From [HERE] The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old Jerrel Gillentine Jr., of Golden, Mississippi.
Police Chief Tommy Ivy mentioned that they got a call at around 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The body has been sent the the Mississippi Crime Lab for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
A MODERN DAY LYNCHING IN WHITE, LIBERAL NY From [HERE] A white New York State Department of Corrections officer has been found guilty and two others were acquitted in the killing of Robert Brooks, an inmate at an upstate prison.
The 12 person jury was overwhelming white. [MORE] The jury and alternatives are comprised of eight women and four men. [MORE]
David Kingsley was found guilty of murder and manslaughter. He'll be sentenced on Dec. 15. He faces 25 years to life in prison.
Matthew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer were acquitted of all charges against them.
Brooks was beaten to death last December at Marcy Correctional Facility, about 180 miles northwest of New York City. He had been transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup, and was dead within an hour of his arrival. The incident was caught on body-worn cameras. Those videos triggered widespread outrage.
Six guards indicted in February have since pleaded guilty (but have not all been sentenced?) On May 5, Officer Walrath accepted a plea bargain reducing his charges from murder to manslaughter, with a 15-year prison sentence. On May 14, Gentile pled guilty to attempted tampering with physical evidence, and was sentenced to one-year conditional discharge.
"There is no justice in this verdict and no justice in this trial. Robert Brooks was murdered not just at the hands of these prison guards, but by a system of human caging that tears apart families and values brutal perpetual punishment over healing and transformation," Center for Community Alternatives community organizer Thomas Gant said. "We must honor Robert Brooks by dismantling the conditions that made his killing possible and create fair pathways home for incarcerated people who have transformed while inside." [MORE]
Part of the savage beating — which prosecutors said was the final of three beatings to Brooks — was recorded on video by body cameras worn by four of the prison guards. None had turned on their camera, but 30 minutes of video was passively recorded without audio.
The Brooks family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court claiming state officials oversee a “dangerously broken” prison system that brutalizes inmates. According to the civil complaint:
“On December 9, 2024, prison staff at Marcy Correctional Facility (“Marcy”) repeatedly punched, kicked, and otherwise physically attacked Robert while he was at all times handcuffed, restrained, and completely defenseless. Robert’s fatal beating by the people charged with protecting him—a prolonged beating so severe and grotesque that it shocks the conscience— occurred because of the ongoing tolerance of staff violence against people incarcerated at Marcy and other prisons throughout the NYSDOCCS system. Robert’s attackers systematically and casually beat him to death. Other Defendants assisted in the fatal beating by further restraining Robert when he was already handcuffed and then also later shackled. Still other Defendants simply stood by and observed the fatal beating as if it were a normal and common occurrence at Marcy. On information and belief—it was exactly that.
Robert had done nothing to justify the use of any force against him, much less deadly force. Robert’s killers were unaware that some of their own body-worn cameras (“BWC”s) passively recorded much of the attack on video. As Marcy staff brutalized Robert, they believed that their actions would never see the light of day.
None of the Defendants reported the attack. Instead, after killing Robert, they concocted lies to attempt to cover up their actions and then went about their daily business as usual. 5. The video footage showing Robert’s fatal assault reveals a chilling scene. It depicts several large white law enforcement officers torturing a bloodied Black man who is restrained, helpless, and struggling to maintain consciousness. The perpetrators’ brutality goes on and over the course of roughly ten minutes. It continues past several initial rounds of beatings. It continues beyond one officer hammering Robert repeatedly with the heel of a shoe and another officer lifting Robert by the neck using a chokehold. The brutality continues even beyond Robert losing the ability to sit upright and well after Robert falls into a state of semiconsciousness.
Almost as disturbing as the video’s depiction of violence perpetrated on Robert by at least six Defendants is the demeanor of at least nine other Defendants who all stood by watching Robert’s killing. Rather than making any effort to end the inhumane brutality, every staff member who was present casually observed Robert’s prolonged attack as if it were a routine activity. All remained calm and utterly unfazed by what was happening. Some appear bored. Others appear amused, visibly smiling or laughing at what seems to have been a spectator sport to them. The brutal attack on Robert was very obviously business-as-usual for all involved.
The video is frightening and very difficult to watch, but it reflects the dark and dangerous reality that individuals incarcerated at Marcy face on a regular basis. It reveals precisely what Marcy staff do to those incarcerated in the prison when they believe no one is watching. It evidences the rampant abuses that New York prisoners as well as the Correctional Association of New York (“CANY”)1 have reported and warned about for years. As CANY recognized, “Mr. Brooks’s death cast a harsh light on the grim realities of life within our state prisons, realities that have been documented by [CANY] for decades.” For far too long, CANY’s warnings that the lives of people in NYSDOCCS are profoundly at risk and those individuals’ pleas for help and protection have been met with profound silence.”
Specifically, video shows that sometime after his transport van arrived at Marcy, Robert was on the ground outside of a Marcy building with his hands handcuffed behind his back, while surrounded by Defendants Kieffer, Mashaw, Kessler and Kinglsey. According to the civil complaint:
“After Defendants Trombly and Farina approached the group, two of the Defendants lifted Robert off the ground and began moving him toward the Marcy Infirmary Building with his arms extended above his head and his upper torso parallel to the ground. The other four Defendants in the group followed.
Approximately one minute later, at 9:22 p.m., Robert entered the Infirmary Building carried by three Defendants. Defendants Kessler and Anzalone each held Robert by his arms and Defendant Kingsley held Robert by both of his feet, carrying him in a contorted face- down position
The Defendants proceeded to carry Robert into the open door of a medical examination room, in and around which other On-Scene Defendants were already gathered.
