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U.S. Justice Dept to Investigate Baltimore City Police

U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on May 8, 2015, that the DOJ will be launching an investigation into the Baltimore City Police Department.

May 8, 2015 - U.S. Department of Justice Announces Investigation into Baltimore City Police Department — May 8, 2015 – U.S. Department of Justice Announces Investigation into Baltimore City Police Department

Her full comments were:

“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.”

Balochistan Human Rights Campaigners Receive Death Threats

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports the freedom of all human rights activists. Through our friends suffering in Balochistan, we are painfully aware of their suffering for the determination to stand for their human rights.

We recently heard the devastating news of the murder on April 24, 2015 of Ms. Sabeen Mahmud, a human rights activist and social NGO worker. She was founder and director of the Pakistan Karachi-based cafe The Second Floor (T2F) and president of the Karachi branch of TiE. She was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on her way home after hosting a seminar at T2F, titled “Unsilencing Balochistan (Take 2),” and her mother was also critically wounded.

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting another suppression of human rights by the Balochistan human rights activist Mr. Mama Qadeer Baloch, and canceling his conferences in Karachi. He was a guest speaker at the April 24 event where Ms. Mahmud was assassinated.
WSJ states: “Playing host to Mama Qadeer Baloch is a dangerous act in Pakistan. The 73-year-old human-rights campaigner routinely receives death threats; his hosts at public appearances have been targeted for assassination; and on Wednesday, the administration of Karachi University shut a planned lecture to avoid the wrath of the country’s powerful military establishment. Since 2009, Mr. Baloch, a retired bank worker, has kept a solitary vigil on a sidewalk outside the press club in this southern megacity, surrounded by pictures of people he alleges the military abducted from his native Balochistan province, a sparsely populated western province that is rich in minerals.”

The richest and most precious thing that we have are our universal human rights. It is our shared obligation to struggle for consistency and defense of these human rights everywhere in the world.

Communist China’s Oppression of Religious Freedom Continues

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 — 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.”

Six Baltimore Police Arrested for Death of Freddie Gray

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:

Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr.

1) Second-degree depraved heart murder (Maximum sentence: 30 years)
2) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 years)
3) Second-degree assault (10 years)
4) Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence) (10 years)
5) Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence) (3 years)
6) Misconduct in office

Officer William Porter

1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 years)
2) Second-degree assault (10 years)
3) Misconduct in office

Lt. Brian W. Rice

1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 years)
2) Second-degree assault (10 years)
3) Second-degree assault (10 years)
4) Misconduct in office
5) Misconduct in office
6) False imprisonment

Officer Edward M. Nero

1) Second-degree assault (10 years)
2) Second-degree assault (10 years)
3) Misconduct in office
4) Misconduct in office
5) False imprisonment

Officer Garrett E. Miller

1) Second-degree assault (10 years)
2) Second-degree assault (10 years)
3) Misconduct in office
4) Misconduct in office
5) False imprisonment

Sgt. Alicia D. White

1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 years)
2) Second-degree assault (10 years)
3) Misconduct in office

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.

A Nation United to Defy Injustice

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.

On April 30, 2015, in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New York City, Washington DC, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, and other cities across America, the public is deciding that it has had enough of the police brutality and the cover-ups, which are an offense to the human rights and the Constitutional rights of the American citizens.

Nationwide Protests Over Police Abuse: Baltimore, NYC, Philade

Baltimore Protests for Justice and Another Night of Curfew

New York City Protests Against Injustice

Washington DC 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.

Baltimore: Protests Against Police Abuse as Union Calls Them Lynch Mobs and Doesn’t Care About Public

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.”

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 — 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) — 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)

Maryland Governor Hogan has sent 32 Maryland state police troopers to support the police activity outside of protests in Baltimore.

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.

Lawless Environment in America and the Choices We Face

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 in California for Using her Mobile Phone in Public (Source: YouTube) — “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.

Italy: Murder of Christians Offshore in Migrant Ship – Killed for Religious Identity

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)

Pakistan: Attack on Catholic Christian School in Lahore

Another attack on a Pakistan Christian school by extremists was reported by Fides and by the Pakistan Christian Post on April 17, 2015. The attack was made by gunmen on the Christian Catholic St. Francis school. This was another in a repeated series of attacks on Christian organizations in Pakistan, and especially around the Lahore area.

Fides reported that the “St Francis High School” is a Catholic high school located in the district of Bahar, in the Anarkali area, near Lahore. According to Fides, a “student and two security guards were injured and were taken to hospital. The reasons of the attack have not yet been established, and investigations are being carried out.” Both the “St. Francis High School”, and the “St Mary High School” were closed.

According to the Pakistan Christian Post, “Unidentified gunmen began firing and as the guards on duty outside the school intercepted, they were caught in the firing and got injured. The students of the school have been directed to leave the school premises. The investigation is underway to find out the main reason of attack. The Churches and Christian institutions already have warned about security threat from hardliners. Behar Colony is the second largest Christian residential area in Lahore and Lahore is the second largest city of Pakistan.”

St. Francis School Attacked by Extremists in Lahore, Pakistan area

Those who believe in our universal human rights and accepts the rule of law for any society, must reject the extremist violence against minority Christians. We must all reject this violence and seek and end to the oppression in Pakistan.

Oklahoma Reserve Officer Kills Black Suspect

In yet another case of police brutality, a Tulsa, Oklahoma reserve deputy sheriff officer shot and killed an African-American after mistaking his taser gun with his firearm. The Oklahoma reserve deputy Robert Bates is an insurance salesman who performs such reserve functions.

Eric Harris, 44, was reportedly attempting to flee officers during an undercover sting operation in which he was filmed apparently trying to sell an illegal weapon. He was killed by Robert Bates, who has been charged with manslaughter.

The Tulsa World reported that supervisors in the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office were ordered to falsify training records for Robert Bates, to give Bates credit for field training he never took and firearms certifications he should not have received. So when our police are instructed to falsify records in one area, who is also to know whether they are falsifying other records?

We need to operate a trust basis for the law enforcement with whom we entrust the authority to act as the public’s representative in enforcing the law.