Jury deadlocked in cop’s trial for Freddie Gray case

Must say surprised to see this verdict. That said this trial and his fellow officers should not be conducted in Baltimore for obvious reasons. And this is just one of them.

Back in September Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

agreed to pay the Gray family $6.4 million in a civil settlement. Talk about prejudicial to the case!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-boe-20150908-story.html

Freddie Gray died of a spinal injury while in police custody supposedly after he was placed in the van. From what I have read he should have been restrained with a seat belt but wasn't. Now if this is true the charges brought against them are an overreach to say the least. Second-degree depraved-heart murder? Good luck making that stick.

Guess there's no winner here. The cops either go to jail or if acquitted Baltimore goes up in flames. And these two provided the fuel.

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BALTIMORE – A jury is deadlocked in the trial of police officer William Porter,charged in the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams said on Tuesday.

Williams said he had received a note from the jury of seven women and five men after it had weighed the fate of Officer William Porter, 26, for almost 10 hours.

Williams ordered the jury to keep trying to reach a verdict. It was not immediately clear how the panel was deadlocked.

Porter is charged with involuntary manslaughter and other charges in Gray’s death from a broken neck sustained in the back of a police van. Gray’s death in April triggered protests and rioting and intensified an American debate on police treatment of minorities.

The jury of seven women and five men started deliberations on Monday. Williams earlier on Tuesday had rejected a request by defense lawyer Gary Proctor to declare a mistrial and order a change of venue.

David Jaros, an associate law professor at the University of Baltimore, said it was not surprising that the panel had been unable to reach a decision, given the complexity of the legal issues.

“I have seen juries deadlocked and come back within 10 minutes, or go for days” without reaching a decision, he said.

Jaros added that if the jury remained deadlocked, Williams could issue a so-called Allen charge, pushing them to reach a verdict.

Proctor had asked for the trial to be moved on the grounds the city is too sensitive to the case. He cited a letter sent from the head of the city’s public schools to students, staff and parents on Monday warning that violence and walk-outs would not be tolerated after a verdict.

Defense attorneys have repeatedly asked that the trial be moved, saying the unrest and publicity tainted prospects for a fair trial.

Porter is the first of six officers to face trial. He also faces charges of assault, endangerment and misconduct. Three of the six officers, including Porter, are black.

Gray, 25, was arrested after fleeing from police. He was put in a transport van, shackled and handcuffed, but was not secured by a seat belt despite department policy to do so.

Gray told Porter he needed medical aid and Porter put him on a van bench. According to testimony, Porter told the van’s driver and a supervisor that Gray had asked for aid but none was summoned.

Baltimore, a black majority city of about 620,000 people, has braced for possible trouble from a verdict.

Baltimore has opened an emergency operations center and police leave has been canceled. Officers from outside Baltimore have been readied to help if needed.

Police Commissioner Kevin Davis sent a letter to officers on Monday saying the department would protect the city at the same time as allowing peaceful protests.

Jury deadlocked in cop’s trial for Freddie Gray case

Chilling notes threatening beheadings of non-Muslims 'posted through letterboxes' in Sweden

What fools they are. Like no one saw this coming. 

Swedish people have previously held demonstrations, pictured, in solidarity with refugees fleeing Syria

You reap what you sow.

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ISIS extremists have allegedly posted notes through letterboxes across Sweden threatening to decapitate people unless they convert to Islam or pay religious tax for protection.

 Tensions have been mounting in Sweden over the influx of asylum seekers from Syria, with more than 200,000 arriving this year.

More than 200,000 refugees have entered Sweden this year with many heading to Stockholm 

The notes, which bare the group’s flag, are being investigated by police after they were distributed in cities and towns including Stockholm, Ronneba, Sigtuna and Vstroes on Thursday, December 10.

The MailOnline reported that the notes, when translated, said: 

“In the name of Allah, the merciful, full of grace. You who are not believers will be decapitated in three days in your own house. We will bomb your rotten corpses afterwards.

“You must choose between these three choices:

 1. Convert to Islam. 

2. Pay the jizya [religious tax] for protection. 

(Is this the Mafia or ISIS?) 

3. Or else, you will be decapitated.

“The police will not prevent or save you from you being murdered. (Death comes to all of you).”

The note allegedly posted through doors in Sweden

The notes are alleged to have promised attacks within three days and extra police were drafted in to patrol some regions in fear of action.

Emil Andersson, police chief in Sigutna – a town 30 miles north of Stockholm – told local radio station Radio Uppland that officers were taking the threat seriously and working to increase security measures.

