Dr Gilbert Berdine: Clearly there is a Very Significant Above Average Number of People Dying Across the US that Cannot be Attributed to COVID

By Gilbert G. Berdine, M.D. Gilbert Berdine is an associate professor of internal medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC)and a faculty affiliate with the Free Market Institute.

Dr. Berdine earned his B.S. degrees in chemistry and life sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and his M.D. degree from Harvard University School of Medicine in Boston. He completed residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Pulmonary Diseases at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (Now called Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston.

From [HERE] The CEO of the OneAmerica insurance company recently disclosed that mortality in the 18-64 age group was 40 percent higher during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2021 than during pre-pandemic levels. For reference, the CEO indicated that a 10 percent increase would have been a 1-in-200-year event. Furthermore, most of the deaths were not attributed to Covid.

The CEO of the OneAmerica insurance company recently disclosed that mortality in the 18-64 age group was 40 percent higher during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2021 than during pre-pandemic levels. For reference, the CEO indicated that a 10 percent increase would have been a 1-in-200-year event. Furthermore, most of the deaths were not attributed to Covid.

Clearly there is a very significant above average number of deaths across the US that cannot be attributed to Covid. As was the case for the Age Group graphs, data for the last 10 weeks are incomplete due to delays in reporting of death certificates. Deaths attributed to Malignant Neoplasms were average during the entire pandemic period. Although there was an increase in deaths from Alzheimer Disease and dementia in 2020 after the onset of the pandemic, this was less apparent during 2021. There was an increase in deaths attributed to Other select causes (which include suicides and drug overdoses), but the magnitude was much smaller than what is seen in the Circulatory diseases category. Deaths attributed to Circulatory diseases include strokes, heart attacks, and heart failure (including myocarditis). The Circulatory diseases category is clearly the most important category for excess deaths during 2020 and 2021. Notably, deaths attributed to Respiratory diseases were below average during 2021 for the period of interest between Week 10 and Week 24 of 2021. Covid is a respiratory disease and leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome with hypoxemia and respiratory failure in severe cases. During the period of interest between Week 10 and Week 24 of 2021, Covid deaths were steadily declining, deaths attributed to Respiratory diseases were below average, but deaths due to Circulatory diseases were significantly above average. It is difficult to explain the data between Week 10 and Week 24 of 2021 on the basis of lung injury caused by Covid infection.

The spike protein enables entry of the virus into the host cells. The spike protein targets the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor. Angiotensin converting enzymes play an important role in the regulation of blood pressure. Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are both important classes of drugs used to treat hypertension. It does not require a stretch of the imagination to suspect that the spike protein could cause elevation of blood pressure. Acute elevation in blood pressure is known to be a risk factor for stroke, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), and congestive heart failure. Spike protein is also associated with clotting, presumably due to endothelial injury, which would also increase risk for myocardial infarction and stroke. It is not clear why spike protein from the Covid virus would explain above average deaths attributed to Circulatory diseases during a time period when Covid cases and deaths were declining. However, the Covid virus was not the only source of spike protein during this time period. The mRNA vaccines led to the production of spike protein by host cells and Weeks 10-24 of 2021 were immediately followed by the mass introduction of mRNA vaccines to the US public. The data is not proof, but it is certainly a red flag.

The appropriate method to assess vaccine efficacy and safety is all cause mortality. Deaths from all causes are compared between the vaccine group and a control unvaccinated group. This method has not been used. Rather, the CDC and FDA determine on a case-by-case basis whether reported adverse events can be attributed to the vaccine. If a footballer drops dead during a game, one would not be inclined to attribute the cause to a vaccine given 10 weeks earlier. However, when 5 footballers drop dead every week, one will be looking for ANY common denominator between the dead footballers. Neither the CDC nor the FDA are impartial observers of vaccine safety. Both agencies have vested interests in promoting the vaccines. When the CDC or FDA analyze events on a case-by-case basis, they are inclined to say that an event was not due to a vaccine (especially if the people at the CDC and FDA include former executives from Pfizer). However, when the entire US population has a significant number of events compared to historic basis, one must look for the common denominators in the people with the events. The existing data is not proof that the vaccines are causing deaths due to Circulatory diseases. The burden of proof, however, lies with the CDC and FDA to prove that the vaccines are not causing deaths due to spike protein. It is scientific irresponsibility to eliminate the control group via vaccine mandates and make future assessment of vaccine safety scientifically impossible. 

Dr Robert Malone Claims Pfizer and the CDC Committed Criminal Fraud when they Withheld Critical Data from the Public, resulting in Harm and Death to Thousands from COVID Injections

From [HERE] It’s been shown that Pfizer and the CDC committed fraud when they willfully withheld critical data from the public, resulting in harm and death to thousands from the injections.

What’s going on here is criminal. For the people close to the data who said nothing, there will be legal consequences. They will either be witnesses or defendants.

The FDA and the CDC had to be sued to release the data on a biological product that every person is being asked, if not forced to take. This should make everyone very concerned.

DoD data shows clear increase in disease after injection and WorldInData.org reports a 73% of the COVID deaths in both high income and middle-high income nations (that could afford vaxx) occurred AFTER vaxx was released. In a pandemic, the most deaths should occur at the beginning, before treatment is available. However, the COVID vaxxines failed to improve health, which was apparently by design.

Dr Malone reacted to the latest Pfizer data dump, telling The New American’s Veronika Kyrylenko, “In my opinion, withholding scientific data constitutes fraud. This is scientific fraud, in my opinion.

“If I was to publish a study in which I had a large body of epidemiological data and I decided to only publish part of it, because I wanted to advance some agenda, I would be guilty of scientific fraud. The paper would be withdrawn, I would be kicked out of my academic institution, I would be guilty of scientific fraud. That’s what this is.

“And the CDC, I’ve watched them over the years become more and more and more a political arm and not serving its function. This is the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. They are the archive of information, which physicians have relied upon for decades, through the MMWR Publication. They are the ones responsible for providing us with the frontline data about what’s going on and where it’s happening. They have stopped performing that function.

“They no longer release that detailed information through MMWR. hey have become a purely political organization; and arm of the Executive Branch and what they have done, in my opinion is obscene.

“And it’s part of what’s underlied the attacks against [Dr Peter McCullough] and I have sustained from the press. If you think about it, ‘The CDC didn’t say that, therefore, you’re spreading medical misinformation,’ but now we learn who’s really been spreading medical misinformation! It’s the CDC!

“I think we’re all owed an apology, I think that this data that they have been withholding – it’s not just the 18 to 49 triple-boost efficacy data, it is a ton of information, intentionally withholding it – that’s why we’ve bee attacked, it is unjust, we are the ones, it turns out we’re completely vindicated, we have been speaking truth and it’s the truth that’s been hidden from the American public and more important, it’s been hidden from other physicians and it’s been hidden from public health authorities.

“That article was powerful, if you look through it. The New York Times tried to hide it and they dropped it on President’s Day and they wrote it in ways that ties to obscure what’s really going on. But what’s going on here is criminal, in my opinion,” he says.

Veronika asks him if there will be consequences for the Federal Government for what they have done.

He replies, “I’ve spoken repeatedly: for those people that are within the Government – we call them ‘Govvies’ for slang – the folks working at the CDC, that gave interviews for The New York Timesbut wouldn’t share their names, I think they are now at a point of choosing.

“There are going to be legal consequences and I believe they do have a choice. These government employees that have been participating in hiding this data: They can either be defendants or they can be witnesses. It is time for them to step up and speak out.

“And if they want to do a whistleblower action, speak to Senator Ron Johnson, his office is in business, looking for this and when the Midterms are done and he’s re-elected and the Republicans take the Senate, he’s going to be in charge of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations and I can tell you that he is ready to go.”

Dr Malone hands the mic to Dr McCullough, who says, “I’d just add to that that this isn’t the only area of concern about data transparency. The FDA and Pfizer are being sued for release of their full dossier. Many of you know, there is now an accelerated release of the data – but the reluctance to release information on a biological product that each and every American is being asked, if not mandated to take – the reluctance to do so should make everyone concerned.

“The other area of data transparency we’re extremely concerned about is the Department of Defense Epidemiological Database [DMED] information that was released on the January 24th Senate Panel: A Second Opinion, chaired by Senator Ron Johnson and their lead attorney, Tom Renz Co-Counsel, Leigh Dundas presented the data and the whistleblowers, in fact did disclose their names; lead whistleblower being Flight Surgeon Theresa Long and it’s clear: there’s a manifold increase, across many disease categories among our servicemen, year over year.

“The only thing thats changed is the administration of the vaxxines in large numbers. So data transparency, at this point in time will be an area that I believe Dr Malone is correct, will be intensely investigated and for those who are close to the data, I think they do have a choice coming up and it’s going to be a matter of making the right choice and where they want to end up; on what side of history.

Denmark’s Pandemic of the Vaccinated. Research Shows that "the Vaccinated" in Denmark Account for more Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths than the Unvaccinated (2022)

From [HERE] Kristoffer Torbjørn Bæk’s research reveals the vaccinated in Denmark account for more cases, hospitalisations and deaths than the unvaccinated and have done all year.

Now that vaccination statuses are stable enough that the tomfoolery of misclassification no longer meddles with the analysis, we can see a clear picture of the ineffectiveness of the Covid vaccine, Joel Smalley commented.

In this article, Joel Smalley summarised and commented on Danish data collated and made publicly available by Danish molecular biologist Kristoffer Torbjørn Bæk. 

Bæk has also co-authored a pre-print study published on medRxiv, ‘Estimates of excess mortality for the five Nordic countries during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020-2021’, comparing Nordic all-cause deaths using “other estimates” to a recent study in the Lancet, “which is a clear outlier” and “most likely substantially overestimates excess deaths of Finland and Denmark, and probably Sweden.”

