AMBER GUYGER CASE KEY WITNESS MURDERED AFTER HER GUILTY CONVICTION (JOSHUA BROWN)

AMBER GUYGER CASE KEY WITNESS MURDERED AFTER HER GUILTY CONVICTION (JOSHUA BROWN):

WHITE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER LOSES ELECTION AFTER EXPOSING DALLAS POLICE DEPT COVER UP (PHILLIP KINGSTON).

“WE’VE GOT SOME LONG DAYS AHEAD OF US” (DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR).

WE NEED TO PRAY FOR THE USA AND PREPARE FOR NOVEMBER 2020.

DEAR LORD, GIVE US WISDOM & STRATEGIES.


Post Sources: BallotPedia, CBS News, Fox News, Dallas News, Status Coup, TIME, WFAA, Youtube


******* Key Witness in Amber Guyger Murder Case Fatally Shot Days After Emotional Trial Wraps Up


Less than three days after ex-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering Botham Jean in his own apartment, a key witness in the case was fatally shot.

Joshua Brown was killed Friday night at a Dallas apartment complex, as confirmed to TIME and originally reported by the Dallas Morning News.

The Dallas Police Department told TIME that law enforcement responded to a report of a shooting at a Dallas apartment complex just after 10:30 p.m. on Friday and found the victim “lying on the ground in the apartment parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds,” but did not identity the victim.

Spokesperson Kimberlee Leach with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to TIME that the victim was Brown.

The victim died from his injuries at Parkland Memorial Hospital, police said in a statement.

Several witnesses had heard gunshots and noticed a silver four-door sedan speeding away from the parking lot, police said.

But authorities did not provide more details about the suspect and noted that no one is currently in custody.

Brown, who was also Jean’s neighbor, testified during Guyger’s trial that he met Jean for the first time the same day that he was shot on Sept. 6, 2018.

After talking in his testimony about how he would hear Jean singing gospel or Drake songs inside his apartment, Brown became emotional and had to take a break from questioning.

Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who represented the Jean family during trial, has spoken extensively on social media about Brown’s death, and said “his murder underscores the reality of the black experience in America.”

“A former athlete turned entrepreneur—Brown lived in constant fear that he could be the next victim of gun violence,” Merritt said, adding that Brown’s mother asked that he “do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of his murder.”

Brown’s death has also elicited concern from politicians. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday that “just when when we caught a glimpse of justice for Botham Jean, much of it feels stolen back with the murder of Joshua Brown.”

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**** Dallas City Council Member On Officer Shooting Investigation: DA ‘Screwing This Up’ (Circa 2018)


DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A Dallas city councilman is demanding 911 calls and any police videos be released in the case involving former officer Amber Guyger’s deadly shooting of Botham Jean in his apartment last month.

Councilman Philip Kingston said he is unhappy with the way the investigation into the Botham Jean shooting is being handled, going so far as to accuse Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson of, “screwing this up.”

Kingston responded to news the DA will not release 911 calls, radio calls or any possible police body cam videos that exist or Amber Guyger’s personnel records during her time as an officer.

The transmissions made by Guyger in the moments after the shooting are key evidence to prove or disprove her story that she mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment directly above hers at the South Side Flats and mistook Botham Jean for a burglar when she shot and killed him.

Kingston told CBS 11 after Wednesday’s city council meeting, it makes the city look bad that nearly a month after the shooting so little information is being released.

He blames Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall and DA Johnson.

“I think the investigation is over and I think we need to start being transparent with the information these decision makers are looking at because they’ve all said we want transparency, we want transparency, we want transparency, but they’re actions are 180 degrees from that,” said Kingston.

CBS11 received a response from the DA’s office which said Kingston’s comments would only fuel the argument for a change of venue in the case if there’s an indictment and trial:

“Case law regarding venue change mandates no pretrial release of evidence that could influence potential jurors and render them unable to return a fair and impartial verdict in any potential criminal trial.

See e.g. Gonzalez v. State, 222 S.W. 3d 446.

