Sowing Hate In A Fallen World

The torture of a teenager streamed live on Facebook is “despicable” but not a sign of worsening racial tensions, President Obama said Thursday in an interview with CBS 2 Special Contributor Jay Levine.

In a one-on-one conversation at the White House as Obama winds down his term in office, the president was asked about the state of race relations in America.

Obama said he doesn’t believe racial tensions have gotten worse, but that the public exposure is more prevalent in the digital age.

I purposely declined to comment on the depravity of the walking sewage accused of kidnapping and torturing an 18-year-old man until I could reign in my outrage.

By now most everyone has heard about the incident in Chicago involving four depraved blacks charged with two separate hate crimes; one based on the victim’s race and the other based on his disability. 

The condition of mind described as depravity of mind is characterized by an inherent deficiency of moral sense and integrity. It consists of evil, corrupt and perverted intent which is devoid of regard for human dignity and which is indifferent to human life. It is a state of mind outrageously horrible or inhuman.

The accused’s lawyers scandalously portrayed them as “responsible adults” and asked Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil to grant them bail “so they could return home while they await trial.”

All four have experienced brushes with the law for serious and violent crimes.

The Associated Press reported the judge asked, “Where was your sense of decency?” before denying the request.

The video footage, viewed by millions, shows the suspects taunting the victim with a torrent of profanities against white people and President-elect Trump, forcing the victim to drink toilet water and kiss the floor and then stuffing a sock in his mouth taping it shut as they bound his hands with a belt.

The torture did not stop there.  The male suspects cut his clothing and his scalp with a knife and threatened to “shank” him while the female suspects laughed and one punched him.

Court documents reveal the suspects texted the victim’s family during the attack demanding $300 for his return.

For the last few months, Facebook has been running a multimedia advertising campaign on billboards, television and online encouraging users to try its video live-streaming product.

At no point does the company suggest using the tool to document torture, police brutality or spree killing—but that is precisely the reputation the tool has garnered.

Facebook expressly states that they do not allow objectionable groups, comments or images to appear on their web pages. They will actively search for and censor any pornographic or violent images. Their terms of service clearly state “You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.” In addition, “You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.”

And yet 30 minutes of torture remained on Facebook’s domain without anyone interceding.  The young man being tormented managed to escape his tormenters only after they left the apartment to confront the downstairs neighbor who complained about the noise they were making.  Responding to a damaged property call at the female suspects’ building stemming from the neighbor’s door being kicked in, Chicago cops found the torture victim walking in the street dazed and bloodied and deprived of his meds.

The Daily Mail spoke with the victim’s aunt Friday morning.  She said he just keeps saying, “Why? Why? Jordan (one of the suspects) was my friend.”

It may appear to you that I am finding fault with Facebook.  In part I am.  But the irrefutable reason this monstrous thing happened is because of a president who significantly aggravated racial animosity and widened the racial divide in this country.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said, “Race relations have always been tenuous in America.  Slavery and discrimination have left an ugly scar on the soul of America. But that scar has been healing over the years. President Obama came along with sandpaper, rubbed it raw, and then poured salt in it to inflame it for political gain.”

The World’s Most Dangerous Community is not singularly indictable.  His Democrat Party bears blame for stoking the narrative of racial injustice, baskets of deplorables, assertions Paul Ryan is a Nazi and a handful of celebrities and activists who are dedicated to opposing the president-elect.

In September 2007, the junior senator from Illinois was campaigning in New Hampshire and told Essence magazine, "I don't believe it is possible to transcend race in this country. Race is a factor in this society. The legacy of Jim Crow and slavery has not gone away. It is not an accident that African-Americans experience high crime rates, are poor, and have less wealth. It is a direct result of our racial history. As president, obviously the day I am inaugurated, the racial dynamics in this country will change to some degree. If you've got Michelle as first lady, and Malia and Sasha running around on the South Lawn, that changes how America looks at itself. It changes how White children think about Black children, and it changes how Black children think about Black children."

The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer has been aided for the last eight years by those who present a “narrative” that all white people are racist and all blacks are victimized by whites.

Is it any wonder about 4 in 10 blacks are doubtful that the US will ever achieve racial equality?

Thanks Obama.  Thanks Martin Sheen.  Thanks Michael Moore.  Thanks Rosie O’Donnell.

Tony Stewart And His Depraved Indifference

Photo credit:  Andrew Brusso

I fully expect to take heat for what I am going to say on the subject of the death of Sprint car driver Kevin Ward, Jr. at the hands of Tony Stewart.

