Op-ed:
Two Cases...Two Verdicts Overturned...Two Reasons To Clear Our Judicial House
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
- Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father

Two weeks or so ago while most of us here in Florida, me included, were rightfully focused on a hurricane named Dorian, two Obama appointed activist judges were busy overturning convictions of an illegal alien and a muslim jihadi with barely a word heard in the mainstream media. Well...that word will be now be heard...better late than never I say.

Let's start with Jose Inez Garcia Zarate...the five times deported illegal alien...a man now in our country illegally for time number six...who shot and killed Kate Steinle back in 2015 when she was leisurely strolling with her dad on San Francisco's waterfront Pier 14. Dying in her dad's arms after being shot in the chest, the Steinle family saw Zarate being acquitted of murder on November 30, 2017 after the court ruled the shooting an accident. However, he was found guilty of being a convicted felon illegally in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

An illegal alien convicted of illegally possessing a firearm who now thanks to his liberal miscreant lawyers and an Obama appointed liberal activist judge named Sandra L. Margulies, has seen the knife dug deeper into the Steinle family's back as California's First District Court of Appeals has overturned even that conviction saying that, “the original judge [Judge Samuel Feng] failed to instruct the jury on one of his defenses.”

Oh really...

And so the man who stole a beautiful young woman's life...the man who claimed that, “he unwittingly picked up the gun wrapped in a T-shirt and it fired accidentally”...the man who claimed that after the gun went off...a gun stolen from a federal agent’s car...that he threw said gun away to stop it from firing again...that very man is now basically not only getting away with murder but with culpability as well, all while the Steinle family is left to relive their grief and forever wonder why it sadly ended this way.

But these six simple words can tell you and the Steinle family why...San Francisco is a “sanctuary city”...a city whose police department and government officials blatantly refuse to comply with our federal on-the-book immigration laws...a city that allowed murdering scum like Zarate to freely walk its streets. The rights of illegals over the rights of American citizens is the law San Francisco now lives by, and it's this very attitude...an attitude also embraced by California itself as it's a “sanctuary state” ...that is the direct cause of not only Kate's Steinle's death but the deaths of other folks in their state who've lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens.

Remember, if California as a whole and San Francisco in specific had just complied with federal immigration laws, Kate Steinle and the others murdered by illegals in California would not be dead, because Jose Inez Garcia Zarate and the other criminal sorts like him would not have been in these United States in the first, second...or in Zarate's case all the way up to the sixth place.

So how did this newest travesty of justice unfold...simply on the infamous “technicality” rouse is how. While Zarate remained in federal prison on the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition charge, his court appointed public defender, Matt Gonzales, was busy preparing his appeal on the grounds that while deliberating the case Judge Feng, even after being asked by the jury for added clarification about the definition of “possession,” did not inform the jury about what's called the “momentary possession of a firearm,” which legally it seems is not the same as the actual “possession” of a firearm. How so...“momentary possession” is when an individual has “brief possession” of an “item” in question...this being the gun...while being in the process of disposing or destroying that “item,” and that in no way is the individual trying to prevent law enforcement from seizing said “item.”

So with Zarate's having already fired the gun...guns don't pull their own triggers you know...and then after it “accidentally” kills Kate Steinle...Zarate throws the gun he knew had to be stolen into San Francisco Bay.

And with Zarate now having already built up enough credits for time served to cover his sentence on the state gun charge, Judge Margulies wrote in the 3-0 decision that, “During the deliberation, the jury asked for the definition of possession, whether there is a time requirement of possession and whether defendant’s possession of a firearm and knowledge he possessed it were sufficient to demonstrate wrongful intent,” and that “it is reasonably probable at least one juror may have reached a different conclusion if the jury had been instructed on the momentary possession charge,” thus allowing Kate Steinle to basically be de-facto murdered all over again.

And then to make matters even worse, Zarate's slime of an attorney, Matt Gonzales, had the audacity to call the appeal's court overturning the decision a “vindication”...a “vindication” because by Judge Feng not fully instructing the jury, Gonzales felt that Feng was in effect directing a guilty verdict be found. “He had an obligation to give this instruction whether or not we asked for it,” said Gonzalez as he seemed to relish in Kate Steinle's family having to relive once again the nightmare no parent should ever have to face.

I just wonder how people like Matt Gonzalez and Judge Sandra L. Margulies can look at themselves in the mirror let alone live with themselves knowing that they have further hurt the innocent while defending and overturning verdicts of those they know are guilty, and doing so on a “technicality” alone...what should, in my opinion, be a crime in and of itself.

So while Jose Inez Garcia Zarate remains in prison as the California state-court ruling has no legal bearing on federal prosecution, Zarate could still face up to ten years in prison if found guilty of federal "possession" charges. And yet even this, what seems like a last ditch attempt at justice, leaves me to wonder if Kate Steinle will ever be allowed to “Rest in Peace,” and will her family ever reach even a modicum of closure. Honestly, I just don't know especially when our current judicial system, and not just in California, seems to favor the perpetrator instead of the innocent victim.