This law includes non-disclosure of all of the described.

This potential case should be tried in Dallas County, not some contiguous county where the interests of justice are not as compelling.

The DAs office is following the law in its effort to seek fair and impartial jurors in any potential trial regarding this tragic matter.”

AMBER GUYGER’S TEARS vs BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY TEARS (UNEQUAL JUSTICE)

AMBER GUYGER’S TEARS vs BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY TEARS:

IF BOTHAM JEAN SHOT AMBER HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE.

AMBER’S TEARS WON’T RESURRECT BOTHAM JEAN.

FORGIVENESS DOES NOT ELIMINATE CONSEQUENCES.


Post Sources: ABC News, Inside Edition, Salon.com, Youtube



**** This time white tears didn't work: Why Amber Guyger's guilty verdict surprised me


The former Dallas police officer was found guilty of murdering her neighbor Botham Jean in his own apartment

Finally, a cop's white tears didn't work.

Fired Dallas police officer Amber R. Guyger, a white woman who shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, was found guilty of murder on the second day of jury deliberations, an all-too-rare instance of the justice system holding police officers accountable for reckless actions.

The guilty verdict shocked me, and not because I’m used to being let down by the juries, grand juries, prosecutors and judges presiding over cops' cases.

It shocked me because Guyger had a weapon stronger than the law on her side; even more powerful than the gun she carried.

Guyger was armed with white tears. And in America, white tears are a source of ultimate power.

White tears helped kill Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi back in 1955. 

White tears almost allowed Susan Smith to get away with killing her own kids after claiming that an African American man was the culprit.

And white tears could have ruined the life of an innocent black man in Quincy, Mass, when a white woman said she was assaulted by a black male in his early 20s and only after police reviewed surveillance footage admitted she had made it up. Guyger invoked that power of white tears in court: "I was scared he was going to kill me," she said to the jury.

This time the outcome was justice.
Guyger, 31, lived in the same apartment complex as Jean. 

On September 6, 2018, she entered Jean's apartment, which is on a different floor from hers. She says she thought she was in her apartment.

There she saw Jean eating ice cream, and she says she thought he was an intruder, so she shot him.

Jean died from his injuries in a nearby hospital.

Three days later, Guyger was arrested by Texas Rangers who took over the investigation.

Guyger was initially charged with manslaughter and terminated from the police force. 

After a series of protests, public outrage, and a sorry attempt by the Dallas police department to smear Jean’s reputation as a Christian man, Guyger was charged with murder by a Dallas grand jury.

The disgraced Guyger faced a multiracial and multiethnic jury during her week-long trial that ended Tuesday in that shocking verdict.

Even though it seems like it would have been an open-and-shut case, African Americans know better.

We have seen how often cops continue to enjoy freedom after killing black people, even when the victims posed no threat, had no weapons, and the incidents were even caught on tape.

Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and Michael Brown — just to name a few — had no firearms on them.

They should be alive today and are not. All of their killers walked.

How does this happen? Cops who kill too often earn a get-out-of-jail-free card when they say “I feared for my life and the lives of my fellow officers.”

And Guyger tried it as well, claiming she was afraid Jean was going to kill her — even though by her logic he would have been more justified in shooting, because she had intruded into his apartment.

Guyger got the verdict she deserves, but I'd hold off on celebrating this turn of justice until she's sentenced.

Her conviction carries a sentence from five to 99 years, and she could easily receive a lesser penalty and be home soon. 

And even if she is made to serve decades in prison, an innocent man is dead.

What will Dallas do to prevent another Amber Guyger incident?

Police officers have enormous powers — to take someone's freedom, to take their lives even.

Those powers were granted to Guyger, who then made a colossal, life-ending error in judgment while wielding those powers, with no checks in place to prevent those powers from killing a man.

According to Guyger, she was too tired to recognize her own home that night.

And yet she had enough cognitive control to fire deadly shots at a living being. 

