March 25 and 26, 2017


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ted-koppel-tells-sean-hannity-he-is-bad-for-america/
Ted Koppel tells Sean Hannity he is bad for America
By DAVID MORGAN CBS NEWS March 26, 2017, 2:45 PM

NEW YORK -- In a report that aired on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” about the polarization of politics and the media in the Age of Trump, “Sunday Morning” special contributor Ted Koppel charged Fox News host Sean Hannity with contributing to the increased antipathy toward opposing viewpoints that is prevalent in America.

Hannity made no qualms about presenting his own conservative agenda, but objected to Koppel characterizing his viewers as not being able to discriminate editorial content from news.

A polarized America
Play VIDEO
A polarized America

“We have to give some credit to the American people that they’re somewhat intelligent and that they know the difference between an opinion show and a news show,” Hannity said. “You’re cynical.”

“I am cynical,” said Koppel.

“Do you think we’re bad for America? You think I’m bad for America?”

“Yeah.”

“You do? Really?”

“In the long haul I think you and all these opinion shows --”

“That’s sad, Ted. That’s sad.”

“No, you know why? Because you’re very good at what you do, and because you have attracted a significantly more influential --”

“You are selling the American people short.”

“No, let me finish the sentence before you do that.”

“I’m listening. With all due respect. Take the floor.”

“You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.”

In a series of tweets, Hannity later accused CBS of offering “Fake Edited News.”

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Sean Hannity ✔ @seanhannity
"Fake Edited News" @CBSNews release the Unedited 45 minute interview so people can see the BS games you play in the edit room. I dare you! https://twitter.com/mediaite/status/846024537510727681 …
2:31 PM - 26 Mar 2017
2,466 2,466 Retweets 4,696 4,696 likes
Watch Koppel’s full report here.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-great-divide-politics-in-the-age-of-trump/
The great divide: Politics in the Age of Trump
CBS NEWS March 26, 2017, 9:09 AM

News Video – Hannity, Koppel, Ornstein, 10:43

As this past week’s battle over health care proves, the great divide in American politics shows no sign of healing, or even of quieting down. Our Cover Story is reported by “Sunday Morning” Senior Contributor Ted Koppel:

Increasingly, we Americans occupy alternate universes.

President Trump: “To be honest, I inherited a mess! It’s a mess!”

Stephen Colbert: “No, you inherited a fortune; we elected a mess.”

There is very little common ground left … only battling perceptions of reality.

Neither side seems to have much use for the other. And in this age of the Internet and cable TV, very little is out of bounds:

John Oliver: “Donald Trump -- America’s wealthiest hemorrhoid.”

Michael Savage: “Democrats want to dissolve the borders. Isn’t that what they wanted? Open borders? Isn’t that what that snake Obama did?”

And there are legions driving the country further and further apart.

Tomi Lahren: “President Trump has still done more for this country in the last 40 days than Barack Obama did in eight years.”

A Pew study finds 81% of voters say they cannot agree with the other side on basic facts, which may owe something to the president’s campaign against “fake news.”

CNN’s Jim Acosta: “Just because of the attack of fake news and attacking our network, I just want to ask you, sir …
President Trump: “I’m changing it from ‘fake news,’ though. ‘Very fake news.’”

There’s nothing new about simmering hostility between a President and the press. As Richard Nixon once stated, “The President should treat the press just as fairly as the press treats him.”

In March of 1974, the Nixon presidency was lurching toward destruction by Watergate, and there was an ongoing tension between the President and the CBS White House correspondent:

President Nixon: “Are you running for something?”
Dan Rather: “No, sir, Mr. President, are you?”

Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, was then, and remains now, a student of our political system and our media:

“We would watch network news shows and we would sit there and we would have basically a common set of facts that would emerge from them,” he said. “As we’ve moved to the new media world, the more you’ve got this cacophony of voices, the more you cut through it by, basically, shock value. And that’s why people now are driven not by their own attachment to their own parties; they’re driven by a hatred for those on the other side.”

