Communities across the nation are facing the possibility of civil unrest based on false narratives about policing...
There is no doubt in my mind that we are experiencing a profound, abrupt, and dangerous shift in local politics. Where all of the laws and protective procedures of law enforcement are being eliminated or corrupted by local politicians as they pander to their minority political base and maintain their party's preferred narrative.
The idea that duly sworn, trained, and armed police officers will require the politician's explicit permission to protect the lives of citizens and both public and private property on a case-by-case basis is extremely dangerous; first to the officer, and second to members of the community.
Reporting versus narrative…
Because citizens are generally unaware of law enforcement decisions executed at split-second speed, many interactions can be characterized and portrayed as nefarious by activists and agitators seeking to advance a corrupt and dangerous political narrative. Even worse, we seem to find that mainstream media appears no longer bound by journalistic ethics to report facts, but feel free to substitute a biased narrative. A narrative conditioned by the reporter's own worldview or by a corporate-driven directive.
An egregious example can be found with CBS’s editing of the police-released bodycam footage of a thirteen-year-old suspect shot by the police in a dark alley.
It appears that the media outlet manipulated a portion of the footage showing the teenager with a gun and concentrated on the shooting while the teenager had his hands raised in the air. The full footage appears to show a continuous motion whereby the officer cannot see the gun is being tossed behind a fence, nor can the officer see the subject's hand as the suspect turns toward the officer. A split-second decision by an officer facing an armed assailant in a dark alley is being used to paint a false narrative of another wanton police killing and provide another false narrative supporting agitator-led protesters rioting, looting, and destroying property.
Busted: CBS reportedly caught editing out visible gun in Adam Toledo bodycam video
CBS News was recently called out for deceptively editing out the visibility of the firearm in possession of 13-year-old Adam Toledo from the bodycam footage recently released by Chicago Police. While it doesn’t change the facts relevant to the case, the deceptive editing performed by CBS News is concerning coming from an established mainstream news media outlet.
The March 29th officer-involved shooting of Adam Toledo comes at a time where criticism of police, especially regarding in-custody deaths and officer-involved shootings, is resulting in numerous protests and, at times, riots in cities across the country. With this in mind, it is pivotal that facts and evidence related to this fatal officer-involved shooting in Chicago be presented as accurately as possible.
On April 15th, CBS News shared a tweet online showcasing the recently released bodycam footage from the critical incident where a Chicago Police officer shot Toledo.
To the untrained eye, the video footage shared by CBS News looks like a standard presentation of bodycam footage. Except, upon closer inspection, CBS News clearly altered the aspect ratio of the original bodycam footage to the point where the firearm allegedly in the possession of Toledo during the incident is no longer visible. Another glaringly obvious tell regarding the deceptively edited footage by CBS News is the fact that in the upper right hand corner of the video footage shared from their official Twitter account, it can be seen that the superimposed date and timestamp from the original footage is cut off by roughly 50%. <Source>
Your political party, your politicians, and your city’s leadership are rapidly becoming the enemy of the people…
One overriding fact is that "We the People" are rapidly losing access to the community-based means to remain safe in our person, our homes, places of employment, and everywhere else, in general. This change in threat protection is rapidly producing a day of reckoning and decision-making. Where ordinary law-abiding citizens watch their city's leadership order law enforcement to "stand down" while agitator-led rioters and opportunistic criminals riot, loot, and burn property with relative impunity. Knowing that they will be mostly unopposed by law enforcement, described and feted as "mostly peaceful protesters" in the media. And released by a liberal-influenced judicial system with a slap on the wrist if prosecuted.
At this point, the political leadership appears more afraid of breaking the narrative set by their political party or condemnation by the mainstream media than they do of their constituents who voted them into office to represent their concerns and maintain law and order -- and general peace within the community. Part of the problem may be that some of the politician's largest and most prominent donors and special interests may be profiting from the chaos. Only the "little people" whose entire life is affected by losing their livelihood will suffer mightily.
