Ismaaiyl Brinsley: The Black John Brown?

(Author's note: Brinsley is alleged to have shot his black ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson, before his reported shooting of two NYPD officers. If true, this is supremely incorrect behavior and should be unanimously condemned. Ironically, the first casualty of John Brown's botched insurrection was also a black person, Heyward Shepherd.)

Ismaaiyl Brinsley couldn’t be the black John Brown? So called anti-racists Whites like Timothy Wise proudly align themselves with the legacy of a 19^th century murderer; a White man who concluded the destruction of black enslavement would require White death. Brown hacked Whites to bits in Kansas and led an unsuccessful attack on Harpers Ferry in Virginia. He’s credited with sparking the Civil War and the end of the plantation phase of White Supremacy. Dick Gregory and legions of Whites and non-whites literally sing hymns of praise for this White killer.

But Ismaaiyl Brinsley? A black male who is alleged to have killed two of New York City’s finest in retaliation for the unjust deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, Jr. He’s immediately branded a “crazy” nigger.

Blacks kill Blacks because they have never been trained to kill Whites.

- Dr. Bobby E. Wright

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani justified police terrorism in predominantly black areas because of the scourge of black hooliganism. The red herring of “black on black crime” absolves Whites of their unrelenting Racist abuses and implies black defectiveness, which would require White Domination to maintain a semblance of order amongst dark people.

Contrary to en vogue hashtags, black lives do not matter. Whites recognized the twenty-year anniversary of the Rwanda massacre this year; they briefly acknowledged that President Clinton and the White collective were unconcerned with approximately a million black deaths. The reminiscing was a few months before the Ebola epidemic began throttling northwest Africa; Whites displayed the same Racist indifference until White lives were threatened.

Perpetual White Terrorism, black suffering with no foreseeable conclusion is the context of “black on black crime,” black crazy.

The [black] boy submitted until maddened at such injustice, and insane with pain, he sprang to his feet, and seizing an axe, literally chopped the [White] overseer in pieces. He made no attempt whatever at concealment, but hastening to his master, related the whole affair, and declared himself ready to expiate the wrong by the sacrifice of his life. – Twelve Years A Slave pg. 327

It is a colossal act of White Supremacy to classify black retaliation, black rage as insane. It is a testament to the effectiveness of White braintrashing that there are not more instances of what Ismaaiyl Brinsley is accused of doing.

Dr. Kamau Kambon remarked that Colin FERGUSON's self-hate button became deactivated on the Long Island Rail Road. Black people are in a perpetual state of rage and frustration. Whites groom us to direct our anger inward, toward ourselves and other black people (Shaneka Thompson). White Supremacy programming is engineered to ensure that we never train our attention and anger on those responsible for our wretched condition, White Women, White Men and White Children.

On December 25^th, 2012, Whites clamored to theaters to celebrate Quentin Tarantino’s cartoonish black rebellion (Django Unchained) – which was managed by an Oscar winning White man. Their sense of humor abated when Maurice Clemmons, Nkosi Thandiwe, Lovelle Mixon, Joan Little, and Mark Essex deviated from the script, correctly recognized Whites as enemies to black people and responded accordingly.

Many Whites are castigating President Obama, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (Racist Suspect) and Rev. Al Sharpton for igniting a “Race War.” Racism (White Supremacy) Is War. White C.O.W.S. guests have acknowledged that they know Whites deserve to be slaughtered for what they’ve done to black and non-white people; they understand it’s logical – not crazy – for their barbaric system to produce Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s sooner or later.

Dr. Samuel Cartwright and other sacred Racists achieved distinction insisting that black freedom fighters like Minister Nat Turner and journalist Ida B. Wells were afflicted with Drapetomia (absconding from service to Whites).  Jonathan Metzl's The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease documents how Whites began condemning black people as deranged for opposing Racism.

One does not have to endorse or glorify Brinsley’s purported acts. But we’re days away from the December 25^th release of the film adaption of the Chris Kyle’s American Sniper; a deceased White killer is memorialized for being “the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history.” It is maximum White hypocrisy to dismiss black counter-violence as a moment of lunacy. Brinsley may have been inspired by and continuing Kyle’s and Brown’s sanctified legacies of righteous bloodshed.

