ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

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LGBTQ Activist And President of Georgia Tech’s Pride Alliance Killed By Police

 

An engineering student who was an LGBTQ activist was shot and killed by Georgia Tech campus police on Saturday night, officials said Sunday.

The school identified the victim as Scout Schultz, 21, a fourth-year engineering student from Lilburn, Georgia, who police said was armed with a knife. Schultz, president of Georgia Tech’s Pride Alliance, identified as non-binary and intersex and preferred to be referred to with they/them gender pronouns, according to the alliance’s website.

At a news conference Monday, Schultz’s family’s attorney said the student was experiencing a “mental breakdown” on the night of the shooting.

“What was Scout doing that day?” said the attorney, L. Chris Stewart. “Standing there disoriented, having a mental breakdown and was shot from 20 feet away.”

I self identify as a lizard today

Police made contact Saturday with Schultz outside a campus parking garage after they received a 911 call at 11:17 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The original call reported that Schultz was also carrying a gun, officials said.

In a video taken by a witness, Schultz can be heard yelling “Shoot me!” at police, as they give orders to drop the knife.

“Nobody wants to hurt you,” an officer says in the video.

But as Schultz continued to ignore the officers’ commands and stepped forward with the knife, a single shot rang out, and Schultz’s screams could be heard. He died later at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Stewart said that Schultz was holding a multipurpose tool, which contained pliers, a screwdriver and a “tiny, little knife.” He added that the knife was never exposed during the altercation.

“We don’t understand why Georgia Tech won’t admit that,” Stewart said.

The officer who pulled the trigger wasn’t identified, and it was unclear whether any disciplinary action would be taken.

“That’s one of the biggest problems in this county is officer’s actions with the mentally ill,” Stewart said, adding that more training needs to be implemented for police officers.

William Schultz, Scout’s father, called his son “the greatest kid.” When asked what he would say to the officer who shot Scout, William Schultz said: “Why did you have to shoot? That’s the question. That’s the only question that matters now.”

William Schultz added that his child had a 3.9 GPA and planned to graduate in December.

“Scout wanted to make new medical devices, and now we’ll never know what Scout might have come up with,” Scout’s mother, Lynne, said.

His parents said Scout had gone through counseling in the past and suffered from depression, but they were unaware of any current issues.

The family is hoping a civil suit and an investigation into the shooting will give them answers to the questions surrounding the student’s death. They said that Georgia Tech’s campus police currently don’t carry tasers, and they said they hope their child’s death might bring about policy change.

As the family mourned, Georgia Tech’s Pride Alliance mourned its leader, saying in a statement that Scout Schultz’s “leadership allowed us to create change across campus and in the Atlanta community.”

“Scout always reminded us to think critically about the intersection of identities and how a multitude of factors play into one’s experience on Tech’s campus and beyond,” the group said.

The Georgia Tech Progressive Student Alliance called Schultz “a constant fighter for human rights” and said it planned to place flowers and memorabilia in the West Village section of campus, but it declined to comment on Schultz’s death itself.

Meanwhile, the school offered students its condolences and made counselors available. It also shared the number for the Georgia Crisis and Access Line, which makes social workers and counselors available 24 hours per day.

“Scout’s sudden and tragic death today has been devastating news for the Schultz family, classmates, and for members of the community who knew Scout personally, the shock and grief are particularly acute,” Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students John Stein said in a statement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-tech-student-activist-shot-dead-campus-police-n802146

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Police Have A Safe Space For Looter In St. Louis: The Jail Cell

St. Louis erupted in more violent protests overnight since the acquittal of a white police officer charged with murdering a black man after a car chase.

For the second day protesters took to the streets, facing off against a line of cops in riot gear. Looters and vandals smashed mom and pop store fronts.

One teen threw cement rocks at officers. On Friday nine officers had been injured in connection with the riots.

Former officer Jason Stockley was acquitted Friday of first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges for the 2011 killing of Anthony Lamar Smith.

Missouri governor Eric Greitens (R) warned protesters against violence.

