NYPD to Pay $6M to George Tillman's Family After a Jury Rejected 4 Cops Lies- Unarmed Black Man Shot to Death During a Stop Over an Open Container Outside a BBQ. Liberal DA Believed Cops, No Charges

From [HERE] The NYPD must pay $6.3 million to the family of George Homer Tillman III, who police fatally shot multiple times after he walked away from them during an incident in 2016, a jury decided this week. The jury found that he was unarmed at the time — despite the then-Queens DA declaring the cops only fired in self-defense.

In a wrongful death lawsuit, Tillman’s family says the Maryland man was out on a Saturday night at a family party in South Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens with his friends and wife when he was approached by officers for possessing an open liquor bottle. The lawsuit, citing eyewitness accounts, says he acquiesced to police and relinquished his alcohol container, but that the officers escalated the situation and pursued Tillman when he attempted to return to his car.

Court documents explained when Mr. Tillman turned and handed the bottle of vodka to another man the officers say they saw a silhouette of a gun in Mr. Tillman's waistband.

According to the police and DAKrzeminski and Arnold exited their vehicle and tried to verbally engage with Mr. Tillman, but Mr. Tillman fled. Mr. Tillman ran northbound on 135th Street; Krzeminski and Arnold pursued. Krzeminski and Arnold say that at some point during the chase, they witnessed Mr. Tillman remove his gun and hold it in his right hand, a fact which plaintiff disputes.  

Meanwhile, the car containing the other officers had pulled up to the scene just before Mr. Tillman took off running. Renna, Sorrentino, and Stallone exited their vehicle and began pursuing Mr. Tillman. Upon seeing the other officers, defendants say that Arnold and Krzeminski shouted that Mr. Tillman had a gun.

Once Mr. Tillman reached 116th Avenue, he turned and began running westbound. Defendants claim-but plaintiff disputes-that all five defendants saw Mr. Tillman running with a gun in his right hand.

At this point, the parties' accounts diverge further. Defendants claim that they yelled for Mr. Tillman to “drop the gun” and “get down.” They allege that Mr. Tillman refused and continued running. They allege that he then turned to his left-with his gun still in his right hand-and pointed the gun at Krzeminski. 

Plaintiff disputes that Mr. Tillman possessed a firearm. Plaintiff also denies that Mr. Tillman even turned towards officers, much less aimed a gun at them. Plaintiff relies upon audio-recorded statements of a third-party eyewitness, Leroy Burt. Ibid.; see Recording of Leroy Burt's Conversation with the Force Investigation Division. Mr. Burt said he was looking down from his apartment above the street and “saw everything.” Burt Interview 3:55-4:05. Mr. Burt says that he did not see Mr. Tillman turn towards the officers but instead saw Mr. Tillman begin to walk away from the officers. He also said, “I didn't see a gun.” 

Not a single, non-police witness claimed Mr. Tillman possessed a weapon that night and no one present at the scene heard officers scream at Mr. Tillman to drop any gun. [MORE]  Instead, the officers opened fire, hitting him with more than 10 shots – without a single shot fired by Mr. Tillman. Four of the five cops them discharged 64 rounds, 13 of which hit Tillman in the head and back.

Six months after the April 17, 2016 incident, the Queens district attorney at the time, Richard Brown, a racist suspect, found in a report that the officers acted in self defense. He wrote that the officers believed Tillman had a gun in his waistband when they first approached him about the open container, and that the evidence pointed to an “inescapable conclusion” that Tillman pointed a loaded .40-caliber pistol at the police after they gave chase. Brown also wrote that Tillman's DNA was found on a weapon at the scene.

But eyewitnesses testified that Tillman didn’t have a weapon, according to court documents. Liakas said a video played in court also didn’t show any clear evidence of a weapon.

The day before Thanksgiving, the jury decided that the NYPD acted negligently and violated Tillman’s constitutional rights. It deemed the police response in the case was misconduct and in violation of NYPD protocols. The court awarded Tillman’s widow $5.3 million in compensatory damages and another $1 million in punitive damages.

“Despite the officers receiving commendations following this incident, a jury determined that the officers’ actions violated NYPD protocols and reflected a reckless disregard for Mr. Tillman’s life,” Liakas said.

The NYPD referred comments to the city’s Law Department Saturday.

“We respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and are evaluating legal options,” law department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci wrote in a statement sent to Gothamist. “In the city’s view, officers were confronted with a deadly threat and their response was justified. That also was the finding of an investigation by the Queens County District Attorney's Office, which found all four officers were justified in discharging their firearms.”

Liakas said normally, the consequence of having an open container of alcohol is a warning or a ticket.

“An open container is like jumping a turnstile,” the attorney said.

Tillman’s widow filed the lawsuit in April 2018, seeking damages for police misconduct, loss of financial support, emotional and psychological damages. Tillman, a union electrician, had been the primary provider for his family — including his wife and their five children, ages of 4-14 — the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleged the officers violated NYPD protocols and failed to use alternative non-lethal means to restrain Tillman, such as the use of batons or Tasers. It said the police violated federal and state laws and disregarded Tillman’s constitutional rights by depriving him of due process and by using excessive force, resulting in his death.

The NYPD argued that any injuries were due to Tillman’s own negligence and not from the officers’ conduct, according to court filings. Police also argued Tillman provoked the incident, and that any use of force was reasonable, necessary and justified under the circumstances, Politico reported at the time.

The jury rejected said claims and did not find the officers testimony to be credible.

Last year, the City of New York paid out nearly $115 million for lawsuits alleging police misconduct, according to the Legal Aid Society.

