Louisville to Pay $2M to Settle Claims w/Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend. White Cops Used Falsified Warrant to Break in House and Shoot Sleeping Black Woman to Death, Disregarded His Rights in the Process

From [HERE] The city of Louisville will pay $2m to settle two lawsuits filed by the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police during a no-knock raid at her apartment two years ago, the Washington Post reported.

Kenneth Walker filed the lawsuits against the Kentucky city in state and federal court, claiming plainclothes officers violated his rights when they burst into Taylor’s apartment while the couple was asleep and killed her on 13 March 2020, during the botched raid.

Taylor’s death “will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life”, Walker’s attorney, Steve Romines, said in a statement to the Post. “He will live with the effects of being put in harm’s way due to a falsified warrant, to being a victim of a hailstorm of gunfire and to suffering the unimaginable and horrific death of Breonna Taylor.”

Neither Romines nor an attorney for the city of Louisville were immediately available for comment.

Walker fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three officers responded with 32 shots, none of which hit Walker. Six struck Taylor, killing her. Walker was arrested and charged with attempted murder but charges were dropped.

Taylor’s killing also shone a spotlight on no-knock raids, a controversial police tactic that can be dangerous for police and civilians.

In August, US prosecutors charged four former Louisville police officers for their roles in the raid. The federal charges came five months after a Kentucky jury acquitted former detective Brett Hankison of wanton endangerment. Hankison’s stray bullets during the raid hit a neighboring apartment.

An NYU School of Law Study Provides More Evidence State Farm Discriminates Against Blacks. Lawsuit Filed Against the Nation’s Largest Home Insurer

From [HERE] and [HERE] Black home insurance policyholders brought a federal class action against State Farm on Wednesday morning, alleging the multibillion-dollar company subjects their claims to greater scrutiny than it does those of white clients.

More specifically, the suit accuses State Farm of violating the 1968 Fair Housing Act by forcing Black policyholders to wait longer than their white counterparts for their claims to be approved. 

It further alleges, using data drawn from 800 white and Black homeowners across the Midwest, that Black customers were 39% more likely than white customers to be asked to submit additional paperwork after filing a claim, and 20% more likely to need more than three meetings with State Farm employees in order to settle one. The additional hurdles Black customers have to clear in turn causes them to wait longer for necessary home repairs. 

"Thirty-nine percent of white State Farm policyholder respondents had their claim paid out in one month or less from time of submission; by contrast, only 30% of Black homeowner respondents were paid out at the same rate," the suit claims. 

Several hours after the complaint was filed, a State Farm representative released this statement: 

"We take this filing seriously. This suit does not reflect the values we hold at State Farm. State Farm is committed to a diverse and inclusive environment, where all customers and associates are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity. We are dedicated to paying what we owe, promptly and courteously."

But attorney Aisha Rich of the law firm Fairmark Partners, who helped author the complaint, countered in her own prepared statement that “The data behind this lawsuit indicate that Black homeowners are subject to a fundamentally different and worse claims process at State Farm." 

"State Farm should be a ‘good neighbor’ to all its policyholders, regardless of their race,” Rich said. 

Other attorneys representing the putative class include a team from the Center on Race, Inequality and the Law at New York University School of Law, as well as the law firm Mehri & Skalet.

The class representative in the case, an Illinois woman named Jacqueline Huskey, is one of the many Black customers allegedly affected by State Farm's institutional bias. She filed a claim in June 2021 after a hail storm damaged her roof, but said it took the company two months to send adjusters to inspect the damages and four months for it to approve her claim for the cost of internal repairs. The insurer has still not approved her claim for external damages to the roof itself.

"As a result of State Farm’s delay, Huskey experienced further damage to her home—water damage to her kitchen and to two bathrooms caused by leaks in the unrepaired roof—and a decrease to her home’s overall value," the complaint states.

The cause of this alleged discriminatory practice is State Farm's automated claims processing system. Unlike the racism of yesteryear, when would-be Black homeowners faced explicit redlining by living human beings, modern discrimination can be carried out by computers using racially inflected data sets. 

"In the insurance industry, as elsewhere in our society, racial discrimination has shifted from overt to covert," the lawsuit states. "Even though race-based redlining is now illegal, discrimination has persisted through practices such as using credit-based insurance scores and discriminatory underwriting guidelines that use age and home value as a proxy for race."

Automated processing systems are useful to large insurance corporations like State Farm because they both reduce labor costs and streamline customer intake. They also prevent any one employee's biases from affecting how a customer is treated by the company. But given that race, class and wealth are conflated in the U.S., the suit alleges that even the supposedly race-neutral economic factors an algorithm considers while evaluating the legitimacy of a claim can reinforce racial disparity. 

"Unfortunately, algorithms too often have discriminatory effects, even where demographic data, such as race, are not included as inputs," the complaint states. "This is because algorithms can 'learn' to use omitted demographic features by combining other inputs that are correlated with race (or another protected classification), like zip code, college attended, and membership in certain groups." (Parentheses in original.)

The inherent bias of algorithmic systems has been noted beyond the insurance sector – their use is also criticized in policing, credit reporting and university admissions. The suit cites a 2021 Brookings Institute study which found that AIs trained on internet data often have "negative associations for the concept of an African American social group" due to the racist depiction of Black names online, and a 2020 article in the MIT Technology Review that argued that predictive policing algorithms ought to be abolished. 

State Farm itself has acknowledged that racial bias can extend into the AI learning process, given that the company's automobile division filed a software patent in 2022 for a "method of controlling for undesired factors in machine learning models."

"The model is trained to probabilistically correlate an aspect of the applicant's appearance with a personal and / or health -related characteristic. Any undesired factors, such as age, sex, ethnicity and / or race, are identified for exclusion," the patent's abstract states, but there is no indication that this model has been applied to processing homeowners insurance claims.

Given the alleged breach of Black homeowners' civil rights, the suit asks a federal judge to enjoin State Farm from using its current automated claims processing system. It also calls for audits on the company to ensure an end to the discriminatory effects of that system. 

