Here Are the 18 Crimes Freddie Gray Was Charged With Before His Tragic Death That Started the Baltimore Riots

Photo Credit: Heavy

Photo Credit: Heavy

Freddie Gray, who died a week after suffering injuries while in Baltimore police custody, had a lengthy criminal record, mainly for drug-related offenses, according to state court records. Police claim he was “involved in criminal activity,” prior to his arrest.

Gray, 25, died after spending seven days in a coma as a result of injuries he suffered while in the custody of city police, the Baltimore Sun reports.

He was arrested April 12 by four officers outside a public housing complex. Police said four bicycle officers tried to stop Gray for an unspecified reason and he ran from them. They caught him and detained him while waiting for backup . . .

Gray had a lengthy arrest record with convictions dating back until at least 2007, according to the Maryland Department of Justice. Not all of the arrests led to convictions, in many of the cases he pleaded guilty to one charge while the others were dropped. Exact details of when he spent time in prison were not immediately available. His arrest record includes at least 18 arrests:

March 20, 2015: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance

March 13, 2015: Malicious destruction of property, second-degree assault

January 20, 2015: Fourth-degree burglary, trespassing

January 14, 2015: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous
substance with intent to distribute

December 31, 2014: Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute

December 14, 2014: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance

August 31, 2014: Illegal gambling, trespassing

January 25, 2014: Possession of marijuana

September 28, 2013: Distribution of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, second-degree assault, second-degree escape

April 13, 2012: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation

July 16, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with intent to distribute

March 28, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance

March 14, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to manufacture and distribute

February 11, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance

August 29, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, violation of probation

August 28, 2007: Possession of marijuana

August 23, 2007: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous
substance

July 16, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance (2 counts)

(Read more from “Here Are the 18 Crimes Freddie Gray Was Charged With Before His Tragic Death That Started the Baltimore Riots” HERE)

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‘We Will Not Obey’: Christian Leaders Threaten, Warn Supreme Court Over Homosexual Marriage

8614ac5d952523b567545092c9d7fc074bed936b“We will not obey.”

That’s the blunt warning a group of prominent religious leaders is sending to the Supreme Court of the United States as they consider same-sex marriage.

“We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line,” read a document titled, Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. “We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve.”

“While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” the pledge states.

The signees are a who’s who of religious leaders including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, National Religious Broadcasters president Jerry Johnson, Pastor John Hagee, and Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. (Read more from “‘We Will Not Obey’: Christian Leaders Threaten Civil Disobedience If Supreme Court Legalizes Gay Marriage” HERE)

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Public Schoolers Rally to Get Religious Message Back on School Sign: “We’re Taking a Stand for the Lord”

Photo Credit: KSLA

Photo Credit: KSLA

A group of student protestors at a Louisiana middle school has succeeded in getting “In God We Trust” back onto its official marquee after the phrase was removed by administrators in response to a tangle with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“We are taking a stand for the lord,” Joey Ketchum, a district parent and local Baptist pastor, told Fox Carolina regarding the protesting students at Ridgewood Middle School in West Shreveport.

The brouhaha began last week, after the ACLU Louisiana wrote an open letter to Caddo Parish superintendent Theodis Lamar Goree regarding official religious statements that had allegedly been made by the principal of another district school, Walnut Hill Elementary.

The principal, said the letter, dated March 30, “has engaged in a pattern of religious proselytization by sending messages to parents invoking prayer, and through a lengthy ‘Principal’s Message’ on the school’s website,” which the ACLU noted is in violation of the First Amendment and U.S. Constitution. “The United States Constitution requires public schools to ensure that state-supported activity is not used for religious indoctrination,” the letter continued. “There is no question that the Principal has violated these legal mandates by repeatedly invoking God, prayer, and Christianity throughout official school publications.” The correspondence urged the principal to stop, for the district to look into the situation, and to “immediately remove all religious references from the website of Walnut Hills and any other schools in the Caddo Parish school district.”

That, apparently, is when Ridgewood removed “In God We Trust” from its marquee — even though the phrase has been ruled as constitutional in many court cases, including a year ago, when a group of atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation lost a court fight to have it removed from U.S. currency. The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit referenced many past decisions upholding the use of the phrase, noting, “The Court has recognized in a number of its cases that the motto, and its inclusion in the design of U.S. currency, is a ‘reference to our religious heritage,’” adding that “the printing of ‘In God We Trust’ on our coins serve the secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society.” (Read more from “Middle Schoolers Rally to Get Religious Message Back on School Sign” HERE)

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Iran’s Zarif Says Congress – Even New President – Can’t Stop Obama’s Nuclear Deal

Photo Credit: BLoomberg View

Photo Credit: BLoomberg View

If Iran strikes a deal with the West, all sanctions will be lifted very quickly and there’s nothing the U.S. Congress can do to stop it, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a New York audience Wednesday.

In a set of blustery and self-righteous remarks, Iran’s top diplomat assured the crowd at New York University that President Barack Obama would be compelled to stop enforcing sanctions only days after any nuclear agreement was signed and would have to figure out how to lift congressional sanctions on Iran within weeks, no matter what Congress has to say about it. He also said that any future president, even a Republican, would be compelled to stick that agreement.

