We have been discussing the controversy of the use of unmarked cars by federal officers to arrest people in Portland. As I have written, the use of unmarked cars and (even those these officers worn police markings) plain clothes is a common practice and not unconstitutional. Now an arrest by the NYPD using an unmarked carhas led to similar objections. MSNBC host Chris Hayes even declared that the view below constitutes a “kidnapping.” It isn’t. It is not even illegal or improper to use an unmarked vehicle. The basis for the arrest can be challenged but the rhetoric of the coverage is outstripping the reality of the law. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has declared the video to be evidence of an authoritarian takeover.
Hayes declared on Twitter “This is…kidnapping” after the posting of this video of plainclothes NYPD officers taking a woman into custody in an unmarked van on Manhattan’s East Side.
Hayes does not appear concerned over the violence against officers or the conditions leading to the use of an unmarked vehicle.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) agreed with Hayes’ view:
“Our civil liberties are on brink. This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans.”
This was not a “snatching.” It was an arrest using an unmarked van and police showed videotapes showing the women committing alleged crimes.
The NYPD sates that the officers were arresting a suspect in five crimes. Moreover, it was clearly arrest with uniformed police also present at the scene.
The NYPD also indicated that this was an arrest being conducted in highly difficult circumstances. “In regard to a video on social media that took place at 2nd Ave & 25 Street, A woman taken into custody in an unmarked van was wanted for damaging police cameras during 5 separate criminal incidents in & around City Hall Park. The arresting officers were assaulted with rocks & bottles . . . When officers from the Warrant Squad took the woman into custody in a gray NYPD minivan this evening, they were assaulted with rocks and bottles. The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.”
Once again, I am deeply concerned with the hyperbolic and inaccurate coverage. While MSNBC has been quick (and often justified) in criticizing President Trump for inaccurate statements and fueling divisions, this is an example of how such rhetoric goes unchallenged by its own hosts and commentators. The legal analysis and members of Congress on MSNBC and other networks has often advanced highly dubious theories of criminality against Trump or his Administration.
Claims that the use of unmarked cars is unlawful or constitutes kidnapping is the type of unhinged commentary that has fueled violence against officers. Hundreds of officers have been injured or killed since the start of these protests. Calling them kidnappers only give greater cover for rioters and groups like Antifa who are targeting officers. The same is true when Speaker Nancy Pelosi called federal law enforcement in places like Portland “stormtroopers” or other politicians referring to them as “Gestapo” or “secret police.”
Such comments by figures like Hayes are no doubt popular but this hysteria will only fan the flames of further unrest. Indeed, while he may believe that these irresponsible comments will only undermine those with opposing views, history has shown that such unhinged rage is neither predictable more controllable. Declarations of state kidnappings and authoritarian takeovers will be used a license for greater violence and rioting by extremist groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum.
Nice so now the police while pursuing a criminal must have lights and sirens going in a marked car along with not being allowed to use force and say please let me arrest you. Sure that will work.
To AOC & MSNBC
Keep up the good work. You will get Trump re-elected in a landslide.
Why is this surprising ?
Those on the left think arresting people for committing crimes is kidnapping.
We are merely moments from asserting that uniformed police in marked cars can not arrest people.
That is what they beleive.
Here’s a video of 18 year old Nikki Stone damaging NYPD cameras
Too bad AoS wasn’t left behind.
Democrat politicians are well-coordinated in their talking points “I’m reclaiming my time!” heard over and over….simply so that AG Barr could not answer the questions THEY were asking him! And the Democrats proved them are shameless liars. Disgusting display of political theater by shameless Democrat lawmakers. It is beyond difficult to use the word Democrats and lawmakers in the same sentence!
Them are shameless liars! The Democrat lawmakers (scary thought that these are the people making laws!! ahhh!! eegads!!) God help us in this election!
Vote TRUMP 2020 as if EVERYTHING depends on it. Because IT DOES!! This is an Extinction level election for Republicans. If you lazy mofo’s lose this election (and R’s are such woos’s that’ they likely will lose it all) then SHAME on ALL of you!! Shame shame shame!! You deserve to lose you mofo’s!!!
you’re an idiot
“What’s the matter, Mr. President? Can’t get it up and over the plate?”