"State Farm could examine the algorithmic bias that inflicts enormous harm on Black policyholders, but its failure to do so necessitates this litigation,” said attorney Alexander Rose of Fairmark Partners.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is Helping to Fund the Salaries of Dozens of Blight House Authorities

From [HERE] Eric Schmidt, a former Google CEO who has also advised the United States (US) Congress and the White House, has helped to pay the salaries of more than 24 Biden administration officials via donations from his research and investment firm, Schmidt Futures, to the nonprofit research and advocacy organization, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Schmidt Futures and other organizations help to pay the salaries of these officials by providing funding to a “Talent Hub” which is part of a FAS “Day One Project.” This Day One Project runs a FAS “Impact Fellowship” program that places “Impact Fellows” in influential government posts.

Not only has Schmidt Futures contributed to FAS but Schmidt has considerable ties to top FAS leadership and one of the Impact Fellows who was placed in a federal government role was also listed as an adviser to Schmidt Futures.

Additionally, some of the Impact Fellows are placed in federal departments to focus on areas such as clean energy and artificial intelligence (AI) — fields that Schmidt and the ventures he supports have significant investments in.

For example, FAS’s 2021 Annual Report states that some Impact Fellows were “deployed at or being recruited to enter” the Department of Energy “to support the Undersecretary for Science’s office in driving critical market-based efforts to spur a clean energy revolution” and US Citizenship and Immigration Services “to focus on the intersection of immigration policy & artificial intelligence in advancing the nation’s national security and economic growth.”

Schmidt and the ventures he supports have investments in the clean energy companies WattBuy (an energy marketplace) and Amprius (a high-energy battery company) and the AI company Rebellion Defense(which builds mission-focused AI for national defense and security).

And some of these Schmidt-backed companies have ties to the federal government departments where Impact Fellows have been placed. For example, WattBuy has partnered with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Amprius has received a funding grant from the Department of Energy.

The Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog organization, reported that Schmidt is “a primary benefactor” of this FAS initiative “that has placed at least 24 fellows in influential government posts, many of which align with Eric Schmidt’s private financial interests.”

According to TTP, two of the fellows placed in the federal government “explicitly identify themselves as Schmidt fellows.”

One Impact Fellow at the Department of Education, John Whitmer, is listed as a “Schmidt Impact Fellow” and an adviser to Schmidt Futures in his speaker bio at the annual Arizona State University and Global Silicon Valley summit.

Another Impact Fellow, Jonathan Lipman, was listed as being deployed to the General Services Administration on March 23 but this listing was removed by March 29. At the same time, Lipman was also working as an Associated Product Manager at Schmidt Futures.

Not only do some of the fellows have ties to Schmidt but Gilman Louie, the Chair of FAS and a member of President Joe Biden’s “Intelligence Advisory Board,” has multiple ties to Schmidt. He was a commissioner at the Schmidt-led National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) and a consultant on the Schmidt-led Defense Innovation Board. Louie is also the current CEO of the Schmidt-supported America’s Frontier Fund.

Additionally, several Schmidt Futures’ executives have ties to the FAS Day One Project. The Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures, Tom Kalil, and a former Senior Director at Schmidt Futures, Kumar Garg, both spoke at the Day One Project launch event. The Day One Project website also has a section that highlights posts from Kalil and contains a policy paper that was written by Schmidt Futures employees or fellows and cross-posted to a Schmidt Futures-affiliated website.

Furthermore, Kalil worked as an unpaid consultant in the White House science office for four months in 2021 while also working at Schmidt Futures. He left the White House consultancy role after ethics complaints. [MORE]

'Fact-Checking' Giant Funnels Money from Soros, Google, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Global Propaganda Outlets

From [HERE] A report last week by Media Research Center (MRC) revealed that social demolitionist billionaire George Soros has been funding 253 groups that influence global media. 

One of those groups is The Poynter Institute, the world’s largest fact-checking giant and owner of PolitiFact. Between 2016 and 2020, The Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) received $492,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Poynter is also funded by such notable organizations as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, Ebay´s Omidyar Foundation, and others. 

Global tech giants are also counted among Poynter’s main funders. Google and subsidiary YouTube announced this month a $13.2 million fund for “fact-checking” initiatives until 2025, which will be headed by the IFCN. Poynter said in a statement that the projects will “reduce misinformation.”  

Poynter, which owns the Tampa Bay Times and other local media brands, also maintains close relationships with mainstream media outlets, coaching and training journalists and corporate media executives on certain narratives. 

The Washington Post, for example, another of Poynter’s benefactors, hires Poynter to “develop their leaders through senior-level workshops.” Aside from The Washington Post, Poynter is also hired by NBC News, Newsweek and NPR, among other media organizations. Poynter’s Senior Vice President Kelly McBride also serves as NPR’s public editor. 

Poynter’s IFCN reportedly works with 100 fact-checking organizations across the globe. Some of this work includes spreading pro-COVID-19 vaccine propaganda. According to its 2021 tax returns, Poynter spent over $300,000 in “vaccine grant programs” which aim “to support projects focused on increasing the distribution speed and capacity of fact checks to tackle COVID-19 and vaccine-related mis/disinformation.” 

But Poynter’s PolitiFact is itself a known peddler of misinformation. In 2018, for example, PolitiFact fact-checked a claim by President Trump that Twitter was shadowbanning Republicans. Shadowbanning is when a social media platform quietly limits the reach of a post without notifying the poster. PolitiFact made a desperate attempt to cover for Twitter, saying the algorithm had a “glitch,” which was quickly fixed. [MORE]

Cops Use Black Criminality to Propagandize the Myth of White Superiority on Fakebook: Stanford Study Finds that Posts Made by Police Departments Overrepresent Black Suspects by 25%

From [HERE] Posts made on Facebook about crime by police departments overrepresent Black suspects by 25% compared to local arrest rates, according to a new study from Stanford Law School professor Julian Nyarko and his co-authors Ben Grunwald from Duke Law School and John Rappaport from University of Chicago. 

