Baltimore Riots: ***UPDATE: COPS CHARGED WITH MURDER***
BALTIMORE — Armored vehicles lined this battered city’s main thoroughfares and thousands of law enforcement officers and National Guard troops worked to maintain order and enforce a citywide curfew Tuesday night, amid scattered reports of unrest after a day of largely peaceful protests.
As the curfew went into effect at 10 p.m., hundreds of people remained in the streets near the intersection of Pennsylvania and West North Avenues in blighted West Baltimore, where a CVS drugstore had been looted and burned during Monday night’s riots, after the funeral for Freddie Gray, who died after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody this month. There were some reports of arrests, and police fired pepper-spray balls to disperse crowds, who had earlier stood their ground despite entreaties from religious leaders and community activists…
..“It’s sad, this don’t make no sense,” said Clarence Cobb, 48, one of many neighborhood residents who, describing themselves as brokenhearted, came out to survey the wreckage and clean up. “It comes to a point where you just got to take pride in your own neighborhood. This makes us look real bad as a city.”…
I feel badly for Clarence Cobb. Dude is just trying to live his life, and his neighborhood gets destroyed by outside agitators, leaving a mess that he has to go out and clean up. The racial grifters don’t care about Clarence Cobb. They don’t care about Katrice Gardner, who lost her job and home when the CVS drug building was torched.
Obviously, nobody learned ANYTHING from the Michael Brown/Ferguson fiasco. Egged on by a media eager to push a certain narrative, everyone decided early on exactly what happened, before we knew any facts, and now the town is destroyed. Similarly, none of us knows yet exactly what happened in Baltimore, but the idiots on both sides have already decided they know everything and drawn the skirmish lines.
I will not join them. I will wait and see what the report says. If, in fact, these cops were complicit in Freddie Gray’s death, they should be charged and prosecuted for murder. That doesn’t mean you get to go around burning down buildings out of perceived injustices before the report or discipline even comes out. Or looting and destroying businesses that locals have poured their lives into. Or pretend you know what exactly happened to Freddie Gray in that van yet when you don’t.
Are the cops ‘unkind’ to a lot of people in Baltimore, specifically young black men? Undoubtedly. But how much chutzpah does it take for gang members to stand next to the city council president and talk about what great guys they were because they supposedly helped prevent stores from being burned?
Yeah, that’s right. GANG MEMBERS! Over the decades, how much pain and misery have these vermin caused to the city of Baltimore? Since 2007 alone, there have been 1,913 murders in Baltimore, most related to the drug/gang trade. For comparison, similarly-sized Portland, Oregon, averages about 20 murders a year. (I wasn’t able to find murder stats for every year.) And these guys want to be patted on the back?!
How many mothers have these gang members helped turn into heroin addicts? How many kids have they killed in their gang war shootouts? How many cars have been stolen; buildings torched? How many children have they fathered only to abandon them to the streets; creating the next gerneration of grist for the mill? Nobody’s rioting over any of those atrocities, though.
And then, they get indignant when the president of the United States calls them “thugs?” Christ, that is the LEAST of what I would call people burning down my city. President Obama was 100% right, and I’m GLAD he stuck by his statements. He should have come down even harder.
One paragraph near the end of the linked New York Times story really jumped out at me:
..Near the burned-out CVS, Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, said: “With the riots, we’re not trying to act like animals or thugs. We’re just angry at the surroundings, like this is all that is given to us, and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.”
Robert, let me help you out here a little bit: Ain’t nothin’ for free, son. What do you mean, “all that is given to us?” Given to you by who? Compared to the squalor outside the U.S., the worst ghetto in America is NOTHING. Less-fortunate people all over the world WOULD KILL to live in those once-beautiful row houses. The buildings are broken down, Robert, because the people in that neighborhood apparently didn’t feel like fixing them.
