Politics and Current
Former policeman accused of murdering a man in the back of a police car and dumping his body in a river – investigators discover shocking details based on his cellphone search history
A former Memphis police officer now faces federal charges for allegedly kidnapping and murdering an on-duty man and dumping his body in a river.
On May 8, a federal grand jury indicted Patric J. Ferguson, 32, on eight counts of federal civil rights, kidnapping and gun crimes in reference to a fatal 2021 shooting.
According to Law & Crime, on January 5, 2021, Ferguson went to a home belonging to 30-12 months-old Robert Lee Howard and abducted him at gunpoint. He forced Howard into the back of the police car and shot him in the head.
The federal indictment says Ferguson then approached a man named Joshua Rogers to cover up the murder. Rogers was also charged in reference to the murder.
He and Rogers allegedly dumped Howard’s body in the Wolf River in Memphis and then took the car used to move the body to a salvage yard to destroy it.
The next day, Howard’s girlfriend reported him missing. On January 10, 2021, authorities found Howard’s body. Ferguson and Rogers were arrested a few days later.
Investigators found search history on Ferguson’s phone related to cleansing up crime scenes and destroying evidence, based on an affidavit filed by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“Evidence was obtained indicating that Ferguson purchased cinder blocks, chains and padlocks at a hardware store, which investigators later determined Ferguson used to conceal evidence,” affidavit To read. “Additionally, investigators obtained surveillance video that recorded the victim being shot while Ferguson was on duty.”
A state grand jury indicted Ferguson on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, misconduct and government oppression.
The state also charged Rogers with accessory after the fact, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Rogers also faces federal charges of tampering with evidence and conspiracy for allegedly conspiring with Ferguson to hide evidence of the shooting.
Police haven’t yet released their theory on the motive for the murder.
When Ferguson was arrested, he waived his Miranda right to stay silent and confessed that he went to Howard’s house, pushed him into the back of a police car and asked Rogers to assist move the body.
Ferguson posted $400,000 bail in June 2023 and is currently awaiting trial.
Politics and Current
Vote To Live launches $4 million initiative to mobilize Black male voters
Vote To Live, an affiliate of Collective PAC, has launched a $4 million initiative to increase turnout amongst black men through nonpartisan efforts in six states ahead of the November presidential election, NBC News reports.
Collective PAC, certainly one of the nation’s largest political motion committees supporting Black candidates, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
The group’s efforts will primarily concentrate on six key swing states – Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – with additional efforts happening in Arizona and Nevada.
“Black men are one of the top targets of disinformation on the Internet right now, so we know they are being targeted by our adversaries, people who are trying to interfere with our elections, both foreign and domestic players,” said Quentin James, founder and president of the PAC Collective .
“So we would like to ensure that that we’re also communicating with Black men about what they need to go vote, what they need to bring with them and what’s on their ballot — educating them on the actual process because there’s a lot on the market on the web information that tries to influence them. “
James believes there was a major effort to persuade black men to leave the Democratic Party and support former President Donald Trump. In response, Vote To Live hopes to provide information opposing these initiatives. The initiative stays nonpartisan as James was unable to provide funding to support Harris due to the presence of many groups that were already pushing for this goal.
Vote To Live will focus its efforts on educating Black men about registering to vote, offering free transportation to polling places during early voting, hiring people to directly engage with their communities, and hosting events at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
James points out that polls point to a good presidential race by which black men could play a key role. The group’s goal is to register 50,000 black voters by offering resources through the organization VoteToLive.org.
Politics and Current
Donald Trump has hit out at accusations of scientific racism after suggesting some people will commit murder because it’s ‘in their genes’
Donald Trump is once more courting controversy by suggesting that illegal immigrants are at risk of committing heinous crimes resulting from genetic aspects.
The former president and current candidate of the Republican Party within the 2024 presidential election appeared on the web site “The Hugh Hewitt Show” to debate the primary anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, which marked the start of a brutal and ongoing genocide that has killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
Trump spoke on other foreign relations topics, while also hurling quite a few insults at President Joe Biden and Trump’s current opponent, Kamala Harris. On the problem of immigration, he addressed the vice chairman, stating that she desired to “feed people in a government way” and “enter the system like the communist party.”
However, it was his later comments about illegal immigrants that sparked accusations that the previous president was once more toying with scientific racism.
“How about allowing people to cross an open border, 13,000 of whom are murderers? Many of them have murdered far more than one person and now live happily in the United States,” Trump he said. “You know, I’m a murderer now, I believe it, it’s in my genes. And we have a lot of bad genes in our country now. They left, 425,000 people came to our country who should not be here and who are criminals. Do you know one of the worst statistics? 325,000 little children missing.”
“Let me guess…immigrants coming from Europe don’t have ‘bad genes,'” wrote one X user. “The KKK thought the same about black people during Jim Crow and after,” another person added.
