Sunday, January 10, 2021

MAGA MOB BUSTED UPDATED
BUSTED FOR SEDITIOUS SMOKING 
IN A PUBLIC BUILDING
Proud Boy leader Nicholas Ochs, seen smoking 
in Capitol during siege, arrested
By Sara Dorn
January 9, 2021 |

Nicholas R. Ochs was collared when he landed in Hawaii the day
 after participating in the Capitol siege.Twitter


A leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was photographed grinning and smoking a cigarette in the halls of Congress during Wednesday’s riot has been arrested, federal officials said.

FBI agents collared Nicholas R. Ochs, 34 of Hawaii, at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on Thursday as he was arriving home from Washington, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

He is charged with misdemeanor unlawful entry of restricted buildings or grounds.

Prosecutors used Ochs’ own social media accounts as proof of his participation in the pro-Trump mob that breached the Capitol on Wednesday as Congress prepared to vote whether to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. His smoking selfie is cited in the complaint.


“Hello from the Capital[sic] lol,” Ochs wrote on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, captioning a shot of him and another person with lit cigarettes in their mouths.

Ochs, the leader of the Proud Boys’ Hawaii faction, admitted he was inside the Capitol Building, but claimed he was there as a “professional journalist” in an interview with CNN. 

“We didn’t have to break in, I just walked in and filmed,” he said, according to the complaint. “There were thousands of people in there — they had no control of the situation. I didn’t get stopped or questioned.”

The complaint also references pro-Trump messages Ochs posted to the Parler app popular among the president’s right-wing supporters. 

“Show this tweet to leftists and say they won’t do s–t when he just keeps being president,” Ochs wrote in November, alongside a tweet from President Trump declaring he won the election. “They are getting scared, and they don’t function when they’re scared.”

Ochs’ case is among more than 50 that have been filed in connection with Wednesday’s riots.


Jake Angeli, Capitol rioter in horned helmet, arrested by Feds

By Eileen AJ Connelly
January 9, 2021

Jacob Anthony Chansley, 33, also known as Jake Angeli, was taken into custody today in connection with Wednesday's Capitol riot.Win McNamee/Getty Images

Federal agents have arrested the rioter seen wearing a horned-headress and holding a spear during Wednesday’s rampage through the Capitol.

Arizona resident Jacob Anthony Chansley, 33, also known as Jake Angeli, was busted Saturday, officials announced.

The shirtless Chansley — who apparently took style cues from an elk’s lodge and the film “Conan the Barbarian” — was identified “as the man seen in media coverage who entered the Capitol building dressed in horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white and blue face paint, shirtless, and tan pants,” Justice Department officials said in a statement.

“This individual carried a spear, approximately 6 feet in length, with an American flag tied just below the blade,” the feds added.

Chansley — who appears in footage from Wednesday’s chaos pumping his bicep on the dais in the Senate chamber — was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

“The fact that we had a bunch of our traitors in office hunker down, put on their gas masks and retreat into their underground bunker, I consider that a win,” Chansley, identified as Angeli, told NBC News after the riot.



QAnon supporter Jacob Anthony Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, is seen standing in the Senate chamber.

Steven Nelson/NY Post

Chansley, who is known as the “QAnon Shaman” or “Q Shaman,” is a diehard Trump supporter who has attended past far-right events, and is known for his support of the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory according to MSN.

The Justice Department also confirmed Saturday the Friday arrest of Adam Christian Johnson, who was seen in a viral photo carrying off Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern.


Shirtless man in horned helmet at Capitol protest identified as QAnon backer


Johnson, 36, of Parrish, Florida, was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; one count of theft of government property; and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Also busted Friday was Derrick Evans, 35, of West Virginia, a freshman member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. Evans streamed himself entering the Capitol with the mob on his Facebook page, shouting as he crossed the threshold, “We’re in, we’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is prosecuting the cases. Investigations the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the ATF and the Capitol Police continue.

QAnon 'shaman' and lectern taker charged over US Capitol riots

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US Capitol stormed: Confederate flags, viking tattoos, QAnon... Decoding the symbols

Donald Trump's supporters waved Confederate flags, QAnon symbols, and paraded white supremacist, Neo-Nazi symbols as they breached the US Capitol.

US prosecutors announced on Saturday (Sunday NZT) that they have charged two more people for taking part in the riot inside the US Capitol on Wednesday (Thursday NZT) – one of them a man accused of stealing the lectern of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the other a well-known supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theories.

As with previous arrests, federal law enforcement relied in part on media reports to identify the accused.


Adam Johnson, left, and Jacob Anthony Chansley of Arizona, right, have both
been charged with taking part in the riot inside the US Capitol.

Adam Johnson, 36, of Bradenton, Florida, was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; one count of theft of government property; and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Johnson, whom authorities identified as a person seen carrying Pelosi's lectern, was arrested on Friday (Saturday NZT) and is in custody.