Jean had no weapon and, once again, was in his own home; and yet Guyger felt shooting him was her only option.

That's a serious issue — of training, of recruitment, of assessment — that goes deeper than one man's killing, and needs to be aggressively handled by the Dallas Police Department.

RAHM EMANUEL FIRES CHICAGO POLICE CHIEF ONE YEAR LATER; FREDDY GRAY MURDER TRIAL BEGINS

Amid public outrage, one year after being re-elected as Mayor of Chicago, RAHM EMANUEL is finally moving forward with the LAQUAN MCDONALD Murder case.

Why was Laquan's Irresponsible Mother paid $5 Million in HUSH money when her 17-yr old Son was still in Foster Care when he was killed?

FREDDY GRAY'S Murder trial has begun to move forward in BALTIMORE.

Freddy Gray's family was also PAID OFF.

Thus none of the six Cops culpable for Freddy's Murder will spend time in Prison.

Under OBAMA'S Administration, Young BLACK Men & Boys in America are worth Dead than Alive.

We need to PRAY and keep demanding JUSTICE!


~ Analysis: After firing McCarthy, Emanuel faces bigger problem

Now that Rahm Emanuel has gone against his political instincts by firing his larger-than-life police superintendent, the mayor faces an even bigger political dilemma that could define his legacy.

He must find a worthy replacement for Garry McCarthy without making worse racial tensions brought to a boil by the Laquan McDonald shooting video.

The video played around the world of a white Chicago Police officer pumping 16 rounds into the body of the black teenager not only sealed McCarthy’s fate.

It also made the job of filling McCarthy’s shoes that much more difficult.

Hispanic elected officials will almost certainly demand that the permanent job be awarded to First Deputy Police Superintendent John Escalante, who will serve as acting superintendent until a permanent replacement is chosen.

But Escalante is already a political flashpoint. McCarthy’s decision to appoint him to replace retiring First Deputy Al Wysinger, who is African-American, infuriated the City Council’s Black Caucus and triggered demands for McCarthy’s ouster even before the Laquan McDonald video was made public.

Hispanics may also lobby behind the scenes for Hiram Grau, the former Chicago deputy superintendent and former state police director who was chosen by Emanuel to recommend police reforms as part of a five-member Task Force on Police Accountability.

Having succeeded in forcing Emanuel’s hand, black elected officials are equally certain to demand that McCarthy’s replacement be an African-American to restore public confidence between citizens and police in the black community so shaken by the department’s handling of the McDonald shooting.

Several aldermen are openly lobbying for Wysinger’s return, even though he is best remembered for being the statue who stood motionless behind McCarthy at news conferences.

“I believe in my heart that Al Wysinger will be a great choice to lead the department. Al has the respect of the community as well as the entire police department,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), former chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who lobbied hard for McCarthy’s ouster, said the new superintendent need not necessarily be black. But it must be someone willing to make the “structural changes” necessary “so there’s not an effort to cover up, deny, misplace evidence and perjure when bad things happen.”

“The mayor complains about the code of silence in the black and Hispanic communities that prevent people from coming forward and sharing information. What about the code of silence in the police department that protects bad cops?” Preckwinkle said.

Another strong black candidate is Charles Ramsey, the former deputy police superintendent who went on to lead the police departments in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Ramsey was Emanuel’s first choice in 2011 before pricing himself out of the market by demanding a salary in excess of $400,000.

The case for a black superintendent is strengthened by the fact that the surge in shootings and gang violence under McCarthy’s watch disproportionately impacted the African-American community and left many of those neighborhoods under siege.

They need only point to the execution murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee as proof. The boy was lured into an ally by a gang member seeking revenge after his brother was killed in a gang-related shooting.

That initial nationwide search for a new superintendent will be conducted by the Police Board, whose president, Lori Lightfoot, is another member of Emanuel’s Task Force on Police Accountability.

They will narrow the list to 10 candidates then winnow the names to three finalists from which the mayor can choose. Escalante will almost certainly be one of them unless he blows his audition.

