Things I learned This Week About Ebola, and the Use of Untrialed Experimental Vaccines

NEWS ITEMS:

People who contract Ebola in some areas of Congo, have one thing "in common": local hospitals, which may not be correctly following recommended hygiene protocols. NPR reports:

" They had all recently visited a health clinic for treatment for some other disease such as a respiratory infection or malaria. They would say, 'I went to the hospital. They treated me. I got clear [of that illness]. And then a few days after, I start having fevers.' " Fevers that were the first of signs of Ebola. The surge of confirmed cases in Katwa and Butembo – 307 and rising — is now the largest flare-up during the course of this outbreak, which has infected nearly 900 people since August. And WHO officials estimate that in about one-fifth of these recent cases, the person contracted Ebola at health care facilities." 

One of the saddest stories I've read about this: a woman who never even knew she had had Ebola, had a relapse more than a year later and transmitted it to several family members. Although this was known in 2015, it was not publicized until this year. WJLA published the AP report:

 "A Liberian woman who probably caught Ebola in 2014 may have infected three relatives a year after she first fell sick, doctors reported... The unusual cluster of cases in Liberia was identified after the woman's 15-year-old son was diagnosed with Ebola in November 2015. Scientists then tested the rest of his family: the woman, her husband and their three younger sons. The 15-year-old died a few days later. The father and an 8-year-old boy were positive for Ebola, but both recovered. The couple's 5-year-old son wasn't infected.
"Doctors found Ebola antibodies in the mother, her breast milk and her 2-month-old baby, suggesting a previous infection and the possibility she passed on protection to her infant son through breastfeeding.
"Researchers reported genetic similarities between the viruses taken from the father, the two boys and the strain circulating during the 2014-15 outbreak across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which ultimately killed more than 11,000 people in the biggest Ebola epidemic in history.
"Scientists discovered the woman had cared for her brother in July 2014, who died after suffering Ebola-like symptoms but before being tested for the disease. The woman later experienced a similar illness, but never sought care."

Perhaps knowing this danger, one of the CDC's Ebola experts took special effort to make sure no one else was infected when an American Ebola survivor was giving birth, as reported by STAT News in an article about a retiring virologist:

" If [Dr Pierre] Rollin was good with viruses, he was equally as good with people. Damon, his former CDC boss, recalled that when one of the nurses from Dallas who had been infected with Ebola in 2014 gave birth well after she had recovered from the virus, there were still niggling concerns about whether she could infect others. So Rollin flew out to be on site, just in case."

Ebola survivors, it turns out, can transmit the disease to others for up to two years - and can be sexually transmitted by females as well as males.  Debora MacKenzie at The New Scientist reported:

" The Ebola virus can persist in a man’s semen for much longer than we thought. A man in Guinea who survived Ebola in 2014 is now known to have carried it for at least 531 days. Earlier this year, he transmitted the virus sexually, causing it to spread to at least 10 people, and killing 8 of them. .... "In January, 470 days after he initially fell ill, this man had sex with the woman who became the first known case in this year’s outbreak. She then spread the virus to nine more people, one of whom carried it to Liberia."

 The CDC has recommended that male survivors of Ebola use condoms "indefinitely", but this suggests that both sexes risk infecting their partners.

Survivors who had latent, non-fatal, or mild infections and recovered but remained infectious, resulting in transmission of the disease, are now being recognized as the source of new outbreaks. CIDRAP , The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. reports that a new outbreak in the town of Beni, Congo, is likely due to survivor transmission:

"The group conducted the study in June and July of 2017, enrolling 237 participants ... They found that illnesses were more widespread than the 11 cases originally reported from the area, which includes a 2-year-old boy thought have been the first case and to have been exposed to the virus by a bat.

"Researchers identified two more probable deaths and eight previously unrecognized IgG-positive survivors, including one person who had mild illness and another who was asymptomatic, for a case fatality of 55.6% for adults, much lower than originally reported 100%."

Victims of Ebola who die, are not to be embalmed, according to CDC guidelines, and if buried, must have a "closed casket" service - the body will not be available for viewing. The CDC recommends cremation for those who die of Ebola, but says if they are to be buried, funeral home personnel must not even open the body bag that the remains arrive in, and must transfer it to a casket which is then hermetically sealed.  More information is available at "The CDC’s “Guidance for Safe Handling of Human Remains of Ebola Patients in U. S. Hospitals and Mortuaries”

It is not yet known whether other mammals such as dogs and cats can contract or carry Ebola. Everyday Health reports:

"“At this time, there is no evidence that dogs or cats can carry Ebola nor are they at risk for contracting Ebola in the United States,” says Angela Vassallo, PMH, MS, director of infection prevention and epidemiology at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. ....The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also stated that there were no cases of dogs or cats getting sick from Ebola, nor of these pets spreading Ebola to others.

 ...."Julio Lopez, DVM, of Studio City Animal Hospital in Los Angeles, says that what little we know about Ebola and dogs comes from a single study. Published in Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2005, after an Ebola outbreak in Gabon, the study included data on blood tests of 439 dogs, some from Ebola-affected villages. “Dogs consuming infected meat developed antibodies against the Ebola virus, but did not show signs of sickness,” says Dr. Lopez. “None of the dogs in this study died from this disease.” Researchers found no cases of dogs passing on Ebola, neither to animals nor people.

..."While there are no known cases of an infected pet transmitting Ebola to a person, pets can infect people with other more common zoonotic diseases. “Leptospirosis, hookworms and roundworms, and toxoplasmosis are a few common examples,” says Lopez.  ... "We can also transmit diseases to our pets. In 2009, a cat and some ferrets contracted H1N1, commonly called the swine flu, from their owners,” Lopez says." 

Additional info about animals and Ebola in this Time article (from 2014 so perhaps out of date). 

Finally, as we all know, researchers are working ceaselessly to develop a vaccine for Ebola. With the latest outbreak, companies are setting up clinical trials of new medicines in-country, often at great risk from violence in the area.  But of interest was this article about giving the vaccine to young children without benefit of any clinical trial to determine its safety for that age group.
As reported by StatNews, in an article that could have been headlined 'Doctors Without Borders Supports Giving Untrialed Experimental Vaccines To Pregnant Women and Babies En Masse'

"Women who are pregnant and lactating, as well as children under the age of 1, will be offered access to an experimental Ebola vaccine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials said Wednesday, marking the reversal of a controversial policy that had drawn fire from public health experts. .... 

"Proponents of the earlier policy argued that the vaccine, which goes by the provisional name V920, might harm the fetus or trigger a miscarriage. They noted that there were no data to show the vaccine was safe to use in this very vulnerable population.

"But critics countered that unless the vaccine is used in pregnant women there would never be data to determine whether it was safe. And they noted that while there may be some risk involved in vaccinating pregnant and lactating women, the risk to them from Ebola is greater. ....

"The decision to exclude lactating women stemmed from concerns the vaccine viruses might be transmitted via breast milk. Children under the age of 1 were excluded from vaccination because the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness in this group hasn’t been tested. (An earlier decision to lower the threshold for those eligible for vaccination from 6 years old to 12 months old was made without the benefit of a clinical trial.)

"...As of Tuesday nearly 82,000 people in North Kivu and Ituri — the provinces where the outbreak is occurring — have been vaccinated. The vaccine, which has yet to be licensed, is being developed by Merck.

"Carleigh Krubiner, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, welcomed the news. Krubiner said the policy reversal will not only offer pregnant women the protection of the vaccine, but also provide a critical chance to see how the vaccine works in these women. That knowledge will be of benefit in future outbreaks, she said. ...

