VIDEO: Law Enforcement’s Failures Before, During and After Parkland School Shooting

In this episode of “Inside Judicial Watch,” host Jerry Dunleavy joins JW Senior Investigator Bill Marshall to discuss the perfect storm of events that led to the Parkland school shooting on Valentine’s Day which resulted in the deaths of 17 students and faculty. Had local and federal law enforcement been more proactive, the massacre could have been prevented.

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When Help Never Comes

If you are still wondering how a 19-year-old young man was able to murder 17 students and faculty in his former Florida high school, how he simply and safely left campus on foot for a repast after his mass murders were accomplished, and how his years of dire distress warnings were ignored by every system in place to prevent tragedies, then you are surely not acquainted with Florida’s high-risk, highly-profitable guardianship system, wherein elders, at the opposite end of the age spectrum as the murder suspect, are warehoused until the ends of their lives and their distress signs are routinely ignored by the systems intended to protect them.

Just suppose you are a family member attempting to protect your elderly loved one, and you call the elder abuse hotline, just as concerned persons had called hotlines and authorities to report the teenage mass murder suspect well before he struck fatal blows to dozens of families. This scenario is not hypothetical to thousands of Florida families who have for dozens of years made fruitless communications to hotlines and multiple agencies, including the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, the local police, the Governor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, the local sheriff, the FBI, and their associated hotlines. All too often, when we report elder abuse, our beloved relatives are left unprotected from abuse, and we whistleblowers are frequently disregarded or targeted as troublemakers.

Although the paperwork from Adult Protective Services states that “Florida law requires DCF [Department of Children and Families] to investigate all reports alleging abuse, neglect, [and] exploitation … [and a DCF investigator] will visit the vulnerable adult within 24 hours of receiving the report,” Florida law is commonly disobeyed by those paid to protect adults at risk.

When my husband and I contacted Adult Protective Services over the course of many months in 2008 and 2009 reporting orally and in writing that our Dad, Al Katz, 89 years old, was being severely abused and neglected by his caretakers, over whom we had no legal control, our reports were routinely refused by the hotline in-take. During that exact same period of time, medical records available to APS but not to us, show that Al Katz was hospitalized and/or received emergency medical treatments for: anxiety; post traumatic stress disorder; acute bronchitis; oversedation; exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder; abrasion to head, swelling, and bleeding; swelling and laceration above eye; acute head injury; acute cervical spine sprain; acute abrasions and contusion around left eye; skull fracture; intracranial hemorrhage; poisoning; scalp laceration; staph urinary tract infection; “urine yellow with clots”; and numerous other medical distress warning signs of elder abuse; yet, the abusers were not removed from Dad’s home by authorities for nearly one year after my elder abuse reports began, and then Dad was put into guardianship, in which further abuse ensued.

In September 2009, Manatee County, Florida, Judges Janette Dunnigan and Paul Logan held guardianship hearings without the presence of Al Katz or any of his family members, during which professional guardians (who are not required to be licensed by the State of Florida) were appointed to assume total control – financial, physical, and medical – over the life of an elder they did not know; while I was not even notified of the hearings.

Within a few days after being put into court-ordered professional guardianship, my Dad was totally isolated from his family and home, locked down in the basement of a city hospital behind electronic metal doors monitored by armed guards. Al Katz, the victim of severe, prolonged elder abuse, had become a Ward of the State of Florida, with fewer rights than a mass murderer; while his abusers remained free on the streets and still are lurking somewhere nearly a decade later.

Within two months, while in court-ordered guardianship, Al Katz’s official designation by his guardians was “IMMINENT DEATH.” During the time Marjorie Ashley Butler and Jonene Eisch had total control over Al Katz’s life, his medical status plummeted as he developed cellulitis, extreme edema, bed sores that lasted for months, a fever of 107 degrees, and sepsis. My petitions filed during this entire time to the court to personally care for my Dad were not granted until he was nearly dead, but G-d spared his dear life for many months to come, when Dad re-learned how to walk, talk, and eat in his own home with me.

Like the school murder victims, most victims of guardianship abuse never have the chance to go home or to re-learn how to walk, talk, and eat. Their pleas to go home are unheard and unheeded like the discounted chilling reports made to authorities about the teenage mass murder suspect before he struck:

It’s just so much and I know he’s going to explode …. I just know I have a clear conscience if he takes off and just starts shooting places up …. It’s alarming to see these pictures [he posts on the Internet] and to know what he’s capable of doing and what could happen … [like] getting into a school and just shooting the place up.

The reports of danger to our elders likewise go unheard and unheeded even after tragedy strikes. It is obvious to families of suffering and of departed victims, young and old, that those responsible for breaking laws that they are paid to enforce or ignoring reports they are paid to thoroughly investigate will never pay in a court of law or through monetary compensation for their crimes and cruelties. It is the victims themselves and their families who pay an infinite price for patterns of malpractice and malfeasance pervasive in the professions intended to protect the vulnerable.

Although scores of persons in authority from social workers to the FBI knew about the suspect’s long dark history of violence and his threats of future violence, especially directed at schools, they paid no heed to the inestimable, irreparable harm he could and would and did do. Did anyone really believe that a long-time at-risk teenage male who ingested gasoline and mutilated his own arms on the Internet was not at great risk of harming himself and others? Social workers and mental health professionals investigating these incidents all gave the suspect a low-risk assessment. When a violent teen boasts on the Internet that he wants to be a “professional school shooter,” who would believe he poses no threat to society, particularly to students trapped inside of a school?

Our nation cannot stand on its abysmal record of neglect of duty and law by those in positions of power. Their doors are shut to us in need; their ears are closed to those in crisis; and their hearts do not give us access to them. We families know pain all too well – the sickening feelings of loss of loved ones stemming from doors and ears and hearts that are vacuum-sealed. How many lives are sacrificed for nothing more than cries and pleas for help that go unheard and unanswered? How many lives? How many lives? We ask you how many lives?

We are told at every turn to rely upon the authorities for protection when their protection may never arrive, and death awaits. As lives are lost and suffering is ceaseless, more children and elders remain in crisis without recourse or resources reachable to them and their loved ones. Our reports are destroyed, discarded, and disregarded. They are dead ends. If you want to hold some accountable for the senseless murders of seventeen on Sweetheart’s Day, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2018, then first in line must be the recipients of every dead-end report that preceded this preventable mass murder by a man who was reported again and again and again in a long dead-end trail of blood; for dead-end reports cause deaths.

“Lions don’t care about the opinions of sheep,” said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, whose office received scores of reports for years about the suspect’s dangerous behaviors before the mass murder occurred and whose deputy refused to enter the school while its students were under siege, the school to which he was assigned as the security officer, as dozens died inside.

“Lions don’t care about the opinions of sheep” or about the reports they file. Dead-end reports cause deaths. Bah-h-h-h-h ….

Border Security Is Important For Immigration But Workplace Enforcement Is YUGE

What’s the best way to keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States? Most Republicans would say tougher border security. Many have loudly applauded President Donald Trump’s proposal to build an impenetrable “wall” between the United States and Mexico and to hire more border patrol agents to keep unwanted aliens out.

But even the best border barrier isn’t infallible. Some aliens will slip through — or simply overstay a tourist visa. So, it’s critical to have a second layer of defense in the interior of the country.

Conservatives know that. That’s why they want to deputize law enforcement as de facto immigration agents on the nation’s highways and in federal, state and local prisons.  Aliens stopped on the road or booked at jails will be fast-tracked for deportation. In fact, it’s already happening — by executive order.

But even these measures — essentially tripwires — are hardly foolproof. If you really want to target illegal aliens, it’s at the point of hiring.  Nearly everyone acknowledges – quietly, it seems — that often difficult-to-fill low-skill jobs are the real “magnet” for immigrants to try to enter the country illegally.

But thus far it’s been nearly impossible to institute an effective workplace enforcement system.

Part of the problem — but only part, and probably not the most important part — is technical.

Democrats and some Republicans have long complained that most “workplace verification” systems — like “E-Verify” — are too error-prone to be useful.

And for years, politicians have used that argument to stall or derail bills that included the program.

But the real problem isn’t technical. It’s political. Most American businesses don’t want to be held responsible for weeding out illegal aliens from the workforce. They don’t want to shoulder administrative burden or the additional costs involved. We’re not immigration “cops,” they insist.