It’s always the system to blame, never the individual – excerpts from Chicago Mayor’s presser…
|
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (03:19)
Two facts about this tragedy remain clear. First, in the middle of the night, this child was in contact with an adult who had a gun and then ended up being shot and killed by a police officer. Second, there are too many young people in our city, boys and girls alike, who have been left vulnerable by systemic failures that we simply must fix.
[OCS: What adult -- a gang member? And what of the child’s parents? An armed seventh-grader roaming the back streets of Chicago at 2:30 a.m.? No mention of a possible gang connection? This is not a systemic failure, except in the eyes of a progressive socialist democrat.]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (03:48)
These two realities urge us to reckon with and address the relationship between police, our communities, and especially our young people. And in turn, we must deal with the cancerous role of illegal firearms that plague every Chicago community.
[No, we must first address the relationship between the child and his parents. Parents who are partially to blame for the circumstances surrounding this shooting. The gun is innocent; the individual holding it is not.]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (04:09)
We must continue to face and not ignore the fact that Chicago, as well as way too many parts of our country, has a long legacy of police violence and police misconduct that have left far too many residents, especially those who are black and brown, in a constant state of fear and pain. This legacy has only been exacerbated by the many challenges that have hit us as a city and individually over this past year alone, from the worst public health crisis in a hundred years to the worst economic crisis we’ve seen in at least 75 years, and to the most civil unrest we’ve seen maybe ever but certainly in the last 50 years. Each of these challenges alone have been hard and breathtaking in scope, but all of them have come at the same time and keep reverberating across our city, making it sometimes feel easier to focus on their immediate impacts and instead of the ways in which they stem from systemic issues that simmer beneath the surface of our city, of our society. Issues like generational poverty, disinvestment, and yes, racism.
[OCS: Dump on the police and continue the progressive socialist democrat narrative.]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (05:24)
When left untreated, these systemic issues become malignant growths that manifest themselves in violence and the lack of opportunity. These growths then spread to our most vulnerable communities and jeopardize the health, wellbeing and access to opportunity for far too many of our residents. This means that whatever path we create to recover from the immediate challenges our city faces, must also reckon with and address the historic wounds that have been aggravated and brought to full relief over the course of this long, difficult last year. Adam’s death is a forceful reminder that we cannot delay this effort any longer.
[OCS: The Democrats, Mayor Lightfoot, and her corrupt ilk that plundered Chicago’s treasury for decades are the malignant growth. And, of course, they must exploit this tragedy as recommended by former- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (08:36)
We have to do more starting with reforming the Chicago Police Department’s policies and particularly, the foot pursuit policy. I said this in August of 2018, and here we are now in 2021, foot pursuits put everyone involved at risk, the officers, the person being pursued and bystanders. We have to do better. I’ve charged the superintendent with bringing to me a policy that recognizes how dangerous this is. We can’t afford to lose more lives.
[OCS: The officer did nothing wrong. Training and policy prevailed.]
<Source>
|
What the hell is this radical progressive socialist Democrat saying? The 13-year-old suspect did not legally purchase the gun. The armed teenager was in a dark alley at 2:30 a.m. in an area where shots were being fired. The teenager did not drop the weapon immediately when the police arrive. So who is this “we?” Had the officer been killed, we would have seen a moment of reflection by the Police Department and nothing more from the community.
The innocent 13-year-old seventh-grader was likely a gang member…
Various social media posts suggest that Adam Toledo was a gang member (allegedly nicknamed 'Lil Homicide' and 'Bvby Diablo'), possibly associated with the “Latin Kings,” and who may have fired on an unknown passing car.
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A former top cop for Chicago said blame for 13-year-old Adam Toledo’s death should be laid squarely on street gangs — not police.
