RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/mourn-justice-on-the-anniversary-of-george-floyds-death-too/

Among the casualties of the tragedy was equal justice under the law.

Today marks two years since George Floyd died in Minneapolis. His death might’ve just passed through the news cycle, were it not for that video captured by a bystander. It became a “day that will live in infamy” to all sides, for the harrowing circumstances of his death. To progressives, it was the pinnacle of “police brutality.” Conservatives mark the day as the beginning of the unchecked nationwide riots that erupted in the name of “racial justice.”

There is much to mourn on May 25. Floyd’s unnecessary death tops that list — but also the loss of law and order that followed and the erosion of impartial justice.

In the days after May 25, 2020, the four officers involved were fired. Mobs led by Democratic politicians such as Maxine Waters and Black Lives Matter formed early on and demanded that Derek Chauvin, the lead accused, and others be judged guilty, as prosecutors including Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison announced their intent to bring charges.

The egregious act was, after all, caught on camera, so the swift and harsh actions were hardly a surprise. But the Chauvin case that followed was a mess in many regards. The disgraced officer did stand before a jury, but one that wasn’t sequestered during the trial — i.e., quarantined from public knowledge about the case — and that was bombarded with the anti-Chauvin messaging in the corporate media that all of us received. The media released long polemics against his innocence every day.

As Chauvin was the most hated man in America, the presiding judge should have taken extra steps to maintain the jury’s constitutionally guaranteed impartiality. Yet jurors were free to hear protest leaders threaten violence, were they to return a verdict of not guilty.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/05/25/warning-biden-is-already-plotting-to-restart-his-disinformation-board/

No bad idea ever dies in Washington. Once it takes root, it will reemerge in another form. So, all the huzzahs about the demise of the Biden administration’s Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board” are premature.

As we note in our I&I/TIPP Poll, the board attracted widespread hatred among the public, with 55% saying that they wouldn’t trust it to decide what is disinformation fairly. Among independents, 75% didn’t trust it, which is close to the 81% of Republicans who said they couldn’t trust such a government board. Among “free speech” Democrats, in stark contrast to Republicans and independents, 73% said they trusted the board to be fair.

“No doubt, both White House and congressional Democrat internal polling showed similar results,” Terry Jones notes.

But don’t declare victory just yet.

For starters, team Biden said it would only put a “pause” on the board in the wake of a furious backlash from the public and revelations that the woman chosen to head it had herself peddled disinformation on numerous occasions.

During this 75-day “pause,” the Homeland Security Advisory Council will review the board and make “recommendations on how the department can garner public trust surrounding its disinformation efforts.” (Note statement says “how” not “if.”)

https://www.city-journal.org/terror-in-new-york-subway-tunnels

On Sunday, Daniel Enriquez became the New York City subway’s latest “random” crime victim, shot in the chest at close range and killed as he traveled from Brooklyn to Manhattan for midmorning brunch. Enriquez was the fourth person to die by violence on the subway this year, and the third to be killed by a stranger. Each of the four subway killings has something in common with the others: justified intervention by police, prosecution, or incarceration could have prevented it. A few years ago, it likely would have. New York is suffering soaring crime because it has abruptly switched its justice system from enlightened prevention to gruesome mop-up.

The city’s justice system is still good at solving the most serious crimes. Just hours after Enriquez’s murder, police identified a suspect: 25-year-old Andrew Abdullah. But Abdullah’s background points up the fact that there shouldn’t have been a serious crime to solve in the first place. He has a criminal history that stretches back to his teen years. He has 19 arrests and served a state sentence for a previous gun crime. Just six months after winning parole on that conviction, the Daily News reports, Abdullah was “quickly busted again in January 2020” for carrying a loaded gun. His two most recent outstanding cases are for domestic violence and possession of a stolen vehicle. In the car-theft case, just last month, a Brooklyn judge, following guidelines set by New York State’s bail “reform” law, released him without bail.

Like many offenders who ratchet up their lower-level violence to homicide, Abdullah, who has now been apprehended, isn’t the kind of criminal who just made a mistake in the heat of passion and deserves a second chance. When he was 16, he allegedly accosted and sexually assaulted three women in Central Park, all strangers to him, within moments. But New York State’s criminal justice system allowed this antisocial behavior to escalate until, allegedly, he killed Daniel Enriquez on the train.

https://americanmind.org/features/what-trump-and-covid-revealed/what-covid-hath-wrought/

The hard facts—and hopeful opportunities—of a post-pandemic world.

Glenn Ellmers’s analysis of COVID and Trump represents a classic, and effective, account of the situation from the perspective of declining liberty and adherence to traditional values. But though it is important and necessary to hold onto our highest ideals, I would like to emphasize what is actually taking place on the ground and its likely long-term implication.

Statistics show that COVID accelerated economic, demographic, and geographic trends which were already existent, but rarely acknowledged. These trends include large-scale migration to the south, the west, and the suburbs. COVID also, as Ellmers suggests, sharpened the conflict between many Americans and the ruling “expert” class, who, unlike most Americans, actually flourished under COVID.

I am less sure that Trump was a force for good in all this, given his profound personal failings and mixed messaging during the pandemic. Yet he did stir up dissent against the overweening policies of some governors. In this sense the health crisis intensified an already existing political one. Looking forward, post-COVID reality has seen the emergence of powerful populist politics in both parties, and a marked drop in public esteem for the nation’s once-revered institutions.

Funding the New Elites

In the short run the pandemic strengthened the position of the ruling metropolitan elites centered in Puget Sound, the Bay Area, and New York City. Financial and technology moguls’ net worth has surged during the pandemic, while many businesses in the analog economy suffered devastatingly. Overall, poor and minority communities endured fatalities at twice the average rate of other areas. Minorities and the poor also often lost their jobs, which usually could not be done remotely. Their housing, health needs, and reliance on transit made them all the more vulnerable.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/25/dont-surrender-to-do-somethingism-on-guns/

Law-abiding Americans have no obligation to take ownership of a madman’s actions.

Before we even knew how the killer of 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, had obtained his guns, Chris Murphy was engaging in his customary performative emotionalism on the Senate floor, literally begging Republicans to “compromise.”

Compromise on what exactly? Murphy has never once offered a single proposal that would have deterred any of these mass shooters. Literally minutes after his routine, Murphy was asked about the obvious mental illness prevalent among most of these shooters. “Spare me the bullsh-t about mental illness,” the Connecticut senator responded, “ripping” the GOP. “We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world.” That’s how serious he is about compromise.

Whether America is more prone to mental illness or not, these incidents are almost exclusively perpetrated by young men who have exhibited serious anti-social behavior.