Gangsters in Blue

If it doesn’t, I guess there’s always Viagra.

The Republican Party’s quest for permanent minority status continues apace.

So if I understand this correctly, they’re protecting these kids from harm . . . by charging them with child pornography for exploiting themselves. Yes. Makes perfect sense.

Actually, when politicians declare “war” on things, it’s because they want to you to think the threat posed by whatever they’re declaring war on is so existential, that you’ll gladly give up more freedom, and grant them more power.

WAVY TV has the list of questions for potential jurors in the Ryan Frederick case. His trial begins next week.

Man has spent fourteen years in jail for contempt of court, with no criminal charges.

The new professionalism in action:

Chattanooga Police Det. Kenneth Freeman will not face charges in an incident in which he shoved a 71-year-old greeter at the Wal-Mart in Collegedale to the floor after he tried to stop him while doing a receipts check.

Collegedale Police declined to bring charges, then the employee, Bill Walker, filled out a complaint himself. Collegedale Judge Kevin Wilson has reviewed the complaint and did not issue an assault charge.

In the incident on Christmas Eve, Mr. Walker said an alarm went off when Det. Freeman and another city police officer, Edwin McPherson, were leaving the store.

He said he reached to try to stop Det. Freeman and he was pushed against a soft drink machine and to the floor. He said the officer then hovered over him as he lay on the floor.

A police report says a customer then told Det. Freeman, “You can’t push down an old man” and began struggling with him. It says Det. Freeman then shoved that man, Gholom Ghassedi, through a glass door. Officers found Mr. Ghassedi with blood on his neck, but he declined medical treatment.

As for those new internal safeguards and barriers against police abuse Justice Scalia is always talking about:

Cpl. Larry Robbins Jr. of the Collegedale Police said he decided not to bring assault charges against Det. Freeman, saying the incident was a misdemeanor not committed in the presence of an officer, there were no injuries requiring medical attention, the suspect is not a flight risk, and “there were no other crimes committed along with the possible simple assault.”

He said the investigation would be ongoing, but he said he “was unable to determine at the scene that there was any intent to commit an assault.”

Collegedale Officer Paul Crosby said when he arrived at the scene he found a large group of people gathered outside the door of the store. He said some “were obviously angry and were pointing fingers and yelling.”

He said one man was “livid” and was pointing his finger at Det. Freeman while saying, “You are a police officer? Shame on you.”

It’s apparently this particular officer’s second scuffle in two years.

Government cops protect you by dragging a bunch of unarmed young Black men out of a train and lining them up against the wall — in response to an alleged fistfight — and then forcing one of them down to the ground and shooting him in the back. While he is lying prone on the ground, surrounded, and physically restrained both by the shooter and by a gang of other heavily-armed uniformed cops.

Then government cops protect you from being tainted by knowledge of the incident by rounding up everyone in the crowd that they can get their hands on and seizing the cellphones they had been using to take videos. You have only seen these videos because some dastardly criminals hopped back on the train before the cops could grab them, and then set out to taint us all with the truth.

The cop in the video is a Bay Area Rapid Transit cop named Johannes Mehserle. His victim, Oscar Grant, was either shot in the back when he was already handcuffed, or handcuffed by Officer Johannes Mehserle after he had been shot in back, depending on which witness accounts you listen to. I’m not sure which is worse. In any case, no-one has produced any reason whatsoever why Oscar Grant — who was unarmed, who was clearly showing his hands just before he was forced down and shot, who was forced down on his back, who was being searched and held down by two cops, with a third standing by and a gang of other cops standing around only a few feet away — could pose any credible physical threat to anybody at all, let alone the sort of physical threat that would justify standing up and drawing a gun on him.

We are told that (of course, of course) it’s a terrible tragedy what happened, and we should feel in our hearts for all the people who suffered so much because of this incident, but Officer Johannes Mehserle didn’t really mean to shoot Oscar Grant in the back. Maybe he pulled his gun and pointed it directly at a completely helpless victim who was clearly unarmed and under the complete physical control of the police, and then — oops — slipped and fired his gun into an unarmed man’s back by accident. Maybe he meant to pull out his taser so that he could torture a completely helpless man lying prone on the ground who clearly posed no physical threat to anybody with powerful electric shocks, but — oops — he just got so freaked out by The Situation that he couldn’t tell his hay-foot from his straw-foot and he accidentally whipped out his handgun instead, from a holster on the opposite side of his belt, even though it’s a completely different size and shape and weight, and then pulled the trigger and shot an unarmed man with a bullet instead. And, of course, none of this means a goddamned thing.

