The Media Overstates Alex Jones' Case to Chill Speech: There Was No Trial On the Merits. Default Judgements Don't Make Sandy Hoax Real (e.g. A Default Judgement Also Wouldn’t Prove Santa is Real)

From [HERE] and [HERE] Alex Jones was ordered by a jury to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting.

The order follows a separate $4.1 million award granted by the same jury on Thursday for actual damages, or the harm suffered directly by the parents of the alleged murdered child. The case in Mr. Jones’s hometown is the first of several seeking damages for statements made after the shooting.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of six-year-old Jesse Heslin who died in the 2012 shooting, sued Jones for defamation. A reporter on  Jones’ Infowars radio show claimed that Neil Heslin lied about holding his dead son in his arms to trick people into thinking the shooting happened. Heslin and Lewis originally asked for $150 million in damages.

There was no actual contested trial. The court proceedings only pertained to how much Heslin and Lewis should be awarded in damages. Heslin and Lewis were given a default judgment against Jones in 2021 after Jones’ legal team did not supply the necessary documents for the lawsuit to proceed. [MORE]. The defaulting process results in an abrupt end and final end to litigation with the claimant declared the winner in the dispute and with a conclusive, enforceable judgment against the delinquent party, the loser. Sort of like the Bengals being declared champs at this year’s Super Bowl if the Rams failed to show up and play the game for some reason or if Andre Ward failed to make weight before fighting Kovalev; Kovalev would surely be declared winner by default. But don’t make it more than what it is; a win by default doesn’t mean that Kovalev/Bengals demonstrated anything substantive in reality.

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis cited his "willful noncompliance" with the discovery process as the reasoning behind the default judgment ruling. [MORE] Default judgments are a drastic action because they confront the judicial preference for disposition on the merits. Default judgments don’t prove that something happened - they just mean someone lost a lawsuit where something was alleged. If an actual, contested trial defamation trial had taken place Heslin and Lewis would have had the burden to actually prove that Jones made false statements; not vice-versa. That is, the plaintiffs would have had to show that Sandy Hook was real - with actual authenticated, admissible evidence and testimony subject to cross-examination, credibility determinations and inspection in an adversarial process before a jury who would decide on the merits. But that never happened. In other words, if plaintiffs brought suit because Jones said Santa was fake and thereafter Jones failed to respond to the lawsuit, a default judgment would eventually be entered. Such a judgment wouldn’t make Santy real though. In The Spectacle The Dependent Media goes on pretending otherwise.

Once a default judgment was made by the court the only thing left for the jury to do was to determine the amount of damages for the alleged defamation. Jones participated in that part of the proceeding.

ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY:

Sandy Hook – a staged CAPSTONE false flag media psy-ops event. Medical personnel and first responders turned away from the crime scene where 26 people allegedly were murdered. Sandy Hook never happened. Sandy Hoax did.

cover-stories – headlines that provide cover (hiding and distraction) for the real untold and undiscussed stories behind the one’s they are really (deliberately) not covering, undressing or addressing at all. 2) planted actors and/or provocateurs providing misinformation immediately after a false flag operation—like 9-11, Sandy Hook and the Boston Marathon bombing. The methodology: Sell the lie with authority, then change the subject to something emotional. [MORE]

During the proceedings for damages, Jones admitted that the shooting was “100% real” after initially suspecting that the shooting was staged. Jones said during his non-trial testimony that he changed his position after meeting the parents of Sandy Hook victims and that “the media still ran with lies that I said it wasn’t real on air yesterday… They won’t let me take it back. They just want to keep me in the position of Sandy Hook man.”

Nevertheless, it is inaccurate to imply or claim that his post-default “admission” (during the damages portion of the case) was anything other than an effort by Jones to mitigate the amount of the damages. After all, if he did not make such a statement the damages could have been substantially higher. The media misleads the public making it appear that during an actual trial he was made to admit that he was a liar. As stated, there never was a trial because a default judgment was entered; only the penalty phase occurred. (here, it should be observed that this is the pattern with false flag episodes such as Dylann Roof’s trial (not a real trial because he fired his attorneys before trial started and was appointed attorneys for his sentencing. The trial was “fake” because he represented himself and did not raise a single objection to inadmissible statements and unautheticated evidence or properly cross examine any witnesses or conduct any discovery or investigation ) and Parkland (the alleged shooter already plead guilty. The hearing presently going on in the Parkland case is to determine whether defendant will get the death penalty). In said cases and in Jones’ case, the facts are not established during a contested, adversarial trial. Thus, the public will never know what actually occurred through such proceedings.)

Obviously, contrary to Dependent Media “analysis” his so-called admission during damages does not prove that Sandy Hook occurred. To the contrary, substantial amount of evidence shows that Sandy Hook was indeed a false flag or staged “cover story.” Don’t let massa’ media also do your thinking for you. For starters check out the video above. (the real question is why didn’t Jones participate and force the plaintiffs to prove their case? There is a substantial amount of material to use in defense of whether Sandy Hoax happened. What did he have to lose? or gain?)

This case was one of many related to Alex Jones’ claims about Sandy Hook. Jones lost another lawsuit by default in September 2021 which accused him of calling another Sandy Hook parent a liar. One more dealt with claims that Alex Jones falsely portrayed a man named Marcel Fontaine as the shooter. Fontaine later died in a fire while litigation was pending. 

More proceedings are occurring to determine whether Alex Jones and Infowars are liable for any punitive damages.

Despite the Fact that 70% of All Australians are "Fully Boosted,” Deaths from COVID Have Reached a Record High. Contrary to Media Lies the COVID Injected are Dying at an Ever-Increasing Rate

From [HERE] The latest figures are in, and things are not looking good for “fully vaccinated” Australia.

Even though more than 96 percent of the native population there took the first two mRNA (messenger RNA) jabs for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), and more than 70 percent are fully “boosted,” Chinese Virus deaths throughout the country have reached a record high.

The following data chart clearly shows that ever since the launch of Operation Warp Speed, injection-related deaths Down Under have been soaring. As of this writing, a peak has formed to suggest that with the passage of time, the fully injected are dropping dead at an ever-increasing rate.

Had Australia opted for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) instead of Fauci Flu shots, the plandemic would have ended ages ago. Instead, Australia is now seeing mass death rather than a recovery. (Related: Australian officials want Aussies to get injected a bi-annual intervals for the rest of time.)

In fact, there were almost no covid-related deaths at all in Australia prior to the launch of the “vaccines.” There was a small peak in the fall of 2020 followed by a precipitous drop back to baselines levels, followed by a massive peak once people started getting injected.

Interestingly, the booster shot campaign was followed by another massive spike and peak, which will more than likely be followed by continued increases in the death count as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) and other jab-induced health conditions take their toll.

“We were warned, but only intelligent people listened,” wrote a commenter in response to the news. “Antibody-dependent enhancement is happening, it is real, and it destroys the immune system.”

“No one mistreated their citizens more than Australia during the crisis,” added another. “The people that did that should be in jail.”

This is now a plandemic of the fully vaccinated

New South Wales (NSW) is reportedly seeing the most new “cases” of the Wuhan Flu, followed by Queensland and Victoria.

Each of these areas, as you may recall, imposed heavy restrictions throughout the plandemic – restrictions that area residents were told would put an end to the virus.

“Quarantine” concentration camps were set up; people were forced to mask everywhere they went; and public movement was restricted – but to no avail. The Chinese Virus is here to stay, thanks to the injections.