"The decision was also applauded by Doctors Without Borders, which had opposed the exclusion of pregnant women. Dr. Séverine Caluwaerts, a Belgian gynecologist who volunteers with MSF —the acronym is based on the organization’s name in French — said in reality some pregnant women have already received the vaccine, because they were vaccinated before they knew they were pregnant. MSF has heard reports of at least 20 such cases in this outbreak, Caluwaerts said."

"Reluctance to offer the vaccine to pregnant and lactating women is based on the fact it is a live-virus vaccine. The virus it contains is not Ebola; it is a livestock virus called vesicular stomatitis virus that can infect, but does not sicken people. A key protein from the Ebola virus has been fused to the VSV virus, which then prompts the immune system to develop a protective response to Ebola. Traditionally there has been concern about using live-virus vaccines in pregnant women.

"It was not immediately clear whether all children — even newborns — could be vaccinated. Nor is it clear how the WHO feels about this part of the decision.... The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for an interview." 

The article continues with information about other vaccines that do not use live viruses and are being recommended for trials.

Are the families - husbands and fathers as well as women and mothers - being made fully aware of the risks of these untrialed, experimental vaccines?  What kind of responsibility will these organizations bear who made the "outcry" demanding use of the experimental vaccines on vulnerable people?

The global health organizations are using the third world as their unregulated playground, taking advantage of people with no experience to use as human guinea pigs for testing their science-fair projects. Who is going to hold them to account when they make a fatal error?  Or half a million fatal errors?

History Repeats

I found this effective meme on Facebook today.

Especially appropriate considering the Left is trying to co-op the "Never Again" slogan to use for a school shooting by a madman who sent scores of threats that the police, sheriff's office, FBI, school, and mental health agencies all ignored.

Meme was created by Wilkowmajority.com.

17th Amendment: Why State-appointed Senators Were Better For America Than Elected Ones

The Seventeenth Amendment to the US Constitution changed the method by which Senators were selected. Bill Quick provides the simplest, best explanation for why the Founders' original method of populating the Senate was the wisest:

"There is no leash on the Senate.  Originally, it was really supposed to represent the interests of the individual states, but the Wilsonian progressives managed to destroy that aspect of the body so, in fact, it doesn’t represent much of anybody.  Senators serve longer terms than members of any other branch.  Originally, this was intended to make the states, which appointed Senators, the most powerful force in the federal governance.  America, after all, started out to be a union of states, not of people.  And the self-interest of individual states worked to assure that the Senate wouldn’t go too far off the rails, because state pols were much less susceptible to political demagoguery than were individual voters.  Piss off your governor and your statehouse, and you weren’t long for your cushy federal senate sinecure.  All that is gone now.  "

                                                  ~ From his post "History Rhymes".

Boy Scouts Love President Trump's Speech at National Jamboree, Shout "We Love Trump!" and "USA! USA! USA!"

During President Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts, that huge crowd applauded constantly, chanted " We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!" and "USA! USA! USA!", and they "boo'ed" when he mentioned "his opponent".

Here's a sample quote:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:  "Your lives will have meaning and purpose and joy. You will become leaders, and you will inspire others to achieve the dreams they once thought were totally impossible, things that you said could never, ever happen are already happening for you. And if you do these things -- and if you refuse to give in to doubt or to fear -- then you will help to make America great again. You will be proud of yourself, be proud of the uniform you wear, and be proud of the country you love." (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!  

And just in case the Fake News starts getting it wrong, there were only two times the audience boo'ed. One when he mentioned Hillary:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: "We won Florida.  We won South Carolina.  We won North Carolina.  We won Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)
We won and won.  So when they said, there is no way to victory, there is no way to 270.  I went to Maine four times because it’s one vote, and we won.  But we won -- one vote.  I went there because I kept hearing we're at 269.  But then Wisconsin came in.  Many, many years -- Michigan came in.
And we worked hard there.  My opponent didn't work hard there because she was told -- 

AUDIENCE:  Booo!

THE PRESIDENT:  "She was told she was going to win Michigan....."

and then when President Trump was telling the story of William Levitt, and teased them with a cliff-hanger:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: " I won’t go any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did."

AUDIENCE: Booo -- 

THE PRESIDENT: "Should I tell you? Should I tell you?"

AUDIENCE: Yes!

Final real news: The audience loved the speech and the President ALL THE WAY THROUGH:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

The President ended his speech with a blessing:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:  "And I just want to end by saying very importantly:  God bless you.  God bless the Boy Scouts.  God bless the United States of America.
Go out.  Have a great time in life.  Compete and go out and show me that there is nobody -- nobody -- like a Boy Scout."

Ways To Survive An Active Shooter When Trapped Unarmed In A Closed Room: No Martial Arts or Strength Needed

98% of all "survive an active shooting" articles concentrate on the same old things: run away or hide and call 911. Cute slogans: "Run Hide Fight". But when it comes to practical suggestions for the "Fight" part, most include more tips on how to keep the police from shooting you by mistake if you do escape or survive, than information on how to foil the attacker.

This article by Eric Spitznagel at Men's Health, "The Smartest Thing To Do In An Active Shooter Situation" is the most useful Active Shooter video & article that I have seen. Even a handicapped person or kids could do this, even if trapped in a room unarmed. The video actually shows us how to do it.

Filled with practical advice from former member of Israeli Special Forces & self-defense expert Alon Stivi, the article points out details we have all known in our hearts such as:

 "Nobody has ever survived an active shooter by ducking under a desk or a table. It just doesn’t happen. And do you know why?"
"Because they were sitting targets?"
"That’s right. Every shooter knows that’s where people are scrambling to hide, and that’s where they look first. And then they shoot you at point blank range."

Or:

 "Maybe I’m confusing how to survive a shooter with what I learned as a kid about surviving a fire. My instinct is to “Stop, drop, and roll.”
"That’s actually not that far off from the standard operating procedure. It’s called lockdown. Which means, you just stay where you are.
But if you look at most of these shootings, you realize that people died because they were in a lockdown."

I really appreciate that he says we should approach training - practical, like fire drills and unafraid:

 "I haven’t become paranoid, and I’ll tell you why. It’s pretty simple. There is only one antidote to fear. Well, maybe two.
First is the belief in fate. You believe that everything will somehow be fine and you’ll be taken care of by some higher power, and that’s great. "
"And for the rest of us?"
"The real antidote to fear is knowledge. I know what to look for. I know what to do if something bad happens. I have a plan of action.
This knowledge is what allows somebody to live a life free from fear. ...."
"....I’ll give you an example. When you came to the office today, you probably crossed a road, right?... And before you crossed, you looked left and right, just to make sure there wasn’t a car coming. Because if you didn’t, you might die. If you get hit by a car going 60 miles an hour, you will be obliterated.
So you check for that car, and you don’t feel paranoid or stressed about needing to do that, do you?
"Not at all. It’s just something you do."
"Exactly. It’s a part of your life. It’s a part of the world we live in. Two hundred years ago, there were no cars. We looked for, I don’t know, mountain lions."

Go to Men's Health to read the whole enlightening article.

Working Women All Through History: Blacksmiths, Silversmiths, Nail Makers

If you thought that "Kate the Blacksmith" was an anachronism in A Knight's Tale... she wasn't. (Well except for her dialect... and maybe her attitude...)  Despite the feminist mythology, women have engaged, openly and profitably, in almost every occupation in every era in the western, Christian world.

In the 14th Century Holkham Bible, this illustration shows a woman blacksmith forging a nail. Note the assumption in the caption, written by a modern author, that she is "the Blacksmith's wife".  Maybe she was and maybe she wasn't... what the factual record shows is a woman working at a forge with hammer and tongs.

In the brief article "Blacksmithing of the 18th Century", the author notes that the demand for nails was huge, and making them was a common sideline for people, including women - even those women who were not full-fledged master smiths.

