Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough “law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.
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For the last couple of months, your inbox, like mine, has been awash in nauseating communiqués from every school, club, or business you had carelessly entrusted with your email address. “Stay safe,” they urged – and stay home. A great plague is upon the land, and we must all respond with displays of ritual purification and groveling obedience. Shows of obedience were critical, as was the virtue-signaling that accompanied them. People were shamed for appearing in public without a mask or for walking too close to other people. The whole thing was an extraordinary display of communal insanity.
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There have been a number and variety of both high-profile and lesser-publicized events in Nashville that at first glance are seemingly unrelated – but are actually connected by way of the groups that have been involved with them.
The first and most notable event took place on Saturday, May 30, when the Music City’s protests over the death of George Floyd on May 25 turned into a violent riot.
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Brian Wilson, the host of 99.7 FM WTN’s Nashville’s Morning News, speculated whether Nashville Mayor John Cooper arranged a quid pro quo with Black Lives Matter to reduce police protection in exchange for support of Nashville’s 32 percent property tax increase that took place during Tuesday’s hearing in the city council chambers.
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The news media wants to ignore the depth of the violence and the forces causing the violence and simply rerun their permanent refrain that this is all about racism (see the Washington Post story that “Racial inequality in Minneapolis is Among the Worst in the Nation” as an example).
The news media will resist deeply the idea that Antifa is a factor and that the violence is designed to hurt America.
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A prominent civil rights attorney and Black Lives Matter activist announced Monday that she is endorsing Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) opponent in the DFL primary.
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The ACLU of Minnesota has called on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to investigate the case of Myon Burrell and vacate his conviction. Burrell was sentenced to life in prison as a 16-year-old while Sen. Amy Klobuchar was serving as Hennepin County Attorney.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was confronted by Fox News host Chris Wallace Sunday about what she knew and when in the case of Myon Burrell, whom some believe was wrongfully convicted while Klobuchar was Hennepin County Attorney.
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by Victor Davis Hanson Progressives do not see the United States as an exceptional uniter of factions and tribes into a cohesive whole – each citizen subordinating his tribal, ethnic, and religious affinities to a shared Americanism, emblemized by our national motto e pluribus unum. Instead, they prefer e uno plures: out of one nation arise many innately different and separate peoples. Progressivism’s signature brand is now tribalism: all of us in different ways are victims of a white male Christian heterosexual patriarchy – or a current 20 percent hierarchy that past and present has supposedly oppressed anyone not like themselves. In contrast, our differences define who we are, and are not incidental to the content of our characters. The salad bowl, not the melting pot, is the new national creed. America is to be a conglomeration of competing tribal parties in the fashion of the Balkans, Rwanda, or contemporary Iraq. How does the relative victimhood work politically? Progressive elites (oddly often white, but “woke,” males) serve as umpires who adjudicate familial spats and intersectional fractures. Like good cowboys, they ride herd, directing the squabbling and snorting flock in the right direction without losing too many strays on the way to…
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by Mary Margaret Olohan Progressive group leaders announced Monday they had launched the group Supermajority in order to train two million women as political activists. Supermajority is headed by activists from progressive groups, specifically former head of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Alicia Garza, and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. [ RELATED: Cecile Richards Leaves Behind Brutal Legacy As She Steps Down From Planned Parenthood ] The trio created Supermajority with the intention of providing “women with the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to channel the energy and activism of this moment and change the direction of this country,” their website says. “For good.” Supermajority’s website adds that the group is “a new home for women’s activism, training and mobilizing a multiracial, inter-generational community that will fight for gender equity together.” The group reportedly will not endorse specific candidates but will seek to influence policy and to educate women on candidate’s platforms, according to TIME Magazine. “Women are mad as hell and we’ve been in resistance mode for two years,” Garza told TIME. “Now it’s time to equip people.” The new group released a video on twitter Monday morning accompanied by the caption,…