The media would have us all believe that people are “catching” and “re-catching” covid over and over again, but the reality is that what we are now seeing is a plandemic of the fully vaccinated whose immune systems are shot.

“They’re exhibiting symptoms of poisoning,” wrote another commenter about what the fully jabbed are experiencing, which is not “covid.” “Coughing and fever are mild symptoms. Neurological damage, spasms, and paralysis are serious symptoms, not unlike what happens to a cockroach that is sprayed with RAID.”

“Clots are a sign of internal bleeding. Severe clotting leads to amputation and heart attacks. The most severe symptom? Death.”

Another pointed out that nobody who is unvaccinated is experiencing any of this, which further proves that what sick people are suffering from is vaccine damage, not covid infection.

“Fake immunity designed to kill you never beats natural immunity,” wrote someone else about how the so-called vaccines do not in any way produce real or lasting immunity, but instead provoke vaccine-induced AIDS (VAIDS).

“The unvaxxed are not getting sick not because they have natural immunity to a non-existent pathogen, but because they haven’t been poisoned,” added someone else. “The mRNA drug causes epithelial cells to manufacture the toxic spike protein 24/7, 365. There’s no off switch.”

BP profits highest in 14 years, raking in $8.5 billion

From [HERE] BP reported a profit of $8.5 billion for its second quarter on Tuesday, its biggest windfall in 14 years, making it the latest oil giant to cash in on higher crude prices as Russia’s war in Ukraine disrupts global energy markets.

Just days earlier, the two largest U.S. oil companies — ExxonMobil and Chevron — reported that their profits had roughly tripled in the second quarter, while London-based Shell and France’s TotalEnergies also reported blockbuster results. Second-quarter profits for those five companies now total more than $55 billion, marking a stunning turnaround from the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

The windfall comes as consumers around the world are feeling the sting of the highest inflation in decades and a cost-of-living crisis that is particularly painful at the gas pump. The price of crude oil surged above $120 per barrel in March and again in June before falling back, and it remains up 34 percent compared to a year ago. The national average gas price in the United States jumped in tandem, to over $5 a gallon for the first time, AAA reported, although prices are now dropping. [MORE]

Novel Lawsuit Claims COVID 'Shelter in Place' or Shut Down Orders Interfered with the Inalienable Right to Earn a Living and Arbitrarily Denied Fruits of Labor Under NC Law

Shelter in place orders were unnecessary Government seizures of people’s livelihoods and businesses that forced indefinite closures and widespread layoffs. Said conduct was not narrowly tailored because other ‘precautionary measures to manage contact tracing of [customers]; install plexiglass, touchless thermometers, six-feet distance markers, and screening booths; and to initiate vigilant cleaning procedures—all in consult with local health officials—would have been sufficient to combat the ALLEGED spread of COVID-19.’ (At any rate, asymptomatic transmission of COVID is epidemiologically irrelevant and shelter in place orders had no detectable impact on epidemic spreading, cases, hospitalisations, or deaths. Said governmental conduct was “among the most repressive acts ever imposed on citizens in a democracy.”) [MORE] The government’s actions may be described as “uncompensated takings” that violate the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment. That is, the government is legally obligated to properly compensate citizens for their tangible losses. [MORE] If you believe such things as “rights” exist in the first place. The interesting lawsuit below is not a takings clause suit but invokes the NC Constitution.

From [HERE] Owners of an Alamance County speedway can move forward with a lawsuit against the state's top health official. The suit stems from a COVID-19 shutdown order.

• Ace Speedway owners argue the shutdown deprived them of the right "to the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor." They also contend the shutdown amounted to selective enforcement of a COVID-19 emergency order.

• A unanimous decision from the N.C. Court of Appeals means the state Supreme Court faces no obligation to take the case.

A unanimous N.C. Court of Appeals panel has ruled that owners of an Alamance County racetrack shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic can move forward with a lawsuit against the state’s top health official.

Ace Speedway’s lawsuit argues that a shutdown order from Dr. Mandy Cohen, then serving as secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, violated the speedway owners’ rights. The suit contends the shutdown infringed on speedway owners’ right to earn a living. The shutdown also represented selective enforcement of Gov. Roy Cooper’s COVID executive orders, according to the suit.

The suit is now known as Kinsley v. Ace Speedway Racing Ltd., with current DHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley replacing Cohen as the target of the speedway’s legal action.

“This case makes us consider the use of overwhelming power by the State against the individual liberties of its citizens and how that use of power may be challenged,” wrote Judge Jefferson Griffin.

“Ace’s counterclaims propose that the Governor’s orders were enforced upon them without justification and without equal protection of law,” Griffin added. “Ace’s counterclaims are constitutional claims alleging (1) executive orders issued by the Governor in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were an unlawful infringement on Ace’s right to earn a living as guaranteed by our Constitution’s fruits of labor clause, and (2) the Secretary’s enforcement actions against Ace under the executive order constituted unlawful selective enforcement.”

“We hold that Ace pled each of its constitutional claims sufficiently to survive the Secretary’s motion to dismiss.”

Ace held a series of auto races in May and June 2020, even after Cooper personally asked the Alamance County sheriff to urge the speedway to shut down. Cooper had issued a COVID-19 executive order blocking “mass gatherings” of more than 25 people. 

Ace’s races drew at least 1,000 spectators and as many as 2,550 people. The speedway operated with COVID abatement measures adopted in consultation with local health officials.

Jason Turner, an Ace Speedway owner, also attracted media attention for his outspoken comments against the governor’s shutdown efforts.

Cohen issued an abatement order on June 8, 2020, and secured a court order forcing Ace to shut down its operations.

The speedway filed suit and continued its legal action, even after Cohen dropped her abatement efforts in September 2020, when Cooper had loosened some mass gathering restrictions. A trial judge ruled in January 2021 against the health secretary’s motion to dismiss Ace’s constitutional claims.

Griffin’s opinion focused attention on Ace’s argument that Cohen violated Article I, Section 1 of the N.C. Constitution. That section says North Carolinians’ “inalienable rights” include “the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor.”

“[T]he addition of a right to the fruits of one’s labor to the North Carolina Constitution sought to increase the floor of protections granted by similar provisions in the United States federal constitution,” Griffin wrote. “Since then, our courts have construed North Carolina citizens’ right to the ‘fruits of their labor’ to be synonymous with their ‘right to earn a living’ in whatever occupation they desired.”

“The core principle behind the fruits of their labor clause is that government ‘“may not, under the guise of protecting the public interests, arbitrarily interfere with private business, or impose unusual and unnecessary restrictions upon lawful occupations,”’” Griffin wrote.

“The intended purpose of the Governor’s order was not to regulate a particular occupation or business enterprise, but the direct and intended purpose of the Abatement Order was to cease the operation of a business,” the judge added. “It cannot be denied that the scope and breadth of the Abatement Order restricted or otherwise interfered with the lawful operation of a business serving the public.”

“We hold that Ace adequately pled that the Secretary, through [the] Abatement Order, deprived Ace of its constitutional right to the fruits of one’s own labor and, therefore, sovereign immunity cannot bar Ace’s claim,” Griffin wrote.

Ace also “sufficiently pleads a constitutional challenge” that Cohen violated speedway owners’ rights under Article I, Section 19 of the N.C. Constitution. It reads that “no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.”

“Ace effectively pled that it was among a class of ‘many speedways’ that similarly conducted races with fans in attendance during the period where such actions were banned,” Griffin explained. “Ace further pled that Governor Cooper and the Secretary ‘singled out’ Ace for enforcement by directing the Sheriff to take action against Ace and, when that failed, by issuing the Abatement Order against Ace alone.”

