Chicago Woman Who Filmed Brutal Kidnapping And Torture Of Disabled Teen Sentenced To Community Service

A 19 year old Chicago woman who live-streamed the racially charged kidnapping, torture and mutilation of a mentaly disabled teen was given 200 hours of community service and four years of probation on Friday.

Brittany Herring Covington - who went by "Herring" on Social Media before her arreest, and "Covington" in recent reports, avoided a possible 33 years in prison on multiple counts, including a hate crime, aggravated battery and aggravated kidnapping - a charge which was dropped along with several others as part of a plea agreement. 

Brittany Herring (Covington) mugshot

Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks handed down the slap on the wrist to Covington, who pleaded guilty to a hate crime, aggravated battery and intimidation charges - telling the teen that he could have sent her to prison, but told her "I"m not sure if I did that you"d be coming out any better."

Hooks warned Covington that should she violate the terms of her probation - which includes a ban from social media for four years, she would face prison time. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges including kidnapping. 

Judge William Hooks, Cook County IL

"Do not mess this up," Judge Hooks said to Covington, who stood in front of him in a blue jumpsuit. Hooks is notably the first African-American president of Chicago"s Federal Bar Association, a past president of the Cook County Bar Association, and a member of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago. 

Tanisha Covington, Tesfaye Cooper, Brittany Herring Covington, Jordan Hill and victim

The brutal attack took place in early January, after four black Chicago teens kidnapped the mentally disabled white teen and held him captive for nearly two days - binding his hands and feet with duct tape and gagging him with a sock, before using a knife to cut and stab the victim while laughing, shouting racial slurs and issuing death threats. In one segment of the livestreamed attack, one of the females can be seen laughing as she punches the victim. At another point, one of the male attackers wraps a cord around the victim"s neck while he groaned in pain, and in another a male approaches the victim with a knife and asks the others "Should I shank his ass?" Other notable quotes include: 

“Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck white people”

 

“There’s gonna be a murder. Pop pop pop”

 

“We gonna put this bitch in the trunk, put a brick on the gas, like aaaaaaaaah”

 

“Pistol whip his ass, fool“

After nearly 48 hours, the kidnapped teen escaped after the kidnappers left the apartment to confront a neighbor who had called 911 to complain about the noise coming out of their apartment where the torture was taking place. 

The video, which can be seen here, or here immediately went viral. After the teens were arrested, Chicago PD initially said it was not racially motivated, despite it clearly being a hate crime. Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; and Brittany Herring"s sister Tanishia, 24, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crimes, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. 

After her arrest, Brittany Herring Covington bragged on Facebook from a smart phone she was able to sneak into jail, posting "yall mad?" and "Sittin in dis cell on my celly talking to yall trippin. Erbody got phones in her these day," and typing "Tfse" which stands for "The Funniest Shit Ever." 

And for her participation in the brutal crime, Herring-Covington only received 200 hours of community service and four years of probation. Meanwhile, a Broward County, Florida man who vandalized a Mosque and left bacon inside was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week. 

The three other kidnappers charged along with Herring-Covington are still awaiting trial. Perhaps Judge Hooks will give them the key to the city. 

 

63 Shot, 8 Dead In Chicago's 2nd Most Violent Weekend Of 2017

More people were shot in Chicago over this past weekend than any other this year, except for the Fourth of July weekend that spanned four days.  According to the Chicago Tribune and police data, a total of 63 people were shot and 8 were killed as violence erupted all over the city.

At least 63 people were shot in the city, and eight of them were killed, police said.  More than half of them were wounded over 13 hours from Saturday to early Sunday.  At least 16 more people were shot through the day Sunday, including three on the same street in South Austin.

The level of violence exceeded the 52 shot on the three-day Memorial Day but fell short of the 102 hit by gunfire over the long Fourth of July weekend, according to Tribune data.  Still, fewer people have been shot in Chicago this year than at this time last year: 2,435 compared to 2,710.

The wounded included a 14-year-old boy grazed in the chest and left knee while he walking with his sister and a friend just before 9:30 p.m. Friday in Pilsen.

An officer-involved shooting Saturday night left 33-year-old man with graze wounds to the head. Police said he confronted police with a gun and an officer fired.