He was identified, according to prosecutors, by his appearance in a Getty Images photograph that showed him with the lectern and by reporting from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. An individual also contacted the FBI to identify Johnson, saying they shared a mutual friend.

In addition, Jacob Anthony Chansley of Arizona was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Chansley was taken into custody on Saturday (Sunday NZT).




                       The so-called “QAnon shaman” Jake Angeli has been arrested for his
                         role in the pro-Trump riots at the US Capitol building.

Prosecutors identified Chansley as the man wearing a fur-lined headdress and face paint who stood on the dais in the Senate chamber next to Vice President Pence's chair in photographs of the chaos inside the Capitol that were widely distributed.

Chansley, who also goes by Jake Angeli and is associated with QAnon, was charged on Friday (Saturday NZT) with entering restricted grounds and disrupting Capitol business in Washington.

A Capitol Police arrest affidavit said an agent confirmed Chansley's identification by media reports, citing his attire, tattoos on his arms and left side of his torso, and photographs Chansley posted on a Facebook page.

The defendant was also identified by law enforcement through public databases, including his Arizona driver's license photo, said Capitol Police Special Agent James Soltes.

Chansley called the FBI on Thursday to speak to law enforcement, Soltes wrote, and confirmed he was the man wearing the headdress on the dais.

"CHANSLEY stated that he came as a part of a group effort, with other 'patriots' from Arizona, at the request of the President that all 'patriots' come to DC on January 6, 2021," Soltes wrote.

The Washington Post



Air Force vet identified as rioter with zip ties during Capitol siege

By Elizabeth Elizalde
January 9, 2021 

Larry Rendall Brock, Jr., in helmet, is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonelGetty Images

A rioter filmed wearing military gear and carrying zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor has been identified as a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Larry Rendall Brock, Jr., an Air Force Academy graduate and combat veteran from Texas, was seen in photos and videos roaming around the Capitol and even breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite along with other pro-Trump demonstrators, the New Yorker reported Friday.

He confirmed to the outlet that he was the man in photos and videos. 

Brock had been employed with Hillwood Airways, a private aviation company in Fort Worth. The company told The Dallas Morning News on Saturday that the Air Force veteran has been fired.

The veteran — whose pro-Trump views had grown increasingly radical, according to friends and family — said his goal in Washington, DC was to protest peacefully.

“The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” he told the New Yorker.

Brock, who lives in a suburb of Dallas, denied that he went inside Pelosi’s office, but ITV News footage disputes his claim, showing him emerging from the suite.

The 53-year-old father of three added he wore tactical gear because he wanted to protect himself from Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

As for the zip ties, Brock claimed he found them on the floor.

“I wish I had not picked those up,” he told the outlet. “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one. I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them.”

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto, tweeted Friday another rioter carrying zip-ties had been identified as Eric Munchel from Nashville, Tennessee.

Scott-Railton has been identifying people who went to the protests on social media. He also identified Brock and told the New Yorker he notified the FBI that Brock attended the riots.

Another Air Force veteran at the violent siege — Alshi Babbitt, a vocal Trump supporter from California — was shown in multiple videos being fatally shot by Capitol police as she tried to breach a barricaded door into the Senate chambers.

A Capitol police officer also died when he was bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher, and three others who attended the protest suffered fatal medical emergencies.

Insurrectionist ‘Zip-Tie Guy’ identified as retired Air Force lieutenant colonel
Harm Venhuizen
1 day ago
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock Jr. was photographed on the Senate floor clad in tactical gear and holding flex cuffs. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A man photographed in tactical gear and carrying zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor on Wednesday is a former Air Force officer who told The New Yorker magazine he stormed the Capitol because he believed the president wanted him to be there as the 2020 election was being certified.

“The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” Larry Rendall Brock Jr. told reporter Ronan Farrow in a story published Friday evening.

Brock, a retired lieutenant colonel and combat veteran, was one of many insurrectionists to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Five people died from injuries sustained in the ensuing riot, including two Air Force veterans, one of whom was a Capitol Police officer.

Brock was identified thanks to the efforts of The New Yorker and John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab in the University of Toronto’s Munk School.

“I used a number of techniques to hone in on his identity, including facial recognition and image enhancement, as well as seeking contextual clues from his military paraphernalia,” Scott-Railton told the New Yorker.


This is why the National Guard didn’t respond to the attack on the Capitol
The response to the siege on the Capitol was mired in red tape.
Meghann Myers and Howard Altman

One of those contextual clues was a 706th Fighter Squadron patch. Brock reportedly served as a chief operations inspector and flight commander within the unit, claiming to have received three Meritorious Service Medals, six Air Medals, and three Aerial Achievement Medals from service in Afghanistan and non-combat service in Iraq.

In a statement to the Military Times, Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokesperson, said, “Lt. Col. Larry R. Brock, Jr. retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2014. As a private citizen, we no longer have jurisdiction over him.”

