Category: United States

Groups the States

The Case of the Non-Compliant Motorist

Posted on Comments

 

“Step out of the car.”

This is a simple sentence. You don’t need a Ph.D. in linguistics to understand the meaning of “step out of the car.” When this sentence is spoken by a man with a badge and a pistol, the driver of a motor vehicle has a legal obligation to comply with the officer’s command.

Notice the word “command.” The cop is not requesting that you exit your vehicle, he is commanding you to do so — it is an order, and the policeman has legal authority to compel your compliance. Your failure to comply with the officer’s lawful order thereby results in the officer gaining authority to use physical force against you.

Nowadays, police are trained in what are called “de-escalation tactics.” If you ever get pulled over for a traffic infraction, you can expect the police officer to be very polite, even cordial, as he asks for your license and informs you of your excessive speed or whatever. Cops are trained to talk nice like this, because it helps encourage cooperation. And if you watch a lot of videos on the Police Activity YouTube channel, like I do, you notice a pattern in the behavior of criminals — the kind of people who mistake courtesy for weakness. The law-abiding citizen feels embarrassed when he gets pulled over for a traffic infraction, and responds to the policeman in an apologetic manner: “I’m sorry, officer, I was in a bit of a hurry, I didn’t realize it was a 45 mph zone,” etc. Citizens respect the law, and therefore feel shame when they are caught breaking the law, even in the most ordinary and harmless ways. Criminals? Not so much.

One of the hallmarks of a criminal personality is the shamelessness with which they break the law. Criminals do not respect the law — they lack any proper sense of justice — and so, no matter what the law is, or how serious their breach of the law, criminals tend to be defiant in their behavior toward anyone attempting to enforce the law.

Consider the case of Deon Kay, who had a pistol in his hand when he was shot dead by police in Washington, D.C. Our nation’s capital has very strict gun-control laws; liberals support these laws, with which I strongly disagree. Yet liberals are now protesting the shooting of Deon Kay, despite his open defiance of the city’s gun-control laws.

Question: Exactly how are gun-control laws supposed to be enforced? What do liberals think should happen when gangsters flagranlty advertise their violation of gun-control laws, as did Deon Kay and his buddies, by posting online images of themselves with their weapons? This type of defiant behavior is, as I say, the hallmark of a criminal personality, and no one’s life is safe when such behavior is tolerated. Every simple traffic stop has the potential to become a life-or-death situation.

You see this demonstrated over and over in Police Activity videos. The criminal has been pulled over by the police, and the officer has some reason to suspect there might be drugs or weapons in the vehicle, or else there is an outstanding warrant for the driver’s arrest. The driver often seems to be compliant up until the moment the cop asks him to step out of the car, and that’s when the situation spins out of control. Either the suspect pulls a gun, initiating a shootout, or else he takes off in his car, seeking to escape arrest. Say hello to Braily Andres Batista-Concepcion.

 

Batista-Concepcion, 22, believes he is a victim of “excessive force” by police in Raleigh, N.C. Here is a description of his arrest:

On January 14, 2020 at approximately 9:30 a.m., Raleigh Police Department officers responded to a report of a hit and run in the 3500 block of Wake Forest Road. Before officers arrived on the scene the suspect vehicle fled the area and was involved in a second hit and run in a parking lot at St. Albans Drive and Wake Forest Road. While fleeing the scene of the second collision the vehicle struck a pole at 4320 Wingate Drive. A short time later, an officer spotted a vehicle matching the description from the three earlier hit and run incidents driving erratically on Navaho Drive. The officer initiated a traffic stop and observed that the driver appeared to be impaired while transporting three passengers. When Mr. Batista-Concepcion ignored repeated commands to place his hands on the wheel, the officer ordered him to get out of the vehicle. Mr. Batista-Concepcion failed to follow the officer’s commands and officers used force to remove him from the vehicle. Braily Andres Batista-Concepcion was subsequently charged with DWI, three counts of Hit and Run, two counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, Simple Possession of Marijuana, and Resist, Delay and Obstruct.

