Former British Colony in Downward Spiral of Ethnic Violence, State Security Impunity

[ReluctantSamurai]

This is one reason why the law enforcement system is completely broken here in the US, and nothing short of a major overhaul is even going to make a dent:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...te-data-breach

A data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.

One donation for $25, made on 3 September last year, was made anonymously, but associated with the official email address for Sgt William Kelly, who currently serves as the executive officer of internal affairs in the Norfolk police department in Virginia. That donation also carried a comment, reading: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

"You've done nothing wrong." Jeezus....killing another human being is a crime punishable by death, in some instances......as long as it's not someone black/brown/asian/LGBT or some other that white racists can vilify.

[spmetla]

I just don't get how people think that reforming law enforcement is somehow part of "cancel culture" or "political correctness." The anger isn't over people getting shot that were a threat its cops killing people for non-compliance. Unless someone is a deadly threat to the office or the public lethal force shouldn't be used.

I don't recall in Iraq or Afghanistan being allowed such a liberal use of force. We could defend ourselves and shoot at clear threats, people avoiding us or resisting being detained didn't warrant being shot. Hell, killing someone that's been captured/detained is a war crime. Granted I'm sure plenty of US Soldiers/Marines used force without cause and never suffered any consequences but the Police doing the same within the US is ridiculous.

The problem with overhauling law enforcement is our state based system, short of the FBI investigating every case of someone killed by the police I don't see how it can be fixed at the federal level. Highly doubt the FBI have the resources for that either.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The problem with overhauling law enforcement is our state based system, short of the FBI investigating every case of someone killed by the police I don't see how it can be fixed at the federal level. Highly doubt the FBI have the resources for that either.

The problem, as I see it, is two-fold:

First thing is to reform the screening process when hiring new officers. Weed out the Neo-Nazi types, and those with dishonorable discharges from the military. Use the very same profiling techniques that law enforcement uses on criminals. There will still be a certain amount of riff-raff that slips through, but agencies can certainly reduce the number of officers that would exhibit the kind of behavior of Sgt. Kelly.

Second is to have a yearly review board that is outside the jurisdiction of a locality. This could be done at state level, who then submit their results for review to a Federal agency. Not perfect, but better than the zilch we have now. Officers who garner repeated complaints are then brought before a board of review for additional training/reassignment, or let go if the behavior continues.

Funding, in at least big city police departments, could come from directing money away from the purchases of military equipment, into the proper oversight agencies:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgo...it-have-merit/

This link provides some interesting data on police expenditures:

https://www.statista.com/chart/10593...d-on-policing/

Some of the related infographics provide interesting detail....

And a state-by-state breakdown of expenditures:

https://www.moneygeek.com/living/sta...ions-spending/

[yeah...I know this stuff is all old-hat since last summers protests, but in light of recent police shootings, I thought a revisit would be in order....]

[Montmorency]

Broken windows policing for police, if there were a way to institutionalize that.

The fundamental change needs to be in the culture, incentives, and objectives of policing itself, so that it's not a power-mad, fear-mad insular clique of a notional master race.

Colorado and New Mexico's seeming termination of qualified immunity for civil servants is one step.

[rory_20_uk]

Qualified immunity should be a thing but for the accused to demonstrate why it applies as opposed to bieng almost completely open ended.

Exactly how every part - from politicians to unions to the police themselves would need to do something that is against their self interest.

Just like voting system reform - those with the ability to do something would almost certainly loose out.

[Hooahguy]

Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck, has been found guilty on all charges.

The 12 jurors found him guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in George Floyd's death in May 2020.

The maximum sentence for second-degree unintentional murder is imprisonment of not more than 40 years. The maximum sentence for third-degree murder is imprisonment of not more than 25 years. The maximum sentence for second-degree manslaughter is 10 years and/or $20,000.

Good. I am sure he will appeal so we will see what happens there.

[Montmorency]

Qualified immunity should be a thing but for the accused to demonstrate why it applies as opposed to bieng almost completely open ended.

Exactly how every part - from politicians to unions to the police themselves would need to do something that is against their self interest.

Just like voting system reform - those with the ability to do something would almost certainly loose out.

