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NDTV journalist casts aspersion on Modi govt transporting oxygen tankers via train: Here are the facts that they forgot to consider

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV journalist casts aspersion on Modi govt transporting oxygen tankers via train: Here are the facts that they forgot to consider

The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has left many states grappling with essential health infrastructure. From a shortage of oxygen to ventilators to critical drugs, states are working in tandem with the Centre to rebuild the state health infrastructure to tackle the surge in cases at the earliest. Amidst several initiatives by the Centre, the Railway Ministry has assured aid by running ‘Oxygen Express’ trains for the quick transportation of liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders across the country after several states reported a shortage.

On the 18th of April, just 5 days ago, the Railway Ministry had issued a press release to share the details. According to the statement, empty tankers were set to begin their journey from Kalamboli and Boisar railway stations near Mumbai on 19th April to load liquid medical oxygen from Vizag, Jamshedpur, Rourkela and Bokaro.

On the morning of 24th April, NDTV journalist Saket Upadhyay took to Twitter to say that he refuses to be an Oxygen Express ‘cheerleader’ because the entire excise, he believed, was a PR stunt.

He said that one Oxygen Express left Mumbai on the 19th of April at 8:05 PM and reached Vizag on the 22nd of April at 4:15 AM. The insinuation was that the Oxygen Express was not serving its purpose because it was an extremely slow exercise.

Per Saket Upadhyay’s tweet, the Oxygen Express took a little over 2 days to reach Vizag from Mumbai and for him, that was a little too slow. While people are dying, any help that is to travel across the country could certainly seem slow, however, if Saket Upadhyay was indeed a journalist, he would have tried to communicate the exact facts rather than make insinuations with conjectures, playing on the sentiments of the masses. It is pertinent to note that the oxygen express is not the only measure taken by the government to tackle the oxygen shortage in the country in these trying times.

The truth is that the Railways’ Oxygen Express seems to be travelling as fast as it possibly can.

According to sources in the Ministry, the break up of the time taken for the train to reach from Mumbai to Vizag is far less than the time it would take for an Oxygen tanker to cover the same distance.

Comparison of how long a tanker would take by road vs how long it takes by train

While an oxygen truck can only be on the road for 11 hours a day and reach from Mumbai to Vizag in 72 hours, the oxygen train can travel for 24 hours a day and reach the destination in 48 hours.

It is to be noted that the main issue facing India today is that of last-mile delivery more than that of oxygen shortage. For example, Jindal Steel and Power took to Twitter on the 21st of April that they had more than 500 tonnes of liquid oxygen at their Angul plant, however, no means to transport the same.

“We are waiting for the users to send their tankers”, they tweeted. Now, since transportation through the road is slower and NDTV certainly does not have any means to send tankers that can transport the oxygen faster than trains, one has to be realistic and evaluate the facts accordingly.

Currently, two Oxygen Express’ have completed their journey, this, in a span of 2 days. The first Oxygen Express ran from Maharashtra to Vizag. Then, once the train reached Vizag, Oxygen was filled from Vizag. The Oxygen Express then dropped tankers while coming back to Nagpur and the journey terminated at Nasik.

The second Oxygen Express ran from Lucknow to Bokaro. Oxygen was then filled at Bokaro and the train dropped tanker en route at Varanasi and then terminated at Lucknow with remaining tankers.

The third Oxygen Express has already started from Lucknow and is en-route to Bokaro to get oxygen filled.

It also has to be kept in mind that the Oxygen Express is not the only solution being deployed by the government of India to tackle the oxygen shortage in the face of rising COVID-19 cases.

Only 2 days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the helm of a high-level meeting in order to tackle the issue of declining oxygen supply across the country. The officials at the meeting informed the PM about the efforts undertaken to improve oxygen supply, in addition to discussing ways to help boost its availability. 

In the meeting, the officials noted that over the last few days, availability of Liquid Medical Oxygen in India has increased by about 3,300 MT per day with contributions from private and public steel plants, industries, oxygen manufacturers as well as through prohibition of supply of oxygen for non-essential industries.

