Free Republic

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's office has fired back at a defense argument that she should be removed from prosecuting six city police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray because of conflicts of interest, saying in a strongly-worded rebuttal the officers and their attorneys are distorting facts in the hope that "vitriol will trump logic.". The officers' attorneys have argued for weeks that Mosby and her office should be recused from the high-profile case because of conflicts of interest — including that Mosby could become a "central witness" in the case because her office communicated with...

Why do black lives only seem to matter when white people take them? Why does the president of the United States think it’s proper to take a horrible racial tragedy in Charleston South Carolina as an excuse to bash America as the violence capital of the “advanced” world, and a prop for Democrats’ lust for gun control legislation in a state that already has it? Last year 82 people were shot over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago. 16 of them died. The victims and the shooters were black.

I realize we’ve been hitting the South Carolina shooting and the disgusting, racist criminal who allegedly perpetrated the murders rather often since yesterday morning. Unfortunately, nothing as serious and tragic as this can unfold in America today without immediately becoming mired in multiple levels of political muck, generally before the first facts are even verified. In this case, the process continued well into the evening and will surely roll forward in the weeks to come. One aspect of the church shooting, however, seemed to offer at least a slim ray of hope in an otherwise dismal day. A consortium of...

While the corrupt media focuses on 9 shot in South Carolina, 11 were shot 3 dead in Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia Guess who was doing the shooting?

The senator from Kentucky continues to takes the road less traveled through the GOP primaries.Sen. Rand Paul took a risk Thursday. Speaking to an audience of religious conservatives in the wake of a racially charged shooting in South Carolina, Paul delicately suggested that Republicans might want to start focusing on other parts of the Bill of Rights than the Second Amendment. "Everybody is for the Second Amendment. All 55 candidates running for president are for the Second Amendment—on our side," Paul told the crowd. "But the thing is that a lot of young people, that might not be their primary...

The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article —...

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Maryland officials are eyeing a $2.9 billion light rail project long in the works for Baltimore as a way of combating the crushing poverty that fueled rioting in the city after the police-custody death of Freddie Gray. Backers say the proposed Red Line light rail project could speed city residents to jobs and help end the isolation of poor neighborhoods, some of which still bear the scars of race riots in the 1960s...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A war of words plays out between Baltimore’s mayor and the union that represents city police. The union wants to know–did Stephanie Rawlings-Blake order police to stand down during violent riots that injured more than 100 officers. Christie Ileto with the tense exchange. Keeping the peace in Baltimore has been a struggle since April 27–both on the streets and now among city leaders–where a very public dispute is brewing between police brass, the union and the mayor. No one was prepared when tensions boiling exploded at Mondawmin Mall before sweeping the city. “They should have had all...

Our team arrived the day after Freddie Gray’s funeral—after watching Baltimore on fire the night before. High school kids had clashed with police, and a CVS at the corner of Pennsylvania and North Avenues was looted and burned—an image that would quickly be seared into the national consciousness. By the time we got to that intersection the next day, people were cleaning up the CVS. The mood was one of healing. People were playing music, dancing in the streets, and trying to get back on their feet and grapple with what had happened the night before—and to process an anger...

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus criticized Baltimore's efforts to disconnect water service for unpaid bills in a letter Monday that was focused primarily on utility privatization in Nigeria.. City officials announced in March they were sending shut-off notices to about 25,000 customers who owed a collective $40 million in overdue bills. The move prompted some activists to call for a moratorium on shut-offs in the city...

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.

Sunday, June 14, 2015 The Democrats Have the Worst Presidential Candidates in America Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog 15 And it’s true that the Republican Party is burdened with a surplus of overqualified candidates with name recognition; successful governors, smart young senators and even a celebrated surgeon and CEO. Meanwhile the Democratic Party’s “inevitable” candidate is inevitably generating financial scandals faster than her husband generated his inevitable sex scandals. Competing against her is Senator Bernie Sanders who is currently discussing 90 percent tax rates and why he believes women want to be raped. His winning campaign...

In the wake of months of unrest and a record month of murders, Baltimore may be a tough sell to potential vacationers as a destination for care-free summer fun. That won't stop hotels, restaurants, attractions and city officials in Charm City, who insist they are up for the challenge. For Baltimore's economy, the stakes are high. About 80,000 local jobs are dependent on the tourism industry, and close to 24 million tourists visited the city and spent $5.15 billion in 2013, a 2.2 percent increase in visitor spending over the year before.

The headline pretty much says it all.Only six people turned out for the relaunch the Royal Pantsuit's campaign speech in Iowa. One of them was a paid staff member. Average age was about 80. "Looking kind of pitiful. Meanwhile, Bernie the Marxist is trolling for votes in Iowa at the same time and pulling in crowds numbering in the hundreds. No word on the whereabouts of the other serious Democratic contender.

‘Bloody Sunday’ is a moment forever etched in the history of the civil rights movement in America. What should have been a peaceful march for the rights of blacks to vote without hindrance became a gruesome scene of police brutality on display. Edmund Pettus Bridge - Selma Alabama State police force marchers to turn around at a March 1965 civil rights protest (Photo: Wikimedia) The images of police battering protestors on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama gave the world a picture of the high price people would pay for human rights. With the widespread popularity of the Oscar-winning film...

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...

Hillary Clinton's Saturday campaign reboot isn't just her first public rally. Coming a day after President Obama suffered an embarrassing legislative defeat, it is a changing of the guard for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: while House Republicans also voted overwhelmingly against the president on a key trade bill Friday, it was his fellow Democrats who handed him the most stinging rebuke. Just 40 Democrats out of 188 voted with Obama. Nearly 80 percent of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, went against him. A mere two of the 10 Democrats representing Obama's home state of Illinois in...

So who’s waiting in the wings with a humongous bankroll and a proven history of enforcing the type of big-government policies the Democrat faithful love? Click to the next page to find out. …when that time finally comes, and the inevitable euthanasia of Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions finally materializes, it won’t be Sanders who benefits. Nor will the other Lilliputian Democrat hopefuls, like Jim Webb, Lincoln Chaffee or Martin O’Malley. It’s going to be Mike Bloomberg.

I’m a Democrat and I am very concerned about the upcoming presidential election. Our country’s ability to tackle all kinds of inequality—racial, gender, economic and the list goes on—largely hinges on the outcome of the 2016 election, and on whether or not Democrats prevail. I want to make clear that I don’t think all Republicans are completely misguided, just many of them, such as union-bashing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and polarizing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and thuggish New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Moderates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio—although too far to the right on many issues for me—at...

(PHTO MONTAGE AT LINK) Spokane NAACP ‎@SpokaneNAACP Spokane NAACP President Dolezal meeting up with Marilyn Mosby, who will be attending the #NAACP2015AnnualConvention 1:55 PM - 22 May 2015 Things were going better for Rachel Dolezal, the white NAACP leader who was pretending to be black while apparently faking hate crimes against herself, and Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore State’s Attorney who attended to make her career by wrongly indicting six police officers of different races in the death of drug dealer Freddie Gray. Dolezal was outed as a fraud by her parents. She claimed that lying about being black was fine...