'I’m Not Resisting,’ Just Walking Across the Street:' Instead of Fighting Crime, a White SF Cop Niggerized and Attacked a Black Woman Allegedly Jaywalking, Causing Concussion, Separated Shoulder

ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY: 

Niggerized – “unsafe, unprotected, subjected and subjugated to random violence, hated for who you are to the point you become so scared that you defer to the powers that be while willing to consent to your own domination.” ~Dr. Cornel West.

From [HERE] A Black woman said she was violently arrested by police officers after being wrongfully stopped for jaywalking.

"What did I do wrong? I'm just walking across the street," Christiana Porter, 34, told KTVU on Monday.

Porter was accused of jaywalking in front of a San Francisco police car at 2nd Avenue and Geary Boulevard in the city's Richmond District on July 29.

Video footage showed Porter, wearing headphones and apparently unaware that an officer was attempting to stop her, walking across the street.

The officer is seen driving on the wrong side of Geary before exiting his vehicle. Porter moves away from the officer, and he pushes her against a wall.

In cellphone video taken by a bystander, Porter is heard screaming, "I'm not resisting."

"Honestly, as a Black woman, just trying to stay alive. I thought about my five kids, trying to make it home to my kids," she said.

More police cars arrived on the scene with their sirens blaring. Additional officers ran over to help.

"I just don't trust them no more," Porter said. "I seriously don't trust them. I feel like they abuse and use their power and authority to brutalize and just torment and harass civilians."

Officer Josh McFall later told a witness that Porter refused to comply with his orders, including refusing to show identification or to keep her hands out of her pockets or purse, where there potentially could have been a weapon.

"I didn't want it to go this way, but when people put me in that position, I don't have a choice," McFall told the bystander.

Porter said she is a domestic violence survivor and that the police have also left her traumatized and injured with a concussion, a separated shoulder, and nerve damage.

"I'm not a threat, I'm just trying to get my life back," she said through tears. "When I told him I was a survivor, he was just, 'I don't care, this doesn't matter right now.'"

Her attorneys said police department regulations bar officers from ticketing people for jaywalking unless there's an immediate danger of a crash or safety issue.

"There are more serious crimes that should be addressed by the San Francisco Police Department, especially since they claim they're understaffed," said attorney Lateef Gray.

Another attorney Treva Stewart said, "Especially with regards to Officer McFall, it's a contempt of cop. He was angry about something."

Assemblymember Phil Ting wrote a law that decriminalizes jaywalking, with some exceptions.

"If there's something happening that puts the pedestrian or the driver at risk, that's when there should be a citation," Ting said, speaking generally.

Is “Stop Resisting” a Warning from a Public Servant or a Precursor to Death by a Public Master? Corpus Christi Cops Repeatedly Punch a Black Man in the Face b/c He Resisted Their “Compliance Strikes”

ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY:

Cop Mantra – “Stop resisting arrest, stop resisting arrest, stop resisting arrest.” A pretense and precursor to murder. Everything cops say or do (including life-ending, life-wrecking abuses and/or rage-inducing bullying they routinely inflict on innocent people with impunity) needs to be looked at with extreme suspicion. Cops (patrolling predators) not only need to wear body-cameras, but they also need to be under surveillance 24/7. “If one million cobras were set loose on our city streets, wouldn’t you think it proper to know where each one was and what it was doing all the time?” ~Fred Woodworth

From [HERE] Cell phone video of an arrest by Corpus Christi Police officers is raising questions about excessive force. The video starts in the middle of an arrest of a Black man near the Wells Fargo ATM at the intersection of Airline Road and SPID.

Officers can be seen yelling at the man to "stop resisting" as at least two of the officers repeatedly punched the man in the face and body. 3NEWS counted at least 17 punches in the 49-second video.

"Why is he punching him in the face?"

You can also hear the reaction from the couple taking the video. At first they disagreed over whether the man was resisting. The woman said, "You are resisting, you fool," but then a few seconds later, the man watching with her said, "he's not resisting," and they grew quiet.

The punches continued, and the woman said, "That's excessive," and "why is he punching him in the f****** face?" The video then ends.

3NEWS asked if the man was combative at any point and tried to hit the officers. Lt. Gonzalez said she had not seen any of the body cam or dash cam footage. 3NEWS submitted a public records request for those videos.

