Vox:
As previously reported, police officers generally tend to exhibit a higher bias against black people, making officers more likely to shoot black suspects than white ones. This bias can eventually be mitigated by training, but that's quite a long-game solution. In the meantime, to keep tabs on officers as well as the public they serve, the use of police vehicle dash cams and body cameras has been on the rise. Cellphone footage has taken off, too, with the proliferation of smartphones and social media. While some of these videos have uncovered hidden truths about the killings of unarmed black people, surveillance can also be helpful to police, as video evidence is statistically more likely to clear officers of wrongdoing.
Naturally, there is the human factor of manipulation of dash cameras and body cameras; the equipment must be turned on to capture the action, after all. Bystander footage can also be manipulated or edited, but on the whole, capturing such footage has been the difference between someone like former North Charleston, South Carolina, officer Michael Slager — who initially claimed he shot Walter Scott this year because Scott grabbed his Taser — going free or being held responsible for his actions, since his initial claims were dispelled by bystander footage. For many high-profile cases of police brutality and excessive force against black men in particular, the deciding factor has been the existence of video footage. Otherwise, it's the officer's word against a witness's — if there was a witness at all.
Jamil Smith:
Revisiting Tamir’s death reminds us to stand up against those who would prefer to excuse these killings. In the latest episode of my podcast, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz reminded me of Congressman John Lewis’s call to make“necessary trouble” in order to tell the stories of boys like Tamir. We need to confront a toxic cultural climate in which a 12-year-old black boy with a toy gun is seen as a deadly threat. And we need to push back against the likes of Donald Trump, who would have us believe that these deaths are somehow just.
Mercutio Southall, Jr. interrupted a Trump rally and promptlygot his ass beat for it. Several white male Trump supporters assaulted the Birmingham activist Saturday morning after he began chanting “Black Lives Matter!” As he was being kicked and punched, a Washington Post reporter saw one of the men put his hands around Southall’s neck. A woman looking on reportedly yelled, “Don’t choke him!”
Trump himself wasn’t as concerned with Southall’s health as he was with continuing his speech. “Get him the hell out of here, will you, please?” Trump yelled from the podium. Security made sure that happened, but that wasn’t enough for the Republican front-runner. He doubled down the next morning, telling Fox News that “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.” He added, “I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a trouble-maker who was looking to make trouble.”
This was not the first time Trump fans have committed violence in his name.
Nate Silver:
Quite often, however, the Trump’s-really-got-a-chance! case is rooted almost entirely in polls. If nothing Trump has said so far has harmed his standing with Republicans, the argument goes, why should we expect him to fade later on?
One problem with this is that it’s not enough for Trump to merely avoid fading. Right now, he has 25 to 30 percent of the vote in polls among theroughly 25 percent of Americans who identify as Republican. (That’s something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.) As the rest of the field consolidates around him, Trump will need to gain additional support to win the nomination. That might not be easy, since some Trump actions that appeal to a faction of the Republican electorate may alienate the rest of it. Trump’s favorability ratings are middling among Republicans (andawful among the broader electorate).
Trump will also have to get that 25 or 30 percent to go to the polls. For now, most surveys cover Republican-leaning adults or registered voters, rather than likely voters. Combine that with the poor response rates to polls and the fact that an increasing number of polls use nontraditional sampling methods, and it’s not clear how much overlap there is between the people included in these surveys and the relatively small share of Republicans who will turn up to vote in primaries and caucuses.
But there’s another, more fundamental problem. That 25 or 30 percent of the vote isn’t really Donald Trump’s for the keeping. In fact, it doesn’t belong to any candidate. If past nomination races are any guide, the vast majority of eventual Republican voters haven’t made up their minds yet.
Erica Grieder:
And if you look at the RealClearPolitics polling averages—setting aside Trump—the results for the other candidates “make sense,” more or less. Ben Carson surged this autumn, on the basis of his appealing personal story and temperament, only to see his support coming down after his surge in the polls elicited a corresponding surge in media scrutiny, which exposed a troubling, Sarah Palin-esque tendency to vacuity. The other candidates with notable trendlines are Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both of whom are a cut above most of the candidates running and are campaigning accordingly.
And third: As I wrote in August, Trump’s defeat would only mean the end of America’s proximate problem. The underlying problem is that one of our two major parties is so receptive to someone so hateful, toxic, divisive and belligerent; Trump is only a symptom of that problem.
The good news, though, is that the proximate problem does have a proximate solution. I’ll save that for tomorrow, in anticipation of the holiday weekend.
Baltimore Sun:
Only 7 percent of Maryland Democrats support Martin O'Malley for president, poll shows
I didn’t realize his family was that large. Decent man, wrong year. For example:
Dan Diamond:
Martin O'Malley is finally talking about his best idea: health care
NJ Star-Ledger:
About the largely Republican-led rush to condemn refugees for being victims and to close our doors to them, Dannel P. Malloy, the Democratic governor of Connecticut, said he was appalled. He had this to say about the behavior of his fellow governors who are attempting to thwart resettlement of refugees:
"They are trying to beat one another to be as small as possible."
Malloy spoke after he had privately welcomed a Syrian family to New Haven, days after Gov. Chris Christie told refugees to stay home. Or, well, I guess he means they ought to stay in refugee camps or any place that isn't America or, specifically, New Jersey.
Once again, the governor of Connecticut shows Christie how to govern.
For a summary of all the “Trump is a liar” media headlines (and there are many), see Scott Anderson’s summary of yesterday’s Kagro in the Morning radio show.
Is Donald Trump just bigger than The Truth? If so, why does the truth keep lying about Donald Trump? Ben Carsonbails on one big lie, as Trump doubles the double down. To recap:
- The Media has noticed Donald Trump lies:
Like the one about thousands in New Jersey celebrating after 9/11.
Or the one about fake crime statistics and general race-bating.
- The Media has noticed that Donald Trump lies a lot:
Here are 6 Donald Trump lies.
Donald Trump is constantly lying.
Donald Trump’s fact-free campaign.
Donald Trump’s audience likes the lies.
- The Media has noticed that they have been letting Donald Trump get away with it:
The media does not know how to deal with Trump’s lying.
Here are 4 theories on how Donald Trump gets away with it.
Does the truth even matter anymore?
His supporters don’t care.
Donald Trump may be invincible.
- Donald Trump’s lies are deadly:
Is there blood on Fox & Trump’s hands?
More Tamir Rices are on the way.
That doesn’t even include the NY Times (Mr. Trump’s Applause Lies) editorial. But lying is routine for the Donald:
Historians say a plaque installed by Donald Trump at a golf course on the Potomac River commemorates a Civil War event that never happened.