On information and belief, the On-Scene Defendants knew that there were no surveillance cameras in Marcy’s medical examination rooms and they deliberately took Robert to that location so there would be no recordings of what they intended to do to him.
Inside the room, with the door left open, Defendants placed Robert on an examination table face down on his stomach. One Defendant used his knee and hands to forcibly restrain Robert’s legs, while at least one other Defendant used his arms to forcibly restrain Robert’s upper body
Thereafter, over the course of approximately ten minutes, numerous On-Scene Defendants continued to viciously batter Robert in myriad ways without any provocation whatsoever on Robert’s part. Robert’s hands remained restrained behind his back the entire time, leaving him no means to defend himself against Defendants’ attacks or soften their blows.
The continued assault on Robert included, but was not limited to, the actions described in the following paragraphs, that were all recorded on video.
Defendant Anzalone repeatedly punched Robert while Robert was on his back on the examination table, leaving his face visibly bloodied and swollen when Defendants then raised his upper torso
Defendant Farina forcibly tried to shove a white cloth into Robert’s mouth while Defendant Kinglsey kept both of his hands grasped around Robert’s neck, impairing Robert’s ability to breathe
When Robert struggled to move his head for breath, Defendant Anzalone grabbed the front of Robert’s shirt and Defendant Kingsley pulled back on Robert’s neck as Defendant Farina rapidly punched Robert in the face and neck or shoulder area, with hard closed-fist blows, at least six times.
After Defendant Farina’s initial punches to Robert’s face made Robert fall back onto the examination table, Defendant Anzalone punched Robert in the groin or leg area at least twice as Defendant Farina simultaneously continued to punch Robert’s face or shoulder area.
Seconds later, Defendant Kinglsey lifted Robert’s upper torso back up off the table with one hand behind Robert’s head, and another hand around Robert’s neck, so that Robert was again in a sitting position on the edge of the table
Defendant Kingsley then proceeded to position both of his hands around Robert’s neck and lift Robert’s buttocks up off the table two consecutive times by pulling up on Robert’s neck
Defendant Kingsley next repositioned himself by placing his right arm further around Robert’s neck, in a chokehold, and once again forcefully raised Robert up off the examination table by his neck (see Figures 8 and 9 below).
At the same time, Defendant Farina threw away the white cloth that he previously tried to shove into Robert’s mouth, removed one of his gloves, and examined the hand he had just used to repeatedly strike Robert (see Figure 8 below). Defendant Farina then opened and closed his fingers and shook out his hand in an apparent effort to relieve the self-inflicted pain caused by his repeated blows to Robert’s face and head.
Defendant Kingsley then forcefully shoved Robert back down to a seated position on the examination table. Defendant Anzalone next proceeded to repeatedly beat Robert in the stomach with the back of one of Robert’s shoes.
Next, Defendant Anzalone and Defendant Kingsley pushed Robert’s head and shoulders back down onto the examination table once again. Defendant Anzalone, Defendant Kingsley, and Defendant Galliher then restrained Robert’s upper torso, while Defendant Farina kicked his foot into Robert’s groin (see Figure 10 below).
Defendant Farina shifted his weight to push his foot deeper into Robert’s groin or lower stomach area for approximately 8 seconds while the three other Defendants surrounding Robert continued to restrain Robert’s upper body.
Defendant Walrath then joined the assault on Robert’s groin area by holding at least one of Robert’s legs to prevent him from closing them to protect himself.
Thereafter, Defendant Anzalone proceeded to punch Robert in the stomach. Defendants Walrath and Farina then forcibly restrained Robert’s legs and feet with their hands as Robert lay on his back on the examination table, while at the same time other Defendants, including Defendants Kingsley and Anzalone, applied pressure to Robert’s upper body area for an extended period, further restricting his ability to breathe.
When Robert’s body began writhing, Defendant Farina punched Robert three times in the area between Robert’s buttocks and upper thighs.
While Defendant Farina was delivering those punches to Robert’s right side, Defendant Walrath delivered multiple punches to Robert’s left side
While Robert remained on his back on the examination table, with his lower ribcage area visibly extended, Defendant Anzalone struck Robert’s stomach twice with his hands, provoking no visible response from Robert.
After being prompted by another Defendant, Defendant Anzalone then gave Robert a sternum rub.2 Robert’s stomach rose up, demonstrating that he was still responsive to pain.
Defendants, including Defendant Galliher, then placed Robert’s ankles in leg cuff restraints (also known as “leg irons”) while Robert remained on his back on the examination table with his hands restrained behind him.
For an extended time thereafter, Defendant Kingsley kept one of his hands on Robert’s neck and his other hand on Robert’s left arm, while Defendant Anzalone used one of his hands to restrain Robert’s right shoulder. During this period, Robert’s body writhed again with his ribcage visibly extended (see Figure 12 below), and Defendant Anzalone intermittently used his free hand to poke the side of Brooks’ stomach and strike the side of Brooks’ ribcage.
Defendant Anzalone then shifted his weight to push his other hand down harder on Robert’s right shoulder. Next, Defendants Kinglsey and Anzalone forcefully yanked Robert upright into a sitting position at the edge of the examination table by pulling up on his shoulders while Defendant Anzalone simultaneously dug his fist into Robert’s lower stomach area.
Defendant Kingsley and Defendant Anzalone held Robert by the back of his neck to allow Defendant Anzalone to deliver a hard, closed-fist punch to Robert’s stomach (see Figure 13 below). Defendant Anzalone stopped supporting the right side of Robert’s body as he stepped away to retrieve rubber gloves, leaving Robert to struggle to hold himself fully upright
Defendant Anzalone approached Robert once again and grabbed the front of the neck hole of Robert’s shirt with his now-gloved hand. Defendants Anzalone and Kingsley then forcefully yanked Robert into a standing position, lifted Robert’s feet and body up off the ground by Robert’s arms and shirt, shoved Robert into a closed window shade in the corner of the medical examination room, and pushed their knees into the back of his legs.