I didn't notice that New York just did this.
https://www.cato.org/blog/nyc-counci...endment-rights

The New York City Council passed landmark legislation last week that will allow citizens to sue police for violations of their Fourth Amendment rights. The bill awaits the signature of Mayor de Blasio, who has indicated support for the measure.

New York is the first city to pass legislation that would allow citizens to sue police officers for excessive force or unlawful searches and seizures without first overcoming the high hurdle of qualified immunity. The NYPD is the largest municipal police force in the United States, underscoring the wide reach of the landmark legislation.

Police reform efforts have gathered steam in the United States, with all eyes on the trial for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of killing George Floyd. But criminal prosecutions of police officers for excessive force are exceedingly rare, causing many to conclude that the best way to keep police accountable for unlawful acts is to allow citizens to sue police forces for damages.

Even so, the Supreme Court has stubbornly refused to reconsider its qualified immunity doctrine, which prevents the majority of lawsuits against officers for excessive force from going to trial. And while some members of Congress are working on eliminating the doctrine, many local governments aren’t waiting to see if they succeed. Instead, they’re introducing legislation that creates a path around the qualified immunity roadblock by establishing a local cause of action.

The NYC bill works the same way: it adds a new chapter to the NYC Administrative code, which establishes a local right to be free from excessive force and unreasonable searches and seizures. This right is designed to mirror the Fourth Amendment, and the legislation calls for it to be interpreted the same way. But it also allows citizens to sue police for the deprivation of that right, while explicitly providing that “qualified immunity or any other substantially equivalent immunity” will not shield officers from responsibility.

It’s not just individual police officers who are held accountable, either. The reform measure takes the major step of holding officers and their departments liable for violations of a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights. Effectively, this creates two layers of accountability. First, police officers are incentivized to avoid misconduct so they don’t find themselves the target of litigation. But police departments also have to be wary of employing cops with poor track records, since they’re ultimately on the hook for any damages those officers cause. The upshot is that it will be increasingly costly for the NYPD—or, more precisely, New York taxpayers—to employ substandard officers who generate a disproportionate number of damages claims though their serial misconduct.

That provision also helps ensure victims of police misconduct have a complete remedy: if the officer isn’t able to pay for the damage caused, aggrieved individuals can also seek compensation from the officer’s employer. The bill also provides that prevailing plaintiffs may seek both attorney’s fees and punitive damages. It’s even possible to sue in equity: thus, if a police officer took a valuable keepsake while searching someone’s house, a person can sue to have the specific item returned instead of just the item’s monetary value.

The final provision of the bill requires the city to keep records that will allow the policy’s success to be measured. As the home of our nation’s largest municipal police force, New York’s new law sets a tremendous example for other cities to follow.

I have no objections (though ideally the generic application of qualified immunity as pertains broadly to judges, prosecutors, and other civil servants should also be retrenched systematically). The conditions under which a doctrine of qualified immunity for government bodies or agents should fairly be shielding are so limited that it might as well be codified. More debatable is the decision to basically exempt officers from personal liability in this legislation.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Along with the slew of voter restriction bills in many states (read as white supremacy affirmation), there are a number of this kind of legislation "quietly" passing into law:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/u...test-laws.html

The measures are part of a wave of new anti-protest legislation, sponsored and supported by Republicans, in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests swept the country following the death of George Floyd. The Minneapolis police officer who killed Mr. Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was convicted on Tuesday on murder and manslaughter charges, a cathartic end to weeks of tension.

But while Democrats seized on Mr. Floyd’s death last May to highlight racism in policing and other forms of social injustice, Republicans responded to a summer of protests by proposing a raft of punitive new measures governing the right to lawfully assemble. G.O.P. lawmakers in 34 states have introduced 81 anti-protest bills during the 2021 legislative session — more than twice as many proposals as in any other year, according to Elly Page, a senior legal adviser at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which tracks legislation limiting the right to protest.

So far, three bills aimed at limiting protests have been signed into law — Florida’s and new laws in Arkansas and Kansas that target protesters who seek to disrupt oil pipelines. Others are likely to come soon.

