Monday, August 31, 2020
Sunday, August 30, 2020
AL SHARPTON, WITH SHEILA JACKSON LEE AT HIS SIDE, HELD A RALLY OF 200,000 TRUMP-HATERS
Friday's March on Washington, that was organized and led by Al Sharpton in protest of police violence against Blacks, attracted an estimated crowd of 200,000.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 29, 2020
To commemorate Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech 57 years ago, 200,000 Trump-haters showed up for a March on Washington Friday in protest of police violence against Blacks.
The rally was organized and held by race-baiter Al Sharpton. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial along side of Sharpton. was none other than Houston's embarrassing contribution to Congress, Sheila Jackson Lee.
When Jackson Lee addressed the crowd she said:
"We must answer the call of institutional racism ... now, today, this attack on us as people of color, who died on the battles of warfare, who have died on the streets for civil rights, it will stop today. We will heal the nation, but we will not stop until the nation knows Black lives matter and reparations are passed as the most significant civil rights legislation of the 21st century."
Ah, another call for reparations .
Jackson Lee Lee has no problem standing alongside a charlatan with a very sordid past. Sharpton was an unofficial adviser to President Obama with an open invitation to the White House during the Obama presidency.
Sharpton also gave the eulogy at George Floyd's funeral in Houston. His eulogy was mostly an attack on President Trump whom he accused of showing indifference over Floyd's death, and sending police a signal of impunity.
Sharpton is held in high esteem, but most people are not aware of his sordid past.
Here is the real Al Shrpton:
Sharpton rose to fame in 1987 by stoking racial tensions over a rape hoax. A New York teen, Tawana Brawley, falsely accused four white men of raping her in the woods of Wappingers Falls, New York. She claimed, after the assault, the men wrapped her in a feces-covered bag covered with racial slurs. Sharpton and two attorneys charged that officials all the way up to the state government were trying to cover up defendants in the case because they were white. After a lengthy investigation, a grand jury found that the allegations were a hoax.
Then there was the 1991 Crown Heights riot in New York that was led by Sharpton. The riot started after a Jewish driver accidentally struck a young black child. The rioters terrorized that Jewish community for nearly four days, during which 183 people were injured and an innocent visiting Jewish-Australian university student was murdered in cold blood amid cries of ‘Kill the Jew! Kill the Jew!”
The Crown Heights riot caused former Houston police chief Lee Brown to be fired from his New York Police Commissioner's job.
In 1995, Sharpton turned a non-racial economic dispute into a racial conflict.
The United House of Prayer, a large African-American church, was also a major landlord in Harlem. They raised the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned clothing store which had operated from the same Harlem location for over 40 years. In turn, Freddy's had to raise the rent on its sub-tenant, a black-owned record store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensued.
Sharpton showed up and incited a crowd with anti-Semitic outbursts that led to the fire-bombing of Freddy's which caused the deaths of seven store employees and customers.
And in 2006, there was the case in which three members of the Duke lacrosse team were falsely accused of raping a black woman. Without any facts, Al Sharpton showed up in Durham to declare that these "rich white boys” had attacked a ”black girl,” and he warned that, if arrests were not made immediately, there would be no peace. And just like with Tawana Brawley, it was later proven that the woman had totally invented the story and all charges against the defendants were dropped.
Sharpton should have been imprisoned for inciting the Crown Heights riot and the fire bombing of Freddy's Fashion Mart.. Instead, this dangerous rabble rouser became the host of a political talk show on MSNBC and an Obama adviser.
So, now a thoroughly discredited race-baiter holds a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial which turns out be an attack on President Trump and the police. Those 200,000 attendees were probably Trump-haters to begin with. You can bet they, along with their families and friends, are a cinch to vote for Biden-Harris. That's a sizable chunk of the electorate.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 29, 2020
To commemorate Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech 57 years ago, 200,000 Trump-haters showed up for a March on Washington Friday in protest of police violence against Blacks.
The rally was organized and held by race-baiter Al Sharpton. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial along side of Sharpton. was none other than Houston's embarrassing contribution to Congress, Sheila Jackson Lee.
When Jackson Lee addressed the crowd she said:
"We must answer the call of institutional racism ... now, today, this attack on us as people of color, who died on the battles of warfare, who have died on the streets for civil rights, it will stop today. We will heal the nation, but we will not stop until the nation knows Black lives matter and reparations are passed as the most significant civil rights legislation of the 21st century."
Ah, another call for reparations .
Jackson Lee Lee has no problem standing alongside a charlatan with a very sordid past. Sharpton was an unofficial adviser to President Obama with an open invitation to the White House during the Obama presidency.
Sharpton also gave the eulogy at George Floyd's funeral in Houston. His eulogy was mostly an attack on President Trump whom he accused of showing indifference over Floyd's death, and sending police a signal of impunity.
Sharpton is held in high esteem, but most people are not aware of his sordid past.
Here is the real Al Shrpton:
Sharpton rose to fame in 1987 by stoking racial tensions over a rape hoax. A New York teen, Tawana Brawley, falsely accused four white men of raping her in the woods of Wappingers Falls, New York. She claimed, after the assault, the men wrapped her in a feces-covered bag covered with racial slurs. Sharpton and two attorneys charged that officials all the way up to the state government were trying to cover up defendants in the case because they were white. After a lengthy investigation, a grand jury found that the allegations were a hoax.
Then there was the 1991 Crown Heights riot in New York that was led by Sharpton. The riot started after a Jewish driver accidentally struck a young black child. The rioters terrorized that Jewish community for nearly four days, during which 183 people were injured and an innocent visiting Jewish-Australian university student was murdered in cold blood amid cries of ‘Kill the Jew! Kill the Jew!”
The Crown Heights riot caused former Houston police chief Lee Brown to be fired from his New York Police Commissioner's job.
In 1995, Sharpton turned a non-racial economic dispute into a racial conflict.
The United House of Prayer, a large African-American church, was also a major landlord in Harlem. They raised the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned clothing store which had operated from the same Harlem location for over 40 years. In turn, Freddy's had to raise the rent on its sub-tenant, a black-owned record store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensued.
Sharpton showed up and incited a crowd with anti-Semitic outbursts that led to the fire-bombing of Freddy's which caused the deaths of seven store employees and customers.
And in 2006, there was the case in which three members of the Duke lacrosse team were falsely accused of raping a black woman. Without any facts, Al Sharpton showed up in Durham to declare that these "rich white boys” had attacked a ”black girl,” and he warned that, if arrests were not made immediately, there would be no peace. And just like with Tawana Brawley, it was later proven that the woman had totally invented the story and all charges against the defendants were dropped.
Sharpton should have been imprisoned for inciting the Crown Heights riot and the fire bombing of Freddy's Fashion Mart.. Instead, this dangerous rabble rouser became the host of a political talk show on MSNBC and an Obama adviser.
So, now a thoroughly discredited race-baiter holds a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial which turns out be an attack on President Trump and the police. Those 200,000 attendees were probably Trump-haters to begin with. You can bet they, along with their families and friends, are a cinch to vote for Biden-Harris. That's a sizable chunk of the electorate.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
PAT LYNCH SPEAKS NOT ONLY FOR NY COPS, BUT FOR ALL OF THE NATION'S LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS
'We have a real leader. We have President Donald J. Trump. You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America'
Here is a transcript of Patrick Lynch's speech to the RNC:
This is Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, speaking to you on behalf of 50,000 active and retired New York City police officers.
We are the men and women who wear a shield on our chests and put ourselves in harm’s way to protect our city, every single day.
We are endorsing our president, Donald J. Trump, for re-election because the stakes have never been higher.
Like cops across this country, we are staring down the barrel of a public safety disaster.
More than one thousand people have been shot and three hundred killed in New York City so far this year.
These aren’t numbers. These are people.
A father gunned down while holding his seven-year-old daughter’s hand.
A beloved neighborhood peacemaker killed by a stray bullet.
A 17-year-old who made all the right choices, who worked hard to go to college and earn a sports scholarship, murdered before he could tell his mother the news.
A one-year old child shot dead in his stroller.
Every day, our communities are asking us:
Why is this happening?
The answer is simple: The Democrats have walked away from us.
Democratic politicians have surrendered our streets and institutions.
The loudest voices have taken control, and our so-called “leaders” are scrambling to catch up to them.
In city after city, they have slashed police budgets.
They have hijacked and dismantled the criminal justice system.
They have passed laws that made it impossible for police officers to do our job.
The violence and chaos we’re seeing now isn’t a side effect.
It’s actually the goal.
The radical left doesn’t really want better policing.
They don’t really care about making the justice system fairer.
What they want is no policing.
What they want is a justice system that stops working altogether.
Wherever Democrats are in power, the radical left is getting exactly what they want.
And our country is suffering for it.
I have been a New York City police officer for 36 years.
I’ve never seen our streets go this bad so quickly.
I’ve never heard from so many cops, from every corner of the country, who are saying the same thing: “Our hands are tied.”
Something has to change.
If we are going to turn the tide and restore law and order, we cannot fall into the left’s trap.
There is nobody who hates bad cops more than good cops, but that doesn’t matter to the radical left.
To them, we’re all bad, because we’re all blue.
Their anti-law enforcement campaign isn’t about a single incident.
It’s about a message:
The message is: police officers are the enemy.
The message is: criminals have the right to resist arrest.
The message is: if you victimize a vulnerable person, the justice system will not hold you accountable.
The criminals have heard that message, and they are taking full advantage.
We must stop that message.
We must expose the left’s lies about police officers and the job we do.
And we will do that, because we have something they don’t.
We have a real leader.
We have President Donald J. Trump.
Unlike the Democrats, who are running in fear of the mob in the street, President Trump has never apologized for standing up for law and order.
Unlike the Democrats, who froze in the face of rioting and looting, President Trump gives law enforcement the support and tools to put a stop to it – period, end of story.
It has never been harder to be a police officer in this country.