In fact, the last time a comprehensive immigration reform package passed the Congress, in 1986, businesses revolted against a proposed provision–– known as “employer sanctions” — that would have punished them for employing illegal workers.

Their revolt was so strong that Congress was forced to water down the employer sanctions provision to the point where it no longer served as an effective deterrent to illegal hiring.

Businesses were allowed to claim an “affirmative defense” against illegal hiring by claiming that they had made a “reasonable effort” to verify the legal status of their workers by inspecting their hiring documents. As long as those documents seemed “genuine on their face,” employers could not be accused of “knowingly” hiring illegal workers.

As a result, illegal aliens began forging their hiring documents en masse. And not surprisingly, it was soon found that “employer sanctions” system weren’t working. In fact, fabricating green cards and driver’s licenses and stealing social security numbers became a burgeoning new industry.

Believe it or not, this toothless system of workplace enforcement — which has deluded taxpayers into thinking that their government was actually protecting their jobs as well as their borders — has remained in place at the federal level for the past thirty-plus years.

What little progress that’s been made is due largely to conservatives pushing for E-Verify at the state level. Currently, some 20 states have mandated the use of E-Verify in the private or public sector, or in some cases, both. Nationally, about 57 percent of all jobs are screened with E-Verify, up from just 30 percent in 2010.  But with only piecemeal and partial local enforcement, illegal aliens are free to apply for work in the thirty states that don’t use E-Verify.

President Trump, to his credit, has decided that America, at last, must end the current “nod-and-a-wink” conspiracy between illegal immigrants and low-skill businesses by insisting that E-Verify be implemented nationwide.

But Trump hasn’t exactly touted E-Verify, either. A border wall is a far more visually compelling symbol and metaphor for American policy intent. It also implicates America’s southern neighbor more directly. Mexico has no reason to pay for interior enforcement, but insisting that Mexico fund a wall along a border the two countries share makes perfect sense. It also stokes the kind of patriotic fervor that keeps Trump popular with the GOP base.

Downplaying E-Verify also allows Trump to dodge a potential fight with the US business community over immigration enforcement. Remember: Trump needs the business community’s support on tax reform, infrastructure rebuilding and a host of other economic issues.

Antagonizing business groups on an issue they are leery of could backfire. Immigrants are heavily concentrated in “Blue” states like California, New York and New Jersey. Democrats in these states would love to exploit business resistance to workplace verification to win support for their political candidates and to undermine Trump’s immigration policies generally.

Some Democrats have support an expanded E-Verify system in the past, but only in the context of a sweeping amnesty program. Without a commitment from Trump to expand legalizations beyond the so-called DREAMers, they’re unlikely to support E-Verify.

Trump should agree to make that commitment – one still short of a full-scale amnesty, mind you — if it ensures that tougher workplace enforcement as well as border enforcement receives bipartisan support.

No doubt some powerful conservatives will howl. And business concerns will need to be allayed.

But getting E-Verify passed is simply too important not to make additional concessions.

Illegal immigration is at its lowest level since 2003, but those flows will resume – and surge – as the economy keeps expanding. We need a deal now. Otherwise, we will be arguing over this same issue – without resolution – for another thirty years.

COMMENTARY BY

Photo of Stewart Lawrence

Stewart Lawrence is a consultant and policy analyst.


The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

House Sends a Trafficking Signal

Sex trafficking may be one of the oldest forms of slavery in America, Rep. Ann Wagner writes, but our government still doesn’t have a great track record fighting it. Her legislation aims to change that. Although both sides of the aisle have joined forces to crack down on a practice that’s robbed children of full and healthy lives, Congress has had a tough time keeping up with the online side of the trade.

Under Wagner’s Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking (FOSTA), prosecutors (and victims) would finally have the tools to punish anyone who uses the internet to support or facilitate this kind of prostitution. FOSTA, Wagner explains, “will create a new crime that targets how websites are engaging in the online sex trade.” Over the past several years, the underground business of sex slavery has exploded online, where people’s identities are protected. “New research shows that underage victims are increasingly likely to first meet their trafficker online, and the majority of underage victims have been advertised or sold online. How is it that America’s children can be sold online like a t-shirt or take-out?” Wagner asks. “It’s because websites… have beaten the system and created sophisticated marketplaces where traffickers and buyers can anonymously post and respond to ads selling victims.”

Tired of seeing the loopholes of the current law exploited, House members are working to get a vote on a tougher law that will make it easier for states to act. As part of the measure, victims would also have a private right of action to sue if these online operators helped to create these services. “I find it hard to imagine that if a neighborhood business hosted a slave auction, the auctioneer would not be held criminally liable. But that’s exactly what is happening with websites like Backpage.com today… Congress never intended,” Wagner pointed out, “to create a lawless internet where businesses can commit sex trafficking crimes online that they cannot commit offline.”

Last night, the House Rules Committee gave FOSTA the green light. While there are still some issues to iron out, including the differences between Wagner’s language and the Senate’s, most people expect the legislation to be one of the more popular items on Congress’s schedule this year. And why not? Too many predators lurk in dark corners of the internet, waiting to destroy innocent lives. It’s time to make sure justice is done.


Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.


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IN THE WAKE OF PARKLAND: Are we attacking the symptoms of gun violence or true problems?

We all suffered to some degree following the shootings in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day, particularly the High school students there. Their pain is legitimate, their solution to the problem is not. Any time we have a disaster like this, the Left likes to point fingers at assault weapons, the FBI, the NRA, and their favorite target, Mr. Trump. In other words, everyone but the shooter himself. This knee-jerk reaction is obviously done for political purposes and addresses merely the symptoms, not the root problem.

Even if government banned the popular AR-15, there are many other rifles with similar capabilities, and if you were to ban them all, there are still semi-automatic shotguns which can do a lot of damage quickly, not to mention handguns. And if you were to ban all guns, there would be another weapon du jour, such as a road-side bomb, or simply a car ramming into a crowd.

Following the last Federal Assault Weapons Ban held from 1994-2004, the Department of Health and Human Services conducted a follow-up study and concluded,

“the Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws reviewed for preventing violence.”

In other words, the ban did nothing to reduce violent behavior.

The NRA is frequently criticized and portrayed by Democrats as the bogeyman of violence. As advocates of the Second Amendment, their support of gun safety, education, and animal conservation is conveniently overlooked. True, the NRA supports various politicians, just like many other lobbyists. Hampering their ability to make such donations should only be done with sweeping reform of all lobbyists, not just the NRA. Their vilification is just plain wrong.

There are three areas that need to be addressed:

1. Discipline & Education

The shooter in Parkland came from a broken home, which probably explains why he had trouble differentiating right from wrong. It is no secret the family unit has been deteriorating over the years. It is common for children today to be raised by a single adult who is usually overworked and too tired to manage their offspring properly, and there are others who simply abdicate their parental responsibilities and allow their children to find their own way through life, with the assistance of the Hollywood media. Not surprising, morality is on the decline in this country and shaping the character of our youth. I find it rather remarkable we do not take Hollywood to task for the wanton violence they promote.

Not surprising, I’m a proponent of teaching parenting skills as part of an adult education program, perhaps at the schools in the evenings.

Since parents appear unwilling or unable to teach proper behavior, perhaps some basic classes for the students in morality and common courtesy are in order.

Discipline and respect are in decline in schools. For example, consider this letter sent from a middle school Science teacher in Dunedin, Florida to his PTA following the Parkland incident:

“I am a science teacher here at DHMS and I wanted to share this information with you. This is the real problem; the system is broken to where we cannot do anything or exact any meaningful consequences for this type of student. This article I found today from the Miami Herald describes at least a dozen students here at our school. We write referrals, they might even get suspended for a day or two, but these ‘nightmare’ children return and terrorize our campus as soon as the consequence is served. Students that get reassigned to Pinellas Secondary School end up coming right back after a semester. The description of the student in the first paragraph (aside from bringing bullets) describes many students that never receive a consequence, or are categorized as ‘Special Education’, ‘Emotionally/Behaviorally Disabled’, and know that the school cannot do anything about their atrocious behavior. Before we attack people’s 2nd Amendment Rights, we need to attack our legislators and School Board for forcing administrators to keep these dangerous students in our schools despite their repeated warning signs of violent tendencies. Until we can enact change to report and remove these students, these tragedies will continue. I have been physically assaulted by a student this very school year, pressed charges, and the student continues to walk the hallways and brag about who all he has ‘beat up’. We spot these students early on, and dread their presence, but have absolutely no legal way to protect the rights of the rest of the population from these predators.”

