The unnecessary death of Dijon Kizzee

 NYT report on the death of Dijon Kizzee, who was shot to death by sheriff's deputies in LA:

On Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said deputies tried to stop a Black man who was riding a bike in South Los Angeles. They said he was stopped for a code violation related to the bike, but wouldn’t elaborate on what the alleged violation was.

The sheriff's office said Kizzee fled and then "made a motion" toward a dropped gun. I think we've learned by now that such accounts should be viewed as provisional, at best, and possibly false. But even if completely true, I'm trying to imagine a "code violation related to the bike" that was so worth enforcing that this outcome was worth it.

We need laws for good order and civilization. But the libertarian side of me has come to believe that maybe we go overboard -- and that the result, sometimes, is a death sentence for selling loose cigarettes, or having a bike code violation. At the very least, it criminalizes people who are just trying to get through the day. And, disproportionately, those people are Black. I'm not saying anything new, here, I realize, but really: If a bike code violation was the reason Dijon Kizzee is dead, then he should be alive today. 

"Republicans started and recessed in less than 30 seconds"

The contempt these guys must have for their constituents:

In a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers to pass a package of bills on policing policies after a Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, seven times in the back, Republicans started and recessed in less than 30 seconds -- satisfying requirements of the law that they meet.

I wrote Monday at The Week: "You can't demand peaceful protests and dismiss them at the same time." That remains the case. Republicans couldn't be bothered to pretend they care about issues of concern to Wisconsin's Black community. It's kind of breathtaking.

Atlanta police decide they don't have to 'protect and serve' if they don't want to

WaPo:

Hours after the Fulton County district attorney announced felony murder and other charges against the former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, in the back, a number of Atlanta police officers called in sick just before a shift change Wednesday evening.

“This is not an organized thing, it’s not a blue flu, it’s not a strike, it’s nothing like that,” Vince Champion, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, told NBC News. “What it actually is is officers protesting that they’ve had enough and they don’t want to deal with it any longer.”

Let's be clear what's going on here: Atlanta Police on Wednesday night decided it was more important for them to protect their impunity from accountability than it is to protect the public. That they did so in organized fashion - Champion's denial of such is transparent BS - gives lie to the whole idea of "a few bad apples." Police violence is a cultural problem, aided and abetted even by the "good cops" who stick with their brothers even when they shouldn't.

I have been a critic of the "defund the police" slogan, because I suspect most Americans think the police are necessary and won't sign onto efforts they think will abolish the police. But the arrogance of the Atlanta Police will make the abolitionists' job easier. The cops are acting more like a protection racket - Nice city you have here. A shame if anything happened to it. - than the guardians of law and order.

Are Violent Radicals the "Real" Black Lives Matter Movement?