But there are two things that keep us going:
We look at the victims, the vulnerable, the regular working people who count on us.
We know we can’t let them down.
And we hear the words of our President, who says to cops everywhere “I will never let you down.”
We’ve been fortunate to have his powerful voice defending police officers.
We know that we absolutely cannot afford to lose it.
When it comes to your safety, your families’ safety and the safety of all Americans, there is no other choice.
You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.
You can have four more years of President Trump.
Or you can have no safety, no justice, no peace.
Here is a transcript of Patrick Lynch's speech to the RNC:
This is Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, speaking to you on behalf of 50,000 active and retired New York City police officers.
We are the men and women who wear a shield on our chests and put ourselves in harm’s way to protect our city, every single day.
We are endorsing our president, Donald J. Trump, for re-election because the stakes have never been higher.
Like cops across this country, we are staring down the barrel of a public safety disaster.
More than one thousand people have been shot and three hundred killed in New York City so far this year.
These aren’t numbers. These are people.
A father gunned down while holding his seven-year-old daughter’s hand.
A beloved neighborhood peacemaker killed by a stray bullet.
A 17-year-old who made all the right choices, who worked hard to go to college and earn a sports scholarship, murdered before he could tell his mother the news.
A one-year old child shot dead in his stroller.
Every day, our communities are asking us:
Why is this happening?
The answer is simple: The Democrats have walked away from us.
Democratic politicians have surrendered our streets and institutions.
The loudest voices have taken control, and our so-called “leaders” are scrambling to catch up to them.
In city after city, they have slashed police budgets.
They have hijacked and dismantled the criminal justice system.
They have passed laws that made it impossible for police officers to do our job.
The violence and chaos we’re seeing now isn’t a side effect.
It’s actually the goal.
The radical left doesn’t really want better policing.
They don’t really care about making the justice system fairer.
What they want is no policing.
What they want is a justice system that stops working altogether.
Wherever Democrats are in power, the radical left is getting exactly what they want.
And our country is suffering for it.
I have been a New York City police officer for 36 years.
I’ve never seen our streets go this bad so quickly.
I’ve never heard from so many cops, from every corner of the country, who are saying the same thing: “Our hands are tied.”
Something has to change.
If we are going to turn the tide and restore law and order, we cannot fall into the left’s trap.
There is nobody who hates bad cops more than good cops, but that doesn’t matter to the radical left.
To them, we’re all bad, because we’re all blue.
Their anti-law enforcement campaign isn’t about a single incident.
It’s about a message:
The message is: police officers are the enemy.
The message is: criminals have the right to resist arrest.
The message is: if you victimize a vulnerable person, the justice system will not hold you accountable.
The criminals have heard that message, and they are taking full advantage.
We must stop that message.
We must expose the left’s lies about police officers and the job we do.
And we will do that, because we have something they don’t.
We have a real leader.
We have President Donald J. Trump.
Unlike the Democrats, who are running in fear of the mob in the street, President Trump has never apologized for standing up for law and order.
Unlike the Democrats, who froze in the face of rioting and looting, President Trump gives law enforcement the support and tools to put a stop to it – period, end of story.
It has never been harder to be a police officer in this country.
But there are two things that keep us going:
We look at the victims, the vulnerable, the regular working people who count on us.
We know we can’t let them down.
And we hear the words of our President, who says to cops everywhere “I will never let you down.”
We’ve been fortunate to have his powerful voice defending police officers.
We know that we absolutely cannot afford to lose it.
When it comes to your safety, your families’ safety and the safety of all Americans, there is no other choice.
You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.
You can have four more years of President Trump.
Or you can have no safety, no justice, no peace.
Friday, August 28, 2020
IT'S TIME TO REVISIT IKE DIKE!
We lucked out with Laura ... but what if we hadn't?
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 27, 2020
Hurricane Laura devastated southwest Louisiana, causing billions of dollars in damage and destruction.
We lucked out with Laura ... but what if we hadn't?
If Galveston and Houston had taken a direct hit from Laura, many thousands of homes and business would have been damaged or destroyed and hundreds of lives would have been lost.
Sooner or later, a catastrophic hurricane on a scale of Laura is bound to make a direct hit on Houston and Galveston.
It's time to revisit Ike Dike!
The Ike Dike was proposed by Professor Bill Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston in the aftermath of 2008's Hurricane Ike.
Merrell's proposal was designed to protect Galveston beyond its seawall and to protect the Bolivar Peninsula, the Galveston Bay area and Houston from hurricane storm surges by extending the Galveston Seawall and constructing flood gates similar to those used in the Netherlands. The cost of the Ike Dike was, at the time, estimated to be $4 billion.
Eco-nuts immediately objected to the Ike Dike. They squealed like stuck pigs over the thought that the flood gates would interfere with the migration of marine life despite the fact that the gates would be shut only during a storm. The Eco-nuts made the ridiculous assertion that a natural barrier of sand dunes would work better than Dr. Merrell's Ike Dike.
Next, Rice University threw a monkey wrench into Merrell's proposal by recommending the construction of a flood gate across the Houston ship channel in place of the Ike Dike so as to protect Houston's enormous petrochemical industry. I am not a hydraulic engineer, but it would seem like a flood gate across the ship channel would push a strong storm surge backwards to the sides of the channel, thereby destroying countless homes.
Of course, the biggest objection to the Ike Dike was its estimated cost of $4 billion. Never mind that the Army Corps of Engineers spent $14 billion after 2005's Hurricane Katrina to upgrade New Orleans' flood control system.
In 2020, Texas Governor Rick Perry came out in favor of the Ike Dike and created the Governor's Commission on Disaster Recovery and Renewal to examine regional approaches to storm surge suppression and to secure the same degree of funding from the federal government that was awarded to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. A public corporation for Harris, Galveston, Chambers, Brazoria, Orange and Jefferson counties was established for that purpose. But nothing other than some jawing has come from that corporation.
Some of you may recall that in 2017 I wrote an article for Big Jolly Times in which I pushed for the construction of the Ike Dike (Will the Houston-Galveston Area Ever Get the Protection of the Ike Dike? June 29, 2017).
Greg Degeyter made several outstanding comments, including one questioning my notion that a flood gate across the ship channel would cause more flooding of homes.
Almost all the other comments were in opposition to the Ike Dike, either because people should not have built homes in flood prone areas, so fuck 'em,, or the government should not be spending money it does not have.
As for homes in flood prone areas, I don't have any sympathy for people who have built beach-front houses. But without any protection, a strong storm surge would damage or destroy thousands of homes in Houston which are not in flood prone areas and which are not near any beaches.
As for the government spending money it doesn't have, it's been doing that for as long as I can remember. The government has been funding the military, congress, the executive branch, the justice syatem, the health and education departments, etc., etc. with money it doesn't have.
And public safety is one of the most important responsibilities of government. That's why we have the police and prisons. Protecting people from a storm surge is a public safety issue.
We dodged a bullet this time. We might not be as lucky with the next Gulf hurricane. It's not too late to build the Ike Dike. If the government can spend $14 billion to protect New Orleans with fewer than 400,000 people, it ought to spend even twice as much to protect the Houston-Galveston area which has a population of several million people.
The Ike Dike is a great idea. It has the potential of saving property worth far more than the cost to build it. And it will save many lives. We should demand that it be constructed without anymore never-ending studies.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 27, 2020
Hurricane Laura devastated southwest Louisiana, causing billions of dollars in damage and destruction.
We lucked out with Laura ... but what if we hadn't?
If Galveston and Houston had taken a direct hit from Laura, many thousands of homes and business would have been damaged or destroyed and hundreds of lives would have been lost.
Sooner or later, a catastrophic hurricane on a scale of Laura is bound to make a direct hit on Houston and Galveston.
It's time to revisit Ike Dike!
The Ike Dike was proposed by Professor Bill Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston in the aftermath of 2008's Hurricane Ike.
Merrell's proposal was designed to protect Galveston beyond its seawall and to protect the Bolivar Peninsula, the Galveston Bay area and Houston from hurricane storm surges by extending the Galveston Seawall and constructing flood gates similar to those used in the Netherlands. The cost of the Ike Dike was, at the time, estimated to be $4 billion.
Eco-nuts immediately objected to the Ike Dike. They squealed like stuck pigs over the thought that the flood gates would interfere with the migration of marine life despite the fact that the gates would be shut only during a storm. The Eco-nuts made the ridiculous assertion that a natural barrier of sand dunes would work better than Dr. Merrell's Ike Dike.
Next, Rice University threw a monkey wrench into Merrell's proposal by recommending the construction of a flood gate across the Houston ship channel in place of the Ike Dike so as to protect Houston's enormous petrochemical industry. I am not a hydraulic engineer, but it would seem like a flood gate across the ship channel would push a strong storm surge backwards to the sides of the channel, thereby destroying countless homes.
Of course, the biggest objection to the Ike Dike was its estimated cost of $4 billion. Never mind that the Army Corps of Engineers spent $14 billion after 2005's Hurricane Katrina to upgrade New Orleans' flood control system.
In 2020, Texas Governor Rick Perry came out in favor of the Ike Dike and created the Governor's Commission on Disaster Recovery and Renewal to examine regional approaches to storm surge suppression and to secure the same degree of funding from the federal government that was awarded to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. A public corporation for Harris, Galveston, Chambers, Brazoria, Orange and Jefferson counties was established for that purpose. But nothing other than some jawing has come from that corporation.
Some of you may recall that in 2017 I wrote an article for Big Jolly Times in which I pushed for the construction of the Ike Dike (Will the Houston-Galveston Area Ever Get the Protection of the Ike Dike? June 29, 2017).
Greg Degeyter made several outstanding comments, including one questioning my notion that a flood gate across the ship channel would cause more flooding of homes.
Almost all the other comments were in opposition to the Ike Dike, either because people should not have built homes in flood prone areas, so fuck 'em,, or the government should not be spending money it does not have.
