Around 40 New Black Panther Party members marched with their firearms on display through the streets of Austin during SXSW festival on Monday. The protesters took to the streets of the Texan capital to condemn the murders of black civilians and show respect to the families of those who have been killed by the police in the United States.
Obama #DOJ Laughed Off Armed New Black Panther Threat | PJ Media https://t.co/6vMDYcv4xC #Dallaspoliceshooting #police— J. Christian Adams (@ElectionLawCtr) July 10, 2016
In 2009 and 2010, lawyers working at the United States Justice Department warned top Obama political appointees and other Justice Department officials about the dangerous threats of New Black Panthers to kill police officers and other whites. I was one of those lawyers who delivered those warnings.Keep reading.
Our warnings came in the context of the Voting Rights Act case I and other lawyers brought against the New Black Panthers on behalf of the United States in 2009, a case the Obama administration ultimately abandoned. Both top DOJ officials, including now Labor Secretary Tom Perez, as well as rank and file employees in the Civil Rights Division, were warned but did not take the New Black Panther threat seriously or otherwise considered the organization to be a laughable joke.
Allies in the media echoed the narrative that the defendants in the voter intimidation case were harmless clowns.
Among the information presented to top officials was a video produced by the New Black Panthers entitled "Training Day." The video proposes killing police officers by ambush. I wrote about the video:
Another New Black Panther posing in the above photo and kneeling with a shotgun is "Field Marshal" Najee Muhammad. As I wrote in my book Injustice: One of them was Panther “Field Marshal” Najee Muhammad, who is seen in a Panther video called “Training Day” in which he encourages blacks in DeKalb County, Georgia, to don ski masks, lie in wait behind shrubs, and kill police officers with AK-47s. Following that exhortation he mocks the hypothetical victims’ grieving widows.Justice Department employees ridiculed the video and noted very few were in the video's audience, apparently oblivious of the role and power of social media to reach people not sitting in an auditorium.
Attorneys working on the voter intimidation case made an effort to broadly educate employees of the Civil Rights Division about the murderous rhetoric of the New Black Panthers. We planned a screening of a National Geographic special on the New Black Panthers where members could be heard threatening to kill white babies. We widely disseminated information about the screening in a Justice Department conference room. On a floor with nearly one hundred employees, exactly two DOJ employees showed up to watch the screening, and one of them was the paralegal on the case.
As we shall see, Obama allies in the media could also be counted on to ridicule the seriousness of the New Black Panther organization...
It felt like a watershed moment for a scattered and still-young civil rights movement.Still more.
Inside Black Lives Matter, the national revulsion over videos of police officers shooting to death black men in Minnesota and Louisiana was undeniable proof that the group’s message of outrage and demands for justice had finally broken through.
Even the white governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, in a pained public concession, embraced the movement’s central argument. “Would this have happened if those passengers — the driver and the passengers — were white?” he asked. “I don’t think it would’ve.”
Then, in an instant, everything changed.
Black Lives Matter now faces perhaps the biggest crisis in its short history: It is both scrambling to distance itself from an African-American sniper in Dallas who set out to murder white police officers and trying to rebut a chorus of detractors who blame the movement for inspiring his deadly attack.
“What I saw in Dallas was devastating to our work,” said Jedidiah Brown, a Chicago pastor who has emerged as an outspoken Black Lives Matter activist over the past year. The moment he learned of the attack on the police, he said, he immediately sensed that any emerging national consensus would “tear down the middle.”
“The thing I vividly remember thinking was, this is going to show exactly how divided this conversation is,” he said.
For those who have harbored doubts or animosity toward Black Lives Matter — among them police unions and conservative leaders — the Dallas attacks are a cudgel that, fairly or not, they are eager to swing.
In Texas, several state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, lashed out at the group, directly linking its tone and tactics to the killings. Mr. Patrick acknowledged that the demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night had been peaceful until the gunman struck, but he accused the movement of creating the conditions for what happened. “I do blame former Black Lives Matter protests,” he said.
“This has to stop,” Mr. Patrick said, adding of the police officers, “These are real people.”
State Representative Bill Zedler, a Republican, was equally blunt in his assessment of the group’s influence on the 25-year-old gunman, Micah Johnson.
“Clearly the rhetoric of Black Lives Matters encouraged the sniper that shot Dallas police officers,” he wrote on Twitter.
But a bigger problem for Black Lives Matter, supported by many liberals, is that Mr. Johnson’s actions could jeopardize the movement’s appeal to a broader group of Americans who have gradually become more sympathetic to its cause after years of highly publicized police shootings.
