The Portland Police Bureau took what would have been a highly unusual step for a police department in another age. After Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler, who was forced out of his apartment by rioters breaking windows in the middle of the night and making life for fellow residents untenable, ordered the police to stop using CS, the compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, which is often described as tear gas, they turned to the public.

Banning the lawful use of CS will make it very difficult to address this kind of violence without resorting to much higher levels of physical force, with a correspondingly elevated risk of serious injury to members of the public and officers. CS, while effective, is a significantly lower level of force than impact weapons, which would very likely be necessary to disperse riotous groups with its prohibition. We do not want to use gas. We do not want to use any force.

There remains an expectation that police will make arrests for crimes committed in civil disturbance events. The inability to use CS means this task will require higher levels of force to accomplish.

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Monday mornings were special for Sheriff Roy Templeton. That was his time to work on the past week’s New York Times crossword puzzles. For all the problems that paper had, the crosswords never disappointed. It was something reliable in a chaotic world.

Pressing a button on his desk phone, Sheriff Roy asked, “Francine, what’s six letters and a term for ‘stab in the back?’”

“Crossword’s going to have to wait, Sheriff,” came Francine’s reply. “Mayor Tribe wants a word with you.” Continue reading →

It was always bound to happen. December 7th was proclaimed to be a day that would live in infamy, and for some it does. But most young people won’t have a clue what happened that day. Heck, World War II has been reinvented to trivialize concentration camps to prove they were nothing compared to how cops treat black people daily in America.

In one respect, it’s the product of weak minds being twisted to convince even weaker minds that the horror du jour is as bad as the worst horror in history. Is the shooting of Jacob Blake the equivalent of the lynching of Emmit Till? Some would call it “ahistorical.” A blunt person might call it “nuts.” A woke person won’t care because nothing in history matters except for how it can be twisted to serve their impassioned goals of the moment. Continue reading →

She’s not wrong, but she’s missing a salient point.

Whether you disagree with Michael Reinoehl's tactics, he deserved to be arrested and tried in court, not killed by a motley of federal law enforcement. This seems like a hit job, an extra judicial killing ordered by Trumpsters. When you get rid of the rule of law, you get fascism https://t.co/hAqstbGCxx

— Manisha Sinha (@ProfMSinha) September 4, 2020

Of course he should have been arrested and had his guilt determined in court rather than be “killed by a motley of federal law enforcement.” The missing detail is that in order for that to happen, he would have had to allow himself to be arrested rather than . . . something. Continue reading →

Among the many takeaways from watching the brilliant play “Hamilton” was how little it mattered that George Washington, generally believed to be a white guy, was played by Christopher Jackson. He did what an actor is supposed to do, make me believe. It didn’t matter a whit that he wasn’t white when the real George was. What mattered was that he was George Washington in the play. It worked. He made it work.

The Academy Awards has announced a new regime for consideration of films in the Best Picture category. As others from across the political spectrum have already figured out, the new regime isn’t likely to change much, if anything, because the four categories, two of which must be met for consideration, are largely already met or, with the most insignificant of tweaks, will be met. Continue reading →

Traffic stops have long been one of the gravest dilemmas in police reform, and the pop reaction has been calls to remove armed police from performing them, whether replaced by unarmed traffic enforcement agents, cameras or, to the truly aspirational, robots. They constitute the foremost incidence of interactions between police and the public. Dangerous driving can kill. And they sometimes turn angry, violent and tragic.

At the same time, it is indisputable that black and Hispanic people are disproportionately stopped and, because why squander an opportunity, subject to search. If one focuses solely on this fact, then it’s understandable why removing police from the scene would be simple answer. But if one looks at all the competing factors, it’s clear that taking cops off traffic stops trades one set of untenable problems for another. Continue reading →

It was curious that he was a member of the board and former president of the National Book Critics Circle if he was such a disagreeable fellow. Yet, Carlin Romano, writer, philosopher, critic, was on the board and, accordingly, did what a board member is supposed to do.

One critics circle board member, Columbia University professor John McWhorter, an African American, agreed with him on the substance of the anti-racism pledge, but told the website Vulture that Romano’s way of expressing his dissent was a bit tone-deaf.  He “was not being a modern person in the way he responded” to the anti-racism pledge, McWhorter said, perhaps referring to Romano’s charge that some of the arguments of the anti-racism pledge were “absolute nonsense.”

How exacty does a “modern person” express himself? Continue reading →

Ed. Note: Greg Prickett is a former police officer and supervisor who went to law school, hung out a shingle, and now practices criminal defense and family law in Fort Worth, Texas. While he was a police officer, he was a police firearms instructor, and routinely taught armed tactics to other officers.

In the middle of West Texas is Midland County. It’s due south of Amarillo and due east of El Paso. Just to the west is Odessa. This is the heart of both West Texas and “good ol’ boy” country. It is also where a prosecutor worked as a law clerk for a state district judge at the same time that he was actually prosecuting the same case. Continue reading →

For a while, Eugene Volokh has been arguing the case of using the “n-word” when accurate reading or discussing caselaw. He’s personally unapologetic about using the language accurately, it being a matter of fact rather than a political performance.

As I always do, I discussed the facts, without expurgation or euphemisms. A few weeks after the class, I learned that some students had disapproved, but I didn’t discuss it further with any students.

The question isn’t whether Eugene is right or wrong. Some contend that the word should not, cannot, be used (except by a black person) under any circumstances. Some may contend that racist epithets are free speech, so they can use it with abandon. Others, like Eugene, argue that when the word is accurate and relevant, used not to attack but as part of pedagogy, the word is just a word. Continue reading →

No, it’s not a violation of anyone’s First Amendment rights. It’s Facebook. They can make their own rules, and they have. When it comes to Kyle Rittenhouse, who wounded one and killed two in Kenosha, they made their rules.

By taking down links to pay Mr. Rittenhouse’s legal fees, the company is interfering with his ability to raise money for his defense in a way other criminal defendants might. The fact that the platform may only be used to declare Mr. Rittenhouse’s guilt, but not his innocence—though lawyers say the self-defense argument is plausible—could prejudice a jury pool in the high-profile case. One of America’s most powerful companies is effectively giving its official imprimatur to Wisconsin prosecutors’ case against a specific defendant.

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