As I have said, and at the risk of controversy I will repeat: it doesn’t matter if Mehserle meant to pull the trigger. He had already assumed the role of sole arbiter over the life or death of Oscar Grant. He had already decided that Grant, by virtue of his skin color and appearance, was worth less than other citizens. And rather than acquitting the officer, all of the psychological analyses and possible explanations of the shooting that have been trotted-out in the press, and all the discussion of the irrelevant elements of Grant’s criminal history, have only proven this fundamental point.

If a young black or Latino male pulls a gun and someone winds up dead, intention is never the issue, and first-degree murder charges are on the agenda, as well as likely murder charges for anyone of the wrong color standing nearby. If we reverse the current situation, and the gun is in Oscar Grant’s hand, then racist voices would be squealing for the death penalty regardless of intention. And yet when it’s a cop pulling the trigger, all the media and public opinion resources are deployed to justify, understand, and empathize with this unconscionable act. One side is automatically condemned; the other automatically excused.

—George Ciccariello-Maher, CounterPunch (2009-01-09): Oakland’s Not For Burning?

Of course, there are two kinds of privileges: sometimes the problem is that a select class of people get consideration that everybody ought to be getting, but other people, not in the privileged class, are unjustly denied. And sometimes the problem is that a select class of people get special consideration that nobody ought to be getting, no matter their social class. Ciccariello-Maher doesn’t make it clear which kind he means, but in this case, the handwringing and We’ll never know chanting and endless excuse-making in the effort to convert manslaughter or murder into nothing more than another Oops, our bad is an example of the second kind. Given the observable facts of the case, there is nothing that could possibly have been going through Officer Johannes Mehserle’s head that could justify this execution-style shooting. If he went drawing his gun on an unarmed and prone and physically helpless man, who posed absolutely no credible threat to him or anyone else in the vicinity, and then, in the course of swinging his gun around, ended up firing it off, somehow, by accident, then he is guilty of criminally negligent homicide. If he planned to shock the hell out of someone who he had no reason to shock and ended up shooting him instead, by accident, then he is guilty of committing felony murder in the course of committing assault and battery. If he shot Oscar Grant intentionally, then, whatever may have been going on in his head about combs in Oscar Grant’s pocket or the folks in the crowd who were booing him from several feet away behind a line of other cops, or the hard, stressful life of a transit cop, then he is guilty of murder in the first.

And then we are told by self-righteous cops and their sado-fascist enablers that (of course, of course) it’s terrible what happened, and maybe Officer Johannes Mehserle overreacted, and zigged when he should have zagged, but really, we shouldn’t rush to judgment, and really, it’s not his fault, because, after all, there was a crowd of unarmed people several feet away, behind a line of other heavily-armed cops, yelling unkind words at him and making allegations as to the character of the police and watching what they were doing; maybe he became so confused and terrified by all this that, consummate professional though he may have been, he just lost all control of his rational faculties, and — oops — it just seemed like a good idea at the time to stand up and draw on an unarmed man being held down face-first on the ground in front of him. So it’s really the crowd’s fault:

We can wait for the official report on the shots fired but the earlier parts of those amatuer [sic] videos are also chilling for the hate-filled crowd reactions to what was, prior to the gunshot, a routine police encounter. We cannot long continue to police in a nation full of antagonists toward law and order. You can find it in videos all over the internet - crowds taunting, jeering, threatening, and obstructing police officers who are engaged in taming disorder.

—profshults (2009-01-07 10:04pm), comment on Tragedy [sic] at Fruitvale Station, at POLICE: The Law Enforcement Magazine

Well, great. Then let government cops quit. Please. As if anybody ever asked them to go around policing like that in this nation. When government cops go around like this, protecting the hell out of us all, then they need to be taunted, jeered, threatened and obstructed until they stop.

