Tag: protests

Biden campaign to blame ‘climate of violence’ on pro-Palestine protests after Trump shooting: Report

The re-election campaign of US President Joe Biden is shifting focus away from attacking former president Donald Trump for the climate of violence in the country and instead placing the blame on pro-Palestinian protesters.

According to senior US officials who spoke with Reuters on 14 July, the campaign will “draw on the president’s history of condemning all sorts of political violence including his sharp criticism of the ‘disorder’ created by campus protests over the Israel–Gaza conflict.”

The shift came in response to Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump. “This changes everything,” one campaign official told the British news agency. ”We’re still assessing. Making the case against Trump, drawing that split screen will get much harder.”

Before Saturday’s assassination attempt, Biden’s campaign strategy was set to focus on attacking Trump personally, including TV ads highlighting his May felony conviction relating to hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 US election.

As student protests against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza spread across dozens of US university campuses this year, Biden was quick to condemn protesters and accuse them of promoting violence and antisemitism.

In April, he released a statement condemning protesters at Columbia University occupying the institution’s Hamilton Hall, which they renamed Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was murdered by the Israeli army in Gaza.

Hind and her relatives were killed on 29 January while fleeing their neighborhood in Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the area. Their bodies were finally recovered 12 days later. Multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture mapped a total of 335 bullet holes in the Kia Sedan where they were killed.

Keep reading

Supreme Court Ruling Alters January 6 Charges: From Insurrection to Trespassing

The Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. U.S. has struck down one of the most common charges against January 6 defendants: “obstruction of an official proceeding.” This ruling has profound implications for the numerous cases that relied on this charge, rendering many of these convictions invalid.

For years, the narrative around January 6 has centered on the idea of an “insurrection.” Politicians and pundits alike have used this term to describe the events of that day, often framing it as an organized attempt to overthrow the government. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling signals a significant shift in how these actions are legally interpreted. The events of January 6 are now increasingly seen as a case of mass trespass and unlawful entry rather than an insurrection.

The Justice Department’s decision to use the obstruction charge, which stems from a law enacted post-Enron to criminalize the destruction of evidence, has now been called into question. The broad interpretation of this law allowed it to be applied to hundreds of January 6 cases. At least a quarter of the prosecutions included this charge. The ruling will result in resentencing for many, and pending cases will proceed without the obstruction claim.Former President Donald Trump is also affected by this decision. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Trump in Washington, D.C., includes obstruction charges. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, half of this indictment could be dropped, necessitating a potential superseding indictment. This development could derail Smith’s efforts to bring Trump to trial before the election, a goal that has been prioritized by both Smith and Judge Tanya Chutkan.

The ruling challenges the long-held belief that January 6 was an insurrection. Polls show that a majority of citizens view the events as a protest that escalated into a riot, not an attempt to overthrow the government. This perspective is reinforced by the Supreme Court’s decision, which suggests that the legal framework used to prosecute many of the January 6 defendants was flawed.

Keep reading

Sex, Lies, & Racial Hysteria: The Quiet J6 Killing Of Rosanne Boyland

One wonders what thoughts passed through the fevered mind of Officer Lila Morris as she struck the seemingly lifeless Rosanne Boyland over the head with a branch, then struck her again, and then struck her a third time so hard that the branch snapped in half.

If Morris thought Boyland a hateful white supremacist who deserved her fate, one could, if not forgive her, at least understand how she came to think that way. For the last two years, Morris had heard little else about these MAGA minions and the monster who led them.

President-elect Joe Biden had set the tone when he launched his presidential campaign in April 2019, implying President Donald Trump had called the neo-Nazis involved in the Charlottesville dust-up “very fine people.” No major candidate has ever begun a presidential campaign with a more divisive and slanderous opening gambit (one that Snopes conceded was false just this past week).

Biden continued the slander throughout the campaign. Just four weeks before the 2020 election, he weighed in on the well-timed bust of an FBI-massaged plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. “There is a through line from President Trump’s dog whistles and tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one,” fumed Biden. “He is giving oxygen to the bigotry and hate we see on the march in our country.”

If Morris feared the depredations of these Hun-like hordes, she was in good company.

“Just remember, we’re on the right side of history,” Rep. Val Demings told a colleague as they huddled fearfully in the House gallery on January 6.

“If we all die today, another group will come in and certify those ballots.”

“White supremacy and patriarchy are very linked in a lot of ways,” congressional drama queen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Dana Bash.

