Phone Calls From Jail
The uproar over Breonna Taylor has cooled off a bit. Those who feel the need will continue to stir. Whatever inconvenient facts come along will be ignored. Cognitive dissonance, and narcotizing dysfunction, are real. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Louisville Metro Police Department compiled a 39 page report that was leaked to the press. Much of the report is transcripts of phone calls made from jail. The people in these calls do not look good. They argue, say the n-word, and generally act like a bunch of jerks. Jamarcus Cordell Glover, the primary person we are looking at today, was a known crack/fentynyl dealer. After a while, the reader is left with a feeling of disgust for the people in these calls.
JCG was a former lover of Breonna Taylor. There were indications of a continuing business relationship. Was Breonna Taylor dealing drugs? It is tough to say. Were her hands clean? Almost certainly not. Associating with drug dealers is not a reason to be killed. However, it does made this sad occurrence much more likely.
“PBI detectives … 03/13/2020 – executed simultaneous search warrants at 2424 Elliott Avenue, 2425 Elliott Avenue, 2426 Elliott Avenue, and 3003 Springfield Drive #4 (see attached). During a search of 2424 Elliott Avenue, PBI detectives were able to recover a large amount of suspected crack cocaine and suspected Fentanyl pills … Jamarcus Glover, Demarius Bowman, Rayshawn Lee, and Alicia Jones were located at 2424 Elliott Avenue at the time the search warrants were executed. … When the search warrant was executed at 3003 Springfield Drive #4, which Breonna Taylor was listed on, an officer involved shooting (OIS) occurred and as a result Breonna Taylor was killed. Present inside the apartment at the time the search warrant was executed was Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker.” (Demarius Bowman is the brother of Fernandez Bowman, whose body was found in a car rented by Breonna Taylor on December 3, 2016)
JCG made a series of calls from jail on March 13. It should be noted that we don’t know if he is telling the truth in these calls. There was a recorded message at the start of these calls: “This is a prepaid collect call from an inmate at Louisville metropolitan corrections department. This is not a protected or privileged phone call. This call is subject to recording and monitoring. To accept charges press one to refuse char … Thank you for using securus. You may start the conversation now.” What follows are selected quotes from these calls.
08:52 J Glover calls Kiera Bradley, the mother of JCG’s child.
KB – “Chop that girl got killed over you.”
09:27 JCG calls KB
JCG – “I’m hurt my name gettin called about Bre’s death … This ***** (Kenneth Walker) in jail … this ***** got Bre dead … At the end of the day it was not my fault. It’s this *****’s fault that’s in here. The reason why it happened, the ***** is sittin right here.”
KB – “Okay did y’all talk or is he still on some defensive shit?”
JCG – “He said they were beating on the door.”
11:30 JCG calls KB, tells her to put Domo (Dominique Crenshaw) on the line.
JCG – “What up Domo (Dominique Crenshaw) … Kenneth just got her killed *****. Sitting in this jail like it’s all good, like he’s straight, like it ain’t his fault.”
DC – “So he the one shooting the gun?”
JMG – “Yeah he shoots at the police, they shoot back, Bre in the hallway and she gets killed.”
12:27 JCG calls KB
KB – “Everybody’s calling because their saying your baby momma got killed. … Her momma (Breonna Taylor’s mother) and the no limit crew… they basically like the ***** that she was fucking with got her all caught up … the no limit they don’t play.”
JCG – “Man I don’t care.”
KB – “I know you don’t care, you don’t care about shit.”
12:58 JCG calls unknown female
JCG – “He (Kenneth Walker) said motherfuckers knocked on the door but he didn’t know who it was. They asked who it is but don’t nobody say nothin … He said they kicked that door and he “bocked” on them. He said they started shooting back and Bre was in the hallway and she caught bullets … Scott (Scott Barton – J. Glover’s attorney) know Bre, he know her, he been dealing with me and Bre the whole time I’ve been going through this shit.”
13:07 JCG calls KB
They argue over him not being honest and him, having money at other people’s house.
JCG – “Why are you doing this?”
KB – “Cuz my feelings are hurt.”
