New York Shooting Video
Courtesy Twitter @NYPDDetectives

The media is full of navel-gazing speculation and wonderment these days, trying to put their fingers on the causes of the violence surge that’s happened across the country over the last 30 to 45 days. Chief among their concerns is the number of shootings that’s spiked in cities like Chicago, Memphis, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore and more.

At least the AP report below actually mentions “bail reform,” the practice in many cities of arresting and then immediately releasing criminals on a promise that they’ll show up for a later court date without having to post bond. Notice, though, that like so many similar articles, the AP’s opus doesn’t mention that cities across the country have also opened their jails, freeing thousands of allegedly non-violent criminals.

According to these mega media minds, the spike in shootings “defies easy explanation.” You don’t read much in their analyses about the negative effect on general law and order of televised riots during which police are seen to stand down, allowing burning, looting, vandalism and the occupation of their own buildings.

Apparently these sharp thinkers believe that blaming the violent surge on decisions to open prisons, allowing more criminals on the streets, turning them loose if and when they are arrested, demonizing cops who are then reluctant to enforce laws, and cutting law enforcement budgets with a meat axe is far too simplistic. Pointing the finger of blame at decisions like these by our city state and federal leaders for the spike in crime isn’t nearly “thoughtful and nuanced and contextual” enough.

Meanwhile, Americans know which way the wind is blowing. Media gaslighting — calling the violence people have seen for themselves “largely peaceful” — hasn’t eased anyone’s concerns for their own safety or that of their families. They see the reports of criminals running rampant, attacking each other and law-abiding citizens apparently without any concern for being caught or punished. That’s why gun store shelves are being emptied as quickly as they can be restocked.

By Tom Hays and Colleen Long, AP

Still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and street protests over the police killing of George Floyd, exhausted cities around the nation are facing yet another challenge: a surge in shootings that has left dozens dead, including young children.

The spike defies easy explanation, experts say, pointing to the toxic mix of issues facing America in 2020: an unemployment rate not seen in a generation, a pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 people, stay-at-home orders, rising anger over police brutality, intense stress, even the weather.

“I think it’s just a perfect storm of distress in America,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms after a weekend of bloodshed in her city.

Jerry Ratcliffe, a Temple University criminal justice professor and host of the “Reducing Crime” podcast, put it more bluntly: “Anybody who thinks they can disentangle all of this probably doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

President Donald Trump has seized on the violence for political gain, accusing Democrats of being weak and suggesting the crime wave is being driven by recent protests calling for racial justice, police reform and drastic cuts in law enforcement funding.

“Law and order are the building blocks of the American dream, but if anarchy prevails, this dream comes crumbling down,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week.

Police officials in New York City and elsewhere say the recent bloodshed has shown there are consequences to some reforms they see as misguided, particularly on bail reform, enacted before the protests happened but exacerbated by the moment.

Emboldened criminals feel “that the cops can’t do anything anymore, that no one likes the police, that they can get away with things, that it’s safe to carry a gun out on the street,” New York Police Department Chief Terence Monahan said this week.

Monahan’s remarks came after a holiday weekend that saw a wave of shootings leaving 10 dead. Through Sunday, shootings were up more than 53% — to 585 — so far this year.

 

New York Post shot to hell
Courtesy New York Post

The recent spasm of violence was captured in a New York Post headline about a crime-ravaged city crying out for help. It was nearly identical to one that ran 30 years ago — when there were more than 2,000 murders a year. But crime has been declining for more than a decade — there were about 300 last year.

Crime has spiked in other major cities, too. In Dallas, violent crime increased more than 14% from April to June. In Philadelphia, homicides were up 20% for the week ending July 5 over last year at this time. In Atlanta, 31 people were shot over the weekend, five fatally, compared with seven shootings and one killing over the same week in 2019.

Some police unions say officers just aren’t doing their jobs over fear of being charged with crime.

Bottoms, a Democrat, lashed out after an 8-year-old girl was shot and killed near the Atlanta Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks died three weeks earlier in a confrontation with police who were later charged criminally.

“That’s an important movement that’s happening,” she said at a news conference. “But this random, wild, wild West shoot ’em up because you can has got to stop.”

Trump’s Georgia campaign arm claimed Atlanta was a “war zone” brought on after Bottoms “lost control of the city after what started out as peaceful protests, quickly turned violent. In a flurry of anti-police activity.”

The Trump campaign also launched a $250,000 ad blitz Sunday on Facebook and Twitter, claiming “violent crime has EXPLODED” as protesters call for cuts to police departments across the country. The ad features video of an empty police station with a ringing phone that sends a caller to an answering machine, which says the estimated wait time for police help is five days.

The video ends by flashing the words, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Biden’s campaign said the Trump approach was just another distraction from his “inaction and mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis.

“While Donald Trump searches for the latest cultural issue to drive people apart and celebrates Independence Day with new, race-baiting rhetoric, Americans are contracting coronavirus at alarming rates, and there is still no coherent national plan to address it,” said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Trump’s messaging went beyond the ad campaign. Donald Trump Jr. shared on Facebook a conservative-created meme of 11-year-old Davon McNeal, who was shot to death in Washington during a cookout over the weekend.

“Davon was murdered after a string of BLM (Black Lives Matter) violence on the Fourth of July,” it read.

The shooting was not connected to Black Lives Matter, the movement behind many of the protests against police brutality. The boy had been at a family-oriented anti-violence cookout Saturday, but he left to get a phone charger from his aunt’s house when he was struck by gunmen in a sedan.

Tracie Keesee, a longtime police official in Denver and New York who co-founded the Center for Policing Equity, said it’s important to get answers on what is driving the crime, whether it’s drugs, domestic violence or poverty. She cautioned against broad-stroke generalizations.