“Finally, Ace’s complaint pled its belief that it was singled out for enforcement in response to Defendant Turner’s statements to the press ‘and not because a true Imminent Hazard exist[ed,]’ as the Secretary asserted in the Abatement Order,” Griffin added. “These pleadings, taken as true, sufficiently allege bad faith enforcement of [Cooper’s executive order] against Ace alone.”

Kinsley could appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court. Because Judges Jeff Carpenter and Fred Gore agreed with Griffin and ruled unanimously, the state’s highest court faces no obligation to take the case.

Without an appeal, the case would head back to Superior Court for a trial on the merits of Ace Speedway’s claims.

After Biden Failures Brittney Griner Sentenced to 9 yrs Prison by the Russia Lex-icon [law as image, the appearance of justice, the form over the substance of justice via truth and law over humanity]

From [HERE] U.S. women’s basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday was convicted of bringing marijuana with criminal intent into Russia last February and sentenced to nine years in prison,  an outcome that is expected to clear the way for negotiations over her release between the two countries. 

Judge Anna Sotnikova found Ms. Griner guilty of deliberately bringing hashish oil into Russia in mid-February, and the nine-year sentence also included a fine of 1 million rubles, according to Ms. Griner’s legal team. 

Ms. Griner’s time served, since February, will be included in her term, the judge said. She will immediately be transferred to a penal colony, the judge said.

“The court found the defendant guilty [of] illegal acquisition, storage, transportation of drugs without the purpose of sale, and … smuggling of narcotic drugs in a significant amount,” the Russia’s state news agency, TASS, cited the judge as saying.

Russian prosecutors had sought a sentence of 9½ years in prison for Ms. Griner, close to the maximum penalty of 10 years for her charges of drug possession and smuggling. 

Ms. Griner’s defense team had asked for the court to impose a minimal sentence, and she had made her own emotional plea as well. 

“I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, the fans and the city of Ekat for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them,” she said, adding that she also wanted to apologize to her wife, parents, siblings, her Phoenix Mercury teammates and to the WNBA.

“I never meant to hurt anybody, to put in jeopardy the Russian population, I never meant to break any laws here,” Ms. Griner said. “I made an honest mistake and I hope that in your ruling it, that it doesn’t end my life here.”

The charges against Ms. Griner carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Ms. Griner’s defense team asked for the court to impose a minimum sentence, taking into account her role in Russian sports, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, whose correspondent was in the courtroom Thursday.

The best prospects for Ms. Griner’s release have long been thought to hinge on a prisoner exchange between U.S. and Russia, after she is convicted, despite the frosty relations between the two countries. In an unusual move, the U.S. pressed an offer to swap her and former Marine Paul Whelan for arms dealer Viktor Bout even as her trial was still underway. Ms. Griner has been detained since mid-February. [MORE]

Justice Dept Charges 4 Louisville Officers who Murdered Breonna Taylor with Civil-Rights Crimes. Charging Document says Cops Knew They Had No Probable Cause and Falsified Affidavit for Warrant

From [HERE] The Justice Department has charged four current and former Louisville police officers in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor more than two years after she was fatally shotin her home during a botched police raid.

The officers face charges including civil-rights offenses, charges of excessive force, conspiracy and obstruction, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency-medical technician in Kentucky’s largest city, was asleep with her boyfriend in March 2020 when police, who had secured a no-knock warrant to search her home in connection with a drug case, forced entry into her apartment. Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, thinking the officers were intruders, shot at them. Three Louisville officers responded by firing more than 30 bullets, at least six of which hit Ms. Taylor, one of them fatally, officials have said.

The charges announced Thursday say the officers falsified the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant, knowing they lacked probable cause for the search, among other offenses, Mr. Garland said.

“We allege that the defendants knew their actions and falsifying the affidavit could create a dangerous situation, and we allege these unlawful acts resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” Mr. Garland said.

Pittsfield (MA) Residents File Suit Over Verizon Cell Tower Injuries

From [HERE] Lawyers supported by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) are representing four families in a suit in Massachusetts Superior Court seeking to reinstate the Pittsfield Board of Health’s cease and desist order against Verizon. The case is the next step in the resident’s 24-month ordeal that began when Verizon turned on a cell tower in their neighborhood known as “Shacktown.” As soon as the tower went operational, people began getting sick. Almost 20 have been definitively identified, but more may be negatively affected.

The Pittsfield Board of Health issued the cease and desist on April 11, 2022, after a long and thorough investigation into the health impacts of Verizon’s tower. It rescinded the order on June 1, 2022, after Verizon sued in federal court. W. Scott McCollough (McCollough Law Firm, PC) and Paul Revere, III (Law Offices of Paul Revere, III) are representing the Plaintiffs and argue in their suit that the interference of several city officials was improper, unlawful and tainted the entire process.

The Pittsfield Board of Health studied the relevant scientific and medical information, including more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies. The Board interviewed scientists and medical professionals. It took evidence from those being sickened and met with Verizon Wireless. The Board discovered the cell tower was making 17 individuals ill, and their homes were so uninhabitable that many had to move away, while others moved in with relatives, and some slept in their cars. The tower had rendered sleep elusive, cognition impaired, while some children were vomiting in their beds at night. Vertigo, heart palpitations and severe headaches were part of the constellation of neurological symptoms experienced by the affected neighbors.

On April 11, 2022, the Board issued an “Emergency Order” having found health and sanitary code violations and declared that the Verizon cell tower is a public nuisance. They gave Verizon seven days to request a hearing and, if it did not, then it had to discontinue operation. Verizon then filed a lawsuit contending the Board is powerless and cannot protect Pittsfield residents from the tower’s toxic wireless emissions.

The Board has bravely tried to resolve the problem, but Verizon has refused to admit to the harms it is inflicting, or to engage in collaborative efforts to resolve these harms. Even worse, the Board and the residents are not just having to deal with Verizon. Others in the city have persistently tried to prevent the Board from providing meaningful relief. Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer, City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta and former Dir. of Community Development Deanna Ruffer have done all they could to frustrate the Board’s independent authority and duty to end the toxic wireless emissions, or at least mitigate them. The residents’ suit contends that these three officials have violated the state’s nepotism laws and the ethics standards for government employees and attorneys. The lawsuit extensively documents their specific actions and details the financial and legal conflicts of interest that are driving them.

Tyer, Pagnotta and Ruffer, in cooperation with Verizon, thwarted the Board’s efforts to secure outside counsel, thereby ensuring that the Board could not defend its Emergency Order. As a result, the Board was coerced into rescinding the Emergency Order on June 1, 2022. The residents’ lawsuit challenges the Board’s decision to rescind, but its principal focus is on Tyer, Pagnotta Ruffer. The complaint seeks a court declaration that their interference was improper, unlawful and tainted the entire process. If the Superior Court grants the requested relief, these individuals will have to stop their improper interference and the Board will be allowed the flexibility it needs to remediate the harms it has already found to exist.

“Pittsfield has previously taken on companies that were hurting its citizens,” said CHD president and general counsel Mary Holland. “The residents of the Shacktown neighborhood epitomize the reality that prosperity means nothing if your citizens are sick and even dying. The only difference here is that it is Verizon, not General Electric, and the toxin is wireless radiation not PCBs. When GE left Pittsfield, it created an economic vacuum but moving the tower to address the residents’ suffering, including three homeowners with cancer, does not create a hardship for anyone. Several commercial landowners in Pittsfield have offered their property for the tower. In this picturesque city in the Berkshires with 40% open space, Verizon can put their tower where it is not a potentially lethal nuisance.”