Lt. Gonzalez did watch the cell phone video and said officers are allowed to punch suspects.

"We would call that a compliance strike," Lt. Gonzalez said. "There are a variety of different what we call compliance techniques that officers are trained in."

The couple believes the officers might need more training.

"There was obviously other ways they could have handled the situation," they said. "He wasn't hurting anybody at the time."

"The Corpus Christi Police Department is looking at the video, making sure that everything that the officers did is within policy and within their training."

Study of 125 Countries Finds ‘No Apparent Benefit’ From COVID injections

From [HERE] A new study by a team of Canadian researchers into excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemicfound that patterns of excess death globally could not be explained by the virus, including long COVID.

The study, by researchers with Correlation Research in the Public Interest, examined excess mortality in 125 countries during the pandemic. It found that mortality patterns correlate closely with the imposition of restrictions such as lockdowns and with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The investigation determined that pandemic-related restrictions resulted in 30 million deaths globally and that 17 million deaths can be attributed to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The researchers concluded that “nothing special would have occurred in terms of mortality had a pandemic not been declared and had the declaration not been acted upon.”

Joseph Hickey, Ph.D., one of the paper’s co-authors and president of Correlation, joined “The Defender In-Depth” this week to discuss the study’s findings and analyze the likely causes contributing to increases in excess deaths and overall mortality.

Excess death data ‘not compatible’ with ‘particularly virulent special pathogen’

Hickey explained that “all-cause mortality” refers to “the number of deaths without filtering by the cause of death” during a given period, while “excess deaths” refers to “how many deaths occurred that are above and beyond what would have been predicted” for a certain period.

Hickey and the study’s co-authors analyzed pre-pandemic raw data from 2015 to 2019, and data collected between 2020 and 2023. Hickey said the data, collected from 125 countries, found “a large amount of excess deaths.”

“We calculate that over the COVID period … about 0.39% of the global population died in excess. That compares to about 0.97%” during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918.

Hickey said this was “the largest non-war mortality event in 100 years” globally.

The study also found patterns of excess mortality across the world were “very heterogeneous,” as they varied “significantly from country to country,” across regions within the same country and across age groups. Hickey said:

“There are some countries that immediately following the declaration of the pandemic in March of 2020 had an enormous spike in … excess mortality that is very sharp, very fast and very narrow. But that does not occur in all countries.

“There are neighboring countries that don’t have that at all. There are countries that do not have any excess mortality throughout all of 2020, and it’s only in 2021 when the vaccines are rolled out, that they suddenly have excess. And that excess can be a sharp spike, or it can be a raised and sustained plateau.”

Noting that none of the countries had any excess deaths before the declaration of the pandemic, Hickey said this finding does not match the spread of a deadly virus.

“If you take the model of a new very deadly pathogen that is spreading around the world, you should not see this very high degree of heterogeneity … it’s simply not compatible with the hypothesis of a particularly virulent special pathogen,” he said.

“If there was a specifically virulent and dangerous pathogen that was spreading around the world, it would not wait for a political declaration of a pandemic to start causing excess mortality,” Hickey added.

Instead, “a much simpler, much more elegant explanation is that it’s differences in national policies, national measures of one kind or another that are responsible for these very different outcomes in excess mortality,” Hickey said. [MORE]

American Dental Association Pledges to Push Fluoridated Water Despite Court Finding that ‘Fluoride Causes Cognitive Damage to Children’

From [HERE] A landmark federal court ruling recently determined that fluoride levels in U.S. drinking water pose unnecessary risks to children’s IQ and cognitive development, validating what conspiracy theorists have warned about for decades.

Generations of people have been poisoned through the water supply without their consent. This toxic byproduct – hexafluorosilicic acid – has been dripped into most municipal water supplies for decades. The institutions that thought they knew what was best for everyone’s dental health have instead dumbed down entire generations of people, harming their IQ and cognitive development. This widespread dumbing down of human populations helps explain the lack of critical thinking skills in the 21st century.

None of these serious matters of public health seem important to institutions like the American Dental Association, however. In fact, the ADA immediately issued a statement, doubling down and defending water fluoridation.

