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Category: Law/Crime

Police officers accused of brutal violence often have a history of complaints by citizens

Police officers accused of brutal violence often have a history of complaints by citizens

Police work to keep demonstrators back during a protest in Lafayette Square Park on May 30, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Jill McCorkel, Villanova University As protests against police violence and racism continue in cities throughout the U.S., the public is learning that several of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville share a history of complaints by citizens of brutality or misconduct. Decades of research on police shootings…

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The law-enforcement abuses that don’t bother Trump

The law-enforcement abuses that don’t bother Trump

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write: President Donald Trump has seen abusive law enforcement before—stared it in the face, called it by its name, denounced it. He did not, to be sure, see the killing of George Floyd—the latest African American man to be killed by a police officer—as a reason to condemn abusive policing, although video of Floyd’s death prompted millions of Americans to recoil in horror and sparked outrage, protest, and violence nationwide. The president has been mostly…

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Judge Sullivan says he is not required to ‘rubber stamp’ DOJ’s bid to dismiss Flynn case

Judge Sullivan says he is not required to ‘rubber stamp’ DOJ’s bid to dismiss Flynn case

The Washington Post reports: U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan should not be required to act as a “mere rubber stamp” for the government’s unusual move to undo the guilty plea of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the judge’s lawyers told a federal appeals court in Washington on Monday. Sullivan’s attorneys asked the appeals court to stay on the sidelines to give the judge an opportunity to ensure the “integrity of the judicial process” and to rule…

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Trump is the looter

Trump is the looter

David Frum writes: When pro-Trump protesters descended on state capitals to demand reopening, nobody shot at them, not even when they endangered police lives by screaming into their faces, unmasked, during a pandemic. Nobody shot at them when they carried weapons into state legislative buildings to intimidate state legislators and governors. And of course, those protesters received the full-throated endorsement of President Trump. “Liberate Minnesota!” Trump tweeted on April 17. Threats of armed violence by pro-Trump demonstrators forced the shutdown…

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The U.S. has opposite systems of justice – one for white people, one for people of color

The U.S. has opposite systems of justice – one for white people, one for people of color

Paul Butler writes: On Friday the CNN journalist Omar Jimenez was arrested on live television as he covered protests of police brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jimenez identifies as African American and Hispanic, and when the cops confronted him, he did just what minority parents tell their kids to do. Jimenez cooperated; he was respectful, deferential even. He said: “We can move back to where you like … We are getting out of your way … Wherever you want us, we…

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Police violence escalates unrest across America

Police violence escalates unrest across America

Slate reports: The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane. Here are some of the ways law enforcement officers escalated the national unrest. Share widely: National guard and…

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Police are deliberately targeting journalists during George Floyd protests

Police are deliberately targeting journalists during George Floyd protests

Bellingcat reports: Bellingcat has identified and collected multiple instances of US law enforcement deliberately targeting journalists during the protests against the killing of George Floyd. The arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis while broadcasting live on air on May 29th was a shocking event, especially in a country with such strong protections on freedom of speech. However as of the time of writing we have identified at least 50 separate incidents where journalists have been attacked by law enforcement….

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Chief Justice Roberts upholds Covid-19 restrictions on churches, scolds Kavanaugh

Chief Justice Roberts upholds Covid-19 restrictions on churches, scolds Kavanaugh

Mark Joseph Stern writes: Friday at midnight, the Supreme Court rejected a church’s challenge to California’s COVID-19 restrictions by a 5–4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberals. In a pointed opinion, Roberts indicated that he will not join conservative judges’ escalating efforts to override public health measures in the name of religious freedom. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent, by contrast, falsely accused the state of religious discrimination in an extremely misleading opinion that omits the most important facts…

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The murder of George Floyd

The murder of George Floyd

Steve Almond writes: On Monday, police in Minneapolis were called to the scene of an alleged check forgery. They detained the suspect, a 46-year-old African American security guard named George Floyd, and eventually forced him onto the ground. Police claim Floyd resisted arrest, though explosive video footage from a nearby restaurant calls that claim into question. Three officers then held Floyd’s body down, while one kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Because the entirety of the incident was filmed,…

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Graham urges senior judges to step aside before November election so Republicans can fill vacancies

Graham urges senior judges to step aside before November election so Republicans can fill vacancies

The Washington Post reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday urged federal judges who are in their mid-to-late 60s to step aside so that Republicans, increasingly nervous about holding the Senate majority in the November election as they eye President Trump’s poll numbers, can fill the vacancies now. Graham made the comments in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “This is an historic opportunity,” Graham said. “We’ve put over 200 federal judges on the…

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Appeals court ruling suggests little legal traction for Trump’s anti-Twitter campaign

Appeals court ruling suggests little legal traction for Trump’s anti-Twitter campaign

Politico reports: A ruling that emerged from a powerful federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday morning is strong evidence that the courts are unlikely to be receptive to President Donald Trump’s claims that he and his political supporters are being silenced by social media platforms like Twitter. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit resoundingly rejected a lawsuit the conservative legal organization Freedom Watch and right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer filed in 2018 against four major technology companies:…

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Secretary of State Pompeo under investigation; Trump fires State Department Inspector General

Secretary of State Pompeo under investigation; Trump fires State Department Inspector General

Politico reports: President Donald Trump has removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — the latest in a series of moves against independent government watchdogs in recent months. Trump informed Congress of his intent to oust Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed to the role in 2013 by then President Barack Obama, in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday night. The president said he “no…

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Former federal judge who brought down crime boss, John Gotti, steps into Flynn case

Former federal judge who brought down crime boss, John Gotti, steps into Flynn case

CNN reports: Nearly three decades ago, John Gleeson made his name by successfully prosecuting the man known as “The Teflon Don.” Now he finds himself mixed up in a case tied to the modern-day inheritor of that nickname. On Wednesday, Gleeson became the latest participant in the turbulent criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, after the federal judge overseeing the case appointed Gleeson to oppose the Justice Department’s effort to drop it. An esteemed…

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‘We’re the Wild West,’ Gov. Tony Evers says after Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks stay-at-home order

‘We’re the Wild West,’ Gov. Tony Evers says after Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks stay-at-home order

The Washington Post reports: On Wednesday night in the heart of downtown Platteville, Wis., just hours after the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out the state’s stay-at-home order, Nick’s on 2nd was packed wall to wall, standing room only. It was sometime after 10 p.m. when “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” by the Hollies came over the sound system and a bartender took out his camera. In a Twitter broadcast, he surveyed the room of maskless patrons crammed together,…

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Judge slams the brakes on William Barr’s abuse of power

Judge slams the brakes on William Barr’s abuse of power

Elie Honig writes: Just when it seemed that Attorney General William Barr would get away with intentionally tanking his own Justice Department’s conviction of President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a federal judge on Wednesday slammed on the brakes and now is demanding real answers. There’s a common saying that the courts are the final bulwark against tyranny. “Tyranny” may be a bit much here, but Judge Emmet Sullivan certainly seems to be taking a stand against…

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Burr to step down as intel panel chairman as stock scandal deepens

Burr to step down as intel panel chairman as stock scandal deepens

Politico reports: Sen. Richard Burr will step down temporarily as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee while under investigation by the FBI for his stock trading, a political earthquake that shocked Republican senators on Thursday and upended the Senate’s daily business. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Burr informed him he would step aside at the end of the day on Friday, news that followed the FBI serving him a search warrant and seizing his cell phone Wednesday evening…

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