The BLM Hoax, Part 2

Let’s replace “Say Their Names” with “Know Their Facts”

In Part 1 it was shown that, even if all of the examples that follow were found to be true cases of police racism, collectively they would not even remotely prove a case of systemic racism in US law enforcement.  Here, the details of each case are examined.  The results are that NONE of the examples pose a clear case for claiming racism.  Even in the few cases where officers were found to have acted wrongly, just because the victim was black does not automatically imply racism.  Each year, more unarmed whites are killed by police than unarmed blacks.  These cases don’t make national media, apparently because they don’t fuel racial animus and fueling racial animus makes for even more news and builds ratings.  It would be telling to examine the case details of officer involved shootings of unarmed whites vs. officer involved shootings of unarmed blacks but, of course, this wasn’t done. It would also be telling to deeply examine an officer’s history while on the force to determine if there is a significant difference between his/her treatment of blacks and his/her treatment of whites in similar circumstances.  Of course, this also was not done.

As summarized by David Horowitz in his book I CAN’T BREATHE.   HOW A RACIAL HOAX IS KILLING AMERICA, “With the exception of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery, who were not killed by police officers, and Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, and Akai Gurley, who were victims of tragic circumstances, the twenty one other “victims” were either criminals resisting arrest or so high on illegal substances as to be unconscious of the fact that resisting arrest was a crime.”  Most of what follows has been based on Horowitz’s above named book. Granted, it’s a single source of information, but the book itself, containing 659 references, was based on a thorough investigation across a great many sources. I highly recommend the book as well as The War On Cops by Heather Mac Donald, Cop Under Fire by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. (black), and the video documentary What Killed Michael Brown? by Shelby Steele and Eli Steele (both black).

Here is a summary of what follows regarding these 26 cases (sometimes multiple factors per case):

# of cases that did not involve law enforcement officers                                                                 2

# of cases in which subject was not killed by a white person                                                         5

# of cases in which subject was resisting arrest                                                                              20

# of cases in which officer reasonably feared for his/her life                                                         15

# of cases in which subject had unknown severe health conditions contributing to death 3

# of cases that were tragic accidents                                                                                                    3

# of cases in which subject was out of control on drugs or alcohol                                               5

# of cases in which subject’s death was a suicide                                                                               1

# of cases in which subject’s death was “suicide by cop”                                                                  2

# of cases in which subjects death was unintended “collateral damage” in shootout            1

# of cases in which none of the above factors apply                                                                        0

The Cases

1.  Trayvon Martin, Sanford, Florida, February 26, 2012

Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.  George Zimmerman was not a member of any police force and was not Caucasian. He was Hispanic or, as the media would often refer to him in an attempt to gin up some sort of white supremacy angle, a White Hispanic.  As a neighborhood watch volunteer, Zimmerman had been advised by his police dispatcher not to follow Martin and not to leave the vehicle he was in when he became suspicious of Martin.  He ignored the instructions from the police dispatcher, accosted and killed Trayvon Martin.  The Trayvon Martin killing was a reprehensible crime, but it was not a crime at the hands of a police officer and, in fact, was a crime committed in violation of specific instructions from a police dispatcher.¹

2.  Dontre Hamilton, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 30, 2014

Dontre Hamilton was killed by a Milwaukee police officer while resisting arrest.  The officer was responding to a call from some Starbucks employees reporting a homeless man asleep in a park.  As the officer began to pat down Hamilton he awoke believing he was being attacked and began to fight.  The officer tried to use his baton to subdue Hamilton but Hamilton got control of the baton and hit the officer with great force in the head and the neck.  Fearing for his safety, the officer shot and killed Hamilton.  It was later learned that Hamilton had a history of mental health issues including treatment for schizophrenia.²  This was a tragedy and an injustice.  The tragedy was the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill person.  The injustice was the firing of a police officer who did his job and discharged his weapon when he feared for his life.  There is zero evidence of any racial element to this tragic episode.

