Baker's Delight, TYB!
Prosecutors: Man who shot protester on Capitol Hill provoked incident
by Alex Halverson | SeattlePI.comThursday, June 11th 2020
SEATTLE - King County prosecutors on Wednesday accused a 31-year-old man of provoking a scene of chaos at Sunday's protest on Capitol Hill, a clear refutation of his self-defense claims.
Charging papers filed Wednesday evening charged Nikolas Fernandez with first-degree assault and said he shot one protester in the arm after driving into the location where protesters had been clashing with police for a week. The man who was shot was reportedly reaching into Fernandez's car, trying to disarm him.
Several videos from the scene circulated social media Sunday night.
In probable cause documents, Fernandez told police he was acting in self-defense. Fernandez said he worked security at Nike Town and stopped by the protest to "see how bad it was," while on his way to work. He said his vehicle stalled when he drove north on 11th Avenue and found the road blocked, and then someone tried to enter his vehicle.
In the charging papers, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Karissa Taylor said Fernandez "sped up, heading straight for a crowd of protesters," as he turned onto 11th Avenue.
"It is apparent from the reactions of the crowd that the defendant was driving at an excessive speed given the crowd and conditions," Taylor wrote. "As protesters yelled at him to stop, and even put a metal barrier in his path, he continued to drive forward."
He said he grabbed the gun on his passenger side seat and shot the man.
The gun was a 9-mm Glock handgun, loaded with an extended magazine and a second magazine taped to it, court documents said.
The King County Prosecutor's Office, in both statements and the charging papers, said it doesn't believe the case was self-defense.
"Although Mr. Fernandez claims to have acted in self-defense, our laws distinguish a person protecting himself from an attack from a person who provoked the attack in the first place. Given the evidence uncovered in the past three days, there is probable cause to believe Mr. Fernandez falls in the latter category," said Casey McNerthney, a spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, in an emailed statement Wednesday.
The scene started just before 8:30 p.m., Sunday when police officers saw a car heading toward the crowd of protesters at 11th Avenue and Pine Street, documents said.
Then reports of a shooting hit social media and were received by officers. A man who was later identified as having tried to disarm the driver, suffered a gunshot wound and was treated by "citizen medics" among the crowd. Medics from the Seattle Fire Department then transported him to Harborview Medical Center.
As the victim was being treated, a man now identified as Fernandez ran to the police side of the barricade and gave himself up. Fernandez was booked into King County Jail at 12:22 a.m., Monday. He was released on $150,000 bond Wednesday evening, according to jail records. The prosecutor's office said they requested $350,000 bail.
Fernandez has an arraignment scheduled for June 24.
https://komonews.com/news/local/prosecutors-man-who-shot-protester-on-capitol-hill-provoked-incident
Police: 7 arrested for vandalizing Christopher Columbus statue in Miami
The Associated Press Thursday, June 11th 2020
MIAMI (AP) — Seven people have been arrested for vandalizing statues of Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de León in Miami, and one man was charged with smashing a patrol car with his skateboard and trying to incite a riot, the city’s police said.
The arrests happened Wednesday after a chaotic scene ensued in the city where about five dozen protesters had a confrontation with police, and a day after a figure of Columbus was torn down in Richmond, Virginia, and another was found beheaded in Boston, Massachusetts.
In Miami, demonstrators spray painted statues of Columbus and Ponce de León, a Spanish explorer who landed in Florida, in Bayfront Park with the letters “George Floyd,” “BLM,” and a hammer and sickle, news outlets reported. Miami police said one man encouraged other protesters to attack a patrol car and he smashed the vehicle’s windshield with his skateboard, shattering glass on officers inside.
There is “zero tolerance for those who hide behind the peaceful protesters to incite riots, damage property, and hurt members of the public or our officers,” police added in a news release announcing the arrests.
Some protesters had been blocking police cars before the confrontation, news outlets reported. A video of the altercation from the Miami Herald shows several officers getting out of their car and tackling one protester to the ground while other officers push the crowd from the scene.
“We’ve been peaceful all week long and you just broke that peace,” Richard Dombroff, a demonstrator, told officers after the confrontation. Dombroff was given an award from county leaders for stopping people from damaging a convenience store during a protest in late May, WFOR-TV reported. Louis Hernandez, another demonstrator, said police had “came out and started brutally slamming protesters,” before the chaos ensued.
The Wednesday rally was originally organized to honor the death of an 18-year-old man, Israel “Reefa” Hernandez, who died after police used a stun gun on him in 2013, the Herald reported.
Statues of Columbus across the nation are often vandalized on Columbus Day in October as the 15th century explorer has become a polarizing figure. Native American advocates have also long pressed states to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day over concerns that Columbus spurred centuries of genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas.
The charges against the arrested men include incite to riot, battery against an officer, aggravated assault, criminal mischief, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.
https://cbs12.com/news/local/police-7-arrested-for-vandalizing-christopher-columbus-statue-in-miami
He now looks like a saint. This is how he really looks.
NYP Party Line: Federal Arrests Show No Sign that Antifa Plotted Protests
Father says suspect in deputy's shooting has mental illness
California authorities are hunting for a gunman who ambushed officers outside a police station and shot a sheriff's deputy in the head.
Updated: Thursday, June 11th 2020, 6:04 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The father of a man suspected of opening fire at a California police station, wounding a deputy with a shot to the face and killing a transient man in a separate shooting said his son has mental illnesses and refuses to take medication but has no particular animus toward law enforcement.
As hundreds of police officers searched Thursday for Mason James Lira, his father said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Jose Lira said his son often thinks he is a special agent or a solider and may believe he is under attack or in a war zone.
Although authorities have described the attack on the Paso Robles police station as an ambush, his father thinks it might have been a suicide attempt.
“He lives in a fantasy world," Jose Lira told The Associated Press. "He doesn’t have a beef with the police.”
Authorities have been hunting for Lira, 26, saying he shot at the downtown Paso Robles Police Department before dawn Wednesday. Officials later discovered the body of a man, who had been shot in the head at close range.
“It’s a wide-ranging, full-on, full-scale effort,” said Tony Cipolla, spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County sheriff.
https://www.wfmj.com/story/42238303/father-says-suspect-in-deputys-shooting-has-mental-illness
Heh. That would be a no. But he's a good egg.
Biden said he supported forcing Americans to pay for abortions. “It can’t stay,” Biden said of the Hyde amendment during an exchange with an ACLU activist earlier this month. The video of the exchange was posted by the ACLU on Twitter on May 8th
Here’s the transcript of that exchange between Biden and an ACLU activist [emphasis added]:
ACLU Activist: I’m an ACLU Rights For All voter, and I have one quick question for you. And that is: Will you commit to abolishing the Hyde amendment, which hurts poor women and—
Biden: Yes…. Yes. And by the way, ACLU member, I have a near-perfect voting record my entire career.
ACLU: I heard you did. But I’m glad you just said you would commit to abolishing the Hyde Amendment.
Biden: Right now it has to be… It can’t stay.
Biden clearly answered “yes” and “it can’t stay” when asked if he’d “commit to abolishing the Hyde amendment.”
Naturally, pro-life organizations called Biden out for his support for taxpayer-funded abortion on demand and for changing his position repeatedly.
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/06/11/donations-to-black-lives-matter-wind-up-in-pro-abortion-joe-bidens-presidential-campaign/