The Bodleian Library blog has an interesting article about "Lizzie Bennett, Blacksmith":

" An account of blacksmithing work done in December 1708 by Eliz[abeth] Bennett at Blenheim ‘Castle’, her job included making 32 dozen holdfasts for the joiners (at 2 shillings a dozen), making new handles for three saws, mending a pump in the meadows, and making wedges and clouts (patches or plates) used in the stairs. But in addition to making items for a fixed price, she also charged for work by the pound weight. Twenty five pounds of iron works for a grindstone at 4 pence a pound earned her 8s 4d (100 pence total) and 31 pounds of wedges and clouts, also at 4 pence a pound, made her 10s 4d.The total for what would have been several days or weeks of highly skilled work? 4 pounds, 17 shillings, 2 pence. Not bad at all if you compare it to a female servant’s income at about that time – maidservant Sarah Sherin made £4 a year in 1717, while in the farming world, a female labourer called Goody Currell was paid 4 pence a day at an Oxfordshire farm in 1759, fifty years later."

An article from the Colonial Williamsburg journal:

"The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in London lists sixty-five "brethren" and two "sistren" in its 1434 charter."

"A 1770 publication called The Tradesman's True Guide or a Universal Directory for the Towns of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsal, Dudley and the manufacturing village in the neighborhood of Birmingham carries exhaustive lists of tradesmen and -women alphabetically by name and by trade. There are women listed in every trade from butcher to wire drawer."

"Only recently did a Colonial Williamsburg interpreter look closely at a nineteenth-century print that had been hanging on the wall at the Geddy House for years: a portion of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard Illustrated features a country blacksmith shop where four men are working, and in the right-hand corner, a woman hammers at an anvil rather inconspicuously. A 1505 Polish print is centered on a lovely woman at a spindle, but a careful inspection of the background shows a woman making a shoe on her knee."

The article notes the big error in modern & postmodern Feminist History: the idea that women "weren't allowed to work" doesn't hold up to scrutiny:

"What is more compelling is the lack of documentation that women were not allowed to work. Although religious practices and social norms might have restricted certain activities in some parts of the world, there were no laws prohibiting women from working a trade.

"Yet sometimes scholars and guests have a hard time accepting the notion that women did just that. Schumann says that "the greatest obstacle for the visitor is in accepting Rind as an eighteenth-century woman, and not a 'born-before-her-time' women's libber."

As I point out when demonstrating Letterpress Printing, an ordinary occupation of women since Gutenberg's time, women have always worked for pay - they had to make a living, then as now. This author agrees:
".... no matter what century it is, women have always done what is necessary to provide for themselves and their families."

President Trump and The Deplorables: "Hope, and a Future"

President Donald John Trump is doing the Lord's work in bringing "Hope, and a Future" to ordinary Americans, and he laid out that vision last night in his first speech to the joint Houses of Congress.

President Trump laid out a concrete vision and showed us how to reach for it. By tagging America's 250th birthday - and by not calling it the "Semi-quincentennial - President Trump just gave a future to the descendants of our nation's founding people.

For a decade or more, struggling Americans have recited Jeremiah 29:11 and made it our by-word. We have written it on the walls of Food Banks, have spoken it over children's ministries, have memorized it and repeated it while trying to pay the bills:

 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

And our Father God heard the prayers of the ordinary people across the great, vast expanse of our nation, and sent us a new Cyrus to point the way back home. All the Deplorables whose life expectancy has been dropping, have reasons to live again.

President Trump told us we can speak again about our hopes for our children, and for ourselves, and our families, and communities - and assured us he will clear the path so that we can work with our own hands to bring our own dreams to life. Here are excerpts from his speech:

"Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice –- in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present. ...

"The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds -– families who just wanted a fair shot for their children, and a fair hearing for their concerns.....

".. I am not going to let America and its great companies and workers, be taken advantage of anymore. ..

"The time has come for a new program of national rebuilding. ..  ... This effort will be guided by two core principles:  Buy American, and Hire American. ...

"Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed.  Every problem can be solved.  And every hurting family can find healing, and hope.

"Our citizens deserve this, and so much more –- so why not join forces to finally get it done?  

"Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community, to attend a great school, and to have access to a high-paying job.

"My job is not to represent the world.  My job is to represent the United States of America.

"We want peace, wherever peace can be found.  America is friends today with former enemies.  Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought on the opposite side of these World Wars.  This history should give us all faith in the possibilities for a better world.

"Hopefully, the 250th year for America will see a world that is more peaceful, more just and more free.

"On our 100th anniversary, in 1876, citizens from across our Nation came to Philadelphia to celebrate America’s centennial.  At that celebration, the country’s builders and artists and inventors showed off their creations. Alexander Graham Bell displayed his telephone for the first time. Remington unveiled the first typewriter.  An early attempt was made at electric light. Thomas Edison showed an automatic telegraph and an electric pen. 

"Imagine the wonders our country could know in America’s 250th year.

"Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people. Cures to illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope. American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream. Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect. And streets where mothers are safe from fear — schools where children learn in peace — and jobs where Americans prosper and grow — are not too much to ask. ....

"We are one people, with one destiny.

"We all bleed the same blood.

"We all salute the same flag.

"And we are all made by the same God.

"And when we fulfill this vision; when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American Greatness began.

"The time for small thinking is over.  The time for trivial fights is behind us.

"We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts.

"The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls.

"And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action. ....

"Believe in yourselves.

"Believe in your future.

"And believe, once more, in America.

"Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless these United States."

 ~   ~     ~  

Thank you Father God for sending President Trump to lead us, and to give us a new vision. Americans, we have a new and blessed chance!  Isaiah 51:1  :

 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;" 

FBI Hate Crime Data Excludes Victims Targeted Because Of Their Religion In Terror Attacks

The FBI recently released its annual report on Hate Crime Statistics for 2015.  It appears fairly straightforward, and clarifies certain changes in definition. But some high-profile events are missing: mass attacks, including those designated as "Terror Attacks" seem to be omitted from the FBI's  Hate Crime database.

More on that in a minute. First, let's look at the misleading use of percentages to inflate some very tiny numbers. And at the mixing of data with opinion with rumor to create something that does not exist... I think the word for it this week is Fake News.

Fake News or "a filtered product to readers"

Pew Research Center has put out a small analysis that, in keeping with the globalists' anti-Trump narrative, purports to show a huge increase in "anti-Muslim assaults" under the headline:
"FBI Data shows Anti-Muslim assaults reach 9/11-era levels",  quotes a few stats of year-old data, shows a graph, cherry picks mentions of other religions, then throws in a bunch of  opinion polls - all of which is slanted to create the impression that anti-Muslim discrimination is far worse than that against any other religion. The article wraps up with a dire-sounding number of reports, admits those reports can't be confirmed (indeed, most have been proven hoaxes), and gets to the whole reason for the article with this phrase: "in the five days following the presidential election alone."

Here's some reality to keep in mind: that's only 91 cases over the entire USA covering an entire year, from a year or more ago - all occurred before the presidential election campaign got off the ground, and particularly,  occurred before the elite media's obsession with Muslim immigration began after the San Bernadino Massacre in December 2015.

There is no evidence at all, no statistics, no data, nothing but rumor to indicate any increase in crime against people for their Muslim faith in the year 2016.  But Pew put out this article in a way that creates the appearance that there are both an increase in criminal targeting, and evidence for it.

Why is Pew Research suddenly trafficking in rumor and nuanced innuendo?

325 Million people live in the US,  three million of them are Muslim,  and  of those, 257 Muslims reported being mistreated because of their religion last year. This includes what the FBI labels "intimidation", vandalism, theft: only 91 were physical assaults.