Next on the list of Obama appointed liberal activist judges run amok involves the case of David Daoud Wright, the former ISIS operative and fame seeker who was found guilty of "conspiracy to commit acts of international terrorism" as well as being one of the ringleaders of the 2015 plot to behead political activist, blogger, and AFDI (American Freedom Defense Initiative) founder Pamela Geller...a woman I'm honored to call my friend. And why the focus on Pamela Geller...because she was the organizer of the “Draw Mohammed” art contest... a contest Wright and his ilk found offensive to mohammed and to mulsims...a contest that saw the two muslim gunmen who attacked said contest rightfully being shot dead by Garland, Texas police.

Thankfully, their plot fell apart after Wright’s uncle, one Usamaah Abdullah Rahim, said he wanted to kill Massachusetts police officers instead of Geller, but as fate would have it he was shot dead by the very officers he wanted to kill after pulling a knife on them in a parking lot when they simply wanted to question him. David Daoud Wright was now left alone to face charges, and in December 2017 he was found guilty on five counts in said terrorist plot against Pamela Geller. However, we recently witnessed one of those convictions being overturned by Federal Appeals Court Justice David J. Barron...with his decision being ludicrous at best, an outward catering to those out to kill us all at worst.

And why do I feel this way...because in his ruling this abomination of an Obama appointed islamic condoning judge had the audacity to mimic David Daoud Wright's lawyers whose sole defense was that their client, “could have simply been ‘role playing’ with respect to following ISIS’s direction,” against Pamela Geller. Ignoring that those on the jury in no way felt that Wright was “role playing” when reaching their verdict...Judge Barron also ignored that the five guilty verdicts were reached in under six hours...remarkable time in a case like this. And those guilty verdicts led Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb to state that, “Mr. Wright is a terrorist, an ISIS supporter and recruiter who intended to wage war against the United States by beheading people and killing Americans”...Pamela Geller sadly included.

The main case against Wright involved his contact and financing of American ISIS leader Zulfi Hoxha's trip to Syria to train with ISIS, and of all things video games...video games being used as a way for someone to both train and ultimately join ISIS. In fact, Wright himself trained by using amongst others a video game called “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” to “virtually prepare” for jihad.

Judge Barron knew all this and yet apparently he did not take any of it into account. And what's even worse is that both David Daoud Wright's original 2017 conviction and sentence of 28 years in prison will now more than likely be reduced due to Barron's overturning the ISIS related conviction. And this is not only a miscarriage of justice, but yet another showing that Americans do come second to politically activist judges...in the Geller case second not to an illegal alien but to a convicted terrorist.

Makes you wonder who's worse...the illegals, the terrorists, or the activist judges who give these folks but a slap on the wrist and then basically lets them go. Sad isn't it...sad indeed.

So what's the answer to stopping liberal appeals judges from overturning rightful verdicts... to overturn them simply to meet their personal political agenda alone? Remember, it's not as simple as just replacing them with conservative justices for a defendant has the legal right to appeal any guilty verdict or in the above stated two cases any secondary part thereof said verdict without negating the original underlying guilty or not guilty conviction.

In the Zarate case his attorney Matt Gonzales used “error at trial” in his appeal to Judge Margulies, because of Judge Feng's perceived legal error of omission regarding “possession,” an error he believed contributed to a guilty verdict no matter this be right or wrong. In the Pamela Geller case, there is no rhyme nor reason for the ISIS related charge to be overturned, proving once again that liberal activist judges tread lightly in regards to those of the islamic persuasion.

So while a number of judges...whether they be appeals court judges or otherwise...must be replaced before the worst of the worst are coddled even more than they already are, they must not be replaced solely based upon their party affiliation, but based upon their judicial record of being either Constitutional judges or activist judges. Remember, we have seen Republican judges and even Supreme Court justices not following the Constitution at times, albeit to a far lesser degree than Democrat judges and justices. But no matter the judicial appointee and no matter the president who appoints them, said judge or justice must always interpret the law as per the Constitution not take it upon themselves to start legislating from the bench as the two above mentioned judges clearly have done.

It's way past time to clear America's judicial house and put it back in proper working order...and do so before it's too late.

Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.

**************************************************************************************************************************************
For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Mullen, Nebraska Schools a Triggered Indoctrinator.
 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ 

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Tomorrow, Friday, September 13th, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Two Cases...Two Verdicts Overturned...Two Reason To Clear Our Judicial House'; 'Mullen, Nebraska Schools a Triggered Indoctrinator'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/

Op-ed:
Two Cases...Two Verdicts Overturned...Two Reasons To Clear Our Judicial House
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
- Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father

Two weeks or so ago while most of us here in Florida, me included, were rightfully focused on a hurricane named Dorian, two Obama appointed activist judges were busy overturning convictions of an illegal alien and a muslim jihadi with barely a word heard in the mainstream media. Well...that word will be now be heard...better late than never I say.

Let's start with Jose Inez Garcia Zarate...the five times deported illegal alien...a man now in our country illegally for time number six...who shot and killed Kate Steinle back in 2015 when she was leisurely strolling with her dad on San Francisco's waterfront Pier 14. Dying in her dad's arms after being shot in the chest, the Steinle family saw Zarate being acquitted of murder on November 30, 2017 after the court ruled the shooting an accident. However, he was found guilty of being a convicted felon illegally in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

An illegal alien convicted of illegally possessing a firearm who now thanks to his liberal miscreant lawyers and an Obama appointed liberal activist judge named Sandra L. Margulies, has seen the knife dug deeper into the Steinle family's back as California's First District Court of Appeals has overturned even that conviction saying that, “the original judge [Judge Samuel Feng] failed to instruct the jury on one of his defenses.”

