We have previously discussed the case of former Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann who was repeatedly and falsely called a racist in an encounter with a Native American activist in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Various media organizations have apologized or settled cases with Sandmann for their unfair coverage, including CNN. However, when Sandmann spoke at the Republic National Convention, CNN’s political analyst Joe Lockhart again attacked him personally after he criticized how the media got the story wrong. CNN’s Jeff Yang also attacked the teenager and even suggested that his speech proved that he was not innocent. Fellow CNN analyst Asha Rangappa attacked former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley as yielding to a racist America for not using what Rangappa suggested was her real name as opposed to “Nikki.” It turns out that Nikki is her lawful middle name and the Hill’s Saagar Enjeti noted it is “a Punjabi name.” That however is an appeal to reason not rage which seems to have little place in our national discourse or media coverage.
The personal attacks on speakers were beyond the pale, but hardly unprecedented. What happened to Sandmann was a disgrace for the media and he had every right to speak publicly about his treatment by the media.
Sandmann is a pro-life kid who wanted to demonstrate against abortion. He sought to play a meaningful role in his political system, which is what we all have encouraged. Indeed, CNN has aired many such calls for young people to have their voices heard. He was in Washington as part of the annual “March for Life.” This is one of those voices. Sandmann spoke about his horrific experience in being labeled the aggressor in the confrontation when all he did was stand there as an activist pounded a drum in his face. Sandmann said this morning in an interview that he only learned at 3 am in the morning on the bus home that he was being labeled a racist who attacked or harassed this activist.
In addition to Lockhart, CNN opinion writer Jeff Yang said that the speech confirmed to him that he was guilty all along.
“Hey @N1ckSandmann, I watched your speech tonight at the #RNCConvention2020 with an open mind, thinking I might hear something that would convince me of your position that you were an innocent victim of a cruel media. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to hear otherwise.”
So Yang now believes Sandmann was the aggressor or the one who was at fault? Yang even criticized Sandmann for not extending a “branch of peace” to Nathan Phillip, the Native American elder in the confrontation. Sandmann did nothing wrong in front of Lincoln Memorial. He just stood there as Phillip pounded a drum in his face. Yet, Yang now believes that the media was not wrong or Sandmann innocent.
Yang previously personally attacked Pete Buttigieg for calling for a “vision shaped by the American Heartland rather than the ineffective Washington Politics.” Yang again viewed Buttigieg’s political statement as a license for personal insults: “Okay, gloves off: This is the bullshittiest quote of many bullshitty quotes from this man, whose vision was shaped by Harvard, Oxford, McKinsey & Company and a keenly honed sense of ambition. Dude, your dad was a lit professor and you went to a private prep school. Quit fronting.” Nothing on the content of Buttigieg’s point. Just a personal attack from the CNN commentator.
The Sandmann controversy arose because of the very bias that Yang reaffirmed this week. For many, the mere fact that he was wearing a MAGA hat was enough to declare him a racist. An example that we previously discussed is the interview of “Above the Law” writer Joe Patrice with Elie Mystal. In the interview, Mystal, the Executive Editor of “Above the Law”, attacked this 16 year old boy as a racist. Patrice agreed with Mystal’s objections to Sandmann wearing his “racist [MAGA] hat.” They also objected to Sandmann doing interviews trying to defend himself with Mystal deriding how this “17-year-old kid makes the George Zimmerman defense for why he was allowed to deny access to a person of color.” It was entirely false that Sandmann was denying “access to a person of color.” Yet, the interview is an example of the criticism (which continued with Lockhart) of Sandmann speaking publicly about his treatment. Mystal and Patrice compared this high school student to a man who was accused of murdering an unarmed African American kid and continued to slam him even after the true facts were disclosed.
After his remarks at the RNC (which is not an easy thing for most teenagers to do), Lockhart declared on Twitter “I’m watching tonight because it’s important. But i [sic] don’t have to watch this snot nose entitled kid from Kentucky.”