Biased and stubborn American Dental Association defends fluoridated water

Some institutions, like the American Dental Association, are pushing back against the science and dismissing this federal court ruling, demanding that fluoride be considered safe for everyone, against all available evidence.

The ADA, representing some 159,000 dentists across the country, posits itself as “the premier source of oral health information.” The ADA claims that they have “promoted the art and science of dentistry since 1859” while advocating for the public’s health. But the ADA aren’t thinking about the big picture with fluoride and how it is destroying the cognitive abilities of those exposed on a daily basis.

Immediately after the court’s ruling, the ADA hastily wrote:

The American Dental Association (ADA) remains staunchly in support of community water fluoridation at optimal levels to help prevent tooth decay. The district court ruling against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides no scientific basis for the ADA to change its endorsement of community water fluoridation as safe and beneficial to oral health.

The ADA called the ruling and the barrage of social media posts that followed “pseudo-scientific information.” The ADA claims that social media users are spreading information that “is not always based on research conducted according to impartial and evidence based scientific methodology.” The ADA contends that “conclusions drawn from research are not always scientifically justifiable or without bias.” One might point out that the ADA is drawing their own biased conclusions from research that was validated in court. By ignoring the latest evidence on fluoride’s damage to children’s brains, the ADA might be guilty of spreading “pseudo-scientific information.” [MORE]

Federal Court Rules Fluoride in Water Poses an ‘Unreasonable Risk’ to Children, Reduces Their IQ

From [HERE] Several U.S. cities, towns and counties announced they will stop fluoridating their water in the aftermath of a landmark federal court ruling that found water fluoridation at current levels poses an “unreasonable risk” of reduced IQ in children.

Abilene, Texas; Yorktown and Somers, New York; and the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District in Utah are among those cities and districts that responded quickly to the Sept. 24 ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen.

Chen ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can no longer ignore the risk fluoridation poses to human — especially children’s — health and that the agency must take regulatory action.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Fluoride Action Network, Moms Against Fluoridation, Food & Water Watch and individual parents and children. It followed the publication of a key report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program.

Rick North, board member of the Fluoride Action Network, told The Defender he expects more cities and towns to announce they will end the practice of fluoridation.

“Fluoridation is a house of cards and it’s going to fall,” North said. “It’s only a matter of when. Our job is to make the wind blow.” [MORE]

30 Lawmakers Sponsor Bill to End Liability Protection for Vaccine Makers

From [HERE] A bill introduced late last week in the U.S. House of Representatives would end the liability protections Congress gave vaccine makers under the 1986 Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

Thirty Republican lawmakers signed on as co-sponsors to House Bill 9828, End the Vaccine Carveout Act. The proposed legislation would end the broad protection from liability for injuries resulting from vaccines listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Childhood Immunization Schedule.

“The … vaccine makers are criminal enterprises that have paid tens of billions in criminal penalties over the past decade,” Children’s Health Defense (CHD) founder and chairman on leave Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement on the bill.

Kennedy, who has long advocated for eliminating liability protection for vaccine manufacturers, added, “By freeing them from liability for negligence, the 1986 statute removed any incentive for these companies to make safe products. If we want safe and effective vaccines we need to end the liability shield.”

CHD, React19 and The American Family Project also supported the development of the bill, the press release said.

REACT19 founder Brianne Dressen, who experienced a debilitating COVID-19 vaccine injury as a volunteer in AstraZeneca’s clinical trial, announced the bill and its co-sponsors in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“People harmed are long overdue for a compensation process that actually works, and it’s time for the drug companies to pick up the tab,” she said.

‘Complex sham compensation program’ in place since 1986 act

Congress passed the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act to address the risks of vaccines — which Congress and vaccine makers acknowledged had “unavoidable” side effects.

The act set up a “no-fault” system whereby instead of suing the manufacturers, people injured by vaccines can file a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which adjudicates the claims.

The VICP was meant to insulate vaccine makers from lawsuits that could bankrupt them while ensuring that injury victims had a straightforward, non-adversarial and fair path to compensation.

The program is funded by a 75-cent-per-dose tax, paid by vaccine makers, for every vaccine included in the program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services administers the VICP, also known as the “vaccine court.” Court-appointed “special masters” — typically lawyers who previously represented the U.S. government — manage and decide the individual claims.