Oh really...

And so the man who stole a beautiful young woman's life...the man who claimed that, “he unwittingly picked up the gun wrapped in a T-shirt and it fired accidentally”...the man who claimed that after the gun went off...a gun stolen from a federal agent’s car...that he threw said gun away to stop it from firing again...that very man is now basically not only getting away with murder but with culpability as well, all while the Steinle family is left to relive their grief and forever wonder why it sadly ended this way.

But these six simple words can tell you and the Steinle family why...San Francisco is a “sanctuary city”...a city whose police department and government officials blatantly refuse to comply with our federal on-the-book immigration laws...a city that allowed murdering scum like Zarate to freely walk its streets. The rights of illegals over the rights of American citizens is the law San Francisco now lives by, and it's this very attitude...an attitude also embraced by California itself as it's a “sanctuary state” ...that is the direct cause of not only Kate's Steinle's death but the deaths of other folks in their state who've lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens.

Remember, if California as a whole and San Francisco in specific had just complied with federal immigration laws, Kate Steinle and the others murdered by illegals in California would not be dead, because Jose Inez Garcia Zarate and the other criminal sorts like him would not have been in these United States in the first, second...or in Zarate's case all the way up to the sixth place.

So how did this newest travesty of justice unfold...simply on the infamous “technicality” rouse is how. While Zarate remained in federal prison on the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition charge, his court appointed public defender, Matt Gonzales, was busy preparing his appeal on the grounds that while deliberating the case Judge Feng, even after being asked by the jury for added clarification about the definition of “possession,” did not inform the jury about what's called the “momentary possession of a firearm,” which legally it seems is not the same as the actual “possession” of a firearm. How so...“momentary possession” is when an individual has “brief possession” of an “item” in question...this being the gun...while being in the process of disposing or destroying that “item,” and that in no way is the individual trying to prevent law enforcement from seizing said “item.”

So with Zarate's having already fired the gun...guns don't pull their own triggers you know...and then after it “accidentally” kills Kate Steinle...Zarate throws the gun he knew had to be stolen into San Francisco Bay.

And with Zarate now having already built up enough credits for time served to cover his sentence on the state gun charge, Judge Margulies wrote in the 3-0 decision that, “During the deliberation, the jury asked for the definition of possession, whether there is a time requirement of possession and whether defendant’s possession of a firearm and knowledge he possessed it were sufficient to demonstrate wrongful intent,” and that “it is reasonably probable at least one juror may have reached a different conclusion if the jury had been instructed on the momentary possession charge,” thus allowing Kate Steinle to basically be de-facto murdered all over again.

And then to make matters even worse, Zarate's slime of an attorney, Matt Gonzales, had the audacity to call the appeal's court overturning the decision a “vindication”...a “vindication” because by Judge Feng not fully instructing the jury, Gonzales felt that Feng was in effect directing a guilty verdict be found. “He had an obligation to give this instruction whether or not we asked for it,” said Gonzalez as he seemed to relish in Kate Steinle's family having to relive once again the nightmare no parent should ever have to face.

I just wonder how people like Matt Gonzalez and Judge Sandra L. Margulies can look at themselves in the mirror let alone live with themselves knowing that they have further hurt the innocent while defending and overturning verdicts of those they know are guilty, and doing so on a “technicality” alone...what should, in my opinion, be a crime in and of itself.

So while Jose Inez Garcia Zarate remains in prison as the California state-court ruling has no legal bearing on federal prosecution, Zarate could still face up to ten years in prison if found guilty of federal "possession" charges. And yet even this, what seems like a last ditch attempt at justice, leaves me to wonder if Kate Steinle will ever be allowed to “Rest in Peace,” and will her family ever reach even a modicum of closure. Honestly, I just don't know especially when our current judicial system, and not just in California, seems to favor the perpetrator instead of the innocent victim.

Next on the list of Obama appointed liberal activist judges run amok involves the case of David Daoud Wright, the former ISIS operative and fame seeker who was found guilty of "conspiracy to commit acts of international terrorism" as well as being one of the ringleaders of the 2015 plot to behead political activist, blogger, and AFDI (American Freedom Defense Initiative) founder Pamela Geller...a woman I'm honored to call my friend. And why the focus on Pamela Geller...because she was the organizer of the “Draw Mohammed” art contest... a contest Wright and his ilk found offensive to mohammed and to mulsims...a contest that saw the two muslim gunmen who attacked said contest rightfully being shot dead by Garland, Texas police.

Thankfully, their plot fell apart after Wright’s uncle, one Usamaah Abdullah Rahim, said he wanted to kill Massachusetts police officers instead of Geller, but as fate would have it he was shot dead by the very officers he wanted to kill after pulling a knife on them in a parking lot when they simply wanted to question him. David Daoud Wright was now left alone to face charges, and in December 2017 he was found guilty on five counts in said terrorist plot against Pamela Geller. However, we recently witnessed one of those convictions being overturned by Federal Appeals Court Justice David J. Barron...with his decision being ludicrous at best, an outward catering to those out to kill us all at worst.

