While the east coast braced for various stages of Hurricane Isaias, no one knew exactly how disastrous Jonathan Swan’s Axios interview with Donald Trump would be, nor how long it would linger as more of the public went through phases of shock and concern. Missed it? Don’t worry—here’s the rundown on that and other stories from this past week.
Trump's Axios interview was impossibly bad at an impossibly bad political moment
By Kerry Eleveld
Trump's stupendous ignorance throughout the clip was perhaps only upstaged by the sociopathy of his statement regarding a thousand Americans perishing a day. "It is what it is," Trump blithely told Swan of the death toll.
As one person tweeted, “The image of this old man desperately grasping his giant picture pages as we die will haunt me forever.”
The interview was a revealing glimpse into Trump’s not-ready-for-primetime mind. While excerpts of the interview are available elsewhere, this article contrasts Trump’s abysmal performance with real-world polling on what the public is seeking during this pandemic. (Hint: Trump is way off.)
Whistleblower: LA sheriff deputies threw party, got 'executioner' tattoos after shooting suspects
By Jen Hayden
The Compton division of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department are under investigation after one deputy blew the whistle on fellow officers who reportedly threw secret parties and got “executioner” tattoos after shooting suspects.
ABC7 in Los Angeles has the details about the complaint filed by Deputy Art Gonzalez, which alleges absolutely repulsive behavior by members of the department. According to ABC7: “Deputy Gonzalez says that the ‘Executioner’ deputies celebrate shootings of citizens with tattoo parties, set illegal arrest quotas and retaliated against him when he reported one alleged ‘Executioner’ deputy for beating up a fellow deputy outside the patrol station earlier this year.”
This isn’t a case of a few bad apples either.
Compton has seen large protests against police brutality since the deaths of George Floyd and Compton resident Andrew Gourdado, an 18-year-old who was working security for an auto shop when deputies chased him and shot him in an alley. Deputies say Gourdado had a gun and ran from them. His family says he did not own a gun was shot in the back five times. The FBI is currently reviewing that case.
In June, thousands joined Mayor Brown, celebrities like Kendrick Lamar, and residents who shared their stories of being abused and detained by the the Compton division of the LA Sheriff’s Department.
Like a lot of urban communities, Compton is rapidly changing due to gentrification, much of it driven by a new $5 billion football stadium set to start hosting NFL games this fall.
In the full video report below, other Compton residents recounted their own terrifying and humiliating experiences with the Compton division of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
This notion that sheriff departments can operate as a law unto themselves isn’t something new. In Washington State’s gubernatorial race, the Republicans just nominated Loren Culp, a far-right darling of “Patriot”/militia movements emphasizing that sheriffs, in the name of state's rights, are the ultimate arbiters of the law, superseding the power of the Supreme Court.
Washington Republicans nominate cop with ties to 'Patriot' movement for governor's race
By Dave Neiwert
Culp first gained statewide attention in 2018 by announcing that he intended to refuse to enforce a new state gun control law—dubbed Initiative 1639, which mainly imposed new restrictions on semi-automatic guns—even though it had been approved by 60% of voters statewide.
“I’m just standing up for people’s rights,” he told the Seattle Times. “I had people asking if the Police Department was going to start arresting teenagers, 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds, carrying and using a semi-automatic .22 rifle. I told them, ‘I’m not going to infringe on someone’s constitutional rights.’”
The stance made Culp a national hero among gun rights extremists, particularly the CSPOA. The organization—primarily overseen by a former Arizona sheriff named Richard Mack, who made a similar name for himself in the 1990s by defying federal gun control laws—hailed the Republic chief’s actions as heroic.
Also this week in ordered lawlessness: Aurora Colorado police pulled over an adult woman and four children between the ages of 6 and 17, mistaking their blue SUV for a stolen motorcycle. (Yes, but it gets even worse.) Witness video and local news footage add to the harrowing story.