The proceedings are more informal than a typical courtroom. There is no judge or jury, and the rules of evidence, civil procedure and discovery do not apply.

In practice, getting compensation through the VICP has been notoriously difficult. Critics say the program has devolved to protect government agencies and corporations rather than the health of vaccinated children.

CHD CEO Mary Holland said the 1986 Childhood Vaccine Injury Act effectively left parents and children injured by vaccines with no substantive way to get any compensation while giving vaccine makers a free pass.

“For over 35 years, parents of children injured and killed by government-recommended vaccines have been left with no meaningful redress — only a complex, sham compensation program that pits grieving families against the government, while Big Pharma enjoys no liability,” she said.

“During that same time, chronic health conditions in children — autism, ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder], severe allergies, asthma — have skyrocketed,” Holland said.

In some cases, people who are dissatisfied with the outcome of their case in the VICP, or who don’t get a timely decision, can sue the manufacturer for limited causes of action, such as fraud — as is the case in many of the over 200 gardasil injury lawsuits currently being argued against Merck in federal court. [MORE]

How Many Black Children Did Pfizer Kill with Its Drug "Oxbryta?" After Targeting Blacks, Pfizer Pulls Blood Cell Therapy Off Market Due to Deaths: Black Children Were at Greatest Risk

From [KARENKINGSTON] Pfizer targeted parents of African American children who had sickle cell disease with their OXBRYTA marketing. Yesterday, Pfizer announced OXBRYTA is being withdrawn from 35 countries due to deaths.

Immediately after the stock market closed on September 25, 2024, Pfizer announced that “it’s voluntarily withdrawing all lots of OXBRYTA for the treatment of sickle cell disease at this time, in all markets where it is approved. Pfizer is also discontinuing all active clinical trials for the drug and expanded access programs worldwide.” Sickle cell disease is a genetic disease that affects hemoglobin and the ability for red blood cells to carry oxygen causing red blood cells to ‘sickle’ or become deformed.

Per the website, OXBRYTA supports hemoglobin in order to prevent the breakdown of red blood cells.

Pfizer’s OXBRYTA marketing targeted African American parents whose children were diagnosed with sickle cell disease. [MORE]

Karen Kingston says Trump Outmaneuvered Big Pharma after being Mandated to Deliver COVID Shots. Is that Why Elites are Using Their Authorities and Media to Try to Silence and Kill Him?

From [KAREN KINGSTON] I’ve frequently been criticized for not condemning Trump for allowing the COVID-19 mRNA injections to come to market. As a former corporate executive who has written, reviewed, and negotiated well over a hundred contracts with large biopharma companies, I always asserted that President Trump had an extremely clean paper trail in regard to the Pfizer contract. 

Pfizer agreed to work independent of the US government and military in order to deliver safe and effective vaccines thereby forfeiting their derivative immunity in exchange for first-to-market and intellectual property rights in a growing multi-trillion-dollar industry.

When it came to negotiating the Pfizer contract, it appears that President Trump was not only exceptionally well-versed in the laws regulating emergency use authorized (EUA) products and U.S. laws regulating military contracts, but that he also leveraged his expertise in outsmarting and outmaneuvering unethical businessmen (aka con artists).  [MORE]

Assassin of Haitian President Linked to US Intel. Did US Authorities Murder Moïse b/c He Rejected MRNA COVID Shots? Poor Nation that Didnt Vax, Social Distance or Shut Down was Unaffected by Plandemic

HOW DID HAITI DEFEAT COVID W/ONLY 3% “VACCINATED” AND NO LOCKDOWNS, MASKS, SOCIAL DISTANCING OR FULL HOSPITALS?” LESS THAN 1000 DEAD FROM COVID IN POOR COUNTRY W/11 MILLION PEOPLE WHO DISBELIEVED HOAX

HAITI DIDN'T PARTICIPATE IN THE PLANDEMIC AND REMAINS UNAFFECTED; POOR COUNTRY W/11M PEOPLE DIDN'T SOCIALLY DISTANCE, WEAR MASKS AND 1% INJECTED. HOSPITALS AREN'T FULL OF COVID PATIENTS, ONLY 837 DEAD