As corporal punishment is no longer allowed in schools as a deterrent for misbehavior, disciplining children is next to impossible, and without it, student grades are affected. To illustrate, ten years ago I wrote about Caroline Haynes, a school principal in Great Britain who caught the attention of the press when she started to implement strict discipline in the classroom. She is with the Tendring Technology College in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, UK, a secondary school which, when translated to the American equivalent, is a private school for children ages 11-19. Her “zero tolerance” policy for misbehavior resulted in a school environment where students were freed to concentrate on their studies and, consequently, improved their grades significantly. I was told the students actually liked the discipline and preferred it over chaos. This is consistent with my contention that people tend to thrive in a structured environment which is well organized and leadership is strong, whether it is in school or in business.

There is also something to be said about implementing school dress codes to influence behavior. Such codes help to promote conformity and decorum. A local high school recently experimented with a “Professional Attire Day,” meaning the students in the business program were asked to dress up for a day. Instead of t-shirts, shorts and gym shoes, they were asked to wear suit and ties for the men, and dresses for the ladies. Remarkably, the lion’s share of students liked the change and took pride in looking their best. The students were questioned about their experience afterwards and reported they felt more positive and confident when dressed up as opposed to being dressed down. Interestingly, they appreciated the respect they received from their teachers regarding their appearance and deportment. The students comprehended the effect of a professional image, both at school and beyond. Some genuinely yearned for a better school dress code as opposed to the slovenly appearance which was currently the norm.

One last note regarding education, some time ago I wrote about my experience attending a concealed weapons class here in Florida. Other states have similar programs. In my case I was impressed with the professionalism and knowledge of the instructors, and felt this was something everyone should be exposed to. An informed public is less likely to become a victim and more likely to survive a shooting situation. Anyone who has attended such a class would probably agree, education is the key. Everyone from Middle School onward should be taught the lessons of gun safety. Even children in Elementary grades should learn some of the basics.

The only problem with these suggestions for education and discipline is they are considered socially unacceptable and, as such, will likely be spurned as opposed to embraced. Parents will probably not be inclined to learn new parenting techniques, claiming they haven’t got the time. They also tend to oppose dress codes as they see it as inhibiting the creativity of the individual, and have no appreciation for the benefits of teamwork. And gun safety classes will be perceived as promoting violence, when in reality, it is just the opposite. This means, the parents and students do not want to put forth the effort to thwart school violence through such education and hope it can be stopped through other means, such as changes in the law. The only problem here though is you cannot legislate morality.

2. Review and revise our rules for obtaining guns.

Following Parkland, there was much discussion about raising the age of a person to own a gun. The argument here is that if a person can join the military at 18 and fight for his/her country, then 18 should be the age. The one difference though is that the military provides proper instruction in the handling of firearms, something others do not receive. Again, I am a proponent of gun safety classes. If a person can be certified, such as through an NRA class, they should know how to properly handle a firearm.

The most difficult aspect to ascertain is the mental stability of the individual, which was at the heart of the problem in Parkland and other shooting scenes. Here, students, teachers, parents, and shooting instructors should be trained in terms of looking for signs of trouble and how to report a problem. Again, it’s a matter of education. In the case of the Parkland shooter, his social media was full of obnoxious references to shooting. This should have raised some red flags in the system. Unfortunately, it did not.

3. Fortification

The era of using schools as gun free zones is quickly coming to an end. Such zones embolden shooters as they realize they are soft targets. School perimeters need to be secured to eliminate unauthorized access. This was a significant problem at Parkland.

Training and arming school personnel should also be considered either using existing staff or hiring supplemental people to secure and defend the school campus.

Such measures as mentioned herein seem unimaginable to those of us who grew up in a different time when we respected our teachers, loved our school, and as such, had no need for school resource officers. But times have changed. Back in the early 1970’s you could simply go to the airport, show your ticket to your flight attendant, hop on a plane and leave. You obviously cannot do this anymore as tight security is now required. The same is true in our schools, it is a new time and we can no longer afford to operate as we did forty years ago. Our social mores and morality have changed radically, making this a much more dangerous time for those attending our schools. It is time to improvise, adapt, and overcome just as we did in our airports.

Even if you implemented all these measures, including the abolition of guns completely, you are never going to solve the problem 100%. There will always be the issue of a social misfit or radicalized person waiting for an opportunity to seek violence. It’s not about the choice of weapon, it’s about the human being. It always has been, and always will be. It is not so much about what laws, rules and regulations we enact as it is about treating human frailties and maturity. Education, discipline, and a little common sense will go much further than banning guns altogether.

Let us stop attacking the symptoms, it is time to look in the mirror and address the true problem.

Keep the Faith!

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VIDEO: Broward County Deputies Were TOLD Not To Go Into High School

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham reported Monday that Broward Country deputies were told not to go into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the mass shooting earlier this month.

The alleged reason? They didn’t have any body cameras with them.

WATCH:

“Curiously, police also lost radio communications during the parkland shooting. And our source claims that radio communication also went dead during the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017 that he also got a lot of criticism for.”

Ingraham did not say who issued the order to not go into the school.

COMMENTARY BY

Justin Caruso

Justin Caruso

Media Reporter

Send Email, Subscribe to RSSFollow Justin on Twitter.

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Florida Shooting Shows Government Cannot Protect Americans

In the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting and the wave of well-organized and financed protests using emotionally traumatized students, the Florida Legislature is set to vote on a range of legal responses — including a series of gun restrictions.

This, from a state that has some of the strongest Second Amendment protections in the union, should cause some real alarm. The pressure on legislators up for re-election in November is immense, from the demonstrators, anti-gun activists, their media allies, and the public consuming it all. But it is totally and purposely misdirected.

The real blame in this atrocity — after the deranged shooter himself, never forget that — is the total collapse of the governmental institutions charged with protecting the defenseless students collected into an unprotected public school.

Let’s recap how the Parkland shooting has played out politically. Because make no mistake, it is now allpolitical in Florida and nationally, and it is driven by the activist left and the media pursuing their anti-gun agendas — and not by the facts as they are being revealed.

The FBI failed twice to take any steps when informed about the Parkland shooter being a threat to do exactly this, by his own family members. This is hardly the worst, as the FBI gets a lot of bum tips, but it is still a failure.

Worse, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office failed to take any steps when called to his home 39 times, including for violent and threatening behavior, and being told he had guns. That is an extraordinary number of red flags missed or blown off by local law enforcement. The FBI and the Sheriff not only did nothing, but apparently they did not communicate with each other with this information.

Worse yet, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school did nothing, standing outside with his gun while the killer roamed the halls killing defenseless people.

And then very worst of all, when three more Broward deputies showed up, all of them stayed outside while the monster continued killing inside. They did nothing until Coral Springs police arrived on the scene, at which point the killer had stopped and was slipping away.

With four deputies all doing this, it is clear it was not cowardice. There are just too many good cops for that to be the case. They were almost assuredly following some sort of policy by the uber-incompetent and morally dubious Broward County Sheriff, a Democrat with a history of corruption charges.

The collapse of law enforcement and school security in the Parkland shooting (such as cameras being on a 20-minute delay, not a live feed, sowing more confusion) is perhaps the worst in modern American history. This shooting was eminently preventable, and should never have happened. The systemic collapse on the part of multiple government organizations failed the students, their families, friends and community.

And it will again.

But the entire media and political focus is on the weapon the killer used. It’s not the killer, not the FBI, not the deputies, not the school. It’s the weapon.

None of these protests are about the utter failure of the law enforcement community in Broward County. That’s because there is an agenda, using impressionable, traumatized youth. What there is not with any of these well-orchestrated protests is any effort to look at cause-and-effect solutions in this shooting. They are staring us in the face, but being ignored for the ongoing anti-gun political agenda.

And finally, the pursuit of gun bans and even gun confiscation, as has been suggested repeatedly in the wake of Parkland — using dubious example of Australia as the success of gun confiscation — means Americans would have to simply trust their defense to the same law enforcement and government systems that failed Parkland students so badly. Even in the best of times, police or deputies are several minutes away from a murderous rampage — or a home invasion. In the worst times, apparently they wait until the murder spree has ended.

