Los Angeles Times Pushes 'Extremist' Moral Equivalence Attack on Pamela Geller in #Garland Jihad Shooting

A particularly odious comparison at today's Los Angeles Times front-page, claiming moral equivalence between Pamela Geller and the Islamic jihadists who attempted a Charlie Hebdo attack in Texas.

I tweeted the photo of the piece this morning, and here's the online article, "Texas attack refocuses attention on fine line between free speech and hate speech":

.@RSMcCain Front-page L.A. Times pushes "extremist" moral equivalence attack on @PamelaGeller. #Garland pic.twitter.com/kYA8YbKdg6

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 5, 2015

Pamela Geller is a 56-year-old Jewish arch-conservative from New York, a vehement critic of radical Islam who organized a provocative $10,000 cartoon contest in this placid Dallas suburb designed to caricature the prophet Muhammad.

Elton Simpson was a 30-year-old aspiring Islamic militant from Phoenix who fantasized to an FBI informant about “doing the martyrdom operations” in Somalia and was convicted in 2010 of lying to the FBI about his plans to travel to the volatile eastern African nation.

Their lives intersected Sunday in this small town in north-central Texas, an unlikely venue for a violent collision of cultures. After a Sunday evening shootout outside the contest site between police and Simpson and another man firing assault rifles, both gunmen lay dead in the street. And Geller quickly posted a defiant blog: “This is a war on free speech. ... Are we going to surrender to these monsters?”

The Texas showdown was America’s Charlie Hebdo moment, erupting just four months after gunmen shot and killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper that had published cartoons of the prophet considered blasphemous by many Muslims. The Garland attack refocused public attention on the fine line between free speech and hate speech in the ideological struggle between radical Islam and the West.

The shooting unfolded just before 7 p.m. Sunday outside the Curtis Culwell Center, a public school building where about 200 people had just heard an impassioned anti-Islamic speech — “The less Islam, the better!” — by Geert Wilders, a right-wing Dutch politician. Wilders said the venue was significant: It was chosen as a defiant response to an American Muslim group that had held a “Stand With the Prophet Against Terror and Hate” conference in January in the same building.

Security had been intense, with officers from local police, SWAT teams, a bomb squad and school security, along with FBI and other federal agents waiting for trouble, and it came: The two men pulled up and opened fire but were quickly shot and killed by a Garland police officer firing his service handgun.

“He did what he was trained to do and did a very good job,” Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. “He probably saved lives.”

Harn said of the gunmen, “Obviously, they were there to shoot people.” He said they wore some form of body armor, and police found ammunition — but no explosives — in their car.

In Phoenix on Monday, police searched Simpson’s home. A federal law enforcement source said Nadir Soofi, 34, identified as the second gunman, was Simpson’s roommate.

The cartoon contest was organized by Geller as a rallying point for cartoonists and conservatives united in their belief that verbal attacks on radical Islam are a form of free speech.

Geller has posted bus ads and billboards condemning Islam. In 2010, the same year the FBI was investigating Simpson’s vows to fight “kafirs,” or nonbelievers, Geller cofounded American Freedom Defense Initiative, also known as Stop Islamization of America. The organization, considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, hosted the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon contest, offering $10,000 for the best cartoon of the prophet.

“We know the risks,” Geller wrote in a blog promoting the event. “This event will require massive security.”

Police said the gunmen drove a sedan up to a police car blocking access to the conference, jumped out and opened fire with assault rifles. A school security guard was wounded in the leg...

Still more at that top link.

As Pamela always says, "truth is the new hate speech."

Actually, there's no such thing as hate speech. As the FIRE notes, "“Hate speech” is not a category of speech recognized under current constitutional law. It is merely a convenient way to pigeonhole speech that some people find offensive."

Yeah, well, Muslims and regressive leftists don't like being called out with the truth. Hence, as soon as shots rang out virtually the entire media establishment and the left's terror-enablers blamed Pamela for the attack. It's an enormous perversion of reality, but this is the nature of the war we're in. Obviously, the reporters at the Times are down with a sick moral equivalence that smears a freedom fighter who calls Islam for what it is --- a political ideology seeking to eliminate all opposition, using any means necessary, including murderous jihad. Ironically, our mass media overlords truly believe that genuninely speaking your mind, quoting the words of the jihadists themselves, and courageously standing up for your right to do it, is extremism. It is, according to the Times, exactly the same as launching an armed attack on peaceful citizens attending a political convention about drawing cartoons. It's so absurd it's to die for.