See, that’s what it takes, Robert: people fixing up their neighborhoods, not sitting around awaiting some imaginary knight on a white horse to do it for you. It takes an effort to keep a neighborhood looking nice. It doesn’t just HAPPEN. And who are “They?” Baltimore has been run by liberal democrats for decades. Baltimore is almost 70% black. Black people run the police, fire department, city hall, and mayor’s office. Are they “They” Robert?
No one came and took your fathers away for no reason. Your fathers took themselves away, Robert, by either committing crimes and going to jail, or just not being around at all, ever, because they didn’t give a gosh darn. “They” did nothing. My brothers and sister and I, as well as COUNTLESS other people of ALL races, made it our whole lives without having a “community center” and we managed to not commit a single felony or throw a brick at a policeman. I’ve seen kids in third world countries using a dead dog fetus as a toy, Robert. Bet they wish they had a community center.
Frankly, Robert, you sound like a whiny young douche, well on your way to being a whiny old douche. And speaking of douches…
Idiot CNN Reporter Knows Who to Blame- All of You Terrorist Veterans:
CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin came under a flurry of criticism on Tuesday after she linked instances of alleged police brutality to military veterans who come home from war, become police officers and remain “ready to do battle.”
“A lot of these young people — and I love our nation’s veterans — but some of them are coming back from war, they don’t know the communities and they’re ready to do battle,” Baldwin said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) agreed with Baldwin, saying they “definitely” need better training and recruitment.
“That’s why I’ve been asking DOJ to come in and do a pattern and practice investigation,” the lawmaker added. “We really need to look at our police department from top to bottom and from bottom to top to figure out exactly what is being done.”
Yeah, that’s the problem. Highly disciplined veterans who go all Travis Bickle on innocent civilians. That’s a clown question, bro.
Two men from ATC (Advanced Training Command), SO1 Seth Cody Lewis and SO1 Brett Allen Marihugh, were found at the bottom of the pool in Little Creek Virginia around 3 p.m. Friday and pronounced dead shortly after.
Sources within the SEAL community tell SOFREP that the two SEALs were involved in an exhaustive underwater workout practicing breath holding techniques when the two apparently experienced what is commonly known in the diving community as a shallow water blackout. It’s unknown whether the two were spotting for each other.
Awful. As Brandon stated in the article, we lose people in training. Every SOF unit has, and it is terrible every time. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only brothers we lost this week…
Paratrooper Killed During Training Jump:
A 27-year-old Army paratrooper was killed during a nighttime training mission at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the latest in a series of military exercises deaths across the country.
Spc. Nicholas Roberts of Longwood, Fla., is at least the eighth fatality this year among service men and women participating in domestic training exercises.
The 82nd Airborne member was killed Tuesday during parachute jump at the base’s Holland Drop Zone. Roberts had served in the Army Reserve in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, and transitioned to active duty in 2014 as infantryman.
Green Beret NCO Killed in Traffic Accident:
STUTTGART, Germany — The Army is investigating the death of a decorated Stuttgart-based Green Beret who was killed in an April 18 traffic accident in San Diego, where he was on a training mission, Special Operations Command Europe said Thursday.
Sgt. 1st Class James M. Ginas III, who was assigned to SOCEUR, was crossing the street with another person about 12:30 a.m. when he was hit by a vehicle, according to local media. He died at the scene.
“The exact details of the accident remain under investigation by both local authorities and the Army,” said Lt. Col. Nicholas Sternberg, a spokesman for SOCEUR, in a statement Thursday.
Law enforcement officials told a San Diego NBC news affiliate that Ginas died from blunt force injuries at the scene and that alcohol was not thought to be a factor in the accident.
Rest in Peace, men.
Abusive Marine Faces Court-Martial:
NORFOLK, Va. — A decorated Marine accused of humiliating and physically abusing those under his command – ordering one to punch another hard enough to make him urinate blood – is facing a court-martial in Virginia.
