7 killed in mass shooting at Alabama residenceA mass shooting at a home in Valhermoso Springs, Ala., left seven people dead, including a 17-year-old girl, local law enforcement said Friday. ….. Read More.UPI – United States | United States NewsFri, June 5, 20208 hours ago
Trump’s Audience of OneAs the United States enters a pandemic summer, with more than 100,000 Americans already dead, and as tear gas engulfed Minneapolis last night, following protests after yet another killing of a black man by a police officer, the president tweeted that the “shooting starts” when the “looting starts”. The tweet echoed a historic line uttered by a police chief in Miami in 1967 during the civil-rights unrest that was also widely condemned at the time. Twitter hid that tweet behind a message saying that it was “glorifying violence”—a violation of the site’s terms of service—though the users could still choose to view it by clicking through. All this was an escalation of the seeming conflict between the president and Twitter: Just two days ago, the social-media company added a fact-check link to one of Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time. The president responded by issuing an…
The Congresswoman Pepper-Sprayed by PoliceJoyce Beatty had never been pepper-sprayed before.Growing up in Dayton during the 1960s, the 70-year-old Ohio congresswoman remembers having to use a different water fountain from the white people in her community, and having to swim in a different public pool. Throughout her life and political career, which began in the state legislature in the late ’90s, she’d taken part in many civil-rights demonstrations.But the pepper spray was new to her. It “shuts you down,” she told me in an interview this morning. “It gets into your lungs. You’re coughing profusely. You can’t see.”It happened yesterday afternoon, when Beatty joined a group of demonstrators in downtown Columbus protesting police violence following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. In videos of the protest now circulating on Twitter, Beatty, with…
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court DecisionsPlease enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice. Ever wondered what it’s like to argue before the Supreme Court? Four IJers who have been in the hot seat talk shop on the latest episode of the Short Circuit podcast. And over at NPR, IJ Senior Attorney Robert McNamara (who we really, really hope will be on the hot seat next term) tells it like it is on qualified immunity. Click here to listen. After White House correspondent for Playboy gets into a shouting match with a former aide to President Trump at a press event, the correspondent’s hard-pass credentials (which allow on–demand access to the White House) are suspended for 30 days—the first time in over 50 years of issuing such credentials that anyone’s have ever been suspended or terminated. D.C. Circuit: The White House can certainly punish “rogue, mooning journalists,” but first it must give them…
The Ticket: Mayor Nan WhaleyMayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio, joins staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere to on an episode of The Ticket: Politics From The Atlantic. She details how dire the fiscal situation is for many of America’s cities—and what the impact could be if they don’t get more help from the federal government.Listen to their full conversation here:Subscribe to The Ticket on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.What follows is an edited and condensed transcript:Edward-Isaac Dovere: Is it already clear in Dayton that there has been a big impact from this?Nan Whaley: The homicide rates are up like 50 percent in the city, and in cities across the state. I run a call every day with mayors across the state of Ohio and Cincinnati’s up about 170 percent.Dovere: What explains that?Whaley: Well, we have theories. The underground economy is…
This Social-Media Mob Was GoodThere is no doubt that social-media fury can go wrong. In one infamous instance, a young woman made a joke to her small circle on Twitter, just before boarding a plane to South Africa, about white people not getting AIDS. The joke was either racist or making fun of racism depending on your interpretation, but Twitter didn’t wait to find out. By the time the woman had landed, her name was trending worldwide, and she’d been fired from her job.Throngs on social media violate fundamental notions of fairness and due process: People may be targeted because of a misunderstanding or an out-of-context video. The punishment online mobs can mete out is often disproportionate. Being attacked and ridiculed by perhaps millions of people whom you have never met, and against whom you have no defenses, can be devastating and lead to real trauma.The vagaries of human nature…