Charlie Kirk’s Murder Prompts New Hate Crime Bill
'We've got to lower the political temperature'
The UK is now cracking down on ... words? England edges toward full-blown speech police state
Before the Magna Carta, the King of England was the law. After, he was under the law. It created the principle of due process, habeas corpus protection from arbitrary arrest, and limited taxation without consent.
“Rule of law, jury trials, rights of the accused, limits on government, protection of property, accountability of leaders — all of that comes from the Magna Carta,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck explains on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“That gave birth, 500 years later, to us and our ideas,” he says.
However, now all of that is changing.
“The birthplace of the Magna Carta is now thinking about getting rid of jury trials and arresting more than 12,000 people every year for what they call speech crimes — 12,000,” Glenn says.
“In 2023, Russia arrested 4,000 people for speech crimes against the Russian military for Ukraine — 4,000 in Russia, 12,000 in England. The number I saw, and we don’t have all the numbers, but the number I saw that were arrested for speech crimes in China was 120,” he continues.
“Not for violence, not for theft, not for treason — 12,000 in England for words,” he adds.
But it gets worse, as the prime minister is “floating the idea of eliminating” most jury trials.
“It’ll only be for murder, manslaughter, oh, and something else like that,” Glenn says.
“This goes against the Magna Carta, the lawful judgment of your peers. OK? That is the safeguard that stands between you and an out-of-control state. This is the first and ancient firewall against tyranny. It is what makes England, England,” he continues.
“And if England, of all places, tosses that aside, what does the word ‘free’ mean anymore? OK? What does it mean? You can’t speak, and you have no jury trial of your peers. Wait, what?” he says.
“First of all, understand this: A nation that polices speech is not free. A nation that dissolves juries is not just unfree; it’s prepping for something worse, because the entire architecture of the Western world, the liberty that we have, rests on a single radical belief,” he says, adding, “The truth does not need a king.”
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Welcome to Harvard, where studying is now a hate crime
News broke last week that Harvard University — that ancient temple of American prestige and intersectional pride — may finally attempt to curb its notorious grade inflation. For decades, Harvard has handed out A’s like party favors at a preschool graduation. But now, administrators seem to fear the public has noticed that every graduate’s transcript reads: Congratulations! You’re brilliant.
Naturally, the students have responded with calm reflection and humility.
The American university had one job — to cultivate wisdom and virtue. If Harvard students now treat studying as oppression, maybe it’s time to grade the universities themselves.
Just kidding. They’re in full moral meltdown — which is remarkable, since most of them deny morality exists unless it’s part of an identity rubric. Touch their grades, though, and suddenly they rediscover absolute truth, glowing with divine fire.
What provoked this crisis of the soul? The rumor — merely the rumor — that they might have to study.
One distraught undergraduate complained that stricter grading would force students to spend time on academics instead of extracurriculars. And as every Harvard student knows, college is all about extracurriculars. Academics are a high-school hazing ritual — a price of entry to the elite club where you never have to study again.
Other students reportedly spent the day crying. It’s a hard life.
When they lamented losing time for extracurriculars, some surely meant yachting. Others meant activism. Who will dismantle “colonizing heteronormativity” if the revolution has to pause for midterms? Who will liberate the oppressed from the tyranny of citations?
Their outrage, ridiculous as it sounds, reveals at least three uncomfortable truths about the American university system — and the students it produces.
1. They worked hard once so they never have to again.
Some students said they nearly killed themselves to get into Harvard. Not to study there — don’t be ridiculous! — but to ensure that they’d never need to study again.
If you’re an employer expecting a Harvard graduate to be a disciplined thinker, brace yourself. You may be hiring someone who hasn’t cracked a book in years. Many of them majored in activism and minored in demanding that you pay them to keep doing it.
These students treat the workplace as an extension of campus — a new platform for “advocacy,” complete with your office space, Slack channels, and HR department. You wanted an employee. You may get an organizer.
2. Entitlement isn’t an accident — it’s the admissions policy.
Harvard attracts a particular type: students convinced that excellence is their birthright and that hard work is a microaggression.
Some even claim that “work ethic” must be decolonized as a relic of whiteness — a fragile idea until you remember they say it while demanding an A for not working. One almost admires the nerve.