OK, so this guy was completely wasted at 9:30 in the morning, smoking weed and driving around with three other people in the car — including at least one minor — and endangering public safety:

“We just got ran into,” one man tells a 911 dispatcher. “And the guy took off, twice. He ran into us twice and took off.”
In another call to 911, a woman tells dispatch, “They hit me. And then I stopped at the red light and they looked in the mirror and they were trying to back up and hit me again.”

Batista-Concepcion is a menace to society, a dangerous criminal, and why do you think the cops got irritated when he “ignored repeated commands to place his hands on the wheel”? Isn’t it just common sense that someone who deliberately rams his car into other vehicles might possess weapons? If the cop says “keep your hands where I can see them,” and you refuse to comply with that command — it is not a request, but a command — the cop has good reason to fear for his own safety. And keep in mind the cop didn’t just pull over Batista-Concepcion for a minor traffic offense, but three separate hit-and-run incidents.

OK, now it’s time to watch the video of Batista-Concepion’s arrest:

 

As I say, Batista-Concepcion claims to be a victim of “excessive force,” but the local District Attorney seems to think otherwise:

The Wake County District Attorney refused to ask the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate after a video of a violent arrest, which showed a Raleigh officer punching and kneeing a man, surfaced on social media.
After reviewing the video with the SBI, Raleigh Police Department officials said they met with Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman to review the body and dash camera video of the incident. Freeman decided not to request SBI involvement but left the door open for SBI assistance should it be deemed appropriate as the investigation unfolds.
“Traditionally the State Bureau of Investigation is asked to review use of force cases involving the use of lethal force. This case does not involve the use of lethal force,” Freeman said. “Additionally after reviewing the video of the incident, I believe interviews conducted by the Raleigh Police Department, which I have requested to be recorded, will provide full information for a decision to be made as to whether the officers’ conduct was criminal. If follow up investigation is needed, the State Bureau of Investigation may be asked at that time to conduct it.”

Here is the Raleigh Police Chief’s press conference:

 

“One of the passengers speaks about he wishes he had his 40, which is often the language referencing a gun. It is the goal, and it will always be the goal, of the Raleigh Police Department and all of its members to protect and serve the public in a safe and courteous and professional manner. . . . Policing requires the help and cooperation of all of us. . . . No officer wants to use force or become involved in a deadly force encounter.”

In a situation such as was caused by Batista-Concepcion’s non-compliant behavior, what do we expect police officers to do? What is the alternative when a driminal refuses to comply with lawful orders?

Without regard to what, if anything, becomes of the “excessive force” complaint in this case, I predict that Batista-Concepcion will soon be in prison, or else in the graveyard, as a result of his criminal personality. He is a bad person — a defiant and shameless law-breaker — and such people have a tendency to meet a violent death.

ADDENDUM: Permit me to add this quote from Edmund Burke:

“Is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the blessings of mankind, that I am seriously to felicitate a madman, who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell, on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? Am I to congratulate a highwayman and murderer who has broke prison upon the recovery of his natural rights?”

This is the dilemma posed by such cases as Batista-Concepcion and Deon Kay. An obsessive devotion to “liberty in the abstract,” which characterizes the attitude of some of my libertarian friends, will always encounter problems in practical application, where madness and/or criminality renders a certain number of people incapable of responsible enjoyment of liberty. It is one thing, really, for a handful of decadent bohemian intellectuals to engage in drug abuse and sexual hedonism (e.g., the “Beat Generation” of the 1950s) and quite a different thing when such behavior becomes normative among the less privileged lower classes. The vicious habits of Allen Ginsberg as a Columbia University student could only cause so much trouble. However, when Ginsberg became celebrated as a prophetic voice, and emulation of his vices was hailed as “liberation,” the repercussions for society as a whole were much more serious. It is difficult to trace a direct line of causation from Ginsberg and the Beatniks to the death of Deon Kay, but this difficulty doesn’t mean that the causation is wholly imaginary.