It’s not entirely clear yet what happened during the incident, and it may never be. [Oscar Grant] was apparently not one of the initial group dragged off the train—one of the videos shows him unrestrained and standing up, trying to intercede with the police. According to witnesses, he was trying to de-escalate the situation between the cops and his friends. This is not an isolated incident, not by a long shot. This kind of thing happens all the time: out-of-control police violence in response to non-violent communication. It happens to people of color, and to queer folks too. It happened to me and Jack a little more than a year ago, along with a group of colleagues and friends, for asking the police why they were making an arrest. An officer decided to pepper spray our group, without any real provocation. We’re lucky, and privileged, that it wasn’t a gun.

Who knows what’s going through these cops’ heads? Are they freaking out, paranoid, fearful, are they untrained, do they have no idea what to do? What really matters to me is that they’ve been given weapons to use, and they’re wiling to use them at the slightest provocation, up to and including lethal force. What matters is that any questioning of their authority, whether you’re holding a camera or trying to de-escalate a situation, is seen as a challenge that has to be put down, by taking your stuff away, or crowd-controlling you, or killing you. We should all be scared. Especially if you’re part of a frequently-profiled community.

[…]

I want to stress one more thing. The news is reporting that the police felt outnumbered. This is exactly the same reason they gave for pepper-spraying the crowd that Jack and I were in. But let’s be clear — it doesn’t have anything to do with numbers. If it had been a quiet crowd ignoring the police and just sitting on the train, the numbers wouldn’t matter. They felt outnumbered because a lot of people watching were demanding to know what was going on, yelling, and refusing to just mind their own business. People who were demanding to know what was happening, because they know that abuses happen far too often and take far too many lives, and that someone has to watch the watchers.

Unfortunately, to police this makes you the enemy, especially if you’re making your voice heard, yelling, demanding to know what’s going on. The police, whether because of training or inculcated philosophy or temperament, see this as a potential riot, and they escalate the situation.

—Holly @ feministe (2009-01-07): Execution style

The plain fact is that what we have here is one of two things. Either we have a professionalized system of violent control which tacitly permits and encourages cops to handle any confusing or stressful situation with an attempt to dominate everyone in the vicinity by means of threats and overwhelming force, including attempts to retaliate or terrify people into submission by using violence — up to and including lethal violence — against powerless people under their physical control. Or else we have a system of government policing which has clearly demonstrated that it can do nothing effectual to prevent this from happening, over and over again. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

Derrick Foster was sentenced last week to five years in prison. With good behavior, he’ll be out in four.  He ended up pleading guilty to two counts of felonious assault.

Meanwhile, the military-style drug raids continue. A 19-year-old Missouri woman could get 30 years after shooting at police on a marijuana raid (her parents were apparently dealers) last month. She too says she thought the home was being robbed. In one I missed from last November, police in Woodhaven, Michigan raided and trashed the wrong home while looking for a narcotics suspect, finding instead a 25-year-old woman who had just gotten out of the shower.  And in Las Vegas, 32-year-old Emmanuel Dozier is in jail and faces felony charges after shooting and wounding three police officers, also during a narcotics raid. Dozier also says he thought his home was being robbed.  His girlfriend, Belinda Saavedra, was on the phone with 911 at the time of the raid.

Police insist they had the right house (Dozier has a prior arrest record in California), but found no drugs in the home. They did, however, find Saavedra’s children. The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a spot-on editorial about the last raid:

Does a raid timed for 9:30 Sunday evening — more than four hours after nightfall, at this time of year — make it more likely residents will understand the men at the door are police? Police say the raid was staged by SWAT officers: Does that mean they did not display standard, easily recognizable uniforms and chest badges? Were they, in fact, dressed in black to make them less visible?

Pardon us if we doubt the officers waited even two or three minutes for residents to pull on clothes (if necessary), come to the door, ascertain who was there and ask to read the officers’ warrant.

For that matter, wouldn’t the chance of violence have been reduced — in a home where police should have known young children were present — if someone had simply telephoned the home, explaining police were approaching the door with a warrant … preferably during daylight hours?

Some will say such a procedure would be naive — drug dealers could use the time to flush their product down the toilet.

But no cocaine was found — and a dealer who can eliminate all his product in one toilet flush isn’t really very big-time, is he?

If Mr. Dozier is prosecuted on drug-trafficking charges it will be based on the testimony of the undercover officers who say they bought from him in the past.