In the days before the Dallas massacre, Aesha Rasheed, 39, an activist in New Orleans, felt that at long last, white and black America were watching the same images with the same horror: two Louisiana police officers tackling and then shooting Alton Sterling, 37, at point-blank range; the slumped, blood-soaked body of Philando Castile, 32, after a Minnesota police officer shot him through a car window, with his girlfriend and her daughter sitting inches away.
“It seemed like a national consciousness was sinking in,” Ms. Rasheed said.
After the massacre in Dallas, she said, “it turned on a dime.”
She now worries that the episodes involving black men may be overshadowed and overlooked.
“Does this get ignored?” she asked. “Do five officers take center stage?”
Today's cover: Derek Jeter marries Hannah Davis https://t.co/TIfceK5uIL pic.twitter.com/1uniRnhId4
— New York Post (@nypost) July 10, 2016
Cornel West calls 4 end to Israeli occupation. He says it's South Africa of today & Dem party has been "in denial for too long" #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Clinton supporters opposes calling for end to Israeli occupation in #DemPlatform. Room erupts in boos.
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina Steve Benjamin is arguing against opposing Israeli occupation and settlements in #DemPlatform.
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
What is with South Carolina politicians' staunch support for Israel?
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
"Democrats, you've been in denial too long." -@CornelWest on #Palestine our "generation's Vietnam, South Africa." #DemPlatform
— Katie Halper (@kthalps) July 9, 2016
The amendment is defeated, supporters of Palestine are shouting that Democrats are in bed with AIPAC. #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
New amendment proposed asks #DemPlatform to call 4 "international effort to rebuild Gaza, which UN warns could be uninhabitable by 2020"
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Wow, there will be someone speaking in opposition. What kind of person argues against rebuilding an uninhabitable ghetto? #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Cornel West says over 500 babies were killed by Israel in Gaza and our elites said nothing. #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
If we can't pass this amendment "we're in the same condition this party was in 80 yrs ago" when it denied Jim Crow, says West #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
"Nebraska Democrats believe the people of Gaza need salvation," says another supporter of the amendment #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Hillary Clinton supporter says Israelis are not to blame for Gaza's humanitarian catastrophe & amendment "distracts" from 2-states. What?
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Another Hillary Clinton supporter argues that talking about Gaza in #DemPlatform distracts from Israeli suffering. Unbelievable.
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
These people are being recorded. They will go down in history as blaming an occupied people for their ghettoization. #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
The amendment to rebuild the Gaza ghetto was defeated. People began chanting but I couldn't make out what they said. #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Water in Gaza's undrinkable. Nearly 2 million ppl are under air/land/sea blockade 4 crime of not being Jewish. Shame on Clinton #DemPlatform
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
It was Marc Stanley, chairman of National Jewish Dem Council, who opposed rebuilding of Gaza bc it "distracts" from Israeli suffering.
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
To Hillary Clinton & her base, merely entertaining the idea that Palestinians are human beings is anti-Israel. https://t.co/kKDRTDDbv2
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
Cornel West: "We're in same condition party was in 80yrs ago when they didn't wanna deal w Jim Crow" #DemPlatform pic.twitter.com/1Yb5CaePTo
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 9, 2016
#BreakTheStreetCode contact the #SanBernardino PD if you know the identity of this #killer pic.twitter.com/a3kLhSoogk
— Lt. Travis Walker (@SBPDLTWALKER) July 10, 2016
In line at a liquor store in San Bernardino on Friday night, 9-year-old Travon Williams asked his father to buy him a bag of candy. His father agreed and Travon, like the soon-to-be fifth-grader he was, marked the moment with a jump and a dance out the door beside his dad and another man, an employee recalled.More.
In the parking lot, just steps away from the door, someone opened fire and then ran.
The child was killed along with his father, Travon Lamar Williams, 26, and Samathy Mahan, 25, San Bernardino police said.
"It was 30 seconds to kill three people," said store manager Saifaldin Baji.
San Bernardino police said the three were exiting the Superior Liquor & Grocery on Del Rosa Avenue about 9:15 p.m. when a man armed with a handgun approached them from behind and shot all three.
The motive for the shooting is not yet known, but Mahan was a known gang member and was believed to be the intended target, police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said. It was unclear what Mahan’s relationship may have been to the boy and his father, she said.
The child’s mother, Ebony Newman, 27, came upon the scene at the liquor store as she and her husband – Travon’s stepfather – and Travon’s two younger sisters were out walking.
She did not realize that her son was one of the victims at first, when someone told her that the dead boy, whose face was covered, was 11 years old.
