Jake Dima on August 28, 2020

• Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested for allegedly shooting three people, killing two of them, during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to a criminal complaint.
• Rittenhouse appeared to be chased by a group of people, resulting in two separate shootings, video shows. Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were both killed by gunfire and Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, was shot in the arm and is expected to recover, according to the complaint.
• All three of the shooting victims were convicted criminals with crimes ranging from sexual conduct with a minor to felony strangulation, court documents show.

New details have emerged about the recent shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, painting a fuller picture of both the accused gunman and the three men who were shot.

Kyle Rittenhouse was accused of shooting and killing one man near an auto body shop after being chased around midnight going into Wednesday morning, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Axios. The 17-year-old ran into the road, tripped and fell to the ground and allegedly fatally shot another man in the chest and a third in the arm, the complaint stated.

Rittenhouse

Rittenhouse was arrested Wednesday in Illinois and charged with first degree intentional homicide for the shootings, which occurred during unrest stemming from the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse’s charges were updated Thursday to add additional counts, including attempted intentional homicide and two counts of recklessly endangering safety, according to CNN.

“So people are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business, and apart of my job is to also help people,” Rittenhouse told the Daily Caller’s Richie McGinniss in an interview roughly two hours before the shootings.

“If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way,” he continued. “That’s why I have my rifle because I need to protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”

He was was reportedly an avid Blue Lives Matter supporter who enrolled himself in a program for youth interested in police work, according to Insider.

Activist Mike Coudrey tweeted earlier photos of Rittenhouse posing with a carbine-style AR-15 and cleaning graffiti in Kenosha.

Joseph Rosenbaum

Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was chasing Rittenhouse and threw what appears to be a plastic bag at the teen, according to video footage and the complaint, which also notes a loud bang was heard. An unknown person fired a handgun pointed at an upward angle, according to a New York Times analysis of video footage.

McGinniss told police Rosenbaum tried to grab the teen’s weapon.

Four additional bangs are heard, and Rosenbaum drops to the ground, video shows. McGinniss then attempted to administer aid.

WARNING, GRAPHIC:

Rittenhouse then circled back through the parking lot and passed the man who took one of the videos. He appeared to say “I just killed somebody” while on the phone, according to the complaint.

Rosenbaum suffered gunshot wounds to the groin, back, thigh and a grace next to the forehead, according to the complaint. He was pronounced dead at 12:47 a.m., Wednesday, the complaint stated.

Rosenbaum was convicted of sexual conduct with a minor in 2002, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections sex offender registry, government records showed. A photo of the registrant matched Rosenbaum’s likeliness, as did his middle initial.

Rosenbaum was removed from the registry due to his death, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ deputy director of communications, Anna Neal, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

Rosenbaum also had two open cases in Kenosha: one on bail jumping and another on battery, two counts of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct, according to court records.

A friend of Rosenbaum told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Rosenbaum was shot in the head and a GoFundMe has raised over $17,000 at the time of reporting to cover funeral costs.

Rosenbaum was reportedly from Texas and moved to Kenosha recently, The Sentinel reported.

“May you forever be with the angels and rest easy bro. I love you!” his sister wrote on Facebook, according to the local outlet.

The Chicago-Sun Times highlighted Rosenbaum, who is called “Jo Jo” by friends, as the father of a 2-year-old.

Anthony Huber

Another video shows Rittenhouse running in the street as people pursued him yelling “Beat him up!” “Get him!” “Get that dude!” and “Get his ass!” among other things, the charging document read. Rittenhouse then tripped and fell to the ground as the mob in pursuit gained ground on him, video showed.

One unidentified man appeared to stomp on the boy’s head and Rittenhouse seemingly fired a shot at him, but missed, according to video.

WARNING, GRAPHIC:

Anthony Huber, 26, then leaps onto Rittenhouse and strikes him with a skateboard with one hand and reaches out with another, the video shows.

“Huber appears to be trying to grab the gun,” the complaint states. “The defendant then fires one round which can be heard on the video.”

Huber was shot in the chest, killing him, according to the complaint.

In 2012, Huber was found guilty of felonious strangulation, two counts of domestic abuse, false imprisonment and use of a dangerous weapon, records show. Huber was again found guilty in 2018, this time of disorderly conduct, domestic abuse and repeat offender charges, according to online documents.

The court documents show the defendant was a Kenosha resident, would have been 26 at the time of the shooting, and shares a middle initial with the man who died this week.

