shoplifting Based on Unreasonable, Inarticulable Suspicions

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the people against unjustified detentions by the government. The Amendment reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

According to the Supreme Court police may only forcibly stop and briefly detain a person for further investigation if the officer has facts giving rise to a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. A law enforcement officer cannot simply assert that innocent conduct was suspicious to him/her, but rather must explain how that conduct was indicative of criminal activity.

Legal truths must give way to reality on the street. In real life rights are myths. Brazen cops so frequently abuse their power that no Black shopper, pedestrian, motorist, juvenile, adult or Black professional of any kind—could make a compelling argument that so-called constitutional rights afford any real protection from cops.

According to FUNKTIONARY:

"rights" - useful fictions declared in order to make agents of another type of fiction ("government") have to play along in their deadly theatrical (tragicomedy) game. 2) mere fictions, the contemplation of which leads only to a progressive social, personal, racial and jurisprudential separation from reality. Discussion and debates about "rights" merely evades the FAQ, i.e., the frequently avoided question of who is to enforce any "right" and who will benefit from the pretense. "Rights" are separated into two categories—those flowing from "negative liberties" and those flowing from "positive liberties." In law, rights are remedies and if a person is without a remedy (as is with citizens of the United States) he is without a right, and only a 'thing' is without rights. (See: Negative Liberties, Positive Liberties, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Ma'at & Justice)

rights - fantasmatic or fictitious objects having no reality in actuality by those imagining as an identity being in possession of them. Rights are cultural gratuities perceived through various fantasy frames, recognized, and sometimes even created, by man's system of law to provide a modicum or pretense of civility under a system whereby their very undermining and violation is vouchsafed. Rights are merely rites unless you know how to assert and defend them in order to enjoy them. 2) things people are free to do whether they are able to or not. 3) conditions of existence required by hue-man's nature for their potential survival (primarily against the cartoon that kills, i.e., the wholly unconscionable entity called the "State"). It is a mistaken notion that rights are enjoyed by one at the expense of the many—that is the realm of privilege. Enjoyment of rights in a neo-imperialistic world controlled by Yurugu through the Greater System (Symbolic Order), paradoxically, entails not only a recognition of their inevitability but, equally, their impossibility. How can we be endowed with rights, or even know what rights are when they are based on binary considerations? Rights, as ontological ephemera, cannot be universally observed, recognized, realized or, enforced—and paradoxically, act also as its own eternal source for its assertion and vessel for its fulfillment in our imaginary enjoyment of them. While the law reads rights referentially, what is universally needed in the praxis of rights discourse today is a particular re-inscription, demystification or reontologising of rights (revivified and convivial) by the pan-gendered subject-citizen-decoder—taken symptomatically rather than seriously. Most people rarely experience the cognizance of being property of corporate fictions because as long as you don't violate the rules of society your real status as feudal-property-slave is not involved or revealed. [MORE]

Imaginary Rights Aside, Andres Guardado was Under Arrest for No Reason and Shot 5X in the Back b/c He Ran and b/c LA County Cops Have the Uncontrollable Power to Shoot Anybody, Anytime They Please

Larken Rose explains, In this system, it is patently obvious who commands and who obeys. The people are not the “government,” by any stretch of the imagination, and it requires profound denial to believe otherwise. But other myths are also used to try to make that lie sound rational. For example, it is also claimed that “the government works for us; it is our servant.” Again, such a statement does not even remotely match the obvious reality of the situation; it is little more than a cult mantra, a delusion intentionally programmed into the populace in order to twist their view of reality. And most people never even question it. Most never wonder, if “government” works for us, if it is our employee, why does it decide how much we pay it? Why does our “employee” decide what it will do for us? Why does our “employee” tell us how to live our lives? Why does our “employee” demand our obedience for whatever arbitrary commands it issues, sending armed enforcers after us if we disobey? It is impossible for “government” to ever be the servant, because of what “government” is, To put it in simple, personal terms, if someone can boss you around and take your money, he is not your servant; and if he cannot do those things, he is not “government.” However limited, “government” is the organization thought to have the right to forcibly control the behavior of its subjects via “laws,” rendering the popularly accepted rhetoric about “public servants” completely ridiculous. To imagine that a ruler could ever be the servant of those over whom he rules is patently absurd.”

