Justice: Antifa Thug Who Busted a Man's Head Open Gets Nearly 6 Years in Prison

This past June, masked thugs organized under the banner of anti-fascism, or "antifa," and beat up conservative journalist Andy Ngo and others in Portland, Ore. In one particularly gruesome attack, local conservative Adam Kelly got his head busted open with a baton. He suffered a concussion and needed 25 staples to close the wounds. Gage Halupowski, the 24-year-old man who pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in the attack, was sentenced to 70 months (5.83 years) in prison on Friday.

"Antifa militant Gage Halupowski sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for striking a man on head from behind w/a baton during riot," Ngo tweeted, sharing the breaking news Friday evening. "He was masked at the time & assaulted an officer while trying to escape. His lawyer says sentence is too severe."

Ngo shared images of Kelly's head after the baton attack.

Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Marrero said both Kelly and Halupowski were lucky the conservative victim survived his injuries. She described the attack as "completely unexplainable, completely avoidable and didn't need to happen," Oregon Live reported.

As Ngo said, Halupowski's attorney Edward Kroll attacked the nearly six-year sentence, calling it "one of the harshest sentences I've seen for someone with no criminal background and young age." Kroll admitted that Halupowski had made "a really terrible decision" and acknowledged that the antifa thug had been captured on camera, but he claimed that at least two other people hit Kelly with batons, as well.

Conservative Journalist Andy Ngo Beaten Up and Hit With Cement by Antifa in Portland, Says Police Did Nothing
Marrero defended the sentence as appropriate due to the nature of Kelly's injuries. She noted that first-degree assault — which carried a potential 90-month sentence — and riot charges were initially considered in the case. Halupowski may have gotten off easy. She also insisted that another person has been indicted and more people are under investigation for the same attack and other attacks in the June 29 demonstrations.

"My office has individuals charged on both sides of the political spectrum," Marrero said. "We are not picking sides based on political affiliation, political views or anything like that."

Indeed, a harsh sentence for antifa thugs who cause this kind of injury should have nothing to do with politics. These rioters claim that their actions are justified because they are "punching fascists." They demonize their political opponents by comparing them to Hitler and then engage in the kind of red-shirt tactics the fascists and other totalitarians employed to take power. Anyone who violently assaults other people should face legal consequences, and political ideals are no defense for criminal activity.

Furthermore, it seems Kelly was coming to the defense of a man who was himself coming to the defense of an innocent bystander who had a personal dispute with some antifa activists.

As Oregon Live reported in July, local man Sam Resnick said he was walking toward a Starbucks when antifa activists shouted slurs at him and shoved him. He knew them from a "simmering personal dispute with them" but seems not to have instigated the altercation. They attempted to punch him and "someone put their hands on me" from behind, he said.

Another man, later identified as John Blum tried to pull Resnick's assailants back, saying, "We don't do that here." According to Resnick, "the mob just started attacking" Blum for his attempt to prevent violence. Yet other videos have shown Blum holding a black baton himself.

Once Blum was surrounded, getting struck multiple times in the head, Kelly came to his aid, himself getting struck repeatedly in the head with one or more batons.

A GoFundMe fundraiser raised $14,317 to pay for Kelly's medical care after the assault.

Liberals who go on and on about the threats of white supremacy should also condemn antifa violence. Attacks like this are despicable, and Americans should condemn political violence, no matter the motivation.

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Trump and Officers Blast Chicago's Top Cop

President Donald Trump visited Chicago on Monday to speak at the conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Controversy preceded Trump’s visit when Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson publicly declared that he would boycott the president’s speech. Johnson self-righteously asserted, “As police officers, our job is to be the voice for the voiceless and ambassadors to the communities that we serve. I can’t in good conscience stand by while racial insults and hatred are cast from the Oval Office or Chicago is held hostage because of our views on new Americans.”

Johnson was referring to Chicago’s “sanctuary city” policy, which he fully embraces. But he erroneously and intentionally conflates legal immigrants, who can actually become “new Americans,” with illegal aliens, who are by definition law-breaking non-Americans. The irony is stupefying — the city’s top law-enforcement officer, whose primary role is to serve and protect the citizens of the city, is blatantly promoting lawlessness. With attitudes like this, is it any wonder that Democrat-run Chicago is notorious for its high crime rate?

Johnson’s virtue signal was so offensive that even Chicago’s own members of the Fraternal Order of Police voiced their opposition with a vote of “no confidence,” while FOP President Kevin Graham issued a statement deriding Johnson’s self-serving false narrative. “[Donald Trump] is the president of the United States,” he said. “There are plenty of times I’ve sat listening to speeches that I didn’t care for, and I certainly didn’t walk out on them.” Graham also noted how ATF agents have been a big help to “prosecute [violations of] our gun laws because our local prosecutor hasn’t done the job.” That federal help has “driven down the crime,” he said. “Last month we took a thousand [illegal] guns off the street. Last month alone.”

As for Trump’s speech, he loudly condemned Chicago’s feckless Democrat leaders over their refusal to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “Chicago is, unfortunately, the worst sanctuary city in America. Chicago protects criminals at a level few could even imagine. Last year, in Cook County alone, ICE asked local law-enforcement people to ‘…Please detain 1,162 people. Please.’ But in each case, the detainer was denied.” Trump then took aim at Johnson: “People like Johnson put criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago. … And, frankly, those values, to me, are a disgrace. I will never put the needs of illegal criminals before … the needs of law-abiding citizens.”