More at Memeorandum.

In the Mail: Carly Fiorina, Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey

I've started reading Ms. Fiorina's new book.

She's got a great story. And her presidential campaign promises the most stinging criticisms of Hillary Clinton of the season.

At the New York Times, "Carly Fiorina Announces 2016 Presidential Bid, Citing Years Leading Hewlett-Packard." Also at Memeorandum, Mark Haperin, "The Definitive H&H Carly Fiorina Scouting Report."

More at CBS News San Francisco, "Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina Makes Presidential Run."

Pick up a copy of her book at Amazon.

National Offend a Feminist Week

At the Other McCain, "Feminists Chase ‘Avengers’ Director Off Twitter, Because … Gender Theory?"

BONUS: Robert and I stood with Pamela Geller back in 2010, at the Los Angeles event to promote her book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

.@RSMcCain: Standing with @PamelaGeller. #GarlandAttack #FreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/cv4d88Y0wO

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 5, 2015

Sorry, Charlie Hebdo

At the Wall Street Journal, "Western writers abandon their support for free speech":

Je suis Charlie. French for “I am Charlie,” the phrase became a global expression of solidarity and resolve after Islamist gunmen murdered 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

In a terrifying copycat attack Sunday in Garland, Texas, two men with assault rifles attempted to gun down people attending an event satirizing Muhammad with cartoons. A single police officer managed to shoot and kill both gunmen before they got inside the event. With some 200 people in the building, the potential for another politicized mass murder was great.

On Monday authorities said one of the gunman, Elton Simpson of Phoenix, had been under surveillance for years because of interest he’d shown in joining jihadist groups overseas. He was found guilty of making false statements to the FBI, but a federal judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence that Mr. Simpson’s activities were “sufficiently ‘related’ to international terrorism.”

Against this backdrop we have the extraordinary—almost comical—irony of some of America’s bien pensant intellectuals boycotting a ceremony Tuesday by the PEN American Center to confer its annual courage award for freedom of expression on Charlie Hebdo. PEN is an association of writers, and six prominent novelists—Peter Carey,Michael Ondaatje,Francine Prose,Teju Cole,Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi—have been trying to repeal the award for Charlie Hebdo.

Ms. Kusher said she was uncomfortable with the “forced secular view” and “cultural intolerance” represented by Charlie Hebdo, whose signature attacks were on organized religion. Before the boycott, Mr. Cole wrote in the New Yorker magazine questioning the praise for Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the massacre. He lamented that the concern for Charlie Hebdo’s murdered cartoonists won’t be matched by concern for the young men of military age “who will have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere.”

A separate petition signed by more than 200 PEN members complains that their organization is “not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorizing selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world.”

Trumpeting the list of petition signers was no less than Glenn Greenwald, last seen lionizing Edward Snowden’s right to go public with information stolen from the National Security Agency’s efforts to track the people who committed the Paris murders and tried to do it again in Texas this week.

Much of what Charlie Hebdo published was insulting and not infrequently obscene. No doubt that was true at the event in Texas. We would not routinely publish it in this newspaper. But insults are protected under the First Amendment. The terrorists who attacked cartoonists in Paris and in Texas hoped that murder would intimidate them—and others—into silence. As such theirs was not merely an attack on a publication; it was an attack on the foundations of liberal democracy.

All this PEN award does is underscore that in a civilized—indeed “tolerant”—society, you don’t get to murder people who insult or offend you. It is a principle that should be easy for everyone—especially acclaimed writers—to understand.

Of note: WSJ did publish images of the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons after the Paris attacks, unlike so many other craven Western news outlets.

RELATED: At the Other McCain, "TERROR IN TEXAS: Garland Gunman Elton Simpson Was Muslim Convert."

15-Foot Waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach

It's been beautiful beach weather too.

