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2) Evidence shows a struggle in the car |
3) Much has been made that Wilson was as tall as Brown. But that’s irrelevant because Wilson was sitting while Brown was standing. In self-defense, LEVERAGE makes all the difference. Brown had HUGE leverage over Wilson. In fact, Wilson’s movement was confined by the car. |
4) Furthermore, by moving, Brown had momentum. If you remember high school physics, Momentum = Mass x Velocity (p = M x V). Brown was massive AND he was moving, giving him lots of momentum toward Wilson. Wilson was sitting, meaning his velocity was ZERO. That means he had NO momentum toward Brown (p = M x 0). |
Leverage + Momentum + paranoia over being arrested + marijuana + Wilson being confined in car = It being very likely that Wilson felt his life was threatened |
• Sim Wortham asked: |
As we now know from the Grand Jury evidence, it WAS reported and Officer WIlson knew of the robbery, including the clothing worn by the thieves. |
You’re also making a logical error. You mistakenly assume that all crimes are reported. That’s certainly not true of petty crimes, which this was, especially if the victim fears reprisal. Your question reminds me of the ethical lapse a lot of children have: “If no one sees me doing it, then it’s not a crime!” Yes... |
15. Dear Moms who don’t want their kids shot; teach them not to intimidate store clerks, not to reach behind the counter for things, not to talk back to police officers, or try to grab a cop’s weapon, and finally, if you want to have stores of any kind in your neighborhood, teach your children to realize that if enou... |
• don’t you mean dear black moms..he got shot because of his size and skin color. If he was white it wouldn’t have ended this way. I’ve seen videos where cops take down white people with machine guns without killing them. Im not gong to doubt that the cop was scared because the media and society tells him black peo... |
• When you say media, do you mean hiphop music? I hope so. Tv and movies portray blacks as law abiding and as successful as any other race ever since the 80s Cosby show. News outlets have come to report less crime than in the past to take the image of blacks as criminals out of view. But how does society otherwis... |
16. Bryan it is nice to see an intelligent person comment by the way you couldn’t be more correct, put emotion aside and look at facts. Bottom line, common sense should tell a person not to antagonize an armed person and that death could be a consequence, (I think that the badge gave him a false sense of security). T... |
17. Video shows him stealing two boxes. First box he handed to his friend but the friend put it back. Second box Brown keeps himself. |
18. Never said that Brown was stopped for stealing the cigars. I already addressed your point in a post dated August 21, 8:15pm,. This incident is relevant to the shooting because: |
1) Brown had no way of knowing that Wilson didn’t know about the cigars. Thinking that he was about to be arrested, Brown might have been in a heightened state of paranoia and agitation. He was about to enter college in a few days, and being arrested would not have sit well with his parents. This may have made him ... |
2) Right after the incident, testimonials came in calling him a “gentle giant” who would never hurt anyone. This incident, with visual proof, disproves all those testimonials. No only did he steal, but he also assaulted the clerk. This is important for showing aggression and a disregard for the law. The video also ... |
Actually, it doesn’t show that. You’re making a lot of assumptions. For example, what’s our evidence that he paid for the cigars and not just for a pack of gum? Where’s the evidence that he paid the full amount? Some say that Brown went to pay for something else, then saw the cigars and took them. He either had n... |
More importantly, you’re ignoring the fact that Johnson has ADMITTED THROUGH AN ATTORNEY to MSNBC that they stole the cigars. That means that the the admission was not coerced by the police. Why would Johnson admit that? Even the clerk, WHO IS VERY AFRAID, never denied that he was robbed or assaulted in that vide... |
20. You are on a role Bryan. Have you been spell checking too? I guess you are appointed to answer and address everybody’s concerns. There is a thin line between intelligence and foolery and you, sir, have been tap dancing on that line! You have all the answers and still can not see that a human being was gunned down... |
Wimpy Male |
Albino Evolution |
Has anyone every seen an alien? They are the future humans trying to warn us. That is what we all are going to look like after weaklings are done getting rid of people of color. It is funny how people are quick to dismiss racism, even though it has been going on from the beginning of time. NEWS FLASH: It has everyt... |
Stop fighting and marching and come out of her. Ex-Slaves that want to stay and fight over land that does not belong to them will suffer. Africa needs help, but we would rather be equal to the weakest breed on planet earth. You do not have to be European to have the same mentality. People of color can be guilty of ... |
21. People with my same thoughts have been skewered in this forum. They have been told that they are racist, that god needs to have mercy on their soul and that they are retarded. I will admit that people with the opposite opinion have received equally offensive insults. What is really wrong is that there isn’t enoug... |
22. Weather he paid or not, there was a call in that needed investigating. And the first contact with police and brown was over a violation of walking in the middle of the street. |