Persistant: Atlanta Hawks Futility, White Pathology

This entire government is geared up to fight a war against White people. I'm sorry to have to tell you that. I'm sorry to break the news. I realize it's shocking. I realize your heart is palpitating. I realize you're saying, "Wait a minute. You can't say that." Well, I just said it. I'll say it again. This entire federal government is geared up to fight a war against White people. There was just insurrection in Missouri. Rioting. Looting, etc. They been waiting for an insurrection by White people. That's what the Homeland Security is getting ready for. All you evil White crackers. Michael Savage

Don't dismiss Mr. Savage's commentary as reckless "right-wing" ravings. Several Whites have publicly expressed paranoia about Pres. Obama or random black "kids" plotting their demise.

We're all prejudice in one way or the other. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban

Cuban didn't stand his ground hypothetically or literally; he apologized to Trayvon Martin's family a few days after these remarks.

This is the context in which Bruce Levenson's allegedly controversial 2012 email should be evaluated. He's reportedly expressed remorse over his comments and agreed to sell his controlling share of the Atlanta Hawks franchise. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver condemned Levenson's musings and promised to re-double their anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies with additional training.

Sensitivity training. A squirt of fragrance to mask centuries of pungent fumes of Racist rot in summer heat. The stench of Donald Sterling lingering fresh in our nose.

But Levenson isn't Sterling; the former does not have a public, irrefutable record of service as a White Race Soldier - terrorizing black citizens in many areas of people activity. Levenson's email presents frank business logistics and a matter-of-fact assessment of White convictions.

My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base. Please don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites I would read comments about how dangerous it is around Philips yet in our 9 years, I don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

A stadium filled with thousands of black people - some of them teens likely in hoodies. Cuban might be unwilling to accompany Dirk Nowitzki and company for their annual trip to ATL. Whitefolks generally have no interest being in close proximity to black people. If you're beyond middle school, this should be as shocking as the discovery that White "police" are often discourteous to black citizens or that Pres. Obama's election did not end Racism. Whites in Australia championed their "Whites Only" policy for decades. United States' citizenship was restricted solely to Whites until 1952. For several months, Whites have been downright unrelenting in promoting studies that conclude that a hefty portion of the White population has zero black friends; 75 percent of whites have "entirely white social networks without any [non-white] presence." If anything, there should be disbelief if Levenson is the first Hawks executive to comment on their critical mass of dark matter in the stands.

Pale forces of Madison Avenue and NBA executives including former commissioner David Stern have shared Levenson's anxieties about peddling an increasingly melanin dominant league to a majority White fan base. The following is from Dr. John Hoberman's Darwin's Athletes - published in 1996, nearly a decade before the infamous dress code and the ban on high school athletes joining the league.

“Charles Grantham, the black executive director of the NBA Players Association, offered this assessment in 1991: "A few years ago the NBA was perceived on Madison Avenue as being too black and too drug-infested. Once that was turned around, the league was able to promote its new personalities as exciting stars who were caring and concerned about their communities." In addition to creating the illusion of substantial player involvement in the black community, this theater of pseudo-reconciliation also serves to mitigate the pathos of American segregation, as Peter de Jonge has pointed out, by creating one-sided relationships between white fans and the black athletes they admire from afar: "In the last decade, the N.B.A., long considered too black to attract a mainstream audience, has prospered by giving middle-class whites, desperate for some semblance of a connection to black America, a series of unthreatening yet bigger-than-Iife cartoon superheroes called Magic, Michael, Charles and Shaquille." Far from concealing this manipulative campaign, the president of the NBA, David Stern, has boasted of the league's image-based strategy to gentrify its black giants and in the process create crossover market appeal in the manner of the Disney entertainment empire: "They have theme parks, and we have theme parks. Only we call them arenas. They have characters: Mickey and Goofy. Our characters are named Magic and Michael [Jordan]." (pg 150)

Black athletes converted to $40 million clowns to soothe White angst. A paternalistic imperative demands that White coaches and owners domesticate, season black savages for White consumption. William C. Rhoden declared that this "plantation mentality" is not isolated to Sterling - or Levenson.

