An Interesting Arrest in Portland of a Militant Arsonist

The FBI and special agents of the U.S. Marshall service are not heard from at all when it comes to the daily assaults in Portland. Perhaps this one particular arrest will offer some hope for the work being done in Portland and many other cities around the country.

Portland Man Charged in May 29, 2020 Arson at Justice Center

PORTLAND, Ore.—U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams announced today that Edward Thomas Schinzing, 32, has been charged by criminal complaint with using fire to maliciously damage or destroy the Justice Center in downtown Portland on May 29, 2020.

Multnomah County and the City of Portland own the Justice Center building located at 1120 SW 3rd Avenue in Portland. The facility houses the Multnomah County Detention Center jail and the Portland Police Bureau headquarters.

According to court documents, Schinzing was marching with a group of protestors when he arrived at the front of the Justice Center shortly before 11:00 p.m. on May 29, 2020. A few minutes later, several people broke windows near the northwest corner of the Justice Center where the Corrections Records Office is located. They subsequently entered the secured office through the broken windows.

Three civilian Multnomah County employees were working inside the Corrections Records Office at the time and fled for safety as the windows were broken. Based on a preliminary review of publicly-available videos from YouTube, Twitter, surveillance cameras, and still photos posted online, about 30 individuals entered the Justice Center through the broken windows. The individuals spray-painted portions of the office; damaged computer and other office equipment, furniture, and interior windows; and started fires.

Among those who entered the Justice Center, Schinzing was identified by a comparison with a jail booking photo and a distinctive tattoo of his last name across his upper back. Schinzing spread a fire that started near the front of the office by lighting additional papers on fire and moving them into a drawer of a separate cubicle.

At about 11:08 p.m., the building’s fire sprinkler system activated and extinguished the fires. At about the same time, law enforcement officers secured that portion of the Justice Center. The Multnomah County Detention Center housed approximately 289 inmates at the time.

Schinzing made his first appearance in federal court today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge and was ordered detained pending further court proceedings. Arson is punishable by up to 20 years in prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years.

This case is being jointly investigated by the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); U.S. Marshals Service; Portland Police Bureau; Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office; and Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

Criminal complaints are only accusations of a crime, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Schinzing marching with a crowd of demonstrators across the Burnside Bridge in Portland on May 29, 2020

Schinzing marching with a crowd of demonstrators across the Burnside Bridge in Portland on May 29, 2020
Schinzing marching with a crowd of demonstrators in downtown Portland on May 29, 2020

Schinzing marching with a crowd of demonstrators in downtown Portland on May 29, 2020
Schinzing inside the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020 before the fire is ignited

Schinzing inside the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020 before the fire is ignited
Close up of Schinzing inside the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020 before the fire is ignited

Close up of Schinzing inside the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020 before the fire is ignited
Schinzing spreading the fire in the Corrections Records Office by moving flaming papers into separate cubicles on May 29, 2020

Schinzing spreading the fire in the Corrections Records Office by moving flaming papers into separate cubicles on May 29, 2020
A demonstrator photographs the fire in the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020

A demonstrator photographs the fire in the Corrections Records Office on May 29, 2020
Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020

Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020
Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020

Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020
Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020

Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020
Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020

Damage to the Corrections Records Office from fire on May 29, 2020

 

AG Barr’s Testimony Before House Judiciary Cmte

Written Statement of AG Bar… by Fox News on Scribd

 

Primer: This is going to be a contentious session slated to last up to 4 or more hours. Why?

Some Democrats have suggested trying to impeach Barr over accusations he’s politicized the Justice Department. Nadler said his committee “may very well” initiate impeachment proceedings.

“I think the weight of the evidence and of what’s happened leads to that conclusion,” Nadler said.

Two other Democrats, Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, have called for Barr’s impeachment.

Items to be covered will be RussiaGate, the militant demonstrations around the country, criminal statistics, Roger Stone and more.

JUST IN: AG Barr Warns House Dems He May Not Appear at ...

Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Jordan, Members of the Committee, I am pleased to  be here this morning. I accepted an invitation to testify before this Committee in late March, but it was postponed as a result of the pandemic that continues to pose challenges to us all. I know some other hearings this week have been postponed to honor your late colleague, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. On behalf of the Department of Justice, I want to pay my respects to Congressman Lewis, an indomitable champion of civil rights and the rule of law. I think it is especially important to remember today that he pursued his cause passionately and successfully with an unwavering commitment to nonviolence. We are in a time when the political discourse in Washington often reflects the politically divided nation in which we live, and too often drives that divide even deeper. Political rhetoric is inherent in our democratic system, and politics is to be expected by politicians, especially in an election year. While that may be appropriate here on Capitol Hill or on cable news, it is not acceptable at the Department of Justice. At the Department, decisions must be made with no regard to political pressure—pressure from either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, or from the media or mobs. Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus “Russiagate” scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions. Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today. So let me turn to that first. As I said in my confirmation hearing, the Attorney General has a unique obligation. He holds in trust the fair and impartial administration of justice. He must ensure that there is one standard of justice that applies to everyone equally and that criminal cases are handled even-handedly, based on the law and the facts, and without regard to political or personal considerations. I can tell you that I have handled criminal matters that have come to me for decision in this way.

The President has not attempted to interfere in these decisions. On the contrary, he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right. That is precisely what I have done. From my experience, the President has played a role properly and traditionally played by Presidents. Like his predecessors, President Trump and his National Security Council have appropriately weighed in on law-enforcement decisions that directly implicate national security or foreign policy, because those decisions necessarily involve considerations that transcend typical  prosecutorial factors. Moreover, when some noteworthy event occurs that potentially has legal ramifications – such as leaks of classified information, potential civil rights abuses by police, or illegal price fixing or gouging – the President has occasionally, and appropriately, confirmed that the Department is aware of the matter. But the handling of the matter and my decisions on criminal matters have been left to my independent judgment, based on the law and fact, without any direction or interference from the White House or anyone outside the Department. Indeed, it is precisely because I feel complete freedom to do what I think is right that induced me serve once again as Attorney General. As you know, I served as Attorney General under President George H. W. Bush. After that, I spent many years in the corporate world. I was almost 70 years old, slipping happily into retirement as I enjoyed my grandchildren. I had nothing to prove and had no desire to return to government. I had no prior relationship with President Trump. But as an outsider I became deeply troubled by what I perceived as the increasing use of the criminal justice process as a political weapon and the emergence of two separate standards of  justice. The Department had been drawn into the political maelstrom and was being buffeted on all sides. When asked to consider returning, I did so because I revere the Department and believed my independence would allow me to help steer her back to her core mission of applying one standard of justice for everyone and enforcing the law even-handedly, without partisan considerations. Since returning to the Department, I have done precisely that. My decisions on criminal matters before the Department have been my own, and they have been made because I  believed they were right under the law and principles of justice. Let me turn briefly to several pressing issues of the day. (…) Read on here.

 

Proposed President Biden’s Administration

Just consider, based on all that the nation has been through in recent days and weeks based on law suits, protests and defunding of law enforcement. Consider what you have seen of Joe Biden in press settings and his possible list of Vice Presidential candidates. Have you recently viewed the 2016 Democrat National Committee platform recently? How about remembering things like the lies told about Border Patrol and ICE. What about that Green New Deal? We have had attacks on conservatives while dining in a restaurant and we have released documents regarding RussiaGate. Then there was the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and the 1619 Project not to mention the Lincoln Project or the Thousand Currents. You want those people leading you into 2024 and beyond?

Howie Carr: Joe Biden needs a nap source
It is certain you have your own list of names that you are not only wary of but terrified of and rightly so. Pull out your list and fill in below as you apply some strategic thinking for what could be ahead.
Below is only a suggested look at a Biden Cabinet/administration. You’re invited to plug in your own names.
Here goes:
Vice President: Susan Rice
Press Secretary: David Corn
Secretary of Agriculture: Saikat Chakrabarti
Attorney General: Kamala Harris
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: Andrew Weissman
Secretary of Commerce: Eric Garcetti
Secretary of Defense: Wendy Sherman
Secretary of Education: Nicole Hannah Jones
Secretary of Energy: Cenk Uygur
Director of the Environmental Protective Agency: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Justin Cooper
Director of Health and Human Services: Bernie Sanders
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: Luis Gutierrez
Director of Housing and Urban Development: Kirsten Gillibrand
Secretary of the Interior: Gretchen Whitmer
Secretary of Labor: Julian Castro
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Maxine Waters
Director of National Intelligence: Adam Schiff
Director of the Small Business Administration: Zack Exley
Secretary of State: Ben Rhodes
Secretary of Transportation: Ed Markey
Secretary of the Treasury: Susan Rosenberg
Trade Representative: Victoria Nuland
Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs: Mark Kelly
Chief of Staff: Lori Lightfoot
Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission: Elizabeth Warren
National Security Advisor: Anita Dunn

