Songhai “Sunny” Armstead’s Racial Appeal for Votes — Brought to You in a Format that Gail Copeland Will Not Be Able to Scrub from the Internet
I have said for some time that we have been trying to get the full remarks of Songhai “Sunny” Armstead hosted here on the site. Armstead, you will recall, is the judicial candidate here in Los Angeles who made a blatantly racial pitch to a black church congregation — asking them to vote for her because she is black. As I have told you, after I reported this, a supporter of Armstead’s named Gail Copeland sent a bogus DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) takedown notice to YouTube. Copeland thereby got the evidence of Armstead’s remarks taken down from YouTube, even as Copeland scrubbed Armstead’s most controversial and racially charged remarks from the version of the video that remained.
I have an announcement to make. Listen up, Songhai “Sunny” Armstead. Listen up, Gail Copeland. The scrubbing stops today — right now.
We are no longer at the mercy of YouTube. The evidence of Ms. Armstead’s embarrassing race-based appeals is now being hosted right here at patterico.com. I control the horizontal. I control the vertical. The video is here, in this post. And here it will stay. No longer will the truth be blacked out by bogus DMCA takedown notices to YouTube. Try to take that down with a bogus copyright claim, Gail Copeland!
We are planting the flag of free speech right here, in this post — and that flag will fly proudly, all the way through the June 3 election. Here are Armstead’s controversial remarks:
Ms. Copeland, your days of abusing the DMCA to hide this evidence are over.
UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit for the link. I see some commenters are having trouble seeing the video. I just now pulled it up on my iPhone, but there are enough complaints that I have asked Admin Guy to take a look at the server loads — a hosted video during a big link may be creating issues. If worst comes to worst, Admin Guy may give people a link to download the video themselves. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the content of what Armstead says, follow the various links in the post. There are transcripts and one embedded video that still has some of her most controversial remarks.
I appreciate the attention on this issue. I think it’s an important cause.
P.S. I hope new readers will please bookmark the main page and come back!
UPDATE FROM ADMIN GUY: Hi, folks! It’s a little busier around here than when we ran the stress test on the new server. We were running at 100 to 140 Mbps (that’s pretty busy), so I’ve start reprocessed the video with lower bitrate to help with the load. That should help a bit.
If you want to download a copy directly for local viewing, here is a direct link to the MP4 file
https://patterico.com/app/uploads/2014/05/songhai-armstead-full-remarks.mp4 (Remember to right click, Save target as…)
Thanks to Admin Guy for making this happen.
Patterico (9c670f) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:06 pmI do not see anything.
felipe (098e97) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:23 pmMe too, but I thought that’s just my computer.
Sammy Finkelman (8cd742) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:30 pmNo videos for me: Firefox 29.0.1 under Win 7.
Tard (878d79) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:30 pmClick the arrow on the gray screen. It takes a few seconds then the video starts.
elissa (c99800) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:33 pmIt won’t play for me either. I’ve got the most updated version of Explorer. And yes, I did click on the gray screen and wait. And wait.
Barbara Skolaut (f039b5) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:41 pmI’m pretty sure this is standard procedure in the American South. We had a state senator show
Russ Riediger (41b61d) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:45 pmat our 95% black church expecting to get free access to the pulpit (she was denied) just
south of Atlanta. The same person
advertised herself as “OUR state senator”. When I called and asked if this was a racial
reference she went on about all the white people that worked in her campaign, but
the message she was sending was pretty clear given the local demographics.
No luck here either, even allowing all the various scripts to run.
Anonymse (8027df) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:47 pmShouldn’t the church lose its tax-exempt status?
Jane (22f33e) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:47 pmFirefox 29.0.1 w/Win7and NoScript… both videos are good
Thanx muchos for hosting
Libertexian (03766d) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:49 pmWasn’t there a kerfuffle not too long ago about conservative churches being tangled up with the IRS over political activities?
How does this not violate that?