 

‘100% Antifa’ Is Now 100% Dead

Posted on Comments

 

Michael Reinoehl has become the only kind of good Antifa:

The suspected gunman who fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland last weekend was reportedly shot and killed by law enforcement authorities Thursday night as they attempted to arrest him.
Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, died in Lacey, Washington, where federal agents were attempting to take him into custody for the shooting — the same night his interview on the shooting aired on Vice News, the New York Times reported.
Reinoehl in the interview insisted he acted in self-defense and “had no choice” when he shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, after an evening of clashing protests in Portland on Aug. 29.
“Had I not acted. I’m confident that my friend — and I’m sure I — would have been killed,” Reinoehl told Vice News. “I wasn’t going to stand there and let something happen.”
Details of Reinoehl’s death were not immediately clear. Police sources had told The Oregonian that he was the subject of investigations into the shooting.

BTW, Reinoehl was lying about the self-defense claim. The “right-wing protester” didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, there was no protest happening at the time. Earlier that evening, a caravan of Trump supporters had driven through Portland in a sort of parade, and Danielson was just walking around downtown when he was targeted by Antifa, pointed out and assassinated in cold blood by Reinoehl.

As for the unlamented death of Reinoehl, as Professor Reynolds says, it was a “mostly peaceful arrest.” Perhaps it would have been nice if he had lived to be interrogated, so he could have rolled over on his accomplices (which is what a punk like that would do), but a trial would have cost taxpayers a lot of money, and then there would have been the cost of keeping him incarcerated the rest of his worthless life. So, yeah, it’s not the worst possible outcome for him to die in a hail of gunfire.




 

Police Chief: ‘When You Point a Gun at Officers, Expect to Get Shot’

Posted on Comments

 

OK, folks, I hereby officially pronounce the “Police Activity” YouTube channel to be The Best Thing on the Internet. While I’m trying to maintain my sanity during the current campaign season — the polls are tightening, and Democrats are planning to steal the election by mail fraud — what I need is a distraction, and nothing is more soothing to my nerves than watching bodycam videos of bad guys getting shot by cops.

So there was a reported carjacking in Daytona Beach, Florida, a few months ago, and when cops showed up, the bad guy made a bad decision:

 

The suspect was lucky to survive:

Two Daytona Beach police officers shot a man who they say tried to carjack a woman at a Popeyes before pointing a rifle on them at a nearby Wawa, according to Police Chief Craig Capri.
The shooting was reported around 8:10 a.m. [May 25] near International Speedway Boulevard and U.S. 1.
Capri said the woman was at Popeyes waiting for the restaurant to open when the man tried to carjack her. She was able to get away and call for help, police said.
The man then walked down Ridgewood Avenue carrying the rifle, and officers confronted him near a Walgreens and Wawa, Carpi said.
The officers asked the man to drop the rifle, but he pointed it at them, according to Capri, who added that his officers opened fire, striking the man.
The Daytona Beach Police Department released several videos of body-worn camera footage of the shooting Monday afternoon.
The video shows the first officer get out of his patrol car and tell the man, “hey, don’t raise it.”
The officer then proceeded to take cover behind the rear passenger side of his patrol car, according to the video, and continued to tell the man to “put it down, put the rifle down.” . . .
“When you point a gun at officers, expect to get shot,” Capri said.

This is common sense, isn’t it? But common sense seems to be rare among criminals — or, as I prefer to call them, armed Democrats.

 

Say hello to Michael Anthony Harris, who won’t be able to vote for Joe Biden in November, because he made a very bad decision:

The Daytona Beach police officer shot in the chest [Aug. 29] while trying to arrest an attempted murder suspect has risked his own life, and saved those of others several times before.
Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri had no hesitation Tuesday when he described Officer Dominic Besse. Capri calls him “A true hero.”
Besse responded to a Holly Hill apartment on Saturday, and when he found the suspect in a shooting in Daytona Beach two weeks before, Besse became the victim taking a bullet to his chest. Besse’s own body-worn camera recorded the shooter’s muzzle flash and the sounds of agony the officer felt when the projectile struck him.
Besse, a tactical expert, survived likely because his protective vest kept the bullet from piercing his body.
The exchange of gunfire, estimated at 50 rounds, ended with the death of the wanted gunman, 44-year-old Michael Anthony Harris.