The Swedish intelligence agency was involved in the police investigation, Mr Andersson said, and were examining the symbols and language used in the letters to find out more about them.

Earlier this year, members of the Assyrian community in Gothenburg were allegedly targeted by vandals, with ISIS messages reportedly graffitied onto walls.

Markus Samuelsson claimed he found messages including ‘convert or die’ and ‘the caliphate is here’ scrawled onto the walls of his restaurant. 

Swedish police are yet to have made any arrests in connection with the messages. 

So out of 200,000 refugees how many are ISIS plants? 

Chilling notes threatening beheadings of non-Muslims 'posted through letterboxes' in Sweden

All Los Angeles public schools closed due to bomb threat to 'many' schools

They got us running like rabbits!

This could be a prank. If not it's almost a certainty Muslims are involved.

 A few more incidents like this and people are not going to be so "outraged" and "disturbed" over Trump banning Muslims. 

Thank God we only have a small handful of Muslims to worry about.

Update: It's a hoax. 

But don't think this wasn't a lesson learned by terrorists.

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All Los Angeles Unified School District schools have been ordered closed Tuesday due to an unspecified "credible threat" of violence to students at numerous schools in the sprawling district, and a schools official confirmed that it was a bomb threat to the school district.

Los Angeles Unified is the nation's second-largest school district, with more than 900 campuses and more than 640,000 students. Ramon Cortines, the school system's superintendent, said the threat was against students at multiple schools. LAUSD spokeswoman Monica Carazo confirmed that it was a bomb threat.

"It was not to one school, two schools or three schools, it was many schools, not specifically identified, but there were many schools," Cortines said. "That's the reason that I took the action that I did."

Teachers and support personnel also have been ordered to stay away from schools on Tuesday. Cortines said he intends to have every one of the district's schools searched. He said that while it is not unusual for schools to receive threats, this one was "rare" and comes at a time of heightened concern about safety.

Los Angeles is an hour's drive from San Bernardino, where less than two weeks ago, 14 people were killed by two alleged terrorists. A community college in San Bernardino was also closed on Tuesday due to a bomb threat received on Monday night.

"I as superintendent am not going to take a chance with the life of a student," Cortines said.

Officials offered few details about the nature of the threat, calling it only an "electronic threat" that came in the form of a "message." Cortines said the school district plans to release more information later Tuesday and declined to comment on whether schools would reopen on Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said that the FBI's Los Angeles office and the Los Angeles Police Department are assisting with the threat investigation. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department also is assisting with the search because some of the schools are outside the city limits, said deputy Jeff Gordon. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also are involved in the investigation.

A law enforcement official in Los Angeles said that all of the Los Angeles Unified School District schools were closed after a "credible threat" of violence was received. The threat involved backpacks and packages at the schools, the official said.

Though schools were not yet open for the day when they were ordered closed, some students had already been dropped off, officials said. LAUSD Board of Education President Steve Zimmer asked parents to pick up their children as soon as possible.

"I want to be very clear we need the cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today," Zimmer said. "We need families and neighbors to work together with our schools and with our employees to make sure that our kids are safe throughout the day. We need employers to show the flexibility that a situation like this demands."

All Los Angeles public schools closed due to bomb threat to 'many' schools

Finally someone grew a pair

 A woman no less!

Update: School Nixes Principal's Ban on Pledge of Allegiance, Santa, and Thanksgiving

Update Dec. 15, 2015

After the New York Post's coverage of Principal Eujin Jaela Kim's ban on the Pledge of Allegiance, Santa, and Thanksgiving at PS 169 went viral, District 15 Superintendent Anita Skop stormed into the school Monday morning and had two fifth-grade boys lead the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance over the public address system, teachers said. 

The pledge hadn’t been said over the loudspeakers since the beginning of the school year, but the Department of Education officials said on Monday that it will be recited over the PA system every morning from now on. Santa has also been reinstated.

“It never would have happened if The Post didn’t do the story. That’s the only way we got our voices heard,” PTA president Mimi Ferrer told the New York Post.

The Short of It

A New York City school principal seems to have gone to extreme measures to create a PC learning environment at PS 169, banning everything from the Pledge of Allegiance to Santa.

The Lowdown

Eujin Jaela Kim, 33, has made some major changes to one Brooklyn school. Instead of Thanksgiving and Christmas parties, students now celebrate with harvest and winter celebrations. Even the Pledge of Allegiance, which was previously recited in the school, was banned.

"We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa. No angels. We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David," PTA president Mimi Ferrer told the New York Post.

Kim's goal? According to a letter written by assistant principal Jose Chaparro, administrators want to "be sensitive of the diversity of our families. Not all children celebrate the same holidays."