Why is this teenager “entitled”? Because he is discussing his role in a national controversy or his abuse by the media, including CNN? CNN settled with Sandmann. When did that become “entitled”? The message from these media personalities seems to be that Sandman is expected to simply stay silent and such interviews make him either a George Zimmerman wannabe or a textbook case of entitlement. Of course, media figures like Lockhart can continue to slam Sandmann, but he is . . . well . . . entitled to do so.
Nikki Haley gave one of the most polished speeches at the RNC. There is clearly much in the speech that many do not accept about racism in America. However, Haley lashed out that it is
“now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country. This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a Brown girl in a Black and White world. We faced discrimination and hardship. But my parents never gave in to grievance and hate. My mom built a successful business. My dad taught 30 years at a historically black college. And the people of South Carolina chose me as their first minority and first female governor. America is a story that’s a work in progress. Now is the time to build on that progress, and make America even freer, fairer, and better for everyone.”
That speech led to an immediate personal attack from Rangappa that Haley bowed to racism by dropping her real name: “Right. Is that why you went from going by Nimrata to ‘Nikki’?” Rangappa asked.
In addition, South Asians for Biden attacked Haley and tweeted, “If America isn’t racist, why did Nimarata Haley feel compelled to change her name to ‘Nikki’? Maybe just the Republican Party is?” The group added “#PhonyNikki.” (The tweet was later withdrawn with an apology over its “tone”).
The problem is that Haley birth name is Nimrata Nikki Randhawa. She is not the first politician to use her middle name like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who goes by Boris. Then there is Willard Mitt Romney. Was Romney denying his roots by going with Mitt? Yet when a minority member uses her middle name, it is somehow evidence that she is a racist tool.
What is telling is that, rather than address the underlying argument on systemic racism in our society, analysts like Rangappa prefer to attack Haley personally and suggest that she is some type of shill for racism. Why? Rangappa teaches at Yale and in academia such ad hominem attacks are viewed as the very antithesis of reasoned debate. Likewise, in journalism, such attacks were once viewed as anathema, particularly when they are based on false assumptions.
There is much in these conventions to debate. In truth, I have never liked political conventions and view them all as virtually contentless. Nevertheless, there have been parts of the RNC that I have criticized, including the appearance last night of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a departure from past traditions of keeping such cabinet members out of political convention roles. Once again, such important lines of separation were obliterated by the Trump Administration, including the possible violation of the Hatch Act. The incorporation the naturalization ceremony also raises concerns over the use of such governmental functions for political purposes. I also found reformed former felon John Ponder’s remarks to be powerful, but I agree with critics that the incorporation of a pardon signing into the events at a political convention to be wrong. I have also previously criticized the use of the White House for the political convention, including for the First Lady’s speech (which I also thought was a good speech).
Those are issue worthy of debate and people of good faith can disagree on the merits. That is a lot more productive than attacking an 18-year-old kid because he had the audacity to criticize the media and support President Trump. There is, of course, a troubling entitlement evident in these stories. It is the entitlement enjoyed by media figures who feel total license to personally attack anyone who challenges their narrative or supports Trump. It is not just permitted but popular. This is why Merriam-Webster defines “entitlement” as the “belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges.”
Professor- the 2012 Democrat convention featured 5 current cabinet members’ speeches. No one batted an eye. Not saying two wrongs make a right. Just noting that the outrage about the and many other things is very selective.
If anyone wants to know why America voted for Trump listen to Richard Grenel. If you forgot who he is, look it up.In a few minutes he covers a lot of ground.
Right or left see the video.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/grenell-when-biden-offers-new-ideas-ask-yourself-why-didnt-he-try-over?utm_source=daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
PaintChips, don’t bother listening. You won’t understand this simple speech.
Fantastically interesting Israeli method of educating our immune system to create antibodies by using the lab source of RNA to create the antibodies rather than using the virus itself. Starts ~5:45 . If this works I think this will become a new way of rapidly creating vaccines.