From [HERE] and [MORE] A coroner’s office inquest by the Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office upheld its earlier conclusion that the death of Andres Guardado, who was shot five times in the back by a sheriff’s deputy, was a homicide.

CNN reports that the inquest, the first in Los Angeles County in more than 30 years, concluded that “the medical cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.” It inferred “the manner of death was by the hands of another person other than by accident,” according to the four-page report written by retired Judge Candace D. Cooper.

Police gunned down the 18-year-old as the nationwide protests that occurred after George Floyd’s death by Minneapolis police officers raged.

According to the lawsuit, on or about June 18, 2020, at approximately 5:53 p.m., decedent, Andres Guardado, was working as a security guard for an auto shop located at 420 West Redondo Beach Boulevard in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, known as East Gardena, California 90248 (hereinafter "subject location"). At some point, a white Lexus pulled up in front of the auto shop with two occupants inside of the vehicle. Decedent, Andres Guardado, approached the passenger-side door, bent down, and began having a friendly conversation.

Soon thereafter, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Deputy Miguel Vega, Deputy Chris Hernandez, and DOES 1 through 50, inclusive, arrived at the subject location. Deputy Miguel Vega and Deputy Chris Hernandez parked their vehicle next to the driver-side of the white Lexus and rapidly exited their vehicle to approach the direction of the auto shop.

18-year-old Andres Guardado, became scared and fled south down the alleyway. Without provocation or justification, and in violation of defendants' policies and procedures, the deputies immediately drew their weapons, and proceeded to chase after decedent down the alleyway. At some point, Deputy Vega, again without provocation or justification, shot Andres Guardado in the back, firing in total at least six times. Five of those bullets struck Andres directly in the back and each of those five gunshot wounds possessed an independent lethal capacity, ultimately causing his tragic and untimely death

Plaintiffs are informed, believe, and thereon allege that at all times relevant and mentioned herein, decedent never posed a risk of imminent injury or death to Deputy Miguel Vega, Deputy Chris Hernandez, or any other person. Plaintiffs are also informed, believe, and thereon allege that at all times relevant and mentioned herein, the use of deadly force by Deputy Miguel Vega was not necessary to prevent imminent serious injury or death. Plaintiffs are further informed, believe, and thereon allege that at all times relevant and mentioned herein, Deputy Miguel Vega, Deputy Chris Hernandez, and DOES 1 through 50, inclusive, failed to use other available resources and techniques and, moreover, an objectively reasonable officer would know and believe that it was reasonably safe and feasible to use these other available resources and techniques.

The family ordered an independent autopsy, and in July, the autopsy found Guardado was shot five times in the back. The findings by the county coroner’s office echoed the independent autopsy’s findings. Guardado’s cause of death was a homicide.

On November 10, the county coroner’s officer called for the inquest “in the interest of public transparency,” after questions arose about excessive force. The inquest was held on November 30, and the findings were forwarded to the district attorney and sheriff’s department for review.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Miguel Vega, the officer who fired the deadly shots, submitted a declaration. He indicated “that if he were to appear and be questioned at the inquest, he would assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.”

In December, the sheriff’s department announced that Vega was taken off the force over an investigation that arose from a separate incident in April.

