Another "I can't breath" death: Police Reform & Protests in the USA

[Deus Mortis]

Sounds like they identified the shooter. The shooter's name was Benjamin Jeffrey Smith, and everything the Portland Police said about who it was, was 100% bullshit.

https://heavy.com/news/benjamin-jeffrey-smith-polybun/

He apparently is a Nazi furry, fan of Andy Ngo, and had a fantasy of wanting to kill Antifa and BLM people over the last 2 years.

The cops claimed he was a "homeowner", he has never owned his own home, he has been renting the same place for 14 years. They also claimed the shooting wasn't politically motivated. Even though he has been itching to do his own mass shooting. He is a big fan of the Proud Boys and wanted to join them. He is a machinist, that is apparently good enough to make illegal ghost guns.

They have his messages on furry forums somewhere, where he is actively defending Nazis, and think Nazis were "socialists".

https://twitter.com/Johnnthelefty/st...26620879986688
https://heavy.com/news/benjamin-jeffrey-smith-polybun/

It is just another right wing terrorist attack to add to the list for the last 10 years.

Nice info, reality is definitely stranger than fiction at times. Never thought I would see a Nazi furry mass shooter. Hope the fucker rots in prison.

[Elegiac]

Man, I've always known this hyper-niche exists and shit but like...man I never thought I'd see it make its way into mainstream fuckin news.

Good to know we still can't trust a word out of the PPB though.

That feel when the furry community does a better job at policing fascists in their midst than the Republican Party.

[PhaelixWW]

Sounds like they identified the shooter. The shooter's name was Benjamin Jeffrey Smith, and everything the Portland Police said about who it was, was 100% bullshit.

I think maybe you're going just a bit overboard here.

The cops claimed he was a "homeowner", he has never owned his own home, he has been renting the same place for 14 years.

I mean, the guy didn't own, but he lived across the street from the park. I think in the context of the police statement, they meant "homeowner" as just a resident in the immediate area, not someone who traveled there from a distance away.

They also claimed the shooting wasn't politically motivated.

No, they said that he was affiliated with a political group. Again, in context, I think they were saying that he was there by himself in a non-organized fashion, that he wasn't there as part of a political group.

It is just another right wing terrorist attack to add to the list for the last 10 years.

This part is definitely true, though.

Nice info, reality is definitely stranger than fiction at times. Never thought I would see a Nazi furry mass shooter. Hope the fucker rots in prison.

He's still in critical condition, so it's not even certain that he'll live to be tried.

[postman1782]

Nice info, reality is definitely stranger than fiction at times. Never thought I would see a Nazi furry mass shooter. Hope the fucker rots in prison.

If you go to that twitter thread, apparently it is a real problem with the furry community. They are trying to get rid of them, but aren't having much luck.

- - - Updated - - -

I think maybe you're going just a bit overboard here.



I mean, the guy didn't own, but he lived across the street from the park. I think in the context of the police statement, they meant "homeowner" as just a resident in the immediate area, not someone who traveled there from a distance away.



No, they said that he was affiliated with a political group. Again, in context, I think they were saying that he was there by himself in a non-organized fashion, that he wasn't there as part of a political group.



This part is definitely true, though.



He's still in critical condition, so it's not even certain that he'll live to be tried.

Nope. I am sticking by what I said, and again, he wanted to be in the Proud boys, but he didn't make the cut, even for their fascist bullshit.

[Edge-]

Nope. I am sticking by what I said, and again, he wanted to be in the Proud boys, but he didn't make the cut, even for their fascist bullshit.

Holy shit from what I know of their initiation process fuckin how on earth can you fail to make the cut. Did he like, not know a single breakfast cereal to yell out while they half-assedly punched him or something?

[postman1782]

Holy shit from what I know of their initiation process fuckin how on earth can you fail to make the cut. Did he like, not know a single breakfast cereal to yell out while they half-assedly punched him or something?

Apparently he wasn't straight enough for them? Maybe the whole furry thing scared the shit out of them? I mean, he was actively in those twitter comments, where they got his posts, actively wanting the Proud Boys to commit more mass terrorist attacks.

https://mobile.twitter.com/chadloder...70735264866309
1st picture of him saying that if the Proud Boys shot up someone's car, they deserved it. And that it needs to happen.

2nd picture of him advocating that the Nazis were just better because they had better "uniforms". But the dumbass he was talking to thought that Nazis were actually socialists because it was in their name.


And just for those wondering, Polybun is him, in his "furry" persona.