Every time I walk into a press box, Michel [Martin], and see no African-American reporters, or every time I walk into a newsroom and see no African-American editors or, like, no reporters, you know, [Whites] are saying the same things without necessarily saying it. We don't respect you.  We don't respect black people. We're not going to hire you. We don't want you around.

As a former resident of Atlanta, (Gone With The Wind) Georgia,  personal experience amplifies that Mr. Levenson and Mr. Rhoden ain't just whistlin' Dixie. Robert Weintraub details how Atlanta's pro sports teams provide an accurate, pitiful appraisal of Racism:

The NFL’s Falcons offer another window into the city’s racial rift. The Falcons, too, are moving to a new stadium, one that’s still in downtown Atlanta. While the franchise, led by owner Arthur Blank, is staying inside the city’s perimeter (“ITP” to the locals), it’s relocating from an area considered by many to be “too black” to attract white fans. And in the name of snagging larger profits from a surrounding entertainment district, the team is razing a pair of historic black Baptist churches in the vicinity of the new stadium. The symbolism there isn’t pretty.

A White-owned franchise expelling black temples of worship for the sake of enticing greater numbers of Matt Ryan's White flock... talk about Dr. King's most segregated Sunday hour. And while we're on Atlanta, remember the 2014 snow storm that blasted ATL like the second coming of General Sherman? Tracy Thompson did a spectacular job illustrating how White revulsion of black people stifled MARTA and exacerbated hazardous, winter driving conditions.

I was a kid when then-Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. proposed a rapid rail system to link Atlanta to its surrounding suburbs, and I distinctly remember the joke circulating among white people back then, the one that said that MARTA (the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) actually stood for “Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.” Plain and simple, it was white folks’ fear of black folks that explained the failure of a sales-tax hike to fund rapid rail in three of the then five counties making up the metro Atlanta area.

Rich Benjamin documented Whites across the country yearning and/or working expeditiously to produce and maintain residential enclaves sans melanin - some of them in Forsyth, GA. Businesses incorporate this Racist predilection into their corporate strategy. Texas' Kung Fu Saloon has been repeatedly accused of mistreating potential non-white customers. A former White employee alleges that she was terminated for not adhering to their White Supremacist code:

Patrons or would-be patrons, have consistently complained that the dress code is selectively enforced against [non-whites]. Now an ex-event planner says she was trained to screen calls and deny customers who sounded "too ghetto" or "too Asian." The term "ghetto" she said, was code word for African American and added, "I never saw a white person turned away."  When she did not she heard comments like, "Why is it so dark in here? Why is it so Asian in here? Did you not screen these phone calls?"

Whites are not ignorant about Racism. They codify their pathologies into concepts and strategies that consistently yield the best results for the Racist White collective - which translates into predictable, perpetual abuse of non-white people, especially black people. Levenson believed that White Atlantans were using coded language to suggest that Hawks' games were treacherous because of the large black presence. The Dallas tavern was alleged to have a wardrobe code that could be strategically employed to exclude non-white people. David Stern and other White league executives (Suspected Race Soldiers) were widely believed to have instituted a dress code and age restrictions in acquiescence to their Racist fan base.

Context is crucial to grasp the Racist motivations that produced the 2005 age and wardrobe referendums. NBA icon "property" Michael Jordan retired in 2003. A year later USA Basketball suffered its first defeat with NBA players at the Athens Olympics. A few short months after this international humiliation, the Detroit suburbs became the site of a historic melee between the Pistons and Indiana Pacers; Ron Artest (black male) charged into the stands to confront a Suspected Racist spectator (John Green) whom assaulted him with a beverage. Hoards of Whites abandoned Detroit for bleached suburbs like Auburn Hills precisely to escape niggers like Artest. If many Whites thought of (think of) Richard Sherman as a thug for raising his voice in the presence of a White Woman, one can imagine the impact of cornrowed black males slugging ticket-buying Whites. White flight from the NBA was widespread and bruising league purses. As White Supremacists have no intention of going out of business, they refine practices to achieve more favorable results, more White derrières in seats.