As for homes in flood prone areas, I don't have any sympathy for people who have built beach-front houses. But without any protection, a strong storm surge would damage or destroy thousands of homes in Houston which are not in flood prone areas and which are not near any beaches.
As for the government spending money it doesn't have, it's been doing that for as long as I can remember. The government has been funding the military, congress, the executive branch, the justice syatem, the health and education departments, etc., etc. with money it doesn't have.
And public safety is one of the most important responsibilities of government. That's why we have the police and prisons. Protecting people from a storm surge is a public safety issue.
We dodged a bullet this time. We might not be as lucky with the next Gulf hurricane. It's not too late to build the Ike Dike. If the government can spend $14 billion to protect New Orleans with fewer than 400,000 people, it ought to spend even twice as much to protect the Houston-Galveston area which has a population of several million people.
The Ike Dike is a great idea. It has the potential of saving property worth far more than the cost to build it. And it will save many lives. We should demand that it be constructed without anymore never-ending studies.
GOOD, BUT SOMEWHAT TOO LONG
President Trump's acceptance speech was good, but Ivanka's introduction was better
By Howie Katz
I watched last night's acceptance speech by President Trump. It was good but somewhat too long.
I wish he had mentioned that since day one he had been the victim of daily smears by the media and attempts by the Democrats to remove him from office or destroy his presidency.
I think the speech could have used fewer thank yous.
Since I did not watch Biden's speech, I cannot compare the two.
I thought Ivanka's introduction was better than her father's speech.
By Howie Katz
I watched last night's acceptance speech by President Trump. It was good but somewhat too long.
I wish he had mentioned that since day one he had been the victim of daily smears by the media and attempts by the Democrats to remove him from office or destroy his presidency.
I think the speech could have used fewer thank yous.
Since I did not watch Biden's speech, I cannot compare the two.
I thought Ivanka's introduction was better than her father's speech.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
CARDI B(ITCH) ATTACKS MELANIA SAYYING THE FIRST LADY USED TO SELL HER WET-ASS PUSSY
"Didn't she used to sell that WAP"?: Cardi B posts naked photo of First Lady Melania Trump following RNC speech
Daily Mail
August 26, 2020
'Didn't she used to sell that Wap?' tweeted Cardi, 27, alongside the image. 'This pic giving me 'yea you fuckin wit some wet ass pussy' vibes ...just sayin,' she said in a follow-up tweet.
Daily Mail
August 26, 2020
Republican pundit DeAnna Lorraine tweeted that 'America
needs far more women like Melania Trump and far less like Cardi B'
Tuesday night, following Melania's speech closing out night two of the
Republican National Convention.
Democrat supporter Cardi B responded to Lorraine's post by sharing a photo of Melania naked from her modeling days.
'Didn't she used to sell that Wap?' tweeted Cardi, 27, alongside the image. 'This pic giving me 'yea you fuckin wit some wet ass pussy' vibes ...just sayin,' she said in a follow-up tweet.
WAP, which stands for Wet-Ass Pussy, was coined by the Grammy
award-winning rapper in her sex-positive anthem featuring Megan Thee
Stallion, which just spent a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot
100.
Lorraine leaped to the First Lady's defense telling Cardi that her
claims about Melania are a 'complete lie' and that she 'should be
ashamed'.
What's not a lie is that you are absolutely destroying America's youth with your lyrics and should be ashamed of yourself.'
The photo posted by Cardi Tuesday came from a 1995 shoot for now-defunct French magazine Max when Melania was 25.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Filthy black bitch Cardi B has admitted she robbed men when she worked as a stripper. That means she was also a whore at the time.
A fully naked Melania has a hundred times more class than a performer who sings trash while dancing half-naked.
The future of our country looks grim when a whore who robbed men commands an extraordinary huge following.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Filthy black bitch Cardi B has admitted she robbed men when she worked as a stripper. That means she was also a whore at the time.
A fully naked Melania has a hundred times more class than a performer who sings trash while dancing half-naked.
The future of our country looks grim when a whore who robbed men commands an extraordinary huge following.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
NIKKI FOR PRESIDENT
The Democrats say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country
Here is a transcript of Nikki Haley's speech to the RNC:
Here is a transcript of Nikki Haley's speech to the RNC:
Good evening. It is great to be back at the Republican National Convention.
I'll
start with a little story. It's about an American Ambassador to the
United Nations. And it's about a speech she gave to this convention. She
called for the re-election of the Republican President she served...
And she called out his Democratic opponent... a former vice president
from a failed administration.
That
ambassador said, and I quote, "Democrats always blame America first."
The year was 1984. The president was Ronald Reagan. And Ambassador Jeane
Kirkpatrick's words are just as true today.
Joe
Biden and the Democrats are still blaming America first. Donald Trump
has always put America first. He has earned four more years as
President.
It
was an honor of a lifetime to serve as the United States ambassador to
the United Nations. Now, the U.N. is not for the faint of heart. It's a
place where dictators-murderers-&-thieves denounce America... and
then put their hands out and demand that we pay their bills.
Well,
President Trump put an end to all that. With his leadership, we did
what Barack Obama and Joe Biden refused to do. We stood up for
America... and we stood against our enemies.
Obama
and Biden let North Korea threaten America. President Trump rejected
that weakness, and we passed the toughest sanctions on North Korea in
history.
Obama and Biden let Iran
get away with murder and literally sent them a plane full of cash.
President Trump did the right thing and ripped up the Iran nuclear deal.
Obama
and Biden led the United Nations to denounce our friend and ally,
Israel. President Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem -- and when the
U.N. tried to condemn us, I was proud to cast the American veto.
This
President has a record of strength and success. The former Vice
President has a record of weakness and failure. Joe Biden is good for
Iran and ISIS... great for Communist China... and he's a godsend to
everyone who wants America to apologize, abstain, and abandon our
values.
Donald Trump takes a
different approach. He's tough on China, and he took on ISIS and won.
And he tells the world what it needs to hear.
At
home, the President is the clear choice on jobs and the economy. He's
moved America forward, while Joe Biden held America back.
When
Joe was VP, I was governor of the great state of South Carolina. We had
a pretty good run. Manufacturers of all kinds flocked to our state from
overseas, creating tens of thousands of American jobs. People were
referring to South Carolina as "the beast of the southeast," which I
loved.
Everything we did happened in spite of Joe Biden and his old boss.
We cut taxes. They raised them. We slashed red tape. They piled on more mandates.
And when we brought in good-paying jobs, Biden and Obama sued us. I fought back... and they gave up.
A
Biden-Harris administration would be much, much worse. Last time, Joe's
boss was Obama... this time, it would be Pelosi, Sanders, and the
Squad. Their vision for America is socialism. And we know that socialism
has failed everywhere.
They want
to tell Americans how to live... and what to think. They want a
government takeover of health care. They want to ban fracking and kill
millions of jobs. They want massive tax hikes on working families.
Joe Biden and the socialist left would be a disaster for our economy. But President Trump is leading a new era of opportunity.
Before
Communist China gave us the coronavirus, we were breaking economic
records left and right. The pandemic has set us back, but not for long.
President Trump brought our economy back before, and he will bring it
back again.
There's one more
important area where our President is right. He knows that political
correctness and "cancel culture" are dangerous and just plain wrong.
In
much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say that America
is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country.
This
is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They
came to America and settled in a small southern town. My father wore a
turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white
world.
We faced discrimination and
hardship. But my parents never gave in to grievance and hate. My mom
built a successful business. My dad taught 30 years at a historically
black college. And the people of South Carolina chose me as their first
minority and first female governor.
America
is a story that's a work in progress. Now is the time to build on that
progress, and make America even freer, fairer, and better for everyone.
That's why it's tragic to see so much of the Democratic Party turn a
blind eye toward riots and rage.
The American people know we can do better. And of course we know that every single black life is valuable.
The
black cops who've been shot in the line of duty -- they matter. The
black small business owners who've watched their life's work go up in
flames -- they matter. The black kids who've been gunned down on the
playground -- their lives matter too. And their lives are being ruined
and stolen by the violence on our streets.
It
doesn't have to be like this. It wasn't like this in South Carolina
five years ago. Our state came face-to-face with evil. A white
supremacist walked into Mother Emanuel Church during Bible Study. Twelve
African Americans pulled up a chair and prayed with him for an hour.
Then he began to shoot.
After that
horrific tragedy, we didn't turn against each other. We came together --
black and white, Democrat and Republican. Together, we made the hard
choices needed to heal -- and removed a divisive symbol, peacefully and
respectfully.
What happened then
should give us hope now. America isn't perfect. But the principles we
hold dear are perfect. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that even
on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America.
It's time to keep that blessing alive for the next generation. This President, and this Party, are committed to that noble task.
We
seek a nation that rises together, not falls apart in anarchy and
anger. We know that the only way to overcome America's challenges is to
embrace America's strengths.
We are striving to reach a brighter future...
Where every child goes to a world-class school, chosen by their parents...
Where every family lives in a safe community with good jobs...
Where every entrepreneur has the freedom to achieve and inspire...
Where every believer can worship without fear and every life is protected...
Where every girl and boy, every woman and man, of every race and religion, has the best shot at the best life.
In
this election, we must choose the only candidate who has and who will
continue delivering on that vision. President Trump and Vice President
Pence have my support.
And
America has our promise. We will build on the progress of our past and
unlock the promise of our future. That future starts when the American
people re-elect President Donald Trump.
Thank you. Good night. And may God always bless America.
EDITOR'S NOTE: What a magnificent speech!
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
RATS THAT JUMPED OFF A SINKING SHIP
Republican rats have jumped ship to endorse Biden
By Howie Katz
Fox News reports that former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake has endorsed Joe Biden. He was joined by Senators Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire (now an independent) and John Warner of Virginia.
