The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 21: Shooting the (Grand) Rapids, death by Cop

Big Toad Barr's Wild Ride

Lester Holt: Can we talk about the big lie?
Bill Barr: Which one is that?
LH: Well you write about the big lie being black live matter...
BB: Yeah [smirks]
LH: What did you mean by that?
BB: Well Black Lives Matter is based on the premise that the main threat to black welfare in the inner city are out of control police force that gratuitously kill African Americans and that's simply not borne out by the facts. - From an interview of the odious toad Bill Barr by Lester Holt, as the Corporate Media again helps to polish despicable conservative turds and allow a flagrant criminal to re-enter polite society while hawking his book about the Trump White House.

I suppose we had gone too long without an extrajudicial killing of a person of color.  Often Officers will tell me, as I express dismay at these incidents, 'Yeah well police kill far more white people than black.' And I'm not sure how to tell them that this is not a good argument other than to reply like Chidi in The Good Place,  

"Okay. But That's Worse. You, You Do Get How That's Worse, Right?"

And watch them brush off such sarcastic retorts. Why? Well, I don't know but, Police in the United States kill far too many people for any claims by such a noxious criminal asshole like Bill Barr to be taken seriously (of course he is taken seriously by the Corporate Media). In fact, violence and death at the hands of the Police is so pervasive Police and the Federal Government routinely undercount the true number. A study found that over 31,000 people died from Police encounters, but only 14,000 were classified as such;

More than half of all police killings since 1980 do not appear in official government data, according to an explosive new study in The Lancet, a top medical journal. The researchers reveal how “systemic misclassification” in the federal database that tracks the causes of death in America has produced, over four decades, an undercount of more than 17,000 deaths at the hands of police. The proportion of undercounted police killings of Black Americans is even more extreme, the research shows, rising to 60 percent.

So, an unidentified Officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan shot and killed Congolese refugee Patrick Lyoya around 8am on April 4th. Predictably, the incident arises from a traffic stop for improper registration and then escalated out of control ending with the unnamed Officer shooting Lyoya in the back of the head while on top of him.

Now, here's where the bad faith actors will get involved. First off, there's going to be the subjective fear for my life defense. It's impossible to disprove the Officer wasn't scared therefore his killing of Lyoya is justified. Secondly, there is going to be the weapons involved defense. Call it the Kyle Rittenhouse Defense; i.e. there's a gun involved therefore I am afraid the "Criminal" will take the gun from me and kill me with my own gun; ergo we are back to subjective fear for your life defense. Third, every white rightwing asshole including those who justify the January 6th violence against Police, will declare with finality Lyoya should just have complied. And lastly, the video evidence is going to be parsed and dissected frame-by-frame for the simple fact that individual still images from the videos can then be presented in a way to present a wholly different picture as opposed to what went down in real time.

Decades ago Police Departments began crafting these Use-of-Force continuums to create justification of violence against people as began to point out police violence is a problem. To justify the extrajudicial killing of Lyoya. It will be something like this:

1. Lyoya get out of the car (escalation).
2. Lyoya ignores "commands" to get back in the car (defiance).
3. Lyoya runs from the scene (presumption of guilt).
4. Lyoya grabs the taser and ignores commands to drop the taser (active "aggressor")
5. Lyoya continues to "fight" the Officer, they go to the ground, the force of Lyoya's fighting is such that it deactivates the Office's body-worn camera (fear for life)

And thus the Arbitrator will be able to reframe the encounter as Lyoya being the aggressor, who is responsible for the escalation of violence and the passive voice of Officer involved shooting will dominate the narrative until voila the official statement is Justified Shooting.

7-10 years ago I would have concluded the Officer would not have faced consequences but, with the increased high profile incidents and despite Bill Barr's mendacious bullshit, I think once the initial investigation is completed charges may be recommended for the still unnamed Officer.

14,000,000 and Going Up Conservatives love pretend

"To fuel our economic boom, we are *bowl-ding* -- (LONG ADDERALL SNIFF) -- and boldly using American energy independence." 

After indulging in one of his tells, misspeaking a word or phrase followed by a long sniff and then slowly saying the word, Trump slurred out a claim about jobs,

“I’m very proud of my daughter Ivanka. She has now created 14 million jobs and they are being trained by these great companies, the greatest companies in the world because the government cannot train them.”

The quip is to say Ivanka created 14 million jobs... in China. But Trump's entire Presidency is preposterous, unbelievable, untethered to reality.

One of the most infuriating things of the mendacious Trump Maladministration is conservatives applauding Trump's blatant lies. Of course, since Trump's non-stop barrage of absurd falsehoods, delusional exaggerations and utter bullshit angers the libs it therefore delights his MAGAt Horde.

If the Media fact-checks Trump's absurd claims his followers will simply declare it "Fake News" and then go about yelling at black people about the Greatness of Maga.

To me, Trump's vile and false claims about his Heroism on 9/11 and venal ignorance about Police work are the most insulting and outrageous lies but, there is a Trump Lie for every topic and occasion.

Trump claims this is the greatest... Trump declares that is the best ever... it's ludicrous, but effective.  Trump has succeeded in pulling the classic scam which conservatives have willingly fallen for, for 50 years.