“Other estimates are more consistent and suggest a range of total Nordic excess deaths of approximately half of that in the Lancet study,” the authors of the study wrote. [MORE]

The Experimental Drug Remdesivir is ‘Disastrous’ as a COVID Treatment b/c It Causes Death and Organ Damage, But the US Government Pays Hospitals to Use It on Unvaxxed Persons

From [chd] Story at a glance:

• So far, all of the drugs developed against COVID-19 have been disastrous in one way or another. Remdesivir, which to this day is the primary COVID drug approved for use in U.S. hospitals, routinely causes severe organ damage and, often, death.

• Despite that, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved remdesivir for in-hospital and outpatient use in children as young as 1 month old.

• Another COVID drug, Paxlovid, will in some cases cause the infection to rebound when the medication is withdrawn.

• Molnupiravir (sold under the brand name Lagevrio) also has serious safety concerns. Not only might it contribute to cancer and birth defects, it may also supercharge the rate at which the virus mutates inside the patient, resulting in newer and more resistant variants.

• The fact that U.S. health authorities have focused on these drugs to the exclusion of all others, including older drugs with high rates of effectiveness and superior safety profiles, sends a very disturbing message. They’ve basically become extensions of the drug industry, protecting the drug industry’s interests at the cost of public health.

So far, all of the drugs developed against COVID-19 have been disastrous in one way or another. Remdesivir, for example, which to this day is the primary COVID drug approved for use in U.S. hospitals, routinely causes severe organ damage, and, often, death.

Despite its horrible track record, the U.S. government actually pays hospitals a 20% upcharge for sticking to the remdesivir protocol, plus an additional bonus. Hospitals must also use remdesivir if they want liability protection.

Incentives like these have turned U.S. hospitals into veritable death traps, as more effective and far safer drugs are not allowed, and hospitals are essentially forced to follow the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If you are at the hospital and your hear “Remdesivir,” It Means RUN DEATH IS NEAR. Don’t let them do this to you or your family

As reported by Forbes science reporter JV Chamary back in January 2021, in an article titled, “The Strange Story of Remdesivir, a COVID Drug That Doesn’t Work”:

“Remdesivir is an experimental drug developed by biotech company Gilead Sciences (under the brand name Veklury) in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases …

“The drug proved ineffective against the Ebola virus … yet was still subsequently repurposed for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. News media prematurely reported that patients were responding to treatment.

“But the published data later showed that ‘remdesivir was not associated with statistically significant clinical benefits [and] the numerical reduction in time to clinical improvement in those treated earlier requires confirmation in larger studies’ …

“What’s weird about remdesivir is that it hasn’t been held to the same standards as other drug candidates. Normally, a drug is only approved for use by a regulatory body like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if it meets the two criteria for safety and efficacy.

“Nonetheless, in October 2020, remdesivir was granted approval by FDA based on promising data from relatively small trials with about 1,000 participants. A large-scale analysis by the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial consortium has cleared up the confusion.

“Based on interim results from studying more than 5,000 participants, the international study concluded that remdesivir ‘had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with COVID-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay.’ As a consequence of being mostly ineffective, WHO recommends against the use of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients.”

Shockingly, US approves remdesivir for babies

Curiously, while Big Tech — aided and abetted by the U.S. government — has spent the last two years censoring and banning any information that doesn’t jibe with the opinions of the WHO, the U.S. government has completely ignored the WHO’s recommendation against remdesivir.

In fact, in late April, the FDA approved remdesivir as the first and only COVID-19 treatment for children under 12, including babies as young as 28 days, which seems beyond Orwellian and crazy considering it’s the worst of both worlds: It’s ineffective AND has serious side effects.

What’s worse, the drug is also approved for outpatient use in children, which is a first. In an April 30 blog post, Dr. Meryl Nass expressed her concerns about the FDA’s approval of remdesivir for outpatient use in babies, stating:

“Remdesivir received an early EUA (May 1, 2020) and then a very early license (October 22, 2020) despite a paucity of evidence that it actually was helpful in the hospital setting. A variety of problems can arise secondary its use, including liver inflammation, renal insufficiency and renal failure …

“WHO recommended against the drug on November 20, 2020. Few if any other countries used it for COVID apart from the US. A large European trial in adults found no benefit. The investigators felt 3 deaths were due to remdesivir (0.7% of subjects who received it). However, on April 22, 2022 the WHO recommended the drug for a new use: early outpatient therapy in patients at high risk of a poor COVID outcome.”

Remdesivir — a reckless choice for children

Nass goes on to recount how monoclonal antibody treatment centers have been turned into outpatient treatment centers using remdesivir instead, but we still don’t have a lot of data on its effectiveness in early treatment. She continues:

“The FDA just licensed Remdesivir for children as young as one month old. Both hospitalized children and outpatients may receive it. The drug might work in outpatients, but the vast majority of children have a very low risk of dying from COVID.

“If 7 deaths per 1,000 result from the drug, as the European investigators thought in the study of adults cited above, it is possible it will harm or kill more children than it saves.

“Shouldn’t the FDA have waited longer to see what early outpatient treatment did for older ages? Or studied a much larger group of children? Very little has been published on children and remdesivir …

“When we look at the press release issued by Gilead, we learn the approval was based on an open label, single arm trial in 53 children, 3 of whom died (6% of these children died); 72% had an adverse event, and 21% had a serious adverse event.”

Overall, remdesivir appears to be an exceptionally risky treatment choice for young children. Certainly, there are safer early treatment protocols that are very effective. Two other COVID drugs, Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, also have serious safety concerns.

Post-Paxlovid COVID rebound

As reported by Bloomberg, COVID patients treated with a five-day course of Paxlovid sometimes experience severe rebound when the medication is withdrawn.

U.S. government researchers are now planning to study the rate and extent to which the drug is causing SARS-CoV-2 infection to rebound, and whether a longer regimen might prevent it.

Bloomberg describes the post-Paxlovid rebound of David Ho, a virologist at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University:

“Ho said he came down with COVID on April 6 … His doctor prescribed Paxlovid, and within days of taking it, his symptoms dissipated and tests turned negative. But 10 days after first getting sick, the symptoms returned and his tests turned positive for another two days.

“Ho said he sequenced his own virus and found that both infections were from the same strain, confirming that the virus had not mutated and become resistant to Paxlovid. A second family member who also got sick around the same time also had post-Paxlovid rebound in symptoms and virus, Ho says.

“‘It surprised the heck out of me,’ he said. ‘Up until that point I had not heard of such cases elsewhere.’ While the reasons for the rebound are still unclear, Ho theorizes that it may occur when a small proportion of virus-infected cells may remain viable and resume pumping out viral progeny once treatment stops.”

Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Paul Sax, told Bloomberg:

“Providers who are going to be prescribing this should be aware that this phenomenon occurs, and if people have symptoms worsening after Paxlovid, it’s probably still COVID. The big problem is that when this drug was released, this information wasn’t included [on the label].”

Pfizer defends Paxlovid

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has stated it is “evaluating the reports of viral load rebound after completing Paxlovid treatment and will share recommendations if appropriate.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet commented on the findings.

Pfizer, meanwhile, insists the increase in viral load post-treatment “is unlikely to be related to Paxlovid” because viral rebound was found in “a small number” of both the treatment and placebo groups in Pfizer’s final-stage study.

Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Bloomberg that some people may simply “need longer dosing of Pfizer’s drug than the standard five days.”

“There’s two things that suppress the virus: the drug and the host immune response,” he said. “If you stop the drug before the host immune response has had a chance to kick in, you may see the virus come back.”

Molnupiravir supercharges viral mutation

Molnupiravir (sold under the brand name Lagevrio) also has serious safety concerns. This drug was developed by Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics and approved for emergency use by the FDA December 23, 2021, for high-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID symptoms.

However, not only might it contribute to cancer and birth defects, it may also supercharge the rate at which the virus mutates inside the patient, resulting in newer and more resistant variants. As reported in November 2021 by Forbes contributor and former professor at Harvard Medical School, William Haseltine, Ph.D.:

“… I believe the FDA needs to tread very carefully with molnupiravir, the antiviral currently before them for approval. My misgivings are founded on two key concerns.

“The first is the drug’s potential mutagenicity, and the possibility that its use could lead to birth defects or cancerous tumors. The second is a danger that is far greater and potentially far deadlier: the drug’s potential to supercharge SARS-CoV-2 mutations and unleash a more virulent variant upon the world …

“My concern with molnupiravir is because of the mechanism by which this particular drug works. Molnupiravir works as an antiviral by tricking the virus into using the drug for replication, then inserting errors into the virus’ genetic code once replication is underway. When enough copying errors occur, the virus is essentially killed off, unable to replicate any further …

“But my biggest concern with this drug is … molnupiravir’s ability to introduce mutations to the virus itself that are significant enough to change how the virus functions, but not so powerful as to stop it from replicating and becoming the next dominant variant.”

Haseltine cites prepandemic experiments showing MERS-CoV and the mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) both developed resistance against the drug, thanks to mutations that occurred.

While the central idea behind the drug is that the genetic errors will eventually kill the virus, these experiments showed the viruses were in fact able to survive and replicate to high titers despite having large numbers of mutations throughout their genomes.

The drug did slow down replication, but as noted by Haseltine, “outside of the lab, as the drug is given to millions of people with active infections, this disadvantage may quickly disappear as we would likely provide a prime selection environment to improve the fitness of the virus.”

This risk may be particularly high if you fail to take all the prescribed doses (typically 800 milligrams twice a day for five days).

