| Friend, as a parent, it’s hard to put into words the joy you feel when one of your children grows up to follow in your footsteps.
For me — a retired cop — I’ve never been more proud in my whole life than the day my daughter Devon decided to join the police force in the village of Brown Deer, Wisconsin — a suburb of Milwaukee, where I served.
In fact, I think you can see the pride beaming through me in this picture of the two of us.
But now that my little girl is facing fifteen years in prison — and has been targeted by the Black Panthers! — all for an incident that happened on the job, I find myself wishing she’d have pursued any other career in the world.
Please, give me a minute to tell you what happened.
It was the afternoon of March 14, 2016, and Devon and another officer had just finished a routine traffic stop when a Milwaukee County bus pulled up alongside them.
The driver opened the door and shouted for help.
When Devon boarded the bus, the frightened driver told her she was worried about a man who was making a scene in the back of the bus. He hadn’t paid enough, and when she told him so, he’d gotten very angry.
And when he started swearing furiously, the driver began to fear for her safety and the safety of her passengers.
You see, this agitated man — his name is Manuel Burnley — was enormous.
In fact, he weighed almost 400 pounds.
My daughter looked to the rear of the bus and spotted Mr. Burnley immediately. He was impossible to miss.
When Devon called for him, he ignored her. And when she explained that he would have to leave the bus, he exploded, “I’m not stepping off for sh*t, I paid my motherf**kin’ money!”
But Devon is a professional, and she calmly insisted that he needed to leave the bus.
Yet Burnley didn’t budge.
Instead, he defiantly shouted “I’m a grown-a** man, I do what the f**k I want to do!”
At this point, Devon went on to explain that Mr. Burnley could either remove himself from the bus, or he would receive a $691 ticket for disorderly conduct.
Burnley continued to refuse and yell obscenities.
So Devon and her partner moved to either side of Burnley, took him by each arm, and began escorting him down the bus steps.
That’s when he began to resist violently.
As they stepped down onto the street, Devon’s partner tried to control the massive man with a bear hug, but instead all three of them were driven to the ground.
Now, Devon is 5’5″ and weighs only 145 pounds. At almost 400 pounds, Burnley was well over twice my daughter’s size.
She struck the pavement hard, and a jolt of pain flashed through both her kneecaps.
Suddenly, Burnley grabbed her partner by the throat.
Powering through her injuries, Devon delivered several swift “knee strikes” to Burnley’s abdomen to subdue him but the blows had no effect on the giant man.
Burnley was so massive that Devon couldn’t see her partner at all now. She had no idea where he was, if he was hurt, or if he still had his gun.
But she did see that Burnley was reaching suspiciously around his body, going for his waist.
Fearing that he was reaching for a weapon, Devon knew she had to act to bring this struggle to an end, FAST.
With her Taser out of reach and no other options, Devon drew her pistol and fired a single non-lethal shot at Burnley.
He immediately stopped resisting, and Devon and her partner were finally able to restrain him with 2 sets of cuffs and call for medics.
Burnley was rushed to the hospital and treated for his injuries.
In his interview with investigators, Burnley confessed he knew he gave the officers every reason to be fearful by resisting and suspiciously reaching around into his hoodie pocket.
Asked about the incident later, even the frightened bus driver agreed:
“He started fighting that lady. He was throwing that lady on the ground and beating up on her. She had to shoot him.”
Everyone seems to agree that Devon did the right thing that afternoon. Her police chief even told her he can’t wait to have her back on the job.
But the prosecutor didn’t see it that way.
So, seven months later, the Milwaukee County District Attorney charged Devon with Aggravated Battery.
Now, simply for protecting herself and a fellow officer from a combative criminal who could have killed them both, she’s facing up to fifteen years in prison!
But it gets worse.
When Devon went before the judge to plead “not guilty,” it was an absolute circus.
You see, the Milwaukee chapter of the Black Panthers had crowded themselves into the courtroom.
Why? Well, Devon is white and Manuel Burnley is black.
And because of that, the race-obsessed Black Panthers want to politicize this individual incident and make it part of the “Black Lives Matter” crusade against cops.
I’m not sure how my daughter became the target of this ugly political sideshow, but now I worry for her safety.
Devon never asked for any of this.
All she did was make a split-second decision when she felt her life and the life of her partner were in imminent danger. Unlike the DA who charged her, she didn’t have months to consider options and weigh other opinions.
And now she’s a helpless pawn in some bigger fight that she has no part of.
Quite frankly, I didn’t know how we’d get through it all. I’m retired living on a fixed income, and Devon’s meager salary doesn’t go far when attorney fees start piling up.
But that’s when we were thrown a lifeline.
We got a phone call from Ron Hosko at the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF).
If you know anything about LELDF, you know they help fund and prepare a successful legal defense for good cops who’ve been wrongly accused of crimes they didn’t commit.
When he told me LELDF and their experts were going to help Devon, I breathed a big sigh of relief. But we weren’t out of the woods yet.
The first thing we had to do was raise the money for her case.
You see, LELDF is a non-profit organization. They receive no money from the government — all their work is funded by the generous donations of big-hearted Americans who respect and support our men and women in blue.
So with a mountain of thousands of dollars in legal fees rising in front of us, would you please consider a tax-deductible donation to LELDF in the amount of $35, $50, $100 or more?
All I hope is that Devon can get a fair shake in a court of law. You can make that possible.Please, help with her defense by sending your most generous gift today.
Thank you and God bless.
Sincerely,
Officer Dieter Kraemer (ret.)
Milwaukee Police Department
P.S. I’ve always felt so much pride in Devon for following in my footsteps and becoming a police officer. But right now, it’s hard to feel anything but fear.
I know I won’t be able to rest any easier until the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund has raised the money they need to give Devon the best defense possible. Will you please make a tax-deductible donation to help my daughter today? |
Jim Ex Jakarta, 
Andrew Swannish, 
Ken Kasic, and 1 other are discussing. 
Jason Hardy is discussing. 
rossrightangle 
Mack the Knife 23:04 on August 25, 2020 Permalink |
Best yet, Ross! Everybody is just so sick of these wild animals burning and looting.
Shoot a dozen and then charge them, guns at the ready.
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Ken Kasic 23:26 on August 25, 2020 Permalink |
There’s more information coming out, the man shot was caught on video
it’s in your British Daily Mail, a physical altercation between Blake and the cops.
We also know there was a warrant out for him.
It’s good to read what you say about the violence.
If there us nothing done to put these rioters down, they will burn our country down.
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Andrew Swannish 02:01 on August 26, 2020 Permalink |
Three cheers for anyone who says its time to break this insurrection.
The rioters are not protesters, they are exactly what you say, filthy savages and they are being used by communists. BLM admitted they are ‘trained marxists’ and so its time law enforcement trained our firearms on their shock troops.
God bless you.
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Jim Ex Jakarta 07:04 on August 26, 2020 Permalink |
Did you see that CNN described what these animals are doing as ‘violent protests’ and then self-censored, removing the world violent?
This kind of violence has to be crushed. The BLM revolution is aimed by its communists leaders at destroying the country.
The country has to fight back and the sooner the better.
The President should mobilize the National Guard just like Kennedy or was it Eisenhower did when state governors were not interested in defending the rights of Americans.
I used to think you were too hardline but not any more.
Fight fire with fire.
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