On Tuesday, Emanuel was asked whether a new superintendent needs to be an outsider or black.

“I’m not looking for a type. I’m looking for a professional that can lead the department and make sure that they have a robust record of bringing results in public safety,” the mayor said.

“I want to have somebody that will meet the needs of public safety, help obviously in this issue of both changing the culture, putting in place the building blocks to restore the confidence and trust that we want to see in Chicago and have a record in the police department of invigorating . . . not only commitment to professionalism but the type of commitment I want to see to make the changes necessary.”

Lightfoot added, “It needs to be somebody with a track record of positive engagement with the community . . . There’s also a need for terrorism experience and ideas to combat violence and street crime.”

If Emanuel dares to chose a white superintendent, former Englewood District Commander-turned State Police Director Leo Schmitz would be a strong candidate. Schmitz was a star of the CNN documentary series, “Chicagoland.”

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley was a me-first politician who never hesitated to throw people under the bus, including two police superintendents: Phil Cline and Matt Rodriguez.

Emanuel is far more loyal to his people. It goes against his grain to create political scapegoats.

But the steady drumbeat for McCarthy’s ouster got too loud to ignore, particularly for a mayor who had promised during his second term to listen more to African-American voters, who were alienated by his record 50 school closings.

The Chicago Sun-Times may well have put the final nail in McCarthy’s coffin with a front-page editorial demanding his ouster.

“I have a lot of loyalty to what he’s done and him. But . . . no one person trumps my commitment and my responsibility to the city of Chicago and its future,” the mayor said.

Pressed to explain what his only police superintendent had done wrong, he said: “I have a lot of confidence in the work and results that he’s done. But our goal . . . is to build the trust and confidence of the public. And at this point and this juncture for the city, given what we’re working on, he has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction.”

Emanuel has been under fire for keeping the McDonald video under wraps until after the April 7 mayoral runoff and waiting until one week after the election to settle the case for $5 million even before the McDonald family had filed a lawsuit. The video was released only after a judge’s order.

On Tuesday, the mayor was asked what responsibility he bears for the crisis of confidence that has, once again, undermined the trust between citizens and police in the black community so essential to solving crime.

“I take responsibility and none of us are above it . . . I have taken certain steps prior to this day. I’m taking steps today. As I told you, this is a work in progress in finding a solution [to police accountability]. It’s not the end of the problem. It’s the beginning of a solution towards the problem,” the mayor said.

Emanuel was asked about demands for his own resignation. He kept his cool and simply said a sarcastic, “Thank you.”

On Black Friday, the same day protesters infuriated by the McDonald video shut down Michigan Avenue, McCarthy insisted that the mayor “has my back.”

Instead, he got a political knife in the back delivered Tuesday morning after a series of conversations with his boss over the last few days.

The Emanuel-McCarthy dialogue started with the superintendent defending himself and making the case to finish the job he came to Chicago to do and ended with a realization that his tenure as superintendent, second only to Terry Hillard’s, had come to an end.

“After repeated meetings with community and faith leaders and conversations with elected officials, the mayor realized community support for the superintendent had gotten so low, he could no longer be effective in his job. It was an evolution of conversations that got him to that point,” said a mayoral confidante, who asked to remain anonymous.


~ First of Six Trials in Freddie Gray Death Begins With Protests

Demonstrations tied to the April police custody death of Freddie Gray continued on Monday evening, hours after jury selection got underway for the first of six officers slated to stand trial in his death.

Carrying signs that read, "Black Lives Matter," and chanting "No justice no peace! No killer police!" several dozen protestors marched through downtown Baltimore, making stops at City Hall, police department headquarters, and several popular tourist spots, including the city's famed Inner Harbor. No arrests were reported.

The protests followed day one of the jury selection process in the case of William G. Porter, 26, one of six officers indicted. He faces charges that include with manslaughter, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment for his alleged role in Gray's demise.

Sources: Chicago Suntimes, Fox News, NBC News, YouTube