According to the FBI's database, almost as many Christians, 244, were criminally victimized for their faith, and Jews were targets a whopping 237% more often than Muslims: 731 Jewish people in the US were victims of hate crimes last year, with a population of approximately 6 million.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center is still reporting dozens of false reports (and Pew Research is still happily citing their unverifiable "anecdotes" in which people pretended they were targeted "by Trump voters" or by so-called "white" people, and later admitted they made it all up.
In at least one case, a Muslim woman was charged for the false police report she made - shouldn't this be listed as a "hate crime" as well?

Pew did not bother to report that the DOCUMENTED assaults on Trump supporters before and  after the election have included brutal beatings of people - including children, one only 11 years old in his elementary classroom - targeted by multiple assailants. Many of the hate crimes against Trump supporters have been actively reported as harmless fun  or even with deliberate blamed placed on the victim by pro-Democrat elite media.

According to the FBI: " 88.4 percent of agencies participating in the Hate Crime Statistics Program reported that no hate crimes occurred in their jurisdictions."

As some of the above articles show about bias against President Trump's supporters, "hate crimes" against people hated by the elite media and Globalists are likely to be under-reported. It is very difficult for Christian victims to get a "hate crime" designation for their suffering.  Often, where Christians are criminally targeted there is a tendency within law enforcement as well as elite media to ignore the perpetrator and blame the victim for holding or declaring unpopular beliefs or practices.

Confusion in recording anti-Christian "hate crimes" is also caused in part because the FBI statistics break anti-Christian bias down into denomination, so if the assailant didn't specifically "hate Catholics" or "Mormons", the crime is more likely to go unreported in anti-Christian "hate crime" statistics. The FBI does not itemize various Islamic sects or Jewish ones, despite the existence of multiple branches of these religions.

Generally, there's also a great disparity in calling a crime "hate related" that depends on who the perpetrator is. Many violent assaults committed by avowed Muslim perpetrators are never classified as "hate crimes" against Christians, Jews, White Americans, Gays, Women, Children, or other groups that radical Muslims  (& often the perpetrators themselves) specifically say should be targeted: ie, the Fort Hood Massacre was labeled "workplace violence" despite the murderer's multiple and continual statements that he wanted to kill non-muslims because of their religion which was not Islam.

The Final Straw: Hate Crimes that are designated "Terror" Events aren't included in Hate Crime stats.

Even worse, and most significantly, when a massacre is  classified as an Islamic "terror attack" it is apparently excluded from law enforcement Hate Crime databases, as reported to the FBI.

In example, four non-muslims were stabbed in a terror attack at UC Merced, California, in November 2015, when Muslim student Faisal Mohammad, carrying a photocopied ISIS flag in his pocket and smiling the whole time, slashed four people with a hunting knife in a classroom & hallways. CNN reported the FBI said Mohammad had visited ISIS & terrorist websites, and that his attack was "terror-inspired".

But still, both Merced and the University of California reported zero religion-motivated hate crimes for 2015, despite the FBI's confirmation.

The Garland, Texas terror attack at an art show in May 2015, which resulted in a heroic school security guard being shot in the ankle, and the deaths of the two  Islamic jihadists, is not listed in the FBI's "hate crime" database. It should be in there, and the guard should be numbered among the victims. There is a category for "Religious bias: anti-other (unspecified) religion that should be used for these crimes.

The December 2015 San Bernadino Massacre is not listed in FBI data as a "hate crime".  Despite the deaths of 14 people and the serious injury of 22 others at a Christian religion-connected event, and despite the clear targeting of the group because of their not-muslim religious status as "infidels", all 36 people, mostly Christian but also of other faiths, are missing from the totals of religious hate crime victims, and 6 people are missing from the totals of religious hate crime perpetrators.

However, so-called "anti-Muslim" "hate crimes" arising from the jihadist massacre of innocents are included:
"In the aftermath of the shooting, CAIR reported an escalation in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S., including the throwing of a pig's head at a mosque in Philadelphia, the beating of a Queens shop owner, and incidents of death threats and vandalism.[287] A number of attacks and incidents of vandalism in southern California in the weeks following the attack were investigated as anti-Muslim hate crimes"

"On December 15, 2015, three senior White House officials‍—‌Valerie Jarrett, Cecilia Munoz, and Ben Rhodes‍—‌met with American Muslim and Sikh leaders to discuss the increase in violent attacks upon members of the American Muslim and Sikh community following the attack (Sikhs are not Muslims but have been occasionally targeted in anti-Islamic bias-motivated crimes)"

The White House officials did not meet with American non-Muslim leaders to discuss the increase in violent anti-Infidel attacks upon members of their communities following this or any other attack.

Edited to add: The nine innocent people shot to death by Dylann Roof in Charleston because of their race were also not reported as victims of a racial "hate crime" in the database.

These few events alone add another 41 victims that were targeted because of bias against their religion, and 11 who were killed, injured or terrorized because of their  race, but whose deaths and suffering are not counted worthy of being considered "hate crimes".

While the FBI explicitly cautions on every page against using this data for "Ranking", and notes that the information is provided by each of thousands of jurisdictions, it is up to each user to familiarize themselves with what is and is not contained in the database.  And by "user", I think we have to include readers of articles such as this one, and the ones written by Pew Research.

Bottom line?

Bias.

Bias.

Bias.

BIAS.

BIAS:  Dec 6 2016 UPDATE:  New  York Post reports the Southern Poverty Law Center falsified the results of a survey it used to push a FAKE NEWS "narrative" against President Trump and his supporters. In particular, the SPLC omitted 2,000 reports in which students were attacked or bullied at school for being "white", and the SPLC also claimed that saying "Build the Wall" was a "racist hate crime",when in fact it is neither "anti-immigrant" nor "racist", and in fact does not indicate any bias for or against anyone, but asimple willingness to abide by the rule of law.

BIAS: Dec 11 2016 UPDATE to add the Hoax Map image, and link to the source, Sondrakisten.com and article "Hate Mischief"

BIAS: Dec 15 2016 UPDATE:  Yasmin Seweid charged with filing a false police report and with obstructing governmental administration for her hoax in which she falsely told "the police that three white men screaming “Donald Trump!” attacked her on Dec. 1 on an uptown No. 6 train at East 23rd Street, DNAinfo.com reported. She told the police that the men had called her a terrorist and that when she tried to move to the other end of the subway car, one of them followed and tried to pull off her traditional head scarf. " She made up the whole thing. Nothing happened. 

Open Letter to the Cast of Hamilton

A theater company is not responsible for what the audience does, but the persons on stage are responsible for how they react to audiences. Twice this week, Nuclear Hillary Clinton's supporters have reacted with unprofessional cowardice to audience disapproval. In both cases, they have abused the power of the stage and microphone to lash out politically at people who only came and paid to see them give a recreational performance. These supporters of Hillary the WarMonger reacted to their own paranoid imaginings and beat up on people who did nothing to them.

Earlier in the week, comedienne Wanda Sykes cursed her audience with obscene language after some of them booed her inappropriate and unfunny political attacks on President Trump and Americans who voted for him. They came to see a comedy show to support a good non-partisan cause, but she wasn't willing to let them do that.

And now, after some audience members at the Broadway play "Hamilton" were so obtuse as to boo  Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence who was in the audience to see the play, the cast ignored their job, teamed up with the mob (power in deranged numbers) and lectured Mr Pence from the stage about how they are "diverse" and have "feelings" and want "protection".

The same kind of "protection" apparently, that they won't offer to people in their audiences who haven't done anything to harm them. The same kind of "feelings" that they ignore when it isn't someone they see in their dressing room mirrors.