For Jesusized Believers, the Capitol Riot Doesn’t Change the FAGA Prophecy: Trump will be President, White Jesus is Coming Back Soon and Disbelievers are Going to Hell, an Actual Geographical Place

“BELIEF is a trick of the mind to repress doubt.” dummies [“creatures that obliviously accept and protect the parameters imposed on them by their unavowed or avowed enemies”] BELIEVE HELL IS AN ACTUAL PLACE WITH A PHYSICAL ADDRESS. OSHO Rajineesh explained, “Heaven and hell are not geographical. If you go in search of them you will never find them anywhere. They are within you, they are psychological. The mind is heaven, the mind is hell, and the mind has the capacity to become either.“

From [HERE] As lawmakers prepared to impeach President Trump and Washington readied for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Cliff Dyrud wasn’t focused on man-made acts. He was listening for the words of prophets.

Five years ago, a prophetess Dyrud follows said she’d gotten a message that Trump would be president and save Christian America. Trump would be “as fearless as a lion being robbed of its cubs” and cause the “tall and lofty mountains” of establishment types to fall, her prophecy went.

And Dyrud, a 73-year-old missionary, saw her words come true. So last week, he brought his “Appeal to Heaven” flag from Fargo, N.D., to Washington, and marched with thousands of other Christians: Christians who, like him, believe another dimension — high above the news frenzy — is in charge, a supernatural one where God reigns, and where Trump has very clearly been prophesied to serve a second term.

Another prophet Dyrud follows has assured him that “Trump is still our president” and is facing a moment much like when Moses and the Israelites fled Egypt and were not able to cross the Red Sea until God parted the waters for them. God will do something miraculous for Trump, too, Dyrud believes.

Images and references to being on the march for Jesus were common at the massive Jan. 6 rally — and later, riot — including among a segment of American Christianity that believes it has the power of prophecy. Some experts say charismatic, prophetic Christians who operate largely outside denominations make up U.S. religion’s fastest-growing subset. In recent decades, millions have been increasingly seeking out these prophets and apostles on YouTube channels, in books, group prayer calls, via regular group text chats and at conferences where breakout groups practice faith healing and raising people from the dead. And nothing has focused this disparate, independent group like Trump.

Although mainstream evangelical conservatives, including Trump’s own evangelical advisers, didn’t appear at the event, the day had been heavily promoted and covered by media and leaders of this charismatic, prophetic segment of Christianity.

“I believe something dramatic is going to happen before Congress votes on those electors. Something very dramatic that will change the outcome of that vote ... the holy spirit will enter into this situation and it’s going to be something very dramatic,” televangelist Pat Robertson told his Christian Broadcasting Network audience Jan. 4, on the eve of two days of rallies in Washington.

After the deadly Capitol siege, the prophecies continued — that Trump will remain in power.

“Anyone who think this ends tonight is totally mistaken ... you are still the president and we need you to stay on the front lines, sir,” prophet Mario Bramnick, one of Trump’s faith advisers, said Jan. 7.

“We thank God for exposing and foiling all the plans of the enemy set against him. We affirm his lawful election and pray for four more years with Donald Trump as our president!” the 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call, a 10,000-member Arkansas-based ministry that hosts weekly live prayer calls, told its listeners Monday. [MORE]

According to FUNKTIONARY:

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)

Reification - the artifice and act of converting men and women into incorporeal abstractions, and abstractions into tangible things through the cunning of manipulation of words. 2) word crafting specifically scripted to deceive. 3) mental conversion of an abstract concept into a material thing. Reification means any unwarranted extension of reality in the thing perceived or conceived. To reify is to take as real something which is not real or to confer a greater reality upon something than that which it has. Thus, reification means the taking as real that which is only apparently real; the taking as factual, concrete, or perceptual that which is only conceptual, the taking as absolute. That which is only relative. Taking the relational as if it had an existence, not necessarily a tangible existence, of its own. Webster informs us that reification is derived from the root word "Reif' meaning 'robbery' or 'to rob. Most of our socio-economic problems as well as our existential confusions and ontological delusions arise from our ignorance of the nature and application of reification in and grafted onto our lives (life-waves). Reification is one of the eight attributes of the OCTOCON. Through reification, we are robbed of reality with another's absolute truth (inverted falsehood). "Am I to blame if hallucinations and visions are alive and have names and permanent addresses?" — Karl Kraus. (See: "Dollar," Strawman, Absolute Truth, Symbolaeography & The OCTOCON)

