Charles M. Blow:
At some point between the moment a Missouri grand jury refused to indict a police officer who had shot and killed Michael Brown on a Ferguson street and the moment a New York grand jury refused to indict a police officer who choked and killed Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk — on video, as he struggled to utter the words, “I can’t breathe!” — a counternarrative to this nation’s calls for change has taken shape.
This narrative paints the police as under siege and unfairly maligned while it admonishes — and, in some cases, excoriates — those demanding changes in the wake of the Ferguson shooting. (Those calling for change now include the president of the United States and the United States attorney general, I might add.)
The argument is that this is not a perfect case, because Brown — and, one would assume, now Garner — isn’t a perfect victim and the protesters haven’t all been perfectly civil, so therefore any movement to counter black oppression that flows from the case is inherently flawed. But this is ridiculous and reductive, because it fails to acknowledge that the whole system is imperfect and rife with flaws. We don’t need to identify angels and demons to understand that inequity is hell.
John McWhorter:
Are we trying to create a humanity devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men? The two aren’t the same. A world without racism would be a world without dirt. A world where episodes like what has happened just this year to Garner, Brown, John Crawford, Akai Gurley, and Tamir Rice is much more plausible. We need special prosecutors, body cameras, and, if you ask me, an end to the war on drugs.
As such, we must be pragmatic. I know the people protesting Michael Brown’s death nationwide are sincere. But it’s easy to forget that in cases like this, sincerity is supposed to be forward-focused. It’s all too human for people to end up mistaking the heightened emotions, the threats, the media attention, the catharsis, as progress itself. But drama alone burns fast and bright. Think about how Trayvon is already—admit it—seeming more like history than the present.
Are we really committed to this thing lasting past the winter?
More politics and policy below the fold.
J David Goodman/NY Times:
Joel Berger, a civil rights lawyer who worked for the city’s Law Department, said that the criminal justice system was often ill suited to handle allegations of police misconduct. That can be particularly true in places like Staten Island, where support for the police is so strong. “There’s always the possibility, Staten Island being Staten Island, that they won’t indict,” Mr. Berger said.
Eli Perencevich:
Back on clinical service again and having more thoughts on poor hospital design. Last month I wondered why there were no stethoscope wipes available outside of every patient room. This month while caring for patients with C. difficile and viral gastroenteritis infections, I looked over and noticed toilets without lids. Of course most toilets in hospitals (and many public spaces) lack lids. Reasons given for lack of lids are (a) lids might be hard to lift for some folks and (b) lids would be another surface to clean. But lids also prevent the aerosolization of pathogens into the environment, as Mike discussed three years ago. Lack of toilet lids in hospitals is a patient safety issue and there should be no excuse for not having and using them.
A more graphic reminder
here.
Jason Plautz:
Plummeting gas prices have pushed car buyers away from smaller, greener cars and back into their traditional comfort zone: big SUVs and light-duty trucks.
Amid robust sales last month, automakers saw consumers flock toward larger cars, while shunning traditional small cars. And although the strong sales are good news for carmakers right now, that could create problems later as the manufacturers work to meet tightening federal fuel economy standards.
"It is a fact that sales of our most energy-efficient vehicles mirror gas prices," said Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Auto Alliance, the lobbying arm for American carmakers. "When gas is more costly, sales of high-mileage vehicles rises too, and vice versa. While low energy prices offer good news for our customers, it makes the steep climb to [fuel economy] compliance even more challenging."
So you think American politics are complicated? How about this, from
the Guardian?
The bones of the king under the car park have delivered further shocks, 527 years after his death and more than two years after his remains were discovered in Leicester: Richard III was a blue-eyed blond, and the present Queen may not be descended from John of Gaunt and Edward III, the lineage on which the Tudor claim to the throne originated.
Five anonymous living donors, all members of the extended family of the present Duke of Beaufort, who claim descent from both the Plantagenets and Tudors through the children of John of Gaunt, gave DNA samples which should have matched Y chromosomes extracted from Richard’s bones. But none did.
Since Richard’s identity was proved by his mitochondrial DNA, handed down in an unbroken chain through the female line from his sister to two living relatives, the conclusion is stark: there is a break in the claimed line of Beaufort descent, what the scientists described as “a false paternity event”, which may also affect the ancestry of their distant cousins, the Windsors.
PS You can't tell
the players without a
scorecard.