Order passed by Union Health Secretary

In light of the high-level meeting chaired by the PM, an order was passedsubsequently in order to secure and boost the supply of Medical Liquid Oxygen in India. Here are some of the highlights from the order:-

  1. No restrictions on the movement of Medical Oxygen between the States to be imposed. Transport authorities shall be instructed accordingly to allow free inter-state movement of oxygen-carrying vehicles.
  2. No restrictions to be imposed on oxygen manufacturers and suppliers to limit their supply to only the one state or UT they are located in.
  3. Free movement of oxygen-carrying vehicles in the cities, without any restrictions of timings.
  4. Supply of oxygen for industrial purposes except those exempted by the Government is prohibited till further orders

Virar hospital in Mumbai where fire tragedy claimed 13 lives did not get a NOC from the fire department: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Virar hospital in Mumbai where fire tragedy claimed 13 lives did not get a NOC from the fire department: Report

On April 23, 13 patients were reported dead after a massive fire broke out in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Vijay Vallabh Covid Care hospital in Virar West in the Palghar district, Mumbai. The COVID-19 patients died after inhaling toxic fumes. Uddhav Thackeray government had ordered a probe.

Now, investigations have revealed that though a fire audit was conducted in Vijay Vallabh Covid Care hospital, they did not get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department. This means that the hospital was operating without proper firefighting equipment and a NOC.

Mumbai police seize CCTV footage, registers FIR against hospital owner and staff

According to Mirror Now, the police has seized the CCTV footages of the hospital and are trying to investigate whether any staff was present in the ICU ward when the mishap happened. It says that on the day when the fire broke out the hospital claimed that there was a doctor and a ward boy present in the ICU. However, the relatives of the deceased had alleged that no staff was present in the ICU when the fire broke out.

Police have registered an FIR against the owner, administrators, doctors and staffers of the hospital under IPC sections 304, 337, 338 and 34. However, no arrests have been made so far.

Sanjay Kumar Patil, DCP (Zone 2), said: “In the FIR, the municipality has alleged that necessary precautions and safeguards were not taken by the hospital, which led to the incident. We have asked the fire department to give us their report. We are also finding out if the owner had all mandatory licenses to run the hospital,” Patil added.

The Virar hospital tragedy

According to reports, after 3 AM, the fire started in the air conditioning unit of the hospital’s ICU, where, as many as 17 patients were being treated for the infection. After the fire broke, the Vasai Virar Corporation fire brigade reached the spot and doused the fire. However, until then, 13 people have lost their lives to the fire.

Following this incident, people are criticising the Uddhav Thackeray government for its incompetence in getting a handle on the healthcare system in the state.

We reported yesterday how at least 57 have died in hospital mishaps in 4 the last months in Maharashtra.

While the Maharashtra government had displayed eager alacrity to deflect criticism and pin the blame of its bungled handling of the coronavirus crisis on the centre, it has not shown the same zeal in fixing accountability over the routine incidents of hospital mishaps. Instead, the health minister of state passes callous and flippant remarks that such incidents are of no national importance.

How ex-Navbharat Times journalist lost sense of decency, called DD journalist a ‘bhakt’ and ‘liar’ for sharing personal story of mother’s COVID-19 recovery

OpIndia Staff
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How ex-Navbharat Times journalist lost sense of decency, called DD journalist a ‘bhakt’ and ‘liar’ for sharing personal story of mother’s COVID-19 recovery

As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hits India, several journalists have been using social media to not only spread negativity and fake news but also rejoice when anyone they perceive as someone who does not harbour mindless hate for the Modi government, suffers from the Chinese virus. In a similar incident, former Navbharat Times journalist Avinish Mishra took to Twitter to mock DD journalist Ashok Shrivastav after he shared a personal story about the COVID-19 crisis.

Ashok Shrivastav had taken to Twitter on April 23, to share how his Covid-19 positive mother, whose oxygen level had fallen to 40%, recuperated at home after they brought an oxygen concentrator and administered oxygen to his mother in the house itself. “Now she is Covid negative”, the Doordarshan journalist informed.

In response to his Tweet, former Navbharat Times journalist Avinish Mishra decided to display just how petty hate can make one. Mishra responded to Ashok Shrivastav saying that he was lying about his mother being Covid positive.

He said that Shrivastav was using his mother as an excuse to shield the Modi government. Mishra insinuated that since Shrivastav is a “Modi Bhakt”, he was attempting to absolve Modi from the existing oxygen crisis in the country.

Avinish Mishra, in a terribly insensitive tweet, said that Ashok Shrivastav was using his own mother to create a ‘perception’ about the Modi government. One wonders what that perception might be.