We all have feelings. Adulthood is understanding that we are responsible for controlling our feelings, and maturity includes being self reliant enough to no longer need protectors,  nor group-membership for our self esteem. After witnessing the irrational mental breakdown and destruction and riots and violence against President Trump's supporters, perpetrated by deluded abusive bullies who didn't get their globalist way, my own feelings have developed with remarkable clarity:


Dear Cast of Hamilton,


We are Les Deplorables.  We. Don’t. Care.


Signed,

A sole member of the smallest minority on earth, for whom the Constitution was written to defend me against the fashionably violent tyranny of your diverse elitist bullying mob.




11/20/16 Update: "Little Steven" Van Zandt has rightly named this bullying, and used Twitter to call on the cast of Hamilton to apologize, saying, in part:

"Completely inappropriate. Theater should be a safe haven for Art to speak. Not the actors. He needs to apologize to Mike Pence"

"There has never been a more outspoken politically active artist than me. He was their guest. You protect your guests. Don't embarrass them."

"When artists perform the venue becomes your home. The audience are your guests. It is nothing short of the same bullying tactic we rightly> >have criticized Trump for in the past. It's taking unfair advantage of someone who thought they were a protected guest in your home."

"Nobody on this planet disagrees more with everything Pence represents. But I don't tolerate bullying in any form. Even the respectful kind."

"A guy comes to a Broadway show for a relaxing night out. Instead he gets a lecture from the stage! Not a level playing field. It's bullying."

"You don't single out an audience member and embarrass him from the stage. A terrible precedent to set."

"So because he's a public figure we should be rude to him and bully him at public events? I'm not the one who couldn't be more wrong on this."

I first heard of  "Little Steven" Van Zandt when he stood up against South Africa's legal segregation of races called Apartheid, recording the song "I Ain't Gonna Play Sun City". He is not exaggerating when he says he was politically active before most of the Hamilton actors were born.

Thanks to Steven for modelling professional, adult behavior to a group that apparently never learned the basics of their craft, or of how to live in the wide world.  It's obvious they need an elder statesman to guide them into genuine adult self-control.



.

No Truce With Quislings: NeverTrump Still Trying To Poison The Truth

The guy who writes at "Posse Incitatus" blog is, for all the rebellious name of his blog, normally level headed - as in "a normal person" along with "usually".

But he has HAD IT with those who've set themselves in opposition to President Trump.

In a post titled "This Stupid Business About Bannon Is Why Never Trump Must Be Destroyed", he writes:

"There is nothing new here, just the usual "people are saying" crap mixed in with the "have you stopped beating your wife?" style questions being thrown at the Trump camp.

"What's new is that Conservatism Inc. has decided to join the witch hunt.

"I'm old enough to remember Jonah Goldberg angrily denouncing this game, but now he's down with it.  The reason is of course that National Review hates Breitbart.

"Breitbart has been an oasis during this election season, a source of constant inspiration and amusement.  Naturally the left wants it dead.

"So does Official Conservatism.  You see, unlike National Review, Breitbart is actually gaining readers rather than losing them.

"This is why Never Trump needs to be disposed of immediately.  They have shown that in addition to being traitors during the election, they are happy to serve as Quislings after it. "

Bingo.  President Trump knows this better than anyone. To accomplish his goals, he will have to use every bit of cunning that God has given him for this job.  Expect him to keep his every plan close to the vest until after the ink has dried on his bold John Henry and the action has already been accomplished. 

And in the mean time, we can't believe a single word written by any person who was not a solid, early champion of President Trump.  Especially the National Review and avowed NeverTrump ilk. If they say the sky is blue, go verify it yourself - and still assume they  have an ulterior motive for telling it. 

The links on my "dynamically updated" sidebar are all to people who supported Trump actively or at least offered truly balanced coverage and can write about him fairly without throwing in lists of perjorative adjectives at the end of every paragraph.   Daily Pundit, The Last Refuge, Don Surber, The Diplomad 2.0,  White House Dossier,  King Jester's Blog,  William M Briggs, Vox Popoli,  Stephan Molyneux, Drudge Report, Sharyl Attkisson,  and Chronicles Magazine are all solid sources of genuine facts and pull-em-up-short rebuttals. The others are reliable as well. 

"Fate Of The World": Bernie Sanders' Supporters Can Help Save The World From Hillary Clinton's War-Mongering

"President Obama claims "The fate of the world is teetering."

I hope that Bernie Sanders' supporters will consider voting for Mr Donald Trump, or for one of the other genuine candidates such as Jill Stein. This election should have been between Senator Sanders and Mr Trump, but the elites conspired with Hillary against Bernie, just as on the Republican side our own party is still trying to stop Donald. I have friends who voted for Bernie, and I think we have in common the deep understanding that America needs new leadership that will represent people instead of "donors".  While we may disagree on some policies, we come together on others, and we absolutely share the same urgency to stop the corruption in government (in both parties) and extract America from the careless war-adventuring that is causing such anguish.

 Both Bernie and Donald share a goal to get America out of the FIVE foreign wars that Hillary is lurching to expand and escalate. Both also share the goal to take care of Americans (see Donald's position papers on his website - the media ignores them, but he has good positions on all issues facing our nation and people).

 Donald Sensing writes on his blog:

"President Obama claims "The fate of the world is teetering." Well, Green Party candidate Jill Stein would certainly agree. She said a few weeks ago that a President Hillary Clinton will just continue to attack and bomb other countries: " Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria."

"Even the UK's The Independent chimed in: "Could Hillary Clinton start a World War? Sure as [snip] she could – and here’s how." 

"And then there is this: "Don't trust Clinton to avoid stupid wars: The world she had a big hand in making as secretary of State doesn't look very peaceful." In 2010, things in Iraq were so peaceful that Joe Biden was bragging that the administration’s Iraq policy would be “one of the great achievements of this administration.” In 2012, with Clinton still serving as secretary of State, President Obama bragged about “ending” the war in Iraq, which would be news to the thousands of U.S. troops fighting there today. 

"Then there’s Libya. According to The New York Times, Clinton played a "critical” role in persuading Obama to topple Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. This led to what The Atlantic''s Conor Friedersdorf calls her ”failed war in Libya.”

"The fate of the world may indeed be teetering, just as Obama says, but it is teetering all the more because of the last eight years of his administration and very much because of Hillary Clinton's role in it."

The disaster that is Syria is almost wholly on Clinton's shoulders.  In 2012, Hillary Clinton turned her wargaming on Syria, angrily "predicting" that "a coup would take down Assad" after she failed to get UN support for the Islamist rebels, and setting out to make it happen with a plan for the US to arm and train them anyway "with help from a neighboring state", and despite a dire warning from Henry Kissinger "that an intervention [in Syria] would imperil the foundation of world order." 

Which, we now see, it has done.

Please vote. There are three other candidates to vote for, and your vote for any one of them is a vote against corruption, against criminals in high places, and against Hillary Clinton's terrifying bad judgment.

Is This Why The Unwarranted Hoopla Over Zika? FDA Approves Release of GMO Mosquitos Into the US

In addition to the $1.5 Billion in Scam Dollars the United Nations is holding out their hands for, of course.

The Obama Administration, the UN and the CDC have been eagerly pushing Zika-infected people across US borders as though the brief cold-like illness is not dangerous. Which, scientifically, it isn't. It has not been proven to cause any birth defects. It has not even been "associated with" any microcephaly outside of Brazil  - and Brazil is known to have an extremely high rate of babies born with microcephaly, due to several known, and a number of scientifically suspected causes - none of which are Zika.

