Politics and Current
A white South African man convicted of attacking and killing 39 black people during the apartheid era has died days after admitting police involvement in his crimes.
A former white South African security guard who confessed to killing dozens of black people during apartheid has died. BBC News claimed that police officers were complicit in his reign of terror, is dead.
In a series of chilling interviews given to a British television station just every week before his death, 72-year-old Louis Van Schoor revealed that law enforcement officers were deeply involved in his crimes and should share the blame for 39 killings he confessed to while working as a security guard in the late Eighties.
Van Schoor died of sepsis brought on by a leg infection. Families of his victims still want justice. “He made it out alive!” Marlene Mvumbi said whose brother was amongst the victims. “I hope they continue to reopen these cases. The families deserve justice. We got nothing and the pain is still the same”
All his victims were black.
Van Schoor didn’t name any names in the report, and there is no such thing as a direct confirmation of his claims about the involvement of South African police officers, who were notorious for his or her brutal methods of suppressing activism and enforcing racial segregation during the apartheid era.
Despite confessing to committing at the very least 39 murders, Van Schoor was convicted of just seven murders and sentenced to greater than 90 years in prison.
However, a judge allowed the sentences to be served concurrently, resulting in his early release on parole in 2004 after serving just 12 years of his sentence.
The station’s investigation into Van Schoor goals to get to the bottom of the case and explain why South African authorities have yet to elucidate why his killings weren’t reassessed after the end of apartheid.
During questioning, the former policeman insisted he never intended to “kill black people” and denied being a racist, although he admitted that he found the persecution of black people “exciting.”
Before becoming a security guard in 1986, Van Schoor spent 12 years with the East London Police, where he worked with “attack dogs” to trace down and arrest mostly black protesters and criminals. He compared his job to “hunting, but a different kind,” the BBC reports.
Van Schoor, once a robust and brutal man, now uses a wheelchair after having each legs amputated, a shadow of the ruthless figure he was 40 years ago, when he was generally known as the “Apartheid Killer.”
In time, Van Schoor has turn into a vagabond figure, old and frail, stooped over with an untidy, gray beard. He is unapproachable, lonely, and has no friends to talk of.
Many of his teeth rotted and fell out years ago, and his face is lined with wrinkles from years of smoking and sleepless nights.
A recent heart attack also left its mark.
But unlike many of the people he shot, Van Schoor is alive and respiration.
His wrinkled clothes, like his house, reek of cigarettes, a continuing reminder of his declining health and befitting the dark past that also weighs on his mind.
Speaking to the BBC, Van Schoor attempted to lighten the mood by telling a disturbing joke about his decision to stay conscious during an operation to amputate his legs reasonably than undergo anaesthesia – in a way bragging about his endurance.
“I was curious,” he laughed enthusiastically. “I saw them cutting… cutting the bone.”
His voice trailed off. No one else found it funny.
Van Schoor’s face became serious again as he tried to persuade BBC reporter Charlie Northcott that he was “not the monster people think he is”.
In the Eighties, Louis Van Schoor carried out a series of assassinations that left 39 people dead over a three-year period. At the same time, South Africa was under a brutal apartheid regime that enforced a racial hierarchy and brutally oppressed blacks in favor of whites.
Van Schoor’s quite a few murders put him in line with some of America’s most notorious serial killers, including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Gary Ridgeway, generally known as the Green River Killer — all of whom were chargeable for at the very least 30 murders.
The only noticeable difference was that each one of Van Schoor’s victims were black, the youngest being just 12 years old.
The murders took place in the rugged, windy city of East London, a once-poor area in the Eastern Cape where many residents lived in slums.
Working as a security guard at greater than 70 percent of the city’s white-owned businesses, including restaurants, stores, factories, and schools, Van Schoor had the perfect cover to murder with impunity in the name of maintaining a racist system.
“He was a kind of killer-avenger. He was a Dirty Harry character,” says Isa Jacobson, a South African journalist and filmmaker who spent 20 years investigating Van Schoor’s crimes.
When he was finally caught, Van Schoor claimed that everybody he killed was a “criminal” he caught red-handed in the act of burglary.