Experts question usefulness of Molnupiravir

More recently, in a January 10 article, Newsweek cited concerns by professor Michael Lin of Stanford University:

“‘I am very concerned about the potential consequences now that molnupiravir has been approved … It would only be a matter of time, perhaps a very short time, before a lucky set of mutations occurs to create a variant that is more transmissible or immunoevasive …

“The drug simply speeds up that natural process. The hope is that over enough days all the viral copies will have so many mutations that none of the copies can function.’ But Lin said he was concerned that in the real world, there is a possibility that a mutated virus could jump from a patient taking molnupiravir to another individual, citing the relatively modest efficacy of the drug.

“‘For cases that get worse so that people have to go to the hospital, this drug only prevents that from happening 30% of the time. That means 70% of the time the virus isn’t being eliminated quickly enough to make a difference. And we know COVID patients going to hospitals are highly contagious.’

“Lin said the risks could be heightened when a patient does not comply exactly with the dosing schedule of the drug … ‘In any of those situations viruses will have picked up some mutations but not enough to kill all the virus copies,’ he said. ‘The survivors are now mutated, perhaps have picked up immunoevasion and can go on to infect others’ …

“According to Lin, the ‘very low efficacy alone’ should have disqualified the drug from approval … ‘Even if the drug were great we wouldn’t take such a risk, but this drug is worse than any other drug that’s sought approval for COVID-19. It’s completely not worth it.’”

Haseltine also told Newsweek that, “Of all the antiviral drugs I have ever seen, this is by far the most potentially dangerous,” and “The more people that take it, the more dangerous it will be.”

One of the FDA panel members who actually voted against the approval of molnupiravir, James Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, wanted Merck to do a better job of quantifying the risk of mutations before approval.

During the panel meeting, he noted that:

“Even if the probability is very low, 1 in 10,000 or 100,000, that this drug would induce an escape mutant which the vaccines we have do not cover, that would be catastrophic for the whole world.”

Government has sold out to Big Pharma

Widespread use of a drug that turbocharges mutation of an already rapidly mutating virus probably isn’t the wisest strategy. Likewise, using drugs that cause high rates of organ failure, like remdesivir, and drugs that causes the virus to rebound with a vengeance, like Paxlovid, don’t seem to be in the best interest of public health either.

The fact that U.S. health authorities have focused on these drugs to the exclusion of all others, including older drugs with high rates of effectiveness and superior safety profiles, sends a very disturbing message.

They’ve basically become extensions of the drug industry and have abandoned their original purpose, which is to protect public health — by ensuring the safety and efficacy of drugs, in the case of the FDA, and by conducting critical science and data analysis in the case of the CDC.

Instead, they seem to be doing everything they can to protect Big Pharma profits, even if it costs you your life. Remdesivir, for example, is an extremely expensive drug, costing between $2,340 and $3,120 depending on your insurance.

Ivermectin, meanwhile — which has been very effective against COVID and shown to outperform at least 10 other drugs, including Paxlovid — costs between $48 and $94 for 20 pills depending on your location. The average cost is said to be about $58 per treatment.

Paxlovid costs $529 per five-day course of treatment, and molnupiravir is around $700. While not quite as expensive as remdesivir, both are still nearly 10 times costlier than ivermectin, which is more effective.

Paxlovid alone has cost U.S. taxpayers $5.29 billion. Just imagine the billions we could have saved had we saner leadership.

Since the FDA and CDC cannot be trusted, it’s imperative to take responsibility for your own health. Do your own research and follow your own conscience and conviction.

Remember, when it comes to COVID-19, early treatment is crucial, and effective protocols are readily available — just not from the FDA, CDC or even most hospitals.

New UK Government Data Shows COVID Injections Kill More People than They Save

Figure 6. Only at the start of the data collection period did the numbers look favorable for the vaccine. They all turn negative over time for Doses 1 and 2 over time meaning the vaccines are nonsensical. No cherry picking required. You can see it visually. Source: All-Cause Mortality by Vaccination Status

From [HERE] and [HERE] New UK government data allows us to analyse the data in a way we couldn’t before. This new analysis shows clearly that the Covid vaccines kill more people than they save for all age groups. In other words, they shouldn’t be used by anyone. The younger you are, the less sense it makes.

“The bottom line is this: finally, the data is publicly available in plain sight that shows clearly that our governments have been publicly killing us with these vaccines and vaccine mandates.” – Steve Kirsch

Anyone can validate the data and methodology. The results make it clear that the Covid vaccines should be halted immediately.

If the vaccines really work, then why hasn’t any government anywhere in the world produced a proper risk-benefit analysis that shows the opposite result?

If the vaccines work, then why do all the lines in Figure 6 below show that Dose 1 and Dose 2 of the vaccines kill more people than they save?

What the data shows

Here’s the result of the analysis.

What this means is that if you are 25 years old, the vaccine kills 15 people for every person it saves from dying from Covid. Below 80, the younger you are, the more nonsensical vaccination is. The cells with * means that the vaccine actually caused more Covid cases to happen than the unvaccinated.

Above 80, the UK data was too confounded to be useful. Until we have that data, it’s irresponsible to make a recommendation.

I describe below how you can compute this yourself from the UK data.

Introduction

One of my friends recently sent me a link to the mortality data from the UK government Office of National Statistics from 1 January 2021 to 31 January 2022. I had not seen this data before so I analysed it.

What I found was absolutely stunning because it was consistent with the VAERS risk-benefit analysis by age that I had done in November 2021.

Where to get the UK government source data

The government data is archived here. You want to open the spreadsheet and look at the spreadsheet tab labelled Table 6.

You can also access the original source at: ONS dataset, Deaths by vaccination status, England, which you can see at the top of the page.

In either case, you click the green button labelled “xlsx” to get the spreadsheet, then go to tab “Table 6”:

England.
Death by vaccination status dataset. Table 6. All-cause, Covid 19, Non-Covid 19 age-specific mortality rates per 100k Person Years.
All age groups (*exc. 10-14yo: Too few deaths. 'Error bars' too wide).https://t.co/fuKiimFqJU
All-cause. pic.twitter.com/7d4ciM9Sr4

— O.S. (@OS51388957) March 22, 2022
Note: The data is from England only, not all of the UK.

Where to get my analysis of the data

I annotated the UK source data and you can download it here. This makes it easier to see what is going on. You can see all the original data and my formulas for calculating the ACM ratios and risk benefit analysis on the Table 6 tab.

It is all in plain sight for everyone to see. I then copied values to the Summary and Exec Summary tabs.

Methodology

I compared the all-cause mortality (“ACM”) for people who got 2 shots at least 6 months ago with the unvaccinated. The 6-month time frame provides a minimum reasonable “runway” to observe the outcomes for the typical “fully vaccinated” person.

Summary of the data

This summary below (which I put on the Summary tab which is to the right of the Table 6 tab) shows the rates of all- cause mortality per 100,000 person-years for each age range and also shows the risk benefit ratio.

The data clearly shows that any mortality benefit you get from taking the vaccine and lowering your risk of death from Covid is more than offset by the mortality you lose from the vaccine itself. This isn’t new. It is something I have been saying since May, 2021. But now I finally found the data where I could calculate it reliably.

In the Pfizer Phase 3 trial, there was a 40% increase in ACM in the vaccinated group. They killed an estimated 7 people for every person they saved from Covid!

In the Pfizer Phase 3 trial, there were a total of 21 deaths in the vaccine group and 15 deaths in the placebo group.

This 40% increase in the all-cause mortality in the trial (21/15=1.4) was of course dismissed as not statistically significant. While that is true, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to the number.

But now, based on the UK data, we know that the result in the Phase 3 trial wasn’t a statistical fluke. Not at all.

In fact, if we look at the risk benefit, we see that we saved 1 life from dying from Covid (1 Covid death in the treatment group vs. 2 Covid deaths in the placebo group= 1 life saved), but there were 7 excess non-Covid deaths (20 – 13).

So, the Pfizer trial showed that for every person we saved from Covid, we killed 7 people. However, the numbers were too small to place a high confidence in this point estimate.

However, I’d argue that Pfizer trial was a best case because:

1. The trial enrolled abnormally healthy people who died at a 10X lower rate than the population (there is a 1% US average death rate per year, yet there were just 15 deaths in the 22,000 placebo arm in 6 months which is a .1% death rate)

2. They were able to get rid of anyone who had a reaction to the first dose without counting them

The most important point though is that the Pfizer trial killed:save ratio of 7:1 and the ACM ratio of 1.4 is consistent with the hypothesis that the vaccine kills more people than it saves.

My ACM risk/benefit estimate using VAERS

This is from a risk/benefit computation I did on 1 November 2021 using the VAERS data to compute the ratio of the # of people killed from the vaccine (V) to the # of people who might be saved from Covid (C) if they took the vaccine and it had 90% effectiveness over 6 months (since we knew it waned over time and variants would change). Of course, that was a conservative estimate of the benefit, but that’s because I wanted to make sure I was on solid ground if attacked.

So now we know that my VAERS calculations approximately match the actual UK data in Figure 1. Since my analysis was deliberately conservative, many of the numbers are smaller than the actuals.

This is another example that people who claim (without evidence) that the VAERS data is too “unreliable to use” are wrong. If it is so unreliable, how did it match the real-world UK results so well?

Note how that VAERS showed exactly the same effect back then that we just learned from this UK data: that the younger you are, the more nonsensical getting vaccinated is.

Our V:C column decreases as you get older (from 6:1 down to 1.8:1) just like column E decreases (from 1.9:1 to 1:1 over the same range) in Figure 2.

Isn’t that an interesting “coincidence”? They are within a factor of 3 of each other.

Confirmation from others

I’m hardly the only person noting that the Covid vaccines kill more people than they save. Other articles show either no benefit at all or a negative benefit.

