Baltimore Six Trial Update – As many readers expected, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals Chief Judge Peter B. Krauser placed an immediate “stay” on an earlier ruling by Baltimore Judge Williams which was forcing officer William Porter to testify in the case against officer Caesar Goodson.

The higher court “stayed Judge William’s ruling”. That means the Williams order is temporarily suspended until the higher court can make a ruling determining if the decision violates Porter’s constitutional rights.

[…]  The order does not call for the trial of Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. to be postponed as the matter is worked out. Jury selection is scheduled for Monday. (link)

Judge Williams was so far beyond wrong in his judicial decision, driven entirely by ideology, it is intensely doubtful the full appeals court would/will allow such an obvious violation of Porter’s fifth amendment right.

The Police Chief of Cologne Germany has been told to fall on his sword in an effort to avoid further awkward sunlight upon the political correctness of German officials.

GERMANY – […]  Police chief Wolfgang Albers, 60, was informed by state interior minister Ralf Jaeger that he would be given early retirement on Friday. He confirmed the news in a statement.

“As Cologne police chief I have always regarded my work as a service for the Cologne police and people of Cologne. And [that role] also means to take responsibility in difficult times,” Albers said.

“I accept the facts that in current discussions, officers and myself have come under fire. But police officers who were on duty near the Cologne railway station on New Year’s Eve do not deserve this criticism,” he added. (more…)

The suspect has now reportedly given a full confession, telling police he carried out the attack in the name of Islam. (link)

Mugshot – Edward Archer (30)

WEST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Surveillance images of a man shooting and seriously injuring a Philadelphia police officer in an ambush late Thursday night have been obtained by ABC News.

The black-and-white images show the suspect, dressed in what sources say is Muslim garb and wearing a mask, approaching the driver’s side window of Officer Jesse Hartnett’s cruiser around 11:40 p.m.

One image shows the man pointing a gun at the officer’s vehicle, while another shows what appears to be the muzzle flash as he fires. (more…)

These two semi-related arrests are examples of the concerns many have expressed for quite some time.   Both of these arrests are from Mid-East migrants who entered the U.S. under “refugee status”, both Muslim males in their late-teens when they gained entry….

(Via CNN) U.S. federal authorities arrested two refugees on terror-related charges Thursday. The arrests in Sacramento and Houston did not appear to be directly related, but the cases had several similarities.

Both men were Palestinians born in Iraq and living as refugees in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department. And both of them are accused of lying to immigration officials about their alleged ties to terrorist organizations. (more…)

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair previously gave testimony to an investigative panel of Parliament regarding the decision-making in/around the 2011 overthrow of Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi.  Blair was acting as an intermediary trying to resolve the crisis.  As a result of that testimony a transcript of a February 25th, 2011, phone call has also been released.

It is important to remember on the date of this phone call, the U.S. decision to intervene in Libya was very much undecided.   U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was working with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K Prime Minister David Cameron.

President Obama was specifically, and at the time, notoriously, absent from publicly commenting one-way or the other.  Pressure was building on the White House to weigh in on the Libyan issue.  The interventionist activity was the original construct of Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and Senior White House adviser Samantha Powers. (more…)

Well, we can put the entire question about whether Judge Barry Williams is an “activist judge” to rest.  This ruling is a direct contradiction to the 5th Amendment and an accused person’s right not to testify in trial.  The state cannot force a defendant to accept immunity.

Officer Porter’s trial ended in a “mistrial” (hung jury); as a consequence, the prosecution has announced their intent to re-try Porter later in the year which means any testimony he gives can/will be used against him at a later trial date; despite the judge saying the prosecution cannot use such testimony – it becomes impossible testimony to parse.

In addition the federal DOJ has previously announced their intentions to investigate/charge based on civil rights violations, so any testimony carries an additional overture of concern with future prosecution.

Judge Barry Williams says he finds himself in “uncharted territory”.  Really?  Not-so-much, the law is very clear on this matter.   It would not be surprising if an appellate court strikes down this judicial decision as clearly outside the bounds of legal authority.

(Via Baltimore Sun ) Baltimore Judge Barry G. Williams ordered that Officer William Porter be compelled to testify at the upcoming trial of a fellow Baltimore Police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a ruling Porter’s defense attorneys said they would immediately seek an injunction to block.

Williams said he found himself in “uncharted territory” as he granted Porter a type of immunity that allows his charges to stand but which precludes his testimony from being used against him. Attorneys and legal observers agreed that such a ruling against a co-defendant was a first in Maryland. (more…)

An eyewitness account by Ivan Jurcevic, a hotel club bouncer, about what happened on 31st of December 2015 in front of the cologne cathedral (Kölner Dom). Western media coverage started only after countless women and girls posted how they were chased by the immigrant mob and sexually assaulted, on a official facebook page of cologne, Germany.

(more…)

To many of us it might seem like bizarro world, but in Cologne Germany it appears the preferred method of dealing with hoards of Islamist “refugees” attacking the female population is to request the women citizens be more compliant and accepting of societal change… or something.

The female Mayor of Cologne, Hemriette Reker, obviously does not want to face the politically incorrect approach of enforcing laws to prevent the rapey tendencies of their Islamist guests. Preferring instead to address German women with behavioral instructions intended to provide a less offensive sexual assault experience.  Perhaps these instructions could best be considered “the Lara Logan Rules”….

(Via UK Independent) The Mayor of Cologne said today that women should adopt a “code of conduct” to prevent future assault at a crisis meeting following the sexual attack of women by 1000 men on New Year’s eve.

Mayor Henriette Reker attended an emergency meeting with Chief of Police Wolfgang Albers and Wolfgang Wurm to discuss how to deal with the attack, where dozens of women were repeatedly touched and groped, with one case of alleged rape in the center of town.

“It is important to prevent such incidents from ever happening again,” said Mayor Reker, as reported in German by RP Online. “We have heard by now that they [the attacks] have occurred in other cities. This of course is not comforting to us.”

Hamburg also received complaints of sexual assaults. (more…)

Pay close attention to the official wording tomorrow from the White House.  Will it be an “Executive Order“, or will it be called an “Executive Action“, there is a profound difference.

♦ “Executive orders” are those dictatorial fiats from the White House that contain an origin, at least as regarded by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), founded in law.

♦ “Executive actions” are the term-two preferences of President Obama and constitute dictatorial fiats that are not constitutionally based, not legal, not supported by the OLC, and will not eventually hold up under legal challenge.  The key word is “eventually”.

If called an executive order, that means the office of legal counsel (OLC) has affirmed to President Obama his intended activity is legally within his authority.  However, if the White House repeatedly calls it an executive action, that means it’s purely a political decision without OLC approval, regarding constitutional authority, and will likely not pass legal challenge.

The details are currently sketchy but here’s a few early reports of what to expect:

Via The Hill […] The president will issue a long-anticipated policy that expands the definition of a licensed gun dealer to those who sell firearms at gun shows and online, the White House announced Monday. (more…)

It would appear Mayor Stephanie “space-to-destroy” Rawlings-Blake ended up with more human destruction than originally intended; or, perhaps not.

BALTIMORE SUN – Blood was shed in Baltimore at an unprecedented pace in 2015, with mostly young, black men shot to death in a near-daily crush of violence.

On a per-capita basis, the year was the deadliest ever in the city. The year’s tally of 344 homicides was second only to the record 353 in 1993, when Baltimore had about 100,000 more residents.

The killings were on pace with recent years in the early months of 2015 but skyrocketed after the unrest and rioting of late April. In five of the next eight months, killings topped 30 or 40 a month. (more…)