Police Beat: A 20-second clip of video from the police shooting of a suspect in Elizabeth City North Carolina last week appears to have only left gaping questions and stirred outrage over the death of 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr.

  The mayor has declared a state of emergency after a week of peaceful protests.

  After being shown the video by the local sheriff, Brown’s family and their lawyer say he was shot in the back of the head as he attempted to drive away from deputies who had arrived to arrest him on a drug warrant. The full video has not been released.

  One of the family lawyers, Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, said the video showed Brown in his car in his driveway with his hands on the steering wheel. She said the video started with officers firing at Brown. The lawyer said at least five officers were facing the driver’s side of the car pointing their weapons, calling for Brown to show them his hands.

  “They’re shooting and saying, ‘Let me see your hands,’ at the same time,” Cherry-Lassiter said. One of Brown’s sons said, “My dad got executed trying to save his own life.” 

  The sheriff released a statement saying police bodycam videos can be hard to decipher and “They only tell part of the story.” 

  In a growing examination of policing across the country, the Justice Department is opening a sweeping investigation of the Louisville, Kentucky, police department spurred by the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death in a botched police raid at her home. 

  It’s the second announcement of such an investigation by the Biden administration in a week. The DOJ is also investigating the Minneapolis PD after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. 

 In Kentucky, the death of Taylor became one of the major incidents in the Black Lives movement. Officers with a no-knock drug warrant burst into her apartment with a battering ram and her boyfriend fired a shot in defense. The cops fired and killed the 26-year-old Taylor. They didn’t find any drugs.

  The investigation of the Louisville PD is what’s known as “pattern or practice,” examining whether the department has demonstrated a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.

Californication:  The petitions are in and California Gov. Gavin Newsom will face a recall vote fueled by Republican anger over pandemic shutdowns and the governor’s handling of the immigration crisis.

  Newsom didn’t help himself last November when, after calling on Californians to stay at home to curb the spread of Covid-19, he went to a birthday dinner for a lobbyist friend at an exclusive wine country restaurant. 

  The petition organizers topped the required 1.5 million required signatures by more than 126,000.

  Only once before has California had a recall when Gov. Gray Davis lost the office to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

By the Numbers: The US population in the decade of the 2000’s grew at its slowest rate since the 1930s while growth in the South and West is likely to increase Republican representation in Congress, according to the Census Bureau.

  Texas is gaining two seats in Congress and California loses a seat for the first time in history.

  Other gainers and losers; North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Montana, and Oregon, all plus one seat. 

  Minus one seat are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois.

  The census count is used to reapportion seats in Congress as well as votes in the Electoral College so critical in presidential elections. The head count is also used to determine distribution of billions of dollars in federal money as well as state and local planning for everything from schools to housing and hospitals.

Strapping Up: Every spate of mass shootings and murders brings a rush to gun stores by people who think they can defend themselves by strapping up.

  NPR reports that in the first three months of this year the FBI processed 11.8 million background checks for gun buyers compared to 9.9 million for the same stretch last year … and 2020 was a big year.

  While the US gets flooded with still more guns, the Supreme Court is taking up a case that will decide whether Americans have an unfettered right under the Second Amendment to carry a concealed weapon. Eight states have restrictions. The court has previously ruled that the right to have a gun is an individual right, not one associated with the militia, as the Second Amendment would seem to suggest.

The Spin Rack: President Biden is planning today to sign an executive order raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Biden is also looking to give the Internal Revenue Service an extra $80 billion to crack down on high income and corporate tax evaders. He thinks the effort will rake in an extra $700 billion over 10 years — The Chinese government attempted to put a blackout on the news that Chloé Zhao, who was born in China, won an Oscar directing for “Nomadland,” which also took home the prize for best picture. Chinese social media deleted or limited circulation of articles and posts about the ceremony Zhao. No reason was given, but she’s been critical of China and they don’t like that. — Russian dissident Alexei Navalny ended his prison hunger strike, but the government has ordered a shutdown of his anti-corruption foundation.

The Gossip Column: In the world of Keeping Up, the latest rumor is that the smart and appealing political analyst Van Jones is dating celebutante Kim Kardashian, whose marriage to Kanye West isn’t even cold yet. Van! Run for your life!

  Also, former model Paulina Porizkova, 56, and prolific writer/producer Aaron Sorkin, 59, came out as a couple at the Oscars. She married the lead singer of The Cars, Ric Ocasek, when she was 24 and he was 45. They separated in 2017 and he died suddenly in 2019, having left her out of his will.

  The Cars weren’t that good.

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