SIMILAR TO HAITI AND SOME AFRICAN COUNTRIES THE OUTCOME IN THE AMISH COMMUNITY PROVES THAT NOT SHUTTING DOWN, MASKING OR TAKING THE "VACCINE" DIDN'T RESULT IN MORE COVID DEATHS

• Suspected “Well Financed" Assassins of Haitian President Moïse Trained by US, Linked to Pro-Coup Oligarchy

• Fed Court Sentences “Well Financed" Assassin who Murdered Haitian President Jovenel Moïse - Killed Shortly After He Rejected COVID Shots and Sought Real Vaccines [Haiti was Never Impacted by COVID]

From [FTP] South Florida businessman accused of funding the plot to assassinate former Haitian President Jovenel Moise received legal advice endorsing a mission to capture the head of state from a confidential informant of a US intelligence agency, court documents unveiled in July 2024 allege. According to the accused’s legal team, “the discovery received from The Government redacts the U.S. intelligence agency with which [the informant] is affiliated,” but “it is clear that he is a [confidential informant] for a U.S. Intelligence Agency.”

The businessman, Walter Veintemilla, and his company, Worldwide Capital Lending Group, stand accused of providing a $175,000 line of credit to Florida defense contractor CTU Security LLC, which reportedly carried out the assassination. 

On July 1, Veintemilla’s attorneys filed a pretrial motion to depose the alleged intelligence informant, “J.C.,” who is described as an Ecuadorian lawyer living in Bolivia. Veintemilla’s defense argues that testimony from “J.C.” would support their contention “that several investigative and administrative agencies of the United States Government were aware of the actions and intentions of his alleged co-conspirators in Haiti and supported those actions.”

Veintemilla’s co-defendants also joined in that motion to depose J.C. in Bolivia. Several of them, including Arcangel Pretel Ortiz and Antonio Intriago, were accused by the Bolivian government of plotting an aborted coup attempt in October 2020 against President Luis Arce. German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, a retired Colombian Army officer who helped lead the kill team in Haiti, was also present in Bolivia with this group. He was extradited to the US, pled guilty, and received a life sentence in late 2023. [MORE]

One week after Haiti's president was assassinated, the country's first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines finally arrived.

President Jovenel Moïse was allegedly shot a dozen times in his private residence on July 7. Prior to his murder Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, was the only nation that hadn’t vaccinated a single resident against Covid-19.

Haiti was among the 92 poor and middle-income countries offered doses under the Covax Facility. But the government initially declined AstraZeneca PLC shots, citing side effects and widespread fears in the population.

“Haiti did not reject the offer of vaccines from Covax,” Haiti Ministry of Health General Director Laure Adrien said in a telephone interview. “All we asked was that they change the vaccine they were providing us.” [MORE]

Lots of Problems in Haiti but COVID Isn’t 1 of Them: Doctor says Hospitals are Not Overrun w/COVID Patients in Crowded, Poor, Unvaccinated Country Not Practicing Social Distancing or Wearing Masks

Boris Johnson says COVID Lockdowns were “Medieval.” Is that One of the Reasons Elites Removed Him from Service?

From [HERE] Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he doubts lockdowns played a significant role in bringing the COVID-19 pandemic to an end.

In extracts released from his new memoir Unleashed, he describes the lockdowns as “literally medieval in their savagery and consequences,” and likened himself to King Canute attempting to “repel the waves of a highly contagious disease.”

He also says he believes the COVID-19 virus did originate in a laboratory in Wuhan, rather than a wet market.

At the British government’s COVID inquiry last December, Johnson said there were “appalling harms on either side of the decision” to lock down the country, and he apologised for any mistakes he and his government made.

Initially, according to the extracts, Johnson said he believe the lockdowns were reducing the spread of the virus.

“It was only later that I started to look at the curves of the pandemic around the world—the double hump that seemed to rise and fall irrespective of the approaches taken by governments,” he writes.

“There were always two waves, whether you were in China, where lockdowns were ruthlessly enforced, or in Sweden, where they took a more voluntary approach.”

He continues: “I am not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing; I am sure they had some effect. But were they decisive in beating back the ­disease, turning that wave down? All I can say is that I am no longer sure.”

