Month: August 2020

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a stay Thursday against a lower court injunction that prevented federal law enforcement from arresting journalists during riots in Portland — which rioters abused by posing as “press.”

A July order by Judge U.S. Judge Michael H. Simon — a Barack Obama appointee — prevented federal law enforcement from dispersing journalists and “legal observers” during protests. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed the injunction.

Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month that rioters had abused the injunction by wearing signs saying “press” — and then launching violent attacks on federal officers.

In a district court filing, the Department of Justice provided several explicit examples:

For example, a protester carrying a shield that identified him as press was taken into custody for impeding federal officers who were attempting to control the crowd, and was found to be in possession of a gun. Another individual who self-identified as a reporter unlawfully entered federal property and, after refusing to leave, resisted arrest. A third individual wearing indicia of press membership and self-reporting as press, was arrested for failing to comply with lawful direction of a federal officer, and discovered to be carrying commercial grade fireworks, which, throughout the protests, have been used as a tactic to harass federal officers, and which are illegal in Oregon. On July 28, 2020, an officer observed an individual wearing a helmet bearing the word “PRESS” and using a power tool to attempt to breach the fence around the Courthouse. In the early morning on July 29, 2020, an individual wearing “press” identification on his helmet breached the security barrier around the courthouse by jumping over the perimeter fence. Most recently, on the night of July 29, 2020, an individual wearing “press” identification assisted another protester to breach the perimeter fence.

The local Portland Police Bureau likewise reported rioters wearing “press” insignia were throwing rocks at police officers.

Other — legitimate — journalists confirmed those reports.

In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges held: “Based on our preliminary review, appellants have made a strong showing of likely success on the merits that the district court’s injunction exempting “Journalists” and “Legal Observers” from generally applicable dispersal orders is without adequate legal basis.”

The panel left in place a portion of the lower court order that directed the government and the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed for the injunction, to work together to create football-style jersey numbers for officers to wear so that anyone using excessive force could be identified.

Attorney General William Barr celebrated the Ninth Circuit’s decision in a press statement:

As the Department of Justice explained in our briefing, federal officers in Portland – like law enforcement in other parts of the country – have confronted aggressive mob violence. Behind the veil of “protests,” highly organized violent operators have carried out direct attacks on federal personnel and property, particularly the federal courthouse in Portland. Shielded by the crowds, which make it difficult for law enforcement to detect or reach them, violent opportunists in Portland have attacked the courthouse and federal officers with explosives, lasers, projectiles, and other dangerous devices. In some cases, purported “journalists” or “legal observers” have provided cover for the violent offenders; in others, individuals wearing supposed press badges have themselves attacked law enforcement or trespassed on federal property. More than 200 federal officers have been injured in Portland alone.

The Portland city government has the ability to stop this. Instead, the city government has abetted the violence through action and inaction, neutered the ability of the police department to deal with the mobs, impeded the ability of police to coordinate with federal law enforcement, and refused to pursue charges against the rioters. By contrast, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland has charged 74 people with federal crimes arising from the Portland riots, including arson, assaulting federal officers, and destruction of federal property. The message should be unmistakable: The First Amendment protects the rights to speak and assemble, but not to attack people or property. The Department of Justice will continue to fully and fairly enforce federal law against these violent rioters.”

The two judges signing the majority opinion were Eric D. Miller and Daniel Aaron Bress, both appointees of President Donald Trump.

The dissenting judge was  M. Margaret McKeown, a Bill Clinton appointee.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo: file

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) reacted to the mob that confronted Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) a day earlier outside the White House following the conclusion of the Republican National Committee.

Scalise said he detected a turning of the public’s attitude against the protesters and rejected the claim those demonstrations were “peaceful.”

“[I] mean, some of these — these mobs, when you see them out there throwing bricks at police, they’re injuring people, they’re killing some police,” he said. “They have blinded police, and yet they keep doing it. And this is where you have seen President Trump very vocal that we have got to stand up against it. And, for whatever reason, Joe Biden won’t stand up against it. I think people are fed up with seeing this kind of mob rule, anarchy in the streets.”

“I mean, you can peacefully protest,” Scalise added. “That was no peaceful protest. When you’re trying to hurt people, potentially even killing people, it has consequences, and it’s got to end.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

Friday, during an appearance on the Fox Business Network, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) proclaimed the Republican National Convention held over the last week showed a contrast between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats portrayed as the party of “doom and gloom.”

“I think it was very positive and a wonderful way to show contrast,” she said. “What the Democrats have done was depressing. We don’t believe in America as it exists today. We don’t like the Donald Trump version of America. We don’t want to change Washington, D.C. And here it was just kind of doom and gloom. And then there is all this positive. Here is what President Trump has done. Here is what he is going to do.”

Blackburn also discussed the confrontation her colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) faced departing the White House in Washington, D.C. following the conclusion of the convention. She suggested it was indicative of the direction of the Democratic Party.