The violence in Chicago continues despite the Trump administration sending in dozens of ATF agents to work with the Chicago Police Department back in June.  Per U.S. News, ATF agents were sent in to assist with ballistics information intended to help cops track down suspect quicker while identifying repeat offenders.

The ATF is sending 20 agents to Chicago to supplement ongoing efforts and coordinate with local agencies on a strike force aimed at solving shooting cases and using collected evidence and ballistics to find and stop gun traffickers, the Chicago Sun Times reported. They will join some 35 to 40 ATF agents already assigned to Chicago.

The goal is to use ballistics information submitted to a national database to identify when guns are used in multiple shootings and connect them to new cases. The beefed-up strike force, equipped with a mobile lab to quickly test new evidence, will help law enforcement build criminal cases against shooters and those providing the guns.

"We"ve been doing this all along but now it"s being amped up," Dave Coulson, a spokesman for ATF in Chicago, told the Sun Times. "It"s a more concerted effort."

"The goal is the prosecute as many of these guys as possible federally where they will serve longer prison terms," Anthony Riccio, head of the Chicago Police Department"s organized crime unit, told the paper.

Meanwhile, the following daily tracking graph from HeyJackAss! helps to put the surge in violence this past weekend into perspective.

Per the Chicago Tribune, this weekend"s shootings occurred across the city, from Rogers Park on the Far North Side, where a 32-year-old man was killed early Sunday, to West Pullman on the Far South Side, where seven people were shot outside a banquet hall a few hours later the same day.

Finally, as we"ve noted before, 2017 is still shaping up to be every bit as devastating for the residents of Chicago as 2016 was. 

Trump On Chicagoland: "Killings Have Reached Epic Proportions...I'm Sending In The Feds!"

He"s been promising to do it for a long time, and now it appears that Trump is finally "sending in the Feds" to help with Chicago"s "crime and killings" which have "reached epic proportions."

Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

As the Chicago Sun Times noted this morning, Trump"s Federal force will include 20 agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and they have been tasked with the mission of solving gun crimes and hunting down gun traffickers in the city.

On Thursday, authorities confirmed that about 20 additional agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been sent to Chicago to combat gun violence here.

The ATF agents are working with about 20 counterparts from the Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police on a strike force whose mission is to solve shootings and hunt down gun traffickers through ballistics technology.

Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office and Cook County state’s attorney’s office have been assigned to the force to decide whether suspects in gun crimes should be charged in state or federal court.

“The goal is the prosecute as many of these guys as possible federally where they will serve longer prison terms,” said Anthony Riccio, head of the Chicago Police Department’s organized crime unit.

And more from the Times:

The new strike force, with the aid of a specially equipped mobile van that can quickly process bullets and shell casings, is using such hits to build cases against shooters and gun dealers.

“We’ve been doing this all along but now it’s being amped up,” said Dave Coulson, a spokesman for ATF in Chicago. “It’s a more concerted effort.”

Riccio said the strike force, which officially began on June 1, has developed a “bunch of leads” so far.

One 9mm gun has been linked to 28 shootings, including several murders, on the West Side, Riccio said.

The strike force has also linked 14 different assault rifles to a spate of gang-related shootings on the Southwest Side, Riccio said.

Of course, Trump has talked about "sending in the Feds" several times over the past year with the most recent tweet coming just after he moved into the White House.

If Chicago doesn"t fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

Unfortunately, the murder stats have only gotten worse since then.  So far, through June 28th, there have been 333 murders in the city of Chicago and 1,753 shootings (charts per HeyJackAss!).

Not surprisingly, the most homicides have come from Chicago"s violent South and West Side neighborhoods.

Of course, Trumps" approach to fixing Chicago"s violence seems to be slightly different than that of the Obama administration which simply chose to write an eloquent report blasting Chicago"s police as "racist" and "brutal" thugs.

Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civil Rights Violations by the Chicago Police Department ? https://t.co/600C0xV3yX

— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) January 13, 2017

We"re curious to see which approach will prove more effective.

The Danger of Obedience: Fake Police Crime Spree

Via The Daily Bell

The police do not care about keeping you safe. If they did, they wouldn’t put innocent people in danger every day by driving unmarked cars, behaving unprofessionally, and performing no-knock raids. All these things make it quite easy to impersonate an officer in order to commit a crime.

People know their lives are literally in jeopardy if they disobey even the most minor order from a police officer. Innocent people are no exception, and simply questioning an officer, or asserting one’s rights has gotten people beaten, arrested, and even killed.