“There’s a lot of sexualizing of that violence. And I didn’t think that I was just going to be killed. I thought other things were going to happen to me as well.”

When Bash asked AOC if she thought she was going to be raped, AOC answered, “Yeah, yeah. I thought I was.”

The left has been feeding its base a steady diet of racial fear and loathing for generations.

Ocasio-Cortez is Puerto Rican. Demings and Morris black. Also black is Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police lieutenant (now captain) who shot and killed January 6 protestor and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.

Babbitt and Boyland were both white.

The phrase “had the races been reversed” is such a manifest truism that pundits on the right no longer bother to complete the thought

Keep reading

‘We’d rather die than enlist’: Haredi Jews vow to defy conscription

On Sunday evening, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem against last week’s landmark High Court ruling, which mandates the conscription of Haredi youth into the Israeli army. The largest anti-draft rally in a decade united several Haredi factions, whose adherents carried signs that read “We will not enlist in an enemy army,” “We would rather live as Jews than die as Zionists,” “To jail and not to the army,” “Zionism uses Jews as human shields,” and other critical slogans in Hebrew and English. 

Protesters attacked cars transporting two Haredi political leaders, burned garbage cans, and tried to rip fences and traffic signs out of the ground. Police attempted to forcibly disperse them using mounted officers, batons, and a water cannon loaded with “skunk” — though many of the remaining demonstrators, including young children, jubilantly endured powerful jets of the foul-smelling liquid. A handful of protesters were arrested.

Since the Israeli state was founded, the ultra-Orthodox have been exempt from mandatory military service — yet this policy has long been a controversial political and legal issue. With Haredi men devoting their lives to Torah study, the community sees conscription as an attack on their way of life. For the more staunchly anti-Zionist sects, which have spearheaded the recent protests, serving in the Israeli army is incompatible with their view of the state as illegitimate for having been established before the return of the messiah. 

Keep reading

Supreme Court strikes obstruction charge used for hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters

Federal prosecutors improperly charged a Jan. 6 defendant with obstruction, a divided Supreme Court ruled on Friday, likely upending many cases against rioters who disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, federal prosecutors charged more than 350 participants in the pro-Trump mob with obstructing or impeding an official proceeding. The charge carries a 20-year maximum penalty and is part of a law enacted after the exposure of massive fraud andshredding of documents during the collapse of the energy giant Enron.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the government’s broad reading of the statute would give prosecutors too much discretion to seek a 20-year maximum sentence “for acts Congress saw fit to punish only with far shorter terms of imprisonment.”

To use the statute, he wrote, the government must establish that a defendant “impaired the availability or integrity” of records, documents or other objects used in an official proceeding.

In dissent, Justice Amy Coney Barrett — joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — said the court’s reading of the obstruction statute is too limited and requires the majority to do “textual backflips to find some way — any way — to narrow the reach” of the law.

Friday’s ruling has the potential to affect the convictions and sentences of a small set of rioters — around 27— who are serving time in prison for only this felony. It also could impact about 110 more who are awaiting trial or sentencing, according to prosecutors.In addition, the ruling may affect former president Donald Trump’s stalled trialfor allegedly trying to remain in power after his 2020 defeat; two of the four charges he faces are based on the obstruction statute, and he could move to have those charges dismissed.

Keep reading

Police officers who attended Trump’s Jan. 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally may be allowed to keep their identities private

A striking legal question came before justices of the Washington State Supreme Court this week: Does a group of police officers who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally for Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have a Constitutionally-protected right to keep the results of a probe into their specific conduct that day secret, or must their names — and those results — be revealed to the public?

The question unfolded during oral arguments in Jane & John Does 1-6 v. Seattle Police Department et al. on Tuesday.

At the center of the case are six police officers, two of whom were fired in August 2021 and have been identified publicly by the Seattle Police Department as married former officers Caitlin Everett and Alexander Everett. Four others have not been named publicly by the department though state prosecutors noted to the Washington State Supreme Court on Tuesday that their names have previously emerged on social media. This factor is central to the state’s case; as prosecutors pointed out this week, these four individuals have not only retained their roles at the Seattle Police Department but also have not suffered any harassment as an investigation got underway, The Associated Press reported. 

Keep reading

VICTORY: FBI Whistleblower Who Exposed Agency’s Lies About January 6th Has Security Clearence Reinstated, Will Receive Over Two Years of Back Pay

A patriotic former FBI agent who helped expose the agency’s lies about the January 6th protests has scored a major victory against his former employer.