“We had leaders who wanted to give people a safe space to loot and to burn,” Greitens told Fox News. “Now in Missouri if you loot the only safe space you’re going to have is in a jail cell.”

“If you’re going to riot we’re going to cuff you,” he continued. “Violence and vandalism is not protest. It is a crime”

Police made 43 arrests in two days, and more protests are expected throughout Sunday.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/09/17/protests-st-louis-missouri-governor-safe-space-looters-jail-cell

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Is The White House Or The Intelligent Community Leaking Information?

 

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said someone leaked information about his call this week with White House chief of staff John Kelly, possibly to undermine his ability to speak directly with President Trump about WikiLeaks.

The Republican congressman from California spoke with Kelly on Wednesday regarding his recent meeting with WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in London, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening, and broached a possible trade.

Rohrabacher reportedly used the word “deal” in his conversation with Kelly and said Assange would get a pardon or “something like that” in exchange for information files on a data-storage device showing that Russia did not hack Democratic emails that WikiLeaks published last year during the 2016 campaign.

“He would get nothing, obviously, if what he gave us was not proof,” Rohrabacher told Kelly, according to the Journal.

Rohrabacher said after his August meeting with Assange that WikiLeaks could disprove the conclusion of U.S. spy agencies that Russia was responsible for hacking Democratic emails, and that he would seek a meeting with Trump to discuss the information.

Rohrabacher told the Washington Examiner on Friday evening that he would not confirm quotes attributed to him, and said nobody in his office was responsible for disclosing the call.

“I have honored the confidentially of a very important business-related call,” he said, speculating that someone inside the White House or within U.S. intelligence agencies leaked the call.

“I don’t know who it is, all I know is I’m up against an array of very powerful forces, including the intelligence services and major newspapers that are basically allied with the liberal Left who have every reason to undermine communication on this issue,” he told the Washington Examiner.

“Look, there are very powerful forces at work,” he added. “We’ve got the NSA, the FBI and the CIA, all of whom confirmed a major lie that was being used for political purposes and a lie that was repeated and repeated in order to undercut our new president.”

Rohrabacher said White House leaks to the press are particularly bad during Republican presidencies, as staffers attempt to ingratiate themselves with reporters, and he’s not ruling that out as an explanation.

“You’ve got people who are obviously just trying to cover their ass for mistakes they have made,” he added, referring to the intelligence agency theory. “They will probably do their best to keep Trump from knowing about this and knowing about his options to expose this.”

Rohrabacher has for years been skeptical of U.S. policy toward Russia, defending its annexation of Crimea while former President Barack Obama was in office before refusing to accept that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump.

The congressman is celebrated by some groups for his maverick approach to politics, such as his leadership role pushing for marijuana reform legislation, but also is known for making sometimes head-turning remarks.

Rohrabacher was quoted earlier this week as saying he believed Confederate war re-enactors had been tricked into rallying in Charlottesville, Va., last month. He said he stood by those remarks.

“I don’t think I was misquoted, [but] there should be no implication that I believe Civil War re-enactors are stupid,” he said. Rohrabacher said he can’t recall the source of that information, but that he believes he heard it in a news report.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rep-dana-rohrabacher-someone-leaked-very-important-call-with-john-kelly-concerning-wikileaks/article/2634632

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Amazon Removes Negative Reviews of Hillary’s Book

Amazon needs to be investigated.

Retail giant claims removal of one-star ratings for Clinton memoir based on ‘triggers,’ not political bias

Amazon is batting down claims that it deleted hundreds of one-star reviews of Hillary Clinton’s new book about the 2016 campaign, “What Happened,” and says that it doesn’t delete reviews because they are negative.

“We never suppress reviews based on star rating or sentiment,” Amazon told LifeZette in an emailed statement. “We have triggers in place to detect when numerous reviews post in a short amount of time that are unrelated to the product. When these triggers are activated, we suppress all non-Amazon Verified Purchase (AVP) reviews on the product.”

