ELECTION 2016

MOVE OVER GOP, DEMS UNLEASH ARSENAL OF OWN GRIEVING MOMS

DNC puts racial divisions center stage after accusing Republicans of exploiting Benghazi mother

Garth Kant

WASHINGTON – The howls of outrage from the left were especially intense.

How could Republicans so “shamelessly exploit” a mother’s grief for political purposes?

That was last week, during the GOP convention. This week, the Democrats seem to have no problem putting grieving mothers in front of the cameras.

Last week, Democrats and the media scathingly attacked the GOP after Patricia Smith blamed Hillary Clinton for the death of her son Sean, by ignoring calls for help before and during the attack by terrorists in Benghazi.

Watch Patricia Smith speak at the Republican National Convention:

This week, the Democratic National Convention, or DNC, will devote a whole night to a veritable parade of grieving mothers on center stage for political purposes. Mostly to push for more gun control, but also to fight perceived racial injustice. The evening will be hosted by someone hardly considered a champion of women by his critics, Bill Clinton.

Convention speakers on Tuesday night will include the mothers of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Brown’s death while attacking a police officer after robbing a store in Ferguson, Missouri, triggered riots after a witness made the false claim he had said, “Hand’s up, don’t shoot.”

What do YOU think? Sound off on Democrats having grieving moms speak at the DNC in today’s WND Poll

Media silence about the DNC lineup on Tuesday stands in sharp contrast to the reaction to Smith’s speech last week.

A sample of headlines after she spoke:

• Washington Post: The GOP’s despicable first night of the Republican National Convention

• MSNBC: RNC manipulates the pain of a grieving mother for partisan gain

• Chris Matthews: Patricia Smith, mother of Benghazi victim, ‘ruined’ evening at GOP convention

• The Guardian: Trump’s Republican party hits new low: relentless exploitation of genuine grief

• The Chicago Tribune: When the ‘blame Hillary’ crowd goes too far

• Politics USA: Top Democrat Rips Trump And The RNC For Exploiting Benghazi For Political Gain

• Media Matters: NBC’s Richard Engel: RNC Manipulated Grief Of Benghazi Victim’s Mother To Smear Clinton

• Newsbusters: GQ Writer Apologizes for Tweet About Wanting to Beat Benghazi Mom to Death

• Crooks and Liars: GOP Shamelessly Exploits Grieving, Unhinged Mother Of Benghazi Victim

The following are samples of what they wrote or said.

Stephen Stromberg in the Washington Post:

The evening took an early dip into the gutter when Republicans trotted out Patricia Smith, a grieving mother of a man who died in the Benghazi attacks, who practically accused Hillary Clinton of murdering her child.

Her grief-stricken anger is understandable. Republicans’ decision to exploit her grief to execute a cheap attack on Clinton is not.

Demonizing one’s political enemies is toxic for the nation’s democratic institutions and political culture, but that didn’t seem to bother the crowd much.

Steve Benen of MSNBC:

I’ve been watching major-party conventions for a long time. This was probably the lowest point a party has reached in my lifetime.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC:

I don’t care what that woman up there, the mother, has felt. Her emotions are her own. But for the country in choosing a leader, it’s wrong to have someone get up there and tell a lie about Hillary Clinton.

I think it’s wrong that they ruined their evening with this.

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian:

To the serial dishonesty, overt racism and jaw-dropping sexism, we can now add a new, more subtle layer of shame to Donald Trump’s campaign to be president: the relentless exploitation of genuine grief and heartbreaking pain.

It was a reminder that a shameless willingness to exploit suffering is hardly Trump’s only vice.

Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune:

But dipping opponents’ hands in blood goes too far.

It’s also disgraceful for operatives to hide behind the pain of an anguished mother to lob false allegations for political purposes.

GQ basketball writer Bethlehem Shoals Nathaniel Friedman tweeted:

I don’t care how many children Pat Smith lost I would like to beat her to death.

(He apologized a half hour later for advocating violence against women.)

Karoli Kuns in Crooks and Liars:

If Republicans were looking for a way to use a pack of lies to stoke hate, fear and anger, they found their keynote speaker in Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith.

Steve Schmidt called it the “weaponization of grief,” and I think that’s an accurate description.

At the end, she called for Hillary Clinton to go to prison, which certainly played to the crowd. This was the moment where I realized Mrs. Smith was really most interested in drinking blood rather than healing.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.:

That the Republican Party would stoop to this … I think that this has been consummately politicized in the most blatant way.

We’ve never politicized a tragedy like this, and I think it’s really unfortunate to bring a grieving woman in front of the convention in this way.