Staff Sgt. Dustin A. Barker of Scott, Kentucky, is accused of hazing Marines at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2013, the year he joined the Norfolk-based Marine Corps Security Forces Regiment, an anti-terrorism and security force that deploys to hot spots around the world. He also faces charges over alleged incidents in Virginia…
…Documents provided by the military regarding alleged incidents in Guantanamo say Barker ordered one Marine to strike another with a rock; ordered two other Marines to punch each other; and ordered another Marine to mount a comrade and punch him in the kidneys to make him urinate blood.
Charge sheets provided by the Marines say he also forced another Marine to punch himself in the face and another was forced to cut grass with scissors while wearing personal protective gear.
Barker is also accused of having his Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, run excessive distances while wearing heavy equipment, and in another incident, having so much equipment tied to his Marines’ arms that they couldn’t lift their arms above their chests.
At Camp Allen in Norfolk, Barker is accused of requiring an excessive number of advancement exercises known as “buddy rushes” and requiring his Marines to shave each other’s faces while standing outside of their barracks in the presence of other Marines. The Marines define hazing as any conduct that causes someone to “suffer or be exposed to any activity which is cruel, abusive, humiliating, oppressive, demeaning or harmful.”
Freaking Psychopath. All the news this week is terrible. I even thought about skipping this week’s roundup; it was so depressing. Let’s move on to other, less grim stories.
Veteran-Owned Business of the Week- 2 Soldiers and a Marine BBQ:
The guys at Two Soldiers and a Marine BBQ have one food truck already in the Chicago area, with plans to add more. The brisket looks off the chain. Check out their website here, their Facebook page here, and use the twitter machine to find out where the truck will be located. Looks like awesome grub.
Many thanks to @Stefanieleigh for telling me about these guys. Contact me on twitter to tell me about a veteran-owned business you know for a free plug. Pretty good deal: thousands of people will read about you, and you will prove that you don’t hate America.
Nice Story About Brigadier General Viet Luong:
Forty years ago this week Luong’s father, a South Vietnamese Marine major, called an urgent family meeting at their home in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. The city, his father told them, soon would fall to the North Vietnamese — the communist forces he was helping the Americans fight.
They sat around the table — father, mother, seven sisters and Luong, then age 9.
“My sisters actually had a very strong opinion — like ‘we need to stay until we find a way out as a family,’ ” he recalls.
His father worried they wouldn’t be able to escape together. He suggested Luong, the only boy, and one of his sisters should flee the country in the hopes the family could be preserved.
“I was depressed! I didn’t want to get sent to — you know, to the U.S. I didn’t want to … my dad, to go to the jungles,” he says, his voice catching in his throat. “It was pretty tough, as a kid.”
Great story. And you think you had it tough as a kid?
Fatties Fight Fit Female Flyer:
The controversial ad campaign featuring a model in a bikini that asks “Are you beach body ready?” has been banned by the advertising watchdog because of “concerns” over its weight loss claims.
After receiving about 360 complaints about the campaign, mostly that it objectified women, the Advertising Standards Authority has also launched an inquiry into whether the ad is offensive.
A spokesman for the ASA explained that it was the health claims that led to the decision not to let the ad return in its current form. “We’ve met with Protein World to discuss its “Are you beach body ready?” ad campaign. It’s coming down in the next three days and, due to our concerns about a range of health and weight loss claims made in the ad, it can’t appear again in its current form.”
The ad campaign, which promotes Protein World weight-loss products, is due to end a three-week run on London underground. The vast majority of complainants argue that the ad is offensive, irresponsible and harmful because it promotes an unhealthy body image.
Yes, you heard that correctly: The very attractive woman is promoting an “unhealthy body image.” I dunno, she looks pretty healthy to me. So, so healthy.
The paratrooper who celebrated his upcoming departure from the Army by jumping with his pet Siamese fighting fish — and whose selfie of the act later went viral on social media — will serve 12 days of extra duty before closing out his time in uniform.
Spc. Matthew Tattersall, who is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 505th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, received a company-grade Article 15, with the extra duty as punishment.
“The way I see it, if you do the crime, you’d better be willing to do the time,” Tattersall said. “They certainly, if they absolutely wanted to, the punishment could have been far worse, so I’m not upset about anything. I understand that there were going to be consequences for it.”