Robert remained in the corner for an extended period, during which time Defendants Kinglsey, Kessler, and Anzalone continued to push Robert into the wall, apparently committing other abuses that are not visible on camera.
Robert was eventually pushed down onto his knees, remaining in that position until Defendant Anzalone wrapped both of his arms around Robert’s torso and violently jolted Robert’s entire body up off the ground.
Thereafter, Defendants moved Robert back to the examination table, where two Defendants removed Robert’s pants as Defendant Anzalone gave Robert another sternum rub, which this time provoked no apparent response.
By approximately 9:32 p.m., Robert lay motionless and apparently unresponsive, with his pants removed and his socks hanging halfway off his feet, and Defendants finally ended their beating.
Robert was eventually transported to Wynn Hospital in Utica, New York, where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of December 10, 2024.
The On-Scene Defendants who were not actively beating Robert at any given time casually entered and exited the room where Robert’s assault was underway, posted up in the open doorway of the room, or milled about in the hallway immediately outside the room, while nonchalantly watching Robert’s beating, hearing Robert’s abuse, and engaging in conversation with one another.
In the video footage of Robert’s fatal beating, the On-Scene Defendants at times appeared to be smiling or laughing and at other times appeared to be bored. Notably, none of the On-Scene Defendants in the footage appeared to be at all concerned at any time about what was being done to Robert or about the fact that Robert was plainly deteriorating to a state of unconsciousness.
Despite seeing, hearing, and otherwise knowing that Robert was being beaten to death, all the On-Scene Defendants failed to intervene to stop Robert’s assault at any time, despite having ample opportunity to do so.
All the On-Scene Defendants were likewise deliberately indifferent to Robert’s obvious need for critical medical care that could have saved his life.” [MORE]
From [HERE] and [MORE] A white New York state corrections officer was sentenced Monday in connection with the fatal beating an inmate earlier this year at a Central New York prison.
Messiah Nantwi, 22, was beaten by corrections officers who were part of an emergency response team at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York. He died at at Wynn Hospital in Utica, New York later that day. Nantwi was being held in pre-trial detention on charges of shooting two men in Harlem in April 2023
Oneida County Court Judge Michael Nolan sentenced the former officer, Daniel Burger, to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison.
Burger previously pleaded guilty to first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. He had been indicted on that charge, as well as first-degree manslaughter, first-degree gang assault, second-degree gang assault and fifth-degree conspiracy.
Prosecutor Alphonse Williams, an Onondaga County senior assistant district attorney, said Burger did “lay hands” on Nantwi, but was not a major contributor to his death. [MORE]
Nantwi, a 22-year-old incarcerated individual at Mid-State Correctional Facility, died March 1 after body camera footage shows correction officers beating Nantwi with multiple strikes to his body and head with their boots in series of multiple beatings at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
The officers used their fists, batons and boots to strike Nantwi, prosecutors have said. He was found with no signs of life 45 minutes after the guards first entered his cell.
The officers then worked to cover their tracks, prosecutors said. They are accused of falsifying forms, planting a weapon and meeting the following day at a local diner to agree on a false story.
Ten guards were indicted in the case, including two for murder. They and five others were charged with manslaughter. Four, including Burger, have pleaded guilty. Most recently, Francis Chandler, who had also faced manslaughter and conspiracy charges, pleaded guilty this month to second-degree gang assult in Oneida County Court. Another six people have agreed to become cooperating witnesses for the prosecution.
The case is set to go to trial early next year.
Additional former Mid-State correction officers are expected in court this week.
Mid-State Correctional is located across the street from Marcy Correctional Facility, where white correction brutally officers beat Robert Brooks on Dec. 9, 2024, causing his death.
According to the indictment:
On Saturday, the 1st day of March of 2025, the administration of the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York in Oneida County was dealing with a Corrections Officer strike. To deal with the shortage of Correctional Officers, the Governor of the State of New York mobilized the New York State National Guard to assist New York Correctional Facilities in guarding the incarcerated individuals and to maintain order. The National Guardsmen received little training to deal with these prisoners or on how to interact with them.
On this date, at approximately 10:58 a.m. a request for assistance was broadcast by the National Guard resulting in the Mid-State CERT (Corrections Emergency Response Team) team responding to Building 21 to deal with an unknown issue with an incarcerated individual Defendants were part of that CERT Team and upon arriving at Building 21 they were directed to Room 21-A and Incarcerated Individual Messiah Nantwi by the National Guardsmen. Having no clear understanding of why CERT response was necessary, Defendants entered Messiah Nantwi's room after a number of CERT members had already engaged the Incarcerated Individual.
During the subsequent encounter, contrary to DOCCS protocols, defendants began beating Messiah NantwL including multiple strikes to his body and head with their boots. Once Messiah Nantwi was no longer responsive, defendants transported Messiah Nantwi out of Building 21 with their objective being to take him to the Facility's Infirmary. While defendants transported Incarcerated Individual Messiah Nantwi down the stairwell out of Building 21, a further assault occurred with Messiah Nantwi being assaulted on the stairs by defendants as he was carried out of the building. Messiah Nantwi was subsequently dumped in a holding cell at the Infirmary and further struck by defendant CALEB BLAIR. As a result of the numerous beatings by defendants and their fellow Correctional Officers, Incarcerated Individual Messiah Nantwi died due to massive head trauma and numerous other injuries to his body. Defendants' conduct in beating Messiah Nantwi, in kicking him and stomping on his head for no legitimate law enforcement purpose, and for further assaulting him and injuring him on the stairs exiting his building, and for leaving him unattended in a holding cell for several minutes while displaying no urgency for medical personnel to check on him, demonstrated depraved indifference to the life of Incarcerated Individual Messiah Nantwi, and resulted in his death. [MORE]
From [HERE] The chief of Detroit police said multiple policy violations occurred in the moments that led up to an officer-involved shooting that escalated following a traffic stop over the weekend.
