These guys are just nonchalantly walking around the streets outside of the Republican convention.

Courtesy of Salon: 

A dozen armed white men marched around outside the Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland on Monday afternoon. 

Salon spoke with the men, who call themselves the West Ohio Minutemen. 

Tim Alexander, 32, identified the group as a right-wing “militia,” and said they are from Mercer County, Ohio. 

“We’re tired of the way the country’s going,” Alexander explained. 

He condemned “the over-reaching government.” When asked what he meant by that, Alexander claimed that the U.S. government is using mass shootings to impose harsh gun control measures — although none have yet been passed. 

Alexander said he opposes all gun laws.

When asked what they do, they claimed that they "help people," and apparently they do so with the AR-15's, AK-47's and G3 assault rifles strapped to their chests.

How we have reached day three of this convention without anybody being shot or killed, is beyond me.

But if I had to guess I would attribute that to the incredible police presence.

The police even managed to rescue Alex Jones after he attempted to create a conflict with the other protesters and almost got his ass kicked.

Personally I might have actually allowed that to happen.

Guess that's why I'm not a cop.

Yeah really need to get this down before the GOP convention.

Spotted at the #RNCinCLE. I'm told it's being replaced for obvious reasons. pic.twitter.com/SVayl1zGCd

— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) July 16, 2016

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Republican National Convention staffers are scrambling to remove signs labeling a bank of elevators as “white elevators,” the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau reports. 

Tau is in Cleveland, along with many reporters, gearing up for the Convention. The signs, meanwhile, are being frantically replaced. 

“I’m told it’s being replaced for obvious reasons,” Tau tweeted. 

According to the New York Daily News, the signs were spotted in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. It’s unclear how or why the signs were posted.

You can't even make this stuff up folks. 

Stephen Colbert takes over the GOP convention stage.

Colbert just hijacked the #RNCinCLE stage 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/dB4mSPCn4e

— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) July 17, 2016

Pretty sure that "security guard" is one of his people.

Looks like it is going to be a very entertaining week inside the convention center, and a possible blood bath outside on the streets:

Crowds of protesters were expected to pack the streets of downtown Cleveland on Sunday just as Republicans were arriving for Monday’s kickoff of the Republican National Convention. 

The groups expected to descend on the city were focused on a range of agendas. A coalition of activists planned to hold a “Shut Down Trump and the R.N.C.” march to oppose the nomination of Donald J. Trump. The group wants to march through downtown to City Hall and the area outside the Quicken Loans Arena, where delegates will meet to vote on the party’s nominee. But pro-Trump rallies are also planned.

And even the Ohio Governor has very little he can do to protect his citizens from armed protesters:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sihk) says he doesn’t have authority to suspend the state’s law allowing people to openly carry guns. 

Kasich responded Sunday to a request by the Cleveland police union president for the suspension of the law during the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday. 

The request by union president Steve Loomis followed Sunday morning’s fatal shooting of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Personally you could not pay me enough to go to Cleveland right now.

I certainly hope that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have security, because I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that all lives are in danger in that environment.

Several Republican delegates are planning to bring their firearms to the convention in Cleveland. You know to fight ISIS and totally not because they feel naked without them.

"Be honest, does this gun make my dick look big?"

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering. Why? They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS. 

James Klein, a pro-Trump delegate from the Harrisburg area, notes that guns won't be needed inside the convention hall and that delegates won't be allowed to bring in weapons. "But," he adds, "there's the hotels. There's going to be dinners." 

So Klein, an insurance executive and economist, has decided to come armed to Cleveland, and he has urged his fellow delegates to do the same. "We're talking about ISIS," he remarks, citing the recent shooting in Orlando and the bombings at the Istanbul airport. Referring to protesters outside Trump rallies, he adds, "We're talking about people who have shown a propensity for violence." 

"There are a whole bunch of things happening: You go to various events, receptions, whatever, outside the convention hall," says Ash Khare, a delegate from the northwest corner of the state who applied for a concealed carry permit in preparation for Cleveland. "And you walk on the streets and, you know, people know that you are a delegate, and who knows what the crazy people are going to do? So you've got to be vigilant about what's going on and prepare yourself."

Yeah I think it's a safe bet to predict that somebody is going to get shot at the GOP convention.

I just hope it is one of these gun toting morons and not just some innocent bystander minding their own business.

Two reviews find that the shooting of 12 year old Tamir Rice for holding a BB gun was justified. Say what?

Courtesy of CBS News: 

A white Cleveland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun moments after pulling up beside him, according to two outside reviews conducted at the request of the prosecutor investigating the death. 

A retired FBI agent and a Denver prosecutor both found the rookie patrolman who shot Tamir Rice exercised a reasonable use of force because he had reason to perceive the boy -- described in an emergency call as a man waving and pointing a gun -- as a serious threat. 