3.  Eric Garner, Staten Island, New York, July 17, 2014

Eric Garner resisted when four officers attempted to place him under arrest for a relatively minor crime of selling “loosies”.  Presented with a dilemma regarding how to subdue a 6’3” 350 lb. man who was resisting arrest, Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him down with a submission hold which he held for only 15 seconds.  Critics would maintain that this was a choke hold (illegal) rather than a submission hold (legal) but an autopsy showed that there was no damage to Garner’s larynx or hyoid bone, the latter of which is almost always fractured in the case of strangulation.  Garner complained that he couldn’t breathe once while in the submission hold and at least 10 more times after he had been released from the hold. Within approximately seven minutes after having been brought down by the officer’s hold, Garner was placed in an ambulance.  Garner suffered a heart attack and died while in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  Unknown to the officers was the fact that the morbidly obese Garner suffered from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, heart disease, and severe bronchial asthma. It was determined that Garner died because the struggle he had with the officer triggered a cardiac arrest.  A medical doctor’s article in American Thinker, analyzing Garner’s death, stated “A normal and healthy male would have been transiently distressed by the actions of the arresting officers.”  The sergeant in charge at the scene of the altercation was an African-American female.  A grand jury did not indict Officer Pantaleo and the Obama Justice Department decided not to file federal civil rights charges against any of the officers involved in Garner’s death.³

4.  Michael Brown, Ferguson Missouri, August 9, 2014

Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson.  Prior to the shooting Brown had attacked Officer Wilson, striking him repeatedly through the open window of Wilson’s cruiser, and had struggled with Wilson trying to get his weapon.  At the time he was shot and killed by Wilson, the 6’4” 292 lb. Brown was in full charge at the officer.  He did not have his arms up, was not saying or screaming “Hands Up. Don’t Shoot”, and remained in full charge despite repeated commands from Wilson that he stop.  Officer Wilson did nothing wrong.  He was exonerated by the Democrat authorities in Ferguson, by the grand jury, and by an independent inquiry conducted by the Obama Justice Department.  Yet he had to leave the police force, uproot his family, and go into hiding because of the inflammatory lies spread by Black Lives Matter.⁴   In statements regarding the Michael Brown case, President Obama betrayed the American people and fueled racial animus.  As one egregious example, after the grand jury decision Obama stated “There are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. It is an understandable reaction.”   Just how exactly is it “understandable” that people should be disappointed or angry with a just decision made by a grand jury in accordance with our laws and supported by an independent inquiry from the Obama Justice Department?  A thorough look at the Michael Brown case and its impact on Ferguson and the nation is presented in the documentary film by Shelby Steel and Eli Steele, “What Killed Michael Brown”, available on Amazon Prime.

5.  Ezell Ford, Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2014

According to officers Sharlton Wampler (White) and Antonio Villegas (Hispanic), they were attempting to arrest Ezell Ford for trying to dispose of illicit drugs when Ford wrestled with Wampler and took Wampler’s gun while lying on top of him.  Wampler shouted, “He’s got my gun”, prompting Villegas to fire two shots at Ford. At the same moment Wampler managed to draw his backup gun and used it to shoot Ford once in the back. The officers’ story was disputed by onlookers. Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, a black woman, declined to prosecute stating, “The evidence indicates that Ford was on top of Wampler, struggling to obtain Wampler’s primary service weapon and posing an immediate threat to his safety and his partner’s safety.”⁵

6.  Akai Gurley, Brooklyn, New York, November 20, 2014

Because the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn are notorious for crime, for safety Officer Peter Liang drew his gun and placed his finger on the trigger before opening the stairwell door while patrolling the 8th floor of the complex.  Startled by a loud noise, Liang tensed suddenly causing the gun to go off. The bullet ricocheted off a wall of the stairwell striking Akai Gurley in the chest.  Liang, a Chinese American, says that at that moment he was unaware that he had shot anyone. The Atlantic reported that when Liang did reach the victim he didn’t offer to perform CPR.  Gurley’s girlfriend administered CPR with the help of a neighbor taking instructions from an operator over the phone.  It’s clear that Liang had no intention of shooting Gurley and didn’t even aim his gun but he should neither have drawn his weapon nor put his finger on the trigger.  Liang was charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment.  A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter and official misconduct.⁶

7.  Tamir Rice, Cleveland, Ohio, November 22, 2014

What the officers knew?

Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback responded to a police dispatcher’s report about a man outside a local recreation center who was pointing a pistol at everybody.  As the officers approached the suspect, who “appeared to be over 18 years old and about 185 lbs.”, they repeatedly shouted “Show me your hands.”  Even when the suspect reached into his waistband the officers didn’t fire and continued to yell “Show me your hands”.  When Officer Loehman then saw the suspect pull a gun out of his waistband he shot the suspect twice. Having neutralized the threat the officers then struggled to help the suspect who died the next day in the hospital.