“He was one of the most amazing people,” Huber’s girlfriend Hannah Gittings said in front of a crowd the same day he was  shot fatally, according to the Sun-Times. “He had so much love in his heart for this city … he took down an armed gunman with nothing but his f——— skateboard, and he took that f——— bullet.”

A memorial service was held for the skateboarder at a park and attendees etched “you’re a hero Huber!” on one of the park walls, the Sun-Times reported. A GoFundMe organized for Huber has raised over $137,000 at the time of reporting.

“Anthony [Huber] is an American patriot and we should all be so lucky to have folks like him to defend this country from White Supremacists,” a comment on the fundraising page read, according to the Sun-Times. The commenter provided no evidence that Rittenhouse is or was a white supremacist.

Gaige Grosskreutz

Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, was approaching Rittenhouse and appeared to be holding a handgun when Huber was shot, according to the complaint and video footage. Grosskreutz stopped and put his hands in the air, then moves toward the teen, according to the complaint.

Rittenhouse fired one round, striking Grosskreutz in the upper forearm, the complaint states.

Grosskreutz sustained a grizzly wound after taking a round to the upper forearm and subsequently ran away, shouting for a medic, video shows.

Grosskreutz was found guilty in 2016 of carrying a firearm while intoxicated — a misdemeanor charge, according to court records.

The 26-year-old was reportedly part of the social justice group the People’s Revolution Movement, according to the Sun-Times.

“His whole reason for being out here was to provide medical services to protesters in Kenosha, and when Gaige tried to detain [the active shooter], he got shot in the arm,” a fellow protester told the local outlet.

Rittenhouse is seen on video slowly backing away from the incident location. He approaches police with his hands up, but they drive past to assist victims, according to The New York Times.

The post Here’s What We Know About The Kenosha Shooting And Its Victims appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

We don’t need to replace our current system with anything other than a Constitutional Republic. The answer to our woes is to strengthen our commitment to individual liberty, limited government, and capitalism.

The US has unbelievably high incarceration rates. Many Americans that are in prison are there for nonviolent drug crimes that carry draconian mandatory minimums. Many judges vocally lament the prison lengths they are forced to sentence defendants to due to mandatory minimums.

Weldon Angelos

One famous example is Weldon Angelos who was sentenced to 55 years without the possibility of parole for selling small amounts of marijuana to a police informant three times in 2002.

This harsh sentence is due to something known as “gun stacking”. The informant saw a gun in Angelos’ possession when the drug trade went down. It was never used or brandished in a threatening manner. During the first trade, the informant simply saw it in Angelos’ car. During the second and third trades, the gun was in an ankle strap.

Therefore, Angelos qualified for a 5-30 year mandatory minimum for being a first-time drug offender with a gun. For the first instance when a gun was in his car, he received five years tacked onto his sentence. For each subsequent drug deal where a gun is present, 25 years are automatically added. He never used the gun in a violent way, but he did exercise his legal 2^nd Amendment right while selling a plant.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home after police broke down her door in the middle of the night because of suspected nonviolent drug activity. She wasn’t the suspect, but her boyfriend dared protect her against the unknown intruders by firing his own legal weapon at them. The police shot and killed Breonna in bed while they were serving a no-knock warrant for a nonviolent drug crime that she was never even accused of being a part of. The authorities initially charged Breonna’s boyfriend with attempted murder for firing at the intruders, but then recanted (nice of them).

Steven Sutherland

In Steven Sutherland’s case, he was sentenced more harshly because he had a gun in the house. He never used it in a threatening or violent way in any instance that the authorities were involved in. He was merely a dying man that had a gun and marijuana in rural Missouri. He died in prison for it.

Duncan Lemp

A Maryland man named Duncan Lemp was shot and killed in March when a SWAT team entered his home in the middle of the night. They were attempting to serve a no-knock warrant for accused gun crimes. His family and their lawyer claim Lemp was sleeping when the officers killed him. The authorities argue that they were met with violence and a deadly booby trap that forced them to shoot Lemp. However, they have not released body camera footage from the raid despite calls from the Lemp family attorney and civil rights groups.

Police raided his home in the middle of the night for allegedly owning a rifle that he was banned from owning due to a juvenile offense—not because he was an immediate threat, but because he was allegedly practicing God-given rights and they had told him not to.