 

More background on the recently deceased criminal:

Daytona Beach and Holly Hill police had gone to the apartment complex to arrest Harris after getting an anonymous tip he was in Unit 104, Capri said.
“We don’t believe it’s his home but we got an anonymous tip that he was there,” Capri said during a press conference Saturday night. “People are scared of him.”
Harris was sought in the shooting of a woman Aug. 18 at Travelers Inn at 850 S. Ridgewood Ave. in Daytona Beach. That woman, who was not identified by police, is recovering at Halifax Health Medical Center, Capri said.
The woman [shot in the Aug. 18 incident] called 9-1-1 around 3:38 a.m. and said she’d been shot. Police found the woman by the stairway near a room and she cried out, “help me I’ve been shot,” investigators said.
Capri said she was shot twice in the back and became unconscious before police could get a statement from her.

So he shot a woman twice in the back. More “violence against women” that feminists will never mention, for some reason . . .




 

‘For Months, Joe Biden Has Given Moral Aid and Comfort to the Vandals’

Posted on Comments

Monday, Joe Biden emerged from his basement to travel to Pittsburgh and promote an absurd lie, that President Trump had “fomented” the riots by #BlackLivesMatter and Antifa in Democrat-controlled cities. Trump fired back in an afternoon press briefing:

The rioters and Joe Biden have a side: They’re both on the side of the radical left, and that is so obvious.
And until that neutralizes, you’re never going to have safe areas in those Democrat-run areas. For months, Joe Biden has given moral aid and comfort to the vandals repeating the monstrous lie that these were peaceful protests. They’re not peaceful protests. That’s anarchy. That’s — you look at the agitators, you look at the looters, you look at the rioters — that’s not a peaceful protest.
They keep using the term — it’s so nice — “peaceful protest.” And behind the reporter, the cities are burning.

We will have to endure another two months of this back-and-forth, so my advice to everyone is, remain calm. Do not let yourself get stressed out over the daily drama of the campaign. Whatever happens in November will happen, and you’re not going to change the result by worrying about it. If the news is stressing you out, stop watching the news. If you’ve got a hobby — fishing or whatever — concentrate on that and relax.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .

 

A Neenah man had a flamethrower, smoke grenades and fireworks during a demonstration in Green Bay Saturday night, according to police and prosecutors.
Matthew Banta, 23, is charged with obstructing an officer and two counts of felony bail jumping.
The criminal complaint says Banta “is known to be a violent Antifa member who incites violence in otherwise relatively peaceful protests.” Police say he’s known as “Commander Red.”
Green Bay police say they were called for “a whole bunch of white people with sticks, baseball bats and helmets headed… towards the police” on Walnut St. near Webster Ave.
“I don’t know who comes to a protest with a baseball bat for anything other than criminal or illegal activity,” said Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith.
A responding officer says he saw four individuals walking towards a protest with baseball bats. One man was wearing a metal helmet with goggles and military-style gear with multiple pouches, and was carrying an Antifa flag. When the officer pulled his squad car in front of the group, they ran away. The officer caught Banta, who was carrying the flag, and says Banta “dropped into the fetal position and began crying.” He accused the officer of lying on him; the officer replied nobody was on him.
Banta acknowledged he was headed to the Green Bay protest but denied he was planning to incite a riot.
A Brown County Court Commissioner set a $2,500 cash bond during his initial appearance on Monday.
Three others were caught trying to get into a house on Walnut Street. The person inside wouldn’t let them in and told officers they didn’t know who the people were. The three dropped what was in their hands. One told an officer they were bringing them to the protest for self-defense.
Banta is accused in Waupaca County of pointing a loaded gun at a police officer and biting and kicking an officer during a protest earlier this month. He’s charged there with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and four other charges (see related story). He posted a $10,000 cash bond. A condition of his bond was that he can’t have a dangerous weapon, according to the Brown County district attorney’s office.
“It’s worrisome when people associated with Antifa come here to Green Bay from out of town for the purpose of protesting here or for the purposes of committing violent acts,” said Chief Smith.

These people — not just “Commander Red,” but the Democrats in general and Joe Biden in particular — are fundamentally absurd. Relax, laugh and try not to get stressed out by all the silly noise.