It would seem difficult for Schiff to reconcile those words with Tuesday’s lineup at the Democratic convention:

• Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown

• Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin

• Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland

• Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontré Hamilton

• Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis

• Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton

• Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner

One grieving African-American mother not invited was Idela Carey. Her 34-year-old daughter, Miriam Carey, was shot in the back and killed by federal officers near the Capitol after she made a wrong turn into a White House guard post, then tried to leave. A book detailing the results of WND’s two-and-a-half year investigation into the case, “Capitol Crime: Washington’s Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey,” will be published Sept. 27.

Extremely unhappy with the Democrat’s Tuesday lineup are the police of Philadelphia, who are responsible for protecting convention speakers and attendees.

The police union released a scathing statement, particularly livid with Clinton:

President John McNesby and the membership of the Philadelphia Lodge 5 FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) are shocked and saddened by the planned choice of speakers at the upcoming DNC in Philadelphia.

The Fraternal Order of Police is insulted and will not soon forget that the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton are excluding the widows, and other family members, of Police Officers killed in the line of duty who were victims of explicit, and not implied racism, and “being on duty in blue.”

It is sad that to win an election Mrs. Clinton must pander to the interests of people who do not know all the facts, while the men and women they seek to destroy are outside protecting the political institutions of this country.

Mrs. Clinton you should be ashamed of yourself if that is possible.

Union vice president Roosevelt Poplar called the lineup “a slap in the face to our men and women and their families, who were victimized by the same type of violence, especially in the past weeks when we’ve had eight officers assassinated.”

Here are the stories of the women who will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday evening.

Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown

Lezley McSpadden

After the police shooting of the 18-year-old Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014, there were national protests and riots, all based on a story told by a witness that Obama’s own Justice Department proved was a lie. Brown did not say, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Also contrary to what the witness said, Brown was not shot in back and he did attack officer who shot him.

Brown also had marijuana in his system, had just robbed a liquor store, and tried to take the gun from the officer he assaulted who had pulled him over while he was walking down the middle of the street.

A grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson. The Justice Department cleared Wilson of any civil rights violations. The inquiry confirmed the officer’s version of events, that he killed Brown in self-defense.

Brown’s mother, Lezley McSpadden, became a political activist.

As CBS reported, “McSpadden has spoken before a United Nations committee at a human rights conference in Switzerland, appeared at presidential campaign events for Hillary Clinton and been featured in a Beyonce video with Trayvon Martin’s mother and others holding photos of their slain loved ones.”

McSpadden wrote a book, published a in May, titled, “Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown.”

She wrote: “I’m not going to lie; I’ve been wanting to get mad and just go f–k the world up, because my son being killed has messed my whole life up. No way should my son have left here before me. But I have to stop myself every time my anger begins to build like that. If I look at it that way too long, I’ll find myself in trouble, doing something out of rage and revenge.”

McSpadden did not accept the findings of then-Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department, which was ordered to investigate the incident by President Obama.

“After Mike Mike died, I believed we would have justice. I waited for the police to right the wrong, I waited for the county to bring justice for Mike,” she wrote. “I waited for the DOJ (Department of Justice) to discover the truth. The system has failed my son. It has failed me and it has failed all of us. But, now, I know that I can’t wait for anybody else to make change. I must make change, myself. That will be Mike Mike’s legacy; that will be his justice. That’s the truth of it.”

Earlier this month, McSpadden told the annual convention of the National Bar Association, the nation’s oldest predominantly black group of law students and professionals, that she and other advocates would stop talking about gun deaths when they stopped happening.

Earlier this month, McSpadden write in the New York Times: “We are taught to be peaceful, but we aren’t at peace. I have to wake up and go to sleep with this pain everyday. Ain’t no peace. If we mothers can’t change where this is heading for these families — to public hearings, protests, un-asked-for martyrdom, or worse, to nothing at all — what can we do?”

Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin

Sybrina Fulton

Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed during a struggle on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, with a Hispanic neighborhood watch coordinator. George Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was acquitted of murder.

President Obama ordered a federal investigation into the death of Martin, saying it was “absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this.” The Justice Department investigation found there was not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution.

In an article written for CNN titled, “Why I support Hillary Clinton,” Fulton promoted gun control and criticized police.

“Today, throughout many communities of color, our young people go about their lives feeling as if they are a target in their country,” she wrote. “It’s become a sad fact of life that senseless gun violence can strike with little or no warning, either from neighborhoods that have become flooded with firearms, or police who are too quick to resort to deadly force.”

Although she did not blame police for the death of her son, Fulton targeted “gun violence.”