A supervisor was not called when the driver requested one, officers should not have pursued the driver over a traffic violation, and it is against department rules to discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle unless extreme circumstances such as one's life is in jeopardy.
"I find them concerning," chief Todd Bettison said of the policy violations during a press conference on Monday.
The shooting unfolded Sunday afternoon after a traffic stop for speeding grew into an argument over the offense, then a police pursuit, and ending with the driver being struck six times.
She has since been released from the hospital and ordered released from police custody and will not be charged, Bettison said.
An officer was on routine patrol Sunday afternoon in the area of 8 Mile and Van Dyke when they observed a black-colored Dodge Durango allegedly speeding. Other alleged traffic violations include tinted windows and an obscured license plate.
The driver disagreed with the reason for the stop and requested the officer's supervisor "numerous times," including calling 911. The officer requested backup and physically opened the driver's door after it arrived.
They were unsuccessful in removing the driver from the car and a backup officer pepper-sprayed her. The driver closed the door and fled from the scene.
Police pursued her for a mile before boxing in the vehicle at Concorde and Outer Drive.
At that time, another officer that boxed in the driver exited their vehicle and ordered the woman out of her vehicle. The driver instead tried to flee the scene again and the officer that had ordered her out of the car filed multiple shots into the driver's vehicle.
The Durango then fled and police pursued them again, eventually ending up at a police facility. First aid was rendered to the driver who was then taken to a hospital before being transported to the Detroit Detention Center.
On Monday, Bettison said he reviewed the body camera footage from the incident and ordered the driver to be released from jail. He said they would not be charged in the incident.
The chief added he would submit a request to the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to have the officer who shot the driver be suspended without pay.
A warrant request has also been filed with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and charges could follow, Bettison said. Michigan State Police are overseeing the investigation.
"The officer will be held accountable for that," he said.
Bettison said multiple department policies were violated during the incident, starting with the initial officer failing to call for a supervisor after the driver requested one.
At that point, the request counts as a citizens complaint and must be escalated to a higher-ranking officer. It is also not department policy to pursue a vehicle for a traffic violation.
"We will pursue individuals who have committed violent crimes only," Bettison said. "As officers, we are trained to de-escalate situations. Failing to request a supervisor when one is requested falls in line with a citizen complaint."
The decision to discharge a firearm should only be made in extreme circumstances where someone's life is in jeopardy.
Bettison declined to release the body camera footage from the scene, saying it would be available after state police had finished their investigation.
The only information about the officer that was released is that they have been on the job for a year and nine months, and don't have any pending cases of discipline against them.
[MORE]
Reform MP Sarah Pochin has hit out at “woke” adverts “full of black people”. The Runcorn and Helsby MP said it “drives me mad” and claimed the “average white family” was no longer represented.
Ms Pochin was responding to a viewer on TalkTV who complained about the demographics of advertising. [MORE] She is white.
Racists are deluded persons who consequently miss reality. For one thing, Black people stopped using the word “woke” shortly after they started using it sometime in 2012 -2014. It is now exclusively right wing terminology for causes and people they don’t respect. Pochin would prefer that when she sees black people on her TV that they are in a servant role or are portrayed in some degrading or stereotypical manner - see the new Starbucks commercial below.
Most white people believe they are superior to black people. The reason that most white people believe they are superior to Black people is because they have white skin. That is, they believe in an imaginary human hierarchy in which whites are supreme and Blacks are the most inferior. Accordingly, most white people (racists) seek to have or approve of, master-servant relations with Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you. The cooperative, master-servant relationship between whites and Black people is a main source of Black people’s problems.
From [HERE] After reaching an agreement with President Trump, David Ellison—the son of the second-richest man in the world, Larry Ellison—has acquired Paramount Global, the media giant that owns CBS News.
Larry Ellison, the largest private funder of the Israel Defense Forces, is deeply tied to the Israeli national security state and counts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among his closest friends.
David has already announced significant changes at CBS, promising “unbiased” news coverage and “varied ideological perspectives,” which are widely understood to signal a shift toward right-wing, pro-Trump coverage. Worse still, Bari Weiss, a journalist with a long history of zealous pro-Israel advocacy, is being considered as the network’s new ombudsman, shaping its political direction, preciselybecause of her “pro-Israel stance.”
MintPress News examines Ellison’s close ties to both Trump and Israel, Weiss’s extensive career as Israel’s most vocal supporter in the U.S., and what this means for the future of free and diverse speech in America.
ISRAEL’S MAN IN SILICON VALLEY
Although Skydance, Ellison’s media empire, is officially headed by David, it is well understood that father Larry holds both the purse strings and the reins of power. With a net worth of $301 billion, placing him second on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires Rankings, Larry made his fortune by founding tech giant Oracle.
Oracle started as a project for the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, it is named after Project Oracle, a 1970s CIA operation on which Ellison worked. For some time, the CIA was Oracle’s only customer, until it began to win contracts with other agencies of the U.S. national security state. Today, although Oracle’s customer base is much wider, it maintains its role as the privatized face of the CIA.
Yet if Oracle is close to Washington and Langley, it is perhaps even more intimately tied to the State of Israel. An avowed Zionist, Ellison has worked tirelessly to advance Israel’s political project. Among his closest personal friends is Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he vacationed on his private island in Hawaii. Ellison was so impressed and confident in the Israeli prime minister that he offered him a seat on his company’s board, replete with a salary of $450,000.