“You have to get into the numbers,” she said.

Reform advocates say blaming a spike on the necessary push for police reform ignores the root causes of crime and the progress of the movement.

Government officials need to “be thoughtful and nuanced and contextual about these things,” liberal New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told radio station WNYC this week.

To link the shootings to reforms, Johnson added, gives “an inaccurate picture of what criminal justice reform is about and is just demonizing the moment that we’re in and not talking about what brought us here today.”

Like New York, Chicago had already seen an increase in homicides and shootings in the first part of the year. But while the violence tapered off in New York under stay-at-home orders, shootings in Chicago remained steady, likely because of gang warfare, said Wesley Skogan, who studies crime at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

Seventeen people were fatally shot in Chicago and 70 wounded, one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in memory there.

Gangs “are not particularly deterred by the risks of being out there,” Skogan said. “Of all the things they are likely to be worried about, COVID is way down the list.”

104 COMMENTS

    • Whew, thanks Tarzan, you saved it.
      Noone would have understood that article if it wasnt for you. Hero

      • That’s not the point. To be a credible and professional website, and writer, the main topic line should be spelled properly. We all know what he meant. I would want someone to edit my mistake.

      • jonny weismuller ate supper at my childhood home, with adolph kiefer and dobbie burton. whoever they are.

    • How much of a mental struggle is the following:

      More criminals.
      Less police.
      Less chance of criminals being caught by police.
      Political interference in police.
      Public mistrust in police because of abuses by police.

      How hard can it be?

      • What is up with you gun nuts and these Rube Golburg’ian logical progressions. I’ve said it in prior posts: please simplify your cause and effect flow charts. Some of us are Democrats and this is like reading Asian spelling er’ something.

        Eric Swalwell 2020

      • So, every white man is perfect, every black man is perfect, every Asian is perfect, every Hispanic is perfect, wait that man did something wrong, the whole damned race is a bunch of aholes we need to get rid of them all. No, I’m not a racist or anything but you can bet nobody from my race would do that. BLM means I hate white people and want to destroy them.

  1. Seems we’ve got a mystery on our hands. I sure can’t solve it.

    I’ll call Scooby and the Gang. Those meddling kids will get to the bottom of this right quick.

    Honestly though, I won’t be surprised if they pull the mask off of the monster and it’s Old Man Ratcliffe angling for a grant.

    • I actually saw the embedded Trump commercial play live on one of the overhead TV monitors while in the gym last night. Loved it. It’s at a time like this when Trump’s braggadocious and pull-no-punches approach will be the way to handle that whole ball of wax known as BLM-Biden-CHAZ-Squad.

      • Take heed, as these are the learned words of the incomparable ‘I Haz A Question’.

        • Um, Hail, thanks for all the help lately, but your drool is beginning to get a little too close to my shoes. Dial it down a tad, perhaps?

        • What are your rates? I think I’d like to pay you to follow me around and tell everyone how smart my words are too.

          Not sure of your intentions but I can tell you I’m oddly entertained every time I see one of your posts.

        • ISpewNonStopBS would be a better way to sum up I Haz A Question. Actually that would describe most the regular posters here.

          • ISpewNonStopBS would be a better way to sum up I Haz A Question. Actually that would describe most the regular posters here

            YOU being the exception, of course… coming from the person calling them self “BS” gives that statement a WHOLE lot of credibility…

  2. Sorry calling Bullshit on this Headline/Article. The MSM knows exactly the What, Why and How of all the violence. It’s a product of their mass Indoctrination of the Socialist Liberal Ideology on the Youth of Our nation over the last 50+ years. The only problem they face now. Is the fear they will be eaten by their own “Frankenstein Monster”. Which is becoming more apparent everyday. Leaving many with a worm/fussy feeling of gratification. Watching them slowly coming to the revelation that they too can become a victim of their Own design. Keep popping the popcorn. It’s a long show and the best is yet to come.

    • The Marxist Left called down the thunder, now they inherit the whirlwind they created and it will devour them, it’s coming.

      A prime example would be the St. Louis couple, donate and support Leftist causes and candidates and get eaten alive by them when they rampage thru you neighborhood.

  3. OOOHHH, OOOOOHHHH I know Mr. Carter….. they can’t explain the jump in shootings in major cities because they would have to admit that they are complicit in everything from giving legitimacy to the “mostly peaceful” demonstrations, to giving the rioters and the looters a pass, to the deaths of half a dozen or so innocent children in the past month with their stories of cop on black violence, calls for defunding the police and the constant fake news bullshit about the POTUS while glorifying MARXIST groups like BLM and condemning ALL white people as evil racists….

      • Saw that show as a kid. Nowadays the new show Mr. Iglesias is being compared to a modern Kotter. My wife and I like it.

    • I remember it was Mr. Carter who let in the socialist refugees in from Cuba. Now enter the socialist leader of Cuba who emptied his jails and insane asylums. They were all allowed to come to the Land of the Free. A few years latter crime exploded in Florida. And rose sharply in other states.

      A message to the Libertarian Liberals and the Left: Emptying a city, or a country’s jails has never reduced crime. Some people just never learn from history.

      btw
      Because of the explosion of crime in Florida in the 1980’s. The state was the first to pass laws making it very easy to get a concealed gun permit. And we got a great TV show called Miami Vice!!!
      (smile)

      • remember it was Mr. Carter who let in the socialist refugees in from Cuba

        Actually that was a misprint, While my mind was thinking MR. KOTTER my smartass fingers jumped ahead of me and typed Carter, even missed it when I reread it… Oh well might have been funny for the elderly crowd, not so much now, the moment is blown… But I appreciate the history lesson even though I actually watched it all happen live, a refresher never hurts…

        • I meant it like the “Do you even lift, Bro?” meme rather than an implication that you were not old;-) Unfortunately, and ironically, I forgot the “Bro” part.

