As indicated in its 2015 Annual Report released on April 30, 2015, the The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the U.S. Secretary of State re-designate Communist China as a “country of particular concern (CPC). The report stated that “unprecedented violations” against religious groups were a result of the Chinese government’s strategy to further its control.
Fushan House Church Attack — China Aid Report
Specifically the USCIRF stated: “In 2014, the Chinese government took steps to consolidate further its authoritarian monopoly of power over all aspects of its citizens’ lives. For religious freedom, this has meant unprecedented violations against Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Falun Gong practitioners. People of faith continue to face arrests, fines, denials of justice, lengthy prison sentences, and in some cases, the closing or bulldozing of places of worship. Based on the alarming increase in systematic, egregious, and ongoing abuses, USCIRF again recommends China be designated a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999, most recently in July 2014.”
On Sunday night, a terrorist attack in Garland, Texas resulted in the death of two terrorist gunmen (Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi), and the injury of a security guard. As described by media outlets, the attack was made on an event held by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), an organization led by Pamela Geller. The terrorist gunmen drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland on Sunday night as the event was coming to an end and shot at the security officer, Bruce Joiner, who was shot in the leg. Garland police returned fire and killed the two terrorist gunmen.
Rita Katz of the SITE Institute reports that one of the men, Elton Simpson communicated with a U.S.-Somali terrorist “Mujahid Miski,” who urged the attack. Responsible for Equality And Liberty has a statement of defiance and rejection to those terrorists who believe that their violence will deny the universal human rights of our fellow human beings. Nadir Soofi was not under the scrutiny of law enforcement sources. In addition, the Dallas Morning News provided a report on May 5, 2015, stating that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an audio recording: “We tell America that what is coming is more bitter and harder and you will see from the soldiers of the Caliphate what harms you.”
The terrorist attack happened as Ms. Geller was finishing her speech in the Curtis Culwell Center to other attendees and media covering the event in what they called the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest.” CNN has reported on other similar attacks.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) rejects all terrorist violence, without qualification, everywhere, and all the time. Such terrorism is a direct attack on our fellow human beings and on their universal human rights.
We do not have to agree with or like the peaceful speech or actions by another group. But they have a right to that peaceful speech when it is not criminally calling for the murder or violence against another person.
I didn’t like Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons, either. But I don’t HAVE to like them. They have the right to their free speech nonetheless, and the terrorist violence in response to free speech is always wrong. Furthermore, it is a WAR – a war on our shared universal human rights.
In fact, I passionately disagree with Ms. Geller, her AFDI organization, her SIOA organization, her anti-Islam extremist stance, and her provocative tactics. I have writtenmany times, at length of my disagreement with Ms. Geller, and our rejection of her views and actions. I have seen some of vitriolic images her SIOA organization members have previously posted of Muhammad, and to say that many were objectionable and disgusting would be the understatement of the century. But like so many in the world, I believe she is doing what she thinks is the right thing to do, as much as I disagree with her extremist views.
While we can disagree, even passionately disagree with such views, comments, and insulting cartoons, when terrorists seek to silence public debate with their guns, bombs, knives, and other weapons of war, then even those of us who passionately disagree have a common threat.
According to our Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she and her organization have the right to freedom of thought and expression without being the target of a terrorist attack.
We either do or do not believe in these universal human rights. Not just when it is convenient, pleasant, or for those with whom we agree. This is what distinguishes us from those who seek the oppression of the world, using many arguments, many tactics, and many violent actions. Our universal human rights are shared by all of us, everywhere, all the time.
There are those who may find the AFDI’s views objectionable or who disagree with it, and may choose to believe this gives them the privilege to look the other way at a terrorist attack on free speech. But when we allow that, what will happen next time, when it is your free speech? Next time, will it be YOUR freedom of expression that terrorists threaten?
We are also seeing Twitter being used as a tool for universal communications in many ways, some good, some bad. It is a tool. How the tool is used is up to our fellow human beings. But what we see this morning (and last night) is that there have been too many who have used this tool to call for new attacks of violence against people with who them disagree.