Charles White

Charles White was sentenced to 10 years in prison for growing marijuana plants in Missouri. He was sentenced to prison in 2017 and soon appealed under the First Steps Act because he was elderly and in bad health. However, the judge denied him release citing his health issues as not severe enough. The judge felt it was in the best interest of everyone involved to keep the nearly 80-year-old man with worsening macular degeneration (which made him legally blind) in prison for a plant.

There is good news. Early in 2020 as Covid-19 fears ramped up, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines for prisons across the country to release nonviolent, low-risk prisoners. White met the criteria for release and thus, is now a free 80-year-old man. Christina Frommer of The Canna Convict Project tells me, “If it wasn’t for Coronavirus, Charles White would not be out of prison.”

Marvin Louis Guy

Marvin Louis Guy was in his home in the wee hours of the morning when police raided it. They were serving a no-knock warrant for drugs and Guy met the unknown invaders with gunfire from his legal weapon. He claims he did not know the intruders were police and that is why he fired on them, but the authorities still charged him with attempted murder. The drugs that the police were searching for were never found. They did find a 9MM pistol, walkie-talkies, three cellphones, a laptop, a safe, a glass pipe identified as drug paraphernalia, and a grinder. Sound like sufficient findings to justify putting civilians and police officers in deathly danger while violating 4^th Amendment rights?

Corrupt Police or Systems?

There are many good individual police officers and, as a whole, they do a good job. There are legitimate purposes for police officers—like keeping the community safe from outside threats to their businesses and personal lives.

Read True Blue: Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them. Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and almost all of them will make you realize that it is a tough job to see the worst 20 minutes of individuals’ lives day-in and day-out. The stories in that book are written by police officers who have a love for people of their community that they are protecting.

Then, read The New Jim Crow and you will see a systemic problem with criminal justice laws. But the problem is that our system has forgotten respect for individual liberty and has replaced it with an ideology that government needs to nanny individual behavior.

The system needs reformed, but only in the way that American principles need to be restored and revered.

The post Criminal Justice Reform: What System Needs Replaced? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Floyd was murdered by an authoritarian brute who used his power to stand on Floyd’s neck for no good reason. Taylor was murdered by a systemic policy that is used far too often – no-knock warrants. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has introduced a bill in the United States Senate that would prohibit any law enforcement agency that receives federal funds from using no-knock warrants.

Taylor was shot in her bed by the police who invaded her home in the middle of the night on March 13th in Louisville, Kentucky. No drugs were found, nor did she have a record of drug use or possession. In fact, she was not the stated goal of the search warrant; her home was in the search warrant because the police believed another suspect had illegal drugs delivered to her home.

There are numerous examples of no-knock warrants ending in horrendous ways, including the case of Marvin Louis Guy. He faced murder charges after firing his legal weapon on invading authorities entering his home in the early morning hours. Guy claims he did not realize it was police entering his home in Killeen, Texas.

The Houston, Texas police department had a deadly experience with a no-knock raid which lead to 4 officers shot and 2 civilians dead. After that atrocity, they ended the practice of breaking into peoples’ homes unannounced—suspected drug dealers or not.

Sometimes they are drug dealers. Other times, it is questionable. In the case of the Houston Police Department, it seems extremely questionable in at least 164 cases of possible drug violations. The investigations were initiated by a former officer, Gerald Goines, who has admitted to falsifying accounts in order to gain search warrants, implement drug raids, and send people to prison. The District Attorney has already announced that the department will support reversals in at least 91 convictions.

Goines admitted to inventing a story of a drug deal at the home of a couple that Houston police killed when they invaded their home while serving a no-knock warrant. They found no illegal drugs.

In a separate case, Goines framed Otis Mallet for selling drugs. Mallet was found guilty and sentenced in 2011 to eight years in state prison. He was released from prison after serving two years. After an overwhelming amount of evidence shown that Mallet had not committed the crimes he was accused of and the District Attorney concluded that Goines had a history of lying, a court deemed Mallet “actually innocent” in February of 2020. s

Ending no-knock warrants is not a grand scheme to destroy America’s justice system, which is why it might not be enough for some. However, it is a big step in the right direction of reforming a corroded criminal justice system. It might be common sense enough to work in restoring some justice.

Image: Dana L. Brown

The post Restoring Justice by Ending No-Knock Warrants appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Officer Ruben McAusland, age 27, was recorded in a video shot by a fellow officer who said, “Do it! Do it!” as McAusland slapped the man in the face twice so hard that blood splattered on the bed.