“These were intruders who were, in many cases, very desperate. They were going through the bins, maybe stealing a little food… petty criminals,” he said ruthlessly during the interview.
He never admitted that under South African law at the time, crimes of this sort weren’t punishable by death.
Van Schoor said he sometimes carried out multiple killings in a single night, spreading terror through the black community of East London. There were rumours of a bearded man, known in Xhosa as “Whiskers,” who made people disappear after dark. But his murders weren’t carried out in secret.
From 1986 to 1989, Van Schoor personally reported every homicide to the police.
However, the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 initiated a major change in South Africa that led to the end of apartheid and the transition to democracy.
Pressure from activists and journalists led to Van Schoor’s arrest in 1991.
Van Schoor’s trial, which featured a big number of witnesses and relied on extensive forensic evidence, ended in failure as a result of the continuing influence of the apartheid system on the justice system.
Police still classify Van Schoor’s remaining 32 killings as “justifiable homicides” as a result of apartheid-era laws that allowed the use of lethal force against resisting or fleeing intruders. Van Schoor used this defense to prove his innocence, claiming his victims were attempting to escape when he shot them.
The BBC investigation, led by Jacobson, examined old police reports, autopsies and witness statements to forged doubt on Van Schoor’s “justified” shootings. Jacobson spent years digging through scattered and hidden files in Eastern Cape towns to uncover the truth.
“The whole scale of it is just mesmerizing,” Jacobson told the BBC. “It’s astonishing that any court could allow this to happen.”
Among the most shocking evidence Jacobson uncovered were survivor testimonies that contradicted Van Schoor’s claims. Wounded victims described being shot while their hands were raised in give up, or that Van Schoor taunted them before being shot. One survivor recounted asking for water after being shot, only to have Van Schoor kick him in the wound.
His weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, often loaded with hollow-point bullets to inflict serious injury on his victims. In one case, he fired eight shots at an unarmed man.
In one other case in which the victim survived, Van Schoor shot and killed a 14-year-old boy who broke right into a restaurant for change. The boy said he hid in a restroom when he saw Van Schoor but got here out when a security guard cornered him and ordered him to face against a wall, then fired multiple shots at him.
“He told me to get up but I couldn’t,” the teenager said in his recorded statement, based on the BBC. “While I was lying there, he kicked me in the mouth. He picked me up and put me on the table and then he shot me again.”
Despite his account, the boy’s allegations were dismissed, and he was charged with breaking and entering. Many other young black men and boys who reported being attacked and shot by Van Schoor were met with similar skepticism.
Incredibly, the judge presiding over Van Schoor’s trial dismissed damaging testimony, calling the witnesses “unsophisticated” and “unreliable.” There aren’t any juries in South Africa, so the judge’s decision is final.
Van Schoor’s trial sparked a deep divide, with many in East London’s white community supporting him and even promoting him with bumper stickers depicting his image and the slogan “I Love Louis” surrounded by bullet holes.
Police can reopen Van Schoor’s case at any time and review his so-called “justified” shootings because there is no such thing as a statute of limitations under South African law for prosecuting murder or attempted murder.
“Louis Van Schoor just went out and murdered people for sport,” said Dominic Jones, a journalist who helped raise awareness about the corrupt vigilante at the time of the killings.
Van Schoor was a complicated angel of death—he had it set to receive notifications at any time when a silent alarm went off at the businesses he protected, giving him a way of where an intruder was so he could confront him single-handedly.
“I was barefoot. It’s quiet. You don’t have your shoes squeaking on the tiles and stuff like that,” he said.
Van Schoor used night to his advantage while filming his crime scenes. He would sneak up on his victims from the shadows, avoid the lights, and navigate the darkness by counting on his sense of smell.
“If someone breaks in, adrenaline gives off an odor. And you can smell it,” he told the station.
(*39*)This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
Politics and Current
Trump says he cannot guarantee that tariffs will not raise prices in the US and does not rule out retaliation
WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump he said he couldn’t guarantee that his promised rates regarding key US foreign trade partners there will be no raise prices for American consumers and again suggested that some political rivals and federal officials who handled court cases against him must be imprisoned.