JCG – “Why cuz the bread (money) was at her house?… This is what you got to understand, don’t take it wrong but Bre been handling all my money, she been handling my money… She been handling shit for me and cuz, it ain’t just me.”…
KB – “Motherfuckers are posting videos of you and all of that.”
JCG – “Who posts videos of me?”
KB – “This bitch (Breonna Taylor) where she’s been with you, since you ain’t been over at my house… the same day you post a picture I guess she post a video, you knew it because she said what’s up she was in the bed with you, you kissing all over her. This shit is embarrassing.”
16:27 JCG calls KB
KB – “It ain’t even really about Bre because I already know… Motherfuckers done already gave me the blueprint … I know she was fuckin with you…You bounce back and forth between these bitches and I’m not doing none of that, it’s messy… That could have been me bro…”
JCG – “Could have been you because you around a *****?”
KB – “No because I’m around you … You bringin mess on yourself … You think a motherfucker trying to criticize you … You bring shit on yourself like the messiness, its how you move, how you’re so flamboyant, how you putting shit out … I don’t even know what I got myself into … You want me to text your side bitch Rica (Robrica Johnson)? She got gas to get up there to you? … You act like a motherfucker can’t be mad, I got your daughter and you tell me you got money somewhere else, when you’re out here risking your life and your freedom every motherfucking day, like I can call Bre and ask Bre to do anything for my daughter.”
17:20 JCG calls Adrian Walker
AW – “I thought you said they found some money over there?”
JCG – “It was there, it was there, it was there… They didn’t do nothing though that’s the problem … Kenneth said ain’t none of that go on.”
AW – “So they didn’t take none of the money?”
JCG – “Kenneth said that none of that go on. He said Homicide came straight on the scene and they went to packaging Bre and they left.”
AW – “He said they didn’t announce themselves or something?”
JCG – “He sayin they wasn’t, he’s sayin they were just beating so hard.”
AW – “She was in the hallway?”
JCG – “In the hallway *****. That’s just so sad bruh. … “She (Breonna Taylor) gonna turn her back on me cause she love that ***** … that ***** did this shit. At the end of the day if I would have been at that house, Bre would be alive bruh … I don’t shoot at no police.”
17:58 JCG calls KB
KB – “…You had Bre’s car on Valentine’s Day, we weren’t together …
You don’t care about nothing but the money.”
21:27 JCG calls KB
JCG – “How you gonna bond that man out of jail? This shit happened because of this ***** (Kenneth Walker)… he fired shots at the police.”
KB starts arguing with J. Glover over what if the police would have run in her house last night, and he wasn’t going to be there, and she has their daughter…
JCG – “Bre, Bre.”
KB – “I’m Kiera, I’m Kiera.”
Podcasts
@chamblee54 “Dating Kinds Sucks is now on my list of podcasts. I might listen to an episode some day. Between enthusiastically following a dozen podcasts, ten hours a week of joe rogan, listening to music, and the need for recreational silence, there is not a lot of time left.”
Someone asked PG for a list of podcasts. PG quickly found a dozen shows, and moved the file into a folder. The next day, he thought of a dozen more shows to add to the list. PG moved a copy of the list onto his desktop. Shows-that-must-be-went to the top of the list making a handy reference. There are now over a hundred podcasts on the list. Many are not active, and many more are terrible. (All of them ask for donations.) One day, there would have to be a podcast post.
Neo-luddite PG is very happy not to be tethered to a smart phone. PG does his work on a desk top. “Podcast apps” are a mystery to him. If you want to listen to any of these shows, you are smart enough to figure it out. If a podcast app works for you, then you should use one.
You should find a site where you download the mp3. Sometimes, it is the main site for the show. Other times, you have to look. You can type the name of the show into google, and put the letters rss after it. This will usually give you a site where you get the mp3. Right click on the appropriate tab, and click “save file as.” On some shows, you click directly on the download tab, and the file goes into your machine. You sometimes have to play with things to get them to work.
This feature is being written on Tuesday morning. Several of the top shows drop new episodes on Tuesday. We will start with the Tuesday morning shows.
RISK! occupies a special place in the podcast pantheon. A typical episode has three stories, of about twenty minutes each. The stories go from terrific to terrible. One advantage of downloading is the ease of stopping a non-productive story, and skipping ahead to the next segment. RISK! does have an unfortunate tendency towards obnoxious wokeness.