 

4Chan Does Better Journalism Than CNN, Identifies Portland Shooting Suspect

Posted on Comments


 

After a Trump supporter was shot dead Saturday night in Portland, Oregon, images of the suspected shooter were widely shared online and the hackers at 4chan went to work to identify the suspect. Within hours, they had named him as Michael Forest Reinoehl, identifiable by a “Black Power” fist tattoo on the side of his neck. This identification was quickly confirmed by the Oregonian newspaper:

A 48-year-old man who was accused of carrying a loaded gun at an earlier downtown Portland protest is under investigation in the fatal shooting Saturday night of a right-wing demonstrator after a pro-Trump rally.
Michael Forest Reinoehl calls himself an anti-fascist and has posted videos and photos of demonstrations he attended since late June, accompanied by the hashtags #blacklivesmatter, #anewnation and #breonnataylor.
Reinoehl was raised in Sandy and has had recent addresses in Northeast Portland, Gresham and Clackamas. He described himself on social media and in a video interview with Bloomberg QuickTake News as a professional snowboarder and contractor who has former military experience but “hated” his time in the army.
Sources familiar with the case but not authorized to speak said police are investigating Reinoehl. A family member also identified him as a man captured in photos and video seen leaving the shooting scene shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday.
Aaron Danielson, a supporter of the conservative group Patriot Prayer, was shot in the chest and died in the street. It was soon after most cars in a caravan of supporters of President Donald Trump had left the city’s downtown streets.
Reinoehl’s posts indicate he attended many protests in Portland that began three months ago after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis under the knee of a police officer.
On July 5 at one of the demonstrations, Reinoehl was cited at 2:10 a.m. in the 700 block of Southwest Main Street on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police.
He was given a date to appear in court later that month, but the allegations were dropped on July 30 with a “no complaint,” according to court records. The documents don’t indicate why prosecutors decided not to pursue the accusations. Reinoehl spent no time behind bars.
Brent Weisberg, a spokesman for Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, said the office is still reviewing that July case involving Reinoehl.
Schmidt earlier Sunday decried the deadly violence. He took office on Aug. 1 and quickly announced that he wouldn’t pursue low-level charges against demonstrators, such as interfering with police or resisting arrest. . . .

(In other words, the policy of the prosecutor is pro-criminal, and this shooting in Portland was a direct consequence of the impunity with which Antifa mobs have been permitted to operate there.)

Michael Reinoehl has been estranged from the family — including her, their parents and a younger brother — for at least three years, his sister said.
“On the one hand, this whole thing surprises the daylights out of us, because we always thought he is a lot of bark, not a lot of bite,” she said. “But he’s also been very impulsive and irrational.”
Reinoehl has stolen their mother’s seizure medication and owes a lot of debt, often giving his relatives’ addresses as his own to avoid responsibility, she said. . . .
Reinoehl is also wanted on a failure to appear warrant in a June 8 speed racing case in Baker County in eastern Oregon. He and his 17-year-old son were racing in two different cars at speeds of up to 111 mph heading east on Interstate 84 after midnight near North Powder, according to state police.
Michael Reinoehl faces allegations including driving under the influence of a controlled substance, recklessly endangering another, unlawful possession of a gun and driving while suspended and uninsured.
He was stopped driving a 2005 Cadillac STS with his 11-year-old daughter as a passenger, police said. Inside the car, police said they found marijuana, “unidentified prescription pills” and a loaded Glock pistol for which Reinoehl didn’t have a concealed handgun license.

Talk about “white privilege”! All you have to do is join Antifa and, no matter what happens, Oregon officials won’t put you in jail.

But the main point I wish to make is that it wasn’t CNN reporters who did the work of identifying Reinhoel. Hackers at 4chan did that.




 

‘Adult Entertainment’

Posted on Comments

 

Say hello to Laura Wambles of Dothan, Alabama, a/k/a “Aubrey Gold.” Two weeks after her 18th birthday, Ms. Wambles began performing in what are euphemistically called “adult entertainment” videos. She was quite busy in the field of “adult entertainment” for a couple of years:

Wambles’ Internet Adult Film Database page lists 65 credits. Wambles’ videos have been viewed over 26 million times on PornHub.