Even more fundamental. Do they believe attacking teenagers and women is a winning strategy? It is just hateful and obnoxious.
Blacks Beware!
RUSSIANS PUSH PHONY ‘WALKAWAY’ MOVEMENT ON TWITTER
Four years after Russian operatives used social media in a bid to exacerbate racial divisions in the United States and suppress Black voter turnout, such tactics have spread across a wide range of deceptive online campaigns operated from numerous nations — including from within the United States itself.
The potency and persistence of the racial playbook was highlighted this week when Twitter deleted an account featuring a profile photo of a young Black man claiming to be a former Black Lives Matter protester who switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
The account, @WentDemtoRep, offered an online testimonial Sunday — the eve of a Republican convention featuring prominent African Americans challenging allegations of racism against President Trump — and was retweeted 22,000 times. Disinformation researcher Marc Owen Jones, of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, found the tweet had 39,000 likes just 19 hours after it was posted.
Twitter removed the account Tuesday for policy violations after it had amassed 15,000 followers despite tweeting just a few times, all this month. The rapid spread of the tweet underscored how easily deceptive messages spread online — and how far they can get before social media companies are able to curb them.
“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” the tweet said, according to archived versions showing that the account was created this month, supposedly from Arizona. “I joined the BLM protests months ago when they began. They opened my eyes wide! I didn’t realize I became a Marxist. It happened w/o me even knowing it. I’m done with this trash. I’ll be registering Republican.”
Twitter suspended the account and several others that posted similar messages for violating rules about “platform manipulation and spam,” said a company spokesman, Trenton Kennedy. The company provided no other details of who created the account. In dozens of cases, the text from the original message was pasted directly into tweets of other accounts.
Russia’s Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials indicted in 2018 for attempts to manipulate the 2016 election, borrowed heavily from the Soviet-era strategy of seeking to exploit American racial division to deepen unrest during the civil rights movement and after. Russian operatives portraying themselves as Black Americans — using account names such as “Blacktivist” and “BlackMattersUS” — were among the most prolific fake accounts used during that election and in the early months of the Trump administration, before they were uncovered.
“The IRA created an expansive cross-platform media mirage targeting the Black community, which shared and cross-promoted authentic Black media to create an immersive influence ecosystem,” a report for the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian disinformation efforts said in 2018.
Edited from: “Black Voters Are Targeted In Disinformation Campaign Echoing 2016 Russian Playbook”
The Washington Post, 8/25/20
REGARDING ABOVE:
What makes this Russian effort so creepy is their narrative in this scheme is really not that different than messages pushed this week by the Republican Convention.
Jonathan Turley wrote, “in academia such ad hominem attacks are viewed as the very antithesis of reasoned debate.” I would say that the reality is that ad hominem attacks are the antithesis of reasoned debate, but have become the norm in academia and the media.
The normalization of bigotry and false accusations against conservatives is horrifying. I am very concerned at what would happen should the Democrats get the Oval Office and God forbid, both Houses of Congress. They have a well established trend of total intolerance for dissent, condone violence and pretend it’s “protest”, and, worse of all, consistently give incomplete, or false information, to fan riots.
Case in point is the recent shooting of Jacob Blake. From what I have seen, the mainstream media failed to mention that there was a warrant out for Blake for the sexual assault of a minor. He did not actually break up a fight between two women, but instead was allegedly involved in domestic violence at the scene. Fought with cops. Taser did not stop him. He ignored commands and continued to escalate the situation until cops had their weapons drawn on him. A man, wanted for the rape of a minor, opened the car door with minors inside, and reached for a knife.
That is allegedly why the cops shot him.
But that’s not what you’ll hear from Joe Biden, or the media. Instead, they claim that a black man was shot in the back in front of his kids for no reason.
