Free Republic

An Oklahoma teenager charged with killing an Australian college baseball player has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. District Court judge Ken Graham on Tuesday handed down the punishment to 18-year-old Chancey Allen Luna. A jury had convicted Luna of first-degree murder in shooting death of 22-year-old Christopher Lane. Lane was shot in the back while he was jogging in Duncan. Defense attorneys say Luna fired the shot, but only meant to scare Lane.

This Memorial Day weekend marked a historic uptick in violence in many U.S. cities. Three cities seem to symbolize our national woes the most—Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson. In Baltimore nine people were killed and 29 shot. Chicago marked 12 killed and 44 wounded. The police in Baltimore and the other cities seem to be moving with unprecedented caution. Further, self-initiated policing has slowed down significantly. The morale of law enforcement officers is at a decadal low. Therefore, both violent and petty crimes may flourish in several "hot spot" cities this summer. In Ferguson, sky rocketing crime rates continue despite greater...

It is not known exactly how Deng Manyoun entered the country, but he is believed to be a refugee from the Dinka tribe in south Sudan. Police in Louisville, Kentucky, are taking heat for the fatal shooting of an African immigrant from Sudan, who charged at an officer while swinging a metal flagpole just moments after he had allegedly assaulted a random woman on the street. The man, identified as 35-year-old Deng Manyoun, was staggering as if intoxicated when he ignored an officer’s command to drop the seven-foot flagpole. Officer Nathan Blanford, a 10-year veteran of the Louisville police force,...

Though he approached the issue in a calm, deliberate manner, one Florida sheriff ruffled more than a few feathers with his recent indictment of prevailing sentiments within the black community. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan began a recent video address by questioning the common practice of identifying blacks as African-American. “I am fourth generation Welsh,” he said. “I or my family do not pretend, nor do we say, we are Welsh-American. We are Americans. I was not born in Wales and the blacks that currently reside in the United States of America are not from Africa.” As for the grievances...

Police say an ice cream truck driver in Maryland was gunned down as he was selling treats to children and a suspect has been arrested. Frederick police say 22-year-old Brandon Brown was fatally shot Saturday afternoon at Lucas Village, a subsidized housing complex. Lt. Clark Pennington, a police spokesman, says Brown drove into the community playing music to announce his arrival. He says children were lined up to buy ice cream when Brown stepped out of the truck and was approached by a man who shot him in the chest. Brown died at the scene.

Heather McDonald’s Wall Street Journal op-ed “The New Nationwide Crime Wave” has exploded into the debate over police misconduct and criminal justice reform like a flash-bang grenade. It's been discussed on numerous talk radio and cable news shows, and it's been shared nearly 40,000 times on social media. It’s a story engineered to go viral: It has a terrifying premise (crime everywhere is spiraling out of control!), a topical news hook (it’s all because of protesters!), a partisan bad guy (it’s all liberals’ fault!), and a weapons-grade dose of confirmation bias. But there is no nationwide crime wave. It is...

“Black lives matter” became the slogan of the anti-police protests that followed the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Do they? Does yours? Parts of black America appear determined to destroy themselves—black men, that is, rather than black women, who graduate from university at twice the male rate and hold more full-time jobs. Call it genosuicide, the self-willed extinction of a people, and it happens all the time, especially when young men decide that to matter, they must assert themselves violently. There is nothing uniquely “black” about the inner-city catastrophe now unfolding in America, as some historical...

Police are investigating an armed home invasion, and a crash that followed in South Fargo. Lt. Joel Vettel says they are looking for two people of interest: Luke Goodridge and Isaac Nyemah. Police say Goodridge, Nyemah, and the others involved, are the same people who have been caught up in a street crime war for the past several days. Officers say following a home invasion, several people left in a car. People in the home jumped into another car and gave chase. That led up to the crash. At least two people involved in the home invasion jumped out of...

The choice is simple: equality and order under law or the rule of the mob The Statue of Liberty, that grande dame of Democracy who endless holds aloft freedom’s torch, must feel today more and more the burdens of Atlas, the mythical Greek Titan who held the whole world on his shoulders. This towering symbol of all things beautiful and uniquely American communicates these words of compassion: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This humanitarian ideal and these inspiring words on the statue’s pedestal—immortalized in the 1883 poem “The New Colossus” by Emma...

