Cemetery Staffer Declines To Press Charges For Fear Of Retaliation
Cemetery Staffer Declines To Press Charges For Fear Of Retaliation
talkingpointsmemo.com
Cemetery Staffer Declines To Press Charges For Fear Of Retaliation
109 comments
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Stop treating these fucks with kid gloves for fucks sake. Press the goddamn charges! Quit being fearful of retaliation because that is exactly what the rapist and his cult want. This is frustrating.
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The problem is that as a random cemetery worker who can't afford bodyguards 24/7, pressing charges stands a significant chance of getting you killed.
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And doing nothing only emboldens them.
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Man, fuck stochastic terrorism.
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This. And if they having been paying any attention, they can see that someone like Nancy Pelosi was even vulnerable to an attack from these demons. They came for her, but got her husband. And that's someone prominent like Nancy - imagine being a cemetary worker and knowing the kind of hate and vitriol and quite possibly, literal violence that would be aimed at you (and your family - these asshats are cowards to the core, of course).
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What a shame the assassin missed.
There would undoubtedly be fallout, but the public really needs to remember that we are the ones allowing democracy to be shit on and destroyed in front of our eyes as Media across the country only cares about engagement.
It turns out letting America be held hostage by Fascists makes for good TV, and the 6 people who own almost every media outlet never forgot how great enslaved populations were for their bottom line.
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I mean, it doesn't help when you know the vast majority of police officers, prosecutors, and judges lean to the right. I get what you're saying though.
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And so, the brown shirts are making them think twice. What a sad day for America as domestic terrorism wins.
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Makes sense, Trump’s cult will come after you and will literally send you death threats.
Fucking USSR-level shit.
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Moral of the story is that terrorism works. Remember this once voting no longer does.
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We have to stand up to fascists even when they threaten us with violence otherwise the fascists win. There is no sign up sheet to stop fascism. There is no safe way to stand against fascists. There is no future worth living in under fascist rule. Fascists do not go away if the society that spawned them stays the same.
If threats to someone's safety is where we decide our resistance to fascism ends that is where our freedoms end. We do not have to shame this woman, but we do have to disagree with her decision. If we allow her decision to be incorrectly labeled as a reasonable strategy for self-preservation then we will all be living in a christo-fascist dictatorship.
It's liberty or death. That idea is one of the last remaining cornerstones of our democracy. If living is more valuable to use than freedom then we will be incapable of stopping the fascists.
Fascism proceeds one step at a time. One day you wake up and everything is different. Today is that day. The people saying to stand up to fascists got it right. The people calling them armchair warriors and telling people to choose life over liberty lost the plot. The fascists plan is to take power by any means necessary and then kill the people they hate indiscriminately. To stop them we must stand against them even if that means risking death.
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Snowden and Assange did that and look how that worked out.
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Trump and the MAGA movement are the fascists. Snowden and Assange didn't stand against them. In fact, what happened to them is very likely to happen to lots of people if the fascists take power.
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Sorry, but some guy threatened another driver with a pipe in front of 10 cars in front of my house, and I was the only one to step in and I'm the only reason the situation didn't escalate. And the only reason I can think of why I did so, is that I don't have much to lose in practice.
It's scary to intervene and despite your pandering, I suspect you've never been in a situation where you have to choose to put your life in danger (I've also done mountaineering/glacier travel and got a pilot licence which really opened my eyes up too).
It's easy for you to disrespect her gracefully and talk crap when you've never been in a dangerous situation where you can choose to make a difference that might screw you permanently.
There are a million things that will run through your mind when you yourself are (ie, you will likely be advised by people that you could be in danger, etc). When the situation is outside of your control, you think differently.
You might disagree with her, but she has every right to protect herself. And she has every right to make that decision.
If I was in the same situation and my family was in danger, I'd make the same decision too.
It's not because she wouldn't want to do it, but, the decision may have been made to protect her family.
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You brought up a personal story, which I appreciate. I am going to share my own as well. It is not my intention to compete with you. I have two stories I can share where I did intervene and was prepared to use violence. When presented with new evidence it became clear in both cases that violence was not the answer. Here's the one that happened the earliest in my life that also happens to involve cars.