Neuropeons - neurotic, stupid and self deluded poor white trash. 2) skin heads 3) Nazis, neo-Nazis and Theo-nazis (See KKK, WOTAN, Weitko Disease, Fasxism, Racism White Supremacy, Stupidity, Ku Klux Klan & Yurungu).

believabilia - trinkets of belief that string the believer along. By an ail-too obvious paradox, the discourse that creates belief is the discourse that takes away that which it enjoins, or which it never gives what it always promises. (See: Belief System)

believage - the cleft (cleavage) between "the twins" of truth and reality, fact and opinion, proof and disproof, experience and suspicion, authority and authenticity, demanding and letting go, and believing and knowing. 2) the gap between what is and what you take it or make it out to be. Believage entices you with what it looks like—but without experiencing the goods it speaks to. Belief is religious eye-candy; what is revealed draws you in, what is concealed ensnares you (unawares) into its comforting bosom of spiritual ignorance. (See: Seedless Knowledge, Proof, COLD-CUT Beliefs, Dogma & Religion)

believe - make-believe. 2) to wish one had proof or could rely on the illusion of proof to uphold a cherished assumption not based in or supported by the fundamental nature and workings reality. All believing is make-believing because to know, only you just have to know; whereas to believe, you have to make others believe also. Never believe that any proposition or perception is either true or not true—only more or less likely to be so, one way or another. It is helpful to be vigilant against believing any thought you generate and percolate up to view in your conscious mind. "As ye believe, deceived ye shall be." The word "believe" is a derivative of the word "belief." The word belief in Anglo-Saxon comes from the Anglo-Saxon root "leif which means to wish. So, when you utter the creed "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth...," what you are really saying is "I fervently wish that there exists God the Father Almighty." Our suffering is self-induced through unquestioned beliefs and self-preserved through ego-personality and social conditioning. With No-Mind through No-Time we exist only Now as an I-Am-Being. When we are operating our lives with mind in time or the Template of Duality, we perceive rurselves merely as human beings. If and when we become our history we ascend out of time-based duality into this Now as I-Am-Beings. There is no reason for distrust, nor is there any reason to close your eyes and believe. The Universe has nothing up its sleeve. (See: Belief System, Believer, Jesus, Religious Franchises, Now, Dukkha, Proof, I-Am, God, No-Mind, Logic, Fantasies, Faith, Religion, Truth, Knowledge, Suffering, Truth Laundering, "God," No-Time, Realigion & Knowingness)

believer - one who accepts that which has no basis in reality. 2) a person who enjoys being deceived. A believer does not seek—just accepts theologies and/or ideologies. 3) one who is addicted to vanity and/or chained to convention with conviction. 4) one who lives in a cloud of illusions, confounded by language and its deceptions. Believers are people who make their lives subjective slaves to a mere belief—engineered my limited and fragmented understanding and fostered by erroneous conclusions rased solely on effects and appearances. A true believer would rather believe in something and be wrong than not believe in it and be right. A believer is never a spiritual person, and a spiritual person is never a believer. A spiritual person knows not; a religious person think she knows; a believer only (merely) believes. Unbelievably, a believer elevates the very notion of belief to a higher value than fact or knowing. Belief and believer are one. The condition is thought or belief in form; the two are actually one. Regardless of the particular belief held, it is belief itself which gives the sustaining power to thought. "It is done to you as you believe." -Jesus (of Biblical Myth). Keep believing and it will continue being done to you. All belief is still an act of consciousness, hence it can be reduced to a state of thought. The Law of Belief creates its own law which is changed only by reversing or dispersing the belief. "Believe not every spirit": refers to the psychic confusion of believing. You see, subjective forms are not always what they seem or claim to be. (See: Convictions, Absolute Truth, True Believer, Self-Realization, Prayer, Awakening, Meditation, Buddha-Christ, Stillness, Body of Christ, Knowingness & Blind Faith).