[Montmorency]

[Hooahguy]

Well that disturbing on a number of levels. Police training has broadly failed and Im honestly not entirely sure how this even begins to get fixed.

[ReluctantSamurai]

When I first saw that, I knew in the first few seconds that she had some kind of cognitive difficulty. I've had several relatives with some form of dementia, and that blank stare into space, and uncertain body movement is a dead give away. And the "I'm going home" mantra you'd think would give even a someone who's never had to deal with a person suffering from dementia, some kind of pause to consider that she has a problem.

And maybe police departments should require officers to undergo regular fitness training, as well. Huffing and puffing while restraining a 5' tall 100lb 73 year old, suffering from dementia.....

The projection of entitlement..."Why are you making me do this?", is part of the core problem. We [law enforement] have the RIGHT to abuse you in any way we see fit, and if you resist....it's YOUR fault for making us use excessive force.

Hopefully, the ensuing law suit against the Loveland police dept. will bring some sort of justice for her.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

When I first saw that, I knew in the first few seconds that she had some kind of cognitive difficulty. I've had several relatives with some form of dementia, and that blank stare into space, and uncertain body movement is a dead give away. And the "I'm going home" mantra you'd think would give even a someone who's never had to deal with a person suffering from dementia, some kind of pause to consider that she has a problem.

And maybe police departments should require officers to undergo regular fitness training, as well. Huffing and puffing while restraining a 5' tall 100lb 73 year old, suffering from dementia.....

The projection of entitlement..."Why are you making me do this?", is part of the core problem. We [law enforement] have the RIGHT to abuse you in any way we see fit, and if you resist....it's YOUR fault for making us use excessive force.

Hopefully, the ensuing law suit against the Loveland police dept. will bring some sort of justice for her.

My wife used to work with a police department in Virginia, making sure their curriculum met DoJ guidelines etc. This was 20 years ago. They had required training on dementia issues then and the entire force is supposed to get continuing education updating them on such things on a bi-yearly basis. It is a virtual certainty that the officers involved had received training on the issue -- and apparently ignored that training 'in the moment.'

As to your other concern about attitude/entitlement regarding use of force...I tend to agree. It is as though too many of them watched the Kevin Costner rendition of Wyatt Earp and thought to themselves "way cool, I wanna do that." Of course Costner's opponents were all nicely scripted so as to be in the wrong. Maybe if we starting issuing white and black hats to everyone....

[Montmorency]

I'm not sure I've seen Tombstone, so maybe Seth Bullock.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Loveland police aren't done yet. I don't know which video is worse, the original arrest, or this (there's an hour-long version available):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmtxTWTTdC4

This makes me even more angry than the arrest video because, as I mentioned earlier, I've had close relatives suffer and die from Alzheimer's, and it always tore my heart to see someone I so enjoyed as a kid be rendered completely helpless. Sorry, but if it were legal, I'd love to kick Officer Hopp's ass.

As if all that shit wasn't enough, these two cops KNEW they had dislocated Garner's shoulder (you can clearly hear Hopp ackowledge that in the video), and they didn't call for medical assistance for 6 HOURS. These two need to be brought up on charges. Better yet, throw them into a ring with a professional wrestler and let them get tossed around by someone much, much bigger than them, then kick them out the back door and keep them restrained in an alley for six hours.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Regardless of their position vis a vis use of force, not contacting medical assistance for that length of time is inexcusable.

[Montmorency]

It has often been remarked that people who work in any sector of healthcare or social work (often, even education) are expected to resolve and deescalate altercations or other problems without weapons and typically without bodily force - which they regularly accomplish.

Indeed, if some healthcare workers, social workers, or educators behaved like police routinely do, more likely than not they would have police called on them.

Ironies of life.

[rory_20_uk]

"... And now, a breaking news story of police brutality - surely we have now reached the nadir?"

[somewhere else in the USA]

"Hold my tazer. Bodycam on..."

[Montmorency]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-...-man-on-video/ [VIDEO]

A white Army non-commissioned officer depicted in a viral video accosting and shoving a Black man in a South Carolina neighborhood has been charged with third-degree assault.