What the officers didn’t know.

The suspect was Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy who looked much older because of his size.  The “pistol” was, in fact, an Airsoft pellet gun which was a replica of a Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol, indistinguishable from the real thing. The person who made the call to the dispatcher at one point said the gun was “probably fake but you know what, he’s scaring the shit out of people”.  The statement about the gun being “probably fake” was never relayed by the dispatcher to the officers.

A grand jury declined to indict the officers, primarily on the grounds that Tamir Rice was drawing what appeared to be an actual firearm from his waist when Officer Loehman fired.⁷  This was a tragic death and a prime example of the fact that sometimes awful things happen despite no ill intent on the part of anyone.

8.  Tony Robinson, Madison, Wisconsin, March 6, 2015

Officer Matt Kenny was dispatched to answer several police reports that a man a) had assaulted another man, b) had attempted to strangle a man who was fueling his car at a gas station, c) was shouting at bystanders, and d) was jumping in front of traffic. When Kenny arrived at the scene a local bystander informed him that the suspect, Tony Robinson, had just gone into a local apartment house.  As Kenny approached the apartment he could hear the noise of a disturbance, including a person striking someone or something, coming from the upstairs apartment.  When Kenny was near the top of the staircase he announced he was a police officer.  Suddenly, Robinson appeared in the doorway and charged at Kenny punching Kenny multiple times in the head and causing him to fall to the bottom of the staircase.  With Robinson again bearing down on him, Kenny shot Robinson seven times.  He then tried to administer first aid to Robinson but to no avail.  Robinson died of the gunshot wounds.  An internal police investigation determined that Kenny was justified in using deadly force.  An autopsy report revealed that Robinson had recently ingested Xanax, psilocybin mushrooms, and marijuana.⁸

9.  Meagan Hockaday, Oxnard, California, March 28, 2015

Officers in Oxnard, California were dispatched to answer a 911 call from Luis Morado requesting that the officers assist in a dispute Morado was having with his girlfriend.  As Officer Roger Garcia approached the apartment he heard people screaming inside.  Morado, shirtless and with visible injuries to his chest, met Garcia at the front door.  Twenty seconds later Meagan Hockaday charged the men with a serrated kitchen knife in her right hand.  Morado, fearing for his life ran past Officer Garcia and towards the front door.  As Hockaday was swinging her right arm in an effort to stab Garcia, Garcia fired three times.  When Oxnard Police Sergeant David Walker arrived at the scene, Garcia was kneeling next to Hockaday, saying, “Stay with me”. A forensic analysis concluded that this incident took place just as Garcia had described it.  Hockaday was found to have been intoxicated with a blood alcohol level of 0.20 percent.⁹

10.  Walter Scott, North Charleston, South Carolina, April 4, 2015

Most Americans were deeply disturbed to see a video of the last 10 seconds of an incident in which Walter Scott was shot in the back multiple times while running away from Officer Michael Slager.  What wasn’t captured in the video were the preceding events.  Scott had been stopped by Slager for a broken brake light.  As Slager was checking Scott’s identification, Scott bolted from the vehicle and ran.  Slager fired his taser at Scott but it failed to stop him.  An examination of the taser showed that it had been fired six times in sixty seven seconds during this incident.  Eventually Slager caught up with Scott and the two men wrestled.  Scott was able to grab the taser from Slager and Scott then again began to run.  This was when Slager fired the shots killing Scott. It is unknown why Scott ran but it has been theorized that it was either due to the fact that a) he feared he might be jailed for failing to make child support payments, or b) he had cocaine and alcohol in his system as would be discovered in an autopsy.  It was unjust for Slager to shoot Scott but there is NO evidence of any racial motive.  Scott had a) resisted arrest, b) fought with the Officer Slager, and c) stolen a weapon (non-lethal) from Officer Slager.  Slager was convicted of second degree murder with a twenty year prison sentence.¹⁰