We should stop treating “Harvard graduate” as a compliment. It’s becoming a warning label. These students expect to skip effort, skip merit, skip discipline — and demand that you “check your privilege” if you object.
Why wouldn’t they? Harvard built an entire institutional culture around their sensitivities. The modern university no longer shapes students; it rearranges itself around their demands.
3. The university system has failed.
The Harvard meltdown exposes a national rot. For decades, Americans have been told that college is essential for success. Universities responded by expanding enrollment, inventing dozens of useless “studies” degrees, building administrative empires, and raising tuition to swallow every loan dollar available.
The result?
Now we’re mass-producing indebted graduates with inflated expectations of high-paying careers and no knowledge or skills to justify either. Education has become a luxury accessory — a handbag whose value lies in the logo.
To test the system’s bankruptcy, try asking a recent Ivy League graduate:
- What is wisdom?
- What is the highest good?
- How did your education make you a more virtuous person?
You’ll likely get a breathless word salad about “advocating for marginalized identities and dismantling structures of oppression.” Ask how that helps anyone achieve the good, and you’ll get a vacant stare fit for a zoning map.
Of course, technical fields like engineering still demand real work. But those are small islands in a vast sea of bureaucratic waste. Most universities now operate as billion-dollar community centers with a few classes on the side — entertainment disguised as education.
RELATED: The real fraud in higher ed: Universities need that Chinese money
Can the system be saved?
Maybe, but don’t bet on it.
You can’t “hire your way out” of a faculty that’s 97% left or far left. That’s not an imbalance; it’s a monoculture. And monocultures don’t reform themselves.
But the reckoning is coming. Enrollment is falling, budgets are exploding, and public trust is collapsing. The only thing keeping many universities alive is their ability to convince students that identity activism and LGBTQ+ advocacy are transcendent educational callings.
The solution is simple: Stop paying for the nonsense. No one is obliged to spend $80,000 a year to hear a gender-theory lecturer attack the biblical definition of marriage. No law, moral or otherwise, requires funding your own indoctrination.
Let them lecture to empty rooms.
The American university had one job — to cultivate wisdom and virtue. If Harvard students now treat studying as oppression, maybe it’s time to grade the universities themselves.
And the report card is long overdue.
'White boy,' 'cracker': Subway rider dares to glance at hollering female behind him — so she veers into beatdown mode: Cops
A New York City subway rider dared to glance at hollering female seated behind him over the weekend, and she reacted by repeatedly hitting the man with her fists — and racial slurs — the New York Post said, citing police and sources.
The paper — which characterized the female in question as a "hate-fueled attacker" and "anti-white" — said 20-year-old Genesis Gittens was yelling on a southbound L train at the 1st Avenue and East 14th Street station in Manhattan just after 2 a.m. Sunday.
'They’re getting even more brazen these days.'
A 28-year-old man sitting in front of her turned to look, the Post said, citing authorities and law enforcement sources.
With that, the Post — citing a criminal complaint — reported that Gittens "flew into a rage, repeatedly punching the straphanger in the face as she sneered, 'White boy' and 'cracker.'"
Police said the victim was left with a bloody nose and refused medical attention, according to the paper, which characterized the attack as "unprovoked."
Gittens was arrested less than an hour later and charged with third-degree assault as a hate crime, the Post said, citing the complaint.
The paper — citing court records — said she pleaded not guilty during her arraignment and was released. It isn't clear if another court date for Gittens has been scheduled.
Commenters on X issued pointed reactions to the incident.
- "These stories just keep coming," one commenter said. "NYC is a cesspool."
- "They’re getting even more brazen these days," another user observed.
- "Why doesn’t the city employ more officers to ride the subway?" another commenter wondered.
- "Another one of those 'safe' days on the NYC subway," another user quipped.
Another commenter asked, "Have we learned no lesson on where to sit on a train? Don’t stand too close to the door, either, or you can get pulled out of the train or have your phone or purse stolen. Don’t stand close to the edge of train platform [because] you can get pushed [into] the incoming train. Don’t fall asleep, or you can be burned alive. Maybe you should not ride the train alone or NEVER."