Clinton’s book was officially released on Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning, there were more than 1,600 reviews posted, with an almost even split between positive and negative reviews. About 50 percent of reviewers had given it five stars and 49 percent only one star.

The average rating, according to Quartz, was 3.2.

By Wednesday evening, however, there were only 460 reviews left on the site. All were marked “Verified Purchase” — indicating the reviewer had purchased the book on Amazon. Most, if not all, were five-star reviews.

By Thursday afternoon, there were 626 reviews — 607 positive and just 22 negative. The average rating was 4.9 out of a possible 5. All were marked “Verified Purchase.”

That was a great night. I called it right by 8 pm

However, a collection of one-star reviews slammed Amazon for appearing to delete other bad ratings, and those knocking Clinton and the book took up almost the entire first page of reviews, evidently because they got the most likes.

Some Clinton critics, it appears, were willing to shell out the money to buy the book so that they could have their say.

“Amazon Customer Reviews must be reviews related to the product and are designed to help customers make purchase decisions,” the company said in a statement emailed to LifeZette on Thursday, “In the case of a memoir, the subject of the book is the author and their views. It’s not our role to decide what a customer would view as helpful or unhelpful in making their decision. We do however have mechanisms in place to ensure that the voices of many do not drown out the voices of a few and we remove customer reviews that violate our Community Guidelines.”

When reached by phone, a company spokeswoman would not comment on the record when asked what it might mean that the company tries to ensure that the “voices of the many” do not drown out the “voices of the few.”

The “many” as of this writing would be the 93 percent of reviewers who’ve written five-star reviews, and the “few” would be the one-star reviewers. Even though they dominate the first page of reviews, they are still drowned out in terms of having little impact on the overall rating for the book, which remained at 4.8 out of 5 as of Friday morning.

“What Happened” is published by Simon & Schuster, which also published Clinton’s three other titles, including the 2004 book “Living History,” for which the publisher paid Clinton an $8 million advance — thought to be the largest advance ever awarded to any author at the time. In 2014, it was rumored that she got a $14 million advance for her pre-campaign book “Hard Choices,” about her years in the State Department.

The price for “What Happened” on Amazon was immediately slashed upon release from $30 to $17.99, while the Kindle version was selling for $14.

Amazon Accused of Slashing Over 900 Negative Reviews of Hillary’s Book

 

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National Guard in St. Louis After Protesters Gather When Cop Acquitted for Murder

The facts seem to be very different from the Brown case.

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – A Missouri judge on Friday ruled a white former St. Louis police officer was not guilty of murder in the 2011 shooting of a black man, sending hundreds of protesters to the city’s streets to voice their anger.

With the National Guard on standby in case of violence, authorities appealed to protesters to march peacefully in a state that has seen racially charged clashes in the past.

Jason Stockley, 36, was acquitted of first-degree murder for killing Anthony Lamar Smith, 24. The former policeman, who was arrested in May 2016, was accused of planting a gun in Smith’s car but testified he acted in self-defense.

After the verdict, more than 500 protesters marched in downtown St. Louis, chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Shut it down.” Some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.

“I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m mad,” the Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis said by telephone. “We haven’t made any progress since Ferguson, that’s clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity.”

St. Louis Police said on Twitter that one person was taken into custody after damaging a police vehicle.

Mayor Lyda Krewson and the Governor  who put the National Guard on standby, appealed for calm. Local schools planned early dismissals and businesses shut down. [nL2N1LO1BQ]

“Frustration, anger, hurt, pain, hope and love all intermingle,” Krewson said in a statement. “I encourage St. Louisans to show each other compassion.”

The attorney for Smith’s fiancee, Christina Wilson, said his client was appalled by the decision. Al Watkins said the ruling showed prejudice, pointing to a line where the judge wrote that an “urban heroin dealer” without a weapon would be an anomaly.

Judge Timothy Wilson’s highly anticipated ruling was announced more than five weeks after the bench trial ended.

“This court, as a trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of defendant’s guilt,” he wrote in his ruling.