Shrivastav in his tweet categorically mentioned that he had indeed taken his mother to the hospital, but looking at the condition of the hospital due to getting overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, he felt that he could provide better care for his mother at home. Any human being with basic decency would be glad that anyone’s mother recovered from the deadly infection despite not being hospitalised, since it is known that COVID-19 is far more dangerous for those above the age of 45.

However, according to Mishra, Shrivastav was “using his own mother” to create a “perception”. It is pertinent to note that in his tweet, Shrivastav made no commentary on the current state of affairs in the country. He did not say that there is no shortage of beds or absolve any government of accountability. He merely shared his own journey and the fact that his mother had recovered from COVID-19.

Miffed by such aspersions, rightly so, Ashok Shrivastav hit back saying that Mishra should come to his house with a doctor and personally check his mother’s reports to verify the truth. He slammed the reporter for “spreading hatred and trolling” a person in such difficult times. He tells Mishra that he is messaging him his phone number so that he can personally get in touch with him and pay a visit to his mother.

Infuriated by Mishra’s Tweet, Shrivastav, in his subsequent Tweet sends his E-mail Id to Mishra saying that since Mishra has turned off his Twitter message he could get in touch with him via Email.

It is indeed tragic that journalists, in their hate for the Prime Minister, have now started targeting anyone just because they don’t share the blind hatred towards the central government. In trying times, one would imagine that a person could simply share a positive story about recovery, when we have seen so much death around, and not be abused for it. However, several journalists have display immense insensitivity and hatred, even in these trying times.

The armed forces too have stepped in to tackle the crisis. The defence ministry officials said an oxygen-producing technology developed for light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas was shared with the industry to scale up the production further. The technology can produce 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute.

CBI registers FIR against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in allegations of extortion made by Parambir Singh: Details

OpIndia Staff
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CBI registers FIR against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in allegations of extortion made by Parambir Singh: Details

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now reportedly registered an FIR (First Information Report) against former Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh in the case of extortion allegations levelled against by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

According to reports, the CBI is also conducting searches and raids at several places related to the case.

Earlier in the month, CBI had registered a preliminary inquiry to probe corruption allegations against Maharashtra’s ex-home minister Anil Deshmukh levelled by former Commission of Police, Mumbai, Parambir Singh. CBI spokesperson RC Joshi has said, “CBI has registered a PE in the respect of the Bombay High Court order dated April 5, 2021.”

The PE had been registered after the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI inquiry basis a PIL filed by Dr Jaishri Patil. Terming the case as ‘extraordinary and unprecedented, the Bombay High Court had also said that after the preliminary inquiry ordered by it, the CBI would be free to decide further course of action. Therefore, it allowed CBI to file an FIR in the case if it did find evidence against Anil Deshmukh in the allegations levelled against him by Parambir Singh.

Parambir Singh’s corruption allegations against Anil Deshmukh

Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh had written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that the state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had asked controversial cop Sachin Vaze to collect Rs. 100 crore every month from bars, restaurants and other establishments.

The letter by Parambir Singh had raised several questions regarding the Antilia bomb scare case and the death of Mansukh Hiren. Sachin Vaze is currently under arrest for his involvement in the matter. The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier transferred the Mansukh Hiren death case to the NIA. Parambir Singh was then transferred and posted as DG Home Guard after the explosive revelations.

Hindu man beaten for refusing Rs 50,000 handout, by wife and her family, to convert to Christianity, 10 booked in MP: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Hindu man beaten for refusing Rs 50,000 handout, by wife and her family, to convert to Christianity, 10 booked in MP: Details

On Friday (April 23), the police lodged a case against a woman and her family members for assaulting and forcing her husband to convert to Christianity reported The Times of India. The incident took place in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

The victim has been identified as one Prakash Nagele. Reportedly, the 36-year old has lodged a complaint with the police against his wife and in-laws. Nagele had claimed that he was offered ₹50,000 to convert to Christianity and was assaulted when he turned down the offer. He alleged that the accused tore up his religious books as well. He further added that his wife and sister-in-law had converted to Christianity after receiving a scooter as monetary compensation.

Nagele had accused one Anupam Brother of coercing him to convert on February 25 this year. The police have pressed charges against the victim’s wife and her 9 family members for hurting religious feelings, use of criminal force, and rioting. Satish Dwivedi, the police-in-charge at Dwarkapuri police station, informed, “We have registered a case against 10 people under section 3 and 5 of Freedom of Religion Act and IPC.”