"One Word, Audit." James Carville says ‘The Fundraisers are Burnt. The Democratic Brand is Facing Unfathomable Damage After Puppet Kamala's $2 Billion Losing Campaign’

From [HERE] Democratic strategist James Carville warned Wednesday that the Democratic Party’s reputation has been profoundly damaged by massive spending during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic Party reportedly spent almost $1.5 billion during her brief presidential campaign, which began on July 21. Carville, on “Politics War Room,” predicted future fundraising struggles and urged the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to conduct an audit to restore credibility and account for the funds.

The resistance is going to have trouble raising money. These fundraisers are burnt,” Carville said. “They’re really pissed now, and the damage that the 2024 campaign has done — the damage that this decade has done to the Democratic brand — is almost unfathomable. Almost unfathomable.”

“So I have people that are contacting me to run for DNC chair. Promise you I’m not going to to get in the middle of that … But I would say the policy, number one, is we’re going to audit everything. We’re going to audit the campaign. We’re going to audit Future Forward. We’re going to audit the DNC so people can know,” he added. “But I’m telling you, without complete transparency, the campaign — we think — raised a billion and a half dollars. Okay, we know that Future Forward, the last we saw, was $900 million, so we can assume that they got to a billion before election. That’s two and a half freaking billion dollars.”

Future Forward was Harris’ primary aligned Super PAC and raised more than $900 million to back the vice president’s presidential campaign, which is a record for external political groups during an election cycle, The New York Times reported.

“Do you have any idea where that money went? Does anybody have any idea where that money went?” Carville asked. “I mean, I have some places I’d start looking … I promise you this: the amount of money and the amount of lobbyists that were involved in this campaign is staggering.”

DNC National Finance Committee member Lindy Li asserted Tuesday that she was shocked that Harris did not take “responsibility” for her campaign’s exorbitant spending following the vice president’s donor call the same day.

“I don’t recall anyone taking responsibility for the fact that we spent about $2 billion across the super PAC and the campaign and came up so significantly short,” Li said. “We lost seven swing states.” [MORE]

SafeRent Solutions Settles Class Action for $2M. Suit Claimed it Used AI-Related Discrimination to Exclude Black Renters. Black Woman Plaintiff Denied Tenancy Despite Paying Rent On Time for 16yrs

Mary Louis’ excitement to move into an apartment in Massachusetts in the spring of 2021 turned to dismay when Louis, a Black woman, received an email saying that a “third-party service” had denied her tenancy.

That third-party service included an algorithm designed to score rental applicants, which became the subject of a class action lawsuit, with Louis at the helm, alleging that the algorithm discriminated on the basis of race and income.

A federal judge approved a settlement in the lawsuit, one of the first of it’s kind, on Wednesday, with the company behind the algorithm agreeing to pay over $2.2 million and roll back certain parts of it’s screening products that the lawsuit alleged were discriminatory.

The settlement does not include any admissions of fault by the company SafeRent Solutions, which said in a statement that while it “continues to believe the SRS Scores comply with all applicable laws, litigation is time-consuming and expensive.”

While such lawsuits might be relatively new, the use of algorithms or artificial intelligence programs to screen or score Americans isn’t. For years, AI has been furtively helping make consequential decisions for U.S. residents.

When a person submits a job application, applies for a home loan or even seeks certain medical care, there’s a chance that an AI system or algorithm is scoring or assessing them like it did Louis. Those AI systems, however, are largely unregulated, even though some have been found to discriminate.

“Management companies and landlords need to know that they’re now on notice, that these systems that they are assuming are reliable and good are going to be challenged,” said Todd Kaplan, one of Louis’ attorneys.

The lawsuit alleged SafeRent’s algorithm didn’t take into account the benefits of housing vouchers, which they said was an important detail for a renter’s ability to pay the monthly bill, and it therefore discriminated against low-income applicants who qualified for the aid.

The suit also accused SafeRent’s algorithm of relying too much on credit information. They argued that it fails to give a full picture of an applicant’s ability to pay rent on time and unfairly dings applicants with housing vouchers who are Black and Hispanic partly because they have lower median credit scores, attributable to historical inequities.

Christine Webber, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, said that just because an algorithm or AI is not programmed to discriminate, the data an algorithm uses or weights could have “the same effect as if you told it to discriminate intentionally.”

When Louis’ application was denied, she tried appealing the decision, sending two landlords’ references to show she’d paid rent early or on time for 16 years, even if she didn’t have a strong credit history.

Louis, who had a housing voucher, was scrambling, having already given notice to her previous landlord that she was moving out, and she was charged with taking care of her granddaughter.

The response from the management company, which used SafeRent’s screening service, read, “We do not accept appeals and cannot override the outcome of the Tenant Screening.”

Louis felt defeated; the algorithm didn’t know her, she said.

“Everything is based on numbers. You don’t get the individual empathy from them,” said Louis. “There is no beating the system. The system is always going to beat us.”

While state lawmakers have proposed aggressive regulations for these types of AI systems, the proposals have largely failed to get enough support. That means lawsuits like Louis’ are starting to lay the groundwork for AI accountability.

SafeRent’s defense attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss that the company shouldn’t be held liable for discrimination because SafeRent wasn’t making the final decision on whether to accept or deny a tenant. The service would screen applicants, score them and submit a report, but leave it to landlords or management companies to accept or deny a tenant.

Louis’ attorneys, along with the U.S. Department of Justice, which submitted a statement of interest in the case, argued that SafeRent’s algorithm could be held accountable because it still plays a role in access to housing. The judge denied SafeRent’s motion to dismiss on those counts.