Brock entered active duty in 1989 and transferred to the Air Force Reserve in 1998. He was an A-10 pilot until 2007, according to Stefanek.

He now works for Hillwood Airways, a Texas-based private aviation company.

Officials from Hillwood Airways did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Researcher John Scott-Railton used Brock's gear, including a 706th Fighter Squadron patch, to identify him. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

As for the helmet and body armor, Brock told The New Yorker that he was afraid of being attacked by members of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. “I didn’t want to get stabbed or hurt,” he said.

The Air Force Academy graduate claimed to have found the flex cuffs he was carrying on the floor. “I wish I had not picked those up,” he said. “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one.”

Brock can also be seen on a video from ITV News exiting Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite with a group of insurrectionists known to have been inside. Brock denied this allegation in conversations with The New Yorker, saying he stopped 5- to 10 feet short of the offices when others entered.

The retired officer’s family and friends expressed concerns about his radical political views. “I don’t contact him anymore ‘cause he’s gotten extreme,” Bill Leake, an Air Force officer who had served with Brock, told the New Yorker.


Some family members said white-supremacist beliefs may have motivated Brock to storm the Capitol.

Brock cited the president’s false claims of massive election fraud as his motivation and denied holding any racist views. “The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” he said.

He also added that he thought has was welcome to enter the Capitol when he arrived at its doors, despite the crowd of violent insurrectionists clashing with law enforcement.


Officer killed in Capitol attack was an Air National Guard vet
Brian Sicknick was a former staff sergeant with the New Jersey Air National Guard and deployed overseas during his time in the military.
Leo Shane III and Stephen Losey


The FBI is working to identify and charge the insurrectionists recorded entering the Capitol building. More than a dozen rioters have been charged so far, including a West Virginia lawmaker.

“We have deployed our full investigative resources and are working closely with our federal, state, and local partners to aggressively pursue those involved in criminal activity during the events of January 6,” the FBI said in a statement.

More than 1,000 National Guard troops were activated in response to the attacks, which were condemned by former Secretaries of Defense Mark Esper and Jim Mattis. All told, more than 6,000 National Guard troops are headed to the district.

“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump,” Mattis said in a statement. “His use of the presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

Military Times managing editor Howard Altman contributed to this report.


About Harm Venhuizen
Harm Venhuizen is an editorial intern at Military Times. He is studying political science and philosophy at Calvin University, where he's also in the Army ROTC program.



Seattle police officers who were in DC during riot at US Capitol placed on administrative leave

By Elise Takahama and Lewis Kamb 
Seattle Times staff reporters
Jan. 8, 2021 

At least two Seattle police officers who were in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday during the riot at the U.S. Capitol have been placed on administrative leave, according to a Friday night statement from interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz.

“The Department fully supports all lawful expressions of First Amendment freedom of speech, but the violent mob and events that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol were unlawful and resulted in the death of another police officer,” Diaz said in the statement. “… If any SPD officers were directly involved in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, I will immediately terminate them.”

The city’s Office of Police Accountability (OPA) is investigating whether any Police Department policies were violated and will conduct a “full review of any SPD employee activities at the U.S. Capitol.”

Officer Valerie Carson, a spokesperson for the Police Department, said Friday night the officers were not on duty while they were in D.C. The department did not release any other information about the officers and Carson referred further questions to OPA.

Andrew Myerberg, OPA’s civilian director, said late Friday that the patrol chief notified his office about the officers around 9 p.m. Thursday evening, and an internal investigation case was initiated early Friday.

“We learned about this in an email last night,” Myerberg said in a phone interview. “There’s a picture that circulated on social media of the two officers at the protest rally. So, yes, we believe they were there, but we don’t know all the facts yet, so that’s why we’re doing the investigation.”

The OPA will try to determine “what role the officers played” at the D.C. protests, including whether they participated with the mob in the deadly riot that breached the Capitol, he said.

“The fundamental question will be, ‘Is being present at the rally in and of itself a violation of department policy?’” Myerberg said. “And I just don’t know that yet. I think it really depends on what they did and what their role was in those events.”

OPA investigators will also seek to find out if any other Seattle officers may have attended or participated in Wednesday’s events, and if so, to what extent, he said.

Seattle Police Officers Guild Mike Solan did not immediately return a message seeking comment late Friday.

Diaz’s statement comes after a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, protesting President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, interrupting congressional debate and marching through the building, ransacking many areas. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington’s mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who responded to the riot, died from injuries sustained during the violence, police confirmed Thursday evening.


Georgia lawyer among first to charge Capitol calls rioters ‘tourists’


By Jesse O’Neill
January 8, 2021 |

Supporters of President Trump clash with police at the US Capitol on Wednesday.James Keivom for The New York Post

A Georgia lawyer who was among the first rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol now claims the mob acted “heroically” — and were like “tourists” who looked at, but didn’t disturb the property.