Of course, much like the Obama administration, Biden will have advisory councils and czars. This is where hundreds of other progressives and Marxists will work the major influence and policy channels.

Rather terrifying right? Don’t hesitate to fill in your own names, those like John Brennan, Don Lemon, Peter Strzok, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, John Kerry, Lois Lerner, Jim Acosta, Sidney Blumenthal, Bruce Ohr and Eric Holder. Go ahead, plug in a few names too.

Imagine all the new regulations, the further degradation of the 1st Amendment much less the 2nd Amendment. Consider how much more education will fail and how sovereignty will evaporate to a total border-less nation. Taxes? Yikes, too hard to even describe and small business will fail under $15/hr minimum wage nationwide. No more E-Verify, no more doctors of your choosing and we could end up with 12 or 15 Justices on the Supreme Court while George Soros has his own permanent White House office in the West Wing.
It is a nightmare….

They Really Mean No Marxism No Peace

Today looks just like 1966. The founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale wrote a 10 point plan that is being played out across the nation today.

Chris King's First Amendment Page: KingCast explains Huey ... Huey Newtoncranes are flying: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the ... Bobby Seale

Frankly, the FBI Director, Christopher Wray should call back the former agents, mobilize a team and run a counter-intelligence surge for domestic gang/terror sweeps.

Three Key Things PBS Black Panther Documentary Left Out ...

For those that may not remember, here is the old plan.

What We Want Now!

  1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
  2. We want full employment for our people.
  3. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities.
  4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
  5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
  6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
  7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
  8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
  9. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
  10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

What We Believe:

  1. We believe that Black People will not be free until we are able to determine our own destiny.
  2. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American business men will not give full employment, the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
  3. We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as redistribution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities: the Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered 6,000,000 Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over 50,000,000 Black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.
  4. We believe that if the White landlords will not give decent housing to our Black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make a decent housing for its people.
  5. We believe in an educational system that will give our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.
  6. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.
  7. We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives us the right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for self-defense.
  8. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.
  9. We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peers. A peer is a persons from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical, and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of “the average reasoning man” of the Black community.
  10. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, and that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such a form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accused. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, and their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards of their future security.

In recent days, a rather scandalous matter hit the headlines dealing with the Smithsonian Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture shaming Whiteness. The museum has many donors including Oprah Winfrey, one of the largest donors of more than $20 million. Beyond the reverse racism of ‘whiteness’, the museum does have some access to

The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change

showing the work and mission to be all positive. However, per the FBI Vault:

The Black Panther Party (BPP) is a black extremist organization founded in Oakland, California in 1966. It advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government. In 1969, the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office opened an investigative file on the BPP to track its militant activities, income, and expenses. The files are here.

 

Law Enforcement Surveillance of BLM/Protests Goes Tech AI

Meet Dataminr, the leading artificial intelligence platform for real-time event and risk detection. In a world characterized by unexpected and rapidly moving events that can impact operations in innumerable and unforeseen ways, relevant information can surface anywhere at any time. Dataminr discovers, distills and delivers alerts from the increasingly diverse and complex landscape of publicly available information—including social media, blogs, information sensors, and the dark web—ensuring that businesses have the knowledge they need to act with confidence.

Build the Movement to Defeat Racism!/¡Construir un ... source

Back in January, The New York Post had a short article on how the NYPD on Monday was ordered to respond to a request for records related to its surveillance of Black Lives Matters protestors’ cell phones and social media.