Fulton supported Obama’s executive orders and proposals infringing on Second Amendment rights and criticized the NRA.

“The rising generation of our young people need a president who will stand up to inaction from Republicans and indifference from the National Rifle Association. I believe that person is Hillary Clinton.”

She bonded with Clinton.

“In spending some time with her in person, I also found a mother and a grandmother who truly heard me, and understood the depth of my loss.”

Fulton supported Clinton’s “key reforms — from better training for officers to eliminating racial profiling and investing in body cameras for every police department. She sees what I see: a criminal justice system that is not always just.”

Fulton also became a political activist.

“As their (victims’) mothers, we must do more than just cry. And all of us must do more than speak out, protest and march.”

Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland

Geneva Reed-Veal

Twenty-eight-year-old Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation on July 10, 2015, by Texas state trooper Brian Encinia.

The encounter was captured by dashcam and a bystander’s cell phone video showing an uncooperative Bland becoming increasingly confrontational, then resisting arrest while attacking the officer.

“Bland began swinging her elbows at me and then kicked my right leg in the shin,” Encinia wrote in the arrest warrant. “Force was used to subdue Bland to the ground to which Bland continued to fight back.” He arrested her for “assault on a public servant.”

Three days later Bland was found hanged by a plastic bag in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015. The county coroner ruled it a suicide.

Bland’s family disputed that and claimed she was a victim of racial violence. No activity was recorded in the hallway by a motion-activated camera outside her cell for 90 minutes before jailers found her dead. An autopsy revealed no evidence of a violent struggle. Her family requested a second and independent autopsy but the results were never released.

The FBI investigated Bland’s death. A grand jury then declined to issue an indictment for Bland’s death, finding no evidence of murder. Encinia was reprimanded for failing to follow proper traffic stop procedures, then indicted for perjury and fired from his job as a state trooper.

Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland’s mother, became a political activist.

At Bland’s memorial service a year ago, Reed-Veal said, “I’m ready … this means war.”

“Now I know what my purpose is,” she added. “My purpose is to go back to Texas. My purpose is to stop all social injustice in the south.”

In February, she defensively explained why she endorsed Hillary.

“I’m an adult and I’m not being exploited. I’m not being exploited by anybody. I supported Hillary in 2008, and if someone of their own free will wants to come out and work for a campaign, then that’s not exploitation.”

Reed-Veal added, “Hillary reached out to my family last year. She sent a handwritten note. She met with me and other mothers in Chicago. No press was there, no one talked about all the things she’s done for me and my family. And let me be clear: Had I not lost Sandy, I would still be out there endorsing and working for Hillary.”

In April, while addressing lawmakers, at the first symposium of the newly formed Congressional Caucus on Black Women, she said, “Am I angry? Absolutely. I’m not angry enough to create a riot where I burn things down, but I will create a riot, I will set off so that people will understand that this is real.

“Movements move. Activists activate,” she added. “We have got to stop talking and move. So I leave you with this: it is time to wake up, get up, step up, or shut up.”

Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontré Hamilton

Maria Hamilton

Thirty-one-year-old Dontre Hamilton was shot 14 times and killed in downtown Milwaukee by police officer Christopher Manney on April 30, 2014, sparking a series of protests.

Hamilton’s family said he was a schizophrenic who had stopped taking his medication.

Manney responded to a complaint about Hamilton sleeping in the park.

The officer said Hamilton turned violent when he frisked him, and was unable to stop the suspect from punching him, so he drew his baton but lost control of it. Manney said when Hamilton hit him with the baton he felt he was out of options and drew his gun, but the attacker kept coming after him.

The officer told investigators he “fired his weapon but it did not seem to have any effect on Hamilton, so he continued to fire while walking backwards from Hamilton.”

“Hamilton fell forward and Manney continued to fire because he perceived Hamilton still to be a threat. He stopped firing when Hamilton was completely on the ground.”

In December 2014, District Attorney John Chisholm called it a “tragic incident” but found the officer’s use of force was justified self-defense and did not charge him with a crime.

Chisholm said an independent review by an expert on the use of force by police found Manney’s decison to fire aligned with his training.

Manney was fired for his actions leading up to the shooting, but not for the use of force.

Dontre’s mother, Maria Hamilton had become a political activist.

She founded Mothers for Justice United, an organization of mothers mourning the deaths of sons and daughters at the hands of police.

Before heading to a “Million Moms March” she led in Washington, in May 2015, she said, “The first thing police do now is draw their guns, so we have to take the fear out of them so they can actually police our communities the way it’s needed.”