The researchers found that this overrepresentation of Black suspects increased with the proportion of Republican voters and non-Black residents in the region where the posts were made.

The study, which was published in November in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” looked at 14,000 police departments in the United States and around 100,000 Facebook posts. The researchers used several algorithms to identify posts that have both race and crime descriptions. They then used AI language models to identify posts regarding crime and further used algorithms to determine which posts included descriptions of the suspect’s race.

“We already knew of studies that looked at if the media reports on crime, if the representation of Black suspects is in line with what happens on the ground, and the results of the empirical studies are conflicting,” Nyarko said. “But now that we have this channel of communication where there is no media outlet but rather the police communicating with the general public, we can basically look nationwide.”

Their study compared Facebook posts from police departments across the country with arrest and incident statistics from the FBI. However, the goal of the study was not to analyze the motivations behind the police posts, but rather to understand the justification behind including race descriptions in crime-related posts to begin with.

“We’re looking at the impact that reporting practices have, so we’re basically saying, irrespective of how you choose the posts — ‘you’ being the police department — the consequence of what you’re doing is the stigmatization,” Nyarko said. “So huge costs to minorities, specifically Black minorities.”

With more and more people relying on Facebook and other social media platforms for news, the study has major ramifications, Nyarko added. “When people consume social media, they should be aware of the biases,” Nyarko said. 

Along with increasing a negative racial bias, this study found that these posts can also impact policy making. Grunwald, a co-author on the study, said that when people are exposed to stories about crime that are racially coded, it can influence their support for different kinds of criminal justice policies.

“One thing that is worrying is that when police departments are, as we find, over-exposing people to post about Black suspects, that can activate racial stereotypes, and in turn, it can make them less supportive of progressive criminal justice policies that would make the criminal justice system function better and be more fair,” Grunwald said. [MORE]

Wells Fargo to Pay Record $1.7 Billion CFPB Fine to Settle Allegations it Harmed Over 16 Million People with Deposit Accounts, Auto Loans and Mortgages

From [HERE] Wells Fargo WFC 0.74%increase; green up pointing triangle & Co. reached a $3.7 billion deal with regulators to resolve allegations that it harmed more than 16 million people with deposit accounts, auto loans and mortgages.

The settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes a $1.7 billion penalty, the agency’s largest-ever fine, and more than $2 billion in consumer restitution, the regulator said Tuesday.

The consumer watchdog agency said the bank illegally assessed fees and interest charges on loans for cars and homes. Some consumers had their vehicles illegally repossessed while others had overdraft fees unlawfully applied, the agency said.

Wells Fargo’s regulatory troubles continue to ripple through the bank more than six years after its fake account scandal burst into public view. At the time, regulators alleged that Wells Fargo executives focused so heavily on meeting lofty sales goals that they pressured low-level employees to open unauthorized accounts. Other problems later surfaced across the San Francisco-based bank, including in its lending and deposit-taking businesses.

The CFPB settlement resolves a major penalty hanging over Wells Fargo but leaves it handcuffed by other regulators. The Federal Reserve has had a cap on the bank’s asset growth in place for nearly five years. Politicians continue to target the bank, and investors have filed a series of class-action lawsuits.

“Wells Fargo is a corporate recidivist,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, on a call with reporters Tuesday. He said the settlement “should not be read as a sign that Wells Fargo has moved past its longstanding problems.”

The bank had been negotiating with the CFPB for months in an effort to lump as many outstanding issues into the settlement as possible, according to people familiar with the matter. [MORE]

Monsanto to Pay Oregon $698 Million for Polluting its Rivers, Lakes and Forests for the Last 90 Years

From [HERE] Chemical manufacturer Monsanto agreed to dole out $698 million over toxic chemicals that Oregon says has polluted its rivers, lakes and forests for the last 90 years.

Owned by Germany-based chemical giant Bayer AG, Monsanto is best known for its herbicide Roundup, which has seen its own share of lawsuits over its possible link to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Thursday's settlement in Oregon, however, involves the company’s accused role in manufacturing, selling and distributing polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. 

PCBs are a colorless to light yellow crystalline compound once used in coolants, hydraulic oils and electrical equipment such as fluorescent lighting, capacitors and transformers. The compound was used in several other types of products before 1979, when it was banned in the United States due to its potential carcinogenicity. Monsanto ceased production of PCBs voluntarily in 1977.

“This is a huge win for our state,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in a statement early Thursday. “PCBs are still present throughout Oregon — especially in our landfills and riverbeds — and they are exceedingly difficult to remove, because they ‘bioaccumulate’ in fish and wildlife. Cleaning up our state from this horrific environmental degradation will be as costly and time-consuming as it sounds, but this settlement means we now will have resources to help tackle this problem.”

The settlement follows Oregon’s lawsuit against Monsanto in 2018, accusing the company of being aware of the compound’s toxicity as early as 1937. By accepting the settlement, Monsanto does not admit to any wrongdoing.

“Despite knowing as early as 1937 that PCBs were toxic to humans and animals and that PCBs could escape into and contaminate the environment, Monsanto manufactured and sold PCBs until they were finally banned under federal law,” the state said in the complaint. “Even when Monsanto had overwhelming evidence of the hazards that PCBs create, Monsanto continued to flood the country with these toxic materials. Monsanto’s own internal documents show that it was not interested in protecting people or the environment; rather, its only concern was in protecting its balance sheet.”

For its part, a Bayer spokesperson said the settlement terms "reflect the unique challenges and trial procedures in this Oregon venue even though Monsanto voluntarily ceased production of PCBs in 1977 and never manufactured, used or disposed of PCBs in Oregon. Bayer remains committed to defending existing and future cases at trial and won dismissal of a case brought by the state of Delaware earlier this year.”

The Bayer spokesperson also noted the company has filed a lawsuit against former PCB customers "to enforce its indemnification agreements and recover these and other PCB-related litigation costs."

