A good guy without a gun

photo credit:  Baltimore Sun

In the riots over a week ago in downtown Cleveland, property was destroyed, looted, and torched.  The Cleveland Police explained that they were “unprepared” for the riots.  “Unprepared”?  Despite having seen the violence and rioting in Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Columbus in the days preceding?  Now comes a report about how a citizen in California stopped further killings.  From CBS News:

U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Steven Carrillo, who allegedly killed a Santa Cruz deputy and wounded two others with gunfire and improvised explosives in a weekend ambush in the Santa Cruz Mountains, was captured by a local resident who wrestled him to the ground and disarmed him of an AR-15, pipe bomb and pistol in a life-or-death confrontation, CBS San Francisco Bay Area reports.

Angry and emotional Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart called Carrillo "a dangerous man intent on bringing harm to police officers."

"I want to talk a little about Steven Carrillo, I don't even want to say his name again," Hart told reporters at a Monday afternoon news conference. "It's the last time you are going to hear me say it. This guy was active Air Force. He was dangerous and he was an angry man intent on bringing harm to police officers. He murdered Sergeant (Damon) Gutzwiller. He injured another deputy."

But Hart said it was the actions of a local resident who stopped Carrillo from claiming more victims Saturday night.

"This guy (Carrillo) went into the backyard of a local resident and the local resident confronted him and wanted to know what he was doing on his property," Hart said. 

"The suspect told him that — actually he had an AR-15 slung, he was carrying an AR. He told the resident he wanted his car keys. The resident very calmly went into his house, obtained a key and came back out and handed it to him."

"As the suspect turned around, the resident tackled him and the AR-15 fell away and the resident took this guy to the ground. At that time the suspect reached into his pocket and pulled out a pipe bomb and tried to ignite a pipe bomb while being held down."

"This resident was able to knock the pipe bomb out of his hand and then the suspect reached into his waistband and pulled out a pistol. There was a wrestling match over the pistol. The resident was able to knock the pistol out of his hand, detain this guy. Multiple other community members from Ben Lomond jumped on this guy and held him until our deputies sheriffs were able to get there and take him into custody."

The full report is here.  So if this citizen could prevent more violence in California, why did the Cleveland Police – who did such a great job with security at the RNC in downtown Cleveland in 2016 – drop the ball?  What were their marching orders?  Inquiring minds want to know.

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The Future Success of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County (RPCC)

Seen on social media over the weekend:

RALPH KING·SUNDAY, 7 JUNE 2020·READING TIME: 2 MINUTES

Dear Fellow Central Committee Member,

My name is Ralph King and I am a member of the Central Committee representing Bedford Ward 6. I have served the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County in excess of 15 years. Currently I also serve on the Scanning Committee. In addition to years of grassroots activism & organizing at the local, state and national level for conservative causes and candidates, I served as a Delegate for President Trump in 2016 and had the honor of also representing our area as a member of the 54th Ohio Electoral College for President Trump.

With my years of activism and dedication to the Republican Party at all levels, especially in Cuyahoga County, I can honestly say we here in Cuyahoga County face an important crossroads offering two very distinct yet starkly contrasting choices.

The Republican Party in Cuyahoga County has been run like a social club for many, many years. The county party is so incestuously intertwined with lobbyists, consultants, political patronage, etc... nothing can get done. This broken strategy of $100K salaries & cronyism consulting fees has left the party literally broke. Do not believe the recent claims that we are on stable financial ground, otherwise why would the RPCC do an emergency fundraising initiative to keep the doors open past June? See attached RPCC special funding initiative letter. (Click Here)

Their old strategy has not worked, will not work and most importantly the old strategy will not change unless WE change it with your VOTE. Elect the “CUYAHOGA FIRST” slate —led by Lisa Stickan as the Chairman — in charge of the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County. VICTORIES are certain to follow.

Do we continue with the same strategy of being mired with the current swamp-filled ways of political patronage & this financially strapped County party unable to help candidates? Or do we stand up & embrace a new fresh Cuyahoga First leadership built on transparency, strong fundraising ability & grassroots support that will lead them to a path of vibrancy, success & winning in Cuyahoga County again!

This all important Central Committee chairman’s race is not as much about the candidates as it is about US — the members of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County Central Committee & Republican voters in Cuyahoga County. And today with our vote together WE can choose a new path, a new successful way to start winning by electing the “Cuyahoga First” slate with Lisa Stickan as our new Chairperson.

In Liberty,

Ralph King

Cleveland Tea Party Patriots

Bedford Ward 6

Central Committee Republican Party Cuyahoga County

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The Power of “No”

art credit: callcenterhelper.com

Kurt Schlicter over at Townhall makes good points:

For way too long, too many conservatives and other normal people have failed to deploy our most potent weapon in the defense of free thought and expression – the utter refusal to go along with the demands of the carnivorous left. As has been said before by me and others, we need to introduce these spoiled brats to the concept of “no.”

. . .