Compare and contrast Parkland to the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting last year where a civilian heard the attack, got his semi-automatic rifle and took down the mass killer at the church before cops could get to the scene. What was the gun he used to stop the slaughter? An AR-15, the exact type of weapon that is being aimed at for banning by activists and Democrats.

As the protests and politics continues to play out, remember where the real blame lies — after the evil shooter — when you hear all the calls for gun regulations. And ask how you will defend yourself once all our non-musket guns are confiscated. Because that is the only end-game for the anti-gun activists, protestations to the side.

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Parkland and the culture of leniency

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in The Revolutionary Act. Please visit The Revolutionary Act Channel.

Important Free Speech Case Filed: Jared Taylor v. Twitter

And, it all started when Twitter banned Jared Taylor and American Renaissance from its platform.

Breitbart has a long report on the case.  I think Taylor has a good case, but you know how our court system has become (too often these days) the place where Leftwing ideology has found its home and Constitutional protections are lost, so I won’t dare to predict how this could turn out.

Here is Ian Mason writing at Breitbart about the case filed last week in California:

A group of free-speech lawyers filed the most serious legal challenge yet to Twitter’s censorship policies Tuesday in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeking a ruling preventing Twitter from banning users purely on the basis of their views and political associations.

Jared Taylor

Jared Taylor

The 29-page complaint contends that, under a California legal doctrine that recognizes some private facilities as “public forums,” Twitter may not discriminate against speech on their platform based purely on viewpoint. If successful, it would be the first extension of that doctrine to internet social media platforms and could transform the way free speech is treated online. The suit became all the more relevant Wednesday as Twitter stood accused of locking out thousands of conservatives under the guise of cracking down on “Russian bots.”

The genesis of the suit is Twitter’s November 2017 announcement that they would start banning and sanctioning users based on their offline behavior and associations.

On December 18, 2017, Twitter, five years after their top British executive described the company as “the free speech wing of the free speech party,” made good on this threat, “purging” hundreds of mostly right-wing users. Twitter’s new policy refers to association with “violent extremist groups,” and a company blog post claimed, “If an account’s profile information includes a violent threat or multiple slurs, epithets, racist or sexist tropes, incites fear, or reduces someone to less than human, it will be permanently suspended.”

One of those purged is Jared Taylor, founder and editor of “American Renaissance,” a fringe-right journal on race and immigration. He is frequently described as an “extremist” and a “white supremacist” by left-wing groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the latter of which sits on Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Council,” the largely leftist group of activists and non-profits Twitter assembled in 2016 to help decide which speech to censor.

Taylor is a graduate of Yale University and Paris’s Sciences Po, the former West Coast editor of PC Magazine, and author of several books. He describes himself as a “white advocate” or “race realist” and condemns Nazism and antisemitism.

According to the complaint, in his more than six years on Twitter, Taylor never made threats, harassed anyone, or otherwise came under scrutiny for his behavior on the platform. Even the SPLC notes Taylor “scrupulously avoided racist epithets [and] employed the language of academic journals” in his writings, and Taylor once wrote an article urging people to be more civil on Twitter.

[….]

Yet both Taylor’s personal account and that of American Renaissance were permanently banned. The only explanation Twitter gave was that the accounts were “affiliated with a violent extremist group.” Twitter refused to offer Taylor any further details including to which “violent extremist group” he was affiliated.

There is much more here.

The SPLC and me….

You might also want to know that the SPLC has gone on another of its media hit campaigns.  See that the Baltimore Sun has listed me as a “hate group” (taking the SPLC’s word for it!) without ever checking to find out that I am a journalist blogger and have no group!

How many more one-person ‘groups’ are on SPLC’s “hate group” list?

LOL! The Sun says Maryland hate groups are “on the rise” as Maryland gains one “hate group” since the SPLC’s list last year.

The SPLC aimed its big-money guns at me after the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society directed them to my work. Of course HIAS didn’t like anyone questioning their federal funding and their refugee resettlement program.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

Australia: Iranian refugees charged in major drug bust, so much for gratitude

Catholic Charities can’t have cake and eat it too in Lesbian adoption case, or….

Israel set to deport African economic migrants, Canada says wait (they want more)

Fired Googler Warns Social Media Users About Censored Speech [+video]

Bias and mass censorship from extraordinarily powerful tech companies create an enormous problem that Americans have to come to terms with, says a former Google employee who was fired for his politically incorrect views.

While tech companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere are incentivized to create a “safe and civil” environment for their customers, problems emerge when “they get to define what offensive is,” James Damore said during a breakout session at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

Damore lost his job as an engineer in August over an internal memo he wrote questioning Google’s gender diversity policies, which went public. He initially filed a complaint about his firing with the National Labor Relations Board, but withdrew it and filed a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Most of those who work in the tech industry have had little contact with conservative ideas and have “lived in liberal bubbles their entire lives,” Damore said during a CPAC session Friday titled “Suppression of Conservative Views on Social Media.”

Unfortunately, this often means that people with another viewpoint can’t be open about it, he said, “because they will be ostracized.”

This culture naturally makes its way into how tech companies do business, Damore said.

While many in the tech industry are well-meaning, he said, bias seeps into their algorithms. This presents a unique challenge for conservatives who have a reason to worry about bias, but are unlikely to look for government intervention to solve the problem.

Although many are calling for government involvement to fix the situation, Damore said, “it is vital we protect the norms of free speech.

Keeping the tech industry accountable will require a strict focus on transparency and accountability, he said.

Damore praised The Daily Caller News Foundation for its reporting on the bias of Google’s fact-checking feature, which almost exclusively targeted conservative websites.

“Not only is Google’s fact-checking highly partisan—perhaps reflecting the sentiments of its leaders—it is also blatantly wrong, asserting sites made ‘claims’ they demonstrably never made,” the news organization reported in January, when the fact-check feature was first released.

Google discontinued the feature shortly after accusations of bias against conservatives were the subjects of such reports.

Ultimately, Damore said, transparency is essential and Americans should understand the practices of social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

CPAC, the largest annual national gathering of conservative activists, ran Thursday to Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: @JarrettStepman.

RELATED ARTICLES:

YouTube Using Southern Poverty Law Center To Police Content

3 Supreme Court Cases to Watch in the Fight for Free Speech

Google Received 650,000 ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests Since 2014

RELATED VIDEOS:

Fired Google employee James Damore’s fight for free speech

Facebook and Google comply with Islamic (shariah) laws.

A Note for our Readers:

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Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.

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The Parkland School Massacre: A story of armed cowards and unarmed heroes

As Americans learn more and more about what actually happened leading up to the massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida the more astonished they are that this happened. There are two smaller groups of people who are getting angrier and angrier.

Who are two angry groups?

The first group are the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, the Broward County School Board, transgender students, some vocal Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and politicians representing the Democratic Party.

The second group are those who want safe schools for children, don’t trust government to protect them, believe in God, are law abiding gun owners, and politicians representing the Republican Party.

The first group blames what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on:

  1. Guns in general and the AR 15 style rifle in particular.
  2. The National Rifle Association.
  3. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
  4. The Republican Party in general and President Donald J. Trump in particular.

The second group blames what happened on February 14th, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on 19-year old Nikolas Cruz the man in custody and charged with the premeditated murder of 17 faculty members and students.

Which one is right?

The first group wants more government control of guns and more reliance on government and law enforcement to protect school children.

The second group believes that murder is a crime and believes in crime prevention, if you see something, say something. The second group believes in self-defense.

As the facts become know about what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, when and by whom, the story tends to support the second group over the first group.