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, human exposure to high levels of PCBs have primarily occurred in manufacturing settings with direct contact that resulted in increased levels of some liver enzymes, chloracne and related dermal lesions and respiratory issues. However, recent studies have indicated that consuming PCB-contaminated fish can cause reproductive and developmental defects in newborns and older children and, in high concentrations PCBs are carcinogenic to humans and animals. [MORE]

White Cop Caught Smiling After Brutal Bloody Beating of Homeless Black Veteran by a Gang of White Colorado Cops. Charges Dropped Due to Unlawful Detention, so the 4th Amendment Protected Him Right?

COMPULSORY PUBLIC “SERVICE” FROM UNCONTROLLABLE PUBLIC MASTERS. 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 provide Black people any real protection from cops or the government in general.

Rationalized legal nonsense enable racist authoritarians to use TRAFFIC stops to place Black people in greater confinement and control them in the free range prison, a legal system based entirely on physical coercion and manufactured social relations. Obey or go to jail. “The lie of tyranny is that you will maintain the freedom of life by obeying authority. The choices it offers you are a lifetime of obedience or death.“ [MORE]

The only thing upholding the 4th Amendment is your belief in it. You only have rights if an authority says that you do. Your possession of "rights” given to you by a magical government, which functions as your master, is cult belief. Rights are myths. As stated by Dr. Blynd,  “There is no freedom in the presence of so-called authority.” The belief in “authority,” which includes all belief in “government,” is irrational and self-contradictory; it is contrary to civilization and morality, and constitutes the most dangerous, destructive superstition that has ever existed. Rather than being a force for order and justice, the belief in “authority” is the arch-enemy of humanity.” [MORE]

BUT THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SERVICE NHGR. From [HERE] and [HERE] Dalvin Gadson, who served in the Army National Guard as a helicopter mechanic, claims he was racially profiled and subjected to a brutal attack by multiple white police officers in Colorado Springs while others looked on and didn’t intervene after he was pulled over for his car failing to display its tags in October. Apparently, he only had one tag.

One of the photos taken in the aftermath of the beating shows an officer smiling while displaying what appears to be a bruised knuckle, presumably from the police violence.

Source: The Law Offices of Harry Daniels and Latin Law Group / The Law Offices of Harry Daniels and Latin Law Group

UNLAWFUL STOP. The white cop apparently either pulled the black man solely for unregistered vehicle, which is a non-arrestable class B traffic infraction punishable by $15 to $100, a small surcharge, and no DMV points, or the white cop stopped him for Driving Without License Plates, also a non-arrestable offense punishable by a fine of up to one hundred dollars. Neither offense is related to or evidence of impaired driving. During the brief traffic stop probable cause for DUI simply did not exist - no facts support the arrest. As such, when the white cop ordered him out the vehicle he violated the black man’s so-called 4th Amendment rights (for those who believe in such legal truths). Gadson, who was homeless at the time, was ordered out of the car and told he would be placed in handcuffs.

The DUI charge was dismissed last week after it was determined that “there was insufficient probable cause.”

When Gadson asked why he would need to be handcuffed, he said the question was only answered with swift force.

Gadson, who has set up a GoFundMe account to help him pay for legal representation, explained what happened next:

At that moment, one of the police officers violently grabbed my hand, and my body’s natural reaction was to pull my hand back. I did not think to do this. It was a natural reaction.

The same police officer immediately started punching me in the face while pulling me out of my car. After the first punch, I tried to say okay, I tried to say sorry, I tried to lay on the ground, but multiple officers were grabbing me, kicking me in the head, kneeing and elbowing me in the face, and punching me everywhere possible.

After I was punched several times in the face, I lost consciousness. (NOTE: No officers on the scene tried to stop this wrongdoing against me. There was thirteen police officers on the scene) I regained awareness, lying on the asphalt. I was covered in blood, with two black eyes, one eye swelled shut with blood in my cornea, my whole body badly bruised, abrasions all over, lips busted, ribs and spine hurting and my eyesight was halfway gone (NOTE: my eyes, head, spine and back are still damaged from this incident).

Adding insult to literal injury, Gadson was charged with two counts of second degree assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, driving under the influence and driving without license plates. The assault charges were eventually dropped.

No charges were brought against the white cops, as they have an uncontrollable right to attack people (unprovoked) aka as authority, the right to rule.

EXCELLENT COMPULSORY SERVICE FROM IGNORANT, VAGINAL COPS WHO DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND THE LAWS THEY ENFORCE

One of Gadson’s lawyers suggested the officers involved were motivated by race.

“Dalvin Gadson was a homeless veteran living out of his car as he worked to reenlist and continue serving his country. But all these officers saw was a black man and they beat him for it, smiling for the camera as he lay on the ground bleeding,” civil rights attorney Harry Daniels said in a press release with graphic images of Gadson following the traffic stop. “They beat him mercilessly and now he’s afraid to go outside and the VA can’t see him to treat his injuries and PTSD until January.”

Gadson said he’s been left “terrified” of police officers.

“My liberty and pursuit of happiness is in jeopardy because of this incident,” Gadson said. “I don’t feel safe in my own neighborhood anymore.”

To be sure, this isn’t the first time Colorado Springs has been implicated in anti-Black and racist behavior.

Just last week, comedian and actor Mark Curry claimed he was racially profiled in a Colorado Springs hotel where he was booked to perform.

And back in February, the city of Colorado Springs was ordered to pay $175,000 to a Black Lives Matter protester to settle an excessive force lawsuit stemming from a violent encounter during the summer of 2020.

White Cop Guilty of Manslaughter after Murdering Atatiana Jefferson. Shot Black Woman as She Played Video Games w/Her 8 yr Old Nephew in Her Home. Liar Cop Gave No First Aid. What Will White Judge Do?

From [HERE] A white Texas police officer was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019, a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone who was also armed with a gun. 

Jurors were also considering a murder charge against Aaron Dean but instead convicted him of manslaughter. The conviction comes more than three years after the white Fort Worth officer shot the 28-year-old Black woman while responding to a call about an open front door. 