99% Invisible is a show about design, which is supposed to be 99% invisible. Host Roman Mars looks at a wide range of topics, and is seldom boring. A typical story is about twenty minutes long, or about the time of a good ride on the stationary bike.
99% p.i. is a founding member of Radiotopia, a podcast collective. They link to each others shows, and ask for donations. Radiotopia is connected to PRX, which recently had a tacky racism scandal.
The Journal is “… A podcast about money, business and power. … is a co-production from Gimlet Media and The Wall Street Journal.” The Journal is not affected by the notorious WSJ paywall. The Journal appears several times a week, and can be quite enjoyable. Some of the early reporting here on Covid-19 was remarkable. Episodes are usually under twenty minutes.
The Writer’s Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker is a delight. The author of the print edition story reads it here. Sometimes it is boring, but often is great. The New Yorker: Fiction is the first-of-the-month companion. Here, an author reads a selected story from the archive. There is a discussion of the story with editor Deborah Treisman, that you might want to skip.
Listening to a story uses a different part of the mind than reading text, and can lead to a different perception. The viral sensation of “Cat Person” comes to mind. The #metoo themed tale was the national fascination in December, 2017. PG had listened to author Kristen Roupenian reading the story before the scandal erupted, and did not think the story was a big deal.
Disgraceland appears every other Tuesday. DGL looks at the less pleasant side of famous musicians. Some of these people are real assholes, even if they did make great music. Cocaine and Rhinestones is similar, with a focus on country music. A spin-off of DGL is The 27 Club. Each season looks at the adventures of a famous musician, who died before the twenty eighth birthday.
Levar Burton Reads drops new stories on Tuesday, when it is in season. “Kunta Kinte” reads a story that he loves. Old Gods of Appalachia is another fiction show on podbay. PG discovered OGOA on a boring sunday afternoon recently. It tells horror stories rising from the hollows of East Tennessee. There are many more storyteller podcasts.
This feature is getting into TLDR territory. There is a possibility of more podcast posts in the future. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part two and part three are now available.
Tupperware
It is another morning. Get up, do a few gentle exercises, stumble into the kitchen, make the first part of breakfast, go back to my room. Turn the computer on, take out my medications. Since two of the meds are out, I walk across the room. There is a shelf with pills waiting to be taken. It turns out I have, for some reason, a double supply of my blood pressure meds. It is the time of year when I need to see the doctor. She will think of something to fuss at me about, and spoil my day. Since I have a six month supply of things, I can put this unpleasant duty for a while.
Sunday does not, under any circumstances, include going to church. It does include taking a reading on the water meter. I have had my issues with the county water department. It pays to take a weekly meter reading. This week was within reasonable usage, so we move on.
Twitter and facebook, the midget mannequins of the apocalypse, are full of cheerful commentary about our antichrist POTUS. I am just sitting back, taking it all in. It does seem to give Mr. Biden an advantage in the upcoming election. Whatever g-d chooses to do with the orange haired idiot is fine with me. I would, however, prefer not to let VPOTUS have a chance at playing world leader.
I took the transcripts of the debate, and broke it down into ten beat lines. The next step is to retrofit the lines into couplets, and create poems. Breaking down the transcript was triggering. POTUS interrupted, lied, shouted down, and generally acted like a total asshole. It brought back unpleasant memories of jousting with verbally incontinent bullies. After this wrestling match with a hog, the entire country was dirty. The pig enjoyed himself.
People obsessed with Donnie’s racial attitudes are missing the point. The president is a crook, a liar, and a fuckup. Maybe he is a racist, maybe not. Unfortunately, many people thing a man’s racial attitudes are a good reason to hate him. Me, when I hear someone call president Trump a racist, I realize that this same person probably calls me a racist. I hate feeling solidarity with Donald Trump, but these social justice wankers are forcing me to.
Breakfast began with mandarin oranges, and canned cherries, left over from yesterday. Every other day, I open a can of each, pour the juice in my tea, and put half the can in a bowl. The other half goes in a jar, waiting for the next day. This was a jar morning.