This constant lying, or just getting the story wrong, leads to riots. People keep hearing the wrong information, and many never hear the correction. There are still people today who think Michael Brown’s hands were up. Obama’s DOJ and multiple investigations discovered that he was actually charging at the cop, having already gone for his gun. But the cop was ruined.
This has reached the level of propaganda fed to an unthinking, violent mob. The mob is being used as a tool to affect an anti-capitalist agenda, and help the Democrats get elected. They persist with the lie that cops are racist, regardless that this leads to the massive destruction of property, businesses, assault, murder, even rape in CHOP. And they blame Trump for a situation based on lies.
The current MSM is indeed the enemy of democracy! Overturn Sullivan!
Democrat governors may be guilty of murder.
“The US Justice Department has opened a preliminary inquiry into the coronavirus nursing home policies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan that it says “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.”
https://nypost.com/2020/08/26/doj-probes-nursing-home-deaths-in-4-states-including-in-ny/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter
I posted on this some while back. Cuomo was ordering infected patients into nursing homes where they would almost certainly cause deaths.
Something like this happened in 1347 when Tartar invaders catapulted bodies of plague victims over the wall of a Genovese trading center in the Crimea. The merchants fled in ships for home and carried the Black Death into Europe. Now Cuomo basically catapulted victims of our modern plague into the midst of our most vulnerable.
Under New York criminal law it appears that Governor Cuomo may have committed homicide by ordering Covid patients into nursing homes where they would expose the most vulnerable and cause their deaths. It was reckless behavior, sometimes characterized as depraved indifference to the horrible consequences that flow from one’s acts. I previously cited the controlling statute but won’t bother now. It is easy enough to find.
With a smaller population than Florida (which has plenty of vulnerable seniors) New York has triple the number of deaths that Florida has. Though New York has far fewer cases than Texas, it has not quite triple the number of Covid deaths that New York has. New Jersey has fewer Covid cases than Arizona but has three times the number of Covid deaths.
Commit is fond of blaming Covid deaths on President Trump but she does not realize that treatment decisions are made at the state level and are within the authority of the states. Several Democrat state governors, particularly in New York and New Jersey have blundered badly by making decisions they knew at the time would lead to increased deaths in their states. The raw numbers scream depraved indifference on the part of Governor Cuomo.
Democrats may also have increased the number of deaths because of their political opposition to the use of hydroxychlorquine as a treatment. New studies come out very nearly every week now confirming it is effective. Two Democrat politicians, both black, have come forward and credited the drug for saving their lives. How many other lives might have been saved if Democrats and the corrupted media had not made use of the drug a political issue?
“Commit is fond of blaming Covid deaths on President Trump but she does not realize that treatment decisions are made at the state level and are within the authority of the states.”
Young is fond of pretending to read my mind. He’s quite bad at it.
“Several Democrat state governors, particularly in New York and New Jersey have blundered badly …”
Lots of people — including some Democratic and Republican governors and also including Trump — have blundered badly. It’s not an either-or choice. But Trump is the only one who is President, and so is the only one who had power over the many things controlled by the President. I pointed out some of them earlier: https://jonathanturley.org/2020/08/26/cnn-analysts-unleash-personal-attacks-on-rnc-speakers-in-twitter-storm/comment-page-2/#comment-1994596
“New studies come out very nearly every week now confirming it is effective.”
You don’t quote any or say what kind of studies they are (e.g., randomized placebo-controlled trials?).
Studies also come out showing that it isn’t effective. Like this one, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638
Anyone who is trying to understand whether/when it might be effective looks at all of them, not cherrypicking either way, and also considers what kind of study each is.
Democrat governors are the only ones who compelled nursing homes to accept patients infected with the Wuhan virus knowing it would kill others.
It’s as if Cuomo was engaged in biological warfare against the weak and elderly.
Disgusting.
By that line of reasoning, tRump is the greatest bio terrorist in history with over 170,000 deaths under his belt, (not so) “Young”.
The original estimates were that over 2 million would die from the virus so it means Trump has saved over 1.8 million lives.