Johnson goes on to say that the lockdowns showed Britain had “barely progressed” from the Elizabethan era, four hundred years ago, when theatres were closed and the number of mourners at funerals were limited to stop the spread of pestilence.

Three national lockdowns took place in Britain, from March 2020 to June 2020, from November 2020 to December 2020 and from January 2021 to May 2021.

Boris Johnson was forced to resign in 2022, after a series of scandals including so-called “Partygate,” when it was revealed the members of the government did not abide by the social-distancing restrictions imposed on the country.

Allies of Mr Johnson, such as Michael Gove, have suggested the lockdowns went totally against the former prime ministers “worldview.”

After Using Unscientific Nonsense to Destroy Jobs and Businesses w/COVID Lockdowns, Elite White Liberals in DC to Allow Evictions of Mostly Black People to Resume w/Rollback of City Tenant Protections

From [HERE] During the pandemic, emergency legislation made it easier for people falling on hard times to obtain rental assistance and stay in their homes or apartments.

Now, D.C. leaders say some are using the changes to delay their eviction, and those delays are impacting landlords that provide affordable housing in the city.

“The long-term continuation of these emergency policies, some of them becoming permanent policies, have put the affordable housing that we have invested so heavily in at risk, ” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at a press conference on Monday.

Bowser joined D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson to announce emergency legislation that both said would roll back the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP, to where it was before the pandemic.

The D.C. Council will take up the emergency legislation Tuesday, and Mendelson believes there is enough support among council members for the measure to pass.

MO Executes Marcellus Williams Despite Prosecutor Opposition. DA Said No Evidence Connected Black Man to Murder of White Woman. White Jury Conviction Supported by a Discredited Snitch who Got Reward $

From [HERE] Despite St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s opposition, Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, 55, Tuesday for a 1998 killing that he consistently maintained he did not commit.

“Marcellus Williams should be alive today,” Mr. Bell said in a statement shortly after the execution. “If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”

Prosecutor Works to Correct “Manifest Injustice”

In January, the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office filed a 63-page motion to vacate Mr. Williams’s 2001 conviction in the killing of a journalist in her home in the St. Louis suburbs.

The prosecuting attorney wrote that new DNA evidence, increasing doubts about the credibility of the State’s key witnesses, and constitutional defects including ineffective counsel and racially discriminatory jury selection at trial compelled him to ask the circuit court “to correct this manifest injustice.” 

A lot of physical evidence was collected at the crime scene—including the murder weapon (a kitchen knife), bloody shoeprints and fingerprints, and hairs on the victim’s t-shirt, her hands, and the floor that did not match her or her husband—and none of it can be tied to Mr. Williams, the prosecutor wrote. 

Mr. Williams was excluded as the source of the footprints and hairs, the fingerprints, and male DNA that was recently recovered from the knife handle.

With no direct evidence linking Mr. Williams to the crime, the State’s case depended on two unreliable witnesses—a jailhouse informant who claimed that Mr. Williams confessed to him, and Mr. Williams’s girlfriend, who claimed she saw Mr. Williams with the victim’s laptop. Both implicated Mr. Williams because they wanted reward money and shorter sentences in their own cases, Mr. Williams’s counsel told The Washington Post. 

New evidence further undermined the witnesses’ credibility, prosecutors wrote. Sworn statements from his own family state the jailhouse informant made up the story about Mr. Williams to get the reward money, and evidence emerged that Mr. Williams had gotten the laptop from his girlfriend, who had her own financial and personal motives to implicate him.

“This never-before-considered evidence, when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt, as well as additional considerations of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection,” the prosecuting attorney’s office wrote, “casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams’s conviction and sentence.”

Despite Widespread Opposition, Execution Proceeds

In June, while the motion to vacate was pending, the Missouri Supreme Court set September 24 as Mr. Williams’s third execution date. 

In 2015 and 2017, the state supreme court and then-Gov. Eric Greitens, respectively, issued last-minute reprieves. The governor appointed a board of inquiry to investigate innocence claims based on DNA testing of the weapon, but before it submitted findings, it was disbanded by current Gov. Mike Parson.

Just before a hearing on the prosecutor’s motion, DNA test results revealed that the DNA on the knife that excluded Mr. Williams matched the trial prosecutor and his investigator, who had repeatedly handled the weapon without gloves.