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At the end of September, “Community Oversight Now – Nashville,” the Coalition which succeeded in bringing the question of a civilian community oversight board to a referendum as part of the November 6 ballot, posted their travel plans for October. Some or all of the Coalition’s leftist member groups were traveling to Florida to attend the annual conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE). This is an organization that claims to have “professionalized” the business of lay people pretending they know more or at least enough, to decide whether cops are doing their jobs according to the law. Or at least judge a police officer’s actions according to what Black Lives Matter says is the way policing should be carried out. What’s not known about the Florida radicals’ junket, is who footed the bill, how many and from which Coalition member group attended the NACOLE conference? NACOLE is one of the organizations that was included in Obama’s White House task force that came up with 63 recommendations for how local police departments can make themselves better liked by the communities they serve, including the criminals who have guns. It also includes the assassins who, without direct provocation,…
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Internal documents from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF) and an admission from an OSF representative about their grants addressing “police brutality,” should leave no one surprised that Soros money is floating behind the push in Nashville to establish a civilian oversight board. “Community Oversight Nashville,” (the Coalition), is the coalition which succeeded in bringing the question of a civilian community oversight board to a referendum. On November 6, 2018, Davidson County voters will decide whether to permanently embed the police oversight board into the governing charter. According to the “Vote No” campaign, this board would require a $10 million dollar tax hike over the next five years to pay for the $1.5 million dollar annual expenditure required by “Amendment #1” on the ballot. If the police oversight board initiative referred to as “Amendment #1” is passed, civilians appointed by Metro Council members would have broad authority to investigate and punish Metro Nashville police officers. Opponents of the initiative point out that at least eight layers of bureaucracy which include both civilians and government officials, are already in place to hold MNPD officers accountable. Organizations that have joined the Coalition and others that support passage of “Amendment #1” have either been…
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by Dr. Carol M. Swain Do black lives matter to “progressive” black women? A new billboard in Dallas, Texas, made headlines last week with a controversial message encouraging black women to have no qualms about aborting their unborn babies. Three attractive, young black women with bright smiles greet passing motorists with a deceptive message to entice black women to snuff out the lives of inconvenient and unwanted pre-born babies. The message proclaimed: “Black women take care of their families by taking care of themselves first. ABORTION IS SELF-CARE.” This enticement to take care of yourself first by aborting your unwanted unborn babies is not sponsored by a white supremacist group, although the funding for the sponsoring organization could easily have come from an anti-black organization seeking to use eugenics to cleanse the population of meddlesome blacks. The sponsoring organization is The Afiya Center, which purports to stand for reproductive rights and women’s health. ‘Reproductive rights’ is an euphemism for abortion. Afiya is no doubt tied into leftist progressive groups and black-loathing liberals willing to donate to such a cause. Afyia’s billboard lists the hashtag “TrustBlackWomen,” which insulates it from criticism an overtly white-run organization would deservingly get. An investigative reporter…
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WTN radio’s Dan Mandis tried to hold a reasoned debate with the attorney representing the family of a man who was shot and killed by Metro Nashville Police last month. Mandis hosted attorney Joy Kimbrough on his Super Talk 99.7 program Monday. The audio is available here. Kimbrough represents the family of Daniel Hambrick. Video shows Metro Officer Andrew Delke shooting and killing Hambrick as he was running away on July 26, News Channel 5 said. The video is available here on the Nashville Scene. The surveillance video obtained from nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School shows the shooting near the intersection of 17th Avenue North and Jo Johnston Avenue on the evening of July 26, the Scene said. Criminal history Hambrick had several pending serious criminal charges at the time he was shot, Fox 17 News said. His prior convictions include felony aggravated robbery, misdemeanor assault, possession or casual exchange, felon in possession of a weapon, drugs in a drug-free school zone, resisting arrest and more. [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Daniel-Hambrick-Arrest-History.pdf” title=”Daniel Hambrick Arrest History”] On the rap sheet, the following initials mean: PEND-pending DROS- Dismissed request of the state GLC-Guilty of Lesser Charge DIS- Dismissed GUI-Guilty CONC-Concluded Mayor David Briley last…
