Social historians, looking at the many protests against police violence (protests taking place across America and in other countries) will be able (if imprecisely) to assess the motivations of these recent events.
Of two things one can be confident, without being a historian: these protests are in response to specific acts of law-enforcement violence, with evident racial bias, against specific people, notably the late George Floyd, but many others, before his death. (Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice, for example, was killed six years ago, in 2014.)
If no one had been injured or killed, especially having been injured or killed in evident and disproportionate numbers through racial bias, there would have been no protests. This is simply to say that the protests are grounded in real acts of violence against real people – these protests are a natural and legitimate response to injustice.
There’s one other point on which one can be confident: protests against these acts of specific, racially-disproportionate government violence are taking place after three years of Trumpism.
The simplest answer to why now is that civilized people saw violent, disproportionate police action against George Floyd, among others, and could endure these brutal offenses no longer.
It’s reasonable, however, to conclude that these offenses have been made worse for many people through the legitimate concern that Trumpism would excuse – and even approve – more of the same forever.
Generations have been too long; forever would be unbearably worse.
When viewers join a tour, they ride “virtually” with rangers on dusty roads. They visit locations that wild animals frequent, such as watering holes where elephants, rhinos, leopards and other animals go daily to drink. Each safari guide is paired with a camera operator, who films from the back of the vehicle.
The main goal is “game spotting,” a safari term for finding and identifying wildlife off the beaten tracks. When there is a sighting, the vehicle pulls over and the camera zooms in as the ranger explains what is happening.
Big cats are among the animals viewers can commonly see on the virtual safari.
Videos are available at WildEarth’s YouTube channel, with information on the daily times for live safari webcasts.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:34 PM, for 15h 18m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 57.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Fire Department Board meets via Zoom at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1944, American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.
Want tickets to President Donald Trump’s campaign rally next week in Oklahoma? Then you’ve got to agree you won’t sue him if you contract coronavirus.
The sign-up page for free tickets on the Trump campaign website comes with a liability waiver that says the campaign or other parties associated with the event next Friday at the BOK Center in Tulsa cannot be held liable for exposure to coronavirus.
“By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” the waiver says.
“By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.”
The event, which the Trump campaign officially announced Thursday, will be Trump’s first campaign rally since nationwide lockdowns took effect in March to slow the spread of COVID-19 and comes as the disease continues to rage across the country.
The disease already has infected 2 million Americans and killed nearly 114,000. Public health officials have warned that large gatherings could cause it to spread further.
On May 31, for example, Logan tweeted out an image of a document she alleged to be an antifa battle plan, claiming they had infiltrated law enforcement and provided a “riot” manual for protesters.
“For those of you still in denial about who is directing & controlling the protests – take a close look at this,” Logan tweeted.
That document, however, was merely a recirculated version of a hoax first peddledduring the April 2015 Baltimore riots over Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. There’s no proof that the overwrought document, which urges antifa activists to communicate with “agitorg” leaders and rendezvous at a mystery location called “GAMMA PRIME,” is real.
Fox News and Logan didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The following day, Logan posted a picture of a tweet purporting to come from a national antifa group threatening to terrorize majority-white neighborhoods. The tweet she cited read: “Tonight’s the night, Comrades…Tonight we say ‘Fuck The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours,” along with a black raised-fist emoji.
That tweet turned out to have come from a fake account linked to white-nationalist group Identity Europa posing as antifa while calling for violence. The fake antifa account even included the acronym “I.E.” in its logo, a clear reference to its ties to Identity Europa.
Trump is both ignorant and slow, but his aide Stephen Miller is neither. Knowing as much about these men, one reads that the Trump campaign has picked Juneteenth for a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
How can you further inflame racial tensions? Send the president, who has called those protesting for racial equality “thugs,” to a city infamous for the 1921 burning of Black Wall Street, on a day of symbolic significance to the struggle for Black civil rights in America.