The following former Republican members of Congress have also endorsed Biden:
Reps. Steve Bartlett of Texas, Bill Clinger of Pennsylvania, Tom Coleman of Missouri, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Charles Djou of Hawaii, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Steve Kuykendall of California, Ray LaHood of Illinois (who served as Transportation secretary in the Obama administration), Jim Leach of Iowa, Connie Morella of Maryland, Mike Parker of Mississippi, Jack Quinn of New York, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, Chris Shays of Connecticut, Peter Smith of Vermont, Alan Steelman of Texas, Bill Whitehurst of Virginia, Dick Zimmer of New Jersey, and Jim Walsh of New York.
Biden and Kamala Harris must be doing a jig over this news.
But what will the Republican rats do if, after all, the voters keep the ship afloat?
By Howie Katz
Fox News reports that former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake has endorsed Joe Biden. He was joined by Senators Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire (now an independent) and John Warner of Virginia.
The following former Republican members of Congress have also endorsed Biden:
Reps. Steve Bartlett of Texas, Bill Clinger of Pennsylvania, Tom Coleman of Missouri, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Charles Djou of Hawaii, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Steve Kuykendall of California, Ray LaHood of Illinois (who served as Transportation secretary in the Obama administration), Jim Leach of Iowa, Connie Morella of Maryland, Mike Parker of Mississippi, Jack Quinn of New York, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, Chris Shays of Connecticut, Peter Smith of Vermont, Alan Steelman of Texas, Bill Whitehurst of Virginia, Dick Zimmer of New Jersey, and Jim Walsh of New York.
Biden and Kamala Harris must be doing a jig over this news.
But what will the Republican rats do if, after all, the voters keep the ship afloat?
THE DOWNSIDE OF PIT MANEUVERS
Deadly force behind the wheel
“They did not need to kill my child,” she said. “For what?” she asked through a translator. “I had not realized that Saturday when we went to work that it would be the last time I would talk to my daughter.”
Shortly
before midnight on March 28, 2017, a silver Dodge Caravan streaked past
Highway Patrol Trooper Dustin A. Motsinger as he sat parked along a stretch of highway in rural North Carolina. Motsinger raced after
the speeding van. The driver stopped, but as the trooper climbed out of
his cruiser, the van drove off. Motsinger gave chase.
Inside the van that night, 15-year-old Osiel Carbajal was at the wheel.
His passengers: his 16-year-old sister, her 15-year-old boyfriend and a
15-year-old friend. The teens had taken the van without permission from
Carbajal’s mother in nearby Morven.
“Possibly 55, they’re all over the place,” Motsinger told his supervisor on the radio, using the code for a drunk driver.
“If you can PIT him, go ahead,” said the supervisor.
As the teens crossed the Anson County line at 100 mph, Motsinger caught
up with them. Then, he bumped his Dodge Charger into the right rear
quarter panel of the Caravan, sending it off the road.
The van flipped and began to cartwheel, landing almost 500 feet away.
The force sheared the wheels from the left side of the vehicle. The
impact hurled three of the teens from the Caravan. Two of them died. One
broke his back. The driver suffered minor injuries.
The trooper’s maneuver was no accident — it was a PIT, or precision immobilization technique, a tactical driving maneuver for which he’d been trained.
In a successful PIT, the pursuing officer uses their cruiser to push
the fleeing vehicle’s rear end sideways, sending it into a spin and
ending the pursuit. But the tactic can have deadly consequences.
So far this year, nine people have been killed nationwide in PIT maneuvers, including a 16-year-old who was driving a stolen car in Longmont, Colo., and a driver and their passenger who were being chased by police for speeding in Creek County, Okla. Just this month, a 29-year-old suspected drunk driver who fled a traffic stop in Coweta County, Ga., died after a PIT maneuver.
Since 2016 at least 30 people have died and hundreds have been injured —
including some officers — when police used the maneuver to end
pursuits, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
Out of those deaths, 18 came after officers attempted to stop vehicles
for minor traffic violations such as speeding. In eight cases, police
were pursuing a stolen car, and in two, drivers were suspected of
serious felonies. Two other drivers had been reported as suicidal.
Ten of the 30 killed were passengers in the fleeing vehicles; four were bystanders or the victim of a crime.
Half of the people who died in the crashes were people of color: nine
Black, four Hispanic and one Native American. Fourteen of those killed
were White, and the race of two could not be determined.
The total number of people who have been killed or injured as a result
of the maneuver is unknown because the nation’s more than 18,000 police
departments are not required by the federal government to keep track.
The death on May 25 of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis
police officer has led to renewed public scrutiny of violent police
tactics, including shootings, stun guns and chokeholds. But the PIT
maneuver — also a potentially deadly use of force by police — has not
received the same attention, despite its risk and widespread adoption by
departments nationwide.
To study the tactic, The Post gathered statistics about PIT deaths and
injuries since 2016 from news reports and records from the 100 largest
city police departments and 49 state police agencies. Responses were
received from 142 of them. Most departments do not break out deaths and
injuries and were able to provide only policies on whether they used the
maneuver. Many were unable to say how often chases ended in PITs.
One of the nine drivers killed this year was 34-year-old Justin
Battenfield, a man whose family said he was mentally disabled and loved
to drive the roads around his home in Van Buren, Ark.
Shortly after dawn on April 10, Battenfield, in a Dodge Ram, failed to
stop at a traffic signal and then began to flee when a U.S. Forest
Service officer attempted to stop him. Arkansas State Trooper Michael
Shawn Ellis picked up the pursuit. Dashboard-camera video from the
trooper’s car captured Battenfield as he swerved into the path of
oncoming traffic. “Get this car stopped as soon as there’s an opening,” a
supervisor told Ellis over the radio.
Ellis hit Battenfield’s truck at 109 mph, sending both vehicles into a
tumble. Battenfield’s truck landed on its roof, and acted as a ramp for
the trooper’s car, launching it into the air, where it sliced through
two street lamps.
Battenfield died and Trooper Ellis suffered “non-life-threatening injuries,” according to state police.
“They should have backed off and he would have come on home,” said
Carol Henson, Battenfield’s mother. “Then they could have come up and
got him.”
An Arkansas State Patrol spokesman said the department regretted the
loss of life, but emphasized that the PIT often hinges on the
unpredictable behavior of the fleeing driver.
“The PIT . . . is supposed to be a controlled maneuver based on all of
the factors at that second the law enforcement officer’s bumper makes
contact with the vehicle. That’s what everything is based on. If the
suspect changes the dynamics in any way, it could very easily turn bad,
and no question about it,” said spokesman Bill Sadler. He declined to
make Ellis available for comment.
When performed at slower speeds — generally 35 to 45 mph — the maneuver can be safe and effective to end pursuits, experts said.
The Los Angeles Police Department reports that it has used PIT maneuvers since 2005 without a death or serious injury.
The department does not permit the maneuver at over 35 mph. Officers
are not allowed to chase or PIT vehicles that are fleeing minor traffic
violations. And, its use is limited to pursuits involving dangerous
felons or drunk drivers.
“It allows us to safeguard the surrounding community while capturing an
offender who has committed a serious offense,” Los Angeles Police Chief
Michel R. Moore said. He described it as an important tool in specific
circumstances.
“We recognize that over that speed the dynamic nature and the physics
of an engagement can result in a vehicle that becomes a risk to the
public, the occupants and the officers,” Moore said.
At greater
speeds, the maneuver has launched cars into traffic, trees and in one
case killed a woman in Tift County, Ga., as she stood in her front yard.
“When you start getting into high speeds it gets very dangerous,” said
Rick Giovengo, who has studied the use of the PIT as a senior research
analyst at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Glynco, Ga.,
where federal, state, local and tribal officers from across the country
train to use the PIT.
Despite the risk, there has been little national research on its safety or benefits.
In 2006, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police conducted one of
the few studies of the maneuver as part of a wider look at police
pursuits in the state. The report concluded that “the PIT maneuver is
controlled and predictable” but “in certain circumstances could result
in serious injury or death.” Those circumstances, the report said,
included a PIT on a driver who is not wearing a seat belt, a PIT that
ejected people from the fleeing vehicle or a PIT that knocked the
fleeing car into a roll.
The Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank that
advises police chiefs on policy, has examined the lethal use of
firearms and police pursuits, but not the use of the PIT.
“We generally don’t recommend it,” said Chuck Wexler, executive
director of the group. “You wouldn’t want to endanger the officer or the
person you’re pursuing unless you had some reason to believe they were
going to commit a violent crime.”
Karen M. Blum, a law professor at Suffolk University Law School,
studied the tactic for the National Police Accountability Project, which
filed a brief in a Supreme Court case brought by a man who was
paralyzed in 2001 during an attempted PIT by a Georgia police officer.
“Over a certain speed there is nothing precise about a PIT maneuver,”
Blum said. “It amounts to a ramming that turns two heavy vehicles into
deadly projectiles.”
Bystanders pay a price
Last year, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in Florida engaged in more
than 200 police pursuits, ending 61 of them with PITs, according to an
annual report from the office.
Only one of those ended in a death: Louis Warren Reese, an 84-year-old retired Navy veteran who had been kidnapped.
Shortly after 2 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2019, a gunman robbed the Lucky Charms
Arcade in Jacksonville and fled on foot into Reese’s backyard. Police
surrounded Reese’s property. The suspected gunman, Lawrence Hall III,
broke into Reese’s house, shoved him into the back of his Dodge SUV
parked in the garage, opened the door and sped away.
As a police helicopter and patrol cars followed the fleeing SUV, police
searched for Reese — unaware that he was in the back of the SUV,
according to police reports.
During the chase — which reached speeds in excess of 100 mph — Hall
drove into an officer attempting to place tire deflation sticks in the
road. Another officer attempted to PIT the SUV, but failed and crashed.
Finally, eight miles from where it began, a K-9 officer performed a PIT
on the fleeing vehicle, according to police reports.
The PIT sent the SUV into a cement telephone pole and the car split in
two. Power lines fell onto its roof, and the car began to burn. Police
rescued Hall — and then realized Reese also was in the car.