Two Tupperware containers are waiting for me. Yesterday, I cut up potatoes, washed some turnip greens, and put them in the steamer. I remembered to cut down the heat, after it started to boil. After a half hour, I have a delicious breakfast for two days.
The Tupperware #250 Millionaire Line is a marvel of Eisenhower era plastics. This container is clear plastic, 3.5″ tall and 4″ round. The plastic is .16″ thick, and utterly indestructible. This product was bought at a Tupperware party.
“After World War II, (Earl Silas) Tupper received a block of polyethylene from DuPont, which was hoping plastics manufacturers would invent peacetime uses for the new material the company had developed during the war. Tupper tinkered with his molding machines for months. DuPont had added fillers to the polyethylene to firm it up and it was difficult to mold. Tupper asked DuPont for some pure polyethylene pellets instead. They were skeptical, but after much trial and error, Tupper produced the first of his Tupperware bowls.”
“Tupper started marketing his products as giveaways with cigarettes. Eventually they made it into department stores. He even opened a showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York. His Tupperware “wonderbowl” — with its patented burping seal — won design prizes. He advertised widely. But he wasn’t doing very well financially.”
“The person who transformed Tupperware into a marketing empire was Brownie Wise — a single mother with no formal business training. She had started selling huge quantities of Tupperware at home parties, and when Earl Tupper noticed the sales figures in 1951, he invited her to visit Massachusetts. The result: he decided to sell Tupperware exclusively through home parties and to make Wise his company’s vice president and head of all sales.”
It worked well, until it didn’t. Mr, Tupper fired Ms. Wise, and sold the company. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
2019 Homicide Statistics
Crime in the U.S. 2019 has been issued. It is more statistics about crime than you could consume in a lifetime. This blog published reports on these numbers for 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Expanded Homicide Data Table 1 is the source of homicide statistics. These numbers are broken down by race, gender, ethnicity, and other factors. (Hispanic or latino, known here as hispanic, is considered an ethnicity, rather than a race. Hispanic people are included in racial breakdowns according to their race.) In 2019, there were 13,927 homicide victims. The gender breakdown is 10,908 male (78%), 2991 female (21%), and 28 unknown (.2%).
Quick facts, from the U.S. Census Bureau, is the source of population numbers. On July 1, 2019, there were 328,239,523 people in the United States. White people were 76.3% (252,087,953), and black people were 13.4% (43,984,096). Hispanic people were 18.5% (60,724,311).
2019 homicide victims break down into white 5,787, black 7,484, other race 434, and unknown race 422. Hispanics are counted separately, and had 2,193 victims. If you divide the number of homicide victims by the population, you get the number of homicide victims per million (vpm). The overall population lost 42.4 vpm. For white people, there were 22.9 vpm. For black people, there were 170.1 vpm. For hispanic people, there were 36.5 vpm.
50.8% of the population is female, according to the census bureau. We will use this 50.8/49.2 breakdown in this next section, even though there are indications that the percent of females is higher for black people. The gender breakdown overall is 10,908 male (78%), 2991 female (21%), and 28 unknown (.2%). The male/female ratio for homicides is, for white people, male 4,026 (69%), and female 1,759 (30%). For black people, it is male 6,446 (86%), and female 1,035 (14 %). For hispanics, it is male 1,768 (80%), and female 425 (19%).
On a per capita basis, overall, males had 67.7 vpm, with females losing 18.0 vpm. White males had 32.4 vpm, with white females losing 13.7 vpm. Black males had 306.9 vpm, with black females losing 47.0 vpm. Hispanic males had 60.9 vpm, with hispanic females losing 14.1 vpm.
The numbers are down from 2018. 2018 had 14,123 homicide victims (w 6,088, b 7,407, h 2,173). 2019 had 13,927 homicide victims (w 5,787, b 7,484, h 2,193). This is with an overall population increase of 1,072,089. Most of the other numbers were lower in 2019.