And why do I feel this way...because in his ruling this abomination of an Obama appointed islamic condoning judge had the audacity to mimic David Daoud Wright's lawyers whose sole defense was that their client, “could have simply been ‘role playing’ with respect to following ISIS’s direction,” against Pamela Geller. Ignoring that those on the jury in no way felt that Wright was “role playing” when reaching their verdict...Judge Barron also ignored that the five guilty verdicts were reached in under six hours...remarkable time in a case like this. And those guilty verdicts led Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb to state that, “Mr. Wright is a terrorist, an ISIS supporter and recruiter who intended to wage war against the United States by beheading people and killing Americans”...Pamela Geller sadly included.

The main case against Wright involved his contact and financing of American ISIS leader Zulfi Hoxha's trip to Syria to train with ISIS, and of all things video games...video games being used as a way for someone to both train and ultimately join ISIS. In fact, Wright himself trained by using amongst others a video game called “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” to “virtually prepare” for jihad.

Judge Barron knew all this and yet apparently he did not take any of it into account. And what's even worse is that both David Daoud Wright's original 2017 conviction and sentence of 28 years in prison will now more than likely be reduced due to Barron's overturning the ISIS related conviction. And this is not only a miscarriage of justice, but yet another showing that Americans do come second to politically activist judges...in the Geller case second not to an illegal alien but to a convicted terrorist.

Makes you wonder who's worse...the illegals, the terrorists, or the activist judges who give these folks but a slap on the wrist and then basically lets them go. Sad isn't it...sad indeed.

So what's the answer to stopping liberal appeals judges from overturning rightful verdicts... to overturn them simply to meet their personal political agenda alone? Remember, it's not as simple as just replacing them with conservative justices for a defendant has the legal right to appeal any guilty verdict or in the above stated two cases any secondary part thereof said verdict without negating the original underlying guilty or not guilty conviction.

In the Zarate case his attorney Matt Gonzales used “error at trial” in his appeal to Judge Margulies, because of Judge Feng's perceived legal error of omission regarding “possession,” an error he believed contributed to a guilty verdict no matter this be right or wrong. In the Pamela Geller case, there is no rhyme nor reason for the ISIS related charge to be overturned, proving once again that liberal activist judges tread lightly in regards to those of the islamic persuasion.

So while a number of judges...whether they be appeals court judges or otherwise...must be replaced before the worst of the worst are coddled even more than they already are, they must not be replaced solely based upon their party affiliation, but based upon their judicial record of being either Constitutional judges or activist judges. Remember, we have seen Republican judges and even Supreme Court justices not following the Constitution at times, albeit to a far lesser degree than Democrat judges and justices. But no matter the judicial appointee and no matter the president who appoints them, said judge or justice must always interpret the law as per the Constitution not take it upon themselves to start legislating from the bench as the two above mentioned judges clearly have done.

It's way past time to clear America's judicial house and put it back in proper working order...and do so before it's too late.

Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.

**************************************************************************************************************************************
For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Mullen, Nebraska Schools a Triggered Indoctrinator.
 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ 

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Tomorrow, Friday, September 13th, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Two Cases...Two Verdicts Overturned...Two Reason To Clear Our Judicial House'; 'Mullen, Nebraska Schools a Triggered Indoctrinator'; and 9/11 Remembrances and Tributes.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/

Op-ed;
Two Republicans v. Sanctuary Cities and Gun-Free School Zones

By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

"This is about public safety, not about politics. We must do everything within our power, and use all the tools available to us, to ensure that our communities are safe.”   
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on his signing SB 168: Federal Immigration Enforcement Bill

One of the best votes I ever cast, short of voting for Donald J. Trump of course, was voting for Ron DeSantis for Florida governor. A Republican-Conservative like me...as opposed to a Conservative Republican*...Navy veteran and former Congressman DeSantis not only ran a campaign based upon honesty, integrity, accountability, transparency and a true love of country, but is serving as governor with those very same values fully and unapologetically intact.

And while the actual race for governor was indeed both contentious and dirty at times via the theatrics of his socialist-condoning liberal opponent, then candidate Ron DeSantis held strong to his conservative values and above all else the words of the Constitution...the very document that nowhere states we must take into our country those who enter here illegally.

And that conservative focus was clearly seen when last Friday, now Governor Ron DeSantis fulfilled one key campaign promise made...to ban sanctuary cities in our state. And with that promise being a main talking point in both his inaugural and his State of the State address, Governor DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 168...the very bill that not only prevents cities throughout the state of Florida from declaring themselves as sanctuary cities, but actually mandates that all cities and all local law and state enforcement personnel must cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in all matters or else face strict penalties. After all, our governor knows that ICE can't do their job if our state's local authorities don't do theirs.

Simply, local law enforcement has a moral and ethical duty let alone the responsibility to report illegal aliens to ICE otherwise they are just as bad as the illegals they are protecting.

Now as to Senate Bill 168 itself...which passed 22-18 in the Senate and 68-45 in the House...this bill gives the governor himself as well as Attorney General Ashley Moody the legal authority to "initiate enforcement actions" against any city or municipality that refuses to detain a person based on “probable cause”...as in said person is deemed under federal immigration law to be a “removable alien”...as well as its requiring that any Florida city currently enacting sanctuary policies must repeal those policies within a specifically designated time frame.

