Free Republic

A few days ago, someone spray-painted "BHAZ" (for "Black House Autonomous Zone") on the pillars of St. John's Episcopal Church, the site of President Donald Trump's notorious June 1 photo op during protests against police brutality in Washington, D.C. Under the D.C. Code, that act of vandalism, assuming the damage costs less than $1,000, is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail. But under an "anti-lynching" bill that is part of the police reform packages backed by House Democrats and Senate Republicans, the same act could qualify as a felony punishable...

When the authorities suggested that two black men whose bodies were found hanging from trees in two Southern California cities had died by suicide, many community activists did not buy it. Their fear: The men had been lynched. But family members of 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch, one of the two men, said through a spokesman that after reviewing video footage provided by the police, they were now convinced that he died by suicide. Mr. Harsch was found on May 31 in Victorville, Calif., near a homeless encampment where he was living. Family members of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, the other man whose...

A light rain fell on New Orleans on October 15, 1890, as Police Chief David Hennessy left the central police station with his colleague and friend Capt. William O’Connor just after 11 p.m. The young chief turned toward Basin Street, heading for the home he shared with his widowed mother. O’Connor went in the opposite direction, up Girod Street. Hennessy rarely walked home alone; for the past three years, he had done so in the company of bodyguards. That night he was alone.

<p>A Brooklyn court officer was suspended and had her gun taken away after she posted a racist meme depicting former President Barack Obama being lynched.</p> <p>Sgt. Terri Pinto Napolitano posted the vile meme to her Facebook over the weekend, showing former president Barack Obama swinging from a noose, according to screen grabs shared with the Daily News.</p>

As Congress prepares to wade into a contentious debate over legislation to address police brutality and systemic racial bias, a long-simmering dispute in the Senate over a far less controversial bill that would for the first time explicitly make lynching a federal crime has burst into public view. The bill, called the Emmett Till Antilynching Act [...], passed the House this year by a vote of 410 to 4, and has the backing of 99 senators, who have urged support for belated federal recognition of a crime that once terrorized black Americans. But the private objections of one Republican, Senator...

It’s all over the news, two white guys shot a black man in Georgia while he was jogging because they thought he was a burglar. The racial aspect touched a nerve, which was compounded because Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael took the law into their own hands. It looked like the Trayvon Martin fatal shooting all over again. And things got worse when more details started coming out. So is this a modern day racist lynching, as some like Al Sharpton are claiming, or is it merely an unfortunate situation? Now it’s too early to pass judgment, since...

MADISON —The editorial page of the liberal Cap Times has often appealed to a return to “civility” in politics. Apparently, the media outlet’s idea of civility is publishing a crass cartoon that equates a conservative law firm with a legitimate voter integrity lawsuit to a lynch mob.The cartoon, drawn by longtime unionista cartoonist Mike Konopacki, depicts Rick Esenberg, president and chief legal counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), as a masked hangman holding on to and surround by nooses. The caption reads: “The Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty WILL let you vote, but first you gotta...

Michele Norris is an award-winning journalist and founder of The Race Card Project. Last week, Norris wrote a poignant opinion piece for The Washington Post in which she calls for Americans to know the history of lynching before they cavalierly throw the word around. She's right. Public murders by lynching in America and related private violence like the grisly murder of Emmett Till were not just brutal; they were barbaric and shockingly widespread. The Monroe Work Today website has an interactive map of lynchings across the United States between 1835 and 1964. In an online article about the work that...

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump urged Republicans to "remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching." Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans rushed to condemn the president's use of the term.#NeverTrump Republican Joe Walsh said this was evidence that Trump is a "horrible human being." Julián Castro called the lynching comparison "beyond shameful." Kamala Harris accused Trump of invoking "the pain and trauma of lynching" to "whitewash [his] own corruption." Elizabeth Warren called Trump's tweet "beyond disgraceful."Most notoriously, former Vice President Joe Biden called the comparison "abhorrent" and "despicable.""Impeachment is not 'lynching,' it is part of our Constitution," Biden tweeted. "Our country...

In the early pages of his remarks, William Taylor noted the following: “I had served as Ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009, having been nominated by George W. Bush, and, in the intervening 10 years, I have stayed engaged with Ukraine, visiting frequently since 2013 as a board member of a small Ukrainian non-governmental organization supporting good governance and reform.” UncoverDC can report that although it has been scrubbed almost entirely from the web, William Taylor spent several years on the board of a Ukranian NGO called EEF, or the East Europe Foundation, that has a strong partnership with...