“The Board is trying to do the right thing, but they have been prevented from carrying out their duties because of cronyism and favoritism,” continued Holland. “We hope that this suit will stop the interference and free up the Board so it can finally force Verizon to the negotiating table as the Emergency Order intended prior to its forced rescission.”

'Thanks for Your Service NGHR:' No Charges for Norfolk Cops who Gave a Niggerization Lesson to a Gullible Black US Army Lieutenant by Assaulting and Threatening His Life During a Traffic Stop

From [HERE] A white police officer in Virginia should not be criminally charged but should be investigated for potential civil rights violations after he pepper-sprayed, struck and handcuffed a Black U.S. Army lieutenant during a 2020 traffic stop, a special prosecutor has determined.

The prosecutor's findings are the latest fallout from a confrontation involving two police officers and a uniformed military officer that drew outrage and national attention to the small town of Windsor, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Richmond.

The man who was pulled over, Caron Nazario, was not charged with committing any crimes. Video of the December 2020 traffic stop surfaced in April 2021 after Nazario sued in federal court, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated. The images sparked outrage and served as a grim reminder to many Black Americans that a military uniform doesn’t necessarily protect against mistreatment by police.

In December, then-Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring's office sued the town, alleging that it operated in a way that discriminated against Black Americans.

One of the officers, Joe Gutierrez, was fired from the department. He was the target of the special prosecutor's criminal probe.

“Although I find the video very disturbing and frankly unsettling, Gutierrez's use of force to remove Nazario did not violate state law as he had given multiple commands for Nazario to exit the vehicle,” special prosecutor Anton Bell said in his report, dated July 29 and posted online by Nazario's attorneys.

“The problematic issue, however, were Gutierrez's statements throughout the entire ordeal, which would lead a reasonable person to wonder whether underlying bias was at the root of how and why Nazario was treated in like manner,” Bell wrote.

Bell's findings were first reported Monday by The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

The incident began when Nazario was driving home from his duty station, according to his lawsuit. Officer Daniel Crocker radioed that he was attempting to stop a vehicle with no rear license plate and tinted windows.

Crocker said the driver was “eluding police” and he considered it a “high-risk traffic stop,” according to a report that's included in the lawsuit. One of Nazario's attorneys, Jonathan Arthur, later explained that Nazario was trying to stop in a well-lit area “for officer safety and out of respect for the officers.”

The other officer, Gutierrez, was driving by and decided to join the traffic stop, the lawsuit stated. By the time the two officers reached Nazario’s SUV, the license plate was visible in the rear.

When Nazario stopped at a well-lit gas station, the two officers immediately drew their guns and pointed them at Nazario, his lawsuit alleges. The officers then attempted to pull Nazario out of the vehicle while he continued to keep his hands in the air. Gutierrez pepper-sprayed Nazario multiple times as the officers yelled for him to get out.

At one point, Gutierrez told Nazario he was “fixin’ to ride the lightning,” a reference to the electric chair that was also a line from the movie “The Green Mile,” a film about a Black man facing execution, the lawsuit said.

Nazario got out and asked for a supervisor. Gutierrez responded with “knee-strikes” to his legs, knocking him to the ground, the lawsuit says. The two officers struck him multiple times, then handcuffed and interrogated him.

The traffic stop was captured on Nazario’s cellphone as well as the officer's body-worn cameras.

Tom Roberts, another attorney representing Nazario, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a judge or a jury, not a special prosecutor, should have determined whether Gutierrez violated the law.

“I think that there’s sufficient evidence to show that he was intentional in his actions,” Roberts said. “And I believe that he exceeded any authority to use force, and therefore he committed assault and battery.”

Roberts said that would have been a misdemeanor offense, for which the statute of limitations is one year, well before the special prosecutor released his findings.

“All too often, when it comes to law enforcement violating the laws, we see our Commonwealth’s Attorneys fail to apply the same zeal at prosecuting law enforcement as they do with other offenders,” Roberts' firm said in a statement.

Judge Orders NYPD to Release Documents Pertaining to Its Use of Facial Recognition to Surveil Black Lives Matter Protestors

From [HERE] The New York Police Department will soon have to release thousands of documents pertaining to its use of facial recognition to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, according to a legal ruling from the New York Supreme Court.

The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project last summer. Through Freedom of Information Law requests, the organizations had asked the NYPD to release over 30 million documents pertaining to biometric surveillance activities; the police agency rejected the requests as unreasonably burdensome.

Lawyers representing both sides have been negotiating since the lawsuit was filed, and brought down the total number of documents to 2,700. New York Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Love has now determined that this number does, in fact, represent a reasonable request, and has asked Amnesty International and STOP to formally re-file their Freedom of Information Law request to cover the smaller number of documents.

Police organizations’ use of facial recognition technology during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 in particular helped to link biometric technologies to police misconduct, complicating perceptions of facial recognition and how it should be used by the state.

For its part, the NYPD has not helped the reputation of biometric tech, thanks to its use of Clearview AI’s controversial face matching platform, and its deception of the public on that matter. Clearview notoriously trawls the internet, including social media accounts, to collect face images that police can use for biometric matching. The NYPD had claimed that only a select few of its officers had trialed the system, before leaked documents revealed much more extensive use of Clearview’s system by the police force.

Recent developments have further complicated the image of law enforcement’s use of facial recognition. In Russia, state authorities used the technology this year to identify pro-democracy activists when organizing mass arrests. In the United States, law enforcement agencies used facial recognition in their efforts to identify participants in the January 6 Capitol Riots.

Detroit Offers to Pay Black Lives Matter Protesters $1.3M for Violent Assaults by Police to Silence Speech

From [HERE] The city is moving to offer nearly $1.3 million to protesters in five pending lawsuits, the vast majority going to Detroit Will Breathe which has alleged Detroit officers used excessive force during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

The Detroit City Council in its last seven-hour session Tuesday before recessing through September, unanimously approved a package totaling $1,265,000.

In the proposed settlement, $1,035,000 would go to Detroit Will Breathe and 14 plaintiffs. Another $150,000 would go to Nadia Rohr, while $60,000 would be paid to Emma Howland-Bolton and four plaintiffs. Another $10,000 each would go to Marlon Frazier and Timothy Hall.

During the May 2020 protests in Detroit, one man was killed and dozens arrested as peaceful daytime protests in the city gave way to violence on a Friday night. Demonstrators displayed anger over police brutality in America, clashing with city police who fought back with tear gas. Over that summer, dozens were arrested during protests held at the sites where Detroiters had died at the hands of police-involved shootings.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Chuck Raimi told The Detroit News in a Tuesday statemen: "The overwhelming majority of Detroit Police Department officers conducted themselves with courage and honor during the George Floyd protests, despite innumerable violent attacks and other shameful conduct by protestors.”

He continued: “The City’s law department’s offers of judgment reflect the unfortunate reality that in our litigious society, and particularly in cases of this sort where plaintiffs’ lawyers (but not the City’s lawyers) have the opportunity to recover enormous attorney fees payable by the City, the City’s financial interests may be best served by seeking a settlement."

Detroit Will Breathe's offer lists 14 plaintiffs with various settlement amounts including  $45,000 each to leaders Tristan Taylor, Jazten Bass, Margaret Henige; $90,000 each to Nakia Wallace and Iman Saleh; $75,000 to Lauryn Brennan; $120,000 to Amy Nahabedian; $150,0000 to Caylee Arnold; and $250,000 to Alexander Anest.