Sean Hannity: “Democrats, the alt-left, propaganda, ‘destroy Trump’ media, continue to ignore facts in what has clearly now become a political witchhunt.”

Sean Hannity’s television program on Fox has a nightly audience of 2.9 million viewers. He has, from the first, promoted Donald Trump and a highly-partisan agenda.

Sean Hannity on his brand
Play VIDEO
Sean Hannity on his brand

“Honestly, I think liberalism has to be defeated,” Hannity told Koppel. “Socialism must be defeated in a political sense. We don’t want a revolution in this country.”

“But what more do you want? You got the White House, you got the House, you got the Senate.”

“We do for now. And then we have angry snowflakes, and then we’ve got a Democratic establishment. I say the press in this country is out to destroy this president.”

Scott Pelley: “Well, the president’s real troubles again today were not with the media, but with the facts.”

Shephard Smith: “It’s absolutely crazy. He keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines that are not true at all.”

Fareed Zakakaria: “I think the President is somewhat indifferent to things that are true or false. He has spent his whole life bullsh***ing. He has succeed by bullsh***ng.”

Rush Limbaugh: “They live in two separate worlds, and they don’t understand Trump’s.”

Rush Limbaugh had a lot to do with creating those two separate worlds. But he couldn’t have done it until 1987, when the Federal Communications Commission did away with the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

“The Fairness Doctrine basically said that people on radio and television, if they present one political point of view, had to balance it with the opposite political point of view,” said Ornstein.

Free of the Fairness Doctrine, Limbaugh and conservative talk radio exploded into a political force of nature. Now, Ornstein said, “you take conservative talk radio, move that forward to tribal cable television, and then layer onto that email and social media, and all of a sudden we live in a world where people can get information and believe it’s absolutely true and not have to get any kind of opposing point of view.

“And once they believe it, they will always believe it, even if it’s utterly false.”

dean-baquet-sean-hannity-with-ted-koppel-620.jpg
Correspondent Ted Koppel with New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet (left), and Fox News host Sean Hannity. CBS NEWS

However, Sean Hannity said, “We have to give some credit to the American people that they are somewhat intelligent and that they know the difference between an opinion show and a news show. You’re cynical.”

“I am cynical,” said Koppel.

Ted Koppel on why he thinks Sean Hannity is bad for America
Play VIDEO
Ted Koppel on why he thinks Sean Hannity is bad for America

“Do you think we’re bad for America? You think I’m bad for America?”

“Yeah.”

“You do?”

“In the long haul I think you and all these opinion shows --”

“Really? That’s sad, Ted. That’s sad.”

“No, you know why? Because you’re very good at what you do, and because you have attracted a significantly more influential --”

“You are selling the American people short.”

“No, let me finish the sentence before you do that.”

“I’m listening. With all due respect. Take the floor.”

“You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.”

Trump claims that any negative polls are “fake news” (CBS News, 02/06/17)
Kellyanne Conway draws fire after “alternative facts” defense (CBS News, 01/22/17)
It is, says White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a media landscape that his boss, President Trump, well understands.

“He doesn’t conform to Washington norms or political standards about saying the right thing all the time or conforming to this,” said Spicer. “He understands that he has a direct voice to the American people. He’s got over 100 million-plus people that follow him on different social media channels, when you combine Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.”

Koppel said, “You’ve heard that line that was in the Atlantic: ‘The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his followers take him seriously, but not literally.’ Are we really at a point where we are being told we shouldn’t take the President of the United States literally?”

“No, I think you should take him literally. The president’s very authoritative when he speaks. He wants to be taken literally. And also you have to understand that when you have 140 characters, that somebody trying to look at that and say, ‘This means the following’ is a little bit too much.”

“That’s one good reason for not using Twitter to communicate serious issues,” said Koppel.

“Well, no, but, I think a lot of times folks in the media feel threatened by the fact that he has a direct pipeline to the American people.”

Last fall, after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, The New York Times quoted Donald Trump in full, spelling out his obscenities on its front page, seemingly heedless of the paper’s slogan, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”

Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor, calls it a clear decision: “It wasn’t even much of a debate, surprisingly,” he said.