– Kamala Harris
George – if anyone would know how to get it up, it would be Kamala Harris.
Down, boy! Your wife is over there in the kitchen!
George – Kamala went through several pairs of knee-pads to get to the top. 😉 However, if you have seen the new pics of her plastic surgery, you would not want to get near her.
So much for the photo ops of that campaign.
Let’s try Susan Rice…would you believe Pocahontas?
Legs up, don’t shoot!
Anonymous….that’s hilarious!
She’s not a “natural born citizen” and she’s wholly ineligible for the office of president but she rented a nice white family for this election.
Let’s ask Willy if she’s up to the job; if she can do the job; if she’s got that special “something”; if she’s got the “right stuff;” if she can handle herself; if she can put out enough drive to satisfy the duties of the position; if she can handle a huuuuge task, the whole task and nothing butt the task.
Her first task will be to comprehend the constitutional requirement that a presidential candidate be a “natural born citizen.”
If she is a “natural born citizen,” exactly who is NOT a “natural born citizen.”
If the requirement had no purpose, bearing, weight or force, how and why did the requirement that a president be a “natural born citizen” get into the Constitution?
Unpacking DHS’s Troubling Explanation of the Portland Van Video
By Andrew Crespo Saturday, July 25, 2020, 10:29 AM
https://www.lawfareblog.com/unpacking-dhss-troubling-explanation-portland-van-video
This is the same kind of BS and misconceptions that have gotten people killed and lead to the imaginary policing “crisis” we see now. Somewhere along the line people decided to take the view that when the police stop or suspect someone of a crime it all becomes a game. With shootings this has lead to death because people just run from the police and think that the police can do nothing but run after them. If they get away they are free, if they get caught, well, you tried but no foul. The problem is the world became more dangerous and the law does not say police can’t shoot you if you are unarmed. They can shoot you if they feel their, or members of the publics’ lives are in danger or feel they could suffer serious bodily harm. That means If you run and put your hand in your pocket, or do anything else that might suggest you are armed, the police don’t know you from anyone else and may think you are pulling a gun. End of game, you lose! People cry but you played a game no one else was playing.
Here people are pretending this stuff, once again, is a game. The police must wear police uniforms and some how people imagine that the police must give you some sort of opportunity to get away otherwise they are violating the rules of the imaginary game. Even worse now, we have protests. For some reason us Americans have this nonsense belief that our right to protest gives us some kind of immunity. As long as breaking a law is done during protest that somehow it is not a crime.
Both these beliefs in imaginary games is stupid but now it makes things much more dangerous. The media is aiding in these imaginary games trying to convince people that some how the police must give people the opportunity to attempt to get away, and the false belief that anything done in the name of protest ceases to be a crime. It is leading to a very dangerous place. I just cannot understand quite how dumb people really are sometimes. We all know that even many small towns used unmarked vehicles, have plain clothes officers, and even undercover officers. Pretending you don’t already know that just shows you are advocating for idiots and helping manufacture their belief these imaginary games are real.
We have created a police state over the last 50 years. That has resulted in militarized police, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex we have now.
We have to change direction or the dystopian state we live in only worsens.
We have created a police state over the last 50 years. That has resulted in militarized police, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex we have now.
All of which have no reality outside your imagination. About 40% of all convicted criminals are remanded to state prison. The mean time actually served by that 40% is 30 months. We have a lot of people in prison because there are a lot of criminals in this country who belong there.
Another piece of evidence for the file that people who bleat about ‘mass incarceration’ object to punishment per se.
If you only knew half of what you pretend to know.
You, like many others, have no idea.
This is to “This is absurd…”
One should consider the possibility that Hayes & AOC WANT “further unrest.”
You are absurd, sir.
We incarcerate literally millions of non violent drug offenders.
If we spent one dollar towards education per every dollar towards incarceration, we might produce contributing citizens instead of criminals.
Our purse strings tell where our actual priorities lay.
The current dynamic is absurd.
Olaf – try being in the classroom with someone who is high, regardless of substance. They are not a good student. And drug offenders have a tendency to drop out of school as soon as they are legally possibly. That is not the fault of the schools.
I went to private schools in the 70s and 80s.
I knew a ton of students that did very well while on drugs and have since gone in to fairly high levels of success.