Self-described “Anti-Communist Counter-Revolutionary” McCall Calhoun, a lawyer for three decades, also excused his retweet of a death threat against President-elect Biden, saying Trump supporters are just naturally “ornery.”

Calhoun made the abhorrent claims in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

When asked about his sharing of a doctored photo of Joe Biden that referenced hanging the president-elect, Calhoun told the outlet, “Trump voters say that all the time,” he said. “We’re just ornery.”

Calhoun even claimed that the violent uprising that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer, was a peaceful event.

In fact, rioters left feces, urine, trash, busted windows and vandalized offices in their wake.

“The people who went in there, what they did was heroic. It was very patriotic,” he told AJC. “I’m not saying it was the ideal thing to do. I am saying at that time and place those people felt like that was their only hope. They don’t want to lose their democratic republic.”

Calhoun said the worst criminal act he committed was “trespassing,” which he did for the “love of his country.”

Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham shared a more realistic legal definition with the newspaper.

“I would say what he did – I would say what all of them did that entered the Capitol —is the serious federal felony of sedition. It’s the domestic equivalent of treason,” he said.

“It wasn’t a sit-in. They knew the Congress was convened to do perhaps the most important thing a Congress can do: preside over the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another.”

Sedition is punishable by 20 years in prison.


Rioters left feces, urine in hallways and offices during mobbing of US Capitol

By Carl Campanile and Yaron Steinbuch
January 8, 2021 

They turned the US Capitol into a craphouse.



Some invading rioters defiled the hallowed seat of democracy with their dung in their ill-fated effort to overturn the election, a source close to incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told The Post.

“Congressional staffers saw feces in the hallways,” the source said Friday.

The vile vandals apparently took dumps in bathrooms and then spread around their poop, a Schumer insider said.

“It came from the bathroom and they tracked it around,” the source said. “There was an intentional effort to degrade the Capitol building.”

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) of Brooklyn also reported that some members of the mob urinated on the floors during the rampage.

“There was urine. There was clear desecration,” he told WNYC on Thursday.

Jeffries said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had a posterboard memorial tribute to late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis on the wall in his office.

“That was missing. It was in an area where protesters had clearly penetrated,” Jeffries said.

Authorities are trying to get to the bottom of who stormed the Capitol and caused widespread vandalism, breaking windows and damaging property as they infiltrated offices and posed for selfies.

Rioters clash with police trying to enter Capitol building through the front doors in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.

ZUMAPRESS.com

The assault on the building turned deadly when a Capitol Police officer shot and killed one demonstrator, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force vet who was among those who broke into the bulding.

Police said three other people died from medical emergencies. And Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died in the hospital Thursday after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher during the riots.


FILED UNDER CAPITOL , FECES , 1/8/21
JUSTIFICATION FOR CLOSING SAFE CONSUMPTION SITES 
Alberta's safe consumption review biased and flawed, researcher says

KENNEY UCP WAR ON DRUGS IDEOLOGY IS DANGEROUS

© Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press An injection kit is shown at a supervised consumption site. 
A new a peer-reviewed article says Alberta's review of the sites was flawed and biased.

Alberta's review of supervised consumption sites was flawed and biased, stoking unchecked claims about the links between the service and crime rates, according to the author of a new peer-reviewed article.

The article, published this week in Harm Reduction Journal, takes aim at the committee's evaluation of crime statistics around supervised consumption sites (SCS).

Criminology professor Jamie Livingston argues that the report distorted police data and relied heavily on public perception to suggest the sites contribute to an increase in crime, a finding at odds with numerous peer-reviewed studies.

"I became really, really concerned with how poor the evaluation was being conducted and how blatantly biased the evaluation was," said Livingston, associate professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

"An introduction to criminology student would not have constructed a more rudimentary analysis for change in crime."

When the province's report was released in March 2020, associate minister Jason Luan said it detailed "a system of chaos," around supervised consumption sites.

The committee, under the government's direction, did not review the service's health benefits, including hundreds of reported overdose interventions every year. Instead, the review focused on crime rates, social disorder, property values and business.

More than 900 Albertans died from opioid overdoses in the first 10 months in 2020, the most deadly year since tracking began in 2016.

Attendance at supervised consumption sites in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Grande Prairie plummeted at the outset of the pandemic, as services were temporarily suspended then eventually reopened with capacity limits.
Distorted data, unchecked claims

Among Livingston's concerns, he notes the report relied on police calls for service to measure crime. A "substantial portion" of those calls would involve unfounded allegations, uninvestigated incidents and non-criminal matters, all of which appear to have been included in the data, the article states.

The report assessed only two years of police service calls, which Livingston said obscures longer-term trends. Of the report's many statistical pitfalls, Livingston says it distorted call numbers around the sites by comparing data to the entire city without adjusting for population or providing a caveat.