By 2017, however, Ms. Wambles seems to have exited the industry, perhaps due to a dispute with her “agent,” Sheelagh Blumberg.

Fans of “Aubrey Gold” may have wondered what ever happened to her. Well, she made news this week — where else? — in Florida:

A 23-year-old former porn star, her boyfriend and another man were charged in the death of a man found buried in a shallow grave in Florida last week, reports said.
Lauren Wambles, who goes by Aubrey Gold, was charged with being a principal to the murder of 51-year-old Raul Guillen, WTVY reported.
The body of Guillen, who had been missing since early July, was found Tuesday off a road in the city of Graceville, Florida.
While alive, Guillen was last known to be at the Graceville home of Jeremie Peters, 43, along with Wambles and her 35-year-old boyfriend, William Parker, WDHN reported, citing police.
Investigators found evidence linked to Guillen’s murder at the home of Peters, the report said.
Peters was charged with being an accessory to murder, while Parker faces an open count of murder, the reports said.
Wambles appeared in 31 adult films from 2015 to 2018, WTVY reported.

 

Permit me to say that the phrases “adult film” and “porn star” are both profoundly misleading. These are not “films,” they’re low-budget videos, and the people who consume this vile fare are not more “adult” than the rest of us; in fact they are quite immature. To describe a performer in this low-rent filth as a “star” is to attribute to them a level of wealth and fame that they certainly do not possess. Nearly all of them work under aliases, and even the most popular performers are unknown except among the perverts for whom their videos serve as mastubatory inspiration.

What sort of people work in this industry? The word “trash” is appropriate. Wambles “has been arrested at least six times since 2018” and at the time of her murder arrest, she was facing a November trial for felony drug possession. She was hanging around scum:

Ronnie Peacock, 51, and Patrick D. Howard, 36, were arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine in unrelated cases.
While conducting an investigation into a homicide case Monday involving the murder of Raul Ambriz Guillen, a missing Dothan man, deputies executed a search warrant at 1101 Highway 171. While conducting the search, deputies observed a baggie containing methamphetamine in plain view.
A second resident residing at 1101 Highway 171, Jeremy Peters, was later arrested in connection to Guillen’s murder. . . .
Tuesday while deputies continued to investigate the homicide crime scene in the area, deputies observed Howard riding a bicycle and approaching the perimeter of the crime scene.
Deputies made contact with Howard and searched him, discovering a small bag of methamphetamine inside a plastic pill bottle.

It’s as if everyone in the vicinity was a meth head, and so we can imagine what it was that led to this murder. Hang around that kind of trash and you may end up in a shallow grave, or in prison.

“Adult entertainment,” indeed.




 

‘I Also Hope to Keep a Steady High’

Posted on Comments

 

Worrying about politics is a waste of time, and nobody who knew me when I was in college could ever have imagined that I would grow up to become a political journalist, wasting my time this way.

My perspective on the political scene is idiosyncratic, simply because most people in this racket have been political junkies all their lives. They came to Washington right out of college, and wish nothing more than to be taken seriously as pundits, capable of prognosticating future outcomes. In contrast, I left college with the career goal of becoming a rock star, jammed in bands for a while, then stumbled into a newspaper career three years later, worked for years as a sports editor, and didn’t make it to D.C. until I was 38 years old, married with three kids.

It happened the other day (thank you, YouTube algorithm) that I started watching old videos of the jazz-rock band Chicago. Did you know that Chicago’s guitarist Terry Kath was Jimi Hendrix’s favorite guitarist? To listen to Kath play on “25 or 6 to 4” is to be amazed, and it’s a pity that Kath (who died tragically in 1978) is so seldom mentioned among the rock-and-roll greats. Kath could also sing like Ray Charles, a distinctive bluesy baritone, and as I watched videos of Chicago in early concerts, I remembered one of my old favorites of theirs, “Dialogue (Part I & II)” in which Kath trades lyrical lines with Peter Cetera:

Are you optimistic
About the way things are going?

No, I never ever think of it at all.

Don’t you ever worry
When you see what’s going down?

