Police Examine Tactics, Good Day for George

Choke Hold on the Country: As demonstrations continue in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police departments across the country are beginning to re-examine their use of force policies, even as some cops continue to carry out random acts of brutality.

  In Minneapolis, authorities are immediately banning the use of chokeholds and strangle holds previously allowed in life-or-death situations. Authorities are also moving to ban neck restraints in Colorado and New Mexico.

  Seattle is re-examining its crowd control techniques and temporarily banning  the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators.

  Some cops and police departments still feel justified in anything they do. They can’t get it through their thick skulls that virtually everything these days is on video. In New York, the cops have been accused of being particularly aggressive, in the last few nights, surrounding demonstrators, giving them no place to go, then charging in and arresting.

  Two officers in Buffalo have been suspended and might face criminal charges for shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground, knocking him out. As a result, 57 members of the city’s riot squad have resigned from the unit in protest. Buffalo Police Benevolent Association president John Evans said “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders.”

  Now where have we heard that before? 

From the Streets: The protesting, rioting, and looting in American cities over the past 11 days has been the work of peaceful protesters, the poor, angry young men, antifa followers, white supremacists, and plain old opportunists.

  Our friend Lenny Manfred, a news cameraman in Los Angeles, posted the following in the early morning hours of May 31 after a night of recording the action:   

  “And it even wasn’t so much the protesters doing the looting, because the protesters were on foot. These were people in cars, lines of cars, stopping in the middle of the road to run in and get what they could. I saw someone in a current Mercedes Benz trying to fit a large flat screen TV in the back seat, and when they could not close the door, they just drove off with the door open. I saw top of the line BMWs, and more Mercedes Benzes, pulling over to loot. And it wasn’t all people of color either, it was a mix of people. People that seemed to have money, but saw an opportunity to get free stuff. It made me a little sad to see this side of humanity. This materialistic people, not looting to get food or even necessities, but looting to get a Gucci bag, fancy shoes, art from an art gallery, and those giant flat screens.” 

By the Numbers: The government reported a surprising addition of 2.5 million jobs to the economy in May, dropping the national unemployment rate from 14.7 to 13.3 percent. More than half the additions came in the food and booze industries as they took advantage of the economic stimulus program and restaurants and bars at least partially re-open.

  As a result, the stock market rocketed yesterday, the Dow Jones closing up more than 800 points.

  Republican leaders are already talking about ending economic stimulus even though months’ worth of activity has been lost. Remember, more than 42 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last three months.

  Never one to say the right thing at the right time, President Trump invoked the name of George Floyd while speaking of the economy. He said, “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ It’s a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day.”

  George Floyd didn’t have a great day. He’s dead.

Re-Setting the Ball: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted yesterday that the football league was wrong to ignore players who spoke out against police brutality. The league actually cast out quarterback Colin Kaepernick who in 2016 repeatedly took a knee during the national anthem.

  “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people,” Goodell said in a video statement. “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter.”

  President Trump, who made Kaepernick’s protests an election campaign issue, tweeted yesterday to the uber-patriotic that, “We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag – NO KNEELING!”

Pandemic: This morning, 109,143 Americans are dead of the coronavirus, an additional 932 in the past 24 hours. With nearly 1.9 million cases and the most deaths of any country by far, the US has been hardest hit in the world.

  If you go by deaths per million of population, though, it’s a different story. Belgium is at the top with 830, and the United Kingdom is second with 587. The US is ninth in deaths per million, with 320.

Headline Hunting. Here’s a story we’re not going to read: “Spanish porn star arrested after man dies during ‘mystical’ toad venom ritual.”

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