The settlement stipulates that SafeRent can’t include its score feature on its tenant screening reports in certain cases, including if the applicant is using a housing voucher. It also requires that if SafeRent develops another screening score it plans to use, it must be validated by a third-party that the plaintiffs agree to.

Louis’ son found an affordable apartment for her on Facebook Marketplace that she has since moved into, though it was $200 more expensive and in a less desirable area. [MORE]

"Medicide:" Israel-US are Carrying Out a War on Hospitals as Part of Their Holocaust and Depopulation Plan in Gaza and Lebanon

From [HERE] In early October, Shoshan Hassan Mazraani, the head emergency department nurse at the Marjayoun hospital in southern Lebanon, was drinking coffee at work when she saw an Israeli strike hit without warning “directly on the ambulances” outside. The attack killed seven paramedics and wounded five others. The same day, Israeli strikes repeatedly hit Salah Ghandour Hospital in the nearby town of Bint Jbeil. In that assault, nine hospital workers were injured, several critically.

“The hospital was struck three times,” the facility’s director, a physician named Moanes Kalakish said later. “One shell struck the on-call room and two shells struck the paramedics’ waiting room, [both] inside the hospital.”

In the weeks since, Israeli attacks have struck medical systems across Lebanon, hitting hospitals, ambulances, and clinics as part of an aerial assault and invasion that has now killed more than 3,000 people, including over 150 health care and rescue workers, in the past twelve months.

Two reports issued recently, one from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and another from CNN, detail the pattern of attacks on the Lebanese health care system. HRW, in its report, concluded that the Israeli strikes on the Marjayoun and Salah Ghandour hospitals, along with another separate strike on a rescue center in Beirut, all constitute likely war crimes. In total, HRW reported that Israeli attacks across Lebanon have hit a total of 158 ambulances and fifty-five hospitals. In a separate analysis, CNN found that in just the first month of the escalating offensive in Lebanon, Israeli strikes hit thirty-four hospitals and 107 ambulances, killing 111 emergency medical technicians.

The Israeli assault on health care in Lebanon is increasingly widespread, affecting the delivery of care throughout the country. In one single twenty-four-hour period in October, Israeli forces killed more than twenty-eight on-duty medics nationwide, forcing thirty-seven health care facilities to shut down and three hospitals in Beirut to evacuate. Nearly half of the country’s primary care centers have now been forced to close, and, according to CNN’s investigation, around 20 percent of all the hospitals nationwide have been damaged by Israeli strikes in the course of just a single month.

In the words of Imran Riza, the United Nations (UN) deputy humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, the devastation has left the health system “on the brink of collapsing.” The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Lebanon, Abdinasir Abubakar, assessed that “it’s just a matter of time until the system actually reaches its limit.”

The specter of the American-backed genocide in Gaza looms large over this unfolding violence, as Israeli leaders have made clear that the devastation in occupied Palestine should be understood as a threat to civilians in Lebanon. At the outset of the invasion, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.” “What we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut,” the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said last November. Israeli forces, in his words, could “copy and paste” their methods.

Those methods developed in Gaza include deliberate and systematic violence against the medical system and health more broadly. In Gaza, Israeli forces have killed around a thousand Palestinian health care workers and bombed nearly every single hospital. An independent UN commission concluded in October that Israel “has implemented a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza” and “deliberately killed, wounded, arrested, detained, mistreated and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles,” constituting multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the crime of extermination. In July, a group of eleven independent UN special rapporteurs and experts found that Israel was engaged in an “intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people,” amounting to “a form of genocidal violence.” These efforts have been so total and so transparently deliberate that they have been described variously as a “War on Hospitals,” a “War on Health,” and an “Epidemiological War,” eventually demanding the invention of a new term to describe the carnage: medicide.

Haiti Earthquake Victims Suit Claims Red Cross Used Donation Money to Get Paid: 'Between 2010- 2024 They Prepared for Disasters Not to Provide Aid but to Exploit Suffering and Misfortune.' Seeks $1B

 From [HERE] A Haitian American organization accused the American Red Cross and its affiliates on Monday of deliberately misappropriating donations intended to aid victims of a 2010 earthquake and using the funds to cover the organization's own debts.

The Haitian Diaspora Political Action Committee says in a class action filed in the Southern District of Florida that the American Red Cross, the International Red Cross and Haitian Red Cross have collected nearly $1 billion from donors since the magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked the island nation.

But how that money has been spent is a mystery, according to the committee. Claims that the donations were used to build hospitals and repair homes are “demonstrably false,” the committee says, while other projects were severely delayed or never got off the ground.

Calling the Red Cross and its affiliates "poverty pimps," the plaintiffs — comprised of the committee, along with representatives for a donor class and an intended recipient class — say the Red Cross "view the poor as commodities. They exploit the plight of the poor to extract resources from society, claiming to act in their name while serving their own interests,"

"Fully aware that they had no intention of using the funds to directly aid Haiti, the defendants nevertheless misled the public through a series of public statements, using emotional images, poignant words, and videos depicting the suffering of Haitians to compel donations," the plaintiffs wrote.

The committee and its members claim $100 million in donations collected between 2010 and 2024 was used to cover the Red Cross’ $150 million financial deficit while another $400 million was spent on projects unrelated to Haiti or its people.

“Between 2010 and 2024, the defendants actively prepared for disasters in Haiti, not with the intention of providing genuine aid to victims, but to exploit their suffering and misfortune,” they said. “These preparations were focused on leveraging the devastation to manipulate donors into contributing more money.”