11.  Freddie Gray, Baltimore, Maryland, April 19, 2015

After a scuffle with officers while resisting arrest, Freddie Gray was placed in the back of a police van.  The police had pursued Gray, a known drug dealer, when he fled unprovoked after making eye contact with the officers. The officers caught up with Gray and found a knife in his possession. Four minutes after being placed in the van, the officers placed leg shackles on Gray because he was becoming irate.  The officers stopped the van and checked on Gray 13 minutes after that and again 25 minutes later whereupon they called a medic to report that Gray was in “serious medical distress”. Paramedics arrived and spent 21 minutes treating Gray then delivered him to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.  Gray fell into a coma and died seven days later from “injuries to his spinal cord”.  Murder charges were filed against the six police officers, three of whom were black. The prosecutors alleged that by failing to strap Gray into the van with a seatbelt the officers had created a situation making Gray vulnerable to a serious injury.  A black judge found the officers innocent of the charges and all six were acquitted.  This incident triggered 10 days of riots in Baltimore.  Regarding the protestors, Baltimore’s black mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said “while we tried to make sure they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well”.¹¹

12.  Sandra Bland, Waller County, Texas, July 13, 2015

After arguing, scuffling, and refusing to comply with an officer’s directives after a traffic stop, Sandra Bland, a 28 year old school teacher and Black Lives Matter activist, was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer.  Three days later she was found hanged in her jail cell.  The death was ruled a suicide after surveillance video showed that no one had entered her cell in the time frame surrounding her death. Toxicology showed “a remarkably high level of THC in her system” for someone who had been incarcerated three days. The medical examiner concluded that Bland “either had access to the drug in jail or she was a consistent user of the drug and her body had accumulated THC to the point that it was slowly releasing it over time.” It is probable that the drug in Bland’s system contributed to the altercation with the officer, who was later reprimanded and then fired for not following protocol when making the arrest.  Jail intake forms said that Bland had attempted suicide earlier in 2014.¹²

13.  Alton Sterling, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, July 5, 2016

Officer’s Howie Lake II and Blane Solomoni responded to a report that a black man in a red shirt (Alton Sterling) was selling CDs outside a convenience store and that he had used a gun to threaten a homeless man at the location. Sterling resisted arrest and scuffled with the officers during which time the officers tased him twice.  A video of the incident shows one of the officers yelling “Going for his pocket! He’s got a gun! Gun!”  Body cam footage also showed an officer warning Sterling that he would be shot if he moved. The footage also showed Sterling reaching for his right side and then one of the officers firing three shots, followed by another three, killing Sterling.  The officers retrieved a loaded, illegal .38-caliber revolver from Sterling’s front pants pocket. A department of Justice investigation concluded “Given the totality of the circumstances - - that the officers had been fighting with Sterling and had attempted less-than-lethal methods of control; that they knew Sterling had a weapon; that Sterling had reportedly brandished a gun at another person; and that Sterling was much larger and stronger than either officer—the Department cannot prove either that the shots were unconstitutional or that they were willful.  Moreover, two different, independent experts opined that this shooting was not unreasonable given the circumstances.”¹³

14.  Philando Castile, Falcon Heights, Minnesota, July 6, 2016

Philando Castile, a young black man, was shot and killed by Officer Jeronimo Yanez, a Hispanic, during a routine traffic stop for a broken tail light.  Castile had informed Yanez that he was carrying a firearm, which indicated that he was not intending to use it on the officer and didn’t present any danger. But when Castile reached for his ID, Yanez panicked and fired 7 quick shots, killing Castile. When tried for culpable negligence by a jury including two black members, Yanez claimed that he told Castile “Don’t pull it out” and believed that Castile was reaching for the gun. Yanez clearly panicked. The jury verdict was a failure of the criminal justice system.  The jury likely did not understand the charge of “culpable negligence”.  Officer Yanez was fired from the police force.¹⁴