The offers do not include attorney fees, but should the protesters accept the offers, their attorney fees would be liable by the city, according to an offer signed off on by Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett Jr.

Taylor, co-founder of Detroit Will Breathe, told The Detroit News they are discussing the issue with their attorneys and did not comment further.

Although White MA Cops Were Looking for 1 White Man, They had His Photo and He was Right In Front of Them, They Attacked a Black Man, Put a Knee on His Neck and Searched and Detained Him. Suit Filed

From [HERE] A suburban Boston police officer who was pursuing a white suspect pinned a 20-year-old Black man to the ground as he was walking home and placed a knee on the man's neck despite having no evidence that he was involved in any crime, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Donovan Johnson was minutes away from home after leaving work in February 2021 when a white officer who had been chasing the white suspect ran up to Johnson, drew his gun and threw him to the snow-covered ground face first, the lawsuit filed against the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, and three of its officers alleges.

The lawsuit says that the officer at one point pinned Johnson to the ground by placing a knee on Johnson's neck. The complaint says Johnson yelled “I can't breathe!”, but the officer “continued to pin Mr. Johnson to the ground with his knee,” while the white suspect police had been pursuing “was left unattended.”

The lawsuit filed in Boston federal court alleges that police violated Johnson's constitutional rights when they stopped him, searched him, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a cruiser before releasing him with no charges.

Johnson said in an interview that the incident took such an emotional toll on him that he struggled to manage his daily life to the point that he almost lost his job as a grants administrator for a hospital.

“I was wrongfully arrested and wrongfully searched just because of the fact that he thought I was the person that he was chasing down,” Johnson said.

Arlington Police Chief Julie Flaherty said in an email that police couldn't comment as neither police nor the town had yet been served the lawsuit.

Johnson's lawyers say an internal investigation found that the officers violated several department policies and procedures. One of Johnson's attorneys, Mirian Albert of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said they hope the case brings systematic changes to eradicate racial profiling practices in the department.

Police went to the room to investigate, but the man escaped and they began to chase him, according to the lawsuit. Johnson, who was almost to his Somerville home, saw the man jog past him before Conroy approached and yelled at both men to “get the (expletive) on the floor.”

The white suspect got on his knees, but Johnson stayed standing, the lawsuit says. After that, Johnson says Conroy drew his gun, threw him to the ground and pinned him down with a knee on his neck.

Another officer who arrived in a cruiser recognized the white man and put him in handcuffs, and the suspect told the officer he didn't know Johnson, according to the lawsuit. A third officer who arrived “immediately jumped on” Johnson to help Conroy hold him down, according to the complaint.

Lawyers for Johnson say the officers had no reason to believe Johnson was involved in any crime: Police had a photo of the white suspect they were looking for, Johnson and the other man both told officers they didn’t know each other and “nothing in the investigation indicated that there was more than one male suspect involved,” the lawsuit says.

The complaint says Johnson was released at the hotel after its staff told officers they had never seen him before. Police left him to find his own way home, the lawsuit says.

Quality of Black Citizenship Low in Liberal Chicago: Data Shows Cops Target Black Drivers, Search Their Cars and Conceal Data About It. So-Called 4th Amendment Right to Freedom Of Movement is Myth

From [HERE] West Sider Shelbert Ramsey never thought a simple traffic stop could leave him in a desperate legal fight to stay out of prison.

Ramsey, 37, was driving through West Garfield Park one afternoon last summer when he saw an old friend and pulled over briefly to say hello, he said. When he pulled away a few seconds later, he saw police lights flashing behind him.

“Their reason for pulling me over was for obstruction of traffic. There was no one behind me, no one around me. There was no traffic at all,” Ramsey said. “I feel they pulled me over illegally, and they were making up excuses [to search me].”

Ramsey said the officers asked him to get out of the car and searched the vehicle after claiming they had seen him buy heroin. But the arrest report makes no mention of an alleged drug buy and says no drugs were found.

Ramsey had a gun under his seat, which he said he carried for protection when he did overnight custodial work in a rough part of the West Side. He had a valid Firearm Owner Identification card that he had recently renewed, though his Concealed Carry License had been revoked without his knowledge when his FOID card had briefly lapsed during the pandemic, he said.

Officers found the lapsed concealed carry license when they ran Ramsey’s driver’s license and arrested him after they found the gun. He was jailed for three days and charged with unauthorized use of a weapon, a felony that carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Prosecutors eventually dropped the case against Ramsey. But he said it was traumatizing to be arrested and incarcerated after a traffic stop that he felt happened only because he is Black.

“It’s terrible … because you’ve got these people who can really play with your life, take you from your family, your job and throw you in jail for nothing. Then when you get out of jail, you don’t have anything. You’ve got a record, and you can’t get anything,” Ramsey said.

According to data the Chicago Police Department is required to report to state regulators, traffic stops like this are extremely rare. The Police Department reported in 2021 that officers searched drivers in only about 1 percent of all traffic stops, and found weapons in one-tenth of 1 percent of those stops.

But Ramsey’s traffic stop and gun arrest weren’t reported to the state — and neither were thousands of other traffic stops that ended in gun possession arrests since 2014, according to an analysis by Block Club Chicago and Injustice Watch.

CPD reported finding weapons in only 388 traffic stops in 2021, according to data reported to the state as part of the Illinois Traffic Stop Study. But our analysis of gun arrests that year found that more than 2,300 people were arrested on gun charges and also cited for a minor traffic violation during the same encounter, indicating that the arrest likely started with a traffic stop.

Chicago police officials did not respond to specific questions about the data discrepancies sent on multiple occasions over the past several months. A Police Department spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement that the “Chicago Police Department is continuously working to strengthen its data collection and analysis. By improving our data collection, we can identify patterns that can help inform training and department policy development.”

The data discrepancies are coming to light at a time when the total number of traffic stops Chicago police reported to the state has risen exponentially, from just 85,000 in 2015 to more than 600,000 in 2019, before dipping again to about 350,000 per year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Black drivers were pulled over at five times the rate of white drivers in 2021, according to the traffic stop study data.

But the underreported stops, searches and gun arrests suggest the impact of traffic stops is weighing even more heavily on Black drivers than the traffic stop study data suggest. About 85 percent of the adults arrested on gun possession charges and cited for a traffic violation in 2021 were Black.

Rickey Hendon, a former state senator who helped write the traffic stop study legislation, said the data discrepancies dangerously shroud the true racial disparities of the Chicago Police Department’s tactics.

“The purpose of [the study] was so we can see what was happening, and, if there’s a negative pattern that was unconstitutional, we could change it,” Hendon said. “How can regulators fix anything if they’re getting incorrect reports from the Chicago Police Department?”

Other police reform advocates warned the steep jump in traffic stops and the concurrent rise in traffic-stop-related gun arrests suggest Chicago police could be using pretextual traffic stops as a strategy to search people’s cars to crack down on guns, a practice with murky constitutional legitimacy that is obscured by the misrepresentations in the data of how officers are interacting with drivers, they said.

“What is clear is that some of these traffic stops are being used as nothing but a predicate to have contact with young men of color,” said Illinois ACLU spokesperson Ed Yohnka. 