At the O.C. Register, "The Wild Wedge puts on a show with waves reaching 15 feet and higher."

And at ABC-7 Los Angeles, "HUGE WAVES LURE BODYSURFERS, CROWDS TO NEWPORT BEACH."

Free Speech or Islamofascist Suppression?

At IBD, "After Attack In Texas, Will It Be Free Speech or the Thugs' Veto?":

After a Muhammad cartoon event was attacked in Texas, the intelligentsia pointed the finger at the organizers. Let's get one thing straight: This event was not about guns, civility or Islam. It was about free speech.

Activist Pamela Geller is no stranger to saying things that horrify the politically correct. She protested the World Trade Center mosque and bought bus-sign ads describing what's really written in the Quran. Last weekend, she and writer Robert Spencer's American Freedom Defense Initiative organized a contest for the best Muhammad cartoon drawing with a $10,000 prize in Texas in response to the Islamofascist newsroom massacre of cartoonists in Paris at the French paper Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.

And to no one's surprise in a nation whose leaders consider rising Islamofascist terror groups "junior varsity" and where extremist depravities are viewed as "workplace violence" or dismissed as reactions to bad filmmaking rather than organized terror, a couple of Islamofacists from North Phoenix, Ariz., shot up the Garland, Texas, cartoon conference, wounding a security guard before an off-duty traffic cop took the pair down and saved the country from another massacre.

Since then, it's been Charlie Hebdo all over again, given the media's failure to understand that this is about the threat that radical Islam poses to free speech.

Incredibly, the left wasted no time blasting Geller and Spender, blaming them for the murderous behavior of the gunmen.

CNN's Alisyn Camerota attacked Geller as anti-Islamic, cherry-picking various news clips to make her case, despite Geller asserting that she wasn't.

"Civilized men can disagree," Geller told CNN. "Savages will kill you when they disagree."

Why she should be on the hot seat instead of the would-be attackers and their enablers is beyond us.

But the finger-pointing at Geller kept coming.

"Free speech aside, why would anyone do something as provocative as hosting a 'Muhammad drawing contest'?" tweeted New York Times' Rukmini Callimachi.

Free speech aside? From the newspaper of record?

Callimachi didn't seem to understand that the entire event — as Geller's participants repeatedly said in the pre-shooting film clips of the event posted on her blog — was explicitly about free speech, which is now under attack by Islamofascists and which can be demonstrated only by extreme means, such as cartoons.

And that's the heart of the matter. Agree with Geller or not, there can be no compromise on free speech. The attack on her event underscored the fragility of America's free speech, the basis for all of America's freedoms.

Also from Ms. EBL, "Blaming the Victims of Jihadi Terror: Leftist Media calling Pam Geller, AFDI, and Jihad Watch 'hate groups'."

#FreeSpeech Matters http://t.co/VuNE0Estco #garlandshooting #ISIS #texasattack #PamelaGeller @rsmccain @DanaTheBlaze pic.twitter.com/wBagWBGP37

— JeSuisEBL (@MsEBL) May 4, 2015

Rush Limbaugh Really, Really Likes Marco Rubio

Well, I'm glad.

I have a sense Rubio might catch on with the general electorate --- and here's to hoping he gives the big GOP frontrunners a run for their money.

From Aaron Blake, at the Washington Post:

On his radio show Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh devoted plenty of time to praising Rubio in what can only be described as glowing terms. Yes, he said he wasn't happy about the "amnesty" thing, but he also seems to have pretty quickly moved past it. He even volunteered some excuses for Rubio.

More.

NYPD Officer Dies After Being Shot in Face by Black Thug With Long Rap Sheet

Don't expect nationwide protest marches against black thug murderers killing cops. Doesn't fit the left's evil narrative.

At WSJ, "New York City Police Officer Shot In Face Dies":

Brian Moore, who died Monday after being shot in the face attempting to stop a suspect, was hailed by Police Commissioner William Bratton as “an exceptional young officer” who ascended to an elite anticrime unit since joining the New York Police Department in 2010.

“I did not know this officer in person in life. I have only come to know him in death,” Mr. Bratton said outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center after visiting with Officer Moore’s family and colleagues.