      • OBTW, Miami Vice came about as the result of the influx of tons of Columbian cocaine into South Florida… The Cuban crap gave us Scarface….

      • Don’t you have someone to assult because it’s ok if you are protecting private property? The nonstop BS that comes out of your mouth is unbelievable. How the fuck did you make it this far in life? Reading this forum really makes me lose hope in humanity.

        • Reading this forum really makes me lose hope in humanity.

          Simple cure.. STOP reading (and commenting) on this forum, you have nothing of import to add to any conversation you interject yourself into anyway…

        • You’ve been given some great advice, Mr. BS. Please take it.

          You’ll be much happier if you stop reading this “forum” that you hate, and the rest of us will be, too.

  4. Bullshit! They know exactly what their doing, they just don’t say it out loud. However the good news No Republican cities or Trump voters are hurt in these cities…….The down side liberals flee to adjoining conservative states & turn it into the shithole they came from! FACT!

  5. Fire all your soldiers, empty your dungeons, lower the drawbridge, invite the Mongols in and when you’re all being beaten, killed and raped behind your castle walls you can blame the kingdom across the sea.

    Liberals aren’t just dangerous to themselves. They’re dangerous to civilization.

    • Yep. I think they’re humanity’s version of cuckoos (real birds, who lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and leave).

      Your analogy got me thinking…

      You can survive by staying loyal to your kinship/culture group, banding together, and fighting tenaciously — or maybe *you* won’t, but the people you fought for will, and that’s a good thing. It keeps kinship and culture alive, but at high cost to the individuals who fight.

      Or you can survive by treason — your culture and kinship may die, but arguably most of the people you’ve betrayed will live (certainly including you). It’s utterly selfish, but is reasonable, almost altruistic if simple bodily survival is the highest goal. This is where modern “liberals” reside. They’re the traitors.

      • I like your ‘cuckoo’ analogy, but I’m a little confused. Cuckoos leave their eggs to be cared for by others. Leftists and BLM/rioters just want to take everything from you. I didn’t see too many looters or arsonists leaving gifts for store owners to enjoy.

        • Okay, so I mixed my analogyphors. The cuckoo analogy had nothing to do with the other one; they just both occurred to me in quick succession, was all. 🙂

  6. The explanation is very simple. Nasty people do not operate according to decency or “good conscience”. Instead, they have given themselves over to evil passions and will take as much as they can from others. Thus the only restraint on their evil-doing is whether or not they think someone will forcibly stop them.

    And what is different so recently?
    1) Police refuse to do their duty. Instead, they stand around and watch crimes.
    2) Even when police arrest evil-doers, the courts immediately release them.
    3) Even when the courts previously imprisoned evil-doers, now they are letting them out.

    Finally, add the fact that 99% of the populace refuses to stick their necks out to stop the mayhem.

    It should come as no surprise, therefore, that violent criminals are escalating the severity and frequency of their attacks. Why shouldn’t they if no one is going to forcibly stop them?

    • When BLM talks about forming their own “community policing” after existing departments are defunded and disbanded, I get a mental image of a team of Lawgivers (a la Judge Dredd) walking the streets and dispensing immediate justice.

      DOUBLE WHAMMY – Original Stallone version with extra awesome sauce

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oisiaZ97guk

  7. The AP says: “The shooting was not connected to Black Lives Matter, the movement behind many of the protests against police brutality. The boy had been at a family-oriented anti-violence cookout Saturday, but he left to get a phone charger from his aunt’s house when he was struck by gunmen in a sedan.”

    The AP also quotes some progbot who says we need to “be thoughtful and nuanced and contextual about these things.”

    Gaslighting in action, right there. “What you saw isn’t really what you saw. You should start thinking about how it might not really have been anything like that at all; in fact, it was probably the polar opposite of what your lying eyes saw.”

    So there wasn’t any BLM action as such going on where the kid was murdered, that much is true. Yet if you’re being thoughtful and nuanced and contextual — and HONEST — then this whole situation just screams the question: What if black lives *don’t* matter, even to the people who live them? If black lives don’t matter to black people, why should they matter to anyone else?

    Nobody at the protests is confronting that question.

    Asking “why are we killing each other, and how can we fix ourselves” is difficult and painful, and has no easy answers. It’s much easier and more satisfying, and requires zero self-examination, to focus public attention on a small, but horrifying incident and project the problem onto other people. Then the solution looks deceptively easy, and the only reason it’s not working is because all of *you* people who won’t get on board…

    Same with all sorts of thorny issues — guns and society, for instance. So here we go, round and round, again and again.

    • Ing,

      Asking “why are we killing each other, and how can we fix ourselves” is difficult and painful, and has no easy answers. It’s much easier and more satisfying … to … project the problem onto other people.

      That is classic Progressive methodology — do whatever feels good, refuse to take responsibility for your choices, and blame everyone else for the attendant destruction that comes along.

    • Years back I had a conversation about this kind of thing in a YouTube comment section that’s kinda applicable here.

      Basically a guy was dissecting a speech by a fairly fiery Black Nationalist and trying to find the nuance in what the guy was saying. I get what he was doing but damned if it wasn’t cringy. I don’t say that to disrespect the channel or it’s owner I say that because he was trying really hard to make good points but staying inside the PC lines, so it just wasn’t working.