The contamination undermined Mr. Williams’s ability to prove an actual innocence claim based on new evidence, so he entered an agreement with the prosecutor to enter a “no contest” plea in exchange for a life-without-parole sentence. The circuit judge and the victim’s family approved it, but the Missouri Supreme Court intervened and overturned the agreement.

In August, the circuit court held an evidentiary hearing where the trial prosecutor admitted he repeatedly handled the murder weapon without gloves and, according to Mr. William’s court filings, admitted that “part of the reason” he struck a potential juror was because he was Black. 

Mr. Bell conceded constitutional error in the mishandling of evidence, but the state courts nonetheless deniedthe prosecutor’s motion and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay without explanation. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted they would have granted a stay.

Despite statewide protests, Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency and, reportedly for the first time, Missouri carried out an execution over opposition from both the prosecutor’s office and the victim’s family.

Mr. Williams was the 100th person executed in Missouri since 1989, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

US Reaches 1600 Executions, Demonstrating Disconnect between Elected Officials and Declining Public Support

From [HERE] The United States has reached a milestone in the administration of capital punishment this week. All four scheduled executions in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Alabama took place, marking the 1600th execution in the modern era of the death penalty in the U.S., despite public opinion polls showing growing concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty and declining support for its use.

The majority of U.S. states have either abandoned use of the death penalty entirely or paused executions (29 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government). A Gallup poll recently found that the percentage of Americans who believe the death penalty is used unfairly increased to 50%, while overall support for the death penalty has been steadily decreasing since 1994, now at a slim majority of 53%. Unlike past years, the death penalty isn’t among top voter priorities during this election year, and neither national political party even mentions use of the death penalty in their platforms.

While all the data continue to show a decline in use and support, a handful of state elected officials have recently expanded use of the death penalty. Utah, South Carolina, Idaho, and Indiana scheduled executions in 2024 after at least a decade-long pause. Several state legislatures have also authorized new methods of execution, and two states (Florida and Tennessee) have added new death-eligible crimes. DPI research suggests that these officials are largely out of step with increasing public concern about the fairness and accuracy of capital punishment—and that zealous approaches to using the death penalty that were once popular are no longer winning the same levels of voter support.

DPI’s data show that even at the peak of use and public support, the death penalty has never been a majority state practice. Since 2012, the number of states conducting executions has remained below 20% in any given year. [MORE]

3rd Circuit Ct Allows Black Man to Sue Prison for Detaining Him in Solitary Confinement for 26 Years. Inhumane Authorities also Knew He Had Preexisting Serious Mental Illness

Roy Lee Williams, a Pennsylvania death-row prisoner with a history of mental illness, was held in solitary confinement for 26 years. He sues a prison official, who does not dispute whether that violates the Eighth Amendment, arguing only that he is entitled to qualified immunity. Third Circuit There's "no room for doubt that individuals with a known history of serious mental illness have a clearly established right not to be subjected to prolonged solitary confinement without penological justification." No QI. District Court’s grant of summary judgment vacated. [MORE]

ACLU Lawsuit Claims Oregon Authorities Surveil People who Dare to Protest Against Police Departments that Murder or Brutalize Black Citizens

From [HERE] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon filed a lawsuit against the city of Medford, Oregon, on Tuesday, alleging that the city’s law enforcement authorities have been surveilling and illegally gathering information on the complainants for years. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two local organizations and an individual activist.

In the complaint, filed in the Jackson County Circuit Court, plaintiffs say that records reveal that the police have been conducting surveillance on political activists in the city. This surveillance allegedly began after protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Police continued to monitor protests against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the police department allegedly infiltrated a social media group of activists.

As per the complainants, the police department maintained files on activists who had only engaged in peaceful protesting, violating ORS 181A.250, a statute that forbids law enforcement authorities from collecting information about parties unless in the course of a criminal investigation, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the party of criminal behavior. [MORE]

Across the US Less Black Students are Attending College, according to a Report from the Schott Foundation

From [HERE] Across the nation, more Black students are graduating from high school — but fewer are attending college, according to a report released by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. 