A financial report on the American Red Cross’ website details projects funded by the nonprofit, including tens of millions of dollars spent on emergency relief in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. 

But the efficacy of that spending has been called into question.

A 2015 investigation by ProPublica and NPR found that the relief agency vastly overstated the number of homes it built in the quake's aftermath while making dubious claims about the number of people served by its programs. Internal documents showed that administrative fees ate up donations while staffing changes and other bureaucratic issues delayed projects.

The committee and its members seek damages totaling more than $1 billion for claims that include fraud, unjust enrichment, bad faith and embezzlement. [MORE]

MD Court Allows Consent Decree to Expire Despite Baltimore Public Fool System's Continuing Failure to Provide Adequate Education to Mostly Black Kids, who Have Near Lowest Math/Reading Levels in US

From [HERE] Maryland’s second-highest court has rejected arguments to bring back a decades-old consent decree stemming from a lawsuit over state funding for Baltimore City Public Schools.

In a 2-1 decision last week, the Maryland Appellate Court sent the long-running Bradford v. Maryland State Board of Education case back to Baltimore Circuit Court with instructions to dismiss a 2019 petition that alleged the education provided by the school system remained “constitutionally inadequate.” The 1996 consent decree that mandated increased state funding, which the plaintiffs had sought to re-enforce, should also be dissolved, Senior Judge Deborah S. Eyler wrote in the majority opinion, finding it was no longer relevant.

The latest decision in the 30-year-long legal saga vacated a Baltimore Circuit Judge’s previous ruling regarding school funding, but still ultimately rejected the plaintiffs’ attempt to revive the litigation over claims of deficient education standards at city schools. The lawsuit, initially lodged against the Maryland State Board of Education in 1994 by parents of city school students, led to the consent decree, funding fixes at the state level and an overhaul of the city school system’s governance.

City schools received more than $2 billion in increased state funding due to the consent decree and a related education funding formula was adopted by the state in 2002, according to the ACLU, which represented the plaintiffs alongside the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“If parents of children currently enrolled in the BCPSS are so inclined, they may file a new lawsuit upon allegations of a present violation of the children’s constitutional right to a thorough and efficient public education, based on circumstances as they now exist,” the appellate court said in a summary of the majority’s opinion. [MORE]

According to the dissent:

The voluminous record and the briefs present staggering evidence in support of the Bradford Plaintiffs’ contention that children who attend many Baltimore City public schools do not receive an education that is adequate by contemporary standards. The studies and expert reports link the conditions in which children learn to their educational outcomes, and the overall conditions in Baltimore City public schools are exceptionally poor. Out of approximately 160 school buildings, only fourteen have working water fountains. Ninety-seven schools have inadequate electrical systems. Student accounts describe vermin infestations—including mice, rats, and cockroaches—in their classrooms. Eighty-nine school facilities require a complete overhaul to meet minimally acceptable standards.

As described in an expert report, well-maintained school facilities lead to improved school attendance and better academic outcomes, while substandard buildings impair student engagement and learning. In 2019, the State reported that 17.9% of BCPSS elementary students were proficient in Math, and 18.6% were proficient in English Language Arts (“ELA”); 13.5% of middle school students were proficient in Math, and 22.7% were proficient in ELA; and 21.8% of high school students were proficient in Algebra I, and 32.9% were proficient in ELA 10. BCPSS students scored lower in math and reading than students in all but a handful of other large school districts nationwide. Proficiency rates are even lower for students with disabilities: according to BCPSS data, only 5% of students with disabilities met or exceeded expectations in math or language arts. In sum, although I recognize that the State has directed enormous resources to BCPSS over the years, and that there are many reasons for the deplorable conditions in which Baltimore City school children must learn, it is still the case—as it was in 1996—that the conditions are intolerable and must be addressed by all parties, including the State, as mandated under Article VIII. [MORE]

During the Year of “Safe and Effective,” US Authorities Knew COVID Shots Were Deadly: Mounting Evidence Suggests CDC Hid Data on COVID Injections and Myocarditis

From [HERE] Documents shared last week with Children’s Health Defense include emails between top officials at U.S. public health agencies showing that Israel’s Ministry of Health contacted U.S. public health officials as early as Feb. 28, 2021, about data showing a strong link between COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.

Israel’s Ministry of Health by March 2021 identified a nearly 1,000% increase in the risk of myocarditis associated with the second dose of the COVID-19 mRNA shot, according to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The documents, which were shared with Children’s Health Defense (CHD) last week, also include emails between top officials at U.S. public health agencies showing that Israel’s Ministry of Health contacted them about myocarditis related to the shots as early as Feb. 28, 2021.

Ministry of Health Deputy Director Roee Singer informed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the health ministry had concerns about “a large number of myocarditis and pericarditis cases in young individuals” following the Pfizer shot and sought to discuss those concerns with the CDC.

A source who obtained documents from the U.S. Department of State shared Israel’s data on myocarditis rates and U.S. public health agencies’ correspondence with CHD. The documents include a slide presentation by Israel’s Ministry of Health Division of Epidemiology dated March 31, 2021.

The slides showed that by the end of March 2021, 5.2 million Israelis received the first dose of the vaccine and 4.8 million received the second dose. The incidence of myocarditis following dose 1 was 1.1 per million, and 11.7 per million following dose 2 — a 964% increase in incidence between the two.

The CDC didn’t publicly admit the link between the COVID-19 shots and myocarditis until May 27, 2021, even though Israel’s Ministry of Health had reached out in February 2021, and the agency had the slide presentation soon after that.