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Tami Sawyer, winner of the Democratic primary to represent District 7 on the Shelby County Commission, is not only a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement and a #TakeEmDown901 statue destroyer, she is also a graduate of St. Mary’s Episcopal elite and expensive all-girls private school in Memphis. Tuition at the private school for the 2018 school year starts at $16,300 for kindergarten and increases to $21,660 for the senior year in high school. The base cost does not include fees for snacks, technology, facilities and some textbooks. After graduating from St. Mary’s in 2000, Sawyer continued her elite private school education at the private, historically black Hampton University, with tuition, board and fees totaling over $36,000 a year for 2018. Sawyer left Hampton University after two years, finished up her degree at University of Memphis and moved to Washington, D.C. to attend the historically black Howard University Law School. The cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses to attend Howard Law School in 2014 was $60,240. There is no indication that Sawyer completed her law degree and no listing was found under her name in the public attorney directory maintained by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. Sawyer describes…
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Tami Sawyer, a leader in the Memphis Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and organizer of the #TakeEmDown901 activists that resulted in removing Confederate statues in the city, won the Democratic primary to represent District 7 on the Shelby County Commission Tuesday, WREG reported. Sawyer won with 50 percent of the vote, followed by Stephanie Greenwood, who won 36 percent of the vote. Eric Dunn finished in third place with 14 percent of the vote. She will face Republican Samuel Goff, who was unopposed in his primary, in the August general election. During the August 2017 Confederate statue protest during which protestors surrounded police cars, seven people were arrested. According to Sawyer, BLM posted bail for them. The BLM movement was launched by co-founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black Florida teenager. In no short order, BLM became known for protests involving property destruction and violence, oftentimes directed at police. All three of BLM’s co-founders have been connected in some way with one or more of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s (FRSO) groups. FRSO, one of the four largest radical Left organizations in the…
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Drost Kokoye, a founding and current board member of the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC), Tennessee’s most prominent Muslim organization, was caught on video using a bullhorn held to the faces of police and shouting them down for wearing riot gear while they were protecting protesters like Kokoye at UT Knoxville on Saturday. You can see Kokoye aggressively pushing her bullhorn towards the face of one police officer at the 2:22 mark of this video from WATE TV. The demonstration was organized by UT Knoxville’s Progressive Student Alliance to protest the university’s decision to allow Matthew Heimbach, leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, to speak at UTK, the first stop on his campus speech tour. Heimbach’s group ascribes to white nationalist ideology. During Saturday’s UTK demonstration that devolved into a hate protest against the police, AMAC board member Drost Kokoye joined marchers delivering that message – “cops get the f*** off our campus (look for the pink hijab in the video below): “COPS GET THE F*** OFF OUR CAMPUS” Student-led protests at the University of Tennesee today against ‘police and nazis’ as Matthew Heimbach set to speak. pic.twitter.com/f7mBMC3uxF — Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) February 17, 2018 Kokoye posted this tweet about…
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Missouri school officials said a non-white student confessed this week to scrawling a racist message on a girls’ bathroom mirror, causing unrest at a St. Louis-area high school. The controversial phrase, “White Lives Matter,” followed by the N-word was discovered on a girls’ bathroom mirror at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield on Nov. 15. In…
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St. Louis police arrested more than 120 protesters blocking a highway Tuesday night as the city entered its third straight week of protests surrounding a former officer’s acquittal for murder charges. While police did not release the number of people arrested, a city alderman told reporters that at least 126 had been taken into custody, the…