As you can see, some call for new terrorism, some praise existing terrorism, some threaten the “kuffar.” Some post graphic images of beheaded individuals and threaten to do this to others who publish such cartoons. One threatens “stop insulting the Prophet Muhammad or come your heads everywhere,” as an ISIS beheading video is posted. Others are advised to provide their Twitter threats in Arabic so that the “right community” can read them.
Let us be clear: our universal human rights are for all people. Not just for people of one religion, one race, one ethnic group, one nationality. They are not for just one country or one region of the world. Our universal human rights are UNIVERSAL. This is where we must stand united. If there is a war, this is what we must all be fighting to defend.
The L.A. Times quotes Ms. Geller as stating “This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?” On this point, Ms. Geller is right. This war on free speech must not go unchallenged in the United States, just like those threatening a war on free speech have been challenged in France and the rest of the world.
We must take a stand on this. When it comes to this violent terrorist attack on freedom of expression, I stand beside Pamela Geller and all those whose free expression is threatened by terrorist violence. Because if we surrender on their universal human rights, we are not just surrendering on their speech and expression, but we are surrendering the free speech and expression of all Americans and all of our fellow human beings.
#JeSuisPamelaGeller –Photo of Pamela Geller (Source Twitter)
According to the media – prior to the terrorist attack – Elton Simpson’s Twitter account was being using to send messages sympathetic to the ISIS organization and its terrorism. SITE reports that Elton Simpson communicated with a U.S.-Somali terrorist “Mujahid Miski,” who urged the attack.
To Somali terrorist “Mujahid Miski,” who uses the Twitter tool to groom others and encourage them to commit terrorism, and who reportedly inspired Elton Simpson – as well as to all terrorists.
We are NOT AFRAID OF YOU.
We say this in public – and we say it to your face.
Criminals are a cowardly lot. They seek to sneak up on the helpless, the defenseless, and those who they think cannot fight back. They use their cowardice to seek to inspire “terror,” but they truly only inspire defiance instead.
Our support for our universal human rights is essential for the equality, liberty, dignity, and security of all of our fellow human beings. I urge all of my Muslim friends who work for human rights every day to also speak out to challenge the cowards who think they will terrorize free men and women in our world.
We reject and denounce those in the media and politics who feel freedom of expression is expendable to those they disagree with. This is wrong and it is a categorical rejection of our shared universal human rights. We either have such freedoms or we do not. It is essential to make it clear that we have such shared freedoms as part of our human rights, and to be responsible for their defense.
If we are responsible for human rights, it is not just when it is convenient. It is especially important when it is not convenient and when it is challenging to do so. That when we know that we are really….
Responsible for Equality And Liberty
and it is always another GOOD DAY to be responsible for equality and liberty.
Orange Ribbon for Universal Human Rights – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
On Friday, May 1, 2015, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that her office was charging six Baltimore City Police Officers in the death of Freddie Gray. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby stated: “To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America: I heard your call for no justice, no peace. Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”
Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson was charged with “depraved heart” second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Baltimore Police Officers William Porter, 25, Lt. Brian Rice, 41, and Sgt. Alicia White, 30, were each charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Officers Edward Nero, 29, and Garrett Miller, 26, were charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Lt. Rice and Officers Nero and Miller were also charged with false imprisonment for making what Ms. Mosby termed an illegal arrest of Mr. Gray.
The Baltimore Police Officers charged with these crimes surrendered to police and bail was set in amounts ranging from $250,000 to $350,000. They all posted bail and were released by Friday night.
Six Baltimore City Police Officers Arrested in the Death of Freddie Gray, top row from left, Caesar Goodson, Garrett Miller and Edward Nero, and bottom row from left, William Porter, Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White. (Source: Baltimore PD)
The full list of criminal charges against the Baltimore City Police Officers:
Responsible for Equality And Liberty defends the right of equal justice for all people, and rejects the use of authority as a tool of oppression to belittle and deny justice to people in the United States of America, and anywhere in the world.
As yet another week goes on after another brutal killing of an African-American during a police arrest, the American people are unifying to demonstrate that they will not take any more.
