Precies 2 maanden voor de presidentsverkiezingen in de VS werd Michael Reinoehl vermoord door federale agenten, die naderhand beweerden dat Michael op hen had geschoten en daarna door hen werd neergeschoten, dit in tegenspraak tot meerdere getuigenverklaringen.......
Volgens deze getuigen hebben de agenten zelfs niet aangegeven wie ze waren en volgens hen zagen deze agenten eruit als een rechtse knokploeg..... De media namen de verklaring van de overheid zonder enige kritiek over, tot 6 weken na de moord de New York Times onderzoek deed naar wat er echt gebeurde en men ontdekte dat Michael geen wapen in z'n handen had (hij had een wapen in z'n broekzak en een wapen in de auto, een geweer in een hoes......)
Alles opgeteld is het dan ook duidelijk dat Michael willens en wetens is vermoord, hij moest dood...... Michael werd verdacht een fascist te hebben vermoord tijdens de Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstraties en was op de vlucht. Echter volgens hem handelde hij uit zelfverdediging daar de fascist op hem schoot.... Blijkbaar was men tot de conclusie gekomen dat Michael gelijk had, maar dat hij dankzij de ophitsende Tweets van psychopaat Trump en anderen over de dood van de fascist maar beter vermoord kon worden, zodat hij zijn zaak niet kon bepleiten..........
Trump is er dan ook trots op dat de federale politie Michael vermoordde, waarbij hij de gelogen getuigenis van de federale politie gebruikt en stelt dat hiermee is aangegeven dat Antifa activisten kunnen wachten op nog veel meer overheidsgeweld........ Trump heeft aangegeven dat Antifa moet worden opgerold het is volgens hem een terroristische organisatie...... Dat juist de tegenstanders van Antifa terreur uitoefenen interesseert hem geen bliksem, al is dat logisch, immers hij heeft meer dan eens bewezen zelf een fascist te zijn...... De fascisten die tegen BLM en hun demonstraties zijn, gebruiken meer en meer hun auto als wapen, sinds de demonstraties eerder dit jaar begonnen, na de politiemoord op George Floyd, zijn er meer dan 50 incidenten genoteerd waarbij deze fascisten met hun auto op mensen inreden......
Fox News en de Daily Caller hebben de (illegale) standrechtelijke executie door federale agenten van Reinoehl toegejuicht......
Aan de andere kant kunnen neonazi's tekeergaan met wapens zonder ook maar een letter aan kritiek te krijgen van Trump en zijn psychopathisch fascistische administratie........
Je kan er dan ook donder op zeggen dat bij volgende BLM demonstraties nog meer geweld zal worden gebruikt door fascisten en federale agenten (als deze agenten weer worden ingezet....)....
The American dream: a huge nightmare!!!
Het volgende artikel heb ik overgenomen van CounterPunch en werd eerder gepubliceerd op Economy for All:
October 19, 2020
In Trump’s America, There Is Death Before Due Process
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
The federal government’s killing of Michael Reinoehl exactly two months before the November 3 presidential race ought to have been one of the most high-profile election issues being discussed in America. Instead, it has been almost forgotten save for some media outlets starting to question the official narrative of his death. The little-known self-proclaimed “antifa” activist was killed by federal agents on September 3. Officers claimed that he had fired shots at them before being gunned down. But a week after his killing, the Washington Post found that “the wanted man wasn’t obviously armed.”
The Thurston County sheriff in Lacey, Washington, where the suspect was killed, released a public statement saying his investigation team “can confirm… that Mr. Reinoehl pointed the handgun that he had in his possession at the officers at the time of the shooting.” The U.S. Marshals Service whose forces were the ones that shot Reinoehl released a similar statement claiming that the fugitive task force that had been sent to his location “attempted to peacefully arrest him,” but, after being shot at, “Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.”
News outlets took the official statements at their word and dutifully reported the incident as one where a suspected killer opened fire on officers and was fatally shot in the course of his arrest. In other words, there was “nothing to see here.” But according to a New York Times investigation six weeks after his death, it remains unclear “whether law enforcement officers made any serious attempt to arrest Mr. Reinoehl before killing him.”
According to nearly two dozen witnesses that the New York Times spoke to, “all but one said they did not hear officers identify themselves or give any commands before opening fire.” Even though Reinoehl was armed at the time of his death, his handgun was found in his pocket and an AR-style rifle in a bag in his car, suggesting he did not threaten the officers trying to arrest him as official accounts had initially claimed.
