Black Lives Matter
December 9, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Most regular Power Line readers know that I don’t criticize the police lightly. I think I understand the dangers officers face when they confront suspects and need to make instant assessments of their intentions. That understanding makes me loath to condemn officers whose split second decisions produce tragic results. However, the case of former Mesa, Arizona police officer Philip Brailsford is different. His killing of Daniel Shaver warrants condemnation, though
»
October 17, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Hoping to bring an end to kneeling during the National Anthem, NFL owners are meeting with the players’ union. To smooth the way, the League has endorsed legislation that would mean lighter sentencing for drug felons. It’s unlikely that the NFL’s endorsement counts for much at this juncture. For one thing, it’s widely understood that Roger Goodell has enough trouble managing his own business without branching off into the nation’s.
»
October 4, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
As Steve discusses in the post just below, students affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement shut down a presentation at the College of William & Mary. They rushed the stage and prevented the invited guest from speaking. The invited guest was Claire Gastañaga of the American Civil Liberties Union. Gastañaga, a William & Mary alum, had intended to speak about “Students and the First Amendment.” She never got that
»
September 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
While poorly educated athletes, egged on by leftist commentators, indulge in Black Lives Matter based protests against their country, evidence pours in that black-on-black crime is the real threat to black lives and that attacks on policing are causing an increase in such crime. Heather Mac Donald has the details. She points out that nearly 900 additional blacks were killed in 2016 compared with 2015, bringing the black homicide-victim total
»
September 12, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Ta-Nehesi Coates has a new essay out about Trump that is generating a lot of buzz, entitled “The First White President.” Here are a couple of excerpts about what he has to say about Trump: He is preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He is ready and willing at any time during the first year of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice
»
July 21, 2017 — Scott Johnson
As I say — and do forgive me for repeating myself — the shooting of the unarmed and pajama clad spiritual healer Justine Damond by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor opens a window onto the sick culture that reigns in Minneapolis. No sooner had idiot Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges fired number 22 World Leader and Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau than Hodges sought to expound on her deep thoughts for
»
June 21, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Last August, Dominique Heaggan-Brown, an African-American police officer in Milwaukee, shot and killed Sylville Smith, an African-American suspect with a lengthy record who was armed and fleeing the police. Anti-police rioting ensued. Four officers were injured. It was clear from the beginning that the African-American policeman did not shoot Smith for reasons having anything to do with race. But this didn’t matter to the local rioters or to Black Lives
»
April 16, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Elliot Kaufman is a Stanford junior who writes with great intelligence from inside the asylum. National Review has posted his several pieces for the site here, but he saved his best yet for the Wall Street Journal in “For a Stanford applicant, perseveration pays off” (behind the Journal’s subscription paywall). Following in the footsteps of the late John Updike, Kaufman makes good use of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Kaufman
»
April 6, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Heather Mac Donald is the nation’s leading expert on policing and race. Her book The War On Cops is a classic of social science. In December my think tank, Center of the American Experiment, hosted Heather for a speech in Minneapolis that was attended by more than 400, including over 150 law enforcement officers. That was a great crowd. But when Heather spoke at UCLA last night, at the invitation
»
April 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota House of Representatives has passed a bill with a provision increasing the penalties on protesters who shut down highways or block access to the airport. Among others, that would be the Black Lives Matter crowd. The Democrats hauled out their big guns to oppose the provision, one of whom was newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar. Omar is not a compelling public speaker. Her speech opposing the provision droned
»
March 12, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and put the Obama administration firmly on the anti-police side. Two subsequent investigations found that the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, acted in self-defense. But the Associated Press can’t let the narrative go, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, for one, thinks the story is significant enough to pick up: A convenience store is disputing a
»
January 30, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The drive for education reform brought together an unusual coalition — conservatives who believe in free markets and left-wing community activists who knew little about Milton Friedman but who saw that the public school monopoly was failing children from poor families. For more than 20 years, this coalition has effectively advanced the cause of school choice, often with very beneficial results. But the coalition is fraying thanks, at least in
»
January 7, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The criminal cases brought by Marilyn Mosby in the Freddy Gray matter have all been dismissed. Not one was successful. Now Mosby is in the dock. She is the defendant in a civil action brought by five of the six accused police officers. Casear Goodson, driver of the police van in which Gray was injured and the only defendant to be charged with homicide, did not join the case. Yesterday,
»
January 5, 2017 — John Hinderaker
I wrote last night about the horrific crime in Chicago, where four young African-Americans kidnapped a mentally challenged white youth and tortured him for somewhere between 24 and 48 hours, while unaccountably documenting a portion of their vicious assault on Facebook Live. On the video the perpetrators can be heard shouting “F*** white people!” and “F*** Trump!.” I pointed out that the Associated Press’s account of the crime completely failed
»
December 22, 2016 — John Hinderaker
Are all liberals crazy? Probably not, but it seems that way these days. Pretty much every post I write is about liberals behaving not just badly, but bizarrely. Perhaps that is good, if, like me, you want leftism to be discredited forever. But the process is painful. There is a garden store in Minnesota called Gertens. Its hallmark is that it is really, really big. This time of year, the
»
December 2, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Black Lives Matter is mourning the death of “El Commandante,” known to the rest of us as Fidel Castro. BLM feels “an overwhelming sense of loss” at the passing of the communist dictator. And well it should. BLM is a Marxist revolutionary movement — if you don’t believe me, read its sickening eulogy of Castro. Naturally, it views “El Commandante” as a hero to be mourned. BLM praises Castro for
»
November 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
In September, rioting broke out in Charlotte, North Carolina after a black police officer shot and killed Kenneth Lamont Scott. Mr. Scott was an African-American who, according to the police, pulled a gun and refused to drop it. From the beginning, the shooting looked justified, but we couldn’t tell for sure until the matter was thoroughly investigated. Now, with the investigation complete, it is clear that there was no wrongdoing
»
