When the Semi-Solid Waste Spatters the Mix-Master

If ever you find yourself unlucky enough to be stuck among the hostages in one of these situations, here is how it breaks down.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, modern police practice gives command and control to the hostage negotiator while the hostage taker(s) negotiate.

However, once any hostage taker is stupid enough to cap any hostage, the hostage negotiator is done, and command and control immediately passes to the senior officer commanding the storm team, and the storm team goes in, guns a-blazing.

If you are among a group of hostages when this happens, the key consideration is to stay low and find whatever cover there is, and try to survive through the seconds of intense gunfire to the point where the law enforcement storm team will have killed the hostage taker(s) and taken control of the scene. When it happens, it is typically a terrible mess. I expect that when the details of this incident are released, it will turn out that someone unwisely shot a hostage, not realizing what would follow.

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/09/multiple-people-dead-after-salem-hostage-situation-at-least-one-deputy-opened-fire.html 

Arrest The Cops Who... You Know The Rest

 To the surprise of very few who understand the law, the cops who killed Breonna Taylor were not arrested.  One was criminally charged for stormtrooper aim.  Protests began, metastasized, and now there's a body count.  All of this sparked by months of social media and celebrity-lead rallying behind the slogan of "arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" suddenly crashing against what I think everyone knew would be the eventual reality - no charges would be brought.

Do I think that Louisville law enforcement shat the bed in applying for and executing the warrants?  Damn right I do.  Do I think that people are right to be pissed off about it?  Damn right I do.  Do I think that this would have happened had Ms. Taylor been white?  That one's tougher.  The warrant was drug-related and it seems that drug charges are disproportionately pursued against minorities.  It's also hard to look at the deaths of Philando Castile and Elijah McClain and not take away the impression that some law enforcement officers intrinsically view Black people as more threatening.  On the other hand, Ms. Taylor was tragic collateral damage.  The reason for the warrant was her past involvement with Jamarcus Glover, who is Black.  On the whole, I say it's more likely than not that a no-knock warrant wouldn't have issued against a white female EMT with no criminal history who had dated a drug dealer two years prior.  However, from the facts I know, I don't see anything suggesting that the cops executing the warrant pulled the trigger based on Ms. Taylor's race.

Getting back to the point of this post, I think we (and by "we," I mean the small group of individuals who frequent this page, not the county at large) all knew the real cause of Ms. Taylor's death was the no-knock warrant.  If strangers enter your house at night, at least in Kentucky, you can defend yourself with a gun.  If someone fires at police, police can fire back.  Assuming an armed resident, this is a likely result of a no-knock warrant executed at night.  If the trigger-happy asshole who murdered Philando Castile didn't go to prison (I know, different jurisdiction), there was never a chance of these cops being convicted.

I understand Louisville eliminated no-knock warrants in the wake of Ms. Taylor's death, which should go a long way toward preventing any similar deaths in the future.  The city's also agreed to a very large settlement which can't replace a human life, but it seems like it was reached very quickly without putting the family through protracted litigation.  This was positive change.

The internet, however, wanted more.  Even though arresting the officers involved was unlikely to prevent another fruitless no-knock warrant from turning into a shootout, the internet wanted vengeance, not change.  Celebrities who likely did not understand what a no-knock warrant is or the role it played in this tragedy, joined in with the cry of "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor!"  It became a meme with life of its own, giving people hope (though a very dubious hope if one understands the law) that the officers who had a legal right to be in Ms. Taylor's apartment (I think the warrant was bullshit and shouldn't have issued, but it did) who returned fire would be arrested.  Impliedly included in this rallying cry was the goal that the officers be charged with murder, [which was never going to happen.  When the probabilities played out and the seriously unlikely failed to occur, the protests started.  The protests turned violent, and now we have more casualties than we did the night Breonna Taylor was killed.  In my mind, the unrealistic and ill-advised slogan of "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" and those who pushed it are largely at fault.

I'm sympathetic to the BLM movement.  I think George Floyd, Philando Castille, Eric Garner, Elijah McClain, and far too many other Black men were killed by police for unjustifiable reasons.  I get the frustration and the need for change.  I get kneeling for the national anthem.  I get the NBA strikes.  I support all of it, but this one was mishandled from the get go and now more people are dead because social media and celebrities built up unjustified hope in a group of people still reeling from a parade of injustices.

What do you all think?  Are people who pushed to "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" partly to blame?  Overall, do the recent protests/riots tied to this hurt the message of the BLM movement?

Disqus.  