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Lipscomb University President Randy Lowry apologized Friday for cotton stalk centerpieces that offended some African-American students invited to his home Thursday for a dinner to promote diversity on campus. “The content of the centerpieces was offensive, and I could have handled the situation with more sensitivity,” Lowry said in an email to the Lipscomb community that the school shared on Facebook. “I sincerely apologize for the discomfort, anger or disappointment we caused and solicit your forgiveness.” Lipscomb is a private Christian liberal arts school in Nashville affiliated with the conservative Churches of Christ. One student who attended the dinner wrote on Facebook, “We were very offended, and also the meals that were provided resembled many ‘black meals’ they had mac n cheese, collard greens, corn bread etc.” The student’s post included a photo of one of the cotton stalk centerpieces, a type of trendy decor depicted in many varieties on Pinterest. Hobby Lobby is getting slammed by a woman on social media for selling similar decor because “there is nothing decorative about raw cotton” as it represents “a commodity which was gained at the expense of African-American slaves.” In his apology, Lowry said, “I have heard from a number of students who…
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Rock giants U2 called off a concert planned for Saturday night in St Louis, Missouri as the US city braced for a second day of protests over the acquittal of a former police officer in the shooting death of a black man. The Irish rock band and entertainment firm Live Nation announced the show’s cancellation in…
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Some fast food restaurant workers in Memphis walked out Monday to call for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, reports WREG News Channel 3. Similar Labor Day protests were held across the country. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25. In Tennessee, the state minimum wage is the same as the current federal minimum wage. In Memphis, a group in front of the McDonald’s on Poplar Avenue waved signs at 6 a.m. reading, “Show me $15 & a union” and “#Fightfor15.” There group included workers from McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s and Church’s Chicken. The Memphis workers were joined by local Black Lives Matter activists, representatives with Workers Interfaith Network, IBEW and the Copper Coalition, and state Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis). The group later moved to the Taco Bell at Poplar and Belvedere, and then up Evergreen to Trinity United Methodist Church, which was hosting a picnic. #WeShutItDown #FightFor15 #UnionStrong pic.twitter.com/Ewp9YXabv6 — Show Me $15 (@Show_Me15) September 5, 2017 “Memphis workers in the Fight for $15 stressed their demand not just for $15 an hour, but for union rights in order to fix the economic and political systems in the U.S. that are rigged to benefit big corporations over working…
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The battle over access to abortions is a battle of life and death. One black conservative activist also says it’s a battle against racism. Black Lives Matter, an activist group founded in 2012 and which says it protects black lives, lists a number of causes it stands for, from globalism to transgender affirming to black feminism. The website’s category for family advocacy lists “dismantling the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work ‘double shifts’ that require them to mother in private even as they participate in justice work.” Nowhere does the lists of causes mention preventing the abortion of black babies. Political commentator Kevin Jackson, who is black, said he does not consider Black Lives Matter to be an actual group. Instead, it pretends at humanitarian efforts, said Jackson, who publishes TheBlackSphere.net blog. His site says he wants to “set the record straight on the destruction of the black community at the hand of the Democratic Party.” Jackson is a talk radio host on Salem Communications, author of such books as “Race Pimping: The Multi-Trillion Dollar Business of Liberalism” and a regular Fox News political commentator. The eugenics movement has always sought to “keep the population of blacks at what they call…
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A conservative Presbyterian seminary in St. Louis will host a conference on leadership and race this weekend organized mostly by African Americans who are asking white attendees to recognize that their participation “means hearing, repenting and listening more than you speak.” Whites are also being asked to devote one seminar hour to “intensive training in anti-racism,” according to guidance for whites on the conference website. The website features a letter from Joel Littlepage, a white North Carolina pastor, to his “white brothers and sisters” in which he explains, “For whites, our position as majority-culture citizens of America grants us privilege and safety that people of color are not afforded. It is good and wise that we have time together, as white people, to have honest discussion and explore the ways that we can expose our own biases and be effective in the fight for racial justice.” The conference will be held at Covenant Seminary, which is affiliated with the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and which recently started offering courses in Nashville. PCA churches in the Nashville area include Christ Presbyterian in Nashville, Covenant Presbyterian in Green Hills and Christ Community in Franklin. Called LDR Weekend, the fairly new annual gathering is “designed…
