Policing
January 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the saga of Hennepin County Dave Hutchinson two weeks ago in “Our drunk sheriff and the SUV he rode in on.” Incredibly, Hutchinson is still the sheriff of Hennepin County. In the latest update to the story, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety released an investigative file including video and photos from the scene of Hutchinson’s DWI crash in Alexandria last month. See, for example, this CBS
»
January 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Tomorrow jury selection is set to commence in the federal trial of Derek Chauvin’s three former fellow Minneapolis police officers before senior Minnesota federal district judge Paul Magnuson in St. Paul. The three officers are Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao. They are charged with violating the civil rights of George Floyd in the arrest that resulted in his death. As everyone knows, Derek Chauvin was convicted of the
»
January 15, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Guess what’s racist now? Yes, everything is racist, as we know, but specifically what new thing is racist? Traffic cameras. ProPublica reports: A ProPublica analysis found that traffic cameras in Chicago disproportionately ticket Black and Latino motorists. . . An analysis of millions of citations found that households in majority Black and Hispanic ZIP codes received tickets at around twice the rate of those in white areas between 2015 and
»
January 5, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Robert Mitchum played drunken sheriff J.P. Harrah in the classic Howard Hawks film El Dorado. As one thing leads to another in the movie, John Wayne’s Cole Thornton embarrasses Harrah into sobering up. Quotable quote: “I’m lookin’ at a tin star with a… drunk pinned on it.” In the Twin Cities, we are in a John Wayne, call your office situation. What we really need, however, is someone who can
»
December 23, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Police have arrested five people in connection with the carjacking of Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon in broad daylight yesterday in Philadelphia. The five criminals are all teenagers. They range in age from 13 (yes, 13) to 19. Reportedly, they have written an apology letter to Scanlon, so there would seem to be no doubt about their guilt. Also, the gang’s leader had Scanlon’s car keys in his possession when the
»
December 22, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon represents Pennsylvania’s fifth congressional district. She was elected in 2018, as part of the wave that voter dissatisfaction with Donald Trump produced. The district encompasses part of South Philadelphia and a chunk of the city’s suburbs including all of Delaware County. Today, Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint at a park in Philadelphia. The crime occurred around 2:45 p.m. — thus in broad daylight. Scanlon complied with
»
December 16, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Department of Justice sent out a press release yesterday afternoon on the Chauvin plea deal following the hearing before Judge Magnuson yesterday morning. It is posted online here. The release fabricates this quote for Attorney General Garland: “Defendant Chauvin has pleaded guilty to two federal civil rights violations, one of which led to the tragic loss of George Floyd’s life,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “While recognizing that
»
December 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I’m inside the Jury Assembly Room of the Warren E. Burger Federal Building in St. Paul, where I viewed the Derek Chauvin plea hearing by video livestream this morning. I couldn’t keep up with the proceeding working on my phone. The hearing concluded just after 9:30 a.m. (Central). I am writing on my laptop following Judge Magnuson’s adjournment of the hearing. I just have few points to offer at this
»
December 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Derek Chauvin is to appear at a 9:00 a.m. hearing in St. Paul’s Warren E. Burger Federal Building this morning to change his plea in the federal civil rights charge brought against him in the Floyd case. Late yesterday afternoon I was advised by the court that I would be afforded a seat to cover the hearing from the Jury Assembly Room (JAR), which will include a livestream of the
»
December 14, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Having been convicted of the murder of George Floyd in state court, Derek Chauvin was charged by federal authorities with the violation of the Floyd’s civil rights. Federal authorities also charged the three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest. The charges are pending before Judge Paul Magnuson in federal court in St. Paul. The federal proceedings seem to me both untoward and unwarranted. In the Chauvin case, they are duplicative.
»
December 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
With three weeks still to go in 2021, at least 12 major U.S. cities have broken their annual homicide records. Two other cities are on the verge of doing so. The cities that have already suffered a record number of homicides are: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Columbus, Ohio Indianapolis, Indiana Louisville, Kentucky St. Paul, Minnesota Portland, Oregon Tucson, Arizona Toledo, Ohio Austin, Texas Rochester, New York Albuquerque, New Mexico Baton Rouge, Louisiana
»
November 26, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Glenn Loury is a voice of reason in the madhouse of higher education. He speaks with a powerful voice that is all the more powerful for its modulation. Peter Robinson sat down with him at FOX News in New York City to record an installment of his Uncommon Knowledge series last month, although it was just posted online this week. Here are the show notes: Professor Glenn Loury is in
»
November 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s at least a week’s worth of good news in this one Washington Post article about the backlash against the “defund the police” campaign. However, I think the Post overstates the extent to which Democrats are truly moving away from anti-police views and policies. Let’s start, though, with the good news. It begins in the first three paragraphs: Mayoral candidates across the country are closing out their campaigns pledging to
»
October 21, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Having covered the 2019 trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor for the murder of Justine Ruskcyk Damond, I attended Noor’s resentencing this morning by Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance. When I say “covered,” I mean every day from inside the courtroom at a seat behind Justine’s family that I snagged when the New York Times proved a no-show. Resentencing was necessitated by the Minnesota Supreme Court decision
»
October 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I wrote here (October 6) and here (October 7) about former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin’s lack of legal representation on appeal of his conviction of George Floyd’s murder. Chauvin continues to be represented by Eric Nelson in the federal civil rights prosecution brought by the Department of Justice, but Nelson’s representation has terminated in the state court case that convulsed the Twin Cities. I summoned the spirit of
»
October 17, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Steve mentioned a bizarre news story out of a small town in Norway, where an apparently deranged individual armed with a bow and arrows killed five people and wounded three others. The case is now generating controversy because police were quickly alerted to the threat, but were unable to stop the murderer because they were unarmed: Norway on Saturday announced it will hold an independent investigation into the actions of
»
October 6, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeff Sessions has written an excellent article for the New York Post called “Blame woke pols for the nation’s needless spike in murders.” Most of what Sessions says will be familiar to Power Line readers. However, it’s great to have someone of Sessions’ stature publishing these arguments in an outlet with the kind of circulation the New York Post enjoys. Sessions starts by noting that from 2019 to 2020, the
»