Jonathan Pentland, 42, was charged Wednesday and listed as detained in the Richland County jail and issued a personal recognizance bond, according to online jail records, which did not show him as having an attorney.

Officials at Fort Jackson are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding a viral video shared online, showing a white man aggressively pursuing a Black man walking through a neighborhood.

Spokesperson Leslie Sully confirmed the white man in the video is a soldier stationed at Fort Jackson, however, she would not confirm his name. He has, however, been identified as Army Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Pentland by several news organizations and social media users, including those posting to the local law enforcement office’s Facebook page.

“This is by no means condoned by any service member,” Fort Jackson’s Commanding General, Brig. Gen. Milford “Beags” Beagle, Jr., tweeted. “We will get to the bottom of this ASAP.”

The video shows Pentland advancing on, pushing and yelling at the young man, who appears to have been out walking alone on the sidewalk in a Columbia, South Carolina, neighborhood called The Lakes at Barony Place.

“Fort Jackson officials are aware of the video and it has our full attention,” Beagle noted in an email statement to Military Times. “This type of behavior is not consistent with our Army Values and will not be condoned. We have begun our own investigation and are working with the local authorities”

A white Fort Jackson soldier charged in connection with an April 12 altercation with a Black man will be prosecuted by the civilian justice system before the military justice system gets involved, the South Carolina post’s commanding general said Friday.

Sgt. First Class Jonathan Pentland, the Army non-commissioned officer shown confronting a Black man walking in his Columbia, South Carolina, neighborhood in a viral video, was charged with third-degree assault and has been suspended from all instructor duties. The charge is a misdemeanor, and Pentland faces a fine of not more than $500, 30 days imprisonment, or both.

Though the Richland County Sheriff’s Department transferred Pentland to Fort Jackson authorities on April 14, Fort Jackson Commanding General Brig. Gen. Milford “Beags” Beagle Jr. has officially turned over all proceedings to the civilian system.

“While I have the authority to take action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or take other administrative actions, I have the utmost confidence in our civilian criminal system and trust that it will reach a fair and just resolution of this case,” Beagle said in a statement. “I do not want to take any actions now that could interfere with the fair resolution of civilian criminal charges.”

Turbo-arrested/charged. At least the soldiers don't get immunity (domestically).

[ReluctantSamurai]

A small measure of justice:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...fficers-resign

Litigation will likely result is a hefty payout, but I doubt any real change in the Loveland police dept will happen...

[Viking]

Looks like their (or their neighbour's) diversity drive wasn't a 10 out of 10.

The new hires are David Zamarron, Luis Carrazco, Juan Quintero, Daria Jalali and Chad Nicaise.

https://www.dailycamera.com/2016/05/...ove-diversity/

[ReluctantSamurai]

From the link:

Even with additional council funding however, certification is only one of the first steps to employment. The process, which impacts all applicants, requires several weeks for the department to fully vet individuals.

Tests that gauge IQ, mental stability, integrity, and other metrics, are required of applicants — including investigations into the candidates’ backgrounds.

While a disconnect in minority representation is likely to exist well into the future, Lafayette residents can find encouragement in the recent steps and its leaders’ attitudes toward cultural understanding.

Dollars to doughnuts, the abuse of Karen Garner won't be mentioned, or if it is, will be ignored. Let's just hope there aren't any elderly citizens suffering from dementia in Lafayette to abuse.....

[Montmorency]

Indeed, if some healthcare workers, social workers, or educators behaved like police routinely do, more likely than not they would have police called on them.

For just such an example of a teacher roughing up a student!

Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of alleged misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville.

Samsel, 36, was booked into the Franklin County Adult Detention Center after 3:30 p.m. Thursday. He has since been released on $1,000 bond, Sheriff Jeff Richards said. He has not been formally charged.

Superintendent Ryan Bradbury said that Samsel will no longer be allowed to work for the district.

On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district’s secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible.

In one video shared with The Star, Samsel tells students about “a sophomore who’s tried killing himself three times,” adding that it was because “he has two parents and they’re both females.”

In a Snapchat post shared with The Star, Samsel wrote that “it was all planned.”