"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government." Martin Luther King quoted in FUNKTIONARY

Dr. Blynd explains, “Government does not need to be abolished; merely rendered obsolete through seeing it for what it truly is—a prime manufacturer of poverty, brutal oppression, violence, coercion, conformity and fear.” According to FUNKTIONARY:

self-government - no so-called "government" (coercion) at all. 2) a synonym for autonomy. Government "by the people" can only be in the form of self-government. No one can be governed by others and still be self-governing or autonomous. "Government--as the rule of the many by the few--depend on the (ab)use of force. Agents of "government" where socialization, acculturation, indoctrination, habit and persuasion fall--are always armed and ready (even ordered) to use the Force Continuum. (See: Anarchy, Unfreedom, Autonomy, Force Continuum, Corporate State & "Government")

"Authority-" is not a force but a farce! "Every great advancement in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." —Aldous Huxley. Government is the hefty price we pay for our lack of being further evolved as humans. "The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority." —Stanley Milgram Regarding obedience to authority and carrying out "orders" Milgram states, "Thus there is a fragmentation of the totai human act; no one man decides to carry out the evil act and is confronted with consequences. The person who assumes full responsibility for the act has evaporated. Perhaps this is the most common characteristic of socially organized evil in modern society." At its root, government is based on violence and coercion. Without violent authority, studies show that violent behavior will all but disappear in its wake. Authority breeds the violence that it combats and perpetuates. Violence perpetrated by individuals is learned through noxious social experiences typically suffered under some assumed "authority." "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government." —Dr. Martin L. King. Jr.. 1967. Read "Obedience to Authority" by Stanley Milgram, and "Constitution of No Authority" by Lysander Spooner. (See: Violence, Government. Yurugu, BOG. "The Law," Hierarchy. Obedience, Duty, Defiance, Disobedience, Compliance Priests, Preachers, Citizens, States, Involuntary Taxation, Tax Invasion, Behavior, Orders, Allegiance. Internal Revenue Service, Corporate State, Anarchy. Taxtortion, Power, Experts, Doggy & Neuropeans)

Government - (as commonly misunderstood)—a communal exchange of autonomy for appearance of order (peace via coercion), expanded over time, with the option of exercising violence being reserved to those who define and provide an illusion of order through force and fear. 2) a coercive institution—dysfunctional force and veiled violence. 3) the compelled enforcement of involuntary society. The Corporate State)—a fictitious entity (mental aberration or abstraction) and thus a non-producer of wealth, but masquerading as the prime merchant. 4) human failure programs that stay (hold off) maximumissness and depend on the support, (stealing then redistributing wealth) of its subject-victims. 5) 'organized' coerced support of selected monopolized services. 6) licensed, sanctioned and legalized criminal activity. 7) a sticky residue on your shoe. The whole idea of government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take some and not pay for it.

Any government represents a crucial compromise with freedom and distortion of reality, and no reified abstraction (however crafted by crafty corporate cartoonists) can protect anyone from any and all danger. The feudal subject-King relationship is exactly the same as the federal citizen-Government relationship. "That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections that have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army in the U.S. is only an arm of the standing government put into action only after the economic hit men and "jackals" (wet-ops) return home unsuccessful in their missions to earn their booty off dirty intrigue commissions. [MORE]

Trump's Base "Great Again" after Execution of Another Black Man [murder=the ultimate slavery]: Dustin Higgs Didn't Kill Anyone (the Real Killer was sentenced to life) and MD Banned the Death Penalty

From [HERE] The federal government carried out the execution of Dustin Higgs — a Black man who did not kill anyone — shortly after 1 a.m., marking the 13th federal execution in just six months. This was the final execution of the Trump presidency, and it will be the last federal execution this country ever holds if President-elect Biden makes good on his promise to end the federal death penalty.

