Tuesday, June 02, 2020

American Carnage: National Guard Fires Into Louisville Crowd, Killing Black Man; A White Supremacist Trump Supporter Kills A Young Black Man in Nebraska; Two Autopsies Rule Floyd's Death A Homicide; Fox News Tells Viewers To Bring Zip Ties To A Protest And Make Citizen's Arrests; Military Helicopters Fly Low Over DC, Similar To Use In "Combat Zones To Scare Away Insurgents"

The National Guard opened fire on a crowd in Louisville, Kentucky - with actual bullets - on Monday, killing David McAtee, a chef described as a "pillar in the community". Witnesses say the authorities' claim that someone in the crowd shot first is a lie.

McAtee's death is the second Louisville death at the hands of law enforcement [sic] in less than three months. Breonna Taylor was killed in her apartment in mid-March when three policemen forcibly entered her apartment and shot her eight times.

After Governor Andy Beshear called for body camera footage from the Louisville Metro Police officers present at McAtee's death, it was revealed that none of the officers had activated his body camera, a violation of LMPD policy. Chief Steve Conrad was relieved of duty, but he was set to retire on June 30 anyway.

A witness told reporters from local news channel WLKY that the crowd was not protesting, but were simply out past curfew. The West End neighborhood where McAtee was killed had not been central to protests over the weekend.

On Sunday, Joe Biden was on the streets of Washington, DC, talking with protesters. Donald Trump turned off every light in the White House and hid in a secret bunker.

When the news of Bunker Boy hit the media, Trump knew he had to go outside. But he is terrified of angry people yelling mean things at him, so he ordered police to shoot rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful protesters near the White House. (Cops ended up gassing the priests of St. John's Church, on church property, also.)

Trump did not go into the church and no one associated with the church knew about the propaganda photo shoot. Trump also held the Bible upside down. Because he's a fucking idiot. (Which reminded me of when Trump was showing off a coronavirus testing kit and held the machine upside down.) Trump was asked if that was his Bible. "It's *a* Bible." Which means it probably was not a Bible at all.

Bishop Mariann Budde was "outraged" when she found out Trump used the church as a prop.
I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop. ... Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence. We need moral leadership, and he's done everything to divide us.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal denomination, accused Trump of using "a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us."

Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Clemson University who studies Christian nationalism:
Going to the church, not going in it, not meeting with any clergy, holding up a Bible, but not quoting any scripture, after an authoritarian speech, was about using the religious symbolism for his ends. It was a signal to the people that embrace the idea of a Christian nation, that he will defend Christianity in the public sphere. He said he'll make America safe. That raised the question, for whom? It's largely for white, mostly Protestant America.
For the record, Biden went inside a church on Monday and did not have to ask the military to use tear gas or rubber bullets beforehand to clear a path for him.

On Monday, two autopsies ruled George Floyd's death was a homicide.

An independent autopsy ordered by George Floyd's family states his death was a "homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain". The examiners found that weight on Floyd's back, as well as handcuffs and body positioning were contributory factors.

A few hours later, a new autopsy released by Hennepin County Medical Examiner stated Floyd died due to "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restrain, and neck compression" (also stated in the report as "cardiopulmonary arrest while being restraint by law enforcement officers").

The Minneapolis Police Department has used neck restraints at least 237 times since 2015, according to NBC News' analysis of police records. At least 44 people were rendered unconscious with neck restraints during that time, which police experts said was "unusually high". About three-fifths of those rendered unconscious were black.

More than a dozen police officials and law enforcement experts told NBC News that Derek Chauvin's manner of kneeling on Floyd's neck is neither taught nor sanctioned by any police agency. A Minneapolis city official stated the tactic is not permitted by the city's police department. Most major police departments have highly restricted or banned outright all variations of neck restraints.

A bar-owning, Trump-supporting, white supremacist shot and killed a 22-year-old black man in Nebraska last weekend. Jake Gardner, the racist in question, donated $750 to Trump's campaign in 2016 and was reportedly a campaign volunteer.
Another Trump supporter drove his tanker truck into a large crowd that was gathered on an overpass in Minneapolis last weekend. Somehow, no one was injured. FEC records show Bogdan Verchirko's name alongside a small donation to the Trump MAGA PAC.

Salon reported that the incident resembled several vehicular terrorist attacks over the last few years, including attacks in France, Germany, and Manhattan, as well as the neo-Nazi who killed one person and injured 19 at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Fox News hosts are still broadcasting from their homes (because of the now-forgotten pandemic which has killed 107,000 Americans), but they are encouraging their viewers to "take some zip ties [to a protest] and subdue some of these people and [make] a citizen's arrest if they are hurting people ... if they're setting things on fire, if they're breaking things and committing crimes ..."

Conservative radio host David Webb agreed: "You do have the right and the responsibility of getting rid of the bad elements in your protest. ... You want to come to the burbs, I've got news for you, there are Americans in the burbs ... who don't want you there."

A video from Monday showed a Seattle police officer kneeling on a protester's neck, in the same way George Floyd's killer did. A bystander shouts "Get your fucking knee off his neck" and another officer grabs his colleague's knee and pulls it off the man's neck.

On Monday night, military helicopters flew extremely low over parts of Washington, DC, apparently using downdraft to disperse peaceful protesters. "A part of a tree fell, nearly hitting passerbys. The crowds dispersed down side streets. Some storefronts were shattered." A New York Times reporter tweeted the helicopters were "performing what's known as a show of force, which is often conducted by low-flying jets in combat zones to scare away insurgents."

Well, Trump told us this is a war.
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