The slide presentation was included in an April 5, 2021, email that Dr. Lauri Markowitz, co-lead of the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Technical Work Group, sent to her staff.

CHD Senior Scientist Karl Jablonowski, who along with CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker was among the first to detail the deception around myocarditis, told The Defender that the Israeli document amounts to a safety surveillance study of 5 million people — and it flags myocarditis as an “undeniably strong signal.”

Jablonowski added:

“It is unconscionable that the CDC, NIH [National Institutes of Health], and FDA-CBER [U.S. Food and Drug Administration-Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research] had possession of this study at a time when over a million U.S. citizens were being vaccinated every day, and yet those agencies took no observable action.

“The year 2021 was the year of ‘safe and effective,’ yet the safety studies were left undone. Had the gene therapy products repurposed as vaccines actually been safe, it would have been serendipitous.

“The U.S. citizens were among the last to know of vaccine-induced myocarditis, while the U.S. government was among the first to know.”

CHD received the documents just days after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) demanded public health agencies provide complete and unredacted documents about the development and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, after learning of extensive redactions in documents released in response to multiple FOIA requests.

In a letter sent Nov. 19 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FDA and the CDC, Johnson said the redactions make the documents nearly impossible to comprehend. He also said they obscure the public’s understanding of issues like myocarditis and pericarditis linked to vaccines.

CDC’s ’embarrassing’ response [MORE]

Illinois Appellate Court Orders Pretrial Release of White Officer Who Murdered Sonya Massey - says Prosecutors Failed to Provide Sufficient Basis to Detain Cop Who Shot Black Woman in the Face

From [HERE] An Illinois appellate court ruled Wednesday that a former deputy sheriff charged with the death of Sonya Massey , a 36-year-old Black woman shot in her home after she called police for help, should be released from jail pending his first-degree murder trial.

The 4th District Appellate Court’s unanimous decision found that a circuit court ruling in July that Sean Grayson should be detained was improper. It said prosecutors failed to supply sufficient evidence that there were no conditions the court could set that would lessen the danger Grayson posed to the community.

The case has drawn national attention as another example of police shooting Black people in their homes. Such are the tensions over the case that it was little surprise when Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin ordered Grayson held, finding his actions were a “departure from the expectations of civil society.”

The case forced the premature retirement of Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, who hired Grayson, and prompted a Justice Department investigation .

In his opinion for the court, Justice Eugene Doherty found fault with prosecutors for basing their arguments against release on Grayson’s failures to meet expectations during the shooting.

“When the question before the court is whether defendant can be safely released prior to trial on appropriate conditions, it is inappropriate to dwell on whether he fell short of the high expectations society rightly has for its law enforcement officers,” Doherty wrote. “A defendant’s conduct may be reprehensible and deserving of punishment, but that is an inappropriate basis for imposing pretrial detention.”

The opinion ordered a court hearing for Grayson at which suitable conditions for his release be set.

Grayson’s next court hearing is scheduled for Monday. [MORE]

Liberal Federal Judge Rejects Puff Daddy's Fourth Request for Pre-Trial Release, Claims Witness Tampering Concerns

From [HERE] A federal judge appointed by President Biden on Wednesday afternoon denied entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ latest motion for release from jail on a $50 million bail package due to “compelling evidence of Combs’ propensity for violence” and a strong risk of witness tampering.

Echoing the rulings of three other judges who also denied Combs’ requests for bail, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian cited in his five-page opinion a 2016 episode at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles where Combs was captured on surveillance video violently assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway, in addition to separate evidence “supporting a serious risk of witness tampering.”

Subramanian also noted that even in federal pretrial custody while has bail motions were pending, Combs had violated Bureau of Prisons regulations to obscure his communications with third parties.

Prosecutors had notified the judge that Combs paid other inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn to use their Phone Access Code (PAC) numbers to make calls to those not on his approved contact list, instructed family members and defense counsel to add other people to three-way calls so that their communications were more difficult to trace, and used a third-party messaging program called ContactMeASAP.

“His willingness to skirt BOP rules in a way that would make it more difficult for his communications to be monitored is strong evidence that the court cannot be ‘reasonably assure[d]’ as to the sufficiency of any conditions of release, especially given that they occurred when Combs was seeking bail, and when he knew the government’s concerns about witness tampering and obstruction were front and center.”

Combs, also known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, has been in federal pretrial detention since he was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby in September, six months after federal investigators searched his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

He was charged in a three-count indictment, accusing him of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

At a bail hearing this past Friday, Combs’ defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Subramanian that his legal team had secured a three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He said Combs could be confined there under “a very, very rigorous set of conditions,” including strict 24/7 monitoring by a private security firm.

His attorneys argued the current conditions of confinement infringe his constitutional rights to participate in his own defense. [MORE]

60 Members of Congress, Others are Urging Corpse Biden to Grant Clemency to the 40 Men Currently on Federal Death Row

From [HERE] On November 25, 2024, President Joe Biden pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys, an annual, symbolic tradition that highlights the president’s constitutional authority to issue pardons and commutations. Now, as President Biden sets to leave office in January 2025, 60 members of Congress and many others are urging him to grant clemency to the 40 men currently on federal death row. During his 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden said he would work to abolish the federal death penalty but there has been little evidence of anything done in furtherance of this promise. President Trump, on the other hand, has vowed to use and expand the federal death penalty when he resumes office.