"That reeks of bias and lack of objectivity," Livingston said. "I think there's a real danger with the circulation of this deeply flawed review that makes claims that just simply aren't true and aren't sound in terms of the science around them."

No Canadian or international peer-reviewed study has found supervised consumption sites result in an increase in crime, he added.
'Fuel in the public domain'

More than 40 experts, including Livingston, signed an open letter in March calling on the government to retract the report over concerns that its "unsound findings" would be used to undermine efforts to address the opioid crisis.

Shortly after its release, a Philadelphia city council member cited the report as a "very credible study" while advocating to effectively ban future supervised consumption sites, according to a report in the South Philly Review.

"It's certainly fuel in the public domain where people have these pre-existing beliefs about drug users and drug use interventions and can quickly pull up these results," Livingston said.

The report depended heavily on individual perceptions of crime around the sites, gathered in large part through online surveys, without verification from other data sources, Livingston said.

Some quotes included in the report claimed that the sites are a "lawless wasteland" and used "as a base of operations for property crime."

"It's really hard to avoid the overall impression that the panel was looking to cherry-pick especially damning anecdotes that would be not in favour of supervised consumption services," said Cameron Wild, a professor in the University of Alberta's school of public health.

"I see no reason that we shouldn't maintain opposition to a scientifically flawed report that is being used rhetorically by government as a tool to support their priorities."

Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for associate minister Luan, said the government was committed to listening to the concerns of Albertans as it makes decisions on supervised consumption sites.

"While we appreciate further review by this researcher, we will not disregard the views of 19,000 Albertans, including first responders, residents and business owners in the surrounding areas of supervised consumption sites," she wrote in a statement.

New funding for supervised consumption services was frozen when the review was launched in August 2019, with the government yet to disclose how it plans to move forward.

"Like all government programs, until and unless different decisions are made in the future, funding remains in place for these services," Kitz said.

Dr. Robert Tanguay, who sat on the review committee, said the report did not call on the government to close sites, but rather to enhance service. He pointed toward a recommendation that called for clients to be directed to managed opioid programs, where appropriate.

While not defined in the report, Tanguay says managed opioid programs would include injectable agonist treatments and a prescribed supply of opioids, treatment options rejected by the provincial government.

The Alberta government did not follow the lead of British Columbia's "safe supply" program, which provides the go-ahead to physicians to prescribe drugs such as methadone in an effort to prevent illicit drug overdoses.

The government is also facing a legal challenge after it announced it would cut funding for an injectable opioid agonist treatment program, considered a last resort when other treatments prove ineffective.


"It was unfortunate how the report was presented," said Tanguay, a clinical lecturer in the department of psychiatry at the University of Calgary, in an email to CBC News.

"People don't die while using in the SCS, hence we want people using the SCS more often."

The committee chair, former Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht did not return a request for comment, and neither did vice-chair Geri Bemister-Williams.
US, Australia, UK, Canada slam Hong Kong mass arrests

The four countries charged that the new national security law used to justify the arrests had "eliminated dissent." Hong Kong authorities reportedly used the same law on Sunday to block a popular news site.



Over 50 pro-democracy activists were arrested in Hong Kong last week

The foreign ministers of Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada expressed "serious concern" about the arrest of 55 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong over the past weekin a joint statement released on Sunday.

The arrests were made on charges of "subversion" under Hong Kong's new national security law, which was passed in June.

The people arrested were linked to an unofficial primary organized by pro-democracy parties ahead of legislative elections.

Australia, US, UK, Canada criticize law

The countries also criticized the national security law as: "a clear breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and undermines the 'One Country, Two Systems' framework."

Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese governance in 1997 under the framework, which was meant to ensure that the semiautonomous territory and its residents would retain political freedoms and a market economy for at least 50 years.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, registered in 1985 with the UN, is a legally binding treaty.

Watch video 01:24 Former Hong Kong legislators arrested


The new law "has curtailed the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong," according to the joint statement.

It is "being used to eliminate dissent and opposing political views," the statement continued.

The four countries called on Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to "respect the legally guaranteed rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong."

The governments also recommended that Legislative Council elections — scheduled for December — should be postponed until candidates with varying political opinions are included.

Watch video 03:37 Joshua Wong: 'One country, two systems' has eroded to 'one country, one system'


"We are appalled by remarks made by some overseas government officials that seemed to suggest that people with certain political beliefs should be immune to legal sanctions,'' Hong Kong's government responded in a statement of its own.

The governments of China and Hong Kong have argued that the law is needed to restore order to the territory, which was rocked by months of anti-government protests in 2019, with people demanding greater democracy.

Law used to block website


The joint statement was released as HKChronicles, a website that publishes content mainly related to the 2019 protests, reported that users' access had been blocked by internet service providers.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, citing unnamed sources, reported on Sunday that police had invoked the city's national security law for the first time to block the site.

The 55 arrested activists have not been charged. All but three have been released on bail pending further investigation.