The Washington Post reports 999 people shot dead by police in 2019. The breakdown: White 404, Black 250, Hispanic 163. (Using these numbers for comparison may be tricky. The FBI groups Hispanics into White/Black/Other as appropriate, while WAPO considers Hispanics to be a separate racial category.) If you divide the WAPO number by the total number of victims, you get a killed-by-police percentage. Overall, this is 999/13,927 = 7.1%. For White people, this is 404/5787 = 6.9%. For Black people, this is 250/7484 = 3.3%. For Hispanics, this is 163/2193 = 7.4%.
Learning Curve
I am still trying to figure out the new WordPress thing. The tried and true method is to write text, add pictures, and see what happens.
A key step is adding links. For years, I have made the links in my template. I have the code, with zzz for the url and xxx for the text that will appear in the post. It is a handy system, that has served me well over the years. Will this code work in the new editor?
I was looking through my old posts, with the intention of finding old text to recirculate. I soon got tired of that, and decided to write something fresh. One of the old posts was titled Page 43. It is a writing prompt. Take a book, go to page 43, and write about the first sentence. The book for today’s exercise is Skinny Legs and All, by Tom Robbins.
“Hand in hand, she short, he tall, she bouncy, he lame, they walked along the stream.” Boomer Petway and his bride, Ellen Cherry Charles Petway, were walking towards a cave. They were going to have a picnic lunch, after eating dessert first. They brought with them a can of beans, and a silver dessert spoon. The spoon was probably not involved in the pre-meal festivities. Once they commence to celebrating their young marriage, Ellen Cherry feels the need to cry out Jezebel.
“Hand’ in hand’, she short’, he tall’, she bounc,’-y, he’ lame, they’ walked a’long the’ stream.” The sentence has an iambic beat. The first ten beats would make a great line for a poem. Not only does it score high on the meter meter, but it ends in EE. This vowel sound is very common at the end of words. Rhyme zone has 1518 results the EE sound.
Getting back to the new editor, this is causing brain damage. If you go to the menu, and select “All Posts,” you will see a list of the most recent posts. Under each post, you can choose “Edit,” which is pretty obvious. Next to that is “Classic Editor.” Apparently, I can start the post in the new window, close it, and finish it using the classic editor. However, WordPress is making noise about dumping the classic editor altogether, so it would be better to learn the new system. It is a bit of a challenge.
The first step is to add a link, to see if that works. The old code for links works here. The only difference between the old code, and the new, is about twenty characters added onto the new code. Eventually, I can update the template, but for now the old code can be recycled. That can be a real problem when repeating an old post.
The next step is to add pictures. This is absolutely essential to the look of chamblee54. If you google the question, you will get some conflicting answers. Finally, I clicked on the blue plus sign, which lets you add a block. This is, after all, called the block editor. There appear to be some toys to play with, after I get used to this thing.
Before I reinvent chamblee54, I need to get this learning curve post up. If you go into the “Media” blocks, you will see something called “Stacked.” This will enable you to download pictures. The code looks a bit different. It is tougher to work with.
It was looking good for a while. Maybe I should have just inserted the text, and gone on. Instead, I kept pushing buttons, and screwed something up. The pictures are now set off to the right of the border by about 24 pixels, and rub over the lists of details beside the picture space. I can’t tell if it was like that all along, or if I put it there by accident. I am going to start another post, and see if it works better this time. I may wind up going with the classic editor anyway.
One more try with the pictures was the correct move. I was pushing this and that button, and trumped everything up. The text works well, give or take a tweak or two. This post is going to go on the internet, and maybe somebody will read it.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These pictures that were edited in 2016. Chamblee54 has written about Skinny Legs and All before. (one two three)
New Regime
The day started out like many others. Get up, do human being stuff, and settle in for the day. One thing I try to do is put something up on the blog every day. Often, it is reruns of things I have previously posted. Today is no different.
It is pretty basic. You find an old post. Right click on the edit tab, and open it in a new window. Then you open a window for a new post. This is where it got complicated today.
For months, WordPress has been warning me that a new editor was coming. Based on previous experience with new editors, I stuck to the classic editor. Today, the classic editor is not available.
Anybody that works with machines is familiar with the new edition experience. You have to learn all over again. Some things will be easier. Some things will be impossible. Features that you took for granted are no longer there. You don’t know what you have until it is gone.