In 2005, retired Hall of Famer Charles Barkley succinctly summarized his view of the mandated wardrobe policy: "Of course it's Racist." Before anyone thinks of Barkley as the 21st century resurrection of Arthur Ashe, this is the same person who affirmed the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer. Barkley elaborated on the logic buttressing the NBA garment regulations: "From the NBA perspective, they've got a product to sell. They've got to make it as attractive as possible to fans, viewers and corporate sponsors." That's White fans, White viewers and White corporate sponsors. Meaning Whites will package and adorn negro athletes in anyway they see fit to assuage Racist White consumers. Including putting Sir Charles in a dress... repeatedly.

2005 also marked the end of black athletes joining the NBA directly from high school. Barkley, Magic Johnson and a host of Whites professed that this was in everyone's best interest. Players would get time to mature and polish their skills at the collegiate level and the league would get older, better prepared (seasoned) products. These trite affirmations ignored that it was exclusively black players leaping from prom to the pros. They also didn't mention that few have expressed concern for Jennifer Capriati and other Whites as young as thirteen who've traveled the world playing White-dominated professional sports. NBA stars Tony Parker and Ricky Rubio began playing professional basketball in their respective countries (France, Spain) at 17. And these United States have no problem extending the ballot box or training you as a killer in any branch of the armed services at eighteen years of age. Only a bastion of hypocrisy would permit an 18-year-old to star in pornography but deny him NBA employment. Many of the league's best players of the last decade matriculated directly from high school. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Dwight Howard. LeBron James. The NCAA plantation missed the chance to pimp these black athletes, and many Whites were less than enthused with the prospect of black males nabbing million dollar contracts before the ink dried on their high school diplomas. In many White circles, James (black people in general) remains unforgiven.

Bruce Levenson, Adam Silver and White NBA executives in total have a substantially higher percentage of black players than any other professional sports league. In a global System of White Supremacy, marketing a predominantly black league to White audiences demands an obsession with optics - the projection of blackness. Part of the fallout from the 2004 "malice in the Palace" was three consecutive years of White league MVP's (Steve Nash 2005, 2006; Dirk Nowitzki 2007). Forget those dark savages! Focus on these masterful White Tarzans, overseers of the hard court jungle, plantation. From Serena Williams to President Obama, Whites have been reluctant if not repulsed with the prospect of cheering on a black person in any capacity - much less rooting alongside a mostly black congregation. It's a gargantuan fraud for any Whites to take umbrage with what Levenson admits to writing. If his email warrants punitive action, thousands of other Whitefolks should be updating their resumes and submitting a notice of resignation - including Danny Ferry. 

Most of the players resented Jerry [Krause] for one reason or another. It started with Michael [Jordan]. During his second year with the Bulls, Michael broke his left foot and had to sit out most of the season recovering from the injury. At a certain point, Michael insisted that his foot was fully healed, but Jerry refused to let him play until the doctors gave him the final okay. When Michael pushed back, Jerry told him that management had made the decision because he was their property, an unfortunate gaffe that alienated Michael and tainted his relationship with Krause from that day forward. (pg. 113)  Eleven Rings Phil Jackson

Which brings us back to (Racist Suspect) Mark Cuban's "slippery slope." When additional evidence of Donald Sterling's White Supremacist legacy was revealed during the 2014 playoffs, Cuban opposed Sterling being forced to sell his property. He found it un-American to persecute someone for repugnant, "backstage" comments. Tommy LaSorta, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and other Whites castigated V. Stiviano for reminding the public of Sterling's Racism. Bill Maher railed against "political correctness" and alleged breaches of privacy that ensnared role models and all around swell folks like Sterling, Paula Deen and Paul Ryan.