Mr. Dean, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction. The sentencing phase of his trial is set to begin Friday before Judge George Gallagher, who is also a white man. Mr. Dean had faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder. 

The Tarrant County jury deliberated for more than 13 hours over two days before returning the verdict. The primary dispute during the six days of testimony and arguments was whether Mr. Dean knew Ms. Jefferson was armed when he shot her. Mr. Dean testified that he saw her weapon. Prosecutors alleged the evidence showed otherwise. The jury apparently did not find him to be credible.

Lesa Pamplin, a lawyer and friend of the Jefferson family, said she was glad that jurors took their time. 

Many of those who came to watch the verdict condemned the jury's decision. Carolyn J. Ruff traveled from Chicago to hear the verdict, she said. She went out into the hallway of the courthouse and shouted: "She was murdered. She was murdered.” [MORE]

Trice Jones was a fixture at Fort Worth's racial justice protests in 2020, and she crowdfunded an effort to paint a mural to memorialize Jefferson near the home where Jefferson lived and died. Progress is not moving fast enough, she told reporters at the courthouse.

"Black people are not safe in Fort Worth," Jones said. "Black people are not safe."

Mr. Dean shot Ms. Jefferson on Oct. 12, 2019, after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that the front door to Ms. Jefferson’s home was open. She had been playing videogames that night with her nephew, and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burned. 

The case was unusual for the relative speed with which, amid public outrage, the Fort Worth Police Department released video of the shooting and arrested Mr. Dean. He had completed the police academy the year before and quit the force without speaking to investigators. 

Since then, the case had been repeatedly postponed amid lawyerly wrangling, the terminal illness of Mr. Dean’s lead attorney and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Police body camera footage showed that Mr. Dean and a second officer who responded to the call didn’t identify themselves as police at the house. Mr. Dean and Officer Carol Darchtestified that they thought the house might have been burglarized and quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard looking for signs of forced entry. 

There, Mr. Dean, whose gun was drawn, fired a single shot through the window a split-second after shouting at Ms. Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands. 

Mr. Dean testified that he had no choice but to shoot when he saw Ms. Jefferson pointing the barrel of a gun directly at him. But under questioning from prosecutors he acknowledged numerous errors, repeatedly conceding that actions he took before and after the shooting were “more bad police work.” 

Ms. Darch’s back was to the window when Mr. Dean shot, but she testified that he never mentioned seeing a gun before he pulled the trigger and didn’t say anything about the weapon as they rushed in to search the house. 

Mr. Dean acknowledged on the witness stand that he only said something about the gun after seeing it on the floor inside the house and that he never gave Ms. Jefferson first aid. 

Ms. Jefferson’s 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, was in the room with his aunt when she was shot. Zion testified that Ms. Jefferson took out her gun believing there was an intruder in the backyard, but he offered contradictory accounts of whether she pointed the pistol out the window. 

Although Detroit is Surrounded by Water, Inhumane [Liberal] Authorities Make it Scarce for Black, Poor Residents; Civil Rights Groups Seek to Stop the City from Using Water Shut-Offs to Collect Debts

From [HERE] A group of civil rights organizations are urging the city of Detroit not to disconnect Detroiters from water after a moratorium on residential water shutoffs ends this year, and they took their request to federal court.

The coalition — including the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU), Legal Defense Fund and Michigan Poverty Law Program — filed a motion Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of plaintiffs who are part of an ongoing 2020 lawsuit that says water shutoffs have, for years, harmed residents and calls for a long-term solution to the problem.

They want the court to enter a preliminary injunction that would prohibit the city from stopping water service for debt collection over unpaid water bills, according to the court filing. They say that although the city created a water affordability program earlier this year, some residents have not been able to enroll and don't know whether they qualify.

“Clean running water should flow in all Detroit households beyond 2022 as well as become affordable for everyone. Our lawsuit shows that water shutoffs are devastating to poor families, with a particular impact on Black families, in violation of civil rights laws," Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan's Racial Justice Project, said in a Tuesday statement.

A moratorium on water shutoffs for residential customers in Detroit ends Dec. 31 and Detroiters who are having trouble paying their bills must enroll in one of the city's water assistance programs to avoid getting disconnected next year.

In March 2020, Michigan required utilities to restore water services and halt shutoffs for nonpayment, during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city extended the moratorium later that year vowing to find a long-term solution to stop shutoffs for low-income Detroiters. Over the summer, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department launched the Lifeline Plan based on income and usage to help people reduce their bills. That program, which began in August, is currently funded for 18 months.

In a statement Tuesday, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department said that the moratorium will continue for households that apply for the Lifeline Plan or enroll in the 10/30/50 program, through which people can make a down payment and pay off their delinquent balance in installments.

"As of Dec. 12, that means at least 16,000 households will be in the moratorium after December 31. … We will respond to the motion by the civil rights groups. Meanwhile, we continue our unprecedented outreach, including neighborhood canvassing, to invite more eligible households to apply for the Lifeline Plan," the statement said.

Those who are income eligible can apply for the Lifeline Plan by calling the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency — the organization administering the program — at 313-386-9727 or go to waymetro.org/DWSDlifeline. For more information about the 10/30/50 plan, go to bit.ly/waterassistanceprograms or call DWSD at 313-267-8000.

Plaintiffs question the accessibility of the Lifeline Plan and, in the court filing, raise concerns about "the high probability, if not certainty, that large numbers of Detroit residents will, for various reasons, fail to enroll in the program and thereby render themselves susceptible to shutoffs."

Among the people who may be unable to access the program are those who don't know about it, don't have access to technology, large families who exceed the water usage limit of the plan and those who have insecure immigration status, according to the filing.

One plaintiff, Tuana Henry, said she is concerned about her family using more than the 4,500 gallons of water a month the program requires to remain at the fixed rates. She had applied for the Lifeline Plan, but as of early December, has not received a response about her enrollment, she said in the court filing.