15.  Korryn Gaines, Randallstown, Maryland, August 1, 2016

On March 10, 2016 Korryn Gaines was stopped for driving without a license plate. Despite the fact that her five year old son was in the car, Gaines refused to cooperate or give police her driver’s license.  She told the officers that, if they put her hands on her, they would have to murder her and carry her out in a body bag.  She called the officers “pigs” and urged her child to bite them. Gaines subsequently failed to show up for her court date related to the incident.  In the meantime she posted a picture of herself on Instagram loading a shotgun with a caption thanking her father for teaching her “how to protect myself” and “who to protect myself from”.  On August 1 officers went to Gaines’ home to serve her a warrant for failing to appear and to serve her fiancé a separate warrant for assault. Gaines refused to open the door.  One of the officers borrowed a key from the apartment rental office, unlocked the door, and found the door to be chained as well.  He kicked in the door and entered the apartment only to find Gaines pointing a shotgun at him. The officer quickly retreated beginning a stand-off that lasted more than five hours. At one point, several hours into the stand-off, Gaines told the police “If you don’t leave, I’m going to kill you”.  One of the officers saw Gaines raising her shotgun to a shooting position.  He fired one round in her direction. Gaines fired back two rounds and the officers then responded with three shots killing Gaines. Her five year old son was wounded in the arm, though it was unclear whether this was from an officer’s gun of Gaines’ gun.  In 2018 an all female jury decided that the fatal shot was a violation of Gaines’ civil rights and awarded the Gaines family $38 million in damages. The verdict was overturned in 2019 when a judge ruled the officers had acted in an objectively reasonable” way.¹⁵

16.  Terence Crutcher, Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 16, 2016

Officers in Tulsa responded to a report that a man had abandoned a vehicle in the middle of the street, blocking traffic.  The caller said the man appeared to be impaired and was claiming that the vehicle was going to blow up.   Once officers were on the scene, Terence Crutcher approached his vehicle with his hands up.  One officer observed that Crutcher was sweating heavily and smelled of PCP  (Angel dust)  chemicals.  At a certain point Crutcher placed his hands on the vehicle and then moved to reach into the vehicle despite being told to stop.  One officer tased Crutcher and another, a female, shot and killed him.  No weapon was found on Crutcher or in his vehicle.  The DA charged the female officer with manslaughter, but a jury acquitted her because Crutcher, despite being ordered to stop, had reached into his car, provoking the fatal shot.¹⁶

17.  Keith Lamont Scott, Charlotte, North Carolina, September 20, 2016

As two plainclothes officers in an unmarked vehicle waited outside the apartment of Keith Lamont Scott in preparation to serve a warrant to Scott, they observed him (Scott) pull up, roll a joint, and exit his vehicle holding a gun.  Scott had a long record of criminal violence including felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon when Scott had fired two gunshots at police officers.  According to the Washington Post: “Due to the combination of illegal drugs and the gun Mr. Scott had in his possession, the officers decided to take enforcement action for public safety concerns.  They departed the immediate area to outfit themselves with marked duty vests and equipment that would clearly identify them as police officers.  Upon returning, the officers again witnessed Mr. Scott [in his vehicle] in possession of a gun.  The officers immediately identified themselves as police officers and gave clear, loud, and repeated verbal commands to drop the gun.  Mr. Scott refused to follow the officer’s repeated verbal commands.”

A third officer arrived and used his baton to smash the passenger window of Scott’s car in an effort to make an arrest. But Scott exited the vehicle with his firearm and ignored the officer’s repeated, loud demands that he drop the weapon. One of the officers, a black man named Brentley Vinson, perceived Scott as an imminent threat to himself and his fellow officers and shot and killed him.¹⁷  

18.  Alfred Olango, El Cajon, California, September 27, 2016

Officers Josh McDaniel and Richard Gonsalves responded to an urgent call from the sister of Alfred Olango. She said her brother was behaving strangely and intervention was needed.  Over the years Olango had committed offenses including taking a person’s car without consent, burglarizing a home, selling crack cocaine, driving with a fraudulent license plate, possessing 185 grams of marijuana, illegally carrying a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol in his car, and driving under the influence.

When the officers arrived, Orlango retreated into a corner formed by a fence and a parked truck.  There he paced back and forth refusing to comply with instructions to remove one of his hands from his pocket.  He then withdrew his hand and rapidly drew an object and extended it in two hands towards the police in a shooting stance.  The officers then simultaneously tased and shot him.  The fatal shot was fired by Officer Gonsalves, a Hispanic.  The object was later discovered to be a vape pen.¹⁸

19.  Jocques Clemmons, Nashville, Tennessee, February 10, 2017

During a traffic stop Jocques Clemmons began a confrontation with police officer Joshua Lippert.  During the altercation, Clemmon’s 357 Magnum fell to the ground. When Clemmons picked up the weapon, the officer shot him, once in the abdomen, once in the hip, and twice in the back as Clemmons tried to flee.¹⁹