It's worth noting 95 percent of the student body at the school is either Asian or Hispanic.

Incidentally, Kim's directives differ from the New York City Department of Education's, which allows holiday symbols in schools, including Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs, the Islamic star-and-crescent, and kinaras (candleholders for Kwanzaa). A picture of an actual deity, like Jesus, would be banned. The DOE allows Santa as a , but Kim doesn't want him anywhere near her school either.

If you do nothing else today please go here. 

http://americanhumanist.org

Liberal proselytizing at its finest!

The Upshot 

Kim's ban on anything having to do with religion, even the mere mention of the word "God," is just one aspect of her overhaul of the school. She has also made changes to the curriculum and painted over historic murals in the auditorium to make room for giant flat-screen TVs. According to Ferrer, the expensive technology has never been used.

Finally someone grew a pair

Botched ransom? Rep presses for answers on FBI role in 'payment' for Bergdahl

Lets suppose this story is true. The FBI paid, I'll throw in a figure of $1 million, to secure Bergdahl's release and got stiffed. Does Duncan Hunter really believe he is going to get any assistance from the DOJ to prove his case? 

Step back a minute. Forget the bullshit hype, "no one left behind" Barry espoused. Barry never gave a damn about Bergdahl. He was simply a convenience. A tool to be used achieving his goal of closing down Gitmo. 

Think about it. Who got all the attention Bergdahl or Tamarossi? Barry couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone for decorated vet Tamarossi yet he sold the farm to get Bergdahl back! BTW...The day of reckoning for this decision will soon be upon us.

No Mr. Hunter don't expect any help from the DOJ or FBI. It's more likely Lois Lerner would join the TeaParty then for that to happen. You have to remember who appointed the head of each agency. But you can take some solace in this. Bergdahl was originally scheduled for a "slap on the wrist" hearing (probably initiated by Barry)  that could impose  only a maximum penalty of a year in confinement. That was until Army General Robert Abrams stepped in not following the original recommendation  and now Bergdahl will face a full-blown court-martial with a potential life sentence.

They deserve it:

Looks like the end is near for Jason Bourne. 

Bowe Bergdahl: I wanted to be Jason Bourne

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AUSTIN, Texas, Dec 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and became a Taliban prisoner for five years, will face court-martial with a potential life sentence, the Army said on Monday.

Bergdahl, 29, was charged earlier this year with desertion and endangering U.S. troops and could face the life sentence if convicted of the latter, more serious offense's

In ordering the court martial on Monday, Army General Robert Abrams did not follow the recommendation of a preliminary hearing which, according to Bergdahl's lawyer, called for Bergdahl to face a proceeding that could impose a potential maximum penalty of a year in confinement.

The FBI played a central role in making a botched “payment” meant to help secure Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release last year, according to the office of a House Republican now seeking answers on why the bureau was involved at all in the apparent rescue attempt. 

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. -- who has long questioned whether a ransom of some kind was offered for Bergdahl’s release -- claimed in a recent letter to the Justice Department inspector general that he has learned “non-DoD organizations, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), undertook the recovery mission.”

As part of this effort, Hunter told DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, the FBI even went to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and “awaited Bergdahl’s arrival following some form of discussion about facilitating a payment.”

Bergdahl didn’t show – and ultimately was not released until May when he was traded for five Taliban leaders. Hunter’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, told FoxNews.com the unsuccessful FBI border visit came after this operation paid an Afghan intermediary, who then ran off with the money.

“The FBI was leading the op,” Kasper said. 

Hunter now wants the DOJ IG to look into the alleged payment, including the amount and whether it was made in violation of the law. 

A representative with the FBI did not comment on Hunter’s claims when asked by FoxNews.com. 

Hunter previously has said such a botched payment was made and initially pointed the finger at Joint Special Operations Command, but has not discussed the extent of the FBI’s alleged role until now. Hunter’s claims were first reported in The Daily Beast. 

The letter to Horowitz comes after the House Armed Services Committee released a detailed report saying the Defense Department inspector general could not confirm that any payment was made in an effort to recover Bergdahl, whose desertion case was referred Monday to a general court-martial. All the DOD IG could confirm was that “small payments were made to individuals in return for information” on Bergdahl’s captors, whereabouts and condition. The Pentagon last year also denied that a ransom was paid.

But Hunter’s letter shifts the focus to the DOJ and FBI.

It asks the Justice Department inspector general to look at whether a payment was made from within that department, if one was not made by the DOD.

Hunter, in the letter, called for a “thorough and substantive review” of the FBI’s alleged involvement. He also questioned what authority the FBI had to pursue Bergdahl’s release since he was a uniformed service member and not a civilian.