   

Render unto Satan: RBG's passing leads lawyer to the dark(er) side

 Much as the famous 2018 Brooklyn Wicca hex ritual led, I can only assume, to Justice Kavanaugh's spontaneous regurgitation of gallons of grape juice while attending church, a lawyer by the name of Jamie Smith has announced that Justice Ginsburg's death has prompted her to turn to a *ahem* lower power to ensure that the Supreme Court continues to walk the lefthand path.

When Justice Ginsburg died, I knew immediately that action was needed on a scale we have not seen before. Our democracy has become so fragile that the loss of one of the last guardians of common sense and decency in government less than two months before a pivotal election has put our civil and reproductive rights in danger like never before. And, so, I have turned to Satanism.

But Smith -- whose bio and c.v. the Huffington Post seems to have misplaced -- is not your stereotypical goat-slitting Satanist. There is a method to her madness.

The Satanic Temple hopes to appear before the Supreme Court in a case challenging a Missouri abortion law that requires those seeking to terminate their pregnancy to first receive materials asserting that their abortion would end the life of a separate, unique person. The temple argues that these materials violate the deeply held religious beliefs of one of its members regarding bodily autonomy and scientifically reasonable personal choice. The argument the Satanic Temple is using is the same one the Supreme Court effectively endorsed in the Hobby Lobby birth control case, for which Justice Ginsburg wrote the dissent ― that no one should have to follow a law that violates their deeply held religious beliefs. If a Christian should not have to do so based on their religion, a Satanist should not have to either. This is what equality under the law means on a fundamental level.

Smith (seen below at her swearing-in ceremony upon admission to the bar) has a point. Though I thought for sure the argument would have been that any law curbing the availability of dismembered fetuses for the ritual blood sacrifice would have run afoul of the "effect" prong of the Lemon test.

SCOTUS Short List & Bios

Per the Wall Street Journal, here are all the lady contestants for SCOTUS. 

 Plus everything you need to know to place your bets: 

 -Amy Coney Barrett  Has a psycho Wikipedia picture and a million kids. Clerked for Scalia 

 -Barbara Logoa   Her parents fled Castro. Seems cool. Lat Trigger warning:  WAS NOT A SCOTUS CLERK

 -Kate Todd  super pro business, has most private sector experience.  Clerked for Thomas 

 -Joan Larsen  Boring-ass Wikipedia page, clerked for Scalia 

-Allison Rushing    Super religious-y. Clerked for Thomas

Pearl Jabots at Half Mast

Justice Cruz reporting for duty.  

https://apple.news/AUwY_an9CT5CMRe8KymN8Hg

California Law Deans Call for "Open Book" Bar Exam

Citing, among other factors, racism and anti-Blackness as reasons why there should not be a proctored exam, California's law deans seem to have slid into the "White Man's Burden" camp of paternal racism in their own right. Uh, which would still be my far left.

Before anyone has the impertinence to attempt to connect this with concern for pass rates in any way, let's just preemptively agree that any such attempt would be an official, Internet "outrage." 

Next step? Perhaps California law licenses in cereal boxes!

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/california-law-deans-ask-for-state-to-make-bar-exam-open-book

Never Have I Ever; The Headnote Writing Method

 In the days of yore when I was in law school, there was a mode of research called the "Digest" or "Headnote" method. If there was a point in a case you wanted to follow up, you would use the West state, federal or regional reporter version of that case to identify the coded keynote topic and number associated with that point. Then you could go to the West Digests (e.g., state, federal, regional, decennial) to find additional cases dealing with that same or similar point. Also, if you were trying to get into a new subject generally, you could start with the relevant Digest and pick through it until you found the Digest topic numbers for the specific points where you needed to drill down, then pull all the case digested under those topic numbers. It was a finding tool then, and we always read the cases in full text, in part because West apparently hired law school washouts or hind-quarter grads to compile the digests, and they were frequently unreliable in material respects.

The last couple years, I have noticed that some young lawyers have developed a Headnote method of actually writing their pleadings and briefs. That is, they start out with the premise they are trying to support, run some handy automated Lexis or Westlaw searches to generate results by searching the headnotes field of cases, then cut and paste from the headnotes anything that looks like it possibly supports their premise, but without actually reading the cases.

In consequence, when I go and pull the bazillion cases cited in their (typically prolix) masterpieces, I often find that some facet of their key authority come from a case that doesn't really help them, because, for example, the holding is actually dependent on some highly non-normative statute or constitutional provision unique to the jurisdiction where the case was decided. Almost as often, I find that the full text of a cited case actually destroys their position, because it contains the statement or rule they have relied on to support their premise, but also mentions limitations or restrictions on the rule that blow the attempted use of the case out of the water.

