Policing
April 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday was consumed by the testimony of Mohamed Noor’s patrol partner Matthew Harrity at the time of the killing of Justine Rusczyk on July 15, 2017. Harrity is the only eyewitness to the killing other than Noor. Harrity provided the defense its best day in court. I want to say at the top that I fear I may have misled readers on one point in a previous post. That point
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April 18, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Witnesses in the trial of Mohamed Noor are sequestered outside the courtroom and jurors are to avoid news and social media touching on the trial in any way. My waking hours are spent inside the courtroom. I am of necessity avoiding all news except for news bearing on the trial. If you’re looking for something on the Mueller report, I am not your man. Yesterday the prosecution continued methodically to
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April 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We had an important day in the trial of the murder/manslaughter trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor for the killing of Justine Ruszcyk. The prosecution called MPD fifth precinct sergeant Shannon Barnette to the stand, but was allowed to cross-examine her under Rule 611 of the Rules of Evidence. She was essentially treated by the County Attorney as an adverse witness. The prosecution bears the burden of proof
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April 16, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The trial of Mohamed Noor for the murder/manslaughter of Justine Ruszcyk continued yesterday before Judge Kathryn Quaintance in Hennepin Country District Court. The prosecutors called nine Minneapolis Police Department officers as witnesses as well as one Minneapolis Fire Department officer. A few observations: • I think the prosecution is methodically calling all of the Minneapolis Police Department officers who arrived at the scene. The prosecution has the burden of proof
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April 14, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Scott has been reporting daily on the criminal trial of Mohamed Noor, the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Justine Damond in the Summer of 2017. The case has generated a great deal of commentary. One of the sillier such pieces is by columnist Jennifer Brooks in today’s Star Tribune: In a Hennepin County courtroom, the jury studied a collage of crime scene photos and videos, listened to Damond’s
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April 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The prosecution in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor continued yesterday with the cross-examination of officer Jesse Lopez as well as the testimony of officer Joseph Grout, Lieutenant Dan May, and Sergeant Robert Lewis, all of the Minneapolis police department. Performing the task of spinning yesterday’s testimony into a narrative are Chao Xiong and Libor Jany in their Star Tribune story as well as Jon Collins
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April 12, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I happily took the reserved Power Line seat for the first time yesterday at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. If Wednesday’s testimony featured the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, as it mostly did, yesterday’s featured the Minneapolis Police Department. The prosecution introduced bodycam and squad car video of MPD officers who arrived at the scene. For good narrative accounts of yesterday’s testimony and other evidence, please
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April 11, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Prosecutors in the case of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor set about methodically introducing the evidence in support of their case yesterday. The best narrative of the events in court is the Chao Xiong/Libor Jany Star Tribune article. See also the Jon Collins/Riham Feshir MPR report. I want briefly to summarize what went down and note the highlight of the testimony and other evidence in summary fashion. I continue
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April 10, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I attended the trial of Mohamed Noor yesterday. The parties made their opening statements and the prosecutors called their first witness — Don Damond, the fiancee of Justine Rusczyk (who called herself Damond in anticipation of her marriage to Don). Following up on my report from the lunch break in part 5 of this series, I want to note a few highlights and observations. For a coherent narrative account, plase
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August 9, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier today, I wrote about how Philadelphia’s sanctuary city policy caused a child to be raped. Philadelphia authorities refused ICE’s request to detain a previously deported illegal immigrant. Instead, they released the man, who then committed rape. This was clear case of the left’s agenda trumping concerns for public safety. The consequences were dire for the illegal immigrant’s victim. But leftism is also producing dire consequences for entire communities. Areas
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July 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
John wrote about the police shooting and resulting death of one Thurman Blevins here. Police had been called to the scene by a citizen reporting gunshots fired from the street. When the police arrived, they found the perpetrator and his pistol in plain view. The video released yesterday shows the officers doing what they should have done, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey could only rouse himself to declare that he
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July 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
As regular readers know, there have been several controversial police shootings in Minneapolis in recent years. (To be fair, all police shootings are now controversial, even when they are obviously justified.) This one occurred on June 23, a little over a month ago, when officers received a call to the effect that someone was walking down an alley and firing a gun in predominantly African-American north Minneapolis. The officers proceeded
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July 24, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Justine Damond was killed in the alley behind her Minneapolis home late on the evening of July 15 last year. She lived with her fiance in the safest neighborhood in Minneapolis. Having heard sounds of a woman under assault in the alley, she had called 911 for help. A Minneapolis police officer killed her when she went out in her pajamas to meet up with him and his partner. Officer
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June 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post has a long article about unsolved killings in American cities. It studied homicide data from 50 cities, encompassing 52,000 such crimes. In the process, it identified areas where killings are frequent but arrests are rare. These “areas of impunity” are located in poor neighborhoods where minorities (almost always African-Americans) reside. The first thing that jumps out at me from the Post’s study is that in the 50
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April 1, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
It wasn’t so long ago that Baltimore politicians were pandering to the anti-law-and-order crowd with talk about “no justice, no peace” and “space to destroy.” Now that this kind of sentiment has helped produce a spike in homicides, earning Baltimore the title of America’s most dangerous city, the pols are singing a different tune. In fact, many are calling on the state legislature to enact tough anti-crime legislation. Here’s Del.
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March 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Paul Cassell is a law professor and former federal district court judge. Richard Fowles is an economics professor. Both teach at the University of Utah. Cassell and Fowles have studied the spike of homicides in Chicago in 2016. Through multiple regression analysis and other tools, they conclude that an ACLU consent decree triggered a sharp reduction in stop and frisks by the Chicago Police Department, which in turn caused homicides
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March 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Johns Hopkins University wants to form its own police department with armed, sworn police officers to patrol its university and hospital campuses. The University already has its own security personnel, approximately 1,000 strong. Even so, last Fall there were 16 gunpoint robberies around its main campus in Baltimore. Thus, the Baltimore delegation to the state general assembly will propose legislation to enable Hopkins to have its own police department. The
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