A grant of clemency to some or all the federally death-sentenced men would not be unprecedented. President Biden would join a number of elected officials who have made similar mass grants of clemency for a variety of reasons. Since 1976, governors in eight states have commuted all death sentences under their authority, often citing systemic concerns. In 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan cleared the state’s death row, commuting 167 death sentences to life in prison due to many wrongful convictions and systemic concerns about the fairness of the state’s death penalty system. Upon announcing his decision, Gov. Ryan said, “I started with this issue because I was and still am concerned about innocence, but once I studied, I pondered what had become of our justice system, I came to care above all about fairness. Fairness is fundamental to the American system of justice and to our way of life.” In 2011, the state of Illinois abolished the death penalty, and then-Governor Pat Quinn commuted the sentences of the 15 individuals remaining on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gov. Quinn said that when he signed the abolition bill, he meant to “abolish the death penalty for everyone,” including those already sentenced to death. 

Most recently, Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the death sentences of 17 prisoners on the state’s death row before leaving office in 2022, calling the death penalty “both dysfunctional and immoral.” Gov. Brown’s commutations completed what she characterized as “the near abolition of the death penalty” by the state legislature in 2019. At that time, the legislature amended its death penalty statute to significantly limit the crimes for which capital punishment can be imposed. In her statement announcing the commutations, Gov. Brown called the death penalty “an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably.” Gov. Brown said the commutations were “consistent” with the legislature’s effort to functionally end the death penalty.

In 1986, New Mexico Governor Toney Anaya commuted the death sentences of five prisoners on the state’s death row. Gov. Anaya said that he did this because he “consistently opposed capital punishment as being inhumane, immoral, anti-God, and incompatible with an enlightened society.” In 1991, before leaving office, Ohio Governor Richard Celeste commuted the death sentences of eight death row prisoners. Ahead of New Jersey’s abolition of the death penalty in 2007, Governor Jon Corzine commuted the death sentences of the eight individuals remaining on the state’s death row. Governor Martin O’Malley commuted the death sentences of four prisoners still on Maryland’s death row in 2015, after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment in 2013. In 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted the death sentences of the three prisoners still on the state’s death row after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment. 

Kamala Harris' Campaign Paid Al Sharpton $500K for His Coin-Operated Support. MSNBC Staffers Feign Outrage after Massa' Media Promoted Her as Their Golden Retriever

From [HERE] Believe it or not, there are people at far-left MSNBC pretending to have journalistic scruples over the Al Sharpton payola scandal.

In September, the Kamala Harris campaign forwarded a cool $250,000 to a non-profit run by MSNBC contributor and fake civil rights activist Al Sharpton. In October the donation was doubled. All in all, Sharpton received $500,000 from the Harris campaign…and then…and then…

On October 20, Sharpton used the mighty MSNBC network resources to conduct a fawning interview with Kamala Harris.

“MSNBC was unaware of the donations made to the National Action Network,” a network spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon, the outlet that originally broke the scandal two weeks ago.

That “two weeks ago” is important because in the two weeks since the story broke, nothing has changed. The network has not disclosed the “donation” to its disintegrating viewership. Sharpton continues to make his usual-usual appearances without addressing the “donation.”

Boy, Democrats sure got it good.

However, Fox News Digital did find some MSNBC staffers pretending to have journalistic standards. Anonymously, (naturally), they are outraged…

“No one’s surprised that anybody at MSNBC was rooting for Harris. This feels like another level of nonsense… This has a bit of a dirty feel to it,” a current MSNBC staffer told Fox. “These things happen and they don’t bounce around MSNBC all that much. Like people just don’t care. This one feels, I’d say, there’s a deeper disappointment… This feels kind of grifty and gross.”

“There is a sense among the people I’ve spoken to that this feels like something wrong and that something should be done about it… It just doesn’t sit well with people.”

“That kind of money should not be changing hands to people who are cosplaying being a journalist. Maybe that’s not a fair term because I don’t know, is he a journalist?” the employee continued. “I don’t know. But that just feels a little bit like pay to play and it doesn’t feel right in an organization that we’re all still part of.”

I find this absurd. MSNBC is one giant pay-to-play network. That’s all it is. Every single second of MSNBC (and CNN) is transactional. The anchors and contributors spew outrageous lies and spread fear porn so that MSNBC will overpay them. When they are not spreading misinformation and dehumanizing the right, MSNBC staffers are saying what they need to say to enjoy entree to everything from cocktail parties to government leaks to all kinds of unearned access.

When you label yourself a news organization and refuse to do or say or report anything that might diminish your status, that’s payola. When you label yourself a news organization and actively participate in this… [

David Plouffe says Kamala Harris Campaign’s Internal Polling Never Had Her Ahead of Trump

From [HERE] Senior advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign suggested this week that there just wasn’t much else Harris could have done to beat Donald Trump.

Harris couldn’t have distanced herself from President Joe Biden, they said, because she was loyal. She couldn’t have responded more forcefully to attacks over trans rights, because doing so would have been playing Trump’s game.

And she might not have had much chance of winning anyway, given the deficit she inherited from Biden when he dropped out of the race in July.

“We were hopeful. I don’t know how optimistic we were, but we thought, OK, this is tied, and if a couple things break our way [we could win],” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the campaign, said Tuesday on the “Pod Save America” podcast in a joint interview with fellow Harris campaign alums Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Stephanie Cutter.

Plouffe said the campaign’s internal polling never had Harris ahead of Trump.

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

There’s no doubt that voter anger over high prices hurt Harris, just as it has hurt incumbent politicians all over the world. Since Trump’s victory, however, Democrats have debated the relative impacts of other factors, such as the campaign’s muted response to Trump’s anti-trans TV ads and Harris’ decision not to say how she’d be different from Biden.