“The responding officers extinguished the fire, and it was at this time
they discovered an elderly male . . . in the back seat of the vehicle,”
officers wrote in a report. Reese, a deacon at his church, suffered a
collapsed lung and multiple fractures, including a broken leg, arm and
spine, his family told a local television station. He died in the hospital a week later. His family did not respond to requests for comment.
Hall and two deputies suffered serious injuries. The deputies were
awarded Purple Heart medals and Hall was charged with attempted murder
and kidnapping. The case is pending. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
declined to comment on the crash or their use of the maneuver, citing an
ongoing investigation into the crimes.
Throughout the 1990s, only a few departments nationwide embraced the
tactic, which is known by various names, including tactical vehicle
intervention, or TVI. In 1996, a Tampa Police sergeant on a search for
new tactics to safely end pursuits learned of its use by police in
Fairfax County, Va.
“I can teach a chimpanzee how to do this,” he later told the Tampa Bay
Times.
Other departments began using the PIT, including the Georgia State Patrol.
Other departments began using the PIT, including the Georgia State Patrol.
Since 1997, the patrol has performed more than 1,500 PIT maneuvers,
according to court and agency records, logging the first fatality in
1998. Since then, at least 34 people have been killed, including seven
since 2016.
“When it’s utilized within policy and within state law, we feel we’re
doing a good job and that there are no reservations,” said Lt. Stephanie
Stallings, a Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman. “Certainly we would
never want a death to occur from any maneuver that we utilize but
unfortunately there are cases when death is a result.”
Other departments across the state have adopted the PIT maneuver — in some cases leading to disastrous outcomes.
Last September, a Whitfield County, Ga., deputy used a PIT to end his pursuit of a stolen car.
The 21-year-old driver, Makayla Whitt, was ejected and thrown 50 feet
and her left arm was severed below the elbow, according to police
reports. Whitt could not be reached for comment.
In June 2018, in Monroe County, Ga., a sheriff’s deputy pulled over
28-year-old Guadalupe Garcia because of a suspected window-tinting
violation, according to local news reports.
Garcia fled and the deputy performed a PIT at nearly 76 mph, knocking
his Toyota Camry into trees, throwing Garcia and his 19-year-old nephew
from the car. Garcia died and his nephew told The Post he was
hospitalized for at least two weeks.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Priscilla Villaneueva, Garcia’s girlfriend and the mother of their
three children, told The Post that he had been in trouble with police
and was afraid of being deported. He had been arrested before on drug
charges. “I think they should have tried another method of slowing the
car down,” Villaneueva said. “The PIT was done at such a high speed.”
Outside Atlanta, on Dec. 4, 2018, South Fulton police attempted to pull over a Hyundai Sonata that had been reported stolen.
The driver, 19-year-old Emmitt Daniels, sped off, nearly striking an
officer who had just exited his police vehicle. Officers gave chase,
pursuing Daniels for about three miles and reaching speeds of at least
65 mph, according to police reports.
As Daniels
passed a cluster of townhouses, one of the officers performed a PIT
maneuver, using his Dodge Charger to strike the right rear corner of the
Hyundai, sending it spinning across a sidewalk. The car splintered a
utility pole and rolled up a steep embankment, coming to a stop. Daniels
sprinted into the townhouses, escaping police.
As police investigated, they found a shoe near the scene of the crash,
which they suspected Daniels lost while fleeing, according to a local news report.
Five weeks later a landscaper working in the area found the body of
41-year-old Marcus McCrary, who had been struck and killed by the
out-of-control Hyundai. McCrary’s body, which was found hidden behind
bushes, was missing its lower left leg, the landscaper told The Post.
Police later found the lower part of McCrary’s leg in a wheel well of the Hyundai in an impound lot.
McCrary’s twin sister, Miracle Walker, said that the day of the crash,
McCrary was on the way to her house, only a few blocks away. When he
didn’t show up she tried to find him, but had no luck.
She said she now knows the exact moment her brother died: The lights in
her house went out when Daniels’s vehicle knocked over the power lines.
“The
officers said speeds were up to 90 miles an hour,” Walker told The
Post, saying that both the police and Daniels are to blame. “There’s not
any given time you can go down that street and there aren’t
pedestrians.”
Daniels was arrested a few weeks later on charges of felony murder and
homicide by vehicle for the death of McCrary, according to court
documents.
The case is ongoing. An attorney for Daniels did not respond
to a request for comment.
South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows also did not respond to requests for comment.
‘We don’t want to take the chance’
The risks of using the PIT have divided departments. Of the 142 law
enforcement agencies that responded to The Post, 74 said they do not use
the maneuver. One would not say.
“We do not use the PIT maneuver, and the reason is safety,” said Paul
Linders, a spokesman for the St. Paul Police Department in Minnesota.
“If our officers were to PIT a vehicle in a residential area, the
vehicle could wind up in a yard, playground or storefront. We don’t want
to take the chance of injuring an innocent bystander to end a pursuit
that way.”
The New York State Police do not use the tactic “due to the potential
danger it poses for the targeted vehicle occupants, the pursuing
Troopers, and the motoring public,” according to Beau Duffy, a spokesman
for department.
Fairfax County Police, one of the first departments to embrace the
maneuver, said they have trained many agencies across the country to use
it.
“We can do a PIT with minimal damage or no damage besides paint transfer
between two vehicles and get the car to stop where we want it to stop,”
said 2nd Lt. Jay Jackson, who is in charge of the center and track in
Chantilly, Va., where Fairfax police conduct pursuit training.
Officers gradually learn how to match the speed of a fleeing vehicle
and make contact with the vehicle in motion, Jackson said. Officers
cannot use the tactic on the streets until they have completed eight
successful PITs on the track. They are required to recertify every three
years.
Jackson said that at 45 mph and below, the fleeing cars will spin 180
degrees into the next lane. Above that speed, events are less
predictable, he said.
Thirty of
the 67 agencies that use the PIT maneuver allow their officers to do so
at any speed; 26 of the agencies have a speed restriction, according to
The Post surveys. Eleven agencies provided no information about whether
they have speed restrictions.
Indiana State Police, for example, prohibit its use at more than 50
mph. State police in Iowa and California limit the PIT to speeds of 35
mph and under.
Many agencies suggest officers receive approval from a supervisor
before performing a PIT. Utah Highway Patrol has a one-paragraph policy
that requires officers who use the PIT to “act within the bounds of
legality, good judgment and accepted practices.”
Georgia State Patrol’s pursuit policy states that the officer should
consider the condition of the road, visibility, pedestrian and vehicle
traffic, the type of vehicle and whether there are passengers in the
fleeing vehicle. The patrol prohibits PITs on motorcycles or ATVs. But
there is no limit on speed, deferring to officers to decide what is
“reasonable.”
Nebraska State Patrol warns against the use of PITs on pickup trucks
with passengers in the cargo area or larger vehicles, but has no limits
on speed.
Some agencies allow officers to PIT over specified speeds only if they believe use of deadly force is justified.
“Some places and legal experts will say a PIT over 55 mph constitutes
the use of deadly force and some will say 45. It’s somewhat arbitrary,”
said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at
the University of South Carolina, and co-author of “Evaluating Police Uses of Force.”
In Albuquerque, police allow officers to PIT vehicles at speeds greater
than 35 mph when they believe deadly force is warranted. That was the
case when police used the maneuver on a Gulf Stream Touring RV.
Shortly after 7 p.m. on June 20, 2017, police tried to arrest David
Barber at an RV park on illegal gun possession and battery charges.
Barber fled in a stolen 26-foot RV, ripping the sewer hose and
electrical cords from their connections and driving through a metal
gate.
At first, police decided not to chase Barber because a police plane was
monitoring the RV from above, Sgt. Albert Sandoval said later in a
deposition. But when Barber nearly hit an officer, Sandoval ordered
police to give chase. For about 45 minutes, and at speeds of up to 70
mph, police chased the RV, which struck at least five vehicles.
After the
RV drove through a busy intersection, an officer pulled alongside it and
touched the front right side of his Ford Expedition to the rear
driver’s side of the RV. He turned his steering wheel to the right.
“The RV did not ‘spin out’ as he expected it would,” according to a
later investigation by police. Instead, “the size and weight of the RV
forced him and the RV across the median and into the southbound lanes of
traffic.”
The officer’s Expedition collided with three other cars, but Barber kept going, driving the RV
over the median and back into the northbound traffic lanes. Another
officer conducted a second PIT on the RV at about 62 mph, records show.
This time the PIT maneuver forced the RV to jump the center median and
strike an oncoming Chevy Malibu. Driving the Malibu was Tito Pacheco, a
single father of three teenagers.
Pacheco died three weeks later from his injuries. His children and
brother sued the Albuquerque police, settling for $500,000, according to
a city spokesperson. Pacheco’s family did not respond to a request for
comment.
Barber was arrested and charged with multiple crimes, including first-degree murder for Pacheco’s death. The case is ongoing.
“If we didn’t do anything to stop him at that time, in that RV, the
chances of him killing somebody were very high,” Sandoval said in a
deposition for the lawsuit, describing his order to stop the RV.
“Once I gave that directive . . . I knew that these officers were going
to utilize their vehicles to strike that vehicle, which could cause
death or great bodily harm to the driver,” he said.
Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said there have been many policy changes at the department since the crash.
“I’m not aware of any other major incident dealing with PIT maneuvers,”
Gallegos said. “We also have additional driver training for officers
involved in crashes, and we recently got a new driving simulator to help
with training.”
‘I saw at least one other occupant’
In the weeks before Motsinger, the North Carolina Highway Patrol
trooper, used a PIT to stop the minivan full of teens, he had ended two
other pursuits with the tactic. In one, he sent a driver into a ditch at
65 mph and caused $3,300 in damage to his patrol car. He was driving a
loaner vehicle the night he rammed the van, records show.
The teens were on the road that night because Maria Carbajal and her
mother had a fight about Maria’s boyfriend, who lived with her family.
Angry, Maria packed some clothes, took her mother’s van and left home
with her brother Osiel, her boyfriend and another friend.