The only thing to do is write a post, and try to figure out the new editor. This is done without human assistance. You can scroll through a forum, or try to decipher some instructions. Mostly, it is open menus, and look. The first step is to write text, and mark it up.
The next step is finding pictures. Photographs, and graphic poems, are an essential part of chamblee54. I honestly don’t know how I am going to add photographs to this.
I try to add photographs. You have to insert one picture at a time. The instructions are useless. Finally, I hit publish by mistake. I go to a menu, and look up the post to edit. It gives me the option of editing in the classic editor. I take this option. This is enough brain damage for one day.
]
Measuring Racism
PG hears the word “racist” tossed casually so much, he suspects it has lost it’s meaning. Dictionary definitions are of little use. The meaning of the word depends on who is saying it.
The modest suggestion here is for a seven point scale to measure racism. Zero would be totally colorblind, and six would be metaphysical hate. For the sake of simplicity, this scale, in the beginning, will only apply to white-black relations in the United States.
The model for this is the Kinsey scale. In his books on human sexuality, Dr. Kinsey described a seven point scale. Zero was totally heterosexual, and six was totally homosexual.
PG does not have a clue how to write a test for this scale, or how to score this test. White people see racism differently than black people. White people are affected by racism in different ways than black people. Different cultures view racism in different ways.
How would PG score on this scale? He has black friends and black enemies. Certain parts of black culture are enjoyable, and certain parts make him want to turn the radio off.
PG does not like people that do not like PG. When it is us against them, you need to remember which one you are. How does this register on this racism scale? It depends on who does the judging.
This is a repost. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. These images are from “… a collection of images of downtown Atlanta streets that were taken before the viaduct construction of 1927 – 1929. Later, some of the covered streets became part of Underground Atlanta.” The renovation at Underground never stops.
Subtle Ways
Facebook has a feature called “watch.” It is a symbol at the top of the page, which is sometimes advertised with a red marker. If you click on the symbol, you are encouraged to watch videos.
The Subtle Way to F**k with Racists – James Davis, with the uncensored f word, was the top video saturday. PG considers the r word to be hate speech, and complained about the video. The evil empire soon replied that the video did not qualify as unsuitable.
The Subtle Way … is a comedy routine. It starts off with some commentary on riots. It is not until 2:26 that we get to the “Subtle Way.” Since copyright protection is real, this will be paraphrased.
After the rioters are finished looting, the comedian goes to the vehicles of “racist people.” He peels the sticker off the license plate. He is not going to (expletive) property, he is going to (expletive) you. You are going to go to the DMV, because Black Lives Matter. After you get back from the DMV, your vehicle gets keyed. The audience laughs repeatedly. They are not worried about their vehicles.
Having “your shit” keyed is not subtle. This is probably someone the performer has never met. The comedian does not say how he knows they are racist. Even if this is a “racist people,” that does not justify malicious damage to property. This is what Facebook is encouraging.
The next “Subtle Way” involves breaking and entering. The comedian is going to break into the house of the policeman. They will break in, take “they best wine,” and put it in the freezer. When the officers wife goes to get the wine, there will be an unpleasant surprise. Meanwhile, the comedian is going to hide in the bushes outside, and yell “N***a.” Facebook, and Comedy Central Stand-Up, think this is a good idea. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Who Is Telling The Truth?
As you may have heard, a grand jury presented its findings in the death of Breonna Taylor. Unlike many of the current shouters, I listened to the presentation by Attorney General Daniel Cameron. While his report is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, it did make two important points.
The police did knock, and announce themselves. Breonna Taylor was not asleep in bed. Ms. Taylor was standing in the hall. If Ms. Taylor had indeed been in bed, she might not have been hit by gunfire. Again, this assumes that the authorities are telling the truth.
The Tatum Report is a youtube channel. Officer Tatum has a investigative report about the Taylor shooting. I have been skeptical about this report. It turns out the Louisville Courier-Journal published excerpts from the same report August 25. UPDATE: Here is the 39 page report.
I was looking at a facebook discussion. Someone said that a body was found in a vehicle rented by Breonna Taylor. This seemed a bit far fetched. I googled it. This came up. This story is from a CBS affiliated TV station, not a youtube channel.
