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Sheriff: Female Student Who Was Tossed By Cop Punched Him, He Is ‘Dating An African American Woman’

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Opinion: We’ve seen this act too many times now to not recognize it for what it is.

You may remember the press conference given last year by Ferguson Chief of Police Tom Jackson, during which he conveniently dropped little hints and statements designed to destroy the character of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen whom one of his officers had shot dead, while subtly defending his officer all the same.

Different people, definitely different scale, and no one was murdered, or, reportedly, even seriously injured, but America has learned its lesson and we’re not going to fall for this again. 

Late Tuesday afternoon Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a press conference and explained his disgust with his deputy’s actions Monday.

That deputy sheriff, Ben Fields, made nationwide headlines yesterday after he flipped over a teenaged student in her desk, ripped her from it and dragged her across the classroom floor before planting her face on the ground, placing his knee in her back, handcuffing her, and arresting her, all because she refused to follow an order to leave the classroom. Her crime, according to students in the room, was either taking her cellphone out “for a second,” or chewing gum.

UPDATE: Spring Valley Student Assaulted By Deputy Sheriff Is A Recent Orphan

For good measure, Officer Fields also arrested the one student who was brave enough to stand up for her classmate and say, “no.”

Here’s what Sheriff Lott had to say.

“We’re going to be fair and we’re going to do the right thing.”

Really? For whom?

“If she had not disrupted that school, disrupted that class, we would not be standing here today,” Lott said. “So it started with her and it ended with my officer. What I’m going to deal with is what my deputy did,” except, that wasn’t his full purpose.

When asked by a reporter if race was a factor in the arrest by Fields, who is white, of the student, who is Black, Lott responded, “I don’t know… this deputy has been dating an African American female for some time.”

When asked about the federal lawsuit against Fields (the second, he won the first), Lott said it wasn’t at all similar to what happened Monday – except it kind of is, if you consider the accusations of racism in the case, actually, in both cases.

LOOK: Democratic Candidates Respond To Video Of Police Officer Violently Dragging Student From Her Desk

Lott suggested in the future it might be best to remove the students from the room the next time this happens. Why would there be a next time? And why would he like to remove everyone from the room? No witnesses wth cell phone cameras.

Lott also said his department’s investigation would be done in just 48 hours from the time the incident took place.

“This is not something that should drag out. By tomorrow I’ll have the results of our internal affairs investigation.”

Police officers are going to interview several dozen students – hopefully with their parents present – a teacher, and a vice principal, and the deputy sheriff, and all that will be done within 48 hours? Or maybe they won’t interview the students, that will make it go faster, right?

Lott also conveniently stated another video has “surfaced,” showing the unnamed student punching the police officer.

“It showed the officer as he puts his hands on her, her punching him,” Lott said.

What do you see? 

“Just because she was wrong in what she was doing doesn’t make what he was doing completely right also,” Lott added. 

Lott also says, stunningly, that the teacher and assistant principal involved have given written statements in support of Officer Fields’ actions.

Perhaps one of the most telling statements about Lott’s motivation is this:

“We have 87 SROs, the largest number in the state. We have an officer in every Richland Two and Richland One school.”

That’s 87 police officers whose salaries are paid. If Lott doesn’t “fix” this issue, he might lose those positions, or people might realize police officers in schools is a bad idea.

Watch a portion of the press conference:

Some responses to Lott’s comments via Twitter:

 

EARLIER:

Watch: Student Who Filmed Officer Dragging Girl Asks, How Did A Cop ‘Let It Get To That Point?’

Students: Cop Dragged Teen From Her Desk Over Cell Phone Or Gum – Has Civil Rights Lawsuit Pending

Video Catches South Carolina Cop Throwing 15-Year-Old Girl Across The Classroom

 

Image by Loren Thomas/Twitter

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Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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Within hours of Kevin McCarthy being ousted as Speaker of the House late Tuesday afternoon, his hand-picked acting successor, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol Hill offices “by tomorrow.”