And to this I say many “kudos” must go out to Governor DeSantis for it's way passed time that we in this country face the fact that we do need more governors like him... governors who will do the right thing as we law abiding citizens have had enough of those who not only come here knowingly and willingly by breaking our laws, but that those very lawbreakers do not get to stay here at the expense and on the dime of we true American taxpaying citizens...with “citizens” first and foremost being the operative word.

And while illegals...as well as those who advocate for these lawbreakers...are a huge problem nationwide, here in South Florida nearly half a million illegals call our state home, something that will now surely change. And change it will be no matter that opponents to the just signed bill...opponents like local immigrants rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Business Immigrant Coalition...tried to change and tone down...but thankfully failed...the bill's strong and direct language saying it was too broad in scope and would have unintended consequences, yet never saying what exactly those consequences would be.

But we know the true nature of those consequences... one just has to ask the family of Kate Steinle and the multitude of other families who have seen their loved ones murdered by those who had no right being here in the first place. Remember back to 2015 when Kate Steinle was killed by an illegal who was in possession of an illegal firearm...an illegal who had been deported back to Mexico five different times. And why did Kate die...not because she just happened to be taking a walk with her father on a beautiful sunny day and was in the wrong place at the wrong time...but because the San Francisco Police Department willfully ignored the ICE detainer request to keep her would be killer in custody until ICE was able to take him into their custody, and instead chose to released him. Kate Steinle's blood is surely on the San Francisco PD's hands.

Translation: sanctuary cities are a danger to the “health, safety, and welfare” of the American people...Governor Ron DeSantis knows this and acted accordingly to protect we citizens of Florida, and to that I and so many other Floridians say “thank you.”

Now as for someone else doing...or at least trying...to do the right thing enter center stage Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky who is reintroducing the previously failed “Safe Students Act.”

The “Safe Student Act” is the bill that if passed would amend the federal criminal code to allow the repeal of key provisions in the “Gun-Free Schools Act”...the very act that currently prohibits teachers and staff from being armed on school grounds and everyone else from being either in possession of or discharging a firearm in a school zone...as within 1,000 feet of a school campus. And if that law were to be repealed security guards, administrators, teachers, and parents themselves would be able to protect the students... would be able to protect innocent children left defenseless inside their own schools...be able to protect them even before police could arrive on campus if a shooting were to occur.

Seems like common sense alone should dictate such a repeal especially after last year's Parkland School massacre...unfortunately Democrats lack even enough common sense to realize that when an armed citizen is present gun violence usually has no chance to reach the status of a mass shooting.

And so for us on the right, like with our rightful anger surrounding the issue of sanctuary cities, that same anger has now also focused our attention on the fact that 98% of public mass shootings happen in “Gun-Free Zones”...the very zones killers target because Democrats have with the media's backing sold the masses on the nonsense that it's the “bad guns” that kill people and not the actual killers who pull the gun's trigger. And in their also trying to make the rest of us believe the fairy tale that “Gun-Free Zones” will keep us safe, reality instead shows that countless innocent lives that need not have been lost are lost because of the time it takes police to be called and arrive on scene to stop said killers.

Translation: we need a lot more “good guys” with guns in order to stop the “bad guys” with guns from possibly even being able to get one shot off. And when seconds really do matter a responsible gun owner can indeed save lives in an active-shooter situation.

So what are the specifics that would be accomplished by repealing the 1990 “Gun-Free Schools Act”...an act that itself was amended in 1996 after the Supreme Court ruled the first version unconstitutional. Simply, but most importantly, repealing this proven not to work monstrosity would allow for the eliminating of the one-size-fits-all federal ban on guns in school zones, making it easier for both state and local governments as well as school boards to set their own firearms policies...as it should have been in the first place.

And why is that...because guns and gun-related issues themselves are different in nature than most other issues being politicized to such a degree that folks are drawn into taking diametrically opposing sides...almost to the same degree as the battle lines are drawn regarding abortion. And we all know that when the federal government gets directly involved in what should be local and state business alone any regulatory power the local or state level might have had gets removed in favor of the feds. And this is what's happened with the “Gun-Free Schools Act” where a federal law has actually put American children's lives in danger.

And when a state or local government is forced to cede what power they did have regarding firearms to a federal one-size-fits-all approach to gun violence...an approach involving but a simple sign declaring a specific place as a “Gun-Free Zone”...not only is any "customized" solutions to gun violence that might have worked in any specific community been taken away, but the sheer ludicrisy of it all is the fact that while children in classrooms are targets ripe for the killing...and with those ridiculous signs announcing so...the very members in Congress who passed this ridiculous law are themselves “packing” to protect themselves and their families.

Total hypocrisy of the first degree.

And with signs alone misguidedly being used as protection finally hitting home on the right side of the aisle, know that this is not the first time a Republican has tried to get this dangerous law reversed. Back in 2007, Rep. Ron Paul (TX) tried to reverse this law and failed...but proving once again the old adage that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

And so Rep. Thomas Massie, the man who said that, “Gun-free zones are ineffective and make our schools less safe,” is stepping up to the legislative plate to try his best to get this nonsense repealed and he has seven Republican co-sponsors to aid him in his endeavor including...Reps Justin Amash (MI), Jody Hice (GA), Jeff Duncan (SC), Matt Gaetz (FL), Louie Gohmert (TX), James Comer (KY), and Brian Babin (TX). But Rep. Jeff Duncan stated it best when he said that, “The only thing gun-free zones do is disarm law-abiding citizens and take away their ability to protect themselves and others. We shouldn’t leave our most vulnerable – our children – in an unsafe environment like gun-free zones where acts of violence cannot be stopped.”