“The documents also alleged that back in 2016, the body of Fernandez Bowman was found in a car rented by Breonna Taylor. When LMPD detectives arrived at Taylor’s home to question her, (Jamarcus) Glover was there. Taylor told the detectives she did not know Bowman, that she had been dating Glover for several months and that she had let him drive the rental car. She also gave detectives her phone number, which was a number that Glover was still using as recently as February of this year, according to the documents. That homicide victim was the brother of Damarius Bowman, one of Glover’s “associates” who has been arrested with Glover numerous times, the report stated.”
WKYT mentions these documents appearing in the Courier-Journal. Another source has a .pdf of another Courier-Journal article, which will be used as a source of quotes below. For some reason, the cached Courier-Journal story does not include the “body in the rented car” item.
Before going further, we should note a few things. This was a preliminary report, that was leaked to the press. It is not guaranteed to be accurate or true. There are some recordings of phone calls made from jail. While this may technically be legal, it strikes some people as improper. Last, there were some other allegations in the report. There is cameral footage, and documentary evidence. Many allegations of criminal behavior are made about Breonna Taylor. If the police officers had gone to trial, these allegations would have been brought up in court.
The .pdf has another version of the “body in the rented car” story. “The 39-page report says Taylor began dating Glover, known as “Chop,” in 2016, and in December that year, she let him borrow a car she rented. The next day, the body of Fernandez “Rambo” Bowman, 27, was found inside the vehicle. When police came to interview Taylor about it, Glover was at her apartment and she said she let Glover use the car. She said she did not know the victim, who was Demarius Bowman’s brother.”
“The Courier Journal confirmed that account through evidence filed in the case of the man charged in Bowman’s slaying — Quenton Se’Ville Hall, 38. It shows that Taylor rented the vehicle on Dec. 1, 2016. Fernandez Bowman was shot, allegedly by Hall, while driving the car, which crashed into a telephone pole, a fence and a house. Neither Taylor nor Glover was charged in Bowman’s death.”
The original chamblee54 post had selections from recorded jail phone calls. After reading the 39 page report, I realized that these quotes were heavily edited. The real conversations are not as sensational. If you want to see some of the jailhouse phone calls, read the 39 page report. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Uterus Collector
“Georgia prison with ICE detainees performs questionable hysterectomies” The story of “the uterus collector” was the clickbait sensation for a few days. Fresh outrages have taken its place in the shiny object machine. Just how many detainees at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) had hysterectomies? Estimates range from “one or two” to “at least seventeen”.
The story broke with a report from Project South. The whistle blower was Dawn Wooten. video video Ms. Wooten, a single mother of 5, worked at ICDC, until her hours were cut, after a dispute about Covid-19 infection. As is the case with many workplace stories, there are conflicting accounts.
The focus of the complaint is inadequate safety measures, taken with regard to Covid-19. “Priyanka Bhatt, staff attorney at … Project South, told The Washington Post that she included the hysterectomy allegations because she wanted to trigger an investigation to determine if they were true.”
If ICDC did not have the resources to provide adequate safeguards against Covid-19 infection, how are they going to have the resources to provide hysterectomies? These ladies were detained over immigration issues, and many will eventually be deported. “Even on the lower end of the cost scale, a hysterectomy can cost thousands of dollars and both ICE and the private companies that contract with the agency to oversee its detention centers notoriously provide dangerous and substandard medical care to cut costs and maximize profits.”
There are some concerns about Dawn Wooten. “… Wooten described how she repeatedly complained to staff leadership before she was demoted in early July from working full time to an on-call position, where she was only offered a few hours a month — a move she charges was retaliation for speaking up and demanding stricter medical safety protocols. She has worked at the facility for three years in three separate stints as a licensed practical nurse …” The Protect Whistleblower Dawn Wooten gofundme has grossed $101,471, by the time this feature was written.
AP had a story, with a variety of headlines. If you go into the details, you see this: “The AP’s review did not find evidence of mass hysterectomies as alleged in a widely shared complaint filed by a nurse at the detention center. Dawn Wooten alleged that many detained women were taken to an unnamed gynecologist whom she labeled the “uterus collector” because of how many hysterectomies he performed. … Amin (Dr. Mahendra Amin, gynecologist accused in complaints) told the intercept, … he has only performed one or two hysterectomies in the past three years.”