Because of this environment created by an overbearing oppressive police state, a perfect opportunity has opened up for criminals to easily exploit their victim’s fear of police. Criminals simply need to pose as police, and any resistance on the part of their victims melts away.

Posing as Cops to Commit Crimes

It’s not just for big heists like in the movie The Town that criminals dress as police to commit crimes. It actually happens terrifyingly often.

The practice is so common in Miami-Dade that the police have a special task force to investigate instances of criminals impersonating officers. A family in Miami-Dade earlier this year suffered a home invasion after they opened their door to three men in police uniforms.

Last year in Tampa a 28-year old woman was pulled over by a fake officer and raped.

In April thieves in Tuscon dressed as police to invade a home. In May three suspects still on the loose did the same in Honolulu.

A Los Angeles man was convicted last week of fondling two women while posing as an officer and attempting to force another to take her clothes off while pretending to be a detective investigating counterfeit money.

In early June a man and a woman were arrested for dressing as federal agents and attempting to break into an apartment in Fresno California.

In Cleveland Ohio, a man was recently arrested and charged for handcuffing children on many different occasions in what appears to be a fake “scared straight” operation. The man was not a police officer, but wearing a gun and vest convinced school and court officials that he was an officer.

Even police have been fooled by fake officers, including a 14-year-old boy who simply walked into a Chicago police station and showed up for roll call.

Officers handed him a radio and told him to ride along with a female officer. The teenager even helped make an arrest.

“After four or five hours, she asks, ‘Who is this guy?’ ” recalled Jody P. Weis, who was the Chicago police superintendent at the time. “He’s in a uniform, he has a goofy badge, he doesn’t have a weapon and he’s a high school kid. It was so embarrassing.” (The embarrassment did not end there for Mr. Weis, who said he had recommended against punishing the teenager in juvenile court because no harm had been done. Three months later, the boy was arrested and charged with stealing a car.

Impersonating officers is not uncommon as you can see. This blind obedience to officers has caused women to be sexually assaulted, and homes to be invaded. But it is not just the fake cops you have to worry about.

Actual Police Commit Crimes Too

Real police commit crimes too, which is all the more reason not to place some members of society above fellow citizens.

If a police officer engages an innocent person, that person must essentially ask permission to walk away from the encounter. The fact that police demand unquestioning obedience, and act violently enraged if their authority is challenged only helps criminals get away with their crimes while posing as police officers.

But this same bullying extralegal behavior is used by police to commit crimes. Last year a Texas officer sexually assaulted a female driver, and a Honolulu officer was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl.

Unfortunately, rape and sexual assault by police officers appear to be extremely common. And even when the case is “resolved” with a conviction of the officer, the sentence is a miscarriage of justice.

One woman was offered a ride home by an officer after an incident had been resolved without any arrests.

She said she didn’t consent, but didn’t resist or say no because she was scared for her life.

“If I would’ve fought him back, yes, he would’ve murdered me. He would’ve took my life and I have kids,” she said.

The officer ended up being convicted and sentenced to one year in prison.

61% of all victims of police crimes are women. In San Diego, patrol officers working alone at night committed a number of sexual assaults against women they pulled over.

…of all the officers arrested, for offenses ranging from murder to drunken driving, only 54 percent were fired, and 37.5 percent arrested for domestic violence lost their jobs.
The study also found that roughly two-thirds of all the arrests were made by an agency that didn’t employ the officer…

Police also invade homes. An 80-year-old-man was shot to death by police after they broke into his home in a no-knock raid. They had obtained a search warrant with the only evidence being that they smelled chemicals associated with making meth. Hearing a home invasion, the elderly man picked up a pistol and was shot to death in his bed without firing a shot. No meth was found. The officers were not charged with the murder and were found to have acted appropriately.

This highlights how the drug war, no knock raids, and militarized police also contribute to the problems faced when trying to protect your life from thugs in real or fake uniforms.

But sometimes cops don’t even get a trumped up warrant before murdering innocent civilians.

One man was murdered by police when he took his legally owned firearm with him to open the door after a loud knock late at night. The officer did not identify himself, but seeing a gun, shot the man to death. For some reason, the officer was not charged, and the court prevented the man’s family from suing him, citing qualified immunity. They said it was not clear that the officer had committed any crime in murdering the homeowner.