Here are the facts:

  1. In 2010 the Broward County School Board acquiesced to demands made by the NAACP to stop reporting illegal acts by minority students to the police under a policy titled “diversionary programs.” Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system.
  2. Multiple students and teachers reported that Nikolas Cruz was “troubled.” Cruz posted disturbing photographs on his social media sites.
  3. Cruz was suspended from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Former schoolmate Joshua Charo said Cruz had been found with bullets in his backpack.
  4. Nikolas Cruz has no criminal record.
  5. Nikolas Cruz posted on YouTube “Im going to be a professional school shooter”.
  6. At least two citizens contacted the FBI warning that Cruz was a danger and wanted to shoot up a school. The first tip was on September 24th, 2017, the second on January 5th, 2018.
  7. Law enforcement visited Cruz on at least two dozen occasions after receiving 911 calls. On November 29, 2017, Nikolas Cruz called 911 himself in Palm Beach County to report that someone “attacked me and said they were going to gut me.”
  8. The Broward County Sheriff’s office released records dating back 10 years documenting contacts it had with Nikolas Cruz. The records released are logs of 23 separate 911 calls, including 15 calls made by his now-deceased mother, Linda Cruz, reporting disputes and disturbances involving Cruz between November 2008 and June 2014. Several other calls were made by third parties beginning in February 2016 through November 2017.
  9. On February 5, 2016, deputies received a call summarized as: “Third hand information from the neighbor’s son that Nikolas Cruz planned to shoot up the school on Instagram (Picture of Juvenile with guns.) One month time delay. Unknown high school. Cruz lives in area.”
  10. Cruz passed a background check and purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February, 2017 from Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs, Florida.
  11. On February 14, 2018 at 2:12 p.m. EST Nikolas Cruz entered Building 12 and began shooting faculty and students.
  12. At 2:50 p.m. Cruz calmly went into a Walmart near the school and purchased a drink at a Subway inside and then left the store.
  13. At 2:53 p.m. Broward County Deputies responded to reports of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. There was one Broward County deputy already on campus. He did nothing to stop Cruz during the assault nor arrest him once he left the campus. It is reported that three other Broward County Sheriff’s deputies were on the scene but did not go into Building 12 to find the shooter or help the wounded.
  14. At 3:41 p.m. a Coconut Creek police officer detained Cruz in Coral Springs, Florida.
  15. On February 15th, 2018 Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz was booked into the Broward County jail and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The Bottom Line

Given this timeline it is clear that:

  1. Nikolas Cruz was known to law enforcement at every level from the Broward County Sheriff’s office to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  2. In the Broward County School system Nikolas Cruz was know as troubled and a growing threat to other students.
  3. Nikolas Cruz, like the shooters at Columbine, were able to get weapons. Nikolas Cruz passed a federal background check and was allowed to buy a rifle.
  4. At least four Broward County deputies did not do what was expected of them. Question: Are they cowards or were they told to stand down?
  5. At least two unarmed faculty and one unarmed student at the high school, assistant football coach Aaron Feis, athletic director Chris Hixon and Junior ROTC Cadet Peter Wang, raced toward the shots and attempted to shield others. All three died as heroes.

Government did not protect the children in Parkland, Florida. Government is working to downplay its failures by directing attention at others and an inanimate object.

Bottom line: Government failed! People died!

American author, historian, and Unitarian minister Edward Everett Hale wrote, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

RELATED ARTICLES: 

How Obama and Holder Changed Broward County Law Enforcement for Racial Reasons

“Shocked And Outraged”: Four Broward Deputies Waited Outside School As Children Were Massacred | Zero Hedge

Here’s the warning a tipster gave the FBI about Nikolas Cruz prior to the shooting (Update: Transcript)

Florida: Muslim Broward County Deputy Sheriff Guilty of ‘Conduct Unbecoming’?

All 67 Florida County Sheriffs sign pledge to protect the right of citizens to bear arms

FBI covered up Florida Saudi family’s link to 9/11 jihad

VIDEO UPDATE: FBI still protecting Comey; Fraud, Waste and Abuse at the Veterans Administration

What is the FBI Hiding in its War to Protect Comey? 

The coup attempt against President Trump is rapidly collapsing, but the deep state is still in cover-up mode. In an article for The Hill I discussed the FBI’s continuing protection of former Director James Comey and Judicial Watch’s efforts to penetrate the truth.

As the James Comey saga continues to unfold, the James Comey legend continues to unravel.

The more we learn about his involvement in the deep state’s illicit targeting of President Trump, the more reason the American people have to question both his motives and his management as director of the FBI, the now-disgraced agency he headed before Trump fired him. Comey has left a trail of suspicious activities in his wake.

Comey now looms large over a burgeoning constitutional crisis that could soon overshadow Watergate at its worst. To deepen the crisis even further, it now appears some of Comey’s former FBI and Justice Department colleagues continue to protect him from accountability.

Three suspicious activities stand out, all intertwined: the so-called Comey Memos, Comey’s controversial testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Comey’s book deal.

After Comey was fired by President Trump on May 9, 2017, he arranged to give The New York Times a Feb. 14, 2017, memorandum he had written about a one-on-one conversation with Trump regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The New York Times published a report about the memo on May 16, 2017. Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed the following day.

On June 8, 2017, Comey testified under oath before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where he stated he authored as many as nine such memos. Regarding the Flynn memo, Comey admitted: “I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter [for The New York Times]. I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”

Comey also testified about Trump’s firing of him, and he detailed multiple conversations with Trump, during which Comey confirmed he told Trump three times that he was not a target of investigation. Judicial Watch is pursuing numerous FOIA lawsuits relating to Comey’s memoranda and FBI exit records as well as a lawsuit for Justice Department communications about Comey’s Senate testimony. The American people deserve to know what, if any, complicity his former colleagues had in drafting that testimony and/or in engineering the appointment of Mueller.

The day before Comey’s testimony, Fox News reported: “A source close to James Comey tells Fox News the former FBI director’s Senate testimony has been ‘closely coordinated’ with Robert Mueller.” Comey may have violated the law in leaking his official FBI memos to the media, and it would be a scandal if Comey coordinated his Senate testimony with Mueller’s special counsel office.

That we have had to sue in federal court to discover the truth speaks volumes. The FBI has built a protective stonewall around Comey by refusing to release the Comey memos and refusing to disclose records of communications between the FBI and Comey prior to and regarding Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Since his forced departure from the FBI, Comey signed a book deal in August, set for publication in April, for which he reportedly received an advance in excess of $2 million. Given the fact that the FBI appears to be letting Comey get away with stealing and leaking official government documents and colluding with the special counsel to get Trump, even a trusting person must be suspicious about his book deal.

The FBI has fanned those suspicions by, you guessed it, adding a new layer to the protective stonewall around Comey. Again, Judicial Watch has been forced to sue a recalcitrant FBI for records, including but not limited to forms Comey was required to complete relating to prepublication review of the book by the FBI. Did Comey’s cronies give the fired FBI director a pass on this long-standing requirement? Is that why they are stonewalling the Judicial Watch FOIA request?

Based upon Comey’s performance to date, this book likely will be an elaborate exercise in self-apotheosis. That’s why the American public deserves to know if Comey’s former colleagues – many of whom we now know aided in his exoneration of Hillary Clinton and have participated in the contrived investigation of Donald Trump — scrutinized his literary claims or simply green-lighted his every word.

There is no doubt that the deep state is in deep cover-up mode. The FBI, Justice Department and the special counsel all are stonewalling our requests for Comey documents. The more they stonewall, the deeper the suspicions grow about Comey’s complicity in the entire attempt to use the bogus Trump dossier to prevent the election of Donald Trump, and then use it to undermine his presidency once he was elected to office. In my experience in Washington, when people refuse to come clean, it is usually because they are hiding dirty laundry.

Meantime, the FBI has agreed to review 16,750 pages of records in response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the Comey records that were archived after he was dismissed.

We came to this agreement with the FBI shortly after we a filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to obtain the Comey records (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-00262)).

We discovered the cache of Comey records as a result of disclosures by the Justice Department in separate Judicial Watch litigation (here and here) to obtain the controversial “Comey memos” that allegedly memorialize conversations that Comey had with President Trump.

Obviously, there is significant public interest in Comey’s conduct and the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email and Russia collusion investigations and targeting of President (and candidate) Trump.

The FBI has a terrible record of playing shell games with records – whether it be texts or memos by its disgraced former director. Our lawsuit, we hope, will force the FBI to expedite the review and the release of the 16,750 pages of Comey documents. It’s time to open the files.

As we persist in pulling back the curtains, the sunlight is breaking through.

Judicial Watch Sponsors and Speaks at CPAC

Each year the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) brings together thousands of attendees and the leading conservative organizations and speakers influencing conservative thought in the nation. Regularly seen on C-SPAN and other national news networks, CPAC has been the premiere event for any major elected official or public personality seeking to discuss issues of the day with conservatives. From presidents of the United States to college student leaders, CPAC has become the place to find our nation’s current and future leaders.

That’s why we are delighted to be, on your behalf, a major sponsor of the event, which is now underway at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It will conclude tomorrow, February 24. On that day, I will address the gathering at 2:30 p.m. ET. You can watch live here: www.judicialwatch.org/live. We will also livestream from CPAC on Facebook Live. Visit our Facebook page to watch.