20.  Ahmaud Arbery, Glynn County, Georgia, February 23, 2020

Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed after being pursued by three white men who suspected him of being a burglar running away from the scene of a crime.  Arbery was shot when he attempted to resist a “citizen’s arrest”.  Although one of the men was a retired police officer, it was his son, Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shot.  This was a case of vigilantes taking the law – or what they thought was the law – into their own hands.  The three men were tried, deservedly so, and all three were convicted of murder.  There is no evidence to show that the three men were motivated by racial animus. More than a year after Arbery’s death newly released court documents showed that Arbery had a history of running away from various locations after committing criminal trespass, or theft, or both. Arbery was known as “The Jogger” based on his repeated behavior of running up, stretching in front, and then entering convenience stores where he would grab items and run out before he got caught. ²⁰

21.  Breonna Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, March 13, 2020

Three officers appeared at the apartment of Breonna Taylor with a no knock warrant at 12:30 a.m. on March 13, 2020.  The officers claimed that, despite the no knock warrant, they knocked and announced themselves.  Taylor’s new boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment, later claimed not to have heard them.  The officers used a battering ram to break down the door.  This action was one of five raids taking place that evening on locations that were suspected of being distribution centers for crack cocaine and fentanyl dealer Jamarcus Glover.  Police suspected that Taylor, formerly Glover’s girlfriend, was allowing Glover to use her apartment as part of his distribution network although no drugs were later found there. Police had ample evidence for their suspicion including the facts that a) Glover had used her apartment to receive parcels he sent by mail, b) Glover was seen leaving her apartment carrying a package directly to a drug “trap house”, and c) Glover had been recorded in a phone call to the mother of his child saying, “This is what you got to understand, don’t take it wrong, but Bre been handling all my money, she been handling my money….She been handling sh*t for me and Cuz, it aint just me.”

Roused by the noise, Taylor and Walker got out of bed and went to the entrance hall.  Walker fired at the intruders (officers) in the darkness using a legally registered weapon, hitting Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.  This triggered a hail of bullets from the officers, six of which hit Taylor and killed her.  Contrary to claims throughout the media that Taylor had been shot “in her sleep”, she actually died on the floor of her hallway where she had followed Walker.  It is most likely that Walker jumped out of the line of fire after firing shots but Taylor did not.  The death of Breonna Taylor was a tragedy and, in hindsight, one can identify steps that could have been modified to prevent this.  What one can’t reasonably conclude, however, is that there was any racial animus or criminal activity on the part of the officers who returned fire when fired upon. ²¹

22.  Daniel Prude, Rochester, New York, March 23, 2020

On March 22, 2020 at about 3:00 am a truck driver in Rochester called 911 to report that a naked man was attempting to break into a car and was claiming that he had the coronavirus.  When officers arrived, Daniel Prude was walking down the street naked and bleeding.  One of the officers pointed a taser at Prude and instructed him to get on the ground and place his hands behind his head.  After the sixth time the officer issued that instruction Prude complied, but he soon became agitated and began spitting at the officers.  One officer placed a spit hood over Prude’s head and Prude yelled, “Give me that gun, give me that gun!” The officer held Prude face-down on the pavement for two minutes and fifteen seconds, repeatedly telling him to stop spitting and calm down.  Prude stopped breathing and was given CPR on the scene, then hospitalized and placed on life support.  He died seven days later after being taken off life support.

The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be “complications from asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint”.  The medical report showed factors contributing to his death were “excited delirium” and “acute intoxication” (by PCP). It was later learned that Prude’s history included a previous brain injury that was giving him some lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain.²²

23.  George Floyd, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 25, 2020

Most of the U.S. and the world watched in shock and disgust as the media repeatedly aired a video in which George Floyd pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” and called for his “mama”, while Officer Derek Chauvin held Floyd down.  Floyd was held in a prone position, with Chauvin’s knee pressed against his neck, for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, by which time Floyd had stopped breathing. The first two officers to arrive at the scene to arrest Floyd for a relatively minor crime were J. Alexander Kueng (black) and Thomas Lane (white).  Nine minutes into the arrest Derek Chauvin (white) and Tou Thao (Asian-American) arrived to assist.  Officer Chauvin was charged with two counts of murder and one of manslaughter while the other officers were charged with abetting.  Officer Chauvin was convicted on all three counts.

