We recently discussed the latest destruction of a statue in North Carolina and I expressed my skepticism over the inaction of police as well as the absence of significant arrests for a crime committed openly in public while surrounded by officers. Now, WRAL-TV obtained text messages and emails that showed Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue actually ordered his officers to back off as protesters were destroying a century-old statue.
The destruction of the Confederate monument known as “Silent Sam” followed a familiar pattern. Earlier this year, I was critical of the handling of the prosecution of various protesters in North Carolina who torn down a statue in public and then celebrated their criminal acts in broad daylight. Because the statue of a civil war memorial, the act of property destruction was condoned by many and Durham District Attorney Roger Echols caved to the pressure in dropping all charges against everyone. It was effective immunity for a popular criminal act — a dangerous concept in any legal system.
The recently discovered messages from Blue shows the same special protection afforded those who are committing popular crimes. Blue ordered his officers to give the protesters “lots of space” and “stay way out.” At one point, he even chastised officers for being “too close” to an unfolding crime in front of them. Some, like Thom Goolsby, a UNC Board of Governors member, criticized the police for a lack faction.
Despite the open commission of the crime by multiple people, only three face misdemeanor charges of rioting and defacing a public monument. Of course, even misdemeanor charges were dropped eventually by Echols in the earlier case when he buckled under public pressure.
The fact that such destruction would be a misdemeanor rather than a felony is bizarre. In North Carolina, a Class H Felony Larceny charge is used for any property or services valued at over a $1000. Yet, you can openly destroy a century old statue and caused far greater monetary damage but only face a misdemeanor?
Under G.S. 14-288.2(e), a person is guilty of a Class F felony if he or she (1)willfully (2) incites or urges another (3) to engage in a riot, and (4) the inciting or urging is a contributing cause of a riot which (5) results in (a) property damage of $1,500 or more or(b)serious bodily injury. Yet, this charge was not brought in a coordinated effort to destroy a public memorial or art work.
The low number of arrests and minor charges naturally raise suspicions that prosecutors and police are shielding people who commit popular criminal acts.
What do you think?
“Blue ordered his officers to give the protesters “lots of space” and “stay way out.”
Congratulations chief for continuing the proud tradition of standing by while woke mobs engage in violence while serving their righteous cause. After all, what’s a few burned buildings and broken statues when there’s social justice to be had?
My grandfather’s grandfather was born a slave and I have personally experienced racism from childhood through adulthood. Still I praise God for being born here. Just as Christ suffered for All of Our sins. The suffering of my ancestors opened the door to my life here. A life at its worse is better than any I would’ve had in the land of my ancestors. That history will not change because of a book or stature. This country is not perfect and it’s history shows that. Still it is my home and the home of millions of Blacks from other countries. We are a nation of laws. These laws, traditions, and history make Everyone want to live here. Teach our history, the good, bad, and ugly. Keep our traditions (Christianity). Enforce our laws, even those that say, you have NO right to NOT be offended or to destroy people and THINGS you disagree with.
Dereliction, negligence, abuse of power and corruption are crimes when engaged in by a local police chief and they are crimes when
engaged in by the Attorney General of the United States , Jeff Sessions.
_________________________________________________________
Accomplices to the Obama Coup D’etat in America who have not yet been charged by Jeff Sessions:
Sessions, Rosenstein, Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Kadzic, Yates, Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell,
Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Brennan, Clapper, Farkas, Power, Lynch, Rice, Jarrett,
Obama et al.
_________________________________________________________________
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “…a dupe which will live in infamy.”
i wonder as we discuss the legacy of chattel slavery in the US which is tragic but oftendegenerates into an exercise in demonizing white Americans today who had nothing to do with it… does anybody ask how they got into the transatlantic slave trade in the first place?
I mean are we going to continue to respect all the tribal societies of Africa that conquested each other and shipped the vanquished victims off to the Coast to be sold, or the Muslim slave traders, or is all our opprobrium reserved for white European-kind?
Or let me ask this: are all the white descendants of indentured servants brought here and confined by law entitled to 40 acres and a mule too? and who will PAY FOR IT?
THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. THE SPOILS!
How about protecting our history by moving this endangered species into safe spaces? Museums, etc., or a warehouse. Then when we respect our history once again we can bring them back.
Decent people will never respect the history of slavery, white supremacy, segregation, and Jim Crow. So, yeah, put these statues in a warehouse and let them rot.
JJ
Many caste societies still have their fans. Such as all the Hindus in the world who still idolize Arjuna. Can they all be indecent?
Likewise ancient Greece and every other civilization of the entire ancient world that had slaves… or ancient Rome… or medieval Andalusia…. I can just circulate around the globe here…. I am fairly certain that the Aztecs had slaves too, before the Spaniards supposedly enslaved them too….. can a Spaniard admire Cortez for his bravery nonetheless?