Zarif also took several shots at the U.S. Senate, just as it debated amendments to a bill designed to slow the lifting of sanctions against Iran and give Congress an oversight role on the deal.

“As a foreign government, I only deal with the U.S. government. I do not deal with Congress,” Zarif said. “The responsibility of bringing that into line falls on the shoulders of the president of the United States. That’s the person with whom we are making an agreement.”

Zarif said that if there is a nuclear agreement by June 30, the negotiators’ latest self-imposed deadline, then within a few days the United Nations Security Council would pass a resolution lifting all UN sanctions and requiring Obama to stop enforcing all of the U.S. sanctions immediately. (Read more from “Iran’s Zarif Says Congress Can’t Stop Obama” HERE)

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U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 0.2 Percent, Grinding Nearly to a Halt

BN-ID648_0429ec_J_20150429075026The U.S. economy ground nearly to a halt in the first three months of the year, according to government data released Wednesday morning, as exports plunged and severe winter weather helped keep consumers indoors.

The gross domestic product grew between January and March at an annualized rate of 0.2 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department said, adding to the picture of an economy braking sharply after accelerating for much of last year. The pace fell well shy of the 1 percent mark anticipated by analysts and marked the weakest quarter in a year.

The economy had expanded at a rate of 2.2 percent in the final three months of 2014 and at a rate of 2.4 percent for the year.

Economists, employers and policymakers now face the challenge of determining whether the slowdown is temporary — stemming mostly from an unusually snowy winter in the Northeast — or a sign of broader problems.

Hours after the fresh data was released the Federal Reserve said that winter slowdown was “in part” reflective of “transitory factors” and that “economic activity will expand at a moderate pace” going forward. Economists expect that the central bank will hold off until the second half of the year, gauging the direction of the economy, before raising interest rates for the first time in 6½ years. In its statement Wednesday, the Fed did not offer any new hints about the timing of its rate hike. (Read more from “U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 0.2 Percent, Grinding Nearly to a Halt” HERE)

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Radical Islamic Immigration: A Clear and Present Threat

World Trade CenterThe American people deserve an answer to one common sense question: how many more stories of homegrown terror do we need to see before politicians get serious about the threat of homegrown terror and the irresponsible immigration policies that have engendered it?

As Mark Levin noted last week on his show, not a single presidential candidate has seriously addressed this issue. To be fair, Bobby Jindal, a likely but undeclared candidate, has touched on this issue and Ted Cruz has introduced legislation to strip the passports from those who fight for the Islamic State. But this issue has not received the attention it deserves given the existential threat of our suicidal immigration system and the fact that this self-immolation is so avoidable.

Much like any other community, Muslim immigrant communities can be law abiding and peaceful residents of this country. But unlike nearly any other group, they have a greater probability of being saturated with radical elements that can cultivate a climate leading to over 150 known cases of individuals attempting to join the Islamic State.

Following 9/11, where the hijackers were let into this country’s front door, one would have thought the U.S. would be judicious about vetting immigrants from volatile and violent parts of the world.

The front line in the war against terror is not nation building across the globe, it is our immigration system. Yet, as we’ve noted before, the level of student visas from Saudi Arabia has increased ten-fold, refugees from volatile countries have grown exponentially, and immigration from predominantly Muslim countries has doubled overall.

Hence, instead of following the common sense recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission, politicians doubled down on risky immigration policies. Outside of the D.C. beltway it is simple logic that there will be a higher percentage of immigrants with Jihadist proclivities if they came from parts of the world where those views are prevalent. Once these immigrants are admitted and become citizens, they have the right to harbor those views like everyone else, but why should we irresponsibly admit those who are likely to represent a security risk? The more people with radical Islamic views who are allowed into the country, the more it will cultivate an environment that we are seeing today in Minneapolis.

isisinfographic

After six more Somali immigrants from Minnesota were arrested for attempting to join up with ISIS, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota sounded the alarm many of us have been ringing for quite some time. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lugar admitted this should not be dismissed as a few random instances of radicalism. “To be clear, we have a terror recruitment problem in Minnesota,” he declared.

While there are undoubtedly many peaceful individuals in this community, clearly there are more friends, neighbors, and religious leaders who are encouraging these un-American beliefs. Many of these religious leaders preach in mosques funded by terror-supporting governments. Just recently, Obama attended the opening ceremony of a $100 million mosque together with Turkey’s President Recip Erdogen, one of the most dangerous Sunni terror supporters in the Middle East. His government is funding this mosque on our own soil, and due to his radical ties one must question his motives.

For how much longer are we going to allow extreme political correctness stifle sound public policy?

In 2010, the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission published a report showing how the homegrown terror threat had grown substantially since 2001. “The U.S. is arguably now little different from Europe in terms of having a domestic terrorist problem involving immigrant and indigenous Muslims as well as converts to Islam,” wrote Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean.