“If you’d just put ‘f***,’ that wouldn’t have done it?” Koppel asked.

“That feels coy. I think that there was something about the sentences themselves, the force of it. To have the video with him saying it and then to have ‘f**k’ just felt coy.”

“If I were a Donald Trump supporter, I’d be seething every day. I’d say, ‘These guys are out to do him in. And one way or another, it’s gonna be us or them.’”

“I think my job is to ask hard questions about the largest revolution in government we’ve seen in my lifetime as a journalist,” Baquet said. “Not to attack him, but to ask really hard questions about him, and also to ask hard questions of a completely new cast of government officials who we know very little about. I think if we don’t do that, meaning the press, I don’t think anybody else will.”

“Is there any way that the extraordinarily influential New York Times can help to close the gap, heal the rift?”

“I don’t think it’s my job to heal America,” Baquet replied. “I don’t think that’s part of the life of journalism. Some of what’s happening in the country is healthy. There is an ability now for people to talk to each other. We’re all focused on the people who say nasty things to each other and who say nasty things out loud, but that’s not all that’s going on. Call me a naïve Southerner, but you can’t convince me that this is not a more open, wide world, and that as much as it sort of throws us off our game a little bit, meaning the press, maybe we needed to have ourselves thrown off our game a little bit, you know?”

It needs to be said that our bitter political divide didn’t begin in the Age of Trump. But it has evolved.

Last spring, in June of 2016, a Pew study discovered that 49% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats say they are afraid -- yes, afraid -- of the other party.

As President Trump might say: “Sad!”

For more info:

Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
Sean Hannity, “Hannity” (Fox News)
Follow White House Spokesperson @SeanSpicer on Twitter
Dean Baquet, The New York Times



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-intelligence-committee-goes-to-war-with-itself-over-russia-investigation/
House Intelligence committee goes to war with itself over Russia investigation
CBS NEWS March 24, 2017, 12:26 PM

In consecutive press conferences on Friday, House Intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) took their fight over the investigation into President Donald Trump’s ties to the Russian government public once again.

In a Tweet Friday morning, Schiff said Nunes had cancelled a public hearing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates.

Follow
Adam Schiff ✔ @RepAdamSchiff
BREAKING: Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates in attempt to choke off public info.
11:16 AM - 24 Mar 2017
27,761 27,761 Retweets 30,116 30,116 likes

Schiff then said in a press conference that he and Nunes had agreed to have the hearing be public, and accused his Republican counterpart of “cutting off public access to information.”

“I think this is a serious mistake,” Schiff said.

Democrats want ex-British spy to testify about Trump dossier
Play VIDEO
Democrats want ex-British spy to testify about Trump dossier

Schiff theorized that Nunes had decided to cancel the hearings due to “strong pushback” from the White House. He also called for an independent commission to handle the investigation comparable to the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks.

The Democrat was also fiercely critical of Nunes for his assertion that some administration officials had their communications swept up through “incidental collection” by intelligence agencies. Nunes was heavily criticized for the disclosure, which he did not share in advance with Schiff or other Democrats on the committee. Nunes later apologized to Schiff for the dust-up.

Still, according to Schiff, no one else on the committee -- Republican or Democrat -- has seen the evidence that Nunes referred to. “All of us are essentially in the dark,” Schiff said.

Schiff also said Nunes’ decision to brief the White House on the matter was “wholly inappropriate” and casted “grave doubts into the ability to run a credible investigation and the integrity of that investigation.”

Earlier Friday, Nunes made news of his own at a press conference by announcing that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort would testify before the committee.

New details on Paul Manafort's alleged ties to Russia
Play VIDEO
New details on Paul Manafort's alleged ties to Russia

Nunes said Manafort had volunteered to be interviewed. Manafort was in charge of Mr. Trump’s campaign from April until August of last year. Mr. Trump, who was trailing far behind in polls at the time, accepted Manafort’s resignation after numerous stories surfaced of his involvement with a pro-Russian party in Ukraine.