China had slaves right up until the Communists won and officially abolished it in 1950 or so. Not that things were much better as millions, maybe even tens of millions starved to death over the next few years…… And if you believe Hillary’s state department they still have millions of “human trafficked slaves” there today
But are there not decent people who are still Hindus, and admirers of China? or all they all indecent?
I could go on. Are there NO decent Saudis even though slavery was not abolished there until 1960s?
Are there NO decent Israelis even though…. (here insert complaints of Palestinians)
I guess it’s only white folks who are not allowed to revere their own ancestors in spite of the worldwide persistence of chattel slavery at the time.
Not one decent white person could admire the South, is that your view? Confirm that please.
Your reading comprehension sucks. I said: Decent people will never respect the history of slavery, white supremacy, segregation, and Jim Crow. And that it true.
That is part of the south’s history but not all of it. For example, I love the south of the civil rights movement and the cities that were most involved in it. I also adore the multicultural NC college town where I have lived for a long time.
You don’t have to respect it but you do have to acknowledge it. That’s the point.
You don’t have to respect it but you do have to acknowledge it.
I agree Mark. Much in the same way an alcoholic that goes through The 12 Step Program doesn’t have to respect alcohol, but he sure does need to acknowledge it’s influence.
Tearing down statues and not discussing our history of slavery because we believe that is what decent people do, would be like the alcoholic simply throwing out all the booze and telling his friends and family to not drink around him or discuss alcohol. That just won’t work.
JJ: Race baters and haters like yourself are the bane of American culture. I am a white man, 80 years old, descendant of poor Swedish immigrants who came here in 1890’s. I hate no one, unlike yourself. I love America warts and ALL. History, of course study it, but disparage and ignore it, and you are an ignorant low life. I love every one of my countrymen and everyone in it, except the arrogant and corrupt law breakers. So what is it about me that is the one deserving of your venom?
That is the exact history of the Democratic Party. Can we put them in a warehouse to rot as well?
Should we tear down statues of Washington and Jefferson?
I can still respect Jefferson for many things even though he was a hypocrite who lied about equality when he wanted nothing of the sort where money was concerned, and encouraged poor white Colonials to figh rebel against the King and go die for him, and make of Massa Tom a new American King in republican clothing! I can still respect his prodigious intellect and facile political maneuvering. he had a lot in common with the runt Napoleon, the famous conquestor and tyrant who forced democracy on so many who didn’t want it!
If you took a list of the top five hypocritical things about Massa Tom most folks who can at least read, would put “Sally Hemmings” at the top. I would say, not even the top ten, but mostly I would just be talking to myself.
Americans, we are so confident that we know it all. It’s almost a cultural hallmark of ours to have a certain smug confidence in our own intellectual superiority. It’s styled as pragmatic and empirical, too, even when it isnt.
When I think of Jefferson I think of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The two pinnacle achievements of all of Western Civilization. Thousands of years of suffering and progress captured in two very short and easy to read documents. The ease with which the left is ready to discard our very foundations alarms us on the other side and we take the threat very seriously.
As all men are, Jefferson was flawed as well. We look back in horror at slavery, and think that somehow we are morally superior to them. What will the people of the future think of our professed moral superiority? What will they think of our willful ignorance of the world even though we were blessed with the internet? Our inability to engage in substantive debate? Our loss of critical thinking skills?
The tearing down of statues in clear violation of law should alarm everyone. The many comments here seeking to justify illegal, undemocratic actions while at the same time calling their opponents “undemocratic” and “authoritarian” are disgusting.
It’s seems that our society is breaking down. Where do we go from here? Further down the well I guess. That’s not what I want, but that’s where we are headed.
Ivan that is a nice comment and well said.
I would differ in what I considered the pinnacles of the West but I am retrograde, so I won’t compare.
I think that it is fair to say that the US Constitution is a pinnacle of Western politics. That is fair. Of course James Madison is credited with writing it, though it was a product of extensive negotiations among many.
Jefferson deserves credit for writing the Declaration, in the minds of most as social truth, in my mind at least as a product of extraordinary prose and the highest quality propaganda. I think King George is nowhere near the tyrant the current DC regime is.
I’m interested to hear your retrograde thoughts…I have to run now though 🙂
Well you might say in the area of positive law, rather than constitutional law, the Justinian & Napoleonic Codes are as much of a gem as the US Constitution. I know most English speaking peoples have never heard of either one but such is the parochial focus of a lot of our education. Most people on earth, I think it’s fair to say, operate under a system this system of statutes that was first codified by Emperor Justinian, and then extended by Napoleon. Americans are blissfully unaware.
Not that I’m not a fan of common law, in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, I am a practitioner of it; but there are other cultural attainments to respect.
Perhaps, when these vaunted universities talk about diversity, instead of looking at the precious cultural diversity right under our noses outside the English speaking world, and yet still inside “the West,” we go too far to various places that are very far afield and perhaps less worth exploring instead. That’s about as nicely as i can put it.