Ed (553c48) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:50 pmI am not saying it’s working right. It probably isn’t, but if I click on one of the comments for this thread at the right (like tard) the solid gray screen produces an arrow on the gray screen. Are you getting the arrow? I was able to see the speech in its entirety.
elissa (c99800) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:51 pmI saw it just fine on my iPhone. Good work in the name of free speech!
Bradley J. Fikes (67e43e) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:51 pmi have a choice of TWO videos, both of which will play, but neither of which appears to have an audio track
Vista SP2/FF 29.0.1
and yes, the speakers are on, the volume up and mute is off…
i can hear things from other pages, just not this one.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:52 pmbecause they aren’t conservative churches…
and the parishioners aren’t white.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:53 pmSafari browser, iOS 7 – not working
Paul A'Barge (ceebec) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:55 pmDo black people think about anything but race?
Burstadenn McCoskely (66ecaa) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:56 pmI see no evidence of it.
The video worked fine for me (iMac Maverick and Firefox).
rtw (9e594f) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:02 pmIf she’s a prosecutor, isn’t SHE the one putting them in jail?
Lisa McCue (18e8ff) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:04 pmDo black people think about anything but race?
I see no evidence of it.
I’ve heard they also like good sex, warm bathrooms, and comfortable shoes.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:05 pmWould it help – for findability via web searches etc – to post the transcript right here, too?
ras (0955c9) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:07 pmSounds like she’s promising to interpret the law based on skin color. I thought that was illegal.
Rhoda R (09ad13) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:11 pmShe’s wrong to make a racial appeal and absolutely right the justice system is broken. As a prosecuting attorney she has the central role in this broken system.
beagleboy (d4f397) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:12 pmWas just a gray box under latest Firefox and windows 7. Right clicking and then picking the appropriate action from the menu that popped up worked fine for me.
John Pomeroy (cf5855) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:17 pmApparently she is hoping that the people in the congregation she is appealing to won’t make the connection that as a PROSECUTOR she was an active participant in putting those small time substance abusing mentally ill black men (and it is mostly men) in jail. Her appeal would have been much stronger if she had opted to join the public defenders office.
Dan Palmer (e453cc) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:18 pmShows up easily on Apple software even though it does not have the cover picture.
Patrick (b6a612) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:29 pmA side note. I no longer read the LA Times on line. It is simply horrible now. Poor presentation. No commentary allowed. Just terrible. The paper is doomed to die inits graveyard of leftism and prevarication.it will bounce from bankruptcy to bankruptcy, then disintegrate.
See the UPDATE. Instapundit link is wonderful but is creating challenges that my admin guy is working to solve. I can still pull it up fine on my phone…
Patterico (2bcc2f) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:31 pmFFOX 29.0 (ubuntu linux)…
BZZZzzz___ (96d6ae) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:31 pmgot two working videos…double the racism!
so, who else did the earth just move for?
Feets? Pat? Ed in the SFV?
Bueller?
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:41 pmRunning Chrome. Played on the first try. Thank you for hosting it.
MathMom (1d13d6) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:41 pmWin7, FF 29.0.1; works for me. OTOH, recent changes in the comments killed the Greasemonkey script that let one ignore marked users.
Roy in Nipomo (160066) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:43 pmyup Mr. red
it did
subtle – a friend here missed it
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:45 pmKings just tied the game in the 3rd, that’s why red and happyfeet.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:48 pmthe Kings are one of the sports teams here I think
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:52 pmThat Ronald Sterling should have owned.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:54 pmRed,
Didn’t notice it. Was sitting at the beach, reading.
Patterico (fcc20b) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:54 pmI thin Ms. Armstead is a day late and a dollar short:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/05/widespread_memorial_day_black_violence_ignored_by_national_media.html
Race war coming to a newsreel in your living room.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:55 pmBut the idiot would have said something about Canadians or Minnesotans so it would have been a wash there too.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:56 pm@Roy in Nipomo: Sorry about that. We deployed a WordPress update and it requiring rebuilding the comments script. If you want to send the script to Patterico to forward to me, I’ll look and see what the change was that broke it.