For example, check out:

1. 99.6% of Covid deaths in Canada were among fully vaccinated people between April 10-17 which can only happen if the vaccinated have a great ACM than the unvaccinated since there is only an 86% vaccination rate in Canada. This is hard for anyone to explain.

2. Fully Vaccinated 6x Higher Overall Mortality Than Non-Vaccinated (October 30, 2021)

3. Follow-up of trial participants found ‘no effect on overall mortality’

Figure 4. Table from the Denmark paper published as a pre-print in the Lancet

4. Horowitz: The failure of the mRNA shots is on display for all with open eyes

Note that the Denmark paper (pre-published in the Lancet) showed overall zero all-cause mortality benefit based on clinical trial data. That’s certainly more optimistic than the UK numbers, but the problem for the vaccine makers is that the UK numbers showed up to 38% of the deaths were from Covid so if the vaccines actually worked and were safe, you’d see a huge ACM benefit and you saw nothing.

Why are we mandating a vaccine with a zero ACM benefit?? No public health official wants to answer questions about that.

What makes this analysis different than previous work

The dataset used here contains both Covid and non-Covid deaths by age. We haven’t had that before.

This enables us, for the first time, to validate the data as we explain in the next section.

In short, the data we have in this dataset is more detailed than in the more frequently cited UK Health Security Agency summaries. [MORE]

Conopoly or Hood Investment? Developer Paid Chicago $1 for Land and Got $13 Million in Tax Credits to Build a Whole Foods Store w/Over Priced Food in a Poor Black Neighborhood that Quickly Closed Down

From [HERE] This Friday Chicago mourned the official loss of a Whole Foods location in the affluent, majority-white neighborhood of Lincoln Park. Whole Foods and Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, announced last Friday that they were shuttering the location as part of a nation-wide closure of six underperforming stores, including two in Chicago.

Practically speaking the Lincoln Park store had already been closed days before. By Thursday, the windows had been papered, the logos removed, a sign welcoming customers replaced with another telling them to keep moving. A quick death.

The other soon-to-close Whole Foods in Chicago is located in the the poor, majority-Black neighborhood of Englewood. It faces a much slower doom, with the company saying last week only that it expects the store to close sometime in the coming months. Slow death is apt for Englewood, a community which has seen steady resident exodus and divestment since white flight in the 1960s. 

Closing the Englewood store will turn the area into a so-called food desert — an area where there the closest large grocery store is over a mile away — for some residents of the neighborhood. Parts of Englewood were already a food desert prior to 2016 when the Whole Foods first opened. 

Last week, media, the mayor and even former Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb all lamented news of the shop’s approaching end.

“I died a few deaths on Friday. It broke my heart,” Robb told reporter Natalie Moore of Chicago’s public news station WBEZ. “A lot of people poured their heart and soul in building this [Englewood Square] center. I personally recruited Starbucks and Chipotle to 63rd and Halsted. I am obviously very disappointed in its closing.”

“Amazon’s decision to close stores in Englewood and Lincoln Park as part of a nationwide closure of stores is obviously disappointing,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a prepared statement. “My immediate worry is for the workers in both locations. Amazon must now take clear steps to protect those workers as they transition to new opportunities.”

For all the sad statements, several academics along with one of the neighborhood’s representatives in City Hall said they weren’t surprised by the announcement. Jeannette Taylor, Alderwoman of the city’s 20th Ward on whose border the Englewood Whole Foods sits, said that even if the store removed the neighborhood’s food desert designation on paper, most local residents couldn’t afford to buy food there anyway. Stephanie Coleman, Alderwoman of the 16th Ward in which the Whole Foods is actually located, did not respond to a request for comment.

“From what I hear from people who live in my ward, they don’t really shop there,” Taylor said, adding she can’t often afford to shop there either. “It’s too expensive.”

While the Whole Foods in Englewood advertises locally-sourced products, few Englewood locals were in the store on Friday (Dave Byrnes / Courthouse News)

Supporting her point, employees in the Whole Foods on Friday easily outnumbered customers. And not all of the customers were locals. 

Taylor’s shrugging take on the situation belied her anger at what led to it. In 2014, the city under then-mayor Rahm Emanuel approved an investment of over $10 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to subsidize development of a privately-owned commercial square in Englewood, anchored by the Whole Foods. 

The developer of the aptly-named Englewood Square, DL3 Realty, also received over $13 million in federal tax credits for the project from the Chicago Development Fund and PNC Bank via the New Markets Tax Credit Program. Several hundred thousand dollars also flowed into the Square from private investors and the Chicago Community Loan Fund. 

As with other development deals in Chicago, such as that reached between the city and the Obama Foundation for construction of the controversial Obama Presidential Center, DL3 paid the city all of $1 for the land on which Englewood Square now sits. 

“You got our TIF money and now you’re leaving with our TIF money,” Taylor said. “These companies don’t care about us.”

Pedro Bortoto, a labor researcher and Doctor of Labor History from Brazil’s University of Campinas who has lived in Chicago for several years, was also unsurprised at the news. Englewood, he pointed out, has seen seen extensive divestment from both the private and public sectors since the 1960s, when the South Side neighborhood’s white residents fled in droves to the suburbs. According to a 1999 history of the neighborhood in The Chicago Reporter, the white population of Englewood “plummeted from 51,583 to 818” between 1960 and 1980, and it has remained a majority-Black community ever since. 

Poverty is structural and endemic in such communities affected by white flight, Bortoto said, and their residents’ food insecurity cannot be solved by a real estate deal for a shopping center. While DL3 Realty has Black owners, he labelled the decision to open a high-price grocery store in a poverty-stricken area “white liberal thinking.”

“It’s a short term solution to a long term problem,” Bortoto said. “It’s white liberal thinking. It’s, ‘we want to the neighborhood to have good food. Where do they have good food? Oh, Whole Foods.’ Never mind how expensive it is.”

Bortoto further pointed out that Whole Foods began reporting declining profits to the Security and Exchange Commission in 2015. He opined that opening the store in Englewood with a multi-million dollar subsidy may have been an attempt to tap into new markets – one that didn’t pan out. 

“The tendency of the profits to fall that occurred then, is probably occurring now,” he said. 

The company itself isn’t saying. Responding to requests for comment on the situation, a Whole Foods representative gave only this prepared statement:

“As we continue to position Whole Foods Market for long-term success, we regularly evaluate the performance and growth potential of each of our stores, and we have made the difficult decision to close six stores.”

The Whole Foods workers in Englewood also declined to comment, with several saying they’d been instructed by management not to speak to reporters. 

Joseph Choonara, a lecturer in political economy at the UK’s University of Leicester, placed the blame for the store’s closure not so much on Whole Foods itself but on Amazon, which acquired Whole Foods in 2017. He dismissed Robb’s remarks to WBEZ as sentimentality obfuscating the company’s hard economic calculus. 

“I think this is just a cold calculation by Amazon that they don’t want to subsidize this store,” Choonara said. 

He added that while the $438 billion+ company reaped massive profits through 2020, those pandemic profits have begun to decrease. Amazon has reported a $7.6 billion net loss since the start of 2022. 

“[Amazon] hugely increased their logistics, their staffing levels through the pandemic, but… they’re now reaching a point where that pandemic boost is wearing off,” he said. “They’re now seeing a squeeze on profit. People are not spending as much on Amazon as they were a few months ago.”

Taylor said that, regardless of where blame should fall, she hoped the closure would serve as a message to City Hall and Chicagoans at large that divested communities can not rely on big box stores’ magnanimity. She advocated for stricter legislation preventing large companies from picking up sticks without reimbursing the city for its investments, and said what her community needed was more local grocers with personal ties to the area. 

“There’s been talk about growing our own grocers, so we’re not dealing with big boxes,” Taylor said. “How many Black and brown grocers are there in this city? Not many.”

Expanding the scope of the analysis, Choonara and Bortoto both said that they believed closures like this augured further instability in the global economy. Choonara even predicted a global recession, as large companies try to squeeze ever slimming-profits out of consumers whose wages are stagnant and whose costs of living are only going up — a scenario Bortoto called “stagflation.” 

“I think a lot of these firms will look at their holdings and think, what works, what isn’t such a good investment… I think we should expect that kind of instability,” Choonara said.

That instability will hit wage workers like those at Whole Foods the hardest, Choonara said, and so those workers should be prepared to fight for fair treatment. Whole Foods said in its statement that it will offer “interested, eligible” employees of the Lincoln Park and Englewood stores positions at its other locations, and severance to those who are let go. It did not respond to requests to clarify how much or in what form this severance will take. It also did not specify how it would determine who among its Englewood and Lincoln Park employees were “eligible” for a position at another store. 

“The best thing to do now is organize and demand what [Whole Foods] promised. They’re promising severances? Then make a stink about it,” Bortoto said.

This drama surrounding the closures comes with one final twist. Last Wednesday — two days before Whole Foods announced it was closing the Englewood and Lincoln Park stores — the company opened a new location in River North, one of Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods. 

“The store’s design is inspired by the historic homes, storefronts and gourmet restaurants of the surrounding neighborhoods with elements like elegant arches, recycled handmade tiles and glazed brick,” a news release on the location’s opening said. 

Alderwoman Taylor was not impressed. 

“Thank you for turning your back on our community,” she said, when asked if there was anything she’d like to say to Whole Foods and Amazon’s corporate leadership. “Thank you for showing your true colors. Sincerely, a Black mother who just wants what everybody else has.”

A Large White Kenosha Cop put his Knee on a Small 12-year-old Black Girl’s Neck to break up a school fight. But White Prosecutors Have Charged the Girl

From [HERE] Back in March, an off-duty police officer was seen on video putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for more than 20 seconds in an attempt to break up a school fight.