Now, one may ask “is walking down the middle of the street worth shooting someone over”? I ask “is walking down the middle of the street worth punching a cop over”? After Brown was shot over fighting with cop not stealing cigars. |
23. Yeah, store clerks always be getting in my way after I pay for all my stuff also, that as I try and leave the shop, I have to throw them aside! |
Leave a Reply to Stephen Strappelli Cancel reply |
How Brexit Can Promote Economic Freedom |
Report Trade |
How Brexit Can Promote Economic Freedom |
June 29, 2017 27 min read Download Report |
Alden Abbott |
Alden Abbott |
Former Deputy Director, Meese Center |
Brexit offers the United Kingdom (U.K.) an opportunity to forge new, mutually beneficial trade relationships with nations around the world, including the United States. The U.K. can also use the Brexit process to eliminate industrial tariffs and reduce excessive regulations that have unnecessarily constrained British e... |
Key Takeaways |
The U.K. can use the Brexit process to eliminate industrial tariffs and reduce excessive regulations that have unnecessarily constrained British economic growth. |
The U.K. should adopt a reform strategy using unilateral actions to lower regulatory costs and tariff barriers, and also bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. |
On March 29, 2017, the United Kingdom (U.K.)[REF] formally triggered a two-year period of negotiations to exit the European Union (EU). This “Brexit” process will offer the U.K. the opportunity to forge new trade relationships with nations around the world, including—importantly—the United States, as Heritage Foundatio... |
On June 23, 2016, in a referendum called by the U.K. government, the British people opted in favor of leaving the EU by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent. That led, in turn, to the resignation of the Conservative Party’s David Cameron as Prime Minister (Cameron had campaigned against leaving the EU), and his replaceme... |
Brexit, however, cannot be accomplished overnight, with a mere notice of withdrawal to EU officials. It will require extensive negotiations. Currently, the U.K. is subject to a wide variety of legal obligations under EU treaty law and statutes, including a plethora of rules and regulations that limit the U.K. governmen... |
Leaving the EU involves a formal process that is triggered by invocation of Article 50 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty,[REF] the agreement that governs the functioning of the European Union. Article 50 specifies that EU Member States may decide to withdraw from the EU. It provides that the various EU treaties “shall cease to... |
As I have announced already, the Government will bring forward legislation that will repeal the Act of Parliament—the European Communities Act [of] 1972—that gives effect to EU law in our country. This legislation will, wherever practical and appropriate, in effect convert the body of existing European Union law (the “... |
The United Kingdom wants to agree with the European Union [on the terms of] a deep and special partnership that takes in both economic and security cooperation. |
To achieve this, we believe it is necessary to agree [to] the terms of our future partnership alongside those of our withdrawal from the EU. |
If, however, we leave the European Union without an agreement, the default position is that we would have to trade on World Trade Organisation terms. In security terms a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened…. |
We should work towards securing a comprehensive agreement. We want to agree [to] a deep and special partnership between the U.K. and the EU, taking in both economic and security cooperation. We will need to discuss how we determine a fair settlement of the U.K.’s rights and obligations as a departing member state, in a... |
We should begin technical talks on detailed policy areas as soon as possible, but we should prioritise the biggest challenges. Agreeing a high-level approach to the issues arising from our withdrawal will of course be an early priority. But we also propose a bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement between the United Ki... |
In short, the U.K. government plans to proceed as follows: (1) Parliament initially will convert applicable EU legal rules into U.K. law to preserve continuity; (2) The U.K. will seek to negotiate a comprehensive agreement covering economic and security cooperation with the EU; (3) Specifically, the U.K. will pursue a ... |
In sum, the U.K. should adapt its regulatory structures and trade commitments as it negotiates its separation from the EU. Although EU rules will remain in place temporarily, the U.K. government ultimately will decide what departures from EU legal strictures are appropriate. The U.K. will also have the opportunity to f... |
A Template for Brexit-Related Reforms[REF] |
In order to strengthen the British economy and enhance trade liberalization with its foreign trading partners, the U.K. government can and should move simultaneously along four fronts during the Brexit negotiations process. |
First, it should act unilaterally to lower its existing tariffs and reduce inefficient regulatory burdens that are an impediment to faster economic growth. Second, it should negotiate bilateral trade agreements with several major individual jurisdictions, focused primarily on reducing competitive barriers in specific m... |
Unilateral Measures. In considering unilateral legal reforms, the U.K. government must weigh the effects of a vast array of EU rules currently in place. Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU exercises legal authority through a variety of measures that directly affect British economic and social policy, including in the ar... |