In a nation, which is widely viewed as divided, people of all ages, all races, and all identity groups are coming together in city after city, protesting for the call of justice.
As previously reported by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), the Baltimore Police Department set a tone of confrontation to reject the right of the public to protest the death of Freddie Gray, by the police calling the protesters a “lynch mob.” The police have taken three weeks to investigate the death of a shackled and handcuffed Mr. Gray thrown into the back of a police van without a seat belt. When the police arrived at the station, Mr. Gray had a broken spine and neck, and a crushed larynx.
Disturbingly today, a former police beat writer for the Baltimore Sun who attended Baltimore Police Department social activities, Peter Hermann, suddenly “leaked” a story to the Washington Post that the Baltimore Police is planning to claim that Mr. Gray broke his own neck and his own spine. Dr. David Samadi has questioned that wild rumor, published by the Washington Post, as something would not be backed by the medical evidence.
Nationwide Protests Over Police Abuse: Baltimore, NYC, Philade
Baltimore Protests for Justice and Another Night of CurfewPhiladelphia Protests Against InjusticeCincinnati Protest Against Injustice
New York City Protests Against InjusticeWashington DC Protests Against InjusticeDenver Protests Against InjusticeSeattle Protests Against Injustice
One reporter for the Guardian reported during Baltimore protests that the Baltimore Police caused a fire beside the Pratt Library, which was “not caused by Molotov cocktail, as publicly reported by the Baltimore Police. The teargas grenade landed on trash and its sparks set the fire. Watched it.” The reporter also stated that a drone was following the protesters.
Our fellow human beings deserve universal human rights and freedom from authoritarian or mob violence – in the United States and anywhere in the world.
Whether it is in Pakistan, Communist China, or the United States of America, all of our citizens deserve universal human rights of security, freedom, and dignity around the world. When we are responsible for equality and liberty, it must be for all nations and all people around the world.
The failure of the American justice community in the Baltimore death of Freddie Gray is being exploited by the terror group ISIS. According to the Daily Express, the terror group ISIS is trying to “recruit angry Baltimore rioters by promising them a ‘racially equal society’.” “It is not the first time the extremists have attempted to tempt disaffected black Americans to join them.”
ISIS Khilafah Police in Parts of Iraq Oppressing the Public (Source: AP)
Let’s not forget the real face of Khilafah”justice” by ISIS: whippings, murder, beheadings, shooting, burning to death anyone with a different faith, and anyone who dares to seek freedom of speech.
“Khilafah Justice” from ISIS – Murdering Blacks
Let’s not forget that blacks, women, gays and religious minorities are the number one target of ISIS’s Khilafah “justice” to murder, torture, and mutilate.
“Khilafah Justice” – ISIS’s Version of “Police Authority” – Shootings, Beheading, Whipping – they are “equal rights” they kill anyone who is not their faith, they torture anyone who does not submit to their bullyingMore Khilafah “Justice” by ISIS in Beheading Execution by Khilafah Religious Police “Hisbah”
It would be like Adolf Hitler claiming he was for black civil rights, while he was conducting the Holocaust of men, women, and children of every nationality, who murdered, sterilized, and tortured black human beings.
The failure of the American justice community in Baltimore and other major cities is a disgrace to the great United States of America.
But because we are democracy and because we respect democratic values, our shared American representative government gives all of us a voice to work together to change these problems and to see that extremists in law enforcement who abuse their authority are punished to the full extent of the law.
It is not good enough. It is not fast enough. It shouldn’t be an issue that we discuss in the first place. But a democracy gives ALL of us a place to work together to end injustices for anyone, anywhere. A choice to support another form of government which rejects democracy is not solution, it is simply making a bad situation worse.
Ask our friends in Darfur.
Sudan: Teenage girl whipped in the street. Her crime? Wearing pants.
To those extremists in law enforcement, I hope you understand that this is a reminder of the consequences of your obscene actions. Extremists’ contempt for for African-Americans, for the American people, and for the Constitution of the United States is used by the enemies of freedom. Extremist behavior helps embolden our enemies, and extremist behavior directly threatens our national homeland security.