But a larger, more comprehensive information operation is still ongoing, one in which a bunch of pampered SJW stormtroopers, aided and abetted by the weak and frightened elder caste of liberals occupying the heights of the establishment, are attempting to define the tolerable range of ideas and expression within our culture. In a shocking turn that would surprise only stupid people, the tolerable range of ideas and expression they wish to establish corresponds exactly to the ideas and expressions they agree with. The Venn diagram of what they think and what they allow to be thought is a single circle.

The rest of us are expected to shut up, and thereby concede and recognize their mastery over us.

We could do that, sure. 

Or we could tell them “no.”

The first four of his bullet points for effectively saying "no" are:

• ·         Never apologize.
• ·         Reject their demands. 
• ·         Speak truths they want suppressed. 
• ·         Laugh at them.

Read the rest here.

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76th anniversary of D-Day

Today is the 76^th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings 

on the beaches of Normandy.

Image credit: National Geographic

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Downtown Business Owner Tony George Sends Open Letter To Cleveland

I heard from several sources that Cleveland's "leadership" issued a stand-down order for law enforcement during the weekend riot.  Whether or not that is true, earlier today, Lou Dobbs reported on Fox Business that many cities under liberal leadership issued stand-down orders during the riots. Below is a letter by Cleveland businessman Tony George on the subject. 

Via WTAM News Radio:

My family has lived in the Cleveland area for generations. We are business people who provide more than 1600 jobs. We are invested in Cleveland financially, emotionally and spiritually. That is why it is heartbreaking to see the great damage done to our community by those who hijacked a protest held in the name of justice and peace.

Dozens of downtown businesses, including ours, sustained substantial damage during this past weekend’s riots. Those aren’t just businesses, they are the dreams of people who believe in Cleveland, who put life savings into enterprises to provide food, drink, music, baked goods, groceries, clothing, and other products and services for the benefit of our community.

We are Clevelanders. We support peaceful protest. We stand for the equality of all people. We abhor race-based violence, no matter who commits it. What makes Cleveland special is that people of every race, color and creed want to live and work together. I look around and I see the looting and the destruction to our downtown - - that is not who we are.

It is not enough to say that violence is happening everywhere, in response to the killing of George Floyd. Someone has to take responsibility for what happened, or didn’t happen in Cleveland. The city had 24-hour notice before the march. There was no preparation by city leaders to establish a strict parade route, to block off commercial districts, to protect against the infiltration of a peaceful march by those who came prepared to commit violence. There was no call-up of off-duty police to provide additional protection, in case things went out of control.

When the destruction and looting began it would appear that police were told to stand down. We must have an explanation! Who is in charge of Cleveland? Where were the elected leaders in this moment of crisis?

I have raised this question about our absent leadership repeatedly. This failure of leadership is why I supported council reduction. I reluctantly withdrew the issue from the ballot, in the hope that a renewed effort toward unity would be a wake-up call. Nothing doing.

Cleveland City Hall leaders, especially the Mayor, continue to be asleep at the switch, with devastating results for our city.

First Cleveland’s businesses had to shut down during the height of the Covid-19 virus. Then, when we try to open back up, the riots start and shut us down again. Add to that, the reduction in business, due to the curfew.

This is a nightmare, which can end only when we have leaders who can rise up to meet the moment.

A four-day curfew is not leadership. It’s a confession of an inability to control lawlessness, or a capitulation to thugs. We don’t pay taxes for the police to be ordered to stand down in the face of looting. We don’t pay taxes to ensure the security of our streets, only to see the streets taken over by gangsters.

Tony George

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Aftermath of the “peaceful” riots

Michael P. Ramirez cartoon via Townhall

Many media reporters and anchors turned into Baghdad Bobs, as they reported that the “protests” were/are mostly peaceful -- while buildings burned to the ground behind them.  And yet we all know liberals who buy into this phony narrative that the riots were indeed mostly peaceful and the "protesters" were spontaneous participants, expressing anger over George Floyd’s death. 

The riot in Cleveland was pre-organized.  Rocks were pre-set in various locations.  In other cities, pallets of bricks were pre-staged.  But it’s the rioters’ playbook that gives them away.  Let the local protesters who are there out of genuine outrage and anger start things off with signs and chants. Then the rent-a-mob rioters start doing what rioters do:  they throw objects to injure, deface, or damage; vandalize; loot; set buildings and cars on fire; and so on.  Peaceful? 

Here is a link to Instapundit with a compilation of videos of destruction in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Santa Monica, DC, etc.  Click here.  

And here’s what downtown Cleveland looks like today in the aftermath.  Every door or window that is now boarded-up was deliberately smashed, and in the case of several stores (Geiger’s and Heinen’s among others) looted and trashed.  Clevelanders will recognize downtown restaurants, businesses, theaters, and landmarks.  Click here.

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WKYC wants to bail out looters

From our friend Steve Salvi at Ohio Jobs & Justice Pac posting via social media: 

Channel 3 TV Cleveland wants to help bail out the rioters and looters that caused millions of dollars of damage to hard working Clevelanders trying to make a living and destroyed lots of public property including damaging historic statues and buildings.

Why don't you contact Channel 3 and tell them what you think about them bailing these people out? I'm sure they will be so grateful they won't smash your company's windows, loot your property, and burn your car.
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In case you want to reach out to Cleveland TV3: 216-344-3333