“Every little bit of it. That’s right. The kids and I planned ALL this to SEND A MESSAGE about art, mental health, teenage suicide, how we treat our educators and one another. To who? Parents. And grandparents. And all of Wellsville,” he posted.

He wrote that he gave one particular student “hope.”

“I went to jail for battery. Does that really make me a criminal? Time will tell.”

He said that the incident happened during fifth period, and that the classes before that hour went as planned, and he shared the same lesson in each one. He said what happened was “exactly what God planned. The kids were in on it. Not all of them. But most.”

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is a - layered - story...

“He’s a foster kid. His alternatives in life were having no parents or foster care parents who are gay,” Samsel tells students. “How do you think I’m going to feel if he commits suicide? Awful.”

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.”

Videos shared with The Star — by parents of students in the class — show Samsel focusing most of his attention on one male student. Both Samsel and the student paced around the classroom, talking back and forth. Samsel is shown following the student around and grabbing him. In one video, he puts his arms around the student and says that he was being hard on him.

At one point, Samsel tells the student, “You’re about ready to anger me and get the wrath of God. Do you believe me when I tell you that God has been speaking to me?” He then pushes him, and the student runs to the other side of the classroom.

“You should run and scream.”

In another video, he tells students, “Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.”

Parents told The Star that Samsel “put hands on the student” and allegedly kneed him in the crotch. In a video apparently taken immediately after the incident, the student is shown on the ground. Samsel is standing over him and says, “did it hurt?”

He then asks him why he is about to start crying, pats him on the shoulder and apologizes, and then says he can “go to the nurse, she can check it for you.”

Samsel addresses another student and says, “do you want to check his nuts for him, please?”

The videos angered dozens of parents, who felt that their children were put in danger. Samsel works with students in several capacities, including as a referee and through church groups, parents said.

“I’m a concerned parent who doesn’t want this swept under the rug,” said father Joshua Zeck. “He’s around kids all the time. He’s a state representative. He’s in a position of power.”

Zeck said that he felt Samsel was “bullying” the student.

In a message to families, Bradbury said that the situation is being investigated.

“Student safety has and always will be our first priority,” he said.

Samsel is the second Kansas lawmaker to be arrested this year. Former Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican, was charged with felony eluding and fleeing from police and also faces misdemeanor charges of drunk and reckless driving after allegedly driving the wrong way on Topeka highways on March 16. He was forced to step down from his leadership post.

In another video, Samsel is shown telling the student about “distractions from the devil,” and then grabs him from behind and lifts him off his feet.

In a different clip, he tells the student to go to the office.

“You were not following — not my rules — God’s rules right now,” he tells the student. “You better take a Bible.”

“Keep denying God, keep denying God, see how it’s going to turn out,” he told the student.

He is also shown in a video instructing some students to go outside, hold hands and run around the track, seemingly as punishment.

“Do you think we want to do this? No, we had a lesson to do. Is it kind of funny? Yeah. Are they ever going to learn? God only knows,” he says while watching the two students run outside.

Videos show Samsel’s classroom in chaos as he talks about the devil, God and how the Bible was edited.

“Are you doing the Lord’s work as you’re listening to the devil’s music?” he asks a student.

And he continually references suicide, and tells the class, “I’m not going to lose one more of my kids to suicide. Are we clear?”

House Speaker Ron Ryckman told The Star that “we’re not yet aware of the details and in the process of gathering as much information as we can.”

Samsel, who is an attorney, is in his second term in the House, where he’s occasionally courted controversy. In February, he was one of just 13 lawmakers to vote against a bill that would have ended an exemption for spouses from the state’s sexual battery law.

Ahead of the vote, he gave a speech in which he appeared to express concerns about criminalizing sexual relations between spouses.

“To me, it gets to what does the sanctity of marriage mean?” Samsel was quoted as saying, according to the Kansas Reflector. “And I’m single, so I’m not the best person to speak to this. But when you do get married, what does that mean? And what implied consent are you giving?”