To extremists in law enforcement, understand that YOU have become the number one recruiter for terrorist groups such as ISIS. This is the damage you do.
To the good men and women in law enforcement, this is why you must WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP ALREADY, and find your voice. You must denounce extremists in the ranks of law enforcement whose only accomplishment is to undermine trust for all in the justice community, and whose actions are a direct attack on the Constitution of the United States, which you swore an oath to defend and support.
The failure of the American justice community in the Baltimore death of Freddie Gray is being exploited by the terror group ISIS. According to the Express, the terror group ISIS is trying to “recruit angry Baltimore rioters by promising them a ‘racially equal society’.” “It is not the first time the extremists have attempted to tempt disaffected black Americans to join them.”
The failure of the American justice community in Baltimore and other major cities is a disgrace to the great United States of America.
But because we are democracy and because we respect democratic values, our shared American representative government gives all of us a voice to work together to change these problems and to see that extremists in law enforcement who abuse their authority are punished to the full extent of the law.
It is not good enough. It is not fast enough. It shouldn’t be an issue that we discuss in the first place. But a democracy gives ALL of us a place to work together to end injustices for anyone, anywhere. A choice to support another form of government which rejects democracy is not solution, it is simply making a bad situation worse.
Ask our friends in Darfur. Ask our friend in Pakistan. Does the images of violence against women and children by the Sudanese fascists or Taliban fascists look familiar?
To those extremists in law enforcement, I hope you understand that this is a reminder of the consequences of your obscene actions. Your contempt for for African-Americans, for the American people, and for the Constitution of the United States is used by the enemies of freedom. Your extremist behavior helps embolden our enemies, and your extremist behavior directly threatens our national homeland security.
To extremists in law enforcement, understand that YOU have become the number one recruiter for terrorist groups such as ISIS. This is the damage you do.
To the good men and women in law enforcement, this is why you must WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP ALREADY, and find your voice. You must denounce extremists in the ranks of law enforcement whose only accomplishment is to undermine trust for all in the justice community, and whose actions are a direct attack on the Constitution of the United States, which you swore an oath to defend and support.
Today, people around the world are remembering the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Some, like the American president, are unable to use the word “genocide,” because they are afraid to offend the Turkish government.
But where does this path of denial and fear take us?
In 1915, the Ottoman Empire’s government committed an atrocity against humanity. They committed a systematic extermination of a minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which is now in modern-day Turkey. History shows that 1.5 million Armenian civilians were killed during this genocide, which most agreeing that the genocide began on April 24, 1915. Men were massacred or forced into labor to death, and other Armenian women, children, elderly and sick were forced into death marches into the Syrian desert. The Armenian people were mostly Christians. The Armenians had been oppressed by the Ottoman empire for their minority faith. As History.com reports, the Ottoman Empire “permitted religious minorities like the Armenians to maintain some autonomy, but they also subjected Armenians, who they viewed as ‘infidels,’ to unequal and unjust treatment.” The Armenian genocide included other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks, which received the same treatment.
Armenians are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Turkish soldiers. Kharpert, Armenia, Ottoman Empire, April, 1915
But 100 years later, we cannot state that over a million Christians were put to death. Why? Why can’t Turkey apologize? Why?
Can you imagine a world where Germany was in denial for the Holocaust? Can you imagine a world where people really didn’t want to point out the Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews, because we didn’t want to upset Germany? And when we talked it about, we said some “people” were killed, not Jews? And we had publications in our media that debated using the “H-word”, like Newsweek trivializes Genocide today by calling it the “G-word”?
Can you imagine a world where the United States was in denial of its responsibility for the slavery of African-Americans? Can you imagine no shame, no responsibility, no accountability for such crimes? And when we did talk about slavery it was just for some “people” whose identity group we wouldn’t identify? Can you imagine people stating we fought a Civil War and well, we won’t talk about one of the major reasons for its cause, because after all, we wouldn’t want to upset southern states or those states where slaves had been held?
