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Tag: law enforcement
Schumer

Schumer To Senate Republicans:  Choose Trump -- Or Law Enforcement

The former popular-vote-losing, twice-impeached, insurrectionist Republican frontrunner for the White House has put his party in a bind following his arrest on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. That part isn’t what Republicans are fretting over. No, it’s the former guy’s calls for defunding the FBI and Justice Department following his arrest that’s once more thrown them into disarray.

Enter Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is planning to introduce a resolution to formally reject Trump’s calls to defund federal law enforcement. “The former President and his allies in Congress must not subjugate justice and public safety because of their own personal grievances,” Schumer said. Trump’s demand that Congress strip funding for the Department of Justice is “a baseless, self-serving broadside against the men and women who keep our nation safe,” he said.

Those Trump allies in Congress are mostly in the House, and in power. Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who holds the chair of the Judiciary Committee, is all for it. “We control the power of the purse” Jordan said. “And we’re gonna have to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones who are engaged in the most egregious behavior.” That’s what he told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo following Trump’s indictment. “So the DOJ and the FBI?” Bartiromo asked. “Yeah,” Jordan confirmed.

Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy is giving Jordan free rein to keep up his attacks on the Justice Department and FBI and the funding for them. His pinned tweet calls out the “outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance” and says, “I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”

That’s a headache for the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who wants his team to be running on law and order in 2024. Saying that Democrats are the ones who want to defund the police and the GOP is the only thing standing between them and chaos and lawlessness is key to that effort.

An anonymous Senate Republican aide probably tied to McConnell toldThe Hill that there will not be support in the Senate for this. “I understand the former president is frustrated, but that’s not going to happen,” the source said.

GOP strategists are pretty unhappy with the push, too. “Just because Democrats want to defund police, I don’t think it’s smart politically or as a policy to say, ‘Well, we should defund the FBI,’” Matt Dole, an Ohio-based Republican strategist, told The Hill.

Another GOP strategist, Whit Ayers, pointed out that there’s a reality-based problem here. “The Department of Justice had nothing to do with this case, the FBI had nothing to do with this case, but we’re supposed to defund two entities that had nothing to do with the case. Does that really make any sense to anyone?” he said. Apparently Ayers has not met the House GOP.

Schumer is going to make the 49 GOP senators vote on whether or not they really do support law enforcement. His nonbinding resolution doesn’t have the effect of law, but will ask the GOP to “recognize the dedication of the people who serve in the law enforcement agencies, condemn calls to defund Justice and the FBI, and reject partisan attempts to degrade public trust in them.”

“The former President and his allies in Congress must not subjugate justice and public safety because of their own personal grievances,” Schumer said.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Law Enforcement Agencies Bracing As Possible Trump Indictment Looms

Law Enforcement Agencies Bracing As Possible Trump Indictment Looms

NBC News has confirmed multiple law enforcement agencies are preparing for a possible Trump indictment in the hush money investigation of a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Numerous agencies are reportedly involved, including the New York Police Department, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Secret Service, and other court-related agencies.

Last week, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen appeared before the grand jury on two consecutive days and Stormy Daniels met with New York prosecutors, both strong indicators indictments are imminent.

Cohen appeared on Good Morning America after his grand jury testimony, telling host George Stephanopolous that prosecutors had all the information they needed: "I promise you and I promise the American people that all the information that is needed in order to create the indictment to get a prosecution and a conviction is in the hands of the district attorney."

Law enforcement are right to be concerned. After all, we have seen the lengths Donald Trump and his followers will go to trying to protect him and/or his reputation and power. He might be a con man, but he has motivated many to violence in the recent past.

In September he was asked about the classified documents case and he ominously warned, “I think if it happened, I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before. I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.”

When asked what “problems” he meant, he said: “I think they’d have big problems. Big problems. I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes.”

I think we all know what he meant.

So buckle up and stay tuned.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Nichols Family Speaks Out As Disturbing Tape Of Police Beating Shocks America

Nichols Family Speaks Out As Disturbing Tape Of Police Beating Shocks America

As the nation continues to reel over the disturbing footage of Tyre Nichols' deadly beating, his parents are now speaking out to share their reaction as well as their take on the course of action being taken to hold the officers involved accountable.

On Saturday, January 28, Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, and his stepfather Rodney Wells appeared on Good Morning America alongside their attorney Ben Crump. During the interview, GMA anchor Janai Norman asked RowVaughn Wells about the part of the footage where her son could be heard calling her name in agony as he was beaten by police officers.

Reacting to that part of the footage, she said, "It was very difficult. As a mother, you want to always be there when your children need you. So when I heard that my son was calling my name and I wasn't there for him, that just hurt my heart."

She also shared her take on the charges brought against the Memphis police officers involved.

"After the charges were explained to me, I'm actually okay with the charges," she said. "The district attorney and the Chief of police has done an excellent job in getting this done quickly and swiftly, and we still have more to do."

