Free Republic

Government officials are calling for calm ahead of the planned nationwide protests over the Tyre Nichols bodycam footage, which will be released tonight, as the Georgia governor activated 1,000 National Guard troops and Capitol Hill amped up security. Many cities, including Memphis and New York City, are gearing up to protest after the gruesome footage, which has been described as worse than Rodney King, on the Memphis Police Department's YouTube page at 7pm. Police are releasing the footage later a night to allow people to get home beforehand. Nichols, 29, was brutally beaten like a 'human piñata' by five Memphis,...

Detroit’s school board has voted to remove Dr. Ben Carson’s name from a district school, citing Carson’s involvement with the Trump administration. Benjamin Carson High School of Medicine and Science will be renamed after a poll that revealed 80% of the 1,500 people polled agreed the name should be changed. Dr. Carson told The National Desk he is not surprised by the move. “Cancel culture is alive and well. It’s infiltrating. Political correctness, wokeness, cancel culture, this is going to destroy us as a nation if we don’t get a grip on it.” Dr. Carson grew up in a Detroit...

Kanye West continues to create outrage. The outspoken rapper contended in a new interview that George Floyd died of the drug fentanyl, and not from the actions of the Minnesota police officer who was convicted of his murder. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” West claimed on Sunday’s episode of the Revolt TV show “Drink Champs.” West, 45, made the claim after saying he recently attended the premiere of “Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM,” a documentary by conservative commentator Candace Owens....

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to more than 20 years on federal charges in George Floyd's killing. He is already jailed on state murder charges.

Thomas Lane, one of the former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's killing, has pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, according to the Minnesota attorney general. State Attorney General Keith Ellison said the plea agreement reached with Lane represents an "important step toward healing the wounds of the Floyd family, our community, and the nation." Lane, 38, had been scheduled to go to trial next month in state court along with his former Minneapolis police colleagues J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao. All three defendants were convicted in February by a federal jury on charges of violating George Floyd's civil...

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will receive 20 to 25 years in prison after a judge accepted a plea deal he struck with prosecutors in December. In December, Chauvin pleaded guilty to charges of violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck, killing him. In exchange, Chauvin agreed a sentencing between 20 to 25 years in prison. Chauvin’s decision to enter a plea deal came after initially rejecting another plea offer in September.

111 Votes From John McNulty.. “I watched the Democratic leaders of Congress kneel in the halls of Congress for about 9 minutes, for the death of a black man named George Floyd. I have never seen them kneel for a fallen *Police Officer. I have never seen them kneel for a fallen *Soldier. I NEVER SAW THEM KNEEL FOR THE *SOLDIERS THAT HILLARY & OBAMA LEFT TO DIE IN Benghazi!! I have never seen them kneel for the thousands of (black and white) *babies aborted EVERY DAY. I have never seen them kneel for a murdered *white man or woman....

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A toxicologist testified Wednesday at the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights that it wasn’t drug use, heart disease nor an agitated state known as “excited delirium” that caused Floyd’s death after officers pinned him to the pavement in May 2020. Dr. Vik Bebarta, an emergency physician and toxicologist and professor at the University of Colorado in suburban Denver, bolstered the prosecution’s contention that Floyd died because of how Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee down on the Black man’s neck. Bebarta said he concluded that Floyd “died...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — George Floyd died because his breathing was restricted as he was restrained while handcuffed and facedown, a lung expert testified Monday at the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights. Dr. David Systrom, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said Floyd’s upper airway was compressed by Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, while his position on the hard asphalt with his hands cuffed behind his back did not allow his lungs to expand, cutting off the flow of oxygen. “Oxygen delivered to the...

A spokesperson confirmed the painting, which uses an artistic style known as a Pietà to depict a Black Virgin Mary cradling Jesus’ body after his Crucifixion, was stolen on Sunday.WASHINGTON (RNS) — A second painting of Jesus and his mother, Mary, in which Jesus is widely thought to be depicted as George Floyd, has been stolen from the walls of the Catholic University of America’s law school. The painting, which sits outside the chapel at CUA’s Columbus Law School, replaced an identical, larger version of the same painting that was also stolen last month after it was highlighted in conservative...