[ReluctantSamurai]

This is one woman you definitely don't want to eff with:

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/det...rshop-by-dreds

Bianca Chambers said for two days, she tracked her car throughout the city until Wednesday when the man parked her car and went to get his hair done. That's when she confronted the thief. "At that point, I was like…I’m not letting this man walk again," she said.

She walked into a barbershop at Greenfield and Grand River and was face-to-face with the guy she says stole her new Benz and asked him point-blank - is that his Benz? When he denied it, she took him down.

Others have made the comment that she should be appointed to the Jan 6 commission. I wholeheartedly agree....

[Montmorency]

Some telling details about the legacy of Emmett Till (a Black boy forcibly disappeared in Mississippi in the 1950s):

For white Mississippians like Jeff Andrews and me, it’s possible to grow up rarely, if ever, hearing Emmett Till’s name. Slipping free of the generational guilt and shame of this particular murder—a proxy for so many acts of violence and cruelty, large and small—remains a central part of a white child’s education in the Delta, where a system of private schools arose in response to integration. “Seg academies,” they’re called. A Mississippi-history textbook taught at one in the early 1990s didn’t mention Till at all. A newer textbook contains 70 words on Till, calling him a “man” and telling the story of his killing through the lens of the damage that two evil men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, did to all the good white folks. Half the passage is about how the segregationist governor was a “moderating force” in a time when media coverage of Till’s murder “painted a poor picture of Mississippi and its white citizens.” This textbook is still in use.

The barn’s history would have remained secret except for a single Mississippian. Early on the last morning of Emmett Till’s life, a Black 18-year-old named Willie Reed awoke and walked toward the town of Drew on the dirt road that still runs past the Andrews place.

Reed was heading to a nearby country store to get breakfast. He saw a green-and-white Chevrolet pickup truck turn onto the path that led up to the barn. Four white men sat shoulder to shoulder in the cab; in the back three Black men sat with a terrified Black child. The child was Emmett Till.

Reed heard Till screaming in the barn. At one point, he saw J. W. Milam take a break and walk with a gun on his hip to a nearby well. Milam drank some cool water, then went back inside and the beating continued. The screams turned to moans.

The men talked about taking Till to a hospital, but they’d beaten him too badly to be saved. So much about this murder remains unknown, but FBI investigators believe a single gunshot to the head ended Till’s life in the barn. The men threw cotton seeds on the floor to soak up the blood and took the body to the Tallahatchie River. They threw Till off a bridge; a cotton-gin fan tied to his neck pulled him down.

Willie Reed went to work the next day. By then word had spread, and people were starting to talk. His grandfather begged him to stay quiet and not create trouble for the family. Reed thought over and over about whether he should tell the truth about what he’d seen and heard.

A retired FBI agent named Dale Killinger knows more about the murder of Emmett Till than anyone else alive. Killinger was the lead agent when the FBI opened a federal investigation in 2004, with the potential to finally bring charges against Carolyn Bryant for her presumed role in the murder.

I talked to Killinger on the phone one afternoon about the violence in the barn. The next time we spoke he told me that his wife had been sitting next to him during that graphic conversation, and when he’d hung up, she’d turned to him with a hollow look in her eyes and asked him why they’d done it. Even when people know generally what happened to Till, the specifics still leave them gasping.

“Rhea, don’t you understand?” he told her. “They were entertained by this.”

“What do you mean?” she said.

“They could’ve killed and tortured him anywhere they wanted to,” he told her. “They chose to take him to a barn where they could control the environment and do what they wanted. In my mind, they were entertaining themselves.”

He told me he’s imagined the sounds of that night over and over. He interviewed Leslie Milam’s widow before she died and found her evasive.

“Frances Milam was home,” he said. “She was in the house. You think she heard what was going on?”

Killinger laughed bitterly and answered his own question.“Hell yeah, she did,” he said. “It’s 1955 and you don’t have air-conditioning. So she admitted that they brought him to the farm in the middle of the night. That’s in the FBI report. So she was there and they were beating him and eventually somebody shot him in that barn in the head. You hear everything in Mississippi! You know? The windows are open. You have window screening—that’s all you have. You hear a car coming a mile away. You hear somebody getting beat in your barn! You hear a gunshot! Think about why they chose to go to that barn. They chose it because Leslie Milam controlled that space. And they could go in there and do what they wanted, how they wanted. And why would you do that? You could have taken him off in the woods and killed him if you wanted to, right? Dump the body anywhere. They went out of their way.”