A coincidence? Perhaps. For this to have been Trump’s idea, he’d have to know something about history and about people who are not himself, two subjects with which he has little familiarity. The notion floated by some that Stephen Miller, the White House’s most prominent white nationalist, lined the whole thing up may be more believable—a theory supported by the fact that Trump is also scheduled to accept his nomination in Jacksonville, Florida, on the anniversary of the day a mob of 200 white people chased down peaceful civil rights protesters.
Trump’s no one’s idea of a clever man, but Miller? Well, he’s malevolently clever. This may not be Miller’s doing, but he has the desire, willingness, and ability to arrange something of this sort.
Recent protests across America against excessive and biased use of police force began after ordinary people in those communities recorded official (to the point of murderous) actions, and then shared their recordings with others. It was not government – local, state, or federal – that promptly shared these recordings of excessive force; it was ordinary residents speaking while their local governments betrayed American ideals of proportionate force and transparency.
Those communities likely had processes, policies, and committees, but it was residents’ cameras that showed the dark truth about those processes, policies, and committees.
We also need to consistently shine light on the systemic part—to not drop the ball after the high-profile cases (that themselves can become voyeuristic spectacles) fade from the headlines, and to avoid the wide-eyed implication that “this is not who we are.” We need to look out for how we use language such as “riots” or “unarmed black man.” And we need to be serious about pursuing truth, not the he-said-she-said regurgitation of conflicting accounts.
Journalism has a choice, and it takes a side, whether we acknowledge that or not. We can be complicit in disinformation, sensationalism, or racialized narratives of law and order, or we can work to oppose them. And that choice is particularly stark at this moment, when gaslighting is so pervasive it can seem, in the words of MoJo‘s Nathalie Baptiste, “as if everyone from the highest levels of government, to police officers, and randoms on Twitter are embarking on a campaign to make you feel as if you’re just imagining the widespread brutality raining down from the state.”
The press should not be part of that list. But too often we are.
There’s a naive (at best) or deceptive (at worst) view that some communities are necessarily above reproach. This is fantastically false, and contrary to any serious understanding of human nature. (Fantastically – literally, a belief remote from reality.)
While the possibility of something is not proof of something, an assessment of reasonable possibilities should – and so must – begin with a recognition that there are no human places free from human failings.
If professional journalists struggle with candid reporting, it’s unpersuasive to the point of delusion to assume that goverment officials, themselves, can both make policy and honestly report on those policies. The hubris in an effort like that is enough to refill Whitewater’s Cravath Lake many times over.
Finding new people to play the same conflicted role as their predecessors will prove futile. (Politician-Staff Writer is no more convincing than Rock Star-Brain Surgeon.)
The 1984 film Gremlins had a 1990 sequel, Gremlins: The New Batch. Despite the passage of six years’ time, both films were about…gremlins. (“The Gremlins are back, and this time, they’ve taken control of a New York City media mogul’s high-tech skyscraper.”)
Thursday in Whitewater will partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 18m 00s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 67.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress appoints a Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
Over the previous week, thousands of National Guard troops from states across the country arrived in Washington, D.C., as part of the Trump administration’s response to the largely peaceful protests taking place across the city. After a great deal of controversy—including an argument over whether troops were allegedly kicked out of their hotels by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser—they have now departed back to their home states. But under what legal authority were they deployed to D.C. in the first place? The answer was not obvious, and the administration initially remained silent as to its reasoning. Now, in a letter to Mayor Bowser, Attorney General William Barr has cleared up that mystery, explaining that the out-of-state National Guard troops were there under the authority of 32 U.S.C. § 502(f).
In solving one mystery, however, Barr unearthed several more. One of two things is true: Either § 502(f) does not authorize the use of out-of-state National Guard troops in the manner in which they were deployed in Washington last week, or it does—and is therefore a stunningly broad authorization for the president to use the military at any time and for any reason, including as a backdoor around the Posse Comitatus Act. Simply put, either Barr is wrong, or he’s right—in which case Congress should immediately close the loophole he’s identified (and, apparently, seized upon).