Admin Guy (a9e0aa) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:57 pmEveryone who had a problem viewing the video: check the updates — my admin guy put up a link to the video that should allow you to download it as an alternative to watching the embed. Please let me know if that works for you.
Patterico (fcc20b) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:57 pmWorks just fine out here in the remote high desert of Oregon by satellite link, so Admin Guy must have worked his mojo.
Mike Fox (f391af) — 6/1/2014 @ 7:59 pmWorks fine on my caveman IE. And I guess putting it after a page break also helps with bandwidth?
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:01 pmTake a look at the original utube of the 4-27-14 Sunday church service at the COR
(City of Refuge Ministries/Senior Pastor Noel Jones thus Noeljones.org) where at
1:51, the guy introducing Armstead says:
“this past week I took a group of volunteers to the LA County’s jails to do what
we do with the inmates in there in terms of votes and who is eligible to vote”.
Say What?
Bodnik (d813a6) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:13 pmWorks fine for me.
I wonder if someone has sent this to the IRS. It’s amazingly blatant politicking in church.
It’s amusing how she says near start about how people in jail “look like us”.
What do you mean, “us”, woman?
They’re all almost all men, who like more like me than like her. And, of course, her features are perfectly caucasian. Her skin is darker, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she used skin darkener, for the political campaign. I wonder if I could run for office that way— I wouldn’t have to come out and say I was black, just let people assume it by saying delicately “people who look like us”.
Eric Rasmusen (f67f1d) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:16 pmBodnik,
It’s felons who can’t vote. People in jails (as opposed to prisons) are there for the short term, so many of them either haven’t been convicted yet of the felony they’re charged with, or are serving misdemeanor sentences.
Can one do absentee voting from jail? Probably. It would be interesting to look at whether people in prison on election day are checked off as voting in person, though. Of course, for that, you don’t have to visit them in jail first to get their permission.
Eric Rasmusen (f67f1d) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:19 pmIn Illinois, they set up polling stations in lockups for people awaiting trial. Prisoners serving a sentence after trial are not eligible to vote.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:28 pmThere are only two states, Vermont (of course) and another I forget, where prisoners regardless of the crime convicted can vote from prison.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:31 pmUntil they do a takedown
http://youtu.be/9CT9PX3ob_E
I hate censorship.
Gene Schmick (c39c08) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:32 pmthank you Mr. Schmick
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:32 pmMaine. Nobody remembers Maine anymore.
nk (dbc370) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:34 pmOh, come now, nk — I certainly remember the Maine!
Ron Coleman (6e480d) — 6/1/2014 @ 8:47 pmMine is still up ^_^
JWB (c1c08f) — 6/1/2014 @ 9:06 pmSo what if you look (and act) like a gang banger? The important thing (if you’re black, according to Miss Sunshine) is whether you are doing drugs or were in foster care. Then society is to blame for your crimes and Sunny is here with your get-out-of-jail-free card. Nice pitch.
Alec Rawls (e6360a) — 6/1/2014 @ 11:50 pmIf they stop convicting black criminals, then the black criminals who are released will be dealth with in other ways. Any black person who votes in a racist way will have no room to complain when racists are convicted by an impartial justice system.
Stop committing crimes, people with substance abuse problems stop robbing and stealing to feed your habit, or you should be in jail.
DonM (f73655) — 6/2/2014 @ 12:29 amShe represents perfectly what is wrong about the Country Club members of the AA Community.
Pretty much her pitch is I am black and I will be nicer to you than those racist crackers.
Amazing really but this does pass for common thought among very educated and wealthy blacks.