Any convictions could disqualify them from running for office.
An injured bald eagle entangled in fishing line was rescued by two children and some Florida firefighters

Firefighters in Florida this week helped rescue a bald eagle with a fishing hook stuck in its beak and the attached line wrapped around its wing and beak.
© Pasco County Fire Rescue Station 21 The bald eagle was brought to the fire station by two children and treated by a local bird sanctuary.

Firefighters at Pasco County Fire Rescue Station 21 on Thursday were greeted by two children holding the injured bald eagle and seeking help, according to the station's Facebook page.


"The Eagle was tired, and its beak was wrapped in fishing line. After closer examination, Firefighters realized that the Eagle was underweight, a fishing hook was through his beak, and a fishing line was wrapped around his wing. The line was preventing the Eagle from eating and flying," the post said.

The firefighters called Owl's Nest Sanctuary for Wildlife in Odessa for assistance and a volunteer came out to help.

"It appears that the eagle was wrapped in the line for about two days, was underweight, and dehydrated," the post said.

Florida has one of the densest concentrations of nesting bald eagles in the lower 48 states, with an estimated 1,500 nesting pairs, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Pasco County is located in the state's west central coast north of Tampa.

After the eagle was examined, it was placed in a crate and taken to the sanctuary for treatment where Kris Potter, the sanctuary's founder and director, successfully removed the hook.

The sanctuary posted on its Facebook page that the eagle is making up for lost time when it comes to food.

"He's chomping down all his meals with great enthusiasm and doesn't leave a crumb behind," the post said. "In the meantime, this big guy is resting and recuperating—he's already looking so much better!"

After the eagle is deemed stable, it will be taken to Busch Gardens in Tampa for further treatment, according to the post.

"Thankfully the Eagle appears in good health, and veterinarians believe that the Eagle will fully recover," the post said.

When the eagle is cleared for return to the wild, it will be released in the area around Station 21, the station said in its post.

"A big thank you to everyone who helped save this bald Eagle's life! We are #PascoProud and thankful for this happy outcome!" the post concluded.

The sanctuary used the story to remind those who enjoy fishing to properly dispose of their trash.

"And as a reminder, please discard ... all fishing gear appropriately! This is such a common problem we see in rescue and one that can be completely avoided!" the sanctuary wrote.

© Pasco County Fire Rescue Station 21 After firefighters realized the bird was in distress, they called a local wildlife sanctuary for help.


Ginni Thomas’ Facebook Page Disappears After Media Reports on Her Support for Pro-Trump Rally that Turned into Attack on U.S. Capitol

COLIN KALMBACHER
Jan 8th, 2021, 


Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (R) and Virginia Thomas arrive for the State Dinner at The White House honoring Australian PM Morrison on September 20, 2019 in Washington, DC. Prime Minister Morrison is on a state visit in Washington hosted by President Trump.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, attorney and wife of right-wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is being heavily criticized for her role in promoting President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.—a rally that resulted in the president’s supporters storming the U.S. Capitol Complex on Wednesday, leaving at least five dead.

Several supportive messages authored by the former Thomas, previously public, are now unavailable–along with her public-facing Facebook profile.

This development occurred during the process of writing the present article. It is unclear whether those specific messages were deleted, whether her overall profile was deleted, whether she simply changed the privacy settings for her social media account or whether Facebook itself took down Thomas’s page.

Thomas previously identified herself as a verified Facebook “Public Figure,” according to an Internet Archive screenshots via the Wayback Machine.
SCOTUS To Hear Case Against Secretary Mnuchin For Giving Coronavirus Funds to Corporations Instead of Tribal Governments

ELURA NANOS Jan 9th, 2021



The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari Friday in two cases challenging the Trump administration’s distribution of $8 billion dollars of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding. The consolidated cases are Mnuchin v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.

The aid was to be given to “tribal governments” and was specifically earmarked for easing the monetary burdens of the COVID-19 fallout. A group of tribal governments alleged in a federal lawsuit that the aid meant for them actually went to more than 230 Alaska Native for-profit corporations (ANCs).

Congress statutorily created a different relationship with Alaska Natives from what it has with Native Americans in the lower 48 states. Instead of using reservations, “regional corporations” and “village corporations” were created in Alaska. These ANCs are private corporations with shareholders that include both Indians and non-Indians.

When Congress authorized the treasury secretary to hand out CARES Act funding, it was to “Indian tribes as defined in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.” That definition was as “any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaska Native village or regional or village corporation . . . which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.”

The plaintiff tribal governments claimed that funds diverted to the corporations deprived them of basic needs, as CARES Act funding was its only potential source of assitance. Among other things, the tribal governments required CARES assistance to “address the needs of its homeless families as well as of the many intergenerational families who live in overcrowded substandard housing, lacking water and sewer services.” Further, because at the time of filing, there was no airline service due to the pandemic, it was impossible for the tribes to obtain important sanitary products. The ANCs, claimed the plaintiffs, had the ability to seek alternative sources of funding.

