6/23/2019

22 Responses to “German Politician Murdered, Plus Charlottesville Murderer Pleads for Mercy”

1. Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo that their client is too young for a life sentence, had a traumatic childhood ad is mentally ill.

   Not too surprising. Variations on this.

   Beldar (fa637a) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:20 pm

   
   

2. (I’m not blaming the defense lawyers, by the way. You play the cards you’re dealt.)

   Beldar (fa637a) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:27 pm

   
   

3. I’m not too sure why Fields is getting the book thrown at him. IRC, he said he panicked and floored the accelerator when he was surrounded by screaming Leftists. Child rapists who murdered their victims have gotten lighter sentences. Does anyone believe that if a Leftwinger had ran over a KKK member at their rally, he’d be getting life without parole?

   I think 20 years should be an adequate punishment. In today’s environment. But then, I’m just asking for consistency. Personally, I think all 1st degree killers should be executed.

   rcocean (1a839e) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:42 pm

   
   

4. And I get tired of the liberal MSM and their hypocrisy. Anytime a leftist Pol is killed its headline news and OMG! what are we going to do – it Hitler all over again!! Then when a Right-winger gets killed its, oh ho-hum, well that’s sad. Move on.Org.

   rcocean (1a839e) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:45 pm

   
   

5. Rc, do you have an example of either of the things you complained about?
   -a right wing politician killed by a lefty that was dismissed by the media?
   -a left winger who murdered a klansman and was let go with a light sentence?

   Because while fields claimed he panicked the people who evaluated the evidence didn’t find that compelling.

   Time123 (d54166) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:50 pm

   
   

6. Does anyone believe that if a Leftwinger had ran over a KKK member at their rally, he’d be getting life without parole?

   I don’t know, but I certainly hope not. Running over a KKK member at their rally should be no more serious an offense than the improper disposal of toxic waste. Possibly a fine and the costs of cleanup.

   nk (dbc370) — 6/23/2019 @ 12:54 pm

   
   

7. #3.: Fields plead guilty and these are the facts according to his plea:

   According to a statement of facts agreed to and signed by Fields, and entered into the court record at his guilty plea hearing, Fields admitted that he drove into the crowd of counter-protestors because of the actual and perceived race, color, national origin, and religion of its members. He further admitted that his actions killed Heather Heyer, and that he intended to kill the other victims he struck and injured with his car.

   With regard to the details of the attack, Fields also admitted that, prior to Aug. 12, 2017, he used social media accounts to express and promote white supremacist views on his social media accounts; to express support of the social and racial policies of Adolf Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, including the Holocaust; and to espouse violence against African Americans, Jewish people, and members of other racial, ethnic, and religious groups he perceived to be non-white. Fields also expressed these views directly in interactions with individuals known to him.

   Fields further admitted that, on Aug. 12, 2017, he attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. That morning, multiple groups and individuals espousing white-supremacist ideology also attended the rally. These rally participants, including Fields, engaged in chants promoting or expressing white supremacist and other racist and anti-Semitic views.

   Shortly before the scheduled start of the Unite the Right rally, law enforcement declared an “unlawful assembly” and required rally participants, including Fields, to disperse. Fields later returned to his vehicle and began to drive on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.

   Fields drove his car onto Fourth Street, a narrow, downhill, one-way street in downtown Charlottesville. At or around that same time, a racially and ethnically diverse crowd had gathered at the bottom of the hill, at the intersection of Fourth and Water Streets. Many of the individuals in the crowd were celebrating as they were chanting and carrying signs promoting equality and protesting against racial and other forms of discrimination. Fields slowly proceeded in his vehicle down Fourth Street toward the crowd. He then stopped and observed the crowd while idling in his vehicle. With no vehicle behind him, Fields then slowly reversed his vehicle toward the top of the hill.

   At or around that same time, the members of the crowd began to walk up the hill, populating the streets and sidewalks between the buildings on Fourth Street. Having reversed his car to a point at or near the top of the hill and the intersection of Fourth and Market Streets, Fields stopped again. Fields admitted that he then rapidly accelerated forward down Fourth Street in his vehicle, running through a stop sign and across a raised pedestrian mall, and drove directly into the crowd. Fields’s vehicle stopped only when it struck another stopped vehicle near the intersection of Fourth and Water Streets. Fields then rapidly reversed his car and fled the scene. As Fields drove into and through the crowd, Fields struck numerous individuals, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 28 people nearby.

   DRJ (15874d) — 6/23/2019 @ 1:31 pm

   
   

8. Maybe you were misled by a famous blogger’s bad advice to “Run them down”?

   DRJ (15874d) — 6/23/2019 @ 1:36 pm

   
   

9. Regarding #3: Early claims were that he was being attacked by the mob, which was attempting to pull him out of his car. Clearly this did not prove out, as his statement makes clear. Had he been in fear of his life, the charges and sentence would likely have been different.