Trump thinks power sounds like this: “Our country always wins. That is why I am taking immediate Presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America . . . dominate the streets . . . establish an overwhelming law-enforcement presence. . . . If a city or state refuses . . . I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. . . . We are putting everybody on warning. . . . One law and order and that is what it is. One law—we have one beautiful law.” To Trump, power sounds like the word “dominate,” repeated over and over on a leaked call with governors. It sounds like the silence of the men in uniform when they are asked who they are.
Trump got these ideas from television and Hollywood movies, and he had the intuition to recognize them. He knew what he wanted to imitate. We know that he likes the military and its parades. (A senior Administration official, speaking with the Daily Beast, attempted to downplay the President’s interest in tanks: “I think that is just one of the military words he knows.”) Perhaps he has seen many movies that feature the Black Hawk, that monster of military-industrial production, the metal embodiment of brute force. Perhaps Trump heard that, when Russia occupied Crimea, it flooded the peninsula with men in unmarked uniforms—they dominated without ever identifying themselves. Perhaps he heard the word “dominate” in his recent telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin.
Wednesday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 17m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 76% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1898, during the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines begin the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba
The rumor that shadowy leftists planned to start trouble in Great Falls, Montana, first appeared on the Facebook group of the Montana Liberty Coalition late last Wednesday afternoon.
“Heads up,” a man named Wayne Ebersole, who owns a local cover crop business, wrote. “Rumor has it that Antifa has scheduled a protest in Great Falls Friday evening at 5 p.m. in front of the Civic Center.” He asked the group if anyone had any more information, or if anyone was available to “protect businesses.”
“It has been confirmed through the police department,” one commenter replied. “They have a permit for tomorrow night and are in town now.”
They weren’t. Police later said they had been “working to quell the rumor.” But that didn’t stop it from sweeping across various right-wing groups. Within 24 hours, a screenshot of Ebersole’s post had been posted to the Facebook Group for the Montana Militia, whose members have recently dedicated themselves to tracking the perceived threat of antifa all over the state, including coordinating armed responses to “protect” their towns. (Ebersole did not respond to a request for comment.)
Protesters had only begun assembling peacefully in Idaho when a Facebook page for retired police officers advised its followers to stay on high alert.
“We will protect our neighborhoods,” it vowed.
So when early reports about potential violence surfaced a day later — claiming “ANTIFA agitators” were storming the state this week — scores of residents took to the streets. Armed with military-style assault rifles, they stood guard in places such as Coeur d’Alene, a resort town of 50,000 on a lake in northwest Idaho.
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As vigils and protest actions unfolded in Idaho this week, local officials across the state confirmed that not a single participant was known to have defiled a home or storefront in the name of “antifa,” a loose label attributed to far-left activists. Many of the rumors about violent protests originated from dubious Facebook posts, often shared widely and rarely debunked, residents there said.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly blamed anti-fascist activists for the violence that has erupted during demonstrations over George Floyd’s death, but federal court records show no sign of so-called antifa links so far in cases brought by the Justice Department.
NPR has reviewed court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges in connection with the unrest. As of Tuesday morning, none is alleged to have links to the antifa movement.
Polling from Morning Consult illustrates well the limitations of Trump’s base-only strategy: his support (base and supportive voters) represents less than needed for re-election. That support is, in fact, notably consistent in its inadequacy:
Over many months, including before the brunt of the pandemic, Trump has been stuck in a weak position. This does not mean that he cannot be re-elected if conditions change; it means that he is (and obviously has been governing) as a minority president imposing himself on a larger, opposed number of Americans.
A common error in small rural communities is the persistent, false claim that local officials are examples of a local exceptionalism that makes them implicitly immune from the flaws and mistakes that beset the rest of humanity. Under this thinking, while there may be problems in the wider world, there are no local examples of these problems, so our officials, our city government, our school district, and our university have no or precious few of the natural failings of seven billion other people living outside the community.
This is charitably seen as a child-like naïveté, and more realistically as an expression of (sinful) local pride.
The champions of Old Whitewater (a state of mind rather than a single person) have mostly held to the idea of local exceptionalism. Simply replacing older adherents of a false view with younger adherents of the same ludicrous notion does not elevate the view — it debases the younger adherents.