Now, the 12-year-old girl is being criminally charged with disorderly conduct, her family attorney Drew DeVinney told CNN.

“A juvenile delinquency petition has been filed against Jane Doe in Kenosha County,” DeVinney said. “However, the proceedings and court filings are confidential.”

The full contents of the criminal complaint were not immediately available because she is a minor. The Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office could not comment on a juvenile matter.

In March, the Kenosha Police Department confirmed to CNN that a criminal charge of disorderly conduct had been referred to prosecutors for “both juveniles involved in the incident.” However, neither the identity of either girl nor any other potential charge against the other minor involved has been disclosed.

Kenosha police request FBI look at incident of off-duty officer putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl

DeVinney told CNN the girl was offered a “diversion,” however it would have required her to “admit to the charge, which was untenable.” He recalled the penalty would have been similar to probation, but it was “untenable because she is not guilty.”

The charge comes three months after video showed two students in a fight at Lincoln Middle School in Kenosha. Off-duty Kenosha Police officer Shawn Guetschow, working school security at the time, attempted to break it up before either being hit or falling backward with one of the students, the video shows. It appears he hits his head on the edge of a nearby table, the video shows.

Shortly after, Guetschow is seen on top of the student and appears to push her head into the floor with one hand and then place his knee on her neck for more than 20 seconds, the video shows. The 12-year-old girl is eventually handcuffed, picked up and led away, according to the video.

The officer’s position on the girl raised questions about how school police respond to adolescent fights and appeared disturbingly similar to the position of the former Minneapolis Police officer who killed George Floyd nearly two years ago.

Noting “the visual similarities to George Floyd,” a Kenosha Police Department spokesman said in April that interim Chief Eric Larsen asked the FBI to look into the case. The FBI has not responded to questions about the status of any investigation.

“Looking at that picture, it destroyed me,” the girl’s father, Jerrel Perrez, told CNN in March. “All it takes is just a little bit, especially for a 12-year-old girl. We’ve seen a grown man die from that same situation, just imagine a fragile 12-year-old’s neck.”

Officer resigned from school district in March

Guetschow, identified by both the Kenosha Unified School District and the Kenosha Police Department, resigned from his position with the school district, but remains an officer with the police department, CNN previously reported.

DeVinney, the family attorney, is now filing paperwork for a civil suit against a number of parties including Guetschow, Larsen and the Kenosha Unified School District.

“No criminal charges have been filed against Officer Guetschow, who we understand remains employed with the Kenosha Police Department,” wrote DeVinney in part of the notice of claim. “The difference between how an adult with a badge and a child with Black skin are being treated should offend everyone’s sense of morality, ethics, and justice,” he later continued.

“She is the victim of police brutality and now, what seems to be a concerted effort to silence her with baseless charges. The absence of accountability for a grown man that choked this child is striking,” DeVinney added.

CNN has reached out to the Kenosha Police Department for comment but has not gotten a response.

Pete Deates, president of the Kenosha Professional Police Association, had not seen all the details of the civil claim when reached by CNN. However, he previously told CNN that Guetschow was injured as part of the incident.

In a statement provided to CNN, Sam Hall Jr., attorney for the Kenosha Unified School District, wrote, “The allegations within the Notice of Claim are unfounded. The Kenosha Unified School District will vigorously defend itself and its employees in the event that litigation is initiated in this matter.”

'We Educated [niggerized] Him.' Louisiana Race Soldiers Beat, Kicked, Piled on and Lifted a Black Man Up by His Braids after He Surrendered. Cops Only Face Misdemeanors for Felony Assault

From {HERE] State prosecutors have charged three Louisiana State Police troopers accused of beating a Black motorist, hoisting him to his feet by his hair braids and bragging in text messages that the "whoopin'" would give him "nightmares for a long time."

The misdemeanor simple battery charges in the 2020 arrest of Antonio Harris come amid mounting scrutiny of the state's premier law enforcement agency over allegations of excessive force — particularly against Black people — and an institutional instinct to cover it up.

Jacob Brown, Dakota DeMoss and George "Kam" Harper, who are white, were seen on body-camera video piling onto Harris following a high-speed chase that ended next to a cornfield in rural Franklin Parish, kneeing, slapping and punching him even though he had surrendered face down with his arms and legs splayed.

The troopers' attorneys declined to comment Thursday. A state police spokesperson did not immediately comment on the charges.

State police had arrested the troopers in February 2021 on felony charges of malfeasance in office, but local prosecutors elected not to bring that count last week when filing a bill of information in Franklin Parish. Misdemeanor simple battery in Louisiana carries up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

ON BEHALF OF THE SYSTEM OF RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY, THE AP NEWS REMIXED, SANITIZED, NARRATED AND ABBREVIATED THE ABOVE.

The state prosecution comes as a federal grand jury in Lafayette has been hearing testimony in the same case. Federal prosecutors for months have been investigating whether the troopers used excessive force, but it remains unclear whether the U.S. Justice Department intends to move forward with a civil rights case.

A similar uncertainty hangs over the federal investigation into the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, another Black motorist beaten by state police. A federal grand jury also has been hearing testimony in that case, in which troopers stunned, punched and dragged Greene before he died on a rural roadside in Union Parish, outside Monroe.

The Associated Press reported this week that the Justice Department is increasingly skeptical it can bring a successful case against the troopers.

State lawmakers, meanwhile, are probing allegations of a cover-up in Greene's death and this week voted to hold the former head of the state police in contempt for defying a subpoena and refusing to turn over the handwritten journals he kept while leading the agency.

In the Harris beating, an internal investigation found the troopers filed "wholly untrue" reports claiming the man kept trying to flee, refused to obey commands and fought with troopers before they began to pummel him with what Brown called "tactical strikes."

"They kept saying 'Stop resisting' but I was never resisting," Harris told investigators. "As soon as they got to me, one of them kneed me in my face. One of them was squeezing my eyes."

The troopers also later exchanged 14 text messages peppered with "lol" and "haha" responses in which they boasted about the beating and mocked Harris, who spit up blood and suffered from sore ribs and stomach pain for days after the arrest.

"He gonna be sore tomorrow for sure," Brown wrote in one of the texts. "Warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man."

Brown, Harper and DeMoss, who were part of a notoriously violent division of troopers patrolling the northeastern part of the state, were arrested in the case last year. DeMoss and Harper were fired and Brown, who in October pleaded not guilty in a separate federal case accusing him of pummeling another Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight, resigned.

DeMoss has also come under investigation for his role in Greene's death, which authorities initially blamed on a car crash at the end of a chase before the AP last year published troopers' long-withheld body-camera video showing a violent arrest.

Greene and Harris' arrests were among at least 12 cases over the past decade in which an AP investigation found troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers told the AP the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, outright racism.

Harris' case began after Brown pulled him over for a minor traffic violation on Interstate 20. The trooper conducted a criminal history check and discovered Harris had a suspended driver's license and outstanding warrants.

Harris sped away from the traffic stop in a Hyundai Sonata, leading troopers on a 29-mile chase that reached speeds of 150 miles per hour before it was finally stopped with the help of a tire-puncturing spike strip.

Even though Harris had already surrendered, DeMoss, the first arriving trooper, "delivered a knee strike" and slapped him in the face with an open palm before powering off his body-worn camera, court records show.

As a 50-year-old nurse educator — a job she’s done for eight years after two decades working as an emergency room nurse — Katrina knows she’ll be on her feet for hours.

Harper, meanwhile, punched Harris in the head several times with a fist "reinforced" by a flashlight and threatened to "punish" Harris, while Brown pulled the man's hair, an internal investigation concluded. DeMoss can later be seen on the footage lifting Harris to his feet by his braids.

Investigators determined Brown never informed state prosecutors that any body-worn camera video of the arrest existed.

6 White GA Cops Had No Rational Reason to Believe Drugs/Weapons Were on an HBCU Womens Lacrosse Team's Bus, But They Searched it and Rummaged Thru All Belongings After an Unrelated Lane Change Stop

FREE RANGE PRISON. From [HERE] Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings requested the U.S. Department of Justice investigate after a Delaware State University bus was stopped and searched in Liberty County.

“By all accounts, these young women represented their school and our state with class — and they were rewarded with a questionable-at-best search through their belongings in an effort to find contraband that did not exist,” Jennings wrote in a letter to the DOJ. “Not only did the deputies find nothing illegal in the bags, they did not issue a single ticket for the alleged traffic infraction.”

Delaware Gov. John Carney and the state’s congressional delegation have condemned the incident.

“I have watched video of this incident – it is upsetting, concerning, and disappointing,” Carney said in a statement,The Hill reported. “Moments like these should be relegated to part of our country’s complicated history, but they continue to occur with sad regularity in communities across our country. It’s especially hard when it impacts our own community.”

Liberty County in coastal Georgia is about 260 miles from Atlanta. A deputy stopped the bus because the driver was violating a state law requiring that type of vehicle to travel in the two right-hand lanes, the county’s sheriff said.

“Before entering the motorcoach, the deputy was not aware that this school was historically Black or aware of the race of the occupants due to the height of the vehicle and tinted windows,” Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman, who is a Black Strawboss, said in an online post. “A canine sniff of the exterior of a vehicle is not a search under the Fourth Amendment and does provide cause to search the vehicle.” Thanks negro for the bad legal advice. Next time may they will search your grandmother’s - nevermind. This was not a simple search done after a dog sniff. It was a search for weapons or drugs after a traffic stop for a lane change. At least in regard to white citizens, the Supreme Court has held that without more facts, cops may only conduct a search of a vehicle if the search is related to the stop. Here, the stop was for a traffic violation. Were cops looking for more evidence of the lane violation inside the bus or underneath it?? The Supremes have also said that cops may search areas of the vehicle within arms length of the occupants if they have articulable reasons to believe there are weapons present and they are in danger. Did the young college ladies look like they were armed and dangerous? Was the luggage locked underneath the bus with in arms reach?