The ACLU tweeted, “Remember: Dustin Higgs never killed anyone. The man who carried out the murder that Higgs was executed for received a life sentence. Maryland, where the crimes were committed, has since repealed the death penalty. This system is completely arbitrary and must be abolished.” [MORE]

Mr. Higgs was sentenced to death in the killing of three women in a national park even though prosecutors acknowledged that another man shot the victims. The convicted shooter, Willis Mark Haynes, received a life sentence, and he wrote in a 2012 affidavit that, contrary to prosecutors’ assertions, Mr. Higgs did not order him to shoot the victims.

Mr. Higgs’s attorney told HuffPost that it was unjust for Mr. Higgs to get the death penalty when the shooter was sentenced to life, and pointed out that the government’s theory was based almost entirely on an unreliable witness who got a deal from prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.

“The basis for which Mr. Higgs is on death row has been dismantled. He was not the shooter. He didn’t kill anybody,” attorney Shawn Nolan said. “And he shouldn’t be executed.” [MORE]

A federal district judge in Maryland effectively halted the Dustin Higgs’ execution from moving forward by declining to modify the original judgment of sentence against Higgs. Federal law states that federal executions are to be carried out under the laws of the state in which the death sentence is imposed or of another state designated at the time of sentencing. Higgs was sentenced to death in Maryland in 2001, but the state abolished the death penalty in 2013 and federal officials failed to take steps necessary to amend the sentencing order before scheduling his execution. 

Though Higgs was sentenced to death in 2001, federal prosecutors waited until August 2020 to ask U.S. District Court Judge Peter J. Messitte to amend Higgs’ sentencing order to direct that he be executed under Indiana law. Without waiting for a decision on that motion, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) then scheduled his execution to take place at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Judge Messitte wrote “the Court believes it lacks the authority to do as the Government asks and will deny the Government’s motion.” Higgs’ lawyer, Shawn Nolan, said, “We believe this order will bar the execution if it stands.” [MORE]. However, the order was reversed.

The DPIC noted “The ruling in Higgs’ case is unusual because he is the first federal prisoner in the modern era who was sentenced in a state that abolished the death penalty between the time of his sentencing and the time of his scheduled execution. Federal prisoners who were sentenced to death in states that did not have the death penalty were designated to be executed under the law of other states, but Higgs’ sentence states that he would be executed under Maryland law. Maryland’s subsequent abolition of capital punishment would force an amendment of the sentencing order, which Judge Messitte found he lacks the authority to issue.”

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions.

Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. Asked if he had any last words, Higgs was calm but defiant, naming each of the women prosecutors said he ordered killed.

“I’d like to say I am an innocent man. ... I am not responsible for the deaths,” he said softly. “I did not order the murders.”

He did not apologize for anything he did on the night 25 years ago when the women were shot by another man, who received a life sentence.

As the lethal injection of pentobarbital began to flow into his veins, Higgs looked toward a room reserved for his relatives and lawyers. He waved with his fingers and said, “I love you.”

Louds sobs of a woman crying inconsolably began to echo from the witness room reserved for Higgs’ family as his eyes rolled back in his head, showing the whites of his eyes. He quickly became still, his pupils visible with his eyelids left partially open.

A sister of Tanji Jackson — one of the murdered women who was 21 when she died — addressed a written statement to Higgs after his execution and mentioning his family.

“They are now going to go through the pain we experienced,” she said. “When the day is over, your death will not bring my sister and the other victims back. This is not closure.” The statement didn't include the sister's name.

The number of federal death sentences carried out under Trump since 2020 is more than in the previous 56 years combined, reducing the number of prisoners on federal death row by nearly a quarter. It’s likely none of the around 50 remaining men will be executed anytime soon, if ever, with Biden signaling he’ll end federal executions.

The only woman on death row, Lisa Montgomery, was executed Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman, then cutting the baby out of her womb. She was the first woman executed in nearly 70 years.