Justice and peace will not be achieved by denial. We cannot move forward in human rights and not face the mistake of our past and try to change them. The only to find justice and peace is to face both, and make amends.
Today around the world, ironically on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, we see religious minorities targeted for oppression and extinction. Just as Armenian Christians were marched into the Syrian desert to die, Syrian Christians are being kidnapped and oppressed, Egyptian Christians are being lined up on the shores of Libya to have their throats slit, Kenya Christians are being killed, Christian churches and nuns are being attacked in India, Nigerian Christians are being killed and their churches destroyed, Communist China is arresting Christian pastors, and destroying their churches…
… and in Pakistan? We see wave after wave of attacks on Pakistan Christians, bombing their churches, shooting their churches, attacking Christian schools, oppressing and imprisoning them for “blasphemy,” burning Christians to death by mobs… and even little children being burned to death for their Christian faith. (Our strategy for this is not to hold Pakistan responsible for change, but to give them more money and weapons.)
It doesn’t stop in the Middle East or Asia. We learn this week of a terrorist plot against French churches. In the Mediterranean sea outside Italy, Christians were drowned for praying. In Italian counter terror operations today, we learn of a plot to attack the Vatican.
You have don’t to be an Armenian to know the Armenian genocide was wrong and we need to remember it. You don’t have to be Jewish or one of the other groups targeted by the Nazis to condemn the Holocaust. You don’t have to be an African-American to know that slavery in America was wrong and must never be forgotten.
And you don’t have to be a Christian to see the ongoing, continuing genocide against Christians around the world is a CRIME against humanity.
The silence and denial – whether it is on the Armenian genocide – or other genocides – does not help humanity to move forward.
We need to face the mistakes that humanity has made, and find a way to use our communities to say – whenever and wherever our universal human rights are defiled and defied…
A shocking and disturbing turn of events in the public protests of the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in the custody of the Baltimore Police. It was discovered today that Baltimore Police Union issued a memo describing the protests of African-American Freddie Gray as a “lynch mob,” and stated that the Baltimore Police Union was “not concerned with the community’s confidence in the investigation.”
Protesters in Baltimore, Maryland have been protesting the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died Sunday, April 19, 2015. after sustaining a spinal cord injury while in police custody a week earlier. Human rights leader Jesse Jackson has encouraged peaceful protests of the death of Freddie Gray.
Baltimore, MD: Freddie Gray Died of Spinal Injuries after Arrest by Baltimore Police (Source: Google)
News reports have described that Freddie Gray was hospitalized in critical condition. The Baltimore Sun reported on witness Kevin Moore, who was present when Mr. Gray was being arrested, stating: “Moore said he found his friend handcuffed, ‘screaming for his life,’ and planted face down on the ground with one Baltimore bicycle police officer’s knee on his neck and the other bicycle officer bending his legs backward so that Gray’s heels were in his back. ‘They had him folded up like he was a crab or a piece of origami. He was all bent up,’ Moore said.”
The Atlantic reports that “The police say Gray didn’t resist arrest and that officers didn’t use force, which seems to be mostly corroborated by video shot by bystanders. Gray seems to shout in pain, and his leg seems injured as officers drag him to a police van. (Someone off camera shouts, ‘His leg broke and y’all dragging him like that!’) Gray also had asthma and requested his inhaler, but didn’t get it. Yet it’s not the leg or the asthma that killed him. Instead, it was a grave injury to his spinal cord. Gray’s family said he was treated for three fractured vertebrae and a crushed voice box, the sorts of injuries that doctors say are usually caused by serious car accidents. ”
But when the public has protested the Baltimore Police’s handling of this arrest and Mr. Gray’s subsequent death, the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Union Lodge 3 issued a statement privately that read, in part, that protesters are equivalent to a “lynch mob,” and that “we are not concerned with the community’s confidence in the investigation.”
Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 3 Issues Statement Equating Protests Against Death During Police Arrest with “Lynchings” (Source: Twitter)
R.E.A.L. has provided a response to such views by the Baltimore FOP Union Lodge 3, which reject the universal human rights which we have agreed to as a nation. As we are concerned with the universal human rights of our brothers and sisters in humanity around the world, certainly we are also responsible for defending the universal human rights of Americans
Below is R.E.A.L.’s letter on April 23 to the Baltimore FOP Union Lodge 3, regarding the FOP’s comments, which we also sent to the Maryland State legislators that the Baltimore FOP union is seeking to influence via lobbying efforts. Brooke E. Lierman, Maryland Delegate, District 46 (Baltimore City) replied: “Thanks for the cc. I was at the protest today in Baltimore and it was very orderly and went well I thought. I am also concerned about some of the comments – I appreciate your email.”
R.E.A.L.’s April 23 Letter to Baltimore Police Union
Large protest groups have gathered in Baltimore, MD to protest this police action, which has resulted in the death of Freddie Gray. R.E.A.L. supports the peaceful protest of our fellow citizens in America and any part of the world calling for such basic dignity in treatment as human beings, and support for our shared universal human rights.
Baltimore Protests – April 23, 2015 – Protests Against Freddie Gray’s Death in Police Custody (Source: CNN)Freddie Gray Protests in Baltimore (Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
R.E.A.L. supports the peaceful protests of all people regarding injustice and oppression, and calls for consistent universal human rights for all people around the world.
A keystone that holds together the heterogeneous segments of American public is our shared respect for law, equality, and justice. Our culture is not based on sharing one ethnic background, one race, one historical “culture,” or one religion. We are a diverse nation and an example for such diversity for the world. In large part, our commitment to equality and liberty, our commitment to equal law and order is “America’s culture.”
Over the past year, we have seen wave after wave of abuse by police authority in this nation. We have seen hundreds of thousands marching and protesting in Washington D.C. in front of the U.S. Department of Justice to call for action. We have seen protests across the nation condemning police abuse against our public and our Constitution. That action has been halting and limited to a single report on Ferguson. The action has been very “deliberate,” while African-Americans and other Americans continue to be murdered by criminals wearing badges, who do not represent the authority granted by the American people. While the current administration sent the Vice President at the funeral of two NYC police officers, the visibility and concern on police abuses is at another level entirely.
The American public may differ on many political issues and on many different solutions to problems in our society. But one thing will bring the American public together: lawlessness.
The American public will NOT tolerate our people being killed in the streets. Not by criminals thugs. And not by people carrying the badge of police authority that we give them.
In the past several DAYS, this situation of lawlessness has continued to escalate, to add to the existing incomprehensible state of lawlessness by our police authorities in Ferguson, MO, New York City, NY, Cleveland, OH, and other cities. We now have North Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, MD to add to this lawlessness.
A man killed in Ferguson, MO for being in the street. A man strangled to death in New York City for selling cigarettes. A child shot to death in Cleveland for having a toy. A death of a Baltimore man who suffered a spinal injury while being shackled. Now we see an unarmed man gunned down in the back in North Charleston, South Carolina, by a criminal with a badge and a gun our public gave him. This horrific wave of criminal police abuse has been notorious for its racist targeting of African-Americans. But this criminal police abuse also targets the Constitution of the United States. It is a threat, not just to African-American people, but to all Americans, and it must be the concern of all Americans. You would think this lawless and criminal behavior by individuals wearing a badge was being done in some totalitarian nation, rather than the United States of America.
In Washington DC, the U.S. Secret Service has had an ongoing state of lawlessness and chaos for many months, which has now led to Washington DC police to have to arrest and imprison a Secret Service agent for threatening his girlfriend with a gun. It appears almost every week now the U.S. Secret Service has a scandal related to its law enforcement role.
But this Sunday, as we saw the Washington Post reporting about thousands of police abuses, we have seen our federal law enforcement attack our Constitutional rights. On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City federal building, a Deputy U.S. Marshal in South Gate, CA, with an assault weapon is running down the street to try to tackle and wrest the mobile phone from an unarmed woman, Beatriz Paez, who dared to take a photo of public police activity. The anonymous bully attacking our Constitutional rights didn’t know that someone else was also watching with their cell phone and took a video of his entire attack on this woman. That video was posted on YouTube and has had over 1.2 million viewers. On the 10th anniversary of YouTube, it is now documenting public acts by a federal law enforcement officer to attack our Constitution. Every patriotic American should speak out on this issue.