Teresa Chaparro, Maria and Osiel’s mother, waited to call the police.
She was afraid they would arrest the children. But after two days,
Chaparro went to the Wadesboro police station and talked to an officer,
who sent out an alert that the teens were missing.
The next night, Osiel, who had no license, was driving 70 mph in a 45
mph zone on Highway 74 when Motsinger saw the van speed past and gave
chase.
Osiel pulled over at first, but told The Post that one of the teens in
the car warned: If they get into trouble, they would be arrested.
Everyone told him to go, he said. Osiel sped off. They were only a few
miles from his home.
“I felt like if I could get to where my mom was she could help me,” Osiel said.
Motsinger
asked a dispatcher to contact police ahead and ask if they had “stop
sticks,” spiked strips that could be dropped into the roadway to disable
the van’s tires. No, she replied, according to audio of the radio
conversation.
He asked if he should PIT the van. A supervisor asked if there were other people in the vehicle.
At the time, North Carolina had no speed restriction on PIT maneuvers
used by officers such as Motsinger, who had undergone more extensive
training. But the policy prohibited troopers from using the maneuver if
the fleeing vehicle was believed to be carrying “children or other
innocent passengers.”
“I saw at least one other occupant,” Motsinger said over the radio. “I
don’t know how many.” Motsinger added that traffic was light and the
area was clear.
“You think he’s 55?” the supervisor asked, using police radio code for an intoxicated driver.
Motsinger said he did. The supervisor gave him the go-ahead to PIT.
Seventeen miles into the chase, Motsinger closed in, and his front left
quarter panel caught the back right side of the van. Osiel lost control
and the minivan flipped end over end until it came to rest in the
woods.
The rear
seat of the van, where Maria Carbajal and her boyfriend, Jonathan
Thomas, were sitting, broke free, throwing them from the vehicle. Police
told Chaparro that Maria had died clutching Thomas, who suffered a
broken vertebrae.
A friend, Kandy Castrejon, who had been sitting in the front passenger
seat also was ejected. Castrejon, who liked to make videos of herself
lip-syncing, died a few days later.
A report by the North Carolina Highway Patrol’s Collision
Reconstruction Unit said that the “maneuver was performed correctly in
this crash.”
A North Carolina Highway Patrol spokesperson called the deaths
“tragic,” but declined to comment further on the case. Motsinger could
not be reached for comment and the department declined to make him
available.
Chaparro told The Post that the night of the crash she had been praying
in church and gotten a chill, and knew Maria was in trouble. When she
got home, her youngest daughter said that the teens had stopped by the
house, but were scared they were in trouble and again left. She was
getting ready for bed after midnight when the call came about the crash.
When
she arrived at the hospital, she saw teams of doctors huddled around a
thin girl and recognized Kandy Castrejon’s mother nearby. In the next
room she saw Thomas, Maria’s boyfriend. She went to the final room and
saw her son Osiel sitting up on a table.
Osiel asked about his sister. But she was already dead.
After the
crash, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation reviewed
Motsinger’s use of the PIT and turned the findings over to the State
Attorney General’s Office, which cleared Motsinger of any wrongdoing.
“It appears that all viable means of stopping the vehicle had been
exhausted and the likelihood of serious injury or fatality to the public
remained a major concern prior to Trooper Motsinger’s decision to
utilize the PIT as a means to disable the vehicle,” the attorney
general’s office wrote in a February 2018 letter about its decision.
“Trooper Motsinger was forced to make a split second judgment about the
amount of force necessary in a situation that was very tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving.”
The families of Maria and Kandy sued the state, alleging that Motsinger
used excessive force, was reckless, and violated department policies.
Motsinger, they contended, should have been aware that four teens were
in the van. The case was settled in May for an undisclosed amount,
records show.
Thomas said that after the crash he began to have haunting flashes of his friends flying around inside the van.
He said he was overcome with regret for not doing more to stop Osiel
from speeding away when they were stopped. Osiel was charged with a
felony for eluding police and later pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge,
according to attorneys who represent the family. Osiel was not
intoxicated, the lawyers said.
“It does not make sense to me that the police did that,” Thomas said.
“Why would you PIT maneuver a car over 100 mph? What did you accomplish
in this? You killed two innocent people who had their whole life ahead
of them because someone else decided to speed off.”
As a result of the crash, the North Carolina Highway Patrol in July
2017 revised its policy on the use of PIT: Troopers are not allowed to
PIT vehicles at more than 55 mph unless the fleeing driver has committed
a felony or the use of deadly force is warranted.
Chaparro said she regrets calling the police.
“They did not need to kill my child,” she said. “For what?” she asked through a translator. “I had not realized that Saturday when we went to work that it would be the last time I would talk to my daughter.”
Monday, August 24, 2020
PAROLE IS A DISMAL FAILURE IN PROTECTING THE PUBLIC FROM FELONS
Texas badly needs to reinvent its parole system because public safety is the primary purpose of parole supervision
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 23, 2020
Social worker-types believe that the primary purpose of parole supervision is to help parolees become law abiding citizens. Wrong, flat wrong!
While parole officers are supposed to help reintegrate parolees into society as law abiding citizens, their primary role is to protect the public from felons. Helping parolees obtain gainful employment and counseling them when necessary are secondary.
In order to protect the public parole officers must supervise parolees by conducting surprise field visits to their homes. No phone calls like "Hey Joe, I'm coming to see you tomorrow at 8pm" or "Mrs. Brown, tell your husband I'll be coming to see him tomorrow at 8 pm."
8 pm? That's right. Parole super vision should not be limited to Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. Effective supervision requires that parole officers work some nights and weekends.
But that's not how parole in Texas, as well as other states, works. Here parole supervision consists mostly of mandated office visits and the wearing of ankle monitors. Neither the office visits nor the ankle monitors will tell the parole authorities whether or not the parolee is abiding by the conditions of parole.
The ankle monitors and their monitoring are a completely worthless expense. They only enrich the vendors of these devices.
In 2018, parolee Jose Gilberto Rodriguez simply cut off his ankle monitor and went on a crime spree in Houston, including the murder of three people, before the cops caught him.
Last year, two parolees wore ankle monitors while killing a man in Fort Lauderdale.
This month, Los Angeles cops arrested three parolees for committing nearly 30 home burglaries in Hollywood while wearing ankle monitors..
When state parole agencies, like the one for Texas, rely mainly on GPS ankle monitors for parole supervision, parole is no longer worth a shit.
The monitors, if they are not cut off, only serve as evidence after the wearers have been caught committing crimes, including murder, because they will show that the parole violators were at the location of the crimes when they occurred.
Texas badly needs to reinvent its parole system
For starters, the parole officers need to be certified peace officers, which they are not now. They need to be armed and have arrest powers in order to take a parole violator into custody. That means no sissy social workers as parole officers.
The parole officers need to have a definitive work schedule. Wednesdays through Sundays. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 am to 5 pm in the office. Fridays 8 am to 5 pm in the field. Saturdays and Sundays, 3 pm to 11 pm in the field.
Parole caseloads should be limited for the manageable supervision of parolees.
Field visits should be conducted on a surprise basis. If the parolee is not at home during the late hour visit, that should arouse the suspicions of the officer.
Parolees with a history of drug use should be ordered into the office for an unscheduled urinalysis test at least once a month. Parole officers should be supplied with urine containers so that during the home visit of a parolee with a drug history they can obtain some urine for testing. If the parolee insists he can't pee, the parole officer should tell him he will be jailed until he can. Surprise, surprise, the parolee can suddenly pee. And his test is likely to come up positive.
Parole officers should visit police stations regularly in order to establish and maintain a good relationship with police officers. If they suspect any of their parolees of wrongdoing, they should so inform the police.
Parole officers should arrest any parolees if they have good reason to believe they are committing crimes.
Parole officers should do everything they can to help a parolee integrate back into society as a law abiding citizen. Holding down a decent paying job is most critical for the successful completion of parole. Parole officers must contact prospective employers and sell them on the importance of hiring parolees. Getting a parolee a job at a car wash should be a last resort.
All of the above stipulations make parole work hard, but withe right parole officer it can be done. I've done it.
The parole division must include psychologists and/or subcontract with psychologists to counsel parolees that are mentally disturbed.
In 2018 there were some 1,500 parole absconders in Houston and about 8,000 statewide, with most of them committing crimes. Those numbers are most likely higher today. The parole division must have several fugitive units that do nothing but hunt down and capture parole absconders. The police do not have the manpower to go after the absconders.
Get rid of the mandatory office visits. They only tell the parole authorities that the parolee has not absconded. Parolees should be informed that if they want to see their parole officer they can do so during his office hours or they can request for him to see them at home.
Get rid of most of those worthless and expensive ankle monitors. They should be used only on high-risk offenders - child molesters, rapists and robbers who shot their victims - who probably should not have been paroled in the first place. And those ankle monitors should be monitored constantly.
As things stand now, Houstonians and other Texans get no protection from a dismally flawed parole system. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 parolees residing in Houston. Right now there must be hundreds of parolees committing crimes in the Houston area without the knowledge of their clueless parole officers.
Unfortunately, maintaining an effective parole system flies in the face of budget cutting and reducing the prison population.
Unless the system is reinvented, parole might as well be abolished and prison inmates, if released early, freed without any supervision.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 23, 2020
Social worker-types believe that the primary purpose of parole supervision is to help parolees become law abiding citizens. Wrong, flat wrong!
While parole officers are supposed to help reintegrate parolees into society as law abiding citizens, their primary role is to protect the public from felons. Helping parolees obtain gainful employment and counseling them when necessary are secondary.
In order to protect the public parole officers must supervise parolees by conducting surprise field visits to their homes. No phone calls like "Hey Joe, I'm coming to see you tomorrow at 8pm" or "Mrs. Brown, tell your husband I'll be coming to see him tomorrow at 8 pm."