      I threw caution to the wind and pointed out that nuance is great and all that but that he was taking it too far. The proper analysis was far simpler. If what the speech-giver claimed was true then given the demographics of the time, which I quoted, then the “immensely racist” nation of the US wouldn’t have a population of black citizens and certainly wouldn’t allow the speech in question to have ever been given. Instead the black population would be dead, re-enslaved or shipped back to Africa. Because that’s what a nation actually run by serious Neo-Nazis would do. I further pointed out that, generally, white people don’t hate blacks and that much of the divide is created for us and that many people simply read a script that was written for them without thinking. Further still, say the wrong word and your job/life are OVER, that’s how ANTI-racist most people are. Instead, most white people are alarmed by the violence in the black community but are too scared to say anything because PC dictates that any serious questions or commentary would be “racist” and so those white people who would genuinely like to help feel they need to “stay in their lane”.

      I half-expected to get mauled on a predominantly black channel. Instead I got a TON of really positive responses, a long civil conversation with numerous people ensued and much to my surprise that was the most upvoted comment I’d ever made on YouTube, by hundreds of votes.

      I remain hopeful for the future. I think that, generally, people want to drop the hyphen and just be American. Where they don’t it’s driven by a minority of haters all across the spectrum who punch way, way above their weight class through intimidation.

      • “…much of the divide is created for us and that many people simply read a script that was written for them without thinking.”

        Bingo.

        “Where they don’t [want to get along] it’s driven by a minority of haters all across the spectrum who punch way, way above their weight class through intimidation.”

        And bingo again. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen over the past few years with Islam getting deference from progressives that no other religion could get, and with the BLM riots peaceful protests, is that violence really does get results. I can only hope that the results are short-term gains and a long-term loss.

        • “I can only hope that the results are short-term gains and a long-term loss.”

          I believe that what you hope for will come to pass and it will happen shortly. I note the that within the university system there has been a slowly building backlash against “critical theory” departments and when the serious academics finally hit the breaking point and unload on these fraudsters it’s going to be Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, with a bit of Jericho on the side.

          See my reply to you on the NY increase in shootings story. (Even wallier-o-textier!).

          Also, this is how a lot of academics I know feel, a good clip from a great movie:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKYlrkpUEU

        • “with the BLM riots peaceful protests, is that violence really does get results.”

          What’s dumb about these protests is that the local mayors and commissioners are cheering this on because they say this movement is so important. Okay, if changes are so important, then why don’t you make them? The president of the USA isn’t in charge of the local police force. Actually, why did you have to wait on protests to make changes, and what exactly are the list of changes at the local level anyway? Do black people not notice this?

          We know the protests aren’t really about just police brutality. It’s purely political, and meant to demonize the United States as a hopelessly racist country. It’s funny how the black people that are pushing this narrative in the media are ivy league graduates, or very highly paid pundits, or multi-millionaire celebrities and athletes. I’ll ask the question again. Are people seriously that easily played?

          • The president of the USA isn’t in charge of the local police force.

            While this is true the MSM narrative is that the POTUS has control over everything and if it is failing it is his fault, the message is an easy enough sell they just wash, rinse and repeat it long enough, loud enough and through every MSM outlet until it becomes one of Bidens’ “truth over facts”.. The majority of College Graduates can’t tell you who we fought for our independence and have absolutely NO clue how our government works because they stopped teaching that decades ago… This goes WAY deeper than simply defeating Trump in Nov, this is about finishing what Obama started… Biden even echoed the words when he recently stated that he would “transform” this country, no one paid any attention when Obama gave his “fundamental transformation” speech and even fewer are listening now (or even understand what it means)…

        • I really hope you’re right about the university backlash. I spent 15 years in higher ed watching the deranged SJWs and “studies” grifters do their damage and trying to keep the admin unit I was part of from sinking into their sewer. I’d love to see the rest of the university system slap them down good and hard. It’s long overdue.

        • “what you hope for will come to pass and it will happen shortly. I note the that within the university system there has been a slowly building backlash against “critical theory” departments and when the serious academics finally hit the breaking point and unload on these fraudsters it’s going to be Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, with a bit of Jericho on the side.”

          For the very first time since when you showed up here, I think you’re being more than a bit naive on that one. I *desperately* want to see that happen.

          *Any* academic who dares to challenge the Leftist ‘cancel culture’ is gonna be run out of town on a rail, and black-balled for life.

          They have *zero* problems utterly destroying people’s lives, because (according to them) they are the ones with the moral authority on their side.

          As they (wrongly) see it, all they are doing is “holding people accountable”. Evil people. Despicable people. (Us.).

          If we cannot come up with a strategy to counter this, we have serious problems.

          Check out this article on ‘Reason’, where they tried what you suggested and were met with nothing short of naked contempt :

          “I kept thinking about this expression as I watched a sizable subset of the online progressive intelligentsia respond with intense fury, disbelief, and indignation to an open letter published online yesterday by Harper’s magazine. The letter, which will also appear in the magazine’s October issue, was simply a stout defense of liberal values from people primarily on the left at a time it feels like these values are under threat. It made no bones of the fact that President Donald Trump and right-wing authoritarianism in Europe are both major threats to liberal society. It simply said that in addition to these threats, it’s probably time to get our own house in order. “The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted,” the letter reads, in part.

          Read the rest, it’s quite good :

          https://reason.com/2020/07/08/the-reaction-to-the-harpers-letter-on-cancel-culture-proves-why-it-was-necessary/

      • “I think that, generally, people want to drop the hyphen and just be American.”

        If that’s true, then they wouldn’t want their own national anthem. Maybe most don’t want that, but this is being heavily promoted. We aren’t United if we have to have a different national anthem depending on your skin color.

        • The problem with the current national anthem is that it has the verse advocating the killing of slaves seeking their freedom.

          You can understand how the descendants of those slaves would be less than pleased with such a national anthem.

          And remember, the national anthem and national flag are just social constructs, they have no standing in the constitution.

        • “The problem with the current national anthem is that it has the verse advocating the killing of slaves seeking their freedom.

          You can understand how the descendants of those slaves would be less than pleased with such a national anthem.”

          People don’t even sing that stanza. Most people don’t even realize it exists. Can’t we eradicate slavery language from a song just like we eradicated from this country? Maybe tearing everything down and starting over isn’t necessary in order to evolve and treat everyone equally. Isn’t the fact that we don’t sing that proof of change? I would argue that this is yet another tactic to hate on current day America.

          “And remember, the national anthem and national flag are just social constructs, they have no standing in the constitution.”

          It’s about a shared history and culture. You’re allowed to view it as racist since there was slavery and Jim Crow, or you can view it as overcoming adversity and standing up to evil which is what our ancestors really did.

        • To Minor, VERY Minor 69er:

          “And remember, the national anthem and national flag are just social constructs, they have no standing in the constitution.”

          Yes Minor 69er that is correct. Burn Loot and Murder aka BLM is also a “social construct” therefore their message is irrelevant. They have no standing in the constitution or anywhere in America. But blacks cannot be held responsible for any criminal actions because their ancestors were mistreated. Even today blacks are mistreated but fellow blacks. What’s a mother to do? The answer is Mayor Lightfoot. A great black leader who single handedly has stopped black on black violence in Shitcago. Your move Chief.

        • “People don’t even sing that stanza. Most people don’t even realize it exist”

          Just because random individuals choose not to sing that verse does not somehow remove it from the anthem. The anthem, including the verse calling for the death of slaves who seek their freedom, was formally adopted by Congress.

          It would take an act of Congress to remove that verse, an idea that I completely support!

          “Can’t we eradicate slavery language from a song just like we eradicated from this country?”

          Of course, but some would object to changing anything as ‘erasing our history’, as shameful as it might be. But I would say there’s enough detailed information about slavery in the history books, no need to memorialize it in our national anthem, right?

          And others would point out that the author of the anthem, Francis Scott Key, was a rabid proponent of slavery who did his best to perpetuate the evil institution.

          And others would say he was actually pranking the USA, when he set the verse to the tune of a bawdy English drinking song.

          Personally, I thank Providence that while there is no national anthem or national flag mentioned in the constitution, there is the first amendment which gives me the right to make up and sing any song I want.

          • Just because random individuals choose not to sing that verse does not somehow remove it from the anthem

            “RANDOM INDIVIDUALS” In my 70 years of life on this planet, attending/watching and participating in sporting events of ALL kinds I have heard the National Anthem at least 50,000 times and I have NEVER heard that stanza included by ANYONE in any part of the country at any event.. The two lines with which you seem to have so much trouble with are NOT advocating the hunting and killing of “runaway slaves” rather it is suggesting that NOONE would be safe should we fail to defeat the Crown this time……

            Francis Scott Key helped shape the national debate over slavery. A slave owner from a large slave-owning family, Key was an early and ardent opponent of slave trafficking. By all accounts, Key treated his own slaves humanely, and freed several during his lifetime.

            If the song must go what’s next? I know, let’s rename the Key Bridge in Baltimore the Colin Kaeperpussynik bridge, or the BLM bridge….

        • “It would take an act of Congress to remove that verse, an idea that I completely support!”

          I think just about everyone would support that.

  8. None so blind as those who would not see! They know the reasons, they just dont have the nuts to say it out loud!!!

  9. I want to emphasize a critical consideration for this site’s viewership:

    Earlier this week my father spoke with a Sheriff Deputy who had stopped to talk with neighbor’s across the street. The deputy could see that my father was visibly armed and commended him for being able to protect himself. My father asked the deputy for the general attitude of law enforcement at this point with all that is going on. The deputy conveyed that law enforcement in general is no longer motivated to put their keisters on the line and warned my father to expect response times of 45 to 60 minutes for all calls, even brutally violent attacks in progress. The deputy finished the thought with the simple fact that we have to protect ourselves now because law enforcement certainly isn’t going to do it.

    Setting aside the fact that we have always had to protect ourselves (since police cannot possibly be everywhere at once), this new “normal” has to embolden violent criminals to escalate. Why wouldn’t it?

    • Thus the increase in “brandishing”.

      Protect yourself by any means necessary. There are no rules in a fight. Law abiding simply means “willing to comply”. We all want to morally accept the duality between legality and morality, but only one can be justifiable, and legally speaking, defending yourself is not something the government cares much to allow you the privilege of doing.

  10. And the “gun community” is having trouble understanding the amount of FUDD’s that existed who will criticize people based on infringements, excuse me, laws…

    “I can protect myself, but we should call the cops to let them know what happened too”.

    • My preference would be Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up. Feel free to replace the word “shovel” with “backhoe.”

      • Backhoes are wonderful pieces of equipment. I highly recommend that everyone with some land get themselves a backhoe.

        They cure all kinds of problems. They’re also highly useful for moving gun safes into houses, taking them off trucks, etc.

        Highly recommended. You don’t need to get a new one – and older machine that doesn’t have a turbo’ed engine will work just fine.

        • Backhoes are wonderful pieces of equipment.

          An essential piece of equipment when that “extra depth” is required to avoid prying eyes AND sensitive noses, of course a bit of lye always helps…

          • You don’t need lime

            No, LYE… A mixture of sodium hydroxide (LYE) with water can be used to liquefy dead animals such as farm animals or roadkill (this can obviously also include homicide victims). If the lye mixture is heated to boiling, tissue can be dissolved in a matter of hours. The carcass is reduced to a brownish sludge, leaving only brittle bones.

          • Quicklime.

            Disposal of corpses: Historically, it was believed that quicklime was efficacious in accelerating the decomposition of corpses. This was quite mistaken, and the application of quicklime can even promote preservation; although it can help eradicate the stench of decomposition, which may have led people to suppose it was the actual flesh which had been consumed

  11. “President Donald Trump has seized on the violence for political gain, accusing Democrats of being weak and suggesting the crime wave is being driven by recent protests calling for racial justice, police reform and drastic cuts in law enforcement funding.”

    THAT’S how you characterize our President’s justifiable reaction to the lawless and violence that for some reason has only shown up in the Major Large cities run for decades by Democrats. He’s seized on it for political gain?

    Methinks you’re exhibiting a bit of TDS there and I think you’d do better to get off the politics lately (I’ve noticed this and have become concerned. This is your blog and you can make it what you wish but don’t call it about guns as it becomes about politics that’s no that tied up directly with 2A) and go back to writing reviews of the latest gear you’ve got set to review or some other nifty how to article.

    In other words stick to what you’re good at and that’s semi-neutral in my view.

    • That isn’t what TTAG said. It’s in the AP article that was block-quoted.

      Also, I don’t know about you, but I think any city that elects someone whose last name is “Lance Bottoms” is just asking for trouble. (Just a random observation.)

  12. A more correct title would be “Media Struggle To Put Spin on Causes Behind Nationwide Surge in Shootings And Hope Everybody Is Stupid Enough To Believe It.”

    • There are many who do though. Especially once opposing sides arm up and involve race. The “oppressed” feel the need to arm themselves and white armed people are the target most of the times. In reality, we are the same. Sad it will never been seen that way by these race baiting extremists.

  13. This election will be law and order vs. Virus ignoring how Trump’s early responses were fought, dooming us.

    But look at deaths, and yes, I’m following Texas and Florida, blips vs. putting sick people in rest homes in the NorthEast.

    Releasing criminals taught them the wrong lesson.

  14. The Liberal media calls out Trump as racist along with cops and others who practice “white privilege”. Why should anybody in Chicago or anywhere else for that matter practice self restraint and moral responsibility? The game is stacked against them so they can act out in any way they wish because it is someone else’s fault. As long as this thinking is allowed we will not see peace on our streets.

    • Yes sir. The key isn’t a mystery. It involves personal responsibility and morality, which kids easily pick up on from a loving family that serve as good role models. Unfortunately, the goal is not to help. It’s to destroy and replace, and always to gain power for a select few. It’s quite the scam the democrats have going by convincing the people they hold back to continue voting for them.

  15. And with that, the media loses even more credibility with people who breathe through their noses. The mouth-breathers and killing each other in droves.

    Looks to me like a win-win.

  16. We need a Federal Constitutional Carry implemented, not a State hindrance. Its Covered in our Constitutional Amendments. We have a Right being Crippled by states and localities. We have to stand up, and put down these Criminals. We as Patriots have to look after one another, statues, Grave Stones and Businesses. I’m tired of these Vandals, Thieves, and Arsonists.

  17. The “media” struggle with everything, including the truth…they’re the ones that helped fuel all of this chaos and anarchy…

  18. I hear and understand the cynicism of many commenters here who say that the media “know exactly what the causes are.”

    At the same time, I would like to offer an explanation – not a defense, but an explanation – for why the media is so stupid on this issue.

    First, consider that most media sources today are hiring youngsters who have just gradated from college. They’re in their 20’s, and they are as ignorant and naive as the day is long. They’re also cheap, and are often paid little. Heck, the losers who used to scribble for the Puffington Host used to be paid no money, only reputation quatloos…

    Background: Violent crime in the US peaked about 1992-1994, depending on the category of crime we’re talking about. Many of the journalists/journalistas working in media today have no adult recollection of what crime was like in the 70’s and 80’s. Their entire lives they have lived in an America when we’ve enjoyed a declining major crime rate, media hysteria about school shootings and rapes on college campuses notwithstanding. While they might echo and participate in these made-for-TV stories, the truth is that they have had no visceral fear of violent crime coming for them personally, into their trendy urban neighborhoods for their persons or friends.

    I would like to offer this: When I talk to kids (I mean from 18 to early-30’s) about the late 60’s through the early 90’s, they have NO idea WTF I’m talking about with respect to crime. Many of them think I’m making shit up. They have been taught nothing about the riots of ’67 to ’68. They’ve been taught about Woodstock and the “summer of love,” but they’ve been told nothing about the explosion in crime, riots, burning, looting, etc of the late 60’s through the 70’s. They know nothing about the Weather Underground, MOVE, Patty Hearst, The SLA, Charles Manson – nothing. They have no conception why the Eastwood, Bronson and other “vigilante justice” movies of that era were such hits. They don’t believe me when I tell them what crime was like.

    They’re not only ignorant – they’re often utterly disbelieving. Let’s also not dismiss them all as goofball liberals – many of these kids I talk to are conservative and from small cities to small towns.

    They’ve grown up their entire adult lives in a period of declining crime in America that reversed decades of prior crime increases in major American cities. They’ve been done in by their idiot teachers, most of whom are even more ignorant than these kids, and these teachers are almost uniformly incompetent at mathematics, and lack any capacity for talking about crime statistics, even if they wanted to do so.

    Today’s increase in crime is happening so rapidly, the “experts” with PhD’s (most of whom are also young and as profoundly ignorant of reality as only PhD’s can be) are sitting at their desks, utterly bewildered at what is happening, and the speed at which it is happening. At the same time, they’re utterly certain that their progressive ideals cannot possibly be at any fault for this result. They have no personal recollection of the era of John Lindsey as mayor of NYC and that many of the current idiotic policies are echoes of prior idiotic policies that produced very similar results, only perhaps a bit slower to evolve. Remember that Lindsey disbanded the Stakeout Squad of NYPD, which ended the careers of many criminals with room temperature prizes. We’ve seen the anti-cop sentiment as a result of “too many” minorities being killed by cops in NYC 40 years ago – just not as nationally as we’re seeing today.

    So the children in the media, believing wholly in the cult of expertise, and the “experts” being quite incompetent, have no way to frame this situation. This summer’s situation might as well be the result of aliens landing on earth.

    The older, more cynical and more experienced among us know exactly what the reasons are, and we know how bad it can get. But we’re not the ones writing for the US media these days…

    The big difference today is that concealed carry is legal and must-issue in many, many, many more states than it was in the early 1970’s when this happened before.

    • I would whole-heartedly second this message overall.

      And I would blame the schools. My senior year in college I took a class called History of the Vietnam War. Not a terrible class but it had a section that compared the then seven year old war in A-stan to Vietnam. That section started with two whole days on 9/11.

      I asked why this was the case and was informed that the younger kids were in 8th or 9th grade when 9/11 occurred and were essentially ignorant of it because K-12 in many areas actively decided not to cover 9/11 because it might be distressing.

    • Your “explanation ” would have merit IF these major media operations were not ALL owned and operated by individuals older than me (70 plus) or by people/groups from countries that have a less than favorable view of our country and our way of life… The U.S. has been systematically taken over from the lowest levels of Government right up to the United States Congress and one of the first things that was necessary for that to happen was the takeover of MSM… This has been occurring since the late 60’s and they’ve almost got us.. When the “Paper of Record” and other once highly trusted “News” outlets around the country sing praises to China and Marxist organizations like BLM and see nothing wrong with Cuba or Venezuela and the destruction of this countries history while constantly bashing an administration that has or is in the process of doing EVERYTHING they promised in an effort to make EVERY Americans life better they make it obvious that they no longer have the interests of the American people at heart.. There might be a bunch of young “suits” running AROUND these major “news” organizations but they are not RUNNING them…. A duly elected Congresswoman/Somali refugee who took an OATH to uphold and defend the United States AND the Constitution against ALL enemies foreign AND domestic just publicly called for the complete tearing down of the U.S. and MSM barely batted an eye.. Chris Mathews once touted the teachings of “Brother” Saul Alinsky right after Obama was elected in 2008 and no one made so much as a peep about it, it might be (most likely is) too late already, they have the narrative, they have the media, they have the educational systems and they have the money.. I feel that come Nov 4th my little mountain hideaway might by necessity become my permanent home….

    • Thanks for sharing your perspectives in this discussion!

      The posts are lengthy but in skimming over them I see some interesting observations.

      I’m a little busy right now but I’m going to take time to read these over because I want to better understand your perspective on the recent history and its affect on current events.

  19. The surge in shootings is a foretaste of what will occur if BLM, Antifa and the left have their way. I’m fine with it as long as they only kill their own. In fact, I’ll cheer them on.

    • I think it will ease up within a few months after the election. That’s what’s really driving the current madness. If Trump wins, the media and dems will turn their focus onto yet another manufactured crisis that they think they can impeach Trump for. Notice how they’ve seamlessly switched from one crisis to the next since Trump was elected. Every now and then, when there was a lag in juicy stories, they would just dust off an old one and represent it, like the 25th amendment. Notice how they had to stop talking about that one since Biden was in the running.

      • “yet another manufactured crisis that they think they can impeach Trump for”

        Well, brace yourself, the next one is upon us. The Supreme Court just ruled that the SDNY grand jury can view the documents subpoenaed from trumps businesses and accountants. This investigation will expose the illegal campaign contributions and secret hush money payments to stormy Daniels, at al.
        Turns out, it is illegal to pay hush money to whores and then claim it as a business expense on your taxes, who knew?
        And apparently, when you do it a few weeks before the election, it turns out it violates several federal election law Felony statutes, darn the luck!

        And even though Trump has twice fired VSDNY federal prosecutors in an attempt to hinder these investigations, there’s enough public attention focused on this issue that the scrutiny will ensure the investigations are completed in a thorough and open manner.

        Next step, the Supreme Court is ruling on the house of representatives‘ subpoenas regarding many of the same illegal payments.

        So stay tuned, same bat channel, same bat time!

        • Oh. Okay Minor 69er. Another MINOR conjecture from the Don Lemon wannabe. At least Vlad was stark raving crazy. You however are a terrible example of our education system gone wrong. When the virus from Wuhan, China gets a vaccine you can go back to teaching fake political science.

        • Thank you for proving my point. They’re going after his taxes for the sole purpose of trying to find some sort of technicality violation somewhere. No one cares about some payoff to a porn star for an affair that occurred before he assumed office. People knew what they were getting with Trump. Now during office would be a different story. It would be an embarrassment just like Clinton, especially if it was with his staff.

          Why are they chasing after that instead of investigating the biggest political scandal in American history? It’s funny how they’re going out of their way to ignore that, especially after they pushed a conspiracy theory for three years. It’s been proven that Obama and Biden were both involved in Russiagate. On top of that, Biden has already been caught in a lie about it. He got caught on the spot in an interview and corrected it with another lie. I guess they aren’t interested in finding out how Joe’s son and brother suddenly became international billionaire businessmen either. No, an affair coverup years before the presidency is of utmost importance to the country, right?

  20. S-t-a-r-t spreading the n-e-w-s……..I’m leaving to-day…….don’t want to be a part of it…..New York….New York….

  21. Don’t care what anybody here says.
    Perp #2 with the new shooting stance called “The Errol Flynn” fencing stance looked pretty fancy.

  22. “Up to $2500 reward” for info relating to capture of shooter shown in the vid?

    WTF, I almost have that much on me. Since when are lives worth less than 13 large? Oh, I guess since thugs made them worth that much. Popo can’t afford to pay more, ‘cuz thete are too many shootings. SMH America….

  23. The main statistics that gets as little coverage as possible is the one about the numbers and who commits and where they commit crime.

    Once you read the stats and can manage to estimate percentages you realize that the black community has a crime problem. Actually it’s an attitude problem and one that only afflicts are percentage of black young men and only in certain areas.

    Once you see this you understand what crimes are being committed and against who.
    Who are committing those crimes and where they do it.

    And that all points to a percentage of black youths against other black youths and black citizens and it’s done in Democrat run large population cities with a larger than average population of blacks who live in an aided and abetted poverty paid for by the other citizens of the city and the state the city is located in for the alleged purpose of assisting these populations due to endemic/systemic racist that has cause them to be ignorant and aggressive in manner and contend they have a right to be that way.

    There’s the problem. For me it should be up to the Democrats to solve this but it will most likely be Republicans who will actually do it and the black communities outside of the cities. Because they’re the ones who really pay on a daily basis for the anger and frustration and disdain from the other citizens of the country for the apparent lack of solutions or even an attempt to apply sollutions to the problem.

  24. You offer zero actual evidence to back up your claims. You fail to give a single example of a shooting committed by someone who was released from jail, or who was released without bond. When you can’t meet even the lowest standard of evidence your argument is meaningless.

    You know the cliche about assertions without evidence?

    • What are you saying, do you mean people should not assume that their gut feelings and half-bake opinions are equal to facts?

      Well, if you give white folks a 250 year head start on accumulating wealth and property, I would guess that black folk would be stuck in poverty for quite some time compared to their white brothers and sisters.

      I would think if you make it illegal to teach black folk to read and write and cipher for the first 250 years here, I would imagine that their academic achievement would suffer, lowering their economic opportunities. Then cap it off with another hundred years of segregated poor quality schools.

      I would imagine if you block the blacks out of good jobs for the first 350 years here, you would see less economic achievement in the black community when compared with the white community.

      And it’s interesting to note that for hundreds of years Black people have been forced to the other side of the tracks onto the less desirable portions of the community, then white folks complain about the low real estate value of the black businesses and homes.

      American history didn’t start when you joinEd Facebook, it didn’t start 40 years ago. America today is the sum total of our entire history, good and bad. And to ignore that history is to be condemned to repeat it.

    • You offer zero actual evidence to back up your claims. You fail to give a single example of a shooting committed by someone who was released from jail, or who was released without bond.

      Maybe this will help you out…
      Chief Michael LiPetri, NYPD, provided three specific instances of anecdotal evidence:
      On May 25, a man was arrested for criminal sale control substance – no bail any more – “you must be major trafficker, to get bail for narcotics offenses.” On June 6, that person stabbed another person to death.
      A parolee, was arrested for two counts of domestic violence on March 29, arrested again for domestic violence April 24 for which he was again released under bail reform. In June, he shoots and kills another man for a gang related murder.
      A man arrested and convicted of a violent offense was given a COVID-19 compassionate release, only four days later in March, he kills an acquaintance.

  25. The funny thing about “non-violent” convicts is that some of them are pretty violent. A gang banger arrested and convicted for drug dealing may have also been involved with a drive-by shooting, but he wasn’t caught for it. A robbery with battery may have been plea bargained as just robbery.

    • The funny thing about “non-violent” convicts is that some of them are pretty violent. A gang banger arrested and convicted for drug dealing

      It’s a pretty safe bet that if you have a drug dealer you also have a violent individual.. Drug territories are not handed out, inherited or purchased and once you have established yours you must be prepared to defend it against all comers…. (hint, they don’t normally cut cards or flip a coin to determine the winner)..

  26. In Defense of the Lame stream media most have to drop a couple tabs of acid before work then their altered minds write their columns

  27. . there’s an easy cure, Vigilantes unencumbered with being jailed for protecting their citys and personal property. There’s an old saying, fight fire with fire.

  28. “And it’s interesting to note that for hundreds of years Black people have been forced to the other side of the tracks onto the less desirable portions of the community,”

    OMFG Whiner 69er. Aren’t there enough filthy rich black people in this world already? What about Barak the Muslim and his entourage of white slaves? Or how about your favorite black leader Idi Amin Dada? Man did he have a harem! But of course you Minor 69er would give all black people the billions of dollars which most normal people work hard for. And all for Burning Looting and Murdering. Such great employment. Because after all black people carry the burden of a welfare system put in place by liberals.God forbid they should have to work like every one else. Poor Lebron James and his millions. Poor Oprah and her millions. Yes, there is no such thing as a rich black person.

  29. The media blames guns, but not the dindus who are firing them. Protests mean a lot of demographic diversity in the street.

    White people are not perfect either, but we have had parades and gatherings for many centuries without shooting each other.

    White neighborhoods can go years without a shooting. Black neighborhoods have multiple shootings every day.

    In the USA, black people make up 13 percent of the population, yet they commit 50 percent of violent crime and comprise 39 percent of the prison population.

    However, in all this, the media is still telling us that mobs of black terrorists are peaceful, and continues to blame white men with guns. Two white men murder a black man in Georgia and it’s all over the news. Black men shoot white people every day and yet we hear NOTHING from the media.

    White people are not the main racists in 2020. Black people are.

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