US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9122

(CNN)The recently retired chief of police of a New Jersey township was arrested Wednesday by the FBI and charged with a federal hate crime for allegedly slamming a handcuffed African-American suspect into a doorjamb during a 2016 arrest.

According to a criminal complaint against Frank Nucera Jr., who resigned in January, the former chief espoused violence toward African-Americans, using the N-word and other epithets.
He allegedly told an officer in his Bordentown police department that "The n-----s are like ISIS, they have no value."
"They should line them all up and mow 'em down," he said, according to an affidavit accompanying the complaint.
Nucera also is charged with deprivation of rights by using excessive force during an arrest in September of last year.

CNN attempted to reach Nucera's attorney but was unsuccessful.
The affidavit says Nucera talked of using police dogs in a "racially discriminatory" way to intimidate African-Americans.
The chief worked for Bordentown Township, a southern New Jersey town of 12,000 residents, since 1983, the Trenton Times reported. The township is a mostly white suburb of Trenton.
"The conduct alleged is shocking," acting US Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick said at a news conference. "It's a shocking breach of the duty of every police officer to provide equal justice under the law and to never mistreat a person in their custody."
Nucera appeared in court Wednesday afternoon in Camden and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He was released on a bail of $500,000.
On September 1, 2016, the former chief responded as backup to a scene where two African-American teenagers were being arrested for using a hotel room without paying.
One of the suspects was handcuffed and being led from the room. According to the FBI, Nucera approached the teen from behind and slammed his head into a metal door jamb.
An officer at the scene recorded the chief making racist remarks, the complaint says.
"I'm f-----g tired of them, man. I'll tell you what, it's gonna get to the point where I could shoot one of these m----rf-----s. And that n----r b---h lady, she almost got it," the chief said, according to the complaint.
If convicted of each count, Nucera faces up to 20 years in prison.
The court filing says the officer had recorded the chief for about a one year period. The officer eventually reported the alleged crimes to the US Department of Justice, officials said.
The town's mayor called the charges "abhorrent."
"The township appreciates the comments by the US Attorney ... which reinforced what we already knew: that these charges are limited to one person, and are not indicative of the Bordentown Township Police Department, or the Township as a whole," Mayor Steve Benowitz said in a statement. "It is important to note that these charges began from a self-reported complaint from within the township police department. The township has moved forward with new leadership that promotes community, inclusion, and equality."
Nucera retired in mid-January, just after the New Jersey Attorney General was informed of the investigation into Nucera's alleged racially motivated use of excessive force.

On November 02 2017 19:52 Nebuchad wrote:


I suppose it's about getting unbiased jurors. It's a bit of nonsense though, I imagine it's true legally but it's not like the jurors were going to have a completely unbiased opinion of the terrorist if Trump hadn't tweeted that.

On November 02 2017 19:18 warding wrote:
It's kind of fun to look at the ads Russia placed on Facebook:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/1/16593346/house-russia-facebook-ads

What strikes me though is how little was invested. I've read "more than $100,000" in ads on Facebook, which is is really nothing.

Do you guys often see political ads on your fb feed?

If you are inside the “alt-right” information bubble, you might be preparing yourself for a civil war to commence this Saturday.

Since late September, the idea has been circulating on Facebook groups, subreddit message boards, Twitter, and leading conspiracy media outlets that on 4 November, anti-fascist groups will begin a violent insurrection.

Some websites are telling their readers that antifa groups are “planning to kill every single Trump voter, Conservative and gun owner” this weekend. Hundreds of Facebook posts show how seriously consumers of such media are taking the news, and comments like “One more threat against white people and I swear to God I’m going to take a goddamn car and run over every fucking one of them” are not unrepresentative of the response.

But antifa groups have no plans to protest that day, and the small leftist groups who are planning protests have only dubious connections to the antifa movement. So what gives?

The whole thing rests on some very slender reeds, according to Spencer Sunshine, who recently wrote a report on the theories for the far right-monitoring group Political Research Associates. In the conspiracy underground on YouTube, he explains, there has been talk that “there was going to be a civil war” starting in November for some months.

Beginning in late September, three things kicked it a into higher gear. First, Refuse Fascism, a small group linked to the Revolutionary Communist party, staged a visually spectacular protest in Los Angeles. They blocked the 101 freeway and held up signs that enigmatically spelled out “Nov 4 it begins”. This is the same group that is organizing a series of protests around the country against the “Trump-Pence regime” this weekend.

Second, a video posted on a Facebook page called Vets Before Illegals went viral. The video, entitled “Antifa sets a date for civil war”, claimed that “on their website, they are calling for an open civil war that will start in November”, and set out alleged plans for attacking police officers, then citizens and the government.

Last, but by no means least, the rumor was picked up and amplified by Alex Jones, the radio star with an audience of millions. As Sunshine explains, Jones “is a kind of meta-conspiracy theorist now” who “harvests other people’s theories” and repackages them to fit his narratives and his audience.

Once Jones had mentioned it, Sunshine explains, the rumor mill exploded: “Once Jones says something, even more people pick up on it and put their own spin on it.” Jones’s website was still running the story on Wednesday morning.