At the march, the protestors carried signs that read, “Stop racist police terror” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Hamilton described her mission, “To make their voices heard in the halls of government, to demand justice for their murdered children, and to put an end to the race-based policies of police and vigilante violence in minority communities.”

Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis

Lucia McBath

Seventeen-year-old Jordan Davis was shot and killed on November 23, 2012 at a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla.

Witnesses said that after 47-year-old Michael Dunn asked Davis and his friends to turn down loud rap music the two argued. Dunn said Davis pointed at shotgun at him, so he retrieved a handgun from his car.

The argument escalated and Dunn fired 10 rounds at Davis, claiming he feared for his life.

The teens drove away with the mortally wounded Davis. Police did not find a shotgun. Dunn also fled the scene but a witness reported his license plate.

A jusdge ruled a mistrial on a count of first-degree murder when a jury could not reach a unimous verdict. But Dunn was convicted on three counts of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Davis’ mother, Lucia McBath, calls herself an accidental activist.

“You have to attack the laws because that’s where all the power is,” she told the same National Bar Association convention McSpadden addressed.

“Once you give (people) the power, give them the knowledge, then they take that to the polls, then they can vote out of office the legislators that are passing these kinds of heinous gun laws that allow these kinds of tragedies to happen again, and again, and again.”

In an article she her husband Ron Davis co-wrote in the Dailuy Beast, they said, “It’s time to talk about the problems of racial injustice and gun violence and to move into the realm of prevention.”

“We need to have these tough discussions about how to bring about change in this country’s gun culture, and more specifically how to prevent the deadly result of implicit bias and current self-defense laws,” they added.

In an article she wrote for BET, McBath said she endorsed Clinton because, “Hillary has detailed plans to build on President Obama’s executive actions, closing loopholes that still allow dangerous people to buy firearms at gun shows and on the Internet.”

She demanded “a president who will stand up to the NRA.”

Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton

Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley

Fifteen-year old honors student Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed by a gang member on Jan. 29, 2013, at a park in Chicago, just a mile from where President Obama once lived.

Two suspects, 18-year-old Michael Ward and 20-year-old Kenneth Williams, were charged first degree murder and many other charges.

Ward had a lengthy criminal history and was serving two-years probation for unlawful use of a weapon.

Prosecutors said they were hunting rival gang members when Ward fired six shots at a group of prep school honors students, wounding one and killing Pendleton.

Ward claimed he wasn’t shooting at Pendelton and that a rival gang member used her as a shield. Prosecutors said there were no other gang members in the park at the time of the shooting.

The shooter told police he knew Pendelton and that she and her classmates should not have been in the park because it was a rival hangout.

Ward also claimed Williams would have killed him if he hadn’t opened fire.

The dead girl’s mother, Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, has become a gun-control activist.

She blames the NRA for her daughter’s death, despite her city having some of the strictest gun-control laws in the nation.

In June, Pendleton-Cowley told a Chicago forum on violence, “The NRA should not be so powerful they control what happens on your block.”

Pendleton-Cowley appeared in a gun-control ad paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, saying “Tell Congress to support commonsense reforms so no more innocent children are killed. And no parent has to go through this heartbreak.”

Three years ago, she and her husband sat next to first lady Michelle Obama as the president delivered the State of the Union address, and used her daughter’s death to call on Congress to pass more gun-control legislation.

Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner

Gwen Carr

New York Police officers attempred to arrest 43-year-old Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, for selling untaxed individual cigarettes, for which he had been previously arrested.

When the 350-pound man said he was tired of being harassed and resisted arrest, officer Daniel Pantaleo applied a chokehold (which is against department policy) and rolled Garner to the ground, where four officers restrained him.

Garner repeatedly said “I can’t breathe!” then lost consciousness. An ambuance arrived in seven minutes, but Garner died an hour later at a hospital.

The medical examiner determined Garner was killed by “compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,” while finding no damage to his windpipe or neck. It was ruled a homicide, but not necessarily intentional or criminal.

A grand jury did not find enough evidence to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges.

The city of New York agreed to pay the Garner family $5.9 million in an out-of-court settlement a year ago.

Gwen Carr, Eric’s mother, wrote an endorsement for Hilary Clinton, posted on her campaign website, expressing her concerns about gun violence “and the racial and economic injustice that’s connected to it.”

“I think all of us need to make the time to be involved in this election,” wrote Garner. “With all the violence and injustice that’s upon us today, we need a candidate who can move us forward—that’s Hillary.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/move-over-gop-dems-unleash-arsenal-of-own-grieving-moms/#UDEkUJusoOM4I3jJ.99