Anyone really believe the pearl-clutching class was actually upset about President Trump comparing the secret impeachment inquiry into him to a lynching? Democrats could barely catch their breath as they expressed their outrage over the tweet, and self-promoting TV conservatives fell right in line. What some people will do to maintain contracts that allow them to avoid honest work and having marketable skills or talent.Lost, or ignored, in all the MSNBC peacocking, CNN posturing, and House and Senate pandering was the fact that Donald Trump was absolutely correct.Words have meanings. That everyone understands this and knows those meanings is what...

Former vice president Joe Biden apologized Tuesday night for calling Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment a “partisan lynching.” Biden’s comments were unearthed after President Trump faced criticism Tuesday for characterizing House Democrats’ impeachment efforts as a “lynching” on Twitter. Trump’s comments sparked a bipartisan controversy. Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) responded by saying “the President never should have made that comparison,” while Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) called the use of the term “disgraceful.” Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) defended Trump, calling the impeachment inquiry “a lynching in every sense” and “un-American.” Biden joined in and tweeted a response to Trump, calling...

Several Democrats had to hit reverse yesterday from their criticism of Donald Trump’s use of the word “lynching” to describe the impeachment push against him. Within hours, research showed that some of the same Democrats stampeding toward microphones to excoriate Trump used the term to describe criticism against other Democrats in the past. That includes, especially, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, as the Washington Post noted late yesterday.The oddest apology came from Joe Biden, however, who wants everyone to know that, er … he had no idea what this meant when he said it? Just to make this context...

Former Vice President Joe Biden condemned President Donald Trump's use of the term "lynching" to describe the House's impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, calling Trump's comments "despicable." In 1998, Biden similarly suggested that former President Bill Clinton's impeachment was a "partisan lynching" in an interview with CNN, according to newly unearthed video along with a transcript seen by Insider. "[H]istory is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met ... the very high bar that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable...

White House hopeful Joe Biden has condemned President Trump for likening the impeachment inquiry to a "lynching," though he made a similar comparison when describing the impeachment investigation against former President Bill Clinton. "Even if the President should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met the standard, the very high bar, that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable offense," then-Sen. Biden (D-Del.) said in a 1998 interview with CNN, which was unearthed by CNN’s KFile....

Multiple Democratic presidential candidates attacked President Trump on Tuesday for his comparison of the impeachment inquiry to lynching, which they called a "stain on this nation’s history." The president tweeted earlier Tuesday that Republicans should acknowledge they are “witnessing” a “lynching” with the House's impeachment process, racially fraught language that drew prompt criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) called lynching a "reprehensible stain on this nation’s history," adding that Trump constituted another. “We’ll never erase the pain and trauma of lynching, and to invoke that torture to whitewash your own corruption is disgraceful,” Harris tweeted. Sen....

Backer of reparations for descendants of former slaves Democratic presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif) says “writing a check is not gonna be enough. The financial disadvantages of slaves and their descendants represent only a small portion of what is owed to them by whites. Payments can’t assuage the hurt of whippings and lynchings.” Harris averred that “it will be relatively easy to apportion the monetary damages among the descendants of the slave-holding whites. It will be harder to apportion the physical pain, fear, and humiliation. We’ll probably have to use some sort of lottery system to select which white...

Today (2/14/19) U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) asked for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, legislation that would criminalize lynching for the first time in American history. The motion was passed, marking a historic step towards the first federal anti-lynching law... On 12/21/18, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent, marking the first time in American history that federal anti-lynching legislation had been passed by the Senate. “Lynchings were acts of violence—they were horrendous acts of violence, and they...

In an unexpected speech shortly before the state Senate adjourned its 2019 session, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax cautioned against “political lynchings without any due process” and said “the truth is on my side” in the sexual assault allegations he faces. Referencing Virginia’s history of slavery and lynchings of African-Americans, Fairfax told senators from the dais Sunday that Virginia needs to decide what the next 400 years of state history will look like. “If we go backwards in a rush to judgment, and we allow for political lynchings without any due process, any facts, any evidence being heard, then I think...

In May 2018, Jussie Smollett appeared as the narrator and correspondent in an episode of the Epix documentary series “America Divided” that explored the subject of hate crimes, specifically lynching, in the state of Tennessee. Now that the “Empire” actor has been charged with filing a false police report and Chicago police are convinced he staged his own hate attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary,” Smollett’s involvement in the show is cast in a different light. “When the news initially came out, we were horrified by the story and for myself, it’s hard to get away from the...