When I was in high school, either junior or senior year, I was hanging out with my friend by the school parking lot. We were waiting for the traffic to clear out. There were about ten people left in the area in total. I think while I had my back turned talking to a different friend, my friend spotted a guy trying to jack a car in the school parking lot with what looked like a metal ruler. I couldn't believe someone would do that in broad daylight. I had to get a closer look. My friend said it wasn't worth dying over a car. I said it wasn't about the car and I didn't want to live in the world where we did nothing. By then the eight guys nearby were walking with us. We surrounded the guy. It turned out the man was trying to break into his daughter's car because she had locked herself out. Apparently this had happened more than once. I abruptly asked his daughter's name and he immediately said his daughter's name. My friend bought the guys story and he seemed to be telling the truth so we backed off.
The other story is more recent. I was alone in my apartment bedroom, a year or two before covid. I heard smashing noises and screaming coming from the apartment on the other side of the wall. I was tired and wasn't sure if someone was being murdered or just being noisy. I threw on some stuff for going outside. I went to the neighbors' apartment. The door was open and there was a guy sitting at the top of the stairs. He asked me who I was. I introduced myself. He asked me to be more specific. He then seemed really concerned when I told I was one of his neighbors. It turned out his 18 year old daughter was throwing a temper tantrum and was breaking stuff. He shouted multiple times to his daughter that there was an uber driver to pick her up. I could hear her clearly in the background asking what he meant by that. I said good luck with that and I left.
I am not going to analyze our stories. I bring this up to show that I do have the kind of criteria that you seem to think is required to discuss this topic. My point is that it's not a requirement. We have nothing to do with what we are discussing. This is about how people as a society respond to threats from fascists.
The woman in question is also not relevant to this discussion. Her choice is. That is it. It is not my intention to talk shit about this woman nor do I think any energy should be put towards that end.
Self-defense is when a person defends themselves from an attacker. What society would be doing by agreeing with her choice is saying that when push comes to shove people should trade liberty for life. There can be no resistance to fascism without risking all of our lives, because fascists will threaten everyone and anyone.
If people want a future that is worth living in for future generations then people as a society must uphold the idea of liberty or death. Society must accept the idea that people would be better off dead than in a fascist dictatorship or else people will end up in a fascist dictatorship. Liberty must be held above human life or else liberty will be lost.
This means being willing to risk every child. There is no life worth living under tyranny. Life under fascist rule is hollow and meaningless. If we trade in liberty for life then future generations will have a pointless existence. People should want future generations to have lives worth living.
The good news is that the Army put out a statement backing up the woman and criticizing the behavior of Trump and his campaign staffers. At the very least the Army stood up to Trump in writing.
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So it's not illegal then, seeing as there are no consequences for doing it.
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It's illegal for Democrats.
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An aide to Donald Trump “abruptly pushed aside” an Arlington National Cemetery employee on Monday when the former president visited the site with family members of U.S. service members killed in the 2021 Kabul airport attack during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, NBC News reports.
The Trump aide pushed the cemetery employee out of the way to get past to take photos and video at Section 60, where service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried.
Any decent organization would have apologized to the employee and her boss a long time ago. But, we're talking Trump here.
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They had already talked to the cemetery and set up the visit and the rules were given to him (or his handlers) at that time. He (they ) were told it was just to be a personal visit with whatever handlers he required (ex.- secret service) but that campaign staff and photos/video was strictly forbidden. So him showing up with his campaign posse looking to do a photo op was something they already knew ahead of time was not allowed.
Edit - curse you autocorrect!
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Isn't having knowledge of a felony enough for a public prosecutor to indict someone independent of the victim?
That's how it works in Germany at least - if the authorities get information about a criminal offense, they are obliged to start a criminal investigation. A victim not pressing charges only matters in terms of a civil lawsuit.
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There were two separate crimes here.
The crime of abusing the ANC for a political photo and the crime of physically assaulting someone who worked for the ANC.
The crime of abusing it for political purposes is currently being ignored and the person assaulted has chosen to not press charges for the assault.
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Isn’t this Army jurisdiction? Is pressing charges even relevant?
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Assuming the only evidence for physical assault isn't just the victims statements (but even then), I feel that both crimes are currently being ignored.
To go back to the example of Germany: If you accuse someone of a crime (directed against your physical well-being or property) here, towards authorities (e.g. police) and then say "but I don't want to press charges", that no longer matters - they are obliged to record a report of a potential criminal offense and leave it to a judge to decide on how to proceed.
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In the UK, you can't decide whether to 'press charges' or not, the decision is the CPS's.
But in practice, saying you aren't interested in pursuing a conviction often ends it, because:
1 - the prosecution must be 'in the public good' which is undermined if the victim isn't interested
2 - a lot of the time the testimony and cooperation of the victim is key to the prosecution case
3 - the system is horribly underfunded so if they can justify dropping it they will
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CPS is? City Prosecutor ... ??
as to 1) - that's judged differently in Germany - in part to protect victims of domestic violence who will often "change their mind and not want to" press charges after filing an initial report.