Since 2015, the ACLU has closely followed the surge in traffic stops, which is widely thought to be an unintended result of a landmark ACLU settlement with the city that year that required more detailed reporting about pedestrian stops, which led to a decrease in those stops, also known as “stop-and-frisk.” But if officers are reporting only a small fraction of traffic stop arrests, it also means Chicago police leadership may be making strategic decisions based on wildly inaccurate data, Yohnka said. 

“If officers can seize guns in a traffic stop and then never report the traffic stop, the leadership has no way to form strategies to influence public safety because they have no idea what’s actually going on,” Yohnka said. The inaccurate data is “a missed opportunity of police management to see what’s going on the street and also a missed opportunity for the public to understand how they’re policed,” he said.

Traffic Stops And Gun Arrests Both Up Sharply

At the same time the number of traffic stops by Chicago police has spiked, so has the number of gun possession arrests. In 2014, Chicago police arrested about 2,500 adults on gun possession charges. By 2020, gun arrests had more than doubled to over 5,500, with the vast majority of those considered nonviolent gun cases by prosecutors since the gun was never fired.

An increasing proportion of those arrests stem from traffic stops, according to our analysis of gun possession arrests with an accompanying traffic citation. This analysis likely understates how many people are arrested on gun charges after a traffic stop, since many drivers, including Ramsey, are never cited for the alleged traffic violation that prompted the stop. The stops and arrests disproportionately occur on the South and West sides.

“In my perspective, doing this job, there is a very, very clear pattern of selective [traffic] enforcement,” said Margaret Armalas, an assistant Cook County public defender who recently co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing Chicago police for their gun arrest strategy. ​”These are traffic stops that are only being enforced in communities of color. Nobody is getting pulled over in Lincoln Park because they didn’t use a turn signal. This isn’t about safety.” [MORE]

Black Votary Sleeps as IsrAliens Try to [s]Elect its Leaders: In a Detroit Congressional Race AIPAC Put $4M Behind a Coin-Operated Negro Aspiring to be the Next BOHICAN Puppetician for Israel

ISRAEL’S BOY. THE WHITE LIBERALS AT NEWSWEEK STATE “Detroit May Not Elect a Black Person to Congress for First Time in 70 Years.” But what exactly makes Adam Hollier “Black” besides his chromosomes? Does Black politics have any substantive meaning anymore? Is it just ‘please police don’t kill us’ and whatever Dems say? To Democrats we know that “Blackness” simply means 1) Black skin and 2) not Republican, but what else? Newsweek didn’t bother to mention that Hollier’s campaign has been completely paid for by IsrAliens. It would seem then that if it came down to doing whats necessary for Black lives or IsrAliens’ in fascist Israel, he would choose his customers/pimp. FUNKTIONARY explains, “They call them token Negroes because they are coin-operated. If you put money in them they will dispense (‘espew’—espouse and spew) the view, vision, wishes, ideas, thoughtforms, ideology, hopes and dreams of the customer.”

From [HERE] and [HERE] State Rep. Shri Thanedar won the Democratic primary for the open seat representing most of Detroit, where the issue has been raised of what kind of minority candidate should represent the predominantly Black city.

In the 13th Congressional District, Thanedar was leading with 28%, followed by state Sen. Adam Hollier with 24% and Focus: HOPE CEO and attorney Portia Roberson with 17%, with 99% of votes counted. The Associated Press called the race shortly before 11 a.m.

John Conyers III, son of the late U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., followed with 8.6% and former state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo with 8.2%.

In the 13th district, where a redrawing of district lines has created an open race between several Democrats, AIPAC’s new political arm, The United Democracy Project, has surprised many observers by spending more than $4 million to support a relatively unknown state senator named Adam Hollier.

Hollier, 36, an army veteran who was elected to the state senate in 2018, was more surprised than anyone to find out that AIPAC’s recently created SuperPAC was putting millions into television ads to support him. In an interview with Haaretz this week, he said he was “super grateful” for the massive spending, despite being totally blindsided about it.

Hollier’s main rival in the primary is Shri Thanedar, a member of the Michigan House of Representatives and a successful businessman who has donated his own campaign millions of dollars in recent months. That money could have been enough to make him the favorite in the race, until UDP started spending heavily to support Hollier. “I’ve never seen in Detroit a congressional race having this kind of outside money,” Jonathan Kinloch, chair of the district’s Democratic Party, told The Detroit News.

Hollier told Haaretz how he found out that the pro-Israeli organization was supporting him: “I woke up one day and my TV-buy people were like ‘… hey,’" he recalls. “There was never an announcement from UDP — they just started spending money. You don’t know if it’s going to be for a few weeks or how much money they’ll spend or what they’re going to say. I went home and immediately started DVR’ing the news because I knew this was going to be impactful,” Hollier says.

Nearly $2.8 million of the UDP spending has been in support of Hollier, while more than $1.4 million has funded anti-Thanedar attack ads.

"Adam Hollier is an Army veteran who has a deep understanding of security issues in the Middle East and will be a pro-Israel member of Congress. Shri Thanedar sponsored some horrific anti-Israel legislation in the state legislature. The contrast is clear," UDP spokesperson Patrick Dorton says.

AIPAC’s interest in defeating Thanadar is based off his May 2021 co-sponsored resolution in the Michigan house describing Israel as an “apartheid state” that committed “countless human rights violations,” and calling to halt U.S. military aid to Israel – positions that are similar to those of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is running in the nearby 12th Congressional district.

Thanedar, an Indian immigrant and successful entrepreneur, removed his co-sponsorship after announcing his candidacy and has since adopted more moderate positions on Israel. Thanedar unsuccessfully attempted to run for governor in 2018 after contributing $10.6 million of his own money to his campaign.

“Pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and UDP are supporting me because they don’t want to see my opponent win. It’s hard to manage this moment where the self-funder moves into the district and complains about outside money, while all his money is outside money,” Hollier says. “I’m working to do everything I can to compete in the district where I was raised. For folks to paint it like these outside entities are parachuting in is crazy to me,” he adds.

“I’ve raised more under $50, $100, $250 than anyone in this race. I’ve raised more in Michigan and in district. I just also happen to be the beneficiary of more extra support — but not more than Shri Thanedar,” he explains.

Despite UDP’s unexpected mass investment in his campaign, Hollier’s engagement with the pro-Israel community didn’t happen overnight.

“The Jewish community is very intertwined in the work I do in my community, it’s not like there was a moment I decided to flip a switch,” he says. Prominent pro-Israel in donors further consolidated behind Hollier once the Legacy Committee for Unified Leadership rallied around him as the consensus Black candidate.

Hollier also defends UDP from criticism that it is using Republican donations to sway the outcome of Democratic primaries. “Critics don’t call AIPAC or UDP a pro-Israel group, they call it a Republican group, but Republican groups don’t support Nancy Pelosi or Jim Clyburn or majority Congressional Black Caucus members,” he says.

Hollier is also aware of the criticism that much of UDP’s donations come from Republican megadonors such as Paul Singer and Bernard Marcus, as well as Ed Levy Jr. — perhaps the most impactful Republican donor in Michigan who donated $250,000.

“Ed Levy is a Republican donor, but all the money he spent in UDP goes to Democratic candidates — he doesn't get to say where they're going to spend it,” Hollier says. “That’s a guy who cares about pro-Israel candidates getting elected to Congress and understands it's important to have them on both sides of the aisle.” [MORE]

CHD Survey Finds that After Getting a COVID Shot 15% of US Adults Have Been Diagnosed with a New Health Condition - 21% of Blacks and 32% of Latinos

From [CHD] More than two years after Operation Warp Speed began, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) commissioned John Zogby Strategies to conduct two surveys (see here and here) about attitudes and the overall health of American adults.