The relationship between Mr. Trump, his associates, and the Russian government is currently the focus of an FBI counterintelligence investigation, and is also being investigated by the Senate and House intelligence committees.

It is not clear if Manafort’s interview with the committee will be conducted in public, although Schiff said it should be.

Mr. Trump had earlier claimed, without evidence, that Trump Tower had been wiretapped by the Obama administration. The president’s allies had pointed to Nunes’ claim as proof that the president was correct in his assertion, although Nunes said Friday that no wiretapping of Trump Tower had takes place.

Schiff, meanwhile, said that Nunes assertion, even if true, offered no validation of the president’s claim.



POLICE ERROR AND CONVICTION

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/derrick-stafford-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-shooting-death-of-jeremy-mardis/
Officer convicted of manslaughter in shooting death of boy, 6
CBS/AP March 24, 2017, 11:00 PM

Photograph -- An undated photo shows Jeremy Mardis, 6, who was shot and killed Nov. 3, 2015, after his father led law enforcement officers on a chase. CBS NEWS

MARKSVILLE, La. -- A Louisiana law enforcement officer was convicted Friday on a lesser charge of manslaughter in a shooting that killed a 6-year-old autistic boy, a gruesome encounter captured on tape by another officer’s body camera.

Jurors found Derrick Stafford guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter charges, multiple news outlets reported. He had faced charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the case.

A manslaughter conviction in Louisiana carries a sentence of 15 to 40 years in prison, CBS affiliate WAFB reports.

9209133-g.jpg
Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse. CBS AFFILIATE WAFB VIA LSP

Stafford, 33, and another deputy city marshal opened fire on a car - killing Jeremy Mardis and critically wounding his father - after a 2-mile car chase in Marksville on the night of Nov. 3, 2015.

Video from a police officer’s body camera shows the father, Christopher Few, had his hands raised inside his vehicle while the two deputies collectively fired 18 shots. At least four of those bullets tore into Jeremy, who died within minutes.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that his office is happy with the verdict,

“As we have said all along, our goal in this case was to get justice for Jeremy Mardis, his family, and the people of Louisiana. Today, that happened,” the statement said.

Louisiana marshals' lawyers, Jeremy Mardis' family react to indictments
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Louisiana marshals' lawyers, Jeremy Mardis' family react to indictments

Stafford testified Friday that he shot at the car because he feared Few was going to back up and hit the other deputy, Norris Greenhouse Jr.

“I felt I had no choice but to save Norris. That is the only reason I fired my weapon,” Stafford said.

Greenhouse, 25, faces a separate trial on murder charges later this year.

Stafford cried when a prosecutor showed him photographs of the slain first-grader. He said he didn’t know the boy was in the car when he fired and didn’t see his father’s hands in the air.

“Never in a million years would I have fired my weapon if I knew a child was in that car. I would have called off the pursuit myself,” Stafford said.

Two other officers at the scene - a third deputy city marshal and a Marksville police officer - didn’t fire their weapons that night. Prosecutors said the officers weren’t in any danger and shot at the car from a safe distance, with none of their bullets hitting the front or back of Few’s vehicle.

Jurors heard testimony that Stafford fired 14 shots from his semi-automatic pistol. Stafford said Greenhouse stumbled and fell to the ground as he tried to back away from Few’s car.

Stafford and Greenhouse are black. Few is white, and so was his son.

Defense attorneys accused investigators of rushing to judgment, arresting the officers less than a week after the shooting. One of Stafford’s attorneys has questioned whether investigators would have acted more deliberately if the officers had been white.

Stafford’s attorneys tried to pin the blame for the deadly confrontation on Few. They accused the 26-year-old father of leading the four officers on a dangerous, high-speed chase and ramming into Greenhouse’s vehicle before the gunfire erupted.

During the trial’s opening statements, defense attorney Jonathan Goins called Few “the author of that child’s fate.” Goins also said Few had drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of the shooting.

But prosecutors said none of the father’s actions that night can justify the deadly response. Marksville Police Lt. Kenneth Parnell, whose body camera captured the shooting, testified that he didn’t fire at the car because he didn’t fear for his life.