FBI agent Marcus Allen had his security clearance suspended in 2022 after he raised questions about Director Christopher Wray’s statements regarding law enforcement involvement during the January 6th protests.

Empower Oversight, a legal advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the bureau and asserted that the FBI’s actions were retaliatory and falsely labeled Allen as disloyal to the United States.

It has now been confirmed that the FBI reinstated Allen’s security clearance on May 31st and agreed to pay him over two months of back pay as part of a settlement between the two parties. He has now resigned from the bureau.

“This letter is to inform you that I am reinstating your Top Secret (TS) security clearance effective upon receipt of this letter,” the FBI said in a letter to Allen. “My decision to reinstate your security clearance is based upon a determination that the original security concerns have been investigated and have been sufficiently mitigated.”

Allen’s lawyer, Tristan Leavitt, described the settlement as a “total vindication” for his client.

“The F.B.I. has completely backed down and provided everything that we had asked for on behalf of Marcus,” Leavitt said. “It’s clear from the evidence and the FBI’s capitulation there was absolutely no truth to their accusations.”

Allen upset his superiors at the bureau when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee last year and revealed how he was the victim of political retaliation for his views about January 6th.

“I was not in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, played no part in the events of Jan. 6, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred,” he testified. “Instead, it appears that I was retaliated against because I forwarded information to my superiors and others that questioned the official narrative of the events of Jan. 6.”

Keep reading

Trump promises crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests if elected

Former United States President Donald Trump has promised that he will crack down on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses if he wins the 2024 US presidential election.

Earlier this month, the likely Republican nominee told a small group of predominantly Jewish donors that he would expel student demonstrators, who he claimed were part of a “radical revolution”, from the US if he is elected, according to a report by The Washington Post released on Monday.

“If you get me elected, and you should really be doing this … we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” Trump said, according to the report, quoting people at the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The former president also praised the New York police for clearing the campus at Columbia University in late April, and said the other cities needed to follow suit, saying “it has to be stopped now”.

Student protests against the Israeli war on Gaza have rocked the US over the past few weeks, prompting a police crackdown on many campuses and more than 2,000 arrests.

In mid-April, Columbia University saw a Gaza solidarity encampment, with students urging the institution to divest from companies associated with Israel. This movement spread to campuses in California, Texas, and many other states.

Keep reading

No diploma: Colleges withhold degrees from students after pro-Palestinian protests

Graduation is an important moment for many Americans. More than just pomp and circumstance, the ceremonies mark when students are handed the most coveted testimonial in academic life: A diploma.

But for some college students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, campus activism has cost them their degrees – at least for a while.

“Four years and just a criminal record, nothing else,” said Youssef Hasweh, one of four students at the University of Chicago who have had their degrees withheld pending an investigation into a protest encampment. “A decade of (high school and college) work down the toilet because I decided to express my free speech.”

Students being denied conferment – some of whom have faced arrests, expulsions, suspensions and other disciplinary action – say they’re in limbo and are being made into examples. As they await appeals processes and the results of university investigations, they’re preparing for an uncertain future. In the worst-case scenario, they’ll be saddled with debt and will have no degree to show for it.

But while the stakes are high, they told USA TODAY that none of them regret their part in campus protests over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“I have these punishments and have to work through this stress, but it’s incomparable to the plight of Palestinians,” said Devron Burks, a Vanderbilt student who was arrested and expelled following the occupation of a campus building. “I don’t regret it, and I don’t think I ever will.”

Keep reading

Chaos In Mexico: Angry Mob Attempts To Set Fire To Israeli Embassy

AFP journalists report that riots broke out overnight between police and a group of 200 angry protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico. The demonstrators, participating in a protest called “Urgent Action for Rafah,” were denouncing the Israeli military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. The unrest followed an Israeli strike on a displacement camp near Rafah that killed 45 people earlier in the week. 

Some protesters covered their faces and threw stones at riot police who blocked their path to the diplomatic complex in the city’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.

Around 200 people joined the “Urgent Action for Rafah” demonstration, about 30 of whom started to break down barriers preventing them from reaching the Israeli mission.

Police officers deployed tear gas and threw back the stones hurled at them by protesters.-AFP 

According to The Jewish Chronicle, “Rioters on Tuesday set fire to the Israeli Embassy,” adding, “The riot came after Mexico filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s “genocide” case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.” 

There has been no official confirmation of fire damage to the embassy.

Keep reading