Reinoehl was wanted in connection to the fatal shooting of a Trump-supporting right-wing activist named Aaron J. Danielson during Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon. President Donald Trump ranted on Twitter on the day he was killed, “Why aren’t the Portland Police ARRESTING the cold blooded killer” and adding, “Everybody knows who this thug is.” Later he hailed the fatal shooting triumphantly, saying in a Fox News interview:
“We sent in the U.S. Marshals for the killer, the man who killed the young man on the street.… Two and a half days went by, and I put out [on Twitter], ‘When are you going to go get him?’ And the U.S. Marshals went in to get him, and they ended in a gunfight. This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him. And I’ll tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.”
In referring to Reinoehl as a “cold blooded killer” and “violent criminal” even though at the time of his death he was a suspect, Trump made clear that in his America, “law and order” means you are guilty before being proven so and can be targeted for extrajudicial assassination if those in power decide you deserve it. Such shocking words coming from any other head of state in the world would trigger instant condemnations from the U.S. State Department. Speaking to his supporters, Trump boasted of the “great job” that U.S. Marshals did in Portland, adding meaningfully, “you know what I mean.”
Attorney General William Barr, who appears to have no understanding of how the nation’s system of criminal justice is supposed to work, released a statement praising the federal troops’ actions and echoing Trump’s words in more official-sounding language. Barr called Reinoehl, “a dangerous fugitive, admitted Antifa member, and suspected murderer,” and said before any investigation into the killing was complete that “[w]hen Reinoehl attempted to escape arrest and produced a firearm, he was shot and killed by law enforcement officers.” In doing so, Barr too justified this extrajudicial assassination as Trump did and went as far as calling the whole incident, “a significant accomplishment in the ongoing effort to restore law and order to Portland and other cities.” He applauded “the fugitive task force team that located Reinoehl and prevented him from escaping justice.”
To Barr, the top law enforcement official in the nation, “justice” meant death, rather than arrest followed by charges and a fair trial. To Barr and Trump, the constant drumbeat of “law and order” is essentially a promise to fatally punish those perceived as enemies of the government.
In addition to the Washington Post and the New York Times, several other media outlets have corroborated that Reinoehl’s killing appeared unjustified. Rolling Stone characterizes one eyewitness’s account of the scene as “a violent ambush” that “resembled an execution.” Oregon Public Broadcasting in collaboration with ProPublica spoke to witnesses who said that the officers shot him without warning and “looked less like law enforcement officers than members of a right-wing militia.”
In a VICE News interview released just after his death, Reinoehl can be seen claiming that he acted in self-defense in Portland—just as an attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, the Trump-supporting armed suspect in the Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing of two Black Lives Matter activists, said. With Reinoehl dead at the hands of U.S. Marshals, we will never know the truth.
Instead, Reinoehl now serves as the perfect symbol of the shadowy enemy that Trump rails against. A participant in Black Lives Matter protests, Reinoehl claimed he was “100% ANTIFA all the way.” The president’s promise to designate “ANTIFA” (which is an ideology, not an organization) as “a Terrorist Organization” has fed into dangerous notions designed to create panic among his base. It has raised the specter of “violent mobs” terrorizing communities that only swift government action of the sort aimed at Reinoehl can quell.
But who are the “violent mobs” really? In Trump’s world, armed self-defense is acceptable only for white supremacists who support him, not for the left-wing activists they routinely threaten and hurt. Since protests began earlier this year, according to NPR, “Right-wing extremists are turning cars into weapons, with reports of at least 50 vehicle-ramming incidents” at protests against police brutality. Conservative news outlets including Fox News and the Daily Caller have encouraged such attacks. Even the Department of Homeland Security’s latest threat assessment identifies, “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists—specifically white supremacist extremists,” as “the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland” among what the agency designates as “Domestic Violent Extremists” or DVEs.
As if to underscore the threat, more than a dozen white men were just arrested (without being harmed) in connection with a kidnapping plot aimed at Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The governor, who is among several women who have faced Trump’s online ire, said, “I do believe that there are still serious threats that groups like this group, these domestic terrorists, are finding comfort and support in the rhetoric coming out of Republican leadership in the White House to our state house.”
In Trump’s America, white nationalist armed vigilante men reign supreme while those of us speaking out against fascism are symbolized by Reinoehl—and like him will be not be considered innocent until proven guilty. We will never know whether or not Reinoehl was guilty of murdering Danielson, as he was not given a chance to stand trial. In Trump’s America, there will be no law, only order. To Trump, “[t]here has to be retribution,” rather than due process. Among the many issues at stake in the November 3 election, this ought to be a central concern.
This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV (Dish Network, DirecTV, Roku) and Pacifica stations KPFK, KPFA, and affiliates. ==========================
Voor meer berichten over BLM, Antifa en/of politie VS, klik op het betreffende label, direct onder dit bericht.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten