Free Republic

A grand jury has convened to determine what charges, if any, will be brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown earlier this month. Over at The New Republic, Yishai Schwartz argues that a conviction against Wilson is impossible because of Missouri's self defense laws [Snip] If Wilson isn't indicted by the grand jury or is acquitted at trial, the Brown family will most certainly file a wrongful death lawsuit. I also wouldn't be surprised if Eric Holder were to pursue a case against Wilson for federal civil rights violations. But that will...

There’s an aspect of the Ferguson “unrest” that most people don’t get.  From the macro lens of cable news, Internet, and social media, you just can’t understand the stress of the average Ferguson citizen.  A town of under 25,000 people is besieged by protesters, hooligans, criminals, and media.  I wrote this open letter to you, the residents of Ferguson, to let you know that I understand, and to tell you that life will eventually return to normal, albeit a changed “new normal”.  This too shall pass. Dear Ferguson residents,  I sympathize with you.  I know what you’re going through, and...

Closing arguments have ended in the Lakeland man's trial of killing a Lakeland police officer in December 2011, and jurors will begin deliberations shortly. Kyle Williams, 21, is accused in the shooting death of Arnulfo Crispin in a park on Crystal Grove Lane. If convicted of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, he faces the death penalty.

By now, probably everybody in America has heard about what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. A racist white police officer, driven by racial animus, chose a random African-American kid to harass, a confrontation which eventually resulted in the police officer shooting this unarmed kid in the back.

The family of the black teenager shot dead by a policeman in St Louis are haunted by the image of him holding his hands up at the moment he was killed, a family member claimed today. Ty Pruitt said that the mental picture of Michael Brown surrendering was stuck in his relatives’ minds as it showed he was ‘killed like an animal’. Pruitt spoke out at an emotional Sunday church service during which Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden sobbed and wiped the tears away from her eyes with a tissue. His father Michael Brown Sr stood grim faced whilst wearing a...

The fifth night of demonstrations in support of gunned down Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown saw scores of protesters marching through the streets of New York in a vigil that culminated in Times Square Thursday night. Tensions flared as some protestors attempted to shove their way through a police barricade set up in their path toward the beating heart of the city. Police held their own and tempers soon calmed, but as night gripped New York, the already congested Times Square ground to a halt as thousands flowed into the streets to demand an end to police brutality and militarization...

Don't look for justice - we no longer have a 'Justice' Department; the President is always on vacation; and Congress just joined him Time after time our honesty-challenged news—often called mainstream media—highlights one judicial baron who is so in bed with the person for whom he hands down his decree or finding, always favorable to the recipient, that when a truly reputable justice speaks up it is as refreshing as a spring breeze. One such person who is a judicial analyst for a major news network (FOX) Judge Andrew Napolitano, has written an article titled, “Spying, Lying and Torture” about...

It's the highlight of my year: a visit to Governor's School at Hendrix College in Conway, which brings together promising young people from every corner of the state during the summer between their junior and senior years in high school. It's something for an old man to anticipate, then enjoy, and most important of all, learn from. I always leave refreshed, cheered, buoyed. There's hope after all. It is the great indulgence of the old to lecture the young, and it is the great kindness of the young to pretend to listen. It is a curious experience to be...

A Daytona Beach father beat an 18-year-old man unconscious after finding him sexually abusing his 11-year-old son early Friday morning, police said. The father called 911 around 1 a.m. after he walked in on the alleged abuse, police said. When officers arrived, they found Raymond Frolander motionless on the living room floor. He had several knots on his face and was bleeding from the mouth. "He is nice and knocked out on the floor for you," the father told the 911 dispatcher. "I drug him out to the living room."

There are times to feel deep sadness. One quietly breaks down in tears at a funeral. But the murder of the three innocent Israeli teens should not engender sadness as much as it should anger, even quiet controlled rage. And the rage well may be targeted not so much at the Other but at our own, those who should have known better. The Koran compares Jews to monkeys and apes. The Arab population of Gaza, in a free and democratic election certified as fair by Jimmy Carter, selected Hamas to be their representatives and voice. The Arab population of Judea...

Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday he and President Obama have been targets of “a racial animus” by some of the administration’s political opponents. “There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus."

To deny that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the political spectrum would be an out and out lie. Both the right and left have their own collection of zealots, ranging from the self-aggrandized pseudo-intellectual who is absolutely positive that he or she has seen the light and that for the nation to take any other path than the one in his vision would lead to sure disaster, to the downright kook who bristles at the very mention of the other party's name and, depending on their persuasion, believes that an "R" or a "D" stands for evil...

Why the hell is Eric Holder still around? That’s a question many of Barack Obama’s political advisers have asked at various points throughout Holder’s tumultuous five years at the helm of the Justice Department. For most of Obama’s presidency, in fact, if there’s been controversy, Holder was likely to be in the middle of it, from the failed efforts to close Guantánamo Bay and to prosecute alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a Manhattan court to his inability to send Wall Street executives involved in the mortgage meltdown to jail. His detractors in the West Wing of the...

Adventures with Inspector Lestrade:: By: Larry Walker II ::US officials announced Tuesday that a joint Special Forces and FBI operation successfully nabbed Libyan national Ahmed Abu Khattala, the man suspected as the ringleader for the 2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.” The piece I read was titled, “9/11 Benghazi Attack 'Mastermind' Who Hid in Plain Sight for Years Captured By US Forces.” That's all well and good, however, I believe a conviction in this case is about as likely as one against John McFarlane in the case of the Norwood Builder.Back on October 18, 2012, a month...

Child rapists deserve due process. Conservatives governors, not so much. Two unfolding stories offer us a revealing glimpse into the extraordinarily malleable morality of the left. There is the case of Hillary Clinton’s 1975 defense of a child rapist in Arkansas. As you know, defending your client to the best of your ability is what the law demands. And the law is the law. Then there is the case of governor Wisconsin Scott Walker, someone who, though he has never been close to being found guilty (or even formally charged) of any crime, is guilty of wrongdoing by the mere...

The incredible tale of a father who arranged a kidnapping in order to bring his daughter's killer to justice in France avoided prison time on Tuesday for the abduction. The father took matters into his own hands after Germany refused to extradite the suspect. A 76-year-old Frenchman was convicted Wednesday of having kidnapped a German ex-doctor who had killed his daughter, but he avoided jail time as the court handed down a suspended sentence. The court in the eastern French border town of Mulhouse gave Andre Bamberski a suspended one-year sentence for having abducted Dieter Krombach in Germany and brought...

<p>All the states planning executions — Florida, Georgia and Missouri — refuse to say where they get their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for two of the condemned inmates have challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.</p>

In a proposal that could have a far-reaching impact on the Black community, Attorney General Eric Holder is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to cut the sentences of as many as 20,000 federal prisoners serving time for nonviolent drug offenses. It is Holder’s latest move to reform the sentencing guidelines that he has said disproportionately affect African-American males. The Justice Department appealed Tuesday to the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make some prisoners retroactively eligible for reduced sentences. The commission has already approved a measure to reduce drug sentences for future nonviolent offenders. This would apply to offenders already in federal...

Video Shows Conn. Teen Begging Mass. Judge To Let Her Go Home BOSTON (CBS) – The family of a Connecticut teenager at the center of a custody dispute with the state of Massachusetts has posted a video showing the teen pleading for the judge to let her go home. The video shows Justina Pelletier asking Governor Patrick and Judge Joseph Johnston to let her move back with her family. “All I really want to be with is my family and my friends and that’s all I want is to be with my family and friends back home,” she says. “You...

EXCERPT: Investigators say Lee got into an argument with the victim over excessive loud noise outside of Lee's apartment. A witness told police Lee punched the victim, knocking him to the ground, and then shot him when he stood up. RIGHT BELOW this, I will post the companion story from the family of the victim in the Atlanta area. You will draw some obvious conclusions.