Tag: police state

Ashli Babbitt’s husband goes on TV to push for answer on who fatally shot wife in Capitol breach

The husband of Ashli Babbitt has gone on television to push forward the effort to learn the name of the police officer who fatally shot his wife during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

“Somebody up in D.C. knows,” Babbitt said Monday night on the Fox New Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “I think a lot of people know, but nobody is telling us. And the silence is deafening … I never expected to lose my wife to political violence.”

Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot as she attempted to climb through the broken window of a door to the Speaker’s Lobby, just off the House floor. 

In April, the Justice Department announced that it would not seek charges against the officer who shot Babbitt, 35, following a “thorough investigation” by the Metropolitan Police Department. The department said the officer fired a service pistol, hitting Babbitt in the left shoulder, but no further information was released to the family. 

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Rep. Cori Bush Introduces Bill to Decriminalize Possession of All Drugs

Apair of House Democrats introduced legislation on Tuesday that would decriminalize possession of all drugs at the federal level for personal use and begin the process of prioritizing a public health approach to drug use over punishment and policing. These are the necessary first steps, advocates say, for ending the war on drugs 50 years after it was first declared by President Richard Nixon.

Representatives Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey) introduced the Drug Policy Reform Act, which would eliminate federal criminal penalties for possession of any drug for personal use, including marijuana, cocaine, opioids, various psychedelics and other drugs banned under the Controlled Substances Act. The bill aims to begin repairing some of the damage to communities and the lives of individuals caused by the drug war, which has contributed heavily to mass incarceration and other forms of state violence that have fallen hardest on low-income communities and people of color.

“The economic stability of our carceral state depends on this misguided and racist policy, and we are here to say, no more, it’s time that we end this destruction,” Bush told reporters on Tuesday, adding that, as a nurse in St. Louis, she saw how criminalization and stigma harms people who use drugs. “Imagine what we could do if we built systems of care that treated and supported people…that is the world we should build.”

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Biden Administration Asks Americans to Report ‘Potentially’ Radicalized Friends and Family

President Joe Biden’s administration announced their plans to create ways for Americans to report radicalized friends and family to the government, in an effort to fight domestic terrorism.

In a conversation with reporters, one senior administration official explained the importance of stopping politically fueled violence before it started.

“We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs,” the official said.

The official cited the Department of Homeland Security’s “If you see something say something” campaign to help stop radical Islamic terror as a domestic possibility.

“This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence,” the official said.

Biden began his presidency with a stark warning in his inauguration speech about the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.” On June 1, Biden described the threat from “white supremacy” as the “most lethal threat to the homeland today.”

The Biden administration said it would also work with large technology companies on “increased information sharing” to help combat radicalization.

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