The drug war has taught us to accept as “normal” police procedures — even in the case of a man alleged to have dealt quantities of drugs worth only a few hundred dollars — which increase the risk of violence and death in our neighborhoods.

Just as in cases where some jurisdictions have found overall fatalities could be reduced by having ambulances obey stoplights, it is those “standard” procedures that are in need of a serious new review.

For all of the “wrong-house” raids I write about on this site, even when police get the right house, these raids force a volatile confrontation with a high potential for error. There have been about a half dozen cases of police officers getting killed or wounded on drug raids in just the last few months. These tactics make warrant service more dangerous for everyone, including cops.

Cop shoots dog during drug raid, bullet goes through dog, hits DEA agent also on the raid. The article says the man they raided has yet to be charged with any crime.

Photos from the abandoned soundstage of The Wire.

The Secret saved my life!

Tilt-shift photography plus stop-motion animation. Pretty cool.

Feds considering “drug war surge” into Mexico.

Hooray for the Internets! Hottest video on Iran’s version of Digg shows a high-ranking cleric “doing some Nasnas” with a prostitute.

My people have a long and rich history.

Photos of babies’ first-day expressions.

Virginia State Police are investigating the death of a 17-year-old Martinsville boy who died Thursday after a city police officer used a Taser on him.

A 17-year-old boy died in the hospital after being Tasered by a Martinsville police officer during an incident Thursday night, the city says.

At 9:25 p.m., an officer responded to a duplex apartment on 307 Rivers Road on a report of a disturbance, according to a city news release.

Upon arrival, Officer R.L. Wray observed a boy run into one of the apartments.

The officer exited his vehicle and approached the front door of the residence where he saw signs of a forced entry and immediately requested an additional officer.

Wray then heard several loud noises coming from the kitchen of the apartment and asked the boy to come out to speak with him.

A release says the boy then came out of the kitchen and came at Wray "rapidly" in an "offensive stance," when the officer deployed his Taser and subdued him.

While the boy was being handcuffed, a 15-year-old boy confronted the officer, but listened to commands to stop.

After the first person was handcuffed, Wray went to arrest the second teen.

Another officer arrived and when the officers went to check on the 17-year-old who was Tasered, the boy was unresponsive without a pulse.

EMS was called and officers immediately began CPR, the release states.

The teen, who has not been identified, later died in the hospital.

The Virginia State Police has been requested to investigate the case.

"This is one of the hardest things to deal with that any one can imagine as a citizen, a parent or a law enforcement officer," said Mike Rogers, Martinsville police chief.

"We will work with (the state police) in any way possible to bring this investigation to a fair and successful conclusion."

By Candice Nelson
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: January 9, 2009

7:57 p.m.

State Police are investigating the death of a 17-year-old after Martinsville Police used a stun device on a teenager Thursday night.

It happened at 307 Rives Road. When 10 On Your side came to the apartment on Friday afternoon, the door was already open, but nobody was inside.

What appears empty now, was swarming with police and investigators Thursday night.

Justin Gregory, 15, says his friend, 17-year-old Derick, died after a Martinsville officer used a taser on him. Gregory told us Derick and Derick’s mother had only lived in the home for about a week; however, the boys were alone on Thursday night. Although friends say the victim’s name was Derick, police have not released the victim’s name; therefore, Ten On Your Side has decided not to release the victim’s full name, yet.

Police say they were called there for a disorderly conduct after callers say someone was “using the bathroom” in the road.

Gregory tells us Derick, “was out in the middle of the road acting stupid.”

When the boys went inside, Gregory said only a few minutes went by before police arrived. Police say it was Officer R.L. Wray who responded. When he arrived, he noticed the front door had been forced open and requested assistance. Police say Wray heard loud banging noises coming from the kitchen, which according to Gregory is in the back of the home.

When Gregory saw the officer coming, he claims, “I was upstairs, and the cops told me to come down. So I came downstairs, and everything happened,” said Gregory.

Gregory says Derick had been drinking, but claims there was no confrontation with police.

“Derick walked around from the kitchen, into the living room, and got half-way into the living room, and the cop tased him. He didn’t run at him or nothing,” said Gregory.

But at a news conference, Police went into detail, saying Derick “moved rapidly toward Officer Wray in an offensive stance.”