“The original estimates were that over 2 million would die from the virus”
That estimate was if absolutely no one did anything at all: “In the (unlikely) absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour …” (No use of masks, no social distancing, no stay at home orders, no self-quarantining, …) Imagine that: we did better than nothing.
“so it means Trump …”
Just as Trump alone is not responsible for all of the deaths, Trump alone is not the only person to do something.
He did more than nothing.
He did not do nearly as much as he could have.
So we have one of the worst rates of deaths per capita in the entire world.
Commit– So we have one of the worst rates of deaths per capita in the entire world.
***
Not so. We have done much better than much of the industrialized world. The BBC-no friend of the President–recently posted an analysis showing we had done very well.
We would have done still better but for the ghoulish decisions of a few governors like Cuomo.
My claim — “we have one of the worst rates of deaths per capita in the entire world” — is true.
Go to the bottom (detailed) chart and click on the “Deaths/100K Pop.” column to sort countries by deaths per capita:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
We currently have the 11th worst rate of deaths per capita in the entire world.
I have no reason to trust your claim, nor to assume that you’re not confusing deaths per capita with some other ratio.
On the other hand you can look at the Cases and Mortality By Country on the same site.
The US is 3.1%
Belgium 11.9%
UK 12.6%
France 10.5%
We are doing well by comparison. Where would you rather be sick, Trump Land or one of these more dangerous countries?
Your stats are fine, but not your conclusion Young. Click on that chart heading for deaths per 100k population. Because we have so many cases, we are the 4th worst country, clumped closely with Brazil and Chile behind Peru.
Book– Go to the BBC article. They can sort it out for you.
Meanwhile, do you think it helped or hurt our stats for Democrat governors to send plague-infected patients among the most vulnerable in nursing homes?
If CTDHD is right and we have one of the worst per capita case rates then by her logic we should do what the lowest per capita rate countries have been doing.
On the whole we have been doing more than other countries so by her logic we should be doing less. There is very little thought behind her conclusions.
The second question is why should the western industiral nations be hit worse? CTDHD draws conclusions based on Trump bad, not a smart way to assess what is happening with any virus. There are many things that affect the transmission of the virus but CTDHD can’t be bothered with them since Trump bad. Foollish, but that is the way she thinks.
There are good potential answers to those questions but that requires thought.
Allan,
This gets back to our conversation yesterday. Once this pandemic became a political weapon, we were never going to get objective reporting on the response.
I wrote the above earlier today, before a colleague of mine told me about a 2 part video series I hadn’t heard about. This series may have already been cited on this blog, but I’m not aware of it. When he told me about this series, I did a search for it on Google. All I could get was links to multiple efforts aimed at fact checking and debunking them as conspiracy theories. I had to use an alternate search engine to find them. I’ve posted links to the 2 videos here. I haven’t watched or read any of the links attempting to debunk these videos. Please let me know your opinion.
https://plandemicvideo.com/
https://plandemicvideo.com/plandemic-part-2-indoctrination-2/
Olly, thanks, but that is 2 hours of video so I’ll pass. I did however, looked at a couple of random clips that I agreed with including Google’s power and how Covid has been used in a bad fashion. I also hit on the claim that the flu vaccine increased the likelihood of Covid among soldiers. The woman talking was far too definite in her opinions with so little data especially since a selection process might have been involved. (I only listened to about 20 seconds.) Military people live in close quarters so one would expect higher transmission rates.
If you have some short clips of interest post them with the time and maybe that will promote more interest.
Thank you for the response. I’m not one to watch videos either. In this case, I would say watching the shorter of the two, about 25 minutes, addresses specifically everything we’re seeing today regarding pandemic response. In my opinion, it’s a must watch. The longer video is in it’s own way powerful and well worth watching.