Key highlights from the survey of 1,038 adults

The survey found that 67% of respondents received one or more COVID-19 vaccines, while 33% are unvaccinated. Furthermore, among those vaccinated, 6% received one dose, 28% received two doses, 21% received three doses, and 12% took four or more.

Of those receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, 15% say they’ve been diagnosed by a medical practitioner with a new condition within a matter of weeks to several months after taking the vaccine.

“The fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports more than 232 million Americans ages 18-65 have taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 15% of those surveyed report a newly diagnosed condition is concerning and needs further study,” said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) executive director Laura Bono. “The mRNA vaccine technology is new and clinical trials naturally have no long-term data. CHD believes this survey points to the need for further study.”

Other key demographics of newly diagnosed medical conditions after COVID-19 vaccines show:

• 17% of those receiving two doses

• 13% of respondents had three shots

• 30% of those ages 18-29

• 23% of those ages 30-49

• 6% of those ages 50-64

• 4% of those older than 65

• 7% of whites

• 21% of African-Americans

• 32% of Hispanics

• 15% of liberals

• 14% of moderates

• 8% of conservatives

A follow-up question provided a list of medical conditions and asked diagnosed respondents to “select all that apply.” Among those who were medically diagnosed with a new condition within a matter of weeks to several months, the top five cited conditions were:

• 21% blood clots

• 19% heart attack

• 18% liver damage

• 17% leg clots/lung clots

• 15% stroke

Overall, 67% reported that getting the vaccine was a good decision, 24% were neutral and 10% regret it.

Survey participants were then asked if someone they personally know had been medically diagnosed with a new medical condition within the same time frame. Overall, 26% reported yes, while 63% reported no.

Looking at age cohorts:

• 34% of those ages 18-29 say they know someone who was diagnosed, as did

• 30% of those ages 30-49,

• 21% of those ages 50-64,

• and 18% of those older than 65

Again, respondents were offered the same list of conditions and asked to “select all that apply.” The top five cited conditions were:****

• 28 % blood clots

• 20% stroke

• 19% autoimmune

• 16% lung clots

• 15% heart attack

Key highlights from the survey of 829 adults ages 18-49

Among those under age 50 – 62% report receiving a COVID-19 vaccine vs. 38% who have had none.

Among those receiving any COVID-19 vaccine, almost one quarter — 22% — report being medically diagnosed within a matter of weeks to several months after taking a shot.

The top five cited new conditions include:

• 21% autoimmune

• 20% blood clots

• 19% stroke/lung clots

• 17% liver damage/leg clots/heart attack

• 15% disrupted menstrual cycle/Guillain-Barré/Bell’s palsy

Regarding describing the conditions, 47% report mild, 43% report serious and 10% report severe/still recovering.

Describing their experience with taking one or more COVID-19 vaccines, 58% report it was a good decision, 28% are neutral and 14% regret it.

Finally, 30% of those ages 18-49 report knowing someone else who has been medically diagnosed within a matter of weeks to several months after taking a COVID-19 vaccine.

The top five cited medically diagnosed conditions of the person known by those under age 50 are:

• 30% blood clots

• 23% stroke

• 20% autoimmune

• 18% leg clots/lung clots

• 17% heart attack

In other findings:

Regarding trust in the government to handle future pandemics among the all-adults survey — 23% say it has increased, 34% say it has decreased, 32% say it has remained the same, the rest were unsure.

The surveys included 1,038 American adults of all ages (MOE +/- 3.1) and 829 18-49-year-olds (MOE +/- 3.5) Both polls were fielded July 22-24, and data sets were pre-stratified and weighted to be representative of their respective populations. Error margins are higher for subgroups.

For questions, wording and full results, see ALL ADULTS and 18-49.

Reckless Indifference to Life by Govt: Video Shows the Moments After Brianna Grier Fell Out of Moving Cop Car. GA Cops Push and Pull On Black Womans Lifeless, Handcuffed Body. Reason for Arrest Secret

From [HERE] Newly released police body camera footage raised questions about the death of a young Georgia mother who fell out of a moving police car after a back door wasn't closed, and her family demanded answers.

Brianna Grier, 28, fell out of the patrol car July 15. She was pronounced dead about a week later at an Atlanta hospital, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 

Grier, a Black woman, was arrested after the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home in Sparta, Georgia, a city about 70 miles east of Atlanta. The GBI did not say why deputies were called to the home or why Grier was arrested.

Grier was in a coma for six days before she died, civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Friday at a news conference. 

Crump, who represents her family, questioned why Grier was arrested, saying the incident was "not a criminal matter but a mental health issue." He said Grier had a history of mental health crises and her family had called police several times regarding mental health concerns. Grier's mother said her daughter was having a crisis before the incident last month, Crump said.

"Just because you're Black and having a mental health crisis does not mean that should equate to a death sentence," Crump said.

Grier's father, Marvin, demanded justice for his daughter alongside other family members Friday.

"We ain't here trying to start no problem," he said with tears in his eyes, "but we're going to start a problem because we want to know what happened. ... That was my child."

Investigators conclude patrol car door wasn't closed

After reviewing body camera footage and conducting interviews, GBI investigators concluded that the patrol car's rear passenger-side door, where Grier was sitting, wasn't closed, according to a statement released Saturday. Agents found that Grier was handcuffed and placed in the car with no seatbelt.

Automotive experts helped determine whether there were mechanical malfunctions with the door, the GBI said.

Authorities release body camera footage

Body camera footage shows Grier repeatedly telling police officers that she was not drunk and asking deputies to give her a breathalyzer test.

Officers placed Grier in handcuffs and attempted to put her in a squad car. The video shows Grier crying on the ground, asking officers to "get off me."

The GBI said Grier refused to get in the patrol car. According to the agency, she said she was going to harm herself.

The footage shows a deputy taking out his taser as Grier yelled, "You can tase me. I don't care." The deputy told Grier he was not going to tase her before he put it away and walked out of view.

Another deputy lifted Grier off the ground and put her in the back seat of the patrol car.

The body camera footage does not show officers opening or closing the rear passenger-side door. The GBI said the deputy thought he had closed the door.

Grier's family demands justice

Grier's family chanted, "Justice for Brianna Grier" Friday at the news conference. They remembered the mother of 3-year-old twin daughters as a loving, caring person.

"We loved her regardless, unconditionally," Marvin Grier said. "Now we (have) to raise these kids and tell them a story, and I'm not planning on telling no lie(s). I want to tell them the truth."

Crump said Grier's daughters have asked every day where their mother is.

"Shame on us if we don't get answers for those babies," Crump said.

"Yet again we have another African American citizen killed in just an unbelievable way while in the custody of the police," he said.

Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, called on local and state authorities to address Georgia's "police accountability and police brutality problem."

"To the Hancock County sheriff, it’s time to be transparent," he said. "It’s time to be accountable. To the GBI, it’s time for y’all to meet with this family. To the governor, it’s time for you to recognize, again, that Georgia has a police accountability problem."

Despite Strong Evidence of Innocence, Racist Suspect Judges and Authorities 'Pass the Buck' Keeping Toforest Johnson on Alabama's Death Row

From [DPIC] The innocence case of Alabama death-row prisoner Toforest Johnson (pictured, center) has drawn substantial support from former judges, jurors, prosecutors, and state bar presidents, but disinterest by current Alabama officials has left Johnson languishing on death row. So argues journalist Radley Balko in his Washington Post column on July 28, 2022.