In fact, I did. I am retired from the U.S. Department of Justice, having served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for six years. To me, the attack on our Constitutional rights by a member of the DOJ USMS is not only a disgrace to our nation, but it is also a personal and professional offense against the efforts by the many thousands of loyal hard-working and patriotic members of federal law enforcement to protect our Constitution and this nation.
“Anonymous” USMS Deputy Marshal Chases and Attacks Woman Beatriz Paez in California for Using her Mobile Phone in Public (Source: YouTube)
So I also called the USMS on this – three days after this happened. Three days, after all this publicity, surely the USMS had plenty of time to “investigate” this and take some action. I was first palmed off on a USMS PR person basically ignoring me (mixed with some sarcasm) and telling me to send an email to a generic USMS email address. Then I called the USMS Central District of California, where I finally spoke to someone who seemed to understand what I was talking about, but who told me all action was handled by the USMS Office of Professional Responsibility.
The USMS Office of Professional Responsibility has decided not to have its national headquarters in our nation’s capital Washington, DC, but in Alexandria, VA. In a twist of bitter irony, it has located itself on a street named after the notorious traitor Jefferson Davis, who led the treasonous Confederate States of America and sought the destruction of our United States of America’s union.
By the time I had called the USMS Office of Professional Responsibility led by USMS Assistant Director Carl Caulk on this matter, the YouTube video of the “anonymous” USMS Deputy Marshal attacking our Constitutional rights had reached 600,000 viewers. When I asked about the OPR’s plans to act on this incident in South Gate, CA, the USMS OPR person answering the phone pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. When I “reminded” this person and ended the lame attempt at obfuscation, I was told that the USMS OPR was investigating this, and had seen the YouTube video. I reminded the USMS OPR representative that every delay without an announcement gives the American public the impression that the USMS is not serious about its Constitutional oath. The USMS OPR representative, who insisted on being “anonymous,” refused to demonstrate any concern on the matter at all. This morning the number of YouTube viewers of the USMS abuse has doubled – without even an announcement by the USMS for the minimal steps to place the Deputy Marshal on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation.
There is the view some have that human rights and the law are separate topics. This makes no sense. Our universal human rights can only be defended when we have competent, dedicated forces of law enforcement to ensure such human rights are protected. Otherwise, every case of human rights violation is dependent on public protest and the public having to do the job that we are have paid our government representatives to do.
Our nation also cannot afford a “secret police.” We cannot afford Ferguson or other police officers who take off or hide their name badges. We cannot afford those who are responsible for defending our Constitution at a federal level hiding behind “anonymity” when our Constitution itself is threatened. We need the defenders of our Constitution to stand up and be counted.
The official response is not disgust, not outrage, not embarrassment. They don’t understand it is not their badge, gun, bullets, uniform. It is ours. It is not “their law.” It is our shared law. We give those resources and that authority because we trust and respect such authorities. Betraying that trust is a dangerous game being played by the reckless who do not have interests of the law and the United States of America at heart.
Abuse of law enforcement authority to attack our shared Constitution and Constitutional rights will only succeed if we tolerate it.
Those who think an environment of lawlessness is acceptable count on the American people to get distracted. They expect if they do nothing, the American people will forget anyways, and they believe the American people’s outrage will eventually burn out while they employ stalling “rope-a-dope” tactics.
Here is what those who tolerate lawlessness in our nation forget.
We are a representative democracy. We have the VOTE. On Election Day, The American people can show how much they tolerate political parties with deafening silence on lawlessness. This is hardly the last of these abuses. We are reaching critical point where the American people’s long-standing respect and trust for our law enforcement is on a serious decline. This is not in the interests of the law enforcement, our government, and the American people.