That’s a different claim than the one I made (so your “Not so” response to me is still false) — as I suspected, you were confusing deaths per capita with a different ratio. The CFR (case fatality ratio) varies with the percentage of the population that has been tested: for a given number of deaths, the larger the percentage of the population that’s been tested, the lower the CFR (so despite Trump complaining that we have a large # of positive cases because we test a lot, that large number of positive cases results in a lower CFR). Deaths per capita does not vary in this way with the percentage of the population that’s been tested. Moreover, if you *sort* by CFR instead of simply cherrypicking select countries that have a higher CFR than the U.S., you’d see that we’re still worse than many others. FFS, we were supposed to have been the country best-prepared to deal with a pandemic. Trump and others f’d up.
CTDHD seems not to have taken notice of the patterns of how the disease has been distributed around the world or its age distribution. Her ideas of epidemiology are based on left right dynamics and that orange man bad. She hasn’t bothered to look further than that.
Sudan with total deaths of 823, libya with 226 deaths, Zambia with 262 deaths all good to CTDHD. Does that make sense? If it doesn’t then does CTDHD make sense? Of course not CTDHD measures good and bad based on party affiliation.
This dodo thinks that individual human beings don’t act for their own protection. She thinks humans control the virus. Right now humans can only reduce the transmission of the virus so that less people at a time become ill. What the medications will do, the vaccine will do and the new techniques of treatment will do are significantly unknown.
This dodo thinks that a second wave of the virus is man created and that man has control over whether it comes or not. She thinks the President can order the virus to stand down and leave our shores,,,what a fool she is. She probably thinks Cuomo did a great job with over three times as many deaths as seen in the bigger states of Texas and Florida. She probably would have agreed with placing Covid positive patients into nursing homes. That is where politicians had a big negative effect on nursing home residents.
She claims that the President ” did not do nearly as much as he could have.” That is probably true of all leaders. They could have done more, but why didn’t those Monday Morning Quaterbacks with solutions rise up and let everyone know? What has this dodo offered as a solution? Virtually nothing. Biden has a plan, I think 6 points all of which Trump was doing by the early part of April. In order to meet those points Biden had to reverse 180 degrees on some of his previous statements so that those points could be made.
I don’t know why this dodo bird sticks around when she has nothing of value.
Commit asked: “Young, will you join me in condemning the person who murdered two protesters in Kenosha last night?
Is he one of the people you referred to as “Brown Shirts”?
The Brown Shirts I referred to are the arsonists and rioters who have been roaming the streets and destroying cities with the connivance of Democrats.
So far as I know, it is too early to decide whether the shooter in Kenosha is a murderer.
You may recall that when that Floyd thug died I was the only one, left or right, posting here who said very early on that I did not see a clear path to guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for any of the officers trying to arrest that criminal. I gave my reasons then and subsequent information has supported my original view. A report today said that he died of drug poisoning.
That should be a caution for anyone rushing to judgment on this case.
It does appear that he was standing with others to protect property from anarchist/Democrat rioters. They came to him with violence. He did not originally go to them.
In one video he was running and one of the street fascists threw a Molotov cocktail at him. In another scene he was hit with a skateboard–another common weapon used by the ‘peaceful’ fascist demonstrators.
Without more it would appear that he has at least a reasonable beginning of an argument for self defense.
So, Commit, I will not join you in condemning him until or unless more evidence comes in to change my mind.
Meanwhile, my thought is ‘good shooting’. The survivor won’t find it so easy to loot with only one arm and that is one good outcome so far.
It may take more shootings by police or National Guard are private citizens to make these fascist twits go back to mommy’s basement and play with themselves.
Young, you were right on George Floyd and many learned a lesson. The optics on the Floyd case were very bad and for me personal. This one not so much.
None of this should be occurring but for the fact that democrats don’t care about the people they represent. Their inaction while playing politics is the cause of many deaths.
Allan– Thank you. The optics were bad. Even President Trump jumped to the wrong conclusion. On this site the only other person I remember suspending judgment was Honestlawyer. I remember his posting that the nature of dealing with criminals does not always provide good optics but there are not many reasonable alternatives with a combative arrestee. But he has had considerable experience as a police officer and as an attorney and that tends to make one hesitant to accept first impressions no matter how bad. I do appreciate your remarks.