- - - Updated - - -

https://mobile.twitter.com/chadloder...92253663551489

And after reading this twitter thread. It is not surprising that White nationalist apologist and best friends with literal fucking Nazis, Tim Pool and Andy Ngo are the fuckers defending them. Tim Pool even claiming that the shooting was in "self-defense" with no fucking evidence.

[Flarelaine]

Holy shit from what I know of their initiation process fuckin how on earth can you fail to make the cut. Did he like, not know a single breakfast cereal to yell out while they half-assedly punched him or something?

I read "Proud Boys initiation" and I think of Kevin Bacon in Animal House.

[Edge-]

I read "Proud Boys initiation" and I think of Kevin Bacon in Animal House.

Believe it or not, it's even more comedic. And like, they're a very "serious" outfit and totally not a fuckin clown show of alt-right wannabe strongmen.

[PhaelixWW]

The three murderers of Ahmaud Arbery on trial for federal hate crimes were found guilty on all charges today. They'll receive up to life sentences in federal prison to go along with their life sentences in state prison.

Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of Ahmaud's murder.

[Masark]

The three murderers of Ahmaud Arbery on trial for federal hate crimes were found guilty on all charges today. They'll receive up to life sentences in federal prison to go along with their life sentences in state prison.

Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of Ahmaud's murder.

Now to put the local police and the DA into the adjacent cells as accessories.

[PhaelixWW]

Now to put the local police and the DA into the adjacent cells as accessories.

I'm not sure what you think the local police should be charged with, but the DA has already been indicted on a couple of charges related to the Arbery case. She and the local police (among others) are also being sued in civil court by Arbery's mother.

"Accessory" isn't going to happen, though.

[Daymanmb]

I guess I underestimated the forum lawyering... ah well.

Holy fuck, this is the highest level of projection Ive ever seen. You spend 15 posts avoiding answering a question that very obviously exposes the inconsistencies in your weak ass position.

[Edge-]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...icers-83067912

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lashed out Wednesday at the local prosecutor in his state's capital, floating the possibility of clemency to 19 Austin police officers indicted for tactics used against during 2020 demonstrations against racial injustice.

Abbott, a Republican, alluded to the local police union's assertion that charging the officers was a “political sham” in his first public statement on the indictments, including against two officers involved in injury cases that the city has offered to pay millions of dollars to settle.

“In Austin, law enforcement officers defended the state Capitol from criminal assault, protected the Austin Police Department headquarters from being overrun, cleared the interstate from being shut down, and disrupted criminal activity in areas across the city,” Abbott said. “Many officers were physically attacked while protecting Austin. Those officers should be praised for their efforts, not prosecuted.”

The governor's statement did not mention demonstrators who were hurt, including some critically.

As a reminder for where the Republican party, and more specifically Greg Abbott, stands: Firmly with their boot on your throat, shoulder to shoulder with the officer currently choking you to death.

[wunksta]

As a reminder for where the Republican party, and more specifically Greg Abbott, stands: Firmly with their boot on your throat, shoulder to shoulder with the officer currently choking you to death.

I remember police shooting people in the face with "less lethal" weapons, including a 16 year old who was sitting not doing anything
https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/aus...ags-at-protest

[unfilteredJW]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...icers-83067912



As a reminder for where the Republican party, and more specifically Greg Abbott, stands: Firmly with their boot on your throat, shoulder to shoulder with the officer currently choking you to death.

He's on a tear with this, making it policy to prosecute parents of trans kids, and distracting from the fact he ordered that Texans should be charged the full amount they could during the winter storm.

[PhaelixWW]

As a reminder for where the Republican party, and more specifically Greg Abbott, stands: Firmly with their boot on your throat, shoulder to shoulder with the officer currently choking you to death.

Number of his voter base this will anger: 0

Number of people surprised by his stance on this issue: 0

Just another day in paradise for the party of law and order; time for Abbott to start thumping those re-election war drums.



...



Texas can't turn blue fast enough.

[Xyonai]

He's on a tear with this, making it policy to prosecute parents of trans kids, and distracting from the fact he ordered that Texans should be charged the full amount they could during the winter storm.

Abbot's just a shitty mustache and a nasally voice away from being a shitty cartoon villain at this rate.

[Endus]

He's on a tear with this, making it policy to prosecute parents of trans kids, and distracting from the fact he ordered that Texans should be charged the full amount they could during the winter storm.

It's frankly baffling that this seems to be the conservative agenda point internationally. Same shit's going on in England in a massive way.

Just outright "this is a vulnerable minority group that we think we can victimize and abuse, because we're asshole fuckbag sociopathic sadists who'd just as soon strap a puppy down and cut it to pieces to listen to it screaming if we thought there was any chance we'd be able to get away with it or earn social acclaim for puppy torture."