That’s not a very reasonable argument, Paul.
Olaf – must have been a hell of a drug problem at your school. Did they not know, or just overlook it? Regardless, you are better clean and sober then on drugs.
It’s July 29 and Michael Flynn is still a political prisoner. Judge Sullivan, dismiss the charges now.
It occurs to me that if the same technique had been used with David Koresh a lot of kids would not have been murdered in Waco.
Some have opined that the game plan must be to convince us that these people have unsound minds, that they are crazy. However if they are crazy, they are crazy like a fox, because there has been a significant transfer of power. Putting aside the empty promises to defund the police, because we all know that will collapse under it’s own failed premises; the power has been transferred to this mob, the power to dominate their neighbors. The police have been given notice that they interact upon command, and not according to who violates the law in their presence. The police agencies complied with their supervisors and stood down while private businesses were burned and robbed, they stood down when ordered to allow the mob to stop motorists at will, and they stood down by while protesters eventually beat and even murdered other people. In short, the Democrat Politicians by their encouragement and lies, and the Conservatives by their silence, have given the mob the power over the rest of us. Whoever shares a street, town, state or nation with these enable thugs, now have to answer to them or be prepared to stand them down with more violence than the mob is bringing to bear. It is time for the FBI to basically draw a line in the sand between “Peaceful Protesters” and “Domestic Enemies”.
It’s comforting to know that Mr and Mrs Gomer Pyle, with their keen eye for criminal activity, are keeping the country safe with their “citizen’s arrests!”
OT………God’s in His heaven, Trump’s in Texas, All’s right with the world……………………at least for today.
AOC would prefer that the NYPD always use vehicles that tip off wanted criminals in advance to their presence.
Authoritarian takeover: pot calling the kettle Black.
(music to tune of Let it be)
Let it burn! Let it burn!
Seeking burned down courthouse..let it burn!
300 NYPD vehicles have been vandalized, sometimes overwhelmed by vicious mobs bent on assaulting the cops inside.
It’s pretty obvious why they are using unmarked vehicles now.
Taxpayers get to pay for all this damage…on top of the financial stress of a global pandemic. Goody.
I am very disappointed in the Democrat party. I used to vote either way, on candidates or issues. Both sides were patriotic, but just differed on the role of government. That time is long past. The party has thrown all in with lawlessness, beginning with illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. The party cares more about those who break the lawn, than about those who follow them. They are enabling massive unrest, even ceding entire city blocks to anarchists.
Only one party supports law and order, now. Maybe if the Democrats face consequences from voters, they will go back to a more moderate stance. However, the entire party has to face the hard truth that it has incorporated prejudice and hatred into its core values. Prejudice against men, cis-gendered, straight, black conservatives, women conservatives, Christians, those who oppose chemically castrating children when the science says most grow out of gender dysphoria by adulthood, the normalizing of racist slurs against black conservatives, viciously attacking anyone who questions the BLM movement, the push for reenacting systemic racism with the race tax of reparations, penalizing white or Asian college applicants, having a lower set of standards for admissions or some jobs for African Americans than other races, proposing preferentially firing white Seattle police officers…
The list just goes on and on. If you look at your own social media or interactions, you will likely note how Democrats, especially Liberals, give themselves permission to hurl the most vile slurs at any conservative who even mildly disagrees with them. It’s a repugnant thing to do, but completely normalized at this point.
The Left has become so ugly. My grandparents wouldn’t recognize their party. The hate and prejudice is just unbelievable. It’s always someone else’s fault for the evil words that come out of their own mouths. Look in the mirror.
Oh, autocorrect, how I love thee.
“Break the law” not “break the lawn.” Don’t you just hate it when your lawn gets broken?
Karen………yes lol…the crutches are so awkward.
It’s the Democratic Party, Karen, not the Democrat Party, and the fact that you’re using an epithet spread by Republicans, and that you’re willing to demonize seemingly all people who disagree with you (you don’t say “some Democrats,” you say “Democrats”), indicates to me that perhaps you’re not as innocent of bias as you think.
Now, are you going to ignore this, or start tossing insults at me?
you are a lying dog faced female sailor pony horse!
Thanks for checking in from the “basememt.”
