‘It came and fully hit him in the head, and we could see that his skull was actually showing…’
Editor’s note: Although not graphic in nature, video may be disturbing to some.
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) A Black Lives Matter rioter was severely injured Wednesday night when an angry mob toppled a Confederate monument in Portsmouth, Virginia.
“It came and fully hit him in the head, and we could see that his skull was actually showing,” a witness told NBC News affiliate WAVY.
“He was convulsing on the ground,” the witness said.
The injured man stood at the front of the statue when violent demonstrators sent it crashing down. He was rushed to the hospital shortly after.
“He lost a great amount of blood,” the witness said.
At 10:12 p.m. the Portsmouth Police Department warned the general public to stay away from the area for obvious safety reasons. PPD Sgt. Misty Holley also said that the incident was under investigation.
However, no arrests have been made.
“The Portsmouth Police Department is asking all citizens to avoid the area of Court Street at High Street as they disperse demonstrators and investigate an incident that resulted in a citizen getting injured,” the PPD tweeted.
The Portsmouth Police Department is asking all citizens to avoid the area of Court Street at High Street as they disperse demonstrators and investigate an incident that resulted in a citizen getting injured. pic.twitter.com/ufz4T61u6m
Far-left Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam recently signed legislation authorizing local governments to remove the previously protected monuments—two of which were at the heart of the deadly 2017 clashes in Charlottesville.
In the wake of recent race-riots, Northam also announced the government-sanctioned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue that had been a longtime landmark on the eponymous Monument Avenue in the state capital (and former Confederate capital) of Richmond.
But the formal removal process appears to be taking to long for many far-left activists.
Radical mobs have used the death of George Floyd as a pretext to deface and destroy historical artifacts throughout the country, and the desecration of the Portsmouth monument is part of the ongoing vigilante movement.
Statues of Christopher Columbus were recently toppled and beheaded in Richmond, Virginia, and Boston, Massachusetts.
Another Confederate monument was also destroyed in Richmond on Wednesday night.
Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters defaced a statue of Mattias Baldwin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, spray-painting the words “murderer” and “colonizer.”
Baldwin was an early abolitionist who fought against slavery 30 years before the Civil War.
‘There is a lot of progress being made in Charlotte…’
Statue of Jerry Richardson via Twitter @CBJspanberg
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) The Carolina Panthers ordered a statue of the team’s former owner, Jerry Richardson, to be removed “in the interest of public safety,” but the team has not decided if it will come back, WFAE reported.
Richardson sold the team in 2018 after allegations surfaced in 2017 that he had made sexually inappropriate and racially offensive comments about employees and a recruiter.
The Carolina Panthers said it decided to remove Richardson’s likeness, which stood in front of the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, after hearing that protesters planned to topple the 13-feet-tall statue.
The team worried that the protesters could injure themselves while destroying the statue.
David Tepper, who bought the Panthers in 2018, said he was “contractually obligated to keep that statue as it is.”
Richardson’s spokesperson did not directly comment on the statue’s removal.
“Mr. Richardson has made no public comments about the Panthers or the NFL since the sale of the team and doesn’t plan to do so now as a private citizen,” the spokesperson said. “He has worked to treat all people fairly in his business and personal lives and, like many other Americans, is troubled by recent events in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and around the country.”
Jediah White, 24, watched as workers removed the statue.
“There is a lot of progress being made in Charlotte. I’m actually surprised the protesters haven’t gotten to it already. But this means a lot,” he said. “We don’t have any room for racist people or misogynist people. … This means a lot for Charlotte and the United States in general.”
The Panthers’ decision to remove Richardson’s statue comes as Progressive neo-Marxists try to dismantle American history by removing all reminders of the past, including confederate statues and Southern art.
Also, the Progressive Left is targeting individuals who disagree that America is systemically racist and in need of fundamental transformation.
‘If we are unlawfully denied access and face viewpoint discrimination, we are prepared to go to court…’
Tom Fitton/IMAGE: Fox 10 Phoenix via Youtube
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) After Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser turned a public street into a “Black Lives Matter” protest, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton asked her to let the organization paint its motto on a Capitol Hill street.
Fitton sent a letter on June 10 to Bowser and Karl Racine, the D.C. Attorney General, with the request. He asked for a response within 3 days, Judicial Watch reported.
He asked if Judicial Watch could paint “Because No One Is Above the Law!” nearby his organization’s offices on Independence Avenue SW, between 2nd and 4th Streets SW.