So with no Democrats on board with this repeal and with the House being in Democrat hands, know not only will Rep. Massie's call for repeal fail, but it won’t even be heard in committee and likely won’t get to vote. And sadly, the violence against our children will continue on with many more children likely to lose their lives. But now there's a bit of difference, because with no Democrat support and with those useless signs most likely remaining in place, any new blood spilled will be covering Democrats hands.
_________________________________
* The difference between the two is explained in my article Saving 2020 .

Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.

****************************************************************************************
For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, The Desperately Obtuse World of Liberalism.

************************************************************************************************************************* RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Friday, June 21st, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Two Republicans v. Sanctuary Cities and Gun-Free School Zones'; 'The Desperately Obtuse World of Liberalism'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/

(Almost) Daily Meme

Op-ed: 
Sanctuary Cities...Harboring Injustice
By: Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots

"A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration." - President Donald Trump

He was knowingly here illegally, in fact he had already been deported five times before and yet he always did manage to return. And it was during his sixth and last return that this illegal alien murdered an innocent 32-year old woman in the prime of her life...and so Kate Steinle became the rallying cry for all that is so very wrong with our immigration system.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate...aka Juan Francisco Lopes-Sanchez...an illegal Mexican with a lengthy felony record...was found 'not guilty' of murdering Kate Steinle by a San Francisco jury of six men and six women. Not guilty of murder in the first degree nor in the second degree, Zarate was also acquitted of involuntary manslaughter with the sole guilty charge leveled against him being the much lesser charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

In other words, Kate Steinle's killer basically walks free...free after he is once again deported back to Mexico...while there is no justice for the the innocent girl killed nor for her parents who now live a life of hell no parent should ever be forced to live...a life knowing their daughter's death took a backseat to the life of a piece of human garbage whose mere existence in our country was against our laws.

By now we all know the story of how Kate Steinle was killed on July 1, 2015, while lazily walking along a San Francisco pier with her dad enjoying the hot summer day...and how a shot rang out seeing Kate dropping to the ground, being cradled in her dad's arms with her last words spoken, “help me dad.” Shot in the back by what this jury deemed was an accidental shooting that was anything but, the jury was charged with deciding whether Zarate intentionally and willfully fired the single shot that killed Kate Steinle or whether it was as the defense claimed 'unintentional'...a freak accident...after Zarate found the gun wrapped in a cloth under his seat at the pier, that it accidentally discharged with the bullet ricocheting off of the concrete surface and into Steinle's back.

So while this scenario was deemed plausible to the jury... plausible enough to find Zarate 'not guilty'...it might have resulted in a vastly different verdict if the jury in Judge Samuel Feng’s courtroom had been allowed to hear that the gun had been stolen just four days before the killing from the parked car of a visiting Bureau of Land Management ranger. And while even the prosecution agreed that there was no evidence linking Zarate to that particular robbery, sometimes no evidence is evidence in and of itself especially when also kept from the jury was the fact that Zarate had been deported five times before, and that in 2015 he was scheduled for a sixth deportation having then been in federal custody for felony 're-entry.' 

But instead of their deporting him when they had the chance, federal authorities sent Zarate to San Francisco on a 20-year-old drug warrant for possession of a small amount of marijuana, where San Francisco prosecutors dropped the charge and the sheriff's department let him go...let him go despite a federal detainer request.

Two months after the charges were dropped Kate Steinle lay dead.

And it was only after the 'not guilty' verdict had been reached that an amended federal arrest warrant was reissued for Zarate...a warrant stating that he did indeed violate his court mandated supervised release on a previous federal sentence for illegally re-entering our country now being coupled with his being a convicted felon possessing the gun that killed Kate Steinle.

But no matter, because with just a three or so year sentence as per current sentence guidelines, and with factoring in 'time served,' Zarate could see himself being deported back to Mexico within less than year's time...deported back as he plots and plans how to re-enter our country for the seventh time, while Kate Stenle remains dead.

A true miscarriage of justice unseen since the OJ Simpson verdict back in the '90's, this nightmare stems directly from San Francisco being a sanctuary city in the now sanctuary state of California, and with local sanctuary city laws stating that local law enforcement do not have to hold an individual beyond the term of their incarceration. And so San Francisco decided back in 2015 not to honor any federal ICE detainer requests, that is unless a detainee is proven to have had committed a violent or serious felony within the past seven years...and this continues today.

And with her death Kate Steinle truly did become ground zero for the nightmare scenario that is sanctuary cities...which by the way is not a legal term...replete with said city's policies hindering local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration agents. Remember, if those policies had not been in place Zarate would have been turned over to ICE back in the spring of 2015, and Kate Steinle would be alive today.