Few testified on Tuesday that he never heard any warnings before two officers fired. He said he learned of his son’s death when he regained consciousness at a hospital six days after the shooting, on the day of Jeremy’s funeral.

A prosecutor, Matthew Derbes, asked Few if he regrets not stopping his car when he saw the blue lights from an officer’s vehicle.

“Most definitely,” Few said. “Every day.”

But he insisted he was driving safely and wasn’t trying to escape. Few said he kept driving in hopes of catching up with a girlfriend in a van ahead of him, so that she could take care of his son if he got arrested.

“The whole reason there was even a chase was for his well-being,” he said.

Stafford’s defense team also focused on the his upbringing, including his family’s military background, his relationship with his wife and three kids, and his 400-plus hours of police training, WAFB reports.

Stafford became emotional on the stand, saying he was trained to stop a threat and not to kill.

Stafford, a Marksville police lieutenant, and Greenhouse, a former Marksville police officer, were moonlighting on the night of the shooting.

Before the shooting, Stafford and Greenhouse both had been sued over claims they had used excessive force or neglected their duties as police officers. The Marksville Police Department suspended Stafford after his indictment on rape charges in 2011, but reinstated him after prosecutors dismissed the charges.


JAMES JACKSON – THREE ARTICLES -- ALL THREE ADD DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND INFORMATION

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-nyc-stabbing-suspect-james-jackson-killing-was-practice-for-times-square-attack-on-black-men/
Cops: NYC stabbing suspect said killing "was practice" for Times Square attack on black men
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP March 24, 2017, 12:14 PM

PLAY CBS News Video

NEW YORK – Police say that the white man accused of fatally stabbing a black man on Wednesday told them the killing “was practice” for a larger attack against black men in Times Square.

According to the criminal complaint against him, James Harris Jackson, 28, told a police officer that he had come to New York from Baltimore several days before the fatal March 20 attack on Timothy Caughman “for the purpose of killing black men and had stalked numerous potential victims.”

Police say NYC murder suspect targeted black men
Play VIDEO
Police say NYC murder suspect targeted black men

year-old bent over a trash bin around the corner from his home, gathering bottles to recycle, Jackson attacked him from behind with a 2-foot sword and walked off, prosecutors say. A bleeding Caughman staggered into a police station and later died at a hospital.

On Thursday, Jackson was charged with murder as a hate crime. He said nothing in court.

“The defendant was motivated purely by hatred,” said Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, who added that the charges could be upgraded, “as this was an act most likely of terrorism.”

Prosecutors said Jackson hated black men, especially those who dated white women.

He came to New York last week to make a splash in the media capital of the world by killing as many black men as possible, authorities said.

After seeing his picture in the news, Jackson turned himself in at a police station. He was armed with two knives and told officers he had tossed the sword in a trash bin in Washington Square Park, officials said. It was later recovered.

Investigators said they were trying to determine exactly what drove Jackson to violence. They planned to search his laptop and phone and interviewed friends and family.

His attorney, Sam Talkin, said if the allegations are anywhere close to being true, “then we’re going to address the obvious psychological issues that are present in this case.”

Jackson was in the Army from 2009 to 2012 and worked as an intelligence analyst, the Army said. Deployed in Afghanistan in 2010-11, he earned several medals and attained the rank of specialist.

Dr. Scott Krugman, chairman of pediatrics at Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore and a friend of the family, said the allegations were out of character with his family’s beliefs and the way he was raised.

Jackson’s parents, David and Patricia Jackson, are active members of Towson Presbyterian Church and have two other sons. Patricia Jackson is a former teacher of English-language students in the Baltimore County school system and worked for Well for the Journey, a Christian nonprofit organization that helps people “integrate spirituality into their daily lives in a safe, inclusive space.”

“They’re liberal as liberal can be,” Krugman said. “We were at a dinner party with them and everybody was complaining about the current administration and very open about rights for everybody and making sure we’re not excluding immigrants, everything like that. I’m just beyond shocked right now.”

nyc-victim.png
Timothy Caughman, 66, was stabbed to death in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, March 20, 2017. CBS NEW YORK

In a statement, the Jackson family extended condolences to Caughman’s family and said it was “shocked, horrified and heartbroken by this tragedy.”