I find myself wondering, how in the Hell are they getting by with this? Are significant numbers of their opposing counsel and modern-day judicial clerks also not taking the time to check the cited authorities or read the cases to see if they really support the points for which they are offered? Has anybody else noticed this developing trend? 

Para bailar La Bombalera, se necesisita una poca de negrura

 A George Washington University professor of black studies has copped to the gravest crime in the new identitarian order of things: being white.

Jessica Krug, "a decolonial historian of Black political thought and action in West Central Africa and throughout the Americas," issued her confession Thursday on Medium. Despite growing up Jewish in suburban Kansas City, Krug says, she "assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness."

 Furthermore, various reports have identified Krug as the woman behind the persona "Jess La Bombalera," an activist who has appeared at various public events to advocate for social justice in an ever-so-slightly-off New York Latina accent. La Bombalera's antics may not have pinged the bullshit detectors of progressives eager to hear from persons of color, perhaps due in part to her suspiciously bronzed complexion, as seen the undated but no-less flatteringly angled, generously filtered selfie accompanying this article from The Cut.

Oh, I am a Cook, and a Captain Bold, and the Mate of the Nancy Brig

As it turns out, the khanjali was double-edged. On the heels of the announcements restoring or mitigating pay cuts, there soon followed the announcements (predicted by Yours Truly) that numerous furloughs are being officially converted to layoffs. Sadly, the "layoffs" in this context are likely indefinite to the extent that they are reasonably to be taken as permanent separations, and the trend is likely only just kicking off. Nor is it a good time to be adrift, in the midst of a pandemic with persisting economic disruption and high unemployment.

I can only hope that all of our colleagues impacted by the adverse edge of the current developments gave heed in the past to the sage advice and basic career counsel of B. McLeod, "Don't be poor." Seldom has wiser counsel been given in this world. The law is not only a "jealous mistress," as so often reputed, but also, sometimes, the total, vengeance-driven shit that puts you out of house and home with temporary orders, and drains your bank accounts. 

I trust that everyone in our immediate CC community has had the moxie, foresight and wherewithal to not be where the khanjali fell. Let us all sing a song and say a prayer for the souls of our less cynical and paranoid, lower-vertebrate cousins in the profession, who have not been so fortunate.  

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/davis-wright-tremaine-walks-back-pay-cuts-lays-off-some-staff

Justice For The Few

It was a happy occasion for the young couple, but likely a rueful day for Sister Staci, the nation's biggest, bestest RBG fan and groupie, ever. I would fully expect that Staci shed a few tears in her wine, by her Justice Ginsburg shrine, as she reflected on the relatively cruel response by which the invitation to her own nuptials was so crassly snubbed.

To be fair, it appears that RBG is a close family friend of one of the participants in the marriage, but still, I feel for Sister Staci in her hour of probable peevishness. I hope she will have a chance to imbibe a nice, relaxing cup of chamomile tea, and/or a wee dram of Edra Dour 12-year-old, and manage to let it go.

https://apnews.com/77ab036315cdbc680c7db33c02456258 

Oh, Canada!

Well, we certainly cannot say that our neighbors to the north have never given us anything of value. First there was back bacon for pizzas, then Molson, and now, useful tips for sex during the pandemic. First and foremost, if hooking up with a new partner, avoid kissing and wear a mask. 

Needless to say, these practices and customs are likely not at all unusual for certain of our registered offender acquaintances, who have traditionally viewed the ski mask as a mandatory accessory for their ribald pursuits. Also, of course, our society's best known stupor heroine, Pie Ingesting Girl, has never really had much prospect for any sort of intimate contact without masking up. Indeed, most of the time, I suspect she sticks with the Canadian advice for solo activity. In the weeks and months ahead, I have little doubt that denizens of the Great Lakes region will even come to think of the pandemic as a happy time, when Pie Ingesting Girl was required by law to wear her mask in public. Though the cloud be horrific, it is still not without its silver lining.

More importantly, I trust that our state and local leaders are all paying close attention to this international counsel, and are planning to adjust existing mandatory public restrictions so these details do not go unaddressed. I plan to spend this evening working on associated revisions to the office mask policy, and then, I will be getting with my graphics consultant and printer to generate the new signs for all those less trafficked areas in the building where staff might be tempted to abandon sound anti-pandemic practices absent a reminder. I would certainly hope that all my colleagues will be taking similar action, or, for those not active in management roles, at least raising the issue with firm management and calling their attention to these very prudent measures.

https://japantoday.com/category/world/canada%27s-top-doctor-urges-mask-wearing-during-sex-no-kissing