There's a reason the likes of George Zimmerman, Darren Wilson and Suspected Rapist Daniel Holtzclaw aren't merely supported with White lip service. These killers and alleged molesters are upgraded to new tax brackets with obese donations from numerous members of the White Supremacist Army. Donald Sterling got a lifetime ban and $2 billion for the sale of the Clippers. (A few dozen folks have speculated that Levenson wanted to divest in the Hawks, and self-identifying as a Racist was his means of departure. Lump me in with the likes Donald Sterling, just make sure we're in the same tax bracket.) Racism is the cash cow. Whites make certain that other White people being penalized for terrorizing black people is as common as a black occupant of the White House.

And that splash of melanin at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue still has many Whites disgruntled - even beyond the grave. To the point that Michael Savage, Cliven Bundy and Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks believe there's a war against Whites. Darkies like Attorney General Eric Holder are orchestrating a lynching of well meaning Whitefolks such as Officer Wilson. More than 100 - mostly White - Seattle "Police" Officers have named Holder among others as defendants in a lawsuit opposing federally mandated reforms to address allegations of Racism and police misconduct.

Levenson's dismissal will likely bolster the persecution complex of melanin deficient Whites who fear their country, way of life and freedoms to hail the Redskins and swap nigger jokes are being curtailed. The deterioration has reached new lows where a blond White Woman can't call a black person a "Faggot Ass Nigger" without fear of being recorded and reprimanded. Where will it end?

Samuel Sommers, PhD recently documented that a significant number of Whites now believe they are victims of Racism. Growing numbers of black people obtaining correct information on and accurately articulating what Racism is and how it works, is a monumental threat to Whites; some Whites have already stated that opposition to Racism equals opposition to Whites.  Increasing numbers of non-white people are utilizing ever-evolving technology to document Whitefolks trifling, terroristic targeting of black people. Cellphones are now integral weapons in spotlighting Racism. Email and text messages are proving increasingly detrimental to the Racist enterprise - they have a stubborn shelf life and can easily get loose on the web. Levenson's discharge will likely amplify White unease - a defensive anxiety that the slightest verbal faux pas will wound the childish sensibilities of black people and cost a hard working White Soldier like Jimmy The Greek or Marge Schott their livelihood. And we still got two more years of that damn Obama.

The Levenson saga is only a couple days old and largely unsettled. In fact, it seems Levenson's former colleague and Hawks' General Manager Danny Ferry will also be under scrutiny. He has admitted to reading the following remarks about African born player, Loul Deng:

Deng "has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he's like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."

A White Duke graduate being reprimanded for deprecating an African (who happens to be a fellow Blue Devil alumnus)... what is the world coming to?

Expecting anything other than eternal deception, hostility, warfare, and terrorism from Whites is like betting on a Hawks' championship parade down Peachtree. You're destined for years of disappointment.

Eric Garner: Breathing Racism

Listen to me standing up on this so-called mountain! Let me tell it as it truly was! His name was Tod Clifton and he was full of illusions. He thought he was a man when he was only Tod Clifton. He was shot for a simple mistake of judgment and he bled and his blood dried and shortly the crowd trampled out the stains. It was a normal mistake of which many are guilty: He thought he was a man and that men were not meant to be pushed around.

Perhaps it’s incongruent to borrow from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to address the death of Eric Garner. He weighed more than 300 pounds and stood taller than six feet; reports mawkishly reference him as the gentle giant. 

But black people are not gentle. Certainly not to be treated gently. Especially not by officers of the law. 

White cops are afraid of black men. We don’t talk about it, we pretend it doesn’t exist, we claim “color blindness.” We say white officers treat black men the same way they treat white men. But that’s a lie. In fact, the bigger, the darker the black man the greater the fear. Yet, even though it’s a central, if not the defining ingredient in the makeup of police racism, white cops won’t admit it to themselves, or to others. Breaking Rank pg. 92

Those are the words of a White man, Norm Stamper. He’s the former Seattle Police Chief. It's his view that most Whites are aware of his conclusion. Whites cannot be ignorant about Racism (White Supremacy).

A significant portion of Whites claim that police brutality and Racism persist because most Whites are oblivious to this reality. This is a pernicious falsehood from which non-whites should expeditiously divest. Cliven Bundy and the hoards of lawbreaking, White ruffians who've defiantly obstructed Homeland Security employees' efforts to transport undocumented children understand that they will not be body-slammed, sodomized, tased or choked. Even when breaking federal law, they will not be treated like Eric Garner or Marlene Pinnock.