According to National Human Genome InstituteScientific racism is a historical pattern of ideologies that misuse science to advertise false scientific beliefs through which dominant racial and ethnic groups are perceived as superior.
Leading scientists in lots of industrialized countries within the nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries espoused these ideologies, but by the mid-Twentieth century the pseudoscientific racist beliefs were widely debunked. Despite this, evidence shows that scientific racism persists in science and research.
This discredited set of beliefs was strongly held against Black Americans throughout the Jim Crow era, when the eugenics movement became widely popular. Scientists would encourage white Americans to marry and reproduce only amongst their own race, labeling ethnic minority genes as “unfit” for improvement in future generations. Former President Teddy Roosevelt was one of the predominant supporters of eugenics within the early Twentieth century.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for his campaign, said Trump’s latest comments about immigrants he told NBC News“He was clearly talking about MURDERERS, not migrants.”
As for the 13,000 figure that Trump used to make his point, he’s referring to the 13,000 immigrants convicted of murder who will not be in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. However, three ICE officials he said NBC’s data doesn’t include whether these people are in state or local prisons. Other officials said the information dates back many years and that many of these people arrived within the United States before Biden’s presidential term, including while Trump was in office.
Trump’s harsh rhetoric on immigration dates back to when he first ran for president. He once said that Mexico “doesn’t send its best” and suggested that many migrants crossing the border are “rapists” and “criminals.” He fiercely advocated radical border policies that included constructing a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
At a rally in Minnesota in 2020, he again invoked the science of race and told a predominantly white crowd: “You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. Rather a lot of it has to do with genes, don’t you think that? The racehorse theory. Do you think that we’re that different? You’ve got good Minnesota genes.
Racehorse theory was and still is widely adopted by white supremacists to perpetuate the thought of racial purity and eugenics that whiteness is the top of genetics.
Politics and Current
What Kamala Harris doesn’t say on “60 Minutes” about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says a lot
In a preview of Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview on “60 Minutes,” the Democratic presidential nominee appeared to further signal that if elected on November 5, she is willing to adopt a latest U.S. approach to the alliance with Israel.
More specifically, Whitaker questioned Harris on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resistance to U.S. calls for a ceasefire and escalating tensions within the region, including in Lebanon, against Hezbollah.
“Does the US have no influence on Prime Minister Netanyahu?” asked Whitaker.
In response, Vice President Harris said that diplomacy to secure a ceasefire, release hostages and increase humanitarian aid in Gaza was a “continuous pursuit.”
“We will continue to put pressure on Israel and the region, including Arab leaders,” Harris said.
Whitaker further pressed Harris, asking the presidential candidate whether Netanyahu was a “truly close ally” of the United States. The vp avoided answering this query. Instead, she said, “The better question is whether we have a valid alliance between the American people and the Israeli people – and the answer is yes.”
Cross said Harris’ response to Netanyahu showed her “ability” to walk a delicate balance each as a vp who must uphold the policy positions of her boss – President Biden – and as a presidential candidate who will ultimately forge her own path.
The political expert said Harris “respects both roles she plays” but additionally “shows that if elected in November, there will be a new side that will likely include some level of conditionality” for Israel.
Netanyahu has faced growing criticism each in Israel and world wide for his handling of the war against Hamas, which has led to more bloodshed, including Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Cross noted that the Israeli prime minister can also be adding “fire to the embers of a potentially dangerous war with Iran, which the United States does not want.” She added: “I would argue that most of the Western world doesn’t want that either.”
Netanyahu’s leadership in Israel stays uncertain as some Israelis call on him to step down as prime minister. Some of them blamed Netanyahu for inciting the war in Gaza and failing to take enough motion to finish the war and produce back the hostages. Foreign experts too concentrate that Netanyahu probably wants the war to proceed for political reasons.
“Netanyahu, like former President Trump, is someone who does not want to go to prison for the crimes he committed and was accused of,” Cross said of the prime minister, who continues to be on trial corruption allegations in Israel.
“(He) is willing to double down on the war to protect himself from the consequences of his own actions,” Cross added.
Ultimately, Cross said, the one “real weapon the United States has” is a commitment to chop weapons and funding for Israel, something Biden has been reluctant to do.
Although Harris didn’t call for such conditions for Israel, she went further than Biden in her public statements calling for a ceasefire and acknowledging the suffering of innocent Palestinians, including women and kids. The war can also be a major concern for American voters, especially young voters, black voters and Arab Americans.
“She met with disengaged voters. She met with groups of Palestinians. She listens to them in a way that I think helps her formulate a certain ideology about what should come next,” Cross said.
“There is a better way,” she continued. “There is a way to protect your nation and say you are taking revenge on someone who committed an atrocity against you, but these innocent people did not do it.”
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