Indeed, 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was minding her own business, scrolling on her phone on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 22, when a male seated behind her suddenly stood up and repeatedly stabbed Zarutska in the neck. She bled out on the train after the unprovoked attack and died.
The killer was soon heard saying, "I got that white girl," surveillance video appeared to show. Suspect Decarlos Brown has been charged with first-degree murder, but a federal criminal complaint also was filed against him last week in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, charging Brown with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman
The mainstream media made their bias known after refusing to cover the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee.
Iryna Zarutska was brutally victimized on a train in North Carolina on August 22, suffering stab wounds in the throat before eventually being declared dead at the scene. Zarutska's alleged stabber was later identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, who was charged with first-degree murder in relation to the case.
'This is a greater outrage than the death of every BLM martyr combined times a thousand.'
Records from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department show that Brown has repeatedly been arrested and convicted of serious offenses, including armed robbery and felony larceny.
News of Zarutska's death rapidly spread online and sparked outrage, yet mainstream media outlets outside of local news have continued to ignore the story entirely.
RELATED: Horrific video sparks outrage after young Ukrainian woman is fatally stabbed, allegedly by repeat offender
Critics have pointed to the media's double standard when it comes to covering politically convenient tragedies. Mainstream outlets amplified the death of George Floyd in 2020, writing tens of thousands of articles related to the incident. The same publications that gave wall-to-wall coverage of Floyd's death are now turning a blind eye to Zarutska's.
"Despite the release of an explosive video that has received massive public outcry, as of 4:45 pm eastern today, NONE of our major news outlets except @FoxNews have covered the murder of Iryna Zarutska," the Daily Wire's Megan Basham said in a post on X on Sunday. "Not one."
"This is a greater outrage than the death of every BLM martyr combined times a thousand," the Daily Wire's Matt Walsh said in a post on X.
RELATED: Jasmine Crockett's jaw-dropping defense of criminals: 'They literally are trying to survive'
Other commentators like Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk have pointed to race as a predominant factor in the media's selective coverage. Kirk argues that the difference in coverage between Zarutska's murder and Floyd's death ultimately comes down to whether the narrative is politically convenient.
"Dear CNN, WaPo, NYT, ABC, NBC etc etc," Kirk said in a post on X Sunday. "If you want to know why your ratings are in the tank and no one likes you, look no further than the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska who moved to US to escape war in Ukraine, a story you refuse to tell.
"Sadly she couldn’t survive the Democrats’ criminal justice system," Kirk added. "Yet you wouldn’t shut up or stop villainizing Daniel Penny, a hero, who probably stopped a murder just like [hers]. Why? Because he was a straight white American male and the perp was black. Shame on you. Genuinely."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
3 arrested in Cincinnati mob attack; 1 reportedly was out on bond for weapons charges at time of street beatdown
Police have arrested three of the five charged suspects in connection with the Cincinnati mob attack caught on video over the weekend — and one of the arrestees reportedly was out on bond for weapons charges when the street beatdown took place.
The arrestees so far are: 39-year-old Jermaine Matthews, 24-year-old Dekyra Vernon, and 34-year-old Montianez Merriweather, WXIX-TV reported. The two other charged suspects have not been named.
'He never should have been out.'
Merriweather and Vernon were booked Tuesday afternoon into the Hamilton County Justice Center on charges of felonious assault and aggravated riot, WXIX said, citing jail and court records. Matthews was booked into the county jail just after 1 a.m. Wednesday on charges of aggravated riot and assault, the station reported.
Merriweather was "identified on video punching [the] victim while co-defendants are stomping the victim in the head," while Vernon "struck [the] victim in the face with a closed fist prior to the victim becoming unconscious from the attack," WXIX reported, citing criminal complaints. Details on Matthews' case had not yet been filed in the court record, the station said.
The Cincinnati Enquirer said Vernon's bond was set at $200,000. Hamilton County court records show she has no prior criminal convictions in the county, the paper reported in a separate story.
Merriweather's situation is a bit more complicated, shall we say.
It turns out he was indicted July 10 on four felony charges after investigators said he was found in possession of a stolen firearm, the Enquirer reported. Court records indicate he was charged with carrying concealed weapons, receiving stolen property, improper handling of firearms in a vehicle, and weapons under disability, the paper noted. The weapons under disability charge stems from a 2009 felony conviction for aggravated robbery, the Enquirer said, citing documents.