A study released Tuesday by the organization examined 15 districts throughout the country that collectively educate more than 250,000 Black male students, two of which are in California: the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in the state, where 7% of students are Black, and the Oakland Unified School District, which has an enrollment of about 45,000, 21% of students being Black. 

With a 71% graduation rate, Black males at Oakland Unified were among the five lowest in the country — hovering above Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Minneapolis. At 75%, Los Angeles Unified’s wasn’t much higher. 

“It’s clear that there is something that has to happen across California,” said John Jackson, the CEO and president of the Schott Foundation. 

“If you take L.A. Unified and Oakland Unified as two of the largest districts in the state — and two districts that have the largest Black male population — there is something that has to happen.” 

Jackson added that any efforts by LAUSD are especially critical and could “potentially catalyze progress across the country.” [MORE]

"Literary Crisis" Prompts the NAACP to Sue the St. Louis Public Fool System Over Liberal Authorities’ Failure to Educate Black Children

From [HERE] In a major move, the St. Louis NAACP has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights over what they describe as a “literary crisis” facing African American children in St. Louis County and City.  

The complaint targets not just public schools but private and charter schools as well.

“Black kids in all of those schools are reading behind; they’re reading at levels lower than the state,” St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus M. Pruitt II said. 

The NAACP’s St. Louis president has taken the bold step of also including Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, holding them accountable for the success and failures of students.

“We hope from there that between the U.S. Department of Education, the NAACP, and those individual school districts, we can have some serious conversations about them setting some goals,” Pruitt said. 

One local parent pulled his three children out of Saint Louis Public Schools due to concerns over their reading skills, and is grateful to the St. Louis NAACP for taking this initiative.

“They started playing with my child’s grades—her reading scores specifically. I know my child can read college books as well as other books, and they’re telling me that she’s reading below her grade level. That’s ridiculous,” Anthony Dorsey, a concerned parent, said. “I think it’s about time they paid attention to our children and our communities.”

Organizations like Ready Readers are stepping up to combat the literacy crisis.

“Other districts who you think have all the resources do a great job trying to educate kids—trying to make sure kids are reading at grade level,” Executive Director Angela Sears-Spittal said. “But if you look again at children of color, they’re reading about half the rate of all the kids in the grade.”

While multiple schools did not respond to our request for comment, KIPP Schools provided the following statement:

Black Man’s Lawsuit says San Diego Cops Assaulted Him and Broke His Car Window after an Unlawful Stop. Claims SDPD Targets Black People in Liberal City

From [HERE] A Black man is suing the city's police department for negligence and brutality after smashing his car window during a routine traffic stop off the 805 freeway in Southcrest.

He served nearly a decade for conspiracy to commit murder. That charge was overturned, but is currently still on his record. He says that, in addition to his skin color, has made him a target.

On May 9, 2024, San Diego Police Officers pulled over 31-year-old Nicholas Hoskins for not making a complete stop at an intersection. 

Within minutes, six police cruisers arrived at the scene. Officers immediately demanded to search Hoskins' vehicle. It was the fourth time police stopped Hoskins in 14 months.

Hoskins immediately pressed record on his cellphone which was mounted on his dashboard.

Hoskins calmly told officers he was on his way to pick his son up from the bus stop. When officers insisted on searching his car, Hoskins requested to speak to the officer's supervisor.

"I was a black man, in the wrong neighborhood, at the wrong time, when they felt like abusing their power," Hoskins said.

He is a San Diego native, father of two, friend to many and a construction worker who likes bowling and golf.

He asked officers, "What is the probable cause for a search?" An officer can be heard saying, "I'm going to break your window if you want to play this game?"

Hoskins tells the officer, "I just came from the park and I'm about to go pick up my son from school."

He's now accusing the San Diego Police Department of excessive force, an illegal search and an unlawful arrest.

"I'm a law abiding, tax paying citizen. I am not on paperwork or parole, I am not doing anything wrong," he added. "I feel racially profiled, demeaned, emasculated, the list goes on."

Hoskins says he stayed calm and complied, just to survive. 

They are accusing SDPD of racial profiling and say the goal of the lawsuit is accountability.

"The black community is being stopped at a higher rate, they're being searched at a higher rate, excessive force is being used at a higher rate," Angeles added.