I clearly read it all wrong. If A-Klo’s candidacy was the narcissistic joke I always assumed it was, she’d have never warranted a Iowa-Caucus-eve hit piece smackdown like this:
She told a story that she has cited throughout her political career, including during her 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate: An 11-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet while doing homework at her dining room table in 2002. And Klobuchar’s office put Tyesha Edwards’ killer — a black teen — behind bars for life.
But what if Myon Burrell is innocent?
The Tyesha Edwards shooting was an iconic event in urban life and Minneapolis crime; I’m not sure anyone who lived here, then, doesn’t remember that episode and what happened around it. It motivated the Minneapolis Police to get serious about crime (including a serious clean up of the Phillips neighborhood). (It also provided the DFL a template for their messaging on 2nd Amendment issues; Sen. Wes “Lyin Sack of Garbage” Skoglund claimed reforming “Shall Issue” laws would lead to thousands of such episodes, since gang bangers would be getting, yes, he said this, carry permits. But I digress).
A black teen, Myon Burrell, was arrested and eventually got a life sentence – a capstone in the career of a rapaciously ambitious county attorney, Amy Klobuchar.
If this was a movie, you’d know what’d happen next:
The AP reviewed more than a thousand pages of police records, court transcripts and interrogation tapes, and interviewed dozens of inmates, witnesses, family members, former gang leaders, lawyers and criminal justice experts.
The case relied heavily on a teen rival of Burrell’s who gave conflicting accounts when identifying the shooter, who was largely obscured behind a wall 120 feet away.
With no other eyewitnesses, police turned to multiple jailhouse snitches. Some have since recanted, saying they were coached or coerced. Others were given reduced time, raising questions about their credibility. And the lead homicide detective offered “major dollars” for names, even if it was hearsay.
There was no gun, fingerprints, or DNA. Alibis were never seriously pursued. Key evidence has gone missing or was never obtained, including a convenience store surveillance tape that Burrell and others say would have cleared him.
Burrell, now 33, has maintained his innocence, rejecting all plea deals.
His co-defendants, meanwhile, have admitted their part in Tyesha’s death. Burrell, they say, was not even there.
For years, one of them — Ike Tyson — has insisted he was actually the triggerman. Police and prosecutors refused to believe him, pointing to the contradictory accounts in the early days of the investigation. Now, he swears he was just trying to get the police off his back.
Read the whole thing, make up your own mind. Unlike most modern journalism, it’s worth a look.
Here’s the real question. Forget about the presidency – A-Klo was always running for VP anyway.
But if these allegations are borne out, and she comes around for her next Senate run in 2024, why would any black Minnesotan who doesn’t settle for being a permanent DFL vote ever think of voting for her?
<[W]hy would any black Minnesotan who doesn’t settle for being a permanent DFL vote ever think of voting for her?
Are there any – OK, OK, very many black Minnesotans who aren’t permanent DFL votes? Are very many blacks who aren’t permanent votes for the Democrats? I mean, I’ve been reading election strategies that indicate peeling off a mere 20% of the black vote for Republicans will devastate the Democrats. I think that means 80% will still vote Democrat.
Suckers.
The progs eat their own. Pass the popcorn.
My two nicknames for Amy have been Sen. Vanilla Fluff for her play-it-safe senatorial career, and Catch-and-Release Amy for her time as DA, given her slack “progressive” arrest and incarceration rates. She has been stirred to take a tough stance just twice in her political career: the Kavanaugh charade, and the Burwell prosecution. How amusing that one of these (so far) might now jump up and bite her dumpling-butt.
Forget about the presidency – A-Klo was always running for VP anyway.
Running for VP. Is that really a thing? I mean, I don’t disagree and the A-Klo campaign looks to make it a thing if it isn’t already, but I’d never heard of that before. We’re number 2?
A-Klo has always had a codependent enabler mentality, her dream is to be Biden’s running mate happy to accede to the throne when he drops off the twig.
I’m surprised the Tom Petters ponzi scheme which grew and flourished right under her nose hasn’t come back to bite her
jdm – in the time-honored tradition of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.
D’oh!
If she’s running for VP, we could all get together over drinks and get a bucket of warm spit for her and save her the trouble, no?
Regarding this, it is very troubling, and if it’s true that Vanilla Fluff ran a man into jail on flimsy evidence, yes, that’s time to run her out of town on a rail and remind voters “this is what Democrats will do to you when it’s politically expedient.”
According to https://theminnesotasun.com/2020/01/30/naacp-black-lives-matter-activists-call-on-klobuchar-to-drop-out-because-of-record-as-state-prosecutor/…
The local NAACP, BLM, and everyone’s favorite local bulldog activist, Nekima Levy-Pounds/Armstrong are against her. That might peel away some black support from her.
NW: In the words of Emeril Lagasse: BAM!
Woe to anyone who’s life crosses between a politician and whatever is expedient or career-building.
You know, on second thought, I’m totally amenable to being very suspicious of cases brought to court on the testimony of “jailhouse snitches”, but on the flip side, I have to wonder how badly the crime rate in certain areas would go to H*** if their testimony was outright excluded. I can only guess at the numbers, but I’ve got to think that it’s a classic alpha/beta error scenario. How do you fix that?
That said, it was Vanilla Fluff’s job to know some of those numbers, and know how to minimize the risks, and how to work to fix the problems. Let loose the dogs on her.