The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to protest police abuse following the death in custody of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.
Similar protests had erupted across the country. Many were peaceful, but some included property destruction and clashes with police.
At about 6:30 p.m., just north of the White House, federal police in riot gear fired gas canisters and used grenades containing rubber pellets to scatter the largely peaceful demonstrators. Their actions cleared the way for the president, surrounded by the nation’s top law enforcement and military leaders, to walk to the historic St. John’s Church for a three-minute photo op. Watch how a remarkable hour of Trump’s presidency unfolded.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with scattered late afternoon thundershowers, and a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 16m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 84.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM via GoToMeeting.
On this day in 1973, Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.
In today’s world, virtually anyone can be a videographer and filmmaker. The combination of smart phones, video recording apps, and social media platforms have generated a revolution in public empowerment. Rather than having to take the word of African Americans over the police, people can see the violence for themselves and demand justice.
These factors should explain why recorded observations of police brutality against African Americans trigger protests, even during a global pandemic. Technology is becoming part of the story regarding how marginalized populations in the U.S. and across the world are recording injustice and thereby, gaining personal empowerment. Leveraging the internet, civilian-generated video content can move public opinion toward more critical views of law enforcement and mass incarceration.
The core question is this: In this polarized, dangerous moment, what are journalists supposed to be?
Pose that question to most members of the public, and you might get an answer something like this: “Just tell me the bare facts. Leave your interpretation out of it. And don’t be on anyone’s side.”
Every piece of reporting — written or spoken, told in text or in images — is the product of choices. Every article approaches its subject from somebody’s perspective. Every digital home page, every printed front page, every 30-minute newscast, every one of the news alerts blowing up your phone, every radio talk show is the product of decision-making.
We choose what to focus on, what to amplify, what to investigate and examine.
That’s why the simplistic “just the unadorned facts” can be such a canard. And that’s why the notion to “represent all points of view equally” is absurd and sometimes wrongheaded.
“Journalism is not stenography” is a refrain from an astute editor I know.
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Let’s take the New York Times example. Plenty of well-respected media people are saying that the much-discussed opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) [advocating the use of the active military to suppress civilian protests] absolutely should have been published.
“We need to hear all points of view, especially those we disagree with,” is their reasoning. And some even argue that those who object to the piece on the grounds that it is incendiary and factually flawed are a mob of coddled activists masquerading as objective journalists.
That argument can be dismantled in a nanosecond. Should the denialist views of, say, Alex Jones of Infowars on the Sandy Hook massacre be given a prestigious platform, too? But Cotton is a prominent political figure, you say? By that logic, the lies of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway should be welcomed on news-discussion shows daily because she’s close to the president.
On CBS’s Face the Nation, United States Attorney General William Barr offered his scientific assessment of the use of pepper spray, by contending that “pepper spray is not a chemical irritant…it’s not a chemical.” (Seetranscript, Face the Nation, 6.7.20).
As science — This is false – and wackily ignorant: of course pepper spray is a chemical irritant, as pepper spray is of chemical composition and irritates those against whom it is used. Barr must think – or hopes others will think – that the natural world is not composed of chemicals. Chemicals are part of the natural order, and are not merely of human design.
The claim that substances from ‘natural’ sources are not made of chemicals is patently incorrect. Pretty much everything around us is made of chemicals, an apple, for example naturally contains around 300 different chemicals. These include formaldehyde and cyanide which are well-known to be harmful to humans in quantities far larger than found in a single apple.
Does Barr think that chemistry describes only the products of Bayer or Dow, and so there were no chemicals before those companies were founded? Under this reasoning, perhaps he thinks that there was no water before Aquafina and Dasani.
As rhetoric — Barr’s interview on Face the Nation would only usefully appeal to those who might be persuadable about Trump’s policies (those already committed will likely stay that way). It’s futile – and counterproductive – to advance a false claim about chemistry when all critics need show is what happens when people are exposed to pepper spray and pepper balls.