During an early October appearance on “The View,” Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of the daytime talk show, asked Harris if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden, whose approval rating had been underwater since 2021.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, in an answer ready-made for a Trump TV ad. “And I’ve been part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”

Many Democratic pollsters and strategists have questioned why Harris didn’t give some example of how she’d be different, such as by saying she would have acted faster than Biden did to reduce migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cutter said the campaign heard the second-guessing ― but, she said, Harris was merely being true to herself and loyal to Biden, and saying otherwise would have backfired. [MORE]

Damian Williams, 1st Black SDNY U.S. Attorney, Resigns before Diddy and Eric Adams Trials

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has announced his decision to resign from his position effective December 13 at 11:59 p.m.

Williams, who has been at the forefront of several major legal cases, including the convictions of Senator Robert Menendez and Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as the ongoing investigations involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Sean "Diddy" Combs, will be succeeded by his deputy, Ed Kim, who will serve as acting U.S. Attorney.

Williams' resignation comes just before the trials of Adams and Combs are set to proceed, marking a significant shift in leadership during a critical time for the office. His tenure has been characterized by high-profile cases and a commitment to maintaining the integrity of one of the most respected legal institutions in the nation. [MORE]

Judge May Order Federal Takeover of Rikers. Liberal NYC Authorities Cage Their 90% Black/Latino Inmates, Pre-Trial in Reprehensible Conditions. Court Finds Jail in Contempt Over Pervasive Violence

Waiting to Go to Court Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence But it Is If You're Black or Latino and Live in Liberal NYC, Where the So-Called Right to a Speedy Trial and Humane Detention are Non-Existent

From [HERE] and [HERE] A U.S. judge on Wednesday said she was leaning toward ordering a federal takeover of New York City's Rikers Island jail complex, after finding the city had failed to improve violent conditions that put inmates and staff at risk.

In a 65-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city and its Department of Correction were in contempt of 18 provisions of court orders designed to remedy the use of excessive force and improve staff supervision.

"Those who live and work in the jails on Rikers Island are faced with grave and immediate threats of danger, as well as actual harm, on a daily basis," Swain wrote.

The case stems in part from a class action lawsuit in 2012 brought on behalf of Rikers inmates alleging conditions at the jail violated their constitutional rights. After the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office intervened in the case, the city in 2015 agreed to have a federal monitor keep tabs on the jail.

Swain said she was inclined to impose a receivership, a structure in which an individual answerable to her would be responsible for safety at Rikers. The judge gave the city, the plaintiffs and the U.S. Attorney's office until Jan. 14 to propose what such an arrangement could look like.

In a statement, the city said it had made progress and would continue to work with the federal monitor to improve safety.

The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit, and law firm Emery Celli, which brought the class action, said the ruling "will finally create a pathway for reform."

In her opinion, Swain said the rates of use of force, self-harm, deaths and other types of violence were worse today than they were in 2015.

There were 6,784 incidents of use of force at the jail in 2023, up from 4,652 in 2016, according to figures the judge cited. Thirty-three people have died in custody since 2022, according to the report.

More than 6,000 people were in custody on Rikers Island in mid-2023, according to the New York City Comptroller's office.

Separately, New York City in 2019 passed a law to close all jail facilities on Rikers Island and move detained individuals to new jails to be built elsewhere in the city.

Congressional Black Caucus Reaches Historic 62 Members - Yet Black Power is No Greater than it was in 1971 when the CBC was Formed

From [HERE] The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) will enter the 119th session of Congress with a historic 62 members, marking the largest number of Black federal lawmakers in U.S. history. In total, 67 Black lawmakers will serve, with five Republican members declining to join the caucus. However, this historic milestone comes against the backdrop of a new Trump administration that has signaled sharp policy shifts, including an almost entirely white Cabinet and the implementation of the anti-minority Project 2025.

The CBC, established in 1971 to advocate for Black and marginalized communities, now represents 120 million Americans, including 41% of Black Americans. Yet its leaders face a steep challenge under a Trump administration openly pursuing policies that could roll back decades of progress in civil rights, healthcare access, and economic equity.

“We’ve always been the conscience of Congress, no matter who’s in charge,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., a senior CBC member and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But now we have a larger choir of leaders ready to call truth to power, ensuring the voices of the voiceless are heard. This administration poses a danger, and we’re here to counter that.” [MORE]

Would the NAACP Ever Issue a Travel Ban for a City Controlled by Elite White Liberals? NAACP Only Seeks Resignation of Trenton Police Chief after DOJ Report Shows Cops Routinely Degrade Black People

A Black political organization is an organization run, controlled, directed and defined by Black people whose exclusive mission pertains to the general welfare of Black people and aims to do the greatest good for the greatest number of Black people. Political organizations involving decision making and substantial financing from elite whites are not “Black” organizations. Such organizations may have the ostensible purpose of being “black” but their actual purpose is to serve the interests of elite whites by influencing and directing the thought and action of Black sheeple. WHEN THEIR SUBORDINATE GOAL OF HELPING BLACK PEOPLE CONFLICTS WITH THEIR PRIMARY PURPOSE OF ENABLING ELITE LIBERAL INTERESTS, THE former WILL BE DISCARDED.