VA Secretary’s Chief of Staff Embroiled in Another Cover-Up Scandal

Last week I told you here about corruption at the highest levels of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. That was just the beginning. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the new story.

One of the high-ranking Veteran Administration (VA) officials who misled the agency’s secretary about the prosecution of an elderly Army vet made false claims and altered an official record in a separate case. Her name is Vivieca Wright and she was the chief of staff to VA Secretary David J. Shulkin.

Last week Judicial Watch obtained records showing that Wright and others in Shulkin’s inner circle lied to him about a federal case in which an Army veteran was criminally prosecuted for displaying the American Flag at a southern California VA facility. Judicial Watch helped represent the 75-year-old vet, Robert Rosebrock, who faced up to six months in jail for the ghastly offense of affixing Old Glory at a site honoring those who served their country. He was also charged with taking unauthorized photographs of both the Flag and VA police.

Wright helped spread falsehoods to her boss about the Rosebrock prosecution after he ordered her to check the accuracy of a national news report about the federal case. Shulkin was opposed to pressing charges against Rosebrock and wanted to issue a press release announcing it. More than a month before Rosebrock’s trial, the VA Secretary’s staff downplayed the seriousness of the charges by erroneously stating in official agency emails that the vet made the choice to go to court rather than pay a fine and that he faced no jail time. In fact, Wright forwarded an email to her boss from the director of the West L.A. VA, Ann Brown, falsely stating: “Forgot to add—he is facing a $25 fine with NO jail time.”

Days after Judicial Watch published this, the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report stating that Shulkin’s chief of staff lied and altered official agency emails in another case. The VA watchdog was tipped off by a whistleblower outraged over waste involving an overseas trip that misspent taxpayer dollars and misused department resources.

During the European jaunt, a high-level VA employee was delegated to “personal travel concierge,” OIG investigators found, and the agency paid thousands of dollars for Shulkin’s wife, a dermatologist named Merle Bari with a private practice in Pennsylvania, to join him on the trip to Copenhagen and London last July. The ten-day trek included 11 people and cost the VA north of $122,000, according to the OIG probe, which found “serious derelictions concerning the trip…” The VA delegation visited Kensington Palace and Westminster Abbey and strolled through the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Details are included in more than a dozen trip books printed at a cost of $100 each, the report reveals.

The VA secretary and his entourage were officially attending the Ministerial Summit on Veterans’ Affairs in London, a questionable powwow for senior officials from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to “discuss topical issues related to veterans.” After accepting the invitation, Shulkin ordered his staff to book a side trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to the summer trip, Wright contacted the VA ethics office to find out if her boss’s wife would qualify as an official U.S. government traveler so taxpayers could pick up her expenses. Unless she was on official business or Shulkin was receiving an award, the wife didn’t qualify and would have to pay her own way, Wright was told.

The former chief of staff did what any corrupt government employee would do—lied and falsified a document. She made up a bogus award that Shulkin would supposedly receive from the U.S. ambassador to Denmark and told the ethics office that the wife’s travel had been “approved by the White House.” Shulkin never received any awards or recognitions, the OIG report confirms. The “VA’s chief of staff made false representations to a VA ethics official and altered an official record, resulting in VA improperly paying for Dr. Bari’s air travel,” the report states.

Of interesting note is that less than two weeks before the European trip, Shulkin issued a stern memo to all VA staff announcing restrictions on nonessential travel. The memo, titled Essential Employee Travel, said agency managers had to approve all employee travel by determining whether it is essential in order to decrease “employee travel and generate savings” within the VA. Evidently, the new measures don’t apply to him or his wife. Investigators say they found no evidence that Shulkin was aware of his chief of staff’s “false representations or alteration of official records.” Because Wright’s actions may have violated criminal statutes, the OIG referred the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution, but the agency decided to let it slide. This is typical of the dysfunctional manner in which government operates.

We taxpayers pay the dollar price, but our veterans suffer far worse. It’s despicable.

VIDEO: New York State Attorney General Lies About Use Of Fake Facebook Information On Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors

ANN ARBOR, MI – Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”) Senior Trial Counsel, Tyler Brooks, appeared on “Fox News at Night” hosted by Shannon Bream to discuss the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s knowing use of information from a fake Facebook account created by his Office’s star witness under the fictitious name of Shelly Walker. The purpose of this ruse was to collect information on unwary pro-life sidewalk counselors who were the target of a year-long investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Office.

Watch Shannon Bream’s TV interview of Tyler Brooks and her concise summary of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s use of the fraudulent Facebook account of his star witness here.

The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, represents two of the fourteen persons who were sued by the NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in June 2017, Angela Braxton and Jasmine LaLande.

The sidewalk counselors routinely appeared in front of the Choices Women’s Medical Center (“Choices”) in New York City’s Jamaica neighborhood. Information gathered through the fake Facebook account was passed on to the Attorney General’s Office. One of TMLC’s clients in this lawsuit, Angela Braxton, accepted a friend request by the fictitious Shelly Walker under the impression that Walker was a fellow pro-life advocate like herself.  She was not aware that Walker was really one of the Choices escorts leaders.

During the courtroom cross-examination by TMLC attorney Tyler Brooks, on February 15, 2018, the Attorney General’s star witness admitted creating the fake Facebook page under the fictitious name of Shelly Walker and passing information she collected from this Facebook account to the Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s Office provided Fox News with a carefully written statement which stated:

“The account was set up by a third party without our office’s knowledge and before our office began its investigationOur office  did not ask her to share anything from the account with us. (emphasis added)

False.

Sworn Court Testimony Shows Attorney General’s Statement Is False

Read the following courtroom testimony from the Attorney General’s star witness (contained on pages 759 -763 of the official court transcript), and form your own opinion.

Here are some relevant parts of the cross-examination of the star witness, who concocted the Fake Facebook account by TMLC attorney Tyler Brooks. Federal Judge Carol Bagley Amon is referred to in the transcript as “The Court.”

MR. BROOKS: Now, you told the Office of the Attorney General about that account? [Fake Shelley Walker Facebook]
A    Yes.
Q    And you used that account to obtain information that you then passed to the Office of the Attorney General?

At this point, lawyer for the AG office objects, to which Judge Amon requests Mr. Brooks to clarify his question to the witness:

MR. BROOKS: Okay.
Q    Maybe I’ll just ask at what point in time did you use that account to obtain information that you passed to the Office of the Attorney General?
A    I don’t know.
Q    Okay.

THE COURT:   Did you continue to use that account after you met with the Attorney General?
THE WITNESS:  Yes. 
(emphasis added)
THE COURT:  And did you then turn over information that you gleaned after that point in time to the Attorney General?
THE WITNESS:  I think I may have mentioned to Ms. Trasande 
[Attorney General’s Attorney] that I had but I can’t remember a specific thing that I turned over, if anything.
THE COURT: Okay.

Mr. Brooks impeaches the witness’s testimony:

Q    Well, you said you can’t remember anything specific that you turned over from that account?
A    I can’t at this moment, no.
Q    Okay. Well, then let me refresh your recollection by reading your deposition.

    “QUESTION: Using the Shelly Walker Facebook page, did you use the Shelly Walker Facebook page to obtain information about Angela Braxton that you subsequently passed on to the New York State Attorney General’s Office?”
“ANSWER: Yes.”

I did read that correctly?
A    Yes.
Q    Was that testimony that you gave in your deposition true?
A    Yes. I told her about photos and posts.
Q    So my next question was:

“QUESTION: What information was that?”
And you answered:
“ANSWER: Photos and videos that she had posted outside Choices. I didn’t quite understand you and you added:
“ANSWER: Also people that she had brought to Choices.”

A    Yes.
Q    I read that correctly?
A    Yes. I told her about Angela’s online organizing.
Q    And that those photos and videos you collected from the website Shelly Walker Facebook page and provided those to the Office of the Attorney General?
A    I think I just told her about it. I don’t remember giving her copies.

Mr. Brooks impeaches the testimony of the Attorney General’s star witness a second time:

“QUESTION: At the time you took information from the Angela Braxton Facebook page using the Shelly Walker page, and provided that information to the New York Attorney General’s office, did you tell the New York Attorney General’s office that the Shelly Walker page is how you got it?”
“ANSWER: Yes.”
Is that true?
A     Yes.
THE COURT:    Let me ask you this. Did anyone from the Attorney General’s office tell you to stop using that page?
THE WITNESS:   No. They told me not to delete it
(emphasis added)

Based on the above transcript, it is clear that the Attorney General’s office:

  • Had full knowledge of the fake Facebook in the name Shelly Walker
  • Used the information from the fake Facebook against the sidewalk counselors
  • Never told the witness to cease using the fake Facebook
  • Never told the witness to delete the information.

