Free Republic

Inflation poses severe challenges for emerging market economies. The latest example is in Peru, where social unrest spreads across the country, forcing the government to impose a curfew in the capital, Lima, on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “The cabinet has agreed to declare a ban on the mobility of citizens from 2 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. of Tuesday, April 5, to protect the fundamental rights of all people,” Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said in a live broadcast last night. The South American country was already struggling before commodity prices jumped to record highs because of the Ukraine invasion and virus...

WASHINGTON — A white National Guard commander called the standoff in Lafayette Square “the Alamo,” implying that the White House was under siege. Black members of the D.C. Guard objected to turning on their neighbors. Army leaders told pilots to “flood the box with everything we have” as two helicopters buzzed protesters in the streets. The National Guard is now engaged in an investigation of the havoc a week ago Monday in downtown Washington, similar to after-the-fact examinations more common to battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. There will be questions, interviews and competing narratives.

An Indiana man has been sentenced to ten years in prison for participating in a riot in Portland, Oregon in 2020 during which he threw Molotov cocktails at police officers. Malik Muhammed pleaded guilty this week to 14 felony charges related to the Portland rioting and will have to pay $200,000 in restitution along with serving 10 years in prison, according to a statement from Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt. “On September 5, 2020, Muhammed constructed multiple Molotov cocktails. He then brought those explosive devices, along with baseball bats, to a planned protest event that evening at the East...

Panama City Beach, FL – Over 160 people were arrested and at least 75 illegal guns were seized by police after a mob of violent criminals descended on the popular beachside community of Panama City Beach over the weekend, according to police. Traffic was gridlocked and multiple businesses closed up shop over the weekend as the riotous group tore through the town, WBMM reported. A frenzy of social media posts from concerned residents and visitors soon followed, to include complaints of people jumping on cars and causing chaos in local businesses. Pedestrians struggled to get down the sidewalks due to...

What happened to Seattle? The answer, of course, depends on your politics. In the news section of the Seattle Times, for instance, a reader is unlikely to see any consideration of a link between policing and public safety. “No single cause for 2021’s surge in gunfire in Seattle,” declared a typical recent headline over an article that points only to possibilities such as the pandemic or an unlucky cycle of “retaliatory violence”. But the majority view in Seattle appears to have shifted toward an acknowledgement that the unrest and destruction that occurred after the killing of George Floyd in 2020...

In the last 48 hours, three men died in different parts of Sri Lanka while waiting in line for fuel. Two were in their seventies, and one had long-standing health problems. The third man reached the end of the line and managed to fill three cans, only to collapse as he was carrying the third can to his vehicle. The men died before they could be taken to hospitals. The long hours of waiting proved too much for their frail bodies. Many others like them have fainted in queues for fuel and food across the island nation. The desperate lines...

In the Jewish town of Kedumim in Samaria, residents were forced to close themselves in their homes due to severe air pollution from the nearby Arab village, Kafr Qaddum. For over a decade, violent riots have taken place in Kafr Qaddum, especially on weekends. The riots receive the support of local anarchists. On Saturday afternoon, the Arabs burned a large amount of tires, and residents of Kedumim, who suffer through the riots each weekend, were forced to remain inside and close their doors and windows. "This is an outrageous and abnormal existence," the town said. "[Central Command Commander] Major General...

Jurors on Friday found police used excessive force against protesters, violating their constitutional rights, during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd two years ago, ordering the city to pay a total of $14 million in damages to a group of 12 who sued. The jury of two men and six women, largely white and drawn from around Colorado, returned its verdict after about four hours of deliberations. The verdict followed three weeks of testimony and evidence that included police and protester video of incidents. Lawyers involved believed it was the first trial in a lawsuit challenging officer tactics during...

With commodity costs hitting daily record highs, and food prices far surpassing levels seen in the historic 2011 as a result of the collapse of Russian and Ukrainian food exports…… and Russia’s upcoming fertilizer trade ban… … an ever louder question on the lips of geopolitical strategists is when, not if, global protests over food will re-emerge and begin toppling unstable – or perhaps stable – governments across the world in a rerun of the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 when widespread public outrage started as a result of surging food prices.Iraqis demonstrate to denounce rising prices of basic food...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Three former Minneapolis police officers have been convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man was handcuffed and facedown on the street on May 25, 2020. Thao and Lane were also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin. The videotaped killing sparked protests in Minneapolis that spread around the globe as part of reckoning over racial injustice....