The problem with police committing crimes is so voluminous that we can only scratch the surface here. But one thing is for sure, you have almost as much reason to fear becoming the victim of a crime from a real uniformed officer as from someone posing as an officer.

Solution

Indiana passed a law in 2012 that allows citizens to shoot an officer who illegally enters their home. It is unclear why this law was needed since it is illegal for anyone to invade a home, whether they are a cop or not. Having to codify something so obvious shows just how far the government will go to protect their criminal officers. Still, at least Indiana offered some legal cover to citizens forced to protect themselves from police.

Of course, most government solutions simply double down on the divide; prosecute impersonating an officer harder, and simply make it illegal to buy a badge or police uniform. Maybe while they are at it, they should ban Dodge Chargers for civilians, and prohibit civilians from wearing matching shirt and pants in any blues, blacks, or tans.

As usual, the solution from the government is to make more things illegal and punish pre-crimes like owning objects that might someday be used in a crime. Never does the problem come from the government’s end! It is always the damn civilians getting in the way of our brave heroes!

But the reality of the situation is that it doesn’t matter how many police-like tools and clothing they make illegal, or how hard they punish people who dress up as cops for Halloween. There is a divide between the police and the average citizen, and only by holding police accountable for their actions will the dangers of fake police be mitigated.

The only reason criminals have such success with this tactic is the population’s blind unquestioning obedience to police, beat into them over the course of years by bullies in blue who ignore the law to assert their will. It’s not the uniform, it is that we cannot tell the difference between the behavior of cops and criminals because they act in strikingly similar ways.

The solution is to stop giving police extra rights and privileges. It doesn’t make any sense that they are held to a lower standard for criminal activity than the rest of the population when they have more responsibility than most to behave appropriately. Any crime committed by an officer should be punished two-fold based on his position of trust and power over civilians, yet all too often they are not punished for their crimes.

A criminal is a criminal, whether his uniform and badge are fake or real. Civilians shouldn’t have to wait to find out if the officer is real, and they shouldn’t have to lay down and allow a real officer to have their way with them, with the only redress being later court action if they are alive to pursue it. This especially because people can be legally barred from pursuing civil action. Also, many police will not be charged or convicted of their crimes, or will receive ridiculously lenient sentences.

The two reasons people should not have to fear using such deadly force against home-invading cops is because A) if they are real police they are behaving criminally and everyone has the right to defend themselves from a criminal, and B) they might not be real cops at all, and everyone has the right to defend themselves from a criminal.

Not having to stop and wonder if this is a real police officer and wonder if you will be going to prison for decades simply for defending yourself makes you much safer and able to defend yourself and your loved ones.

If police are not given extra rights, there will be no reason to impersonate them.

"Chicago Is A War Zone": Police Suicide Rate Surges To 60% Above The National Average

During his early days on the force, 30-year-old, rookie Chicago police officer, Scott Tracz, was described by colleagues as an "upbeat" cop who had always dreamed of becoming a police officer to help people in his city.  That is, until he sat in a black sports car outside his girlfriend"s suburban house late last year, put his gun to his head and took his own life.  Per Reuters:

Tracz had long dreamed of becoming a police officer to help others. But working in the violence-stricken Chicago Lawn district, he came face to face with the city"s violent crime. The area accounted for 58 of the city"s more than 760 murders last year, as well as 228 shootings.

"He would say, "You can never imagine what the human race is capable of doing," then he would just put his head down," said his cousin Maciaszek, 46.

Unfortunately, stories just like the one of Scott Tracz are becoming all too common on the Chicago police force as officers deal with the psychological side effects of having to go to work every single day in Chicago"s "war zone."

"Chicago is a war zone," said Alexa James, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Chicago. "They (officers) are seeing the worst day of everybody’s life every day."

"Suicide is killing officers, alcohol is killing officers, at a far greater rate than ambushes, but there is not the same sense of urgency around this issue," said Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department official who led the Chicago federal probe.

Chicago police"s suicide rate was 29.4 per 100,000 department members between 2013 and 2015, the report said, citing police union figures. The department disagreed in the report, putting the rate at 22.7 suicides per 100,000 members. Both estimates were higher than the national average of 18.1 law enforcement suicides per 100,000.

