For protecting Trump above all else
Joy Reid is live-tweeting the Barr hearing. It’s as sinister as you’d expect.
Jerry Nadler came out swinging in his opening statement, slamming William Barr for protecting Trump above all else, for the federalized violence against protesters, and more. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
Then Jim Jordan is yelling something, and she wonders why he’s always yelling.
Weirdly, the Republican video horror montage did not include any of the police and federal agent violence and tear gassing of protesters … huh… #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
Well you see when they do it it’s Law Norder.
It is the height of irony for Bill Barr to even breathe out the name of John Lewis. Barr is one of the greatest opponents of voting and civil rights I have ever witnessed in operation in America in my lifetime. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
Barr goes on to muse about Black people's "ambivalence" toward law enforcement. He claims all those problems were cleaned up about 50 years ago. He then moves on to mitigate the killings of black people by police, saying white people are killed in greater numbers. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
What a prince.
Barr says "we do not have two systems of justice." Apparently he is not counting the one he operates as if he believes exists for most people, and the separate, free-wheeling one he is erecting for Donald Trump. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
If you want to understand how Trump has been allowed to drag this country so deeply into the dark alleys of autocracy, just listen to this #BarrHearing. Here sits the Hand of the King. pic.twitter.com/iaPkYTc51x
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
William Barr refuses to answer Chairman Nadler's question about whether he has deployed federal forces as part of Donald Trump's re-election effort. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
Oh does he.
I would love for the Dems to ask Barr why his and Trump's personal police force are dressed up like they are part of the U.S. military. #BarrHearing
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020
In the off chance that William Barr reads these comments, he might want to check out this information from the Washington Post. Highlights:
–Over the past five years, the number of fatal shootings by police has remained steady, at just under 1000 per year.
–Blacks are almost 2.5 times more likely to be fatally shot by police than whites.
–Latinos are almost twice as likely to be fatally shot by police than whites.
–It’s nationwide, mostly urban, but the states with the highest rates are New Mexico, Alaska, and Oklahoma.
This site apparently just has raw numbers, and only over the past 3.5 years, but what’s interesting is that fatal shootings of whites has been trending down, while it’s more or less steady for other groups.
Regarding the last tweet, I’ve seen some claims that a large proportion of the uniformed goons in Portland aren’t federal employees but are instead contracted from the same private security company that the government uses to guard U.S. military bases at home and abroad.
The ‘crowd control’ is being carried out by the Federal Protection Service, an agency set up by the DHS, and the FPS consists largely of contract security personnel supplied by private-sector company Triple Canopy. Three years ago Triple Canopy merged with another security contractor, Academi, and Academi used to be known as Blackwater, Erik Prince’s private-army-for-hire.
If that’s correct, you can be sure that there’s some financial kick-back for Trump and possibly Barr as well.
Marcus has a good overview at FTB in a post titled Oooo That Smell… Can’t You Smell That Smell?