While Oracle has signed multiple lucrative contracts with the Israeli national security state, Ellison himself has personally bankrolled the Israeli Defense Forces, giving tens of millions of dollars to the Friends of the IDF, an organization that purchases equipment for the Israeli military. This included a $16.6 million pledge (the largest single donation the group has received) to build a new training facility for soldiers defending what he called “our home.” As Ellison explained:
In my mind, there is no greater honor than supporting some of the bravest people in the world, and I thank Friends of the IDF for allowing us to celebrate and support these soldiers year after year. We should do all we can to show these heroic soldiers that they are not alone.”
Oracle sees itself as an activist organization, one whose goal is the advancement of the Israeli colonization project. Safra Catz, the company’s Israeli-American CEO, bluntly explained that any employees uncomfortable with supporting a genocide should simply quit. “We are not flexible regarding our mission, and our commitment to Israel is second to none,” she said, adding:[MORE]
From [HERE] A white cop charged with murdering an unarmed Black woman in her Springfield area home last year testified Monday that he fired his gun in self-defense, and that his actions “matched the threat level.”
Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson is on trial for murder for killing 36-year-old Sonya Massey in her kitchen after she had called the police on July 6, 2024, to report a suspected prowler.
This police shooting and the subsequent criminal trial have drawn national attention, due to the racial dynamics involved, and the graphic nature of police body-camera footage showing Massey’s death.
The jury is made up of 11 white people and 1 black person.
Grayson’s decision to make a surprise appearance on the stand as the defense’s first witness represented a high-stakes legal gambit aimed at clearing his name, and drew scoffs at several points from Donna Massey — Sonya’s mother — who was seated in the Peoria County courtroom.
Grayson, 31, seemed relaxed when he testified that he shot Massey in self defense because he believed she was about to throw a pot of boiling water at him. He said he had ordered Massey to remove the pot from her stovetop when she told him that she would “rebuke him in the name of Jesus.”
“It threw me off, it was out of nowhere,” Grayson said of Massey’s comment.
Body-worn camera footage introduced by prosecutors in the trial showed Massey had already removed the pot when Grayson said he would “shoot her in her f***ing face,” and pointed his gun at her. Massey then put her hands in the air, said, “I’m sorry,” and ducked behind her counter.
“We are trained to use force that will gain compliance to get the situation under control,” Grayson said. “In this situation, I matched the threat level, and the only thing that would have stopped the threat was my duty weapon.”
Grayson then testified he closed the distance between himself and Massey to “gain a direct line of sight on her,” and that he intended to arrest her for aggravated assault on an officer. That’s when, Grayson said, Massey jumped up, grabbed the pot of water and made a throwing motion at him. Grayson then fired three times at Massey, one bullet striking her just under her left eye.
Several members of the Massey family were seated in the courtroom gallery as Grayson testified.
Malachi Hill, Sonya’s teenaged son, stared expressionless at the former police officer. Donna Massey, Sonya’s mother, let out a “hmph” sound a few times during Grayson’s testimony.
On the other side of the aisle, Grayson’s family members were silently praying and reading from an annotated Bible.
Prosecutors have argued Grayson killed Massey without lawful justification because “he was mad at her.”
Under a roughly five-minute cross examination, Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser questioned Grayson about how details in his testimony did not square with what he wrote in his incident report of that night.
“You didn’t write telling Sonya Massey that ‘you better f***ing not, or you’ll shoot her in the f***ing face,’ did you?” Milhiser said.
“I don’t recall,” Grayson answered.
“If [the other responding officer] had his body-worn camera off, nobody would have heard you say that,” Milhiser said.
Several police use of force experts testifying as prosecution witnesses last week said Grayson violated several generally accepted de-escalation tactics. University of South Carolina Law Professor Seth Stoughton said Grayson should not have approached the counter Massey was ducking behind.
“The appropriate response is to deprive her of the opportunity [to throw the pot] by even walking out of the house,” Stoughton said. “Grayson made a series of decisions that were tactically unsound.”
Stoughton — who testified in the criminal prosecution of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020 — analyzed body-worn camera footage from Grayson’s fellow responding officer. He broke down the moments leading up to the shooting frame-by-frame, starting with Massey telling Grayson she will “rebuke him in the name of Jesus.”
“She’s saying some things that don’t entirely make sense in the context… indications of some kind of mental health issues,” Stoughton said. “But there is certainly no behavior here to show intent to use [the pot] as a weapon.”
Grayson had only been at the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department for a little over a year before the shooting. He was working as a patrol cop on the midnight shift, and testified that Massey lived in a “high crime” neighborhood in Springfield’s South Side.
Massey’s killing sparked outrage from the Springfield community. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has worked with the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police officers in 2020, helped the Massey family secure a $10 million settlement with Sangamon County. He’s expected to attend the trial this week.
Meanwhile, Springfield area activists have traveled the 75 miles to Peoria every day of the trial to host rallies outside the courthouse. Grayson, who is facing three counts of first degree murder, could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Both the prosecution and defense attorneys say they expect to deliver closing arguments by Wednesday.
More than 150 New York Times contributors have signed a pledge not to write for the US newspaper's opinion section, citing its “biased coverage” of the Israel-Palestine conflict and war on Gaza.
“Until The New York Times takes accountability for its biased coverage and commits to truthfully and ethically reporting on the US-Israeli war on Gaza, any putative 'challenge' to the newsroom or the editorial board in the form of a first-person essay is, in effect, permission to continue this malpractice,” the signatories to the letter wrote.