The reports were released Saturday night by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, which asked for the outside reviews as it presents evidence to a grand jury that will ultimately determine whether Timothy Loehmann will be charged in the death of Tamir last November. 

"We are not reaching any conclusions from these reports," Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a statement. "The gathering of evidence continues, and the grand jury will evaluate it all." 

He said the reports, which included a technical reconstruction by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, were released in the interests of being "as public and transparent as possible."

For those who may have forgotten exactly what happened on that November day back in 2014, here is the surveillance video of the event. (Most the tape just shows Tamir walking around playing with his toy, the killing takes place around the 7:10 mark.)

It should be noted that the 9-11 caller who phoned the police reported that Rice was "possibly a juvenile" and that the weapon was "probably fake."

And yet seconds after arriving they shot this young man down in cold blood.

We live in a country where white men can safely walk the streets wearing assault rifles strapped to their bodies like over sized jewelry and yet a young boy playing with a toy gun is murdered in cold blood by the police.

And people wonder why a group like Black Live Matter exists in the world today.

Three year old shoots and kills one year old with unattended gun. Just another day in America thanks to the 2nd Amendment.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

A 3-year-old boy picked up an unattended gun inside a home and it went off, shooting a 1-year-old boy in the head and killing him Sunday afternoon, police said. 

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said investigators are trying to determine where the gun came from. 

Emergency workers said the 1-year-old was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. 

Full details about the shooting on the city's east side weren't released, but Williams said at least one adult was home when it happened.

These things happen so often that perhaps we are all becoming a little desensitized to the fact that our babies are killing our babies all over the country and there seems to be no end in sight.

Whenever anybody starts to suggest that we need stricter gun laws, and a more comprehensive vetting process for new gun owners, the NRA and their ilk start screaming about the 2nd Amendment and claiming that their freedoms are being infringed upon.

Well fuck their "freedom!"

In my opinion if more stringent gun laws make it incredibly difficult for wannabe Rambo's all over the country to get their metal penis extenders, yet it saves even one child's life, than that is more than a fair trade.

After all these careless assholes are leaving their weapons easily within reach of children all over the damn place.

Cleveland police who shot 12 year old boy provided him no first aid. That was administered almost 4 minutes later by an FBI agent.

Courtesy of WEWS-TV:  

Cleveland officials said Thursday officers waited close to four minutes to administer first aid after Tamir Rice, 12, was shot. 

Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said a detective and FBI agent who were in the area responded to the call for help and began giving medical help to Rice three minutes and 49 seconds after he was shot by rookie Cleveland patrol officer Timothy Loehmann. 

NewsChannel 5 Investigators asked Cleveland officials why the two officers involved in the shooting did not immediately administer first aid. Dan Williams, a spokesman for Mayor Frank Jackson, said all of the officers' actions are under investigation. 

We also asked why officials did not show reporters the video of how the officers reacted after the shooting. Williams said the officers only released the video because the family requested the footage be made public. 

I actually did not know this detail yesterday when I first posted this story.

The debate yesterday was fairly lively, with some people taking the officer's side and others feeling that the speed with which the police shot this young man left them no chance to evaluate whether he actually presented a danger or not.

Whatever your position I have to wonder if realizing that the officers did nothing to save this young man for four minutes has any effect on your point of view?

Tragic shooting of twelve year old boy by Cleveland police.

Courtesy of CNN:  

A Cleveland police officer shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice about two seconds after the officer and a partner pulled up in a car to investigate reports that someone was brandishing a gun at a park, surveillance video that police released Wednesday shows. 

Tamir, who had what police said is an air gun that looked like a real firearm, died Sunday, a day after he was shot outside a recreation center. 

Police also released two audio recordings Wednesday -- a 911 call preceding the shooting and a tape of a dispatcher asking officers to go to the park. 

The shooting happened after a person called 911 to report that a black male -- "probably a juvenile" -- was pointing "a pistol" at people outside the recreation center. Twice the caller said the gun might be fake. 

The dispatcher radioed to officers about a black male who was "pointing a gun at people," but did not mention that caller's belief that he could be a minor and that the gun might not be a real firearm, one of the released recordings shows. 

I held off posting this until the day after Thanksgiving, since I did not want to ruin everybody's holiday.

However it is definitely something worth discussing as it is just one more example of a black person being shot by police officers.

I think his age might immediately bring up Trayvon Martin in a lot of people's minds, but personally my immediate connection was to the death of John Crawford III who was killed by police while holding a fake gun in Wal-Mart back in August. in this case like that one, police seemed to fire before taking the time to assess if the person actually presented a danger to them or to others.

Why the dispatcher did not relay the information of child's age or the caller's beleif that the gun was fake We will probably never know, but it seems clear that if they had done so this young man would still be alive.