Young,
The videos/pictures I seen a couple hours ago on the War Room show on Infowars.com/show the fascist antifa, the BLM terrorist rioters were attempting to mur.der the guy & seems to be will within his legal Right of self defence.
I’ll be up on banned.video in a bit when their done complying what they have.
I thought this was a good piece from earlier today with some surround contest:
https://www.newswars.com/shots-fired-in-kenosha-wisconsin-2/
This looks like the videos Harrison Smith/Infowars are putting together over these Kenosha mostly peaceful Anti/BLM terrorist rioters & their attempted mur.der.
Oops, here’s the link:
https://banned.video/watch?id=5f46f5e6838dfb0597d32ed4
“So far as I know, it is too early to decide whether the shooter in Kenosha is a murderer.”
OK. He’s been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, but whether he’s guilty will be determined in a trial or plea.
“A report today said that [Floyd] died of drug poisoning.”
You don’t link to any report or say who it came from. I did see an article that the attorney for Thomas Lane “plans to argue that Floyd died from an overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl and an underlying heart condition” (https://money.yahoo.com/killed-himself-defense-argument-emerges-100047064.html). If that’s what you mean by “report,” a defendant’s attorney is hardly a neutral source.
The information is from the varios MEs that have performed the autopsies.
Fox 9 reports that..
New exhibits filed in the case against the four former Minneapolis Police Officers accused of murdering George Floyd suggest the Hennepin County Medical Examiner thought George Floyd’s fentanyl levels were at a potentially “fatal level”, but his and other medical examiner’s findings showed he died of a combination of factors.
In one memorandum filed May 26 after a virtual meeting with Baker, the Attorney’s Office said Baker concluded, “The autopsy revealed no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation.” Baker told the attorney his investigation was incomplete pending a toxicology report, however.
The other memorandum filed June 1 by the Attorney’s Office indicated Baker said Floyd’s level of fentanyl was “pretty high,” and a potentially “fatal level.”
“[Dr. Andrew Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” the June 1 memo said.
https://www.fox9.com/news/court-filings-medical-examiner-thought-george-floyd-had-fatal-level-of-fentanyl-in-system
Baker ruled Floyd’s death a homicide. Presumably he’ll be questioned about it during the trial.
“if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors …” is a conditional statement in which the condition is false.
And Epstein was ruled a suicide. I am glad you are not a defense attorney. That secretarial quality we mentioned earlier. It’s real and this is an example.
It’s a continuum.
The Warren Report stated that Oswald killed JFK, America was told that Sirhan Sirhan killed RFK and Bill Clinton, who was within three months of an election, told us that Flight 800 spontaneously combusted in mid-air.
You’ve repeatedly demonstrated that you have a weak understanding of research and that you’re prone both to making false assumptions about my thinking and to projecting your own misunderstandings onto me. Presumably a defense mechanism on your end.
Other contributing factors must necessarily include his Covid, his diabetes, and his cardiovascular problems. Lots to choose from. Innocent.
Commit-other contributing factors …” is a conditional statement in which the condition is false.
Of course there were other contributing factors. Covid. Hypertension. Diabetes. Cardiovascular disease.
A big dose of Fentanyl with any one of these could be like a lethal injection.
Funny that you didn’t see that immediately. Secretary problem again, I suppose.
Put a healthy man of parameters similar to George Floyd on the ground, with the foot on a man of parameters similar to the policeman on his head and neck area.
The test subject will persist indefinitely.
The action of the officer would not cause the expiration of a healthy man.
George– Correct. That is why the police manual approved the procedure and provided a photo of it being demonstrated.
Commit– The Duke Lacrosse lads were charged with rape. Zimmerman was charged with murder. All were innocent. Being charged with murder when a howling leftist mob and the media is after you does not persuade me of one’s guilt. Perhaps you lean differently.