The president-elect also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere in a wide-ranging interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.
Trump often mixed declarations with reservations, at one point warning that “everything is changing.”
Take a have a look at a few of the issues covered:
Trump wonders whether trade penalties could raise prices
Trump threatened widespread trade penalties but said he didn’t imagine it economists’ predictions that the additional costs of imported goods for U.S. businesses would result in higher domestic prices for consumers. He broke his promise that American households would not pay more for purchases.
“I can not guarantee anything. “I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, apparently opening the door to accepting the reality that import fees typically operate once goods reach the retail market.
That’s a special approach from Trump’s typical speeches during the 2024 campaign, when he presented his decisions as a surefire approach to curb inflation.
In the interview, Trump defended the tariffs in general, saying the tariffs “make us rich.”
He announced that on the first day of his term in January he would impose a 25% tariff on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs equivalent to fentanyl into the United States. He also threatened to impose tariffs on China to force the country to limit fentanyl production.
“I just want to have a level, fast but fair playing field,” Trump said.
Trump suggests revenge against his opponents without claiming to have an interest in revenge
He has made conflicting statements about how he would approach justice after winning the election, although he was convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and charged in other cases with handling national security secrets and efforts to overturn his loss to a Democrat in 2020 Joe Biden.
“Frankly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power.
The president-elect has emphasized his case that he could use the justice system against others, including special counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted the case involving Trump’s role in the siege on January 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon convicted supporters for the role they played in the riot, saying that he will take these actions on his first day in office.
As for the idea of revenge triggering potential criminal prosecutions, Trump said: “I actually have every right to accomplish that. I’m a top law enforcement officer, you recognize that. I’m the president. But that doesn’t interest me.”
At the same time, Trump named lawmakers on the House special committee that investigated the rebel, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Mississippi, and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
“Cheney was behind this… as was Bennie Thompson and everyone on this committee,” Trump said.
Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue the cases, he replied “No” and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly investigate his political enemies.
But at one other point, Trump said he would go away the issue to Pam Bondi, his pick for attorney general. “I want her to do whatever she wants,” he said.
Many leading Democrats have taken such threats, no matter Trump’s inconsistencies, seriously enough that Biden is considering issuing a blanket, preventive pardon to guard key members of his outgoing administration.
Trump appeared to backtrack on his campaign rhetoric calling for an investigation into Biden, saying, “I have no intention of going back to the past.”
Swift motion is coming on immigration
Trump has repeatedly mentioned his guarantees to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport tens of millions of people who find themselves in the U.S. illegally as a part of a mass deportation program.
“I think you have to do this,” he said.
He has suggested that he would try to make use of executive motion to finish “birthright” citizenship, under which individuals born in the U.S. are considered residents – although such protections are provided for in the Constitution.
Asked specifically about the future of people that were delivered to the country illegally as children and have been protected against deportation in recent years, Trump said: “I want to work something out,” indicating he may look to Congress for an answer.
But Trump also said he “don’t want to break up families” with mixed legal status, “so the only way not to break up the family is to keep them together and send them all away.”
Trump commits to NATO, setting conditions, but criticizes Putin and Ukraine
Trump, long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their very own defense, said he would “absolutely” remain in the alliance “if they pay their bills.”
Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he was dissatisfied with allies’ commitments, Trump said he wanted the United States to be treated “fairly” on trade and defense issues.
He wavered on NATO’s priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Trump suggested that Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. help to defend against Putin’s invasion. “Probably. Yeah, probably. Sure,” Trump said about Washington cutting aid to Ukraine. Separately, Trump did called for a right away ceasefire.
Asked about Putin, Trump initially said he had not spoken to the Russian leader since last month’s election, but then insisted: “I haven’t spoken to him lately.” Trump said under pressure, adding that he didn’t need to “impede negotiations.”
Trump says Powell is protected at the Fed, but Wray is not at the FBI
The president-elect has said he has no intention, at the least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before the end of Powell’s term in 2028. Trump said during the campaign that presidents must have more to say on Fed policyincluding rates of interest.