QUALITY OF BLACK CITIZENSHIP IN THE FREE RANGE PRISON at NEW LOWS. 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.

The coach of the women’s lacrosse team at the predominantly Black university believes South Georgia deputies racially profiled her team during an April 20 traffic stop that is being investigated by local law enforcement and the school.

The Delaware State University lacrosse team bus was returning from Florida when it was pulled over on I-95 in Liberty County, head coach Pamella Jenkins said. Six white deputies and a police dog searched the bus for drugs and found none, the coach said.

A video recorded by someone on the bus shows a deputy asking the team to tell them now if anyone has marijuana, devices to smoke or weigh it or other “questionable” items.

One student asked the deputies why they wanted to search the bus, Jenkins said. The deputy said that they frequently find drugs or human trafficking during traffic stops, the coach recalled.

According to Sheriff Bowman, deputies had been conducting traffic stops on commercial vehicles that morning, and a police K-9 was involved. Several vehicles had already been stopped before the Delaware team’s bus, he said. The driver of the Delaware bus was issued a warning, Bowman said.

His department is reviewing the traffic stop, Bowman said. He requested feedback from those on the bus.

“From what I have gathered, I believe that the stop was legal but I also understand my duty to help the public understand law enforcement while seeking ways to improve services,” he said.

Family of Black Cop Killed by fellow White Cop Settles with Pr. George’s for $400K

From [HERE] The family of Jacai Colson, a 28-year-old undercover detective who was killed in 2016 by a fellow police officer, announced Wednesday that they have settled their wrongful death lawsuit against Prince George’s County for $400,000.

The lawsuit alleged that the officer who shot Colson showed “reckless disregard for human life” during a gun battle in front of Prince George’s County police headquarters, where both men responded after reports of an ambush. Police and prosecutors said that the officer, Taylor Krauss, mistook Colson as a suspect during the shooting that March 16 and fired.

“Six years, six long years we have been waiting,” said Colson’s mother, Sheila Colson, at a news conference. “No amount of money — no amount of money — is worth the life of my son.”

Colson’s family and attorneys have long been critical of how county and police leaders handled the investigation into their son’s death, including what they say is prosecutors’ failure to convince a grand jury to indict Krauss on criminal charges.

They’ve also contended that race was a factor. Colson and the three suspects in the shootout were Black. Krauss is White. At the sentencing for the man who opened fire at the police station, Colson’s mother said her son was killed because he was Black.

“There is no way to separate race from this case,” Malcolm Ruff, a civil rights attorney representing the Colson family, said during the news conference. Though their suit did not imply there was malice on Krauss’s part, it did allege that inadequate training for Prince George’s officers and a culture of permitting excessive force could have contributed to the alleged recklessness.

“There is a police problem in Prince George’s County,” Ruff said. “It is a pattern and practice that has been occurring for decades.”

The settlement in the Colsons’ civil suit was capped at $400,000, the maximum amount a claimant in Maryland can receive in damages from a government in state court.

The announcement came one week after a Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge found a different county officer, Cpl. Bryant Strong, guilty of misdemeanor assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office over a traffic stop that left a man paralyzed. The man’s family has filed a federal civil lawsuit in that case.

The county has shelled out millions of dollars in recent years for civil litigation related to the police department. In 2020, the county paid $20 million to the family of William Green, who was handcuffed behind his back and sitting in a police cruiser when he was shot six times and killedby Prince George’s officer Michael A. Owen Jr. Last year, after a years-long legal battle in federal court, the county paid a group of Black and Latino officers $2.3 million after they alleged that they experienced workplace discrimination and retaliation. That settlement, however, came after the county had spent more than $24 million on the legal fight.

County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) was the state’s attorney during the investigation into Colson’s death. Her communications director, Gina Ford, said in a statement Wednesday that the county has worked to improve the police department over the last two years through “meaningful reforms,” including appointing a reform-oriented police chief. Ford called the 2016 shootout “painful to the Colson family and members of the Prince George’s County Police Department.”

“While the County has disputed many of the allegations in this lawsuit,” Ford continued, “our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family members and friends of Corporal Jacai Colson.”

In a separate statement, the police department called March 13, 2016, a “tragic day for our agency, our community, [Detective Colson’s] family and for everyone whose life he touched.”

“We will always remember his act of heroism and his ultimate sacrifice,” the department said.

Jacai Colson was killed March 13, 2016, when he was shot by a fellow officer during a gun battle. (AP)

The day of the shootout, Colson and other police officers swarmed the police station on Barlowe Road in Palmer Park, Md., after a man described over 911 calls as heavyset with dreadlocks opened fire on the police station, passing cars and officers. His two brothers recorded video on their cellphones of the shooting.

Colson, who was dressed in street clothes, got out of a car and fired 11 times at the suspect — later identified as Michael Deandre Ford — before he fell to the ground in the middle of Barlowe Road. Other officers disarmed and detained Ford while Colson ran to safety at a community center on the same street.

Krauss, who was in the police station parking lot, fired at Colson twice through a wooden fence and missed before firing a third time, fatally striking his fellow officer in the chest.

The civil lawsuit alleges that Colson had his badge in his hand and was shouting “Police! Police!” before he was killed.

Krauss, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Wednesday, later testified in Ford’s criminal trial that he did not hear Colson announce himself as an officer and did not realize he had shot his colleague until it was too late. He said he had worked with Colson in the narcotics division for seven months, that their desks were side by side and that they had socialized.

Krauss’s testimony in the 2018 trial was emotional, both for him and other officers in the courtroom, and he left the department two years later. He was cleared by a grand jury in the shooting.

Ford was convicted of second-degree murder in Colson’s death, even though he did not shoot him. Prosecutors argued that Ford’s attack on the police department started a chain of events that ultimately caused Colson’s killing.

Ford was sentenced to 195 years in prison.

Colson’s family announced the settlement in their civil case right outside the community center on Barlowe Road, where the young officer had run seeking safety.

That day, Sheila Colson said, will be “embedded in my heart for the rest of my life.”

“I will never, never get over it,” she said.

She and her husband expressed frustration with Alsobrooks and former police chief Hank Stawinski, whom they accused of not being “forthright” with evidence about the shootout. And while they take some solace in the settlement, which means they won’t be forced to relive that day during a civil trial, the Colsons said they still hope for further accountability.

“By no means is the Colson family finished,” James Colson said. “You best believe we aren’t going nowhere.”

Senate Confirms Black Man (Philip Jefferson) as Federal Reserve Board Governor

From [HERE] The Senate voted to confirm Philip Jefferson, an economist and administrator at Davidson College of North Carolina, to the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

Mr. Jefferson, who was approved on a bipartisan 91-7 vote, is the third nominee of President Biden to win a seat on the central bank’s seven-person board of governors. The Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook on Tuesday and Fed governor Lael Brainard as the central bank’s vice chairwoman last month.

With the confirmation of Mr. Jefferson, three of the six sitting Fed governors are now appointees of Mr. Biden, giving the president his stamp on the central bank and fulfilling promises made to improve the diversity of its top leadership. Mr. Jefferson and Ms. Cook are Black.

Next up will be a confirmation vote for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell set for Thursday. Senate Democrats scheduled votes on Mr. Biden’s three other Fed picks ahead of Mr. Powell, whose four-year term leading the central bank expired in February and who was reappointed by Mr. Biden last fall. [MORE]

Lisa Cook, a Black Economist, Becomes 1st Black Woman to Sit on Federal Reserve Board

From [HERE] The Senate voted to confirm Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve, making her the first Black woman to sit on the central bank’s board.

Ms. Cook was approved Tuesday on a party-line vote, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie. Ms. Cook is the second Fed nominee of President Biden to win Senate confirmation, following Fed governor Lael Brainard, who was approved as the central bank’s vice chairwoman last month. 

Ms. Cook’s confirmation Tuesday evening paves the way for lawmakers to confirm two additional picks this week, including Jerome Powell, whose four-year term as chairman expired in February. He has been serving in an acting capacity since then and is poised to win bipartisan support for a second term as chairman. Philip Jefferson, an economist at Davidson College, is a Fed board nominee who won unanimous support from the Senate Banking Committee in March. [MORE]

In Historic Ruling, Tech Firm, Clearview is Banned From Sharing Facial Recognition Data

From {HERE] A historic settlement filed in court on Monday highlighted the power of Illinois’ strong privacy law and will result in new nationwide restrictions on a controversial technology company infamous for selling access to the largest known database of facial images.

The deal permanently banning Clearview AI from providing most private entities with free or paid access to its database stems from a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and partners filed in 2020, arguing that the company violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

“This settlement is a big win for the most vulnerable people in Illinois,” declared Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, president and CEO of the Chicago-based nonprofit Mujeres Latinas en Acción, one of the plaintiffs in the case.”

“Much of our work centers on protecting privacy and ensuring the safety of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” she added. “Before this agreement, Clearview ignored the fact that biometric information can be misused to create dangerous situations and threats to their lives. Today that’s no longer the case.”

In addition to permanently banning Clearview from granting private companies and individuals access to the database, the settlement has some state-specific limits.

For the next five years, Clearview can’t allow private companies with exceptions under BIPA or state or local government entities in Illinois, including law enforcement, access to the database.

Under the settlement, Clearview will also maintain an opt-out request on its website for Illinoisans, end its free trials for individual police officers, and continue its efforts to remove photographs that were taken in or uploaded from the state.

As The New York Times reported:

“In a key exception, Clearview will still be able to provide its database to U.S. banks and financial institutions under a carve-out in the Illinois law. Hoan Ton-That, chief executive of Clearview AI, said the company did “not have plans” to provide the database “to entities besides government agencies at this time.