Two new pieces of art are on display at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., that depict George Floyd as Jesus Christ laying in the arms of the Virgin Mary, is spark criticism from at least some students. The paintings (pictured below) bare resemblance to many similar depictions of Jesus with Mary after being taken down from the cross. The works were created by Kelly Latimore and a note hanging below the painting reads, "Following the violent death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, Latimore created this Icon in June of that year. Thee image is evocative...

Local media reports that the “north Toledo mural has been reduced to rubble” after reportedly being struck by lightning. Fire and rescue responded to the previous site of the mural, but were unable to render aid to the collapsed wall featuring Floyd’s face. “A witness who saw the wall fold told TFRD they had seen a lightning bolt strike the building,” local media reported. “The department later confirmed the strike to be the cause of the collapse.” Video indicates the mural was created on July 10, 2020, meaning the idol to George Floyd lasted just over one year before being...

A mural of the late Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd has been struck by lightning and has collapsed. Eyewitnesses confirmed that nobody was near the mural when it was struck nor when its pieces fell to the ground. The Toledo mural, completed in June 2020, was struck by lightning in the middle of the day on Tuesday, leaving a charred wall where Floyd’s face was before. It was a direct hit; artwork to the left and right of the mural appeared unblemished.

A mural of the late Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd has been struck by lightning and has collapsed. Eyewitnesses confirmed that nobody was near the mural when it was struck nor when its pieces fell to the ground. The Toledo mural, completed in June 2020, was struck by lightning in the middle of the day on Tuesday, leaving a charred wall where Floyd’s face was before. It was a direct hit; artwork to the left and right of the mural appeared unblemished.

Teen plans to sue LI school district for refusing to publish her George Floyd poem A Long Island teen plans to sue her predominantly white school district for $2 million — for refusing to publish her poem about the police-custody death of George Floyd in its literary magazine. Administrators at Port Jefferson’s Vandermeulen High School in Suffolk County banned 10th-grader Ruby Ray’s sonnet “in order to please, protect, promote, placate and defend white racism in Respondents’ school and community, and white racism in general,” alleges the notice of claim filed Tuesday by her family, who are white.

Bystanders at the Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd died ducked for cover Tuesday as gunshots rang out nearby, taking shelter briefly. No immediate injuries were reported. An Associated Press journalist shooting video at 38th and Chicago reported hearing as many as 30 gunshots about a block east of the intersection, and said a storefront window appeared to have been broken by a gunshot. “Very quickly things got back to normal,” Philip Crowther, the AP journalist, said. “People here who spend a significant amount of time, the organizers, were running around asking, ‘Does anyone need a medic?’ It seems like there...

Months before George Floyd died on the evening of Oct. 15, 2019, in San Diego downtown a 24-year-old Angel Zapata Hernandez died while handcuffed and restrained at the hands of two Metropolitan Transit Service security workers, one of whom knelt on his neck for six minutes and seven seconds. There was no media outrage because he probably had the wrong skin color. For weeks during the pandemic spring and summer of 2020, thousands of San Diego residents and BLM/Antifa members took to the streets around the county, protesting racial injustice and police misconduct in the wake of the May 25...

A year after 20-year-old U.S. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen was reported missing from Fort Hood in Texas, her family appealed to President Biden on Thursday to make good on his campaign promises by joining in their fight to end sexual violence in the military and backing a newly introduced bill named for the slain soldier. Natalie Khawam, an attorney representing the family, contrasted how Guillen’s case and that of George Floyd were handled after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted this week for the murder and manslaughter of Floyd last May. "Our country stands today begging for Congress,...

White people wanting to visit George Floyd Square, the intersection where the 46-year-old Black man died last May, will need to heed special instructions.The intersection of E. 38th Street and Chicago Avenue – where a bystander recorded the now-famous video that showed then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck – was converted into a memorial and renamed George Floyd Square shortly after his death.