BALTIMORE A few Notes on Riots April 29, 2015 Rea L. Ginsberg, LCSW-C, ACSW, BCD **** The moment we cease to hold each other, The moment we break faith with one another, The sea engulfs us and the light goes out. – James Baldwin My town is on fire. Spreading now to Washington D.C., New York City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia. No wonder. This is not just a Baltimore problem. This is a USA problem. This is a worldwide problem. Long ago, I worked in those inflamed communities. I worked there for a year, 1966-67. When Dr. King was murdered in 1968...

Baltimore police arrested fewer people in May than in any month for at least three years, despite a surge in homicides and shootings across the city — triggering safety concerns among residents.. Several neighborhoods saw declines of more than 90 percent from April to May, while arrests in the West Baltimore area where Freddie Gray was arrested dropped by more than half during the same period, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of police data. Citywide, arrests declined 43 percent from April to May. "I've noticed fewer police," said Steve Dixon, program director for the Penn North Recovery Center in...

HOUSTON (AP) - Larry Gonzales was emerging from his Garda Cash Logistics armored truck to refill an ATM at a Houston-area Chase Bank in October 2013 when a man behind him demanded money. "People joke around with us," said Gonzales. "I didn't think this dude was actually serious. Next thing, I get shot in the back. Then I knew this was for real." The 28-year-old was shot six times and, despite multiple surgeries, still has a "lucky" bullet lodged in his chest. Gonzales' case is not unique. Federal statistics indicate Texas' largest city has become a hub for bank and...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Last night at Dallas police headquarters, a man opened fire on officers after planting bombs around the building which police later detonated. After a lengthy standoff and a barrage of bullets flying both ways, the gunman is dead and miraculously, no police were injured. What’s got social media abuzz with anger and disbelief is how CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield described the attacker: “It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the police headquarters.” If you’re disgusted, you’re not alone: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)[continued]

It is both apropos and undeniably tragic the NAACP would hire a white female pretending to be a black activist long before they would ever allow a black conservative to lead any of their chapters. After 50 years of failed Democratic promises and the shameless exploitation ploys of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, imagine how much progress could be made if Allen West, Thomas Sowell, David Clarke and Dr. Ben Carson guided their ranks? The black community doesn't need "yes" men, race baiters and endless victimization propaganda. They need fearless leaders who believe in tough love, accountability, and above all...

The Rev. Michael Pfleger was cheered, booed, heckled and given a standing ovation at St. George Catholic Church in Tinley Park. And that was all in reaction to a speech urging everyone to join together to stop the killing of children on the streets of Chicago and throughout the United States. Makes you wonder what the reaction would have been if his topic had actually been something controversial.. Pfleger always sparks controversy. The priest, who has made his home base of St. Sabina Parish in Chicago a stopping-off point for national political leaders and Hollywood celebrities, has a knack for...

The Obama Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is working on new regulations that would tie federal aid to the placement of low-income public housing within white suburbs. HUD Secretary Julian Castro explained that “ensuring diversity in every community is a key goal of this Administration. People on welfare shouldn’t be denied the right to live in nice communities just because there is no affordable housing available. Likewise, racists shouldn’t be allowed to insulate themselves from having neighbors of color merely by moving into areas with expensive housing.” A possible fringe benefit for whites under this initiative, according...

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, addressed race and the criminal justice system during a stop this week in Baltimore. He spoke at a Maryland Republican fundraiser in Baltimore about racial disparities in law enforcement practices. Paul drew criticism last month in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, who died after being injured while in police custody, and the riots that followed in Baltimore. At the time, Paul did a controversial interview with radio host Laura Ingraham during which he said some factors that influenced the violence were “the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the...

Steven Lemmerman, who DJs under the name DJ Lemz, and his partner Stuart Parlier were walking home from a drag show at Baltimore Soundstage last night when they were attacked at the corner of Charles and Fayette streets. "We were having a little fun walking back from the show," Lemmerman said in a phone interview this morning. "I was strutting and dancing in the crosswalk when this guy gunned his engine and tried to hit me. I tapped his hood with my palm and he rushed out of the car and went after Stuart first, which means to me that...

IONIA COUNTY, MI - Surveillance footage shows a woman being run over by John Calley's SUV as he pulls out of an Ionia County gas station, police say. The footage, obtained from the Ionia County Prosecutor's Office, gives a glimpse into the Jan. 28 hit-and-run, which resulted in charges being filed against Calley, the brother of Lt. Gov. Brian Calley. The incident took place at about 5 p.m. at a Pilot gas station, 7205 S. State Road, about 12 miles south of Ionia. The video shows Calley and a 24-year-old female friend pull up to the gas station. He went...

A local pool manager has decided that taking video or photographs at the public pool is banned. Is this allowed?