From the article in The Guardian:

"A release of genetically engineered mosquitoes that it is hoped could help combat the spread of the Zika virus has been approved in Florida by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"Oxitec, a spinoff from a project at Oxford University, was recently purchased by Intrexon, the corporation that produces non-browning “Arctic” apples and fast-fattening “AquaBounty” salmon. The FDA announcement nearly clears the way for it to release the mosquitoes in an experimental trial on Key Haven, a small island in the Florida Keys. One obstacle remains, however: the voters of Monroe County.

"In November, roughly 52,000 voters will decide if they want the trial to go forward. The referendum will not be legally binding, but most members of the elected Florida Keys mosquito control board have said they will abide by voters’ wishes. The trial has been hotly contested, with many residents vocally opposed to the mosquitoes’ release."

and:

"Whether Keys voters approve the mosquito, however, may eventually prove irrelevant. Oxitec is releasing the insects on a trial basis in Panama, Brazil and the Cayman Islands, and has applied for experimental release permits in Sri Lanka and India.

"Oxitec is developing another species of mosquito, the Aedes albopictus, Parry said. Like Aedes aegypti, it is capable of transmitting zika, dengue fever and chikungunya."

Meanwhile, there is a mounting and visible lack of evidence that Zika causes anything worse than the mild, brief illness it has been for 60 years.

The only sure thing is that the US government and the CDC were not and still are not worried about the emergence of a polio-related illness last summer called " enterovirus D-68 " that left more than 100 American children paralyzed, children who had been healthy a week earlier.

Was It Ben Rhodes or Susan Rice Who Made Up The Lies This Time?

I wonder whether it was Ben Rhodes or Susan Rice who made up the newest fiction to fool Americans and help the Democrats?  As Bill Quick points out, there is not one shred of evidence that Russia is behind the hacks or the email leaks. Not one. 

If it were true, and "the intelligence" really were so classified that the NSA (CIA/FBI/Homeland Security/Barney Fife) knew about it but couldn't tell even Congress, they would not be going public with it now to help the Democrats. 

Everyone who throws a rock and points at Russia yelling "Look over there", is trying to distract us from the hideous truth exposed by these emails.  

 If you are buying what the Democrats, the Republican Elites, the media, the #NeverTruth ers are selling.... you've been had.  

Malcolm Pollack, at waka waka waka, pointed us to a couple of eye openers about the facts. These aren't outliers. Professor Stephen F. Cohen is a mainstream REAL foreign policy expert. Specifically, he is  professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton University and New York University.   

How Many Of Us WOULDN'T Ask "Why Can't We Use Nukes?" When Faced With Some News Stories

Keith Koffler's White House Dossier (GREAT blog, BTW) reports (with video clip) that Joe Scarborough cited an "anonymous source" while repeating a rumor that Presumptive President Elect Donald J. Trump asked an "unidentified" "foreign policy expert" why we can't use nukes in some "unnamed" "non-disclosed" "hour long" "policy briefing".

 Funny, I’ve often asked that question myself. If I had a bonafide “foreign policy expert” to hand when reading some of the reports that make me ask that, I would probably ask it out loud, and look expectantly at them for an answer.

But first, I would ask why Susan Rice tried to stop UN troops from going in to stop the Rwandan Genocide, and why Susan Rice asked, as the slaughter continued with her full knowledge, “”If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?” ”

Then I would ask why Samantha Power’s motorcade hit and run killing of a little boy on her recent “Humanitarian” tour of Camaroon did not result in charges being filed against her and her security personnel who told the driver to keep moving because it “wasn’t safe” to stop.

Finally, if I had a “foreign policy expert” to chat with, I would want to know why Obama and Kerry (and Clinton before them) sent an abortion-activist social worker in as the Lead Negotiator on the Nuke Deals with both North Korea and Iran.

After that, yeah, I would probably want to know why it is we can’t use nukes. British and American POWS at ground zero in Japan, and Japanese citizens of the cities who survived the blast and initial aftermath, lived to be very old – in their late 70s and older, one into his 90s. One of those, when asked if the US was right to bomb Japan, told The Telegraph ” “I am so pleased they did,” said Mr Housego. “We never thought the war would end. The Japanese soldiers were ruthless; they were quite prepared to fight forever and die doing so. Millions more would have died if the government wasn’t forced to surrender.” [Little known fact: The US warned Japanese citizens of the impending attacks by dropping more than 5 million leaflets, and broadcasting every 15 minutes for days in advance]

The "Radio Show Host" was unclear about who what when where why or how, but he was positive about HOW MANY TIMES Mr Trump allegedly asked the question.  Scarborough also failed to get any info on whether the "unnamed" "foreign policy expert" ever answered the question, even after being asked THREE TIMES.

I know if I ask someone a question three times and they don't answer it, that usually means they don't know or are ashamed of the answer.

So if the exchange even happened at all, and wasn't just some goof pranking Mr Scarborough, maybe the expert wasn't much of an expert but is sort of the "foreign policy expert" version of the "Ben Rhodes, fictional national security expert".

We live in crazy times, when the antagonists against intelligent thought now want to ridicule ordinary questions.





*Most of this post was first made as a comment on White House Dossier.  After sleeping on it, I decided to share it further, with appropriate links.

A Bible Story For Paul Ryan And Other Insubordinant Republicans

I'm not the only one who believes Mr Trump is a "type" of King Cyrus, chosen by God to restore our nation despite his political outsider status.  In the United States of America, God has often operated via the votes of the legal citizens to put good leaders into office.  Or as Joe Bob Briggs puts it: "I won’t even go into the hundreds of “unfit to be President” screeds, because they all ignore one basic fact of our system: If you receive 270 votes in the electoral college, you are by definition fit to be President. "

Yesterday's verses from 1 Samuel 16 are a reminder to the Republican elitists of how many impressive candidates were rejected in order to choose Mr. Trump from the slate of 17. Reverends Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr have served as Samuels for our time in pointing toward Mr. Trump from very early on:

1 "God addressed Samuel: “So, how long are you going to mope over Saul? You know I’ve rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your flask with anointing oil and get going. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I’ve spotted the very king I want among his sons.”

2-3 “I can’t do that,” said Samuel. “Saul will hear about it and kill me.” God said, “Take a heifer with you and announce, ‘I’ve come to lead you in worship of God, with this heifer as a sacrifice.’ Make sure Jesse gets invited. I’ll let you know what to do next. I’ll point out the one you are to anoint.”

4 Samuel did what God told him. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the town fathers greeted him, but apprehensively. “Is there something wrong?”

5 “Nothing’s wrong. I’ve come to sacrifice this heifer and lead you in the worship of God. Prepare yourselves, be consecrated, and join me in worship.” He made sure Jesse and his sons were also consecrated and called to worship.

6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Here he is! God’s anointed!”

7 But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”

8 Jesse then called up Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. Samuel said, “This man isn’t God’s choice either.”

9 Next Jesse presented Shammah. Samuel said, “No, this man isn’t either.”

10 Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel. Samuel was blunt with Jesse, “God hasn’t chosen any of these.”

11 Then he asked Jesse, “Is this it? Are there no more sons?”
“Well, yes, there’s the runt. But he’s out tending the sheep.”
Samuel ordered Jesse, “Go get him. We’re not moving from this spot until he’s here.”

12 Jesse sent for him. He was brought in, the very picture of health—bright-eyed, good-looking.
God said, “Up on your feet! Anoint him! This is the one.”

13 Samuel took his flask of oil and anointed him, with his brothers standing around watching. The Spirit of God entered David like a rush of wind, God vitally empowering him for the rest of his life.
Samuel left and went home to Ramah."