8 pm? That's right. Parole super vision should not be limited to Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. Effective supervision requires that parole officers work some nights and weekends.
But that's not how parole in Texas, as well as other states, works. Here parole supervision consists mostly of mandated office visits and the wearing of ankle monitors. Neither the office visits nor the ankle monitors will tell the parole authorities whether or not the parolee is abiding by the conditions of parole.
The ankle monitors and their monitoring are a completely worthless expense. They only enrich the vendors of these devices.
In 2018, parolee Jose Gilberto Rodriguez simply cut off his ankle monitor and went on a crime spree in Houston, including the murder of three people, before the cops caught him.
Last year, two parolees wore ankle monitors while killing a man in Fort Lauderdale.
This month, Los Angeles cops arrested three parolees for committing nearly 30 home burglaries in Hollywood while wearing ankle monitors..
When state parole agencies, like the one for Texas, rely mainly on GPS ankle monitors for parole supervision, parole is no longer worth a shit.
The monitors, if they are not cut off, only serve as evidence after the wearers have been caught committing crimes, including murder, because they will show that the parole violators were at the location of the crimes when they occurred.
Texas badly needs to reinvent its parole system
For starters, the parole officers need to be certified peace officers, which they are not now. They need to be armed and have arrest powers in order to take a parole violator into custody. That means no sissy social workers as parole officers.
The parole officers need to have a definitive work schedule. Wednesdays through Sundays. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 am to 5 pm in the office. Fridays 8 am to 5 pm in the field. Saturdays and Sundays, 3 pm to 11 pm in the field.
Parole caseloads should be limited for the manageable supervision of parolees.
Field visits should be conducted on a surprise basis. If the parolee is not at home during the late hour visit, that should arouse the suspicions of the officer.
Parolees with a history of drug use should be ordered into the office for an unscheduled urinalysis test at least once a month. Parole officers should be supplied with urine containers so that during the home visit of a parolee with a drug history they can obtain some urine for testing. If the parolee insists he can't pee, the parole officer should tell him he will be jailed until he can. Surprise, surprise, the parolee can suddenly pee. And his test is likely to come up positive.
Parole officers should visit police stations regularly in order to establish and maintain a good relationship with police officers. If they suspect any of their parolees of wrongdoing, they should so inform the police.
Parole officers should arrest any parolees if they have good reason to believe they are committing crimes.
Parole officers should do everything they can to help a parolee integrate back into society as a law abiding citizen. Holding down a decent paying job is most critical for the successful completion of parole. Parole officers must contact prospective employers and sell them on the importance of hiring parolees. Getting a parolee a job at a car wash should be a last resort.
All of the above stipulations make parole work hard, but withe right parole officer it can be done. I've done it.
The parole division must include psychologists and/or subcontract with psychologists to counsel parolees that are mentally disturbed.
In 2018 there were some 1,500 parole absconders in Houston and about 8,000 statewide, with most of them committing crimes. Those numbers are most likely higher today. The parole division must have several fugitive units that do nothing but hunt down and capture parole absconders. The police do not have the manpower to go after the absconders.
Get rid of the mandatory office visits. They only tell the parole authorities that the parolee has not absconded. Parolees should be informed that if they want to see their parole officer they can do so during his office hours or they can request for him to see them at home.
Get rid of most of those worthless and expensive ankle monitors. They should be used only on high-risk offenders - child molesters, rapists and robbers who shot their victims - who probably should not have been paroled in the first place. And those ankle monitors should be monitored constantly.
As things stand now, Houstonians and other Texans get no protection from a dismally flawed parole system. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 parolees residing in Houston. Right now there must be hundreds of parolees committing crimes in the Houston area without the knowledge of their clueless parole officers.
Unfortunately, maintaining an effective parole system flies in the face of budget cutting and reducing the prison population.
Unless the system is reinvented, parole might as well be abolished and prison inmates, if released early, freed without any supervision.
Sunday, August 23, 2020
MIKE FAILED TO LEARN FROM JR'S MISTAKE
Hockey analyst Mike Milbury follows in the footsteps of Jeremy
Roenick in getting fired by NBC for making a crack about women
by Howie Katz
During Thursday night’s Capitals-Islanders game on the NBC Sports Network, hockey analyst Mike Milbury talked about the Stanley Cup playoffs being held without any spectators and said:
“Not even any woman here to disrupt your concentration.”
That created a social media shitstorm that got Mike fired by NBC.
Hockey analyst Jeremy 'JR' Roenick got suspended by NBC last December and fired in February for joking about his desire to have a threesome with his wife and NBC coworker, Kathryn Tappen, while on Barstools' "Spittin Chiclets" podcast.
Obviously, Mike failed to learn from JR's mistake.
Neither of them considered the fact that when they made the remarks that led to their firing, they were not in the hockey team's player room.
In my opinion, neither crack warranted the firing. But this is the era of sensitivity in which you don't dare to say anything that might possibly be seen as demeaning women.
by Howie Katz
During Thursday night’s Capitals-Islanders game on the NBC Sports Network, hockey analyst Mike Milbury talked about the Stanley Cup playoffs being held without any spectators and said:
“Not even any woman here to disrupt your concentration.”
That created a social media shitstorm that got Mike fired by NBC.
Hockey analyst Jeremy 'JR' Roenick got suspended by NBC last December and fired in February for joking about his desire to have a threesome with his wife and NBC coworker, Kathryn Tappen, while on Barstools' "Spittin Chiclets" podcast.
Obviously, Mike failed to learn from JR's mistake.
Neither of them considered the fact that when they made the remarks that led to their firing, they were not in the hockey team's player room.
In my opinion, neither crack warranted the firing. But this is the era of sensitivity in which you don't dare to say anything that might possibly be seen as demeaning women.
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Friday, August 21, 2020
HOW I ENJOYED THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
By Howie Katz
I really enjoyed the 4-day Democratic convention.
I especially enjoyed the speeches of Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Joe and Jill Biden and other Trump-hating luminaries.
How did I enjoy the convention and Trump-bashing and trshing speeches? I watched western movies, starring Audie Murphy, Guy Madison and Jimmy Stewart on the Grit Channel.
I really enjoyed the 4-day Democratic convention.
I especially enjoyed the speeches of Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Joe and Jill Biden and other Trump-hating luminaries.
How did I enjoy the convention and Trump-bashing and trshing speeches? I watched western movies, starring Audie Murphy, Guy Madison and Jimmy Stewart on the Grit Channel.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
THE FIRST CEREBRAL PALSY SUFFERER TO SERVE AS A COMBAT SOLDIER
From partial paralysis to a Merkava tank gunner
Eran Navon
Israel Hayom
August 19, 2020
Sgt. Dor Frir of the IDF's 7th Armored Brigade stands in formation at the GC Northern Command, very excited. With a shaking hand, he accepts his outstanding soldier citation from GOC of the command, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram.
All of Dor's friends and family who watched the ceremony on a livestream knew how far Dor had come to fulfill his life's dream. Twenty years ago, he was born with cerebral palsy, which caused him issues with his legs and arms.
Only when Dor started studying karate under Yisrael Siyali did his life begin to change. He gained strength, overcame his mobility difficulties, and enlisted in the IDF as a combat soldier. According to IDF figures, he is the first cerebral palsy sufferer to serve as a combat soldier.
"Yisrael believed in me," Dor says. "He taught me to walk correctly, to run in a straight line, to stand up straight. He worked hard. He changed my life. I joined the Armored Corps, and in spite of the tough periods, I proved I could overcome almost any physical difficulty."
Dor talks to Israel Hayom at his family's home in Rishon Lezion while he is enjoying a week's leave. Someone watching him move around the house can't tell he has cerebral palsy.
His mother, Sigal, says "We took him to treatments with neurologists and orthopedists. We had an amazing private doctor, and we did everything to help him progress as much as possible."
As a child, Dor did not entirely understand his condition. He couldn't play much at recess, because he would constantly fall.
"I was full of energy and just wanted to work it off, so it was really frustrating to fall down in the middle of a game. It wasn't nice," he says.
"From a young age, I realized I couldn't fall into a cycle of feeling bad and bad moods, because it would never end. I always got back on my feet, physically and emotionally. Luckily, the kids in my class never made fun of me. Sometimes I was embarrassed, but I got over it."
Dor says, "I wanted to move ahead, like everyone … For me, the worst thing was to be pitied or for people to go easy on me. I didn't go easy on myself."
When he was nine, Dor's doctors said he had gone as far as he could in terms of walking, running, and stability. Then Siyali, the karate instructor, came to the family's house and met Dor.
"He wasn't in good shape. When he stood or walked, his feet turned in. His knees were bent, his bottom stuck out. He wasn't standing straight. The bones in his leg weren't straight, and he didn't open his hands properly. He didn't use his fingers properly," Siyali says.
Siyali wasn't ready to accept the doctors' decree and started studying cerebral palsy.
"I studied Dor's functioning and racked my brain about what to do with him. I sat him down and said, 'I believe in you, and you believe in yourself.' I realized that with a lot of faith, consistency, and work, we could fix a lot in his brain. I decided to make him my life's work," Siyali says.
The two started to work together. At first, Siyali didn't even teach him karate. He focused on straightening Dor's feet and posture.
"I demanded a lot of him, and he met all the challenges. It's really hard for a person to change habits, but Dor did it like a champ."
Dor say, "Every week we'd take over the living room, and Yisrael just changed my entire posture. He helped me stand differently, and suddenly I started to walk and run in a straight line.
"After a few months of work, I felt that I was gaining confidence in my body. I was falling a lot less, and it strengthened me, physically and mentally. For me, Yisrael was an angel who appeared in my life and never stopped pushing me forward."
Three years after Yisrael started working with Dor, his son, Doron, was killed in a car accident in Tel Aviv.
"With all the grief and sadness, I knew I wouldn't stop treating Dor. I found comfort and healing in working with him, from giving something to someone else," Siyali says.
The two continued to work together until Dor started 12th grade.