The message would be painted in the same font and color that activists painted “Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police,” which Bowser approved, NPR reported.
“If we are unlawfully denied access and face viewpoint discrimination, we are prepared to go to court to vindicate our First Amendment rights,” he said.
Fitton said JW’s motto applies to current affairs in the United States, and Democrats frequently used the phrase during the Ukraine impeachment affair.
“Our motto is “Because No One Is Above the Law!” – a message that is particularly relevant today because it applies equally to law enforcement and public official as well as to protesters, looters, and rioters,” he said.
Fitton said JW would cover the cost of painting the motto, even though Bowser used public employees and funds to tag the Black Lives Matter slogan near the White House.
“…we would likely need the assistance of the DC Government to aid in traffic diversion and parking restrictions while the painting is completed,” he said. “Of course, the painting could be completed when traffic is typically light, as was done with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message.”
‘I can assure you we’re not going to be deterred…’
Lindsey Graham / IMAGE: Fox Business News via YouTube
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to give Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the authority to issue subpoenas against 53 Obama officials tied to the debunked Russia hoax.
His efforts were hotly contested by Senate Democrats on the committee, but Graham just took their objections as proof that they “want to talk about everything except for what we should be talking about.”
Graham specifically wants to subpoena Obama officials who were connected to the problematic Steele dossier, which includes former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI deputy director McCabe, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
“Anybody who knew about the problems with the dossier and continued to use it are good candidates to go to jail,” Graham said on Monday.
The subpoena authorization will also allow Graham’s committee to request any documents, communications, and testimony between current and former officials as they relate to the Russia hoax.
“Once we find out that the Mueller investigation was run by people who hated Trump’s guts, dripping with partisanship, nobody seems to care. ‘Well, we can’t figure out if their hatred of Trump had any effect on their actions.’ Well, I don’t think you have to be that smart to put the puzzle together, but we’re going to keep trying,” Graham said last week.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., slammed Graham’s new subpoena powers as “unprecedented” and accused him of doing President Trump’s bidding.
But Graham said that his investigation has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the abuse of power that led Obama era officials to wrongly target former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other members of the Trump administration.
“This Committee is not going to sit on the sidelines and simply move on. I can assure you we’re not going to be deterred,” Graham said in a statement on Thursday. “If we have to do it by ourselves, we will. The American people deserve answers to these questions and we intend to get them.”
‘We all have a shared goal that this is something bigger than ourselves…’
Black Lives Matter in Charlotte, North Carolina, via Twitter @HBGranttCenter
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Activists are painting the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on city streets across the nation, including in Albany, Berkeley, Charlotte, Dallas, New York City, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Syracuse, and Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” Forbes reported.
A Charlotte city official teamed up with community artists to paint “Black Lives Matter” on a city street.
Taiwo Jaiyeoba, Assistant City Manager and Chief City Planner for the city of Charlotte, tweeted on June 5th about organizing the partisan political demonstration on public property, WCNC reported.
“Imagine for a few minutes that we can “art-ify” the intersection of Trade and Tryon with “Black Lives Matter!” And leave it in that space for 2 weeks,” Jaiyeoba said. “Wouldn’t that send a strong message?!”
He said he was inspired to paint “Black Lives Matter!” on the street after seeing that Washington D.C. Mayor ordered the District’s Public Works Department to paint “Black Lives Matter” on 16th Avenue, near the White House.
Then Charlotte Mayor Vy Lyles approved Jaiyeoba’s plan, and “Charlotte is Creative” offered to partner with him.
— Harvey B.Gantt Center (@HBGanttCenter) June 10, 2020
17 local artists agreed to design and paint one unique character each.
“I came up with Deadpool because considering everything going on right now, it’s pride month, you’ve got the black lives matter movement, and he’s like one of the more outspoken, radical superheroes,” said artist Garrison Gist who was assigned the letter, “K.”
Charlotte artist Kyle Mosher designed the letter “I.”
“We all have a shared goal that this is something bigger than ourselves, right, tossing ego and everything aside and the fact that we were able to get 18 plus artists to come together in 48 hours, and have a design approved with zero revisions is really a testament to the city, the artists, and the people involved,” he said.
Despite Jaiyeoba’s intention to leave “Black Lives Matter!” on the street for two weeks, the artists painted in the same paint that road workers use, so the paint will remain until Charlotte repaves the road.
The domestic terrorists who have taken control in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone painted “Black Lives Matter” on an entire city block, KIRO reported.