Mr. Bratton called the 25-year-old, who came from a family of police officers, including his father, “an extraordinary young man—a great loss to his family, a great loss to this department and a great loss to this profession and to this city.”

Officer Moore made 159 arrests since joining the force and received medals for Excellent Police Duty and Meritorious Police Duty, the NYPD said.

Hundreds of officers lined up outside the hospital to honor Officer Moore when his body was taken to the city medical examiner’s office in Manhattan.

Family members leaned in to touch the ambulance as it pulled away. Flags at the city’s police headquarters were lowered to half-staff.

Officer Moore had been in a coma since undergoing surgery for injuries suffered after he was shot through the glass of his unmarked police car Saturday. He was taken off life support Monday.

He was in plain clothes on Saturday, patrolling in an unmarked police car with his partner, when he was shot by a suspect who they saw tugging at the waistband of his pants, authorities said.

Demetrius Blackwell, a 35-year-old man with a long criminal record, has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bail....

The incident that led to Officer Moore’s death occurred Saturday night near 104th Road and 212th Street in Queens Village neighborhood of Queens.

According to a law-enforcement official, Officer Moore, who was with his partner, Erik Jansen, saw Mr. Blackwell, identified himself as a police officer and asked “Do you have something in your waistband?”

Mr. Blackwell replied, “Yeah, I got something,” took a gun from his waistband and fired at the officers, striking Officer Moore, the official said. Officer Jansen wasn’t injured.

Mr. Blackwell was arrested about two hours later, near the crime scene...

More from CBS News New York, "Mayor De Blasio Speaks on Death of NYPD Officer Brian Moore."

Also at NYDN, "Suspected cop shooter has long rap list, including 8 years in prison for attempted murder."

'The Only Thing Better Than Dessert...'

Here's the smokin' Danish fashion model Nina Agdal, for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Gun Salutes for Princess Charlotte

The royal baby is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, Princess of Cambridge.

At the BBC, "Royal baby: London gun salutes mark birth of princess."

'Clinton Cash' Campaign Scandal: 'How Could This Have Happened?'

From Megan McArdle, who is increasingly becoming one of the more perceptive analysts around.

At Bloomberg, "What the Clintons Haven't Learned":

Tuesday will be the unveiling of what can be breathlessly awaited only in campaign season: a book on the Clinton Foundation, and allegations of a torrent of sleazy foreign cash that has poured into its coffers. I'm already on record as saying that the author, Peter Schweizer, might struggle to meet the burden of proof to show that the Clintons absolutely and unquestionably did something wrong. On the other hand, there's a lower burden of proof for "raises unsettling questions that will dog Hillary Clinton through a tough campaign," and that may already have been met.

The great mystery that remains is how this could have happened. The Clintons have known for a long while that Hillary would be running in 2016. And they ought to have known that accepting foreign donations, from folks who wanted things from the State Department, would become a problem for her candidacy. They certainly should have been aware that funneling all of her State Department e-mails through a private server, and then destroying them, would create terrible optics for her campaign and fuel any subsequent scandals. Why, then, did two such tenacious, wily campaigners proceed with this nonsense?

It looks to me like the answer is that they somehow didn't know the things that they should have known. They certainly act surprised. The campaign machine that used to blast away at incipient scandals with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns now lets them fester for weeks before offering a lame response: Hillary's press conference about the e-mails gave critics more fodder, and Bill's non-response response to questions about foundation finances is even worse. The former president told NBC that he has to keep giving high-priced speeches all over the world because "I gotta pay our bills." Coming from a man reputed to be worth tens of millions, who gave his daughter a multi-million-dollar wedding, this seems a bit ... off.

Which makes me wonder if the famed Clinton campaign skills aren't a little bit out of date...

More.

Hateful Leftists Try to Change the Subject to 'Islamophobia' After #Garland Jihad Attack

The attacks on Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer erupted immediately last night on Twitter, showing the radical left's true colors. One of these days jihadists will succeed with their own Charlie Hebdo-style attack on U.S. soil, and the left will demonize the victims for their alleged "hateful" ideas. The only hate involved is on the left, however. Depraved leftists hate anyone who challenges their ideological, politically correct shibboleths. If you speak out, you must be destroyed --- by any means necessary, it turns out.