Colorado police detain, handcuff Black girls in mistaken traffic stop in viral video
By Marissa Higgins
Brittney Gilliam, the driver of the SUV who had been taking the girls to get their nails done, stated to KUSA: “There’s no excuse why you didn’t handle it a different type of way. You could have even told them, 'Step off to the side let me ask your mom or your auntie a few questions so we can get this cleared up.’”
When speaking to CNN, Gilliam said she and the girls were parked in the parking lot of the nail salon when police pulled up and instructed them to put their hands out the window and get out of the car. Gilliam added to CNN that she was not told why she was pulled over until they handcuffed her.
Gilliam told local outlet CBS 4: “I’m livid. I’m angry.” She continued: “That was a traumatic experience. Would your kids be OK after that? Having a gun pulled on them and laid on the ground. Especially a 6 year old.”
While the nation contemplates reopening schools and returning to some semblance of normal life, here’s a critique of stay-at-home life amid the pandemic.
Pandemic parenting is hard. Don't try to gaslight us about how hard
By Laura Clawson
Erica Komisar, described as a New York psychoanalyst and the author of Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters (in case there was any doubt about where she’s coming from), is apparently not living in the same reality I or anyone else I know or have read about is living in. Her take is that this is a lovely development because women wanted to be home with their kids anyway but their employers wouldn’t let them work from home and now everyone is working from home and employers find that “the cost savings have been immense” and the benefits for families—well! Those are worth going on about at some completely divorced-from-reality length.
Komisar is obviously not talking about the parents—well, the mothers, since she’s not really talking about fathers at all—who are faced with the choice between going to unsafe jobs in grocery stores or schools or restaurants or nursing homes or meatpacking plants and being unable to pay the bills. Or about the mothers who have gone from counting every penny as they waited for their unemployment checks to arrive to worrying that the Senate won’t agree to extend the expanded unemployment insurance. Those people don’t appear in Komisar’s piece. Perhaps they don’t enter her mind at all. They probably can’t afford New York psychoanalysts.
Adults and children are unavoidably experiencing various levels of stress during these COVID-19 times. It’s better to be honest about it than overly optimistic. This is especially true when Pollyanna pleasantries foist outdated models of domestic and feminine tranquility or economic class onto an absurd moment like an actual pandemic.
One final story for inspiration out of the blast explosion Wednesday in Beirut:
Bride in viral video moments before Beirut blast in Lebanon attended to victims in wedding dress
By Aysha Qamar
In what started off as a day of celebration, a viral video depicts a bride in Lebanon posing for a wedding shoot moments before a massive explosion in Beirut killed at least 135 and injured thousands. Seconds into the video, a loud blast can be heard during which the wedding photographer, identified as Mahmoud Nakib, turns to show the increasing damage, smoke-filled air, and people running for safety. But instead of thinking of herself, the viral video’s bride Dr. Israa al Seblani acted on her healthcare professional instincts and attended victims of the blast, despite the attire she was in.
Seblani, a doctor from Michigan, arrived in Lebanon three weeks ago to get married. Prior to fleeing central Beirut’s Saifi square, the young doctor helped to check injured individuals nearby while still in her white floor-length wedding gown. A day after the explosion both Seblani and Ahmad Subeih, her husband, spoke to Reuters on their difficulty in processing what had happened. Thankful to be alive, the couple shared their experience and remaining shock.
Dr. Seblani had been postponing her wedding for three years in hopes that her new husband might be able to emigrate to the United States. They have not yet been successful. Seblani will need to return to the U.S. without her husband. But they are grateful for surviving the explosion and despite the destruction, they remain hopeful.
It’s been quite a week. Whether it’s the upcoming elections, safety on our streets and around the world, or equitable health and sanity in our work/life balance, we’re going to need a presidential leader who is ready for primetime, along with communities and individuals ready to speak up for one another.
Which stories caught your eye? What else needs to be amplified, investigated, or reported? Where else are there signs of heroism and hope? Speak up in the comments.