“Only by withholding our labor can we mount an effective challenge to the hegemonic authority that the Times has long used to launder the US and Israel’s lies,” the writers added.
The letter was signed by dozens of high-profile activists, artists, and US politicians including Rima Hassan; Chelsea Manning; Rashida Tlaib; Sally Rooney; Elia Suleiman; Greta Thunberg; Viet Than Nguyen; and Dave Zirin.
“We owe it to the journalists and writers of Palestine to refuse complicity with the Times, and to demand that the paper account for its failures, such that it can never again manufacture consent for mass slaughter, torture, and displacement,” the authors wrote. [MORE]
The Venezuelan government on Sunday strongly condemned ongoing military exercises conducted by Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the US Southern Command and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a dangerous provocation designed to escalate tensions in the Caribbean and threaten Venezuela’s national sovereignty.
In a statement, Caracas warned that these operations represent not defensive exercises, as claimed by Washington, but rather a direct attempt to militarize the region and spark confrontation.
Venezuela further stressed that the joint military activities are part of a broader plot involving a false-flag operation. According to the government’s statement, “a false flag attack is underway in waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago or from Trinidadian or Venezuelan territory to generate a full military confrontation with our country.”
The Venezuelan authorities stated they had captured a group of mercenaries with “direct information of the American intelligence agency” whose mission was to carry out such an operation in the region. A false flag attack, as defined by the statement, is one carried out in a way that makes another party appear responsible.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the government of Trinidad and Tobago for compromising its independence by aligning militarily with the US. It stated that this move amounts to a “clear concession of national sovereignty,” and accused Port of Spain of acting as a "military colony serving US interests."
The Foreign Ministry emphasized that Venezuela does not accept threats from any government aligned with the US. Caracas confirmed that the country’s national armed forces remain in a state of full alert and mobilization to counter what it called “a highly dangerous provocation.”
The statement concluded by affirming Venezuela’s commitment to defending its sovereignty and rejecting any attempt to turn the Caribbean into a platform for violence and foreign dominance. [MORE]
Aid groups have warned that the medical situation in Gaza remains unchanged, as Israeli restrictions continue to bar the entry of almost all medical supplies and equipment amid a fragile ceasefire.
Lena Dajani, a mutual aid volunteer who coordinates medical aid in Gaza, reported that “almost every doctor I’ve spoken to has said that nothing has changed in the healthcare sector” since the ceasefire came into effect on 10 October.
While health workers are no longer inundated with waves of casualties from bombardments and shootings at aid distribution sites, they continue to grapple with a lack of basic medical supplies and equipment.
The World Health Organization announced on Thursday that only 10 percent of the requested medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect.
“Sepsis is a big issue; there’s not a lot of disinfectant available. Hospitals are breeding grounds for viruses and bacteria”, Dajani told Middle East Eye.
However, she emphasised that the demand is not just for medical supplies and equipment. Overcrowding persists, with patients forced to sleep on the floor and discharged to makeshift tents.
“We’re talking about patients that in any other country would be in the ICU. There were patients that had just come out of a coma after shrapnel wounds to their vertebrae that were sleeping on the ground.” [MORE]
A Pedophile Palace in Honor of Epstein? Trump’s New Ballroom is Larger than The White House and Funded by Zionist Billionaires. Master Trump Tells His Subjects There was No Need for Public Input and They Love It!
President Donald Trump and his Zionist Billionaires are funding a new addition to the White House that is being advertised as a “Ballroom”.
“Health Impact News” has named this new addition to the Blight House “Pedophile Palace” which is a true symbol of American Culture here in 2025, and it is in honor of Jeffrey Epstein and the Epstein financial system that runs the United States today. [MORE]
PUBLIC MASTER DISREGARDS PUBLIC INPUT FOR THE PUBLIC’s BUILDING. From [HERE] A new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demands a temporary restraining order to halt any demolition and construction efforts until a public review process by the National Capital Planning Commission can be completed.
Any such order, however, may only be able to freeze construction on the ballroom, as The Washington Post reported around 3 p.m. that the East Wing has been demolished.
The plaintiffs, Charles and Judith Voorhees, claim the Trump administration has violated the National Capital Planning Act of 1952 by refusing to submit the final plans for the construction of a new ballroom to the planning commission.
Further, the administration has violated the National Historic Preservation Act by not identifying and evaluating the historic property, assessing potential impacts on the property and not consulting with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office to mitigate those impacts.
The government is also meant to obtain review from the Commission of Fine Arts, the Voorheeses say, which reviews and advises on the “design and aesthetics of the exterior modifications” to the White House.
“Defendants are unilaterally decoupling the demolition of the East Wing of the White House from the construction approval process to expedite the project, effectively bypassing the historic preservation and planning reviews required under federal law for a project of this magnitude on a protected national landmark,” the Voorheeses say in their complaint.
The Trump administration has defended plans to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom as merely the latest renovation to the “executive mansion,” creating a page on the White House website placing the construction at the end of a timeline that starts with the initial designing and construction under President John Adams. [more]
From [HERE] While the official narrative of why the U.S. Government has been shut down so long follows typical partisan political fighting with each side blaming the other, the real truth appears to be that Mike Johnson, the GOP Speaker of the House, refuses to swear in the newly elected representative from Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, who would become the 218th person to support Congressman Thomas Massie and Congressman Ro Khann’s discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor to release the Epstein files.
Johnson has used the excuse of the Government shutdown as the reason he will not swear in Grijalva, even though he swore in two Republicans earlier this year when the House was not in session after they won their elections in Florida.
As a result, the Attorney General for Arizona has now sued Mike Johnson over his refusal to swear in Adelita Grijalva after winning the election to represent her constituents in Arizona.