Caughman had lived for 18 years in a former hotel in Manhattan, sharing the building with tenants who were part of a temporary-housing program. Caughman was not part of the program; he was a tenant already living in the century-old, seven-story building.

He was “extremely respectful” of his neighbors and building workers, said Svein Jorgensen, the program’s executive director. “He was a great tenant and someone that anyone would be glad to have as a neighbor.” He added: “He was a gentleman.”

Caughman displayed photos of himself with celebrities on his Twitter page, where he also showed that he was proud to have voted in the election. He struck up a longtime Twitter relationship with Shari Headley, the actress who played Eddie Murphy’s love interest in “Coming to America.”

After his death, she tweeted: “My heart is heavy typing this. Timothy Caughman was a fan of mine since 1991. He only spread LOVE. His murder was senseless.”

His family was upset that he was initially portrayed in some news reports as a homeless man with a criminal past. He had a criminal history, but the most recent offense was a low-level pot arrest in 2002.

His cousin Seth Peek told The New York Times that in the 1970s and ‘80s, Caughman worked with young people in Queens as part of a youth program.

“He wasn’t just a vagrant person collecting bottles,” Peek said. “That was not just what his life was. He went to college, and he was concerned with young people in the neighborhood.”




NOTE THAT WHITE SUPREMACY, ACCORDING TO THE DAILY STORMER, IS A RELIGION. DISGUSTING.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/white-supremacists-lament-backlash-fatal-nyc-sword-attack-article-1.3006653?cache=%25252525253Fq%25252525253Dxss%252525252527cq
White supremacists lament backlash after fatal NYC sword attack
BY David Boroff
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 11:22 AM

A white supremacist and neo-Nazi website condemned the racially-motivated sword slaying of a black man in New York City, with the admitted racists lamenting they will now be "unfairly discriminated against."

Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin wrote in a letter posted Thursday that alleged killer James Jackson "does not represent White Supremacy."

Jackson, a white Army veteran, is accused of plunging his 26-inch sword into 66-year-old Timothy Caughman in Midtown on Monday night.

"White Supremacy is a religion of peace, and the overwhelming majority of White Supremacists are peaceful members of society who do not agree with stabbing random black people with swords," Anglin wrote. "The attack has nothing at all to do with the religion of White Supremacy, and white supremacists are under no obligation to apologize for this attack."

Attacker in Midtown stabbing admits he wanted to kill black men

NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi
NYPD detectives escort James Jackson from the Manhattan South Precinct on Wednesday. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

Anglin whined in Thursday's post that white supremacists will now "be subject to unfair scrutiny and prejudice." He wrote that people with swastika tattoos, Skrewdriver T-shirts and shaved heads "will be unfairly discriminated against."

The Daily Stormer founder also said that "society" should now rally around white supremacists, and encouraged people to "accompany" white supremacists on their way to work and to use the #IllRideWithYou hashtag on social media.

"White Supremacy is a Religion of Peace! Ride with a white supremacist today to show you are above hatred #illridewithyou," one user wrote on Twitter.

https:/ witter.com imrock715/media
Timothy Caughman was killed in Midtown on Monday night in a possible hate crime. (twitter/New York Daily News)

Anglin updated his post to say that "lots of kind citizens" have volunteered to ride with white supremacists.

Fatally stabbed New Yorker loved meeting Hollywood stars

Jackson, 28, told investigators he rode 200 miles on a bus from Baltimore because New York is the "media capital of the world." He came to the city to "target male blacks," according to Assistant Chief William Aubry, head of the Manhattan detective squad.



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/closer-md-man-visited-nyc-kill-black-men-article-1.3006182
A closer look at the Md. man who visited NYC to kill black men
BY MACKENZIE LOWRY NANCY DILLON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Thursday, March 23, 2017, 6:23 AM

RELATED: White supremacists lament backlash after fatal NYC sword attack
Trump silence on racist murder in NYC speaks volumes
Fatally stabbed New Yorker loved meeting Hollywood stars


He was a white Army vet on a sick mission to kill black men.