How the NAACP and Broward County School Board are responsible for the Parkland Massacre and Trayvon Martin shooting

The Associated Press in a November 2013 article titled In Florida, agreement to reduce student arrests Christine Armario reported:

 (AP) — One of the nation’s largest school districts, law enforcement and the NAACP have reached a deal aimed at arresting fewer students for minor offenses and cutting down the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, which the civil rights group and others say disproportionately affects minority students.

The agreement with Broward County Public Schools in Florida announced Tuesday is one of the first comprehensive plans bringing together district officials, police and the state attorney’s office to create an alternative to the zero-tolerance policies prevalent in many schools. It charges principals rather than school resource officers with being the primary decision makers in responding to student misbehavior.

[ … ]

“It’s pretty rare,” Michael Krezmien, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said of the agreement. “I think if every other school district did it that would be a great step forward.”

The new policy creates a matrix for district officials and school resource officers to follow when a student misbehaves. For non-violent misdemeanors like trespassing, harassment, incidents related to alcohol, possession of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, administrators are instructed to try and resolve the situation without an arrest. A variety of alternatives, like participation in a week-long counseling program, are designed to address and correct the student’s behavior.

No student would be arrested for a first non-violent misdemeanor, but further offenses will result in graduated levels of school-based interventions. After a fifth incident, students are referred to law enforcement.

Felonies or serious threats will still be handled by police. [Emphasis added]

Read more.

After Florida’s Broward County School Board implemented this policy the Miami-Dade School Board did the same. This new “matrix” is dubbed “diversionary programs.”

Diversionary Programs Kill

Four days after the Parkland massacre a column was published by the Conservative Tree House titled School Shooting Was Outcome of Broward County School Board Policy – Now Local and National Politicians Weaponize Kids for Ideological Intents. The author reported:

Broward County schools intentionally created polices from 2010 through 2016 that culminated in the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland.  We know this with great specificity because five years ago we warned Broward County Florida school board members this could happen.

In 2012 and 2013 while doing research into the Trayvon Martin shooting we discovered an alarming set of school policies being enacted in Miami-Dade and Broward County Florida.  The policies were called “diversionary programs” and were essentially about stopping High School students from being arrested. Law enforcement was instructed to avoid arrests and defer criminal conduct to school administrators.

Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system.  County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students. [Emphasis added]

How the Miami-Dade School Board mandated policies came into conflict with law and order

Frances Robles from the Miami Herald reported:

Trayvon [Martin] was suspended several times in the months before his death, including one incident in which a school police officer said he caught the Michael Krop High student with a bag of what appeared to be stolen jewelry.

The Conservative Tree House reported:

It was that M-DSPD internal affairs investigation which revealed in October 2011 Trayvon Martin was searched by School Resource Officer, Darryl Dunn. The search of Trayvon Martin’s backpack turned up at least 12 pcs of ladies jewelry, and a man’s watch, in addition to a flat head screwdriver described as “a burglary tool”.

When Trayvon was questioned about who owned the jewelry and where it came from, he claimed he was just holding it for a “friend”. A “friend” he would not name.

Later, after the police report was outlined in the Robles article, and despite Trayvon being suspended for the second time in a new school year, Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said Trayvon’s dad, Tracy Martin, and Trayvon’s mom, Sybrina Fulton, did not know anything about the jewelry case.

[ … ]

However, there was ONE big issue. SRO Dunn never filed a criminal report, nor opened a criminal investigation, surrounding the stolen jewelry. Instead, and as a result of pressure from M-DSPD Chief [Charles] Hurley to avoid criminal reports for black male students, Dunn wrote up the jewelry as “found items”, and transferred them, along with the burglary tool, to the Miami-Dade Police property room where they sat on a shelf unassigned to anyone for investigation.

Read M-DSPD Chief Charles Hurley’s testimony here.

In April 2012 Jessie Jackson, after the Trayvon Martin shooting, called for “no more black suspensions.” It should be noted that the Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz is Hispanic, a minority. Jackson said at a rally that the Trayvon Martin case was about ending all types of racial profiling — not just in criminal cases, but by banks, insurance companies and in the job market. Jackson called for “end profiling now.” “We must stop suspending our children,” Jackson said, asking the crowd to repeat: “Invest in them. Educate them.”  (read more)

After Jackson’s remarks this policy was implemented nation wide by former President Obama and led to an executive order to allow black male students to have independent disciplinary policies based on their race and gender.

What happens when law enforcement sees something and does nothing in order to “end profiling”based on race and gender?

Are the NAACP and the Broward County School District’s “diversionary program” responsible for the Parkland massacre? We report, you decide.

READ: The Broward County School Board’s Collaborative Agreement on School Discipline dated November 5th, 2013:

Broward Co Collaborative Agreement on School Discipline – MOU by The Conservative Treehouse on Scribd

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How Obama and Holder Changed Broward County Law Enforcement for Racial Reasons

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Illegal Alien Gamed the Immigration System and now the United States is Suing Itself

Once again I have written an article about how an alien easily gamed the immigration system and ultimately became a United States citizen, demonstrating that immigration fraud is at least as serious a vulnerability as is the U.S.-Mexican border.

While there were no allegations that the alien who is the focus of my article today was linked to terrorism, he is a citizen of Bangladesh, a country that has a nexus to terrorist groups.

To this point, on December 15, 2017 the Wall Street Journal published an article,

“New U.S.-Backed Force Leads Terrorism Fight in Bangladesh: Failed terror attack by Bangladeshi in New York leads U.S.-backed unit to hunt for extremist ties in South Asian country.”

On January 16, 2018, the Justice Department issued a press release: “DOJ, DHS Report: Three Out of Four Individuals Convicted of International Terrorism and Terrorism-Related Offenses were Foreign-Born.”

What may be even more disconcerting than the title is that the press release also included this statistical analysis:

Breaking down the 549 individuals by citizenship status at the time of their respective convictions reveals that:

• 254 were not U.S. citizens;

• 148 were foreign-born, naturalized and received U.S. citizenship; and,

• 147 were U.S. citizens by birth.

According to information available to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), since September 11, 2001, there were approximately 1,716 removals of aliens with national security concerns.

The statistics did not disclose how many of the 1,716 aliens acquired lawful status in the U.S. other than citizenship, including lawful immigrant status.

Today’s case is particularly egregious but before we delve into the details of this particular case let’s consider that even if that wall is built, an alien who has been granted lawful immigrant status and especially an alien who is granted U.S. citizenship won’t care if that wall is as tall as a skyscraper and topped with electrified concertina wire.

Aliens who are granted resident alien status and U.S. citizenship can simply stroll into a port of entry, whether it is along the problematic U.S.-Mexican border, the Canadian border, a seaport, or an international airport and be greeted warmly by the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspectors.

Back when I was an INS special agent I used to joke that you could easily tell the difference between a “good guy” and a “bad guy.” Good guys wake up and go through their clothing to figure out what they want to wear that day, while bad guys go through their stuff to decide on who they want to be that day.

Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” gave rise to arguably one of the most famous questions ever asked, “What’s in a name?

Our names are given to us birth and identify us throughout our lives.

However, criminals and terrorists frequently use numerous false names for the same reason that a chameleon changes its colors, to hide in plain sight — perhaps as a method of survival or as a means of enabling it to hide among its intended next meal, a hapless creature that wanders too close.

When we think of the arrest process we think about how law enforcement officers photograph and fingerprint those who are arrested to make certain that they properly identify that person. That issue is of such concern because criminals frequently use multiple identities, that biometrics, such as DNA, are now additionally being used.

According to the 9/11 Commission, the 9/11 terrorists, in the aggregate, used more than 360 false identities and/or variations of false identities as an embedding tactic, to facilitate their preparations for the deadly terror attacks to come.

Not unlike the chameleons, criminal and terrorists use changes in identity the way that those chameleon “quick change artists” use changes in coloration to hide in plain sight among their intended victims.

On February 15, 2018, the Justice Department issued a press release, “Department of Justice Files Complaint to Denaturalize Diversity Visa Recipient Who Obtained Naturalized Citizenship After Failing to Disclose Two Prior Orders of Removal.”