The man who received a beating from police was later identified as Andrew Casciano who was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center by the local firefighters after he attempted suicide. McAusland and other officers met Casciano, who was sitting in a wheelchair in the waiting room at the time. Casciano said he was punched in the face by Officer McAusland before he was wheeled back to the hospital room and beaten for allegedly insulting McAusland according to NJ.com.

Once in the hospital room, McAusland put on a pair of gloves and slapped him in the face so hard blood spattered from his face on the bed. The man’s wounds were so severe he had to have surgery, according to NJ.com.

It was also reported that the officer who filmed the beating, identified as Roger, is awaiting sentencing for recording the beating, and falsifying reports to hide it.

NJ.com also reported that Officer McAusland pleaded guilty last year to selling marijuana, heroin, and powder and crack cocaine that he stole from a crime scene. McAusland sold the drugs to a person working with law enforcement, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge William H. Walls levied the sentence Wednesday in Newark federal court. McAusland will face three years of supervised release and must pay $32,892 in restitution.

“Through prosecutions like this one, police officers like McAusland – who dealt drugs, stole from a crime scene, and viciously attacked a person who sought help from the Paterson Police Department – are removed from positions where they can violate the public trust and deprive others of their civil rights under color of law,” Carpenito said in the statement according to NJ.com.

The post NJ Cop Beats Suicidal Man in Hospital [VIDEO] appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

In yet another display of government incompetence, a young boy has been shot and killed by police for having a toy gun.

On Tuesday in the town of Tempe, Arizona (a Phoenix suburb), a 14-year-old boy was suspected of stealing from a car. The boy, whom the family has identified as Antonio Arce, fled from the scene when the cops arrived.

As he ran, officers reported he was holding what appeared to be a handgun retrieved from the vehicle. Seemingly giving up, Arce briefly turned towards the officer – possibly to surrender.

The cop shot him immediately, killing him on the spot. Officials have identified the cop as Officer Jaen. 

Claiming that the boy ‘posed a threat’ and appeared to be reaching for a weapon, Officer Jaen claimed he feared for his life. That weapon? A harmless airsoft gun.

Many airsoft guns look like actual weapons, making it difficult for cops to determine at a distance whether the weapon is real or fake. But when dealing with children, the police shouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later. Especially when they have made the exact same mistake before.

Of course, the police department’s only tweet regarding the incident was to say the officer was safe, ignoring the young man gunned down in the street. 

The Maricopa County Police Department has already launched an investigation into the shooting to determine whether it was justified. This investigation will be in conjunction with the Maricopa County Attorney’s office.  

At first,  the department refused to show any body cam footage regarding the incident, leaving the public in the dark. Many asked a simple question: if the cop truly acted in self-defense – against a 14-year-old boy with a toy gun – why won’t they allow the people to see it?

When the footage was finally released today, we learned why. It clearly shows the officer blatantly gunning down the unarmed teen as he fled.

Here is the shocking video.

Antonio’s family has demanded justice for a son they believe was taken all too soon. They believe that the police’s characterization of their son as a criminal is meant to dehumanize him.

“If they want to tarnish my son, they are wrong,” said Sandra Gonzalez, the boy’s mother. “Apart from the fact that they killed him, they want to destroy him,” she said. “No. I won’t allow it, I want justice.”

The post Arizona Cop Shoots, Kills Unarmed 14-Year-Old Boy Bearing Toy Gun As He Runs Away [VIDEO] appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

*A Jackson County grand jury ruled Eagle Point Police Officer Daniel Cardenas was legally justified in fatally shooting Matthew Graves inside a Carl’s Jr. bathroom in September 2018. – The Oregonian

Once again, a case of police brutality is in the news. Liberty lovers across the nation have accountability from police in the form of body cameras. But this shocking footage demonstrates how even body cameras fail to stop violence. 

Eagle Point police officer Cardenas first noticed Graves as he jaywalked across the street. The officer immediately pulled a U-turn and followed him to a Carl’s Junior. There, he intended to lecture him about jaywalking. When Graves refused to stop after being yelled at from the cop car the officer followed him inside.

Graves then flees into the bathroom before being followed by Officer Cardenas, who immediately pulls out his pistol. After Graves washes his hands and dries them Cardenas switches to his taser. The officer then screams at Graves, a man suffering from schizophrenia, repeatedly before tasing him after he attempts to push his way out of the restroom. 

The situation eventually escalates, leading to Graves’ death when a second officer mistook Graves’ taser (which the mentally ill man took from Officer Cardenas) for a gun and shot him twice.

This video serves as a reminder that police are woefully untrained in dealing with the mentally ill, which can have deadly effects.