James Jackson, 28, rode a bus from Baltimore to New York Friday with the sole purpose of stalking and killing black men for a statement-making media spectacle, police said. He’s accused of fatally stabbing Timothy Caughman, 66, in Midtown on Monday night.

Cops said Jackson’s deep-seated racism stretched back more than a decade — to a time before he entered the military in March 2009.

Jackson ended up serving a little more than three years with the Army, bouncing from Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri to Fort Huachuca in Arizona before a tour in Afghanistan from December 2010 to November 2011, Army officials said.

Attacker in Midtown stabbing admits he wanted to kill black men
NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi
Police officers escort James Jackson from the Manhattan South Precinct on Wednesday. (JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

He was later stationed in Baumholder, Germany, and discharged in 2012, officials said.

Records show Jackson received several awards for his service including an Army Good Conduct Medal, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and an Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars.

Police said Jackson is a member of a known hate group in Maryland but did not identify the group.

https://twitter.com/timrock715/media
Timothy Caughman, 66, was killed in Midtown on Monday night. (TWITTER)

Attempts to reach Jackson's relatives were not successful.

Fatally stabbed New Yorker loved meeting Hollywood stars

Neighbors in the predominantly white, middle-class Baltimore suburb where Jackson grew up said the family had moved.

"I only knew him when he was growing up and he worked in my yard, took care of my grass and was a very responsible young man," Carolyn Brooks from Towson, Md., told the Daily News.

A former Baltimore building manager, Marcus Dagan, said Jackson stiffed the landlord on seven months' worth of rent, and was "definitely weird." He said Jackson touted his military background, and claimed he was studying to become a lawyer.

"He was absolutely anti-social," Dagan said. "Misfit would be the word. Shaking hands with him, he was a dead fish."




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/james-jackson-twisted-regrets-killing-timothy-caughman-article-1.3009736
Racist James Jackson reveals deranged plan to save white women
BY ELLEN MOYNIHAN STEPHEN REX BROWN
Updated: Sunday, March 26, 2017, 9:25 PM

The racist who fatally drove a sword through 66-year-old Timothy Caughman said Sunday he hoped the attack would stop white women from entering relationships with black men.

In an exclusive Rikers Island interview with the Daily News, James Jackson, 28, offered a window into his deranged, hate-filled psyche.

He shared details about his upbringing with “typical liberal” parents, his wishes to have shed more African-American blood, and his fear of being killed in custody now that he is being held in a jail with a largely minority inmate population and staff.

During the disturbing sitdown, Johnson was at times self-aggrandizing, boasting of his white supremacy without shame. In other moments, he appeared dejected by society’s rejection of his violent, racist message — which echoed another notorious racist killer, South Carolina church gunman Dylann Roof.

De Blasio: Timothy Caughman’s murder an act of domestic terrorism

Most chillingly, Jackson said he had traveled to New York from Baltimore intending to kill numerous black men, imagining that the bloodshed would deter white women from interracial relationships. “‘Well, if that guy feels so strongly about it, maybe I shouldn’t do it,’” he said, imagining how he wanted a white woman to think.

Jackson said he grew up in an “almost all-white” area outside of Baltimore. “My family is as liberal as they come ... typical liberal Democrats,” he said.

His grandfather in Louisiana was “very pro-integration” and had crosses burned on his lawn, he said.

Jackson said he had his first racist thoughts when he was just 3. As he grew older, he only shared his views with “like-minded people” online, he said. He mentioned the website Daily Stormer — which was also frequented by Roof, who was sentenced to death for killing nine black worshipers in 2015.

KING: No place for attacks on character of Timothy Caughman
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James Jackson told the Daily News he regretted fatally stabbing a 66-year-old black man to death in Midtown — because he would have rather killed a younger or more “successful” black victim. He is seen being brought to Manhattan Central Booking on Wednesday, (JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

“The white race is being eroded. ... No one cares about you. The Chinese don’t care about you, the blacks don’t care about you,” he said.