Balko’s column revisits Johnson’s case and details the evidence that strongly points towards his innocence. Advocating for a new trial, Balko argues that Johnson remains on death row because the responsible parties who could do justice in his case have instead abdicated their responsibility. “[T]he courts pass the buck to the politicians,” Balko writes, ”while politicians … claim that if prisoners like Johnson were really innocent, the courts would have freed them.”

Balko first wrote about Johnson’s possible innocence in 2019, and since that time, judges, prosecutors, and state bar presidents, including the former lead prosecutor on his case, have taken up his cause. Three of the jurors who voted to convict and condemn Johnson have urged the state to grant him a new trial. In his July 2022 article, Balko notes that Alabama officials who can help Johnson, like Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, have shown no interest in doing so.

In May 2022, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denied Johnson’s post-conviction petition, which alleged that prosecutors violated his constitutional rights. Based on this decision, Attorney General Marshall asserted that “[m]uch of the narrative that we see those that are advocating on behalf of this defendant were disproven in court.” Balko exposed this statement as false, explaining that the court’s decision did not decide the facts of Johnson’s innocence claim but addressed only one “narrow question” relating to whether the state’s failure to turn over evidence that a prosecution witness had been paid reward money for her testimony against Johnson violated his constitutional rights.

Balko argues that strict court post-conviction standards are premised on the idea that most post-conviction claims of miscarriage of justice “are better handled by the political process — by appealing to attorneys general to drop charges, or to governors to grant clemency.” However, state officials can act as they have in Johnson’s case, using court decisions as “cover to brush aside the very real possibility that the state is preparing to execute an innocent man.”

Johnson was sentenced to death in 1998 in Jefferson County, Alabama for the murder of off-duty Sheriff’s deputy William Hardy, despite there being no physical evidence pointing to Johnson. Ten alibi witnesses placed Johnson at a night club on the other side of Birmingham at the time of the murder. Johnson was appointed an attorney who expressed reservations about taking on a capital case. The attorney had limited funds and could only afford to hire an unlicensed investigator, who Johnson’s current attorneys say was an “alcoholic, racist, suicidal” man who had been recently fired from a capital case due to incompetence.

Further, Johnson’s conviction rested on the testimony of a single witness, Violet Ellison, who claimed to have overheard a man who identified himself as “Toforest” confess to the crime, while she eavesdropped on a three-way prison phone call. Ellison, who was a friend of Hardy’s, had never met Johnson and had never heard his voice before. She came forward to police the day after the state announced a $10,000 reward for information in the case. Records revealed that she was later paid $5,000 in reward money for her testimony. Johnson’s post-conviction attorneys argued that this violated Johnson’s constitutional rights because prosecutors withheld information about the reward payment from the defense. However, in May 2022, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denied Johnson a new trial based on the trial court’s findings that no constitutional violation occurred because the payment was made after trial and the witness did not expect to be rewarded for her testimony. The court did not address the substance of Johnson’s claim of innocence.

Johnson’s pursuit of a new trial has garnered broad support. In a March 2021 Washington Post op-ed, former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley wrote, “[a]s a lifelong defender of the death penalty, I do not lightly say what follows: An innocent man is trapped on Alabama’s death row. … Johnson’s murder trial was so deeply flawed, the evidence presented against him so thin, that no Alabamian should tolerate his incarceration, let alone his execution.” Current Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr also supported Johnson’s request for a new trial. One of the jurors in Johnson’s trial, Monique Hicks said: “When you look back at all the stuff the jury did not know, I feel like we were used like pawns in a chess game, not even knowing we were being used. It is very disturbing to read all this now.” Juror Jay Crane said, “This is supposed to be an honest system. It’s supposed to work, and they (prosecutors) misled us. I am very disappointed. And I feel sad for the victim’s family because they haven’t gotten any justice. They don’t have the right person in prison.”

California City Paying $1.5M to Fired Police Chief After Verdict

From [HERE] The Oakland City Council approved a $1.5 million payout for a former police chief who won her whistleblower claim against the city after she alleged she was fired for calling out unethical behavior by the civilian commission that oversees the police department.

The payout to Anne Kirkpatrick includes roughly $337,000 a federal jury awarded her, which is equivalent to a year’s salary and the severance she was entitled to as part of her employment contract. The remainder consists of legal costs, said Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker in a memo prepared for the council.

Kirkpatrick had sought more than $3 million in damages in her lawsuit. She said that members of the civilian oversight commission wanted special treatment, abused police staff and meddled in daily operations.

“I hope that the agreement in my favor is a signal to all who are witnesses to misconduct, especially those in law enforcement: do not stay silent,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “Our system depends on people who will do the right thing, even when it is the hard thing.”

Kirkpatrick was hired in 2017, the first woman to lead the police department for the city of 400,000. At the time, the department was reeling from a sex exploitation scandal involving a young woman.

But her relationship with the civilian oversight commission soured and in 2020, the commission and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf voted to terminate her employment without cause. At the time, they said Kirkpatrick was keeping information from the oversight commission and failing to meet federally mandated court reforms.

The city does not admit to any wrongdoing and denies her allegations, according to the memo.

The vote was unanimous although several council members voiced their displeasure.

“It’s just a waste of money,” said Dan Kalb, a councilmember.

Fed Ct Says Walgreens is Immune from Liability Under the Prep Act: Woman Fell in the Parking Lot after Getting COVID Shot. All who Administer Shots are Immune Unless there was Willful Misconduct

From [HERE] Walgreen Co. is immune from a customer’s suit seeking damages for injuries she suffered in a fall after receiving her Covid-19 vaccine, a federal court in New Mexico said.

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act provides an exclusive, administrative remedy for “any claim for loss that has a causal relationship with the administration to or use by an individual of a covered countermeasure” such as a vaccine, the US District Court for the District of New Mexico said.

Suzanne Storment’s injuries directly related to Walgreens’ administration of the vaccine, and therefore weren’t actionable, the court said.

Storment received her first Covid-19 vaccination at a Walgreens store in Albuquerque in February 2021. There were no chairs to sit on while waiting to see if there were any untoward effects, so Storment went out to the parking lot to sit in her car.

Once in the parking lot, Storment felt dizzy and fell to the pavement, fracturing her elbow in multiple places. She sued Walgreens for damages.

Congress, in the PREP Act, “plainly provided immunity under both federal and state law with respect to all claims for loss” arising from the administration of the vaccine, the court said.

The PREP Act's cause of action permits suits only for “willful misconduct.” 42 U.S.C. § 247d-6d(d)(1). The Act defines “willful misconduct” as “an act or omission that is taken-(i) intentionally to achieve a wrongful purpose; (ii) knowingly without legal or factual justification; and (iii) in disregard of a known or obvious risk that is so great as to make it highly probable that the harm will outweigh the benefit.” Id. § 247d-6d(c)(1)(A). The Act further specifies that willful misconduct “shall be construed as establishing a standard for liability that is more stringent than a standard of negligence in any form or recklessness.” Id. § 247d-6d(c)(1)(B).

Storment’s injury “is unfortunate and certainly deserving of a remedy,” the court said. But it can’t be divorced from the administration of the vaccine. The PREP Act therefore applies and provides Walgreens with immunity, Judge Margaret I. Strickland said in Wednesday’s opinion.

Branch Law Firm represents Storment. Modrall Sperling represents Walgreens.

The case is Storment v. Walgreen Co., 2022 BL 261083, D.N.M., No. 1:21-cv-898, 7/27/22.