God has opened the eyes of the American people in this new era. The tide is turning, the pendulum is swinging back toward rationality, and what is RIGHT and GOOD will prevail. Not the fictional propaganda that Ben Rhodes (Rice University? odd.... ), Hillary Clinton, the erstwhile "Conservative Movement" and media try to sell us, but what is true.  Go home and write your memoires, Paul Ryan. Your eight terms in Congress are over. Stop moping about it. America's future is going to be  written by men like Paul Nehlen and Donald Trump. 

Clarifying Data Reports: Police Deaths Have Fallen As Citizen Gun Ownership Increased

In 2012, welder Vic Stacy used his weapon to save the life of police Sgt Steven Means, by shooting a murderer who had Means pinned down in his sights.  Governor Perry gave him an AR-15 as a token of appreciation.

Guns in the hands - or openly on the backs - of private citizens are not a danger to the police, but an asset.  The same people who are dangerous to cops are also dangerous to other citizens.  The Dallas Shootings were horrific, as terrible as Orlando, San Bernadino, the Luby's Cafeteria Massacre, and the Ft Hood Terror Attack.

All of these attacks showed the terrible carnage that can occur when Americans of all walks of life are not armed to defend themselves.  It is dangerous to be an American these days - but it is more dangerous not to be. And it is especially dangerous for unarmed or disarmed people.

The truth is that increasing prevalence of armed citizens - even minors - are an important arm of law enforcement in the United States, preventing tens of thousands of crimes every year, and protecting others from being victimized by criminals.  And in the mass shootings that have become more frequent, FBI data shows that the random armed citizen may be the most effective response to prevent deaths and stop the killer.

We need our police to perform their work of keeping the peace. And we respect and admire LEOs for their dedication. But it is essential that our police not feel the need to make us less safe in a misguided urge for their own safety, or in misunderstanding the risks they face or where those risks come from.

 In fact, firearms deaths of police have fallen every decade for the past forty years, right along with the drop in all gun deaths that sharply mirrors the climb in citizen gun ownership.

It is a lot less dangerous to be a police officer now than it was in 1973, when firearms-related fatalities peaked - 156 officers were killed that year.  Only 42 officers were killed by gun in 2015 - and three of those were accidents.   According to NLEOMF:

 " Firearms-related fatalities peaked in 1973, when 156 officers were shot and killed. Since then, the average number of officers killed has decreased from 127 per year in the 1970s to 57 per year in the 2000s.

"The 42 firearms-related fatalities in 2015 are 26 percent lower than the average of 57 per year for the decade spanning 2000-2009."

Today. it is twice as dangerous to be a roofer or to collect garbage for a living as it is to be a police officer.

When reading reports of  Law Enforcement deaths, such as this one from USA Today, "Officer Deaths In Dallas Add To A Growing Tally",  keep in mind that this does not mean they were all violent deaths.  Of the  53 police officer deaths so far in 2016 reported, 19 were from accident, illness, or natural causes such as heart attacks. One was an accidental shooting.  One was a plane crash.

"In The Line Of Duty", for purposes of factual reporting on memorial websites such as the Officer Down Memorial Page and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, does not even mean the death happened on duty. It means simply that the person who died was employed as a law enforcement officer.

124 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2015. 73 of those were not caused by crime, but were accident or illness. This is out of 929,000 full or part-time law enforcement officers in the US.

Here are the actual numbers from the 2015 Fatality Report, as reported by the NLEOMF:

"Traffic-related incidents were the leading cause of officer deaths in 2015, killing 52.  ...
"Firearms-related incidents decreased in 2015. These fatalities accounted for 42 deaths, dropping 14 percent from 2014 when 49 officers were shot and killed. [ NOTE: three of these 2015 deaths were listed as "inadvertently shot and killed", which I assume means they were accidents.]

"Thirty officers died from other causes in 2015...[Of these thirty,] "Twenty-four officers died from job-related illnesses this year, mostly heart attacks—compared to 18 in 2014. Also included among those 24 are four officers who died of illnesses they contracted as a result of their rescue and recovery work following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "

"Fifty-two officers were killed in felonious incidents, a 16 percent decrease from 61 in 2014, and 73 officers died as a result of non-felonious incidents, increasing 20 percent over 58 in 2014."

"Felonious and Non-Felonious Fatalities :
Fifty-two officers were killed feloniously in 2015, a 15 percent decrease from 2014 when 61 officers died as a result of a criminal act. Of the 52 officers feloniously killed this year, 39 were shot and killed; 11 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents and two officers were killed in incidents unrelated to traffic or firearms. Of the 11 officers feloniously killed in traffic-related incidents, seven were struck, and four were killed in automobile crashes. One officer died as a result of a physical altercation with a suspect,  and one officer was beaten to death.

"Seventy-two officers died in non-felonious incidents in 2015, a 24 percent increase from 58 in 2014. Automobile crashes were the leading cause of non-felonious deaths in 2015 with  31 fatalities, followed by job-related illnesses, which accounted for 23 officer deaths. Six officers died in motorcycle crashes and four officers were struck and killed by a vehicle. Three officers were inadvertently shot and killed, two fell to their death, one was electrocuted, one was killed in an aircraft crash, and one drowned." 

We don't know for certain how many citizens die in the presence or custody of law enforcement each year.  The FBI reported on "Justifiable Homicides" by both police and citizens through 2008, but these numbers do not include all shootings by police, and only include  numbers reported to them voluntarily. Despite laws passed by Congress, and Executive Orders from the President, the FBI does not collect or report reliable data.   The Guardian newspaper has begun tracking shootings by US law enforcement. This is reported in Wikipedia as 1140 persons killed by police in 2015, of which 224 of those shot were unarmed. 

It takes a lot to be a good police officer. Willing assumption of risk is only part of it. It requires self control, maturity, confidence in self and team, and most of all, dedication to the equal application of the rule of law,and to the ideals of the job.

What it does not require is "closed ranks"or an exaggerated sense of separation from the public to which all members of law enforcement belong.  We're all in this together.

Northern and West Coast Entrenched Racism: Is This Why They Still Scapegoat The Integrated South?

"The Civil Rights Project says persistent segregation is worst in northern and western states, and that the 17 states with a history of explicit segregation laws have not led the list since 1970."

The racial issues of today,especially those faced by Black Americans, do not reach back to slavery so much as they emerged in the last century during apartheid in the Northern, Midwestern, and West Coast states:  California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio...

Southerners like me (I'm nearly sixty), who have lived our entire lives with fully-integrated towns, schools, churches, social events and workplaces, have long wondered why the media gets it so wrong.

I always assumed the rest of the country was as diverse in daily life as my small Oklahoma hometown. After all, Brown vs Board of Education desegregated schools in Yankee Kansas before I was even born. We had playmates of many colors and nationalities, and friends when we got older. Teachers, community leaders, business owners, Preachers, neighbors, coworkers of assorted colors and faiths were integral to my youth and my adulthood. People were people were people.

It was the same for my own children, growing up in West Texas.

Then I went to work for a California company, one that preached diversity, and was bewildered to find that Hispanic surnamed folks tended not to be of Mexican heritage (instead they were Cuban, Puerto Rican, South American, Filipino). Oh, there were Mexican people in the area, but the closest they came to working for this company was cleaning the offices and manicuring the grounds.   Black employees were so rare that I met only one Black employee in the entire decade I worked for the company.

Then I met a woman, younger than me, who grew up in Chicago. She casually said one day that she had been an adult before she ever saw a Black person. What?  How could that be?

Chicago, and surrounding cities, and most cities in the North, Midwest, and West Coast, enforced deep segregation so thoroughly and for so long that vast areas of many miles prohibited people of color (which at that time included Asians and Jewish people) from buying homes, renting rooms,... even from spending the night.

By controlling where people lived, White Northerners were able to keep their schools segregated along with their neighborhoods.