“We’re going to try to get to the bottom of it,” Kasper said Monday.

He said a chief concern is that the FBI is not necessarily equipped to recover Americans held captive in hostile areas.

“They don’t have the assets. They don’t have the resources,” he said.

The U.S. government as a matter of policy does not pay ransom for terror hostages, and Kasper acknowledged the administration will never confirm a “ransom” was paid in this case. But he suggested the government could have offered a payment of some kind – without calling it a ransom.

You know:

terrorist attack<>workplace violence

Botched ransom? Rep presses for answers on FBI role in 'payment' for Bergdahl

The Rijksmusem has come under fire for removing words such as 'negro', 'Indian' and 'dwarf' from their roster

When is this crap going to come to an end?

Here's another "fine" example and a crying shame:

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." - Ernest Hemingway 

So what happens:

Huck Finn Expelled From Middle School

When I was a kid Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were mandatory reading!

A leading museum has decided to rename any artworks that have titles which are deemed to be offensive. 

In a move which is designed to get rid of the words given by non-whites to others, pictures in the digitised gallery of more than 220,000 will be targeted in the Adjustment of Colonial Terminology.

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has announced the project , which involves all 12 curators, and will replace words used with less 'racially charged' teminology, reports the New York Times . 

For example, the 1900 painting 'Young Negro-Girl' will now be called 'Young Girl Holding a Fan'.

This artwork by Simon Maris (c.1900) features

in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

and has been renamed

'Young Girl Holding a Fan' from 'Young Negro Girl'

Who gave them the authority to do this? If any distant relatives of Simon Maris are still living they should take this to court. When a painter produces a work of art they have the right to call it whatever the hell they want. If you don't like it don't look at it. You just can't arbitrarily change history because it doesn't suit your taste!

Remember this?

GROUND ZERO: A MEMORIAL: Firefighters Block a Plan for Statue in Brooklyn

Martine Gosselink, head of the history department at the Rijksmuseum, said: "We Dutch are called kaas kops, or cheeseheads, sometimes, and we wouldn't like it if we went to a museum in another country and saw descriptions of images of us as 'kaas kop woman with kaas kop child,' and that's exactly the same as what's happening here."

.@Rijksmuseum removes racially charged terms from artworks' titles (via @nytimes): http://nyti.ms/1QhCkDo 

— Artsy (@artsy) 3:50 PM - 10 Dec 2015

Since the project started a month ago, about 200 descriptions have been identified and altered.

Other words which will be eradicated include 'Hottentot' - a name given by Dutch people to the Khoi people in South Africa meaning 'stutterer' - and 'Mohammedan' - an old word for Muslim once used by the West.

Since the story was carried in Dutch newspaper Het Parool, there has been critcism, but Gosselink says it's essential.

"In the Netherlands alone, there are a million people deriving from colonial roots, from Suriname, from the Antilles, from Indonesia, and so on that basis alone it's important to change this."

The Rijksmusem has come under fire for removing words such as 'negro', 'Indian' and 'dwarf' from their roster

Angel Flight (Radio Tower Remix) - w/ Lyrics

Video 185

Angel Flight (Radio Tower Remix) - w/ Lyrics

Look who's talking about "endangering national security”

John Kerry says Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims 'endangers national security'

Secretary of State John Kerry says that Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from the United States "endanger national security.”

"It exhibits an attitude by one American who is running for the highest office of our land about a willingness to discriminate against a religion," he said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"It seems to me that Mr Trump's statement is wholly and totally without recognition of the true American spirit and values and certainly tolerance."

Secretary Kerry also said the proposal was a “very dangerous foreign policy."



His legacy.

"It says to those in Islam who are trying to exploit people and recruit foreign fighters and otherwise, it says look, look at America. Here they've got a guy running for president who is waging war against Islam," Secretary Kerry said on CBS News' "Face the Nation.”

"It's exploitable, whether he intended it or not. And it allows for recruitment. It allows for America to seem like it is indeed discriminatory against Islam, against Muslims."

They also said Gitmo was a recruiting tool for terrorists so they released them a dime a dozen.

And it paid off. Here and abroad terrorism is down to zero!

He also chided Republicans for opposing the climate change agreement that was signed by nearly 200 nations around the world.

"I don't believe you can be elected president of the United States if you don't understand climate change or you're not committed to this kind of a plan," he told ABC, predicting that the American public would not elect a presidential candidate who denies the science of man made climate change.

"I don't think they're going to accept as a genuine leader someone who doesn't understand the science of climate change and isn't willing to do something about it."

Look who's talking about "endangering national security”