- in that case, yes - but again, if it's a criminal offense, the victim has an obligation to testify, even if they have no interest
- I have no idea how the funding of our judicial branch looks like atm
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The CPS only does this for England and Wales not the whole of the UK. In Scotland the procurator fiscal prosecutes crimes and in Northern Ireland it is the Public Prosecution Service
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Trump is a cunt and anybody who ever voted for him is a cunt.
I know it's obvious and everybody already knows it but I saw his abortion of a face on my feed so now you have to hear it again.
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Don’t disservice abortions by comparing them to Trump. Abortions save lives, Trump doesn’t.
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He also lacks the depth and warmth to be a cunt.
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This is how fascists win, by being free from consequences.
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This is why it works
They really can ruin your life; ask Michael Cohen or Gabby Giffords
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Paul Pelosi or Gretchen Whitmer likely have something to say on the matter as well.
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I still don’t understand why any human but the worst would even consider voting for this maggot.
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Bullies and thier wannabes.
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Donald Trump just threatened Mark Zuckerberg with jail for life because he THINKS Facebook could be used against him.
Zuckerberg is in Trump's fucking pocket already.
Trying to save yourself by not pressing charges won't make Trump forget your face, your name, or the fact that you told him "No," once in his life, which is enough for him to want to destroy your life entirely.
Everyone who said this person is protecting themselves and their family is missing the point that if Trump takes power in November he will absolutely go out of his way to ruin this person's fucking life (and their families lives) even though they didn't press charges.
Is that fucking worth it? To save your family for a short time just for fascists to never forget you told them no and ruin your fucking life anyway?
He is willing to attack people who are literally in his fucking pocket and threaten to jail them for life. He has worse in mind for this person. I guarantee it.
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Spoken with the easy courage of someone whose family isn’t in the crosshairs
I agree with you that this should be a HUGE deal, but if the institutions who are the ones actually responsible for going after Trump are not going to act, why should this one guy be responsible to take a purely futile stand about it that might get him killed? I agree that he is not safe whatever he does, but amping up the conflict will make him less safe.
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If you don't think these asshats will dox and harass this person anyway without even pressing charges, I've got a bridge to fucking sell you.
They told Trump "no," that's enough of a crime in the eyes of these right wing freaks.
Further, no one is saying they need to do it alone. If asshats can organize to harass them, can't we organize to protect them? This is literally what I mean by nobody will back each other up. Instead of organizing as a group to protect that person, we act like it's their personal responsibility to fight it and then go "oh shucks" when they don't. Jeeze, maybe it's because we didn't back them up.
Isn't that why the Black Panthers fucking existed, because they knew they couldn't trust the cops?
But I guess organizing and protecting people like that is too much to ask.
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All it takes for evil men to triumph...
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The silent fear of Trump and his cultists strikes again. It is one of things he does a lot where people know how deranged his base is and don't want to hold him accountable.
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I always thought it was the DA that brought charges. What do they mean by won't press charges?
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Conservatives are violent and sadistic by nature. There are some who are openly willing to fight them, but most people would rather avoid such dangerous confrontations. I don't blame her.
This enemy is best fought when they aren't sure who is hitting them. Smile. Blend in. Look friendly. Do what's needed when they least expect it and get away. Rinse, repeat. Attracting negative attention from these cockroaches is not worth the risk, no matter who you are. Guerilla tactics work well against loud, arrogant, unintelligent fascists.
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And right wing sites everywhere are framing this as Trump clearly doing nothing wrong because nobody charged him. Disgusting.
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And by "fear of retaliation", I'm assuming that means fear of death threats (and worse than mere threats) from the likes of the party that thinks it is FUNNY that one of their own attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband, nearly killing him.
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Cool and normal.
109 comments
This is part of a statement put out by Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign spokestroll:
I don't know what makes me angrier, his assault on the English language (it's "hallowed," you utter dipshit), or his pathetic attempt at DARVO.
Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender for anyone else who didn't know.
uno reverse
Hollowed, like, they hollow out the place to put in the bodies, ya know?
Hollowed because he requires rigorous application of Getsuga Tenshou
Is it pathetic if it works on his intended audience?
Yes?
Hollowed made me laugh
Funny, I would say the ones dishonoring the men and women buried there were the ones who assaulted a woman so they could take campaign videos in a restricted section.