Federal executions began as the coronavirus pandemic raged through prisons nationwide. Among those prisoners who got COVID-19 last month were Higgs and former drug trafficker Corey Johnson, who was executed Thursday.

In the early Saturday execution of Higgs, officials inside the execution chamber were more diligent about their keeping masks on after a federal judge expressed concern that officials at Johnson's execution were lax about coronavirus precautions. When a marshal called from a death-chamber phone to ask if there were any impediments to proceeding with Higgs' execution, he kept his mask on and shoved the receiver under it.

Not since the waning days of Grover Cleveland’s presidency in the late 1800s has the U.S. government executed federal inmates during a presidential transition, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Cleveland’s was also the last presidency during which the number of civilians executed federally was in the double digits in one year, 1896.

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post earlier this week, Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, noted that Higgs, a Black man, was scheduled to die Friday — his father’s birthday. With last-minute appeals, it was delayed into early Saturday.

“The federal government should not be needlessly taking more Black lives, and to do so on my father’s birthday would be shameful,” he wrote.

In 2000, a federal jury in Maryland convicted Higgs of murder and kidnapping in the killings of Tamika Black, 19; Mishann Chinn, 23; and Tanji Jackson.

Higgs’ lawyers argued it was “arbitrary and inequitable” to execute Higgs while Willis Haynes, the man who fired the shots that killed the women, was spared a death sentence.

In a statement after the execution, Higgs’ attorney, Shawn Nolan, said his client had spent decades on death row helping other inmates.

“There was no reason to kill him, particularly during the pandemic and when he, himself, was sick with Covid that he contracted because of these irresponsible, super-spreader executions,” Nolan said.

Higgs had a traumatic childhood and lost his mother to cancer when he was 10, Higgs’ Dec. 19 petition for clemency petition said.

Higgs was 23 on the evening of Jan. 26, 1996, when he, Haynes and a third man, Victor Gloria, picked up the three women in Washington, D.C., and drove them to Higgs’ apartment in Laurel, Maryland, to drink alcohol and listen to music. Before dawn, an argument between Higgs and Jackson prompted her to grab a knife in the kitchen before Haynes persuaded her to drop it.

Gloria said Jackson made threats as she left the apartment with the other women and appeared to write down the license plate number of Higgs’ van, angering him. The three men chased after the women in Higgs’ van. Haynes persuaded them to get into the vehicle.

Instead of taking them home, Higgs drove them to a secluded spot in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, federal land in Laurel. [MORE]

Accountability for Racists in White Supremacy System? So Far No FAGA Criminals are Charged w/Felony Murder [an unintended killing during the commission of a felony] after Killing Cop During Burglary

FELONY MURDER (federal) BURGLARY

18 U.S. Code § 1111 - Murder (a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree.

DC JURY Instruction 5.101 BURGLARY

D.C. Official Code § 22-801

B.-- SECOND DEGREE--ELEMENTS .The elements of the offense of burglary in the second degree, each of which the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, are that:

1. [Name of defendant] entered the [dwelling or room] [building] of another; and

2. At the time of the entry [name of defendant] intended to commit [insert offense].

WHITE PROSECUTORS SEEM TO HAVE NO PROBLEM CHARGING NON-WHITES W/FELONY MURDER. From [HERE] and [HERE] Officer Brian Sicknick was among five people who died following the siege of the U.S. Capitol Building last Wednesday

• Sicknick was reportedly bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher and passed away the following day in hospital

• Legal commentator Nancy Grace has called for those involved in the officer's death to be charged with murder

• So far, no one has been arrested over Sicknick's death; it is unclear whether prosecutors would level murder or manslaughter charges against the accused

• More than than 170 people have been charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol; most are facing misdemeanor charges

• Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin said his office will increase charges after more evidence is gathered

Nancy Grace has blasted rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building last Wednesday, and is calling for some of them to be charged with murder. 

