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The Deadly Toll of Warrior Policing on Steroids

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“This is warrior policing on steroids.”—Paul Butler, law professor That the police officers charged with the beating death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols are Black is a distraction. Don’t be distracted. This latest instance of police brutality is not about racism in policing or black-on-black violence. The entire institution is corrupt. The old guard—made up of fine, decent, lawful police officers who took seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace—has given way to a new guard hyped up on their own authority and the power of the badge who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.” Memphis’ now-disbanded Scorpion unit provides a glimpse into the looming crisis in policing that has gone beyond mere militarization. Unfortunately, while much has been said about the

The Roots of American Dysfunctionality, Part 1

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Part 1 | Part 2 Among the best examples of the dysfunctional nature of American society are the mass killings that take place on a regular basis. As everyone knows, many of them occur without any rational motive. Someone just decides that he is going to go out and kill a bunch of people. Whenever one of these mass killings take place, inevitably there are those who call for gun control. If only America had stricter gun-control laws, or if only America could cause all guns to disappear, the argument goes, the mass killings would stop. It’s all because of guns, they say. Yet, practically every family in Switzerland is armed to the teeth. The Swiss certainly don’t have daily mass killings. The same holds true for nineteenth-century Americans. They had virtually no gun-control laws, but they didn’t experience this daily mass-killing phenomenon. Moreover, some of today’s mass killings take place in states or localities that have strict gun-control laws. If we ...

Biden Weaponizes Hate to Win Votes

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Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” President Biden confirmed this axiom in his raging speeches prior to the mid-term congressional elections. Throughout his career, Biden has relied on a two-step routine —first appealing to “our better angels” before demagogically vilifying his opponents. In December 2020, after the Electoral College had certified his presidential victory, he declared, “Now it is time to turn the page, to unite, to heal.” In his inaugural address last year, Biden appealed to his audience: “We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.” Except when turning up the temperature. After rowdy protestors briefly entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Biden and his Democratic allies portrayed any Republican who did not unquestioningly endorse the 2020 election as a traitor. President-elect Joe Biden condemned the protestors as “domestic terrorists” and said their action “borders on sedition.” (Actually, Republican members of Congress who objected ...