‘I think we want to redefine what police departments do…’
Gretchen Whitmer/PHOTO: Michigan Office of the Governor
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is backtracking on recent comments she made in support of the radical leftist “Defund the Police” movement.
On Monday, Whitmer said she supports the “spirit” of the movement to abolish law-enforcement in the wake of George Floyd‘s death and the ensuing race-riots to protest police brutality.
“You look at budgets, and they’re focused on policing—they should be focused on education, transportation, access to healthcare, access to skills and leveling the playing field,” Whitmer told The Rooton Monday.
“If you do all those other things, you don’t need all the money that’s going to the police departments,” she continued. “So, yeah, I mean, the spirit of it, I do support that spirit of it.”
But after facing criticism, Whitmer ‘clarified’ her statement on Wednesday with what appeared to be a full reversal: “I don’t believe the police should be defunded,” she told the Detroit Free Press.
“Defund the Police” activists maintain that they merely want to reallocate funding from police departments to other public sectors, such as healthcare and education. But the underlying goal of the movement—according to Antifa activists who are currently holding hostage several blocks of downtown Seattle—-is to rid communities of police entirely.
Even the Minneapolis City Council, which voted this weekend to begin defunding the city’s police department, admitted in its statement that it believes a “police-free future” is reasonable.
But those radical demands may pose a problem for Democrats at the national level, who see it as a potentially winning wedge issue for President Donald Trump, who campaigned in 2016, following several Obama-era race riots, on a platform of law and order.
It also poses political complications as Democrats struggle to find their true identity somewhere between the unbridled authoritarianism that figures like Whitmer embraced during recent coronavirus lockdowns—which relied on a heavy police presence to quell unrest and dissent— to the current swerve toward anti-authoritarian anarchy.
Even socialism-promoting Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was reluctant to publicly endorse the goal.
“Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I don’t. There’s no city in the world that does not have police departments,” Sanders said this week.
“I think we want to redefine what police departments do, give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined,” he continued. “So I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments. Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all police departments in America, I don’t agree.”
‘Well, it’s been a fun ride and dream come true but if this is the direction NASCAR is headed, we will not participate…’
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) NASCAR said Wednesday it will ban the Confederate flag from “events and properties” to promote a “welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans,” WBTV reported.
Bubba Wallace, the only black driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, said Monday to CNN’s Don Lemon that he wanted the Confederate flag removed from future events because it made people feel “uncomfortable.”
“No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. It starts with Confederate flags,” Wallace said. “Get them out of here. They have no place for them.”
Wallace and Richard Petty Motorsports said they will paint the No. 43 race car with #BlackLivesMatter.
The announcement comes after NASCAR abolished rules last week that required the company’s employees to stand for the national anthem, NBC reported.
Following these changes, NASCAR driver Ray Ciccarelli said he would cut short his career.
“Well, it’s been a fun ride and dream come true but if this is the direction NASCAR is headed, we will not participate after 2020 season is over,” he wrote Wednesday on Facebook, Cleveland.com reported.
Ciccarelli drives in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series under No. 49.
“I don’t believe in kneeling during Anthem nor taken ppl right to fly what ever flag they love,” Ciccarelli wrote, before deleting his Facebook account.
“I could care less about the Confederate Flag,” he continued, “but there are ppl that do and it doesn’t make them a racist all you are doing is f—— one group to cater to another and I ain’t spend the money we are to participate in any political BS!! So everything is for SALE!!”
‘We have only limited corroboration of the source’s reporting in this case and did not use it to reach the analytic conclusions…’
Christopher Steele / IMAGE: Youtube
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) As Justice Department investigators wrap a criminal case that is likely to implicate several key players from the Obama-era intelligence community, two leading GOP senators made public another piece of evidence showing the depths of FBI deception in the Russia-collusion hoax against President Donald Trump.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who respectively chair the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees, released a newly declassified document Thursday that revealed the fraudulent maneuvers the FBI used to vouch for the reliability of the Steele Dossier by omitting key issues.
“Despite the apparent absence of any initial corroboration and these mounting concerns, the FBI’s investigation continued seemingly unabated,” said the senators in a press release.
“It’s also unclear what, if any, steps were taken by the Intelligence Community to update their assessment based on the warnings,” they added.
The dossier’s salacious claims—including the accusation that Russians had a tape of prostitutes giving President Donald Trump a “golden shower” in a Moscow hotel room—have since been debunked.
Other recently declassified materials have shown that the corrupt agents overseeing the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties were already aware of the credibility issues when they formally initiated the investigation.