Over the decades, evidence and facts had slowly vanished. The only copy of the trial transcript disappeared, and FBI agents had to track down a copy of a copy of a copy, which a source led them to at a private residence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The ring Till had been wearing, which had belonged to his father, vanished. In the 1970s, the Sumner courthouse was renovated and old evidence was discarded. A lawyer in Sumner looked on the curb of the courthouse and saw the gin fan that had been used to sink Till’s body sitting with all sorts of meaningless trash bound for the dump. He took it as a trophy but soon threw it away.

A recording of Roy Bryant’s account of that night in 1955 exists. The tapes are either in Mississippi or in Los Angeles, where the United American Costume Company is based. That’s the company founded by John Wayne’s personal costumer, a native of Ruleville, Mississippi, named Luster Bayless. Decades ago, Bayless decided he wanted to make a movie about the Till murder and so he arranged an interview with Bryant. A microcassette recorder captured every word as Bryant drove around the Delta, re-creating the night of the murder; it is likely the only existing description of what happened inside the barn in the final hour of Till’s life. Bryant even posed for a Polaroid in front of the store. Other than FBI agents and a few random people, nobody has heard the recording.

These tapes contain something other than facts, although they contain lots of those, too. They contain the sound of Bryant’s voice, the way his laugh sounds when he recounts torturing a child, the way he drawls his vowels, the little details that let you know a human being did this terrible thing. Locals remember Bryant as an old man, blinded by a lifetime of welding, working at a store on Highway 49 in Ruleville, eight miles from the barn.

The researcher Bayless hired, a woman named Cecelia Lusk, told me she went to the libraries at Delta State and Ole Miss and was stunned. Stories about Till had been torn out of magazines in the archives. In both of the courthouses in Tallahatchie County, she said, she found the legal file folders for the case. They were empty. “Not one sheet of paper,” she said. “Someone had removed everything. There was absolutely not one piece of paper in those folders.”
[...]
Killinger presented his report and waited; he thought there was enough evidence for an indictment. But nothing happened. A local prosecutor tried—not hard enough, in Killinger’s opinion—to indict Carolyn Bryant for manslaughter, but a grand jury declined. That was 14 years ago. A reporter heard the news and found Simeon Wright at his local church. He said he knew he didn’t have many years left and now he knew he’d die without seeing Carolyn Bryant spend a minute behind bars. The members of the grand jury looked in the mirror, he said, and didn’t like what they saw.

Fourteen years ago, Tallahatchie County issued a formal apology for the acquittal of Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam. The state installed a green historical marker outside the courthouse. Patrick Weems’s office is across the street from that sign, so he can literally point out his window at progress. But he can also point to the repeated vandalism of signs his organization has worked to erect. There was a marker at the Delta Inn, the hotel where jurors were sequestered and where, during the trial, a cross was burned just in case any of the jurors didn’t understand what their neighbors expected of them. That marker was taken down one night by vandals and has not been replaced. A sign was placed along the Tallahatchie River, where Till’s body was found, but someone threw it in the water. A replacement collected more than 100 bullet holes until, made illegible by the violence, it came down and was given to the Smithsonian. A third sign got shot a month after it went up. Three Ole Miss students posed before the sign with guns, and one posted the photo to Instagram. The current sign is bulletproof.

Little about this murder feels safely in the past. Wheeler Parker is alive. So is Carolyn Bryant. Many of the children and grandchildren of the killers and the jurors and the defense attorneys still live in the area. The barn is still just a barn. One man claims that the truck used to kidnap Till is rusting right now on a Glendora plantation. Two of the four men suspected of being in the cab of that truck back in 1955 went unnamed in public until Killinger’s FBI report was released. Till’s ring remains missing, and the legal files remain missing.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

A sad tribute to the racist side of our culture.