When Gregory’s mother, Jennifer Crigger, found out what was going on, she told police, “I just told them ‘you better thank God in Heaven it wasn’t my son,’ because it could’ve easily been.“

When she thinks about why the cops were there in the first place, Crigger said, “It wasn’t that serious. He’s 17, and his life is cut short over a ‘disturbing the peace’ call.”

“For now, police say they’re not sure if the taser is what killed Derick. All that is still under investigation.

Police say there are a number of factors that could have killed Derick – anything from pre-existing medical conditions to any kind of drug or alcohol abuse.

Wray is on paid administrative leave, and has been on the force for over two years.

Police say Wray immediately called for medical assistance when he found the victim unresponsive and then tried CPR. Police say the victim was pronounced dead at the Memorial Hospital of Martinsville.

Now, Virginia State Police will handle the investigation.

_______________________________

4:53 p.m.

Martinsville Police news release below:

The Martinsville Police Department is working with the Virginia State Police on the investigation of an incident which occurred in the City of Martinsville on Thursday evening.

Martinsville Police Department Officers were dispatched at 9:25 p.m. to 307 Rives Road, a duplex apartment, in reference to a possible fight and/or disturbance. Upon arrival, Officer R. L. Wray observed, from his police cruiser, a young male run inside apartment number two. Officer Wray exited the vehicle and approached the front door of the residence where he observed signs of forced entry. Officer Wray then contacted dispatch requesting assistance.

Officer Wray then came in contact with an individual near the front door of the residence. Wray heard a series of loud repetitive noises coming from the kitchen area of the apartment. Officer Wray asked the individual in the kitchen to come out so that he could speak with him. The individual, also a young male, exited the kitchen and moved rapidly toward Officer Wray in an offensive stance. Officer Wray then deployed his Taser and subdued the individual. While he was in the process of handcuffing the individual from the kitchen, Officer Wray was confronted by the other male subject, who was now on the front porch. Wray gave the individual a verbal warning. The subject ceased his action and complied with the warning. Officer Wray finished handcuffing the individual from the kitchen, then proceeded to the front porch and advised the other male subject that he was under arrest.

MPD Officer E. W. Dillard arrived to assist Officer Wray. When Wray went back to the other individual from the kitchen and started speaking to him the subject was unresponsive. Officer Wray immediately called for medical assistance. The subject did not appear to have a pulse, so Officer Wray began CPR.

Medical personnel from Martinsville Fire & EMS arrived and treated the individual at the scene then transported him to Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County. The individual, later determined to be a 17 year old male juvenile, was pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital later that evening. The other arrestee, later determined to be a 15 year old male juvenile, was taken into custody without further incident. There were no other injuries.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of this young man and with Officer R. L. Wray and his family. This is one of the hardest things to deal with that any one can imagine as a citizen, a parent, or a law enforcement officer. We contacted the Virginia State Police as soon as we found out what had happened. They will take over the investigation from here forward. We will work with them in any way possible to bring this investigation to a fair and successful conclusion. May God bless all those involved and their families,” said Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers.

The Virginia State Police will handle the investigation going forward.

———-

Check out how one news operation reported the killing:

3:00 p.m.

From Candice Nelson, in the field
WSLS Reporter
cnelson@wsls.com

A 17-year-old boy is dead, following a taser incident with Martinsville Police.

According to a 15-year-old witness, the death happened Thursday night.

The 15-year-old claims he and the 17-year-old were having a loud argument in the middle of the street over a stolen alcoholic beverage. Then they found out police were coming, and went inside a duplex that the 17-year-old lived at.

When police arrived, the 15-year-old claims he ran upstairs, and officers used a taser on the 17-year-old.

When police brought the 15-year-old downstairs, and then outside he claims he asked where his friend was. The 17-year-old later died.

Martinsville Police have a news conference set for 4:00 p.m. More HERE and More HERE

Judge orders Alabama sheriff incarcerated in his own jail for underfeeding his inmates. Alabama has a befuddling law that allows sheriff’s to keep any money budgeted for jail food that they don’t spend. This particular sheriff skimped on prisoner rations, and made $212,000 over three years–to “supplement” his $64,000 per year income.

