Mary Mitchell, Posse Comitatus and Black on Black Love

The Posse Comitatus Act - Prohibits search, seizure, or arrest powers to US military personnel. Amended in 1981 under Public Law 97-86 to permit increased Department of Defense support of drug interdiction and other law enforcement activities. (Title 18, "Use of Army and Air Force as Posse Comitatus" - United States Code, Section 1385) DoD Dictionary of Military Terms, 2006

"We have got to teach black people to stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms." - Dr. Carl C. Bell, M.D., F.A.P.A., FA.C.P. President & CEO Community Mental Health Center of Chicago

Federal troops to fight violence in the cities? Ah, that's a problem, as we'll see in a moment, but first, thanks to Gapers Block for alerting us to yet another piece of idiocy from Mary Mitchell. Writer and good friend Levois noted on GB that he "normally likes Mary Mitchell," but he doesn't always "think to check out her columns anymore. Not sure why, but this column from last month was pretty good." I usually avoid Mary Mitchell's column because she's a racist and an idiot who writes nonsense most of the time, as in the aforementioned article from March 31 (emphasis added): Obviously, President Obama can't read the tons of mail he receives. But there's one letter floating around the White House that I hope he reads. That letter is from Edward G. Gardner, a prominent Chicago businessman and the founder of Black on Black Love, the city's pioneering anti-violence campaign. Gardner is asking Obama to send federal troops to urban areas that are now under siege by domestic terrorists fighting gang wars. Full Column, Chicago Sun-Times... Mr. Gardner lives in Chicago and is the founder of Soft Sheen Products. He has been very useful to Barack Obama's political career for many years. Soft Sheen (now called "Soft Sheen Carson") promotes "the Celebration of Black." Ironically, his request to Barack Obama to send in the troops is due to the fact that black-on-black murder is out of control. Some celebration. (And by the way, try to imagine a Revlon "celebration of white.") Nowhere in Mitchell's column is the phrase "posse comitatus" mentioned. That's the problem. Mr. Gardner's proposal to use federal troops (i.e., Army, etc.) would be unconstitutional and violate United States Code, Section 1385. Mitchell should know this. After Hurricane Katrina, she and other race baiters screamed that President Bush was slow to act because he didn't rush federal troops to Louisiana. Bush offered; he phoned then-Governor Blanco and urged to her to allow him to send federal troops in to help keep the peace. Blanco refused. Colonel John R. Brinkerhoff, US Army Retired explains that "posse comitatus doctrine comes from English common law. Posse comitatus means, literally, the 'force of the county'; the posse comitatus is that body of men above the age of 15 whom the sheriff may summon or raise to repress a riot or for other purposes." (Source) Brinkerhoff notes that posse commitatus, and U.S. Code, Section 1385, are often misunderstood. Posse comitatus, he notes, "does not prevent the President from using federal troops in riots or civil disorders. Federal troops were used for domestic operations more than 200 times in the two centuries from 1795 to 1995." Under the Constitution, a President cannot send federal troops to a state for purposes other than training or quelling riots, however, unless they are specifically invited by that state's governor. In addition, however, § 1385 of the US Code, "Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus," states that "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." (Source: Cornell University Law School, U.S. Code Collection) Mary Mitchell ignores the U.S. Code. Instead of looking at federal law and its application in the case of punks killing people in cities, she tugs at our heartstrings with passages like these:

• The number of CPS students who have been killed so far this year has surpassed the number of students killed in the previous school year.
• "We are trying to let the president know we respect the full plate he has, but this is something that has not been addressed by the administration," Leak said.
• What Gardner proposes is indeed controversial. But how many children have to die before we acknowledge that we are at war in our own country?

Perhaps Mr. Gardner and Ms. Mitchell should be more concerned with lousy parenting and an overall American culture that glorifies violence and thuggery. It would seem that they prefer a toxic "cure" to the disease of gangs, prostitution, and criminals to actually examining the cause of the disease. If fewer 14 year old black girls were giving birth to children in poverty, if more black parents would actually act like parents, if courts were not as lenient with violent offenders, if local police were not handcuffed by ACLU-inspired laws that make enforcement difficult, and if imbeciles like Mary Mitchell would stop diverting blame and proposing Band-Aids instead of the required regimen of curative measures, we wouldn't need requests for the president to send troops into our city streets. Dr. Carl Bell, quoted at the top of this post, is a Chicago psychiatrist and former gang member. He once said the following to a Bible study class at Chicago's all-black Messiah-St. Bartholomew Church (emphasis added): "If you have a loaded gun in your home, that gun is 118 times more likely to kill a family member or a friend than a burglar. But for every murder, there are 100 other acts of black-on-black violence—sexual molestations, rapes, robberies and physical assaults. And do you know what sends more black mothers to the emergency room than all the auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined? Husbands, that's who. We have got to teach black people to stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms." Dr. Bell said those words in 1988. He still practices psychiatry and still works on violence issues. Those words still ring true. It is ironic as hell that the likes of Mary Mitchell scream about the local police when they get a bit heavy handed in dealing with murderous thugs. Yet there she is, giving support to Gardner's proposal of sending in the Army. Sure, fine, Mary, send in the cavalry. But don't write another whiny, heart-tugging column when you find that the US military cannot make bad parents good, cannot change the culture of violence-promoting rap music, or employ a velvet glove any better than the Chicago Police Department can. Federal troops would not be able to make black people stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms. RELATED: Terrorism - Posse Comitatus: Caution is Necessary § 1385. — Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus... Posse Comitatus (good links here) Where's the outrage over black-on-black killings? In Philadelphia, a 'disturbing' black murder rate csmonitor.com Self Destruction, Stop our black boys from killing one another ... When Brother Kills Brother - TIME CommieBama Hats and More Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Follow ChiNewsBench on Twitter!