To those passionately concerned about the 2016 election, I have a reminder regarding how the American public react to a protracted period of lawlessness in our nation.
In 2002, the Washington DC area, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Fairfax County, and more was under literal attack, by a terrorist sniper. Sarah Ramos was murdered on a bench not far from my home. The area was under attack. People were shot in public, at gas stations, at bus stops, mowing the lawn, shopping at stores, etc., including the murder of a 13 year old child dropped off at school. Law enforcement miraculously captured the killer when a vigilant public informant told them exactly where the killer was.
At the same time, a campaign was ongoing for the governor of Maryland. While people were being shot in the street, Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was focused on infrastructure topics including discussion of trash collection (I recall as I was astounded by her lack of concern), and when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend did discuss the attacks on the area, it was to argue against the death penalty and to blame the NRA. What happened was that the first Republican was elected governor of Maryland in over 40 years, in very, very Democratic Maryland. Some historians may choose to ignore this aspect of the 2002 election, but this was a very real concern to voters at the time.
People won’t stand for protracted lawlessness. Americans won’t stand for such lawlessness, whether the criminals are hiding in the shadows or the criminals are wearing a badge.
Whoever our national leaders that we elect in 2016, they must demonstrate that they understand the need and they are committed to ending this disgraceful lawlessness in our nation. To those leaders who are running a slow-start campaign which decides to “ignore” such issues, what they really ignoring is is the most fundamental cohesive force that brings our nation together: our belief in a nation with equal liberty and justice for all and a United States of America with a shared law for all people.
In yet another horrific attack on human rights and lives of Christians, we have learned of the attack in the Mediterranean sea of Christians onboard a migrant ship from Africa headed towards Africa. Many flee the constant violence, war, and poverty in Africa and flee to Italy. But on April 16, 2015, 12 Christians were targeted for their religious identity and thrown overboard to drown by extremists who rejected their universal human rights to religious freedom, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 18, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 18. As the world learned the news of this horrific attack, this was reported by major news media.
CNN reported: “Muslims who were among migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy in a boat this week threw 12 fellow passengers overboard — killing them — because the 12 were Christians.” “Italian authorities have arrested 15 people on suspicion of murdering the Christians at sea, police in Palermo, Sicily, said. The original group of 105 people left Libya on Tuesday in a rubber boat. Sometime during the trip north across the Mediterranean Sea, the alleged assailants — Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal — threw the 12 overboard, police said. Other people on the voyage told police that they themselves were spared ‘because they strongly opposed the drowning attempt and formed a human chain,’ Palermo police said.”
NBC News also later reported: “Italian police arrested 15 African men suspected of throwing about a dozen Christians from a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, as the crisis off southern Italy intensified.” “Police in the Sicilian capital Palermo said they had arrested the men — who were from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal — after survivors reported they had thrown 12 people from Nigeria and Ghana to their deaths and threatened other Christians. The 15 were arrested on charges of multiple homicide motivated by religious hatred. ‘The motive for the resentment was traced to their faiths,’ police said. ‘Twelve people are said to have drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean, all of them Nigerian and Ghanaian.'”
According to a report on the attack, the Daily Mail stated that a witness interviewed by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported the attack was based on rejecting the right to Christian prayer. The news report states: “Those who witnessed the African Christians being murdered on the crammed dinghy told investigators how Nigerian Muslims became angry at Christian who started praying. ‘They told him that they would throw him overboard if he didn’t stop praying to God,’ he said, according to La Republica. The witness added: ‘They started shouting, two pushed the lad and he fell in the sea and drowned.'”
Update: In addition to this horrific tragedy, a boatload of migrants capsized on Saturday night April 18. The Italian news agency ANSA said the boat may have held 700 passengers. Pope Francis was among those following the news. “There are fears there could be hundreds of dead,” Francis told the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. He bowed his head in silent prayer as did many of the tens of thousands in the crowd. The Repubblica has also been following this report.
Palermo Police Arrest Killers of Christians on Migrant Ship who Targeted Murdering Christians for Their Religion (Source: CNN, YouTube)
