The Morning Roar: County Refuses To Pay For Baby Bou Bou's Medical Bills, Eric Holder's Letter To Ferguson, and Obama Admin May Jail a Reporter Soon
Your hump-day Morning Roar! Habersham County Refusing To Pay Medical Bills For Child Hurt In Police RaidYou may recall our earlier coverage of "Baby Bou Bou," who was badly burned (and went into a coma) during a no-knock police raid when police tossed a flash bang grenade through a window and directly into his crib in the middle of the night. This would be bad enough on its own, but to top things off, the police never found the suspect that they were looking for that night - a man wanted for drug charges, who was arrested a day later.Now the county is refusing to pay for the injured child's medical bills, claiming that they have no "legal permission" to pay for the injuries their foot soldiers inflicted on an innocent.
Habersham County’s attorney provided the following statement, saying: "The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so."
It may very well be illegal for the board to take money out of public coffers to pay for these bills, though it's always hard to believe that they wouldn't be able to somehow figure out a way to make this possible should they really want to. Lord knows governments never seem to have problems allocating funds to pet projects, such as busting down the doors of innocent people in the middle of the night tossing flash bang grenades. It seems to me that they are hiding behind a legality to avoid paying hundreds of thousands in medical bills.The recourse - and truthfully, probably what should have been the first course of action - is to bring a lawsuit against the police department and the individual officers involved to pay for the medical bills, pain and suffering. It's a lawsuit that the family should win, despite claims by police that they had a warrant and a viable reason for entering the house. Of course, there is no viable reason, legal or not, for a no-knock raid, in my opinion - particularly in the name of the rights-violating War on Drugs. The police neglected to ascertain whether the suspect was in the residence, whether there were children in the residence, and the attorney for Boo Boo's parents is citing faulty information used to get a search warrant.These no-knock raids continue to cost lives on both sides - civilian and police - and are one of the most devastating and terrifying extensions of the conceived "War on Drugs."Our editor-in-chief Marc Clair discussed no-knock raids with John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute on a recent episode of the Lions of Liberty Podcast. Eric Holder Issues Letter to People of FergusonI'm sure everyone in Ferguson put down what they were doing and immediately ran to their internets through the hail of rubber bullets to read this letter from Eric Holder. He spreads the blame around nice and even, like cream cheese on a bagel.You can read the full letter here, and I'll pop in a quick couple of paragraphs to whet your whistle for big government pretty talk.
We understand the need for an independent investigation, and we hope that the independence and thoroughness of our investigation will bring some measure of calm to the tensions in Ferguson. In order to begin the healing process, however, we must first see an end to the acts of violence in the streets of Ferguson. Although these acts have been committed by a very small minority — and, in many cases, by individuals from outside Ferguson — they seriously undermine, rather than advance, the cause of justice. And they interrupt the deeper conversation that the legitimate demonstrators are trying to advance.The Justice Department will defend the right of protesters to peacefully demonstrate and for the media to cover a story that must be told. But violence cannot be condoned. I urge the citizens of Ferguson who have been peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to join with law enforcement in condemning the actions of looters, vandals and others seeking to inflame tensions and sow discord.
Mmm, smooth.Obama Administration May Send First Journalist to Jail Since 2005 for Refusing to Name SourceObama's war against honest journalism continues, as the "most open administration ever" pushes to close its years-long court battle to force NYT national security writer James Risen to reveal a source he tapped into when writing his book: State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
In a sworn affidavit filed in 2011, and in a recently rejected appeal to the US Supreme Court, Risen has argued that his reporting served the public good. Published at a time when military action in Iran seemed possible, State of Fearrevealed how much of the effort to gather information on Iran's nuclear capability was not just shoddy but dangerous—even, in the case of Operation Merlin, helping Iran get closer to building a nuclear weapon.The Bush administration did not see it that way. In 2008, Bush's Justice Department subpoenaed Risen, demanding that he reveal his source—or face jail time for contempt of court. After taking office in 2009, the Obama administration renewed the Bush-era subpoena and continued to try to identify and prosecute Risen's source. Justice Department staff believe they know who the source was—an ex-CIA operations officer named Jeffrey Sterling, who was previously an on-the-record source for Risen—but they want Risen to confirm their hunch and fill in a few details. In legal filings, Justice Department lawyers have called Risen a witness to "serious crimes that implicate the national security of the United States" and argued that "there are few scenarios where the United States' interests in securing information is more profound and compelling than in a criminal prosecution like this one."If Risen is called to court to testify but fails to show up or refuses to talk, he's likely to become the first reporter since Judith Miller in 2005 to be sentenced to jail time for refusing to divulge a source.
Obama could reverse his stance on this and allow this matter to drop, but of course we all know how he feels about the media and anyone who would dare to divulge secrets on the inner workings of government for the public good.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