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An organizer for the Louisville chapter of Black Lives Matter has published an expletive-laced list of “10 requests” for white people, which includes asking white people who can afford to downsize to give up their homes. “White people, if you can afford to downsize, give up the home you own to a black or brown family. Preferably a family from generational poverty,” reads one suggestion from Chanelle Helm, co-founder and core organizer of the Louisville group. Another reads: “If you are a developer or realty owner of multi-family housing, build a sustainable complex in a black or brown blighted neighborhood and let black and brown people live in it for free.” Helm’s list was published Aug. 16 by LEO Weekly, an alternative newsweekly in Louisville, Kentucky. She also asks white people without descendants to will their property “to a black or brown family. Preferably one that lives in generational poverty.” In addition, she asks, “White people, if you’re inheriting property you intend to sell upon acceptance, give it to a black or brown family. You’re bound to make that money in some other white privileged way.” Helm also addresses the workplace and asks white people to “get a racist fired…You…
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The new mayor of Jackson, Mississippi who has promised to make Jackson “the most radical city on the planet” was sworn into office on Monday. Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s victory is being lauded by progressives who are trying to remake the South in their image. While President Trump won big in the South, progressives are posing challenges to conservatives, especially in urban areas. Lumumba has described a radical as someone who works to change troubling circumstances and has cited Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ as examples. One of the places where he made his vow was at the left-wing People’s Summit in Chicago last month, according to The Clarion-Ledger. The summit promoted “social, racial and economic justice” and was sponsored by National Nurses United and other progressive groups. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was the keynote speaker. The causes addressed included voting rights, free higher education, “climate justice,” and ending deportations of illegal immigrants. Lumumba, who says he is sometimes mistaken for a Muslim but is a Christian, received 55 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, trouncing the incumbent mayor. He won 93 percent of the vote in the general election. Lumumba’s Detroit-born father was elected mayor of Jackson in 2013 but died after less…
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Black Lives Matter is fighting against a New Jersey bill seeking to teach young children the best way to interact with law enforcement officers. The bill, Assembly bill A-1114, already unanimously passed the New Jersey Assembly, Heat Street reported Tuesday. The bill, which forces schools to teach kids how to deal with officers, is similar to…
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A college professor who promotes progressive theories on race and white privilege was elected moderator Tuesday for this week’s annual meeting of leaders in the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The PCA is the second largest Presbyterian denomination after the liberal mainline Presbyterian Church (USA). Since forming in the early 1970s, the PCA has been known as a conservative evangelical body standing in sharp contrast to the liberal mainline denomination. But in recent years, the PCA has experienced increasing internal division over race, the role of women in the church, and how to respond to cultural pressure to overturn biblical teachings on marriage and sexuality. The PCA has a strong presence in Middle Tennessee. Its larger churches include Christ Presbyterian in Nashville, Covenant Presbyterian in Green Hills and Christ Community in Franklin. More orthodox believers in the denomination are alarmed by the changes. But they are stymied by a growing progressive influence bringing radical secular ideas into the church, often wrapped in select Bible verses about compassion and generosity that leave conservatives afraid of being called racist and uncaring. Alexander Jun, the moderator chosen for this week’s General Assembly meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, is co-author of a new…
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The Justice for Jocques Coalition held a town hall meeting Saturday at which they slammed Nashville city officials for what they perceive as injustice in the case of a white police officer who fatally shot an armed black man. Officer Josh Lippert was found to be acting in self-defense in the Feb. 10 shooting of Jocques Scott Clemmons. Called “The People’s Town Hall,” Saturday’s event was held at First Baptist Church South Inglewood. City officials were invited to attend. District Attorney Glenn Funk and Mayor Megan Barry sent representatives who listened but referred concerns to Funk and Barry directly. The Metro Nashville Police Department did not send anyone. “When is the mayor going to be the mayor and handle the police chief?,” said Davie Tucker, pastor of Beech Creek Missionary Baptist Church, according to NewsChannel 5. “When is the DA going to be the DA and be the chief prosecutor in this jurisdiction and stop allowing the police to do it?” Clemmons was shot by Lippert at the Cayce Homes public housing development in East Nashville after the officer saw Clemmons run a stop sign, which led to a foot chase, physical confrontation and Clemmons pointing a gun toward the officer.…
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