“Some people who have worked with detainees at Irwin have questioned some of the allegations in the Project South complaint. Paul Alvarado, a local immigration attorney, told Insider that he was “very, very skeptical” about the allegations of unwanted hysterectomies. Alvarado estimated that he’d been to Irwin representing clients more than 100 times.”
“I’ve never heard of any sort of medical mistreatment from the clients, and I’ve represented hundreds of clients from Irwin, so it came as a shock to me when I read it,” he said. He said that while clients might complain about delays and other issues inherent to the immigration system, he hadn’t been made aware of OB-GYN concerns.”
“I’ve been an immigration lawyer for 24 years. I’m a huge proponent of immigration reform,” he said. “I’m an advocate for the rights of these undocumented aliens, and I’d be the first to get to the podium and scream if something smelled fishy — but I have not heard of any of this.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. UPDATE Hospital where activists say ICE detainees were subjected to hysterectomies says just two were performed there
#1619Gate
The 1619 Project was published by the New York Times in August, 2019. It was a grand historic project, marking the 400th anniversary of the first African slaves to arrive in Virginia. Claims were made. “The 1619 project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding …”
Many of the claims were controversial. A few days ago, without any explanation, the Times deleted many of the “true founding” comments. Not surprisingly, many people noticed the difference. Cached copies have a way of contradicting convenient revisionism.
Full Disclosure: I have not read The 1619 Project. My reading bandwidth is limited. I cannot comment on the narrative presented in the project, and assume that much of it is true. What is fascinating about #1619Gate is the spectacle of the mighty New York Times humbling itself. There is also the bizarre behavior of @nhannahjones, the lady behind The 1619 Project
This tweet landed on my timeline earlier this week. @nhannahjones “There is a difference between being politically black and being racially black. I am not defending anyone, but we all know this and should stop pretending that we don’t”
@kelsey_midd “What does this mean?”
@nhannahjones “If you don’t know it ain’t for you.”
@kelsey_midd “I’m not the only person that asked. I’m also a black person.”
@nhannahjones “Yes, I am capable of seeing your avatar. And I will repeat: if you don’t understand the difference between being born/designated a certain race and taking up a particular set of racial politics, I am not going to educate you here.
@chamblee54 The lady does not suffer from false modesty @nhannahjones “Reporter @nytmag covering race from 1619-present//AKA The Beyoncé of Journalism//Co-founder ida b wells society //smart and thuggish//Aries//1619Project.” After a while, “The Beyoncé of Journalism” was looking more like the Kellyanne Conway of historic scholarship.
Before getting to the last segment of this show, we should mention what happened earlier sunday night. I am part of a poetry community, which is now meeting on zoom. This group is welcoming, and supportive of my work. Unfortunately, they welcome some less appealing players. Last night, one man had a poem about abolishing the police. There was a line. The only time colonizing white people like the police is when they need to have a (racial slur) exterminated. (That is not an exact quote.) I cut the sound off, and waited for the piece to be over.
The boundless folly of woke twitter awaited me. I soon came across the following exchange. I have a screen shot of the punch line, in case it is deleted. The tacky poet fell into context.
@sullydish “Basic rule in online journalism: if you change something after publication, acknowledge and explain it. On 1619 Project, NYT just broke this basic *ethical* rule. And to further the cover up @nhannahjones deleted all tweet history. Let that sink in.”
@nhannahjones “This is the last thing I will say about this. The wording in question never appeared in the 1619 Project text. It appears nowhere in the printed copy, something easily verifiable as pointed out to you. It didn’t appear in my essay nor any of the actual journalism we produced.”
@ira_mckey “It may be the last thing you say about it, but the Twitter screenshots and the history of what you said about it Still exist.” (Includes photo of NHJ tweet: @nhannahjones “I argue that 1619 is our true founding. Also, look at the banner pic in my profile.”)
@nhannahjones “This is my tweet. My tweets are not official 1619 copy.”
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. More episodes of the #1619Gate series are available. Two Three Four Five
leave a comment