Florida State Seminoles

[Jungle Rat]

Anyone see the new situation come up where the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office has been extorting cash bribes from criminal defendants for some time now in exchange for keeping them out of prison? We're getting dangerously close to the point where we're just going to have to come to terms that we're living in a failed state.

Um. No.

[Jungle Rat]

ecats post made me chuckle

[eCat]

Aww...they don't like it when the police stand by and don't do anything. Funny how that works

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Protest organizers say local law enforcement in Texas did not protect protesters from opposing groups after weekend rallies turned violent.

Local law enforcement disbanded a protest in Weatherford over the removal of a Confederate monument, saying it was unlawful after a confrontation with counter-protesters. But organizer Tony Crawford, of Parker County Progressives, said police did not seem to know what to do and failed to protect the protesters.

Crawford's group and Fort Worth-based Enough is Enough coordinated the protest on Saturday that supported removal of the statue. The groups had planned to march from a city park to the Parker County Courthouse. But they were met with hundreds of counter-protesters who thought the statue would be damaged.

Some in the crowd carried Confederate flags, yelled racial slurs and threw water bottles, Crawford said.

“It got to a point where I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to get everybody out of there safely,” Crawford said. “We don’t want to touch that statue because anything that happens to that statue is going to get blamed on me.”

Jim Webster, a former Parker County commissioner, was among the counter-protesters. He said citizens stood up to bullies that came to take down their statue.

Videos show a counter-protester punching a protester in the head. Others show a counter-protester brandishing a knife and a man charging into protesters.

Parker County Judge Pat Deen said two people were arrested. Weatherford police did not immediately respond to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's request for comment on Sunday.

Deen said the state chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy owns the statue and they are planning to move it to another location once they can fund the move.

Deen said the county commissioners will hold a special meeting Thursday "to agree and approve the statue can remain” till that group has the funds to move it.

On Sunday, a Portland Protest Rally and a Back the Blue Rally in Tyler turned violent. Democratic congressional candidate Hank Gilbert of Tyler held the original rally, while a Back the Blue Rally started later on the downtown square.

One person was choked, a woman said she was punched and Gilbert's campaign manager Ryan Miller was cut on the face. Supporters of Gilbert's opponent, Congressman Louie Gohmert, brutally beat and assaulted Miller, according to Gilbert's campaign staff's Sunday press release.

But supporters of President Donald Trump said they were provoked.

Tyler Police took statements from protesters, but Gilbert said that was not enough.

“The Tyler police were idly driving around the square in their patrol cars, and waving at the counter-protesters who were heavily armed,” Gilbert said.

Andy Erbaugh, the department’s public information officer, said officers responded quickly and no arrests were made.

Gilbert is calling on Governor Greg Abbott and the city of Tyler to investigate the Tyler Police Department.

[Jungle Rat]

So fucking stupid

[aTm]

[AlabamAlum]

Img2, please.

[AlabamAlum]

Also, is hedge still around? And Stu?

[eCat]

Stu doesn't show up very often anymore

[AlabamAlum]

And Hedge?

[eCat]

he is normally here daily but hasn't been here in a few days

admittedly we are pretty polarized right now

[sardis]

Trump probably wishes the congressional judicial committee vs. Bill Barr was an every day occurrence right up through to the election.

[eCat]

I haven 't heard much about it.

I tried to watch it but Nadler was grandstanding so much while calling out Trump for grandstanding, I couldn't stomach it for more than a few minutes.

[crotch]

Disgusting bunch of democrats.... Good news is they're costing votes in Nov election. Keep it up morons.

[eCat]

demanding a reckoning......be careful what you wish for

-------------------------------

The federal government will be fined for a maximum amount of $500 for every 15 minutes it maintains a fence around the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, which protesters have attempted to breach during nightly ongoing riots, officials in Portland said.

“As of yesterday, the federal government owes us $192,000 and counting,” City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who oversees the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), said in a statement on Tuesday. She added that the city intends to collect.