"I wasn't afraid to play soccer. I didn't fall down, and I was comfortable running. It was a huge change for me," Dor says.
Dor also did well academically, completing the highest-level matriculation exams in physics, mathematics, computers, and English.
Although his military profile allowed him physically undemanding service in the IDF's Intelligence Corps or in one of the army's tech units, Dor wanted to serve in a combat role.
"I didn't want to sit in front of a computer all day. I wanted to challenge myself. I decided to do all I could to make it into a combat unit. I knew I wouldn't give up on that dream."
When the time arrived for his first enlistment interview, he came armed with his medical file and "a huge drive to show the doctor that I was fit for combat service."
He was assigned a medical profile of 72, which made him eligible for combat service. The doctor told him he was unusually high-functioning.
Dor enlisted at the end of July 2018 and was sent to basic training in the Armored Corps. "It was clear it was going to be tough. Stressful. Exciting. All of a sudden I signed off on a weapon, and I was a member of the legendary 7th Armored Brigade. All I wanted and dreamed of and hoped would happen, was happening."
"Basic training lasted four months, and on the first trek, which was five kilometers [three miles], I felt good. But the more time went by, the harder it was, mostly physically. My legs weren't used to the round-the-clock effort. They would make us run from place to place, and it was hard. I fell down a lot. It frustrated me every time, and it was embarrassing, but I always got up and continued. Lucky for me, the soldiers with me were great."
"My platoon commander in basic training knew about my problem, but I didn't explain it to the other soldiers. I asked them not to go easy on me. I said I wanted to be exactly like everyone else," he says.
After three months, Dor gathered his comrades and told them his full story. "They listened and responded warmly. None of them made fun of me, the opposite."
There were difficult moments. At one point, Dor called his parents and told them he didn't know what he was doing.
His father, Yuval, says, "We know what kind of character this kid has. But when he enlisted, it was clear that this was something else entirely. We were concerned. We waited for him to call, to let us know that everything was all right."
At the end of basic training, Dor and his comrades completed a 24-kilometer (15 mile) march from Jerusalem to Latrun, where they marked the completion of the first stage of their service.
Dor was named the outstanding recruit of his basic training course. His platoon commander handed Dor his own beret as a badge of respect.
Dor's parents and younger brothers, as well as Yisrael Siyali, were all present.
"I was so proud of the kid, the outstanding soldier who didn't go easy on himself for a single second," the teacher says.
Dor progressed to specialized training in the Armored Corps. "That was easier, because we dealt more with tanks and less with running and marching."
When he was through with specialized training, Dor was assigned to the 75th Armored Battalion, where he serves as a gunner on a Merkava tank.
"I was really happy to join the company, and I like it there. We trained in the Golan Heights, and then we were deployed near Mount Hermon. I'm with good friends, and I feel like I've improved."
"The difficulties I had in basic training and specialized training only moved me forward. It proved more than anything that I can handle physical challenges and difficulties. Military service has been really empowering for me."
At the beginning of May, the head of the Northern Command named Dor an outstanding soldier. His parents drove north for the ceremony, even though they knew they would not be allowed to attend because of coronavirus restrictions.
Dor is slated to be discharged from the military next year. For now, he isn't thinking of making the army his career.
"I'm thinking about traveling. Maybe I'll go to Australia, if the skies are open by then. Then I'll study at university," he says.
Eran Navon
Israel Hayom
August 19, 2020
Sgt. Dor Frir of the IDF's 7th Armored Brigade stands in formation at the GC Northern Command, very excited. With a shaking hand, he accepts his outstanding soldier citation from GOC of the command, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram.
All of Dor's friends and family who watched the ceremony on a livestream knew how far Dor had come to fulfill his life's dream. Twenty years ago, he was born with cerebral palsy, which caused him issues with his legs and arms.
Only when Dor started studying karate under Yisrael Siyali did his life begin to change. He gained strength, overcame his mobility difficulties, and enlisted in the IDF as a combat soldier. According to IDF figures, he is the first cerebral palsy sufferer to serve as a combat soldier.
"Yisrael believed in me," Dor says. "He taught me to walk correctly, to run in a straight line, to stand up straight. He worked hard. He changed my life. I joined the Armored Corps, and in spite of the tough periods, I proved I could overcome almost any physical difficulty."
Dor talks to Israel Hayom at his family's home in Rishon Lezion while he is enjoying a week's leave. Someone watching him move around the house can't tell he has cerebral palsy.
His mother, Sigal, says "We took him to treatments with neurologists and orthopedists. We had an amazing private doctor, and we did everything to help him progress as much as possible."
As a child, Dor did not entirely understand his condition. He couldn't play much at recess, because he would constantly fall.
"I was full of energy and just wanted to work it off, so it was really frustrating to fall down in the middle of a game. It wasn't nice," he says.
"From a young age, I realized I couldn't fall into a cycle of feeling bad and bad moods, because it would never end. I always got back on my feet, physically and emotionally. Luckily, the kids in my class never made fun of me. Sometimes I was embarrassed, but I got over it."
Dor says, "I wanted to move ahead, like everyone … For me, the worst thing was to be pitied or for people to go easy on me. I didn't go easy on myself."
When he was nine, Dor's doctors said he had gone as far as he could in terms of walking, running, and stability. Then Siyali, the karate instructor, came to the family's house and met Dor.
"He wasn't in good shape. When he stood or walked, his feet turned in. His knees were bent, his bottom stuck out. He wasn't standing straight. The bones in his leg weren't straight, and he didn't open his hands properly. He didn't use his fingers properly," Siyali says.
Siyali wasn't ready to accept the doctors' decree and started studying cerebral palsy.
"I studied Dor's functioning and racked my brain about what to do with him. I sat him down and said, 'I believe in you, and you believe in yourself.' I realized that with a lot of faith, consistency, and work, we could fix a lot in his brain. I decided to make him my life's work," Siyali says.
The two started to work together. At first, Siyali didn't even teach him karate. He focused on straightening Dor's feet and posture.
"I demanded a lot of him, and he met all the challenges. It's really hard for a person to change habits, but Dor did it like a champ."
Dor say, "Every week we'd take over the living room, and Yisrael just changed my entire posture. He helped me stand differently, and suddenly I started to walk and run in a straight line.
"After a few months of work, I felt that I was gaining confidence in my body. I was falling a lot less, and it strengthened me, physically and mentally. For me, Yisrael was an angel who appeared in my life and never stopped pushing me forward."
Three years after Yisrael started working with Dor, his son, Doron, was killed in a car accident in Tel Aviv.
"With all the grief and sadness, I knew I wouldn't stop treating Dor. I found comfort and healing in working with him, from giving something to someone else," Siyali says.
The two continued to work together until Dor started 12th grade.
"I wasn't afraid to play soccer. I didn't fall down, and I was comfortable running. It was a huge change for me," Dor says.
Dor also did well academically, completing the highest-level matriculation exams in physics, mathematics, computers, and English.
Although his military profile allowed him physically undemanding service in the IDF's Intelligence Corps or in one of the army's tech units, Dor wanted to serve in a combat role.
"I didn't want to sit in front of a computer all day. I wanted to challenge myself. I decided to do all I could to make it into a combat unit. I knew I wouldn't give up on that dream."
When the time arrived for his first enlistment interview, he came armed with his medical file and "a huge drive to show the doctor that I was fit for combat service."
He was assigned a medical profile of 72, which made him eligible for combat service. The doctor told him he was unusually high-functioning.
Dor enlisted at the end of July 2018 and was sent to basic training in the Armored Corps. "It was clear it was going to be tough. Stressful. Exciting. All of a sudden I signed off on a weapon, and I was a member of the legendary 7th Armored Brigade. All I wanted and dreamed of and hoped would happen, was happening."
"Basic training lasted four months, and on the first trek, which was five kilometers [three miles], I felt good. But the more time went by, the harder it was, mostly physically. My legs weren't used to the round-the-clock effort. They would make us run from place to place, and it was hard. I fell down a lot. It frustrated me every time, and it was embarrassing, but I always got up and continued. Lucky for me, the soldiers with me were great."
"My platoon commander in basic training knew about my problem, but I didn't explain it to the other soldiers. I asked them not to go easy on me. I said I wanted to be exactly like everyone else," he says.
After three months, Dor gathered his comrades and told them his full story. "They listened and responded warmly. None of them made fun of me, the opposite."
There were difficult moments. At one point, Dor called his parents and told them he didn't know what he was doing.
His father, Yuval, says, "We know what kind of character this kid has. But when he enlisted, it was clear that this was something else entirely. We were concerned. We waited for him to call, to let us know that everything was all right."
At the end of basic training, Dor and his comrades completed a 24-kilometer (15 mile) march from Jerusalem to Latrun, where they marked the completion of the first stage of their service.
Dor was named the outstanding recruit of his basic training course. His platoon commander handed Dor his own beret as a badge of respect.
Dor's parents and younger brothers, as well as Yisrael Siyali, were all present.
"I was so proud of the kid, the outstanding soldier who didn't go easy on himself for a single second," the teacher says.
Dor progressed to specialized training in the Armored Corps. "That was easier, because we dealt more with tanks and less with running and marching."
When he was through with specialized training, Dor was assigned to the 75th Armored Battalion, where he serves as a gunner on a Merkava tank.
"I was really happy to join the company, and I like it there. We trained in the Golan Heights, and then we were deployed near Mount Hermon. I'm with good friends, and I feel like I've improved."
"The difficulties I had in basic training and specialized training only moved me forward. It proved more than anything that I can handle physical challenges and difficulties. Military service has been really empowering for me."
At the beginning of May, the head of the Northern Command named Dor an outstanding soldier. His parents drove north for the ceremony, even though they knew they would not be allowed to attend because of coronavirus restrictions.
Dor is slated to be discharged from the military next year. For now, he isn't thinking of making the army his career.
"I'm thinking about traveling. Maybe I'll go to Australia, if the skies are open by then. Then I'll study at university," he says.
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