The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

George Floyd died at the hands and knees of Minneapolis police officers just about six months ago. His senseless death ignited long-simmering protests and counter protests all across the US.

Black Lives Matter, the Proud Boys and even Antifa are all now virtually household words, as racial resentment and extremism on all sides of the American political spectrum erupt in dismaying televised images and frenzied political commentary from the left, right and centre.

Floyd’s death also awakened a serious American sociological discussion with potentially profound implications for what still passes for normal daily life in the United States. That’s because the discussion is about the appropriate role of police in a democratic society.

President Donald Trump has been fanning these flames in his own selfish self-interest. But quite apart from the President’s last-minute attempt to portray himself as a law and order candidate, the debate about police and their proper role is serious and ongoing.

Activists all across the US are organizing assessments of their local and state police departments, and in many cases these reviews are concluding that police budgets are fair targets for reduction.

Also, just about everywhere local and state governments are being starved of tax revenue by the deepening recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shuttering of businesses and loss of jobs.

Police budgets are traditionally and necessarily flexible propositions, inasmuch as law enforcement costs spike in emergency situations. While budgets can account for the unexpected, law enforcement costs often seem high to the uninitiated – and sometimes to veteran observers.

It all adds up to pressure on police departments and their budgets that hasn’t been felt in many places for decades.

One of those places is the nation’s capital, where the police chief has decided to leave Washington and take over as chief in suburban Prince William County, a politically evolving but still conservative Virginia jurisdiction about 30 miles to the south.

Now, while all sides initially tried to shield from public view the reasons for Newsham’s departure, it is clear that it is directly related to both civilian criticism of policing and budget pressures.

Newsham, a 31-year veteran of the force who was named chief in 2017 by DC mayor Muriel Bowser, has had a tense relationship with the DC city council.

During the summer just past, he accused the council of “abandoning their police force”. He said during a budget hearing that victims of homicide were “getting lost in the conversation” over policing changes, and he decried the council’s intentions to reassess the police role in city society and its large budget as a “knee-jerk” reaction to demonstrators.

Activists were calling for defunding the DC police, with the resulting budget savings better spent on social services. Newsham called the push to defund “a tag line”.

In fact, the DC Council learned of Newsham’s departure next month from a reporter. Council member Trayon White Sr., who represents of the poorest, most isolated parts of the capital city, said in a text message Tuesday night: “I don’t see no one crying about Newsham leaving.”

Ferment over policing is by no means limited to liberal Washington DC. In its often more conservative suburbs and in big cities all over the country, discussions and resolutions continue. One flash point is qualified immunity.

This concept provides that police officers, along with EMTs and fire fighters and some other government officials, cannot be held personally liable for actions taken while on official duty.

The ideologically ultra-liberal Institute for Justice says that “in practice, that means that government officials can only be held liable if a federal court of appeals or the US Supreme Court has already held that someone violated the Constitution by engaging in precisely the same conduct under precisely the same circumstances.”

“Qualified immunity means that government officials can get away with violating your rights as long as they violated them in a way nobody thought of before,” explained a senior IJ attorney. “And that means that the most egregious abuses are frequently the ones for which no one can be held to account.”

Qualified immunity applies only in civil lawsuits—not criminal ones. But such civil suits are usually the only way individuals can get compensation for alleged violations of constitutional rights.

“And prosecutors often resist bringing criminal charges against government colleagues, especially police officers who are crucial to the daily work of prosecutors,” says the IJ.

After Floyd died in Minneapolis, increased scrutiny of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s record as the city’s top prosecutor led her to abandon her presidential candidacy, quickly disqualifying her from serious consideration as Joe Biden’s Vice President.

Defenders of qualified immunity point out that recruitment for police, EMT and other government positions would suffer grievously if the practice were abandoned.

“We’d never attract the best and the brightest candidates if they faced such catastrophic personal liability for doing their job,” one big city chief told reporters.

Meantime, Newsham, who will leave his DC position after Joe Biden’s inauguration in five weeks, continues to cope with violence in downtown Washington.

Over the weekend, eight police officers were wounded and more than 40 protesters were arrested as the Young Boys came to town to assail the November election results.

Trump’s supporters - and Black Lives Matter activists who organized to resist them - were clearly both looking for a fight. They found several. Similar confrontations occurred in other cities across the country.

“I’ll bet the politicians and the liberals aren’t too worried about defunding the police right now,” one officer told a reporter during the height of the mayhem.

The debate is widening, to the point that former President Barack Obama got caught up in it over the weekend. He had criticized “Defund the Police” as a clarion call for conservative resistance. Tuesday evening, he explained himself to Trevor Noah on TV’s The Daily Show.

“If we say ‘defund the police,’” Obama said, “not just white folks but my wife Michelle’s mom might say, ‘If I’m getting robbed, who am I gonna call, and is somebody gonna show up’?”

The final days of Donald Trump’s crumbling empire

Prominent Americans often join United Nations and other internationally-sponsored missions to monitor the freedom and fairness of elections in foreign countries. Former President Jimmy Carter has participated in many such missions. Now, as the US itself sometimes resembles a fragile democracy after the November election, here is the report of the Organization of American States on that election:

“The OAS Mission was pleased to observe that all election stakeholders had ample opportunities to express their discontent judicially and that their petitions were resolved in a timely manner. This demonstrates the strength of the US electoral justice system.” Very diplomatic of OAS.

As if to agree, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Russian President Vladimir Putin have this week finally joined the ranks of those Trump allies who have acknowledged Joe Biden did win the American election November 3. And that Donald Trump lost.

Perhaps even more important was the announcement that Attorney General Bill Barr, a long-time staunch defender of presidential power and authority and more recent Trump enabler, will leave the Department of Justice next week “to spend more time with my family”.

Since the “family” excuse for leaving has so often and for so long concealed the real reasons for such political decisions, no one believes Barr for an instant. There is much speculation that he resigned before Trump could fire him for his failure to uncover or invent meaningful fraud in the recent general election.

One thing is certain. In bailing out now, Barr will miss presiding over the seamy, unseemly parade of pardons for sycophants, allies and other miscreants the President is certain to unleash before he finally departs the White House.

Salvation on the horizon

Reports on coronavirus vaccines continue to bring good news, although health experts everywhere continue to warn that a return to normal life is still months away.

According to a report broadcast on CNBC, Walgreens, CVS and Costco expect to have shots available for the benefit of the general public at their stores in the spring. Walmart is reportedly preparing its more than 5,000 stores for the vaccine, even though the company has not said when shipments may arrive and be generally available to the public.

At last an end to this dreadful pandemic may be in sight.