The European Commission, the administrative arm of the EU, enforces violations of EU rules and constitutional provisions. The ultimate authority to determine whether a particular British law or policy is consistent with EU legal obligations rests in the hands of European courts—specifically in the European Court of Jus... |
The costs of EU regulation weigh heavily on the U.K. One major study estimates EU regulation may be costing the British economy between $171 billion and $712 billion a year.[REF] Another report finds that the 100 most costly EU regulations imposed a $43 billion burden, measured in 2014 prices, and that many of those re... |
The U.K. government should use the adoption of EU statutes and rules into British law as an opportunity to eliminate those regulations that fail a cost–benefit test and to reform other major rules to reduce their cost burden wherever possible. It may wish to follow the example of Australia and New Zealand, which establ... |
The U.K. could, for instance, create a special regulatory review commission reporting to the Prime Minister, charged with recommending economically beneficial regulatory improvements in light of Brexit. (The Commission might take note of the U.S. government’s current effort to identify and, where appropriate, eliminate... |
While it is busy eliminating excessively costly EU rules, the U.K. should also take the opportunity unilaterally to reduce or—ideally—eliminate remaining industrial and agricultural tariffs, an impossible feat while Britain remained in the EU.[REF] Tariffs reduce economic efficiency and distort competition by imposing ... |
Bilateral Measures. The U.K. cannot rely solely on unilateral measures. It should negotiate multiple post-Brexit international agreements to reduce trade barriers and enhance economic growth and innovation. Such agreements are needed to deal with a variety of major impediments to U.K. commerce, many having a far greate... |
The highest bilateral treaty priority must be given to a comprehensive U.K.–EU free trade agreement (FTA), to ensure that robust existing U.K.–EU trade relationships are maintained. First, temporary (“interim”) measures will be required to avoid disruption of existing business ties among the many EU and British compani... |
Another high priority should be a U.K.–U.S. FTA, which will benefit the economies of both nations and underscore their commitment to economic freedom.[REF] A U.K.–U.S. FTA should, of course, seek to eliminate tariffs between the two nations. But that is just for starters. The reduction of trade barriers in specific sec... |
A further reduction of barriers to defense trade (elimination of export licenses for defense-related exports to the U.K. and expansion of defense procurement opportunities) would be mutually beneficial. Improved access for each nation’s providers to U.K. and U.S. financial services and insurance markets would enhance c... |
The U.K. also should begin bilateral talks with major emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil, among others. Because these emerging markets suffer from major internal market distortions,[REF] negotiations may be difficult and should be tailored to the particular circumstances of each nation. For instance, s... |
Individual “economic partnership agreements” with developing countries—particularly the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries—might emphasize opening the U.K. to agricultural and other tropical products as leverage for a reduction in developing countries’ tariffs on advanced manufacturing goods, as well as developi... |
Finally, the U.K. may wish to consider broader bilateral trade liberalization measures with significant non-EU economies that have fewer distortions than developing countries, e.g., Canada, Chile, Iceland, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey.[REF] |
Plurilateral Measures.[REF] The U.K. government should consider a variety of plurilateral measures. Working within the WTO, the U.K. could make “deeper” enhanced domestic market access commitments to all countries that agree to certain core principles regarding openness to trade, ensuring competition on the merits, and... |
The U.K. should consider promoting a “prosperity zone” agreement, starting with a handful of developed countries that have very high degrees of economic freedom and open trade, including Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.[REF] Such an agreement would be open to future participants that met specified membership crit... |
The U.K. could also draw on strong trade-promoting elements of existing recent regional agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in developing future FTAs. Key TPP elements that merit adoption in other agreements include, for example, provisions dealing with strong customs administration, trade facilita... |
Multilateral Actions.[REF] The U.K. government also should focus on multilateral initiatives that necessarily arise from its existing WTO and EU trade commitments. |
First and foremost, it will have to “rectify” its individual tariff and quota schedule commitments (referred to as “bindings”) as an individual WTO member (separate from the EU), decoupling and disentangling them from the commitments it agreed to as a member of the EU’s common market. The rectification process involves... |
The U.K. may use the schedules of trade commitments revealed through the rectification process as a launching pad for FTA negotiations with interested countries. The notion would be to use existing U.K. tariff and service trade commitments made to the WTO as a starting point for further liberalization (downward revisio... |
