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Three more officers arrested in killing of George Floyd, Chuavin's charge upgraded to 2nd degree murder

Stephen Montemayor and Chao Xiong
Star Tribune
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:41 UTC
kueng lane thao
© HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
The booking mugs of the three former Minneapolis officers charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting murder. From left are J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Derek Chauvin, who was previously charged, had a count of second-degree murder added.
Attorney General Keith Ellison's office on Wednesday upgraded charges against the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck and charged the other three officers at the scene with aiding and abetting murder.

The decision came just two days after Ellison took over the prosecution from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and followed more than a week of sometimes-violent protests calling for tougher charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who had pinned Floyd to the ground and held him there for nearly nine minutes. Protesters also demanded the arrests of the three other former officers who were present but failed to intervene. All three were booked into the Hennepin County jail on Wednesday.

"To the Floyd family, to our beloved community, and everyone that is watching, I say: George Floyd mattered. He was loved. His life was important. His life had value. We will seek justice for him and for you and we will find it," Ellison said

However, he said, he doesn't believe that "one successful prosecution can rectify the hurt and loss that so many people feel. The solution to that pain will be in the slow and difficult work of constructing justice and fairness in our society."

Chauvin, who was recorded on video kneeling on Floyd's neck as he begged for air on Memorial Day, now faces the more serious charge of second-degree murder, in addition to the original charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.

Comment: Bail for the three officers has been set at $750k. At the bail hearing, Lane's attorney said the following:
First appearances are typically procedural. But the hearing quickly turned contentious, with Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, arguing that the cases against the officers are weak and that they did nothing wrong. Gray said Lane twice asked if they should roll Floyd on side but that Chauvin said no. "What was he supposed to do... go up to Mr. Chauvin, grab him and throw him off?" Gray said.


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Snakes in Suits

Looking up! Cuomo's inspirational curfew message spawns dystopian memes


RT
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:08 UTC
NYPD and victim
© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
NYPD officers detain a suspected looter amid heated anti-police brutality protests, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, June 2, 2020.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken over a billboard in New York City's Columbus Circle to give updates on the curfew. Its eerie aesthetic drew dystopian comparisons and fueled a lot of memes.

In addition to the curfew schedule, the billboard features a variety of changing text messages, which for whatever reason seem to be designed to look like the governor's tweets: "DO NOT BE A CRIMINAL," "LOOTING INSULTS GEORGE FLOYD'S MEMORY," "HELP ME RESTORE CALM."

The dystopian aesthetic has been widely panned on social media, prompting horrified reactions like "We are living in a dystopian nightmare. Please tell me this isn't real."

Comment: Never expect creativity from politicians. They just can't do it.

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Star of David

Pandemic helps Israel increase control over Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque

Akram Al Waara
Middle East Eye
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:21 UTC
Palestinian prayer
© AFP
A Palestinian resident of the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank prays on the rooftop of his house in front of the Ibrahimi Mosque on 24 April 2020.
The recent expropriation of land near the flashpoint mosque comes amid ever increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement in the area, seen as part of Israeli annexation efforts.

In the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, Palestinian residents of the Old City of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, found themselves fighting another battle that, for them, holds far higher stakes than the spread of Covid-19.

On 13 May, the Israeli military issued an expropriation order allowing construction to begin on an elevator project that would make a portion of the ancient Ibrahimi Mosque wheelchair accessible.
Aref Jaber, a local Palestinian activist and resident of the Old City, told Middle East Eye:
"On the surface, making holy sites accessible to people with disabilities seems like a fine idea. But in reality, this is just another dubious way for the Israeli government and settlers to steal more of our land and take it for themselves."
The new elevator project, Jaber said, would swallow up more space of the already restricted Muslim side of the compound.

The Ibrahimi compound - known to Israelis as the Cave of the Patriarchs - was split into a mosque and synagogue following the 1994 massacre of dozens of Palestinian worshipers at the hands of Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein.
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Key

Detained US Navy veteran, Michael White, freed by Iran and on his way home

Matthew Lee, Eric Tucker
AP
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Michael White
© Unknown
Navy veteran Michael White, released from Iran.
A Navy veteran detained in Iran for nearly two years has been released and started making his way home, with the first leg on a Swiss government aircraft, U.S. officials said Thursday. "The nightmare is over," his mother said.

The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, flew to Zurich with a doctor to meet freed detainee Michael White and will accompany White to the United States aboard an American plane, the officials said.

White's release was part of an agreement involving an Iranian-American doctor prosecuted by the Justice Department, and followed months of quiet negotiations over prisoners. The two countries are at bitter odds over U.S. penalties imposed after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal and over the killing by American forces of a top Iranian general in Iraq at the beginning of this year.


Comment:
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Fire

Project Veritas infiltrates violent Antifa cell

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 11:10 UTC
antifa
An undercover journalist with Project Veritas successfully infiltrated Portland's Rose City Antifa cell, capturing footage of a meeting in which members discussed how to "get out there and do dangerous things as safely as possible."