Wilson said prosecutors also asked the court to consider a lesser degree of homicide but they did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Stockley’s use of deadly force was not justified in self defense.

Stockley’s attorney could not be reached to comment.

‘THIS AIN’T RIGHT’

In recent years grand juries have declined to charge officers involved in the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, 18, which set of nights of violent protest in Ferguson, near St. Louis, and the choking death of Eric Garner, 43, in New York. Baltimore police officers also were not convicted in the case of Freddie Gray, who died from a broken neck suffered in a police van in 2015.

Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., voiced his frustration after Friday’s verdict.

“You all know this ain’t right and you all continue to do this to us,” he told a St. Louis Fox television station. “Like we don’t mean nothing, like we’re rats, trash, dogs in the streets. Right now, I’m praying for my city because my people are tired of this.”

Protesters chanted as they marched around downtown, at one point reaching police headquarters before moving on.

“We’re all out here because it’s ridiculous Jason Stockley wasn’t convicted,” said demonstrator Kierstan Carter. “There’s a lot of frustration.”

Prosecutor Kimberly Gardner said she was disappointed with the verdict and called on protesters to avoid violence.

“I understand the verdict has created anger and frustration for many in our community,” she told reporters at the courthouse. “I am frustrated as well. Destruction of our community is not the answer.”

Smith tried to flee from Stockley on Dec. 20, 2011, following an alleged drug deal, authorities said. During the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video he was going to kill Smith, prosecutors said.

At Stockley’s direction, the driver of the police car slammed into Smith’s vehicle and they came to a stop, court documents said. Stockley then approached Smith’s car and shot him five times with his service weapon.

Stockley’s lawyers said he fired in self-defense, believing Smith was reaching for a gun. But prosecutors said the only gun recovered from the scene had only Stockley’s DNA on it.

Stockley waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the judge to decide. He left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2013 and was arrested last year.

Smith’s family settled a lawsuit filed against the city for $900,000 in 2013, the family’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, said.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/missouri-braces-verdict-murder-trial-ex-st-louis-100419885.html

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Redneck Road Rage In Pawnee County Oklahoma

Authorities Investigating Viral Oklahoma Road Rage Incident

A road rage incident escalates into an all out brawl in rural Oklahoma.

The Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed an investigation is now underway.

One driver, Paul Wiseley, 60, who can be seen wielding a knife in the video, has been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon & robbery.

Investigators said they could not comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Video of the clash between a group of motorcyclists and armed motorist was posted to social media, Monday.

Camden, the biker seen wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans, says it happened while he and nearly a dozen street bikers from Stillwater were traveling through Maramec in Pawnee County, Sunday.

“I was on a small bike so i couldn’t go very fast but i was at least going the speed limit and a truck pulled up on us,” Camden said the  incident escalated quickly,” he slowed down enough to where we thought he might have been mad about something.”

The video shows the driver of a pickup truck arguing with a biker after the driver allegedly cut the biker off.

Camden said the truck narrowly missed one of the bikes and nearly ran another off the road.

“He was telling us to pull over but we were scared,” Camden says he’d seen videos of what could happen if they were to stop.

Camden says the driver of truck parked up the road fire a gunshot into the air causing everyone to stop.

The video shows that only intensified the situation.

A fight broke out. The driver could be seen shoving the biker, then repeatedly, punching the biker.

Several other trucks pull up and a man waving a knife ordered everyone to get back.

Camden says he wanted to intervene and help his friend who was still under attack and nearly unconscious; however, the driver armed with a knife allegedly attacked him.

“I’ll cut your (expletive) throat.  do you hear me ?,” the man can be heard saying off camera.

Camden replies, “alright, calm down, we will go.”

The video didn’t stop there, other fights broke out within the group.

We were unable to identify and locate the truck driver involved in the fight. However, a woman who was passenger in the truck could be heard yelling at the bikers for allegedly endangering her the children in  the car.

http://www.news9.com/story/36362442/authorities-investigating-viral-oklahoma-road-rage-incident