But what I REALLY want to know is how you know so much about me!
All they care about is that you question the Dear Leader and the agenda Trump and Putin have lined up for us.
Yeah, it’s like when Obama got caught on hot mic with his message to Vladimir that he will have more flexibility after his reelection.
Again, I repeat my request to you to write a post about “Umbrella Man”, the “Aryan Cowboy” who kicked off the active violence in Minneapolis now that Umbrella Man has been identified and will be soon facing formal charges.
You know, just to keep things balanced as we know you’re a fan of doing, Professor.
Bug:
“You know, just to keep things balanced as we know you’re a fan of doing, Professor.”
*******************************
Sure let’s count the toothpicks up against the wood pile as we figure out who contributed to the bonfire.
Better yet…, who started it.
Jimmy, why did you destroy 300 police cars, graffiti a federal building and throw fireworks and homemade bombs against it every night for 2 months, assault police officers, leave garbage and broken glass all over the street, destroy businesses closed during a pandemic who, without revenue, can’t pay to repair and replace lost inventory, and why did you drive so many people out of business?
Jimmy: He started it months ago!!!!
There are absolutely bad actors from the far Left and Right who want to spark the fire that burns a city.
I can see how agitators can start a fight. But for such fights to encompass thousands of people and go on for months…at some point, people need to take responsibility for their actions.
Don’t mess with someone’s livelihood. Don’t trash the neighborhood. Don’t graffiti. Clean up your mess. Obey law enforcement commands, such as “this is a riot. Disperse.”
oh wait Bug, let’s see about that
https://kstp.com/news/affidavit-hells-angels-member-believed-to-be-umbrella-man-spotted-inciting-violence-during-floyd-protests-/5809447/
SOMEBODY SWEARS the know who the guy that spray painted the autozone was. they swear it was some guy who is in a racist biker gang.
And perhaps it was! So lets see. Three white or hispanic boogerloo bois, and one racist biker, versus, tens of thousands of BLM and anarchist rioters, looters and arsonists.
ERGO, Bug and other credulous and naive people may come to believe, it was all whitey’s fault in the first place!
See how this works folks! Speck in my eye, log in your own!
Do please monitor this for us Bug so we can follow up on this interesting story.
I will Kurtz. if only because the reporting goes so far up your butt.
What’s his name?
funny how the Minneapolis media was reporting on the alleged bikers back end of june then this
they are guilty of being “encountered” by the public according to this article. their jackets scared a lady!
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/06/29/stillwater-pd-investigators-to-review-aryan-cowboys-motorcycle-gang-incident/
obviously there is a sinister activity afoot. imagine, racist bikers! shocked, shocked i say
how dare they exist. surely these are the culprits
Bug you must have missed the earlier news. This fine citizen journalists claims the autozone was vandalized by… ready for this… a Minneapolis police officer !
crime solvers, gumshoes ,look out, ! competition is in town now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERhMCeLr1bg
Next week’s episode: Cowboy Aryans — MINN PD — or both?
Johnny, your premise, apparently, is that white supremacists’ goals are antithetical to those of the left. They aren’t. Each extremist movement seeks to undermine and ultimately overthrow the government. The two are not opposites at all, so there is no “balance” to address. Their actions are the same. They are merely competing brands in the same market, like Coke vs. Pepsi. The following video, although presented as humor, addresses this point:
Funny video, James. Appropriate to much of what’s going on.
For me, I’m just jabbing Turley because he trolls one side for hits on his blog. Figured an active dare might shake him toward writing a story from “the other side”. Ha. Silly me
Also for me, I break things into two groups with an endless amount of sub categories. Those two groups roughly fall under the headings of ‘constructive’ vs. ‘destructive’.
Much like the yin and yang symbol, with the dot of the other polarity contained within both yin and yang, sometimes in order to be constructive, a bit of destruction is required. And vice versa.
As an old martial arts teacher once taught me: fighting is very rarely the answer…, but when it is, its the only answer.
There is a need for destruction alright. Kalki descends, the age of iron nears completion
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/when-kalki-destroyer-descends-greed-corruption-war-destruction-and-apocalypse-006545
when the Ragnarok is over, a new golden age begins
“The left” is not an extremist movement.