While one of your sources noted that it does not feel "safely in the past," none of the participants are criminally or civilly liable any more as statutes of limitations (aside from direct participation in the torture and murder itself) make any and all who knew or watched or approved or turned a blind eye un-prosecutable.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Didn't know where to put this, but in any case, this is hilarious and a sad commentary on the current US Congress:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1925702.html

Oops. MTG needs to go back to school and retake her geography class (which she obviously must have failed). The Scooby Doo references aside, you got the wrong flag honey...

A sitting member of the US Congress....

[Hooahguy]

Didn't know where to put this, but in any case, this is hilarious and a sad commentary on the current US Congress:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1925702.html

Oops. MTG needs to go back to school and retake her geography class (which she obviously must have failed). The Scooby Doo references aside, you got the wrong flag honey...

A sitting member of the US Congress....

Is that any worse than terrible spelling mistakes?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Didn't know where to put this, but in any case, this is hilarious and a sad commentary on the current US Congress:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1925702.html

Oops. MTG needs to go back to school and retake her geography class (which she obviously must have failed). The Scooby Doo references aside, you got the wrong flag honey...

A sitting member of the US Congress....

She earned 74.6% of her constituency's votes in 2020. She is EXACTLY what the founders wanted in a Rep, someone who truly represents what the predominant views of her district are.

Of course, they would have been appalled at the thought of a district with that much ignorance coupled to that little common sense.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Interesting poll:

https://centerforpolitics.org/crysta...-trump-voters/

Significant numbers of both Trump and Biden voters show a willingness to consider violating democratic tendencies and norms if needed to serve their priorities. Roughly 2 in 10 Trump and Biden voters strongly agree it would be better if a “President could take needed actions without being constrained by Congress or courts,” and roughly 4 in 10 (41%) of Biden and half (52%) of Trump voters at least somewhat agree that it’s time to split the country, favoring blue/red states seceding from the union.

Buckle up...

And then a more sobering look:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...e-wrong-515443

[...]a National Divorce has nothing to recommend it. The practical obstacles are obvious and insuperable, and the likely effects would be very unwelcome to its proponents. If an insufficient patriotism is one of the ills of contemporary America, National Divorce would prescribe a strong dose of arsenic as a cure. It would burn down America to save America, or at least those parts of it considered salvageable.

The deleterious effects of a breakup would be enormous. A disaggregated United States would be instantly less powerful. Indeed, Russia and China would be delighted and presumably believe that we’d deserve to experience the equivalent of the crackup of the Soviet Union or the Qing dynasty, respectively. Among the catastrophes you wish on an adversary, secessionist movements potentially leading to civil conflict are high on the list.

Secession, of course, isn’t close to going mainstream yet, thankfully. The real impetus for the talk of a breakup is despair. It constitutes giving up — giving up on convincing our fellow Americans, giving up on our common national project, giving up on our birthright.

[Montmorency]

Speaking of British colonies, here's some Australian brutality (though I can't quite discern what exactly is happening in the clip).
https://twitter.com/fictillius/statu...23564047843334 [VIDEO]

The deleterious effects of a breakup would be enormous. A disaggregated United States would be instantly less powerful. Indeed, Russia and China would be delighted and presumably believe that we’d deserve to experience the equivalent of the crackup of the Soviet Union or the Qing dynasty, respectively. Among the catastrophes you wish on an adversary, secessionist movements potentially leading to civil conflict are high on the list.

If the US could go to war with China over freaking Taiwan, then it would certainly go to war over itself over - to name just a few - land, transportation infrastructure, natural and industrial resources, military arsenals and loyalties, nuclear stockpiles...

Even a geopolitically-insignificant country could never peacefully disintegrate into a constellation of subunits almost evenly geographically-imbricated between each other but still respectively populated with at least 1/3 of the fraternal nationals. Not to mention the collapse of financial and economic stability on the North American landmass as the US dollar and market disappears, triggering a deep and crushing global depression, with attendant regional chaos.

It would be the 1948 war x1000, with potentially-apocalyptic world-war consequences. That's why no American political actor countenances anything but full capture of the ship of state. Which is why we must hope Biden will have the courage to treat the insurrection as such in three years' time, according to his authorities as Commander in Chief.