Finally, Trump added, “So when Eddie Johnson, and many other people from lots of other regions and areas, support sanctuary cities, it’s really, in my opinion, a betrayal of their oath to the shield, and a violation of his duty to serve and to protect the courageous police officers of Chicago.” Trump is correct. While Johnson’s virtue signal is cheered by anti-Trump leftists and open-border advocates, everyday Americans are rejoicing in the fact that the president is honestly calling out the corruption and hypocrisy in the Windy City.

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Trump Administration Proposes Rule Protecting Faith-Based Adoption Agencies

he Trump administration has always been an advocate for religious liberty, and on Friday they reaffirmed that commitment by proposing rolling back an Obama-era rule that denied federal funding to foster care and adoption groups that exclude LGBT parents—which would be a huge win for faith-based organizations and the First Amendment.

The White House says the rule from the Department of Health and Human Services is needed to remove barriers that prevent some nonprofits from helping vulnerable people in their communities. It would apply to a broad range of organizations that receive federal support, such as those that get federal funding to help the homeless or prevent HIV. But the focus from supporters and detractors Friday was on foster care and adoption services.
Under the proposed rule, HHS would redo an Obama-era rule that included sexual orientation as a protected trait under anti-discrimination protections.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said that restricting the work of faith-based organizations, as the Obama rule threatened to do, was unfair and serves no one, “especially the children in need of those services.”

The Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, said charities would no longer have to choose between “abandoning their faith or abandoning homeless children.”

“Thanks to President Trump, charities will be free to care for needy children and operate according to their religious beliefs and the reality that children do best in a home with a married mom and dad,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

While the rule change wouldn't prevent these agencies from including LGBT parents if they want to, there was still plenty of outrage from the left. “It is outrageous that the Trump administration would mark the start of National Adoption Month by announcing a rule to further limit the pool of loving homes available to America’s 440,000 foster children,” said Julie Kruse, of Family Equality. “The American public overwhelmingly opposes allowing taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies to turn away qualified parents simply because they are in a same-sex relationship.”

Studies on the issue of same-sex parenting have shown that children do best with a mother and a father in the household. A large study published in 2014 found that children of same-sex couples are significantly more likely to experience emotional problems.

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Judge strikes down gun laws enacted in wake of Pittsburgh synagogue massacre

A Pennsylvania judge Tuesday struck down three gun control ordinances enacted by the city of Pittsburgh after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue last year, saying that state law prevented the city from regulating firearms.

The ordinances, announced in December, include an assault weapons ban, a ban on large-capacity magazines, and a measure that empowered courts to stop people from possessing firearms if they posed an imminent threat to themselves or others.

But Judge Joseph M. James of Allegheny County said in his opinion in the Court of Common Pleas that state law “preempts any local regulation pertaining to the regulation of firearms,” despite the “large amount of energy” the city put into arguing that its ordinances were lawful.

James’s decision came just two days after the first anniversary of the massacre. On Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman opened fire at the synagogue and killed 11 people after the authorities said he had spewed anger toward Jews and immigrants online.

The decision also came as local officials nationwide are increasingly pushing back against similar state-imposed restrictions on the ability of cities and counties to enact gun control policies. As of late last year, 43 states had preemption laws that bar local governments from enacting nearly any gun regulation that would go beyond state law.

Joshua Prince, a lawyer for the gun rights groups and others who sued the city, said James’s decision showed that Mayor Bill Peduto of Pittsburgh, who championed the measures, and the City Council are “neither above the law nor a special class of citizens that may violate the law with impunity.”

“The city’s gun control sought to eviscerate the inviolate right of the residents of the commonwealth to keep and bear arms and ensnare law-abiding citizens through a patchwork of laws,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

Peduto said on Twitter that the city planned to appeal James’s decision.

“The city and its outside legal counsel have always expected this would be a long legal fight, and will continue to fight for the right to take common-sense steps to prevent future gun violence,” Timothy McNulty, a spokesman for the city, said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday night. “We will appeal.”

The measures were announced in December and immediately faced pushback from gun rights groups.

In January, the Allegheny County district attorney, Stephen A. Zappala, wrote a letter to a City Council member stating that he did not believe the council had the authority to pass the legislation and even suggested that council members who voted in favor of it could be prosecuted.

Peduto signed the ordinances into law in April. Three gun rights groups — the Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearm Owners Against Crime, and Firearms Policy Foundation — and three individuals quickly sued.

The Court of Common Pleas stayed the ordinances in May as the case proceeded.

In an interview with CityLab in February, Peduto said he was aware of the legal hurdles the city faced.

“But we feel we have to do something to change the temperature in Harrisburg,” Peduto said, referring to the state capital of Pennsylvania. “If this were to be followed by 50 other cities around Pennsylvania doing the same thing, it puts the pressure on the state legislators to act. We feel it’s worth the legal fight.”

He said that he believed the US Constitution gave the residents of Pittsburgh and other cities the right to “domestic tranquillity” that is taken away by gun violence, referring to a line in the Constitution’s preamble.

“So there’s this realization that it’s an uphill battle, but it’s a battle that has to happen, and it has to start somewhere,” Peduto told CityLab. “I really do believe it’s going to happen by cities saying enough’s enough.”

He added, “If you’re going to try and stop us from doing it ourselves, we’re going to go to court and we’re going to do it over and over until common sense prevails.”

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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