Jackson graduated in 2007 from a prestigious Quaker school, Friends School of Baltimore, but its message of peace didn’t take.

“I guess it’s like anything — if something gets pushed on you too much, you reject it,” he said.

In 2008, Jackson said, he voted for Barack Obama for President, one of the few people of mixed race he said he could respect. “I couldn’t let Palin get in there. She’s stupid,” he said, referencing then-Republican candidate for vice president Sarah Palin.

Timothy Caughman's cousin says his racist killer deserves death

In 2009, he joined the Army and served as a military intelligence analyst in Kabul. He loved the “sense of mission” and embraced a vision of the U.S. as an imperialist power.

He was discharged in 2012 after winning several awards.

The military training, he said, helped him plan to kill black men. “I had been thinking about it for a long time, for the past couple of years,” he said. “I figured I would end up getting shot by police, kill myself, or end up in jail.”

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Timothy Caughman was collecting bottles at 36th St. and Ninth Ave. when he was killed. (TIMOTHY CAUGHMAN VIA TWITTER/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

His most recent address was in Hampden, a northern Baltimore neighborhood that is 78% white in a city that is 70% nonwhite.

Racist killer planned to slay more black men in Times Square

On March 17, he took a bus from Baltimore to New York and got a room in the Hotel Times Square. He’d chosen the area to maximize his media exposure, police sources said.

Sources said he stalked one black man last Monday but got “spooked” and turned his attention to Caughman. The bottle collector from Jamaica, Queens, was well-liked by neighbors and delighted in taking pictures of himself with celebrities.

At 11:30 p.m. at 36th St. and Ninth Ave., Jackson plunged a sword with an 18-inch blade into Caughman’s chest.

“I figured they were fatal blows,” Jackson said.

A closer look at the Md. man who visited NYC to kill black men

Caughman died at Bellevue Hospital.

Jackson had a sick regret about his victim, who was chosen at random. “I didn’t know he was elderly,” he said. He would have rather killed “a young thug” or “a successful older black man with blonds ... people you see in Midtown. These younger guys that put white girls on the wrong path.

Photograph -- Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at a Manhattan memorial to Caughman. (KEVIN C DOWNS/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Jackson said he’d intended for the killing to be “a practice run” — the first step in a larger plan with many more casualties.

But his bloodlust diminished after the killing. “I got depressed. ...I saw it was too late. It’s irreversible,” he said, adding, “I didn’t want to put my family through any more pain.”

Fatally stabbed New Yorker loved meeting Hollywood stars

And what of the white women repulsed by his violent, hateful ideology? “That’s the problem,” he said.

He turned himself in to police in Times Square on Wednesday. He is charged with murder as a hate crime.

He didn’t understand how the charge applied to him.

“I don’t hate anyone I don’t think is on my level,” he said.

Mayor de Blasio called the attack “domestic, racist terrorism.”

Photograph -- James Jackson is accused of using this blade to kill 66-year-old Timothy Caughman. He's charged with murder as a hate crime. (NYPD)

Life at Rikers Island has been a real eyeopener for Jackson. The inmate population is 55% black, and Correction Department staff is 65% black. “I thought it would be 40% white, 40% black, 20% Hispanic ... and all the guards, I didn’t expect so many would be black,” he said.

He is in protective custody, watching and reading news as much as 10 hours a day.

“It’s like every other commercial in the past few years has a mixed-race couple in it,” he said.

He said he had received about 50 death threats while at the Manhattan Detention Complex.

“I think I’m going to die here," he said matter-of-factly. “I don’t blame them, I’d feel the same if I were in their shoes.”

Jackson had one last piece of advice for a News reporter: have children. “Good white women should have as many children as possible,” he said, defining “good” as “smart, sane women.”

His solution for how those women support themselves was to “go on welfare.”

His ideal society was “1950s America.”

A News reporter pointed out that it is 2017. “I know. I’m too late. We’re screwed,” Jackson said.