The fence was initially erected around the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse last week to try to de-escalate tensions between rioters and federal agents as they launched projectiles and made attempts to breach and set fire to the courthouse.

The PBOT “filed a cease-and-desist letter” last week demanding that the federal government remove the “unauthorized fence,” according to the statement. Commissioner Eudaly said the fence is obstructing the city streets.

Eudaly said she is “committed to doing everything in [her] power to end this federal occupation and move forward with the reckoning of our community with racial injustice and our efforts. To transform our approach to surveillance and public safety.”

Democratic city and state leaders, including Eudaly, accuse federal agents of escalating violence in the city. But according to video evidence and officials, the officers and agents appear to be reacting to criminal actions by rioters, including damaging federal property and assaulting law enforcement.

Federal officials previously announced no response is necessary if crowds stay away from the courthouse and the new fencing, which violent demonstrators have repeatedly set fire to and attempted to damage before the barrier was erected; recently they’ve focused their energy on pulling the fence down with saws, ropes, chains, hammers, and other tools.

On Monday, a crowd of several hundred people blocked streets around the courthouse, a common occurrence, and spent hours yelling, chanting, banging on the fence, and throwing objects at the building. Just before midnight, rioters started launching mortar-style fireworks and some began climbing over the fence. Others used umbrellas and shields to cover a person trying to cut through it.

Eudaly said in her statement that only a few protesters have shown violence and these few actions should not negate the rights of others to exercise their freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble.

“The response of law enforcement should be proportional to the infractions. Indiscriminately tear-gassing and firing impact munitions at thousands of peaceful protesters is not a proportionate response,” Eudaly said.

Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said at the press conference earlier this month that the department fully supports and will protect those who wish to peacefully protest in Portland, but what officers are seeing every night “is the complete opposite.”

The unrest in Portland follows a daily pattern, according to Deputy Director of the Federal Protective Service (FPS) Richard Cline. From roughly 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., peaceful protesters assemble and demonstrate. After midnight, violence organized by agitators breaks out. The federal response to the violence has as a result been wrongly described as targeting peaceful protests, he said.

“What is occurring in Portland in the early hours of every morning is not peaceful protesting, these individuals are organized and they have one mission in mind: to burn down or to cause extreme damage to the federal courthouse and to law enforcement officers,” Wolf said.

“We see them planning their attacks, and yet the city of Portland takes little to no action to stop or disperse this crowd,” he continued. “These individuals carry lasers, baseball bats, explosive fireworks, metal pipes, glass bottles, accelerants, and other weapons all targeting federal facilities and federal law enforcement.”

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland) has demanded the resignation of Wolf, stating that “any person who oversees the kidnapping of protesters and the violent occupation of American cities has no place in our government,” pointing to the acting secretary.

Eudaly added that the city will be closely monitoring state and federal action and provide support wherever they can. She also said that normally the city “would send a maintenance crew or contractor” to remove an obstruction like the fence, “but I will not send workers into harm’s way,” she added.

[crotch]

[eCat]

they are only doing what the DNC crowd wants.

Let social workers provide security

[crotch]

Let social workers provide security

Maybe they can 'sweet talk' em into behaving.......

[AlabamAlum]

he is normally here daily but hasn't been here in a few days

admittedly we are pretty polarized right now

Polarized? Politics or sports wise?

[eCat]

politics

[AlabamAlum]

Ahh. Pity. Politics is depressing. Not sure what can even be gained by arguing them. Which is easier for me to say because I abhor all of them and find them about nearly identical in substantive outcomes.

Anyway...

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to a friend said something along the lines of, ‘I will never withdraw from a friend over a difference of opinions on politics.’ (Something close to that, my Google-Fu is failing me).

Now you guys hug it out.

Anyway. I was looking for hedge/Stu (and others) because I had a layover in Charlotte. Was going to try to arrange a bar get-together. Maybe next time.

Roll Tide.