That press release and the Complaint to Revoke Naturalization serves not only as an indictment of the criminal misconduct of the alien in this case, but serves as an indictment of the competency of a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

The defendant in this case, Md Humayun Kabir Talukder, a/k/a Ganu Miah, a/k/a Shafi Uddin succeeded in gaming the adjudications process at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) thus becoming a naturalized citizen.

He lied in his application and interview when he failed to disclose that he had been previously ordered deported from the United States, twice and under two names.

Incredibly, the adjudications officers who handled his case did not know about these lies until after he was granted the “Keys to the kingdom” that United States citizenship represents.

From the very beginning, his interactions with the U.S. government were based on lies and falsehoods and deception, yet he ran rings around our federal agencies. He initially sought entry into the United States in 1992 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in NYC (where I began my career with the INS), with a passport that was not issued to him. Incredibly, when his attempt to game the entry process was discovered, he was permitted to leave the airport so that he could show up at a later date to seek political asylum.

He was subsequently ordered deported under two different names and yet, he became a naturalized citizen in 2004, more than two and a half years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

It is all too common for individuals to seek to game not only the immigration system but all government systems. However, we expect our federal agencies to be able to ferret out those criminals who attempt to defraud various government agencies and programs, especially when those system and agencies are involved with national security.

In this case we see just how easily the immigration systems were defrauded, leading to the almost comical but certainly disquieting charge in the Complaint to Revoke Naturalization:

II. PARTIES

4. Plaintiff is the United States of America, suing on behalf of itself.

5. Defendant is a naturalized United States citizen, and purports to be a native and former citizen of Bangladesh.

Here the United States of America is suing the United States of America because of clear and unequivocal evidence of incompetence by an agency of the federal government that has a serious national security-related mission!

Here is the paragraph from the DOJ press release that lays out the tangled web of deception that enabled him to successfully game the immigration system and acquire United States citizenship:

The complaint alleges Humayun Kabir Rahman arrived in the United States in February 1992 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, claiming his true name was Ganu Miah while in possession of a passport that did not belong to him. He was paroled into the United States so he could seek asylum, and his application was referred to the immigration court where an immigration judge ordered him removed in 1998. In 1994, while Ganu Miah’s proceeding was underway, Rahman sought asylum under a different name, Shafi Uddin. That application was also referred to the immigration court, and he was ordered to be removed in 1997. Later in 1997, using his third identity, Md Humayun Kabir Talukder, Rahman applied for and received an immigrant visa through the diversity visa program, claiming he had entered the United States by car from Canada. In 2004, he applied for and was granted permanent resident status, which he ultimately used to become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2004. Throughout his immigration and naturalization proceedings, Rahman concealed that he had twice been ordered removed and lied about his identity and immigration history under oath. Rahman was also never lawfully admitted to the permanent resident status upon which he naturalized.

In the wake of the slaughter of 17 people in Florida some politicians have challenged the ability to conduct background checks of those who seek to purchase firearms. However, no mention is ever made of the fatally flawed vetting system whereby aliens are admitted into the United States and provided with various immigration benefits including citizenship.

President Trump, who made a strong case for vetting aliens who seek to enter the United States, has ignored the vetting process that would be called into action for the adjudication of aliens under the DACA and other programs he now advocates for potentially millions of illegal aliens.

This was, in fact, the focus of my recent article, “DACA Solution Must Heed 9/11 Commission Findings.”

My concerns about immigration fraud and visa fraud have been paramount in my testimony before several Congressional hearings and in my testimony for the 9/11 Commission and was the theme for another of my articles, “Immigration Fraud, Lies That Kill.”

This statement in the news release provided by Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler for the Justice Department’s Civil Division will serve as the summation for my article today:

“As our country’s leaders debate the future of our immigration system, this alleged case of a decade of defrauding the United States to obtain citizenship is particularly alarming.”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on NewsMax.com.

Florida’s Multi-System Failures and the broken ‘Baker Act’

Everyday in Florida, the sun does not shine on the multitudes involuntarily confined via the innocuous-sounding “Baker Act” … the multitudes of harmless elders, in particular. What can cause the sudden detention of an elderly man, 89 years old, inside a metropolitan Florida hospital mental ward?

In the case of my Father, Al Katz was determined to be a threat to others because he pushed his walker against someone, known as “walker abuse,” not normally lethal or catastrophic. Although Al Katz, a Holocaust Survivor of seven years of slave labor in temperatures reaching 52 degrees below zero, had never harmed another human being or himself, the Manatee County judge sentenced my Dad to three weeks of involuntary commitment with a no-contact order placed upon him. Al Katz was prohibited thereby from receiving from or sending to his family any communications of any kind.

Al Katz’s involuntary confinement in the gruesome underground psychiatric ward in Manatee Memorial Hospital would have lasted by law 72 hours, but instead, Al Katz was detained without further court hearings for three weeks, isolated from his family waiting to see him just on the other side of the electronic metal doors guarded by armed officers. Al Katz was re-living the Holocaust, surrounded by men in uniforms with guns and unable to communicate with the ones he loved.

The threshold for Baker Act commitments of elders in Florida is extremely low. For the most minimal of reasons, elders are imprisoned in hospitals and psychiatric facilities for days, reaping enormous funds for these providers of makeshift jail cells, where grandmas and grandpas barely able to walk are kept off the streets as threats to society.

Al Katz could barely walk, could not drive, had no weapons of any kind, and had lived 89 years as an admirable asset to his community, but the court found that he posed a threat to himself or others, purportedly necessitating the Baker Act. On the other hand, Florida’s infamous school mass murder suspect, who shall remain unnamed herein, posed low risk of harming himself or others, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families, which had visited the suspect and his family following his Internet postings of self-mutilation and express keen interest in buying a gun. DCF records state that the suspect “plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is buying the gun for.”

What else did DCF and multiple other agencies know about the suspect or should have known? He was on medications for A.D.H.D., seeing counselors, and a client at a number of mental health facilities. He was referred for a “threat assessment” due to his long history of fights with teachers and frequent profanity directed against school staff. He posted on the Internet photos of dead and mutilated animals that he had killed; had a Nazi symbol on his book bag; was prohibited from carrying a backpack at school; harassed his neighbors; was investigated or visited by law enforcement nearly 40 times in eight years; attended numerous schools, including a school for students with emotional problems and an alternative high school for at-risk youths; was regularly disciplined for disobedience; made a false 911 call; posted “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” on the Internet using his real name; was uncomfortable with his Hispanic heritage; was suspended multiple times in the 2016-17 school year; shared photos of small animals he had shot; bragged about his intent to bring guns to school; was found with bullets in his backpack; kicked out a glass window at his middle school; had frequent prolonged, unexplained absences from school; had made numerous Internet postings of guns, knives, and other ominous images; and had been referred to a mental health center to be detained under the Baker Act, which center determined that the suspect was not a threat after visiting him at his home and giving him a safety contract to sign.

Al Katz never had a mental health counselor visit him at his home, never was given a safety contract to sign, and was illegally held in the Baker Act for many weeks without the mandatory court hearings. Al Katz never had any warning signs that he would pose a threat to society; the suspect had every warning sign that he would “be a professional school shooter,” including his own word on it signed with his own uniquely-spelled name.

Could dozens of murders have been prevented in Florida? Yes. How are mass detentions of elders in sunless cages lowering the societal threat? How many detained grandmas and grandpas would ever commit a mass murder?

This past summer, I once again alerted the Florida and Indiana authorities about another young man with a violent history who has made foreboding Internet postings for years, including videos of simulated decapitations with blood spurting out of the necks, photographs of assault weapons, and his own ominous poetry reminiscent of past mass murderers, but the evidence and I are invariably ignored. The clock is ticking with his rage, but no one will listen. Previously, this convicted serial predator mutilated the genital area of one of his victim’s dolls and set it on fire to “release his anger.”

Again, the clock is ticking with his rage, but no one will listen … just like the Florida school shooting case, with flagrant warning signs unheeded. Said the shooting suspect’s public defender:

This kid exhibited every single known red flag, from killing animals to having a cache of weapons to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter. If this isn’t a person who should have gotten someone’s attention, I don’t know who is. This was a multi-system failure…

When harmless elders are locked up, this too is a multi-system failure that any decent society cannot condone any more than a mass murderer walking its streets or a serial predator lurking.