DECEMBER 6, 2020 - The family of Casey Christopher Goodson, Jr. demands answers after Casey was shot and killed by a police officer on December 4, 2020. Casey was an amazing young man whose life was tragically taken after bein gconfronted by a Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy who was working with the US Marshal’s Southern Ohio Fugitive Task Force. Casey was not a target of that task force and his death is completely unrelatedt to that investigation. While police claim that Casey drove by, waving a gun, and was confronted by the deputy after exiting his vehicle, that narrative leaves out key details that raise cause for extreme concern.

Saturday, December 5, 12-6pm
299 King Avenue
In coordination with the Dennison Place Neighborhood Association, the Short North Block Watch is asking residents to donate extra food to give back to the NNEMAP Food Pantry this season. (www.nnemappantry.org)

The family of Julius E. Tate will gather on North Champion Avenue and Mt. Vernon Avenue on December 7th at 3 pm to commemorate and raise awareness of Julius’s untimely death at the hands and guns of Columbus police. It will be his death’s second anniversary, and a utility pole on this corner has been decorated in his honor.

According to Columbus police, Julius’ death was the result of a sting operation to apprehend an armed robber who was doing swap-and-sell meetings. Questions linger, however, regarding Julius’s actions before his death. Even so, the sting should have been handled in a way so not to kill the teenager.

Police in plain clothes claim Julius pulled a gun on them, and then a sharpshooter in hiding fired. But Julius’s girlfriend claims he was unarmed, testimony she gave in a sworn affidavit. Days later the girlfriend, Masonique Saunders, was charged in connection with his killing.

At the time, Saunders’s mother told WBNS 10TV the charge was an attempt to silence her. Masonique is currently serving a three-year sentence in state prison after taking a plea deal.

It is not often that one can agree with the pronouncements made by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, but his tweeted comment on the killing of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suggesting that the incident “…was a criminal act & highly reckless. It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict. Iranian leaders would be wise to wait for the return of responsible American leadership on the global stage & to resist the urge to respond against perceived culprits” was both restrained and reasonable. Or it was at least so until sentence two, which was clearly intended to attack Donald Trump and praise the incoming Joe Biden administration, which Brennan just might be seeking to join.

Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has nothing to worry about as the man who will directly handle America’s foreign policy in the Middle East is a loyal friend of Israel. Crisis averted. 

President-elect, Joe Biden’s appointment of Antony J. Blinken as his Secretary of State was a master stroke, according to the Biden Administration. Blinken is a State Department veteran, a strong believer in a US-led Western alliance and a true friend of Israel.