But after his indictment just two weeks ago, Merriweather was released upon posting 10% of a $4,000 bond, the paper said.
"He never should have been out," Ken Kober, Cincinnati police union president, told the Enquirer.
Merriweather's bond in connection with the mob attack charges against him was set at $500,000, the Enquirer reported.
As for Matthews, his bond was set at $100,000, the paper said — although he later was charged with felony assault, as well, and a bond for that charge will be discussed at a Thursday hearing.
Matthews apparently is no stranger to law enforcement, either. More from WXIX:
Matthews is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2009 to two counts of cocaine possession and a single count of cocaine trafficking, court records show.
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
During each of his two separate arrests in those cases — in December 2008 and February 2009 — police said Matthews tried to swallow a bag of crack cocaine but spit it out after being shocked with a Taser stun gun.
The FBI on Monday opened an investigation into the mob attack, WXIX reported. Fox News said the incident is under investigation as a potential hate crime.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa A. Theetge told NewsNation Monday she anticipates more people will be charged over the mob attack and said "anyone who put their hands on another individual during this incident in an attempt to cause harm will face consequences.”
In the main cellphone video of the early Saturday morning mob attack, a man dressed in a white shirt and black pants is chased into the street and knocked down before multiple attackers repeatedly punch and kick and stomp him over the course of nearly a minute amid hooting and hollering.
'The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified.'
Then, a woman in a blue dress is seen apparently trying to intervene on behalf of the beaten-up man, but she's punched in the back of her head by another female — and seconds later, a male punches her in the face, knocking her flat on her back on the street. (It appears the video may not be viewable unless you're signed into X.) A disturbing close-up of the woman's face shows her eyes wide open and body motionless before a few people try to help her up.
A set of three other videos appear to show the same beatdown from different vantage points — and additional victims are seen, as well. (Again, the clips may not be viewable unless you're signed into X.)
- One that lasts 23 seconds shows three other men knocked to the surface of the same street. Then, one attacker leaps and lands his body atop one of the male victims — pro-wrestling-style — while the victim is still lying on the street surface. Afterward, a laughing, smiling male pulls the attacker away.
- Another video that lasts 12 seconds shows what appears to be the same victim from the 23-second video getting pummeled from behind and knocked to the ground as a voice is heard saying "sleep him again!" The victim is then dragged by his foot into the middle of the street.
- The third video — which lasts one minute and 14 seconds — appears to show what preceded the beatdown in the main video. It shows the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — who was beaten up in the first video — squaring off with a male in a red shirt and black shorts who would soon take part in the mob attack. It appears to show the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — and then it's on.
An additional Facebook video appears to show even more of what occurred prior to the mob attack. It depicts what seems to be a verbal argument and minor scuffle that was on its way to calming down, and then the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants seems to lightly slap the face of the male in the red shirt and black shorts, which — as noted above — leads to the beatdown.
However, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on Monday stated on “Jason Whitlock Harmony" that he's heard the argument that the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — a white man — "started it" by making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — a black man, and that was justification for the mob attack.
"That's ridiculous to me," Whitlock said. "The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified."
BlazeTV contributor Shemeka Michelle agreed, telling Whitlock the attack was "definitely unjustified. When they tried to show the video of the guy in the red being pushed and acting as if that was justification. ... But for all of these people to jump in — and it wasn't just men jumping in; there were women jumping in as if they were men."
Whitlock on Sunday posted a message on X calling out the mob attack, saying that "this behavior and lack of national outrage are unsustainable. It's unsustainable. The anti-white bigotry at the root of this behavior must be addressed. Sickening."
NewsNation reported that Police Chief Theetge blasted bystanders, noting that despite the preponderance of people with cell phones out and recording the beatdown, only one person called 911.
“For all those people recording with cell phones and for us to only get one call is unacceptable in this city,” Theetge added, according to the outlet.
The chief also ripped those who posted videos of the attack on social media given that the clips don't show the full context of it, NewsNation said: “That social media post and your coverage of it distorts the content of what actually happened and makes our jobs more difficult.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com