Reporter Ken Lippenstein posted a field case report from late April where a group of militia members "patrolling" the border captured 200 migrants at gunpoint.
Klippenstein posted the case report to his Twitter page, highlighting the comments from one militia member about what they should be doing with migrants on the border.
“Why are we...not lining them up and shooting them?" the militia member asked his fellow gunmen. "We have to go back to Hitler days and put them all in a gas chamber."
Militias rushed to the U.S.-Mexico border to "help" border patrol agents handle the invasion President Donald Trump claimed was happening. Actual Border Patrol Officers have been asking the men to leave. At least one leader was arrested and held on gun charges last month.
You can read the case report in the tweet below:
Member of border militia that detained 200 migrants at gunpoint told police another member had said, “Why are we...… https://t.co/zCJhhb9qiE— Ken Klippenstein (@Ken Klippenstein) 1557182138.0
Donald Trump wants to put “woke” to rest.
The former president earlier this week said that he’s “sick” of the catch-all phrase that's used to rile up the conservative base.
“It’s gotten sick, and I don’t like the term woke, because I hear woke, woke, woke,” Trump said Thursday at a Westside Conservative Breakfast in Urbandale, Iowa.
“You know it’s like just a term they use half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is.”
Trump’s assertion can easily be dismissed as a jab at his chief political rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made his “war on woke” the focus of his agenda.
But MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem suggests that it may be a rare moment in which the former president is being insightful.
“It’s not exactly clear who was he referring to when he said “they,” but it’s likely he meant people on the right who use the term to discredit or fearmonger about any policy vaguely associated with the principle of social equality or inclusiveness. It could even be a jab at DeSantis, who has made opposing ‘wokeness’ one of the animating principles of his presidential campaign," Aleem writes for MSNBC in a column published under the headline “What Trump's claim that he's over the term 'woke' reveals.”
“It was also one of those rare moments in which Trump said something true, and maybe even slightly introspective.”
Recent polling data backs Trump’s assertion.
A USA Today/Ipsos poll, the findings of which were published in March, suggests that no broad consensus over the term’s meaning exists, and that Americans are divided over whether they view “wokeness” as a compliment or an insult.
The poll shows a split between those who view “woke” to mean being aware of social injustice, which is considered the Democratic party view of the term, and others who associate the term with political correctness taken to an extreme, which is how Republicans typically characterize “wokeness.”
According to the poll, 56 percent of Americans view the term to mean “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices,” and 39 percent consider it to be “overly politically correct and police others’ words.”
Republicans, according to the poll, are not monolithic in their view of “wokeness,” with more than a third (37 percent) of respondents associating the term with being aware of social injustice, and 56 percent describing it to mean being overly politically correct.
IN OTHER NEWS: Elliot Page accuses big-name actor of hurling homophobic threats
Aleem writes that, “The term 'woke' dates back to at least the early 20th century, and was originally used by people who positively affiliated with the term as a shorthand for awareness of social injustice and bigotry. But in recent years, the right has appropriated the term and rendered it unintelligible.”
“DeSantis’ 2024 campaign launch last week was so packed with jargon tied to the anti-woke crusade that it was hard to understand what he was really saying. Trump is right: The term doesn’t mean much anymore when used by the right.”
Canadian actor Elliot Page was accosted by an unidentified big-name actor who deluged him with homophobic threats, he wrote in his new memoir, according to The Daily Beast on Friday.
"The incident, recounted in a chapter Page bluntly titled 'Famous A--hole at Party,' took place between Page and an unnamed but prominent actor at a birthday party in 2014, Page told People in a new interview. According to Page, the actor told him he wasn’t really gay, just 'afraid of men,' and said 'I’m going to f—k you to make you realize you aren’t gay.'"
According to the report, Page "then tried to brush off the encounter when the two crossed paths at a gym several days later."
Page, who has featured in several films including Inception, came out as a transgender man in 2020. He was assigned female at birth, and, prior to 2020, he had identified himself as gay rather than transgender.
IN OTHER NEWS: Cop captured in video punching man on the ground acted 'within policy': police chief
“I’m purposely not sharing his name,” Page said to People Magazine. However, he added, “he will hear about this and know it’s him.”
Much of the discrimination efforts against transgender people over the last few years, including Republican-backed laws restricting them from sports and restroom use, have been sold with rhetoric focusing on the demonization of transgender women. However, transgender men also face discrimination and social struggles.
An officer captured in a video widely circulated on social media that shows him repeatedly punching a suspect who is on the ground acted “within policy,” according to Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea, The Idaho Statesman reports.
Officer Donald Heida is seen in the video punching Colt James Seward in the head and face while he was pinned to the ground. Fellow officer Sean McDonald detained and arrested Seward.
The officers were identified in a probable cause affidavit the news outlet obtained and subsequently confirmed by Basterrechea.
Basterrechea also confirmed that officer seen in the video punching Seward was Heida, who joined the agency in April 2021.
Neither officer was placed on leave or assigned administrative tasks, and neither officer was injured.
Officers at around 5:15 p.m. May 16 found Seward in his 2014 Dodge Challenger “passed out in traffic” in the area of North Ten Mile Road and West Ustick Road in Meridian.
Seward was “clearly under the influence of drugs,” Basterrechea said.
Seward was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, battering a law enforcement officer, and unlawful possession of a firearm by someone with a prior felony conviction, among other charges.
Officers found a .40-caliber handgun and a bag of suspected methamphetamine and Xanax during a search of Seward’s vehicle.
After his arrest, Seward slipped out of his handcuffs while sitting in the back seat of a patrol car.
Alex Brizee writes for The Statesman that “Basterrechea alleged that as McDonald took the handcuff off Seward’s right hand, Seward ‘threw an elbow,’ hitting Heida in the chest and knocking his body camera to the ground.”
The officers then forced Seward to the ground.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'We have a history': Former Trump lawyer throws Joe Tacopina under the bus
The 25-second video shows Heida repeatedly striking Seward as he pins his knee to the ground.
Basterrechea in a statement obtained by The Statesman said that, “These incidents don’t happen if the suspect cooperates.”
Watch the video below or click here.
Meridian Police respond to video of officers repeatedly striking man under arrest www.youtube.com
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