NAACP is an organization heavily financed and controlled by wealthy white liberals. The NAACP issued a Travel advisory warning Black people to avoid Florida because its College Board rejected a newly proposed African-American Studies advanced placement (AP) class. The NAACP plainly indicated THAT GOP GOVERNOR Ron DeSantis was the target of its action, BECAUSE HE IS A REPUBLICAN. In contrast, NAACP took no similar action IN TRENTON, A CITY CONTROLLED BY ELITE WHITE LIBERALS. Surely, the use of unprovoked, unjustified and disproportionate force by TRENTON COPS to injure or destroy Black life and to intentionally interfere with Black people’s daily freedom of movement and free speech are far more serious deprivations than rejecting a class curriculum for college bound students. Indeed, as a practical matter Black tourists should stay away from liberal TRENTON because the DOJ report demonstrates that it is a dangerous place to be for Blacks – as cops have been niggerizing, targeting and putting Blacks in greater confinement with the apparent support or approval of white liberal judges, prosecutors, politicians, administrators and white liberal controlled local media and most white citizens. OBSERVE THAT THE NAACP ALSO DID NOT ISSUE A TRAVEL BAN WHEN DOJ SIMILARLY DISCOVERED THAT MINNEAPOLIS POLICE WERE ROUTINELY DEGRADING AND DEPRIVING BLACKS OF THEIR RIGHTS LAST YEAR. MINNEAPOLIS IS ANOTHER CITY CONTROLLED BY EITE WHITE LIBERALS.

FUNKTIONARY defines the NAACP as “The Negro-Anglo-American Corporate Preserve. 2) National Association for the Advancement of Confused People.”

DOJ Finds Misrule, Rights Lacking for Blacks in Trenton. Uncontrollable Cops Routinely Subject Blacks to Unreasonable Force, Stops/Searches/Seizures, Arrests w/o Cause; Degrade Blacks in Liberal City

From [HERE] The NAACP in Trenton, New Jersey, is calling for the resignation of the city's police director and the creation of a community-based police review board.

This comes after a Department of Justice investigation found the Trenton Police Department engaged in systemic misconduct, including the use of excessive force, as well as conducting unlawful stops.

Several speakers, including victims, called for change outside the city's police department.

The year-long investigation also found that Trenton officers used unnecessary force during a 2022 police stop when they shot a young Black man driving away from a scene. He is now paralyzed.

Attorney Gregg Zeff says trust is lost with the public.

The DOJ has recommended the department change policies and improving training.

NIH Chief Confesses COVID Health Initiatives Were Completely Made Up and Vax Didn't Stop COVID. Raja Cholan: 'We’re all going to learn about the dangers of COVID Injections When It’s Too Late'

From [HERE] O’Keefe Media Group on Monday released its first undercover video in its NIH Tapes series.

In OMG’s first video release, Raja Cholan, Chief of Health Data Standards Branch US National Library of Medicine, said the Covid health initiatives were completely made up.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this out loud. They might have funded a lab in Wuhan, China and Pfizer and Moderna are getting a bunch of money from all of these vaccine mandates,” Raja Cholan said to the OMG undercover journalist.

“I don’t even know if these vaccines stop you from getting COVID. They don’t,” Raja Cholan said, adding, “We’re all going to learn [about the dangers of the Covid vaccine] when it’s too late.”

Raja Cholan said the ‘six feet of social distancing’ rule “wasn’t based on any real evidence that it did anything – it was completely made up.”

The NIH Chief told OMG that Trump’s victory is “worse for the NIH.”

“It would be better for a Democrat to be in office,” he said.

“We fly under the radar of really being scrutinized…I don’t think I have too much to worry about. That’s not recording, right?” he said to the undercover journalist.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) earlier this year finally admitted to funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic.

This admission directly contradicts previous statements made under oath by Dr. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). [MORE]

Florida Surgeon General Dr Ladapo Recommends the State to Remove Fluoride from Public Water Due to Serious Health Risks

From [HERE] Florida’s Surgeon General has issued a recommendation that fluoride be removed from public water.

Joseph Ladapo said fluoride should be removed from public water by 1 January next year or “as soon as possible thereafter.”

Ladapo said the measure was necessary because of the “neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.”

“Historically, community water fluoridation was considered to be a method to systemically, through ingestion, deliver fluoride to all community members. However, currently many municipalities across the U.S. and several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, have eliminated water fluoridation,” the guidance states.

The guidance goes on to list a wide variety of detrimental health effects of fluoride exposure beyond certain levels, which include “adverse effects in children reducing IQ, cognitive impairment, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, “increased neurobehavioral problems in children whose mothers ingested fluoride during pregnancy,” and “accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland, causing sleep cycle disturbance.”  

Ladapo added that “the previously considered benefit of community water fluoridation does not outweigh the current known risks, especially for special populations like pregnant women and children.”

The recommendation comes after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made clear that removing fluoride from public water will be one of the new Trump administration’s top health priorities.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy Tweeted.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President ​@realDonaldTrump and First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to Make America Healthy Again.”

In September, Judge Edward Chen, in the Northern District of California, ruled that fluoride in drinking water poses an “unreasonable risk” of reduced IQ in children.

“In all, there is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health; it is associated with a reduction in the IQ of children and is hazardous at dosages that are far too close to fluoride levels in the drinking water of the United States,” Chen wrote.

“EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level,” he added, citing a report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Toxicology Program (NTP) which “concluded that fluoride is indeed associated with reduced IQ in children, at least at exposure levels at or above 1.5 mg/L.”

American towns have already started removing fluoride from their water supplies after Judge Chen’s ruling.

Yorktown and Somers, both in New York State, have both announced an end to municipal fluoridation.

Somers Supervisor Robert Scorrano said that the town’s decision to stop fluoridating the municipal water supply would “give residents the freedom to choose their own sources of fluoride, ensuring personal control over their health decisions. Additionally, concerns about potential long-term health risks from fluoride exposure support reevaluating its use in public water systems.”