She said she was enrolled in the 10/30/50 program before March 2020 but could not afford the plan. She has dealt with water shutoffs on and off.

Another plaintiff, Jacqueline Taylor, said she has been trying to apply to the plan for months but has not been successful. She does not use a computer, and when she called to make an appointment, she could not get through to do so. She's dealt with water shutoffs for nonpayment prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as she struggled to pay her water bills and other monthly expenses.

"The loss of water services on and off over the years has caused disruption and mental anguish," she said in the court filing.

Although the Lifeline Plan is a step forward, especially because it wipes away arrears, she said, she's concerned because its funding is temporary.

The water department currently has enough money to run the program for 18 months and is searching for permanent funding. Director Gary Brown previously told the Free Press that DWSD is working with state and federal officials and philanthropic foundations to identify permanent funding.

Out of 220,000 total residential customers in Detroit, 60,000 accounts are in delinquent status, the water department said, and the average balance owed is $700.

The water department has held in-person enrollment fairs, attended community meetings to talk about the program, included notices in some water bills about the moratorium ending and options for assistance programs, and canvassed households that were likely low income, according to DWSD.

DWSD said last week that 20,000 Detroit households are eligible for the Lifeline Plan. As of Nov. 25, more than 12,000 households had applied and 7,900 of them had been enrolled; Wayne Metro was processing roughly 4,300 applications. There are more than 2,400 residential customers in the city's 10/30/50 payment plan.

Suit Claims Racist Suspect Liberal Authorities in Portland Used Highway Construction and "Urban Improvement Projects" to Intentionally Displace Black Residents and Destroy Their Communities

From [HERE] A lawsuit says racism motivated Oregon’s largest city to destroy Black residents’ homes and force them out of their neighborhood decades ago

A home that was a fixture of Bobby Fouther’s childhood is now a parking lot, the two-story, shingle-sided house having been demolished in the 1970s along with many other properties in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Portland.

“Growing up there was just all about love,” Fouther said.

Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch, are now among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or are descendants of former residents and are suing Portland, the city's economic and urban development agency and Legacy Emanuel Hospital, accusing them of the “racist” destruction of the homes and forced displacement.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Portland, shines a light on how urban improvement projects and construction of the nation's highways often came at the cost of neighborhoods that aren't predominantly white.

"In many cases, city and state planners purposely built through Black neighborhoods to clear so-called slums and blighted areas," according to a 2020 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit public policy group.

People who were part of racial minorities were often obligated to live in those neighborhoods because of "redlining" — banks discriminating against home loan applicants based on race — and even due to laws that maintained all-white neighborhoods.

In 1934, Fouther's great-aunt and her husband bought a house, which he and his sister visited almost daily, in the Albina neighborhood of Portland, according to the lawsuit.

But even after buying homes and building lives in Albina, residents were forced to move by so-called urban renewal and highway building.

Albina had already been partially destroyed and carved up in the 1950s and ’60s by the building of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the original home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. But then a hospital expansion was announced.

Between 1971 and 1973, the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties, 158 of which were residential and inhabited by 88 families and 83 individuals. A total of 32 business and four church or community organizations were also destroyed, according to the lawsuit. Of the forcibly displaced households, 74% were Black.

A first phase, in the 1950s and '60s, involved city officials secretly agreeing to compensate the hospital for the full cost of the purchases and demolitions, the lawsuit said. The homeowners were intimidated by hospital representatives and told that if they didn’t leave, the city would take their homes. They were not fairly compensated and in some cases not compensated at all, according to the lawsuit.

“This case is about the intentional destruction of a thriving Black neighborhood in Central Albina under the pretense of facilitating a hospital expansion that never happened,” the lawsuit says, adding that the loss of homes "has meant the deprivation of inheritance, intergenerational wealth, community, and opportunity.”

Much of the land that used to be a thriving neighborhood, where Black families felt safe and had social and spiritual connections, became parking lots or stood vacant.

“I was taken out of my safe and loving community. I was moved into a neighborhood that saw me as a nuisance and to a school where I was one of three Black children,” said Connie Mack, one of the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit said the defendants are benefiting from "unjust enrichment" from “this horribly racist chapter from Portland’s past.”

Legacy Health, which owns Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it is evaluating it. Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission, also said it is evaluating the complaint and had no additional comment. City officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Albina is now called the Eliot neighborhood, which boasts trendy shops, cafes and eateries.

“Our neighborhood, in the heart of the former city of Albina, is a great place to live, work and play,” the Eliot Neighborhood Association proclaims on its website.

Many of the plaintiffs' homes, if they had not been destroyed, would have been worth more than $500,000 today, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages from defendants in amounts to be determined at trial.

The Dangers of Education [“indoctrination and regimentation“] from Educaptors in the Public Fool System: “Take your children out of school!”

According to FUNKTIONARY:

educaptors – those involved in the institutionalized schooling of children into adulthood for purposes of cultural conditioning and socialization in derogation of innate creativity, native intelligence, natural curiosity, wonder, direct personal experience and mined meaning. 2) well-meaning teachers dispensing compelled (mandatory) indoctrination in the name and form of education within government-run public school systems and other state-supported public institutions of higher programming. (See: Deaducation, Unlearning, Statism, Government, Conditioning & Indoctrination)

Public schools - the instrument of Hidalgo (the "Greater System") and the "State" whereby readers, writers and counters are produced who are certified as qualified to understand orders and obediently carry them out... the tenth gang-plank of the Communist Manifesto. (See: Compulsory Schooling, Indoctrination & Formal Education)

Public School System - a place where children are having unprotected education. 2) a syndromatic exercise in conformity and blind obedience to so-called "authority" (disguised repression). 3) systematic planned violence meted out on children and young adults—held hostage and hostile—daily, hourly, quarantined from the natural rhythm of things in life through Pavlovian bells and shrink-wrapped prefabricated and curriculum and distorted history. 4) a training boot camp for life-long slavery and indentured servitude to gangbankers and the Corporate State in a society created and based in violence, governed by fear, propaganda, psychogenic money and power. [MORE]