Finally, the U.K. should work actively as a voice for free trade within major WTO councils, such as the Council on Technical Barriers to Trade. In particular, the WTO could push for the lifting of excessive service industry regulatory requirements through its participation in the recently created Working Party on Regul... |
The Big Picture: Promoting Economic Freedom |
If handled appropriately, Brexit affords the opportunity for significant U.K. economic welfare gains through the elimination of harmful EU regulations and the liberalization of trade between the U.K. and other nations. Because of the mutually beneficial nature of free trade, economic welfare benefits will also flow to ... |
Fundamentally, comprehensive U.K. regulatory reform and trade liberalization initiatives should be seen as far more than merely means to grow the economy. They are instruments to promote economic freedom.[REF] Private individuals should have the right to enter into voluntary, mutually beneficial transactions with other... |
The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom annually ranks nations in numerical order, based on their degree of economic freedom. The Index is based on measures of: (1) rule of law (property rights, government strategy, and judicial effectiveness); (2) government size; (3) regulatory efficiency; and (4) open ma... |
The four pillars of trade-liberalizing reforms that the U.K. should pursue during Brexit negotiations are complementary and self-reinforcing. The reduction of U.K. trade barriers should encourage other countries to liberalize and consider joining plurilateral free trade agreements already negotiated with the U.K.—or pe... |
As trade barriers drop, U.K. consumers (perhaps especially poorer consumers) should perceive a direct benefit from economic liberalization, providing political support for continued liberalization. And the economic growth and innovation spurred by this virtuous cycle should encourage the European Union and its member s... |
Admittedly, trade liberalization and regulatory reform proposals may have to overcome opposition from entrenched interest groups who would be harmed by liberalization and may be viewed with skepticism by some risk-averse government officials and politicians. Thus, the U.K. government needs to continue to work and consu... |
Finally, U.K. deregulatory initiatives would be in harmony with Trump Administration efforts to reduce the burden of U.S. regulation. Successful U.K. and U.S. regulatory improvements, in tandem with a robust U.S.–U.K. trade agreement that reduces barriers to commerce between these two great nations, could serve as beac... |
Alden F. Abbott is Deputy Director of, and John, Barbara, and Victoria Rumpel Senior Legal Fellow in, the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, of the Institute for Constitutional Government, at The Heritage Foundation. |
Alden Abbott |
Alden Abbott |
Former Deputy Director, Meese Center |
Al Bedaiah |
Support robust, secure platforms to give voice and international exposure to journalists and human rights defenders where free speech is suppressed. |
Freedom for Justice |
A light in the dark for social justice in Egypt’s ‘digital black hole’ |
Egypt is one of many countries in the world where freedom of expression, association and assembly are commonly suppressed. Those wishing to speak freely about the political situation in their country face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting or participating in protests, disseminating “false... |
Khaled Elbalshy and the Al Bedaiah online newspaper are one such force that is boldly and relentlessly pursuing the cause of free speech, despite facing judicial and online harassment. Elbalshy is the chief editor of the Al Bedaiah newspaper, which specialises in covering social conflicts and political prisoners. Al Be... |
Elbalshy refuses to give in, however, and seeks every platform available to shine a light on violations committed by the Egyptian government. He is an active human rights campaigner, who established the Front to Defend Journalists and Freedoms which has helped to secure the release of several journalists from detention... |
Elbalshy and the Al Bedaiah website remain sparks of hope in Egypt’s ‘digital black hole’; shining light on the truth that the government is so keen to supress and informing those inside the country and across the outside world about the injustices that journalists and civil society members are facing. |
Al Bedaiah’s founder Khaled Elbalshy was a winner of the 2017 Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Awards in the Individual Activist category. |
#WalkTogether and share a #SparkofHope |
Elizabeth Smart Felt Like ‘Chewed Gum’ After Her Rape Because of Twisted Church Purity Lessons Like These |
Adriana Velez | May 7, 2013 Love & Sex |
white roseA girl who loses her virginity is like a piece of chewed gum no one wants. That's one of the sexual purity lessons rape and kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart learned growing up as a Mormon girl. "After that first rape, I felt crushed. Who could want me now? I felt so dirty and so filthy. I understand so eas... |
Even though she lost her virginity through no fault of her own, she still felt like a lesser human being because she'd lost something supposedly more precious than her freedom or safety -- her virginity. I remember those awful lessons growing up as a Mormon, too (although I know they're not unique to Mormondom). I was ... |
• Chewed Gum |
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