Not the first case: Recently, Pastor converts Jalandhar family to Christianity on the pretext of healing cancer

Recently, a Jalandhar based Christian godman and self-styled faith healer was accused of cheating a family on the pretext of curing their daughter of cancer. Pastor Balwinder Singh allegedly duped the distressed family to a tune of Rs 80,000. He also reportedly tricked the family into converting to Christianity under the pretext of healing.

The matter came to the fore when the victim’s family approached the SSP office with a complaint against the Christian healer after they lost their kin to the deadly disease. In what transpired, Shubham Pandit and his mother went to Jalandhar to meet Pastor Balwinder in a bid to cure Pandit’s sister of cancer. Pandit said that one of Singh’s disciples who met him in Mumbai told him that the Pastor had powers to cure any disease. Therefore, Pandit agreed to meet the Pastor for which he travelled to the Tajpur village church.

He first demanded ₹1 lakh from treating Shubham Pandit’s ailing sister. Later, the Pastor settled at Rs 80,000. “After making us stay here for 12 days, the pastor gave us oil and water. He termed it holy water. He forcefully converted our religion as well. Neither my sister could be saved nor our money was given back,” rued Pandit.

London: Extinction Rebellion activists vandalize windows of HSBC bank protesting against fossil fuel financing, 9 arrested

OpIndia Staff
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London: Extinction Rebellion activists vandalize windows of HSBC bank protesting against fossil fuel financing, 9 arrested

Activists from Extinction Rebellion, a U.K.-based environmental group with a violent past, smashed windows at the HSBC Bank headquarters in London on the occasion of World Earth Day yesterday. The activists, who were largely female, were wearing goggles and masks, vandalizing windows by smashing them with a hammer.

They were seen talking to the police after smashing the windows of HSBC Bank. A total of 19 windows are thought to be damaged from the Extinction Rebellion protest.

The activists pasted posters and stickers on the windows which read “£80billion into fossil fuels in the last five years” before sitting down and waiting for the police officers to arrive. A total of nine Extinction Rebellion activists were arrested. The group protested against the bank alleging that the bank is financing coal power, a source of pollution.

“Despite HSBC’s pledge to shrink its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050, their current climate plan still allows the bank to finance coal power, and provides no basis to turn away clients or cancel contracts based on links to the fossil fuel industry,” Extinction Rebellion said in a statement.

The HSBC bank has said it aimed to be net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and to phase out the financing of coal-fired power and thermal coal mining by 2040 globally. However, the protestors say that the pledge was “meaningless without immediate action”.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said, “Police were called at approximately 07:10hrs on Thursday, 22 April to reports of a group of protesters causing criminal damage to a building in Canada Square, E14.”

“Nine women have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and remain in police custody. Enquiries are ongoing.”

London mayoral candidate for political party Burning Pink (a political offshoot of Extinction Rebellion), Valerie Brown, 68, is among the people arrested. She said, “Investing in fossil fuels is murder. More and more people can see that clearly. Why can’t you?”

Just two weeks ago, seven activists from Extinction Rebellions smashed windows at the Barclays Bank in London. This vandalism was done by another all-female group, with all seven women being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody.

Extinction Rebellion is a group that wants to trigger a wider revolt against the political, economic, and social structures of the modern world in order to avert the worst scenarios of devastation outlined by scientists studying climate change. In order to achieve that goal, activists from the group can get in trouble with the law, sometimes wilfully breaking it to make some sort of statement.

In view of such protests, it was reported in January that the U.K. police will be given sweeping new powers to break up protests which bring chaos to the streets. The U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel was drawing up laws to ban guerrilla tactics that disrupt businesses or transport links.

The group was also mentioned in the Greta toolkit which was accidently revealed by so-called environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

‘Those who remain silent when Hindus are killed in Bangladesh, they are the outsiders’: BJP hits back at Mamata’s ‘Bohiragoto’ jibe in new campaign ad

OpIndia Staff
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‘Those who remain silent when Hindus are killed in Bangladesh, they are the outsiders’: BJP hits back at Mamata’s ‘Bohiragoto’ jibe in new campaign ad

The West Bengal unit of the BJP has issued a response to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Bohiragoto’ (outsider) jibe at the party. It has released a new campaign ad titled ‘Ei Banglay Bohiragoto Tara’ (‘In this Bengal, they are the outsiders’) featuring artists from the Bengali entertainment industry and students.