Trump has not provided any job guarantees to FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term ends in 2027.
Asked about Wray, Trump said, “Well, it seems pretty obvious” that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump’s nominee select the head of the FBI, then “he’s going to take another person’s place, right? Someone is that this person you’re talking about.
Trump is absolute on Social Security, not abortion and medical insurance
Trump promised that the government’s efficiency efforts under Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would not threaten Social Security. “We do not affect social safety, except that we make it more effective,” he said. He added that “we’re not raising the age or anything like that.”
He didn’t speak in much detail about abortion or the long-promised amendment to the Affordable Care Act.
On abortion, Trump continued its inconsistencies and said he “probably” won’t try to limit access to abortion pills, which currently cause most abortions, in keeping with the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But when pressed on whether he would commit to the position, Trump replied: “Well, I agree. That is, do things change. I think they are changing.”
A repetition of his line Debate on September 10 v. Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again stated that he had “concepts” for a plan to switch the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called “lousy health care.”
He added that any version of Trump would supply insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing health conditions. He did not explain how such a project would differ from the establishment or the way it could fulfill his desire for “better health care for less money.”
December 6 in St. Louis has officially been declared Wesley Bell Day to honor the county’s first black prosecutor.
According to Local leaders held a celebratory event at the St. County Department of Justice. Louis, after which County Executive Sam Page made a press release. Bell made history along with his appointment to this position, which he has held since 2019.
He called the recognition “a great honor” that belongs to the community he serves.
“For me, this is a testament to the men and women of the St. County Prosecutor’s Office. Louis, who wake up every day with the idea of public safety, with the idea of treating our victims with the dignity and respect they deserve, and keeping this region safe. In this way, it is a great honor for us,” he said.
Bell took over as St. County prosecutor. Louis after defeating longtime Democratic incumbent Bob McCulloch in the primary. After McCulloch’s controversial decision to not prosecute the officer who fatally shot Black teenager Michael Brown in 2014, Bell ran a campaign that prioritized criminal justice reform. His platform included community policing and progressive marijuana policies that were passed shortly after taking office.
During his tenure, Bell established the Diversion Commission and the Incident Review Unit. The unit enables people wrongly convicted to submit a request to the prosecutor to reconsider their case. Bell sees the measure, a first in the nation, as a step toward criminal justice reform.
But Bell will transcend local politics to assist his St. Louis on a national scale. He was recently elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Missouri’s 1st District.
“This job, and my future job, is about work,” he added. “It’s about representing the interests of my constituents. People here in this region.
Although Bell will proceed to serve St. Louis in a distinct capability, the race to appoint his successor continues, and the escalating dispute between Page and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson continues. Page has already announced his selection of the next prosecutor, but the GOP leader said he plans to make the nomination.
Politics and Current
68-year-old black Georgia man knocked to the ground and brutally arrested at a red light fights for justice after three-year legal nightmare
It’s taken greater than three years, but Jeffrey Lemon finally got his day in court.
A 68-year-old Black man was arrested in Georgia under questionable circumstances in 2021 after Clayton County sheriff’s deputies threw him to the ground and put a knee on his back after he was accused of running a red light in suburban Atlanta County.
He was charged with obstruction and red light violations, in addition to possession of a small amount of marijuana, which police present in a pipe in the trunk of his automobile after his arrest. He ended up spending two nights in jail.
But the case dragged on for greater than three years until his attorney filed a motion for a speedy trial last month. The trial is scheduled to start Monday, and Lemon hopes prosecutors will drop the case without forcing a trial.
“I hope they throw everything away, but it’s a corrupt system, so I don’t know what to expect,” Lemon told Atlanta Black Star in a phone interview.
Lemon also said he was offered a plea deal late Thursday wherein prosecutors would drop the marijuana and red light charges if he pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge, but he declined to take the deal because he plans to file a lawsuit if he’s cleared of all charges. .
Arresting deputies Jon House and Demetrius Valentine each resigned after the incident, but House, who initiated the traffic stop, was rehired three months later.
