Policing
September 17, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Paul G. Cassell is the Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is also the foremost scholar of the “Minneapolis Effect” reflecting the spike in murders following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Professor Cassell describes the effect in the opening of today’s Wall Street Journal
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September 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that a “clear racial gap persists in District’s pot arrests.” In other words, D.C. police officers (a majority of whom are Black, by the way) are far more likely to arrest Blacks than Whites for marijuana-related offenses. According to the Post, Blacks account for almost 90 percent of those arrested on marijuana-related charges in D.C. and 84 percent of those arrested for public consumption of the
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September 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Alejandro Villanueva plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is a military combat veteran, having served in Afghanistan. This season, all of the Steelers except for Villaneuva will wear the name of Antwon Rose on their helmets. Villaneuva intends to wear the name of Alwyn Cashe, instead. Cashe, a black man, was a U.S. Army sergeant. He died of injuries suffered in Iraq in 2005. Rose, also black, was a criminal.
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September 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Lovely Warren is the mayor of Rochester, New York. This week she fired the city’s African-American police chief, who, by Warren’s own account, had already resigned. According to the Washington Post, she fired him based on findings that “the police department did not take the death of Daniel Prude seriously enough and engaged in conduct that may have been designed to mislead the public.” (Emphasis added) The findings Mayor Warren
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September 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As I write this, the New York Yankees are pounding the Baltimore Orioles like it’s 2019. Nothing special about that. What might be noteworthy is that the Yankees players are wearing “NYPD” or, some cases “FDNY,” on their caps in place of the team name. The message isn’t political. Rather, it’s in honor of what the City’s police and fire departments did 19 years ago on 9/11. No serious person
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September 9, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Evidence from George Floyd’s autopsy, the toxicology report that accompanies the autopsy, and the 19 minutes or so of video of his arrest make it reasonably clear that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose; or, at a bare minimum, that an overdose was the principal cause of his death. Last night, on the Dan Proft Show, I interviewed former state and federal prosecutor George Parry, who at one time headed
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September 1, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Oregon sheriffs have rejected a request by Gov. Kate Brown to send personnel and resources to help “keep the peace and protect free speech” in Portland. It’s not that the sheriffs don’t want to help keep the peace. It’s just that they don’t believe Portland is serious about accomplishing this. Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said, through a spokesperson, that in Portland “it’s about changing policy, not adding resources.” Truer
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August 27, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I wrote that I couldn’t care less whether the NBA playoffs are cancelled due to a players’ boycott protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake. On reflection, I’m going to amend that statement. I’d be slightly happier if the playoffs were cancelled. I haven’t watched a minute of the playoffs or the “bubble” games that preceded them. It’s my understanding, though, that the players use these games to
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August 26, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
NBA players decided not to participate in the playoff games scheduled for tonight. They are talking about shutting down the playoffs entirely, but no decision has been made. The players are responding to the shooting by the Kenosha, Wisconsin police of Jacob Blake. He’s a career criminal and a chronic abuser of women. According to this report from a Wisconsin newspaper, Blake has been charged with rape. The facts surrounding
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August 25, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Rioting, looting and arson continued in Kenosha, Wisconsin for a second consecutive night. A local television station reports: Cellphone cameras captured looters smashing out the storefront windows of businesses and then ransacking the merchandise inside. “We’ve served a lot of people,” said the owner of Dale’s Jewelers. “We’ve been good to people, and this is the thanks you get. It’s sad. It’s sad.” The owner of Dale’s Jewelers says thieves
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August 24, 2020 — John Hinderaker
The state of Wisconsin has been roiled by an incident yesterday that culminated in the shooting of a man named Jacob Blake by Kenosha police officers. The events leading up to the shooting are unclear, but this video shows some of what happened: Apparently there was some kind of domestic disturbance that resulted in police being called. As the video begins you can’t see Blake, but several officers are standing
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August 19, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Defunding and abolishing police departments is an absurd idea that nevertheless has gained currency in some extremely liberal cities. One of those is Minneapolis, whose City Council has actually voted to put defunding its own police department on the ballot in November. This is because the Minneapolis City Charter includes a requirement that the city maintain a police department of a specified size. Happily, an obscure group called the Minneapolis
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August 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (NYCPBA) announced that it is endorsing President Trump. This endorsement doesn’t seem like a surprise, given that Trump stands for enforcing the law against rioters, looters, and arsonists, whereas Joe Biden seems indifferent, at best, about doing so. In fact, however, the NYCPBA hasn’t endorsed a candidate in a presidential race for at least 36 years. Thus, its endorsement
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August 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
We noted former prosecutor George Parry’s contrarian take on the death of George Floyd in “Who Killed George Floyd?” Mr. Parry now continues his examination of the evidence in “Chauvin, Lane, Kueng, and Thao: The George Floyd Fall Guys” at the American Spectator and here with a prefatory note at Knowledge Is Good. In his prefatory note he writes: “Floyd’s fentanyl intoxication combined with his severe coronary artery disease, extreme
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August 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Seattle police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement following the city council’s decision to cut the police department budget by 14 percent. According to this report, the cuts would have had little effect on Best’s salary, but will reduce the salary of the 12 non-union sworn officers on her command staff. More importantly, the cuts will reduce the number of regular police officers in Seattle. Up to 100 jobs might
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August 10, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Attorney General William Barr sat down with Mark Levin for an outstanding interview that aired last night on Life, Liberty and Levin. The interview covered subjects and themes that are among our regular preoccupations, including the secular religion of the Democrats, Antifa and related media coverage, and the Russia hoax. In the interview Barr is performing a teaching function. He knows what he’s talking about and he wants Americans to
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August 9, 2020 — John Hinderaker
The Daily Signal is a popular web site operated by the Heritage Foundation, and it publishes a daily email, that includes a podcast that is also very popular. I know a lot of people listen to the podcast because when I was on it on Friday, a number of people told me they had heard it. Minneapolis is ground zero for the anti-police movement, and the interviewer, Virginia Allen, wanted
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