Obviously, the threat of homegrown terror mixed with cyber jihad and recruitment has only gotten worse in the ensuing five years. With control of both houses of Congress, one would think Republicans would address this area of “immigration reform” that should concern everyone. Republicans can pursue the following policies:

Fix our broken refugee policies and limit the UN’s power of resettlement to ensure we are not letting in security threats.

Implement a program similar to NSEERS (National Security Exit-Entry Registration System) in which non-immigrant visas from risky parts of the world must be monitored by a local ICE office. If someone is here on a student visa and drops out of college to work on creating bombs, we should know about it.

The Visa Waiver Program Suspension Act (H.R. 5434), sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), which would suspend the Visa Waiver Program until we establish control over the number of terror threats we let into the country.

[Editor’s note: Listen to this recent interview with the author:]

The Expatriate Terrorist Act, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Steve King (R-IA), which would revoke the citizenship of those who fight for foreign terrorist organizations, such as ISIS.

It would be extremely politically perilous for Democrats to oppose these measures. Sadly, don’t expect Republicans to get serious about one of the biggest threats of our time until they hear from the people or until, God forbid, there is another terror attack on American soil. (See “Radical Islamic Immigration: A Clear and Present Threat”, originally posted HERE)

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Watch: Kroger Customer Draws Gun, Intervenes to Protect Elderly Man

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

On April 22, a customer at a Kroger in Little Rock, Arkansas, saw an elderly man surrounded by “seven people,” so he drew his gun and intervened to protect the gentleman.

The group surrounding the elderly man then turned their attention toward the armed customer and implored him to look the other way. According to Fox 16, the group kept yelling, “[This] isn’t your fight, you need to walk away and you need to put the gun down.”

The armed citizen refused to comply, and instead kept his gun trained on the group as they fled the scene.

The armed citizen–who simply gave his name as “Gene”–said that he could hear a woman behind him calling 911 and when police arrived they ascertained that the elderly man was allegedly “being assaulted by his nephew” at the time that Gene intervened. (Read more from “Watch: Kroger Costumer Draws Gun, Intervenes to Protect Elderly Man” HERE)

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How Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Parts of Her Husband’s Legacy

imagesHillary Rodham Clinton isn’t just running against Republicans. She’s also running against parts of her husband’s legacy.

On issues large and small, the Democratic presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay rights.

The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned address condemning the “era of incarceration” ushered in during the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never mentioned him or the legislation by name.

“We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,” Clinton told an audience at Columbia University in New York, making references to unrest in Baltimore and elsewhere and elsewhere over actions by police. “And these recent tragedies should galvanize us to come together as a nation to find our balance again.”

The contrasts between some of Clinton’s positions and those of her husband from 20 years ago show the extent to which Democrats, and the country as a whole, have shifted to the left on a number of key issues. Indeed, Bill Clinton now says that some of his incarceration policies went too far and that he regrets backing a federal law that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. (Read more from “How Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Parts of Her Husband’s Legacy” HERE)

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“Big Concern”: In an Uncontrollable Spin Towards Earth, Russian Spaceship Considered Total Loss

Photo Credit: Click Orlando

Photo Credit: Click Orlando

The crew of the International Space Station says a Russian supply ship that went into an uncontrollable spin after launch has been declared a total loss.

American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko told The Associated Press on Wednesday that flight controllers have given up trying to command the cargo carrier.

The unmanned vessel began tumbling shortly after its launch Tuesday from Kazakhstan.

Kelly says the vehicle will fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere sometime soon. He’s not sure exactly when.

The cargo ship contains 3 tons of food, water, fuel, clothes and equipment for the six station residents. Kelly says everything and everyone on board should be OK, even without this shipment. But he says it’s still unfortunate. Kornienko calls it “a big concern.” (Read more from “After Starting in an Uncontrollable Spin Towards Earth, Russian Spaceship Considered Total Lost” HERE)

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RINO Legislator Comes out of Closet After Lewd Pictures on Dating Site Surface [+video]

BOEHNING__RANDY_1695687A conservative North Dakota lawmaker has come out of the closet after lewd texts he sent on a gay dating site were made public this week.

The randy red-state Republican, Rep. Randy Boehning, was outed Monday, more than a month after the Roughrider State legislator sent an unsolicited picture of his penis and several other messages to 21-year-old Bismarck resident Dustin Smith back on March 12 on the gay dating site Grindr, according to multiple reports.

Boehning, a 12-year veteran of North Dakota’s state assembly who has routinely voted against gay rights legislation, charged that the leaked messages were sent to media outlets in retaliation for his vote against Senate Bill 2279, which would have added sexual orientation to the state’s anti-discrimination law. For the third time since 2009, the bill was voted down by conservative North Dakota lawmakers, including Boehning.

But Smith, who first leaked the Grindr messages to The Forum, claims he simply wanted to reveal Boehning’s hypocrisy.

“How can you discriminate against the person you’re trying to pick up?” Smith told the local Bismark-area newspaper on Monday. (Read more from “Lawmaker With Anti-Gay Voting Record Comes out of Closet After Lewd Pictures on Dating Site Surface” HERE)

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