Follow Emmanuel on Twitter.

The post Cop Shoots Mentally Ill Man Over Jaywalking appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

By Amber Randall

Some Chicago parents are unhappy about their school’s latest plan to teach students about race, civil rights and police brutality.

A high school in New Trier High School District 203, located in a majority white, wealthy suburb, planned a variety of workshops on voter suppression and affordable housing, reports Fox News.

A parent group, “The Parents of New Tier,” spoke out against Tuesday’s planned lessons. They feel that the lessons are based on progressive views and that the school needs to recruit more conservative viewpoints.

“The school went about this in a way that ensures it will be narrow and divisive,” said Betsy Hart, a mother of two children at the high school. Hart works for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Other parents have said that the lessons are too political for the students to attend. A petition circulated calling for a more diverse set of speakers. It only garnered about 450 signatures, while a petition demanding that the event remain the same got about 5,000.

The event will feature two speakers, Colson Whitehead and Andrew Aydin. Whitehead is the author of “The Underground Railroad,” a book on a slave trying to escape slavery. Adyin, another author, wrote a graphic novel with Rep. John Lewis on the Civil Rights era.

Other events of the day will include workshops on “Disney and Racial Stereotypes” and “Tracing Food Inequality: Food Deserts in Chicago.”

“We are proud of the work that our committee of 30 administrators, faculty, and students has done to prepare for this day devoted to critical thinking and discussion around an important topic. We are also thrilled to welcome two National Book Award-winning keynote speakers who have written about civil rights in our country,” said Dr. Linda Yonke, the superintendent.

Follow Amber on Twitter

Send tips to amber@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Chicago Parents Call For ‘Conservative Perspective’ In Civil Rights Lessons appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

by Micah J. Fleck

WARNING: The following details of the story and the video itself are extremely violent.

Cop Block reports:

Sgt. Anthony Grasso, Officer Edward Conner, and Officer John Moccio have been fired from the Agawam Police Department.

The violent trio first made headlines last year when news broke of them violently beating a drunken suspect in a holding cell.

During the two minute video, officers are seen throwing dozens of punches, kicks, and baton strikes, seemingly without care that they were being recorded on video.

The victim of this brutality, David Desjardins, was left with dozens of injuries as the result of this barbaric attack.

Despite being caught on video committing the assault and being fired from their jobs, the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office has announced they WILL NOT prosecute the officers.

The video footage of the assault is below:

WARNING – Graphic.

https://youtu.be/LrVOiTvvUAU

WATCH TLR’S LATEST VIDEO:

The post Officers Brutally Beat Defenseless Man; Still Evade Punishment (VIDEO) appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

In July of this past year, a Texas cop paralyzed a man by shooting him in the spine. According to the officer at the time, the victim was posing a “threat” despite the curious location at which he was shot.

Now, in the wake of newly revealed dashcam footage from the officer’s car, that story is being called significantly into question, as the video clearly shows the victim was walking away from the officer when he was shot in the back, making much more sense as to how the bullet hit the victim where it did.

According to CNN:

Attorney Nate Washington, who released the dashcam video on Facebook Tuesday, said the video contradicts various accounts provided to police investigators by the Fort Worth officer who shot David Collie. Collie is now paralyzed.

The police reports were not available for inspection because they have not been released to the public. The officer’s name has also not been released.

“I wasn’t there that night, (but) I do know what I saw,” said Washington, speaking about the video. “I know I never saw this man (Collie) with a weapon. I never saw this man advance toward the officers. I know I saw him get shot in his back.”

After the July 27 shooting, the Fort Worth Police Department released a statement that Collie, 33, was shot after an officer and a Tarrant County Sheriff deputy misidentified him as possibly being one of two armed robbery suspects. But the department contended Collie was shot after he refused to comply with orders to stop and an officer misidentified a “silver object” in his hand as pistol, which he believed Collie was pointing at the deputy.

The post Forth Worth Police Officer Shoots Man in Back (Dashcam Video) appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the mainstream  media are pushing the idea that black people are being systematically slaughtered by cops, while white people killed by cops go unnoticed, according to reports.

Tracking of people killed by police officers finds that 395 white people were killed by cops, compared to 198 black people killed by cops, so far in 2016, reports The Guardian.

More often than not, the media and the Black Lives Matter movement stay silent when a white person loses his life to a cop.

Here are five wH:

The post 5 White Kids Cops Killed Who You Probably Heard Nothing About appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.