Steele, a highly partisan operative who was being paid by Democrats to provide opposition research for the Hillary Clinton campaign, may actually have been involved in a coordinated disinformation campaign organized by the Kremlin.
“We have only limited corroboration of the source’s reporting in this case and did not use it to reach the analytic conclusions of the CIA/FBI/NSA assessment,” the investigators wrote in what would later prove to be a considerable understatement.
The sources Steele used in his reports, with whom the FBI had conducted follow-up interviews, had, in fact, disavowed the claims as hearsay, drunken bar talk, or else completely fabricated.
In that light, the Annex A document included with the warrant application to spy on members of the Trump campaign seems less like an acknowledgment of the research’s limitations than a deliberate attempt to dupe the FISA court.
The document tells only of the investigators’ attempts to corroborate through witness interviews without mentioning the notable revelations, which likely would have been considered exculpatory for Trump advisor Carter Page and others being investigated over their Russian contacts.
Because the FBI had been obligated to cut its own ties with Steele, it then used a backdoor-channel via Fusion employee Nellie Ohr—whose husband, Bruce, happened to be an assistant deputy attorney general—to deliver the research via thumb drive into the hands of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
The material in Annex A had been referenced in earlier intelligence reports on the scandal, although the document itself remained classified.
Even though an inspector general’s report released last December found 17 major abuses in the FBI’s process for seeking the FISA warrants, corrupt FBI officials and others on the Left falsely claimed that Inspector General Michael Horowitz had determined the investigation properly predicated.
But the now unredacted details referenced in the report have dispelled those claims, exposing not only the initial cover-up, but the ongoing lies and deceptions that were used to undermine the Trump presidency and conceal the truth of their conspiracy from the public eye.
File frame from video provided by Darnella Frazier, a Minneapolis officer kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe./Darnella Frazier via AP
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) The man who said George Floyd and ex-cop Derek Chauvin had a “history of friction” has retracted his story, saying he had mistaken Floyd for another black coworker, WCNC reported.
“There has been a mix up between George and another fellow co-worker,” said David Pinney, Floyd and Chauvin’s former coworker.
Pinney apologized to CBS News, the media outlet that first ran the story.
“I apologize for not doing my due diligence and placing you in a very uncomfortable situation,” he said.
Pinney said he stands by his assessment of Chauvin as a man who was “extremely aggressive within the club.”
Pinney’s claims attracted media attention because they turned Floyd’s death into more than a random act of police violence.
Before recognizing that he had mistaken their identities, Pinney said Floyd and Chauvin “bumped heads.”
This gave some credibility to Black Lives Matter’s demand that Minneapolis Attorney General Keith Ellison charge Chauvin with first-degree murder, which requires evidence that the killing was premeditated.
The case of mistaken identity calls into question Pinney’s other allegations.
He portrayed Chauvin as a villain and Floyd as a calm professional at the nightclub where they both worked.
“…he always showed aggression to, you know, George,” Pinney said. “So George, to keep it professional, George had me intervene and – interface with him instead of himself, just to be – just to get away from the conflict and keep it professional.”
“I can relate to George, how he felt,” he continued. “And I think that’s what makes that personal bond between him and I, dealing with Derek.”
The Minneapolis AG has charged Chauvin with second-degree murder.
Floyd’s family and their lawyer have joined BLM in calling for a first-degree murder charge because they believe Chauvin “knew who George Floyd was” and harbored personal animosity when he allegedly murdered him.
Overnight developments revealed that the lawless “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” had devolved further into a Lord-of-the-Flies-style nightmarish landscape, complete with its own warlord chief, roving gangs of armed bandits extorting businesses for a Mafia-like protection fee, and a formal list of 19 radical demands.
Shockingly, much of the mainstream media had yet to report on the story, leaving conservative journalists like Andy Ngo and Townhall writer Julio Rosas, as well as embedded photojournalist Alex Garland, to report from the front lines.
President Donald Trump had taken notice, however, and warned far-left Gov. Jay Inslee to “take back your city NOW,” or else federal authorities would be obliged to dispatch military force to suppress the insurrection.
Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!
But Inslee, who at one point was a Democrat presidential contender, shrugged off the anarchist takeover of his state’s largest city and responded to Trump instead by mocking a typographical error.
A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business. “Stoop” tweeting. https://t.co/O6i04qmZ9v
Among the most surreal stories from the autonomous zone (CHAZ) was the emergence of a local rapper, Raz Simone, as the warlord–chieftain, according to reports from the National File based on Twitter dispatches from the scene.