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "After Garland, Don’t Change the Subject to Islamophobia":

Almost immediately after the news of last night’s shooting in Garland, Texas broke many in the chattering class started to blame the intended victims of the attack. The group that had sponsored a contest to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammad and two of the controversial speakers at the event were quickly depicted as having invited violence by their willingness to offend Muslims. But whether or not you agree with Dutch politician Geert Wilders or American activist Pam Geller, the failed attempt to slaughter them or those who chose to hear their words illustrated one of their main contentions. You can offend any other religion with impunity but dare to speak rudely or even truthfully about Islamist intolerance and you’d better pay for heavy security and/or hope the police are doing their job (as, thank Heaven, they were in Texas). That, and not whether or not Wilders or Geller are right about some things or even anything, remains the only question to discuss when it comes to talk about Islamophobia.

Let’s specify that not all Muslims, especially here in the United States, are violent or intolerant. Most are hard working, decent people and deserve the same respect as any other American.

But there is a reason why humorists fear to skewer Islam or its holy book the same way they do Catholics or Mormons. You can mock Christian symbols, call it art and then expect cultural elites to lionize you and denounce those who are offended as fascists. You can stage an opera rationalizing Palestinian terrorism and the murder of Jews and be lionized as a courageous defender of artistic freedom and call those who denounce your bad taste Philistines. Write a play wittily trashing the Mormon faith and you can become immensely rich. None of those activities are particularly commendable but they are safe. But speak ill of Islam and you take your life into your hands.

Talk about Islamophobia in the United States is misleading since there is little or no evidence that the years that followed 9/11 or even now after the rise of ISIS that Muslims have suffered discrimination or violence. To the contrary, anti-Semitic attacks have always far outnumbered those despicable incidents in which Muslims were targeted. But the attempt to distract us from Muslim intolerance also misses the point.

You may say it is bad that some people are drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad specifically to offend Muslims who believe such drawings are forbidden. But the problem is that unlike other faiths that have learned to express outrage about those who show them disrespect without violence, a great many Muslims throughout the world still take it as a given that they are entitled to kill those who commit what they call blasphemy. The attacks on the Danish newspaper that first thought to publish Muhammad cartoons and then Charlie Hebdo illustrated this distorted principle...

Keep reading.

Fresno Man Arrested on Suspicion of Beating Wife Because She Posted Selfie on Instagram

Wouldn't want others to share his wife's beauty, or something.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Police: Fresno man attacks wife over Instagram selfies."

The wife desperately tried to delete the selfies but it was too late. The man "lunged at her, choked her and threatened to kill her," pretty much what leftists do when you expose their hatred.

Despite the Risk on Europe, the Coalition Led by David Cameron Should Have a Second Term

At the Economist:

Why Britons should give the Conservative-led coalition another term in office http://t.co/xDzCprzukd pic.twitter.com/NOrlOeduhP

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 4, 2015

Ben Carson's Legacy Among Blacks Fades

He's one of America's most accomplished black leaders, although his star is fading in the black community --- over his attacks on Obama.

An interesting piece, at WaPo, "As Ben Carson bashes Obama, many blacks see a hero's legacy fade."

Also, "Ben Carson announces presidential campaign."

Police Audio: Shooting at Mohammed Cartoon Art Show in Garland, Texas

At Telegraph UK.

Plus, at Rebel Media, "Garland TX Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting: First report," and "Garland Texas Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting (Video 2)." Also, "Garland TX Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting (Video 3)."

Magomed Abdusalamov

It's a wonder there aren't more stories like this, considering boxing's essential brutality.

At the New York Times, "Meet Mago, Former Heavyweight."

Background at USA Today, "Boxer Mago Abdusalamov remains in ICU, on life support."

Two Suspects Open Fire, Shot Dead at AFDI 'Draw Muhammad' Event in Garland, Texas

At Pamela Geller, "Multiple shootings, possible bomb at AFDI/Jihad Watch free speech event in Texas":

This is a war. This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Two men with rifles and backpacks attacked police outside our event. A cop was shot; his injuries are not life-threatening, thank Gd. Please keep him in your prayers.

