Law Enforcement
November 12, 2021 — John Hinderaker
I am not sure how liberals expected the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial to go. Anyone who had seen the videos of Rittenhouse’s interactions with the men who were chasing him, striking him and trying to kill him knew that he had a strong case of self-defense. But apparently the fact that Rittenhouse has a defense–and is so bold as to assert it!–came as a surprise to the Left. Liberal reactions
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November 2, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Minneapolis, along with cities like Portland and Seattle, has been ground zero for the movement to defund–i.e., abolish–the police. The Minneapolis City Charter includes a provision that requires a certain level of law enforcement to be maintained, and the Upper Midwest Law Center (full disclosure: I serve on the UMLC board) won a big case in which a local judge ordered the City to add police officers to comply with
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October 23, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Steve ( Do you know who I am?) Descano is the Soros-backed Fairfax County, Virginia prosecutor who makes sweetheart plea deals with child molesters and rapists. Local judges are less than pleased with his soft-on-crime approach, and one of them refused to go along with a Descano deal under which the sex-offender who raped a girl four times would have received a sentence of only three years. But when it
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September 25, 2021 — Scott Johnson
When it comes to the defense of the United States, Joe Biden would prefer not to. For all practical purposes, he’s not on our side. Biden’s refusal to defend our southern border undermines both our sovereignty and security. It’s a two-fer. Yesterday Biden took a bold stand…against the CBP agents who have sought to protect the border (video below). He came down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks.
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September 21, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post, Scott wrote about Saturday’s “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C. He collected tweets reporting on the substantial, and seemingly predominant, police presence, including that of undercover feds. I was struck by a statement by CBS’s Margaret Brennan, the moderator of Face the Nation. According to this tweet by Nicholas Fondacaro, Brennan said “the strong show of security” by police and the feds “kept the crowds away.”
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September 20, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I believe that Vice News reporter Tess Owen snapped the classic “There’s a bunch of bros here” photo of a few faces in the crowd among the dozens attending the supposedly fearsome “Justice for J6” demonstration in Washington on Saturday. Byron York provides the larger context in his Examiner column “Insurrection hype.” There’s a bunch of bros here. They declined an interview and said they were “just tourists”🧐 pic.twitter.com/ZsIImTXsFn —
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September 5, 2021 — Scott Johnson
On Friday afternoon the Star Tribune’s Stephen Montemayor reported that “Andrew Luger in final step of U.S. attorney nomination in Minnesota.” Luger served as United States Attorney for Minnesota from February 2014 to March 2017 under President Obama and into the early days of the Trump administration. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar did what she could to engineer Luger’s continued service under Trump. Her support wasn’t enough then under President Trump,
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August 24, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
On his way out the door in Albany, Andrew Cuomo gave the finger to at least three major interest groups. It was a fitting departure for this nasty, discredited figure. Cuomo derided the lengthy, thorough report alleging that he sexually harassed 11 women. He whined that the report was “designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic” and that it was based on an “unfair and unjust” investigation.
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July 25, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Merrily we roll along into our fourth preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. It is CRB senior editor Bill Voegeli’s long essay/review “Criminal Negligence.” Reviewing the galley of the new issue to select pieces for Power Line readers last week, I thought the essay might be too long for convenient reading online. On second thought, however, I concluded it makes for perfect weekend reading
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July 1, 2021 — John Hinderaker
There is a lot of judicial news today. This one is hot off the press: a judge of the Hennepin County District Court has granted a motion for a writ of mandamus against the City of Minneapolis, ordering the city to “immediately take any and all necessary action” to increase the size of the Minneapolis Police Department. The case was brought by residents of crime-ridden North Minneapolis, represented by the
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June 7, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Who can take a city, burn it to the ground? Umbrella Man can, at least according to the search warrant application/affidavit filed by Minneapolis police officer Erika Christensen in the summer of 2020. Star Tribune reporter Libor Jany told me he came across Christensen’s affidavit in a routine review of court filings. Libor reported on the allegations of Christensen’s affidavit in his July 28 story “Minneapolis police say ‘Umbrella Man’
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June 5, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I correctly named Winston Boogie Smith as the decedent in Minneapolis’s police-involved shooting Thursday afternoon. Smith was the target of an arrest operation conducted by the Joint Law Enforcement Fugitive Task Force in the parking ramp adjacent to Calhoun Square in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. Picking up where I left off yesterday morning, I want to add the following notes to update the story. • The Star Tribune reported
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June 4, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Winston Smith is the protagonist of Orwell’s 1984. He is not to be confused with Winston Boogie Smith. According to CrimeWatchMpls, Winston Boogie Smith is the reported decedent in the police involved shooting at the top of the parking ramp adjacent to Calhoun Square in the heart of Minneapolis’s Uptown neighborhood. Smith (if it was Smith) was the target of an arrest operation that went down in the heart of
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May 6, 2021 — John Hinderaker
…of a police officer. The threat to the officer unfolds with stunning rapidity. His response is incredibly fast and effective. And he he as the presence of mind not to fire at the second guy who could easily have been perceived as another threat. But of course this won’t be considered newsworthy: But what does LeBron think? https://t.co/N88LbX58ug — Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) May 5, 2021 Another Twitter comment: “Gonna be
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May 3, 2021 — John Hinderaker
One of the Derek Chauvin jurors, Brandon Mitchell, has gone public, and it appears that he may have been less than honest during jury selection and is in fact a BLM activist. The Post Millenial reports: A juror on the Derek Chauvin trial who told the court that he had no prior knowledge of the George Floyd civil case was photographed last August wearing a shirt that read “Get your
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April 30, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is the last refuge of a prosecutorial scoundrel. That was my reaction to the New York Times story yesterday reporting that Rudy Giuliani is under investigation for an alleged FARA violation. The Times has a follow-up story here today with additional information on the focus of the investigation. My reaction was of course elicited by Robert Mueller’s persecution of Michael Flynn. The FBI showed up
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April 22, 2021 — John Hinderaker
We live in a bizarre hellworld in which many are now opposed, in principle, to law enforcement. It is hard to see how this can end well, but in the meantime we are being treated to plenty of absurdity. Like this story: Minneapolis Park Board votes to expel State Patrol from shared office space. A divided Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board passed an emergency resolution to kick the State Patrol
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