The Tribal governments prevailed at the district court level; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed that the corporations were not “Indian tribes.” The D.C. Circuit Court ruled that only Alaska Native corporations that are formally recognized qualify as Indian tribes; further, it noted that “recognition” is a “legal term of art” in Indian law and the corporations have never been recognized in this formal sense. (Recognition gives tribes “a government-to-government relationship with the United States” and a host of other benefits.)

Both the treasury secretary and the Alaska Native corporations petitioned for certiorari, arguing that the D.C. Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the Congressional intent of the CARES Act and related Ninth Circuit precedent.
Don't miss Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury shine in a triple-conjunction this weekend

By Joe Rao SPACE.COM

It happens after sunset on Sunday, Jan. 10

Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury will appear near each other in the evening sky shortly after sunset on Jan. 10, 2021 in a dazzling triple-conjunction. 


A spectacular gathering of bright planets will be the chief celestial attraction in the evening sky this weekend as Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury appear to crowd into tight quarters.

Low in the southwestern evening sky just 30 to 45 minutes after sundown, we'll be treated to what might be referred to as a celestial summit meeting, a triple conjunction, with the three planets fitting within a circle smaller than 5 degrees.

Brilliant Jupiter (magnitude –1.9), medium-bright Mercury (-0.9) and dimmer, yellow-white Saturn (+0.6) will be contained within a 5-degree circle from Jan. 8 to Jan. 12, appearing closest together on Sunday evening (Jan. 10).

What will make this array particularly fascinating is how the configuration will change noticeably from one evening to the next. This effect is primarily due to the rapid motion of speedy Mercury relative to the two slow-moving wanderers, Jupiter and Saturn. The pattern will go from a stretched-out triangle on Jan. 8 to an almost equilateral triangle on Jan. 10.

However, binoculars are strongly suggested, as they will help pick up the planets against the bright twilight sky. Jupiter will be at the top of the triangle and is the brightest of the trio, with Mercury and Saturn forming the base angles. The sides of the triangle each measure roughly 2 degrees.

This stunning spectacle might also mark the last evening view of Jupiter and Saturn; while Mercury rises over the coming days, Jupiter and Saturn will be sinking into the sunset fires. While Jupiter and possibly Mercury may be evident without optical aid, Saturn probably will not. In the evenings after Sunday, Saturn will disappear into the bright twilight first, closely followed by Jupiter around mid-month.


Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Don Jr. may be charged over Capitol siege, DC AG says

By Ebony Bowden

January 8, 2021 | 

WASHINGTON — President Trump, son Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani may all be investigated and charged for their potential roles in inciting a violent mob that stormed the US Capitol, Washington, DC’s top prosecutor hinted Friday.

In an interview with “Good Morning America,” DC Attorney General Karl Racine, whose office is investigating dozens of rioters, laid the blame at the feet of the president for his fiery speech to supporters before many of them invaded Congress.

“I think the question is, how far up does it go? Clearly the Capitol was ground central in all of this mob’s behavior,” Racine said.

“Donald Trump Jr., Giuliani, even the president of the United States, were calling on their supporters and hate groups to go to the Capitol and in the words of Rudy Giuliani ‘exercise combat justice,'” he went on.Enlarge ImagePresident Trump greets the crowd at the “Stop The Steal” Rally on Wednesday.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

“We’re going to investigate not only the mobsters but also those who invited the violence.”Rudy Giuliani speaks in front of Trump supporters at a rally in Washington on Wednesday.Jim Bourg/Reuters

The Department of Justice has not ruled out bringing charges against Trump, who will become a private citizen when he leaves office on Jan. 20.

In a call with reporters Thursday, Michael Sherwin, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said his office would look at anyone involved in the riot who broke the law.

“We are looking at all actors here. Was there a command and control? Were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or obviously played some ancillary role in this?” Sherwin said.Donald Trump Jr. speaks to Trump supporters attending a rally protesting the 2020 election results in Washington on Wednesday.Bryan Smith/ZUMA Wire

“Anyone that had a role, and the evidence fits the elements of a crime, they’re going to be charged,” he said.

When asked if that included the commander-in-chief, Sherwin responded: “I don’t want to sound like a broken record. We’re looking at all actors here.”

Five people, including a US Capitol Police officer, died in the violent riots when thousands of the president’s supporters invaded Congress as lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence were gathered inside to confirm Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.


The president, Giuliani, Don Jr. and other Trump surrogates egged on supporters at a “Save America March” outside the White House before the riots, telling them the election had been stolen and to never accept the results. Giuliani even called for a “trial by combat” over the results.

The violent episode has caused an enormous fallout in the Trump administration, with several cabinet members resigning in the wake of the Capitol violence and calls mounting for Trump to be removed via the 25th Amendment and/or a second impeachment.