The bomb squad has been called to the event site to investigate a backpack left at the event site.

Also at Jihad Watch, "Update – Multiple shootings, possible bomb at AFDI-Jihad Watch free speech event in Texas," and "“Allahu Akbar!!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) art exhibition in texas!”"

Also, "Cowardly Daily Mail blacks out Muhammad cartoons in story on shooting."

More, at the Dallas Morning News, "2 killed by police after opening fire outside Muhammad art event in Garland." (At Memeorandum.)

Now at the Other McCain, "TERROR IN TEXAS: Gunmen Attack @PamelaGeller Event in Garland UPDATED: ISIS Takes Credit? ‘May Allah Accept Us as Mujahideen’."

Downplaying the Radical Left's Black Revolutionary Violence

Actually, I disagree with Bryan Burrough's argument that #BlackLivesMatter activists aren't endorsing armed resistance against America's law enforcement. Maybe the dude's not on Twitter. I've repeatedly posted on the Ferguson activists, in Missouri and New York, advocating cop killing and the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary overthrow of capital. The deaths of New York City police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were the direct result of leftist anti-cop agitation, including New York protesters chanting "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!"

The fact is leftist cop-killing agitation is all over the place. It's not isolated to a few so-called "fringe" elements. As urban riots continue around the country, expect to see leftists target more police officers for murder.

Here's Burrough, at LAT, "Today, a softer response to police violence than in 1960s and '70s":

Among the first black leaders [in the 1960s] who called for retaliation was Robert Williams, an NAACP man in North Carolina who, after confrontations with the Ku Klux Klan, urged blacks to arm themselves in a 1962 book called “Negroes With Guns.” After fleeing to Cuba, Williams called for black servicemen to kill their white superiors during the Cuban missile crisis.

A far more prominent advocate was Malcolm X, who made police a focus of his demands for a bloody black revolution in American streets. After his assassination in 1965, Malcolm's baton was picked up and carried forward by angry militants such as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who popularized the term “Black Power.”

But it was the Black Panther Party, formed in 1967 by a pair of Oakland college students, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who led a broad segment of black America into something approaching open conflict with urban police. The Panthers were initially a kind of neighborhood watch for Bay Area blacks; when they saw a white cop stop a black motorist, they would approach with guns drawn, demanding that the cop respect the black man's civil rights. Time and again they angrily confronted police — first in Oakland, later around the country — in incidents that, when broadcast, introduced an entirely new paradigm to the strained relations between black Americans and police officers.

Panther rhetoric was stunningly inflammatory. It was the Panther newspaper that spread the term, “Off the Pig.” “The only good pig,” one New York Panther told startled white newspapermen, “is a dead pig.” At one point the Panther chief of staff, David Hilliard, announced that killing policemen wasn't enough: “We will kill Richard Nixon,” he announced at a rally.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, attacks on urban policemen paralleled the rise in violent rhetoric. From 1964 to 1969, assaults on Los Angeles patrolmen quintupled. In Detroit they rose 70% in 1969 alone. Emboldened, a group of white militants calling themselves Weathermen went underground in 1970 and began plotting attacks on policemen in solidarity with the Panthers. Only after an accidental bomb explosion killed three of its members that spring did the group disavow murderous violence.

A Panther offshoot, the Black Liberation Army, or BLA, emerged in 1971, launching a series of attacks on police in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco; four were killed. The BLA remained a threat through 1972, when three of its members carried out perhaps the most gruesome assassination of police officers in New York history, shooting to pieces two officers, one of them black, on an East Village sidewalk. The group was finally eliminated after a series of attacks and shootouts in 1973, one of which resulted in the capture of its last leader, Joanne Chesimard, now known as Assata Shakur. After another group of militants freed her from a New Jersey prison in 1979, Shakur escaped to Cuba, where today she remains the highest-profile U.S. fugitive still under the protection of the Castro government.

Compared with what we experienced during the 1970s, even the Baltimore riots are tame. Kids are throwing rocks and looting, while most adults are telling them to go home...

Right. Tame.

Last week's riots were Baltimore's worst since 1968.

Frankly, thank god no one was killed.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Lonely Con, "Saturday Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – That Was Then."