When the news broke early Sunday morning, news outlets refused to show the moment that Stewart’s car struck and killed the young Ward citing its graphic content.  I watched the video numerous times.  I even uploaded it to a video capture program so I could view the incident in slow motion.  The inescapable truth, in my view, is that Tony Stewart exhibited depraved indifference—a term under the law that describes conduct “so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime.”  Depraved indifference centers on the risk created by a person’s conduct rather than the injuries that resulted from their conduct.

Reports are clear that when Stewart caused Ward to crash on Turn 2 officials threw out the caution flag.  Drivers immediately slowed down.  Several drivers went past Ward as he climbed out of his sprint car and began walking down the clay track.  One driver, Regan Smith the driver of No. 14, drove past Ward without incident.

Paul Kinney, who drives No. 19K, told NBC News that he clearly saw Ward on the track and managed to dodge him.  “I seen Kevin clear as day.  Nobody else ran into him either.”

There’s no disputing that Stewart, 3-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, was the most experienced driver on the Canandaigua Motorsport Park track.  So why would witnesses say they saw Stewart throttle his car as he approached Ward?  It was at that moment his vehicle kicked out striking Ward who was dragged underneath Stewart’s car and his body thrown into the air to the horrified screams of onlookers.

In the hours following Ward’s death, Stewart’s racing team manager Greg Zipadelli, said that Stewart was due to race at Watkins Glen on Sunday evening calling the race “business as usual.”

One commenter on Twitter succinctly described the depraved indifference of this reprehensible racing team:  “’Business as usual’ says Tony Stewart’s manager, as if the life of another human being is equivalent to a squirrel.  Beyond repugnant.”

The backlash to the grotesque callousness was blistering.  Hours later, the racing team reversed themselves saying Stewart would not compete in that evening’s event.  They got their shit together and Stewart issued this statement:  “There aren’t words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr.  It’s a very emotional time for all involved.  Our thoughts go out to Kevin’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

After Zipadelli announced Stewart would not race, NASCAR released this statement: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends, and fellow competitors of Kevin Ward Jr. We support Tony Stewart's decision to miss today's race and we will continue to respect the process and timeline of the local authorities and will continue to monitor this situation moving forward."

On Monday, Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said authorities had obtained a second video, one that offered a different view of the incident.

Today, The New York Post is reporting that Greg Cooper was at the track Saturday evening.  Cooper’s cousin, Alysha Ruggles, was nearly killed by Stewart at Canandaigua last July.  She suffered a fractured back after her car was struck in a 15-car pileup caused by none other than Tony Stewart.  Cooper believes Stewart should be banned from racing.

I was hotter than a match head when I read about Colin Cowherd’s commentary about the tragedy at Canandaigua.

“The sport has a unique culture that I’m not part of.  I’m not a gearhead.  I’m not from the South; I’m not an eye-for-an-eye guy.  There is a certain southern culture, that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, and a lot of NASCAR drivers are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, California, Arizona, it’s a southern delicacy.  It doesn’t get ratings anywhere really outside the south…it’s really, really part of the south and it’s an eye-for-an-eye culture.”

Excuse me.

It is widely known that NASCAR’s infamous past is deeply rooted in bootlegging moonshine.  The sport is widely popular in the South and over the last two decades it has expanded nationally.  NASCAR is easily as popular as the NFL 

Cowherd put the fullness of his ignorance on display by disregarding the fact that Ward and Stewart were racing sprint cars; vehicles that are open wheel.  Open wheel racing’s history lies in the Midwest, West and northeastern parts of the country in places like Rossburg, OH; Knoxville, IA; Stockton, CA and Edmonton, Alberta.  Canandaigua is in New York.

I adamantly contend the only connection in the killing of Kevin Ward is that a NASCAR driver was at the wheel when the tragedy happened.

Cowherd is guilty of the unseemly stereotype so many have that willfully condemns the American South to an image of a region of banjo-playing, Bible-thumping inbreeds.  Southerners are church-going, home-owning, childbearing, backyard barbecuing, traffic-jam cursing Americans remarkable in their ordinariness going about their daily lives.

Mr. Cowherd should shut his pie hole.

Any driver tempted to get out of his or her car to confront another on the track should be prevented from doing so.  For Cowherd to imply that this is something unique to southern culture and was the underlying reason for Ward’s death is outlandish.  Whatever point his was attempting to make culminated in a misguided and loathsome insult against southern culture.

What should be remembered in all this is that a young man has lost his life and Tony Stewart should be held accountable for his depraved indifference.  Banning him from racing would be an appropriate beginning and sponsors should avoid him like the plague.