As we"ve noted many times in the past, Chicago"s homicide rate in 2016 soared to levels not seen since the mid-90s when gang wars plagued the streets of cities all around the nation (charts via HeyJackAss!).

And, things aren"t getting any better so far in 2017...

...particularly in the city"s South and West side neighborhoods.

To add insult to injury, because of Chicago"s onerous gun laws that permanently prohibit anyone who has been involuntarily committed for in-patient mental health treatment from carrying a gun, a requirement for cops, the folks working for the Chicago PD generally refuse mental health services out of fear of losing their job.

Some officers believe that seeking counseling will result in the loss of their Firearm Owner Identification Card, a requirement to carry a firearm under state law, according to current and former officers, as well as health officials. That view is mistaken, say Justice Department officials.

Still, "If someone thinks I have talked to EAP they think I’m unstable, so I’m not going to call," said one veteran officer, who asked not to be identified.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in February the department"s past approach to mental health was wrong. In a report issued in March, the department said it would review mental wellness support services.

"Law enforcement historically has been seen as a very macho profession," Johnson said at a public forum about police reform. "To say you needed help was seen as a sign of weakness and we were wrong for looking at it that way, we were simply wrong."

But hey, at least the Obama administration sought to help Chicago Police officers by dropping a DOJ study, one week prior to departing the White House, effectively labeling their department as nothing more than a bunch of racist, hate-mongering bullies who routinely resort to the use of "deadly force" in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

Sessions Disputes Obama's "Racism" Allegations Among Chicago Cops; Warns Of Rise Of Violent Crime In America

Just over a month ago we wrote about the Obama administration"s parting middle finger to the Chicago police force after the Department of Justice, led by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, released what appeared to us to be a politically motivated report accusing the CPD of a "pattern of racial discrimination" and "unconstitutional use of force."  And while the DOJ"s 164-page report was heavy on accusations and innuendo, it was mysteriously lacking on scientific facts to support their highly controversial claims.  Here"s how we summarized the DOJ"s findings:

With one week left in office, Obama"s Department of Justice has released a report effectively labeling the Chicago police department as nothing more than a bunch of racist, hate-mongering bullies who routinely resort to the use of "deadly force" in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civil Rights Violations by the Chicago Police Department ? https://t.co/600C0xV3yX

— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) January 13, 2017

And while our characterization is probably somewhat more colorful than Attorney General Leretta Lynch would like, that Chicago Police are "racist" and "brutal" will nonetheless undoubtedly be the key takeaways from the press release and supporting documents posted earlier to the DOJ website.

That said, Trump"s new Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasted precious little time dismissing the Obama administration"s crusade against law enforcement departments across the country saying the DOJ"s findings in Chicago were "pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based."  Per The Hill:

Sessions said the findings in the report were "pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based,” though he also said that he had read summaries rather than the full documents.

"You have 800,000 police in America. Imagine a city of 800,000 people," Sessions said. "There"s going to be some crime in it, some people are going to make errors."

Sessions, who has enjoyed broad support from the police community and is widely viewed as a law-and-order style attorney general, said that, rather spending time and money suing police departments around the country, his Department of Justice would focus on how best to work with local police forces to combat the recent surge in violent crime in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis.  Per The Hill:

However, Sessions warned that there are clear warning signs — “like the first gusts of wind before a summer storm” — that the nation is at a tipping point and that the trend is about to reverse.

The attorney general said those trends continued into the first half of 2016, with the number of violent crimes up more than 5 percent year-over-year and the murder rates in 27 of the nation’s 35 larges cities — Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis among — skyrocketing.

“These numbers should trouble all of us,” Sessions said. “My worry is that this is not a ‘blip’ or an anomaly, but the start of a dangerous new trend that could reverse the hard-won gains of the past four decades — gains that made America a safer and more prosperous place.”

“While we can hope for the best, those of us charged with protecting public safety can’t afford to be complacent or take for granted the achievements of recent years, because when crime rates move in the wrong direction, they can move quickly,” he continued. “So we need to act decisively at all levels – federal, state and local — to reverse this rise in violent crime and keep our citizens safe. This will be a top priority of the Department of Justice during my time as Attorney General.”

Meanwhile, Sessions blasted Eric Holder for creating an environment where police as a whole were targeted and "maligned" for the inappropriate behavior of a "few bad actors" resulting in a reluctance of officers to actually do their jobs for fear of being the next victim of a viral video.