The ad features actress Payal Sarkar, a candidate for the party in the elections, as well and other luminaries such as Pandit Santanu Bandyopadhyay from the Bishnupur Gharana and actress Tanushree Chakraborty.

Pandit Santanu Bandyopadhyay says in the ad, “Those who have ignored Shri Ramakrishna and Maa Sarada and imparted Marx in education, those who have sidelined Vivekananda, Aurobindo and converted Ramdhenu into Rongdhenu, in this Bengal, they are the outsiders.”

“Those who have never heard Krittibas’s Sriram Panchali, those who are agitated by the chant of Jai Shri Ram, those who have forgotten whom Ramakrishna and Chaitanya adored, in this Bengal, they are the outsiders,” says Payal Sarkar.

Actress Tanushree Chakraborty says, “Those who banished Taslima (Nasreen) by passing a Fatwa, those who are the masterminds behind the Marichjhapi massacre, those who brutally burnt the Anandamargis, in this Bengal, they are the outsiders.”

The campaign ad also rakes up the issue of the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh. Singer and Composer Raj Sarkar says in the ad, “Those who remain silent when Hindus are killed in Bangladesh, those who cheer when Hindus are disrespected, those barbarians who fed the mother the blood of her son, in this Bengal, they are the outsiders.”

The appearance of prominent artists from the Bengali entertainment industry as well as widely respected luminaries such as Pandit Santanu Bandyopadhyay in the campaign ad highlights the fact that the BJP is no longer considered an unacceptable choice in the Bengali corridors of power. The video was posted on the YouTube channel of state BJP president Dilip Ghosh on the 17th of April.

Arvind Kejriwal had promised home delivery of oxygen during the first wave of COVID-19, old comments go viral

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal had promised home delivery of oxygen during the first wave of COVID-19, old comments go viral

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today sounded an alarm as he informed Prime Minister Modi that a “big tragedy” is waiting to happen if quick steps are not taken to address the shortage of oxygen in Delhi’s hospitals. For the last few days, he has been talking about the shortage of oxygen in Delhi, even though he is yet to request Indian Railways for using the Oxygen Express service.

Soon after Kejriwal sought the Centre’s intervention in averting the oxygen crisis staring the national capital, netizens reminded him of a promise he had made during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In August 2020, more than six months ago, the official Twitter handle of the Aam Aadmi Party had shared an article from a Hindi newspaper in which Arvind Kejriwal had promised home delivery of oxygen for COVID-19 patients in dire need of the life-saving gas.

Source: Twitter

In his Independence Day speech on 15th August, Arvind Kejriwal had said that the Delhi government will start sending oxygen concentrators to homes of Covid-19 patients even if they have recovered. “We also found some patients who, after coming home fully recovered, lost their lives because their oxygen levels dropped even after being corona negative. We are going to send oxygen concentrators to the homes of patients,” the Delhi CM had said. A senior govt official had said that they have enough oxygen concentrators in store, and the concentrators will be provided only to patients prescribed by the doctors.

Netizens slam Arvind Kejriwal for not fulfilling his promises as Delhi hospitals face acute oxygen shortage

Months later, when Delhi and much of the country was in the throes of the second wave of the COVID-19, angry social media users dredged up this tweet to slam the Aam Aadmi Party government and its inability to fulfil its promises. Many pointed out that Arvind Kejriwal’s priorities were only advertisements and publicity, and was not bothered to fulfill the promises he had made.

“Delhi didn’t vote for Advertisement ki Sarkar…! Where are new hospitals? Instead of creating new Mohalla Clinics, you should have used the same funds in improving infra & capabilities of pre-existing primary health centres (Dispensaries) and making drugs available there,” one Twitter user slammed Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi.

Another Twitter user said just like all his other promises, Kejriwal failed in delivering on this as well. His priorities, as the user put it, was always to be on TV.

Yet another user said it has been more than six months since Kejriwal promised to deliver oxygen at home, but not only has he failed in keeping his promise, but he has also been unsuccessful in arranging oxygen for hospitals. “I don’t know why people of Delhi are tolerating this vulture,” a seemingly exasperated social media user tweeted.

One Twitter user was particularly laconic in slamming the Delhi Chief Minister. Quoting the Aam Aadmi Party tweet in which Arvind Kejriwal had promised home delivery of oxygen, the user tweeted: “Shameless CM/biggest fraud.”