Not seen by the U.S. and the world at the time following Floyd’s death, was the officers’ body cam footage which had been deliberately suppressed by Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison.  Ellison was a former spokesman for Louis Farrakhan, a former DNC chair, and a current supporter of Antifa. Nearly three months after Floyd’s death these body cam videos were leaked to U.K.’s Daily Mail, which released them to the public.  During these three months, multiple injuries, deaths, and billions of dollars in property damage had occurred during the violent BLM riots that swept the nation, triggered by George Floyd’s death.

The body cam footage showed Floyd’s resistance to arrest and to the officers’ efforts to put him in handcuffs. It showed that the 6’6”, 240 lb. Floyd was very difficult to control.  Floyd was disoriented, delirious, paranoid, and unable to follow a command for more than a few seconds. He was panicky and unwilling to be put in a police vehicle, claiming he was claustrophobic despite having been arrested while sitting in his own vehicle. Perhaps most importantly, the footage showed Floyd claiming “I can’t breathe” at least five times while he was standing, sitting, or kneeling as he refused to cooperate with police – well before he was prone with Chauvin’s knee on his neck.  The autopsy showed the Floyd had four times the lethal dose of Fentanyl in his system. According to WebMD: “[F]entanyl has rapid and potent effects on the brain and body, and even very small amounts can be extremely dangerous. It only takes a tiny amount of the drug to cause a deadly reaction…..Fentanyl can depress breathing and lead to death.  The risk of overdose is high.”  The autopsy also showed that Floyd suffered from severe multifocal arteriosclerosis, had hypertensive heart disease, and was positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.  There were no signs of asphyxiation resulting from the knee Officer Chauvin had placed on Floyd’s neck, nor would there be, since the knee was not applied to his windpipe.  As a prosecutor specializing in police brutality cases reported in American Spectator, the video of Chauvin kneeling on the side of Floyd’s neck appears to be a textbook application of an officially approved technique.  Minnesota police are trained to use a “neck restraint” technique which involves compressing one or both sides of a person’s neck with an arm or a leg, without applying direct pressure to the trachea or airway.

The later videos and autopsy report do not lessen the shock and disgust one experiences when watching the initial video.  It is clear that Officer Chauvin did something very wrong.  Perhaps it was gross negligence.  Perhaps it was willful infliction of harm.  In either case there should have been consequences and in either case there is no evidence of a racial component to Chauvin’s actions.  What the later videos should have impacted, but apparently didn’t, was whether or not Chauvin should have been convicted of murder.  George Floyd is the person who chose to ingest four times the dosage of Fentanyl that is considered lethal and Officer Chauvin did nothing to constrict Floyd’s airway.

In an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Attorney General Keith Ellison said there was no evidence that George Floyd was the victim of a “hate crime” or racial bias.  For the skeptical, who may think that only blacks are the subject of rough police tactics, check out the YouTube videos of Daniel Shaver (white, fatally shot while begging for leniency) or Tony Timpa (white, died under very similar circumstances to George Floyd).²³

24.  Tony McDade, Tallahassee, Florida, May 27, 2020

Tony McDade was a thirty-eight-year-old black transgender male with a criminal record including armed robbery and battery. On May 25, 2020, McDade pistol whipped his girlfriend, Jennifer Jackson.  He also returned to her home the next day to verbally abuse her.  While sitting in her home, he texted the following message to an acquaintance: “I’m sitting in the kitchen looking at this motherfucker wanting to off her for playin [with] my mind.  The bitch and her fam have to pay in blood.”  Jackson’s son, Malik (21, black), admonished McDade for his violent behavior and then went outside in hopes that McDade’s temper might burn out.  McDade followed Malik and circled around a vehicle (that Malik was using to maintain separation from McDade) while carrying a gun and a knife and cursing at Malik.  Other members of Jackson’s family intervened, McDade challenged them to a fight, and a violent brawl ensued in which McDade was beaten badly.  Two days later McDade posted his recount of the episode on Facebook including a video in which he said: “And I’m posting this live. Warning comes before destruction.  And I’m telling you five m----f----- that you’re going to die.” and “Just know before I kill myself through a shootout, because that’s what’s going to happen, because I’m gonna pull it out and you know these officers nowadays they see a gun and they just gonna shoot.”