The scam is simple; A Republican makes a grandiose claim, takes credit for something, or says he's going to do X,Y, or Z then after the news cycle has revolved a few times said Republican acts as if his claim or X, Y, Z happened. The Media in their job of legitimizing Republican Mendacity go along with it and now the mere claim is now the truth.

Trump being the consummate grifter and liar knows a classic scam when he sees one. And Republicans have been running this one on conservatives for decades. But, while at first it took crafted propaganda and the ceaseless repetition of lies via Talk Radio, email listservs and Faux News, conservatives now engage in a form of self-hypnosis to actively delude themselves via social media. Right-wingers no longer need the scam artists as they simply have learned to scam themselves.

Most of Trump's claims were for personal aggrandizement but, now facing Impeachment Trump has weaponized his claims to literally call himself "The Chosen One" and the Greatest President who Ever Was, who;

• Rebuilt the Entire Military.
• Respected by Foreign Leaders 
• Created the Greatest Economy Ever
• Farmers cried for the love of Trump
• Trade Wars are good, and easy to win
• is the Toughest on Russia and North Korea
• Released a Perfect Call Transcript
• Lowest Black Unemployment Ever
• And lie after lie after lie

The Maga Horde repeat these lies as gospel. There's no reaching a people who decide to angrily repeat lies as truth. We live in a Totally Subjective America, wherein whatever Donald Trump and Maga Need to be True, Is True. 

In reality, the military under Trump has suffered an increase of negligent training accidents, increased risk overseas from Trump bungling, and the criminal malfeasance of the Republican Party in the Niger Special Forces Ambush has never been properly investigated.

Yet crying Billionaire Leon Cooperman debased himself on CNBC when he bravely held back tears and fears of an Elizabeth Warren Presidency. Cooperman went on to repeat many of the Trump falsehoods and compared Trump to Reagan. Yet, it makes sense for Cooperman to hew himself unto Trump, as it benefits him immensely and after all he's just looking out for his own class, "I’m not afraid to stand up to the wealthy and well-connected.”

But, facts and reality no longer matter to conservatives. They love the Pretend America which Trump is giving them.

Conservatives still love to Order Black People around

An oft repeated refrain of Racist Republicans and Right-Wingers is that, properly understood, Democrats are the Real Racists.

Senator Rand Paul is the current rising conservative star and in order to burnish himself Paul gave a speech to Howard University in the continued Republican outreach to minorities and to cover-up for the fact he loves Discrimination and is against the Civil Right Act of 1964.

During his speech, Rand Paul argued that the Republican Party of the 21st century is the same as the 19th century, "The argument I’m trying to make is we haven’t changed." Of course, Senator Paul couldn't name the first African-American elected to the Senate. The crowd at Howard University educated him.

Paul cited evil racist behavior of Democrats from the 1860's and 1890's as evidence and was surprised by the level of knowledge possessed by the Howard students. Of course, when it comes to contemporary references, the best conservatives can come up with is to have Sean Hannity trot out a black woman on Faux News to say bizarre statements like President Obama has a war on black people.

What is actually occurring is outreach towards the pround white bigots of the Modern Republican Party. Who watches Sean Hannity's show? Who absorbs and believes President Obama is the real racist?

Right-Wingers are Reactionary, in all senses of the word. As racism has grown increasingly unacceptable in American society right-wingers have resorted to many efforts to cover-up their rampant bigotry.

An early attempt used by conservatives was the ubiquitous preface, 'Some of my best friends are ...' said just before something racist. Next came the current conservative favorite, the claim that pointing out their racism is the true racism.

Now, the current phony outreach effort is aimed at showing their base, 'See we made an effort to educate and lead those people and they still rebuke us.' So revel in your racism right-wingers you have the righteous right too.

It's easy to see what is driving this effort. Republicans really see no problem in telling blacks and other minorities that they are drawing the wrong conclusions from their life-experiences. That they don't grasp the awesome objective truth of conservative revelation.

And conservatives are perplexed when black people get upset at being spoken to as though they are children. As though they are so dumb or child-like as to not be able to draw the proper conclusions.

When Herman Cain said "If you're poor blame yourself," the whiter-than-white conservative audience which has been raised on Right-Wing lies of welfare queens, Willie Horton and the Faux News Crusade against the New Black Panther Party gobbled it up.

Just like at CPAC 2013, conservatives believe Slavery was good for Black People and current conservative principles of wage slavery and neo-feudalism are good for them, too. 

If Condoleezza Rice states she will be a lifetime Republican because in 1952 Southern Democrats would not help her father register to vote but Republicans would, good for her.

If Clarence Thomas is still bitter at the treatment he received at Yale Law School and from by the White establishment Law Firms who viewed his Diploma as being the product of affirmative action and it has driven him to be a Reactionary I Got Mine Right-Winger that's his choice.

Now here's the differenece. I, as a white Liberal, am not going to tell any black person what their experience means to them but lily-livered punk ass bitch Republicans and Racist Right-Wingers are still telling Black People what's what.

That is some true racist shit.