People have directed their fury at Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party after the acute shortage of oxygen faced by COVID-19 patients in Delhi. Even as the lives of COVID-19 patients hung in the balance, hospitals in Delhi-NCR regions facing scarcity of medicinal oxygen had to stop admitting new patients and ask existing ones to leave. As such, Delhi has been among the worst-hit states by the resurgent wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. On Thursday, Delhi reported 26,619 fresh new COVID-19 cases and recorded 306 coronavirus deaths in the span of 24 hours.

“I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict”, says alternate juror in Geroge Floyd death trial

OpIndia Staff
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“I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict”, says alternate juror in Geroge Floyd death trial

Lisa Christensen, a woman who was an alternate juror for the jury which found ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the world-famous Geroge Floyd death trial, recently gave an interview sharing her experiences.

In this interview, Christensen recalled her hesitancy in being a juror because she was “concerned about people” coming to her house if they were “not happy” with the eventual verdict of the trial. Alternate jurors are selected in some cases to take the place of jurors who may become ill during the trial and therefore hear the evidence the same way as jurors do.

When asked by the interviewer if she wanted to be a juror, Christensen replied, “I had mixed feelings. There was a question on the questionnaire about it and I put I did not know. The reason, at that time, was I did not know what the outcome was going to be, so I felt like either way you are going to disappoint one group or the other. I did not want to go through rioting and destruction again and I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict.”

However, Christensen did say that she would adjudge Derek Chauvin to be guilty if she had a vote.

“I would have voted guilty. However, at the end the judge did read us the rules for deliberation, but it was quick, and I could not absorb it. I would have said guilty on some level. After I was excused, I did not look at the jury instructions any longer. I do not know how hard that process was, but I feel like Chauvin is responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death.” said Christensen.

When asked about her impression of Derek Chauvin, Christensen replied, “From where I was sitting, I could look up, and lock eyes with him. It made me feel a little uncomfortable. He had nowhere to look either, so it was just kind of weird.”

In the run-up to jury deliberations in the Geroge Floyd trial, Maxine Waters, a senior Democrat leader from California went to Minnesota and spoke to a group of protestors saying, “We’re looking for a guilty verdict. And we’re looking to see if all of this [inaudible] that took place and has been taking place after they saw what happened to George Floyd.

“And we’ve got to get more active,” Waters continued. “[We’ve] got to get more confrontational. … We’ve got to make sure that they know we mean business.”

These comments kicked up a huge storm, with Chauvin’s defense attorney petitioning the judge to declare a mistrial and set Chauvin free based on the influence such comments would have on the jury, pressuring them to convict. The request was swiftly denied, but Judge Peter Cahill did not so casually dismiss its compelling logic. “I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” the judge said.

France: Tunisian migrant kills female police officer in Rambouillet, mother of two children, while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’

OpIndia Staff
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France: Tunisian migrant kills female police officer in Rambouillet, mother of two children, while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’

A female police officer in France was stabbed to death in Rambouillet, a town south west of Paris, on Friday. The suspect has been identified as a Tunisian migrant. He was shot dead by her colleagues in the aftermath of the stabbing.

The victim suffered knife injuries to her neck and died shortly after the brutal attack. According to reports, the suspect did not have a police record. It is not yet clear whether the stabbing was a terrorist attack with the motivations of the attacker yet unclear.

Investigations into the matter are currently underway. Counter terrorism officials have reportedly reached the spot. The Interior Minister of France said that he was going there as well. The attacker was 36 years old.

As per reports, the attacker allegedly shouted ‘Allahu-akbar’ while carrying out the attack. The attacked was reportedly not known to the intelligence officials or the police. The 49-year old victim was reportedly the mother of two children. She had returned from her lunch break when the attacker lunged at her and slashed her throat.

‘The attack happened just after 2pm,’ an investigating source was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying. ‘The administrative officer was pounced on by the man, who slit her throat with a knife.’ ‘The assailant was shot dead by police officers soon afterwards, as efforts were made to save the victim,’ the source reportedly said.

Marine Le Pen, a prominent contender for the next presidential elections in France, said, ‘The same horrors keep happening, the same infinite sadness when thinking of the relatives and colleagues of this policewoman, the same profiles of people who are guilty of this barbarism, the same Islamist motives… We can’t take it anymore.’

France has been a victim of Islamist terror attacks since the beheading of Samuel Paty and Emmanuel Macron’s defense of freedom of expression.

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