“education” – word-generated opinions combined with force for control over competent hue-mans. 2) coercive persuasion. 3) indoctrination and regimentation. 4) braindraining. 5) developing the powers and faculties of a person. “Developing the powers” means de-veloping, or dis-veloping the powers, which means to negate, or have a privative, or reversing force on the powers. “The invisible capital which enables its possessors to remain, or to climb on, the backs of the uneducated and to fill their heads with prejudices useful for the maintenance of either the old or the new status quo. It’s Squid Pro Row, baby. ~Austin Powers. The whole machinery of “education” is to make you mechanical—devoid of intelligence—reduced to an academented drone or a conforming clone for the marketplace of “society.” “True education is that which is experienced, tested and digested. What can be counted and recorded is not education.” ~Vinoba Bhave. What passes for “an” education is second-hand experiences, misconceptions filtered through memories and lies sold in units. True education is transformative, fluid and lifelong. (See: De-education, Experience, Academented, Knowledge Scrolling, Pedagogy, Democracy, Dead Knowledge, Transformative Education, Efficiency, Unlearning, Scientific Method, Uncertainty, Language, Lies, Envelope, School, Devotion & Learning)

education – (from e-duco)—to lead out of—to unfurl and mature our own inherent blueprint. 2) the formation of character towards self-actualization. 3) an informal or formal system which stresses self-reliance more than it does facts and figures that lie. 4) a system of instructions giving the student divergent views to induce thinking and draw that induction out as a result of elimination from choice through experience. 5) the search for useful knowledge. 6) the assimilation of cultural DNA. 7) setting the mind phfree from its own conditioning. Real education is opening the doors of both perception and apperception to the vast movement of life-in-flux; learning how to live lovingly-detached in an aboriginal state of beatitude, even in the midst of illusion and confusion all around you. “The aim of education is the widening and deepening of consciousness—not gaining power over ourselves in the sense of treating ourselves as objects to be manipulated rather than human beings expanding in meaningful living.” ~Dr. Rollo May. Education is from the Greek root “educere,” meaning to lead forth or draw out, and originally a midwife’s term meaning “to be present at the birth of—is not the primary function of schooling. The problem of mis-education is not merely personal or institutional; it is implicit in the very processes and therefore virtually transparent. “Systematically—inherit in the process—direct and personal experience is subsumed to external authority and at every turn. Creativity, critical thought, and the questioning of fundamental assumptions [such as, for example, the role of schooling on one’s socialization] are discouraged and frowned upon by the Establishment (status quo).” ~Derrick Jensen. It seems to go unnoticed that there are just as many who do not know how to teach as there are who cannot, in their present state, learn. [MORE]

Should Racists Educate Your Kids? Study Finds that White Teachers Talk about Black Children in Code

From [HERE] It appears that while some teachers are exposing their racism in front of their students others try to be sly with it. According to a study published in Urban Education, white teachers often speak in racially coded ways, influenced by stereotypes, when talking about or dealing with Black students. The outcome of their behavior is inevitably harmful.

John Hopkins Assistant Professor Olivia Marcucci and Washington University (St. Louis) Associate Professor Rowhea Elmesky based their research on a study from 2015 examining why white teachers couldn’t form positive relationships with their Black students. The answer, as you could’ve guessed, was racial bias.

First, the study noted Black students make up 97 percent of disciplinary referrals despite making up only 8 percent of the student population of the school they examined. On the other hand, white students only made up one percent of referrals.

The disparity in treatment across the student population may stem from something Marcucci and Elmesky called racially coded stereotypes - kind of like an exclusive teacher lingo but ... racist.

Read more about the study from The Conversation:

In a different example, two white teachers began talking about how parents at their school didn’t care about their children. At one point, they pretended to be parents, with one of the teachers even making a joke that one of the parents completely forgot they even had a child:

Teacher 1: Yeah, just somebody saying, ‘Hey, you know you have a baby, right?’ Teacher 2: I do? Teacher 1: Yeah. Teacher 2: Oh. Teacher 1: Oh, wooord.

Nothing about this interaction is racially explicit. But the teacher’s joke invokes a stereotype of Black parents as disengaged from their children’s lives by using a stereotypical African American vernacular – “wooord.” When white teachers at a predominantly Black school make statements like these, they are upholding the stereotype that Black parents lack concern for their children – even if that is not the teachers’ intention. [MORE]

Racist Doctors: According to New Study Black People are Less Likely to be Given Proper Treatment for Severe Cases of Pulmonary Embolism Compared to White Patients and Deaths are Higher for Blacks

From [HERE] People of color are less likely to be given proper treatment for severe cases of pulmonary embolism compared to white patients, according to the findings of a new study.

Research from the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont Burlington presented the study at the recent American Society of Hematology annual meeting, which suggests there are serious racial disparities in access to advanced pulmonary embolism treatments. The findings are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal, but indicated that Black patients and Asian/Pacific Islander patients are 13% and 24%, respectively, less likely to receive potentially life-saving treatments than white patients.

The study involved a review of data on more than 1.1 million patients who were hospitalized for pulmonary embolisms from 2016 to 2018, using information from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which captures 20% of discharges from US hospitals. Overall, 66,570 cases were considered high-risk, including patients suffering from shock, cardiac arrest, or using a vasopressor medication, or on ventilation.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) occurs when a blood clot enters the lungs. It can lead to pain, breathlessness, and cough. If left untreated, it can be dangerous and life-threatening, but is easily treated by doctors if a patient gets treatment early enough.

Early treatment typically includes blood thinning medication, compression socks, leg elevation, and pneumatic compression. Advanced therapies used to treat PE include systemic thrombolysis, catheter-directed therapy, surgical embolectomy, and vino-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Rates of PE were highest among Black patients, occurring in 20 patients per 10,000 people. However, compared to white patients, the use of advanced therapies to treat PE was 13% lower among Black patients and 24% lower among Asian/Pacific Islander patients.