“This fear and intimidation tactic, this push by the Democrats to defund the police, underfund the militarily, abolish ICE — that is a part of their platform,” she said. “This is all — you know, I thought it was interesting Maria, that Bernie Sanders during the Democrat convention and Bernie Sanders is an admitted socialist, but he caucuses with the Democrat Party. He said to the movement, his movement, look our agenda has become mainstream. They have taken our agenda. And what an admission that the Democratic Party has gone this far left, that they’re for socialized medicine. They support this defunding the police. They never stood up and supported law enforcement during their convention.”

“And you don’t hear them pushing back against the rioting and the looting and the vandalism,” Blackburn added. “And indeed it was yesterday before Joe Biden had anything to say about this. So people have distinct choices. And when I talk to women across this country, they want safety and security for their families and their communities. They want their children to be able to go back to college. They want to go back to work. They want life to return to normal. And they are aghast when they see all this looting and rioting in the streets.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Democrats “seem to be hesitant, in some ways…to condemn the looting.”

Maher said President Donald Trump seems to be running for re-election as “the law and order candidate. And are the Democrats facing that right? They seem to be hesitant, in some ways, for example, to condemn the looting. Because they understand what causes people to have the rage that would make them loot. Although, I don’t know why looting is always associated with the rage. I mean, sometimes they’re just taking shit, and it’s not people you would even think would need the shit.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

On Friday night, radical Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists held a Black National Convention, which aimed to “reach and engage four million Black voters across the US, build infrastructure of Black political engagement that transcends the 2020 election season, and create and ratify a policy platform for the first 100 days of the next administration.”

Tens of thousands participated Friday in the virtual 2020 Black National Convention (BNC) hosted by the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a coalition that includes dozens of radical organizations including Black Lives Matter (BLM).

The live stream was the first national political convention for black Americans in nearly 50 years and was intended to create “a vision for Black Lives before the biggest election of our time, and long after,” according to M4BL’s website.

Friday’s broadcast included policy proposals on issues such as voter suppression, reproductive rights, housing insecurity, public education inequality, and inter-communal violence, according to its agenda which was shared exclusively with the Associated Press.

Organized by the radical defund-the-police-promoting Electoral Justice Project (EJP), a project of M4BL that focuses on electoral strategy, the 2020 BNC focused on organizing black political power through the political process in order to ensure community demands are met. 

“The uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and countless other murders from police and vigilante violence along with the alarming Black death rate due to COVID-19 has exposed what we can no longer hide—America does not value Black lives,” said M4BL organizer and political strategist Jessica Byrd, who leads the Electoral Justice Project (EJP). “But we also know that rising up and taking action is how Black communities have secured our rights and dignity throughout this nation’s divided history.” 

The event paid tribute to the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which introduced a national black agenda. The convention hosted prominent radical black leaders including Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, as well as Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale.

“It’s time to build a BLACK united front” read one M4BL tweet, which included a video promoting the convention. 

The convention featured keynote speakers such as Patrisse Cullors, the self-proclaimed Marxist and Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder; Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement; and Phillp Agnew, co-founder of Dream Defenders, a radical Israel-boycott-promoting and anti-police organization. 

In 2016, the M4BL coalition released its radical “Vision for Black Lives” policy platform, which included early proposals for defunding the police. The convention sought to ratify a new agenda, updating much of the original platform with new proposals including some that could eventually abolish the criminal justice system entirely.

As Breitbart News previously reported, after a year-long process of convening local and national groups and only three months prior to the 2016 presidential election, the M4BL group released its radical platform which states, “We recognize that some of the demands in this document will not happen today. But we also recognize that they are necessary for our liberation.”

Arguing that “Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system,” the platform lays out “six core planks” concerning criminal justice, reparations, investment and divestment, economic justice, community control, and political power. 

BLM — not a civil rights movement:

BLM “is not a civil rights movement,” civil rights pioneer Clarence Henderson told Fox Business Network’s Making Money with Charles Payne on Thursday, adding that the group is composed of Marxists seeking to “tear down the fabric of America.”

Henderson, who spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) Wednesday night, added that America has made “great progress” since he took part in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, claiming today’s efforts only stoke racism.

Describing Hollywood, the media, and universities as dangerous sources of falsehoods concerning what the U.S. is all about, Henderson emphasized that America has a legal system based on due process which works to carry out the necessary change.

Henderson also questioned protester motives in a country that has become much like a court of public opinion.

 “My question is: what are you trying to achieve?” Because we have the law of the land now,” he stated. 

In his RNC remarks, Henderson touted the progress America’s black communities have made under Trump, arguing that the president has achieved more for black Americans in four years than Joe Biden has in 50.

Breitbart News will cover the revised platform that will guide BLM and over 100 black activist groups.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

Researchers at the University of Arizona claim that they were able to prevent a coronavirus outbreak by performing tests on wastewater samples from a residential hall. The researchers claim that wastewater samples can identify the presence of a virus two to three weeks before residents test positive.

According to a local news report, researchers at the University of Arizona claim that they successfully thwarted the spread of coronavirus by testing wastewater samples. Administrators conducted 311 coronavirus tests on students in the Likins residential building after wastewater from the building was found to have contained traces of the virus.

Dr. Ian Pepper, an environmental science professor, claims that wastewater sampling can successfully prevent even individual cases of coronavirus. Unlike other statistical indicators of a virus’ presence in a community, wastewater sampling can directly prevent cases.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more campus updates.