The‘Black Lives Matter,’ the organization and slogan that trumps every argument, is now explicitly owned by Democrats. According to recent filings as reported by The Washington Examiner, Marc Elias, a Democrat lawyer known for funding the bogus Steele dossier while he was general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, looks to be representing BLM’s Global Network Foundation through his law firm. Additionally, Minyon Moore, a top Clinton ally, is now on BLM’s board of directors. In other words, the corrupt Democrat establishment has effectively taken over a major left-wing organization committed to radical left-wing policies and race-hustling. This might not...

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) issued several dispersal orders and an unlawful assembly after the LA Rams took home a triumphant win in the Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, as “large, violent and destructive” crowds became uncontrollable in the heart of downtown, according to the LAPD. “There are a group of individuals that have refused to leave since the first dispersal orders were given,” LAPD spokeswoman Meghan Aguilar told The Epoch Times at approximately 11:25 p.m. “At this time we’re just trying to disperse the crowd and arrest anyone that committed criminal acts tonight.” LAPD first issued a...

The LAPD declared an unlawful assembly Sunday night after “violent and destructive” Los Angeles Rams fans wreaked havoc on downtown streets following the team’s Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. The celebration turned chaotic near 11th and Hope streets when fans lit fireworks inside a city bus and festooned the outside with graffiti, according to Los Angeles Times reporter Kevin Rector.

Rebecca Brannon describes herself as an independent photojournalist covering Minnesota politics, protests, and riots. Rebecca has the nerve to do much of her reporting from the inside. If I have the chronology right, Rebecca got inside the “two hour black bloc Antifa protest” on Lake Street in Minneapolis, and the perpetrators are not happy about it. They don’t really want the exposure. Say this for the Star Tribune. The paper’s nonfeasance is appreciated. Indeed, the Star Tribune’s nonfeasance is a critical component of the bizarre hellworld that Minneapolis has become. Below I have compiled Rebecca’s tweets on Friday night’s “protest”...

Only two recent retired officers among 81 contacted by Police Chief Chuck Lovell have expressed interest in helping fill Portland police vacancies under the city-approved retire-rehire program. The chief urged them to consider returning in a letter last month, acknowledging that those who had retired since August 2020 left “at a time of great despair for the Bureau and the City of Portland.” The Police Bureau is now rebuilding with support from elected officials and residents, Lovell wrote, and urged the retirees to help this “once vibrant city come back to life.” ... Stephanie D. Hudson, who worked as an...

May 28, 2020, the Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, suffered damage due to fire and vandalism...Surveillance cameras inside the school captured footage of ABDI and another individual intentionally setting a fire in the cafeteria. The footage shows ABDI reaching through a broken glass door and pouring a clear liquid from a white container on the floor of the cafeteria. ABDI then entered the cafeteria and poured more clear liquid onto the floor and into a trashcan. ABDI ignited a fire in the trashcan using a liquid-soaked garment... I wonder what the penalty for arson in Somali might...

Interview with investigative journalist Taylor Hanson

Interview with investigative journalist Taylor Hanson.

The U.S. federal prison system was placed on lockdown nationwide following a deadly incident at a Texas prison, officials said Monday. “Multiple inmates were observed fighting at the United States Penitentiary Beaumont” in Texas, said the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a news release. Prison staff then “immediately secured the area” but found inmate Guillermo Riojas and inmate Andrew Pineda with life-threatening injuries, prison officials said. They were transported to a nearby hospital, where they were both pronounced dead, the bureau said. Meanwhile, it added, “Two additional inmates were transported to a local hospital for further medical assessment and treatment.”...

According to court documents, on May 28, 2020, Montez Terriel Lee, 26, along with others, broke into the Max It Pawn Shop on East Lake Street in Minneapolis. Surveillance video footage showed Lee pouring a fire accelerant around the pawn shop and lighting the accelerant on fire. The fire destroyed the building. A second video showed Lee standing in front of the burning pawn shop and Lee could be heard saying, “[expletive] this place. We’re gonna burn this [expletive] down.”