There are technological marvels too obviously, I suspect that those are easier to justify than certain social innovations. Calculus, dynamite, the transistor, genetics, physics, one could make such a list a hundred items long and they would squarely belong to “the West”
the universities are supposed to be respositories of our heritage and instead they coddle the youngsters with radical nonsense to excite them, instead of inspiring them to work and study. It’s as pathetic if not worse than the tolerance of alcohol abuse that we all saw and often participated in shamefully at school. A little aguafiesta comment to start off football season with, enjoy!
Mr Kurtz – would we have dynamite were it not for the explosives of the East? Would we have the smartphone if we did not have Asians designing and building them? Think of the marvelous rocketry the Chinese had long before the West. They just decided they did not need us. 😉 However, we decided we needed them.
I haven’t looked at Justinian’s Code or the Napoleonic Code…I certainly know of them, but I have never looked at them. I have also heard of Hammurabi’s Code, the twelve tables of Roman law, Solon’s reforms…although I don’t think we have access to those? Are there others I should check out? Now I’m running very late. Thanks.
Ivan – Hammurabi’s Code is available in translation, I am sure all the others are as well. The Napoleonic Code was the law of New Orleans. All I can remember about it is that you are guilty until proven innocent. 🙂
Excellent comment Ivan.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-60-percent-disapprove-of-trump-while-clear-majorities-back-mueller-and-sessions/2018/08/30/4cd32174-ac7c-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.63a33978ed61More bad news for the gullible rubes, dupes, klan-wannabees and pocket traitors. The hits just keep on coming. What is that ticking sound?
Sam Patten. Russian oligarchs. Trump’s inauguration. Flipped.
yawn, more FARA crap. ooh, he bought a russian tickets to the inauguration. ZZZZ.
…. Some big friday reveal from Miller, NOT!
LOL. Some serious flop sweat over there.
Mark, i wonder if you would call me that to my face. Keep on chirping from cyberspace
Also, do you wonder about the accuracy of polls and predictives? Remember that NYT prediction that it was 90 percent plus likely Hillary would win. Turned out pretty differently, huh.
When a biased poll is taken, folks don’t take the bait. Look it up.
When you walk and talk like a gullible rube, dupe, klan-wannabee, pocket traitor, or grifter on the make, don’t be surprised when people identify your spots and refer to you openly as a .gullible rube, dupe, klan-wannabee pocket traitor or grifter on the make (I apologize for previously neglecting the “grifter” category of your fellow travelers in my initial post). And yes, although I’m a lawyer, I’m not the introverted, shy, bookwormish, spindly type. I would most assuredly inform you in person of the color of your spots.*
this is to “well, my fellow travelers are a sorry lot of moronic dum*sses at that” kurtzie
Houston for the next week, then Denver.
Marky Mark Mark – you called Mr Kurtz names, but you failed to refute his evidence. Is that the best comeback you have? You even repeated part of your comeback insult. New material is a must, Marky Mark Mark.
Oh, if you are going to be out of town could you do us all a favor and not take any electronic devices? A couple of weeks without you would be a nice respite.
Do have a safe and productive trip though.
Just letting kurtzie know where I can be found.
Marky Mark Mark – none of us care.
Marky Mark Mark – didn’t the WaPo poll show Trump losing to Hillary? Asking for a friend.
The Poilce Chief is caving to Politicall Correctness & not enforcing the law. All Mayors town & state officials need to know that Confederate Soldiers have been declared veterans twice, once by Pres. Lincoln and once by Congress. This is our history and should be preserved.
they universities are lawless if this is what they command. they should be deprived of their quasi municipal status and concomitant deputizing authority over law enforcement and let the local cops do the job instead. this issue comes up a lot in them abusing the system to protect athletes accused of crimes too.
also a more long term issue: if they won’t protect monuments they dislike, then they should not be expect protection for monuments people like either. it sends a green light to vandals everywhere.
Citizens and students have called on the state to take the statue down over 20 years, was it against the law, yes….Was it the right thing to do when citizens can’t have a redress of grievances…..YES.
if a few knuckle draggers types i have met in the day where there, when it happened, they might just have met crime with reasonable force to defend public property, and then your precious antifa would be in the hospital.
that’s what you’re going to get when “right wing fanatics” cant redress grievances, something like Chemnitz, which you probably didnt know was afoot, due to mass media blackout here
oh sorry we had to turn to RUSSIAN TV to get the happenings and news. fancy that!
SPASIBA TOVARISH PUTIN!
So if those who want to remove statues can’t do it legally through the democratic process because they can not convince their FELLOW CITIZENS, then they should just take matters into their own hands? Nice ideology you got there. And these same people call us “authoritarian,” “anti-democratic,” etc. Nice mental capacity you got there.
It seems that lawyers even in high government office do not believe in equal justice for all. If they are cowardly yeilding to the pressure of groups that cheer destruction and potential injury they should be removed.
.
Universities are a mess. You are teaching folks that it is ok to be a thoughtless fanatic and destroy whatever you think needs to be destroyed.