“The settlement does not mean that Clearview cannot sell any product to corporations. It will still be able to sell its facial recognition algorithm, without the database of 20 billion images, to companies. Its algorithm helps match people’s faces to any database that a customer provides.

“There are a number of other consent-based uses for Clearview’s technology that the company has the ability to market more broadly,” Mr. Ton-That said.”

Floyd Abrams, an attorney for Clearview, said the company was “pleased to put this litigation behind it.”

Meanwhile, lawyers representing the plaintiffs and other experts celebrated the settlement as a victory.

J. Eli Wade-Scott of Edelson PC — which recently obtained a $650 million settlement in a BIPA case with Facebook — noted that the case was part of a broader fight.

“There is a battle being fought in courtrooms and statehouses across the country about who is going to control biometrics — Big Tech or the people being tracked by them — and this represents one of the biggest victories for consumers to date,” he said.

Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said that “by requiring Clearview to comply with Illinois’ pathbreaking biometric privacy law not just in the state, but across the country, this settlement demonstrates that strong privacy laws can provide real protections against abuse.”

“Clearview can no longer treat people’s unique biometric identifiers as an unrestricted source of profit,” he said. “Other companies would be wise to take note, and other states should follow Illinois’ lead in enacting strong biometric privacy laws.”

Rebecca Glenberg, staff attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, echoed that advice for other states.

“Fourteen years ago, the ACLU of Illinois led the effort to enact BIPA — a groundbreaking statute to deal with the growing use of sensitive biometric information without any notice and without meaningful consent,” she said.

“BIPA was intended to curb exactly the kind of broad-based surveillance that Clearview’s app enables. Today’s agreement begins to ensure that Clearview complies with the law. This should be a strong signal to other state legislatures to adopt similar statutes.”

Dr. Peterson Pierre: COVID Injections are 'a Real Risk to Pregnancy and Pfizer and the FDA Knew It'

CDC Authorities Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Obeyed Useless COVID Shelter in Place Orders which Destroyed People's Livelihoods During Government's COVID Vax Dependency Promotion

From [HERE] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform an analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard.

The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more general CDC purposes.

Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated — meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people — but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns about how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.

The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.

Court Denies NH Cop's Request for Qualified Immunity [law of the jungle status] after He Trolled, Searched and Seized a Truck Driver Washing His Truck at a Car Wash and Made Violent Unlawful Arrest

From [HERE] An Ossipee, New Hampshire police officer failed in his bid to have an excessive force and unlawful arrest complaint against him dismissed based on his contention he is entitled to qualified immunity protection.

A federal judge found police officer Tyler Eldridge did not establish that he is entitled to qualified immunity and denied Eldridge’s motion to dismiss. Rather, the judge found that the officer’s detention, search, handcuffing, arrest, use of force and incarceration of plaintiff Brian Pearson were unreasonable and unlawful.

According to U.S. District Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, Eldridge apparently failed to appreciate that the immunity analysis at the early pleadings stage before trial is based on the plaintiff’s recounting of events as described in the complaint —and those facts describing his arrest of truck driver Brian Pearson at a local car wash were not in his favor.

Pearson alleged that Eldridge detained him without sufficient justification and used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Facts Per Plaintiff

Late one summer night, Pearson drove his truck to a 24-hour car self-wash facility that offered self-serve vacuums and trash receptacles in a well-lit parking lot behind the car wash. Pearson parked next to one of the vacuums, took out some of his belongings and placed them on the ground nearby, and began cleaning the interior of his truck.

While Pearson was cleaning his truck, officer Eldridge sped into the parking lot, parked his police cruiser close to Pearson, and approached him. Eldridge immediately asked Pearson what he was “up to” and pointed to a baseball bat laying on the ground with Pearson’s other things. Pearson responded that he was cleaning his truck.

Eldridge then asked Pearson for some identification but before Pearson could get his driver’s license, Eldridge took out his handcuffs and told Pearson that he would conduct a pat-down search. When Pearson asked why, Eldridge told him to “relax.” After he handcuffed Pearson, Eldridge informed him that he was being detained because he was parked at the car wash late at night, had a lot of stuff around, was “animated,” and was not familiar to Eldridge. Pearson disputes that he was animated.

Eldridge then instructed Pearson to go to the police cruiser, lean against it, and spread his feet. After Pearson complied, Eldridge asked him for his name. Pearson did not respond at first, but he gave his full name when asked a second time. Eldridge then quickly gave Pearson the Miranda warnings. Immediately after, without provocation, Eldridge violently threw Pearson against the hood of the police cruiser. He held Pearson face-down on the hood, with his body weight on Pearson’s back and his hand on Pearson’s neck, until two other officers arrived on the scene a few minutes later. The encounter ended with Eldridge taking Pearson to a local jail under the pretext of taking him into protective custody.

Pearson eventually filed an action in state court, which Eldridge removed to federal court.

In his ruling, the judge explored the various stages of Pearson’s encounter with Eldridge.

Unreasonable Seizure

In what is known as a Terry stop, a police officer may stop and briefly detain an individual based on reasonable suspicion that the individual has committed, or is about to commit, a crime. The police may frisk a temporarily detained suspect if they have reason to believe the suspect may be armed and dangerous. Reasonable suspicion requires “specific and articulable facts” that would lead a reasonable police officer in the circumstances to suspect that criminal activity is afoot.

While a Terry stop requires only reasonable suspicion, taking someone into protective custody requires probable cause.

The judge concluded that the facts in the complaint establish that Eldridge conducted an unlawful Terry stop and frisk. Contrary to Eldridge’s suggestion, a reasonable officer in his position would not have suspected that Pearson was loitering at the time of the stop. There was no indication that Pearson had engaged or intended to engage in an activity that threatened public safety. Pearson was patronizing a business during its regular hours for the legitimate purpose of cleaning his vehicle.

The judge determined that the presence of a baseball bat, which Pearson had taken out of his truck with his other things and placed on the ground nearby before Eldridge arrived, was not enough to raise alarm. Under the circumstances, the only reasonable inference was that Pearson had taken his belongings out of his truck so that he could more easily clean the interior. Without more, a reasonable officer would not have believed that he needed to handcuff and frisk Pearson, the judge found.

Eldridge described Pearson as “animated” and told him to “relax.” But Pearson denied he was animated; instead, the complaint alleges that Eldridge’s assertion was a mere pretext for his actions.

Eldridge argued that he needed to ask Pearson twice for his name as evidence that Pearson had disobeyed a police officer. Pearson’s brief refusal to identify himself, however, came only after he was handcuffed. It, therefore, cannot provide justification for the Terry stop, the judge noted.

Accordingly, the judge concluded that qualified immunity cannot bar the claim that the Terry stop was illegal.

Protective Custody

Pearson also alleged that Eldridge violated his right to be free from unreasonable seizures when he took Pearson into protective custody. Eldridge argued that he had probable cause to believe that Pearson was intoxicated. Pearson alleges that Eldridge took him into protective custody under pretext and the judge found there were no facts from which a reasonable officer in Eldridge’s position could have believed that placing Pearson into protected custody was warranted.

A Fourth Amendment excessive force claim requires proof that “the defendant officer employed force that was unreasonable under the circumstances.” Courts must assess the reasonableness of a use of force “from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene” and must account “for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments — in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving — about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.”

Pearson was handcuffed and compliant when Eldridge suddenly and without provocation violently slammed him against the police cruiser and held him pinned in that position for several minutes. According to the decision. Pearson had committed no crime and showed no attempt to resist or flee when Eldridge used significant force to subdue him. “In those circumstances, a reasonable officer in Eldridge’s position ‘would have taken a more measured approach,” the judge wrote, concluding that Eldridge used excessive force against Pearson.

Crediting Pearson’s allegations and drawing all reasonable inferences in his favor, “the level of force chosen by the officer cannot in any way, shape, or form be justified,” which precluded the qualified immunity defense at this stage, the judge wrote.

The case is Brian Pearson v. Tyler Eldridge, Case No. 21-cv-567-PB Opinion No. 2022 DNH 039.

2 Oklahoma Cops are Charged with Manslaughter but Video Shows them Murder an Unarmed Black Man by Shooting Him 12X while His Hands were Up and After he Fell to the Ground [face minimum of 4 years]

First degree manslaughter in OK is a felony offense. The penalties include a minimum prison sentence of four years.

From [Pinac] Even after a cop shot Quadry Sanders four times as he was raising his arms in surrender, two officers continued to shoot him after he was on the ground still trying to raise his hands to comply with their orders.

“Hands! Hands! Hands!” Lawton police officer Robert Hinkle yelled, according to the body camera footage released Friday.

But when a wounded Sanders tried to raise his hands, Hinkle shot him an additional seven times, accusing him of “reaching.”

His partner, Lawton police officer Nathan Ronan, fired four times. The video captured him admitting to never seeing a gun in Sanders’ hands before a sergeant tells him to shush.

“Quit reaching! Quit reaching!” Hinkle yelled after firing seven shots.

“I’m down,” Sanders cried out in pain.

Seconds later, they were dragging him on the ground away from the doorway where he had walked out of before he had been shot, leaving a trail of blood. The 29-year-old man was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

On Friday, the Comanche District Attorney’s office announced that both cops were charged with first-degree manslaughter while releasing the body camera footage.

The incident took place on December 5, 2021 after police received a 911 call accusing Sanders of violating a protective order while waving a gun around.

However, no weapon was ever found at the scene and the only thing Sanders was holding was a baseball cap, according to the statement by district attorney’s office published by KSWO.