It's that soulless, empty, and evil. Literally no motive other than targeting innocent, vulnerable people because you enjoy the feeling of making them suffer.

[Elegiac]

It's frankly baffling that this seems to be the conservative agenda point internationally. Same shit's going on in England in a massive way.

It's disgusting, but it certainly isn't baffling when you put it into proper context (quote taken from Contrapoints' video on JK Rowling):

A book called "The Anatomy of Prejudices" by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl really helped me with this video. One of the points she makes, is that a lot of the time bigotry is backlash:

“Ideologies of desire [a kind of prejudice] are backlashes against movements of equality; they are regressive prejudices that reinstate inequalities and distinctions, when the force of movements for equality has been registered and (often unconsciously) rejected.”

“Prejudice replaces social barriers of another kind.”

Bigotry is not just the psychological state of hating a group of people. Bigotry is political, it's a reaction to changing demographics, or to liberation movements, or to changing power relations between groups. A lot of casual misogynists don't exactly hate women in the literal psychological sense. It's more that they feel threatened by the prospect of the social and political equality of women. In fact I would argue that “feeling threatened” is the distinctive psychological experience of bigotry, much more so than feeling hateful.

So bigotry is reactive, and it changes along with the circumstances that it's a reaction to. 1950’s misogyny still has some things in common with 2020’s misogyny. For example a lot of men still feel some need to control women's sexuality and women's bodies. But it's also changed a lot as gender relations have shifted in the last 70 years. The idea that women are naturally suited to domestic servitude is a lot less prevalent than it used to be.

And transphobia is a prejudice that's getting much louder, because in the last decade trans liberation has increased our visibility. People are running into us at work now, they're having to use our pronouns, they're seeing us in politics or in media, and not just as laughing stocks or monsters like we used to be, but as actual characters. And a lot of people are not very happy about it, they feel threatened.

A lot of folks don't remember this but during the 1990s there were a whole lot of state level politicians proposing this exact sort of shit for queer people; point in fact, the SCOTUS case that struck down antisodomy laws arose from a case of police trying to enforce one of said laws in the state of Texas.

[Paranoid Android]

Retired SWAT officer acquitted in movie theater shooting

Many of the news sites paywalled, but same write-up.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Richard Escobar said that Oulson, 43, made Reeves, then 71, reasonably believe his life was in danger by turning, yelling and reaching toward him. He said Reeves decided to shoot based on his nearly 30 years in law enforcement and hours of training on the justifiable use of deadly force. Escobar said that Reeves didn’t have to wait until he was hit before defending himself.

Reeves “had more knowledge, more experience, more study in that area than anyone in this courtroom,” Escobar said. “It’s a dangerous world.”

But prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser countered that Reeves killed Oulson because he threw popcorn in his face, angering him. After all, it violated his self-image as an “alpha male.”

“He didn’t fear anything,” Rosenwasser said.

No one disputes most of the basic facts. Reeves and Oulson did not know each other. They had gone with their wives to see a matinee showing of the Afghan War movie “Lone Survivor,” the Reeveses taking seats in the back row, the Oulsons one row in front of them, slightly to the right.

As the previews began and despite an announcement to turn off cellphones, Oulson continued texting his 22-month-old daughter’s day care. Reeves leaned over and told him to stop — Reeves says politely, Oulson’s widow and others say it sounded like an order. After Oulson bluntly refused, perhaps with profanity, Reeves complained to the manager. When Reeves returned, seeing that Oulson had put his phone away, he told Oulson that if he wouldn’t have told the manager if he knew he would comply.

What happened over the next few seconds is where the stories diverge until Oulson grabbed Reeves’ popcorn and flicked it back into Reeves’ face. Reeves pulled his .380 handgun, lunged forward and fired one shot, killing Oulson and nearly severing the finger of Oulson’s wife, Nicole, who had reached out to pull her husband back to his seat.

Escobar said the evidence proves their contention that, before being shot during the disputed seconds, Oulson threw his cellphone at Reeves, striking him in the face, and then appeared ready to climb over the seats and attack, reaching toward him.

Reeves testified Thursday that in his entire law enforcement career, he had never encountered someone so out of control and he feared he was about to be killed. Given his age, arthritis and other physical ailments, Reeves contended he could not have defended himself except by shooting.

So I sorta remember this story but jeez man! Just reading the summary the defense of this guy was so flimsy. Sayin his "experience" was enough to judge this guy as a threat to his life. He threw his cell phone and popcorn at him.

The Florida "Stand your Ground Law" is so effin bonkers. We know this but damn, the law is crazy when you think of the scope that it has been used.