George Floyd’s Black body on trial • how to make cops pay civil damages • Maxine Waters gets it • Brian Sicknick's insurgent cause of death • ICE and Border Patrol are not making us safer
Introducing the weekend edition of the Editorial Board!
Hi! Some subscribers tell me they love reading articles by Lindsay Beyerstein, Issac J. Bailey, Mia Brett and other contributors to the Editorial Board, but they don’t love getting so many emails. So I have chosen a new format. I’m going to keep sending my own columns once a day around lunchtime. I’ll post new material every day throughout the week to the website. But I’m going to hold off on sending that new material to your inbox until the weekend. So you get more of what you want, less of what you don’t. In any case, this is a work-in-progress and I appreciate your patience as I work this out. Subscribers who can’t wait for the weekend can always visit the website or they can follow me on Twitter, where I post new material fresh daily and talk about politics.
Follow me at @johnastoehr.
This new material is for subscribers only. So … don’t miss out! Support the Editorial Board and its mission to rebuild civil society and restore the common good!
On that note, here’s the weekend edition …
April 23, 2021
George Floyd’s Black body was on trial
By Magdi Semrau
It may be tempting to attribute this illogical argument to desperation on the part of the defense. This would be a mistake. Chauvin’s defense was sadly rational. The prejudice it sought to exploit is pervasive and longstanding. In American society, Black people are viewed as both preternaturally strong as well as uniquely weak.
READ MORE
April 22, 2021
There was a brief time when civil courts could force cops to pay damages. Then SCOTUS stepped in
By Mia Brett
One of the biggest impediments to police accountability for killing civilians is the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity. Qualified immunity shields police officers from civil lawsuits brought by the public to protect government officials who make “reasonable” mistakes. This means that people who have had their civil rights violated by police officers cannot sue and they must rely on disciplinary action by the police department or the prosecutor bringing charges to hold officers accountable.
READ MORE
April 22, 2021
Maxine Waters understands why violence from an armed-agent of the state is existential
By Issac J. Bailey
That doesn’t mean, though, what she said was wrong or anything like what former President Donald Trump did leading up to and on January 6, Insurrection Day, a phony comparison too many conservatives have been making. Waters spoke for millions frustrated by a criminal “justice” system that has too infrequently delivered justice in cases like Chauvin’s despite overwhelming evidence of guilt beyond doubt.
READ MORE
April 21, 2021
Capitol cop Brian Sicknick died of natural causes, but don't kid yourself. The insurgency killed him
By Lindsay Beyerstein
Sicknick suffered devastating strokes caused by a blood clot in his basilar artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the brainstem. His death is considered natural because he died from a medical crisis rather than from trauma or an allergic reaction to the bear spray. But the ruling does not mean Sicknick’s death was a random mishap.
READ MORE
April 19, 2021
ICE and the Border Patrol consume $20 billion a year, but have not made us safer. Just the opposite
By Elizabeth F. Cohen
The very phrase “border security” is misleading, training our minds on ominous-sounding but imaginary threats from outside the US and distracting us from the very real threat posed by an enormous militarized force charged with policing immigration.