Just like “the right” is not an extremist movement.
Are there extremists on the right and the left? Sure. But most on the right and left aren’t extremists, and it’s ridiculous to suggest that white supremacists and “the left” are analogous. White supremacists are among the extremists on the right, but they’re a subset of the right, and extremists on the left are also a subset of the left.
James – art imitates life. Some of the best comedy makes cutting, truthful commentary.
FUNFACTS
Freed slaves must have been immediately deported in 1863 upon the issuance of the unconstitutional Emancipation Proclamation as citizens were required to be “…free white person(s)…” by the Naturalization Act of 1802 which was in full force and effect.
America promoted and initiated compassionate repatriation well before Lincoln’s “Reign of Terror” and the “…fundamentally transforming…” of America and its Constitution by the “successors” of Lincoln who compelled the “injury” and nullification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and racial integration by brute military force.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Earlier Resettlement Plans
The view that America’s apparently intractable racial problem should be solved by removing Blacks from this country and resettling them elsewhere — “colonization” or “repatriation” — was not a new one. As early as 1714 a New Jersey man proposed sending Blacks to Africa. In 1777 a Virginia legislature committee, headed by future President Thomas Jefferson (himself a major slave owner), proposed a plan of gradual emancipation and resettlement of the state’s slaves. In 1815, an enterprising free Black from Massachusetts named Paul Cuffe transported, at his own expense, 38 free blacks to West Africa. His undertaking showed that at least some free Blacks were eager to resettle in a country of their own, and suggested what might be possible with public and even government support.7
In December 1816, a group of distinguished Americans met in Washington, DC, to establish an organization to promote the cause of Black resettlement. The “American Colonization Society” soon won backing from some of the young nation’s most prominent citizens. Henry Clay, Francis Scott Key, John Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Charles Carroll, Millard Fillmore, John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln were members. Clay presided at the group’s first meeting.8
Measures to resettle Blacks in Africa were soon undertaken. Society member Charles Fenton Mercer played an important role in getting Congress to pass the Anti-Slave Trading Act of March 1819, which appropriated $100,000 to transport Blacks to Africa. In enforcing the Act, Mercer suggested to President James Monroe that if Blacks were simply returned to the coast of Africa and released, they would probably be re-enslaved, and possibly some returned to the United States. Accordingly, and in cooperation with the Society, Monroe sent agents to acquire territory on Africa’s West coast — a step that led to the founding of the country now known as Liberia. Its capital city was named Monrovia in honor of the American President.9
With crucial Society backing, Black settlers began arriving from the United States in 1822. While only free Blacks were at first brought over, after 1827, slaves were freed expressly for the purpose of transporting them to Liberia. In 1847, Black settlers declared Liberia an independent republic, with an American-style flag and constitution.10
– Robert Morgan
ha ha that was hilarious. loved it
Also, Johnny, it is my belief that Jonathan Turley does not read the comments. It’s often a bunch of strangers quarreling down here, and probably not much fun to read.
Turley – who claims to be a civil libertarian – takes at face value here the police spokesman claim that the police were hit with rocks and bottles (we see none of that on the video here) and that the woman arrested was wanted for several unspecified crimes.
One thing we have learned the last couple of months is that the police lie – a lot – to cover up their own wrongdoing. I will go with what I see in the video until the police can show evidence of what they are alleging here.
Let’s:
“One thing we have learned the last couple of months is that the police lie…”
***********************
Yeah where and when? Oh and the Left never lies. What a clown.
Mespo:
One very obvious lie.
Three Federal agents blinded by lasers.
If that were true, the surviving agents would have extraordinary protection right now.
Secondly, they would be mad for revenge and breaking a lot of heads.
Thirdly, we would be mourning for those martyrs.
Since none of that has happened, we can safely assume that the blinding story was a lie.
Only the gullible believed that canard.
Did you say, “Oh, and the Left never lies?”
__________________________________
Susan Rice
Letter To Self
12:15:32 p.m. on Inauguration Day in 2017;
“On January 5, following a briefing by IC leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 Presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present.
“President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities “by the book.” The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.
“From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.
….[one longer or two shorter paragraphs redacted]….
“The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would.”
– Susan Rice
And you assume – at face value – that NYPD is lying.