   Kevin M (21ca15) — 6/23/2019 @ 2:37 pm

   
   

10. In context (and IIRC, at another time), Glenn’s comment involved being caught up in a violent and hostile mob. The alternative can be this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdAlTpg-m4

    Kevin M (21ca15) — 6/23/2019 @ 2:44 pm

    
    

11. Maybe you were misled by a famous blogger’s bad advice to “Run them down”?

    I daresay that “famous blogger” would have phrased it differently had he taken some additional time to respond. However, with some gentling reformulation, his suggested tactic is sound.

    If you are ever in a vehicle caught up in a street-mob action, your only reasonable choice of defense is to continue to move the vehicle forward at a few miles per hour until the mob gets bored with you and retires to seek another target. If you stop the vehicle, you are inviting them to attack your vehicle, …and then once they’ve smashed your windows & gained access to the interior, to attack you.

    It is no different than the tactic used by mounted law enforcement officers, or bike patrol officers, to break up mobs or force demostrators to move aside: implacable slow movement. There are YouTube videos that demonstrate the tactic’s efficacy.

    ColoComment (89c82f) — 6/23/2019 @ 3:21 pm

    
    

12. Can we pretend this wouldn’t have happened with terry McAuliffe’s malpractice, there have been a number of confrontations between alt right and so called Antifa, none other turned fatal, because the state police was told not to stand down,

    narciso (d1f714) — 6/23/2019 @ 3:26 pm

    
    

13. Personally, it is my belief that if it is first-degree murder that he should receive the death penalty. Not 20 years from now, but in the next year. Because of my mistrust of police interrogation tactics I wonder which story is true. The first story that it was an accident because he was afraid or the second story that it was premeditated.

    Unfortunately they are letting unrepentant terrorists out early now.

    https://www.investigativeproject.org/7869/john-walker-lindh-should-not-be-released-early

    https://www.investigativeproject.org/7895/another-terrorist-gets-early-prison-release

    Tanny O'Haley (8a06bc) — 6/23/2019 @ 4:49 pm

    
    

14. Yes he was a member of bin laden 055 brigade,

    Narciso (e49d7b) — 6/23/2019 @ 5:38 pm

    
    

15. Nice try by Fields’ defense team.

    DRJ:
    I agree with the famous blogger within the context he was speaking too. The Bible, the prayers of Jesus, interpreted literally can result in bad behavior
    In the 1992 LA riots, Reginald Denny would have been well served by the advice. Running over Damian “Football” Williams might have improved the neighborhood, and certainly would have improved Denny’s chances to avoid a concrete block to skull injury.

    The Palestinians, use a mobbing tactic to trap commuting Israelis in their cars and then they drag them out and beat them to death, or else maybe toss in a molotov cocktail, burning them to death. South Africans used to do more of that too… doing the tire necklace thing.

    Fields is/was an ass and should pay, but bad things happen when you allow yourself to be mobbed. He is an unsympathetic figure, and the cause of the others was more just… but mob tactics should be discouraged regardless to the cause….

    steveg (354706) — 6/23/2019 @ 6:24 pm

    
    

16. Meanwhile, a sitting legislator (who has fled the state to help prevent a quorom) has threatened to kill police sent to compel his attendance (as is authorized under the law of his state).

    aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/24/2019 @ 12:32 pm

    
    

17. DRJ, Thank you for the information in comment 7. I wasn’t aware of that. Looks like RC wasn’t aware of it either

    Time123 (a7a01b) — 6/24/2019 @ 12:35 pm

    
    

18. “Meanwhile, a sitting legislator (who has fled the state to help prevent a quorom) has threatened to kill police sent to compel his attendance (as is authorized under the law of his state).”
    aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/24/2019 @ 12:32 pm

    Isn’t Oregon a sanctuary state? Funny how that works.

    Munroe (df9855) — 6/24/2019 @ 1:26 pm

    
    

19. a sitting legislator (who has fled the state to help prevent a quorom)

    Slightly tu quoque, but it wasn’t too long ago that all the Democrat legislators in Wisconsin fled their state to prevent a quorum and deny Republicans passage of their legislation. Those Democrats were pretty well lionized in the press.

    Granted, threatening to kill police — or anyone else, for that matter — is absolutely wrong. But I’ve noticed that the Republicans in Oregon are faring much worse in the press than their Democrat counterparts in Wisconsin did.

    Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 6/24/2019 @ 1:30 pm

    
    

20. Chuck, and Munroe: please note that my objection here isn’t to them fleeing to prevent the quorom, it’s to the threat. That seems completely unjustified and unjustifiable.

    aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/24/2019 @ 1:51 pm

    
    

21. Isn’t the whole point of fleeing the state to escape the reach of anyone (e.g. the state or capitol police) who can compel attendance?

    Dave (1bb933) — 6/24/2019 @ 2:13 pm

    
    

22. Chuck, and Munroe: please note that my objection here isn’t to them fleeing to prevent the quorom, it’s to the threat.

    I understood that, aphrael, and agree with you. I was making a side point that Republicans get beaten up in the press for doing the exact same things that bring Democrats praise.

    Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 6/24/2019 @ 2:39 pm