McDade stabbed Malik Jackson to death that same day.  When police approached McDade as a suspect in the killing, McDade pointed his weapon at an officer and the officer shot and killed him.  Apparently, due to “intersectional theory”, which BLM supports, McDade was a special cause for BLM activists because he was not only black but transgender.  In the following week several BLM protests featured signs like “Protect Black Trans People”.  On June 20, 2020, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to commemorate McDade’s death and support “Black Trans Lives Matter”.  Apparently, the life of a transgender black who pistol whipped his girlfriend and killed her black son, has greater value than that of the non-intersectional black son, Malik Jackson.²⁴

25.  Rayshard Brooks, Atlanta, Georgia, June 12, 2020

Rayshard Brooks was a 27 year old black man who had a long history of criminal violence including offenses such as obstruction of an officer, false imprisonment, cruelty to children, felony cruelty, possession of a weapon, receiving stolen property, theft, and various forms of battery.   On June 12, 2020, Atlanta Officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan responded to a complaint that Brooks was asleep in his car which was blocking a Wendy’s drive-through lane.  A sobriety test found that Brooks had alcohol levels above the legal limit.  Since Brooks was on probation for four crimes, if charged with a DUI he would have faced the prospect of going back to jail.  Initially, Brooks engaged in civil conversation with the officers but, when they tried to arrest him, Brooks instigated a violent fight during which he wrestled the taser away from Officer Brosnan, fought his way free, punched an officer, fired the stolen taser, and then began to flee on foot.  Officer Rolfe fired his taser at Brooks but it failed to bring Brooks down.  When Brooks hurriedly turned and fired the stolen taser at Rolfe, Rolfe drew his handgun and shot Brooks twice in the back as Brooks turned and continued to run.  Brooks was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died after undergoing surgery.  In the ensuing BLM riots the Wendy’s was set on fire and an eight year old black girl was shot and killed by one of the protesters.  Under extreme public pressure, the Atlanta Police Chief resigned, Officer Rolfe was fired, and the Atlanta District Attorney, who happened to be under investigation for having used a non-profit to funnel $200,000 of city funds into his personal bank account, filed eleven charges against Rolfe: felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault, four police oath violations, and damage to property.  The DA characterized Brooks as a) having been “peacefully sleeping in his car” and b) having been generally “cooperative”.  He also stated Brooks “never presented himself as a threat”.  There is no evidence of any racial component to this event.²⁵

26.  Jacob Blake (paralyzed), Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 23, 2020

On August 23, 2020 Kenosha police officers responded to a 911 call from a woman claiming that her ex-boyfriend, Jacob Blake, a twenty-nine-year-old father of six, had violated a restraining order by coming to her home, taking her car keys, and refusing to give them back.  The restraining order was due to an alleged felony sexual assault for which there was an outstanding warrant for Blake’s arrest.  When the officers arrived at the scene they found Blake in his car with three of his young sons in the back seat.  Blake engaged in a violent fight with the officers, two of whom tased him unsuccessfully.  Unable to restrain Blake, the officers drew their firearms and ordered him to stop.  Blake disregarded the officer’s commands, walked purposefully around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and lunged downward.  Fearing that Blake might be reaching for a weapon – a knife was later found on the floor of the car – one officer shouted, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!”  When Blake failed to comply, the officer fired seven shots, hitting Blake four times in the back.  Blake was rushed to a hospital.  His wounds have left him paralyzed.²⁶

References from I Can’t Breathe. How a Racial Hoax Is Killing America., David Horowitz, ©2021, Regnery Publishing,

¹ pgs. 61-62.

² pgs. 69-70.

³ pgs. 71-75.

⁴ pgs. 77-86.

⁵ pgs. 87-89.

⁶ pgs. 92-95.

⁷ pgs. 89-92.

⁸ pgs. 95-97.

⁹ pgs. 97-98.

¹⁰ pgs. 99-102

¹¹ pgs. 102-105

¹² pgs. 118-121

¹³ pgs. 105-106

¹⁴ pgs. 107-109

¹⁵ pgs. 121-123

¹⁶ pgs. 123-124

¹⁷ pgs. 124-125

¹⁸ pgs. 126-128

¹⁹ pgs. 128-129

²⁰ pgs. 131-132

²¹ pgs. 135-140

²² pgs. 133-135

²³ pgs. 49-54

²⁴ pgs. 140-142

²⁵ pgs. 142-144

²⁶ pgs. 144-147

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