“I pulled up to the scene, thinking it’s another situation in San Bernardino, and it’s my baby,” she said, crying uncontrollably. “What mom in her mind would think, that’s my baby? This is not right. This is not right.”
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my...
I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo
Was always Grandma's baby, Moms always kept in veil
I swear my cousin want me bangin', settin'
Nigga fuck all that, tryna go my road
I can take you back nigga, 'round '04
You can do clown dance, I'ma rob that store
You can paint your face, I'ma kick down doors
I'ma shoot my gun, I'ma free my locc
I'ma sell her tongue, I'ma tan that coke
I'ma dark my lungs, I'ma heal my soul
I'ma stack my bread, I'ma cop that boat
I'ma get them M's, I'ma whip that ghost
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my...
I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo
50 Crip, contraband for chips, sold all kinda shit
You know we on, turned that white to stone, just don't call my phone
From scrub to boss, shit my necklace gloss, plus my Bentley cost
You poppin' pills, shit we sellin' pills, pussy sell in heels
Her booty fat, fuck her gluteus max, I'm still that groovy cat
Off 51st, yeah we pushin' work, all my pots is burnt
My section turnt, see my soda rise, dimes be super sized
Say yes to dope, cop that Enz and oh
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my....
Crises that arise during presidential campaigns often define the candidates.More.
Will this horrific week prove to be the crucible of the current campaign?
Violence has shuddered through America since Tuesday: First, two controversial shootings by police of African American men, captured on cameras and spread on social media; then the assassination of at least five Dallas police officers and the wounding of others by a sniper after a peaceful march protesting the earlier deaths.
At the very minimum, the bickering between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has been temporarily overshadowed, much as it was less than four weeks ago when a single assailant killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.
That pause proved temporary and for all its horror, had little effect on the presidential race.
But in past decades, dramatic disorder has had a political impact. The convulsions of protests and violence in 1968 — albeit occurring in a vastly different country — helped swing the presidential election that year to the law-and-order candidate, Republican Richard Nixon.
The effect of the latest outbreak may be fully determined only when more specifics are known about the Dallas attack.
Already, however, the three days of shootings have served as a reminder of how events outside the campaign can overwhelm the carefully plotted strategies of the candidates. For a time, at least, the question of whom Trump will pick as a running mate and the details of Clinton’s handling of classified information in her emails while secretary of State seem unlikely to attract much attention.
Whether the effect goes deeper and persists also will depend on how a polarized public — and the candidates — frame the week’s deadly events with their fraught elements of racial tension and maintenance of public order.
Both candidates began shaping their responses — and the public’s view of events — on Friday.
Trump, who cancelled a planned Florida event, has built much of his campaign around the idea that America is no longer “safe.” He couples his denunciations of illegal immigration with claims that American cities are places of danger where his audiences — mostly older, white and nonurban — would rightly fear to walk.
He could benefit if voters see this week’s killings as part of a general picture of national chaos — a crisis of authority requiring a tough response.
In a statement released early Friday, Trump largely cast the events in that vein, saying it was necessary to “restore law and order” and “the confidence of our people to be safe and secure in their homes and on the street.”
But he also used terminology rare for a candidate who has been criticized for months for using divisive racially-inflected rhetoric — and one who regularly lauds police while dismissing complaints about police violence.
He called the shootings by police of African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota “senseless” and said they remind “us how much more needs to be done.”
“Our nation has become too divided,” Trump said, adding that “racial tensions have gotten worse, not better.”
Petition started after @TheBlaze host @TomiLahren called #BlackLivesMatter "the new KKK": https://t.co/T2lGpP1Cbv pic.twitter.com/OEI62e82Oj
— Heat Street (@heatstreet) July 9, 2016
And @TomiLahren weighs in but can't hit the delete button fast enough.@AnnCoulter, come get your daughter. pic.twitter.com/CdDt4xf4HL
— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) July 8, 2016
Chloe Lattanzi has hit back at trolls who called her stupid after she posted a busty bikini shot on social media on Thursday.
The daughter of Olivia Newton-John ignited an Instagram comment flame war with a photo of herself swimming in a pool wearing a hot pink bikini top that barely contained her ample assets.
Then on Friday, she posted a strongly-worded response next to a new photo of her standing by the pool flaunting her trim figure and busty frame in another bikini.
In our latest edition of Playboy Abroad photographer Ana Dias travels to the Dead Sea in Israel. While there she ran into beautiful blonde model Dasha.And watch the video, "Ana Dias at Work in Israel at the Dead Sea - Playboy Abroad."