After the protesters—in collaboration with city officials—forced police to abandon the precinct rather than be permitted to use crowd-dispersal techniques such as tear gas, Simone and his posse of thugs undertook efforts to start their own police force—ironically, using guns and violent beat-downs to maintain their authority.
Meanwhile, according to the other police, who still maintained control of the remainder of the city for now, businesses within the six-block “autonomous” zone were being threatened with extortion.
Sources tell me there are those in the #CapitalHillAutonomousZone who are “shaking down” businesses by asking them to contribute supplies or resources. When there was the occupation in Portland in 2018, they threatened a food cart that wouldn’t give them electricity access.
Although establishments in the popular restaurant and bar district initially tried to support the movement by offering supplies like food, water and first-aid to protesters, they now were being told they must pay tributes to the radical separatists in order to continue operating.
“We’ve heard, anecdotally, reports of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area,” Deanna Nollette, Seattle’s assistant chief of police, said Wednesday, according to Fox News.
“This is the crime of extortion,” Nollette continued. “If anyone has been subjected to this, we need them to call 911.”
‘Begging for Help’
It remained unclear whether law-enforcement authorities intended to act or were even capable of doing so after abandoning their precinct station.
Nollette explained that the police had intended to promote peaceful demonstrations by withdrawing from the area.
“We wanted to be able to facilitate and support peaceful demonstrations,” she said.
But since then, an armed guard has surrounded the perimeter and is requiring residents who live there to show ID in order to prove that they belong in the area.
An unnamed official told Fox News that residents were “”begging for help because they are not being allowed into their homes without ID.”
Nonetheless, the separatist left-wingers seem to take pride in maintaining some municipal services, such as their own garbage collection.
Good morning from the #CapitalHillAutonomousZone – looks like they have organized their own trash collection network throughout the zone. How long do you think the “Free State of Capitol Hill” will last? pic.twitter.com/MIYm5tGxll
They also released on Wednesday a list of 19 demands which included the complete abolition of the Seattle Police Department, court system and federal immigration authorities operating within the city; reparations for victims of police brutality; and a full-scale federal investigation of past police incidents.
Holy shit, #SeattleAutonomousZone just issued a list of demands. And they’re both radical and realistic at the same time. Most of these, the city and state could just…decide to do, if they wanted. https://t.co/3C54B7EHi2
Despite Antifa’s claims that the local authorities could simply “decide to do” them unilaterally, most of the demands seemed vastly unrealistic, raising questions as to what the end game in this hostage situation may look like.
For his part, Trump denounced the group as “domestic terrorists.”
THOSE THAT DENY THEIR HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT!
Much of the precedent involving federal authorities intervening in such standoffs has related either to right-wing groups—like the 2014 dispute between a group of ranchers led by Cliven Bundy and the US Bureau of Land Management—or else involved apolitical cults like David Koresh’s Branch-Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, which federal authorities violently raided in 1993.
But the tenuous politics of it, in the wake of recent nationwide race-riots, could swing public sentiment either way—and without the cooperation of state and local leadership, a federal crackdown could be complicated.
At the same time, a failure to respond could result in poor optics and encourage other Antifa-linked groups to attempt similar takeovers that might rapidly escalate the crisis to a national level.
While the riots of last week have largely subsided, the groups that sought to sow chaos during them—some of which have been funded by anti-democracy globalists like George Soros—seem little interested in letting go of the moment.
Lessons from History
Posts on Twitter continued to link the current protest movement with violent, revolutionary uprisings such as an 1804 Haitian revolt that massacred all of the white land-owners.
The Haitian Revolution, Nat Turner’s Rebellion, Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, Juneteenth…. I didn’t learn about none of this during my K-12 education.
Others tied the current anti-government effort with Monday’s “Juneteenth” commemoration, a holiday in parts of the black community to celebrate the emancipation of slaves during the Civil War.
Trump was attacked for scheduling his first political rally since early March for the same day in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a violent race riot in 1921 saw mobs of white residents attacking an affluent black community. In the wake of it, 26 black residents and 10 white residents were confirmed to have died, and thousands were left homeless.
Coincidentally, those events occurred 99 years ago on Memorial Day, the same day as the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spurred the current wave of protests.
As left-wing opportunists sought recently to tear down monuments to historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, a tweet from Trump on Thursday seemed to remind the current wave of insurrectionist revolutionaries that violent overthrow attempts rarely ended well.
THOSE THAT DENY THEIR HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT!