TRUMP KILLS KOP
Capitol police officer dies of wounds after clashes with Trump mob
BLUE LIVES DON'T MATTER
Issued on: 08/01/2021 
A member of the Capitol police covers his face as pro-Trump protesters storm the US Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results by Congress, at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021. © Ahmed Gaber, Reuters

Text by:FRANCE 24Follow

A US Capitol Police officer has died of injuries sustained during clashes with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who overran a session of Congress, police said late Thursday.

Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday due to injuries sustained while on-duty, physically engaging with protesters at the US Capitol, a statement said.

It was the first law enforcement death stemming from Wednesday's violence at the Capitol which saw flag-waving crowds overwhelm police and break into the legislature as Congress was tallying the Electoral College votes to confirm Democrat Joe Biden won the election.

Sicknick, a 12-year veteran of the force, was “responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters", Capitol Police said in a statement.

“He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries” on Thursday night, it said.

Democratic leaders of the House Appropriations Committee said the “tragic loss” of a Capitol police officer “should remind all of us of the bravery of the law enforcement officers who protected us, our colleagues, Congressional staff, the press corps and other essential workers″ during the hours-long takeover of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters.

Four protesters died in the violence, including a woman who was shot by police. Three other deaths were reported on the Capitol grounds, but the circumstances remained unclear.

Sicknick's death will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and federal law enforcement.

‘A failure of leadership at the top’

The rioting and loss of control has raised serious questions over security at the Capitol for future events. Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration. 

“This was a failure of imagination, a failure of leadership,” said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, whose department responded to several large protests last year following the death of George Floyd. “The Capitol Police must do better and I don’t see how we can get around that.” 

Acevedo said he has attended events on the Capitol grounds to honour slain police officers that had higher fences and a stronger security presence than what he saw on video Wednesday. 

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said that as the rioting was under way, it became clear that the Capitol Police were overrun. But he said there was no contingency planning done in advance for what forces could do in case of a problem at the Capitol because Defence Department help was turned down. “They’ve got to ask us, the request has to come to us,” said McCarthy.

US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, under pressure from Senator Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders, was forced to resign. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked for and received the resignation of the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, Michael Stenger, effective immediately. Paul Irving, the longtime Sergeant at Arms of the House, also resigned.

“There was a failure of leadership at the top,” Pelosi said.

The US Capitol had been closed to the public since March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 360,000 people in the US. But normally, the building is open to the public and lawmakers pride themselves on their availability to their constituents. 

It is not clear how many officers were on-duty Wednesday, but the complex is policed by a total of 2,300 officers for 16 acres of ground who protect the 435 House representatives, 100 US senators and their staff. By comparison, the city of Minneapolis has about 840 uniformed officers policing a population of 425,000 in a 6,000-acre area. 

There were signs for weeks that violence could strike on January 6. On far-right message boards and in pro-Trump circles, plans were being made.

The leader of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys was arrested coming into the nation’s capital this week on a weapons charge for carrying empty high-capacity magazines emblazoned with their logo. He admitted to police that he had made statements about rioting in Washington, local officials said.

Planning failures 

Both Acevedo and Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner who led the department during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, said they did not fault the responses of clearly overmatched front-line officers, but the planning and leadership before the riot. 

“Was there a structural feeling that well, these are a bunch of conservatives, they’re not going to do anything like this? Quite possibly," Davis said. “That’s where the racial component to this comes into play in my mind. Was there a lack of urgency or a sense that this could never happen with this crowd? Is that possible? Absolutely.” 

Trump and his allies were perhaps the biggest megaphones, encouraging protesters to turn out in force and support his false claim that the election had been stolen from him. He egged them on during a rally shortly before they marched to the Capitol and rioted. His personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor known for his tough-on-crime stance, called for “trial by combat”.

McCarthy said law enforcement's intelligence estimates of the potential crowd size in the run-up to the protests “were all over the board”, from a low of 2,000 to as many as 80,000.


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The Capitol Police had set up no hard perimeter around the Capitol. Officers were focused on one side where lawmakers were entering to vote to certify Biden’s win.

Barricades were set up on the plaza in front of the building, but police retreated from the line and a mob of people broke through. Lawmakers, at first unaware of the security breach, continued their debate. Soon they were cowering under chairs. Eventually they were escorted from the House and Senate. Journalists were left alone in rooms for hours as the mob attempted to break into barricaded rooms.

Sund, the Capitol Police chief, said he had expected a display of “First Amendment activities” that instead turned into a “violent attack”. But Gus Papathanasiou, head of the Capitol Police union, said planning failures left officers exposed without backup or equipment against surging crowds of rioters. 

“We were lucky that more of those who breached the Capitol did not have firearms or explosives and did not have a more malign intent," Papathanasiou said in a statement. "Tragic as the deaths are that resulted from the attack, we are fortunate the casualty toll was not higher.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)