The secret police documents were among a Freedom of Information Law request by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Millions March NYC, an activist group affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

But, the Glomar response kicked in. What is that? It is used often actually. It is where an agency refuses to confirm or deny the existence of responsive records. The term “Glomar” originates from a case related to the CIA’s classified Glomar Explorer project, in which the agency sought to recover materials for military and intelligence purposes from a sunken Soviet submarine in the Pacific Ocean.

George Floyd protests: Trump blames 'antifa' for violence ... source

It is not just about Black Lives Matter, add in ANTIFA, The Youth Liberation Front and Boogaloo among others, perhaps even MS-13.

Okay, circling back to Dataminr.

Leveraging close ties to Twitter, controversial artificial intelligence startup Dataminr helped law enforcement digitally monitor the protests that swept the country following the killing of George Floyd, tipping off police to social media posts with the latest whereabouts and actions of demonstrators, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Dataminr helps newsrooms, corporations, and governments around the world track crises with superhuman speed as they unfold across social media and the wider web. Through a combination of people and software, the company alerts organizations to chatter around global crises — wars, shootings, riots, disasters, and so forth — so that they’ll have a competitive edge as news is breaking. But the meaning of that competitive edge, the supercharged ability to filter out important events from the noise of hundreds of millions of tweets and posts across social media, will vary drastically based on the customer; the agenda of a newspaper using Dataminr to inform its breaking news coverage won’t be the same as the agendas of a bank or the FBI. It’s this latter category of Dataminr’s business, lucrative government work, that’s had the firm on the defensive in recent years.

In 2016, Twitter was forced to reckon with multiple reports that its platform was being used to enable domestic surveillance, including a Wall Street Journal report on Dataminr’s collaboration with American spy agencies in May; an American Civil Liberties Union report on Geofeedia, a Dataminr competitor, in October; and another ACLU investigation into Dataminr’s federal police surveillance work in December. The company sought to assure the public that attempts to monitor its users for purposes of surveillance were strictly forbidden under its rules, and that any violators would be kicked off the platform. For example, then-VP Chris Moody wrote in a company blog post that “using Twitter’s Public APIs or data products to track or profile protesters and activists is absolutely unacceptable and prohibited.” In a letter to the ACLU, Twitter public policy chief Colin Crowell similarly wrote that “the use of Twitter data for surveillance is strictly prohibited” and that “Datatminr’s product does not provide any government customers with … any form of surveillance.”

Dataminr continues to enable what is essentially surveillance by U.S. law enforcement entities, contradicting its earlier assurances to the contrary, even if it remains within some of the narrow technical boundaries it outlined four years ago, like not providing direct firehose access, tweet geolocations, or certain access to fusion centers.

Dataminr relayed tweets and other social media content about the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests directly to police, apparently across the country. In so doing, it used to great effect its privileged access to Twitter data — despite current terms of service that explicitly bar software developers “from tracking, alerting, or monitoring sensitive events (such as protests, rallies, or community organizing meetings)” via Twitter.

And despite Dataminr’s claims that its law enforcement service merely “delivers breaking news alerts on emergency events, such as natural disasters, fires, explosions and shootings,” as a company spokesperson told The Intercept for a previous report, the company has facilitated the surveillance of recent protests, including nonviolent activity, siphoning vast amounts of social media data from across the web and converting it into tidy police intelligence packages.

Dataminr’s Black Lives Matter protest surveillance included persistent monitoring of social media to tip off police to the locations and activities of protests, developments within specific rallies, as well as instances of alleged “looting” and other property damage. According to the source with direct knowledge of Dataminr’s protest monitoring, the company and Twitter’s past claims that they don’t condone or enable surveillance are “bullshit,” relying on a deliberately narrowed definition. “It’s true Dataminr doesn’t specifically track protesters and activists individually, but at the request of the police they are tracking protests, and therefore protesters,” this source explained. There is much more detail here from The Intercept.

So, if law enforcement in various locations has a partnership with Dataminr, it puts to question why destructive protests of an ongoing basis continues to happen costing lives, injuries and ruining business and livelihoods. Ah that is a question for governors, mayors, prosecutors and judges but you can be assured that in many cases arrests have been made and investigators have additional tools for build cases against alleged criminals.

So, if there is to be law and order and any kind of restoration to community peace or civil society, tools such as Dataminr are valuable that is if the unlawful acts are prosecuted in the first place.