McHenry, whose title technically now is “Speaker Pro Tempore,” is a staunch McCarthy ally who worked diligently behind the scenes in January to help the now-former Speaker get elected on the fifteenth attempt, had an aide issue the order.

“‘Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,’ wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee,” Politico reported Tuesday night. “The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker ‘for speaker office use,’ the email said.”

Politico adds that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff helped Pelosi’s office make the move, according to a spokesperson for the former speaker.”

Pelosi, who was honored with the title “Speaker Emerita” in 2022 by the House Steering and Policy Committee in an effort to help unite the House, did not vote for or against McCarthy’s ouster. She remained in California to attend the funeral of her friend and colleague, the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

READ MORE: ‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

But Pelosi, the first and only woman Speaker of the House, who served from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, did not take McHenry’s order lying down.

“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to Politico’s Nicholas Wu. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”

“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” She noted.

“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems important to them,” Pelosi added. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.”

READ MORE: ‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

 

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‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

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Just hours after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a limited gag order and directed Donald Trump to remove his social media post targeting and attacking, by name, the judge’s law clerk, the ex-president Tuesday evening issued an attack targeting the legal system, and apparently, by extension, Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron’s Tuesday order barred Trump from “posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” as Politico reported. The judge’s gag order did not extend to any officer of the court, witnesses, or anyone else involved in Attorney General James’ $250 million civil fraud case against Trump.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” Engoron said Tuesday afternoon. “Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.”

Judge Engoron had announced in court: “This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff.”

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron added.

Politico described Trump’s social media post as “a message alleging [the law clerk] ‘is running this case against me.’ The message was pulled from an account on X with fewer than 200 followers. Trump then linked to an Instagram account for Greenfield’s campaign for a judgeship in Manhattan civil court.”

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

“’How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!’ Trump added. He also posted a photo of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and referred to her as ‘Schumer’s girlfriend.'”

And while the judge ordered the social media post taken down, there’s nothing that can be done about the email blast Trump sent to “millions” of his supporters that included the post, as The New York Times reported.

Tuesday evening, despite having already been given one gag order, Trump appeared to tear into the legal system and Attorney General Letitia James in a series of false claims.

After claiming James’ civil lawsuit against him was unconstitutional and election interference, Trump wrote the decision to apply that statute to him “was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know.”

“It is so unfair that I am being tried under Section 63(12), which is unconstitutionally being used to punish me because I am substantially leading Crooked Joe Biden in the polls,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is a Consumer Protection Statute, and not meant, at all, for Election Interference purposes, which is what this is all about! Under this Section of the law, I am not even entitled to a JURY (there is no checking of a box alternative!).This was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

As The New Yorker reported last week, the law Trump is referring to was “passed at the behest of one of” James’ “Republican predecessors, Jacob Javits.”

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‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

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After U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven of fellow far-right House Republicans voted to oust their own Speaker of the House for supporting a bipartisan vote to keep the federal government of the United States from a shutdown, a powerful Senate Republican and Democrat are both strongly denouncing the work of the few GOP extremists who toppled Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a hard-core Republican of Texas and a former member of the Senate Republican leadership team, blasted the eight House Republicans for their “terrorist attack,” and warned it will happen again.

“We saw a similar thing happen to Boehner, Ryan, and now McCarthy. I’m sure the next speaker is going to be subjected to the same terrorist attacks,” Senator Cornyn said, according to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.

Responding to a Texas radio talk show host from his official social media account, Sen. Cornyn added, “A handful [of] House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process. Sad.”

READ MORE: McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–’

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called the ouster “a deeply embarrassing moment for America. A consequence of a Republican Party that has become so radicalized that it can no longer function as an organized political party.”

“Nobody should be rooting for this circus,” added Sen. Murphy in video recorded as he watched the House voting to remove McCarthy as Speaker. He warned that the ouster of McCarthy will now take the House away from the critical work of keeping the government open after November 17, “instead of working on a budget.” And he warned that no new funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war have been authorized.

“These are life and death stakes,” Murphy said, lamenting this “makes us look so weak and foolish around the world.”

Watch Sen. Murphy’s remarks above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

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