White people are not ignorant about Racism. It can be said that White Supremacy (Racism) is the rhythm to the White lifeforce. Rhythm Helps Your Time Have Meaning - thanks Dr. Gaunt. White infants begin inhaling White Supremacist codes, concepts, and behavior patterns before they have teeth. They're suckled and motivated from birth to burial to dominate and abuse the Eric Garner's of the universe. Waging war against non-white people - especially individuals classified as black - is at the core of every aspect of White culture.

White people just observed the 50 year anniversary of the NYPD's execution of 15-year-old James Powell in Harlem - nearly a half century to the day of Garner's slaying. The slaughter of this unarmed black child ignited six days of upheaval. The commemorations offered few syllables on Powell or his family, why he was killed, or his surviving relatives' reflections. The preponderance of attention focused on lawless black hooliganism, the destruction of White-owned property, and disregard for White law and order. Whites conducted interviews, drafted reports, and continue writing books on this mostly forgotten anecdote. A good deal of New York's 1964 White residents, White politicians, and White entrepreneurs, whom supported any means necessary to restore White order, are still alive. As are many of the White NYPD officers who clubbed, shot, and shackled black citizens. Fogies or not, they'll remember this incident and what it means to be White til their last breath. Whites were not clueless about Racism in 1964, nor are they now.

Generations of Whites have lauded Invisible Man and Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing – the latter marking it’s quarter century anniversary this summer. These works of fiction climax with the NYPD snuffing out black life. Tellingly, many Whites have given identical responses to the deaths of James Powell, Eric Garner, and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn). Lee recently responded to White film critics:

They never talk about the death of Radio Raheem at the hands of the police. They talk about Mookie smashing the window and the pizzeria burning down. If in a review, a critic discussed how Sal's Famous was burned down but didn't mention anything about Radio Raheem getting killed, it was pretty obvious that he or she valued white-owned property more than the life of this young black hoodlum.

NYPD validated their pursuit of Garner with similar logic, similar (dis)regard for black life.

The cigarette seller and the police were far from strangers: the local officers had tangled with Mr. Garner time and time again, arresting him for selling untaxed cigarettes at a price far below what local deli owners could offer.

The New York Times cited local merchants who discontinued their sale of tobacco because unlawful street hawkers like Garner smothered their profit margins. Strangling is for black people, not White-controlled enterprise. 

Apparently, chokeholds aren’t the only thing in the manual.

For years, Mr. Garner chafed at the scrutiny by the police, which he considered harassment. In 2007, he filed a handwritten complaint in federal court accusing a police officer of conducting a cavity search of him on the street, “digging his fingers in my rectum in the middle of the street” while people passed by.

Abner Louima was supposed to be a teachable moment, a clarion decree that White officers desist from behaving life homoerotic barbarians with badges. It’s naive to think the lesson was not learned. To the contrary, Whites have advanced degrees in the science of Terrorizing black people.

The university of the world instructs White children, White Women and White Men that black people are not human beings, but rather, creatures worthy of sadistic cruelty. Arizona State University’s Dr. Ersula J. Ore was savagely reminded that her doctorate and masters degrees fail to protect her from White brutes with a remedial understanding of how Whites think of and treat black people. Big Apple residents young and old, White and non-white should recall a bevy names, extinguished non-white lives which illustrate this point. Reaching for a wallet. Celebrating a wedding. Tossing a football. Selling cigarettes.

As long as the System of White Supremacy exists, make room for the next name on that shirt of death. White dedication to  – not ignorance of – Racism demands that the ledger of slaughtered non-white lives expands infinitely.

Electing a White mayor with a black wife and non-white afro-sporting children will have the same impact as a departmental review of the officers responsible for Mr. Garner’s death. 

In 9 Cases of Police Chokeholds, Punishment Was Rare, Review Board Says

**Extra Credit** 

1.) Remorse - or the lack there of - speaks volume.

2.) Wouldn't want anyone to think this problem is exclusive to the United States.