A grand jury today indicted the six Baltimore City Police officers who were arrested in the killing of Freddie Gray. The grand jury indictment charges varied slightly from the charges of their original arrests, but the charges remain from murder, manslaughter, and assault. If convicted, the Baltimore City Police could face decades of imprisonment for their criminal actions in the murder of Freddie Gray.
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)
Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. – Indicted
1) Second-degree depraved heart murder (30 yrs.)
2) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 yrs.)
3) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
4) Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence) (10 yrs.)
5) Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence) (3 yrs.)
6) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
7) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
Officer William G. Porter – Indicted
1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 yrs.)
2) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
3) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
4) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
Lt. Brian W. Rice – Indicted
1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 yrs.)
2) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
3) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
4) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
5) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
Officer Edward M. Nero – Indicted
1) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
2) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
3) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
4) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
Officer Garrett E. Miller – Indicted
1) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
2) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
3) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
4) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
Sgt. Alicia D. White – Indicted
1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 yrs.)
2) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.)
3) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*)
4) Reckless endangerment (5 yrs.)
*Any sentence that does not constitute cruel & unusual punishment
In Punjab, authorities have reportedly arrested 106 people from a mob that who murdered a Christian couple in public, burning their body to death. As R.E.A.L. reported in November 2014, a mob in “Pakistan burned a Christian couple alive, based on false claims of “blasphemy.” The Christian couple, Sajjad Maseeh, 27, and his wife Shama Bibi, 24, were murdered by the crowd as it chanted religious slogans from the Qur’an, their legs broken, and their bodies publicly burned in a kiln. Shama Bibi was four months pregnant, and since her body would not burn properly, it was wrapped in cloth, so the murderous mob could more readily burn her body.” As we previously reported, the mob made their four-year old child watch her parents burn to death, and tried to them kill the baby as well.
Shama Bibi and Sajjad Maseeh were killed by a mob in Kot Radha Kishan, Pakistan.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) points to this atrocity as one in many such crimes against our fellow human beings, which begins with religious intolerance and the view that violence is an acceptable approach for those who view that they are religiously offended. Free nations must reject such views and such oppression of all people, especially religious minorities targeted by such violence and hatred.
Honest men and women work together for a civil and just society, respecting our shared human rights, which must be enforced by those in law enforcement. Crimes against our human rights, crimes against our fellow citizens, and crimes against our law enforcement must be rejected in a society which believes in justice. Without those who will defend the laws for our human rights, we know the truths that we hold self-evident always under attack.
When we reject injustice anywhere, we also reject injustice against the law enforcement men and women who represent our very laws themselves.
As we reject the violence and abuse of human rights against all of our fellow citizens, we must certainly stand to reject violence and the abuse of the human rights of those in law enforcement as well.
All patriotic Americans and all those who love our shared universal human rights must respect the valor of those who work to preserve those shared rights by enforcing the law.
Crime does not and will not pay.
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. ( Source: Attribution: AgnosticPreachersKid at en.wikipedia:)
To our good friends working to protect the citizens of the United States of America – we have offered this public outreach to active and retired members of the American law enforcement community – to provide a demonstration of our support for the U.S. Constitution, human rights, and the truths that we hold self evident as Americans and as fellow human beings.
We urge our friends in the law enforcement communities to TAKE A STAND so that the public knows the commitment YOU HAVE to our Constitution and the rights we share, and to demonstrate your appreciation and respect for the American people’s trust in you to be representing them in ensuring justice in this great nation.
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Support the U.S. Constitution and International Justice Law
To Members of the American Law Enforcement Community (ONLY) – Active and Retired – we seek your public reaffirmation to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and a public commitment to the equal rights, liberty, human rights, dignity, and justice that we all share, including Amendment 8 to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” This includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), signed by the United States on December 10, 1948, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) signed by the United States on October 5, 1977, and ratified on June 8, 1992.
When you sign this petition, please include the name of the law enforcement organization you support (active or retired), so that we can show the world those who publicly affirm this stance on law and human rights.
Jeffrey Imm
Retired – Federal Bureau of Investigation
usa@realcourage.org
America’s First Law: The Constitution of the United States of America
“Good morning, and thank you all for being here. I am joined today by Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, and Director Ron Davis of the Community Oriented Policing Services Office, or COPS.
Over the past few days and weeks, we have watched as Baltimore struggled with issues that face cities across the country today. We have seen the tragic loss of a young man’s life. We have seen a peaceful protest movement coalesce to express the concern of a beleaguered community. We have seen brave officers upholding the right to peaceful protest, while also sustaining serious injury during the city’s unfortunate foray into violence. And we have watched it all through the prism of one of the most challenging issues of our time: police-community relations.