“A day of vindication for the rest of immigrants,” so said Zarate's defense attorney Francisco Ugarte yet this verdict is anything but as the backlash against illegals and sanctuary cities grows stronger by the day...and might we add rightfully so for two simple truths are that Zarate was not supposed to be here and yet he was, and that our existing immigration laws were passed to protect American citizens not to protect illegal criminal aliens.

So what exactly are sanctuary cities...which is not a new concept but has been around since Biblical times...besides being breeding grounds for those wishing to do Americans harm while at the same time being a place where criminals relish in raking in the benefits this country has to offer. A federally funded safe haven, sanctuary cities limit their cooperation with the federal government in order to help illegals avoid deportation by ICE agents...and if truth be told also to help increase the Democrats voting roster.

And while President Trump wants to pull said federal funding for cities that refuse to comply with ICE deportation requests, many sanctuary cities are fighting back against a cut in funding while they await a federal court ruling against the legality of withholding such funding. And to give you an idea of just how much funding these cities would loose, know that in Fiscal Year 2016 alone Obama sent $26.74 billion in federal funding to America’s 106 sanctuary cities... funding they desperately needed to feed, house, cloth, and educate those who came to our country illegally...those who are criminals by their very act of doing so. And know that during the entirety of the Obama years illegal immigration cost we state taxpayers $89 billion with the feds adding in another $46 billion, bringing the total to fund sanctuary cities up to a whopping $135 billion...monies that should have been spent on American citizens instead.

Now here's something most don't know...sometimes sanctuary cities aren’t just cities per se. In fact, across America, there are over 300 governmental jurisdictions claiming sanctuary status including 106 actual cities, four states (California, Connecticut, New Mexico, and Colorado), and with the rest being counties or other units of government. But their joint commonality is that all have officially enacted sanctuary policies, with most refusing to honor ICE detainers warrants.

Thankfully, on January 25, 2017 President Trump signed Executive Order 13768 directing the Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to defund sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal immigration law. So while at least 33 states have considered enacting such laws to crack down on sanctuary cities, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, and Texas have already passed laws that punish local governments that enact policies that protect and shelter illegals

In fact, Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita recently introduced a bill that could hold what he calls “lawless” state and local politicians and officials accountable with criminal penalties if they choose to obstruct federal immigration authority efforts. Specifically targeting sanctuary cities, H.R. 4526...the Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians (SLAP) Act...could see any and all violators facing up to five years of prison time and a fine of up to $1 million for willfully ignoring the federal government's requests for custody of undocumented individuals. It's a start...a very good start indeed.

And with other states and elected officials now planning to jump on the anti-sanctuary city bandwagon, a war of words has started as those in favor of sanctuary cities and the policies surrounding them claim said cities are being made safer because they foster positive relationships between illegals and law enforcement; that they are legal and protected by the tenth amendment* (re: separation of federal and state powers); and that said cities protect what they call 'undocumented immigrants' from federal immigration laws. Countering them are those who say sanctuary city policies allow dangerous and violent illegal aliens the ability to roam free to threaten the safety of both their communities and law-abiding American citizens; that said cities defy federal laws by which state and local governments are bound as per 8 U.S. Code § 1373**; and that these cities prevent both local and state police officers from doing their jobs.

And the opposition to sanctuary cities is rightfully growing in numbers by the day not only because of the miscarriage of justice regarding the Kate Steinle verdict; not only because thousands of Americans die each year at the hands of illegals; but also because the hypocrisy of the left is now on full display for all to see as their ad-nauseum call for more gun control has been drowned out by their silence because one of their protected sorts basically got off scot-free. 

In the wake of the Kate Steinle murder verdict, while the liberals continue to do everything possible to both harbor and protect those who simply by setting foot in our country illegally are criminals. And in sanctuary cities and in sanctuary states one thing is quite conspicuous in its abject silence...liberal calls for gun control. And how exactly does the liberal gun control agenda fit into all of this...simply it doesn’t. 

In this case, and in others that we’ve both seen, and will see as time marches on and the illegal alien flood into sanctuary cities and states continues, a criminal, as cited above, who was also a felon, deported five times and being protected by the liberal agenda, stole a gun, was a felon in possession of a gun, and used that gun in the commission of yet another felony...the murder of Kate Steinle...was acquitted of the charges by a liberal jury, and yet, not a word concerning their gun control agenda.

To be perfectly frank, and brutally politically direct about this, had the killer of Kate Steinle been anything but a protected class non-citizen, the outcry from the left for more gun control would be deafening.

As it is, the silence is now what’s deafening, and that places the spotlight squarely upon liberal hypocrisy.

To be fair, no amount of gun control would have kept Kate Steinle alive, so it is not at all that we’re preaching gun control here. The facts regarding liberal gun control are more than evident in Chicago, a bastion of liberalism with the strictest anti-gun laws in the nation...a city seeing 3,382 shootings with 587 people killed in those shootings in 2017, and the year isn’t over yet.

Such figures also put the spotlight on yet another of liberalism’s many hypocritical failures in that the vast majority of the shootings and resulting murders in the gun-free, target-rich zone of Chicago, are crimes committed by blacks, against blacks.

Just as illegal aliens are considered the sole purview of liberals, so too is the black community, and yet black on black crime, which is culpable in some 93 percent of all black murders in this country, as per FBI statistics, never raises so much as a liberal eyebrow, much less a liberal outcry. 

