Policing
March 8, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I anticipated that Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill would take up the prosecution’s motion to reinstate the third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin first thing this morning at 8:00 and then commence jury selection at 9:00. Instead the state moved to stay proceedings until the state’s effort to reinstate the third-degree murder charge results in a final judgment in the Court of Appeals or the Minnesota Supreme Court. The
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March 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Like most cities, Washington, D.C. is plagued by an increase in homicides and other violent crimes. Nonetheless, the city council seems determined to keep cutting D.C.’s police force. Last year, the size of that force fell to around 3,500, well below the number once considered the minimum needed to enforce the law in the city. This year, some on the city council seek further cuts as they “reimagine” policing. But
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March 7, 2021 — Scott Johnson
This past Monday I previewed the trial of Derek Chauvin that commences with motions in limine at 8:00 a.m. and jury selection at 9:00 a.m. (Central) tomorrow morning. If you missed my preview and think you might find it of interest, it is posted here (including a link to the CourtTV live stream). I want to add these pretrial notes. • I will appear as a correspondent on the trial
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March 3, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The relatively affluent neighborhood in Montgomery County, Maryland where I live is experiencing something of a crime wave. Reports of crimes like carjacking and break-ins appear regularly on the neighborhood listserves my wife is on. And each week, it seems like the location of the crimes gets closer to our house. Sometimes the reports complain about the police. The complaint isn’t that the cops are racist or too aggressive. It’s
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March 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I spoke yesterday afternoon noon with Hennepin County District Court press contact Spenser Bickett about the live stream of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin is charged with responsibility for the death of George Floyd. Spenser explained to me that the live stream will be carried on the Internet by Court TV. It is therefore accessible to the public online. The Court TV home page is
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March 1, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is charged with the murder of George Floyd last year on May 25. Floyd’s death set off ten days or ten months that shook the world. These notes are intended as a preview of the trial. Beginning with jury selection, the trial begins one week from today in Hennepin County District Court before Judge Peter Cahill. John Hinderaker offered a good overview in “A
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February 9, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The son of a good friend of mine sent this message a day or two ago, in response to this post about an anti-police hoax in Minneapolis–one of many we have seen in recent years, starting perhaps with Michael Brown, a fake news story that was eagerly embraced by left-wing news outlets like CNN, which promoted the entirely fictional “Hands up, don’t shoot!” John, I really enjoyed your “Defund the
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February 5, 2021 — John Hinderaker
A few days ago, a student at the University of Minnesota created a sensation with an Instagram story in which he described being terrified by an encounter with racist police officers, from which he narrowly escaped with his life: Tw: police violence and brutality/racial profiling Last night, after finishing up my homework and honestly wrapping up a pretty long week, I wanted to go take a walk outside. It was
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February 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
During the second half of 2020, we noted from time to time that homicides were increasing dramatically in American cities — a trend that coincided with BLM protests against the police. Now, the nationwide numbers are in. Homicide rates were 30 percent higher in 2020 than in in 2019, according to a new report by Professor Richard Rosenfeld and two others. This represents more than 1,268 additional murders (in a
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February 1, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I covered the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor for the murder of Justine Ruszczyk over three weeks in 2019. Ms. Ruszczyk had called the police to intervene in what she thought might be an assault occurring behind her house late on the evening of July 15, 2017. Noor killed Ms. Ruszcyk when she ran up to the officer’s patrol car as it stopped at the end of
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January 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Capitol police officer Brian D. Sicknick has died from injuries he sustained during the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday. Ashli Babbitt, one of the protesters, died during the riot. She was shot by an officer as she climbed through a window into the building. Three other protesters died due to “medical emergencies.” According to reports, more than 50 law enforcement officers sustained injuries during the rioting. That’s slightly less
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January 8, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden introduced Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee for Attorney General yesterday. Biden took the opportunity to attack the Trump presidency from stem to stern, from beginning to end (video below, NPR transcript here). “[Trump] unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset,” he said — this from a guy who, on his way out the door as vice president, had a hand in
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January 3, 2021 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about the latest “police shooting” in Minneapolis, which took place on Wednesday night. Multiple police vehicles pulled over a young man named Dolal Idd, who was on probation for firearms violations, and officers told him to get out of his car. Instead, he tried to drive away. When blocked, he opened fire on the police and, it appears from video footage, narrowly missed one of them. The
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December 25, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump brightened my Christmas season when he pardoned former police officer Stephanie Mohr. Now, the Washington Post and its leftist sources have brightened it even more by complaining about the pardon. Their unhappiness makes me happy. It also tends to confirm the wisdom of Trump’s decision. The first point to make is that the Post has a stake in the persecution of Mohr. Its sensationalized reporting led to the
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December 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Back in 2015 I asked the Hudson Institute’s John Walters to take a look at Michelle Alexander’s dreadful but influential The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Mr. Walters turned his attention to Alexander’s book together with his Hudson Institute colleague David Murray. Subsequently posted in footnoted form on Hudson’s site as “Revisiting ‘The New Jim Crow,'” the essay below was written for us. I want
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December 3, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The answer is lots of bad stuff and mischief on all fronts. On “civil rights” alone, the Biden DOJ will reverse course on race-based preferences, backing discrimination against Whites and Asians by colleges, employers, etc. And it will back attacks on religious liberty, for example in the context of coronvirus restrictions on worship (if they remain in effect) and in cases where LGBT agenda items clash with religious freedom. The
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December 2, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Stephanie Mohr was a rookie police officer in Prince George’s County in 1995. A member of the canine unit, she and the dog she worked with responded to a call in an area plagued by burglaries. Another officer had spotted two suspects on the roof of a store.* Mohr released her dog on one of the suspects, Ricardo Mendez, an illegal immigrant who subsequently would be convicted on federal narcotics
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