Garry McCarthy said gangs use “shorties,” or underage people who are paired with adult gang members, as accomplices. Minors can face less serious consequences in juvenile court. “They have the ‘shorties’ who they give the gun to,” McCarthy told WBBM Newsradio on Thursday, as a watchdog agency prepared to release video and other materials in the March 29 police shooting that killed Toledo. “This is very clearly that dynamic, and then something bad happens, and then we want to blame police.”
Authorities have said Toledo, a seventh-grader, was with a 21-year-old who fired shots around 2:30 a.m. near 24th and Sawyer in Little Village. By the time police arrived, they say, Toledo was holding the gun, and he was fatally shot by an officer after a foot chase.
McCarthy served as police superintendent under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. <Source>
The most detailed depictions of the shooting so far have come from prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which brought new felony charges against 21-year-old Ruben Roman for his alleged role in the events which led to Toledo’s death. Initially, Roman had been charged only with a misdemeanor for resisting arrest, but prosecutors are now seeking charges against him for felony reckless discharge of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon and child endangerment.
According to prosecutors, Toledo and Roman were walking together around 2:30 a.m. in the Southwest Side neighborhood of Little Village. A security camera at a nearby church supposedly shows Roman at one point firing a gun several times at a passing car, with Toledo standing close to him. After the gunshots were detected by a ShotSpotter system installed in the area, Chicago police officers arrived at the scene within minutes and began to give chase to Roman and Toledo. In the ensuing chase, Roman was quickly tackled by one of the police officers while Toledo was pursued by the other officer to a nearby alley and shot in the chest. The gun allegedly found near Toledo is said by prosecutors to match the shell casings found near where Roman fired the earlier shots. <Source>
"Pigs in a Blanket, Fry 'Em Like Bacon”
It's even worse for law enforcement. After a long history of operating with the tacit protections of their city's leadership, contentious at times to be sure, members of the rank and file face significant challenges with the current ambiguous situations that can cost them their employment, their freedom, their family, their finances, and of course, their very life. The choice between doing the right thing or sitting back and waiting for circumstances to unfold before investigating and writing a report. A simple risk/reward calculation leaning toward inaction in the present and a safer reaction in the future.
Consider what a police officer thinks as the rioters call for police officers to be attacked, injured, or killed? While the political leadership waffles on about “mostly peaceful protesters” and fails to prosecute the known agitators/activists leading the chaos.
Protection, if not the police, who?
Ask yourself how the politicians can vote to defund and disarm the police in the name of public safety? Perhaps increasing the safety of thugs, criminals, gang members, and terrorists – but not the community’s lawful residents.
After losing confidence in the city's leadership and law enforcement, individuals find out that self-defense, direct engagement with the evildoers, may be the only answer—the necessity to meet force with equal or superior force.
Forget the bullpucky about range-training, that first shot in the dark is liable to leave you flash-blind, somewhat deafened, shaking from an adrenaline dump, scared, and confused. A situation ripe for accidents involving family, neighbors, and arriving, if any, law enforcement. But with a chance to remain alive.
Bottom line…
In the short term, we should expect to rely more on our own ability to protect ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. In the longer term, we need to target and remove those corrupt politicians who have violated their oath of office and have assisted in destroying our communities, making us less safe, refusing to prosecute criminal behavior, releasing convicted criminals back into the community, and have attempted to disarm law-abiding citizens, thus depriving them of their inalienable right to survival and self-defense.
What is this bullshit about “healing?” As if we are speaking about a communist collective rather than freedom-loving individuals. As for Adam’s grieving family, “why the hell was your armed seventh-grader roaming the city at 2:00 a.m.?
Look for the heart-tugging media campaign, the wrongful death suit, and a large payout of the people’s money. Doesn't it seem peculiar that almost all of the people that symbolize the fake civil rights narrative of the progressive socialist democrats turn out to be low-life thugs and criminals? And their deaths are associated with big paydays for scummy lawyers?
We are so screwed.
-- steve