Well, I try to mind my business,
That is, no business at all.

When it’s time to function
As a feeling human being,
Will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?

I hope to study further,
A few more years or so.
I also hope to keep a steady high

Such was my youthful attitude: “Don’t bum me out, man.”

You can perhaps see why I’ve always been mystified by these ultra-serious young “activist” types, crusading against social injustice all over the Internet when they’re not busy rioting in the streets. Far be it from me, a responsible father and grandfather, to encourage young people to pursue psychedelic hedonism as a way of life, but in some ways that would be preferable to becoming a “social justice warrior.”

These cynical ruminations were inspired not just by old Chicago songs, but also by the realization that the past three months of riots started because George Floyd overdosed on fentanyl.

 

Has any attempt to “keep a steady high” ever backfired so disastrously? Documents made public last week show the medical examiner found Floyd had “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances,” and bodycam videos show Floyd complaining “I can’t breathe” before the officers put him on the ground. In fact, the reason Floyd was on the ground was because he refused to let officers put him in the back of the police car, struggling and complaining of COVID and claustrophobia. Police, recognizing his “excited delirium” as evidence of a drug overdose, called an ambulance, then held him on the ground while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. There was no “systemic racism” involved, nor can the charges of murder against the officers be justified.

Well, I try to mind my business,
That is, no business at all.

Do you see the relevance here? The 1970s were a decade when there was a lot to be depressed or angry about, if you cared to pay attention to what was happening in the world. So not caring — complete cynicism — became a very widespread attitude. Just mind your own business and, like the song said, “try to keep a steady high.” Also, if you’re going to freak out on drugs, try not to do it on a city sidewalk after you’ve just been caught attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

Am I “optimistic about the way things are going”? Well, it is a hazard of my profession that I can’t simply ignore how things are going, and I hesitate to offer predictions, however . . .

How bad do things look for Joe Biden’s campaign right now? Consider this: Democrats are worried about Minnesota, a state no Republican presidential candidate has carried since Richard Nixon’s 1972 landslide. Yet polls show President Trump gaining ground in Minnesota, and Democrats are worried because they haven’t seen any appearances by Biden or his running mate Kamala Harris. “Why aren’t they here?” one Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party official told Minnesota Public Radio last week. “We need to hear from them. We need to see their presence on the ground.”
Biden’s peril in Minnesota is in many ways emblematic of everything that’s gone wrong for Democrats in this campaign. While the Real Clear Politics average of Minnesota polls still shows Biden leading Trump by more than five points, a poll by Emerson College earlier this month had Trump within three points, and a poll by the GOP-affiliated Trafalgar Group two weeks ago showed a tie in Minnesota. How could a state that twice gave majorities to Barack Obama, a state that not even Ronald Reagan could win in his 1984 landslide, be in play for Trump this year? Well, in a word, riots. . . .

Read the rest of my latest column at The American Spectator.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Did I mention that Adam Schiff is blaming Russia for the riots?




 

Kenosha: Anthony Huber Was a Felon, and Jacob Blake Was Dangerous

Posted on Comments

 

After a week of endless disinformation by the anti-Trump media, we are finally getting the truth about Kenosha, Wisconsin. We now know, for example, that Anthony Huber, one of the rioters who was shot to death by Kyle Rittenhouse, was not the saintly hero some in the media have tried to depict. Huber’s criminal record included a 2012 conviction for strangulation and false imprisonment in a domestic abuse incident. We also know that Jacob Blake, whose shooting last Sunday sparked the “mostly peaceful” riots in Kenosha, was wanted on a warrant for sexual assault and violated a protective order by his ex-girlfriend:

The cops involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake — which touched off a fresh wave of angry, anti-police sentiment across the country — were attempting to arrest him for violating a restraining order stemming from an alleged sexual assault, The Post has learned.
Blake, 29, was forbidden from going to the Kenosha home of his alleged victim from the May 3 incident, and police were dispatched Sunday following a 911 call saying he was there.
The responding officers were aware he had an open warrant for felony sexual assault, according to dispatch records and the Kenosha Professional Police Association, which released a statement on the incident on Friday.
That police union statement also claimed that Blake was armed with a knife at the time of the shooting — and had put one cop in a headlock and shrugged off two Taser attempts while resisting arrest.