“The arrogance I experienced from Officer J. House and Sgt. Valentine… completely disregarded me as a human being,” he wrote in a letter wherein he presented his version of the arrest.
Lemon’s arrest got here a month after the death of Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was accused faces federal charges after he was accused of tying pretrial detainees to a restraint chair for hours in violation of their civil rights. Hill was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison in March 2023, but he was released after serving lower than a 12 months.
Throughout this time, nonetheless, Lemon’s case has remained pending, which he believes is because the officers try to cover up their illegal behavior and prevent him from filing a lawsuit.
Arrest
The incident occurred on May 27, 2021, when Lemon was driving his Camaro on Valley Hill Road and noticed a Clayton County sheriff’s deputy behind him, who turned out to be House.
He stated that he was in the left inside lane and needed to enter the right outside lane to make a right turn in front of him, nonetheless, when he stopped his automobile at a red light, the deputy pulled the patrol automobile next to him into the right lane.
He said the deputy then refused to move forward when the light turned green, stopping Lemon from entering the lane.
Lemon said he waited a few seconds, hoping the deputy would move, but then moved to the next intersection when it became clear the deputy was not going to move.
He testified that when he turned right at the next intersection, the light turned green, but the deputy stopped him and accused him of running a red light.
Lemon told the deputy that he didn’t run the red light, but gave him his license, but the deputy began accusing him of trying to avoid him, and that is when he realized the deputy was trying to escalate the interaction, and as he tried to call his daughter and friend, but he didn’t. they replied.
He then called 911 because he feared for his life when the deputy began accusing him of things he didn’t do, and that is when House called for backup.
Valentine arrived and threatened to taser him if he didn’t get out of the automobile, so he complied under duress, which occurred when Valentine tackled him to the ground and House put his knee on his neck.
“I felt humiliated,” he said. “For the guy to come up and not try to have any dialogue. He just immediately walked up and said, “Get your ass on the ground before I kick you.”
He said that when he was arrested, he was on his way to rent a latest house, so he had $1,800 in money with him, but authorities didn’t allow him to use the money to bail, forcing him to stay in jail for two days.
“They didn’t want to take the money, so I had to carry it in my shoe throughout my stay in prison,” he said.
He said the aggressive arrest put him in a state of so-called cervical stenosis, where he’s currently in constant pain and has already spent hundreds of dollars on medical bills.
Report
The House deputy describes the arrest in a very different light, stating in his report that he became suspicious when Lemon failed to stop at the intersection after the light turned green, believing he was doing all the pieces in his power to avoid being stopped.
He further claimed that as Lemon moved forward, turning right, he ran a red light and that is when House stopped him.
However, this claim contradicts his initial claim because if Lemon was truly trying to avoid being stopped, he would never have run a red light knowing the deputy was behind him.
House also claimed that he began to fear for his life after he noticed a knife in the center console of Lemon’s vehicle and then called for backup and ordered him out of the automobile, but Lemon stated that the knife was never there.
“There was no knife,” Lemon said. “I would like to see their list of things they faraway from my automobile. This will show there was no knife.
House stated in his report that he found pot in the trunk while taking a listing of things in the automobile, which he ordered confiscated. He also claimed that “evidence was dropped in the sheriff’s office room,” but didn’t specifically mention the alleged knife placed in the room.
Valentine resigned two weeks later without explanation, according to personnel records obtained by Atlanta Black Star. He was then hired by the nearby Fairburn, Georgia Police Department the following month.
Personnel records obtained from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office show House resigned in November 2021 because he was dissatisfied with “a change in the mission of this agency that does not align with my personal goals.”
House was then hired by the nearby Riverdale Police Department, only to resign from the job three months later because “the city-provided health insurance is expensive and does not provide adequate health care for my family,” according to a resignation letter obtained by Atlanta. Black Star.
He was then rehired by the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in March 2022 and stays employed.
Lemon believes there may be body camera and dash cam video that might prove his innocence, but when Atlanta Black Star asked public authorities for any available footage of the arrest, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said “no records exist” ” regarding arrest.
“That sounds like another lie,” Lemon said.
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