If you need more proof of the hypocritical double standard regarding Kate Steinle and liberal demands for gun control, or in this case their lack of such demands, look no further than Barack Hussein Obama who, since the murder of Kate Steinle in 2015 by an illegal alien with a string of felonies and deportations glued to him, has remained silent regarding the crime, the victim, and for that matter the killer. 

When Michael Brown, for instance, a thug and a thief, was shot by a police officer in the process of attacking that officer, Obama spoke out within three days, demanded more gun control, ordered an investigation by the DOJ into the justified shooting and sent his representatives to the dead thug’s funeral.

Has Obama spoken out in regards to Kate Steinle? No. Has he spoken out calling for gun control using the killing of Steinle as his platform? No. Has Obama uttered even a single word against the illegal alien and felon, five times deported who murdered Kate Steinle? No, no he has not.

And what of Nancy Pelosi, in whose backyard if not her front yard, this murder took place?

Well, Nancy Pelosi did, in fact, issue one singular call for more gun control exactly one week after the murder of Kate Steinle, stating, “Last week, in San Francisco, our city suffered our own senseless act of gun violence with the killing of Kathryn Steinle, and our thoughts and prayers are very much with her family. Today, we must do more as a nation to prevent dangerous people from getting easy access to guns. And Congress has a moral responsibility to act. What is so unclear? What do they not understand about that? The memory of these victims, the cries of their families deserve action – results, not words.” 

Since that rather obtuse statement, Pelosi has been conspicuously quite, as though the liberal elite shut her down because the illegal alien was somehow a more protected class than an American citizen, but notice a very important aspect of Pelosi’s statement...“we must do more as a nation to prevent dangerous people from getting easy access to guns. And Congress has a moral responsibility to act. What is so unclear? What do they not understand about that?” 

Let’s be clear here in that it wasn’t the gun that killed Kate Steinle, it was in fact, the illegal alien who had already been deported five times, had a string of felonies attached to him, and was, not least of all, living in a sanctuary city...her sanctuary city to be exact.

Gun control was what Pelosi was preaching a week after Steinle was murdered...not illegal alien control, and why do you suppose that was? Because guns can’t vote, and because California issues driver’s licenses, and registers illegal aliens to do just that...vote.

On January 1, 2015, California’s AB 60 law went into effect, and illegal aliens flooded DMV locations to take full advantage, getting driver’s licenses. Couple that with yet another California law, AB 1461, which is a motor-voter law that registers holders of a California driver’s license to vote, and you have the perfect liberal storm...illegal aliens with voter registration forms.

In the state of California today, there are some 800,000 illegal aliens who because of the combination of the two laws, have been registered to vote, and while it’s illegal for them to cast a vote, the laws have no teeth. In fact, it’s up to the illegal...those who have broken the law by being in this country to begin with...to police themselves, and not vote.

Illegal aliens in California are on the honor system when it comes to voting, and to be once again perfectly frank, the honor system becomes an abject failure when it is left to those who do not honor our nation’s laws, to suddenly show honor for our nation’s laws.

According to Claude Arnold, a former Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations in Southern California, as well as in the states of Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, “Throughout my 27-year career with [Immigration and Naturalization Service] and ICE, I arrested hundreds of illegal criminal aliens who had voter registration cards. They would often admit they voted, but they were rarely prosecuted for illegally voting.” 

Putting a finer point on it, Arnold stated that of the hundreds of illegal aliens he has personally arrested over the years, who were registered to vote, only once was an illegal alien registered as a Republican. All the rest, he said, were registered as Democrats.

Let’s now put this into context with the Kate Steinle murder, and Nancy Pelosi’s statement...Pelosi called for gun control after Steinle’s murder, and not for illegal alien control... because guns don’t vote, and illegal aliens do.

In the liberal world, guns are not a voting bloc, so liberals can, and do call for all the laws they want for the purpose of banning guns, and this is exactly why you don’t hear them begging for, or demanding laws to ban illegal aliens from flooding into our country, of holing up in liberal controlled sanctuary cities or states.

It’s not that liberals just don’t know where the true responsibility lies for the murder of Kate Steinle...it’s that they absolutely do know...and simply don’t give a damn.

Sanctuary cities, and sanctuary states, set up by liberals as safe havens for criminals for no other purpose than to protect an illegal voting bloc have no place in a nation of laws...no place in our Constitutional Republic. Such cities and states should be defunded from federal assistance dollars, paid by legal citizens, so that liberals can flaunt the laws of the land.

Further, to diminish the future possibilities of more parents having to bury their children, or children having to bury their parents because of the actions of those who shouldn’t even be here in the first place, stricter border enforcement, a wall, and harsher penalties for those who commit crimes while in this country illegally must be adopted, and used.

It’s not an abundance of guns that caused the murder of Kate Steinle, it is the absence of a wall that was a direct contributor in the equation, and a liberal agenda that aided and abetted in Miss Steinle’s murder.

To quote Nancy Pelosi..."What is so unclear? What do they not understand about that?”

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* Tenth Amendment: the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

** 8 U.S. Code § 1373: Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.

Copyright © 2017 Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE! 

Today, Friday, December 8th from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss sanctuary cities as the harbor of injustice, Trump's announcement on Jerusalem; and other important news    of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history