Horrifying video shows shoplifter douse Bay Area store clerk with kerosene then set him ablaze



Surveillance footage has emerged showing a horrific incendiary attack that left a store clerk in California's Bay Area grievously injured.

The victim of the Sept. 22 attack, who identified himself only as Suraj for fear of reprisals, told KPIX-TV that he has seen his share of criminality in the five years he has worked at Appian Food and Liquor in El Sobrante, but nothing quite like this. Now, the mirror will serve as a constant reminder of the lawlessness now affecting much of the Democrat-run state.

Suraj's coworkers warned him ahead of his shift that a serial shoplifter had made multiple trips to the store to steal lighter fluid. Sure enough, the 38-year-old suspect, later identified by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office as Kendall Burton, returned to the store, apparently ready to once again take advantage of California's Proposition 47, which effectively decriminalized thefts under $950 in 2014.

Suraj can be seen in the surveillance footage confronting the homeless shoplifter while his coworker arms himself with a baseball bat. Before his coworker is able to close the distance and start swinging, the shoplifter douses the victim with lighter fluid then sets him ablaze.

"He just splashed lighter fluid on my face, and I was so scared that moment," he told KPIX. "I tried to cover his hand, but I don’t know. I don’t remember. He just lit the fire on me, you know."

Despite the flames consuming his flesh, Suraj nevertheless managed to get to the bathroom and splash himself with water.

The footage shows the attacker casually resume his thievery before Suraj's coworker finally tees off on him with the baseball bat.

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Suraj survived the attack with second- and third-degree burns all over his face, neck, chest, and shoulder and has been hospitalized at San Francisco’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital ever since.

The pain is "terrible," he told KPIX, noting that "when we clean the wound, it's like over 10."

"I'm still in a trauma right now, me, my family," added Suraj, who reportedly requires multiple surgeries.

His wife, Sabeena, started a GoFundMe campaign to help their family through Suraj's recovery.

Kendall is being held without bail and faces charges including assault with a deadly weapon, battery, arson, and robbery. It's unclear whether he'll ultimately face justice for his alleged crimes, since Contra Costa County's Democrat district attorney is Diana Becton, a radical leftist whose 2022 campaign received roughly $1 million in funding from George Soros, reported the Daily Mail.

Since Becton first assumed office in 2017, crime has been an issue for the area.

While she rushed to charge protesters who defaced a BLM mural in 2020 with a hate crime, Becton issued internal guidelines in June 2020, encouraging prosecutors to consider whether looters "need[ed]" the stolen goods.

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These 7-Eleven clerks who stopped robbery are under investigation for SELF-DEFENSE



It looks like self-defense may be added to the list of “rights” we technically have but can’t actually utilize.

At a 7-Eleven in Stockton, California, two clerks successfully stopped a robbery when they confronted the thief and refused to let him leave with thousands of dollars of merchandise. A few years ago, they probably would have been hailed as heroes, but in today’s woke-ridden society, they’re now being investigated for assault.

Pat Gray plays the footage of the thief filling a large garbage can to the brim with various products. While one clerk blocks the exit, another hits the robber repeatedly with what appears to be some kind of wooden stick. Their joint effort successfully apprehends the man and spares the store what would have been a massive profit loss.

However, now these two clerks are being investigated for assaulting the alleged robber, who was undoubtedly bruised from the beating but was still healthy enough to walk out of the store after the incident.

Oh, and ask for a soda.

The video shows him asking one of the clerks if he can “get a soda” as he’s being escorted out of the store.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! The freaking guy had the unmitigated gall to ask for a soda on the way out,” laughs Pat, who can’t quit laughing at the utter absurdity of the situation.


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US Circuit judge denounces 'cancel culture,' vows not to hire Yale law clerks: 'Yale not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it'



A federal appeals judge has decided to take action against so-called "cancel culture" by denying clerkships to those educated by a place he considers to be a major cancel culture supply line: Yale Law School.

Judge James C. Ho of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, recently spoke to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society and openly castigated the intolerant practices promulgated by Yale Law and its graduates.

"Yale not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it," he said.

To illustrate his point, Ho cited several recent examples that have affected the legal community. Back in late January, a would-be Georgetown Law senior lecturer, Ilya Shapiro, was placed on administrative leave after he tweeted criticism of President Joe Biden for selecting a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court based on the immutable characteristics of race and sex. Ketanji Brown Jackson, a black woman, was sworn in to the Court last week, but Shapiro ultimately resigned his position at Georgetown back in June because he said that he could not abide a "place that excludes dissenting voices." Shapiro did not work one official day on the job.

For more evidence of the intolerance propagated at Yale Law, Ho also pointed to an event held at Yale itself. Back in March, more than 100 Yale Law students loudly disrupted a free speech presentation headlined by Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom and Monica Miller of the American Humanist Association. The activist students caused such a disturbance that nearby classes complained, and police had to escort the speakers safely out of the building and into a police vehicle after it was over.

Ellen Cosgrove, an associate dean at Yale Law, attended the entire event, Ho noted, but "did nothing" to punish the petulant protestors for their behavior.

"It turns out that, when elite law schools like Yale teach their students that there are no consequences to their intolerance and illiberalism," Ho said, "the message sticks with them."

However, in addition to referencing numerous examples of intolerant bullying perpetrated by Yale Law students, Ho also suggested that judges have in their control one possible solution to the problem: Refuse to hire these same students as law clerks.

"We’re not just citizens," Ho reminded his audience. "We’re also customers. Customers can boycott entities that practice cancel culture. ... I wonder how a law school would feel, if my fellow federal judges and I stopped being its customers."

He added that his intention is not to participate in cancel culture per se, but to give cancel culture participants a taste of their own medicine.

"I don't want to cancel Yale," Ho insisted. "I want Yale to stop canceling people like me."

Even a Mother Jones writer agreed with the premise of Ho's new policy, if not with Ho's reasons. "The highest levels of the federal judiciary have for too long been dominated by graduates of the same handful of select law schools," wrote senior reporter Tim Murphy, "and it’d be a mistake to say we’re better for it."

Former President Donald Trump nominated Ho, who graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, to the federal bench in 2018. According to Reuters, Yale declined to comment on this story.