What may turn out to have been an officer's knee momentarily on a defendants head while being constrained and handcuffed, brought the justice warriors and virtue signalers out in force on Saturday night. Shouting that if they don't get what they want, they will burn it down, the march went up Hamilton Street to the police station at 10th.
Although Mayor O'Connell and Police Chief Granitz came to the protest to explain that an investigation will be conducted, the protesters persisted to know how soon they can expect satisfaction?
The video ends one second after the officer uses his knee as an extra hand. Did it remain there, and for how long? Although social media called it a knee on the neck, that also isn't clear, and it appears that the knee is more up toward the combatants ear. Those that are leading these groups, and so anxious to ferment tension, are not unlike those who yell fire in a movie theater.
So far two city council members, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Josh Siegel. have joined ranks with the protestors. Gerlach at least questioned her dual role as a resident and council member, while Siegel thinks that his council cohorts who favor due process, must go. He clearly doesn't belong behind the dais.
Allentown and its minority populations are lucky to have Glenn Granitz as chief. I know of no previous chief in Allentown's history who has been more available and responsive to the public. The protesters must also realize that he is administrator of the police department, and that those officers, as anybody else, deserve due process in any inquiry.
screen shot of Chief Glenn Granitz facing protesters Saturday night.
UPDATE JULY 13, 2020: Although molovinsky is usually published weekdays, this was posted Sunday morning, in reaction to the protest Saturday night. The normal schedule will resume tomorrow.
UPDATE 9:00AM:WFMZ has changed its website copy to reflect that the policeman's knee was on the defendants head, not neck.
It's wrong to yell fire in a movie theater, unless you believe that there is one. If the people in the movie theater started yelling that they can't breathe and the people outside said that if you can talk, you can breathe. Would you be surprised if those people in the theater started to panic and some of them started doing irrational things? And what would you say to those people?
ReplyDeleteWould you help them?
What I find most curious about Saturday night's protest is the involvement of Hasshan Batts, Director of Promise Neighborhoods of the LV.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, Mr. Batts and his organization have received funding (aka our tax dollars) to function as an intermediary between the police department and the minority community in Allentown. Yet according to the Morning Call report, it was Mr. Batts who issued a CALL TO ACTION to protest on Saturday night via a live Facebook video.
While he was later credited with helping disburse the crowd, members of City Council should question his involvement in the first place. While helping to create unrest might mean more funding and job security for Mr. Batts and his group with the current members on council, his dual role in stirring/quelling unrest would cause a sane city government to pull his funding. But this is Allentown, and nobody makes the mistake of calling Allentown City Hall sane. Besides the two council members you mention, let's not forget that another member of council is actually on the payroll of Mr. Batt's organization.
Of course, in the background is the coming election and the disturbing alliance of these groups with the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA), something this blog reported on exclusively during a Black Lives Matter protest last month at the Rose Garden.
One can't help but feel that much of the motivation in stirring the unrest is a desire to energize minorities into voting for the socialist agenda that the democrats are putting forward. That many good, unknowing people are being wrongly used for this reason doesn't matter to the DSA, since (as always) the end justifies the means.
MM if these activist would open there eyes and be part of the WOKE ONES they would know it's not a black white thing, the real issue facing the world today is a RICH POOR thing. The media is not doing any stories of a white mother shott for saying all lives matter at a atifa fracus!
ReplyDeleteNow there is a motherless as well as a fatherless small child LEFT behind?
Great picture of the chief of police in prayer and meditation with the mob while the rest of the neighborhood is huddled in fear locked in their homes with the blinds shuttered. Another saturday night in allentown.
ReplyDeleteAllentown is finished, how much worse can it get, those in charge will soon lead us there. The lone exception is Chief Granitz.
ReplyDeleteTime for local race agitators and hustlers to stir things up in Allentown. Of course this is the last thing our struggling urban area needs, but what's best for the city and its residents is the least concern of those rushing to the cameras and microphones. Truly it's all about them and the collateral damage their incitement, accusations, and divisiveness brings on matters not to them. This is their chance to shine.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your 9:00 update that the policeman's knee was on the suspects head and not his neck, do you really expect that to matter to the politically-motivated mob?
ReplyDeleteThey don't want facts; they don't want an investigation; they don't want due process; and they certainly don't want justice.
All this is about having their DEMANDS met to achieve their political goals.
It's time for our worthless politicians to grow a spine and tell these children to go home. Until that happens, you'll only see more unrest, led by those who want to profit and gain political power from it.
the media won't share the facts in the george floyd killing. he shouldn't have died, however, the pregnant woman whose home was INVADED by george floyd and had a GUN HELD UP AGAINST HER STOMACH as he terrorized her asking where her money and jewelry was located didn't deserve what she went through, either. had it not been for a courageous neighbor who wrote down floyd's license plate #, justice would have never been served. this was but one of 7 felonies prior to floyd's using counterfeit $20 bills in the neighborhood where he was arrested. also, the amount of cocaine in the victim's blood, according to the autopsy, was a dangerous amount and could have contributed to his death. had he been the victim of asphyxiation alone, he would not have been able to speak or scream for the 8 minutes the police officer stupidly spent with his knee on floyd's neck. the video only shows that incident, not the violent reaction floyd took resisting arrest for the fraudulent $20 bills, knowing that after his prior 7 convictions, this time he may have to do some serious time behind bars. had people known all the facts, the massive protests may not have ensued. to make a violent felon such as floyd into a martyr, we are teaching children that crime does pay.
ReplyDelete