Rodney King's Spirit (e9cae7) — 6/2/2014 @ 5:21 amIs it not racist to assume that because a person is white, they’re not going to be able to relate to you? Does having a different color skin suddenly make you a different sort of human than any other human out there? THIS is bigotry. Sunny Armstead is a bigot.
[also- video working great]
Book (ab4041) — 6/2/2014 @ 5:54 amFor those who can’t see the video, there is a download link to the mp4 at the very end of the post. I used VLC player, no problem…..
steve c (e52e1f) — 6/2/2014 @ 5:57 amIs it *known* that this address was made during a regular church service?
Just Asking (f8db77) — 6/2/2014 @ 6:10 amWell, “judge”, what if the people in that audience happen to be the victim in one of your cases?
t-bird (116e7d) — 6/2/2014 @ 6:25 amJust a quick note… If you’re not too keen on a direct link to the file, you *might* be able to set it up to HLS delivery format, which should improve on your server load.
Jeff (e2f7cd) — 6/2/2014 @ 6:29 amI listened. She’s so convinced of her “rightness” (peppering her statements with “the Lord put it on my heart”). She’s an attorney and she cares nothing about following the law, as “she’s on the side of right to do that.”
How much you wanna bet she’ll win. No one cares about the law anymore.
Crowley (98bb4c) — 6/2/2014 @ 6:39 amBlacks seem to be wearing their racism like a cheap suit.
creeper (f020d1) — 6/2/2014 @ 6:48 amNow THIS Is where the IRS should step in and revoke the churche’s tax exempt status.
Devan (ab40fc) — 6/2/2014 @ 7:23 amJust try to get a black-owned bakery to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Good luck, Mr. Charlie! Cakists!
Colonel Haiku (9e9af6) — 6/2/2014 @ 7:30 amIf this happened in a non-black church, advocating for whom to vote, they would loose their tax-exempt status and be hounded by the justice department.
Scot (01fcc6) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:19 amWow.
simplemind (b91ca9) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:22 amSo its bad to ask for the votes merely because she is black. (Spent almost zero time talking about her experience as prosecutor). Then she said the others running (aside) from the “chicano” (not even a name just a label), are “guess what . . . they don’t care about people that look like you”. It’s not very Christ like Honey, judging people solely because of skin color. “Vote for me because I’m black and by the way, the people who aren’t black don’t care about you.” So evil, she doesn’t even know its evil to say these things. And nobody in the church objected. Sad.
Need to change her heart and the hearts of those who think like her, or their lives will be lived in vain. Pray for her and all who think like her.
Well, technically not unscrubbable. But more difficult than clicking a link on youtube.
egd (2130a5) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:47 amShe is really all religious.
Amen.
Rev Dr E Buzz Bonehead liberal (d9d613) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:58 amGreat job Patterico people !
The Jackhole (941512) — 6/2/2014 @ 9:02 amImagine a white candidate saying the exact same thing but reversing the words black and white.
Jambu Shambu (9260b6) — 6/2/2014 @ 9:08 amWasn’t there a kerfuffle not too long ago about conservative churches being tangled up with the IRS over political activities?
How does this not violate that?
Ed (553c48) — 6/1/2014 @ 6:50 pm
*****
Well, because the church doesn’t control her speech.
Just like Patterico doesn’t control the speech of his commenters.
Taco Shack (cf597b) — 6/2/2014 @ 9:13 amit makes me wonder how enthusiastic was she as a prosecutor if she now seeks a position to minimize what she previously promoted?
racial identity politics…say it ain’t so!
uglykidmoe (2c49ca) — 6/2/2014 @ 3:06 pmHey! Is she allowed to campaign in a place of Worship? Does that place have tax-exempt status?
bcorig (9009bd) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:45 pmRacist! How dare you ask such a question!
felipe (098e97) — 6/2/2014 @ 8:51 pmshe prosecuted her own people. bull crap. as a judge she would still be over zealous even against her own kind. politicizing from the pulpit, illegal as hell.
BIGDave (308e80) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:42 pm