Antifa has been a fixture at the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality (with varying degrees of success) which began after the May 25 death of 46-year-old black man George Floyd at the hands of white Minneapolice police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes as onlookers begged him to stop.

According to National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien on Sunday, the violence "is being driven by Antifa."

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

So now Sweden and the UK each think they were WRONG about their Covid-19 approaches. They can't BOTH be right...

Peter Andrews
RT
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:33 UTC
uk health campaign
© Reuters / Hannah McKay
We were supposed to be "following the science," but now the scientists are falling over themselves to admit they didn't get it right. How on earth did we end up in this ridiculous situation, and can we ever trust "experts" again?

While it seems that the initial coronavirus attack has largely blown over, at least in Europe, learning lessons will be crucial to better deal with the next pandemic. But learning lessons is hard when the "experts" seem more bamboozled than ever.

The first such expert is, surprise surprise, British epidemiologist and academic Neil Ferguson, who has been put in the rather uncomfortable position of having to justify his actions. Hauled up in front of the British House of Lords on Tuesday, Ferguson was forced to admit, in response to a question about the apparent success of the Swedish model, that Sweden had "got a long way to the same effect" without imposing lockdown. This is an overt admission that he now thinks that the UK lockdown was (and is) pointless. As opposed to the covert one that involved multiple illicit visits from his mistress.
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Snakes in Suits

'Professor Lockdown' Ferguson, UK's Covid-19 czar, admits crippling restrictions MADE NO DIFFERENCE

Jason O'Toole
RT
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:21 UTC
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson
© Reuters TV
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson
The British scientist known as Professor Lockdown has undermined the draconian policy he unleashed on the world by confessing that Britain hasn't fared any better in tackling the disease than the laid-back Scandis.

Professor Neil Ferguson probably woke up this morning breathing a massive sigh of relief because he hadn't been ripped to shreds again in the British newspapers for this second time in just under a month - this time over his startling admission that there has been no significant difference in the levels of Covid-19 suppression when comparing the UK and Sweden.

During his evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, he said: "They [Swedish scientists] came to a different policy conclusion based really on quite similar science. I don't agree with it but scientifically they're not far from scientists in any part of the world."

He then acknowledged that the Swedish authorities had "got a long way to the same effect" without a full lockdown.
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Broom

Sanctimonious outrage of lockdown fetishists disappears thanks to protesters and rioters

Ryan McMaken
Mises Institute
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
protesters

"Social distancing" much?
Six weeks ago, when thousands around the nation took to state capitols to protest the human rights abuses inflicted by coerced "stay-at-home orders," lockdown supporters reacted with sanctimonious outrage.

Declaring the protestors to be "covidiots" who failed to appreciate the virtue and necessity of police-enforced lockdowns, news outlets and lockdown advocates on social media declared that the protests would cause outbreaks of disease, and nurses declared that the protests were "a slap in the face" to those trying to treat the disease. One political cartoon featured an image of an emergency room nurse saying "see you soon" to antilockdown protestors.

Now, with far larger numbers of protestors amassing in larger groups, we hear none of the lofty moralism coming from the media or lockdown enthusiasts on social media. Yes, there are still some token attempts to express worry over how the riots and protests of recent days might spread the disease. But the tone is quite different. Concerns over COVID-19 are now phrased along the blueprint of "if you protest — and we would never dream of telling you not to protest — please take these measures to minimize risk." It's all very polite and deferential to the protestors. Politicians like Kamala Harris have even joined the protestors in the streets, doing what she demanded others avoid just a few weeks earlier. Where are the nurses denouncing these protests as a "slap in the face"? Where are the social media COVID warriors telling us that standing next to a person without a mask is tantamount to homicide? They're very hard to find, nowadays.

Of course, those who support the current protests, but oppose last month's protests, claim that there is no equivalence. Many would likely say, "We're now protesting against people being killed in the streets!" followed by "Those other protestors just wanted [a] haircut.

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Info

After Facebook staff walkout, Zuckerberg defends no action on Trump posts

Katie Paul, Elizabeth Culliford
Reuters
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:06 UTC
mark zuckerberg
© REUTERS/Erin Scott
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Tuesday that he stood by his decision not to challenge inflammatory posts by U.S. President Donald Trump, refusing to give ground a day after staff members staged a rare public protest.

A group of Facebook employees - nearly all of them working at home due to the coronavirus pandemic - walked off the job on Monday. They complained the company should have acted against Trump's posts containing the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Zuckerberg told employees on a video chat that Facebook had conducted a thorough review and was right to leave the posts unchallenged, a company spokeswoman said.

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

Nurses who accused stay at home protesters of 'killing granny' applaud thousands of left-wing demonstrators in New York

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:59 UTC
nurses clap for protesters

Apparently, the virus can only spread amongst Trump supporters, not Antifa.

Some of the same hospital workers who would have accused stay-at-home protesters of "killing granny" just weeks ago are now on video applauding thousands of left-wing demonstrators in New York.

"Hospital staff come out to applaud #GeorgeFloyd protestors in New York - demonstrators shout back 'Thank You'," tweeted journalist Sarah Walton.

Comment: See also:

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