WTVG reported that a white security officer at the IRS building in Toledo, Ohio, is facing a charge for aggravated menacing after he pulled his gun on Alan Gaston, a black Lucas County sheriff's deputy.
The reason? Gaston was armed.
He was also, however, clearly in uniform with his badge visible, indicating him as an on-duty law enforcement officer. The guard drew his weapon after Gaston told him he couldn't leave his sidearm outside the premises.
"Basically preparing myself to be shot at that moment. Bracing for a shot in my back," said Gaston, who works as a defense instructor and who says he only came to the building to ask about a letter he received from the IRS.
The security cameras show the guard forcing Gaston from the building with the gun drawn and his finger on the trigger.
The incident, which was first reported last Wednesday, marks the latest in a string of high-profile controversies in which black people are threatened for going about mundane business in their jobs or personal lives — incidents that have clearly been going on since the America has existed as a nation, but which are more visible than ever with the advent of the internet.
Watch below:
Republicans are stepping up their war against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg as he considers charges against Donald Trump.
House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has already called for committees to delve into Bragg's investigation of Trump's hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, and GOP lawmakers are weighing subpoenas for the county prosecutor to testify about his probe, reported The Daily Beast.
“It is pretty clearly a wrongful persecution of a free American citizen who happens to be the former president of the United States,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) told the website. “Because of those circumstances, I think it’s appropriate for Congress to inquire into what drove that decision making process for Bragg."
Higgins suggested that Republicans would coordinate their timing on a potential Bragg subpoena with the former president's legal team to avoid interfering with their defense.
READ MORE: 'Crazy stuff': Morning Joe panelists burst out laughing at Trump's latest campaign riff
“[A subpoena] would be an interesting conversation amongst my colleagues,” he said, "[but] the appropriate timing of something like that should include consideration whether or not that case is moving towards permanent closure, and allow that to happen.”
However, other Republicans are pressing for a more extreme response to Bragg's grand jury investigation, which some of them have suggested is funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
"It’s time to arrest Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for prosecutorial misconduct after hiding hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. "Bragg is on the verge of indicting an innocent former President and top Presidential candidate against the opposing ruling party. Bragg is breaking the law and trying to incite civil unrest with his Soros funded political war. Hold him accountable!"
Republican senators don't have the power to go after Bragg as the minority party, and some House Republicans seem to think their pressure has already had an effect on Bragg's probe.
“But you know, [Bragg] seems like he’s kind of, you know, maybe, I don’t know, maybe backed off a little bit,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). “But we’ll have to see, we’ll see what he does.”
According to a leading conservative columnist, Donald Trump's decision to try and make heroes out of the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is a massive mistake that will likely doom his political future.
As the former president kicked his 2024 presidential bid into high gear with a rally in Waco last week, he also took part in making a recording with rioters currently in custody, thereby aligning himself even more tightly with them which will become fodder for his opponents -- both Republicans and Democrats.
Writing for Politico, National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry admitted Trump's embrace of what the conservative called a "bloody riot" is an epic miscalculation.
"From the perspective of the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 it was hard enough to believe that Donald Trump would survive the event, let alone make it a plank in a powerful comeback bid just a few years later," he wrote before adding, "For Trump, a master at appropriating the catch lines and attacks of the other side, reversing the meaning of Jan. 6 would be his most audacious move yet."
READ MORE: 'Crazy stuff': Morning Joe panelists burst out laughing at Trump's latest campaign riff
Adding, "This is a huge mistake in every way, most importantly on the merits, but also on the politics," Lowry wrote that it shouldn't be surprising the former President is making it a central theme of his political comeback and that should be of concern too.
"Making excuses for or valorizing Jan. 6 is deeply wrong," he explained. and then added, "... justifying or excusing political violence has a deranging influence on the republic. The more reason both sides have to physically fear each other, the easier it is to justify extreme measures in response, in a widening gyre of escalation."
To a lesser degree, he added that, from a political perspective, it is a massive unforced error.
"If the other side is desperate to portray you as in bed with fanatics and rioters, it’s best not to go out of your way to prove them right. It’s perverse for Republicans that just as the Jan. 6 Committee has been put out of business and is no longer in a position to constantly remind the public of Jan. 6, here comes Donald Trump to remind people of Jan. 6," he explained. "What Trump is doing flies in the face of the lessons of the midterms. Jan. 6 lent emotional power to the Democratic argument that democracy was under threat, and Stop the Steal candidates proved radioactive. Trump wants, in effect, to repeat November 2022’s failed political experiment on a larger scale in 2024."
You can read more here.
A train carrying ethanol through Minnesota derailed and caught fire, forcing local residents to evacuate.
CNN reports that the derailment occurred at approximately 1 a.m. on Thursday morning in Raymond Minnesota.
Multiple cars on the train promptly caught on fire, and officials told people living in nearby homes to evacuate as a precautionary measure.
There have been no reported injuries as a result of the derailment.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'He's lost his mind!': Trump buried over his latest bizarre pronouncements
Train derailments have been in the national spotlight recently after a derailment in the town of East Palestine, Ohio led to an environmental catastrophe resulting from toxic chemicals being spilled into local water sources.
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