“They tell us that in this age of viral videos and targeted killings of police, many of our men and women in law enforcement are becoming more cautious,” Sessions said.  “They’re more reluctant to get out of their squad cars and do the hard but necessary work of up-close policing that builds trust and prevents violent crime.”

The attorney general said that, under former attorney general Eric Holder’s Justice Department, “law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the unacceptable deeds of a few bad actors.”

“Our officers, deputies and troopers believe the political leadership of this country abandoned them,” Sessions said. “Their morale has suffered.  And last year, amid this intense public scrutiny and criticism, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty increased 10 percent over the year before.”

Sessions vowed to work more closely with local law enforcement groups so they would know “they have our steadfast support.”

“For the federal government, that means this: rather than dictating to local police how to do their jobs – or spending scarce federal resources to sue them in court – we should use our money, research and expertise to help them figure out what is happening and determine the best ways to fight crime,” Sessions said. “We should strengthen partnerships between federal and state and local officers.  And we should encourage proactive policing that ensures our police and citizens are communicating and working well together.”

Looks like Chicago"s violent gangs just got their first "shot across the bow" from America"s new attorney general.

60 Minutes Conveniently Leaves One Crucial Fact Out Of Its Report On Chicago Violence

Via Free Market Shooter,

On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a report on the surge of murders and violence in Chicago.  When describing the increase in violence as a “surge”, 60 Minutes is certainly not exaggerating; this year’s homicide total in Chicago is up by 56% from last year, and up almost 75% from 2013.

However, CBS is certainly exaggerating when it compares Chicago to a “war zone” – in Afghanistan, for example, US forces have averaged 300+ murders per 100,000 since the 2001 invasion.  With a 2016 homicide rate of ~29 per 100,000, Chicago’s homicide rate hasn’t reached the 1992 peak of ~32 per 100,000.  Can anyone recall CBS comparing Chicago to a “war zone” in the 1990s?

60 Minutes centered its coverage on a drop in stops and arrests by police, with a focus on blaming the police for creating a crime-filled environment, with scarce mention of the perpetrators behind the increase in violent crime.  They also mentioned low police morale, new policies on racial profiling and police reporting, gang members posting video of confrontations with police, and “fear of becoming the next viral video” in their piece.  What was conveniently left out of the entire report?

Any mention whatsoever of Black Lives Matter, or any of the other nationwide protests against police that are primarily driven by race.  Of course, these protests almost always occur when the “victim” is black, regardless of whether or not the perpetrator in question was wrongfully shot or not.

Its not as though 60 Minutes didn’t have ample opportunity to mention BLM in their report.  Featured in the piece was an interview with former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.  60 Minutes made sure to discuss how McCarthy was dismissed following the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video and the subsequent protests.  However, the same day that CBS aired its report, McCarthy blamed nationwide protests for creating a “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.”

“So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,” McCarthy said. “Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians.”

McCarthy directly cited BLM as responsible for creating an atmosphere of fear in police departments the same day this report was released, yet none of this was in the report on 60 Minutes.  Since McCarthy has been singing the same tune since he was dismissed, it is reasonable to believe that CBS deliberately edited any mention of nationwide protests or BLM from the portions of their interview with McCarthy that they chose to air.

The closest CBS came to mentioning BLM was their commentary regarding Officer Veronica Murillo.  Remember that bit about becoming the “next viral video”?  Below is the 60 Minutes commentary on Murillo:

Officer Veronica Murillo says it was the fear of becoming the next viral video that kept her from pulling her gun as she struggled with this suspect. He knocked her down and bashed her head into the pavement. She suffered neurological damage that has endangered her career.

Absent from this was any mention of nationwide news coverage or protests, which was what drove Murillo to fear use of deadly force.  Months ago, ZeroHedge filled in their readers to the actual reaction to the incident:

Many people have attributed the rise in Chicago violence to the co-called “Ferguson Effect” in which criminals lash out against what they view as a “de-legitamized” police force while the police retreat from actually enforcing the law out of fear of inciting the next major riot.  In fact, below is the perfect example of a female police officer in Chicago that was recently hospitalized after being “severely beaten” by a violent criminal.  In subsequent interviews, the female cop said she was afraid to use lethal force primarily because of the national backlash she may have faced as a result.  The encounter happened on Chicago’s violent West Side when cops responded to a car accident.  The attacker, apparently under the influence of drugs, launched a brutal attack against responding officers that resulted in three cops being hospitalized.  Per ABC:

“She thought she was going to die. She knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to, because she didn’t want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news,” Supt. Johnson said.