Unz Review has information on a previously unreleased medical examiner’s opinion. https://www.unz.com/isteve/chief-medical-examiner-in-george-floyd-case-that-is-a-fatal-level-of-fentanyl-under-normal-circumstances/?highlight=floyd
Probably you do not quite grasp the requirements for conviction. We say Guilty Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. But what does that mean? Generally it means proof consistent with guilt AND INCONSISTENT WITH ANY REASONABLE HYPOTHESIS OF INNOCENCE. Saying Martians killed Floyd would not be a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. However, given he was struggling, given he had cardiac problems, given he was infected with Covid, and given he had significant, and often lethal, amounts of drugs in his system there is an ‘all you can eat buffet’ of alternate reasonable hypotheses for cause of death. The only thing missing was being struck by lightning or hit by a stray bullet from one of the ‘peaceful’ demonstrators. His behavior caught on video at the time of his interaction with the officers strongly points to his approaching crisis from causes before, and other than, being restrained on the ground. With a fair trial–which it probably will not be–this would be an easy win for the officers. Even without a fair trial he may win. Zimmerman showed it could be done.
Okay, Anonymous above my post gives you another good breakdown of the new information.
“All were innocent.”
Correction: they were found not guilty. A finding of not guilty does not guarantee that the person is actually innocent of the crime. Often the person *is* innocent, but sometimes a person who isn’t innocent is nonetheless found not guilty, just as sometimes an innocent person is wrongfully convicted. As a lawyer, I’m surprised that you’d conflate actual guilt/innocence with a court finding of guilty/not guilty.
“Probably you do not quite grasp the requirements for conviction.”
Probably you are again making false assumptions about my understanding.
I’ve implied nothing about whether the officers will be found guilty or not.
You and others here often infer something from what I said, even though I didn’t say it and didn’t imply it, and then you project your erroneous inference onto me.
Commit– True to not guilty with respect to Zimmerman but not true with respect to the Durham Lacrosse players. The Attorney General held a formal presentation in which he declared them innocent. Very unusual. Secretary again.
The district attorney in the Duke Case was disbarred for intentionally withholding exculpatory evidence from reports and lying to the public. They were innocent.
And, in fact, all were innocent. You didn’t watch the Zimmerman trial. I did. It was obvious he was innocent. Does your mind get tangled like this often?
Oh yes, Commit, a person is Presumed Innocent until proven guilty. Zimmerman was not proven guilty so the actual legal presumption of innocence remains intact–legally. I am beginning to admire your secretarial skills less.
There aren’t any protesters in Kenosha, just rabble. You cure ’em with a dose of lead.
Reasonable people used to ask the thoughtful question of how fascism could have taken over so quickly in 1930s Germany, which was an educated and modern civilization.
Now we know.
No, we don’t know. Germany in 1930 had suffered multiple blows consequent to the ineptitude of the German political class. That is why the totalitarian parties had a constituency. We haven’t lost a war, lived through famine and ghastly hyper-inflation, or seen anything resembling the economic hardships of the early Depression. These rabble are ‘protesting’ social fictions. They’re spoiled brats and garden variety hoodlums, working in cahoots with the sorosphere and local Democratic officials. Democratic voters of the older generation are just feckless.
Let’s not pretend I am comparing contemporary America with post WWI Germany.
It should be clear that I am comparing how fascism is an evil that quickly spread when otherwise reasonable and educated people began to believe that fascism has merits. Enough Germans and Italians in that time period bought into that rationale and it quickly menaced their entire nation and a large portion of Europe.
Unfortunately, the fascism currently sweeping through America is not simply some cartoonish rabble. It has become mainstream in a large portion of most American universities, has taken over much of the media (traditional and new), the television and movie industries, and now has seized the Democratic party during a presidential election year. These are not post 1960s era disgruntled socialists brooding about the means of production. These are the new left.