Here are two reports that include interviews with newly elected Adelita Grijalva, and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. [MORE]
From [HERE] When President Trump announced that the CIA had been authorized to conduct operations inside Venezuela, just as U.S drones struck another small boat off Venezuela’s coast, few people in the United States realized that much of this militarization begins on the soil of a land denied its own sovereignty: Puerto Rico.
The island that has lived under US rule since 1898 is once again being used as a staging ground for U.S. militarism, this time for Washington’s latest “war on drugs” narrative, masking a campaign of coercion against Latin America’s independent governments.
After invading Puerto Rico in 1898, the United States quickly turned the island into a strategic military outpost: the “Gibraltar of the Caribbean,” with naval bases in Ceiba, Roosevelt Roads, and Vieques designed to dominate the eastern Caribbean and protect the new artery of empire: the Panama Canal.
From World War I onward, Puerto Ricans were drafted into every major U.S. war, fighting and dying for a flag that still denies them full citizenship rights. Meanwhile, the island’s lands and waters were expropriated for bombing ranges, naval training, and intelligence operations.
For six decades, the U.S. Navy used Vieques as a live-fire testing ground, dropping millions of pounds of explosives and munitions, including napalm and depleted uranium. The result was environmental devastation and one of the highest cancer rates in the region. It took a mass civil disobedience movement to finally force the Navy out in 2003.
That victory proved Puerto Ricans’ capacity for organized resistance, but the structures of empire never disappeared.
Two decades later, those same bases and runways are being reactivated. In 2025, Washington quietly expanded military operations on the island, deploying F-35 fighter jets, stationing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, and rotating Marine and Special Operations units through Puerto Rican ports and airfields. The official justification is “counter-narcotics operations,” but the timing and scale point to something far larger: a regional military buildup aimed at Venezuela.
The aggression has now extended to Colombia, where Trump has cut off all U.S. aid and accused President Gustavo Petro of being a “drug leader.” The announcement came just days after Colombia’s president denounced the U.S. drone strikes off Venezuela’s coast, one of which, he warned, hit a Colombian vessel and killed Colombian citizens. Instead of accountability, Washington answered with insults and economic blackmail.
The Trump administration’s designation of a “non-international armed conflict with drug cartels” gives legal cover for drone strikes and covert missions far from U.S. territory. Puerto Rico’s colonial status makes it the perfect staging ground: a place the Pentagon can operate freely without congressional debate or local consent.
For Puerto Ricans, this militarization is not an abstract issue. It means more surveillance, more environmental risk, and a deeper entanglement in wars they never chose. It also signals a return to the same imperial logic that made Vieques a bombing range: using occupied territory to project power abroad.
Puerto Rico remains the oldest colony in the modern world, a U.S. “territory” whose people are “citizens” but not sovereign. They cannot vote for president, have no senators, and possess only a symbolic representative in Congress. That absence of sovereignty is what makes it so useful to the empire: a gray zone of legality where wars can be prepared without democratic consent.
This is not the first time Puerto Rico has been used as a military springboard. Its bases have served as logistical hubs for interventions across the hemisphere, from the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, to Grenada in 1983, and Panama in 1989. [more]
The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off the coast of Venezuela since this summer, when the Trump administration first began to shift assets to the region as part of its so-called war against narcoterrorism.
Here is a look at the ships, planes and troops in the region:
From [HERE] The Trump administration is ramping up military aggression against Venezuela. U.S. attacks on several boats in the Caribbean have killed at least 27 people as of Friday, October 17, The Independent reports. Now, President Donald Trump has signed a presidential finding, which approves CIA covert action in Venezuela.
The military and national security veterans at the Eisenhower Media Network disagree strongly with the use of the U.S. military in the Caribbean and the bullying of Latin America more broadly.
Senior fellow Michael Baker assesses the situation succinctly: The airstrikes in the Caribbean are “murder in international waters of unknown people and without due process.”
“Members of the Trump administration are like vigilante cops,” says senior fellow Bill Astore. “They think they can enforce the law by breaking the law. In attempting to display toughness, they’re showing moral weakness by murdering people who could well be innocent.”
The White House and the Pentagon have not even released the identities of the people on board or the precise nature of the cargo.
Senior fellow Matthew Hoh recalls the Tom Clancy war novel A Clear and Present Danger, which featured a well-funded covert program against a drug cartel in a Latin American country. “That storyline is now being implemented with one important addition: regime change,” Hoh explains.
“Tom Clancy was a hawk’s hawk, but even he knew the limits of military power, as well as the great dangers that come from a President’s constitutional crimes. Clancy’s story is a tragedy and a cautionary tale, not a triumph.” Citing the United States’ catastrophic military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, Hoh stresses that Washington’s efforts at regime change never end well.
Legality
The legal foundations for murder in the Caribbean are shaky, as Congress has authorized neither missile strikes nor war.
The administration designated the Cartel of the Suns (“Cartel de los Soles”) a terrorist organization and continues to argue that the cartel is a criminal group headed by Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro. Such a designation triggers an asset freeze and certain travel restrictions. It also demonizes the group and convinces some members of the American public to support attacks on that group.
The administration further argues that it’s self-defense to strike boats that allegedly bring drugs to the U.S.
“Self-defense” is a tried and true pretext for U.S. military activity. It was used to justify bombing Libya in 1986, invading Panama in 1989, bombing Iraq in 1993, invading and occupying Iraq in 2003, and bombing West Asia and Africa (e.g., Syria, Yemen, Somalia).
“In a world where government lies may be easily refuted in seconds, Trump’s initiation of war for Venezuelan oil and resources presented as a war on drugs and made up narco-terror is as illegal as it is embarrassing,” concludes senior fellow Karen Kwiatkowski.