Cult of the presidency watch: James Joyner says it’s time we stopped closing off neighborhoods shutting down cities in the name of presidential safety. Couldn’t agree more. Motorcade creep is out of control.

TSA and JetBlue shell out $240,000 to settle with a man they hassled at the airport for wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing. According to the complaint, one TSA officer told the man that “wearing a shirt with Arabic script to an airport was like going to the bank in a shirt that said ‘I am a robber.’” TSA admitted no wrongdoing, of course. They just paid out some taxpayer money to make the guy go away.

This guy’s got spunk. Too bad he can’t spell.

TV news investigation finds that nearly 1,400 Atlanta police officers have criminal records.

Great collection of old-time Chicago boxing photos.

This isn’t looking good:

It was 2 a.m. on December 31 when Tolan and his cousin, Anthony Cooper, were confronted in the driveway of their home by Bellaire, Texas, police officers. Police officials say the officers suspected the two young men were driving a stolen car.

Bellaire is a prominent, mostly white suburb in southwest Houston.

[...]

Tolan’s relatives say the two young men had just arrived from a late-night run to a Jack-in-the-Box fast food restaurant.

As they walked up the driveway to their home, Anthony Cooper said an unidentified man emerged from the darkness with a flashlight and a gun pointed at them.

“We did not know it was a police officer,” said Cooper. “He said, ‘Stop. Stop.’ And we were like, ‘Why? Who are you?’”

The officers ordered both men to lie down on the ground. Tolan’s parents heard the commotion and came outside. Police will only say an “altercation” took place. Tolan’s family say it involved his mother.

“The cop pushed her against the wall,” said Tolan’s uncle, Mike Morris.

Relatives say Tolan started to lean up from the ground to ask the officer what he was doing to his mother. That’s when the family says Tolan was shot in the chest, the bullet piercing his lung and then lodging in his liver.

But Tolan’s SUV wasn’t stolen. Both men were unarmed and relatives say they were hardly a threat to the police officer.

Tolan happens to be the son of a former major league baseball player, and is in the early stages of his own pro baseball career. The police department initially denied racial profiling played a role, but has now stopped talking about the case publicly, saying only that “they’re investigating how the officers on the scene mistakenly determined that the SUV Tolan and his cousin were driving had been stolen.”

Even if there had been an SUV reported stolen that night that looked like the one Tolan’s cousin was driving, you first have to wonder why the cops wouldn’t run the plates before ordering everyone out of the truck at gunpoint. And that’s before you start looking at the shooting, and the confrontation with Tolan’s mother.

If there wasn’t an SUV reported stolen that night that looked like the one Tolan was in, this is going to get really, really ugly.

From the L.A. Times:

The Los Angeles Police Department waged an aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign to convince coroner’s officials to change their finding that a SWAT officer’s bullet killed a 19-month-old girl held hostage by her father three years ago, according to records reviewed by The Times.

The intense lobbying effort, which involved one of the department’s highest-ranking officials, led to significant friction between the LAPD and coroner’s office. It also raises questions about whether the LAPD crossed an ethical line in pushing so hard, some medical and law enforcement experts said.

The department rested its case on self-serving conclusions by a four-year ballistics investigator with no medical training, challenging a team of experienced medical examiners in the county coroner’s office.

The department tried repeatedly to find a pathologist to review the case, according to the LAPD’s case log, which shows that Hudson tried to contact at least eight outside experts. One of the requests was made to the U.S. military’s pathology institute. When the institute refused to accept the case, Berkow formally appealed to the Department of Defense and was turned down again, records show.

The LAPD’s search led eventually to Dr. William Oliver, a forensic pathologist at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. For a $2,000 consulting fee, Oliver agreed to review the case in the summer of 2006, according to the LAPD’s internal case log of the investigation. His conclusions, however, were not what the LAPD wanted to hear.

“There is little or no good evidence that the wound is from . . . a handgun,” he wrote.

I don’t agree with how often and under what circumstances LAPD deploys its SWAT team.  But it is worth noting that this incident aside, they are extremely well-trained, and have a near-spotless record.

That said, while there’s nothing wrong with seeking an outside opinion, there’s plenty wrong with pressuring the coroner to change his findings before seeking an outside opinion. Kudos to the L.A. county coroner for holding his ground.