“It is terrible. It is total disregard for law enforcement. They put their lives forward every day for us and to see somebody do this, to pummel the police officer is terrible. It is a terrible thing,” business owner Louie Rainone said.

60 Minutes included commentary from Flora White, mother of a Chicago murder victim.  She blamed the police for pulling back patrols, stating that they weren’t doing their job.  They also interviewed pastor Michael Pfleger, who participated in a protest wearing a Colin Kaepernick jersey.  Of course, Kaepernick is an NFL quarterback who supports BLM, which inspired his national anthem protest.  It is also worth noting that Kaepernick waited until a backup quarterback took his job to begin his national anthem protest.  It should come as no surprise that Pfleger implied that police were failing to do their job, though he not seem to understand why:

Michael Pfleger: I’ve never seen there to be a combination of anger, distrust, and a feeling like communities have been abandoned.

Shame on us that our children are afraid to go out of their house of being shot and killed. When is the tipping point, do we all say, enough?

Even current Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, also featured in the 60 Minutes report, has begun following in predecessor McCarthy’s footsteps, and now ascribes part of the blame of officers’ unwillingness to engage on the streets to anti-police sentiment.

At a press conference on Sunday, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said “anti-police sentiment” and a negligent criminal justice system were in part to blame. “In many instances, the individuals who chose to pull the trigger are repeat gun offenders emboldened by the national climate against law enforcement and willing to test the limits of our criminal justice system,” Johnson said…

Obviously there was no mention of Johnson’s blame of anti-police sentiment deriving from nationwide protests.  Yet another chance to mention BLM and national protests that 60 Minutes chose to omit.  More convenient editing?

The majority of the 60 Minutes report focuses on police and how they have changed doing their job, without any mention of the primary reason why: a national anti-police atmosphere which has hamstrung police and led them to fear doing their job to the best of their ability.  Nowhere is this more pertinent than Chicago, a large city with a massive gang and criminal element centered in a few bad neighborhoods.

If there is ever to be any meaningful police reform, race should not be the focus.  Reforming our for-profit criminal justice system is a great place to start instead.  The majority of police activity is profit-based, not crime-based – just think about the number of cops writing speeding tickets who could instead be solving crimes.  Making profound changes to an overmilitarized police force is necessary, as countless people of all races are illegally surveilled, wrongfully arrested, have their personal property seized, sometimes in unnecessary SWAT raids, and all of this police conduct is totally tolerated by the MSM.  Real reform in the war on drugs, which is driving a large amount of this activity, needs to be done for any other reforms to be effective.  Holding police accountable for their mistakes is but one piece of a much larger puzzle to solve regarding police reform. 

At least 60 Minutes finally got something correct this time around in their reporting.  They did not blame gun laws as the problem for Chicago’s violence.  That is quite a turnabout, given the program’s history in blaming gun laws for all gun violence in the USA.  I’d say its a positive development, but I won’t hold my breath expecting CBS to all of a sudden turn away from its MSM narratives and the “news” they peddle to the masses.

Former Chicago Police Chief: 'Black Lives Matter' To Blame For Rise In Violent Crime

Submitted by Joseph Jankowski via PlanetFreeWill.com,

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Sunday blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for causing an uptick in violent crime inside the country.

According to The Hill, McCarthy blamed protests against police brutality in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C., for creating a “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.”

“So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,” McCarthy said during a radio interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York on Sunday.

“Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians.”

McCarthy was fired last year from his position as Police Chief over the controversy caused by a fatal police-involved shooting in October 2014 of a black 17-year-old named Laquan McDonald.

Dashcam footage released a year after the shooting showed the teenager being shot more than a dozen times while walking away from officers.

An involved officer was charged with first-degree murder.

McCarthy admitted that it was a “bad shooting” and the officer deserved punishment, but argued that the uproar over police brutality is “hamstringing” law enforcement.

“We are very clearly going down the wrong path,” he said Sunday.

McCarthy express his hopefulness that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, will do more to empower police than President Obama’s Justice Department.