According to the Comanche County District Attorney’s office:

Officer Hinkle begins telling Mr. Sanders “hands, hands” as well as “down, down, down, down.” Mr. Sanders hands are clearly seen and the only item visible in his hands is a ball cap, which he transfers from his right hand to his left hand. As he is receiving these orders, Mr. Sanders quickly turns back towards the front door of the home.

Officers Hinkle and Ronan then walk closer to Mr. Sanders. As Hinkle approaches, Mr. Sanders can be seen raising both of his hands in the air, above his head. At that time, Officer Hinkle shoots his firearm four times at Mr. Sanders. Mr. Sanders falls to the ground and appears to have been shot, at which time Officer Hinkle once again orders “hands, hands, hands,” and to “quit reaching.” 

Mr. Sanders sits up from his back with his hands above his head at which time Officer Hinkle fires his firearm seven additional times. Simultaneously with these shots, Officer Ronan also fires his weapon at Mr. Sanders four times. Mr. Sanders is then secured by Officer Hinkle. On the way to Comanche County Memorial Hospital by ambulance, Quadry Sanders is pronounced dead. No weapon was located on Mr. Sanders’ body or in the area where he was shot.

An autopsy determined that Sanders was shot 12 times in the abdomen, groin, legs, arms and hand.

“It was just murder,” said attorney Lee Merritt who is representing the family of Sanders. “There was no justification.”

In January 2021, Hinkle shot and killed another man but was cleared by the district attorney’s office who said the man he killed, Zonterious Johnson, was wielding a gun, according to KSKO.

The two cops were fired in January after an internal affairs investigation. They remain free on a $250,000 bond, according to the Lawton Constitution. Their next court date is August 1.

Michigan Dems (Mayor, City Commissioners, Gov, AG, Senators, Reps) Have Done Nothing Except Maintain Master/Servant Relations Since a Black Man was Murdered by a Cop During a Traffic Stop a Month Ago

From [FINAL CALL] Family, friends, members of the local Black community, and others participating in the funeral of Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese refugee shot and killed by a Grand Rapids Police officer on the city’s Southeast side, want to know “what’s next” as mourning gives way to more questions.

After Patrick’s car was stopped over an alleged license tag problem, what should have been an exchange of documentation and the issuance of a ticket became what witnesses called an execution-style killing. Patrick was shot in the back of the head, by the police officer, as he laid face-down on the ground. The name of the officer was finally released days after protests and demands for transparency.

The officer involved in the April 4 shooting is Christopher Schurr said Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom in a statement released April 25.

“This killing and the news of it has brought to light the problem that has been existing within this city and this community for a long time,” said Student Minister Sultan Z. Muhammad, the Grand Rapids representative of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Minister Louis Farrakhan. “Police have been mishandling, and in many cases abusing, their authority in their dealings with the Black community. But modern technology has allowed what was done in the dark to now be brought into the light,” he said.

Representing the family through an agonizingly difficult process of seeking justice for their eldest son and sibling, civil rights attorney Ben Crump has acknowledged  the city manager and the local police chief for allowing an investigation to move forward. But, he added, it is unclear as to what form justice will take and whether Patrick’s killing will lead to real change.

“Transparency is the first step to getting to the truth, and truth is the foundation for us to get to justice, justice for Patrick. When you think about what you witness in that video, you see a confused person in Patrick who never takes a violent act against the police officer,” Atty. Crump said prior to Patrick’s funeral, which was held April 22.

Local activists, such as lifelong Grand Rapids resident Jewellynne Richardson, known affectionately in the local community as “Mama Jewel,” said the city has a long history of police abuse against Black people. While protests and marches are good for directing attention to issues of injustice, they do not necessarily solve the deep and chronic problems of prejudice and racism embedded within the GRPD, she said.

(L) Rev. Al Sharpton delivers eulogy for Patrick Lyoya. Photo: William C. Muhammad (R) (President of the Bafuliru TribeR-L) Kent County Commissioner Robert S. Womack, Clifford Jones, Atty. Crump’s investigator, Atty. Ben Crump and unknown individual confer before funeral. Photo: William C. Muhammad

“I don’t know if I (would) give them credit for transparency, I would give them credit for blocking and stifling and putting in stumbling blocks,” Ms. Richardson told The Final Call. “For me, I’m very disappointed in the actions that they’re taking and what I see from here is that they’re just trying to let things settle down and go away. It’s a stall tactic,” she insisted.

Regarding the Lyoya family’s immediate needs, family spokesman and interpreter Israel Siku told The Final Call that Patrick helped to support his parents and siblings, frequently driving between Grand Rapids and Lansing, Mich. His loss as a beloved son and brother has been both tragic and devastating.

Reiterating the parents’ need to grieve while demanding justice for their son, Mr. Siku said it’s vitally important to keep bringing attention to Patrick’s killing but avoiding violence only plays into the hands of detractors and those seeking to delay or deny justice for Patrick and his family.

“The strongest thing that they have been asking (for) is to support them, but (to) keep pushing for justice without violence. That is the message the father has been conveying around from the beginning, and he wants Black Americans and African Americans to come together like one and to fight for this,” he explained.

A spokesman and leader of the West Michigan Congolese community, Pastor Ngandu Amisi, said in 64 years of his life, he never knew a five year period where the Congo didn’t experience fighting, causing many of his countrymen to seek refuge in other lands. He didn’t expect for a young man of their community to be shot down over an automobile license tag in Grand Rapids, Mich.

(L) Patrick Lyoya (R) Two of Patrick Lyoya’s siblings mourn their older brother. Photos: William C. Muhammad

During the funeral service he shared his appreciation for those supporting both the Lyoya family and the Congolese immigrant community by allowing the world to see their humanity and for supporting their calls for justice.

“To the Lyoya family, know that you are not alone as we seek justice for Patrick,” Pastor Amisi said before a capacity crowd of 1,000 people. “Justice for Patrick!” he cried out.

Democrats appear to be dominating politics in grand rapids. The Mayor Rosalynn Bliss and all the city commissioners are democrats. at the state level The GOVERNOR, LT GOVERNOR (a black rolebot) and the attorney general are democrats. ADDITIONALLY, Both representatives in the Michigan State House of Representatives are Democrats, and the city's State Senate seat was taken by a Democrat in 2018. ALSO ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL, ALTHOUGH The city is the center of the 3rd Congressional District, represented by Republican Peter Meijer, BOTH US SENATORS ARE DEMS AND In the eight most recent presidential elections, Democratic candidates Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden won a majority or plurality of votes in the city of Grand Rapids. THERE ARE NO REPUBLICANS TO BLAME HERE, SO WHATS REALLY WRONG? IN WHAT WAYS are these democrats PROTECTING AND SERVING BLACK LIVES IF BLACK PEOPLE DON’T EVEN HAVE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES AND GO ABOUT THEIR DAILY BUSINESS WITHOUT COPS INTERFERING WITH THEIR RIGHTS OR TAKING THEIR LIFE WHENEVER THEY DESIRE? DO THE ABOVE PUPPETICIANS EVEN ELEVATE THE QUALITY OF CITIZENSHIP IN the FREE RANGE PRISON? WIll CHOOSING BETTER PUBLIC MASTERS, DEM OR REPUBLICAN, HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE SYSTEMS OF AUTHORITY OR RWS, or YOUR servant STATUS?

Policy, hypocrisy, and promises

Invited by the family to deliver a eulogy of advocacy and remembrance, Reverend Al Sharpton said the significance of Patrick’s April 4 killing, 54 years to the date of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, cannot be overlooked and that America’s call for Russian accountability, because of their brutality in Ukraine, makes it difficult to support elected officials who fail to demand likewise from police forces at home.

The civil rights leader spoke of the pain of Patrick’s killing and the anger over the police department’s initial refusal to identify the officer involved. Rev. Sharpton spoke before the name of the officer—whose name and photo was circulated on social media—was identified and released by the police department.

“I come to be with (Patrick’s father) and the mother and Patrick’s two children to tell you that this cannot end today,” Rev. Sharpton proclaimed to loud applause while explaining how he learned about Patrick’s killing during his national radio show. “To add insult to the injury, they’re telling this family that they will not release the name of the one responsible for this death (and) will not release the name until he is charged.”

“Every time a young Black man or woman is arrested in this town you put their name all over the news, every time we are suspected of something, you put our name out there,” Rev. Sharpton said. “How dare you hold (back) the name of a man that killed this man!”

Kent County Commissioner Robert S. Womack, the first to stand for the Lyoya family’s cry for justice and to organize for a high profile response, acknowledged those in the community following his lead and talked about how implicit bias in law enforcement can be fatal.

“As Rev. Sharpton said, and as Ben Crump said, this is bigger than Grand Rapids, this is how over-policing in African American communities in the United States of America has led to death from sea to shining sea!” Commissioner Womack exclaimed. “In Grand Rapids we have to play our part now. We just can’t have our leadership come out because Al Sharpton is in the house, we can’t just come out because Ben Crump is in the house, we need them on the frontline like the protesters have been on the frontline every day!” he said.

In a statement released by the Michigan State Police to WOOD TV 8, the agency said its Sixth District Special Investigation Section is continuing to investigate Patrick’s death and seeks to complete the probe in an efficient yet timely manner.  “Once detectives finalize their report, it will be forwarded to the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office for review. There is no timeline on when this will occur,” the statement said.  

The seriousness of what is clearly a continuing national crisis was described on the day of Patrick Lyoya’s funeral by Pan-African Community Action.

“Just days after Lyoya was murdered by Michigan police, Stockton, California police released body cam footage of them shooting 30 times into the vehicle of 54 year old Black grandmother, Tracy Gaeta, killing her instantly. This ongoing pattern of police murder is a blatant disregard for the lives of African people; state-sanctioned violence,” the statement said in part.