Researchers also found disparities in treatment among patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. Patients enrolled in Medicare were 27% less likely to receive treatment and those on Medicaid were 32% less likely to receive treatment compared to those with private insurance.

In-Hospital PE Deaths Higher for People of Color

For patients who suffered from high-risk PE, all racial and ethnic groups had higher in-hospital death rates compared to white patients. [MORE]

Recent Data Suggests Black People’s Brains are likely to Age Faster Due to Stressors such as Racism

From [HERE] Black physicians are fascinated but not surprised by recent data that suggests Black people’s brains are likely to age faster than those of other races due to stressors such as racism. However, doctors said lifestyle changes and preventative care could help slow some of the decline. 

In a study published last month in the journal JAMA Neurology, researchers from Columbia University found racial and ethnic disparities in brain markers of Alzheimer’s disease and related cases of dementia. The scientists analyzed MRI scans of nearly 1,500 participants, and found that Black adults in their mid-50s were more likely than white or Hispanic adults of the same age group to show white-matter lesions in their brains, which are indicators of cerebrovascular disease or cognitive decline. 

The authors noted that “social forces” may have played a part in the accelerated brain aging seen among their Black subjects. In particular, the study says the weathering hypothesis — which states that “chronic exposure to social and economic disadvantage leads to accelerated decline in physical health outcomes”— could cause Black middle-aged adults on average to have cerebrovascular disease earlier in life. 

JAMA Neurology did not immediately respond to request for interview. [MORE]

Eighth Circuit Rules Jail's Unwritten Policy to Report Non-White Immigrant Detainees to ICE is Unlawful

From [HERE] Anoka County, Minn. had an unwritten policy under which foreign-born persons booked in the county jail would be detained until the county heard back from ICE on whether ICE wanted to take custody. Eighth Circuit(link is external): This is literally the "classic example of national-origin discrimination" and an exceptionally dumb policy, not least because it'd apply to foreign-born icons Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both long time American citizens. At the same time, the policy is also an exceptionally good example of policies that violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The case is Myriam Parada v. Anoka County(link is external), No. 21-3082 (8th Cir. Nov. 30, 2022).

Attys Complain about Judge's Conduct During the Sentencing Hearing for the "Parkland Shooter." [Media Pretends there was a Contested Trial; Wrong, He Pled Guilty and Pleas Don’t Make False Flags Real]

A guilty plea is just a guilty plea - it is not proof that anything happened in any case. A guilty plea is a way to avoid an actual trial or avoid having to prove that a crime took place. The guilty plea here doesn’t prove that Mr. Cruz committed a massacre or that Parkland happened - its just a plea, nothing more. If an actual, contested criminal defense trial had taken place the Government would have had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a massacre took place and Mr. Cruz committed it. That is, the Government would have had to show that Parkland was real - with actual authenticated, admissible evidence and testimony subject to cross-examination, credibility determinations, investigation and inspection in an adversarial process before a jury who would decide on the CASE ON ITS merits. But that never happened. Nevertheless, in The Spectacle The Dependent Media goes on implying that “a trial” WAS conducted. Similarly, “Sandy Hoax” was not proven to be real simply because a court entered default judgments against Alex Jones when he failed to respond to court orders in lawsuits. Contrary to constant media mischaracterization, there was no actual contested trial. The court proceedings only pertained to how much should be awarded in damages. A DEFAULT JUDGEMENT SIMPLE MEANS MR. JONES WAS FOUND LIABLE. IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT SANDY HOAX WASN’T AN ELABORATE HOAX. [MORE]

this mf is real?

ANOTHER “TRIAL” FOR A FALSE FLAG LOOKED RIGGED. From [HERE] Florida criminal defense attorneys said the judge overseeing sentencing of the shooter in the 2018 Parkland school shooting was "hostile and demeaning" toward defense counsel, conduct that "reveals temperament ill-suited to the criminal bench" (article available here).

The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers wrote a letter to Chief Judge Jack Tuter of the 17th Judicial Circuit complaining about Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer's behavior during sentencing proceedings for 24-year-old Nikolas Cruz. Cruz was convicted of killing 17 people in the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The president of the defense lawyers association said in Thursday's letter that Judge Scherer's comments and actions during the proceedings were offensive and "detrimental to the integrity of the judiciary and the judicial system." He urged the chief judge to address the matter with the judge and "take all appropriate steps to ensure she is not in a position to prejudice any other criminal cases."

"The image of a judge relegating an elected public defender and his top assistant to go sit in the corner like misbehaving children is offensive and discounts their very vital and difficult role in this system."

AS REAL AS A FUCKING GAME SHOW, WAS SHE GOING TO BE ONE OF THE GOVERNMENTS WITNESSES? ENJOY CLOWN WORLD.

The association has not filed a formal complaint with the state's Judicial Qualifications Commission.

Cruz pleaded guilty in October 2021. The death-penalty phase of the trial began this summer and the jury returned a life verdict. Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without parole Nov. 2.

Judge Scherer, a former prosecutor, was seen hugging members of the prosecution team in the courtroom, according to footage obtained by local television station.

Fourth Circuit Reverses Conviction: A Driver’s Nervousness is Not Enough to Establish a Reasonable Basis to Search Car with Police Dog

From [HERE] Morgantown, W.V. cop pulls over a car for a broken taillight. The cop, concerned about the driver's nervousness, issues a warning citation and then uses his dog to sniff the car. The dog alerts on a passenger's backpack, which was then searched and turns out it had two guns in it, for which the passenger is later convicted. Passenger: there was no reasonable suspicion and this violates the Fourth Amendment. District court: Reasonable suspicion exits. Fourth Circuit(link is external): The cop needed reasonable suspicion to extend the stop for the dog sniff. And the driver's nervousness isn't enough, given that most everyone is nervous when interacting with the police. The dog sniff is suppressed and the conviction vacated.

The case is United States v. Miller, 21-4086 (4th Cir. Nov. 29, 2022).