This was the case throughout the United States - everywhere but the South.

And the courts allowed them to get away with this until the 80s. Why?

Although some strides have been made, and most formerly White-Only neighborhoods and schools in Yankee-land have been integrated, there are still Black children who grow up without having White neighbors or playmates.Their neighborhoods have still not been desegregated.

Even now, the media and the activists and the courts - including SCOTUS - still put on their blinders to the truth, ignoring the de facto segregation in their own neighborhoods and workplaces.

The Economic Policy Institute  says that  "Avoidance of our racial history is pervasive" and points out:

 "The notion of de facto segregation is a myth, although widely accepted in a national consensus that wants to avoid confronting our racial history. "

The author goes on to show that, despite the North's continual and recent apartheid, the South continues to be made the symptom bearer in most recent textbooks:

" Elementary and secondary school curricula typically ignore, or worse, mis-state this story. For example, in over 1,200 pages of McDougal Littell’s widely used high school textbook, The Americans, a single paragraph is devoted to 20th century “Discrimination in the North.” It devotes one passive-voice sentence to residential segregation, stating that “African Americans found themselves forced into segregated neighborhoods,” with no further explanation of how public policy was responsible. " ;  and  

"History Alive!, a popular textbook published by the Teachers Curriculum Institute, teaches that segregation was only a Southern problem: “Even New Deal agencies practiced racial segregation, especially in the South,”   "

Articles like this one in Voice of America News recites from memory the incomplete history of desegregation, repeating "largely across the southern United States." and  "some 17 states ...almost all in the South".

But  segregation states were not all in the South, and Brown itself was a Kansas case - Kansas is not in the South.  Neither are Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia (! yes, Washington DC itself!), Arizona, New Mexico, or Wyoming.

To explain his headline, "Segregation in US Schools Persists 62 Years After Court Ruling",  the author should be looking at New York, Illinois, and California, but he turns away, even though he quotes directly from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA:

"The Civil Rights Project says persistent segregation is worst in northern and western states, and that the 17 states with a history of explicit segregation laws have not led the list since 1970."

"The ironic historic reality is that the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court supported very demanding desegregation standards for the South while the interpretation of Supreme Court decisions and federal legislation limited the impact of Brown in the North and West." 

The author perpetuates the stereotype, never naming the states from which his headline derives, Instead, he wraps up the article with a report on final judgment in a Mississippi case that started in 1965 - one of only two "Southern" states on the "Top Ten" list, both of which are at the bottom.

Here's the full list, along with an enlightening set of excerpts from the report (a PDF).

Top 10 most segregated states. In all of these states, less than 20% of the total student enrollment are Black.   Percentage of Black students who attend 90%-100% non-White schools:
New York     65.8 
Illinois          59.6 
Maryland     53.7
New Jersey   49.2 
Michigan      48.7 
California    47.9
Wisconsin    45.3
Pennsylvania 45.3 
Mississippi  45.2
Tennessee    44.3

"In Texas, as across the Southwest, African American students now typically attend schools with far more Latinos than black students. New York has only half as high a proportion of Latino students, 24%, but severe residential segregation of both Latinos and African Americans may explain why New York’s Latino students are so segregated. 

"California’s Latino students have less contact with white students than either Latinos or African Americans in any state. Other studies by our Project show that the epicenter of this segregation is in the greater Los Angeles area. "

"Over a 20-year period, the proportion of poor students (as defined by federal standards for subsidized or free lunch eligibility) in the school of the typical white student has shot up from 17% to 40%, which is actually higher than the school poverty level was, on average, for black students at the beginning of the same period."  

How did this happen? Some of it is explained in a list of the Top Ten most segregated urban areas, from Salon. In several, the notes show how resistant locals are to admit the truth - either current or historical:

"#3 In Chicago, white counter-protesters attacked open housing marchers, hitting Martin Luther King in the head with a brick. He later said that he had “never seen as much hatred and hostility on the part of so many people.”
“Richard J. Daley reinforced segregation by using “the Interstate Highways Act of 1956 to route expressways through impoverished African-American neighborhoods,” including the “14-lane Dan Ryan Expressway, which created a barrier between black and white neighborhoods.”
"Chicago’s suburbs were also resistant to integration. In Cicero, a suburb just west of the city, thousands of whites attacked a black family moving into the apartment complex in 1951. One activist noted that while whites burned black churches in Mississippi, they burned down black homes in Chicago."

"#2 New York remains the second most segregated metro area in the country.
 "In 2009, the Obama administration signed a landmark consent decree with Westchester County, which is nearly 80 percent white. A lawsuit filed by the Anti-Discrimination Center had charged the county with misrepresenting its affordable housing efforts to the federal government. The suit received widespread media attention and was seen as a blow to racially and economically exclusive municipalities nationwide. But Gurian says the decree hasn’t been enforced.
“The problem is not just a Westchester problem: Over 1,000 jurisdictions across the country are looking to see whether the federal government will … hold Westchester’s feet to the fire,” he wrote. “It is especially critical that there be enforcement because the Westchester County executive, Rob Astorino, has publicly defied lawful federal authority.” 

"#4 Detroit ... In 1972, every majority white ward in the city supported George Wallace in the Democratic presidential primary. The Alabama governor — who once declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” — had a message that resonated.
"One developer even erected a 6-foot-high cement wall between white and black neighborhoods to make the former actuarially sound.
“In many neighborhoods, whites used violence and intimidation to deter black newcomers. ...Whites also formed hundreds of ‘neighborhood improvement associations’ that pledged to keep ‘undesirables’ — namely blacks — out. Real estate brokers and mortgage lenders — backed by federal housing policy — also played a critical role in creating an un-free housing market for African-Americans.”

"#9 Philadelphia.....just 347 of the 120,000 homes constructed in the Philadelphia area between 1946 and 1953 were open to blacks. In the postwar years, working-class whites violently policed the boundaries of their neighborhoods, while the middle and upper classes fled to the suburbs well into the 1990s. Today, Puerto Rican neighborhoods divide working-class white and black neighborhoods in North Philadelphia and Kensington. "
"Discussions about race in Philly are usually met with a deafening backlash from local whites, and the comments sections of the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News are locally infamous for their bigotry. "

"#1 Milwaukee. “Most of our history is very similar to Chicago, Cleveland or even Baltimore,” says Marc Levine, professor of history and economic development at the University of Wisconsin, “Every place has had the zoning ordinances, then restrictive covenants, the practices of realtors. The standard history. What makes Milwaukee a little bit different than these other places, which explains why we’re consistently in the top five and often No. 1, in segregation? We have the lowest rate of African-American suburbanization of any of these larger cities.” [ie, the suburbs are heavily segregated]

"Milwaukee sticks out in another way: Civic boosters have mounted a major campaign to deny the city’s segregation. In 2002, a group of job training researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, released a study contending that nationally recognized measures of segregation are “racially biased” and, using a new measure, argued that Milwaukee was actually the tenth most integrated of the largest 50 cities.

"#10 Los Angeles is spectacularly diverse, and profoundly segregated. Though black and Latino Angelenos are increasingly likely to live near one another, their separation from white neighborhoods persists. ...The L.A. riots of 1992, like the 1965 Watts riot, were sparked by police brutality, a steady concern in besieged neighborhoods like South Central. Nearly 20 years later, the jobless ghettos of black and Latino Los Angeles remain. "

Urban liberals who live in gated enclaves in the most segregated racist cities in the country continue to scapegoat the South, none, not one, will recognize that their finger pointing looks everywhere but within their own Yankee culture for that "privilege" they want to pin on someone, anyone, else.

One feels guilt when one is dishonest.

I have neither privilege nor guilt - but then, I've never been part of that exclusionary culture.