'What they did is a crime and they all need to be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' the legal commentator raged during her Crime Stories show on Fox Nation Tuesday. 

'Over my dead cold body is this going to go away.' 

Police officer Brian Sicknick was among five people who died following the siege of the government building by the mob of Trump supporters last Wednesday. 

The cop was reportedly bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher and later died in hospital. 

'They didn't go with the intent to kill a cop... But murder can be formed in the blink of an eye - the intent to commit murder,' Grace stated on the show. 

'Each one of them can be charged with felony murder.'

She later added: 'These people [all of the rioters] knew darn well what they were doing. I think bandying about terms like 'brainwashed' and 'hysteria' takes the personal responsibility off of them.' 

No one has yet been arrested over the death of Officer Sicknick. 

Steven D'Antuono, the head of the FBI's Washington Field Office, was asked about the case at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon but declined to offer additional details.

'It's an ongoing investigation. We're looking at everything,' D'Antuono said.

'It cuts us to the core that one of our brothers passed away. There's a lot of tools and interviews we're still conducting. We're reviewing all of that information.' 

It's currently unclear whether prosecutors would file murder charges against any rioter who was involved in the death of Sicknick, or whether they would settle for the lesser charge of manslaughter.  

So far, more than than 170 people have been charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol.

Some pundits have been left dismayed by the seemingly soft charges that have been leveled at some of the alleged rioters. Many have thus far been charged with misdemeanor offenses. [MORE] 

WHAT IS RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY?

DA Declines to Reopen Marquise Jones case: SAPD Cop Shot Black Man in the Back From 100 Ft Away as He Fled. Police Magically Found a Gun "in the Vicinity" of his Dead Body w/No Prints or DNA on it

From [HERE] After allowing new prosecutors to review the death of Marquis Jones, who was shot and killed outside a restaurant in 2014 by off-duty San Antonio Police Officer Robert Encina, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday it will not formally reopen the case.

Last September, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales met with Jones’ family, and agreed to allow two veteran prosecutors who had not worked on Jones’ case to conduct a full review. Gonzales said that Jones’ family had also provided additional information into the shooting.

“In consideration of all available evidence, we believe that additional prosecution is not feasible at this time,” prosecutors wrote in the summary of their review.

Christopher Herring, a retired Air Force officer who represents the family, said the shooting was not justified.In the aftermath of the shooting, a Bexar County grand jury cleared Encina of criminal wrongdoing.

Jones' family sued Encina and the city for damages in federal court, claiming Encina used excessive and unreasonable force and violated Jones' constitutional rights. They also claimed the city investigation was a cover-up and that SAPD’s lack of supervision and discipline led to the incident.

However, a jury later ruled against Jones’ family, claiming Encina didn’t use excessive and unnecessary deadly force.

Encina was working off-duty at Chacho’s on Perrin-Beitel Road on Feb. 28, 2014 when a green Cadillac rear-ended another vehicle in the drive-thru.

Encina testified that when he approached the driver’s side, he saw marijuana and alcohol in the vehicle, and a gun stashed between Jones’ legs as he sat in the front passenger seat.

Encina said he fired eight shots with his service weapon, with one hand, from the opposite side of the vehicle, as Jones ran from him. Jones was struck once in the back by the gunfire, killing him.

Herring said that Jones was not a threat to Encina and that the officer shot at him several times from 100 feet away while he was “multitasking.” The family has also said Jones was unarmed during the incident.

“There is conflicting evidence on whether Jones had a gun,” prosecutors wrote in their review.

While some witnesses said they saw Jones with a gun, others didn’t.

“The evidence shows that a gun was found in the vicinity of Marquise Jones’ body, and he had a small amount of gunshot residue on one of his hands, but neither his fingerprints nor DNA were found on the gun,” prosecutors wrote.

Ultimately, the prosecutors said their review did not turn up evidence that would prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Encina was not acting in self-defense when he fatally shot Jones.