A Bipartisan Affair
The U.S. government’s history of aggression against Latin America is extensive. Washington, D.C., makes sure that no country, especially one in the United States’ “backyard,” opposes the U.S.-led capitalist order or dares to use natural resources to benefit people instead of multinational corporations.
Hugo Chavez attempted to do just that in 1999. A coup soon followed – one which CIA, at the very least, knew about in advance.
It was the Obama administration that originally declared Venezuela to be a national security threat, unlocking many legal authorities, including the imposition of economic sanctions.
The first Trump administration expanded economic sanctions and imposed an embargo barring financial transactions with Venezuelan government officials and freezing all of the government’s assets in the U.S.
The Biden administration then levied more economic sanctions against Venezuelan officials and the oil industry and increased bounties on Venezuelan government officials. [MORE]
From [HERE] Dr. Reiner Fuellmich was kidnapped from Mexico in October 2023, taken to Germany, arrested and incarcerated. He has been in a German prison ever since.
There are many things about his case which expose that the German criminal justice system is broken, but above all, extradition laws prohibit someone from being extradited for political prosecution or persecution reasons.
Earlier this month, Andrew Bridgen posted on Twitter (now X) that he was arranging to visit Dr. Reiner Fuellmich in prison “as soon as is possible.”
A couple of weeks earlier, Ni-Vanuatu film director Philippe Carillo had compiled calls from around the world, from well-known freedom advocates, for the immediate release of Dr. Fuellmich. One of the contributors was Bridgen.
“Reiner is a courageous lawyer who was an early warner about the dangers of the covid jabs and the whole pandemic response … The German government saw him as a danger to their narrative … Reiner Fuellmich is a political prisoner and his continued incarceration is an affront to freedom in Europe and Germany,” Bridgen said.
Adding, “I would urge Donald Trump’s Administration to acquaint themselves with the facts around this case and put pressure on the German government to release him as soon as possible.
“Remember Reiner Fuellmich. He’s in prison for warning us of the threats, the existential threats from the pandemic response. He must not be forgotten. He must be released.”
Reiner Fuellmich (also written as Füllmich) is a German lawyer and former spokesman for the Corona Investigative Committee, a non-governmental investigative group based in Germany. He has been involved in efforts to pursue class action lawsuits in the United States against entities he alleges were responsible for damages stemming from the management of the covid pandemic, including claims related to the alleged misuse of PCR testing by German virologist Christian Drosten.
In September 2022, Viviane Fischer, a partner in the Corona Investigative Committee, accused Dr. Fuellmich of embezzling funds through overbilling for legal services. Fuellmich denied the allegations, claiming they were politically motivated to undermine the Committee’s investigation into deep state involvement in the global pandemic response.
Not to be deterred by Fischer’s false accusations, Dr. Fuellmich left the Corona Investigative Committee and founded the International Crime Investigative Committee (“ICIC”) to continue his work.
An arrest warrant for Dr. Fuellmich was issued in March 2023 while he was in Mexico. In October 2023, he was abducted by agents of the German state at an embassy in Mexico and taken to Germany, where he was arrested and held in pre-trial detention at Rosdorf prison.
In April 2025, Dr. Fuellmich was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. The Berlin prosecutor’s office had previously stated there was no cause for a criminal investigation. [MORE]
International Man: Recently, the State Bank of Vietnam deactivated more than 86 million bank accounts as part of its shift toward a new national digital ID system.
Officials call it a ‘security upgrade,’ but it effectively cut off millions from their own money overnight.
In Thailand, we’ve seen a similar push to tie financial and online activity to state-issued digital IDs.Freedom or Surveillanc...Rane, TheoBuy New $14.00(as of 12:27 UTC - Details)
Is this part of a coordinated global push toward centralized control through digital ID systems?
Doug Casey: Without doubt.
Money is a primary manifestation of personal freedom. Money isn’t just an economic good; it’s a moral good. It represents the hours of your life you spent earning it, and all that you hope to provide for yourself and others in the future. It is, in effect, congealed or crystallized life.
Those who want to control other people—collectivists, statists, Marxists, the Woke, socialists, and the like—naturally want to limit the uses and the value of money. Enforcing the use of fiat currencies issued by central banks is the ideal way of doing that. It amounts to a giant fraud. But the average person stupidly accepts it as part of the cosmic firmament.
People have been told that in a democracy, they’re the rulers. In reality, democracy in today’s world is just mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie. It amounts to a secular religion, where the State is a god, and politicians are its priests. When it comes to financial matters, the public has become accustomed to doing what they’re told.
This is nothing new. Few remember that when Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933, he used an Executive Order—the same vehicle that Trump uses for so many things today. You’d have thought that, almost a hundred years ago, Americans would have resisted the president’s wholesale theft. But they were already used to the Federal Reserve issuing currency, and the government collecting income tax. When ordered to turn in their gold, they acted like obedient little lambs. [MORE]
BOOKS BW IS CHECKING OUT
BrownWatch is a non-profit website that provides news and information for the purpose of liberation, education, self-reliance and greater self-knowledge. BrownWatch is intended to function as a tool to overcome info-gaps, verigaps and false programming toward the goal of “Endependence” within the meaning of FUNKTIONARY. It seeks to destroy the master/servant relationship maintaining the system of racism white supremacy and to unplug belief in systems of authority and all other granfalloons ensnaring humankind.
Any reproduction of copyrighted materials is done solely for the “productive uses” and “fair uses” of news reporting, sharing research, criticism, commentary, education and to provide an alternative contextual lens of such material within the meaning of the Copyright Act. 17 USCS § 107 (2019).
Powered by Squarespace.
Copyright © 2025, The BrownWatch. All rights reserved.