I like the cut of your jib, Specialist. And before anyone starts whining about how he could have caused an accident in the air, well… he didn’t.
FAIRFIELD – A live grenade was discovered in a car at a business near Travis Air Force Base Wednesday afternoon.
The Solano County Sheriff’s Department said an employee at a Pick-N-Pull found a World War II-era pineapple fragmentation grenade at around 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Nearby businesseswere evacuated and an explosive ordinance disposal team from Travis Air Force Base was also called.
The team soon confirmed it was indeed a live grenade with its pin still inside, deputies say. They were able to collect it safely.
ROSSLYN, VA: Surprise! The pilots who run the Air Force don’t share Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’s view of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Mabus two weeks ago said “should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly.”
“I would disagree with that flat, absolute assertion,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Hoog, assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, replied when I read him Mabus’s statement about the F-35 at an Air Force Association briefing but substituted “Air Force” for “Department of the Navy.”
“The essence is not whether a human being is in the cockpit, the essence is where your decisionmaking is going to be made,” Hoog said. Unmanned aircraft and other robotic vehicles are getting more capable, he conceded, “But the bounds of what an unmanned aircraft, missile, submarine or ship can do, or tank — this isn’t just about airplanes; unmanned anything – are limited by the technology constraints of artificial intelligence, decisionmaking, target ID, the nuances of contextual elements of the battlespace. So it’s not a black and white answer.”
40th Anniversary of Fall of Saigon:
As the Marines scrambled to the roof of the U.S. Embassy, they locked a chain-link gate on every other floor to slow the throng of panicked Vietnamese civilians sure to come behind them. They knew if the crowd pushed through to the top, they could easily be overrun by hundreds of people desperate to get a seat on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon.
The men barricaded the rooftop door using heavy fire extinguishers and wall lockers and waited nervously as Vietnamese outside rammed a fire truck through an embassy entrance. They could hear looting going on below and watched as cars were driven away and everything from couch cushions to refrigerators was carted out of the offices. They saw South Vietnamese soldiers strip off their uniforms and throw them into the street, fearing they would be shot on sight by the northern enemy.
It was still dark when the U.S. ambassador left the roof on a helicopter around 5 a.m. April 30, 1975. A message went out over the radio with his code name, “Tiger, Tiger, Tiger,” followed by “Tiger out,” to signal that the diplomat was en route to safety.
As the sun came up, the remaining Marines realized they had been forgotten. The pilots mistakenly believed that the call meant everyone had been evacuated. The Marines had no way to contact U.S. airmen ferrying Vietnamese allies and Americans to aircraft carriers offshore because their radio signals didn’t carry that far.
Arizona is the Florida of the West:
Flagstaff police arrested a woman last week after she ran into a stranger’s home, stripped naked and then assaulted a police officer in the Pine Knoll area.
According to the police report, the victim called police around 4 p.m. Friday after a young woman he did not know ran into his apartment when someone there opened the door. The suspect ran into a bedroom, started jumping on the bed, took off all her clothes, started shouting “am I pretty?” and refused to leave.
When officers arrived, they saw the suspect standing on an exterior second-floor balcony completely naked and yelling incoherently. She put on her underwear, then launched her body into an officer who was climbing the stairs toward her.
The officer was able to catch his balance and place the suspect in handcuffs. She struggled against the officer and yelled that she loved marijuana on her way to the patrol car. Inside, she managed to slip out of her handcuffs and started destroying the interior of the vehicle.
Officers interviewed other witnesses in the area. The witnesses said the suspect was at a nearby residence earlier in the afternoon, but had been kicked out for yelling disruptively without provocation. She ran to a second stranger’s residence, where she used a lawn chair to smash a window in an attempt to get inside. She then hit a Jeep parked outside with the same lawn chair. After that, she ran to the victim’s apartment. When officers retrieved her clothing, they found two of her pant pockets filled with marijuana.
GEEEESZZZZZ. This chick is the Jim Morrison of weed.
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