“I think the Trump election quite frankly is a reaction to that,” the former Police Chief said.

“I think the people are tired of career politicians who’ve never really had a job telling us how we should think and how we should act.”

McCarthy’s words come just days after one of Los Angeles’ top policemen filed a restraining order against a leading Black Lives Matter activist who has allegedly been stalking him and making violent threats against him and his children.

61 Shot, 12 Dead As Bloodiest Christmas In Years Rocks Chicago

The colder weather in the Midwest was supposed to bring with it a reprieve for the police and residents of Chicago from the historic levels of violence that have devastated that city this year.  Unfortunately, while the colder weather came the violence never subsided.

According to the Chicago Tribune, 61 people were shot over the long Christmas weekend and as many as 12 of those people have since died from their wounds, a level of holiday violence not seen in Chicago for years.  Meanwhile, per the Chicago Police Department, as much as 90% of those wounded over the weekend "had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department"s strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence."

The city has seen eight multiple-victim shootings, including two double homicides. One was an attack in the East Chatham neighborhood that left two dead and five others wounded, and an attack in the Austin neighborhood left two dead.

Much of the violence happened in areas "with historical gang conflicts on the south and west side of Chicago," said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. He also referenced the department"s "strategic subject list," which is generated daily from a computerized algorithm and assigns a score from 1 to 500 based on such factors as a person"s arrests and the activities of his associates. Those people with a score in the upper 200s or higher are considered in danger of being shot or of shooting someone else.

"Ninety percent of those fatally wounded had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department"s strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence," Guglielmi said Monday.

While one might expect violence to subside as people gather with family to celebrate Christmas, per data from HeyJackAss!, the number of fatal shootings actually surged on Christmas day.

Meanwhile, the annual total of murders in Chicago for 2016 is creeping ever closer to the 800 mark.

While shooting totals were supposed to decline in the colder fall and winter months, as depicted in the chart below, 2016 did not follow the same trends as 2014 and 2015.  Unlike previous years, the number of shootings recorded in October/November of 2016 remained elevated at around the 400 level which matches the rate of shootings recorded during the summer months.

Finally, the estimate for 800 murders in 2016, which now looks all but inevitable, will be the highest level recorded in over two decades.

Chicago Police Dept Caught Hiding Millions in Stolen Cash in Secret Asset Forfeiture Fund

A detailed report released in September 2016 by the Chicago Reader unveiled a secret civil asset forfeiture fund that amounted to nearly $50 million in seized cash which the Chicago Police Department was attempting to keep for themselves. The detailed analysis shows that CPD officials were attempting to pocket 65% of the cash and assets they brought in through civil asset forfeiture. This is policing for profit, and it is no different than highway robbery.

The Reader reports:

Since 2009, the year CPD began keeping electronic records of its forfeiture accounts, the department has brought in nearly $72 million in cash and assets through civil forfeiture, keeping nearly $47 million for itself and sending on almost $18 million to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and almost $7.2 million to the Illinois State Police, according to our analysis of CPD records.

The Chicago Reader’s investigation, conducted over the past two years, concerned countless Freedom of Information Act requests by the Reader about civil asset forfeiture. Revenue from civil forfeiture is of particular interest because it is collected without scrutiny, and as the report states, once it is collected, this “secret budget isn’t scrutinized by the City Council, nor must CPD make any public disclosures about how these funds are spent.”

According to the Reader, CPD made close to $4.7 million in 2015, which is 6% of the department’s total public budget. However, this secret fund was already brimming with cash from previous years. At the end of 2015, CPD “had more than $16 million in its forfeiture checking and savings accounts, according to deposit records obtained by the Reader.”

One thing that is too easily forgotten in situations like these is the many lives affected by countless acts of theft that are excused when they are done by someone wearing a badge. One example is Willie Mae Swansey, 72, a grandmother who had her car seized during her son’s arrest. Once it was seized, it was a nightmare attempting to get the car back. After 10 hearings over the course of two and a half years, the court still ruled to forfeit her car, even though her son testified to stealing the keys, leaving no legal cause for the court to have taken the car from her.

What do we think will happen when we give someone a gun and a badge and tell them that they can take anybody’s belongings under civil asset forfeiture laws, without any accountability whatsoever? Police are not exempt from ethical standards, so we should stop treating them as if they are.

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