The details of Blake’s assault of his victim are gross.

The information provided by Kenosha police puts last Sunday’s shooting in a whole new light. Blake was wanted on a felony warrant, he had fought with police when they tried to arrest him, and was apparently trying to get in a van with three kids in the back seat. Should police have let a criminal take those kids hostage? Because that’s what the situation would have been, if Blake had driven off in that van — a fugitive from justice, with three kids as hostages, in a stolen vehicle. That’s something CNN won’t tell you, that Blake had stolen the keys to his victim’s van.

It was a no-win situation for the cops. And yet we saw Kenosha go up in flames because of the media’s 24/7 incitement to riot. Now let’s return to the subject of Anthony Huber. What had happened was that Rittenhouse had shot sex offender Joseph “JoJo” Rosenbaum. We’ll talk more about that later, but here’s how Huber got shot:

A second person who was later identified as Anthony Huber approaches the defendant who is still on the ground, on his back. Huber has a skateboard in his right hand. When Huber reaches the defendant it appears that he is reaching for the defendant’s gun with his left hand as the skateboard makes contact with the defendant’s left shoulder. Huber appears to be trying to pull the gun away from the defendant. The defendant rolls towards his left side and as Huber appears to be trying to grab the gun the gun is pointed at Huber’s body. The defendant then fires one round which can be heard on the video. Huber staggers away, taking several steps, then collapses to the ground. Huber subsequently died from this gunshot wound.

That’s from the police affidavit in the case, which adds:

Dr. Kelley [who performed the autopsy] indicated that Huber had a gunshot wound to his chest that perforated his heart, aorta, pulmonary artery, and right lung.

“Center mass,” I believe is the phrase.

How did this spin so out of control? Well, from the affidavit, it appears that somehow Rittenhouse got separated from his crew, and the mob was chasing him through the streets. The sex offender Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot, in a scene witnessed by Daily Caller reporter Richard McGinnis, who is quoted in the affidavit:

McGinnis said that according to what he saw the defendant was trying to evade these individuals. McGinnis described the point where the defendant had reached the car. McGinnis described that the defendant had the gun in a low ready position. Meaning that he had the gun raised but pointed downward. The butt of the gun would have been at an angle downwards from the shoulder. McGinnis stated that the defendant brought the gun up. McGinnis stated that he stepped back and he thinks the defendant fired 3 rounds in rapid succession. . . .
McGinnis said that the unarmed guy (Rosenbaum) was trying to get the defendant’s gun. McGinnis demonstrated by extending both of his hands in a quick grabbing motion and did that as a visual on how Rosenbaum tried to reach for the defendant’s gun. Detective Cepress indicates that he asked McGinnis if Rosenbaum had his hands on the gun when the defendant shot. McGinnis said that he definitely made a motion that he was trying to grab the barrel of the gun. McGinnis stated that the defendant pulled it away and then raised it.
McGinnis stated that right as they came together, the defendant fired. McGinnis said that when Rosenbaum was shot, he had leaned in (towards the defendant).

And the affidavit adds:

Dr. Kelley indicated that Rosenbaum had a gunshot wound to the right groin which fractured his pelvis, a gunshot wound to the back which perforated his right lung and liver, a gunshot wound to the left hand, a superficial gunshot wound to his lateral left thigh, and a graze gunshot wound to the right side of his forehead.

Of the five wounds, two were potentially fatal. R.I.P., sex offender.

This video analysis has some interesting commentary:

 

“That’s the ultimate ‘play a stupid game, win a stupid prize.’ You’re running, chasing somebody down. The person you’re chasing has a rifle. What did you expect?”

Exactly. Nobody would have gotten shot had it not been for the aggressive stupidity of convicted sex offender JoJo Rosenbaum. Once he had collected his stupid prize, the rest of the rioting mob decided they should join in on the stupid game of chasing the guy with the rifle.

Amazing marksmanship. Given a sufficient supply of ammunition, Rittenhouse could have wiped out every Antifa thug in Kenosha.