At one point during the interview, Nichols' stepfather also weighed in when he was asked about the other first responders and officers who were also on the scene.

"Mr. Well, what do you think of the other first responders who were there, the sheriff's deputies who have since been relieved of duty?" Norman asked. "Do you think that there are others who should also be charged?"

"When asked whether or not some of them should face charges," Rodney Wells said, "Most definitely. It looks as though it may be maybe five, six other police officers that should be charged in this case."

So far, there are five Black police officers facing charges in connection with Nichols' deadly beating. However, Rodney Wells has also raised about the white officer who was also involved as he wondered why he hasn't been charged.

"There was also at the initial encounter with my son, there was a white officer that was tasing my son," he said. "And we don't understand how come his name was not put out there or mentioned in this whole fiasco. So, yes, I think that there should be quite a few additional charges."

Crump also shed light on the dominant issue that continues to plague communities across the country.

"It's institutionalized police culture that continues to have implicit bias whether the office is black, Hispanic, or white, where the excessive force continues to be exerted against black people and brown people," Crump explained. "We don't see our white brothers and sisters who are unarmed, brutalized like this by police, and we have to finally get police reforms. Rovan continues to pray like so many."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Fox News Attacks Law Enforcement (Again!) To Protect Trump’s Criminality

Fox News Attacks Law Enforcement (Again!) To Protect Trump’s Criminality

Shortly before 7 p.m. ET on Monday night, former President Donald Trump issued a press release confirming that the FBI had conducted a “raid” of the Mar-a-Lago resort which serves as one of his residences.

Details are scarce. Trump had been enmeshed in a long list of criminal probes at the time of the search, but The New York Times and The Washington Post are both reporting that the search was related to the former president’s potentially illegal removal of classified documents from the White House at the conclusion of his term, with the Post’s source stating it was “court-ordered.” The FBI and Justice Department have declined comment, following their typical procedure for press requests confirming active federal investigations.

Trump is using that information vacuum to put his own spin on the events, describing himself in his release as the victim of “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President.” And his loyal henchmen at Fox News quickly adopted his talking points, denouncing the judge-approved search in the most demagogic terms imaginable on their Monday night programs as they sought to poison the well against any potential consequences for their beloved president.

Fox was created to protect Republican presidents from accountability. The network’s propagandists successfully convinced its viewers not to care about a wide array of Trump depravities, including the conduct that resulted in his impeachments for corruptly pressuring a foreign government for political gain and for inciting the January 6 coup attempt.

Now they’re trying to do it again. Below is a sample of Fox’s irresponsible, incendiary commentary on Monday night.


Jesse Watters claimed on his 7 p.m. ET show that the search “is going to absolutely enrage the country, especially the Republican base, a base that is clearly behind the ex-president.” He later called it “insane,” adding, “and the people in this country are not going to go for this.”

Later in the program, Watters said that Christopher Wray, the FBI director who was appointed by Trump, “has to be fired by the next Republican president. Got to be fired on day one. Don't even wait. Just fire him right off the jump because this guy is so corrupt.”

Talk radio host Buck Sexton told Watters that the situation “almost feels like a preemptive coup, we’ve heard so much about the insurrection and the coup, but this is preventing, this is meant to prevent Donald Trump from being able to run again.” He also called the search “the Rubicon being crossed” and “thug, police state tactics.”

He later added, “This is undermining our faith, not only in the peaceful transition of power, but of the executive arm of the government under an opposition party. Not to act like the Stasi, not to act like the secret police that we've seen in totalitarian regimes.”

“This is some Third World bullshit right here,” Fox host Dan Bongino told Watters. “Let me say it again: Third World bullshit.”

“I think there is going to be some more action you are going to see out on the streets from the base after they see this break tonight,” Watters concluded. “There are a lot of honest Americans that've had it with what this corrupt government and what the FBI has done."

Fox’s Will Cain, in for prime-time host Tucker Carlson, opened the 8 p.m. ET hour by asking, “Was there a legal basis? Or was this a partisan witch hunt?” His guests that night overwhelmingly said it was the latter.

They included former Trump aide Stephen Miller, who called the FBI executing a warrant against the former president’s residence “an abomination”; Trump’s daughter-in-law and Fox contributor Lara Trump, who said it was “about weaponizing the justice system as it has been so many times in the past against somebody who you politically do not like”; and former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, who called on congressional Republicans to cut off funding for the FBI, saying that “the FBI, right now, is the Gestapo.”

Fox host and Trump adviser Sean Hannity opened his 9 p.m. ET show by mourning “a dark day for our republic, the Department of Justice, the rule of law, what looks to be potentially a shocking overreach – we'll find out in due time – that will have serious ramifications potentially for many, many years to come.” He added that “DOJ is now being used as a weapon against Biden’s top political rival, that’s the former president of the United States of America, Donald Trump.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.