When I traveled to Baltimore earlier this week, I had an opportunity to see the significant work that the city and the police department had done with the COPS Office over the last six months through a collaborative reform process. But despite the progress being made, it was clear that recent events – including the tragic in-custody death of Freddie Gray – had given rise to a serious erosion of public trust. And in order to address this issue, I was asked – by city officials and community leaders – to augment our approach to the situation with a court enforcement model. I have spent the last few days with my team considering which of the Justice Department’s tools for police reform best meets the current needs of the Baltimore Police Department and the broader Baltimore community.
Today, the Department of Justice is opening an investigation into whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law. This investigation will begin immediately, and will focus on allegations that Baltimore Police Department officers use excessive force, including deadly force; conduct unlawful searches, seizures and arrests; and engage in discriminatory policing. The COPS Office will continue to work with the Baltimore Police Department and the collaborative reform process will now convert to the provision of technical assistance to the Baltimore Police Department. Some may ask how this differs from our current work with the Baltimore Police Department. The answer is: rather than examining whether the police department violated good policies, we will now examine whether they violated the Constitution and the community’s civil rights. This approach has been welcomed by the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, and I want to thank them for their support and their partnership as we move forward.
In the coming days, Civil Rights Division attorneys and investigators conducting the investigation, and the police experts who will assist them, will be engaging with community members and law enforcement. We will examine policies, practices and available data. And at the conclusion of our investigation, we will issue a report of our findings. If unconstitutional policies or practices are found, we will seek a court-enforceable agreement to address those issues. We will also continue to move forward to improve policing in Baltimore even as the pattern or practice investigation is underway.
Our goal is to work with the community, public officials and law enforcement alike to create a stronger, better Baltimore. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has conducted dozens of these pattern or practice investigations, and we have seen from our work in jurisdictions across the country that communities that have gone through this process are experiencing improved policing practices and increased trust between the police and the community. In fact, I encourage other cities to study our past recommendations and see whether they can be applied in their own communities. Ultimately, this process is meant to ensure that officers are being provided with the tools they need – including training, policy guidance and equipment – to be more effective, to partner with civilians and to strengthen public safety.
For many people across the country, the tragic death of Freddie Gray and the violence that followed has come to personify the city, as if that alone is Baltimore. But earlier this week, I visited with members of the community who took to the streets in the days following the violence to pick up trash and to clear away debris – and they are Baltimore. I visited with elected officials who are determined to help the neighborhoods they love come back stronger and more united – and they are Baltimore. I visited youth leaders who believe that there’s a brighter day ahead – and they are Baltimore too. I visited with law enforcement officers who had worked 16 days without a break, and were focused not on themselves or even their own safety, but on protecting the people who live in their community. They, too, are Baltimore.
I have no illusions that reform will be easy; the challenges we face did not arise in a day, and change will not come overnight. It will take time and sustained effort. But the people I met in Baltimore – from protestors to public officials to an officer who had been injured amidst the violence – all said the same thing: “I love my city, and I want to make it better.” That’s why I’m so optimistic about this process. That’s why I’m so hopeful about the days to come. And that’s why I am confident that, as a result of this investigation and the hard work still ahead, all members of the Baltimore community – residents and law enforcement alike – will be able to create a stronger, safer, more united city together.”
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.
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 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.
Oklahoma City, OK – 20 years ago. NEVER FORGET. April 19, 1995.
20 years ago – the monstrous attack on Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah building, by neo-Nazi supporting terrorist Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others.The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings
We must continue to stand for the universal human rights of our fellow human beings against Nazis and other criminals who seek the destruction of their lives. The terrorist’s inspiration in the Neo-Nazi “The Turner Diaries,” symbolized his commitment to racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay violence, as has the racist hate group organization so-called “Christian Identity” hate group in the area. Over the years, R.E.A.L. has challenged the “Christian Identity” hate group and such hate groups, and we have been threatened. But their threats only seek to silence the truth, and R.E.A.L. has no intention to be silent. We will remain responsible for equality and liberty.
Timothy McVeigh’s Terrorist Attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building
We will NOT FORGET Nazi supporting terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s attack on humanity and on our children bombing the Alfred P Murrah federal building and the daycare center inside – NYT, 1995: “Of the 21 children who were inside the day-care center on the morning of April 19, the morning of the bombing, 15 are dead, including all four of the infants by the window. Five are hospitalized, burned and broken. Only one returned home, a little girl with a broken leg. All three teachers in the center were also killed.”
Why do we reject hate? Why do we challenge terrorism?
We give this answer. Oklahoma City. Our children. Our universal human rights.
